Admiral Arantar ‘Infinity’ Elladan was a scared man. This was not a trait people would normally associate with the great commander, but as he sat whiskey in hand contemplating the battle to come, it was the only suitable word. This first engagement with the separatists would be remembered for many years and his name would be on it. Losing would be disastrous for his family name, and loosing looked a distinct possibility.

The enemy had moved fast. Highlander was already though the Dalvenian wormhole with a convoy Carrier at the heart of his fleet. All Infinity had to oppose him was a couple of frigates. His beloved Hammerhead Cruiser lay in dry dock unusable. LEM shipyards had promised him a full fleet for this first and most vital battle and the fleet looked ready, but it was not. Problems with some technical thing called a TOS had left his beautiful Hammerhead languishing uselessly in dock. LEM had promised to work through the night to get things ready. If anyone could do it then LEM could, but it was going to be a close call and the enemy was in no mood to wait.

These military contracts are such a pain. They specified a fleet to be built; they didn't mention they needed an entire control system as well....

LOL.

Captain Algernon "Highlander" Farquarson sat in his ready room drinking a hot cup of coffee. The last week had been long and stressful trying to get his fleet in the right position. They had run fast and hard but it had paid off. They now held a strategic point in space and their first target was the LEM shipyards, either the capture or destruction of the LEM.

The only problem was Admiral Arantar ‘Infinity’ Elladan was defending that bit of space between the "Claymore", her fleet and the LEM Shipyard. Intel had quite a bit of information on former engagements with the Admiral, he will not be an easy opponent. However he was old school using old Royal tactics. It will be interesting to see how he deals with the future.

Well lets just say the first battle was a disaster for me. I did not understand the rules and did not use any of the ships properly. Infinity had a complete victory. It did however give us an understanding of the rules, and showed us what rules we forgot about.

BTW the Carrier is the Worst designed ship in the entire game. Worthless. I'm talking rules not the actual build and artistic design.

The second game went much better. Fast exciting. The battle was almost like the scene from BSG or SW. Had the Carrier been worth the points you spend on it I think the game would have gone as strongly in my favor as the first game was to Infinity.

I will not add any more until Infinity has a chance to post the pictures.

Jump completed, the powerful Royalist hammerhead cruiser flickered into existence, followed seconds later by four squadrons of missile fighters and two particlebow frigates.


Facing them across space the Separatist fleet moved confidently, arrayed in battle formation around their carrier. One more jump and they would be at the LEM shipyards. A shipyard rumoured to be vulnerable and undefended due to construction delays. But LEM shipyards had done their job and a Royalist fleet now stood between the Separatists and that vital last gate.



Admiral Elladan deployed the Hammerhead to the centre and rest of his fleet off the port bow of his great warship. After a moment’s pause to savour the moment he launched a missile salvo. If he was going to fire the first shot in the shooting war then let it be a powerful one.

The two fleets closed and Elladan smiled quietly to himself as he saw the Separatist fleet’s two control corvettes responding to his flanking move. His manoeuvre was working and the enemy force was split. ‘All ships: weapons free — engage the enemy,’ he commanded.

The Royalist fighters kicked in their afterburners and roared into battle.

The Separatist corvettes were not dismayed by the show of bravado; they formed up prepared to face the enemy.

Their supporting unit of skirmish fighters were expected to make short work of their opponents and indeed first engagement fire from the corvettes and supporting fighters cut devastatingly into the centre of the Royalist advance.

The Royalist fighters roared past and turned to engage scrambled squadrons of the Separatist carrier. The control corvettes, eager from their early success, sped on directly towards the two Royalist particlebows. But their luck had changed in their shots went wide. Fortunately for them the return fire was equally ineffective.

In the centre the Separatist carrier deployed her fighters and the already weakened Royalist forces suffered casualties once more. But these were just the early shots. The Separatists suddenly realised the threat posed by the missile salvo which had been steadily working its way across the battlefield.


Seconds later Admiral Elladan auto-detonated the missiles, giving his opponent no chance to evade. Explosions ripped into the Separatist convoy carrier causing it considerable damage.

Elladan’s plan was coming to fruition. It was time to gain the initiative and change the balance of the battle. With the Separatist particlebow in the hammerhead’s sights he released a second missile salvo.

‘All ships: take down that particlebow, fighters get those missile ships under control,’ he ordered. The Royalist fighters responded quickly, breaking clear of their skirmish and leaving the enemy fighter force recently devastated by the fire from the particlebows in their wake.

The two Royalist Particlebows turned but not hard enough. One Separatist control cruiser had come around and sat dangerously on the tail of PB21.

With the missiles in flight and the two particlebows coming round quickly Elladan turned the hammerhead towards his main target. The missiles struck home crippling the Separatist particlebow and preventing it from firing on the hammerhead. Moments later the long-range shot from the Royalist particlebows completed the job detonating the Separatist ship. With the enemy carrier illuminated by the glow from its destroyed companion the full laser battery fire of the hammerhead poured into it with devastating effect. It ripped through the thin armour of the Separatist carrier and a second explosion rolled through space. In a single exchange of fire the Separatist fleet had lost its two most powerful ships.

Although stunned by their loss the Separatists fought bravely on. The two highly movable corvettes harried PB21 as they closed on the hammerhead. Their fighter screen was still effective and making devastating fire into the Royalist missile ships.

At the first opportunity the Royalist fighters broke from the combat. The Royalist hammerhead and particlebows turned hard to port ,effectively providing the Separatists with an easy route to the hammerhead's rear.

The ships manoeuvred and the agility of the Separatist control corvettes once more came to the fore.

Suddenly, the Royalist fighters turned hard and inflicted revenge upon the skirmishers that had given so much trouble.

Undaunted, the Separatist corvettes closed on the Royalist hammerhead not noticing a strange manoeuvre being performed by the Royalist particlebows.

The Separatist corvettes fired accurate and concentrated shots into the hammerhead ignoring the ineffective fire from the depleted Royalist fighters behind them.

Elladan, on the bridge of the hammerhead, surveyed the battlefield. The enemy fire was damaging but he had always intended to take it. She was tough ship and she had held the Separatist corvettes where he wanted them. The Royalist particlebows swung round and fired, ripping apart the first enemy corvette.

Bravely the remaining corvette continued firing at the hammerhead whose crews were quietly repairing the damage faster than it could be done. The Royalist particlebows fired again and the Separatist corvette joined the fate of its comrade.

Three hours after the Separatists had first dared to enter Royalist space the battle was over. Their attack force had been totally destroyed. The Royalists formed up and headed for the wormhole. They had lost one squadron of missile fighters. Admiral Elladan’s name and reputation were most certainly secure.

That was an excellent battle report, had me on the edge of my seat.

What's wrong with the carrier?

Yup thats what I saw.

A wretched game. I made all the wrong choices from the beginning. It was not until the last few rounds that I got the hang of the ships, well except for the carrier which serves no point other than to draw fire away from the useful ships.

There is not much I can say for this game other than never get a carrier and that a game can be won with speed and manoeuvring. Don't ever split up the Skirmishers like I did.

The second battle went much better and I'll be glad to go into more detail once those pictures are up.

Whats wrong with the carrier? It serves no purpose. Go to the link to the thread on the Carrier that I started so I don't derail this battle report.

I'm trying to understand why the carrier's fleet (indeed, the other fleet too) did not use the fighters to screen their capital ships from harm. Both capital ships were completely outmaneuvered b/c they were left rather unsupported at various times during the game.

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Sorry I forgot to take notes

Having suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Royals the Separatists returned with the exact same force! Using a squad of 2 Control Corvettes and 2 Skirmish Fighters the Seperatists swerved from the left and right until the Royals had moved toward the center where we wanted them. Then we took that squad and flanked to the right to come up around the Royal Fleet.

As distressing as this was the Royals had their own plan and charged up the two Particlebows and launched missiles from the Hammerhead hitting one of the Corvettes. The next round the Particlebows move into position and fire inflicting serious damage to the Separatists. However the first squad had ripped into the side armor of the Hammerhead.

The Tincan Carrier ejected the Missile Fighters to engage teh Royalist Missile Fighters and Particlebows. The four Missile Fighters spew forth a volley at the Seperatists Particlebow but her armor was too strong for the missiles to penetrate. The Separatist Particlebow gets a shot off at the Hammerhead inflicting massive damage.

Getting a call for help from the Hammerhead the Missile Fighters break off to engage the ships attacking the Hammerhead. The Royalist Particle Bows take out the opponents Particlebow and the useless tincan in the next few rounds while the Seperatists trash the Hammerhead and a few Missile Fighters. But not before the Royalist Missile Fighters take out one Control Corvette.

At this point both sides battered are hurt retreat to their respective Wormholes to battle on another day.

I can't stres enough how useless the Carrier was and had I replaced it with another Corvette and Skirmish Fighter instead then the battle really would have turned for the Separatists.

The Hammerhead was lethal with its two missile barrages and its main front guns. Its largest weakness is its sides and rear.

The Carrier never got within range of anything it was so slow and with a DEF of 6+ its armor is no better than the fighters it carries.

The Particlebows are very deadly at range and even more nasty when charged. Very good ship.

Control Corvettes have to be my favorite, fast, agile and packs a leatal punch.

Skirmish fighters are nasty little killer bees and I could easily see a squad of four taking out a hammerhead on their own. Never had the chance or need to try out the Beserker ability.

Missile Fighters are nice with the range they get and afterburnners can really give you the edge you need.

However despite those and a few other problems it was a great day and Infinity and I had a great time.

Yes I will play again. I LOVE using the Autofire and like to get those Control Corvettes right into range to use them. Broadside attacks just like they should.

It was great to see the ships move back and forth in and out of formations. Great time!

Personally the best part of Wormhole was not the combat (although fun) it was guessing what your opponent was going to do on that second move order, getting your ships in the right spot, facing the right way to counteract my opponents second move. That was great.

The big ships are overrated. Well the Hammerhead can do some damage. But if I was forced by a scenario to take the carrier again I would use it only to draw fire away from the real ships. It is too slow, bad turn rate, and with such horrid armor a single particlebow can take it out easily.

But if you look at the first set of pictures (9th and 10th) I had a wall of missile ships to screen the Carrier and it did no good.

Thanks for the in-depth report Infinity!

Now doesn't that just sound like the Armed Forces of today.





HP. Very well done... and lost.


COngrats Infinity and LEM!




Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

I really enjoyed reading the battle report ... to bad about the carrier, but its incredible the number of ships that real navies deploy with a carrier in order to support and protect it. They are rather fragile and huge targets.

Thanks to all for posting the batlle.

That was an awesome battlereport! Thanks for the pics as well, that really helped.

As for carriers...well...you don't see our modern day carriers engaging in ship to ship combat for a very good reason. Slow and fragile, but god help you if the embarked airwing sinks its teeth in your butt.