(SP___.0) Sanction-busting (Y146)

The Romulan Empire desperately needed tactical Warp technology, and the Gorns and Federation equally desperately wanted to stop them getting it. Even most Orions refused to sell warp technology to the Romulans, preferring to keep a happy hunting ground with easy prey. There were however some exceptions, and the GIA were kept busy preventing the trade. Even when the Orions and Romulans did agree a price, Romulan honour and Orion dishonour never quite married, as this incident shows.
Independent pirate captain Hamill Stark had agreed to transfer a captured freighter to the Warbird Illustris in exchange for a sizeable fortune. Flouting border agreements, ostensibly rescuing the freighter from pirates, the Federation Light Cruiser Macedonia arrived just in time to block the exchange.

(SP___.1) NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 3; the Romulan player, the Orion player and the Federation player.

(SP___.2) INITIAL SET UP
Federation: CL Macedonia in 4020, heading F, speed max, WS-III
Romulan: Warbird Illustris in 1512, heading D, speed 1, WS-II
Orion: LR Backhander in 1830, heading A, speed 8, WS-II
. . . . Large Freighter in 1830, heading A, speed 8, WS-I

(SP___.3) LENGTH OF SCENARIO: The scenario continues until all forces belonging to one side have been destroyed, captured, or have disengaged.

(SP___.4) SPECIAL RULES
(SP___.41) MAP: Use a fixed map.
(SP___.42) SHUTTLES AND PFs: None of the shuttles have warp booster packs.
(SP___.421) No unit has an MRS in this scenario.
(SP___.422) There are no fighters in this scenario.
(SP___.423) There are no PFs in this scenario.
(SP___.43) COMMANDER'S OPTION ITEMS:
(SP___.431) Each ship other than the freighter can purchase additional or special equipment as Commander's Option Items (e.g. T-bombs, extra marines, etc.) up to 20% of its Combat BPV. See (S3.2) for details and exceptions. Note that whatever is spent here counts in the Modified Victory Conditions (S2.2) as victory points for the enemy.
(SP___.432) All drones are "slow", speed-8. The Orion player may purchase "moderate" (speed-12) drones with Commander's Options.
(SP___.44) REFITS: No ship has any refits.
(SP___.45) THE FREIGHTER
(SP___.451) The freighter is normal and under the Orion player’s control. It has one crew unit and no boarding parties. More can be transferred from the LR during the scenario.
(SP___.452) The Orion player is to hand control of the freighter to the Romulan player. This can be done by moving one crew unit to it by transporter, shuttle or docking, and the Orion player formally passing control (or forceful capture). The Orion player can remove his own crew units or not at his option. Of course the Romulan might not want pirates to remain on board.
(SP___.453) The freighter has no Orion suicide bomb (G15.12).
(SP___.46) THE MONEY
(SP___.461) On board the Warbird is the money. This is an SC7 object of one cargo unit, which is to be handed to the Orion in exchange for the freighter. It can be tractored, transported, dropped from a shuttle bay or carried as cargo. Use a counter.
(SP___.462) The money carries a homing beacon to be identifiable in open space. The beacon is switched on at the start of the scenario and remains active even after the money is retrieved. As such, it’s easy to find.
(SP___.4621) If dropped or transported into open space with the beacon deactivated, the money will be lost.
(SP___.4622) The Romulans can switch the beacon on or off at will when it is on the Warbird.
(SP___.4623) The Orions or Federation can attempt to use Labs to analyse the beacon. Each Lab box used for one turn has a 2 in 6 chance to crack the code, after which that ship can switch it on or off at will. The Romulans can tell either player the code.
(SP___.4624) Whilst the beacon is active, the money can be stolen by a Hit-&-Run raid. It can be guarded.
(SP___.4625) Whilst the beacon is active, it voids the cloak of a ship carrying it.
(SP___.4626) If in open space, the money can be tractor-landed like a friendly fighter. It cannot be death-dragged.
(SP___.463) The money can be targeted as though a drone and takes 4 points of damage to destroy.
(SP___.464) The Warbird also carries two booby-trap fake money boxes, which are indistinguishable from the real money (and have identical beacons, also switched on). If taken aboard ship, a fake will explode destroying the system (tractor or transporter) that landed it and doing one additional point of internal damage.
(SP___.4641) If retrieved by shuttle, a fake will explode doing two points of damage to the shuttle.
(SP___.47) BORDER VIOLATION
(SP___.471) The Federation ship is illegally in Romulan space. It cannot fire on the Warbird until fired on by the Warbird (or its shuttles).
(SP___.472) The Federation must use Non-Violent Combat when firing on the Warbird or the freighter.

(SP___.5) VICTORY CONDITIONS
Both sides use the Modified Victory Conditions (ignore the freighter).
* Player disengages with freighter: +20 (or +10 if it's crippled)
* The Romulan player disengages the freighter with a Warp box intact: +60 extra
* The Romulan player disengages the freighter with a Phaser box intact: +20 extra
* The Romulan player disengages the freighter with a Transporter box intact: +10 extra
* The Romulan player disengages the freighter with a Tractor box intact: +10 extra
* The Romulan player disengages a warp-powered shuttle: +10 extra
* Orion ship disengages with the money: +60 to Orion
* Federation or Romulan ship disengages with the money: +30 to owning player
* Romulan fails to drop money for Orion: -30 to Romulan
No victory points are awarded for damaging or destroying the freighter.

(SP___.6) VARIATIONS: The scenario can be played again under different conditions by making one of more of the following changes:
(SP___.61) Substitute a Gorn CL or Federation DD for the Federation CL.
(SP___.62) Replace the Warbird with a Warhawk-S and 5 Gladiator-0 fighters.
(SP___.63) Historically, the Backhander mounted an FA photon and plasma-F launchers in the wings. Players might experiment with other options.

(SP___.7) BALANCE: The scenario can be balanced for players of different skill levels by one of more of the following:
(SP___.71) Set the scenario ten years earlier, using a YWB Warbird (20-pt shields, Veil).
(SP___.72) Give the freighter skids or a ducktail.

(SP___.8) TACTICS:
Federation: Nail the LR first, as you can’t initially shoot at anything else. Bear in mind that both your opponents have huge crunch firepower. Try to capture the freighter.

Romulan: You need the LR to stick around to help you get the freighter off the map, and he’ll only do that if alive and waiting for the money with some belief that you’ll give it to him. But first, concentrate on getting some crew and boarding parties aboard the freighter. Keep the big plasma pointing at the Fed, but don’t shoot until you need to. Then kill him. Once the Orion has outlived his usefulness, kill him too.

Orion: All you want is the money. Trouble is, the Fed is bigger than you and has nothing else to shoot at unless you can convince the Romulan that it’s in his interest to help. Until then, stay clear. If he won’t help, you can blow the freighter up.

(SP___.Y) DESIGNER'S NOTES: This is balanced for the Y145 Warbird in Module Y1. The Basic Set Warbird will have a more difficult time (5 less power, no lasers).

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, January 08, 2007 - 08:12 pm: Edit

From a historical standpoint, it is very questionable that a Romulan crew could operate a warp powered freighter in this time period. If they could, then they already have warp technology.

I am honestly now sure how that would be handled.

It is somewhat like taking a man who has handled a horse and buggy all his life, and putting him in a pick up truck. He is familiar with the concept that things on wheels move, but he has a high liklihood of over-correcting and crashing, failing to shift gears and burning out the transmission, or any number of other consequences.

You would almost need to have a Romulan crew unit or two on the Orion ship for a while (to "learn how to drive"), and be present on the freighter (you do not want them back in Romulan space with what they learned on your ship before the sale is done.)

Then you take over the freighter, and while flying it to the Romulan border, you train the Romulan crew to operate it. Then all you have to do is collect your payment, beam your crew off the freighter, and we are done here (and you do not beam your crew off until you have payment, and your crew is sitting on the freighter's self-destruct switch).

The only thing that is going to keep the Federation ship from blasting the freighter as the simplest solution (if they know a transfer of tech is going on) is hostage rescue. There is no reason to try to capture the freighter. The fact that the Federation ship may try to destroy the freighter forces the Romulan to uncloak and fight.

There is no justification for the Federation ship to be using Non-Violent Combat in this situation that I can see. Preventing the transfer of the Technology is too important.

By Richard Sherman (Rich) on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - 11:07 am: Edit

You need to specify the Cartel the Orion is from (regardless of his potential status as an "independent"), and either specify the Orion weapons in the option mounts,or specify that the player must choose those weapons (perhaps giving a limited amount of points it can spend on weapons? You could even specify that those costs are also deducted from COI).

You might also consider lowering the % of available COI for everyone, or perhaps at least the Fed. 20% is the typical amount, but then again these forces aren't really "at war"...

By Jim Davies (Mudfoot) on Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 08:00 pm: Edit

SPP - good points. I shall think upon them. Removing the requirement for NVC is easy. Gluing hostages into it feels a bit ham-fisted, but it might make sense.
Having Roms aboard already makes it a lot easier for them, because the Roms don't have transporters or warp shuttles.

Rich - (SP___.63) specifies a photon and two F-plasmas as standard, which I suppose is Rom/Fed, eg Pharoah or Penzance. Presumably this info should move.

Whilst they're not at war, they likewise don't have a reason to use supplies up. They won't be spending them on drones, so it's BPs and T-bombs all the way. I dunno. It's easy to tweak but I think I'll leave it.

It occurs to me that
a) the map is the wrong way round (the Fed should appear from the 01xx edge)
b) the Fed should be able to disengage only in directions E and F.
c) the money and decoys are 2 cargo units each, not explosive