AAR 1: Lyran Attack on Kzinti Base Station 0701

My first battle of the new SFB campaign was a bit of a walk over.  This was a Lyran attack on an weakly defended base station in F&E map hex 0701.

The battle took place in the highlight area on the map above.

Lyran Forces:

The Lyran fleet consisted of 14 ships, including:

1x BT

2x CA

1x CC

2x CW

1x CL

1x DW

2x DD

3x FF

1xSC

The scout did not advance with the rest of the fleet.

Kzinti Forces:

Kzinti forces consisted of the base station and a small defending force;

1x BS

1x CM

2x FF

3x POL

The Battle

The Kzinti base station (BS) was protected by a small minefield, with the defending ships located inside the minefield.  The most that could be hoped for was destroy 2-3 lighter enemy vessels.

The Lyran force minus the Scout (SC) attacked in formation at speed 20 with weapons hot, using a one hex spacing, a pretty tight formation without use of ESG fields. The speed would likely allow the Lyran ships to avoid and outrun the early version, speed 12 drones.

The Kzinti fired a volley of drones which were negated by phaser fire from the Lyran Frigates (FF) and War destroyer (DW).  The Lyrans began firing disruptors at the base and then peeling off the ships to recharge weapons. 

The Kzinti welcome the Lyrans by firing drones.

As the first line of Lyran FFs began to turn, the BS fired its heavy phaser IVs ripping open a Lyran Frigate.  The closer Kzinti ships piled on causing enough damage to destroy the FF.

The devastating effect of phaser-IVs is felt.

Lyran ships continued to advance to a range of about 7-8 hexes before firing all weapons at the base, until it blew up.  It had been decades since I actually looked at a Base Station SSD; they are really tiny.

The Kzinti base is no more.

The four remaining heavier Lyran vessels closed a couple more hexes and fired at the Kzinti Medium Cruiser (CM), whose destruction would make this a significant victory.  However, bad shooting with disruptors, I think only 3 of 16 hit, resulted in the CM getting away,

As the first turn ended, the Lyrans turned away to recharge weapons and reform their fleet.

On turn two, the Lryans maintained speed and recharged phasers, with plans to recharge disruptors on turn three, then re-engage the Kzinti defending force.

The kzinti increased speed to 15 and then disengage, so the battle ended a few impulses into turn 2.

It wasn't much of a fight, but the next one will be much more contested.