AAR Nea Rhomaioi vs Islamic Fed...sort of

There was a little confusion about who was playing which side....I'll let John
take it from there:

Pretty standard opening.. Both fleets were in tight formations closing almost
straight ahead. The IF force was moving pretty quick, the NRE was slowly
cruising. Turn 3, we were in missle range. Imperials salvoed 18 SMRs at the IF
force. Took out 2 Saladin destroyers, but most of the salvo was aimed too far
back to do any
damage.  Turns out the IF had taken an all-beam force.  The NRE
proceeded to charge drives and jump out. Loses totalled 2 frigates, 1 missle
destroyer, an escort cruiser, a light missle cruiser, and a heavy missle
cruiser. In return they managed to finish off a
Hattin-class "Heavy Cruiser" (Small battlecruiser--90 TMF).

Pretty nasty defeat for NRE, mostly due to two factors. First, miscalcuation
about IF force structure. Second, missing with the bulk of the SMRs.

The weird thing was the force on both sides.

NRE: 2xCAG, CE, 2xCLG, 5xDDG, 3xFF, 1xDrone Tender (FF with no guns,
tugs around 10 size-2 banzai jammers)
Total offensive weapons: 18 SMRs, 13 Beam 2

IF: 2xSaladin DD, 3xHattin CH, 2xSaif al Islam BB Total weapons: 16 Beam 3, 28
Beam 2

Which side was using whose doctrine?

LL: First, "Islamic doctrine" is contradiction in terms. Maybe in "real life"
where espionage has established which emir has which weapons fitted to which
ships and where they are deployed, then you can tailor to the threat. But IF
forces tend to one extreme or the other and it's difficult to determine
beforehand which it will be.

Second: If you have that much of your force in SMRs, it helps to hit something
occasionally. Preferably larger than a DD.