The Battle of Astate
The planet Astate is located in the Boden Star System, inside the Iserlohn Corridor. It was well within the front line of the FPA-Imperial War, and saw numerous battles, including the famous Battle of Astate.
Notable Battles[]
The Battle of Astate[]
In Imperial Year 487, an Alliance Fleet attempted to surround and anihilate a much smaller Imperial Fleet, under the command of newly-promoted Imperial Admiral, Reinhard von Lohengramm.
The Alliance fleet was nearly twice the size of the Imperial fleet. Instead of attacking directly, however, the Alliance forces broke apart into three separate fleets, of roughly 13,000 warships each. The Alliance fleets then attempted to encircle Reinhard's fleet of only 20,000 warships, and achieve a perfect victory by attacking the Imperial Fleet from three different angles simultaneously and annihilating it.
Reinhard von Lohengramm saw through the rather simple strategy immediately, and ordered his fleet to advance toward one of the Alliance Fleets before the trap could be implemented. Attacking the a single fleet while the other two were out of range, Reinhard would hold the numerical advantage. He easily anihilated the Alliance's Fourth Fleet, under the command of Vice Admiral Pastoll. At this point, Commodore Yang Wenli, a strategeic advisor Admiral Paeta of the Alliance's Second Fleet, recommended the Second Fleet immediately move to join up with the Sixth fleet, and then move to attack the Imperial Fleet. Admiral Paeta refused, opting instead to move in to support the besieged Fourth Fleet.
Lohengramm's break-through attempt.
By the time Admiral Paeta's Second Fleet made it to the Fourth Fleet, it had been all-but-obliterated, and Reinhard von Lohengramm's forces had already begun their assault on the Sixth Fleet, under Vice Admiral Moore. The Sixth Fleet was completely wiped out. Reinhard von Lohengramm then attacked the Fourth Fleet. Admiral Paeta was severely injured early in the battle, and Commodore Yang Wenli assumed command of the Fourth Fleet.
The ring formation.
Yang Wenli's ordered the Fourth Fleet to attack the Imperial forces at their own discretion, and after a bit of steady fighting, Reinhard von Lohengramm ordered his fleet to take a spindle formation, and break through the enemy's lines. Yang Wenli took advantage of this: while the Imperial Fleet broke through, the Alliance ships pretended to be routed, splitting into two groups which then assaulted the Imperial fleet from behind. Reinhard was then forced to turn to attack, resulting in a massive ring formation between the two fleets--like two snakes devouring each other from their tails. Unwilling to waste time and lives in a pointless battle of attrition, Reinhard retreated from the Boden Star System, allowing Yang Wenli to do the same.
2,450,000 Imperial soldiers survived the Battle of Astate. The Alliance survivors numbered 4,060,000. However, the number of Imperial casualties came to only 150,000, while the Alliance had 1,500,000 casualties--ten times as many. Though the Battle of Astate was an enormous loss for Free Planets Alliance, Yang Wenli's successful retreat allowed the Alliance leadership to successfully portray the battle as a "victory," and to name Yang Wenli, already the "Hero of El Facil," as the "Hero of Astate."