This scenario was prepared for use at PentaCon XVIII (1-3 November 2002, Fort Wayne, Indiana) in a Star Trek game run by Kent Jakway. It is intended to be simple enough for novice players and expandable from 2 to 8 players.

Time. The battle takes place sometime in the year 2/02.

Objective. Each side is out to destroy the other. Why? Because they are there.

Setup. There is no subtlety in this game. The forces start 28 to 30 hexes apart directly opposite each other.

Play Date:	2 November 2002
Play Location:	PentaCon XVIII, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Players:	Federation   David Ternes   Saratoga Hindenberg Klingon Miles Ratliff Death Stalker Fateful Meeting

This battle was the two player version of the scenario.

The encounter started at a range of 280,000 kilometers. For the Federation the Hindenberg was deployed 20,00 kilometers to the port of the Saratoga. The Klingons had the Fateful Meeting a similar distance to the port of the Death Stalker.

The Klingons advanced quickly (6). The Federation moved slowly (3), with maximum strength forward shields and heavily charged phasers. Neither the Hindenberg nor the Death Stalker were able to obtain a lock before firing began. The engagement opened at a range of about 160,000 kilometers. The Klingons scored no hits. The Saratoga, however, hit with three of her six phasers, doing considerable damage to the Fateful Meeting. Unfortunately for the Klingons, most of the damage went into the target's warp engines, and so significantly reducing its available power.

The Klingons slowed dramatically (Death Stalker 1, Fateful Meeting 0). The Federation accelerated (6) to get some maneuvering speed. The Hindenberg split to the left and the Saratoga went right around the Klingons, who remained within 30,000 kilometers of each other. The Klingons fired at longer ranges and only a few weapons at a time. The hits which were achieved on the Saratoga were unable to penetrate her shields. The Federation ships held fire until they closed on the Fateful Meeting and then unleashed everything at once. With the Saratoga at a range of about 60,000 kilometers off the Fateful Meeting's port bow, and the Hindenberg about 70,000 kilometers off its starboard bow, the Fateful Meeting took numerous hits, and quickly exploded as its warp core overloaded. Fortunately for all of the other ships, they had sufficient shielding to protect them from the effects of the blast.

So far the Klingons had operated under a pall of bad luck. Now they made a major mistake. The Death Stalker, instead of accelerating to maneuver with the Federation ships continued is crawl (1). The Hindenberg, moved directly astern of the Death Stalker as the Saratoga maneuvered to its flank. The Death Stalker, seeing it was in serious peril fired into the Saratoga. Piercing the Saratoga's shields, the Klingons' weapons dealt minor damage to the ship's superstructure. Holding their fire until the last minute, both Federation ships fired into the Death Stalker at a range of 10,000 kilometers. The damage was extensive, but the ship survived.

The end came moments later. As the Saratoga moved past the Death Stalker it delivered a killing blow with its forward weapons. The Death Stalker went dead in space. Not trusting the Klingons, the Federation ships fired the rest of their weapons into the helpless ship. It disintegrated.

Analysis

Early in the battle the Klingons were simply unlucky. The early hits on the Fateful Meeting effectively took it out of the fight before it could do anything meaningful. The inability of the Death Stalker to get a lock on the Saratoga meant it was unable to contribute to the fight until the Fateful Meeting was heavily damaged.

While the slow speed of the Klingons was initially a good tactic, keeping the Federation ships in the Klingons' forward arcs of fire, later it prevented the Death Stalker from maneuvering effectively against the much faster Federation ships. With limited power for its shields, the end was predictable with the Federation ships maneuvering around to the rear of the Klingon cruiser.

One other possible minor error by the Klingons was engaging the Saratoga instead of the Hindenberg. The Hindenberg was unable to maintain meaningful shields, and so was a much easier ship to damage. This might have evened the odds a bit, but probably would not have modified the final result.