Star Smash - Battle Description

Round: | 2
Game: | 1
Opponents: | 1 Scott Smith / Romulan Squadron 1
| 3 Art Perlman / Klingon Squadron 1
Victor: | 3 Art Perlman / Klingon Squadron 1
Play Date: | 1 February 2003
Play Location: | The Keep, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Order of Battle

1 Scott Smith / Romulan Squadron 1
7 Ships / Combat Efficiency: 298.6

Ship Name |  | Class Name |  | Type |  | Class
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Invisible Hunter |  | V-24 Great Bird 3 |  | Cruiser |  | X
Silent Hawk |  | V-24 Great Bird 3 |  | Cruiser |  | X
Glorious Eagle |  | T-10 Bright One 3 |  | Destroyer |  | VI
Graceful Gull |  | T-10 Bright One 3 |  | Destroyer |  | VI

3 Art Perlman / Klingon Squadron 1
8 Ships / Combat Efficiency: 299.7

Ship Name |  | Class Name |  | Type |  | Class
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Bucket of Blood |  | D-32B Stronger Bird NC |  | Cruiser |  | VII
Tooth Ache |  | D-19B Viper's Tongue NC |  | Destroyer |  | VII
Head Ache |  | D-19B Viper's Tongue NC |  | Destroyer |  | VII
Back Ache |  | D-19B Viper's Tongue NC |  | Destroyer |  | VII
Stomach Ache |  | D-19B Viper's Tongue NC |  | Destroyer |  | VII
Eye Ache |  | D-19B Viper's Tongue NC |  | Destroyer |  | VII

Battle Description

Ok ... this battle is never going to get written up properly, so here is something to keep the critics quite. This was prepared a couple of months after the battle, so don't expect a lot of details. The battle was a mess. It took way too long to play, and was very frustrating to watch.

The Romulans cloaked at the start. A cruiser went quickly down each side of the battle area while the two destroyers moved slowly up the center. The Klingons formed a line abreast, sat still, and scanned forward looking for the cloaked Romulans.

The Klingons found one cruiser to their left front at maximum detection range, but it quickly moved out of their forward scanning arcs. Despite seeing the Romulan movement toward their flank, the Klingons continued to scan forward; finding nothing (because the cruisers were on their sides and the destroyers were screened by the planet).

When they were ready, the two Romulan cruisers each attacked a Klingon destroyer from behind. However, the Klingons were carrying heavy shields, and the Romulans had put little power into their blasters (most of their power was used for their high speed movement and cloaking devices). Little damage was done, but the Klingons were thrown into confusion.

For a while it looked like the battle would be a stand-off. The Klingons could not figure out how to find and attack the cloaked Romulans, but the Romulans could not maintain their high speed and do effective damage to their targets.

Unable to find the Romulans, four of the Klingon ships took off running for the planet. Eventually they turned around and began scanning in the direction of their original position. By sheer (and probably undeserved) luck, they made contact with the two Romulan destroyers who were still moving slowly towards the two Klingon ships which were stumbling around near the Romulan cruisers. The Romulan destroyers died quickly under the fire of the Vipers Tongues.

The Klingon luck changed after the destroyers were eliminated. Suddenly they were able to find the cloaked cruisers, mainly because the cruisers had slowed dramatically to free up power for their weapons. After a bit of confused maneuvering, three Klingon destroyers contacted one of the Romulan cruisers at the same time. It died moments later.

The remaining Romulan cruiser ran towards one of the moons. A lucky Klingon shot hurt it sufficiently to damage its cloaking device. Piecemeal, the Klingons chased after the cruiser, and eventually killed it. At this time the Klingons had two ships with modest damage, two ships with minor damage, and two ships with no damage.

Overall it was not a pretty battle to watch. The Klingons stumbled through the fight. They won mainly because of their massive fire power, which guaranteed that once one of their destroyers contacted something, that something took major damage. The Romulans had terrible luck with their shooting (despite good to-hit odds, well less than half of their shots hit), and had to choose between effective maneuvering speed and effective firepower.