The key for the Lyran was to hit the Gorn twice with the ESGs while only taking the Gorn's plasma torpedos once. The Lyran failed in to follow that simple plan and consequently lost the duel. The battle started innocently enough, with both ships closing in at medium speeds. The Gorn launched his shuttles to provide a slow weapons platform he could hide behind later. The Lyran probed the Gorn with some Disruptors, but the Gorn had reinforcement to take care of that.

Turn 2 was more eventful. The Lyran sped in at speed 24 while the Gorn stayed at speed 17. The Lyran approached obliquely, in an effort to keep both Gorn plasma torpedos from tracking him at once. Both ships made serious mistakes because they closed too quickly. Too late the Lyran realized that he couldn't deploy the ESGs before he passed the Gorn. A mental lapse on my part meant that I didn't remember that ESGs can be deployed with a radius greater than zero, so the Lyran could have dragged the ESGs over the Gorn rather than rammed the Gorn frontally. But since I didn't think of this the Lyran sidestepped and dumped his Phasers and Disruptors at the Gorn's #6 shield, caving it in and scoring 15 damage -- no torpedos hit, only two phasers.

The Gorn made his own mistake by launching the plasma torpedos too close to the Lyran. Because of the way the launchers are mounted, the Lyran was past one torpedo before it could hit him. One torpedo hit the Lyran's #1 shield, which along with a couple of phasers caved it in and did inconsequential damage. The Lyran had launched two seeking shuttles, which were going to hit the Gorn, so the Gorn had to destroy them with four phasers. The other plasma torpedo turned around and was able to hit the Lyran in the #4 shield. After that exchange the Lyran sped past and, once the Gorn shuttles fired their phasers, proceeded to ram the Gorn shuttles with the ESGs, destroying all six.

So at the end of Turn 2 the Gorn had one down shield, the #6, and some internal damage amounting to his two left side phasers and a couple of warp, making his left side the weak side. The Lyran had no #1, or #4 shields and had taken some internal damage amounting to two phaser-3s, a Disruptor, and four warp. Both ships had turned around and were now heading obliquely towards each other, at a range of 4-6 hexes. The Lyran had definitely taken a bit more than he had given, but he still had hope if he could rearm the ESGs and overrun the Gorn by turn 4, before the Gorn rearmed his plasma torpedos. Unfortunately, without the front or rear shields, the Lyran would have a hard time either closing in or running away, as proved to be the case.

Realizing that he need to get some distance between himself and the Gorn, the Lyran sped up to speed 27, only powering life support, the shields, and three phaser points. The Gorn slowed to 12 as he recharged his weapons and batteries and started fixing his #6 shield. The Lyran tried to get away from the Gorn by going around him, but the map edge kept him close enough that the Gorn was able to get a range 4 shot with 5 phasers, knocking down the #5 shield.

On turn 4, the Lyran had nothing ready to go and here we come to a shortcoming of the Lyran design, not enough power to reload every weapon and keep up a battle speed. He had to slow down to speed 14 as he recharged his phasers, the ESGs, and his Disruptors. Meanwhile the Gorn sped up to 17 and continued arming his plasma torpedos. As the Gorn ran he again fired at the Lyran, bringing down the #6 shield. The Lyran now had only two shields left, the #2 and #3, both on the right side of the ship. The Gorn was running away in front of and to the left of the Lyran at a range of 3, just far enough away not be hit by the ESGs at max radius. The Lyran chased and before turned to run, fired his phasers and disruptors, bringing down the #2 shield but not doing any real damage.

Turn 5. Knowing that he was going to take a lot of damage now that he had practically no shields, the Lyran sped up to speed 20 and with a war cry charged the Gorn. The Gorn stayed at speed 17. The Gorn turned and fired a plasma torpedo at the Lyran, who somehow maneuvered and took it in the #3 shield. The Gorn also fired phasers and took down the #2 shield. Internal damage destroyed one ESG. The Gorn then turned again and fired his other plasma torpedo, which hit the Lyran before the Lyran could close with the Gorn. The last plasma torpedo gutted the Lyran ship, leaving the Gorn victorious.

Lessons learned: don't lose your #1 shield. Think ahead to make sure your weapons will hit the other ship. Don't be afraid to take damage, because it'll just be worse later on.