also, my ship loadout.
Capt Options
4 t-bombs and decoys
10 BP
2 Commandos
3 for drone speed upgrade
Total 26 of 28

2 drone racks, 4 spaces, 1 reload each.
1 V, 6/24 drone, 2 II 4/12 drones per rack
same in reloads
8 Shuttles in Bays
8 cargo x 50 = 400 spaces
12 stored shuttles x 25 each = 300 (6 cargo)
25 type V drones = 50 (1 cargo)
50 type II drones = 50 (1 cargo)

Used to date
Scenario 1 vs Frax
Used 5 type II drones, 1 type V
lost 3 cargo (6 shuttles)
1 drone rack, 1 V, 2 II lost
Result, Enemy crippled, mine not crippled, 4 pts

Scenario 2 vs Amoeba
Used one shuttle to kill monster, no other losses

Results, monster destroyed, 5 pts

Ship repaired, 1 shuttle replaced after battle
(net, 8 shuttles in bays, 6 in cargo)
Crew repaced

Scenario 3, Survey Encounter vs GSC
Damage, 2 cargo (both empty)
Drone rack, 1x V, 2x II lost
Drones fired 1x V, 5x II
Lost 1 crew

Result, enemy ship destroyed, my ship not crippled, 5 pts.

Entering Scenario 4, waiting for reply on how to win.

Total drones lost 3x V, 9 x II

By Robert Grey (Tugger) on Saturday, February 19, 2011 - 07:19 pm: Edit

Also, if I am reading it correctly, the victory conditions are messed up for Scenario 5, Raid on a a Survey Camp (SG28) Someone double check me on this?

By Tony Moskowec (Teemo) on Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 02:03 am: Edit

Our ad is still in the paper for a moderator...I'm not sure how to answer your queries except this way:

1. SM11.0 Use SM11.462 to get your 5 points
2. SG28.0 Seems legit between scenario and campaign...?
3. Use the Hydran as opponent with the notion they have a prototype in the area...

You're up 14 points in three and worried now about losing points...You won't actually be court-martialed or executed...Accept the imbalance as a challenge...Play it out and don't sweat...I believe all you have to do is score more shield damage on the Hydran than you recieve and escape with points in the bag...As for the Energy Monster...?

By Robert Grey (Tugger) on Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 01:05 pm: Edit

Tony..
1> I think you mean SM11.61, which talks about destroying the monster, not SM11.62, which adds an enemy FF to make things more complex...
2> We talked about, and agreed that since your the defender and not the attacker, you must reverse the order of victory as listed in SG28 (the longer, the better for you)
3> Do we agree that a 2 year early prototype is reasonable, but more than that, you should find a existing ship of about the same value?

Tugger

By Christopher M Schrader (Eastcoastfolk) on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 06:38 pm: Edit

Proposal for Victory points generated from SM11.0 for The Survey Captain's Game U10.0

Considering that:
The result of Monster destroyed or contact established is only in the rules of SM11 under Variation SM11.61, making a difficult task as close to imposable is I'v found.

Should the Victory Conditions of SM11.5 be converted to points in the U10 game on a 10 to 1 ratio? ie. rescue 17 crew and get 45 info results in (17+22.5)/10 = 3.95 points to the U10 tally.

If a player was willing to defy almost certain doom and try SM11.61 would awarding the 5 points in addition to the above incentive be enough to reward this accomplishment.

Before replying you should give the scenario a few tries. If you pull it off, a tip of my hat.

S11 is found in Scenario Book 1.

Christopher, EastCoastFolk

By Robert Grey (Tugger) on Friday, February 25, 2011 - 06:23 pm: Edit

I havent forgotten the campaign I was talking about. Will put in a request for a listing for it under campaigns, would like some feed back from you guys to help finish off a few things.

Tugger

By Aaron M. Staley (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, June 09, 2011 - 04:09 pm: Edit

Ladies and Gentlemen:

http://www.awwwdrat.com/AW2_Its_Coming.html

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Friday, June 17, 2011 - 10:32 pm: Edit

Ive been putting together this campaign for many, many years - it was a cut down version of a much larger campaign some friends and I had tried to get working - but it just wouldnt work.

Its far more a "pick a race, buy some ships, go blow eachother up" type game than many of the campaigns which are run here - but I figure it could be of interest to many players on SFBOL.

Im already in a campaign which could possibly take up a lot of my free time, but if people are interested, I could co-ordinate it, rather than take part (its the sort of campaign where the GM really just oversees the scorekeeping, and can quite easily take part as well, if he has the time).

However, at first Id like to get the rules organised, before considering whether I would want to run something like this.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~jasparius/gaming/MJBS-Mini.html

I think some work on combat still needs to be done, and also Im really not sure whether Fighters should be bought at EPV, though Im pretty sure PFs should be bought at BPV - except for the PFS.

I also have a new rule on the cost of Ph-G when ships have 3 or more of them - to better reflect their actual BPV.

Of course this opens up a can of worms in terms of other ships being under BPV (particularly something like the D6D which should be more like 140/120 rather than 115 - given the Scout sensors, not to mention how effective it is in combat when compared to the Kzinti CD which actually costs a little more).

But rather than coming up with a new BPV for each ship which is considered overpowered, its probably easier to set a restriction on the number of those ships which can be bought. Though given the BPV of each game will only be from 25 BPV to 325 BPV, you probably wont see too many of any particular ship anyway.

Would love to see some input from you guys who play campaigns. This is very much about doing battles, and really doesnt require any strategic thinking. Just buy your ships, and blow up the other guys !!

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - 08:47 pm: Edit

No bites? Perhaps I should have waited until after Origins

By Troy Williams (Jungletoy) on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - 08:57 pm: Edit

I'm in when you are ready to launch Jason! If you need some help with the rules or a sounding board I can help as well.

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - 10:55 pm: Edit

The rules are open to discussion for everyone here, but once the players are in then probably only with the players.

At the moment Im holding off to see how much work Frank's game is, in terms of combat and how much help I can get from others. If it is bearable, then I could well play this campaign as well as GM it (it really doesnt require a GM - just an organiser). Otherwise I can organise it for others.

Also, it really requires an even number of players to avoid having byes, so I would either be in or out based on the number.

By Francois Lemay (Princeton) on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - 04:19 pm: Edit

I'm interested in playing once EaW gets rolling smoothly .

Cheers
Frank

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - 05:13 pm: Edit

Sounds like thats a couple of people. Thanks !

The only big change in the rules is the new Ph-G rules. Im happy modifying them, but there will be some sort of change. Even with these BPV penalties I dare say people would still go LDR.

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Thursday, June 23, 2011 - 06:21 pm: Edit

Ive come up with some more changes. Ships which have Special Sensors which dont have a separate EPV and BPV now have an additional EPV. This affects purchase cost (where you pay EPV), but not battle cost (where you count BPV).

Also a rule on the use of Cargo spaces holding drones - you have to pay BPV to use drones from Cargo spaces, and get the option of putting them on ships or in the Pool. I'll take a closer look at how the rules deal with Cargo spaces, just to be sure my rule doesnt go too far (or in fact weakens the rules).

Also a minor change on having people not fight the same BPV fight twice in a row - in case you keep getting 300 BPV fights come up.

I should add: these rules will be up this evening. Stuck on my laptop til then.

By Francois Lemay (Princeton) on Friday, June 24, 2011 - 02:18 pm: Edit

Jason,
Looking at Fleet size with the D6 roll.
Seems like there will be no need for DN's unless both Admirals agree to a higher CBpv in advance such as 600 to allow for a DN of some kind ?

Is this correct ?

Cheers
Frank

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Friday, June 24, 2011 - 05:13 pm: Edit

Well, you could go for a DN for those 250 or 300 BPV battles, but its possible you wont get them often. And I dare say people wouldnt want to have a 600 BPV battle against someone if the other players are having a 50 BPV battle and can earn the exact same number of Victory Points.

Im sure you'd have a place for a BCH, but certainly taking a DN is a risk.

Afterall, you could take a DN, and I will take 2 Cruisers and a Scout, and you're in a world of trouble.

Of course, that BPV amount could change if the Players all wanted the opportunity for slightly larger battles.

Maybe 2d6 x 30, or 1d6 x 60.

1d6 x 60 means you get a totally even chance of each BPV amount (obviously 2d6 will tend towards
200-ish BPV battles) and can still have solo Frigate battles, and there is (depending on DN size) a 50% chance you can get your DN in to battle.

Would just need to make a special rule that allows you to take a single ship in to combat even if its a DN or CC. Question is, do we allow a single Carrier without Escorts? A PF without Escorts? A Scout on its own? Perhaps a Carrier and PFT can take just a single Escort (must be the smallest of its allowed Escorts for the Year in question).

This means the CVS with its 12 Fighters can have a FFE as the Escort, but couldnt have a DE. But when FFE are phased out for DWA then it could take that. So too the PFT. Though this just makes things too complicated. Perhaps Carriers and PFT must take their full compliment of Escorts - which means youre really going to only see the SC4 Carriers which tend to have only 1 Escort. Should Flexible Carrier rules be in use so they can pick their Escort? Or should it only be historic Escorts?

However, this new 60 BPV per point of die roll also means all the battles are probably going to be larger. I chose 50 as the multiple because at 50 its a Frigate/MP, 100 its a DD/DW, 150 its a CW/CA/CC, 200 its a BCH, 250 and 300 its at least 2 ships.

With 60 and 120 you can still be okay, but at 180 youre going to struggle to get a CA in there unless youre playing ISC (in fact its tough to get a CA in the 120 bracket too - so the warhorse of the GW may never get a go outside of very large battles), and up at 360 it could be a very expensive battle.

Actually, one thing Im thinking to make it fair for everyone, is that only 1 die roll is made, and that each of the games being played that Round will use that same amount. This removes any chance of 1 player always getting large battles and another player always getting small battles.

I will add this rule straight away.

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 - 02:38 am: Edit

Ive done some major changes to the rules. Pretty much every section other than Legendary Officers has been changed, often quite radically.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~jasparius/gaming/MJBS-Mini.html

New bits:
non aggression rules
ship construction rules
refit and conversion rules
allowed the Wyn to also have Orion purchased ships (but not other empires)
some new non standard rules

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Thursday, June 30, 2011 - 12:17 am: Edit

More rules coming tonight, in terms of how to deal with battles which take too long and need to be judged. Also more on encouraging people to find helpers for battles to ensure there arent always delays with people trying to find times when players are free.

So far 2 people have said they are interested. Are there others? It needs an even number, and Id like to play as well but dont have to (there really isnt much of a role for the GM - it pretty much all relies on votes from all Players for any decisions which need to be made).

4 is the minimum needed, but I think 6 or even 8 would be far better, because then we get a LOT of the empires in the game.

Dont need definite availability yet. Just want to get an idea as to whether I should continue working on the rules and promoting it here. I cant imagine it would start for maybe a month or so, but we could well be picking empires and ships in the next few weeks.

By Peter Thoenen (Eol) on Thursday, June 30, 2011 - 09:31 pm: Edit

Looks interesting, might be interested. Couple comments:

- I completely disagree with your Ph-G comment. I find a hundred fasties on the board or 20 Sabot EPT S's much more threatening that Ph-G's. Basically you are screwing the hydrans in favor of the D&D races for no reason. If you are annoyed by the Fed escorts (or howler) Ph-G abuse (which is what I think you are driving at), simply make a special rules for fed escorts and howlers.

- I don't understand why you are banning drogues or A-Admin shuttles. Everybody can use them sot hey equally help/hinder everybody.

- Why not, just for fun, open it to ALL races. Not sure why you are preventing (in alpha sect) Vudar, Jindo, or Andro. Would love to see LMC included, ambivalent on Omega. Regardless I think you should let all the alpha sector in.

- While I understand banning monitors, shouldn't you also be banning battle tugs under the same guise.

- You need to modify legal ships to be: R, G3, and G3A.

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Thursday, June 30, 2011 - 10:09 pm: Edit

Thanks for your input Peter.

Regular Hydran ships arent affected by the new Ph-G rules. Nor are Stingers. Its only when the unit has 3 or more Ph-G.

These rules only affect (most) LDR ships, Hydran Escorts, Fed Escorts, and Hydran Howler PFs (and possibly others that I cant think of at the moment).

In this game there wont be 100 fast drones or 20 Sabot EPTs because the highest BPV battle will be with 325 BPV worth of ships - which means even 6xPL-S is unlikely to be seen, and maybe 20 drones. Including Sabot costs would mean you'd most likely only see 4 or 5 PL-S.

Are you telling me 12xPH-G on 3 LDR DW couldnt massively whittle down the plasma (meaning they then get 2 turns where they can go crazy with their PH-G on offence), could easily take care of all those drones - and still have enough Ph-3 shots left to destroy a ship - and they will still have their ESG and DIS to use offensively (or they could use their ESG defensively and have all those Ph-G for offence).

But if there were 100 drones or 12 PL-S (I doubt you could create much more than this with S8 restrictions), then you'd most likely be seeing upwards of 50 PH-G on LDR ships which again, would be enough to handle this. The PL-S would knock out one or 2 ships, but then what do they do? Get overrun for a couple of turns? Roms cant cloak because they would get rammed over and over. They cant run either, because if the LDR decide not to load their DIS they can move at 31 all day.

However, if the people who dont have a problem with PH-G in the game are happy taking non PH-G empires against others who would quite happily take advantage of the LDR being unrestricted, then Im sure that can be arranged (given a unanimous vote of all Players can overrule pretty much everything).

- While I understand banning monitors, shouldn't you also be banning battle tugs under the same guise.

Monitors are defensive only. Battle Tugs often get used offensively. This game is about 2 opponents meeting eachother while on the attack. There is no defender. However, the rules say Monitors can be included if everyone votes for them. You'd just have to convince the other Players.

- Why not, just for fun, open it to ALL races. Not sure why you are preventing (in alpha sect) Vudar, Jindo, or Andro. Would love to see LMC included, ambivalent on Omega. Regardless I think you should let all the alpha sector in.

Are all the empires balanced across all the galaxies? Certainly the Alpha empires I chose are fairly balanced on a 50x50 board (once you make some sort of allowance for ships with massed PH-G). I dont know the first thing about LMC but having done some Omega vs Alpha battles found the fights to be quite one-sided (can go either way depending on the empires chosen).

I dont really want to run a game where we decide 6 months in that Empire X just doesnt work because its too weak, or Empire Y just doesnt work because its too strong.

- I don't understand why you are banning drogues or A-Admin shuttles. Everybody can use them sot hey equally help/hinder everybody.

Drogues I simply dont like and there really is no need for them in a game as they are to me (and I dare say many others) no more than a gimmick, and A-Admin shuttles I simply dont think are needed. Admin shuttles work just fine for what they are. Though as above, if every Player wanted them, they could be voted back in.

By Peter Thoenen (Eol) on Friday, July 01, 2011 - 01:49 am: Edit

Jason:

I can live with your balance point but you failed to address Jindo and Vudar (which are Alpha and are balanced, at least much more than WYN or LDR) and also Andro (which I personally think are balanced but I know folk will disagree*). Also I do think (not sure) that LMC were balanced (I might be wrong) but Omega, definitely not

* I might agree in small fights Andro are insanely good but def on the weak side in large fleet engagements. Basically I would be ok with banning them given under 500 BPV is a sweet spot for them

As for the Ph-G, was thinking more like a Hydran DN which, IIRC, has 4 Ph-G's.

I will say I honestly missed the biggest fleet could be 325. Also (though your goal appears to be small ships) I think I would much prefer 1d6x100 over 1d6x5+50 but I like the big fights ... I've just never had the SC4 fetish so many folk on here seem to have.

I'm interested if you are looking for players. Should have Jean start a thread.

PS: No I have no plan to fly (even if you allowed) Jindo/Vudar/Andro .. I just hate how people always exclude them even though they are part of Alpha. I would play LMC if you allowed though, if not (depending on year) will either take Roms or Klink.

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Friday, July 01, 2011 - 03:58 am: Edit

In terms of Jindo, Vudar and Andro, I would say the main issue is with the years (Vudar and Andro particularly), though I have since written some rules on how to use Seltorians, so I will also take a look at these 3 races and see if I cant work something out.

The only non Escort Hydrans with 4xPh-G from what I can see are the BB and the Galeon which are conjectural. There is another with 3xPh-G.

I will say I honestly missed the biggest fleet could be 325. Also (though your goal appears to be small ships) I think I would much prefer 1d6x100 over 1d6x5+50 but I like the big fights

The idea is to get quick fights done so we can get a lot of games in, but if others want bigger fights then certainly it can ne 1d6x60 or 80 or 100.

By Troy Latta (Saaur) on Friday, July 01, 2011 - 10:09 am: Edit

LMC aren't balanced against Alpha; they're balanced against each other. Especially with smaller ships and smaller fights, LMC will OWN Alpha. Once fleets get larger it doesn't matter as much.
I playtested a supposedly balanced Eneen vs Lyran fight and it wasn't even close. The Lyran just couldn't do any damage because of the VRF.

By Toby Atkinson (Turtle006) on Friday, July 01, 2011 - 10:35 am: Edit

As a newbie (to SFB), reading through these rules, I noticed a couple things that seemed like they could use clarification.

In 2.0 Construction, it says that for every 100 EBPV it takes one season (I forget teh official term), but the example says that a 230 EBPV ship takes 4. Shouldn't this be 3? 230 rounds to 300 divided by 100?

In the repair example, it says that the Gorn CM takes 20% damage and repairs in one season, it would make this clearer IMO if you included the number of boxes that are being repaired.

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Friday, July 01, 2011 - 05:29 pm: Edit

Toby, the idea with construction is that small ships get built quickly but the larger they are the longer they take.

So 50 EBPV takes 1 phase (6 months), 150 takes 2 phases (1 year), 250 takes 4 phases (2 years), 350 takes 6 phases (3 years).

I have made the Gorn repair example more clear. Ive also made a few more little changes

Troy thanks for the info on LMC. Good to know I chose wisely I think the only battle Ive done was Eneen v Kzinti. Pretty sure I got obliterated.