Star Fleet Battles Campaign: Turn 9; Part 2 of the "Big Fight"

The battle report below is part of our Star Fleet Battles campaign that has been on hold since the rise of Covid-19.  Part one of the battle was posted in August, 2019, while part two was written up in the weeks following the conclusion of the battle.  Unfortunately, I misplaced the photos of the middle part of the battle, which I didn't re-discover until recently.  So nearly two years later, I am posting part 2 covering turns 2-8 of the battle.

Part one of the battle is included in the post linked below:

Star Fleet Battles Campaign: Turn 9 Movement, And Part 1 of the Big Fight

Part 2 of the Big Fight

From part 1:

The positions of the fleets at the beginning of the battle.  

Large areas of orange and white markers are mine fields 

laid by the Kzinti and Lyran southern fleet.

The Lyran southern fleet continued to move away from the Hydrans, generally moving toward the Lyran northern fleet, and continuing to spar with the Kzinti Battlecruisers.  During turns 2 and 3, the Lyrans light ships of the southern fleet managed to destroy 5 Kzinti Battlecruisers, for the loss of six more small ships, DD classed or lighter.

The combined Lyran fleets in the foreground (yellow markers)
headed toward the Hydrans (green) in the distance.  A lone kzinti
BC limps away upper left, with the remaining Kzinti BCs having
linked up with the Hydran fleet.

Over turns 4 and 5, the two Lyran fleets merged and slowly reformed, while heading toward the Hydran fleet, which now included 9 Kzinti Battlecruisers.  The Hydrans began launching fighters, which lead the attack against the Lyrans, with their ships dropping mines behind their fighters.

As the fleets closed the Lyrans engaged the Hydran fighters, losing 9 more small vessels, while destroying approximately 30 Hydran fighters and another Kzinti BC.  The fighters forced the Lyrans to expend a lot of ships heavier weapons, saving the Hydran ships from damage.

Again, the Lyrans in the foreground, probably during turn four, 

trading escorts for Hydran fighters.

Our session ended after about four hours of play, with approximately 105 ships still in play.  The Lryan light and heavy cruiser classed ships had just come into useful combat range of  some of the Hydran vessels, with Lyran losses of 20 small ships to the 6 Kzinti BCs.

We picked up the battle two weeks later, The Hydrans continued to unleash fighters, drawing much of the available Lyran phaser fire, and causing some damage to Lyran ships.  As the Hydran ships closed into battle, they also continued to lay mines adding further chaos to the Lyran advance.

The Lyrans carefully worked their way through the mines, losing a couple more smaller vessels to a combination of mines and fighters.  Through turn 7, the Lyrans lost another 6 light ships and 3 War Cruisers (a heavily armed light cruiser); while destroying 2 more Kzinti BCs, 3 Hydran heavy cruiser classed ships, and 3 Hydran FF classed vessels.  Also, a goodly number of Hydran fighters were caught in the explosions of the Kzinti and Hydran ships.

The Lyran fleet continues to advance, having separated into two 

waves, CWs and smaller focused on clearing out fighters and 

CA and heavier ships holding fire for the combined 

Hydran/Kzinti ships (green, upper right).

Lyran ships passing through the mine field (orange markers), 

and are veering off to the left.  The Hydrans (green, upper right) 

are disengaging to the right.

During the final turn, the Lyrans swept up a few remaining Hydran fighters and continued to exchange with the Hydran vessels, destroying three more CA classed ships and two Hydran Lancers (destroyers) for no losses of their own.  

The relative positions of the ships at this point put the Hydrans at a tactical disadvantage with their rear shields exposed to the Lyrans, who largely had their bigger front and right front shields facing the Hydrans.  Combined with the Lyran fire, was the collateral damage caused by Hydran ship explosions that furthered the success of the Lyrans.

End of turn 8, the Hydrans break off and disengage, while 

the Lyrans planned to take two turns recharging weapons 

at speed, and then re-engage, had the Hydrans stuck around.

Through these last two turns, the Hydrans lost in the area of 100 fighters, and by turn eight decided to break off the engagement.

Though neither side accomplished their objective, the Hydrans probably end the battle in a better strategic position.  Their huge loss of fighters is largely replaceable by next strategic turn (they brought a lot of spares, stored in freighters), and though they lost a fair number of heavy cruisers classed ships, they still have a huge fleet in Lyran space.

The Lyrans lost 29 ships, though the largest were 3 War Cruisers, a light cruiser classed ship.  The remainder were destroyers, frigates, and police corvettes.  The Kzinti/Hydran fleet lost 14 BC/CA class ships, and 5 smaller vessels.

The Lyrans have very few escort ships remaining, while the Hydrans are free to still cause chaos in Lyran space.  

The battle consisted of eight turns, lasting nearly 10 hours, and resulted in 48 ships being destroyed.

I'm not sure when we will play our next game as the Delta variant surges, but I expect that our next meeting will simply consist of us just getting back up to speed on where everything stands midway through Strategic turn 9 of our SFB campaign.