Turn 1. Starting at a range of 50 hexes, the Lyran Heavy Cruiser "S. M. S. Prowess" armed its Disruptors, finished filling its two Expanding Sphere Generators (ESG), and set a speed of 19. The Romulan War Eagle Cruiser "I. R. V. Eagle" only had its Plasma R Torpedo to arm, so it also made speed 19, even with less power than the Prowess. At the end of the turn the Prowess fired its Disruptors, since otherwise the energy would go to waste, and scored nine points of damage on the Eagle's #2 shield.

Turn 2. The Prowess sped up to the maximum speed of 31, getting the extra power by not arming the Disruptors. The Prowess now wanted to ram the Eagle with its ESGs. Meanwhile the Eagle sped up to 21, then fired its Plasma R at impulse 8 and turned to run away. The Prowess turned and ran away from the Plasma R, phasering it at close range and finally taking it in the #4 shield for 4 points of damage, before resuming the chase.

Turn 3. The Eagle slows to 7 and cloaks. The Prowess is at speed 20 and some 20+ hexes away. He fires his Disruptors at the Eagle before it can fully cloak, scoring 6 points of damage to the #5 shield. Then the Prowess closes in.

Turn 4. At a speed of 14, the Prowess charges his Disruptors and prepares to attack. The Eagle remains cloaked and stops. He decides to reinforce the #3 shield and, with Tactical Maneuvering (Tac), use that shield to take the brunt of the ESG ram. The Prowess closes in, launches his shuttles, and fires his Disruptors at close range, doing some 20 points of damage to the #3 shield. The Eagle launches its shuttles, which are immediately shot down. The Eagle then Tacs to take the ESGs on the #4 shield, which goes down, allowing 11 internals through. No weapons hit, some power damage. The Eagle starts to uncloak once the Prowess passes.

Turn 5. The Eagle fires his Phasers at the retreating Prowess, destroying the #4 shield and doing two internal damage, one of which is a Disruptor. The Prowess' shuttles stay with the Eagle, scoring some damage. Meanwhile, the Prowess is running at max speed in case the Eagle fires a Plasma Torpedo.

Turn 6. At a range of about 25 the Prowess turns and snipes at the Eagle, as the Eagle starts moving, taking some time to destroy the Prowess' shuttles.

Turn 7. Due to the previous damage, the Eagle can only manage speed 13 while keeping its Plasma R ready to go. The Prowess keeps running, recharging the ESGs while turning and sniping again at the Eagle at the end of the turn.

Turn 8+. The Prowess reaches the corner of the map and turns, its ESGs charged. As the Prowess and Eagle head for each other, they exchange short range fire, with the Prowess' shields holding up while the Eagle takes some damage, though once again the weapons are spared. The Eagle fires his Plasma R at close range which the Prowess takes on the #1 shield, taking 8 internal and losing and ESG and another Disruptor.

The Eagle turns, taking the Prowess' one ESG on a fresh shield. As the two ships move away, the Eagle desperately tries to rearm the Plasma Torp while the faster Prowess turns. At close range, the Prowess Alpha Strikes the Eagle gutting it, while the Eagle's return fire destroys the other ESG.

A closer fight than I thought. Once I decided that the Eagle was going to take damage no matter what, the frontal assault at least allowed the Eagle to do some damage while taking a lot. Lucky hits really cut down on the Prowess' firepower, while the power hits on the Eagle hurt it a lot. The lesson learned today was: don't be afraid to take damage.