Star Trek Alliance Campaign Pt5 - Cue Up The DS9 Music
10th May 2025
Barry
10 mins
Welcome to Part 5 of the campaign, and the finish line is in sight. Events from the previous missions - like destroying a fascist army’s drug supply - are influencing the game at this point as the toll of the war carries on. We’ve made some minor adjustments to our ships but we are at a point where we’re just playing around the margins - and mostly based on the near death experiences we’ve all had.
Supply Run
The setup for this mission is daunting. The mission is to contact the Cardassian resistance and deliver the supplies the need to destabilise the Dominion’s defences. The only problem of the five Cardassian ships that are on the board, we need to locate the single ship with the resistance on it, get its shields down, beam the supplies onto and then run.
Once again I’m in the thick of it.
The kicker is it will still attack us, even after we’ve identified it and handed off the supplies.
The Galors are all set up for their patrol directions, which at least means they’re not going to come gunning for us immediately. The patrol rules actually result in two of them bumping which is honestly a bit of a life saver as a start to round 1. We manage to rush up to and take shields off all but one of the Galors, and so now it’s all about scanning them.
On return fire Jim loses a shield and Alex loses 4 which is a bit of shake up to our plans.
I take two shots but fortunately only lose a single shield which after seeing the hits on Alex is a bit of relief. As we scan the enemy we don’t find the resistance, and so the search goes on. At the end of the round, Dominion reinforcements arrive in the form of five Jem’Hadar fighters behind us.
Best of luck Ando…
Round 2 kicks off with the Jem’Hadar chasing and closing the gap on us while the Galors acquire locks on their favourite target – me. One of the Galor’s bumps Jim and another has flanked Bone.
I end up bumping so I can’t scan any of the ships to search for the resistance though despite all the locks on me I’ve managed to avoid multiple incoming shots. Bone manages to absolutely blitz one of the ships we scanned previously.
We mostly avoid getting shot except for Ando – who while cloaked completely blanks out on his green dice and cops three hits, two of which are critical damage. Fortunately Alex scans a Galor and finds the resistance which focuses our efforts of getting the supplies onto them.
So we start round 3 wondering how to best do that since its moving away from us. And while the board state is starting to get messy meaning we can’t get supplies on there, though it does mean that Ando and I are able to get in and kill stuff.
I manage to destroy a Galor, and then all action shifts to the other side of the table where Bone and Jim attempt to destroy the Jem’Hadar fighters who return fire into Bone leaving him on 3 health.
Round 4 kicks off with the Breen entering the game into the mess. We manage to kill another Galor but amongst the chaos Bone cops more damage and somehow limps away on one hull.
Likewise, Jim also cops another 4 damage, and I blank out whilst cloaked copping a single crit.
The congo line of death happens sometimes.
The board-state remains an absolute mess starting next round, and we kick off our attacks with Alex destroying a fighter that was harassing him which also allows us to beam the supplies to the resistance. Ando and I engage the enemy congo line but we fall just short of destroying one of the Breen ships and so they all return fire which just strips tokens and upgrades from me.
Round 6 and things are dicey – I shoot at a Galor though fail to kill it. It returns fire and I’m left burning on 2 hull. Ando destroys a Breen ship though he also is left on just 2 hull. Thankfully Alex and Jim complete the objective which means it’s time to cut and run.
Round 7 I try to bail as fast as possible without getting shot up too much by the chasing Galor. Bone and Ando have shots on him and his Breen counterpart and manage to take out the pair of them. The subsequent rounds we progressively escape – not before the resistance ship shoots Alex a quick thankyou for a couple of damage.
“The Dogs of War”
The enemy has completely withdrawn from Alliance space and are tightening their lines of defence. Making a break through their lines is the goal here – and to do that we need to destroy the flagships and make a breakthrough to Cardassia Prime. Fortunately we’re bolstered with a escorting support ship which increases our action economy and can take some hits for us.
There’s a lot of ships to puch through here.
The first round sees the Dominion closing the gap early down the centre of the board – which seems a bit reckless but they are suffering withdrawal since we destroyed their supply a few missions back at Penumbra. This is also manifested by the fact that the Jem’Hadar units have started the mission with one hull damage.
Good times.
The Dominion battleship misses Bone who burns through his defensive upgrades to avoid the shot. In response however he completely decimates a Jem’Hadar fighter in front of him. Jim and I also manage to one-shot a fighter each while Ando puts some big hits into the flagship on our side of the board – but it has plenty of health still and destroying will take some doing. The rest of the Dominion attempt to shoot back but they don’t manage to inflict any damage. End of this round the Cardassian reinforcements arrive in the form of five Galors.
Second round and I’m already suspecting I’ve overplayed my hand with three of the Galors right in front of me which makes me wish I’d managed to remain cloaked to stop them locking me. The enemy flagship destroys Jim’s escort and it also follows up with a second shot into Bone which he fortunately evades.
This is what a dead warbird looks like.
Ando manages to destroy the battlecruiser on our side of the board, whilst Jim and Bone team up to finish off the other one. So that’s one objective down.
I put a few hits into a Galor and I’m fortunate to only lose a shield and escort ship after taking three shots from the elite Galors. Bone and Ando’s escorts are nearly destroyed also but hold on to support them into the next round. The Breen reinforcements arrive in the form of five ships, again right in front of me.
I’m cooked.
Round 3 the board-state is getting complicated and messy for the AI and players. The enemy is fixated on me courtesy of my own poor decisions, and so I have six target locks following me around as I move hoping to avoid too many arcs though that’s a difficult proposition with the Galors 180 degree arcs.
Bone and I team up on the Breen and destroy two of them, which ultimately reduces the number of shots incoming – but there’s still three modded Galor’s shooting at me for which I lose only three shields and a hull which is a minor miracle. I’ve played rabbit for the rest of the team long enough and I need to bail as I don’t have the shields, hull, or even manoeuvring options to keep in the fight with the Breen.
A casserole of nonsense befalls the battle.
Round 4 and the Cardassian’s have had enough of this war, and they turn on the Dominion by targeting the rest of the enemy, which frees us up to make our run to Cardassia. Of course, Bone turns in to keep fighting – bloody Klingons. He destroys one Breen ship, and the Cardassians start tearing into the Breen by killing one and severely damaging another.
Round 5 and Alex, Ando and I all escape. Jim and Bone are both short so they attempt to put more hits into the enemy to help the Cardassian’s though they don’t achieve much. They don’t really need the help though as they remove the Breen from the table and are left to fight the scraps on the Jem’Hadar.
The next round Jim and Bone are sure to escape and join us as we head to Cardassia.
Debrief
We only have one mission to close out the campaign - the invasion of Cardassia. The defences are significant with heavy weapons platforms, and plenty of ships. It’s going to be an epic battle but don’t worry - there’s another surprise in store for the Alliance before they can enjoy their victory.
Cheers,
- Barry