Battle Report
Battlefleet Gothic
Admiral Cochrane's Hunt
Turn Five
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Turn One Turn Two Turn Three Turn Four Turn Five |
Turn Seven Turn Eight Turn Nine Conclusion |
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With the Glorious drifting worryingly close to the edge of the table, her captain was forced to perform a handbrake turn, and managed to go on Come To New Heading special orders. However, the Furious was unable to mimic the maneuver, and when the last Imperial reroll was used it was failed for a second time. While the carrier was not about to fall off the edge, it was remarkably close. The rest of the Imperial fleet moved forwards to engage the enemy.
The firing phase was now starting to get active, and both squadrons of Cobras fired their weapons batteries at the Astaroth, but failed to score any hits. The Hood was better aimed however, its lances knocking down a shield. The ordnance phase saw both Imperial bombers and Chaos fighters push to the front lines and both Cobra squadrons unleashed a full spread of torpedoes at close range. Both waves passed through the Astaroth and it took two points of damage. Additionally, the wave from Cobra squadron six also hits and destroys the Obizuth, an Idolator in squadron F, tearing it apart in devastating explosions.
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The Chaos fleet now prepared for battle, and in a display of serious good luck I managed to Lock On with both Idolator squadrons, the Astaroth and the Iblis, and to reload the Sariel.
In the firing phase, it was time to hit back. The Astaroth fired weapon batteries at the Cobras ahead of it, managing to destroy the Stilicho and take out a shield of the other squadron, and then cut down the Hector with its lances. Inspired by this display, the Idolators accompanying it accounted for the Titus, the Bohemond and the Avenger.
Meanwhile, the Sariel attempted to take out the torpedoes ahead of it, but could not get a lock with its lances. However, the Iblis was luckier and neutralised the larger of the torpedo waves, the other wave drifting off out of play.
The Ordnance phase saw the wave of Imperial bombers met by the Chaos fighters, and four of the six wings were sent back to their mother ship or destroyed. The remaining two wings struck out at the Astaroth, one being blown apart by defence turrets. The lone wing then managed to hit four times, almost making up for the fact that it was unsupported, and scored two points of damage. The end phase then saw four blast markers fade from play.
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On the edge of the battle, the vast Furious was relatively quiet, and Johanson was able to stare intently at the
tactical display as the real fight was played out. He was brought sharply back to reality when Commander Wilks
started shouting into his comms unit, trying to persuade the engine crews to make a sharp turn and avoid
drifting out of sensor range of the rest of the fleet. The Glorious managed the maneuver, but the Furious could
not quite make the turn as well. There was a strange sense of sickness that swept over Johanson as the
vessel turned without the inertia that gravity provded. The three carriers of the squadron had drifted out of
formation and the crews of the vessels worked to bring them back into line. Johansons gaze was drawn quickly back to the tactical display, as the icon representing the Chaos Slaughter class vessel flashed several times, the leading Imperial ships firing all that they had, but it still registered as operational. Seconds after, a torpedo salvo hit the Astaroth and it briefly flashed red before returning to white. Johanson knew that a ship of that size could withstand a large amount of punishment, but hoped that it had been damaged by the devastating barrage from the three squadrons facing it. There was a brief cheer as one of the icons representing an Idolator raider flashed red and then grey, the torpedoes carrying through and reducing the smaller ship to critical, removing it as a further threat. First kill to the Imperial forces. New notes appeared alongside the Chaos icons as they diverted power to weapons and set targetting matrices. The Cobra icons flashed red and then grey in sequence as one by one the small ships were critically hit. With each change, Johanson willed it to be the last, knowing that each small change in the display represented hundreds of deaths on each ship. He could not believe the devastation that the Chaos ships had caused, and at the end only one of the original six Corbas were left operational. One of the Chaos cruisers behind the front line then managed to take out an Imperial torpedo salvo before the Chaos fighters intercepted the Imperial bombers. However, there were simply too few of the Chaos ships and around a third of the wave made it through the interception. Numbers then dropped as the Chaos defence turrets accounted for more of the ships and Johanson prayed that enough of the tiny attackers had made it through to do some damage. His prayers were answered as the cruiser icon flashed red a couple of times, as hits were confirmed, and the bombers signalled their intention to return to the Glorious. |
Date: 11/03/2002
Written by: CyberShadow