Wargaming the Raid on Tralp

Tralp and the Dootchen Cluster circa 1000.

The Dootchen Estates, supremely confident in its own military prowess and long isolated from the fighting of the Rim War, did not feel particularly threatened by the Imperial invasion of Anise subsector. After all, in over 3,000 years of recorded history no foreign army had ever set foot on the capital world of Tralp (Magyar 1913). The government of the Estates had even sent two divisions of armored infantry and two regiments of the elite Aazlantrope into the Solomani Rim to assist the Confederation. They would soon regret that decision.

The Tralp mainworld orbits inside the 100 diameter limit of its K5 V primary, so the Imperial 9th Fleet was forced to jump in-system just outside this area, giving the defenders enough time to scramble an interception force as the 9th made at best speed for Tralp. The Imperials were met by the two system defense squadrons as well as the Confederation 12th AssaultRon, the 56th FleetRon, and the 6th HSRon.

Order of Battle

Solomani Confederation Units

Unit	TL	Jump	Rating
12th AssaultRon	13	3	2-8-6
56th FleetRon	13	3	4-0-5
6th HSRon	14	3	1-1-5
Tralp PatRon	11	3	0-0-2
Tralp Monitor	11	0	0-0-2
120 SDBs	11	0	–

Imperial Units

Unit	TL	Jump	Rating
380th CruRon	14	4	3-2-3
381st CruRon	14	4	2-1-4
587th CruRon	14	5	2-2-2
602nd CruRon	14	5	2-2-2
706th CruRon	14	4	3-0-3
811th CruRon	14	4	1-2-3
428th BatRon	14	4	5-1-4
492nd BatRon	14	4	4-0-6
495th BatRon	14	4	4-0-6
246th TankRon	14	3	0-0-4

Resolution

For this battle, I used rules from Fifth Frontier War instead of Invasion Earth. FFW allows units to be reduced before being eliminated completely; it also treats SDBs individually rather than combined into wings of 50 SDBs. Together these changes create more back-and-forth as space combats go quite a bit longer than in IE.

• Turn 1
  
  • Attack
    
    • Imperial squadrons roll 6
    • Solomani squadrons roll 1
      
  • Damage
    
    • Imperials deal 7 damage, eliminate Confederation 6th HSRon, Tralp PatRon
    • No damage
• Turn 2
  
  • Attack
    
    • Imperial squadrons roll 2
    • Solomani squadrons roll 5
  • Damage
    
    • Imperials deal 4 damage, eliminate Tralp monitor squadron and reduce 12th AssaultRon to 1-4-3
    • Solomani deal 2 damage, reduce 428th BatRon to 3-1-2
• Turn 3
  
  • Attack
    
    • Imperial squadrons roll 4
    • Solomani squadrons roll 1
  • Damage
    
    • Imperials deal 5 damage, eliminate 12th AssaultRon and reduce 56th FleetRon to 2-0-3
    • No damage
• Turn 4
  
  • 56th FleetRon withdraws and jumps outsystem to Namedih (Magyar 1713)
  • Imperials move to the Tralp interface, engage SDBs
  • Attack
    
    • Imperial squadrons roll 5
    • Tralp SDBs roll 1
  • Damage
    
    • Imperials inflict 60% casualties on SDBs
    • SDBs do 1 damage, reduce 706th CruRon to 2-0-2
• Turn 5
  
  • Attack
    
    • Imperial squadrons roll 3
    • Tralp SDBs roll 1
  • Damage
    
    • Imperial squadrons inflict 20% casualties on SDBs
    • No damage
• Turn 6
  
  • Attack
    
    • Imperial squadrons roll 1
    • Tralp SDBs roll 4
  • Damage
    
    • No damage
    • Tralp SDBs eliminate 706th CruRon
• Turn 7
  
  • Attack
    
    • Imperial squadrons roll 6
    • Tralp SDBs roll 3
  • Damage
    
    • Imperial squadrons inflict 50% casualties on SDBs
    • SDBs inflict 1 damage, reduces 811th CruRon to 1-1-2
• Turn 8
  
  • Attack
    
    • Imperial squadrons roll 3
    • Tralp SDBs roll 1
  • Damage
    
    • Imperial squadrons inflict 20% casualties on SDBs
    • No damage
• Turn 9
  
  • Attack
    
    • Imperial squadrons roll 1
    • Tralp SDBs roll 2
  • Damage
    
    • Imperial squadrons inflict 10% casualties on SDBs
    • No damage
• Turn 10
  
  • Attack
    
    • Imperial squadrons roll 3
    • Tralp SDBs roll 4
  • Damage
    
    • Imperial squadrons inflict 40% casualties on SDBs
    • SDBs inflict 1 damage, reduces 587th CruRon to 1-1-1
• Turn 11
  
  • Attack
    
    • Imperial squadrons roll 6
    • Tralp SDBs roll 1
  • Damage
    
    • Imperial squadrons inflict 90% casualties on SDBs
    • No damage
• Turn 12
  
  • Attack
    
    • Imperial squadrons roll 5
    • Tralp SDBs roll 3
  • Damage
    
    • Imperials eliminate remaining SDBs
    • No damage

After Action Report

The subsequent battle in far orbit above Tralp was vicious but decisive. The Imperial Fleet dispatched the system squadrons as well as the 12th AssaultRon and 6th HSRon; the 56th FleetRon was severely mauled and barely managed to jump out in the face of destruction.

The 9th Fleet then moved into position for bombardment runs when swarms of system defense boats emerged from the atmosphere. The 706th CruRon was shredded in the subsequent fighting and the 587th CruRon and its Lightning-class fleet intruders were forced to pull back from the fray. After grinding down the persistent SDBs the Fleet destroyed the mainworld’s Class B starport and left the capital city of Tralpstad a smouldering ruin. It is ironic that one of Kemper’s most iconic decisions of the campaign is also the most atypical: the selection of a largely symbolic target rather than one with high industrial or military value.

After razing Tralp Admiral Arrighetti and the 9th Fleet began to systematically harrass the member worlds of the Estates. The Jump-5 capabilities of her Lightning-class fleet intruders allowed them to strike essentially anywhere in Voyager subsector, and by the time Confederation reinforcements jumped into besieged systems they found only shattered starports, shipyards, industrial centers, and communication networks. In only 18 weeks the 9th Fleet struck at Wondagaal (2204), Stevanic (2413), Voorond (2416), Vaderwall (2218), Pieper (1919), Vivian (1817), Voetsak (1815), and Headley (1714), all lightly defended systems with good or better starports. Word of the Raid on Tralp quickly spread throughout Magyar and soon no Confederation world in the sector felt safe.

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