Oh yeah my Hydran HB fleet, well when I saw the 500 bpv announcement I was like "put me down for 4xTartar, I'm going on break" but then they said we had to bring an old school fellowship with a bunch of hobbit ships, I decided to hold the line on HB count and came up with this which is admittedly not great:

Anarchist
Iroquois
Warrior
Knight+

I hate the Dragoon but maybe something with Dragoons breathing HELLBOREFIRE at you while running away works because big map and everyone has max T-Bombs.

Someone said you have to run a scout (probably because of ECM drones -- don't get me started on these), but I also hate scouts so I'd try and make it work with the sheer bustedness of HBs.

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Tuesday, January 28, 2025 - 08:29 am: Edit

Well, I agree with Hardcore, someone who wants to play Tholians should try it. I'm not inherently against Tholian web, I just don't want to open the door to an layer cake just sitting there in the middle of the map with some sort of mutually un-winnable stand-off situation.

BTW, Ed and I have played turn 1 of our test battle.

Feds - BCF, DDL+, GSC+
Roms - NHK, SKA, SEA, SKF

We had some rules questions and also some SFBOL interface questions, but basically the SKA and SEA cloaked and are running up either side, the NHK is on PFC, threw a plasma ECM out the shuttle bay on 32, and we are about 54 hexes apart still. Feds are sticking together (surprise).

Its been a long time since I played a fleet battle, so it is pretty good to refresh the knowledge of the tools and tricks ... hope to find some kind of EW display for all units?

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Tuesday, January 28, 2025 - 08:38 am: Edit

Hey Himosan,

That's a dam* good fleet. I'm not sure D7H is gonna fly as a captured ship ... but how about you substitute the Dragoon? I really like the DG, the crazy arcs give you some interesting maneuver options, like you said.

No time to fly a test battle with HYD vs some poor sap in Klingons or Lyrans? I was considering something like BC and DWS with 4xPFs ... seems like an interesting fight!

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Tuesday, January 28, 2025 - 08:40 am: Edit

Who wants to sign up? I'm hoping to get a tree set-up in early February, like Fed 1st if possible.

I'll email everyone who has posted in this thread to confirm playing or not.

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Wednesday, January 29, 2025 - 10:24 am: Edit

Geoffrey,
I will mention this tourney to my campagin players.

Cheers
Frank

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Wednesday, January 29, 2025 - 05:32 pm: Edit

Geof,
Sign me up but I am away from Feb 12th to March 1st.

If this is not ok, no worries about dropping me, I will catch the next run !

Cheers
Frank

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandar) on Wednesday, January 29, 2025 - 08:03 pm: Edit

I have jumped in sent a Romulan Eagle force. We shall see. Sabots type R.

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Thursday, January 30, 2025 - 01:01 am: Edit

Hey Frank,

Thanks! I sent you email, I think we should be able to accommodate your vacation time. Alternatively you can join a team ... let me know your preference.

At this point, we have three confirmed signups, more on the way, hopefully. At a minimum we should have at least four players/teams (I'll play if we really need a fourth player), and we might switch to round-robin format, and track victory points to determine the final two teams/players for a final battle.

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Thursday, January 30, 2025 - 01:10 am: Edit

So, Vandar asked about cloaked decoy. I guess my feeling is that we might approve a cloaked decoy, but we probably would also need to approve the Tholian web anchor, and the general anchored web rules ... I guess we might allow these things in the next tournament, once we've had a chance to run some practice battles.

The idea is to be able to play with the cool rules that we generally have all wanted to play with, given the chance ... it is good to permit the rules without prejudice, as long as we know that sufficient balance can be maintained.

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Thursday, January 30, 2025 - 08:05 am: Edit

Team concept works !!

Normally I prefer Gorns but I think I will choose Lyrans for fun this time around !
I will send you my fleet build today.

Cheers
Frank

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Thursday, January 30, 2025 - 08:24 am: Edit

For the record, I have no issues if you wish to be a player Geof !

Cheers
Frank

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Thursday, January 30, 2025 - 09:59 am: Edit

Geof,
Dave just pointed out to me the strict time limits to complete EA and the penalties involved if we do not complete EA in 10 minutes.

What happens at the end of a turn and we need to save.
Do we need to complete EA online before we part company ?

Cheers
Frank

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Thursday, January 30, 2025 - 12:24 pm: Edit

Hey Frank,

The ten minute time limit was from the original CL15 rules, which also require a team, no single players. We've since edited those rules to permit single players to run the whole fleet, and therefore, I think it also makes sense to relax the ten minute time limit as well.

With my practice fleet battle in progress with Ed, I'm running four ships, and while I've managed to complete EA in ten minutes for each turn, it is tough to do so (especially with move cost 1, 1/2 and 1/3 units)! Therefore, in the latest edition of the rules (the emailed version), I've extended the time to 15 minutes. The clock starts when both players decide to start EA. At EOT, the players can decide to continue play, or to save for later. The EA timer would then start in the next session, when both players agree to start EA. Of course, you can use the time between sessions to think about what to do, but EA should be conducted together, and records kept.

Hope this makes sense, ready for feedback and comments.

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Thursday, January 30, 2025 - 12:42 pm: Edit

Geof,
Sent you my Lyran fleet build, let me know of any errors please.

Good to hear we can do EA in between sessions !

15 minutes though is still kinda fast especially when you need to work on CDR/EDR, assign BP guards, plan for the next turn tactically etc.

Would you be ok with a 30 minute limit for EA completion ?
" Fingers crossed ! '' [insert similing emoji ]

How are the teams decided if we go that route ?

Cheers
Frank

By David Hanson (Glimaash) on Thursday, January 30, 2025 - 07:02 pm: Edit

This sounds like a fun tournament.

I have a question around "limited availability" (your text is below). Are you using the War Ship Status in the Master Ship Index(MSI) (LPU, LP2, LPW, maybe UNQ) to determine limited? I do not see anything regarding scouts as limited. Scouts are generally RPL (campaign unlimited but built in limited numbers. If using If using MSI, many leaders are RPW, are these added to the list and considered limited?

Assuming the megapacks are out for the Hydran fighters as not mentioned. Nothing about TUG in the used rules so assuming anything with a TG note is out. There are some dedicated battle tugs (no TG note) which are size class 3, are they out as well (a poor empires DN)?


"A single "Limited Availability" ship may be selected; for example leaders, prototypes, Maulers, ships with Stasis Field Generators, ships with shock (Fed BCJ, Rom KHK or SPJ, etc.) ... but not conjectural ships. The judge reserves the right to reject any selection that is not in compliance with these rules."

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Friday, January 31, 2025 - 07:49 am: Edit

Hey David,

Maybe I'm not up to date with the Master Ship Index(MSI) (LPU, LP2, LPW, maybe UNQ) ... I'm mostly thinking about leader variants.

Up above, we had a link to the CL54 rules ...

http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/messages/12031/12044.html?1676666937

I think this might offer some clarity. Maybe if you can point me to the proper reference for those codes?

If you want to take a battle tug ... I think this should be OK.

I don't think scouts are limited, but I think only one can be selected for a fleet, no?

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Friday, January 31, 2025 - 12:02 pm: Edit

I think BTs should be prohibited.

Cheers
Frank

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Friday, January 31, 2025 - 12:31 pm: Edit

Why would you allow battle tugs but not allow dreadnoughts?

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, January 31, 2025 - 02:38 pm: Edit

I'm certainly ok with "no battle tugs", but I can see an argument for allowing them. They tend to be slow (fewer than 30 warp and/or 1.5 move cost) and relatively fragile, compared to dreadnoughts (fewer shields, less hull, etc.).

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Friday, January 31, 2025 - 06:53 pm: Edit

Peter,
Something like a Moniitor?

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Friday, January 31, 2025 - 07:36 pm: Edit

If we are going to let Tholians in how about the Seltorians? Just the Y182 ships.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandar) on Friday, January 31, 2025 - 08:26 pm: Edit

I would think no battle tugs. For at least the first run. DN I want a KVL.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, January 31, 2025 - 09:08 pm: Edit

Paul wrote:
>>Something like a Moniitor?>>

I don't know that I understand what you are saying here?

I was just pointing out that battle tugs tend to be slow and fragile, relative to SC2 dreadnoughts, while not costing much less.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, January 31, 2025 - 09:15 pm: Edit

In support of Paul's point, it might be worth making the YIS date a little later than y180, in the name of giving everyone a full slate of available ships. For example, just due to, essentially, randomosity of the YIS dates, some empires have access to Heavy War Destroyers and others don't (like, the Feds and Klingons get HDWs in y180; the Romulans and Gorns get them in y181; the Kzinti get them in y182).

This works fine in F+E as tech is rolled across the galaxy, but in this instance, it seems a little wonky that some folks could get HDWs (which are handy ships in this particular instance) and others can't, just 'cause of arbitrary YIS dates.

Like, I'm not super invested in this, and certainly don't want X-Ships on the map, but moving dates so that the Seltorians could be involved (especially as this is a situation where the Seltorians could actually play to their strengths :-) and everyone could play a HDW if they wanted might be cool.

By David Hanson (Glimaash) on Saturday, February 01, 2025 - 04:39 pm: Edit

IF we use the restriction in CL54, they prohibit HDWs. I am not certain we are but was directed to it.

http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/messages/12031/12044.html?1676666937