[Turn 52] *Turning Point* New Hope Station - Shark Supremacy vs. Society

[Dave Baughman]

New Hope Station
12 November 3091

Alerted to the Sharks' research activities at New Hope, the Society dispatches a force to assault the station. As the naval forces at the station prepare to respond to the incursion with overwhelming force, a series of "malfunctions" render one ship after another inoperable. Fortunately, several quick-thinking commanders identified the source of the attacks and disabled their hyperpulse generators before they could be targeted for the override transmissions.

With most of the station fleet temporarily out of action while their crews attempt emergency repairs, only a few ships stand in the way of the Society's advance on New Hope.

Scenario

The Society attacked with a number of WarShips and carrier-based fighter wings; the decisive battle occured between elements of a Society naval star and several of the station defenders who avoided HPG override attacks in the first phase of the battle.


Attacker

The attackers are elements of the Cortex Cell Naval Reserve:

Lei Kung, Veteran McKenna class BattleShip
Spirit in the Sky, Regular Liberator class Cruiser
Steel Fang, Regular Soyuz class Cruiser

If played in MegaMek, the attacker may use a number of squadrons equal to the number and type fielded by the defender. Composition tables are attached.
If played in Simple Resolution, the FP is equal to 30.75 plus a number of FP equal to the FP of fighters deployed by the defender.

Defenders

The defenders are elements of the Shark Supremacy navy (and possibly allies - see below).

The defending force consists of up to four WarShips, only one of which may be a Battleship or Battlecruiser. The fourth ship must be a frigate, corvette, or destroyer.

Friendly Clans present at New Hope may each contribute one of the four WarShips if they desire.


Objectives

The Society's objective is to defeat the active warships so their forces can move in to capture or destroy the station before the rest of its defenders get back online; however, the Society is also keenly aware of their limited naval strength and will seek to avoid losses.


In MegaMek: Forced Withdrawal rules are in effect for the Society. Additionally, if Lei Kung is destroyed, all remaining Society ships must withdraw.

For each defender that is destroyed, the Society gains one victory point. For each attacker that is crippled, the defender gains one victory point. Every attacker that is destroyed earns the defender an additional victory point.

Subtract the Society score from the Defender score to gain the final score.

-3 or -4 : Society Decisive Victory
-2 or -1 : Society Marginal Victory
0 or +1 : Draw
+2 or +3 : Defender Marginal Victory
+4 or +5 : Defender Decisive Victory
+6: Defender Total Victory

In Simple Resolution: roll three combat rounds. At the end of each round, all ships must roll for survival; additionally, on a survival roll of "2-6" for a Society ship it is considered crippled and disengages if it survives the round. At the end of any round where the defenders have more than twice the FP of the Society side, the Society disengages.

Calculate final score based on the number of ships destroyed or crippled using the method described for MegaMek.

[Holt]

Supremacy forces in the hex available to be played:

Might of the Sea   Nightlord   LFB Mobile   Veteran
Fox's Cunning   Texas (Clan)   LFB Mobile   Veteran
Silent Hunter   Aegis (Clan)   LFB Mobile   Veteran
Squalo   York   LFB Mobile   Veteran
Haai   York   LFB Mobile   Veteran


If any clan would like to contribute a warship to the fight please post it here.

[Holt]

Forgot 5 warships also in the hex:

Titanic   Potemkin (Clan)   LFB Mobile   Veteran
Tsunami   Potemkin (Clan)   LFB Mobile   Regular
Neptune   Potemkin (Clan)   LFB Mobile   Regular
Takanami   Lola I   Mobile   Regular
Magdeburg   Vincent (Mk. 39)   Mobile   Regular

[Fatebringer]

Hearing about the situation at New Hope Station, New Dominion forces respond that Elements of Circe Battle Star have been deployed in order to facilitate the information exchange previously discussed regarding anti-bioweapons research and are currently in the vicinity.

CSRS Alexander Davion (Avalon Cruiser), Elite
CSRS Intrepid (Fox Corvette), Elite

These forces are available for your bid. Details will be sent via PM.

[Holt]

[I know Fate has this eye on this game and he is more than welcome to play the shark/clan side, chaos might also want this game; either are ok'd to play my side.]

[Fatebringer]

With the anti-air beast Liberator out of the way, One of the Battle Taxis lives to attempt a boarding roll on the McKenna, the other being blown up to join the darkness by the Soyuz.

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 4, 5, total 9[/blockquote]

[Holt]

The dirty Scientist move to repel the boarders, per agreement the Scientist get a +1 to their roll:

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6+1 : 3, 5 + 1, total 9[/blockquote]

[Fatebringer]

"If a battle taxis successfully docks, it contributes its FP to the first simple resolution roll"

With the +.25 to my roll, I eek out the victory and take the Ship!

[Fatebringer]

Victory!
-------------------

Winner is: TEAM #1

Fatebringer: 693921 BV remaining (from 729626 initially) 1721 BV fled
Society: 264859 BV remaining (from 489785 initially) 0 BV fled

Survivors are:
Nightlord Battleship (Fatebringer)
Driver : Catalijne Middelkamp [3/4]
Kills : 0

Potemkin Troop Cruiser (Clan) (Fatebringer)
Driver : Sitiveni Ahonui [3/4]
Kills : 1

Avalon Cruiser (Fatebringer)
Driver : Adilmar Gaioso [2/3]
Kills : 1

York Destroyer/Carrier (Fatebringer)
Driver : Jovesa Yuka [3/4]
Kills : 0

McKenna Battleship (Clan) (Society)
Driver : Lei Kung [3/4]
Kills : 0

Vandal's Vandals Squadron (Society)
Driver : Unnamed [4/5]
Kills : 0

The following units never entered the field of battle:
Vandal Prime (Society)
Driver : Karolin Åkerstedt [4/5]
Kills : 0

Vandal Prime #2 (Society)
Driver : Ondreiana Lichtsztejn [4/5]
Kills : 0

Vandal Prime #3 (Society)
Driver : Ela  Farooqi [4/5]
Kills : 0

Vandal Prime #4 (Society)
Driver : Ed Cetta [4/5]
Kills : 0

Vandal Prime #5 (Society)
Driver : Torhild Ketting [4/5]
Kills : 0

Vandal Prime #6 (Society)
Driver : Trang Cahn [4/5]
Kills : 0


The following units are in retreat:
Battle Taxi NL-42 #2 (Fatebringer)
Driver : Zea-Chin Ng [4/5]
Kills : 0


Graveyard contains:
Liberator Cruiser (Society)
Driver : Spirit in the Sky [4/5]
Kills : 0
Destroyed by Avalon Cruiser (Fatebringer)

Battle Taxi NL-42 (Fatebringer)
Driver : Jack Nicklin [4/5]
Kills : 0
Destroyed by Sovetskii Soyuz Heavy Cruiser (Clan) (Society)

Sovetskii Soyuz Heavy Cruiser (Clan) (Society)
Driver : Steel Fang [4/5]
Kills : 1
Destroyed by Potemkin Troop Cruiser (Clan) (Fatebringer)


Detailed unit status saved to entitystatus.txt

[Holt]

Salvage roll for the two ships unless Dave says they are deaded for story purpose. +2 for MM.

Fire in the Sky:
[blockquote]Rolled 2d6+2 : 6, 2 + 2, total 10[/blockquote]

Steel Fang:
[blockquote]Rolled 2d6+2 : 3, 2 + 2, total 7[/blockquote]

[Holt]

Basic summary is that the Society's lack of skill and armor for the first two turns i was hitting on 11s, while the left and right armor of the Liberator showed a real lack and I had no clean side to offer as we closed. Once we did close the McKenna had some bad ECM rolls and instead of hitting on 9s it was hitting on 12s. The Liberator went down once its weak side armor went poof and with that the only thing that was holding the battle taxis at bay was gone and one latched on and conquered the McKenna.

I had hoped to kill at least one ship and the Avalon's armor was heavily damaged that one more round with the McKenna might have been close to killing it, it was red on two sides and maybe 100 armor on the rest.

Thanks Fate for the game.

[Holt]

Star Admiral Darren Nagasawa stood the in the holotank of the battleship Might of the Sea watching the Raven and Shark fighters destroy the last few Society fighters that were still flying around, their would be no surrender for those crafts and they knew their fate. "New Hope Station deploy a binary of marines from the garrison cluster to the Lei Kung to assist in pacification."

The capture by the McKenna-class Battleship was severe blow to the Society forces and a welcomed addition to the Shark fleet, but he knew the battle could have been very different if the Ravens had not showed up and that some of his captains had not realized the HPG shutdown protocol being employed by the Society forces and it was the captain of the Titanic who recognized it first.

"Star Admiral Siegel, your Clans contributions were pivotal to the defense of this station and they will not soon be forgotten by me or my warriors and the Liberator-class Spirit in the Sky is yours to salvage and you may use the facilities at New Hope Station to make her spaceworthy. I salute you and your warriors in this our victory."

[Fatebringer]

"Congratulations on your victory Star Admiral. As you have a new working Battleship that needs little repairs and can be immediately put back into service defending this station, we shall be sending warriors to conduct a trail for possession for the reusable scraps that are nearby so that we might be able to repair our share of the Isorla and for use of your facilities. As for this ship, we shall return to Transfer Station P9 for repairs while the Intrepid stays here to facilitate the trails and escort the Spirit in the Sky back to us."