A battle on the Klingon-Cardassian War

Here's a brief Battle Report of a game of Pax Stellarum we recently played at our club, featuring some of the main races of the Star Trek universe.

The Klingons invaded Cardassian territory on 2372, under the assumption that the Dominion was infiltrating the Alpha Quadrant with the support of the Cardassian Union.

By the beginning of year 2373, the Klingons had advanced far into enemy territory, putting the Cardassian military into complete disarray. Just when ultimate victory seemed to be only months away, the invaders were suprised by the disclosure of the Dominion-Cardassian Alliance, and the major power of the Gama Quadrant quickly joined in the war effort, pushing back the all-conquering fleets of the Klingon Empire.

This game we played represent one of those battles where the combined Cardassian-Dominion forces engage the Klingons, currently occupying large portions of cardassian space.

I controlled the cardassians/jem'hadar, while my friend Rafael Soar, also a Star Trek enthusiast, controlled the klingons.

A view of the battlefield from the dominion/cardassian deployment (there is another squadron of Galors, on the far right of the table, visible on the pic below)

The Klingon Deployment

The Klingon flagship Negh' Var, commanded by Chancellor Gowron, was present to this battle, giving this ship a Command Rating 7.

I also had a command ship - one of the jem'hadar battlecruisers - but mine had a Command Rating 6, only (we can assume it had a high-ranking Vorta aboard). Still, good rolls granted me Initiative on most turns, including the Initiative of Deployment.

That being, I chose my opponent to deploy first, and seeing that his klingon fleet was somewhat concentrating in the centre of their deployment zone, I chose to attempt to flank his forces with my galor squadrons, leaving the jem'hadar to deal with the bulk of the enemy forces in the middle.

The Galor squadrons quickly advanced to flank the enemy on both sides. On the right of the klingon deployment, a squadron of Vorchas engaged the cardassians, but were overran after a couple turns. On their left, the klingons had no elements selected to intercept the cardassians, so they made their way to the rear of their formations without trouble.

In the middle of the battlefield, the fleets exchanged fire at close range, inflicting severe damage on each other. My flagship was blown apart, and the klingon flagship almost had the same fate.

The sole Vorcha still left on the right flank of the klingon formation, severely damaged and with a number of systems down, tries to turn away from the onslaught of the enemy advance. Such dishonored ship wouldn't last much longer, though.

The battered jem'hadar battlecruisers accelerate past the klingon lines, to avoid their powerful forward arcs of fire, leaving the fighting to the flanking Galors to their right, while they attempt to maneuver into position to fire at the enemy from their rear.

The agile Birds of Prey quickly pivot to face the jem'hadar, putting the enemy Shields under constant pressure.

The flanking tactics pay off, and the confused klingon ships find themselves surrounded and engaged on several fronts, what forces them to maneuver to face one flank, turning their back to the other.

After 6 turns, played over 3h, we agreeded that the klingon forces were in no shape to continue fighting, and in order to preserve their crippled flagship, they chose to jump into warp and release their hold on yet another cardassian system!