The Fall of Mandalay Gamma

I have a few battle reports and bits and bobs left over from the end of last year, so bear with me as I get through them. First up is this refight of a scenario in which the Attacker has to scan a planet for strategically valuable information. We had already fought this with the roles the other way round, so this time I led a Klingon assault force (4 D6s, an F5 and an E4) to investigate a planet mysterious protected by three Constitution-class heavy cruisers and a Lexington command cruiser. As I recall, I had my fleet divert power to the engines, and surged forward over two turns, reaching the planet in the third. I through out the E4 and F5 as distractions on my left flank, intending to have the D6s scan the planet. The Federation fleet was perhaps inadvisedly divided into a strong right flank and a weak left one.

As I approached the planet I had the advantage of more ships, and that the ships were themselves more manoeuvrable. So I was able to take advantage of the positioning of the left-flank Federation cruiser, and get ships all around it. It took a pounding, and, I think, went down with all hands that turn. As my ships scanned the planet, the rest of the Federation squadron moved in. I elected to distract them with a couple of ships, while keeping some more obscured by the planet. These distractions were probably unnecessary, and just got a couple of ships killed to no real purpose. Anyway, by the time the Federation squadron had cleared the planet, I was able to order my ships to warp in time to zip off back to the High Command with juicy, juicy information. I think it was after this battle (or just in the final turns) that I realised that each ship had to note what it had scanned individually for its points to count. We've played this scenario pretty much to death, so we shall have forgotten by the time we come back to it, no doubt! End result: Klingon victory.