Centauri vs Narn campaign report

[tneva82]

I'll post updates as they happen but here's first 4 campaign turns. We themed it around retribution war in season 2 so for example ships released in Armageddon was out(no Adira therefore :-(

We are thinking about house rule that centauri could get shadow reinforcements(at normal shadow cost) for shadow-only missions to represent shadow support centauri received during campaign. We haven't decided yet and even if they are used they are long time from being fielded if ever(those shadow ships are expensive buggers).

Starting fleets:

Centauri:

Octurion
Primus
Secundus
Dargan
2 darkner
Sulust
3 centurion
demos
2 kutai
4 vorchan
2 maximus
Balvarin

Narn:

3 G'Quan
4 Sho'Kov
4 Sho'Kos
Rongoth
Rothan
2 Var'Nic
2 T'Loth
Sho'Kar
2 T'Rakk
2 Ka'Tan
5 Ka'Toc
Dag'Kar
G'Karith
Gorith wing
Frazi wing

Campaign turn 1:

Centauri occupied jump gate, Narn occupied mining outpost. Narn reinforced themselves with 2 Thentus and T'Rann. Centauri by another Dargan.

Campaign turn 2:

Centauri moved into Aggratarian world. Narns into leisure world(hmmm...One would thought otherway around ). Narns received Bin'Tak while Centauri got 2 vorchan, maximus, demos and corvan.

Campaign turn 3:

Narns launched assault on jump gate! Centauri moved toward trade station which narns interfered! Jump gate fight would be patrol level flee to jump(centauri comment when priority was rolled: ****! ) gate while trade station would be raid level recon run.

Flee to jump gate:

Centauri fleet: Kutai and Demos
Narn fleet: 2 Sho'Kov, Ka'Tan, Sho'Kar(Narn players laughter stopped when he realised he needed jump engine ship ;-).

Centauri ran toward fleet as fast as their engines could(and Narns were cursing their speed. However arrival of main fleet forced Demos to turn around and fight while Kutai would try to open jump gate. Demos opened up hostilities and blew out nearest Sho'Kov in one salvo without even using torpedoes. Sho'Kar caused some damage with laser cannon(though 2 bulkheads screwed that salvo up mostly), even Sho'Kov managed a bit and energy mine from Ka'Tan caused it to be nearly crippled. Ka'Tans lasers at Kutai completely missed.

Kutai was lost to salvo from Ka'Tan leaving near crippled Demos as their only hope. Fate wasn't on Centauri side...However manouverability of their ships and unmanouverability of narns were. So while narn fleet were shuffling to aim at Demos it moved to left arc of Ka'Tan and nearly took it out and disabled left arc weapons in the process. Demos moved into position to finish Ka'Tan and try to activate jump gate this turn but before it could fire frazi flight moved in and crippled the Demos! Ka'Tan was lost but with help of scout bonus from itself Sho'Kar managed to bring Demos within 1 point of destruction. All would come down to wether Demos could activate jump gate. Initiave won by Narns. Crew quality checks...Tie!!! So Narns kept Demos on space by virtue of having won initiave!

So Centauri lost the jump gate.

Recon run in Trade Station:

Centauri took 2 vorchan, 2 darkner and centurion with them. Narns had Var'Nic, T'Loth, 2 Ka'Toc and G'Karith. Narns deployed bunched up looking around ready to receive centauri where-ever they came.

Recon run started off well with vorchan and darkner suffering bit of damage but in return Ka'Toc was crippled and then destroyed(I figured I didn't want that dangerous enemy around). G'Karith was less fun though with 4 points of damage to vorchan and centurion with those pulsar mines.

Darkner(with CQ6) scanned the Var'Nic(eek. Scary CQ5 Var'Nic!). Second Darkner scanned Ka'Toc. Vorchan scanned T'Loth and Centurion scanned G'Karith. Mission pretty much completed! Time to go! As per scenario rules game ended at the end of turn. Var'Nic did blow out darkner with impressive set of criticals(2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2). Centurion lost mobility though...

So Centauri lost territory but gained another. Narns just gained. Some repairs and Centauri got 2 havens, kutai and altarian as reinforcements.

Campaign turn 4:

Centauri launched counter assault toward industrial world. Narns seek to occupy asteroid belts which Centauri intercepts. Centauri attack would be battle level ambush. Fight in asteroid belts would be battle level call to arms. Stakes were going higher!

Ambush at industrial world:

Centauri attack fleet was composed of primus, 2 centurion, demos, 2 vorchan and maximus. Narn defending fleet had 2 G'Quan, T'Loth and Thentus, G'Karith, Var'Nic, 2 Ka'Toc, Ka'Tan and both frazi and gorith wings.

Ambush started off decent enoughly with just Var'Nic, G'Karith and Ka'Toc(all with help of their improved crew quality) managing to act. Alas apart from Ka'Toc they all came about succesfully as well. Primus almost destroyed one Ka'Toc with volley from ion cannons while battle lasers sniped at another Ka'Toc preventing it from using SA's anymore(good. CQ5). Pulsar mines damaged primus and both centurion while centurions damaged T'Loth nicely.

Turn 2: Narns continued to manouver and I realised vorchans had been very badly deployed(damned slow maximus). Narn fighters surrounded centurions and primus and though 3 frazi flights were lost all 3 ships suffered damage and Primus lost 2 AD from weapons...Didn't stop nearly taking out second Ka'Toc and bunch of fighters though. Var'Nic meanwhile caused hefty damage to centurion which in turn finished both Ka'Tocs. Pulsar mines meanwhile caused hefty damage to approaching vorchan group(I'm starting to hate those buggers).

T'Loth was crippled and hurt badly as well.

Turn 3 was bad for centauri. We moved into range but tons of frazi and gorith squadrons pretty much took out one centurion and DID take out second...Darn! Primus dented Var'Nic a bit and caused -1AD critical but did nothing to stop it from unleashing firepower against primus. Var'Nic was crippled and skeleton crewed and then destroyed but demos and vorchan were lost to energy mine launched from G'Quan that had finally turned enough to fire forward arc weapons. Second G'Quan crippled and skeleton crewed centurion and crippled another vorchan with energy mines that dented primus nicely alongside...

Turn 4: Primus opened up jump point, maximus headed toward table edge and narn fighters took out vorchan and centurion. Narns didn't manage to stop primus(which suffered heavy damage though) but G'Quan splatted maximus before it could escape.

So convincing centauri defeat. So much for that counter attack...

Call to arms at the asteroid belt:

Narn fleet was composed of Bin'Tak, Var'Nic, T'Rann, 2 Ka'Toc, Sho'Kar, 4 Sho'Kos, Dag'Kar, Rothan and Rongoth.

Centauri task force in return was Octurion, centurion, sulust, 3 vorchan, 2 haven, 2 maximus and altarian.

There were 3 asteroid belts due to strategic location rules. Battle didn't start well for centauri with Bin'Tak blowing maximus apart in one go and causing hefty damage to sulust with energy mine and ion torpedoes. However Octurion showed Rongoth just why it's unsafe to approach and blasted puny ship with matter cannons and ion cannons. Rothan was just as quickly crippled by Altarian(and only by 1 point did it survive!).

Next turn Rothan was taken out by sentries while vorchan got hounded by few frazi flights. Flagships of respective fleets squared off against each other. First blood was scored by Octurions lasers which pretty much immobilised the beast(-4 speed), caused AD lost from weapons, took out shuttles and disabled rear lasers(darn. Why not front?-). Bin'Tak was out of range for main guns so instead matter cannons and ion cannons blew out Ka'Toc despite 3 frazi squadrons trying to stop shots. All fighters were lost in the torrent of fire. Bin'Tak retaliated with nasty salvo from main lasers which prevented SA's and disabled anti fighter guns from octurion. Also vorchan got face of pulse and ion cannon fire and suffered 3 -2 speed and 2 -1AD criticals(oww. 3-1, 3-2 crits not fun).

Duel of the patrol ships started with slight centauri victory with one sho'kar being blown apart with both centauri ships being intact. One was almost skeleton crewed but that's allright. On middle Ka'Toc was put into adrift to the cheering of Centauri fleet. Bin'Tak suffered vital engineering hit along with bridge hit which put ship into mercy of centauri fleet. Can't open jump point, move inch a turn, can't repair, -1AD twice...And half way dead. Vorchans then blasted huge chunks out of Bin'Tak. Almost there! Altarian finished off adrift Ka'Toc with ion cannons.

Suddenly Narns were on back foot with centauri fleet having upper hand. He had spent conciderable effort to take out sulust but close blast door and small criticals meant ship was still in very much in fighting condition even if engines had tons of criticals lingering on them.

Next turn Narns started retreat. Patrol ships scattered toward table edges and ships started jump points where they could. T'Rann suffered however bridge hit from Octurion preventing that jump point though he had wisely used scout to create another in paraller so if I couldn't stop scout they would escape anyway. Bin'Tak got skeleton crewed by Octurion and lost the 3 frazi flights which tried to stop the horrendous firepower coming it's way. Vorchans then finished off Bin'Tak after it had tried pittiful last attempt. Hurah! The beast is dead! To Narns horror scouts stealth didn't provide ANY protection and the second jump point collapsed as well. Only good thing for Narns this turn was Dag'Kar skeleton crewing and crippling sulust and putting altarian adrift.

Rest of game was mobbing up without difficulties. Var'Nic did manage to escape as did patrol ships but the Dag'Kar and T'Rann were hunted down with minor damage only suffered by victorious centauri fleet.

Overall this was HUGE result for centauri. Before the battle it was starting to look like the narns might run over easily. Now suddenly Narns had suffered tremendous losses. RR production was still in Narn favour though so it was not yet over for either side. Especially as Narns had tons(44) RR saved from previous rounds...

In end phase primus, sulust, vorchan and T'Loth were sent home for repairs. All were so badly mauled in damage, crew and criticals that fixing them would be tons of RR. Centauri got darkner, vorchan and demos as reinforcements. Narns OTOH bought bucketloads of ships. Dag'Kar, Var'Nic, 3 Ka'Tan, 4 Ka'Toc, Sho'Kar and finally 2 wings of frazi fighters. This pretty much emptied their RR but now they had impressive fleet compared to my poor little fleet.

Strategic goals at the end of campaign turn 4:

1: Asteroid belt(0RR) - Centauri
2: Leisure world(3RR) - Narn
3: Primitive world(2RR)
4: Aggrarian world(5RR) - Centauri
5: Trade station(3RR) - Centauri
6: Mining Outpost(10RR) - Narn
7: Water world(1RR)
8: Jump gate(5RR) - Narn
9: Trade route

 

[Locutus9956]

Erm just a small comment about turn 3, Ill have to check if its changed in 2nd ed but in 1st Ed campaign rules, if a force is already attacking a target it cannot contest another, so in turn 3 with the narns already attacking the jumpgate they couldnt then constest the centauri's attack on the neutral target.....

 

[tneva82]

Erm just a small comment about turn 3, Ill have to check if its changed in 2nd ed but in 1st Ed campaign rules, if a force is already attacking a target it cannot contest another, so in turn 3 with the narns already attacking the jumpgate they couldnt then constest the centauri's attack on the neutral target.....

Hum good point. It could be read like that. We interpreted it as additional choise both have. Humm.

Well kinda too late to set back so campaign is what it now is. Will have to keep in mind in future though.

 

[Locutus9956]

Basically the 'contest' option only allows you to use your attack for that turn fight for the neutral target rathet than attacking another one. If youve already declared an attack you cant to do it. Still if youve alreayd started that way you guys may as well paly the rest of your campaign like it anyway (and its less of an issue in a 2 player thing anyway)

 

[H]

in a 2 player game though, shouldn't be a big problem, helps move things along more quickly and makes fleet selection a bit more important

 

[tneva82]

in a 2 player game though, shouldn't be a big problem, helps move things along more quickly and makes fleet selection a bit more important

That's good point. Not that it really matters much anymore. Almost all strategic choises are on somebody anyway. No free targets left bar water world(primitive job was taken by Narns in campaign turn 5 without contest).

 

[Gunnvaldr]

..In either case, good read! sounds fun with only 2 people

look forward to future posting!

 

[tneva82]

..In either case, good read! sounds fun with only 2 people

Well I'm always struggling to come up with viable story for multi-player campaign in B5 setting. In BFG it would be easy with "in 41st millenia there is only war" setting but B5 isn't exactly global warfare background ;-) So IMO 2 race campaigns makes more "sense" for me.

(plus only 1 opponent makes it dirt easy decision... :lol

 

[Gunnvaldr]

..In either case, good read! sounds fun with only 2 people

Well I'm always struggling to come up with viable story for multi-player campaign in B5 setting. In BFG it would be easy with "in 41st millenia there is only war" setting but B5 isn't exactly global warfare background ;-) So IMO 2 race campaigns makes more "sense" for me.

(plus only 1 opponent makes it dirt easy decision... :lol

Ah I miss BFG, and I know what you mean about the 'global warfare' background.

Then again you don't really have to explain much as to why the Narns and Centauri are going at it

I do like the B5 campaign alot better compare to BFG. Plus in my area BFG isn't supported much even when it was rolling in fresh.

 

[Romu]

There's always the good "we found ancient technology on a planet and everyone wants it" reason to murder eachother

 

[Lord David the Denied]

You can always drop in the League or EA in for the simple "we want this region too" expedient. The EA, especially, isn't afraid to butt heads with the other races over their strategic interests.

It's trickier with the Minbari or First Ones, but they can appear for "their own reasons" and just take part anyway.

 

[tneva82]

Campaign turn 5:

Centauri launched yet another counter assault. This time toward jump point(that 10% discount is handy). Narns moved into primitive world. With my fleet pretty small I opted to let that one pass. Battle on jump point would be raid level call to arms.

Fleets for this battle were:

Centauri: balvarin, 4 vorchan, demos, maximus, 2 darkner
Narns: G'Quan, 2 Ka'Toc, 2 Ka'Tan, Var'Nic

First turn started up with centauri racing into reach while Narns were more content at letting them come(no doubt because of e-mines). Might have squadroned bit too much since they got plenty of boresights but bigger problem were those frazi's which started to escort his ships. Atleast one Ka'Tan was without protection and faced darkner+2 vorchan squadron firepower. Darkners beam fired at Ka'Tan with fighter escort while vorchans and matter cannons obliterated first one. Probably wasted firepower as whopping 20 DD hits were caused. But atleast this blew ship instantly(23 damage surplus!) which took out escorting fighters of next Ka'Tan and damaged it slightly(and -1 speed critical). G'Quan dented darkner with e-mine and vorchan with beams but demos then caused bigger dents(and -4 speed critical) to now escortless Ka'Tan with salvo of torpedoes. For the Centauri!

Ka'Toc on right suffered -1AD from second darkner(me loves centauri beams). Vorchan then almost skeleton crewed it with hail of fire that got past the 3 frazi flights(one lost in the process). All did not go well though as Ka'Toc on left annihilated vorchan in one heck of a impressive Mag Gun salvo. 5 hits? Just not fair!

Turn 2 and fleets started to manouver around each other. Var'Nic got into nasty situation where it simply couldn't get anything in sight and indeed without all stop would shoot over everything. So it ended up all stopping and using non-boresight front weapons to full. Demos and one vorchan on right went to close blast doors(vorchan as G'Quan would be boresighting on it. This put G'Quan into killing zone of several ships though). Overall apart from that vorchan and balvarin ships were safe from boresights this turn. Near skeleton crewed Ka'Toc was crippled and skeleton crewed by 3 sentri flights while rest of sentris engaged frazi flights. One sentri flight was lost in return of 3 frazi flights. Remainaining frazi went to protect remaining Ka'Tan.

Darkner on right fired laser at G'Quan causing half a dozen hits and disabling jump engines from the narn flagship(yey!). Remaining firepower of squadron(vorchan with plasma accelerator, vorchan and matter cannons of darkner) caused whopping 10 hits(none bulkhead) including 4 criticals. Most of the crits were of small issue except for 4-5 crit that knocked out boresight weapon...Of which G'Quan has just the main lasers. "oops" And crew was over halfway dead.

Var'Nic retaliated by crippling darkner on left before it could shoot but suddenly jump gate seemed to be on Centauri reach. Especially as darkner+vorchan squadron blew out intact Ka'Toc there(me loves ion cannons). Ka'Tan was also crippled from ion cannons of demos. Balvarin finished off near-dead Ka'Toc on right and maximus dented G'Quan bit more.

Third turn. He tried to move Var'Nic(with still operating jump engine probably being reason) toward G'Quan but 2 vorchan/darkner squadron moved from hunting G'Quan into hunting Var'Nic and promptly blew the thing apart. Ion cannons you rock! G'Quan managed to damage balvarin nicely and cause weapon fluctuation critical but was then crippled by balvarins ion cannons and maximus matter cannons. Vorchan which split of from darkner/vorchan squadron on left then nearly finished off the ship and skeleton crewed it to boot. Oh and -1AD critical as well. At this point we called it game and checked that vorchan would finish it off next turn(for XP).

End phase. This time Centauri had upper hand in RR's and with plenty of XP's(and asteroid belt) they had no trouble of having plenty of RR's saved for reinforcements. Narns OTOH had to spend more RR's just to repair ships. Didn't stop them from getting another Ka'Toc and Ka'Tan to replace lost ones(those things burn out fast). Centauri in meanwhile got another primus, morgrath and Kutai. Things were starting to look good for Centauri again.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

It warms my heart to hear such stories. Teach those savage Narn who runs this galaxy... 8)

 

[tneva82]

It warms my heart to hear such stories. Teach those savage Narn who runs this galaxy... 8)

Narn player is getting just a bit beefed up at all those DD dices I'm lobbing at him and his lack of interceptors or escorts 8)

Especially as his attempts to protect ships with frazi flights tends to end up dead frazi flights instantly.

Those Ka'Txx just explode. Me loves ion cannons.

Next round is going to be bit of a _big_. If things turn out good centauri could pretty much secure campaign victory. If things go really nuts both sides fleets get depleted. Battle level planet assault is going to be grinder. Thankfully vorchans are atmospheric. Plan: Get vorchans and lots of sentris into atmosphere fast. Try to get rid of space station double fast. Ensure secundus(smart thing I got one when we started) survives long enough. Wonder if he'll bring T'Loth to bring some additional troops onto planet...

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Time to bring out the mass drivers, I think...

 

[tneva82]

Time to bring out the mass drivers, I think...

That brings up interesting question. Can I take mass drivers ad-hoc or should ship have been defined to have them when they were bought?

Obviously it would be very, VERY good if I could swap them on to my Octurion and secundus(and maybe primus if that too is taken along) but can I?

They are free updates but can they be upgraded just before battle?

 

[H]

I "think" you can change them between turns.

 

[Dizzy Vree]

i would have thought so too, a mass driver is a specialised weapon, and youd ad one on when you need it, not as a permanent thing(unless your dilgar, and look what happend to them)

 

[scorpioni]

They became the most destructive race in B5

 

[tneva82]

i would have thought so too, a mass driver is a specialised weapon, and youd ad one on when you need it, not as a permanent thing(unless your dilgar, and look what happend to them)

Only problem with that is that it would be huge advantage for centauri in campaign. With this I can now toss in 16-24(depending on do I bring primus as well) mass driver shot knowing there's target for them.

Space station? What space station?

Maybe it's intentional in which case I would be interested to hear experiences about it but this does seem as "too cheap" tradeoff in campaign if you can look "oh, planet assault. I'll swap in some mass drivers!". Ion cannons lost is cheap trade off.