(SP___.0) REFUGEE FLIGHT

(Y172) by Matthew Potter, Oregon

With the Klingons sweeping up the Federation border, millions of refugees left their homes to escape the imminent Klingon worker camps. Often times they would board whatever transport was available. Failing that they would crowd into shuttlecraft in a vain hope of reaching the next nearest colony and gaining more permanent transportation there, before the life support gave out. Occasionally these groups of shuttles would be scooped up by pirates looking for valuables or attacked by Klingon scouting forces hoping to keep the Federation guessing as to the exact whereabouts of the Klingon forces.

(SP___.1) NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2; the Federation player and the Klingon player. The refugee shuttlecraft move by automatic rules (SP___.451). Alternatively, a third player can control the refugee shuttlecraft.

(SP___.2) INITIAL SETUP
TERRAIN: Class M planet (P2.23) in hex 3726.
FEDERATION: FFG in 3824, heading F, Speed 4, WS-II.
KLINGON: E5 in 0101, heading C, Speed max, WS-III.
REFUGEES: 12 Admin shuttles and 3 HTS shuttles, all within 1 hex of 2218, heading C, Speed max. No more than 3 shuttles can be set up in the same hex.
YEAR: Players should select a year before setting up the scenario. This will define the availability of ships, refits, fighters, drone speeds, and other items. Y172 is assumed if no other year is selected.

(SP___.3) LENGTH OF SCENARIO: The scenario continues until the Klingon force has been destroyed, captured, or have disengaged, or until all of the shuttlecraft have been destroyed or have landed.

(SP___.4) SPECIAL RULES
(SP___.41) MAP: Use a floating map. Any unit that exceeds range 50 to the planet is considered to have disengaged by separation.

(SP___.42) SHUTTLES AND PFs: All shuttles and PFs have warp booster packs if the year selected allows them. Mega-packs are not available.
(SP___.421) No ship in this scenario is qualified to carry an MRS shuttle, but in a variant of the scenario where that is possible, they may be purchased [up to the limits in (J8.5)] under (SP___.431).
(SP___.422) There are no fighters in this scenario. In a variant in which fighters are present, use the standard deployment patterns (one EWF for each squadron of eight or more fighters) for EW fighters.
(SP___.423) There are no PFs or INTs in this scenario.

(SP___.43) COMMANDER'S OPTION ITEMS
(SP___.431) Each ship 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 Standard and Modified Victory Conditions (S2.2) as Victory Points for the enemy.
(SP___.432) All drones are "medium," i.e., Speed 20.
Each drone-armed ship can purchase special drones up to the historical percentages appropriate to that empire as part of the Commander's Option Items. Note that (S3.2) allows drone ships extra points for this purpose.
(SP___.433) No ship in this scenario normally carries a Prime Team (G32.0), but such Teams are sometimes assigned to various ships. Players may experiment with Prime Teams, perhaps as a balance factor.

(SP___.44) REFITS:
(SP___.44) REFITS are available depending on the year selected. Refits are as noted in (SP___.2) above.

(SP___.45) REFUGEE SHUTTLECRAFT:
(SP___.451) All refugee shuttlecraft will pursue (C1.322) the planet except if to do so will guarantee their destruction (e.g. a mine in their path). Once adjacent to the planet, they will begin landing (P2.411). They will fire at seeking weapons in an adjacent hex, but at nothing else. If a player is controlling the refugees, they may disregard this rule.
(SP___.452) The shuttlecraft are overcrowded (G9.141). Track crew losses on the shuttles for victory purposes.
(SP___.453) Because the shuttles are piloted by untrained refugees (and cramped inside), treat the pilots as green (J6.22).
(SP___.454) Because of legal and political issues, the civilian government has forbade the Federation ship from providing aid to the refugees. The Federation player may not tractor the shuttlecraft and may not transport any crew-like units onto or off of the shuttles.
(SP___.455) Once it has landed on the planet, a refugee shuttlecraft may not be fired upon.
(SP___.456) Note that Gatling Phasers will unbalance the scenario in the favor of the attacker. Add 1 space of shuttlecraft to the refugees per Gatling Phaser the attacker is carrying (e.g. add 1 Admin shuttle per Gatling or add an HTS per pair of Gatlings).

(SP___.5) VICTORY CONDITIONS for this scenario are as follows:
The Klingon player receives 2 points for each refugee crew unit destroyed.
The Federation player uses the Modified Victory Conditions (S2.201).

(SP___.6) VARIATIONS: The scenario can be played again under different conditions by making one or more of the following changes:
(SP___.61) Replace the Klingon or Federation force with an equal force of another race. Replacing the Klingon force with an Orion LR+ is also historical (The cartel should be one which operates in Federation space).
(SP___.62) Replace the refugee shuttlecraft with advanced shuttlecraft (J17.0) of equivalent types. Move the start location of the refugee shuttles to hex 1716.

(SP___.7) BALANCE: The scenario can be balanced between players of different skill levels by one or more of the following:
(SP___.71) Add Warp Booster Packs (J5.0) to the refugee shuttlecraft. This favors the attacking player.
(SP___.72) Delete or add refugee shuttlecraft.

(SP___.8) TACTICS:
KLINGON: Go in fast and hot. Cripple as many shuttles as you can, then clean them up later. The Federation player is likely to meet you halfway, but you can't afford to dally with him. Reinforce against his first shot. If you come away with minimal internal damage, you might have a shot at killing the shuttles before he can get another one at you.
FEDERATION: Try to convince the Klingon that you are too dangerous to leave alone. You could punch through a shield if you get to knife-fight range. Try to anchor him so he can't attack the shuttles effectively.

(SP___.9) PLAYTESTERS COMMENTS:

(SP___.X) DESIGNER'S NOTES: Special thanks to Josh Driscol and Glenn Hoepfner for initial playtesting.

HISTORICAL OUTCOME: Where this scenario is representative of several such incidents, generally the attacking force was driven off when there was any mobile defenses at the planet.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 12:05 pm: Edit

Mathew Potter:

What phaser-Gs?

You have a rule (SP___.456) about adding shuttles to account for phaser-Gs, but except for the rule itself there does not seem to be any other mention of phaser-Gs.

Rule (SP___.453) should note that it is an exception (if that is your intention) to the rules that normally provide that shuttles never have "green" (or "ace") pilots, but are always average.

By Matthew Potter (Neonpico) on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 12:45 pm: Edit

( Changes made to my local copy, available for reposting )

(SP___.453) changed to read: Because the shuttles are piloted by untrained refugees (and cramped inside), treat the pilots as green (J6.22). This is an exception to (J6.212).

(SP___.456) changed to read: Note that Gatling Phasers, if a ship carrying them is placed in the attacker force, will unbalance the scenario in the favor of the attacker. Add 1 space of shuttlecraft to the refugees per Gatling Phaser the attacker is carrying (e.g. add 1 Admin shuttle per Gatling or add an HTS per pair of Gatlings).

By Michael Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 01:15 pm: Edit

YIS of the E5 is what?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 01:41 pm: Edit

Squadron Service Date of the E5 is Y172, i.e., the year selected for the scenario.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 01:50 pm: Edit

Matthew Potter:

Your phaser-G rule is only needed if you have a means of allowing a selection of ships. You are trying (it appears) to travel a middle ground between a "historical" and a "generic" scenario. Thus (SP___.456) appears to be there for situations in which one side can bring a ship with phaser-Gs, such as a Hydran or LDR ship or in rare cases an Orion or perhaps a Barbarian ship. Federation escorts are not normally found away from carrier groups.

If so, then your set up should list a "BPV point" for the two sides (so that, for example, the Federation ship could be a Kzinti ship or the Klingon ship a Romulan ship). Your set up, however, uses two specific ships and make no mention of other ship types being used (i.e., replacing the Fed ship with an escort, which would be very unusual, or a ship from another empire, or even replacing the Klingon with an Orion ship (perhaps with a phaser-G).

As is, the problem with (SP___456) is that it is disconnected from the scenario in that nothing is providing how a phaser-G (or phaser-Gs) might be added to the scenario as Federation FFGs, Klingon E5s, Admin shuttles, and HTS shuttles do not carry them.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 01:50 pm: Edit

Squadron Service Date of the E5 is Y172, i.e., the year selected for the scenario.

EDIT: As I have said before, I hate this new program. I have no idea how it decided to repost the above message about E5 year in service dates, but it did.

I want my old computer back sooooo badly.

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 02:30 pm: Edit

Deleted by Author. Wrong empire(s).

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 06:25 pm: Edit

To be clear, I am not rejecting the scenario, only pointing out problems.

By Matthew Potter (Neonpico) on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 11:49 pm: Edit

[nods at Steve] Granted. No offense taken.

I wrote it as a historical scenario, since it is entirely plausible that this circumstance happens all the time (in every war).

But the scenario at it's core is simply a formula (which I use in a campaign I'm running): Two sorta-equal forces (the defender slightly low on BPV, if any will be) and a group of shuttles in the middle. Shuttles should be selected so that the attacker could conceivably kill them all in two or three volleys.

Put the attacker so that it will take him about a turn-and-a-half to reach the shuttles. Put the defender so he can meet the attacker at about the middle. Place the shuttles so they are about 2-3 turns from starting their landing operations.

In theory, the attacker can't beat off the defender AND kill all the shuttles. In return, the defender has a soft underbelly, in the form of the easy-to-kill shuttles (and their crew units). In all likelyhood, as the Historical Outcome suggests, the attacker can kill some of the shuttles, but usually won't have a complete shut-out.

If you'd like, I can write it solely as a generic scenario.

By Douglas Saldana (Dsal) on Thursday, November 28, 2013 - 08:38 pm: Edit

I love the idea for this scenario but (SP___.454) doesn't make any sense to me. What possible reason would the civilian government have for preventing a Federation ship from providing aid to Federation citizens in a time of war? It would make more sense if the scenario was set in Y171 prior to the invasion. The refugees could be Klingon subject race defectors, Kzinti, or neutrals from some planet the Klingons recently occupied in the Neutral Zone. In such cases the Federation might have a policy that it will only provide aid and asylum to refugees once they have set foot on Federation "soil" (i.e. a planetary surface). This prevents the Federation ship from taking the refugees aboard or helping them get to the planet. However, since the Klingon ship is violating Federation space, the FFG is not restricted from firing on the Klingon ship itself.

By Matthew Potter (Neonpico) on Friday, November 29, 2013 - 04:01 am: Edit

Reposted with formatting as a General Scenario, versus a Historical Scenario

(SP___.0) REFUGEE FLIGHT

by Matthew Potter, Oregon

As with any war, border conflict, or 'police action', millions of refugees at or near the fighting will leave their homes to escape the imminent death and destruction that might be visited on their families. Often times they would board whatever transport was available. Failing that they would crowd into shuttlecraft in a vain hope of reaching the next nearest colony and gaining more permanent transportation there, before the life support gives out. Occasionally these groups of shuttles would be scooped up by pirates looking for valuables or attacked by scouting forces hoping to keep the other side from questioning the refugees as to the whereabouts of the warships. This represents one of such engagements when the refugees are within sight of their goal.

(SP___.1) NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2; the Attacking player and the Defending player. The refugee shuttlecraft move by automatic rules (SP___.451). Alternatively, a third player can control the refugee shuttlecraft.

(SP___.2) INITIAL SETUP
TERRAIN: Class M planet (P2.23) in hex 3726.
DEFENDER: One ship, totaling no more than 80 BPV [not including any items purchased under (SP__.431), but including the cost of drone speed upgrades (SP__.432) ] in 3824, heading F, Speed 4, WS-II.
ATTACKER: One ship, totaling no more than 90 BPV [not including any items purchased under (SP__.431), but including the cost of drone speed upgrades (SP__.432) ] in 0101, heading C, Speed max, WS-III.
REFUGEES: 12 Admin shuttles and 3 HTS shuttles, all within 1 hex of 2218, heading C, Speed max. No more than 3 shuttles can be set up in the same hex.
YEAR: Players should select a year before setting up the scenario. This will define the availability of ships, refits, fighters, drone speeds, and other items. Y172 is assumed if no other year is selected.

(SP___.3) LENGTH OF SCENARIO: The scenario continues until the attacking force has been destroyed, captured, or have disengaged, or until all of the shuttlecraft have been destroyed or have landed.

(SP___.4) SPECIAL RULES
(SP___.41) MAP: Use a floating map. Any unit that exceeds range 50 to the planet is considered to have disengaged by separation.

(SP___.42) SHUTTLES AND PFs: All shuttles and PFs have warp booster packs if the year selected allows them. Mega-packs are not available.
(SP___.421) No ship in this scenario is qualified to carry an MRS shuttle, but in a variant of the scenario where that is possible, they may be purchased [up to the limits in (J8.5)] under (SP___.431).
(SP___.422) There are no fighters in this scenario. In a variant in which fighters are present, use the standard deployment patterns (one EWF for each squadron of eight or more fighters) for EW fighters.
(SP___.423) There are no PFs or INTs in this scenario.

(SP___.43) COMMANDER'S OPTION ITEMS
(SP___.431) Each ship 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 Standard and Modified Victory Conditions (S2.2) as Victory Points for the enemy.
(SP___.432) All drones are "medium," i.e., Speed 20.
Each drone-armed ship can purchase special drones up to the historical percentages appropriate to that empire as part of the Commander's Option Items. Note that (S3.2) allows drone ships extra points for this purpose.
(SP___.433) No ship in this scenario normally carries a Prime Team (G32.0), but such Teams are sometimes assigned to various ships. Players may experiment with Prime Teams, perhaps as a balance factor.

(SP___.44) REFITS:
(SP___.44) REFITS are available depending on the year selected. Refits are as noted in (SP___.2) above.

(SP___.45) REFUGEE SHUTTLECRAFT:
(SP___.451) All refugee shuttlecraft will pursue (C1.322) the planet except if to do so will guarantee their destruction (e.g. a mine in their path). Once adjacent to the planet, they will begin landing (P2.411). They will fire at seeking weapons in an adjacent hex, but at nothing else. If a player is controlling the refugees, they may disregard this rule.
(SP___.452) The shuttlecraft are overcrowded (G9.141). Track crew losses on the shuttles for victory purposes.
(SP___.453) Because the shuttles are piloted by untrained refugees (and cramped inside), treat the pilots as green (J6.22). This is an exception to (J6.212).
(SP___.454) Because of legal and political issues, the civilian government has forbade the Defending ship from providing aid to the refugees until they can be processed by the government on the planet. The Defending player may not tractor the shuttlecraft and may not transport any crew-like units onto or off of the shuttles.
(SP___.455) Once it has landed on the planet, a refugee shuttlecraft may not be fired upon.
(SP___.456) Note that Gatling Phasers, if a ship carrying them is placed in the attacker force, will unbalance the scenario in the favor of the attacker. Add 1 space of shuttlecraft to the refugees per Gatling Phaser the attacker is carrying (e.g. add 1 Admin shuttle per Gatling or add an HTS per pair of Gatlings).

(SP___.5) VICTORY CONDITIONS for this scenario are as follows:
The Attacking player receives 2 points for each refugee crew unit destroyed.
The Defending player uses the Modified Victory Conditions (S2.201).

(SP___.6) VARIATIONS: The scenario can be played again under different conditions by making one or more of the following changes:
(SP___.61) Replace the refugee shuttlecraft with advanced shuttlecraft (J17.0) of equivalent types. Move the start location of the refugee shuttles to hex 1716.

(SP___.7) BALANCE: The scenario can be balanced between players of different skill levels by one or more of the following:
(SP___.71) Add Warp Booster Packs (J5.0) to the refugee shuttlecraft. This favors the attacking player.
(SP___.72) Delete or add refugee shuttlecraft.

(SP___.8) TACTICS:
ATTACKER: Go in fast and hot. Cripple as many shuttles as you can, then clean them up later. The Defending player is likely to meet you halfway, but you can't afford to dally with him. Spread his damage across your shields. You might have a shot at killing the shuttles if you can come away from his battle passes with minimal internal damage.
DEFENDER: Try to convince the Attacker that you are too dangerous to leave alone. Try to anchor him so he can't attack the shuttles effectively.

(SP___.9) PLAYTESTERS COMMENTS:

(SP___.X) DESIGNER'S NOTES: Special thanks to Josh Driscol and Glenn Hoepfner for initial playtesting.

HISTORICAL OUTCOME: Where this scenario is representative of several such incidents, generally the attacking force was driven off and some refugees survived when there was any mobile defenses at the planet.