Rindis.com

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

The Alliance gained 0.8 VP for holding four Lyran provinces at the beginning of the turn. Three were held by the Hydrans who had been left alone by the Lyrans, while the fourth was held by the Kzinti, thanks to a poor SSC roll last time. That had also stranded an important part of the Lyran fleet out of position, which was to have grave effects.

Construction was fairly normal, though both the Kzintis and Hydrans showed defensive concerns upgrading planet defenses, and the Hydrans built a new Monitor (for 0519), and provided all their monitors with carrier pallets.

Builds:
Kzintis: BC, 2xCL, DD, 3xFF, 3xPDU upgrades
Hydrans: DG, 2xKN, CR, 2xCU, MON, 3xMPV, RN->LM, 2xPDU upgrades

Both raids hit the Lyrans again. The Hydran raid continued to pick on province 0107, but the called up POL forced a retreat. Meanwhile, the Kzintis tried to raid a hex that already had a POL, but I was still able to call up a POL and the pair of them crippled the Kzinti CL.

Movement was brutally direct: Bel moved just about everything available onto the two main Lyran SBs, while avoiding contact elsewhere. On the Hydran border, this was simple, and expected, as major portions of the Hydran fleet were still adjacent to the SB. In Kzinti space, Bel first first pinned my main fleet in front of the SB before moving everything else in. I had managed to pin a couple of his larger scouts out before that, but it was to be of little real use.

This left me with one active reserve (one being pinned in 0404, and all the Klingon reserves were well out of range), which I sent to 0404 in the hopes of saving the Kzinti-border SB.

The Kzinti assault.

The Hydran assault.

Combat:
0705: SSC: Lyran: POL destroyed
0604: Lyran: Crip CA; Kzinti: crip CLD
0404: Lyran: dest SB, 2xCL, 5xDD, 8xFF, (stored) MB, crip BCE, 2xCA, 4xCL, 4xDD; Kzinti: dest CC, 5xCS, 3xCD, CL, CLG, 2xFF, SF, crip DNE, 2xTTB, FF, SF, DF
0504: Lyran: crip 3xDD; Kzinti: crip BC, CL
0411: Lyran: dest SB, DD, DDG, FF, POL, SAS, FTS, (stored) MB, crip CC, CA, 2xCL, CLG, DD, capture LN; Hydran: dest TGB, TGT, DG, PT

0404 went seven messy rounds before I retreated behind the barely surviving SB, with both sides at max BIR, and generally getting high rolls. The Kzinti generally had 9-11 EW available, and I had to boost the SB’s EW just to keep the die shift to -1. I contemplated directing on the CDs to lower the EW deficit, but dropped damage to try and force the Kzinti fleet off. He did self-kill a couple at the beginning, and I should have followed up by killing another after that. Bel should have killed the CLS I put on the line to force the -2 shift, or forcing my SB to minimal ComPot. He did a troop assault every round, and managed to kill the inherent G. As I didn’t have any troop ships in the hex, I bought a G for the SB a couple rounds before letting it go (they both did their job of absorbing a loss/SIDS).

0411 didn’t have sufficient forces on it after last turn’s assault; I had planned for the reserve to go there, but saving 0404 seemed the safer bet. However, the Lyran 2-EW SCs and poor Hydran EW allowed me to generate a -2 shift on the Hydrans. This time I concentrated on killing key units (mostly tugs) for four rounds before retreating behind the SB.

The Lyran fleet is is really bad shape (there are four uncrippled DDs left), but Alliance losses have generally been bigger, and it’s possible for them to get going again. But the Klingons are going to be carrying the war for the Coalition in the meantime. Last turn, I was expecting to see not a lot of major moves; I’m going to have to figure out how to get out of this hole.

Destroying a SB is 8 VPs, and incurs another 8VP penalty in bases that need replacing. Both our totals for enemy ships destroyed have shot up, though I retain a healthy lead there. Technically, my repair needs are down, and the Klingons are about to get to cycle through a number of them, but the Lyrans won’t have much to do.

In all, the Alliance is up to 142.4 VPs, and most of it isn’t going away. With all the ship kills, the Coalition is up to 113.85 VPs. This is near the top end for a Minor Victory for the Alliance, and if they can keep up this kind of momentum, might have a chance at a Major victory.