We regret to inform the family and friends of the crew of the EAS Advanced Destroyer Warspite that, whilst on patrol on the borders of Minbari space, the ship was lost with all hands.
The burned out wreck of the Nemesis class ship was found drifting in sector 83. The damaged flight recorders salvaged from the hull indicated a brief, bloody encounter with the Minbari, which left none alive.
Okay... in short, 2 sharlins vs. 1 nemesis was predictably bloody. The nemesis lost every turn (4 turns total) of initiative, even with 2 draws (lost on rerolls). Playing Call to Arms, I set the nemesis up at the far left of his zone, to avoid flanking. I set up the Sharlins (En'fili and Durhan) to the far left of theirs, set 6 inches apart, to ensure good spacing. All ships started with a flight deployed. Unfortunately the crew failed to run silent,
The Warspite moved forwards, and forced the minbari to spread apart, keeping the Durhan out of forward arc in her resulting move (she was in boresight and in order to clear it, had to break off from the Enfili. Luckily, the Warspite couldn't beat the Minbari stealth, even with the HEL system. No shots were fired, and the Tbolts languished in the bays.
The En'fili, surging across the guns of the Earthers before they could fire, managed to bring her neutron laser to bear, scoring 2 hits, one of which was a critical on the weapons system, disabling the boresight of the Warspite. The advanced hull of the warspite was quick to repair all the damage (5 of 4) but the molecular slicer was out of action. Both sharlins launched a second flight of nials each.
Turn 2, minbari win initiative again, the Warspite attempts to close, but fails to come about and get better bearing on the flanking Durhan. Attempting to target the En'fili with her missile banks, she again fails to lock on.
En'fili, now within 18", opens fire with her fore armament, scoring 1 solid and two critical hits, causing fires to break out on Warspite, and damaging her targetting arrays. The mini-beam armament causes two additional solid hits.
Durhan then fires, having come to bear, and causes 4 hits (3 solid, one crit) damaging the bridge. A further 5 hits from the secondary guns cause a massive explosion in the reactor (17 hull, 7 crew).
The Warspite crew fails to repair the molecular cutter, whilst the hull repairs 6 points.
Turn 3. Again, the Warspite fails to gain initiative, and attempts to pre-empt a cut across the bow by the En'fili, turning broadside on to the enemy. She launches a second flight of Tbolts. The flight in the air manages to lock their scanners on the En'fili.
The en'fili comes to a halt scarcely 6 inches away, guns bearing down, whilst the Durhan closes on the aft port quarter (within 4 inches), still in the same arc as her sister ship. She launches a fourth flight, whilst her fighters in the air close on the enemy starfuries.
The Warspite, even with HEL and assistance from the thunderbolts, fails to target the Durhan with the phased cutter (rolled a 1).
Both minbari ships open up at close range... the Nials close in and obliterate the T-bolts. The poor earthers really never stood a chance. I didn't have the heart to finish it up - the Warspite took a further 4 criticals out of 9 hits on Turn 3, including her engines disabled and more crew fires.
Tomorrow I may try one sharlin vs. the nemesis - but I'm not too hopeful about the EA chances even then.
