DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER
Recommendations: 3619
About the Project
The year is 2512.
The powers that remain on an ecologically-devastated and plague-ravaged Earth have been forced to look to the stars for the resources, capital, and room not only to expand, but to survive. While the setbacks encountered by mankind over the past 500 years have forced him to unite in a shaky global coalition and make fantastic strides in technology, they have also caused seismic and reactionary shifts in religion, culture, and politics. A second age of imperialism has dawned, and because man would never survive another war on the fragile remains of planet Earth, he is forced to ply his oldest trade ... war ... exclusively among the stars.
Darkstar is a tactical war game postulating naval combat in a “science faction” universe set five centuries into a troubled and uncertain future. Players take command of warships serving in the new “black water” navies of reborn empires of old, struggling for control of shipping lanes, resources, and colonies. Ships maneuver and fire in fast-paced combat, with survival not only of the players’ fleets at stake, but perhaps their nation and all of humanity as well.
Related Genre: Science Fiction
This Project is Active
Darkstar Live Game - 1700 GMT - 9 March
Looks like Rasmus and Damon will be squaring off again, this time at a super-hot planetismal that’s dangerously close to a red dwarf star, close enough to cause some electronic disruptions due to coronal mass ejections.
If you’re interested in checking this game out LIVE as it’s played, ping me a PM and I’ll send a link to the web conference.
Darkstar Live Game - 1PM GMT - Drew vs. Rasmus
Okay, we are shaping up for a Darkstar game this Saturday at 1PM between Drew and Rasmus (Arab League vs. Imperial Japanese Navy)
If anyone wants to check this out as it’s played, have a chat, or just hang out, just ping me a PM and I’ll send a link to our web conference. Hope to see some of you there! 😀
NEW FACTION - Arab League Rolling out for Darkstar
Good morning, everyone.
We had a request from one of our players to try out one of the new factions – the Arab League. We were supposed to try some of these new ships out in DS 2.0 this weekend but unfortunately something came up on my end so I had to cancel. As a first step in making this up, I’ve updated five classes of Arab League warship from the old DS 1.0 system to the 2.0 warship record sheets, so if we play this weekend of a subsequent weekend, I’ll be more than ready. 😀
- Shabbak-201 class gunboat
- Ashur class corvette
- Hattin class frigate
- Basra class destroyer
- Almanzor class light hybrid cruiser (part gun cruiser, part light fleet aerospace carrier)
Here’s hoping we can get this faction back into the stars this weekend! 😀
500-Point Game: Climactic Clash of Duchess Annabel’s War
Eisenwolf Colony (Gliese 580)
October 2519
I decided to go for broke here. Somewhat weary of the nearly unbroken British winning streak, and of trying to hobble the Duchess Annabel’s War campaign and storylines top some kid of conclusion, this weekend we set up a large 500+ point game to settle this issue once and for all.
This was a team game, with @gladesrunner and @damon each bringing in two ships (two of them very experienced and heavily upgraded, two of them more moderately experienced) up against a Prussian battlegroup built around a Norwegian Hipper class light cruiser, an Emden class frigate, and the KMS Scheer, a gigantic Tirpitz class battleship, quadruple-upgraded with ECM Shielding, Electronic Warfare, Thrust, and Gunnery Accuracy. At this point the Prussian flagship costs 400 points, and the rest of their fleet costs 99, plus three additional scouts. In all, the game is thus balanced at an even 502 points, making this game a possible war-ender, IF one side can win it be a large enough margin (40% of starting scenario points, per Rule 5.2.1.c.iii).
So we’re letting the British take the offensive, given as they’ve won all but one game since October against Prussian, Black Dragon, and Japanese foes. We’re envisioning the joint Kraken-Bellerophon task force heading straight into the heart of Prussian colonial power in this sector, the Eisenwolf Colony at Gliese 580. The Scheer is an absolute monster, though, weighing just short of 400,000 tons, her guns large enough to break a corvette in half with a single hit anywhere on the table. With a solid broadside she can cripple a cruiser at 1,000 kilometers, and positively bristles with 66 mass driver point-defense guns, electronic warfare and ECM arrays, gravitic shielding, and tens of thousands of tons of armor. Her targeting system draws as much power as a frigate’e entire reactor array.
This is gonna be one for the record books, folks. A big enough British win here will break the back of Prussian (and allied) naval power in the Libra / Sagittarius strategic command sector, causing a second Iron Wolf power to sign a separate peace with the British. A big enough Prussian win will smash enough heavy British naval power to leave the Scheer Task Force more or less unchallenged for at least 15-20 light-years, giving Berlin a commanding position of strength at the negotiating table back on Earth.
Let’s see what happens!
Initial approach. The Prussians are coming down from the top, the British are coming up from the bottom. The two fleets are more or less 3250 kilometers apart (a smidge over 2000 miles). The only ship without a complete line of sight on all enemy vessels is the destroyer HMS Essex, actually tucked beneath the curvature of Eisenwolf. Everyone else opens fire, though, the light cruiser HMS Inflictor and frigate KMS Jenna taking the worst of it. Normally at this range, opening volleys aren’t that big of a deal. But there is a LOT of firepower on this board, made all the more dangerous by upgrades to CIC / Targeting, Gunnery Accuracy, Gunnery Impact, or all of the above. 
The British largely win initiative on Turn 02. Jenn and Damon do a great job avoiding Prussian broadsides, but one ship, HMS Essex, is JUST left in the arc where aft Prussian guns can come to bear. End result, all frontal guns of the Prussians unload on the light cruiser HMS Inflictor (again), while all aft guns, including the 15-GW rail guns of the Admiral Scheer, unload on the hapless HMS Essex. The little destroyer doesn’t stand a chance, and is instantly crippled. Accurate British gunfire, though, especially from the Indomitable (Gunnery Accuracy and Gunnery Impact) smash open the light cruiser Skjoldmo (Shield Maiden), and a shell through the bridge leaves her crippled and adrift. The Jenna, meanwhile, fails a breakoff check, and is forced to flee the table. 
The last surviving Prussian ship, the mighty Admiral Scheer, is almost never going to win initiative against the three remaining British cruisers. It’s almost a recreation of the Battle of River Plate, pitting the historical pocket battleship Graf Spee against the cruisers Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles. The Inflictor is actually struck in the bridge, not enough to knock her out, but enough to cause an initiative penalty. However, she’s been upgraded with the “Resolute Crew” battle upgrade, and so can roll 3d6 each Resolution Phase, each 5+ result allows one box to be repaired mid-battle. Jenn scores a success and selects the bridge, where fires are put out and intraship comms systems put back in order. It’ll take more than that to scare off the Inflictor, Prussian! 
Using the speed of the British ships against them, I manage to force them to overshoot, at least putting my forward guns against the Inflictor’s fantail (hello, engines and reactors). Now this part of the ship is undamaged, and has tougher shielding than other parts, but I have eight 6-GW and four 15-GW rail guns that easily open her up. Resolute Crew or not, this time Inflictor is going down. In fact, she stands a damned good chance of EXPLODING here … until her resolute crew puts out the fires in two engine and reactor boxes. She’s still crippled, but will at least fight another day. 
By now I’ve lost maneuvering thrusters as well, not good for a 400,000 ton battleship that only starts with 2 thrust points anyway (upgraded to 3, but still …) Long story short, the two remaining heavy cruisers are able to cut broadsides across my stern. But the Admiral Scheer is a BATTLESHIP, with 6-rated shields and four belts of armor on her stern. Even taking punishment like this, she’s not going down quickly.
Okay, things go so hectic on the last turn of the game I had to actually zoom in a little. I rolled my ship, protecting my ravaged starboard bow. I also managed to point my stern away from the cruisers, leaving them with the unenviable choice of not crossing my stern again, OR doing so at point blank range (the geometry in Darkstar can at times be very unforgiving). Damon makes the call and dives in, ordering flank speed and all guns to starboard for a point-blank broadside straight into my stern. A but leery, Jennifer nevertheless follows suit in HMS Kraken. The Prussian battlewagon positively MAULS the valiant HMS Bellerophon (“Billy Ruffian”) – this is basically the WW2 battleship Bismarck hitting the Norfolk at 1000 yards … the only thing that saves him is (a) I can only hit with aft weapons, and (b) I don’t get the best hit locations. Once again, Billy Ruffian get a little lucky here and escapes with her reactors, and her life … damaged and afire … but functional. Meanwhile, the Admiral Scheer is finally crippled, ending the battle. 
This has not been a bloodless, victory, however. As we continue to track movement of crippled ships, we find that HMS Essex was on course for an asteroid mining debris field when she was crippled. The order is given to abandon ship, and HMS Essex is lost forever in a blinding fusion explosion. Despite the British victory here, HMS Essex is the only permanently lost ship of the day. 
Here’s the HMS Inflictor, ridiculously mauled. On the left, we see an earlier fire phase, where yellow boxes show the structure boxes “repaired” by the Resolute Crew upgrade. On the her final state, ridiculously mauled and crippled, yet she’ll eventually be recovered and put back into service – after 57 days in drydock.
The final damage sheet on KMS Admiral Scheer. Now she has rolled her warship recovery check (battleships almost always do, they have damage control crews larger than most ship’s entire complement, many more redundant systems and extensive compartmentalization, plus their navies always invest whatever it takes in their recovery). Nevertheless, she’s taken 102 internal structure boxes of damage. And she’s crippled (+50% repair time added to normal rate of 1 day per structure box hit). This means she’s gonna be in dry dock for 153 days, almost 22 WEEKS.So the British have won by 315 points, easily more than the 201 they needed for a Major Victory here. If I could have knocked out the Bellerophon, I would have shaved this down to 191, enough to keep in a Minor Victory and keep the Prussians in the war. But they’ve lost, and lost HARD, so at last Duchess Annabel’s War is OVER.
The question for the community now is … WHO IS INTERESTED IN ANOTHER WAR? If so, WHAT FACTIONS? We seem to have some votes of the British, Prussians, and Americans. Anyone else interested in trying this wargame? Any other factions? We have New Romans (Spanish, Italians, French), Panasian Union (Chinese), Arab League, Indian Republic, Corporate Consortium / Pirates, Black Dragons, Russians, and Japanese.
Let me know in the comments below!
And CONGRATS TO DAMON and JENN for the great war-winning victory!
500-Point Game: Climactic Clash of Duchess Annabel’s War
Removing duplicate 🙁
ACTION STATIONS! Prussian Battleship sighted!
We are live with Darkstar in about 30 minutes! British players @gladesrunner and @damon take on the Prussians, who are packing one of my Hipper class light cruisers (sailing under a Norwegian flag) and … you know … just for fun … a ridiculously-powerful Tirpitz class battleship, KMS Scheer.
**queue Vader’s Imperial March theme. 😀
This one … will get nasty.
Ping me a PM if you’re interested in seeing some of this game live on the web, starting at 17:00 GMT! We’ll see if the British can keep up their nearly unbroken winning streak!
Damon's Contribution - Separate Peace between British and Japanese?
Okay, so Damon wrote a great bit of Darkstar “roleplaying” where he is sending the colonial administrator (and presumably local colonial garrison commander) of the Japanese Kishimoto colony a appeal to reason. This is great because it dovetails and aligns with the background for last week’s Kishimoto planetary assault game, brings in a bit of lore building / campaign ply / role playing to Darkstar (which I always support) and also allows us to bring up the question …
Is Duchess Annabel’s War coming to a close?
At least between the British and the Japanese?
Again, this campaign started locally, then went on line, we never had an official roster of players, so it’s definitely very informal. In more structured campaigns, actual “balance of power” points are tracked based on the size of aggregated battles and their results, it is clearly outlined when a certain power or faction either cashes out of a war as victor, or signs a separate peace as a loser.
Here, it’s really going to come down to player preference.
So I’ll put it to the community –
What factions do you still want to play, or see drop out of the war, or see added in to the war?
Currently: Duchess Annabel’s War is between two coalitions:
- “Iron Wolves”
- Imperial Prussia
- Japan
- New Roman Alliance
- Khitan-Tunguska Free State (Black Dragons)
vs.
Duchess Annabel’s Coalition:
- UK
- Holy Russian Empire
- Panasian Union (China)
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