It was a desperate game, but hey... Earth does Desperation pretty well if I remember right. It came down to a handfull of lucky rolls, but I beat the Centauri. It really came down to the line, but at the end of the day, winners are grinners.
Admittedly, the Centauri player played badly, and I think the Tertius shouldn't have been squadroned like that. Anyhow, oddly enough, the Orestes actually came out of the game completely untouched, and I think it actually did the most gruntwork of all my warships. Why the Centauri didn't flashfry the Orestes early on is entirely beyond me. Tethys heroics and Nova self-sacrifice made this suprisingly cinematic.
Game was set at 3 Battle.
Earth Alliance - The Early Years:
Sagittarius Missile Cruiser
Sagittarius Missile Cruiser
Sagittarius Missile Cruiser
Tethys Missile Boat
Tethys Missile Boat
Nova Dreadnought
Nova Dreadnought
Orestes System Monitor
All ships were carrying Aurora Starfuries. Admittedly, on paper, the System Monitor was a subpar Fleet choice and I should have brought Tigers, but I have hangups about playing with tokens when I have nice pretty miniatures.
Centauri Republic Fleet:
Sulust Escort Destroyer
Prefect Armored Cruiser
Tertius Battlecruiser
Tertius Battlecruiser
The scenario rolled was Armageddon. Three Asteroid Fields were rolled, in the top right, bottom right and bottom center of the board (Density 7, Density 12 and Density 8 respectively).
For the purpose of the battle report, the Earth Alliance will be assuming to be playing "up" the board.
Oddly enough, the Earth Alliance won the setup roll, taking the lower board section. The Centauri placed their ships in a basic pattern, 6 inches apart and line abrest at the edge of their deployment zone, with the Tertius Squadron leaning slightly towards the left, the center anchored by the Prefect and the Sulust towards the right.
My Sagittarius Missile Cruisers were deployed exactly 34 inches away from the Centauri with the right side facing the Centauri and the front facing the area behind the asteroid field. The Orestes was placed in center as an anchor, while the two Novas were deployed along the right edge of the deployment zone with the two Tethys in a squadron.
Turn 1: Centauri Initiative
My first move was to issue the All Ahead Full order to the Tethys squadron, which surged forward, taking cover behind the top right Asteroid field.
The Centauri response was to issue an all ahead full order to the Tertius squadron.
My second move was to issue an All Ahead Full order to my first Nova, which moved forward taking cover behind the bottom right Asteroid field.
The Centauri then gave the All Ahead Full order to the Prefect.
I gave the second Nova the same order as the first.
The Sullust issued an All Ahead Full order and move directly towards the fleet.
My action was to move the Orestes. Oddly enough, due to some weird angling, I managed to boresight the Sulust with the Orestes, drawing Battle Laser angle from only the Prefect and the Sulust. The Sagittarius horde than moved such that only the Sulust could drawn front arc.
Turn one fire was short and brutal. The Sulust fired at the lead Sagittarius Cruiser, knocking off 20 crew and 24 hull in one shot from the Battle Laser, leaving the ship crippled and skeleton crewed.
The Orestes gave a miserable popgun reply (more due to bad dice than anything. I have never seen so many bulkheads in my life). Dropping the Prefect by 6 Hull and 1 Crew. And one crit. Power Fluctuations.
The Prefect than failed its roll to fire.
Anyway. To cut a long story short, 18 Flash Missile were then fired with a 4+ to hit on the Sulust. A grand total of 3 hit. An even grander total of 1 got through the interceptors. And that 1 missile proceeded to utterly annihilate the Sulust with a Catastrophic Explosion.
Casualties:
1x Sulust Escort Destroyer
Turn 2: Centauri Initiative
The wheezing, crippled Sagittarius limped towards the rear of the Asteroid field at the speed of a legshot UrbanMech walking uphill (Sorry if you don't get the reference).
The Prefect moved forward catching the Orestes and crippled Sagittarius in its front arc.
A Nova swung around the Asteroid field to engage the Prefect.
The Tertius squadron moved forward and turned to trap the Sagittarius squadon by preventing them from moving behind the center Asteroid field.
The second Nova swung around the Asteroid field and moved to engage.
The Orestes, nearly stationary, boresighted the Prefect again.
The Tethys squadron swung around to harry the rear arc of the Prefect.
One Sagittarius which could get out of range used an all ahead full order to use the Asteroids to shield itself from the Prefect while ending movement exactly 27 inches from the closest Tertius.
The other less lucky Sagittarius moved to shield itself from the Prefect and Closed Blast Doors.
My four Fighters moved to harass the Prefect's rear arc. No useful hits were scored (2 more bulkheads. Joy.).
Despite the Close Blast Doors order, the luckless Sagittarius was promptly broiled by a Tertius' Battle Laser, going down to -12 Damage before rolling crits, of which there were 6. I looked at the damage, decided to forget about the Blast Doors and removed the ship from the table.
The other Tertius proceeded to inflict 32 Hull Damage to the Nova which moved first, in addition to rolling an Engines Disabled and a Engineering Hit in addition to another heap of pointless other criticals. Bah. Poor poor Nova.
Since it probably wouldn't last the night, I opted to fire with my Nova. As luck would have it, out of the 8 twin linked dice, a suprising 6 hit. Two more shots hit the bulkhead, and one hit the bridge.
The Prefect drew bead on the crippled Sagittarius and destroyed it with the Battle Laser, then rolled a Reactor Implosion from its side guns, which sent the battered Nova to the scrap heap in the sky. Bah. Poor poor Nova.
The Tethys proceeded to drop their missiles into the Prefect, 7 hitting. These proceeded to generate three crits, destroying Engineering, Power Relays and Disabling the Engines.
The second Nova proceeded to miss. With EVERYTHING.
The fleeing Sagittarius spit against the wind by firing aft missiles at the Tertius, hitting with one but getting intercepted.
The Orestes fired again with it's heavy and medium laser, punching 13 Hull and Crew from the Prefect and causing a hull breach, leaving the Prefect horribly crippled in every sense of the word.
Casualties:
2x Sagittarius Missile Cruiser
1x Nova Dreadnought.
Turn 3: Centauri Initiative
The Sagittarius Missile Cruiser passed a Come About order to turn its broadside Batteries to the two Tertius.
The Tertius move slowly forward, CAFing on the Orestes.
I did the math. I moved the Orestes a grand total of 6 inches forward on an ALL AHEAD FULL, the moved the Tethys Squadron towards it on Move To Shield Them. You poor poor abused missile boats. You will be remembered.
The remaining Nova, freed from concerns, executes an all ahead full order, but remaing woefully out of range of the Tertius.
My six Fighters moved to harass one of the Tertius rear. Again, my fighters deplete the interceptor banks, but deal no damage.
The Centauri shooting is painfully direct. 12 Battle Laser dice are lined up... and he promptly loses the opposed test to a brave little Tethys. Which then dies horribly and painfully. The last Tethys catches flack in the explosion and takes 3 hits. The Orestes is unharmed by the explosion of its little buddy.
The Nova, out of range of the Tertius duo, and with nothing better to do, dumps many many dice into the rear of the Prefect. Despite the hull 6, the four hits scored are enough to leave it as a floating hulk.
With nothing better to do, the Sagittarius lobs off a broadside at the depleted Tertius, scoring 2 hits, neither of which are crits. Nothing major happens here.
Casualties:
1x Tethys Missile Boat
1x Prefect Armored Cruiser
Turn 3: Earth Alliance Initiative
Against all odds, the Earth Alliance WINS Initiative. The Centauri Tertius squadron moves forward and closes blast doors.
The Orestes passes a Come About order to boresight one of the Tertius. Given the sheer amount of guns pointed at it, I felt pretty good.
The remaining Tethys again Moves To Shield Them on the Orestes. Tethys, I salute thee.
The Sagittarius turns to bring the front missile rack into LOS on a Tertius.
The Nova moves forward and scrambles fighters, passing the check.
My six Fighters moved to harass one of the Tertius rear. This time, 1 point gets through the interceptors. Yay.
The Orestes opens up on the Tertius, dealing a 18 points of damage and crew points. No crits though, which made me sad.
The Tertius split fire, one targeting the Orestes with its Battle Laser, and the other hammering the Sagittarius. Yet another Sagittarius is split clean in half, while more Tethys heroics ensues as yet another one is destroyed by overwhelming firepower.
The Nova proceeds to pound hits into the Tertius with the Laser/Pulse Array, smashing home a single, possibly game winning crit: Weapon Control: Front. With the most potent guns disabled, it looked quite in Earth's Favour.
Casualties:
1x Sagittarius Missile Cruiser
1x Tethys Missile Boat
Turn 4: Centauri Republic
Reasoning that you really can't run from a Nova, I moved it first, moving neatly into the damaged Tertius' front arc. It was a silly mistake.
The Centauri ships "overshot" my Nova and CAFed with the aft weapons. I felt like an idiot.
The Orestes closed to slugging range and boresighted the pristine Tertius.
My eight Fighters moved to harass the pristine tertius. They get another point through the Interceptors. Hull 6 is nasty.
The Tertius fire and do 34 hull and a lot more crew damage to the Nova. The Nova is crippled.
The Nova fires like a madman at the pristine Tertius, but doesn't connect. At all.
The Orestes fires and does minimal damage.
Turn 5: Centauri Republic
The Nova rolls a 6 for the crew quality check and rams the pristine Tertius. Both ships die horribly.
The last Tertius moves forward, getting the Orestes into its pretty wimpy broadsides.
The Orestes turns again getting boresight.
My eight Fighters moved to harass the tertius. They miraculously get 4 points past the interceptor screen.
The Centauri fires. And does jack. The Hull 6 shoe is now solidly on the other foot. It does, however, manage to down 4 fighters. So many ones...
The Orestes then proceeds to cripple the Tertius with it's laser cannons at point blank.
Casualties:
1x Nova Dreadnought
1x Primus Battlecruiser
Turn 5: Centauri Republic
The Tertius opens a jump gate.
The Orestes CAFs.
The Tertius is brought down by fighters which roll a secondary explosion critical hit.
The Orestes recovers fighters and begins the slow drift back to the planetary docks.
Casualties:
1x Tertius Battlecruiser