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Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » Game stories » Babylon 5 (version 2)
Worries, Wormholes, Gates and End Game Wed, 17 October 2007 06:34 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
joseph is currently offline joseph

 
Lt. Junior Grade

Messages: 440
Registered: May 2003
Location: Bristol
 So my Homeworld seemed safe, no gates closer than 8 years travel existed, minefield extended for 4 years travel as did scanners capable of seeing a 98% cloaked fleet. Time to focus on our attack.
Most of the “Potential Victory” fleet had been sat at Sherpa for a couple of turns swapping owners and waiting for the gate at Arnold to become free.
On the threats front the large fleet of 200 assorted Battleships that the Hyak had spotted had retreated further into IA space (more on this soon) the Yoruba standoff was holding and with the 50 Battleships from Ipsha it looked like Earth would be able to stop the Western assaults and maybe even press forwards.

So the big worry now was our attack failing.

The first barrier was actually getting to Arnold – the Gate wasn’t yet up, the Gate Network promised it would be up next turn but it was possible that the IA/SA could shoot it down before we could gate in. On this front one of the Wormholes had recently moved one end to near Arnold (about 1 year of travel on the way to Omega – the Shadow Homeworld) the other end was located close to the big IA fleet. It was conceivable that the IA could jump through the wormhole and then kill the gate next turn before we arrived – similarly if the Gate was built anyone could gate in a small force and take down the gate (not a disaster but it would prevent us bringing through the rest of our bombers which were a year behind the Fleet).

An alternative was the possibility of a Gate at Cetus the Ipsha had sneaked in some minerals and the Gate network was duly building a gate. Cetus was just 2 years travel from the Shadow Homeworld. Sadly the Shadow had destroyed the gate split seconds after it was built. Long term if the Shadows manage to wipe out our bombers we could use Cetus to gate in replacements.

The Orgy part of the attack fleet is 2 turns from Arnold and only lightly armed – to support this I send my few Radiant Lights that are already at Arnold to meet them. This turns out to be a great idea as the Radiant Lights tear through the small cloaked force that intercepts the Orgy.

The gate opens and a large portion of our force arrives at Arnold including the rest of my Radiant lights. Nothing has come through the Wormhole. The rest of our fleet will arrive next turn – total force 40 Radiant Lights, 350 Battleships and a number of ARM BBs and assorted older ships – plus about 3000chaff.

Six
We are now 6 years away from arrival at the Shadow homeworld (its 5 years travel but we are waiting 1 year for some ships).
This turn my Radiant Lights head towards the Shadow Homeworld – as well as having a huge initiative they make excellent sweepers (and there are lots of mines in the way). The Ipsha has both small fleets of older ships already a year or 2 towards the Shadow world and a small number of heavily cloaked spy galleons with a gatling already in place to clear fields.

My Orgy arrives at Arnold.

Five
Our main Fleet leaves Arnold this turn and we have 3 concerns about what the Enemy will do.
A) Using the Wormhole
B) Gating to Arnold
C) Gating to Cetus

The wormhole is not such a threat – it has drifted so that it is now slightly further away from Omega than Arnold is. It would mean the force got through with no damage but they couldn’t link up with any other fleets.

Gating to Arnold would effectively cut off our retreat, it would have the immediate advantage to the IA of wiping out a small number of bombers that will be arriving there this turn (we cant wait for them). It would also turn it into a race for the Shadow Homeworld, any delay for our fleet would mean we were caught as they would be just 1 year behind us.

Of interest is the fact that our approach to the Shadow Homeworld was not entirely direct (5 years direct travel would be 4 at W9 and 1 at W8) so that we just missed the biggest concentration of mines (takes 5 years at W9). So if the IA was willing to take the losses of exploding engines they could catch us.

Gating to Cetus is effectively the biggest worry. Cetus is just 2 years from the Shadow Homeworld so if they get a gate built at Cetus then we have to fight them or retreat.
Our decisions were – our big fleet would advance, the sweepers would keep sweeping.

Four
The Hyak spray chaff at a large number of IA worlds hoping to find a Gate.
They do find a Gate at Doghouse (in the East) and also a huge IA fleet!!! Although of older design and made up of several designs there are 660 BBs in the fleet. Another fleet is found at a gate in the west – only 200-300 BBs in this one. Back of an envelope calculations show that we would defeat the 660 fleet with reasonable losses but if the 2 fleets merge then we would be lucky to have 100 ships left at the end of a battle. Add in some Shadow ships and this has suddenly become a battle we want to avoid.
Shocked
If they manage to gate to Cetus then they would get to the Shadow world either before us or when we did – This being the case we may not be able to attack.

I propose the following alternative if their fleet gets to Cetus - taking the Shadow world of Gangtok (2 years travel south of the Homeworld). It would give us somewhere to request a gate or have a forward base. If they came after us we could retreat towards our reinforcements. If they left the Shadow homeworld we could advance again.

Our decisions were – our big fleet would advance, the sweepers would keep sweeping. Annoyingly I had to leave my chaff behind (just a couple of 100) because they were eating up all my fuel.

Our missiles ships would return to Arnold to destroy the gate (so we didn’t end up being chased by that huge fleet).
Also the Ipsha and Hyak had a few ships making their way to Arnold via gates – these are diverted to Doghouse in an attempt to wipe out the gate there – thus preventing their fleet from leaving.

Three – Yahoo – Won
No gate appeared at Cetus, also we hit both Arnold and Doghouse taking down both gates. The huge Doghouse fleet is now effectively useless unless they build a gate at Doghouse and Cetus this turn and the fleet leaps through. If Cetus builds a gate we will still have a fight on our hands from the other fleet but we should win.
The only real worry now is whatever the Shadows have at their homeworld – but we are feeling confident.

Shortly after this we get a round of Emails conceding the game.
The mighty Vorlon Alliance is Victorious!

I really enjoyed this game – there were many good players and it was a pleasure playing against you. Special thanks of course go to the Light Bringers – you were a great team.
Finally thanks to the Host – Steve Patrick

I plan to host a Bab5 version 3 at some point in the future (with Steve’s permission) he won the original and so hosted the second, so as I won the second I should host the third. There will be a few changes to make the Shadows a bit stronger and to give the IA a chance to avoid being caught in the middle so much.

Joseph
"Can burn the land and boil the sea. You cant take the Stars from me"

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