Operation Gettysburg 1 Nov 2229-1 Apr 2230The title shows what I am hoping for. The Korath are attacking right when my flagship was destroyed by a Dread Lord. I am mounting my last ditch defense, but the odds are against me. The one bright side is that the Korath have withdrawn from Begle I (my other ship producing planet) to conquer my home world. This means that I can build up there instead.
However the most unusual thing just happened. The Korath fleets aren’t attacking me. They just stopped advancing and now we are at a standoff for us 2 weeks apart and for them 8. This must be the 20% of their brains that the computer took away when I made the difficulty “normal”. And now I am in a more favorable position than I was a minute ago. My economy is under control and I am making 1 Orbital per week on my capitol. My population is increasing on a steadily growing curve and it won’t be long before I can make an Orbital per week on both Begle I and Wardell II.
Finally I have put together a sizable force. I will use the 3rd and 4th Fighter Squadrons to spearhead the assault on the Korath ships near Begle I.
Polls still show the Korath with a military rating of 45 compared to my 18, however there is also a steady increase in my military might while the Korath are staying relatively stagnant.
I order the attack. My problem is that I run out of movement when the Korath are close enough to get the first strike advantage. They also have more hit points than me, but I have more guns. The Korath attack, and suddenly I am surrounded, smart. They were waiting with a reserve force out of sensor range on their flank and it swung around and attacked me. Luckily it only enveloped the 3rd Fighter Squadron and the 4th was saved. The battle is fierce.
It gets down to 1v1. The Korath have more hit points and I have more weapons. Will my Orbital be enough?
Yes, it destroys the Korath Heavy Fighter with 2 hit points to spare.
Now I am left with a tough decision. I could pull back the last orbital in the 3rd Fighter Squadron and call off the whole operation, of I could engage the 4th fighter Squadron with the flanking fleet.
I decide to do the latter and then run for it. With a Korath reinforcement fleet approaching from the north I can’t take back Begle I this time. However I can still give the Korath a bloody nose. I order the attack.
It is a crushing victory on my part. I only lost 1 fighter. I still decide to retreat and build up to fight another day.
My attack was a failure in that it failed to retake Begle, but it was a success in that I greatly weakened the Korath defenses. I would say that now I am in a position to win this war, Dread Lord permitting of course. The Korath attempted to pursue me, but my ships are just too fast. They might now attempt to attack my home world, but assuming they don’t have any more hidden fleets, and that they attack from the direction they are aiming for the defense should be easy.
“Speak of hidden fleets and hidden fleets appear.” The Korath attack my rear with another fleet identical to the ones I’ve seen before. The circle indicates the presumed location of another fleet. If I get the jump on them then I might win. We have an equal number of fleets. Let’s just hope that no more appear. My other fleet consisting of a defender, a Retribution Class Starship and an original 1 attack orbital will be a reserve for the 2nd and 3rd Fighter Squadrons and then go into orbit of the capital.
However yet again for some reason the Korath stop and don’t attack. My guess is that they are setting another little “clever trap” for me. But I won’t let them use the same old trick on me. I will wait until I get a fully functional 5th Fighter Squadron and then I will go way around their flank and attack their trap from behind. Also Begle I is now producing Orbitals at a rate of 1 per turn. This is a slight decrease in cash, but I now have enough stocked up and my population is growing enough that it won’t matter much. In other good news my population has just passed theirs and so has my economy. Their military is still very strong, but mine continues to grow.
As the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Fighter Squadrons advance the Korath pull back one of their fleets to attack Begle I that is now producing ships.
Suddenly a Korath relief fleet accidentally runs into an unintentional trap of my own. They are surrounded and I order the attack.
It is a major victory for the Terran Alliance. However I disengage the 5th squadron who took the casualties.
Now I am down to two squadrons of four ships each to attack the retreating Korath ships while a third squadron waits over Begle I to ambush them.
But as my ships close in a lone ship appears to reinforce the two Korath fleets. It has an attack rating of 4! Luckily when I look closer it is still using first generation weapons that the Korath has crammed on to it. That is good, but if the Korath can makes ships that powerful, then a fleet of three of them could defeat 3 Squadrons of Orbitals.
Before that ship can arrive I order the attack with the 6th Squadron that was built on Begle I.
A Korath ship begins to go down.
Finally I win, but it takes a heavy price and I retreat the last ship in the 6th Squadron to orbit of Begle I.
But the Korath have other plans. They attack Begle I and destroy the last ship in the 6th Fighter Squadron. Whenever I lose a squadron completely I never rename another one the same way. So far I have only lost the 1st and 6th ones. Incidentally the only two built on Begle I.
This is the current situation in the Northern Theater. Assuming the 4 attack ship doesn’t give me any trouble I should have complete victory in Operation Gettysburg in one week.
I’ll have the 3rd Fighter Squadron (lower) attack the fleet while the 4th Fighter Squadron will attack the super ship.
I order the 3rd into battle. The Korath ships fire deadly cannons at the Orbitals.
But eventually it is a major Terran victory.
Also the 4th Fighter Squadron attacks the super-ship.
My fleet demolishes it and only takes one hit point worth of damage. After a year of war and many ships lost on both sides I am finally back where I started. Except this time money is on my side. I owe my success to the Orbital star fighter that I could produce in numbers and my economy could afford. Now that the Operation Gettysburg is called to a close I prepare for the attack on Tykosky III in Operation Little Round Top…
