This is a proposal for a defining of the rules for the use of Tholian web low-power generator buoys (hereafter called just "generator buoys"), and adding to the rules for the asteroids upon which the generator buoys are suggested to be parked.

Generator buoys are mentioned only in passing references as a way of alluding to how the Tholians are able to keep their webs up during the stretches of time between scenarios. How much time passes between those scenarios is not mentioned or defined. It could be minutes. It could be decades. Beyond that, there has been no reason to delve deeper into their functionality, sufficing it to say, "Generator buoys exist, so the Tholians have webs at the beginning of the scenario, even if it is strength 0 web." However, reading deeper into the Tholian Web rules, the scenarios with Tholian Webs, and the rules of single asteroids as opposed to asteroid hexes, I think generator buoys deserve more defined rules short of giving them a BPV or SSDs.

My first suggestion is that the generator buoys must:
1) Be placed on asteroids and are so inexpensive that they are on every asteroid anchor.
2) Only prevent strength 0 linear webs out to the next corner or end anchors from dissolving, regardless of the length.
This simple definition would require the use of asteroids for long-term established webs and require that each ring has 6 asteroids in them. This pattern agrees with the 2 scenarios written by ADB staff of a Tholian base surrounded by 3 rings (SH6.0) and (SH110.0). All of the other Tholian base or planet scenarios with webs are player written and omit asteroids. I am basing this part of this proposal on the belief that the scenarios written by ADB are correct in every way.

My justifying technobabble is as follows. If globular webs without asteroids could be prevented from dissolving with generator buoys, why would the Tholians ever spend the resources necessary to relocate asteroids to the web corners unless they planned to put a ground base on the asteroids? I'm aware of the use of asteroids in opening gaps in the web rings to allow other units to pass through, but is that really worth the 450 BPV cost of the asteroids, or 150 BPV for the ring involved? I don't think so. (Globular webs, even with intermediate anchors, can not have a gap opened in a closed circle of web. The entire web would instantaneously disintegrate.) Even if you add the fact that it is much faster to spin linear web segments into a closed circle than it is to complete a globular ring due to the ability to use more than 2 ships at any given moment, I still don't think it's worth 450 BPV. However, if it's a tradeoff between having webs and not having webs, then it makes sense to have asteroids.

One of the game truisms is that even large asteroids do not pose any threat, navigational or otherwise, unless they have some sort of ground base on them. Therefore, in addition to the generator buoy requirements, I propose that there be 3 different sizes of asteroids that can support generator buoys. These are:
1) large asteroids of 400 damage points or for 25 BPV, which can support any ground base and a generator buoy. These exist already.
2) medium asteroids of 100 damage points for 6 BPV, which can support a ground base up to 8 BPV and a generator buoy. (Sorry, folks. No GBDPs or GBDDs allowed on a 6 BPV asteroid unless ADB disagrees with me.) These asteroids are seen in one scenario, but are not named as medium asteroids, and are worth 25 victory points in that scenario instead of BPV.
3) small asteroids of 16 damage points for 1 BPV, which can only support a generator buoy. Small asteroids are mentioned in the rulebook, but are not further defined.

With the addition of the small, 1 BPV asteroid anchor, those Tholian players who have been taking advantage of rule (G10.821) shouldn't have much to complain about having to spend a mere 18 BPV for the 18 corner anchor points of a 3 ring web defense. They will gain the advantages of faster web spinning rates as they can have all of their web spinning units work at the same time, as well as those units capable of strengthening webs doing so before a circle's completion if that segment is anchored to a non-shuttle unit. They will gain the ability to open a gap for non-Tholian units to enter the space behind the web circle, too. They also get the ability to initially deceive their opponents to the makeup of their forces as medium and large asteroids are more likely to be harboring ground bases... or not, and you won't know until you get to tac-intel level L unless the base does something eocks can not do. Nothing requires a symmetrical distribution of asteroids by size, nor that large and medium asteroids have ground bases. Generator buoys are too small and cheap to require SSDs or BPV.

A web anchor arrangement of 6 large asteroids for the inner ring, 6 medium ones for the middle ring and 6 small ones in the outer ring totals 192 BPV, but allows for 6 GBDPs and 6 GBD1s for a total of 132 BPV. This group of asteroids and ground bases sum 324 BPV, which is much less than the 450 BPV which would have been spent on just asteroids, and they pack some punch. This will reduce the Tholian fleet by 126 BPV over just havingglobular webs. This defense isn't a recommendation, but rather an example of what can be done.

Along with providing a plausible continuity to the generator buoys, this proposal also provides more variety to the Tholian web defenses.

Using the damage capacity of the asteroids as their volume and that large asteroids are about 1 mile in diameter, medium asteroids would be about 2/3 mile in diameter, and small asteroids would be about 1/3 mile in diameter. Since Tholian PFs can be anchors, it's plausible that an asteroid 1/3 mile in diameter can also be a web anchor. The Tholians can choose the sizes they need.

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The above is the full proposal. I did have another thought while hammering the above out. What if the medium and small asteroids can be moved within the span of a scenario? I realize that (P3.434) states that large asteroids have a movement cost of 1000+. I allowed my dyslexia to miss one of the 0s in 1000, and I saw 100+. A movement cost of 100 would still prevent a large asteroid from being moved within the span of a scenario, but it opens the possibility of medium and small asteroids to be moved.

Since 100 is 1/4th the number of damage points of a large asteroid, if that pattern carries through to the other sizes, medium asteroids would have a movement cost of 25, and small asteroids 4. Medium asteroids could be accelerated to speed 1, maybe speed 2 by the largest ships. Small asteroids could go a bit faster, and be moved by smaller ships, perhaps PCs. If at least 1 point of energy for movement came from impulse engines, momentum could be given to the asteroids allowing for a speed 1 movement after the towing ship releases its tractor beam. The part which keeps me from proposing this is the turn mode of either asteroid should a player wish to change the asteroids' directions. Such ability to move at least the small asteroids would allow the Tholians to repair their long term webs much sooner should they stock a few small asteroids at the base for replacements, and their being movable by PCs explains how early years Tholians, with few ships and all of them small, managed to get asteroids the their bases.

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Wednesday, July 03, 2024 - 11:01 am: Edit

In reading through the rules again, I found 1 reference to "standard asteroids". The label is not further defined by the rules. These may be what I referred to as medium asteroids.