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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
Damon (British) v. Rasmus (Japanese)
October 2519:
For the last 57 days, ground combat has raged on the surface of Kishimoto, colonized terrestrial planet of the HD-172051 (Kishimoto) star system.
Kishimoto is a roughly Earth-sized, terrestrial-class world with huge liquid water oceans under miles of permanent ice. The yellow main-sequence star is stable, the ice provides protection from cosmic radiation, and the planet is rich in resources like water (obviously), silox 35, and heavy hydrogen isotopes useful in fusion reactors. Colonies are tunneled out of the ice, soft enough for easy construction, hard and permanent enough for structural stability. With large spaces under the ice now warmed by gigantic reactors, Kishimoto has thus become a large hydroponic mega-agricultural colony, feeding Japanese colonies and providing important trade throughout the Libra-Sagittarius strategic command sector.
In an attempt to compel the Japanese to abandon their Prussian, New Roman, and Black Dragon allies, the British have landed two regiments of Royal Marines on the planet. But so far, these 3200 men have been stalemated by a smaller, but determined and deeply entrenched, Japanese defense force.
Now, both the British and Japanese are trying to break the deadlock on Kishimoto. When Japanese Intelligence (tipped off by the enigmatic spy known only as “Red Kitsune”) is alerted to the approach of a British troop convoy, they hastily mount an expedition of their own to counter. Now two troops convoys are headed to Kishimoto, each escorted by a cruiser battlegroup.
Entry zones shown on the map. Target ground hex is circled in red.
Each side has three troop ships.
Each troop ship moves 6 hexes a turn, has 4 shields, and 25 damage points.
Each side gets 50 points for getting a troop ship to the target hex.
Cargo ships always move first, before first warship to move on each side.
Gravity effects: pulls 1 hex toward the planet, if warship ends move within 10 hexes of planet.
Gravity does not effect troops ships (antigrav drives) or aerospace craft
Warships have a speed limit of 6 when within one hex of planet (atmosphere)
Shooting through or into an atmosphere hex applies a -2 penalty on to-hit numbers (atmospheric refraction). Just shooting out of an atmosphere hex applies no penalty.
Exceeding this movement limit inflicts one ROW of armor off the bow and either P/S Bow.
Game lasts max of 8 turns.
So the setting and special rules for this game are described above. This map shows the larger operational campaign area for the ongoing Duchess Annabel’s War, with the location of Kishimoto star system circled in green. 
Today we have Damon and his British (headed by his flagship, the Trafalgar class heavy cruiser Bellerphoron) escorted by the Falklands class destroyer HMS Essex, against Rasmus and his Japanese (flagship IJN Sendai Byo, a Taiho class light cruiser … Takashiro class destroyer IJN Kuroki … and Akashi class strike frigate IJN Urakaze). We also have spectators from the US, UK, and Australia! The mission, again, is to not only end the game with more points worth of operational warships than your opponent (*game is balanced at 172 points), but also get as many of your troop ships to the indicated “ground battle” hex as you can. We’re trying to expand more of the Darkstar rules out there for everyone, and thus we’re slowly but steadily rolling out new features like a taste of the planetary assault rules! Japanese ships are approaching from upper left, British ships from the lower right.
End of movement on Turn 2. Notice that the Japanese torpedoes (orange wedges) haven't hit the British warships yet. Rasmus has opted to keep the engagement ranges nice and long, actually not a bad move considering his ships' advantages in enhanced targeting electronics and long-range accuracy. But even these Ki-45 "Toryu" (Dragon Slayer) torpedoes can't reach across 4000 kilometers this fast. Damon, meanwhile, is keeping the mission firmly in mind, escorting the troop ships toward the invasion hex, ready to open fire against the Japanese troop ships in turn as soon as the curvature of the Kishimoto planet allows (although he'll he shooting through planetary atmosphere, thus assessing a -2 to hit against his accuracy).
Both sides' troops ships are now closing on the assault zone. Remember that each hex in this game is 180km, large enough to fit some small countries. This means that on the ground, the entire war for Kishimoto is probably taking place in that one hex, and this game could be decided in large part by whoever gets the most troops ships (reinforcements) to tip the scales in the battle in progress. Damon certainly remembers this, firing a full broadside against the first Japanese troops transport. But the refraction effects of the planet's atmosphere (Hexes 1520, 1620, and 1721) combine with some very poor dice, to ensure that the lead Japanese troop ship takes only 18 points of damage, short of the required 25 to shoot it down. As for the British troop ships, the Japanese warships are too far away to effectively engage and so instead they are firing at the HMS Essex. 
Looks like both sides will get all three troops ships to the combat hex. One Japanese troops ship took a helluva pounding, but made it nevertheless. Both players are awarded 150 victory points. With both sides getting all three troops ships into position, the ground battle of course remains a stalemate (just a much LARGER stalemate), so it looks like this game will be resolved one way or another in high orbit above Kishimoto. The Japanese set about to win it, putting torpedoes straight down the unshielded bow of HMS Essex (she lost her shields in an earlier fire phase), while the frigate Urakaze and the destroyer Kuroki shoot forward, making a hard torn to starboard, and rake the Essex's note at point blank range. The Essex is all but torn apart, one Ki-45 torpedo going off INSIDE her port torpedo room and yes, setting off the magazine. However, the return fire from the Essex and especially the Bellerophon positively maul the two small Japanese ships. They survive, technically, but are horribly damaged, with multiple hits to maneuvering thrusters, engines, reactors, sensors, mass drivers, troops bays, hangars, and core sections like life support, med bays, Darkstar drives, and so on. The HMS Essex is not so lucky, her crew is unable to maintain power and she goes dark, adrift and burning, out of the battle. 
The Japanese are now actually having a helluva time maneuvering. Their light cruiser flagship is going too fast, while their frigate and destroyer are going too fast and have also beel largely hobbled with so many hits in engineering sections. Making matters worse, their fleet is now obviously divided. But Bellerophon does not run down and finish off the Urakase and Kuroki, instead turning towards the light cruiser Sendai Byo. The mighty "Billy Ruffian" is pummeled by accurate, long range Japanese fire, but she has tough shielding and thick armor, and also keeps shooting down all their torpedoes. She can keep this up for a while, but not forever.
After a long afternoon of frustrating die rolls and honestly ... solid tactical play that just wasn't being rewarded by Lady Fortune, at last the British catch a break. The Sendai Byo sets up a broadside against the Bellerophon, but fails to do in in such away that does not incur a return broadside in turn. At this range, trading broadsides with a larger British warship is rarely a good idea. A full broadside of 15 teravolt EPCs slashes into the Sendai Byo, cutting across her engineering compartments of her starboard quarter. Four critical boxes are hit. Light Cruisers are crippled on a 10+ on a d6, minus the number of critical boxes hit. That leaves ... 6+, and wouldn't you know it, Damon rolls, ON CAMERA, a 6. The Sendai Byo is crippled, leaving only the heavily damaged Kuroki and Urakaze limping behind the small moon further off the "northeast" corner of the board. We call the game there. 
Here are the damage tracking sheets for HMS Belleropheron and IJN Sendai Byo. As you can clearly see, the Billy Ruffian took far more damage,but was able to spread it out by presenting different sides to enemy guns. Also, she has a LOT more armor and internal structure boxes (she's a 145,000 ton ship). The Sendai Byo just took the damage in the wrong spot, at the wrong time, and Damon caught a lucky break with the dice.So this was a great game played by both sides. It was tight, tactical, and reserved, well … up until Rasmus sent Kuroki and Urakaze on a banzai charge across the bow of HMS Essex. 😀 Honestly, I feel I made the troop ships too tough, a full broadside from a heavy cruiser at optimum range really should have tanked at least one of them. But I bumped the normal “civilian” shielding of 3 up to a 4, then added the +2 targeting penalty for atmosphere (forgetting that, duh … of course these ships are going to be in atmosphere). But that’s on me.
So the British win this game 120 (Bellerophon) to 51 + 24 (Kuroki and Urakaze) + 5 scouts = 80 (all British scouts were shot down by Japanese scouts and mass driver guns of the Sendai Byo).
This means that Kishimoto will probably fall. Yes, the troop balance on the ground is still unchanged, but now the Royal Navy controls the skies over the planet, and Bellerophon will probably spend the next few days pummeling Japanese ground positions from orbit.
What this means for the larger context of Duchess Annabel’s War is uncertain. This has been a fairly loose campaign when it comes to tracking. But the fact is the British have lost only one battle since last October, and won several big ones in a row. These Japanese have lost several big ones, and honestly their alliance in the “Iron Wolf” coalition with the Prussians, New Romans, and especially Black Dragons has always been tenuous (the Black Dragons were their blood enemies in the previous Xi Scorpio War).
If we were keeping closer track of points, the British would probably have won enough to “cash out” of this war as victors, the Japanese as losers. But what it really comes down to is whether players want to keep playing Japanese and especially British (definitely the most popular faction so far).
Either that or we could let the Duchess Annabel’s War finally end and instead start a new campaign fresh, using the factions people are most interested in. 😀
We gotta get the Americans in one of these wars, if for no other reason that to see Task Force Oriskany on the table again. 😀 😀 😀
Darkstar "Championship" Game - Jenn's British vs. Oriskany's Japanese
Early September, 2519:
Okay, yesterday @gladesrunner (Jennifer) and I sat down for a “championship” game of Darkstar – veteran players playing two of their most elite, veteran, and upgraded task forces we’ve managed to build up over several years of campaign play (off and on).
We basically have the heavier ships of Jenn’s “Cruiser Squadron “K” – under the flag of Commodore Rhea Aubrey, flying her flag from her Iron Duke class heavy cruiser HMS Kraken:
HMS Kraken (three battle upgrades) – 182 points
HMS Indomitable (five battle upgrades) – 128 points
HMS Londonderry (two battle upgrades) – 66 points
Four double-elite fighters and four double-elite bombers (HMS Vigilant) – 32 points
408 points
Opposing them, I’m bringing by Cruiser Squadron “Storm Dragon” – lead by Captain Hiromi Ozawa aboard her flagship, the Katana class heavy cruiser IJN Naginata.
IJN Naginata (four battle upgrades) – 202 points
IJN Takakawa (five battle upgrades) – 128 points
IJN Kikasa (three battle upgrades) – 77 points
407 points
In all, these commanders have a total of 44 campaign stars (that’s 264 campaign points, which averages to about of 30 games for each of these commanders, assuming they won about half their games.
They’re not the best of the best, but they’re damned close. And now they’re closing to battle range, decelerating to attack speed, sounding general quarters and ready to engage in another furious battle in Duchess Annabel’s War.
We had spectators for this game from Puerto Rico, Canada, and even Australia. Thanks so much for everyone who tuned in to this epic wargame! And if anyone ever wants to drop in for a chat, to spectate, or even give these games a try, as always, just give me a PM ping and we’ll get you on the schedule!
The Japanese predominantly lose initiative, so their heaviest ships have to enter the table first. The Naginata makes her approach into the empty battle space, and not knowing where the British will be, try to use the asteroid batch to screen her position. The British make a much faster approach (36 km per second), making a last-minute turn to port to cross the Japanese "T" at a ranges of 1600 and 1800 kilometers.
Zooming in a little, we see the initial exchanges of fire. The firepower is terrifyingly accurate, so many of these ships have upgraded guns, upgraded targeting systems, elite gunnery crews, electronic warfare, but also enhanced ECM and gravitic shielding. Commanders, crews, and ships on this level play for keeps, and that is apparent right off the bat as on the fire phase of Turn 01, both task forces smash the other's destroyer out of the battle. HMS Londonderry and IJN Kikasa are both blow open, set afire, and now adrift and out of control in space. 
The Japanese seem to h ave the upper hand on Turn 2. This is because the Japanese do better on initiative this turn, and the faster British approach speeds means they now have a much harder time making turns and slowing down. It gave them an advantage on Turn 01, but one Turn 02 they are paying for it. HMS Inflictor also has hits on her maneuvering thrusters, which are further hampering her ability to make turns or roll over. This allows my forward batteries (IJN Naginata and Takakawa) to score hard hits on her stern, knocking her out of the battle. However, the big British equalizers here, the Model 41 torpedoes of HMS Kraken, plus a torpedo and missile strike launched by the Star Typhoon bombers and Supermaine Starfire fighters (of the "Royal Griffon" and "Mad Hatter" squadrons, respectively), manage to put enough firepower into the stern of the Takakawa to also leave her spinning helplessly adrift in space. On Turn 01, we traded destroyers. One Turn 02, we traded light cruisers ... 
It's now a hypertech, high speed, fusion-firepower cat-fight in space, with Commodore Rhea Aubrey and Captain Hiromi Ozawa, each with a gigantic 175,000 ton heavy cruiser, determined to leave the other adrift aboard a derelict, burning, and crippled warship. Again, the Japanese seem to have the upper hand. Ozawa narrowly beats Aubrey on initiative, and the HMS Kraken has to move first, turning while still desperately trying to slow down. Conversely, the Naginata goes to flank speed, powering up her enhanced engines to but a broadside across Kraken's starboard quarter. Meanwhile, the Royal Griffon bombers, having expended their ordinance, try to get clear of the battle area, but are two are shot down by Japanese "Hien" (Swallow) scouts. 
Zooming in a little, we see what I HOPE will be the decisive fire phase, my broadside (almost all guns) against only the Kraken's stern guns. Unfortunately, Ozawa also has to contend with British torpedoes and fighters. Two of the fighters score gunnery hits at extended range, and then two torpedoes slam into her stern. Damage is minimal ... but as fate would have it the one system that was damaged ... was the aft shields. Still, things seem to be going Ozawa's way, as the Kraken has taken enough damage to where she HAS TO BREAK OFF THE ENGAGEMENT! (Jennifer gets a very bad roll after I score two hits into her cruiser's core compartments).
Even though HMS Kraken is now compelled to head off t he lower right corner of the map, the shoe is decidedly on the other foot when it comes to maneuvering speed. I have to turn away from Jenn so she doesn't have a free shot on my unshielded stern, but I'm moving so fast after my acceleration last turn, turning is very difficult. I can't fly off the map or I lose the game. Turning hard to port and slamming on the breaks, I try to put as much distance between myself and her fighters, scouts, and torpedoes as I can. Turns out Ozawa and her cruiser ALMOST escape ... but not quite. Jenn gets just lucky enough that the HMS Kraken and those fighters, despite being forced to leave the table, WHILE THEY ARE WITHDRAWING, put a last salvo into my unshielded stern to barely cripple the Naginata. End result, NEITHER side has any capital ships left operational in the area. 
Damage charts from the light cruiser Takakawa and destroyer Kikasa.
Damage charts from the light cruiser Inflictor and the destroyer Londonderry.So there we have it. The game comes down to a razor-thin British win.
The Japanese have five scouts left on the board = 5 points, plus they were outnumbered by the British by 1 points = 1 “balance” point = 6.
The British have 2 double elite bombers (8 points) + 4 double elite fighters (16 points)+ 6 scouts (6 points) = 30 points.
So the British won by 24 points.
Per the rules, you have to win any game by a margin of at least 5% to claim a victory. Well, 5% of 408 total points = 21 points.
So with exactly 3 points to spare (21 required, 24 attained) . . . out of an initial point total of 408, the British ba-a-a-a-a-a-arely scrape out the ugliest, narrowest, and slimmest of wins.
But a win all the same. After all, HMS Kraken is operational in this star system, the Naginata is not.
Congrats to Jenn on the win!
"Championship" Darkstar Game between Veteran Players - with Elite crews!
Darkstar is LIVE in about 60 minutes (5:15PM or so GMT). If you’re interested, ping me with a PM link to chat with game creators, other wargame / sci fi fans (we have people from three countries lined up already), or just watch an epic space warfare battle game!
Elements of my elite Naginata task force will be taking on the flagships and escorts of @gladesrunner’s venerable “Cruiser Squadron K,” under the flag of Commodore Rhea Aubrey aboard her flagship, HMS Kraken.
Darkstar v1.1 Published
Good afternoon ~
Okay, the majority of the typos, formatting errors, and (worst of all) math bugs in the warship designs have been smoothed out of the rules and the warship record sheets of Darkstar Rules. Therefore, I’m happy to post the link for Darkstar 1.1, available below.
Again, no real new content, just cleaned up, amended, and corrected details here and there for the rules and ships. If you already have the rules or have even printed them out, I wouldn’t even say reprinting the whole doc is worth it. For the rules, I was cleaning up misspellings, typos, clarification of aerospace strafing rules, etc.
However, what I really wanted to clean up were some “worms in the wood” hidden in the math of the warships. You’ll notice some stats have updated subtly, including slight updates to some Japanese ships, and larger changes on Corporate ships, and the light cruiser ship type in general. Even if the ship characteristics all remain the same, the scenario price has updated slightly on a few of them.
Anyway, just trying to present the best, smoothest, most bug-free possible game as a basis for future roll-outs.
If you have the original saved somewhere, simply save this one over it. Otherwise, download this new one if you’re interested, and have fun!
As always, we play live on the web usually once a week, and I can be reached for questions at [email protected].
Darkstar v1.1 Later This Week
Good morning, commanders. 😀
Just a quick announcement that v1.1 of the Darkstar rules are being hammered out as we speak. I hope to roll them out later this week.
Very little is being tweaked in the actual rules. Really, just typos and some very minor clarifications where small, corner case rules were not CLEAR, nothing’s actually being changed.
In the ship designs, however, some of them will get updates. This was always in the cards, with a few omissions like the ECM / Shielding ratings for the Scharnhorst class pocket battleship being addressed. But after a few games this last weekend, I found a few additional updates that I wanted to make. Then, looking more closely at the functionality of the spreadsheets that drive these designs, I found some more glaring issues that needed to be fixed.
Long story short, the warships designs are being tweaked, including not only the 30 classes included in the First Wave, but also the 78 other classes still waiting in the wings. This also includes updating the WRS for these classes, reformatting as .pdf, splicing the, into the book, and republishing.
So yeah, I have a busy couple of days ahead of me.
Even those ships that are being tweaked will have relatively small updates – light cruisers are the hardest hit, but even they’re losing only a couple mass driver defense points or excess torpedo tubes here and there. Some point costs will also be updated.
But the rules are the same and the designs will be 99% the same. This is just a clean up to make sure everyone has the best possible game available.
Replay - Are Darkstar Pirates "OP"
So in the wake of Saturday’s game, I’ve been wondering if the Corporate Consortium / Pirate warships in Darkstar are in fact overpowered.
Short answer, no. They perform exactly as they should, at least in the case of the Corporate Consortium: extremely small, extremely high-tech, extremely fast, extremely vulnerable, but extremely accurate / advanced.
However, they may be underpriced in scenario points. I have absolutely no issue with putting advanced / powerful /less numerous units up against weaker / less advanced / more numerous units (such is asymmetrical warfare and wargaming), but the points have to take this properly into account to allow proper game balance.
So to test this, I re-ran Saturday’s game Japan v. Pirates solitaire to see if I could come up with a different result.
As before, these Japanese will "automatically lose" the first turn of initiative, and the pirates will be allowed to enter from any edge of the board, through any hex not covered by the moon. To counter the initial pirate advantage, the Japanese make much slower approach, a hairpin turn, then allow the moon’s gravity to tug their sterns back against the moon’s atmosphere. This seems to at least mitigate the risk of a pirate fleet appearing directly on their six. So the Japanese player has to make that first move PERFECTLY, backing up directly against the moon’s atmosphere. This would still allow the pirates to theoretically streak INTO THE SAME hex if he really wants to get behind you, but then there are only three ships allowed in a hex so with two Japanese ships in the hex, only one pirate ship can do this (instead of four) and even then, the range is pointblank which is NOT good for the pirate player. There are other options for the Pirates (two of which are shown above) - including a very high-speed approach from the opposite end of the table that allows a full frontal torpedo spread against the Japanese port quarter – while avoiding Japanese broadsides and keeping the range at 11 hexes – range bracket 5) but this approach isn’t as perfect as we saw Saturday.
The pirates choose option 2, coming on the table at velocity 16, decelerating to 9, and releasing full forward spread of Class V "Sparta XII" torpedoes. At this range and facings, only ONE GUN in either fleet can fire at each other, and both miss. Again, good initial move by the pirates. If they win this game, it will be with torpedoes, and 
The Japanese destroyer (Harata), largest ship on the table, predictably loses initiative. With a pair of jackknife turns, she continues to edge toward the pirates, closing the distance and keeping her stern brushing the moon's atmosphere. The pirate flagship Jasmine's Diamond has to move next, and the Urakaze pounces, finally bringing her forward weapons and torpedo tubes to bear. I realize now I slighty screwed up the Japanese movement for the Hatara, she should have opted to be ONE HEX CLOSER to the moon so pirate torpedoes couldn't strike directly for her stern.
The forward battery of the Urakaze and aft weapons of the Harata blow the front end off the Jasmine's Diamond, landing a hit on the bridge that knocks her out. Meanwhile, the Harata and Urakaze shoot down six of the incoming pirate torpedoes, but the remaining four all but automatically hit (+3 CIC bonuses and "Electronic Warfare" battle upgrades on two of the pirate warships). This, plus the few, small, put accurate guns of the pirate flotilla cripple the Harata as well. Still, that's 33 point loss for thepirates and 34 point loss for the Japanese. This game is already at least a little more balanced (and again, I really should have handled the Harata's Turn 2 movement differently).
The results on the Jasmine's Diamond and the Harata.
It's something of a miracle, but the Urakaze wins initiative against the Fast Company. The Japanese fighters fire their missiles, while six Class V Torpedoes sail in against the Urakaze. She shoots down four of them, but two hits,plus the small lasers of the Razor III and the Stiletto, are more than enough to leave her crippled. Meanwhile, the Fast Company, Razor III, and Stiletto shoot down all the Japanese torpedoes and fighter missiles, but the forward gunnery of the Akashi-class strike frigate is enough to knock down the Fast Company's engines. ![Even with both Japanese warships knocked down, there are still six fighters and three scouts on the table (plus one pirate scout). Technically, the game right now is a DRAW, with the Japanese left with 15 points [(6 x 2) + 3] = 15 points) on the table against the Pirates' 7 + 7 + 1 = 15 (you have to win by at least 5% of the starting total (63 points). But for testing purposes, the Japanese fighters will make strafing attacks against the Pirate gunboats. The Japanese lose two fighter in the first tun, but score two hits against the Razor III. The Razor III loses mass drivers, starboard quarter shielding,](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2019/01/89444440-DS_Web_Game_05a_07.jpg)
Even with both Japanese warships knocked down, there are still six fighters and three scouts on the table (plus one pirate scout). Technically, the game right now is a DRAW, with the Japanese left with 15 points [(6 x 2) + 3] = 15 points) on the table against the Pirates' 7 + 7 + 1 = 15 (you have to win by at least 5% of the starting total (63 points). But for testing purposes, the Japanese fighters will make strafing attacks against the Pirate gunboats. The Japanese lose two fighter in the first tun, but score two hits against the Razor III. The Razor III loses mass drivers, starboard quarter shielding, 
On turn five the fighters can ironically not keeping up with the accelerating gunboats. But in order to count as victory points, the gunboats have to remain in the battle space, which means they will have to turn around ... Meanwhile the Japanese scouts score a moral victory by shooting down the one Pirate scout. 
On Turn 6, almost all the Japanese fighters are shot down in another suicidal gunnery run on the gunboats (some survive however, because the Razor III has sensor damage and reduced mass driver fire). However, with no starboard quarter shielding, the Razor III really needs only one more hit to be potentially crippled. The fighters and scouts score it, and the Razor III is crippled by fighter strafing. The game is effectively called at this point, as there is no way the last Japanese fighter and three scouts can knock out that gunboat, and the gunboat will never catch the fighters if they don't want to engage (initiative and turn sequence). So the score is Japan 5, Pirates 7. The Pirates win by 2, BARELY enough to clear the required 5% of the starting total in order to claim a win. So is this game balanced? Technically, yes. But the Japanese player cannot make a single mistake and has to be at least moderately lucky (or at least not unlucky to pull off a win or at least a respectably draw.
Honestly, I would say this scenario design is still pretty flawed, as the odds for victory are still undeniably with the the pirate player.
Are corporate / pirate ships overpowered? Honestly, I don’t know. I’m starting to think the power / cost requirements for those +3 CICs is too low, so while they may not be “overpowered,” they may honestly be underpriced. Larger power plants (and thus higher scenario points per ship) may be required to allow these ships to carry such advanced equipment. This way they keep them and the corporate high-tech flavor, but opposing players get to bring in more against them to keep the game fair and fun for both sides.
Definitely something to address in rules v1.1
Pirates vs. Japanese - Darkstar Live (Jan 19)
Battle report of a Darkstar Live game between community members @umbramancer (Japanese) and @nagek92 (Pirates)
August, 2519 – Outer Gas Giant, Eisenwolf Colony (Gliese 570 / 33 G. Libra)
Duchess Annabel’s War
Situation: In the wake of recent battles at Harwood’s Hope / Gliese 682 star system (Royal Navy, the Prussian Kriegsmarine, and the “Black Dragons” of the Khitan-Tunguska Free State), the Prussians and Black Dragons are pulling out, towing crippled and damaged ships back to Kriegsmarine bases at Eisenwolf Colony (Gliese 570). The Prussians’ allies, the Imperial Japanese, are also sending a handful of ships to help cover this evacuation, as the Prussians themselves and especially the Black Dragons have been handled rather roughly at Harwood’s Hope.
As one such convoy begins to decelerate towards a large moon orbiting one of Eisenwolf’s outer gas giants, however, they are intercepted by a cadre of rogue pirates, hoping to pick up some easy salvage from the derelict Prussian and Black Dragon warships. The pirates are intercepted by the Japanese security flotilla short of the derelict convoy however, and a battle is set to start. Whoever winds up controlling this battlespace will have access to the crippled Black Dragon warships, either to escort them to port … or chop them up for scrap.
Also, Umbramancer has made a great little video of his own US-Japanese Darkstar Game on the D20 online platform. Check out the video and give it a like!
So again, here are the forces squaring off. This is a very small battle point-wise, little more than a skirmish. One dated Japanese destroyer (IJN Harata - Kagumo class - 34 points) and one Japanese strike frigate (IJN Urakaze - Akashi class - 21 points) and two fighters start off on the Japanese side. On the Pirate side is a flotilla of stolen / sold / "acquired" Corporate Consortium raiders - the Baroness class "security frigate" Jasmine's Diamond, the Twilight class blockade runner Fast Company, and two Rogue glass gunboats Razor III and Stiletto. Now, we're trying to simulate something of a pirate "raid" here or ambush, so I'm experimenting with some scenario rules. The Japanese will automatically lose the first turn of initiative, and once they enter the table, the pirate raiders can then enter from ANY SIDE of the map sheet not covered by a planet. To balance for this advantage, I'm giving the Japanese another four fighters. 
Here is the situation at the end of movement, Turn 01. The Japanese have entered the table from the upper left, turning hard to starboard to steer away from the planet. Gravity effects this turn, and this is where they wind up. Clearly Umbramancer was hoping to screen his vulnerable stern areas against the pirates sure to pop in behind him. But he doesn't hug the planet quite tightly enough, giving the pirates enough room to sweep in from the same general vector, turn to starboard, and point their bows (loaded with deadly Class V "Sparta V" torpedoes right against the stern of the Japanese warships.
The fire phase of Turn 1. The Pirate approach, while awesome, wasn't quite perfect, as those two gunboats are JUST out of position to hit the stern of the frigate Urakaze, their forward weapons will instead hit the starboard quarter. Still, forward pirate guns hammer the Urakaze's fantail. They are MURDEROUSLY accurate with +3 CICs, but they have very few weapons and they are very light. This disadvantage is further exacerbated by the f act that only forward-mounted pirate weapons can fire. But the pirates get solid hit locations, and manage to shut down the Urakaze's engines and set her adrift and crippled in space. Meanwhile, the Urakaze has NO aft-mounted weapons (as a strike frigate, everything is mounted forward). So she actually never fires a shot in response. The larger destroyer Harata, however, hits the Fast Company with aft 40KG plasma projector and 5GW rail guns, all but blowing off the front half of this very small ship.
The Urakaze careens away while the Fast Company tries to limp clear of the firing. The Hatara pursues her (the Harata actually beats her on initiative), but can't quite get a broadside on the Fast Company due to the gravity of that gas giant's moon. The pirates turn to port and rush after the Harata, the Jasmine's Diamond crossing her T and the two gunboats rushing past her to Harata's bow with their aft weapons. Nagek92's strategy here is to deny the Harata any use of her aft weapons, deftly using geometry and fire arcs to take away half of the larger Japanese ship's firepower. True, this means no weapons will hit the Harata's vulnerable engines, but with this much firepower coming at the Harata's bow, especially that hail of Sparta XII torpedoes, the Japanese destroyer is in big trouble. Japanese fighters and scouts will try to shoot some of these down, while the other Japanese fighters will try to finish off the heavily-damaged Fast Company by hitting her ravaged, unshielded bow.
Things just don't go well for the Japanese in this fire phase, at all. The Harata's ENTIRE BARRAGE completely misses the Jasmine's Diamond. I actually re-ran this firephase as an example and showed how a solid hit from the Harata would have easily crippled the Jasmine's Diamond, instantly knocking out the largest pirate ship and bringing the game back into balance. But the Japanese missed ... with EVERYTHING, so that's the result we stay with. Meanwhile Pirate mass drivers roll several 5s and 6s, mauling the Japanese fighters before they can knock out the Fast Company or shoot down incoming pirate torpedoes. These torpedoes slam into the Harata, all but ripping the front end clean off the 52,000 ton destroyer. Guns follow up, but this Kagumo-class destroyer is a tough old girl and she remains in the fight, although with four boxes of core damage - she has an 80% chance to break off. She does so, and must now make best speed toward the closest corner of the map. Effectively, this battle is already over.
The Fast Company continues to get clear, as the Harata likewise hair-pin turns about and makes best breakaway speed. Her bridge has been hit, her forward magazine has been hit, three mass driver mounts are knocked down, she has no forward shields, post-battle campaign resolution will show that her captain is in fact already killed, the XO apparently gave the order to break off. But again, luck just isn't with the Japanese. Those scouts pursuing the Fast Company really could have knocked her out with just some slightly better luck on the dice, but it's tough to knock out even a heavily damaged corvette with only "machine guns." Still, it could have happened, about a 1:2 chance. Meanwhile, the forward batteries of the Harata (minus one 5-GW rail gun turret lost earlier) damned near blows the port quarter off the Jasmine's Diamond. The largest pirtae ship on the table AGAIN gets lucky as the exact hit locations of those hits aren't the best, they fail to hit any engines or reactors. Then they could have caused the Jasmine's Diamond to "fail morale" and break off the action, but again the Jasmine's Diamond makes that roll. Just one of these die rolls could at least turned this game in a closer affair, maybe even a draw, but the Japanese just can't buy a break this afternoon. Meanwhile, the Harata is finally crippled, and the game is officially over. 
Here's the WRS for the Fast Company, hit just once by the Harata's aft weapons on Turn 1, then pinged by long-range plasma projector fire on the stern on Turn 3 as she tried to get clear.
The hapless Harata, fully "cored" like an apple from bow to stern. Post-battle resolution (Warship Recovery and Captain Survival Checks) will show that not only was the captain killed when that laser cut through the bridge, but the XO was taken prisoner by the pirates when the Harata was BOARDED and CAPTURED! Then, the Urakaze was about to be boarded by the crew managed to evacuate and blow the ship up before she fell into pirate hands. In retrospect and in the course of writing this battle report, it occurs to me that allowing the pirates to drop in behind the Japanese like that really was a big advantage, much bigger than the four fighters with which I sought to balance it. Furthermore, those Japanese fighters never even launched their missiles. Twice the Jasmine’s Diamond should have been destroyed or at least crippled, and the Fast Company was also more than a little fortunate to escape under her own power.
Please understand, I’m not taking away from @nagek92’s win. He saw an advantage and took it, correctly recognizing that his main weapons were his torpedo arrays, not his gun broadsides. He did an absolutely fantastic job on his game of Darkstar, not only smashing this small Japanese battle group but walking away with a captured destroyer (far larger than any pirate ship currently in canon).
Now, the Japanese really love these Kagumo class destroyers. As you may have seen in the write ups in the Darkstar book, they are 35-40 years old, and sometimes have fathers and sons serving together in a “legacy ship” media program. Long story short, the pirates probably can’t use this ship, but could probably ransom her back to the Japanese in exchange for a much newer, faster, and technologically advanced Takashiro class destroyer, or enough money to buy several more Baroness class frigates from the Corporate Consortium that really shouldn’t be selling them to outlaws anyway.
Whatever the case, the Pirates definitely walked away with a win on this one!
Yo ho, yo ho! A pirate’s life for me!
Darkstar Live - Pirates vs. Japanese - Saturday, Jan 19
Good afternoon, everyone !
We’re scheduled for another Darkstar battle, live on the web with a member of the community, on Saturday January 19 (6PM GMT / 1PM EST).
We’ll be trying out a new faction with the Rogue class armed sloops, Twilight class blockade runners, and Baroness class “security frigates” of the Corporate Consortium (here deployed as outright pirates) against the Imperial Japanese in the ongoing Duchess Annabel’s War.
We’ve had some big, heavyweight punch-ups between heavy cruiser battlegroups lately, it’s time for a small, fast, nasty little high-tech knife fight!
If you’re interested in checking out the game, chatting with the players or the designer, of just getting a first-hand look at how Darkstar works (especially at this smaller-ship level), just send me a PM with an e-mail address where I can send web conference link.
Log on at the appointed time and you’re at the table with us!
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