Battle of Prenglar

[Terl Obar]

Art, to your questions, the I posted the positions before the defensive fire was resolved, so had the station's fire not killed the cruiser it would have exited the map. As it is, the station got a good hit and took it out, so the debris exited the map and is out of play .

The seekers moved two hexes on the turn they were activated and will move four on this next turn so they will hit but there are only 6 of them.

Larry, I have no idea why I put a fighter marker on, probably not paying attention as there are no UPF fighters in this battle. I'll fix it on the next update. The fighter marker represents:

• 5 Assault Scouts
• 3 Frigates

The battleship counter represents:

• 2 Destroyers
• 3 Light Cruisers
• 1 Battleship

The minelayer marker represents 2 Minelayers

All the UPF ships have a speed of 11.

[simplymenotu]

I should make my move now based on Speed of 11?

[Terl Obar]

yes.

[simplymenotu]

The fighter marker represents:

• 5 Assault Scouts
• 3 Frigates

The battleship counter represents:

• 2 Destroyers
• 3 Light Cruisers
• 1 Battleship

The minelayer marker represents 2 Minelayers

All the UPF ships have a speed of 11.

Minelayer x2
- Reduce 1 ADF, SPEED 10
- Move fwd 1 hex, turn E
- Move fwd 1 hex, turn E
- POSITION 3119 HEADING NE
- Target LB at optimal hex targeting SAV at 2622

AS x5
- SPEED 11
- POSITION 2412 HEADING SE (Solid blue line)
- Targeting all SAV at 2616 with LB and AR's (spread the love around all ships) RANGE 4

Frigate x3
- Accelerate 1 ADF, SPEED 12
- POSITION 2412 HEADING SE (Dash blue line)
- Targeting all SAV at 2617 with LC, LB, RB and T (spread the love around all ships) RANGE 3

Destroyers x2
Light Cruisers x3
Battleship x1
- Accelerate 2 ADF, SPEED 13
- POSITION 2516 HEADING SE (Red line)
- Targeting FF weapons at SAV at 2617
- All other weapons will spread the love between 2617 and 2616

The bridge, Battleship Admiral Morgaine, "UPF Task Force Prenglar, this is Admiral Subada. As you can see scopes indicate we lost the station. There is no time for grief, we will make these worms pay dearly. Forward Commander Nagata will brief you on our next move. Good hunting."

FC Nagata, "Thrasher and Dark Star, your team will follow the Admiral Morgaine to cut off SAV forces. Prepare for heavy defensive fire as were going in close to unleash a barrage of rocket batteries. Starpacer, I need you to target sector 2616 with a full load of assault rockets. Proton, take your team to sector 2617 attempting to get within rocket battery range. Finally the Mainstay team will try and pick off anything that survives the seeker attack. Admiral Morgaine out."

UPF MOVE

Prenglar-r2a-UPFMOVE.png (37.49 KiB) Viewed 94 times

[Shadow Shack]

"Come to play, buffoonssss...COME TO DIE!!!"

[Terl Obar]

Okay, We're officially back on.

Larry, what was more important the hex position for the minelayers or their speed? To get to the location you specified (as drawn below), they'd have to be going 11 not 10 so I left them there. If you want to move them back a hex we can.

After the UPF move (ships and seeker missiles) Here is the current board:

The full map has labels for all the ships.

The Sathar need to declare their defensive fire and Art needs to say how many ICM's he's firing at the seeker missiles.

[Shadow Shack]

Defensive fire as follows:

Lead cruiser - PB, EB,LB(x2) @ battleship, RB@ frigate #1
cruiser #1 of 6 - PB, EB,LB(x2) @ battleship, RB@ frigate #1
cruiser #2 of 6 - PB, EB,LB(x2) @ battleship, RB@ frigate #1
cruiser #3 of 6 - PB, EB,LB(x2) @ battleship, RB@ frigate #1
cruiser #4 of 6 - PB, EB,LB(x2) @ battleship, RB@ frigate #2
cruiser #5 of 6 - PB, EB,LB(x2) @ battleship, RB@ frigate #2
cruiser #6 of 6 - PB, EB,LB(x2) @ battleship, RB@ frigate #2


{EDIT} ICMs as follows: 3 per inbound torpedo, 2 per inbound assault rocket

[Aethelwulffe]

I am still not following how the seekers caught me (Frigates move 13, seeker activate, seeker Move 2-range to target 2, frigates should then move 16 before seekers move 4) but going on with the fun:

I don't know which ships are targeted by the seekers yet to state the targets of the ICM's (also assuming we are reading the rules to say 1ICM=one defense against one incoming missile). If they are all attacking "the closest ship" as the rules would indicate, and targeting "only the enemies ships" as house rules would indicate, then they are all going after one (and one has to be the closest) frigate. If they are each attacking an individual ship, I fire all 32 ICM's at the incoming seekers, that's a minus 40 to hit for the first 4, and a minus 48 for the last two. If they are all attacking one ship, then that ship fires all it's ICM's at the first seeker that comes close, then takes the rest for the team.
All defensive fire in range and in arc of fire: I believe this means only the laser batteries, and I am pretty sure I can't see the BB, so firing 8 LB's at the ML at CPA 3 hexes, final range 6.

P.S. Our carrier is still in the wrong spot. It is/was supposed to be headed off the map, (north not south), somewhere with the lone lost Cruiser...

[Aethelwulffe]

ssSubadaah Ahdmiral! We have not yet ffinisshed our ffirsst Passs! Hahahahhahahhahsssssss!

[Shadow Shack]

Good catch, I missed that this time around...

The assault carrier will release its fighters in 4801 and will make a right turn in the next hex afterwards (4701), accelerating to a speed of 12 (moving 11 hexes forward in a NW direction from 4701).

P.S. @ Art...each ICM launched permits a consecutive -8 to hit modifier for inbound seekers, which have a 75% chance to hit w/no gunnery bonuses applicable. Therefore 8 or 9 ICMs per seeker will reduce it close to (11% for 8) or the "automatic hit only hits factor" (03 to hit for 9, or 01-05 automatic hit).

[Aethelwulffe]

Right-o partner;
32 ICMs, divided by 6 Seekers = 5 ICMs per Seeker (-40, or a 35% chance to hit) plus a 2 remainder (Bringing the modifier to -48 for two of them).

It all depends on the interpertation of the rules as to how effective the ICM's are. The rules do not state a situation where you are defending against multiple seeker missiles, nor how to choose which ship they go after in a multi-ship bundle (the torp example in the rules is directed specifically at it's target). I am pretty sure we all think of it as "seekers do not target side's own ships", but we don't know if they still only go after the closest ship. Some folks say one ICM per incoming, but others say that since they affect rocket batteries, they are multimissiles too so they affect ALL missile attacks on a given turn. The rule text does not argue this, as they are not concise. Either way, I am not assuming.

[simplymenotu]

I think Tom is slammed with work.
...but you guys might just want to flee to another system after the spanking I'm going to do.

"All your sathar are belong to fish food!"

Captain: "Mr. w00t, why are you sending messages to the enemy fleet?"
w00t: "It was a taunt sir."
Captain: "Please continue."

[Aethelwulffe]

Poor Tom. Has to do all that work and make all that money. Not like us lucky florida marine contractors who have all the time in the world to panhandle and drink ripple under the bridge.

Praefecti Sylaphis, his orders coursing through his mind as a mantra, communicates orders to all stations, and then monitors compliance status. Freed now to plot refinements to his clever plot, he stares at the sensor displays, enfused by hate for these disgusting beings that should not even exist. "Sylaphis to Priori Haesst!" He hisses. "Haesst here, my commander." comes the reply on the voice circuit. "Stand ready to execute option Theta two on my mark." After a pause, the answer comes: "Yes Praefecti. We stand ready to execute." Sylaphis eases back into his accelleration couch, his power and status confirmed, and success rapidly on the the way. "Helmsman, make an adjustment burn Delta 210 vector 710. I want to be to the outside of our formation as we pass the planet."

[Terl Obar]

Some rule clarifications for how I'm running it:

• Seeker Targets: Per the Tactical Operations Manual p11, seekers go after the closest ship and don't distinguish friend or foe, just the closest. In the case of multiple ships being the same distance, target is chosen randomly, In a target hex, it goes after the largest ship. If multiple ships of the same size, target is determined randomly. So since there are multiple frigates in the target hex, I'll roll randomly for each seeker missile to see which one it goes after, thus some may be targeted my multiple seeker missiles and some may get off scott-free.
• Seeker missiles vs. ICMs issue. Any ship in a a hex can fire ICM's against an incoming weapon but they are targeted at a specific weapon. So the way Art wrote it up is how I was thinking it should be applies. each seeker gets a -40% to hit and two of them get a -48%.

Also, after further review, the movement is all correct expect that the Sathar assault carrier should be off the map, I turned it the wrong way (so ignore it on this map). The seekers caught the frigates because they were activated last round and moved 2 towards the lone heavy cruiser which pulled them toward the path the frigates are now following. This round they are moving 4 and you moved into their range.

Before I post the combat results, I need to know the answer to the following: Shadow, are the HC firing any ICM's at the incoming AR, torpedoes and RB? There are 3 RB and 3 Torpedoes at the lead HC and at total of 5 AR, 9 RB & 9 torpedos at the other 6 HC spread around amongst them (I can give exact details if you need/want them).