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The erosion of the Coalition position led to a hefty 30-point jump in the Alliance’s economy, with the Kzinti getting the most with a 12 EP jump, powered by the recovery of most of their provinces. This allowed for more robust shipbuilding, but specialty ships are still restricted to scouts and some replacement escorts.

Builds:
Federation: DNG, NCA, 12xNCL, 3xDW, 2xDWA, FFB, 11xFF, NCL->NSC, 2xFF->FFS, 2xDD->DE
Kzinti: NCA, 2xCM, LTT, DW, 3xFKE, FF, CM->MEC, EFF->FKE
Gorn: CCH, BC, CM, 3xHD, 2xBD, BDS, DD, FCR, 3xCC->CCH, CL->CCH
Hydran: TG, 2xTR, DWE, 4xCU, 2xHN

They Hydrans raided east Hydran space, picking off an F5, and crippling another, and also hit Lyran space to pick off a POL and disrupt the province. The Kzintis sent two raiders into Lyran space and disrupted provinces, while the Feds picked off an F5 in Kzinti space. A Fed DNL tried to pick off a couple out-of-supply Klingons in western Fed space, but a D6 joined them, and the DNL was only able to cripple an F5. Another DNL tried to take out a patrolling E4, and got a D7C in response, which fought it off (poor roll). The Gorns hit a couple Romulans patrolling Gorn space, and picked off a K4 while a SNB evaded.

The Hydrans did their standard move on the homeworld while pinning down the Lyran reserve force, and the Kzinti made another move against the Lyran border SB. The Federation naturally send the 4th Fleet against the remnant of the Klingon NE Fleet that was holding the major planet in Federation space. Further south, efforts were made to pin most Klingon forces, and send a good combined fleet against the fortified planet in 2715. The group holding the Klingon planet in 1611 mostly bugged out, and attempted to take NZ planet 1910. Byron apparently didn’t realize that the Lyran Fire Squadron was nearby and had no other business, so it reacted onto the planet, along with an adjacent D6, giving him a fight he was not equipped to win.

Early activity on the Romulan front concentrated on taking 3210 back, but a decent force moved on 3711 later, generating a series of separate fights, as various detached forces intercepted pieces of the move. Finally, the Gorns tried a thrust against the SB in 4812, but the 3rd Star Legion intercepted and pinned most of it, and the Gorns halted just inside the border.

The same old dance.

Kzinti expansion.

Throwing the Klingons back across the border.

Gnawing on the flanks.

The Lyran reserves naturally went to save the Kzinti border SB again, while the Klingons sent a reserve each to help 1105 and 2715. The 1st Reserve in 1312 was positioned so as to help in Hydran space if they started trying do more near the old border, and so merely sent two ships to fight on the Federation border. The Romulans sent two reserves to save 3711 from a combined Federation-Gorn force, and sent the third to BATS 4010.

Battles:
0918: SSC: Klingon: dest cripF5; Hydran: crip CU
0519: SSC: Klingon: dest F5, crip D6
1809: SSC: Federation: crip FF
0703: SSC: mutual retreat
0214: Lyran: dest CW; Hydran: crip 2xHN
0617: Klingon: dest F5V, E4A; Hydran: dest LN, capture capital
0404: Retreat after declined approach
0504: Lyran: dest DW; Kzinti: crip CM, cap DW
1105: Lyran: dest STL, crip DW; Klingon: dest C9A, FRD, crip D6M; Kzinti: dest MSC, 2xFKE, crip MEC, 2xCL
1404: Klingon: dest F5E, crip D5, AD5, F5; Kzinti: dest FKE, SAD, crip CM
2006: Klingon: crip 2xF5; Federation: crip CL
2307: Klingon: dest cripD6; Federation capture D6
2306: Klingon: dest F5L, E4V, E4A
1910: Lyran: dest DWE, DDG; Federation: dest CA, DW, crip NCL, FF
2010: Klingon: crip F5L; Federation: crip FF
2409: Klingon: dest D5, E4A, crip D6M; Federation: dest DE, crip CC
2711: SSC: Klingon: dest F5
2511: Klingon: dest 2xF5, F5J, crip D7C, AD5; Federation: dest NCL, FFE
2715: Klingon: dest BATS, E4, crip 4xD5, 3xF5; Federation: dest DE, SWAC, crip NCL, planet captured; Gorn: dest BC; crip 2xCM, CLE, 2xLTT, BDE
2814: Klingon: dest E4
3210: Romulan: dest KE, WE, crip FH; Federation: dest CA, crip 3xFF, capture planet
3711: Romulan: dest FHF; Gorn: dest HD, crip 3xBD
3710: Romulan: dest SN
3610: Federation: crip FF
3609: Romulan: dest SNB
4010: Romulan: dest SKE; Gorn: dest BDS, crip BD
4810: Romulan: dest K4, crip K7R, KE, WE; Gorn: dest HD, crip DDG

My surviving F5 from Hydran raids was picked off by a CU+POL pair, but he rolled a 12 to get some revenge and cripple the CU. Meanwhile, he’d sent a PGV and an independent fighter squadron (launched from 6xPOL…) against the garrison of 0519, and they rolled high to nearly get both ships there.

The battle over 1105 was extremely painful. Byron’s real goal was to kill the Klingon FRD sheltering there, but even with 12 points of Kzinti DB, I had a higher ComPot, though the Kzintis could shift me. All the Lyrans had to do was roll equal to the Kzinti to prevent the Kzintis from getting to the planet (and FRD), but rolled one less instead. Worse, the Kzinti did 36 to exactly kill the STL. For the second round, I brought out the C9A, in the hopes of lowering his ComPot enough that he couldn’t kill it and get the FRD. On three attempts the C9A rolled ‘6’ each time, doing absolutely nothing for its efforts. VBIR went down, and the Kzinti did 18 exactly to kill the C9A. And then the mauler shocked, and I lost a PT on a capture attempt. After he killed the FRD, I attempted to pursue to kill a couple of cripples, but failed on that. This was a battle that could have been really painful for the Kzinti (holding him to approach for three rounds would have put him dangerously low on fighters), but instead I lost the FRD and two specialty dreadnoughts for nearly no return.

Planet 2715 needed more defenses, so I had finally gotten around to putting a PDU there to supplement the BATS. I knew this would probably generate an attack to stop it, but failed to shift as many units over there as I had intended (I’m just short everywhere, and got cold feet on weakening the East Fleet over by the 3rd SB). So it got hit by a larger Fed/Gorn force than I had expected, and I didn’t really have a hope of defending it. Except that the first two rounds were 1-6 and 2-6, allowing me to drop a lot of damage on a fleet without any real backup fighters.

Coalition: 417.9 EP (x2) + 570 (bases) + 809 ships (/5) = 1729.4
Alliance: 363 EP (x2) + 485 (bases) + 770 ships (/5) = 1519

The Klingons have been having one disaster after another, and now the Coalition is in the low range for a Major Victory, with no end of the slide in sight. Next turn the entire Coalition goes to 75% economy, on top of the contraction caused by successful Alliance offensives. The Kzinti and Hydrans will also go down to 75%, but their economies are expanding, and the Federation, the real problem will still be at 100% for some time yet.

Worse, the Alliance is nearly at ship parity (…it sure doesn’t feel like it, he has more ships than I do at any point that’s important), and all fleets are continuing to get bigger, with the exception of the Klingons who have net lost ~10/turn for the last two turns.