The first battle: using classic HG rules.
First turn. Initiative: Cruiser (P) fleet. Long Range. Both commanders put all four ships in the line. The Cruiser (M) fleet split its meson fire between the four Cruisers (P), and concentrated its 64 nuclear missile salvoes on the Whisky. The Cruisers (P) concentrated all of their fire on the Africa. The Africa suffered 2 particle accelerator hits, but all the damage it sustained was a single weapon hit, taken by its Meson gun. The Whisky suffered 6 nuclear missile hits, causing loss of 295 tons of fuel and 1 weapon hit (taken by the particle accelerator).
Second turn. Initiative: Cruiser (P) fleet. Long range. All ships in the line. The Cruiser (M) fleet again split its Meson fire whilst concentrating its nuclear missiles - this time on the X-Ray. The Cruiser (P) fleet again concentrated all of its fire on a single ship - this time the Brazil. The Brazil suffered 4 particle accelerator hits, but its armour deflected most of the damage. It suffered just 3 weapon hits, which were taken by its meson gun, missiles and repulsors. The X-Ray suffered 6 nuclear missile hits, resulting in the loss of 295 tons of fuel and 3 weapon hits, which were suffered by it Particle Accelerator, Missiles and Repulsor.
Third turn. Initiative: Cruiser (M) fleet. Short range. All ships in the line. The Cruisers (M) again split their meson fire, whilst concentrating their missile fire - this time on the Yankee. The Cruisers (P) concentrated the whole weight of their fire on the China. The Yankee suffered 4 nuclear missile hits, which caused loss of 148 tons of fuel. The China suffered 3 particle accelerator hits, resulting in two weapon hits. These were taken by the Meson Gun and Repulsors.
Fourth Turn. Initiative: Cruiser (M) fleet. Short range. All ships in line. The Cruiser (M) fleet again split their fire, and concentrated their missile fire on the Yankee again. The Cruiser (P) fleet concentrated its fire on the Delhi. The Yankee suffered 4 nuclear missile hits, resulting in the loss of 148 tons of fuel and two weapon hits, which were taken by the particle accelerator and missile bay. The Delhi was struck by 3 particle accelerators, causing two weapon hits which were taken by the Meson gun and the repulsors.
Fifth turn. Initiative: Cruiser (P) fleet. Long range. All ships in line. The Cruiser (M) fleet again divided its meson fire, and concentrated its missiles on the Zulu. The Cruiser (P) fleet concentrated its fire on the Brazil. The Zulu suffered 6 nuclear missile hits, resulting in the loss of 148 tons of fuel and 2 weapon hits, which were taken on the particle accelerator and repulsor. The Brazil was hit by all four particle accelerators and suffered 4 weapon hits, which were taken on the sandcasters, lasers, fusion guns and meson gun.
Sixth turn. Initiative: Cruiser (P) fleet. Long Range. All ships in line. The cruiser (M) fleet again divided its meson fire and concentrated its missile attack on the X-Ray. The Cruiser (P) fleet concentrated its fire on the Brazil. The X-Ray suffered 6 nuclear missile hits, causing the loss of 148 tons of fuel and four weapons hits, which were taken by the sandcasters, lasers, fusion guns and particle accelerator. The Brazil was struck by all four particle accelerators and suffered two weapons hits, which were taken by the missiles and repulsors.
Seventh turn. Initiative: Cruiser (P) fleet. Long range. All 8 ships in line. Both fleets divided their fire as before. The X-Ray was struck by 6 nuclear missiles, causing 4 weapon hits which were taken by the missiles, repulsor, sandcasters and lasers. The Brazil was hit by two particle accelerators, causing a single weapon hit which was taken by the sandcasters.
Eighth turn. Initiative: Cruiser (P) fleet. Long range. All ships in line. Same division of fire as before. The X-ray suffered a further 6 nuclear missile strikes, causing the loss of a further 443 tons of fuel and two weapons hits which were taken by the fusion gun and the particle accelerator. Only one particle accelerator struck the Brazil, causing a single weapon hit to the lasers.
Ninth turn. Iniative: Cruiser (P) fleet. Short range. All 8 in line. The commander of the Cruiser (P) fleet shortened the range because the enemy's meson guns were not failing to register hits: they were simply failing to penetrate his meson screens. And the enemy's missiles would cause him less harm at short range than at long range. The division of fire on both sides was exactly as it had been for the last few turns. Surprisingly, the X-Ray still suffered another 6 nuclear missile strikes, causing 3 weapon hits which were taken by the missiles, repulsors and sandcasters. The Brazil was hit by two particle accelerators, causing a single weapon hit which was taken by the fusion gun.
Tenth turn. Initiative: Cruiser (M) fleet. Short range. All 8 ships in line. More of the same ... same old story. 3 particle accelerator hits on the Brazil, causing 3 weapon hits which were taken by the meson gun, missiles and repulsors. 6 nuclear missile hits on the X-Ray causing 6 weapon hits. The X-Ray's weapon systems were now sufficiently degraded that on the next turn the commander of the Cruiser (M) squadron felt that he could switch his missile fire to the Zulu; but the commander of the Cruiser (P) squadron felt that as he was now reducing the potency of the Brazil's missile attack, by actually reducing the number of missile batteries bearing, he should keep his fire on the Brazil for the time being.
Elecenth turn. Initiative: Cruiser (P) fleet. Short range. All 8 ships in line. Once again the meson attack failed to bite. The meson guns had now scored 18 hits, all of which had failed to penetrate the screens of the Cruisers (P). The statistical expectation is that 3 of them should have done, and that two of those ought to have penetrated the configuration as well, resulting in half of the Cruisers (P) being knocked out. But in small squadron actions, the die rolls sometimes defy the odds! 5 nuclear missiles penetrated the Zulu's nuclear damper, resulting in a loss of a further 148 tons of fuel and 3 weapons hits which were taken by the missiles, sandcasters and lasers. The particle accelerators scored three hits on the Brazil, resulting in only a single weapon hit, which was taken by the sandcasters.
By this stage I had lost the will to live, and stopped playing. It was clear what the outcome of the battle was going to be. The particle accelerators were only ever going to be able to nibble away at the weapon systems of the Cruisers (M), and at either short or long range the Cruisers (M) were able to nibble away at the Cruisers (P) a little bit faster with their missiles. Sooner or later a meson shot would penetrate and completely knock out a Cruiser (P) - and this would then increase the discrepancy between the rate at which the Cruisers (M) were wearing down the fighting power of the Cruisers (P) and the rate at which the Cruisers (P) were wearing down the fighting power of the Cruisers (M).
But ... and here is the rub - this position had been reached WITHOUT THE CRUISERS (M) EVERY LANDING A HIT WITH THEIR PROIMARY WEAPONS - they had done it all with their secondaries.
This shows two things about HG2 standard combat:
1. In a high-tech, high-armour world, even high-factor Particle Accelerators are pretty pointless pieces of kit. They cannot land killer blows; and they are less effective at doing incremental damage than the same tonnage deveted to missile bays.
2. Modest sized Meson Guns aren't much better. Their ability actually to hit a ship with a factor-9 meson screen is pathetic - albeit that the hits, when they come - are devastating.
