From: "Jamie Coleman" To: babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU Date sent: Fri, 14 Aug 1998 23:57:03 -0400 Subject: [B5W] Battle Report, Narn vs Centauri (long) Send reply to: babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU 1 Bin'Tak (with hardened armor on the rear twin & 2 lt pulse, for 1500 points), vs 1 Maximus defense frigate & 2 Mograth frigates (1474, IIRC). Whew... all I've got to say is.. AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRGHHHHH! Some very fluky die rolling, and for the record I always hit the hangar on my primary shots. *sigh* No boom today. Anyways, back to our regular scheduled battle reporting: Centauri start out all in one hex, speed 8. Bin'Tak at speed 1 (also all in one hex). Turn 1: Centauri figured to stay in one hex to greatly reduce odds of someone wandering into an emine, but increase the damage potential. Pretty much a trade off, and with all the guardians providing extra coverage vs. the ion torps.... Ended up next to an e- mine and it didn't scatter or fizzle. *sigh* Each ship was hit on a retro, crits on 2 of them (1 efficiency, 1 reduced) After that, pretty much didn't get into engagement range for the Centauri until turn 4. The Narn (moving at their stately speed of 1), wasn't able to hit until then, either (small profiles and everything in DEW..). The Centauri sped up to speed 12 on turn 2, since no e- mines would be firing so they didn't need thrust for wildly unpredictable (heh) maneuvers. ;) Turn 4: The Centauri forces split. Ranges around 13-20. One MC took out an HL on the B'T, and got a hit on a twin for a critical (-2 damage). The firing Mograth (#2) got a little chewed up, as well, a couple points on the Plasma stream (no crit), and a little structure. Heavy lasers missed. Mag Gun missed. Turn 5: Ranges close more, Bin'Tak throws it in reverse (speed -1). Mograth #2 going after the Bin'Tak's port side, where it's weak because the HLs have fired and the twins are half gone. Range 3, the other MC connected with an aimed shot at the thruster, but only for 9 points, and the plasma stream did a whopping 3D10 -6 (for range) = 2 + 1 + 3 - 6 = 0!!! Mograth #2 caught an ion torp in return, was chewed up by some more light weapons, lost both twins and is down to about half front structure at this point. The Maximus and Mograth #1 were at ranges 10 & 11 on the front, trying to chew up some of the weapon systems. MC & some twins hit. Blew away the front pulse cannon darned good with the MC (woopee). Most everything else hitting structure. At this point, the Narn are rolling significantly below average for to-hits. Centauri are rolling hot for to-hits, but poor on either damage or location. (1's & 3's on all but one twin for damage). Turn 6: All three Centauri are able to work over the port side of the Bin'Tak. At this point, the speeds are 12 for Mograth #2, and 10 for the Maximus, and Mograth #1 slowed down to 9. Bin'Tak drops to - 3 for speed. Some more shooting. More bad luck for Narn gunners to hit. Centauri only moderately better, took out an ion torp, but missed with a plasma stream. Maximus gets hit on the front, mostly thruster hits - loses one retro (the one damaged by the e-mine in turn 1) and the other is down to 2 structure and a crit (thrust reduced). Turn 7: Some more circling around, Bin'Tak grinds the transmission a bit by throwing it into forward (well, came to a dead stop, anyways, and just sort of did the Sit'n'Spin thing). Maximus trying to figure out to get back into the fight.. but it dumped most EW into OEW and took some mid-range (13 hexes) shots. Got lucky and took out the Mag Gun, which the Narn had decided not to shoot back at it this turn (it was charged, but wouldn't've hit). The Mograths continue their dance, alternating on matter cannons to fire. Some more collateral damage all around. Turn 8: Mograths get good position - one on port side, one on rear - and the Maximus is out circling the fight at mid range (trying to get speed down a bit). Both plasma streams hit, mostly on structure (well, THAT finally worked out). Worked over the Bin'Tak a little bit. Mograth #2 lost its front end to a heavy laser, though. At this point we called it because of time. Outcome was still wide open. Status of ships: Mograth #2's front fell off in turn 8, but it still had a guardian to help cover other ships (but it was going to be a couple turns to slow down to a usable speed, though and loop back around into the fight). Mograth #1 had one retro blown off (took a second hit on the Efficiency reduced one), and 4 to front structure. Practically in mint condition! :) (especially by turn 8!!!!) Maximus: Lost 1 Retro, the other was down to 2 points left, and was thrust reduced to 2. 6 damage to front structure, 2 to rear structure. Also fairly unscathed, and I'm kicking myself for not pivoting it (forgot.. agile) 180 and slowing down with main thrusters sooner. Doh! Bin'Tak: Front: Mag gun, 1 HL, 1 Lt Pulse all gone. 1 Retro with 9 damage, an e-mine with 3 damage, no crits on either. Starboard: Lt pulse gone, 12 structure gone. Rear: twin gone, 1 thruster down by 9, 12 structure. rear structure down to 4 armor. Port: 1 twin gone, 1 ion torp gone, 1 twin down to 2 points with a crit on damage, thruster down to 2 points remaining with -1 thrust and 1 efficiency crits and down to 4 armor. Port structure down by 54 points (of 96) with armor reduced to 3. At the speeds it was going, the crits on the thruster were meaningless. Primary: Hangar down by 8, structure down by 7. Long list, but it was all pretty much little stuff. With the guardians and the maneuverability, the Centauri didn't have to worry much about the Mag gun, so it's loss wasn't that critical (although that did open up the front arc quite a bit). Guardians & twins were very effective against the ion torps, too. Those Heavy Lasers are sticking out everywhere and hard as hell to hit. The Bin'Tak still had 5 heavy lasers, 2 e-mines, 1 ion torp, 3 lt pulse cannon, & 3 twins. More than enough to ruin the Centauri's day. And they were only through about 1/10th of all its structure!!!!!!!!!!! Eek! We did see the difference in Narn vs Centauri twins come into play. The Centauri did split the defensive fire at different incoming shots, and the Narn at one point would have liked to, but instead split between offensive and defensive. (6 inbound twin shots, 2 twins to intercept. Had to do 2 intercept shots and two offensive shots). Summary: Fluky luck. Narn had bad luck on the to-hits. Centauri had awesome luck on to-hits, but poor damage and/or location. Only thing they had much luck with was the Matter Cannons hitting on low oddsand actually doing decent damage. Turn 8, we finally saw things balance out more, with some decent all around for both sides. This one could have gone either way REAL easily depending on the die rolls.. (The HANGAR!! Argh! I ALWAYS Hit the Hangar!!! Always!!!!!!! Can I hit the C&C? Noooooo. Can I hit a Reactor, or Sensors? Noooo.. Have I ever hit the Engines?? Noooooo.. Jump Engines, once, yes. Primary structure, yes. But the hangar...*sigh* At least I didn't land a 16 point matter cannon on a 2 point hangar this time, though..) Centauri strategy revolved around superior mobility (Mograths are awesome), plasma streams to reduce armor so twins are more effective (couldn't hit worth >deleted