(SGxxxx) WHO ORDERED THE FLOTILLAS? (Draft Version 1 - John Wyszynski - June 2005)

This scenario is a basic scenario in which a base is under attack while replacement PFs are being delivered. The defender has the complication of getting the PFs armed and fighting.

DEFENDER: Battle Station with PF docking module, 2215, WS-I. (BATS does not start with any PFs. They were transfered to battle fleet several weeks earlier.) Transport tug with PF transport pod, pods, or pallet with 12 docking points. (PF transport pods are in Captian's Log #26.), row 01xx, speed 10, facing at palyer's option, and WS-I. Attached to the tug is two replacement flotillas for the base. One flotilla is a standard combat flotilla (four standard PF, one PF leader, and one scout PF), and a support flotilla (one scout PF, one mine warfare PF, one gound assault PF, one recovery PF, and two cargo PF) as described in (R1.1G4). (The recovery PFs are in Captain's Log #21 and #31.)

ATTACKER: Select 3 to 5 ships, up to 350 BPV, row 42xx, speed 10, facing at player's option, and WS-II. The BPV is a guess right now. May need to be adjusted.

SPECIAL RULES:

The PFs are being transported in active state. They are at WS-0, with no warp booster packs installed, no drones/add/plasma-D/mine racks loaded, the heavy weapons are safety locked, and no crews.

The PFs are attached to transport mech-links. Once released, these mech-links cannot be docked to.

Only part of the PFs crews are aboard the tug or base; these are the replacement crew units inclued with the transport pods. The rest of the needed crews must come from the tug or the base.

The PF docking module is fully stocked. This includes 12 replacement warp booster packs and the appropriate drone/plasma-D storage. See (K2.64) and (R1.16).

Warp booster packs may be installed by the base using (K2.64).

Drones, ADDs, and Plasma-D racks must be loaded by the PF docking module using (K2.34).

The safety locks on the heavy weapons must be removed by the repair crews of the PF docking module. In order to remove a safety lock, one point of repair must be applied the weapon; one point of repair for each of two turns will remove all safety locks on a PF. These points do not count against number of repairs that can be conducted during the scenario.

PFs require three crews to operate (the leader requires four). If a PF is no fully manned, rule (K1.311) applies.

The defensive boarding party of a PF included as part of the three crews assigned to it. The offensive boarding party of the PF leader and the ground assault PF must be drawn for the tug's or base's crew.

Neither the PF leader nor the mine warfare PF have their shuttles.

The PF docking module has 16 spaces of mines available for the mine warfare PF. (This should provide two loads for it.)

All PFs have the shield refit.

Assume Y184. Battle Station is fully refitted.

DESIGNER NOTES:

The task for the attacker is straight forward; destroy the battle station and go home.

The task for the defender is far more complicated. You must decide how to use your PFs. Some must be used before being armed by the BATS, while others need to be sent BATS to get armed up to fight.

By Scott Tenhoff (Scottt) on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 03:22 pm: Edit

350 BPV is about 3 DWs (maybe leader, definately no Scout). So with 1 Alpha Strike each they could seriously hurt the Tug, but it should definately go w/ 12ECM (6 from BATS) until all the combat PFs are active.

Thus, the DWs will have problems significantly damaging the PFs while they are on the Tug. (IIRC damage can be resolved verses the docked units on a 1-1 ratio, Cargo hits->PF damage).

Meanwhile the BATSs P4s will be punishing the DWs whenever they get close enough to get a shield breached. The BATS will only need 3 P4s to score some good internals verses the DWs, so lots of extra power to keep ECM up all around.

By Stewart W Frazier (Frazikar) on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 11:05 pm: Edit

Does the BATS have fighters (or were they also transferred off to the fleet)??

By John Wyszynski (Starsabre) on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 11:51 pm: Edit

The 350 BPV is probably low. I need to find a point where the attacker would probably beat the BATS alone, but would probably lose once the PFs are fully operational. This is intended to force the attacker to push the issue hard to win quickly. If he plays it too cautionly, the PFs should crunch him.

The tug isn't really intended to big part of the combat force. It will give the defender some firepower but the defender would suffer a big penalty for losing such a vaulable asset. It is quite possible for the tug to simply launch all the PFs, with some being undermanned, and then disengage. A choice for the defender to make.

I didn't include fighters with the BATS mainly to reduce some complexity. It would be more realistic to expect the BATS to still have its fighters. Including fighters would obviously require the attacking force to be increase. May add them based on feedback and playtesting.

If it isn't obvious I'm trying to create a scenario that uses some of support units that haven't been seen in one. I couldn't find the PF transport pods, nor some of the PF variants, in any scenario. I could of missed them in the literally hundreds published scenarios.

By Jeff Williams (Jeff) on Friday, June 24, 2005 - 01:30 am: Edit

I might suggest using a larger attacker force and adding the base's fighters. At WS-1 the base will need time to get a significant fighter force in the air and active. This with the impending activation of the PFs puts a time limit on the attackers to press the battle. In addition, you could add a responding force of defender reinforcement ships that arrive at a later time in the scenario.

Not sure if this helps or not, but just felt like an added dimension of realism.

By John Wyszynski (Starsabre) on Friday, June 24, 2005 - 07:57 am: Edit

I've been reworking the attacker's force. Right now I working towards something along the line of adding the BPV of the BATS, base modules, base fighters, and the tug. Then add some value per PF, about half of their BPV. Reducing the PF BPV represents their inactiveness. There is variations between the BPV of each race's units which I need to work through. I also what to calculate switching a sector base or base station for the BATS. This is bit more complex than one might expect.

I appreciate the comments. They help me focus on where this needs work. It has been a long time since I have designed a scenario. I want the challenge to be based on good planning and playing, and not about finding some trick that causes the whole thing fall apart.

By Trent Telenko (Ttelenko) on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 11:25 pm: Edit

Note:

The Feds lack PFs and use F-111s instead.

Use mega F-111 plus a POL or a couple of armed Skifs at the BATS as the Fed substitute.

By John Wyszynski (Starsabre) on Monday, July 03, 2006 - 01:20 pm: Edit

The scenario was published in Captain's Log 33. This topic should be deleted.