[FT] Battle report IF vs IF

On Sunday in Richmond VA we had a satellite mini-con for those
who couldn't make it to GZG ECC (ie six people including myself and fellow
lister Rob Hofrich). First we had a quick DS2
battle--"quick" meaning "one turn": they shouldn't have been in
such a hurry to get to the objectives, we just stayed under cover or behind
hills and shot them as they ran out into the open. The second event was a FTFB
battle between two opposing Islamic Federation forces.

In 2170, the New Egyptian and New Syrian amirs, with covert ESU backing,
rebelled against the Sultanate.

Sultanate Fleet:
Force 1: 3 Salah-ed-Din BC
Force 2: 3 Ifrit CH + 1 Turcoman CL
Force 3: 3 Ifrit CH + 1 Turcoman CL
(a fleet almost entirely armed with beam 2)

Rebel Fleet
Force 4: 1 Dimashq CVL + 4 heavy fighter squadrons, 1 Ifrit CH,
2 Turcoman CL Force 5: 1 Qaws CM (missile cruiser), 1 Turcoman CL, 4 Mameluke
DDH Force 6: 1 Ifrit CH, 3 Qaws CM, 1 Mistral FSE SC (a fleet with a mix of
SMR and beams, plus the fighters)

Each force was approximately 1000 points. Each player also had a "bank" of 300
victory points which could have been traded for ships (1.5vp = 1 ship pt), but
no one took out more than 50 points or so. Players could also have used VP to
attempt to bribe other players to help achieve special victory condition, but
no one took full advantage of this.

Special Victory conditions (randomly assigned):
1. Arrange for the destruction of a specific ship in an _ally's_
squadron. (not achieved) 2. Destroy a designated enemy ship (not achieved) 3.
Have more points in surviving ships than either of your allies (achieved) 4.
Ensure a specific ally admiral survives (not achieved) 5. Destroy a designated
enemy ship (not achieved) 6. Have your second largest ship (with your heir)
survive (achieved)

Force 1 and 2 set up together in the center of the North board edge, with
Force 3 slightly to the east. Force 4 set up west of center on the south edge,
Force 5 began slightly east of center, Force 6 started in the southeast
corner.

Turn 1: Sultanate forces accelerated rapidly, while rebel forces shifted
position only slightly.

Turn 2: Force 6 launched 6 SMR-ER on Force 3; four salvos found
targets, three were stopped by PDS, but the fourth executed its attack
perfectly and destroyed an Ifrit. Force 1 and 2 closed to point blank range
with the CL and DDH's of Force 5, plus the Ifrit and one Turcoman from Force
4. After intense beam fire in all directions, Force 5 (except the Qaws, which
had wisely hung back) was destroyed, Force 4 and 2 each lost a Turcoman, and
Force 1 lost a Salah-ed-Din.  Things were not looking good for
the rebels.

Turn 3: The two forces passed through each other, with the Sultan's Force 1
accelerating out of supporting range from Force 2, which turned out to be a
mistake; Force 2 maneuvered directly into a pattern of 15 SMR, with the
consequent loss of 2 Ifrits. Dimashq's fighters finally caught Force 1 and
destroyed one
Salah-ed-Din, at a cost of 5 fighters from one squadron and 1
from another. Time was called before we were able to complete ship fire, but
range and arc considerations would have made it a lot less damaging than the
previous turn.

At this point, each side had 1 Turcoman, 1 undamaged Ifrit and 1 damaged; in
addition the Sultanate had an undamaged battlecruiser, the rebels had 3
effective heavy fighter squadrons, plus half a dozen ships which were
essentially
non-combatants: 4 Qaws (with no missiles left), the Mistral, and
the Dimashq (about half a dozen Beam 1's between them all). Result: an
expensive rebel victory.