Favorite Honorverse Battle

crewdude48 wrote:

cthia wrote:
I like First Yeltsin as well. For so many pointed reasons.

Honor was outgunned. Her ship was damaged.

But can you imagine what that did for her likeability quotient in the eyes of the Graysons when they saw pinpricks of destruction in the heavens above denoting the battles a previously unliked off-worlder was fighting for their world against Masadan fanatics intent on destroying them?

But I could only pick one so I went with Crandall getting reamed.

As NortonIDaughter pointed out, my niece is evil.
It really is difficult to pick just one.

Also, if I am not mistaken, watching those battles is what motivated Abigail Hearns to join.

Thanks for the nod to read Hornblower.
I'm looking forward to it more and more.

Just for the record, Honor wasn't there for first Yeltsin. 1st was with the RMN destroyer and the GSN, when the Admirals died. Then was the battle of Blackbird. Then was 2nd Yeltsin, with Honor's death ride in her CA. 3rd was the trap at the start of the war. And 4th Yeltsin was Honor's death ride in her SDs.

Thanks. I always incorrectly lump them together.

SaganamiFan wrote:This may sound cheesy, but I have to go with First Basilisk. Reading it was just so intense, so personal, so one on one. Like seeing Das Boot or Hunt for Red October for the first time as a kid.

There were a lot of awesome battles after that, but none made me feel quite like this.

Cheesy?

How could anyone get cheesy out of liking First Basilisk the most?!

I'm surprised there aren't more votes cast in that direction.

I'm surprised I didn't cast a vote in that direction!!

NortonIDaughter.
On my niece being evil.
The truth, we can't handle the truth!
Who can pick just one!

And the reference to Hunt For Red October.
I love that movie as well and haven't seen it for years.
I think I'm going to watch it now!

I've always liked the small unit engagements as well. My favourite perhaps, is Caslet (PNS Vaubon) vs. Arnor's pirate sqn at Schiller in HAE.

Although the description is rather short, it contains so many outstanding elements:

Characters thet I really like - Caslet, Foraker and even Denis Jourdain.

Innovative tactics - Foraker's "spinning dervish" double broadside approach.

Really evil, yet textured and somewhat competent, bad guys - Arnor's sqn of Warnecke's "navy".

Great moral courage - Caslet and Jourdain's decision to come to the aid of a Manty "freighter" (even if they planned to capture it themselves after dealing with the pirates).

Whipsawed emotions, especially for the Vaubon's crew - desperate battle, enemies destroyed, 3:1 odds against, sudden unexpected victory and then sudden unexpected surrender and capture by no other than the great bogeyman - Harrington.

Cheers

You might do with High Sugar Cereals what I did:
Treat them as sugar, not cereal!

E g Sugar Rice Krinkles had too much, taken straight, so
I sprinkled them over Rice Krispies as if they were sugar.

HTM

cthia wrote:
[snip - htm]

It all began when she was about 14 months old. We were at a grocery store and she picked up a box of cereal and said to me "Uncle, I really want this cereal but I know I can't have it because it has such a high sugar content."
[snip - htm]

Mine too.
Partly because it showed Honor as still *behind* Lester
at Fleet Battle Manouvers.
When he changed course, she ought to have overmatched him.

HTM

saber964 wrote:[snip - htm]
My favorite battle was Second Marsh.
[snip - htm]

I'd have to say one of my favorite battles was the Battle of the Selker Rift. Aside from having an awesome name it had that fatalistic death-ride quality about it. There was the knowledge that whoever stayed behind was going to die and then all of the noble little acts that went unnoticed with people giving up their chance to get off the ship safely to spare someone else. There was the sense of epsrit de corps that motivated those who stayed behind. There was the realization on the part of Artemis and her crew and passengers that they were witnessing something grand, a real Saganami moment, but could only hope they survived due to Wayfarer's death to let Manticore know what happened.

All of the tension and buildup to the actual battle, which only lasted a couple of seconds as Wayfarer and Achmed tore each other apart at knife-range, was beautifully done. Following that, there was the picking up the pieces of the shattered ships and crews and then the waiting with no hope of rescue (for both Manticorans and Peeps alike as Honor sent Tremaine to find survivors on Achmed). Finally, it was capped off with the dramatic rescue using Artemis' shuttles...

Gets me every time. Especially when you factor in the beginning of the whole battle with Honor finding out about Hawkwing fighting to the death which initially allowed Artemis to escape. Hawkwing was her first hyper-capable command and she mourns its loss.

The whole battle is best summed up in this quote:

Yet there was no other way. She'd gotten another eight hundred people off Wayfarer, reducing the death toll to just over a thousand. One thousand men and women—and two treecats—who would die to save four thousand others. By any measure, that had to be a worthwhile bargain, but, oh, how it hurt.

Excuse, me...

[quote="Amaroq"]I'd have to say one of my favorite battles was the Battle of the Selker Rift. Aside from having an awesome name it had that fatalistic death-ride quality about it. There was the knowledge that whoever stayed behind was going to die and then all of the noble little acts that went unnoticed with people giving up their chance to get off the ship safely to spare someone else. There was the sense of epsrit de corps that motivated those who stayed behind. There was the realization on the part of Artemis and her crew and passengers that they were witnessing something grand, a real Saganami moment, but could only hope they survived due to Wayfarer's death to let Manticore know what happened.



Another excellent choice from perhaps IMHO the best book of the series.

gloves wrote:I've always liked the small unit engagements as well. My favourite perhaps, is Caslet (PNS Vaubon) vs. Arnor's pirate sqn at Schiller in HAE.

Although the description is rather short, it contains so many outstanding elements:

Characters thet I really like - Caslet, Foraker and even Denis Jourdain.

Innovative tactics - Foraker's "spinning dervish" double broadside approach.

Really evil, yet textured and somewhat competent, bad guys - Arnor's sqn of Warnecke's "navy".

Great moral courage - Caslet and Jourdain's decision to come to the aid of a Manty "freighter" (even if they planned to capture it themselves after dealing with the pirates).

Whipsawed emotions, especially for the Vaubon's crew - desperate battle, enemies destroyed, 3:1 odds against, sudden unexpected victory and then sudden unexpected surrender and capture by no other than the great bogeyman - Harrington.

Cheers

Cheers! That's another battle I really love. I have a terrible weakness for all things Havenite, as you'll find out if you hang around here a bit longer, and Warner Caslet is one of my all-time favorite characters. Watching him take down Warnecke and his pirates was just so satisfying.

Not to mention seeing Shannon Foraker do awesome, awesome things at the tactical station. I know she's needed at Bolthole and I'm practically wiping up the drool at the prospect of seeing her work with Sonja Hemphill, but just once more I'd like to see her as a tac officer....

Howard T. Map-addict wrote:You might do with High Sugar Cereals what I did:
Treat them as sugar, not cereal!

E g Sugar Rice Krinkles had too much, taken straight, so
I sprinkled them over Rice Krispies as if they were sugar.

HTM

cthia wrote:
[snip - htm]

It all began when she was about 14 months old. We were at a grocery store and she picked up a box of cereal and said to me "Uncle, I really want this cereal but I know I can't have it because it has such a high sugar content."
[snip - htm]

Ah, the excesses of sugar cereal. I think the most over the top one I remember from my childhood (vaguely) was one brand with a space theme, where the sugar laced puffs were in the shapes of stars and planets, etc. As if that wasn't enough, there were Pop Rocks in them.

roseandheather wrote:Not to mention seeing Shannon Foraker do awesome, awesome things at the tactical station. I know she's needed at Bolthole and I'm practically wiping up the drool at the prospect of seeing her work with Sonja Hemphill, but just once more I'd like to see her as a tac officer....

There is one possible means of getting Shannon Foraker back in space - once Hemphill and her staff are settled in, replace Shannon with "Five" Anders.

As the "staff interpreter" translating between the Havenite engineers and non-engineers and being part of Bolthole for so long, Anders is probably the best the RHN has for coordinating efforts to duplicate RMN technology with Havenite components. Besides Foraker herself, of course.

However, I think the GA currently has enough flag officers to fill out the necessary field command slots. Haven is still short on seniority - when Admiral Thomas Theisman was still a Commander, Thomas Caparelli was already a full Admiral of the Green. For that matter, Hemphill herself was an Admiral of the Red at the time! Getting the Octagon nuked at the peak of McQueen's coup attempt wiped out not only all those flag officers, but also their staffers and potential successors, coming after the Committee's purges. Shannon can cause a great deal more damage by staying at Bolthole.