FT-Battle report and conclusions

I just ran a battle senario, where a NAC/NSL light task force ran into a
arachnid battle group. The background was like this-

"The NAC high command was worried that it had become very quiet in the rim of
sector 12, with a drop in pirate activaty (although they weren`t complaining)
and a almost total stop in the small merchent men that usually served the
small, scattered independant colonies beyond the normal limit of human space.
They became concerened enough to dispach a powerful scouting
task force when contact was lost with a NAC/NSL listening post near the
boarder. The task force was heading for the lost listening post when they
discovered a warp point leading into a ESU system near the boarder. This
caused suspitions to rest with the ESU as the responsibal party. Some of their
ships had already jumped through to scout, leaving all of the new warships
behind (to prevent the ESU finding out about them), when a large group of
unidentified starships, not of human origins, jumped into close proximaty."

 Senario settup-

The human starships were clustered about the warppoint, wondering what to do,
when the bug starships jumped in 60 MU distant. For this battle, jump effects
are ignored, and the bugs were placed randomly. The humans in this senario
were just trying to dammage the bugs and escape, while the bugs were trying to
destroy as many human ships as posible. This is because each side
would gain some re-enforcements for the second part of the battle, which
would be the bugs asaulting the warppoint, but the bugs would be
re-enforced
more heavly and could afford bigger losses (except for the human fighters
which would be at full streight for the next battle). The forces were as
follows-

NAC/NSL-
Bombardier SDM Dunkirk BCM x2 Broadsword BCM Dresden BBH Longhorn DDH x2 (I
know they`re FCT) Squire CVLE x2 (Altair micro CV) Essex CVE (Dimashq CVE)
Fighter groups (std) x8

Bugs-
Acid SDE x2 (as given on the FTSR, except "c" pulsars used as plasma guns, not
p.torps) Archer SDM x2 (modified from the FTSR ones with no energy weapons,
and more ammo) Auger SDN (heavy needle beams fitted as per WDA, except only 1
f.con required and only 1 die rolled at any range) Avalaunch SDL (cl 3 beams
x7) Carbine CLM Cannon CLL
Cleaver CLC (plasma/c pulsar version)
Caterphrack CLE

The humans were outnumbered and outgunned, but had ships that were faster than
the bug SD`s (except for the Bombardier SDM) and outranged the bug
weapons (no ER SML`s, only the avalaunch SDL/Cannon CLL with a range of
over
24 MU) and had fighters. The battle went like this-

Turn 1

The humans launched all fighters to one side of the board, and proceeded to
advance with the SD`s/BC`s. The bugs advanced towaeds the enemy and
tried to group their SD`s together from their scattered starting points. Both
sides were out of range.

Turn 2

The range closed enough for the SD`s/BC`s to launch their MT missiles
towards the enemy, while the CL`s (except the CLE`s) used full thrust to close
with the BC`s, which the human had allowed to get ahead of the SD`s in
his attempt to get with firing range. The BC`s/SD`s fired their energy
weapons at the 3 CL`s approching the BC`s, and managed to cause 2 DP`s to one
ship (CLC), and 6 DP`s to the other (CLL), which only lost 1 cl3 bat. The bug
CL`s returned fire on the BC`s, only causing 7 DP to 1 ship. The carriers
retreated towards the warppoint with the 2 DDH as escorts, the fighters
continued to close with a pair of bug SD`s that were off to one side of the
main group.

Turn 3

The SD`s/BC`s (with ER SML`s) were in range of the bug SD`s, and
launched a full salvo of SM and MT missiles at the main group of bug SD`s, to
no effect (all ships were within ADFCon range, and had the 2 CLE`s along). Due
to bad orders, the BC`s ended up within 9 MU of the CL`s charging ahead. In a
exchange of fire, the BC`s and SD`s killed the CL`s with energy weapons. The
rest of the bug SD`s (except the two off to one side) were at 22 MU, and
launched everything (including the SMR`s) at the BC`s, who were vaporised
(hull=21, dammage=53!). The second salvo of MT and SM missiles managed to
penetrate the PDS and dammage 1 of the avalaunch SDL¬S, causing a threshold
check in which he lost 3 of the 7 cl3 bats he had.

Turn 4

The humans decided to scarper, and turned and applied full thrust towards the
warppoint (the SD`s had kept their speed down due to the thrust 2 NSL SD). The
human commander sent his fighters to attack the 2 separated
SD`s,
that had laged behind the others due to the bug commander being eager to close
the range. The main bug force fired everything it had on the NSL bombardier
SDM, and managed to cause enough dammage to force a threshold check, which he
failed on his engine, which also took a needle beam hit (!). The fighters
attacked the 2 separated bug SD`s, only to find out they were a archer SDM and
a acid SDE. The combined fire of 28 PDS (remember, pulsars can be used as PDS)
only killed 16 fighters from the eight fighter groups attacking. The fighters
attacked with everything they had, but only caused minimal dammage to the
level 2 sheilded archer SD.

Turn 5

The human commander decided the Bombardier was dead, and burned at full thrust
with his SD and BBH towards the warppoint. The Bombardier turned around and
fired everything it had at one of the bug SDL`s at a range of 11 MU. The bugs
ignored the other ships to pound the SD to scrap. Unlucally for the bugs, the
targetted SDL by the Bombardier took enough dammage to force it over 2
threshold points in one turn, and failed his threshold roll for his reactor.
The superior thrust and the fact the bugs concetrated on the bombardier
allowed the human ships to escape through the warppoint. The human fighters
attacked the 2 SD`s again, and only 6 fighters suvived (in 5 different
groups). The fighters failed their moral roll and ran for the warppoint and
the carriers with every thing they had.

Turn 6

The SD/BBH arrived at the warppoint and the SD, BBH, and all the CV`s
except the essex jumped through (the DDH`s jumped on the previous turn), the
essex stayed to pick up the fighters that arrived this turn, because the range
was still enough for him to recover the fighters and jump before being fired
on. The bugs reduced speed, except for the dammaged SDL which dumped it`s core
to prevent a explosion.

Winner (?)-A draw, leaning towards the bugs. The winner will be decided
by the next battle and the result from that.

Conclusions-

NEVER send fighters against acid (or caterphrack) if undammaged. These guys
eat missiles or fighters for breakfast. You have very little chance of getting
through. Don`t go racing to meet the bugs, they will come to you, and it also
allows you to ensure that all you ships are within support of each other. The
bug CL`s go pop very easily, but use their speed to close with the enemy and
cause the maximum of dammage before checking out. Fighters are probably the
best weapon to use against them (except the CLE), but in this case the human
player heald his fighter back and they were on the wrong side of the table to
intercept them (he thought the capitol ships would have enough firepower to
take them out on their own). The human commander lost this battle by trying to
kill the enemy and closing too quickly, instead of using his range and
whittling the bugs down. The bug commander made no mistakes, and suceeded in
killing some of the human ships. All in all, a educating battle, and the human
commander didn`t do too badly considering how outnumbered he was (although he
could have done better).