(SG??) Evacuation

(Y170)
Rodger Burns, USS Washington

Like the military forces of every other empire within the Alpha Sector, the Federation Starfleet considers the safety of Federation civilians as its highest priority. The Federation, however, is unique in regularly detailing small task forces of military vessels to remove civilians from a combat zone, rather than simply defending the civilians by sending those military ships to engage the oncoming enemy. Because of this, Starfleet cadets often are trained in the simulators by being given command of a small frigate squadron, and presented with orders to quickly take onboard as many colonists as they can while harassing or evading a superior enemy force.

(SG??.1) Number of Players: Two, the Federation player and the OpFor player.

(SG??.2) Initial Setup
Terrain - Class-M planet in 2230 of Map A. 125-point minefield, set up as described in (SG??.41?).

Federation - FFG Ieyasu, FF Grechko, FFS Jomeni within two hexes of the planet, speed 1, Weapon Status II. The frigates may begin the game within the atmosphere of the planet, at the Federation player's discretion.

Three small ground bases of the Federation player's choice. These are set up on the planet before play begins; no more than one ground base may be placed in any hexside of the planet.

30 crew units' worth of civilian colonists on the planet's surface; the hexside location of each civilian unit must be designated by the Federation player before the scenario begins. There are no restrictions as to where the civilians are located; the Federation player may cluster them all on a single hexside, spread them evenly between all six hexsides, or any other setup desired.

OpFor - 375 BPV worth of ships, including a maximum of one SC 3 unit and no SC 2 units. Fighters may only be included with the OpFor if their basing carrier is present. This force enters the map from an edge of the OpFor player's choice at the beginning of Turn #1, speed max, Weapon Status III.

(SG??.3) Length of Scenario: The scenario continues until all mobile units belonging to one side have been destroyed or have disengaged. If all Federation ships and shuttles have been destroyed or have disengaged, the scenario ends immediately; the OpFor player does not need to risk his forces further in order to neutralize surviving mines or ground forces.

Special Rules

(SG??.41) Map: The map is fixed; it does not float. Use two standard maps; Map A is set up above Map B. Any unit which leaves the map has disengaged and cannot return. OpFor forces may disengage from any map edge; Federation forces may disengage from any map edge except the ones that the OpFor forces originally entered from.

(SG??.42) Shuttles: No warp booster packs are available during the default year for the scenario. If the scenario is played at a later date, players could purchase WBPs for their shuttles or fighters. The Federation forces may not purchase any MRS shuttles; the OpFor player may only purchase an MRS shuttle if his ship selection would normally allow one.

(SG??.43) Commander's Options: All ships may purchase Commander's Options up to 20% of their BPV.

(SG??.431) All drones on the Federation frigates, and any drones included on OpFor ships, are "medium" speed (speed 20). Each drone armed ship may purchase special drones up to the historical racial percentages as part of Commander's Option items.

(SG??.44) Refits: The Federation ships have all applicable refits. Refits for OpFor vessels must be purchased as part of the initial force selection.

(SG??.45) Colonists: There are thirty crew units' worth of colonists on the planet's surface, controlled by the Federation player. These colonists are noncombatants and cannot be used in any combat function, including serving as militia, or preventing a ship from becoming undermanned.
(SG??.451) Transport of civilians (through transporter or shuttle loading) is considered to be at normal non-combat rates at the beginning of the scenario. The transfer rate can be stepped up to emergency levels only if a manned OpFor unit comes within 8 hexes of the planet, or if at least one colonist unit on the planet's surface has been killed by OpFor fire (as per SG??.452).(SG??.452) The OpFor player can deal damage to colonists by directing fire upon the planet (as per normal rules for devastation); every 40 points of damage scored upon a specific hexside of the planet kills one colonist unit within that hexside. The OpFor player receives no victory points for killing or capturing civilians, as it is understood that colonists remaining on the planet's surface will soon come under the control of the OpFor player's empire anyway.

(SG??.46) Minefield: The Federation player receives one 100-point package of mines, and 25 points for additional command-controlled mines, to help defend the planet. All mines must be set up within eight hexes of the planet.

(SG??.5) Victory Conditions: Use the Modified Victory Conditions. In addition, the Federation player receives a 5-point bonus for every civilian unit on board a Federation-controlled vessel when it disengages.

(SG??.6) Variations: The scenario can be replayed with the following changes:

(SG??.61) Other empires did practice colony evacuations, though not with the fervor of the Federation Starfleet. Replace the Federation forces with the forces of any other race; the frigates may be replaced by any three SC4 vessels, each no more than 75 BPV in cost.

(SG??.62) Replace the OpFor player with a Space Monster, possibly Starswarm Robots (SM14.0) or one or more Space Dragons (SM7.0). Monster strength should be balanced as if the monster was facing a conventional 400-BPV enemy force.

(SG??.63) Replace the planet with a Base station; the thirty crew units' worth of colonists are survivors from earlier evacuations, who now need to be pulled further back from the steadily-advancing front lines. This variation provides the Federation player with significantly greater defensive firepower, but at the cost of a noticeably more fragile 'eggshell' holding the colonists.

(SG??.64) Add additional terrain to the map, such as a small moon (P2.23) that holds some of the colonists, and possibly one of the Federation ground bases.

(SG??.7) Balance: The scenario may be balanced for players of different skill levels by one or more of the following:

(SG??.71) Increase or decrease the BPV of the OpFor. Allow the OpFor unlimited access to SC3 units, or require their force to be composed entirely of SC4 units.

(SG??.72) Add ground bases to the planet, or restrict the type of ground bases available (disallow use of Ph-4 bases, for instance).

(SG??.73) Replace one of the Federation frigates with a CFF. This will greatly speed up the evacuation.

(SG??.8) Tactics:

By Rodger Burns (Greymystic) on Sunday, July 14, 2002 - 01:44 am: Edit

Unofficial Design Notes:

- Depending on the whim of the Steves , this may not be a situation that could ever actually happen. But it makes for an interesting scenario in which the defender is working off of priorities other than "line the other guy up for the best possible shot"... and it likely would show up in an Academy simulator, even if the situation never actually occurs during actual duty.

- The forces on either side may need to be tweaked to keep the game from being too lopsided. Too much force on the OpFor side, and Fed frigates will be dusted as they attempt to leave the map; too much force on the Federation side, and it becomes a straight-up fight around a planet (which any pickup scenario can provide). The minefield, especially, may need to be adjusted to keep things fair.

- The intro may also need revision; while it makes perfect sense in my head for the Federation, and only the Federation, to pull a squadron of frigates out of the battleline to run the civilians to safety, it's also possible that other races do the same thing. Or that not even the Feds would use warships in such a task. I'm not the boss here.

- For simplicity's sake, the OpFor isn't under any political restrictions against firing on civilians (either on the ground, or within Fed ships). Makes one less scenario rule to remember, and keeps the Fed player from being able to use human shields to make his life easier.

By David Kass (Dkass) on Sunday, July 14, 2002 - 09:55 pm: Edit

Ineteresting idea. A couple of comments.

As written, its somewhere between a historical scenario and a general scenario. For example, the use of FF names and specifying the drone speeds (implicitly specifying the year) indicates a historical scenario. Also, the use of FF sort of limits the battle to pre Y177 or so. I'd suggest choosing either and making it clearly fit. I think the scenario can go either way.

Its somewhat odd to see an FF without the G refit in Y170. I thought they had all been refit by that time. Note that (SG___.44) implies it does have the G refit.

The FFS feels a bit odd, but maybe its what makes the scenario work. Did you consider either the FFT or FFP (I think those are the transport and VIP versions of the FF). Both would avoid the firepower problem of replacing the scout with a standard FF, but without the sensor channels. In face of an invasion, I'd expect the scout to be with a fleet element in its fleet support role (any scout is better than no scout).
I'm not sure why the FF are allowed to start in the atmosphere. They wouldn't be trying to land (I don't recall the Fed FF as being able to land safely). Instead allow the Fed player to place his shuttles on the surface if desired.

Make sure the Fed player is required to create at least one gap in the minefield (no mines of any type). I suspect that any colony would have such. Or perhaps replace the minefield with a set of Defsats.

Are the bases supposed to start hidden? I don't see anyone taking anything other than 3 phaser-IV bases (and putting them on one side of the planet to create a denial zone).

By Geoff Conn (Talonz) on Monday, July 15, 2002 - 08:23 pm: Edit

I like the fact that this uses variable bpv opposing force rules.

I think all non-historical scenarios, and BattleForces in general, should move in this direction.

By Kyle Meidell (Barquentine) on Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 01:11 am: Edit

Another note about a gap in a minefield-
Such a gap would probably exist for safe commerce purposes, but as such would be published on star charts available to the opfor player. This would reduce the surprise value of the mines, but might have the effect of concentrationg the action at a single point (possibly covered by a ground based phaser to help even the odds, and allow for balancing with the more realistic use of cargo rather than combat variant frigates)