DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER

Still decelerating, the Annabel’s Alliance ships make their dive down into the atmosphere only when they’ve closed the range to less to 1,500 kilometers.  The Requiem leads the charge, peeling off and diving her sleek makes a dive into the lightning and winds of Chernyeva.  The Zhang Jia reacts, s-turning up and behind the Requiem’s stern, even if this allows the whole Chinese battlegroup (light missile cruiser Xu Shan, destroyers Hohot and Shantao) to cut behind the Zhang Jia in turn.  The hatred between these Chinese and the Black Dragons is beyond murderous, remember that it was against the Russians and Chinese that the Black Dragons originally revolted when the Black Dragon War first started way back in 2512.  That war, now entering its seventh year, has not been a pretty one.

Yet the Russians themselves take a more measured approach.  The light cruiser Lazarev and corvette K-98 barely dip into the Chernyeva atmosphere, presenting a roadside to the Prussians and targeting the EW / escort frigate Nordwind.

The opening exchange of fire is intense.  The torpedo spread of the Xu Shan, one of the new line “Greater Xhia” class of light missile cruisers, slams into the stern of the Kesseldorf, who’s mass drivers have been mostly been engaged against the torpedoes fired from the K-98.

Gunfire from the Lazarev, with enhanced targeting on her powerful plasma projectors and EPCs (electron particle cannons) tear apart the bridge of the Nordwind and singlehanded put her out of the battle.  An instant later, however, the pin-point gunnery of the Kesseldorf (Commander Valentin Goeritz) likewise drills 8-gigawatt rail guns into the bridge and CIC systems of the Lazarev, leaving her blinded and adrift as well.

Seconds after that, the Requiem’s advanced lasers and light rail cannon slam into the Kesseldorf’s port quarter, along with the aforementioned torpedoes from the Lazarev, K-98,  Xu Shan, and two Panasian destroyers.  Not many of these relatively low-tech warheads hit, but with so many fired, plus the razor-accurate gunfire of the Requiem, and forward guns of the Xu Shan, hit the Kesseldorf so hard that she actually explodes, killing 198 of her crew, the baslt wave doing tremendous damage to the Franz Jospef’s fo’c’sle and starboard bow.  At the same time, however, the point-blank broadside of the Black Dragon killer Zhang Jia, one of the deadliest ships in Known Space, tears apart the stern of the Requiem, leaving her spinning through the Chernyeva atmosphere … only the gravity acceleration provided by the planet will keep her moving fast enough to not spiral down into the crushing heat, pressure, and gravity of the gas giant’s lower atmosphere.

Yet even this isn’t all … since the broadsides of the destroyers Hohhot and Shantao  likewise tear open the Zhang Jia’s and reduce her to little more than a man-made rocket hurtling straight up out of the Chernyeva atmosphere.  Even so, the mass torpedo strike of the Zhang Jia and the Nordwind, together with the aft guns of the Kesseldorf, is also enough to, in the same instant, cripple the destroyers Hohhot and Shantao.

Just that fast, there are only three ships left, the huge heavy cruiser Franz Josef, the damaged light cruiser Shantao, and the tiny Russian corvette K-98.

The battle now comes down to rail guns vs. torpedoes, size and bulk and hitting power vs. speed and maneuver.  The Xu Shan is fast even for a light cruiser, while the corvette K-98 can outrun some aerospace craft and possibly even torpedoes.  But neither can outgun a rail gun bolt.  Time and again, they manage to stay behind the Franz Josef as Captain Gold takes her up and out of the Chernyeva atmosphere, pinging away with their much smaller guns, hoping to stay out of Franz Josef’s full broadside just long enough for their torpedoes to score a killing blow.  The Franz Josef has very powerful gravitic shielding over her stern, however, not to mention aft gun batteries that are quickly smashing the Xu Shan’s forward sections into mangled, superheated slag.  The Panasians and Russians are also quickly running out of torpedoes …

In the end, however, the Xu Shan and K-98 simply get lucky.  Some of their last torpedoes gut the Franz Josef, again doing enough internal damage that the huge Prussian heavy cruiser detonates, the blast so powerful that it damages the Xu Shan some 540 kilometers away.  The blast also wipes out all the scout aerospace craft on both sides, engaged in a furious miniature dogfight near the Franz Josef as British and Panasian scouts tried to shoot into Franz Josef’s crippled port quarter shielding.

The Battle of Chernyeva is a shocking defeat for the Prussians.  The loss of their two most powerful ships, the Franz Josef and the Kesseldorf, is enough to settle the issue once and for all in the Cervantes system.  If the Iron Wolves want to score any victories in Duchess Annabel’s War, they’ll have to do it somewhere else.  Also, the Prussians have very been badly hurt, the heart torn out of the Franz Josef cruiser squadron.  More ships are ready to carry on the fight (including the light cruiser Rossbach, destroyer Oder, frigate-monitor Dresden), but for now the war effort for the Iron Wolves will have to be borne by the Black Dragons, New Romans, and Japanese.

SCORING:  The Chinese have the light cruiser Xu Shan, (100 points), the Russians have the corvette K-98 (10 points).  No scouts remain on either side.  Annabel’s Alliance wins by 110 points, very solid but still minor victory (25.4%)

“Duchess Annabel’s War” continues between the “Iron Wolf” Coalition (Imperial Prussia, Japan, New Roman Alliance, New Khitan Free State) and “Annabel’s Alliance” (Great Britain, Panasian League, Holy Russian Empire).

SITUATION:  The Iron Wolves aren’t done with the Russians in the Cervantes (Mu Ara) system yet.  Yes, they’ve been checked at the system’s outer debris belt, failing to “kick in the front door” at the Battle of Outer Cervantes.  Subsequently, the Black Dragons also failed to “slip in through the back door” at the recent clash at the twin moons of Chernyeva Twelve.  But the Black Dragons, particularly the Imperial Prussians, are convinced that one more solid blow will finally crack the Russians and their allies in this system and collapse all their holdings here in the “Sagittarius Wing” of the Libra-Sagittarius warzone (that’s the “west” third of the warzone as viewed from Earth).

Confirmation of this presumption comes in the form of continued intelligence reports from the so-called “Red Kitsune,” the deadly Iron Wolf spy that continues to elude the efforts of British Intelligence, the Russian FSB, and Chinese counterintelligence.  The Russians are having a hard time bringing in new ships.  Even their light fleet carrier Komarov has been called away to deal with another crisis in the ongoing war with the Black Dragons in other sectors.  The Russians are not making good their losses, the Lazarev task force remains their only real naval presence in the Cervantes system, and even that is understrength.

All the same, the bloody-knuckled victories of Outer Cervantes and Chernyeva Twelve have also steeled Russian resolve, quashing talk of cutting some kind of separate peace.  Furthermore, the Russians are making the most of their partners in the “Annabel’s Alliance,” leveraging them for reinforcements where their own navy cannot provide the needed firepower.  But whereas the British helped save the day at Outer Cervantes, this time it’s the Panasian Union who are sending the bulk of the reinforcements.

For the Russians, such contributions from their allies are the only thing holding their defense of the Cervantes star system together, a valuable colony along their Second Band trade routes.  For the British and Panasian Union, defending Cervantes is admittedly becoming expensive, but at the same time it’s been keeping the war away from British and Panasian colonies, like Annabel’s Star or Gū Xing (Falcon’s Star, HD 147513).  As with most coalitional wars throughout history, the “allies” are using each other.

The Prussians, meanwhile, have little time for such subtleties.  Amassing an elite force around the heavy cruiser Franz Josef, they enlist the aid of the recently-repaired Black Dragon light missile cruiser Zhang Jia, more or less as a guide, and set a parabolic course around the back side of the Cervantes system.  Again the Iron Wolves will go for the “back door” of the system, but rather than try to “ghost” in behind the outer moons of the Chernyeva gas giant, they bolt straight in, and by the end of December the Franz Josef task force is actually within the ice giant’s wind-swept, lightning-torn atmosphere.

It’s a hostile place to stage a naval strike force.  Winds of methane and helium rip by at 900 kilometers an hour, pelting the hulls with rains of liquid nitrogen at -200⁰ F.  Yet the Prussian commander, the impetuous and headstrong Captain Matthew Gold (hero of the Battle of Zubrin and winner of the Kriegsmarine Knight’s Cross in the Hercules Gate War), is sure that if he maintains his position here, the Annabel’s Alliance counterstrike (when it inevitably comes) will have to set a course down “into the soup” to meet him. That means a slow approach down into the dangers of the Chernyeva atmospheric pressure, winds, lightning, and crushing gravity well (Chernyeva has a mass of 1.19 Jupiters) … giving Gold’s expert gunners and huge 11-gigawatt  rail guns … that much more time to engage and destroy their approaching enemies.

The Battle of the Chernyeva Gas Giant … is on.

REPORT: Largely armed with Russian and Chinese-made short-range plasma projectors and rail guns, the commanders of the Annabel’s Alliance task force (Captain Pyotr Myshaga, Commander Sara West, Commander Chao Chen Fengbao) decide to set a relatively fast course toward the Prussians and Black Dragons.   To do this, they have to remain outside the thicker belts of the Chernyeva gas giant’s atmosphere, skimming overhead at speeds approaching 40 kps.  For their part, the Prussians set a course straight up,  still deep within the Chernyeva atmosphere but maintaining sufficient escape velocity for maneuvers and escape should any of their ships take too much battle damage.  The Franz Josef opens fire with her forward batteries, tearing open holes in the prow of the British light cruiser Requiem, while the Zhang Jia slings out a full spread of her frontal torpedo tubes.

The Chinese and British, meanwhile, are already targeting the Prussian frigate Nordwind.    The tactic is a sound one, only if they knock out this small but vital link in the Prussian fleet’s defense (the Nordwind is a powerful anti-aerospace defense ship and electronic warfare platform), the massive Chinese and Russian torpedo waves will have no chance to counter the huge Prussian edge in sheer weight of gunnery.

As the Black Dragons start to head toward the gap between the two Chernyeva Twelve moonlets, Captain Pyotr Myshaga of the Lazarev hopes to “cross their T” and broadside them as they come through the passage.  But the Black Dragons have anticipated this, and as Lazarev decelerates and turns to port to cross their T, they instead accelerate  and fish-hook to cut across Lazarev’s stern at less than 600 kilometers.  It’s a deadly move, but the destroyers Syekyra and Rusalka counter but looping all the way around the smaller Chernyeva Twelve moonlet and cutting in turn behind the sterns of the Black Dragon battlegroup.

From here, the battle gets very bloody, very fast … as has been typical between the Russians and Black Dragons since the opening of the Black Dragon War six years ago.  The Lazarev’s torpedoes slam into the stern of the Zhang Jia, destroying engines and possibly putting her out of action.  The Lazarev is nearly exploded by the massive wave of Black Dragon torpedoes and close range plasma and rail gun fire, especially the torpedoes of the Zhang Jia (upgraded EW) and the rail guns of her sistership Xin Tian.  Russian scouts of the Lazarev manage to finish off the K-206 with only their light machine guns, while the rail guns and plasma projectors of the Syekyra and Rusalka open fire point blank into the stern of the destroyer Gorokhov and light missile cruiser Xin Tian.

Long story short, at the end of this horrific exchange of gunfire (all delivered at ranges less than 600 km, some of it as short as 150 km), only the damaged cruiser Xin Tian and the destroyer Syekyra remain operational.

After the blistering violence of the initial pass, what follows now is a complex series of maneuvers, a virtual 100,000-ton dogfight between the Xin Tian and Syekyra.  Both ships wheel and turn, pivot and bluff, each trying to get guns behind the other for a shot at the engines.  The Syekyra has the edge (Commander Ekaterina A. Duranov), being a smaller and having undamaged engines, while the Xin Tian has larger engines but more bulk, and her reactors and engineering plant has been badly damaged.  Also, both ships have experience bridge crews (+2 initiative bonus) and the Xin Tian has a huge edge in gunnery.  So if Duranov isn’t careful, Xin Tian can simply blow the Syekyra apart with massed rail guns and torpedo fire no matter where Syekyra makes her approach.

The dogfight lasts another eight minutes, with the Xin Tian doggedly refusing to ever let the smaller Syekyra outmaneuver her.  During this time, both ships almost  exhaust their torpedoes, which is saying something given the Xin Tian’s massive missile load (she carries 152 total warheads in all).  Although the Syekyra never really gets on in the Xin Tian’s stern, she manages to continually present new facings to the Xin Tian’s guns, pivoting and rolling, never letting the Xin Tian’s big broadside hit the part of the ship twice.

In the end it comes down a torpedo spread from the Syekyra.  With her aft shields now knocked down, Xin Tian is completely reliant on her mass drivers to defend from Russian P-500 “Plamya” (Flame) torpedoes, but these mass drivers have also been hammered by successive hits, and are down to 60% their original strength.  More importantly, Xin Tian is almost blinded, with three hits on her sensor suite.  Thus, although Syekyra can only launch five torpedoes in her last wave, none are shot down by Xin Tian’s defenses, or pre-detonated by Xin Tian’s gravitic shielding.  Four of these warheads hit the Xin Tian’s damaged stern, instantly putting her adrift and out of action.

The skirmish at Chernyeva Twelve is a clear Russian victory, but even now the battle is not over.  Since this is a Russian system near a Russian orbital installation, rescue craft and life boats are already descending on the battle site for rescue and recovery of the Lazarev and Rusalka.  This leaves the Syekyra free to chase down Black Dragon cripples.  The corvette K-211 is the first to go down, picked off by a coup de grace salvo from Syekyra’s rail guns.  Next is the crippled destroyer Gorokhov, in fact a Russian’ build Sovnya class destroyer.  Syekyra manages to catch up with the drifting Gorokhov, docking with the wreck and boarding her with marines.  The Russians actually fail in the first boarding attempt, the passageways and compartments of the derelict Gorokhov the scene of a furious small-arms battle between Russian and Black Dragon troops and crewmen.

But the Gorokhov is finally secured after a second boarding attempt, and this old Russian destroyer is re-captured by its original owners.  Commander of the Lazarev task force (Captain Pyotr Myshaga) has Gorokhov towed to the Imperial Russian Navy shipyards at Cervantes Prime, where she will be repaired and eventually join the Lazarev task force, once more as a Russian ship of the line.

SCORING:  Russians have the destroyer Syekyra and two scouts = 68 points.  Black Dragons have six scouts = 6 points.  Russians win by 62, Minor Victory.

Okay, so here’s a very brief primer on how torpedo spreads are resolved in this system.  A total of 28 torpedoes are headed for the Black Dragon light cruiser Zhang Jia.  This is the torpedo spread the Black Dragon player decided to focus on with his point-defense guns.

Each ship takes its shot, rolling a d6 on the mass driver table.  Results are determined by how many guns the ship has, electronic warfare, targeting suites, and EW of the firing ship (after launching torpedoes, a ship can jam enemy tracking as they try to shoot the torpedoes down, if the firing ship has the right upgrades).

Black Dragon ships manage to shoot down 10, 8, 4, and 0 torpedoes (22 total) , leaving six to actually try to hit Zhang Jia.  The target for a Russian Type III torpedo is 7 on a d10, -3 for Zhang Jia’s shields,  -1 for her upgraded shielding, -1 for her EW upgrades = -5 total, for a net chance of 2.  Yet the Russians roll great, and our of 6 d10 torpedo strikes,  4 hit!

The facing of the Zhang Jia that is hit is determined by where the torpedoes were placed by the owning player, subject to restrictions during the torpedo movement phase.  Usually, the shooting player tries to hit the stern, this is where most of the engines, reactors, and other critical components are located that can quickly cripple a ship.

Next, where on the stern?  Each type of warship has a different number of hit columns per facing (light cruisers have 5).  So a d5 is rolled for each hit (d10 / 2).  And the three points of Type III torpedo damage is applied to for each hit, its exact location indicated by the d5 roll.

So far the Russians are getting pretty lucky, with four torpedo hits, all in good spots.  Already two complete engine blocks (red outline) of the Zhang Jia are down, reducing the ship’s available thrust by -2, impacting not only movement but initiative as well.  Engines are also highly explosive, and there’s already a solid chance the Zhang Jia may be crippled here.

Russian Scouts are also getting lucky.  The Black Dragon K-206 has been heavily damaged by Russian destroyer fire and lost one of its shields.  Russian scouts now attack this unshielded facing (port bow) and with some lucky die rolls, actually do just enough damage to hit the bridge and knock out the ship.  This is very rare, scouts are armed basically with machine guns.  To take out the equivalent of a submarine with nothing more than two .50 cals is actually pretty amazing.  Again, the Russians were very lucky here, and this corvette was already heavily damaged (the conn was torn open, this blast of MG fire perhaps killed enough of the bridge crew to cripple the ship).

Black Dragon torpedoes and guns tear into the sterns of the Russian destroyer Rusalka (Commander Alexandr D. Kharechev).   Again, you can see where the Black dragon player aimed his torpedoes at the Russian stern.  Black Dragon (usually Chinese) torpedoes are much weaker and less accurate, but there are a $h*t ton more of them.  Successive hits have knocked out of Rusalka’s mass driver turrets, one of her main armament turrets (aft 0 kg plasma projector), knocked out both starboard engines and starboard reactors, damaged her aft sensors, and knocked down aft shields.

Most importantly, four critical boxes (red) have been hit.  This means the Black Dragon player may have already crippled the Rusalka.  Each type of ship starts with a “cripple number,” from which you subtract the number of critical boxes hit.  Destroyers have a Cripple Number of 7, which after you minus -4 critical hits =3.  Thus, the Black Dragon player has crippled this ship on a d6 roll of 3+.

Even if the Rusalka’s engineers keep the ship running, however (i.e., the Black Dragons miss that 3+), this ship is in very serious trouble.

Not as much trouble as this ship!  The Lazarev is blown almost completely inside out.  Light Cruisers start with a cripple number of 10, and 10 critical boxes have been hit.  This leaves the Black Dragon player with a 0+ roll on a d6, i.e., automatic.  But if this net cripple target ever gets into NEGATIVE numbers, there is a chance the ship can EXPLODE on the spot, killing almost everyone aboard and damaging nearby ships as well.

The Russians continued to claw their way steadily back into this war with another ferocious battle in the continuing  Duchess Annabel’s War, this time against the “Black Dragon” rebels of the Khitan-Tunguska Free State.

First, a setup of the forces.  The Russians have the Katukov-class light cruiser Lazarev (replaced the Suvorov, exploded in the last game), along with the two destroyers Syekyra and Rusalka.  The Black Dragons have a larger but less elite and upgraded force, including two Xhia class light missile cruisers Zhang Jia and Xin Tian, the destroyer Gorokhov, and two K-56 class torpedo corvettes.

The Zhang Jia is a particularly notorious ship.  Through the course of the recent Xi Scorpio and Scorpion’s Tail Wars against the Japanese and United States, this Black Dragon missile cruiser outright destroyed two light cruisers (the famous flagship IJN Sendai and the USS Milwaukee), exploded a Japanese industrial station (killing hundreds of civilians), and has crippled the famous destroyer USS Oriskany at least three times.  The Zhang Jia’s bridge officers have upgraded starship tactics, the ship itself upgraded with enhanced electronic warfare suite and improved gravitic shielding.  She started as a cheap, ugly, disposal Chinese warship, but since being stolen as part of the Black Dragon revolt, has now become an elite and deadly foe, ship and crew sharpened to a razor’s edge, her black hull figuratively painted in the blood of her enemies, including Russians, Panasians, Japanese, and Americans.

If there was ever a ship in Darkstar to have a price on its head, it’s this one.

So here’s  the general situation.  The Russians have recently crushed out a very narrow, very bloody, and very costly win against the Prussians and Japanese defending the outer protoplanetary debris belt (Kupier Belt) of the Cervantes star system (Mu Ara).  Although they won this fight and defended their star system, the Russians are badly weakened.  The Black Dragons thus hope to take advantage, sneaking the Zhang Jia battlegroup in through the other side of the Cervantes star system and capturing a few Russian installations around gas giant moons and the like.

Below, we see the Black Dragons make their approach.  The red markers are massive “Tsing Tao” torpedo waves, 76 warheads in all.  The two K-56 corvettes and the Gorokhov also launch Russian-made P-500 torpedoes (green 12, 12, and x2 5-torpedo markers)

Then, we see the Russians likewise make their approach.  CL1 = light cruiser Lararev (Captain Pyotr M. Myshaga).  DD1 and DD2 = destroyers Syekyra (Commander Ekaterina A. Duranov) and Rusalka (Commander Alexandr D. Kharechev).

This fight is going to get very close, very fast.  There are no carriers here, and with all Russian and Chinese-built ships on the board, everyone is equipped more or less with short- and mid-range weapons.  Or are they?  The Lazarev battlegroup has been upgraded with enhanced gunnery accuracy, so they’re content to open fire at a longer range.  Here we see the immediate effects, Russian forward batteries (especially the EPCs of the Lazarev) open fire straight away, crippling the Black Dragon torpedo corvette K-221.

Movement on Turn 2.  The first ship to move is the K-221 (CV2 – with the black smoke marker on it).  She’s crippled and will thus continue to move at their last heading and velocity until she hits something or leaves the board.  This is why it’s very important to watch out for moons, planets, and asteroids in this game, especially in scenarios where they are moving or exert gravity effects.

Next, the Lazarev, despite her +2 initiative bonus, still loses and has to move first.  She’s still moving very fast, so with most of her thrust being applied to deceleration, she can only manage one hexside turn.  She cuts in front of these two gas giant moons, coming with 200 km of one of them, hoping to broadside the Black Dragons as they move between the moons.

The Black Dragons, predictably, to not accommodate our dear Captain Myshaga.  They decide not to decelerate, thus rocketing through Myshaga’s planned fire zone, cutting between the two moons and with a turn to port, setup a broadside across Lazarev’s stern at less than 600 km (3 hexes), very short range in this game.

The two Russian destroyers, then decide to keep their speed up as well, cutting all the way around the smaller moon, dropping their own broadsides in turn behind the Black Dragon task force.  Everyone’s torpedoes launched last turn also come in, ready to hit their targets.  Things here are about to get very, very nasty.

(apologies in advance, I didn’t get many photos of this battle)

SITUATION:  For the Holy Russian Empire, the War of Annabel’s Star has been an unmitigated disaster.  Not since the outset of the Black Dragon War in 2512 has their navy been beset by such a string of defeats and humiliations.  So far only the United Kingdom and Panasian Union have been winning battles for Annabel’s Alliance, leading some analysts to comment that the British and Chinese are fighting this war “with one foot in a Russian bucket.”

In fact elements of the Russian government (Empress Katarina VII, Patriarch Vladimir the Just, and the St. Petersburg Duma) find themselves under increasing pressure to pull out of this war entirely.  Proponents of such a withdrawal urge that the battered Russian Navy instead be focused on a separate war against the Black Dragons of the Khitan-Tunguska Free State, a desperate effort to save at least some holdings out here in the Libra-Sagittarius SCS (Strategic Command Sector).

Yet even as the Russian government and naval command debate their rapidly-dwindling options, commanders of the  Iron Wolf Coalition prepare to relieve them of the burden of choice altogether. With their footing in the Neu-Bremerhaven system now secured (thus closing down any enemy approach to the Eisenwolf Colonies at Gliese 570), the Iron Wolves feel sufficiently secure to take the offensive against the Russians, perhaps dealing a hard enough blow to force their diplomats to the negotiating table.

Accordingly, their commanders assemble the famous Japanese Konoya carrier strike group, and reinforce it with additional escort light cruisers and destroyers from the Prussian and New Roman navies.  Together this combined task force is sent out for what they hope will be a killing blow against Russian interests in the War of Annabel’s Star.

The selected target is the Russian star system of Cervantes (Mu Ara).  This system the key link between Russian holdings in the Core, the Tsarina Twins system (Gliese 667), and their colonies further out in the Libra-Sagittarius sectors of the Third Band (what few that are left since the start of the Black Dragon War).

The Russians, for their part, know they’re in trouble.  Despite advance warning of the Iron Wolf incursion thanks to a prowling K-56 class torpedo corvette, their bruised and bleeding navy can only muster limited resources to head off the Iron Wolves and defend the Cervantes star system.

But what the Russians lack in numbers, they make up for in composition.  As fate would have it, the only task force in position to meet this threat is the light cruiser Suvorov and her escorts, the very task force that has been handled so roughly by the Konoya battlegroup so far in this war.  The key factor is the careful rebuilding of the Suvorov task force … where lessons of past defeats have been diligently applied to a reorganized military force deliberately built to meet and defeat the Konoya battlegroup. In summary, the Russians have given up trying to match the Konoya battlegroup’s aerospace strike capabilities, instead relaying on a new squadron of K-56 class torpedo corvettes and upgraded gunnery targeting suites on the cruisers Suvorov and destroyers Syekyra and Rusalka.  It is hoped these enhancements will help engage the Konoya battlegroup at a longer range, given the Japanese preference to deny battle at closer gunnery distances with which these heavier Russian ships are typically more comfortable.

More good news comes in the form of British reinforcements.  It’s only one ship, but the light fleet carrier HMS Vigilant, her bays loaded with the elite “Royal Griffins” and “Mad Hatters” aerospace strike squadrons.  This potent force promises to pose a serious counterweight to the equally elite Japanese “Starfox” naval strike squadrons of the light carrier Sagae and light fleet carrier Konoya.

On November 20, the Japanese, Prussians, and French drop out of their Darkstar waves, vectoring toward the outermost planetismals of the Cervantes system’s planetary debris belt.  Their Darkstar wave ripples have been detected by automated Russian sensors, and already the Suvorov-Vigilant task force is vectoring in to meet the invaders.

For many of those engaged, today could be a particularly fateful battle.  The Japanese embassy in St. Petersburg has already prepared a proposal that offers peace to the Russian government.  If these Japanese diplomats receive word of a victory here, as they have so far in virtually every battle in the War of Annabel’s Star, their terms will be submitted to the Foreign Minister of Empress Ekatarina VII.  For the Russians and Japanese, the war could end right here, in near-perfect victory for the Japanese, and bruising defeat for the Holy Russian Empire.

REPORT: The Iron Wolves make their approach very slowly, dropping to less than fifteen kps and making a turn to port, hoping to keep the longest possible distance between themselves and the gun/torpedo-heavy Russian task force.  The Russians, however, have upgraded their targeting suites, all too ready to engage the Japanese carriers at this longer distance.  The presence of HMS Vigilant makes this option even more appealing, as the “Mad Hatter” and “Royal Griffin” aerospace strike squadrons launch and begin their approach toward the Iron Wolf invaders.

Straight off the bat, the Iron Wolves draw blood.  The opening salvo from the light cruiser Kesseldorf, her rail cannons manned by some of the best gunnery crews in Known Space, immediately engage and destroy the tiny Russian torpedo corvette K-109.  Return fire from the Russians is fierce, but not enough to cripple either of the escorting Japanese Akashi-class strike frigates.

The Iron Wolves turn on their wakes, reversing course toward the Russians as they continue to bear down on the Japanese.  Yet the Japanese also keep asteroid debris between them and the Russian plasma projectors, the Suvorov in particular is completely blinded to any enemy targets.  Yet the Japanese carriers also get close enough to the enemy warships for an immediate bomber strike and provide mass driver protection for their bombers (those British aerospace fighter pilots are some of the deadliest anywhere).

The tactic works … mostly.  The Russian flagship Suvorov is left impotent with no targets, the Kesseldorf mauling the destroyer Rusalka.  But this is perhaps a mistake, as the rest of the Iron Wolf fleet doesn’t join this cannonade, instead gunning for the carrier Vigilant.  And while the Japanese B7N “Tenrai” (Heavenly Thunder) bombers indeed are able to launch their ordinance strike from a protected position under cover of the battlegroup’s mass drivers, the A9M “Kataka” (Fire Hawk) fighters can’t reach the same position quite fast enough.  Their missile wave will strike precious seconds after the bombers’ torpedoes, giving the Russian gunners additional opportunity to shoot down the incoming warheads.  This is another fatal division of firepower that will wind up costing the Japanese heavily.

Russian torpedoes don’t have this problem.  Although the loss of the K-109 has reduced their number, enough P-500 “Plamya” (Flame) warheads slam into the stern of the Kesseldorf, followed by broadsides of the Rusalka and Syekyra, to force Commander William Goeritz to break off the action.

The Russians are also in trouble.  Although not quite fatal, the Japanese torpedo strike has smashed the engineering sections of the flagship Suvorov and destroyer Rusalka wide open.  Limping away, they head toward the small planetismal, lobbing out plasma, EPC, and rail gun fire at the Japanese strike frigates while trying to keep their sterns screened from further enemy fire.  It doesn’t work, the valiant little frigate Yurakasu (despite heavy damage to her fo’c’sle and having no forward shields) decides to dive straight for the Suvorov’s exposed fantail. The brave little frigate doesn’t knock out the Russian cruiser, and is predictably shot out of the battle by a strafing run of the “Mad Hatters” Royal Navy Aerospace Strike Squadron, but one of the Yurakasu’s Ki-45 Toryu (Dragon Slayer) torpedoes knocks down the Suvorov’s after shields … a development to have dire repercussions later in the battle.

The carriers Konoya, Sagae, and Vigilant are now frantically trying to recover bombers, while the cruisers, destroyers, and frigates on both sides are trying to cripple these ships while they’re rearming these strike wings in their hangars.  It doesn’t work, and soon enough bombers are relaunched to release a second round of devastating aerospace strikes.  First, the guns of the Suvorov and Syekyra cripple the frigate Tanakasha, sistership to the nigh-suicidal Yurakazu.  Torpedoes from the Suvorov and Rusalka cripple the French destroyer Corsica, on instant before a mass of aerospace torpedoes finally force the Rusalka to eject her reactors, putting her out of the battle.

The rest of those torpedoes go after the Suvorov, still in the fight but without aft shielding to protect her badly-damaged engine rooms (thanks to that final volley of the Yurakazu).  Many of these torpedoes are shot down, but enough get through and explode within the Sovorov’s engineering sections . . .

There’s no saving the ship.  In fact, Captain Pyotr Myshaga barely has time to give the order to abandon ship before a chain reaction of explosions starts ripping its way forward.  Thirty seconds later, the ship goes up altogether, a gigantic fusion explosion that kills 212 members of her Suvorov’s crew and leaves many more badly injured as the shockwave slams into lifeboats, escape bods, and ejected combat compartments of the ship.  Among the wounded is Pyotr Myshaga, Suvorov’s captain.  The nearby destroyer Syekyra and corvettes K-98 and K-121 are also badly damaged in the colossal blast.

That said, the battle is already shaking to a conclusion.  The Royal Griffins have launched a new torpedo strike, slamming into the stern of the charmed light carrier IJN Sagae.  She’s never been crippled or even badly damaged in combat, a lucky streak that is finally broken here.  Although she survives, she’ll be crippled for the better part of a month.  The larger light fleet carrier Konoya fares even worse, hammered by the torpedoes of the dying Suvorov, the destroyer Syekyra, and corvettes K-98 and K-121.  She’s going to be out of action for months, the only reason she’s able to be towed clear of the Cervantes system and back to a Japanese naval base is because the Russians are now scrambling to pick up survivors from the Suvorov.

The Battle of Outer Cervantes is over.  Despite their horrific losses, the Russians have finally crushed out a smoldering, charred, blood-soaked win.  Although the Suvorov is gone forever, the Konoya task force has been handed a severe mauling, her carriers gutted and elite strike squadrons suffering steep losses in aerospace fighters and priceless pilots.  Most importantly, enough Russian and British naval power remains in the Cervantes system to categorically thwart any plans of an Iron Wolf invasion, or thoughts of putting the Holy Russian Empire out of the Annabel’s Star War quite yet.

SCORING: The Russians and British have the destroyer Syekyra, corvettes K-98 and K-121, light fleet carrer Vigilant, and assorted scouts, double-elite fighters and double-elite bombers = 193 points.  Japanese have remnants of the “Star Fox” double elite aerospace strike squadron, plus additional scouts and fighters / bombers from the light fleet carrier Konoya, +3 bank points =  99 points.  Russians and British win by 94, minor victory.

As some people following this project may have seen, some of recent campaigns in Darkstar in the Scorpio, Libra, and Sagittarius coreward sectors have led to the rise of a new faction: The Khitan-Tunguska Free State, more commonly known as the Black Dragons.

In broad summary, these are a series of colonies from that have revolted against the Holy Russian Empire and the Panasian Union (predominantly, China).  Because of their Russian-Chinese roots, they have adopted something of a Mongolian / Manchurian / Siberian separatist culture – their nickname coming from the Black River than runs between Siberia and northern China on terrestrial Earth.

Anyway, these Black Dragons have been engaged in two furious wars against my Americans and Japanese of the “Pacific Alliance” in the Xi Scorpio War (2516-18) and against the Americans alone in the smaller Scorpion’s Tail War of 2518.

These were mostly “playtesting” campaigns, usually run solitaire in MS Excel.  So while there’s a massive amount of backstory, history, and games on record for this new faction (including some ships that  have become really powerful through xp-upgrades), there actually hasn’t really been physical playing pieces made up for them for conventional tabletop play.

Now that the Black Dragons have entered a third war with live opponents and allies (@aras, @gladesrunner, and Jeff P.), it was high time I finally made some pieces for the Black Dragons.

They’ve escaped the Matrix!  They’re now in the “real world!”  😀 😀 😀

Part Five of the Darkstar background and setting material starts to highlights the general technologies of the Darkstar universe, how the ships work, weapons, ECM, FTL, power sources, etc.

Re-uploaded to add some additional / more original artwork, also to correct several embarrassing typos in the text.  😀

More to come!