From: "Robert V. Buss" To: "Babylon 5 Wars List (E-mail)" Subject: [B5W] Battle Report - Rutarians vs. G'Quan & Go riths Date sent: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 00:20:52 -0500 Send reply to: babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU My opponent and I had a marathon session of B5 Wars, managing to get in 3 different games. The write-up for the first game is below, with the scenario I wrote up is on my B5 Wars web page, http://www.eaze.net/~rvbuss/B5Wars. The other two games, were one on one duels (Bin'tak v Octurion with fighters, then T'loth v Hyperion with fighters). In the Bin'tak v Octurion, by the third turn, the Bin'tak had lost a thruster, the Mag Gun, and most of the port structure, along with damage in the primary. The Octurion was scratched. In the T'loth v Hyperion, on the second turn, the T'loth ended up once hex in front of the Hyperion, shooting into its forward port facing. The Hyperion took heavy damage, then vaporized the front and primary structures on the T'loth. The T'loth's fighters then proceeded to annoy the Hyperion for another 4 turns, almost knocking the port structure off. A fun evening of gaming. Battle Report - Rutarians vs. G'Quan & Goriths Situation: A Narn G'Quan commerce raiding behind enemy lines stumbled across a training group of Centauri Rutarian Strike Fighters. The Centauri, wanting to protect the secret of the fighters, engage the G'Quan. Initial Conditions - starting range, under 40 hexes. Rutarians, speed 7, 3 flights of 6 fighters G'Quan, speed 7, jumped in previous turn, engines charging, heavy lasers shutdown. Goriths, still in hanger Rutarian Stealth: treated as an original rules Minbari jammer at ranges greater than 5 hexes. OEW provides not bonus to hit, but does cancel the double range penalty. When 50% of the fighters had taken at least two points, stealth no longer effective. Turn 1: Dumping the extra energy into sensors for one extra point, the G'Quan locked 3 points of OEW on each Rutarian flight. The Narns fired one Emine towards the Rutarians. The G'Quan moved forward, then turned to port. The Centauri, in hoping to minimize exposure to the Emine, moved forward and slide, with 2 groups sliding starboard, the third sliding to the port. Rutarian 1 ended one hex away from the Emine, it exploding into its side arc. All fighters in group 1 take seven points, losing stealth. The turn ended with the G'Quan launcher one flight of Goriths. Rutarian group 1 had one fighter drop out. Turn 2: Seeing the wounded Rutarian flight, the G'Quan locked all 9 of it's EW points on it. All Centauri fighters accelerate by 1 to speed 8. The G'Quan then fired another Emine, moved it's turn delay from the previous move, then turned back starboard with extra thrust to minimize the turn delay. The Gorith flight launched in the last turn lost initiative, and maneuvered to stay on top of the G'Quan. The Rutarians all maneuvered outside the Emine firing arcs and closed towards the G'Quan. At a range of 12 hexes, Rutarian groups 1 and 2 fired their ion bolts at the G'Quan, with the G'Quan returning fire at group 1 with the forward twin arrays, leaving the light pulse cannon on defensive fire. All shots missed their targets. 3 more fighters dropped out of Rutarian group 1, leaving it with 2 fighters. The G'Quan launched it's remaining flights of Goriths. Turn 3: The G'Quan locked 7 OEW on Rutarian 1, 1 each on the other 2 flights. The Centauri fighters decelerate back to speed 7. Rutarian 3 lost over all initiative, with the remaining sides alternating flights, ending with Rutarian 2. The G'Quan fired the recharged Emine, decelerated by 1 to speed 6, then turned back to port. The Gorith's maneuvered to intercept the Rutarians, with Rutarians 1 and 2 doing anti-fighter work while the Rutarian 3 lined up a ion bolt shot. Combat saw the disappearance of Rutarian 1 by twin array fire. Rutarian got hit twice by each Gorith flight, four fighters taking enough damage to drop stealth for that group. None of the Centauri's shots hit. Rutarian 2 had one fighter drop at the end of the turn. Turn 4: The G'Quan locked Rutarian 2 with 7 OEW points, and Rutarian 3 with 2. Gorith 2 lost overall initiative, while Rutarian 2 won. The G'Quan decelerated by 2 this turn, to speed 4. It does not fire any Emines since all the Centauri fighters are in its rear arcs. The G'Quan turns back starboard. Gorith 2 looped back towards the G'Quan. Rutarian 3 maneuvered to stay outside stealth range, and targets Gorith 2. Gorith 1 maneuvered to attack Rutarian 3 at a range of one hex. Rutarian 2 closed with the starboard side of the G'Quan. The G'Quan fired the two forward twin arrays at Rutarian 4, killing 2 fighters. Rutarian 2 fired its ion bolts, hitting with all five fighters. The bolts kill a light pulse cannon, and do 25 points of damage to the starboard structure and a primary hit doing 2 points of damage to the primary structure. Gorith 2 combat pivots to fire at Rutarian 3. Rutarian 3 missed, but the Goriths managed to wound 2 fighters. Rutarian 2 had one fighter drop at the end of the turn, lowering it to 2 fighters. Turn 5: The G'Quan locked 8 points of OEW on Rutarian 2, and 1 point on Rutarian 3. Turn five saw the lowest initiative rolls (the winner had 10, the loser 1 - since all fighters had the same initiative bonus, we didn't bother to add them in after turn 2). The G'Quan launched 2 Emines, then turned twice to port away from the Rutarians. Rutarian 2, having lost initiative, retreats away from the fight. Gorith 1 follows Rutarian 2. Rutarian 3 closes to one hex on the starboard side of the G'Quan, dodging Emines. Gorith 2 follows Rutarian 3 into the same hex. The G'Quan fired it's rear twin arrays at Rutarian 3, totally missing. Rutarian 3 fires its ion bolts, all hitting the G'Quan, damaging the starboard thruster for 6 points, and the starboard structure for 27 points. Gorith 2 hits 5 fighters in Rutarian 3, killing 1 and dropping its stealth. Gorith 1 firing at Rutarian 2 hit 2 fighters, killing 1. Turn 6: The G'Quan shifted the majority of its OEW points to Rutarian 3, locking it with 6 points, and 2 points on Rutarian 2 (the Narn player totally forgetting he had nine points). The G'Quan just traveled straight ahead. Gorith 1 paralleled its course. Rutarian 2 suicidally closed to the port side of the G'Quan. Rutarian 3 maneuvered behind Gorith 1 in the same hex, while Gorith 2 followed it. The G'Quan's rear twin arrays killed Rutarian 2, while its single ion bolt does 6 points of damage to the port structure. Rutarian 3 firing on Gorith 1 managed to hit 4, killing 1 (the first Centauri kill of the game). Rutarian 3 had 3 fighters hit, with 2 killed. It had another fighter drop out, lowering it to 2 fighters. At this point the Centauri player resigned, with a still kicking G'Quan and only 1 Gorith killed. After-Action Analysis: This was the second time the players had played this scenario, with sides reversed previously. In that game, the Rutarians focused on destroying the Gorith's first, not realizing how much damage the ion bolts could really do. By the time the Gorith's were lost, only 1 flight of Rutarians were left to chase down a wounded G'Quan. The Narn managed to get one near hit with the energy mines in the third turn, and did reasonably well in fighter v fighter. In this game, the Centauri player wanted to place more pressure on the G'Quan, having at least one Rutarian flight fire at it every turn. The Narn player wanted to sow some confusion by firing only one Emine every turn. The early Emine hit, and missing the first three ion bolt shots doomed the Centauri forces. Not being able to hit the side of a Gorith didn't help their chances either. Although they got some good hits on the G'Quan by turn 4, not killing a single Gorith until turn 6 was pitiful. Centauri blamed this on having trainees, not frontline fighter pilots. --- Robert Buss "You are no more likely to become a militarist or jingo through addiction to military history than an ornithologist is likely to feed his children on gobbets of raw flesh, still warm, because he has become fascinated by the behavior of birds of prey." - Cyril Falls