Since no one sent an offer, I made one randomly this time. Here is the result.
Chapter 1 – Humans vs. Batarians
Attacker: System Alliance
Defender: Batarian Hegemony
Convoy escort
Cacus system
Transporting 100 transports from the planet Zayater to Treyarmus.
SA fleet groups:
Carrier group – (Carrier and 3 frigates)
Dreadnought group – (Dreadnought and 3 frigates)
4 heavy groups – (4 Heavy Cruisers)
12 medium groups - (Heavy Cruiser and 3 frigates)
13 light groups – (4 frigates)
BH fleet groups:
Dreadnought group – (Dreadnought and 7 Cruisers)
5 Cruiser groups – (7 Cruisers)
11 frigate groups – (7 Frigates)
The System Alliance Admiral was laughing uproariously upon hearing the news of the combat model, along with the rest of the headquarters and probably the rest of the fleet. Over the past few years, they have escorted convoys and defended them against attacks by Batarian pirates. Now the roles have been reversed.
But they took the task seriously anyway and quickly developed a plan to fight the Batarians.
They knew that the Batarian's shields were worth 12 times the power of the main cannon[1], which was still more than their 10 times the main cannon. Additionally, the high rate of fire would take its toll on them, which would lead to their defeat in direct combat. Over a short distance, it was even worse. Therefore, they had to fight wisely.
The Batarians would certainly take the most direct route through the asteroid field. This would work to the Batarians' advantage, as they would fight at a shorter distance and would quickly cover most of the route with an FTL jump. Then they would have a straight line to Treyarmus and that would be it. The System Alliance's best chance of victory would be to disperse the Batarian fleet and strike the transports when they were relatively undefended.
The Hegemony Admiral was furious. He was supposed to protect the transporters like some lowly noble. But he only fought against weak humans who can't even guard their own borders, so be it. He will finish it as soon as possible and fight against real opponents.
He organized his one hundred transports into a square and set up a fleet for protection. First, 2 cruiser groups and 3 frigate groups to constitute the main attacking core that will break through the Earthling fleet. Then the Dreadnought's group and the 2 frigate groups around it will be 'above' the transports and provide fire support. He will put one group of cruisers and frigates on the sides and under, and he will put the remaining 3 groups of frigates in the rear guard.
As soon as the fight began, the 4 SA medium groups moved into an immediate attack against the Batarians, following the plan to slow down and prepare to set up a suitable trap. SA was allowed to freely position itself in the asteroid belt and the external system and took full advantage of it.
4 heavy cruisers and 12 frigates began firing at the Batarian rear guard. Within seconds they managed to destroy 2 frigates and 3 transports. As soon as the Batarians began to maneuver and redirect their ships' guns, the SA began to retreat beyond effective range, remaining only a little over 50,000 kilometers from their target.
The Batarian Admiral ordered the two groups of frigates in the rear guard to detach from the formation to pursue and engage the attackers in combat. 14 Hegemony frigates were to take on 12 frigates and 4 cruisers. It's an effective exchange. They will then undertake an FTL jump several dozen thousand kilometers from the asteroid belt. And there waiting for him were 1 heavy group, 4 medium groups, and 6 light groups, which gave a total of 8 heavy cruisers and 36 frigates. They fired the first salvo, but they were at the front of the fight and the Batarians quickly responded with salvos of their own. If it weren't for their maneuvering between asteroids, they would have been quickly annihilated. However, the Berlin-class heavy cruisers, faithfully serving System Alliance since the pre-FCW, were too slow to hide completely. Additionally, the Batarians concentrated fire on them, so they quickly reduced their number by half and 2 frigates, in return losing only 3 of their own frigates and 3 transports. The Batarians sent a group of cruisers and three groups of frigates to push them back and destroy them. The System Alliance ships began retreating in 3 different directions, with the main group fleeing towards Treyarmus.
The Hegemony Admiral ordered the pursuit to be divided accordingly. The 2 minor directions had one cruiser and 7 frigates each, and the main one had 2 cruisers and 20 frigates. Therefore, he ordered a group of frigates to be sent after the escapees and continued the attack through the asteroid fields.
As the Batarians began flying in, 7 light SA groups began attacking them from the flanks, constantly harassing the Hegemons but not dealing enough damage to slow them down. However, The Hegemony Admiral had guessed what the SA was planning. By constantly reducing his fleet next to the transporters, they wanted to create a breach through which they could break through and destroy the transports, concentrating the attack on one of the 6 potential Vectors. Already, his main fleet guarding transports has shrunk by some 35%. But he won't fall for it.
He ordered half of the fighters to be sent to capture the SA frigates, thanks to which he would have an advantage in the number of ships during the main battle. As over 200 fighters launched an attack on 20 human frigates, the Hegemony fleet continued.
For the Human Admiral, the battle became not one whole, but several smaller skirmishes. So according to plan. The admiral hoped that the inferior culture of the Batarians would lead to the underestimation of the enemy and excessive separation of their fleet. In this way, his forces could benefit from better training of officers. Additionally, assigning a medium group to this meant that the SA would always have the advantage of firepower.
Having the Batarians send fighters instead of frigates would make his final battle a bit more difficult, but he would still win if he played it right. 14 Batarian ships followed his initial 24, now 20. They had the fire advantage there, thanks to 7 cruisers, and that took out one medium group.
But it paid off as, taking advantage of the asteroid field, the dreadnought's group and 2 heavy groups attacked the Batarian ships, immediately turning the odds in SA's favor with the cruiser destroyed in the first few salvos.
When the Admiral of the Batarian Fleet heard that a human dreadnought would engage his pursuing forces, he decided to accept the challenge, sending another group of cruisers and one group of frigates. SA had to send a group of frigates to slow them down a bit, but this was countered by another group of fighters. Then another group of frigates, blocked by another group of fighters. And the last group of frigates with a cruiser, blocked by another group of fighters. However, this slowed the Hegemony forces enough for the SA fleet to form a formation, although allowing the same time for the Hegemony forces. This became another engagement where the humans fielded a dreadnought, 10 heavy cruisers, and 13 frigates, to Hegemony 10 cruisers and 14 frigates.
And so the Hegemony fleet approached the end of the asteroid belt, where they found the last SA fleet.
The Hegemony Admiral was confident of victory. Despite the need for transport escorts, he knew that each fleet had 120 ships. That's why he knew that the remaining 9 heavy cruisers, 48 frigates, and this human aircraft carrier were all they had left. His 38 cruisers and 34 frigates, commanded by a dreadnought, will easily eliminate them and finish the job.
The Human Admiral looked at the enemy fleet. It had 20 more ships, and the enemy had a higher rate of fire of its main guns and many more cruisers, which meant it could provide at least twice as much firepower in kilotons.
Fortunately, he never lost sight of his goal. He immediately deployed all fighters as he ordered the fleet to fire. His fleet's kinetic barriers quickly began to decline, but still held. At this distance, a lot of coordination was needed to even hit the enemy ship.
The fight between fighters was very one-sided. Humans still had 240 bombers, 120 interceptors, and 336 multi-role fighters in its fleet compared to the other Hegemony's 130 and half of its frigates. These small strike units quickly bypassed the Hegemony ships and began eliminating the transports.
Within minutes, the System Alliance would achieve victory by destroying over 60% of the transports the Batarian Hegemony was supposed to protect.
Result:
System Alliance victory:
Surviving units:
SA: 1 dreadnought, 1 carreir, 21 heavy cruisers, 70 frigates, 703 support crafts
BH: 1 dreadnought, 41 crusiers, 59 frigates, 218 support crafts
=CNN studio=
"That's the end of today's War Games, the winner is System Alliance." - said Seyifma Besava - "We invited a special guest to tell us more about this match. Matriarch Mirunu Saci, commander of the Asari Republics' 4th fleet. Matriarch, what do you think about today's battle."
"Well, Seyufma, I must congratulate the Humans on the great maneuvers of the fleet. The Batarians started going into a trap from the very beginning of the fight."
"Really? Because sometimes it looked like the Human Admiral didn't know what he wanted to achieve. Especially when he initiated his Dreadnought into one engagement and then threw ships around to stop the support of 14 Batarian ships that were attacking his flagship."
"Possible. But a more likely explanation is the desire to split the Batarian fleet into smaller pieces. Please remember that the SA's goal was not to defeat the Batarians, but to eliminate their transports."
"Yes, the SA fighters and bombers proved quite effective, although I don't understand their lack of use of torpedoes on the frigates."
"They most likely wanted to prolong the fighting so that the Batarian commander would continue these actions. However, the Human fighters' contribution to their victory may be a bit of a stretch. Please remember that transports have much weaker kinetic barriers and virtually no armor or any form of point defense. At this point, the Batarians had too few fighters and frigates to stop them."
"And how would you fight SA in Batarin's situation?"
"Of course, I won't reveal my plan publicly, you'll see if Asari and Humans meet in these War Games. But if I were commanding a Batarian fleet, I would deploy most of the cruisers and Dreadnought up front as the backbone of my assault, and the frigates and some cruisers to protect my flanks with fighters in reserve. Then full speed to the target we break through SA with large losses. Most likely, 30% of the ships and transports would be destroyed on my side, compared to 20% of the SA, but the fleet would reach its destination and be victorious."
"And the SA wouldn't change its tactics?"
"They probably are, but they have inferior weapons fire rate and kinetic barriers. Additionally, their officers are mostly trained to fight against small squadrons of ships or alone, rather than against entire fleet groups. Although it's probably better than Bataruans in general, I'm getting off-topic. In short, even if the SA changed tactics, as long as we maintain formation, we should be able to reach the target, no matter what our opponents do."
"I see. Anyway, it was Seyifma Besava from Citadel Network News. See you!"
[1]This is how I calculate kinetic shields. For the Citadel's dreadnought (main gun 38 kilotons) it is from 380 kilotons to 760 kilotons (Asari). So Reaper main guns, which are counted in Megatons, still can one-shot them.