The (not so) Great Escape
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: SFB Proposals Board:
New Scenarios:
The (not so) Great Escape
Following is a suggestion for a scenario based on the last days of the Tholian Will in the Old Galaxy... let me know what you think.
The (not so) Great Escape
Old Galaxy Tholians fleeing the destruction of the Empire.
The Tholian Capitol has dissapeared.
The Tholians harnessed the power of a wormhole that was near their home planet's binary stars to evacuate their homeworld "elsewhere". The wormhole had been unstable in the past and little more than a scientific curiosity until the collapse of the Will. Scientists on the Thloian homeworld figured out both how to predict the future outlet of the wormhole and how to cause the wormhole to shift and suck in the homeworld and starbase at just the right moment to place the Homeworld in a safe orbit in another Galaxy. No one is sure how they did it, but refugees fleeing the oncoming Seltorians wanted to replicate the feat and fast for themselves.
A fleeing scout and PC discovered that the worm hole had shifted to a point in between the systems two stars. (if no Scouts allowed in the Old Galaxy substitute an NDD) This didn't matter a great deal to the desperate Tholians who immediately began calculating the odds of surviving the trip.
The PC voluntarily dove down into the wormhole... the wormhole remained "connected" long enough on both ends to allow the PC to return unharmed a few minutes later. The chief science officer of the Scout came to the conclusion the wormhole is not going to be around for very much longer before it would collapse.
A general call to all surviving Tholians netted a ragtag variety of survivors still fleeing the "mop up" forces of the Seltorian fleet. Unknown to the Tholians was that the other end of the wormhole was flitting around randomly in vastly distant regions of the "New" galaxy while this end was anchored to the dual gravity well that was about to destroy it as begins to suck in matter from the two stars. as the refugees began to arrive so did major Seltorian Fleet elements. It was a hard fight and the Seltorians managed to get the idea of the general direction of where the Tholian Homeworld had gone after observing use of the wormhole by the desperate refugees...
Special rules:
All "Old Galaxy" rules apply.
Wormhole:
(generic disclaimer: All wormholes are different and unique etc so this in no way constitutes a standard)
This wormhole is snuggled in between two Stars in a binary pair. On Impulse 1 of Turn 25 the wormhole will collapse all by itself if it hasn't already done so by then.
To access (and survive) the wormhole at least one warp engine box must be operable on any ship attempting to navigate it. Any Unit without functioning warp drive that enters the wormhole is considered destroyed!
WARP STRAIN:
The wormhole is highly unstable... every turn that ships pass through it take the number of ships passing through and roll 3d6. On a roll equal to the number of ships passing through it that turn the wormhole collapes (the ships still escape). This means at least ONE TURN of escaping is relatively guaranteed... To this die roll subtract the number of turns that ships have used it already to escape (no the PC in the prologue does not count). For example; on turn 7 six ships attempt to escape. On previous turns 2, 3 and 5 several ships escaped. So on a roll of 6 or less the wormhole will collapse... the roll is 8 -3 turns used equals 5... the wormhole collapses.
The wormhole is one full hex, it blocks L.O.S./fire etc, any ship entering the hex is considered "escaped" as it is sucked in immediately during the movement step. Units cannot be docked or they are considered destroyed if they enter the wormhole by any means. Movement by wormhole breaks all tractor beams.
Each turn the Wormhole may move closer to the Nebulae (see MAPS) which is the material being sucked from one star to the other. On one D6 it moves on a 4 or less. Roll for direction and distance, 1d6 1-3=E, 4-5=D, 6=F and move it 1d6
hexes in that direction. When the wormhole contacts the Nebula DOUBLE the chance to collapse from use. After contacting the nebulae roll every turn for it's collapse if used to escape or not with a Minimum factor of 9 to collapse (unless #of ships last escaping, doubled, is higher) until it collapses. It will still collapse on impulse one of turn 25 if it has not done so by then. Once in the Starmass the wormhole will not leave it, if the random movement roll calls for it to leave the Starmass it simply stops in the edge and moves no further in that direction that time.
Wormhole navigation ignorance:
The Seltorian Force Commander believed the wormhole to be a deathrap and NO Seltorian units may "escape" using it unless 200 points of lab information have been gathered about the wormhole by the current Seltorian fleet. The Seltorians may not begin gathering data until at least one Tholian Unit escapes using the wormhole. If all the initial Seltorian Units are destroyed subsequent Seltorians may figure it out again, and can start gathering information upon arrival. Any Seltorian unit attemping to escape counts against the normal chance for the wormhole to collapse HOWEVER each Seltorian Unit that attempts this must roll its size class or higher or be destroyed by the wormhole.
Any crippled UNIT MUST roll size class or higher to survive the wormhole.
The Tholian scout has had ample time to work out the calculations for the incoming Tholian ships but the Scout MUST be present to transfer data to each incoming group of refugees to ensure safe passage. If the scout is destroyed prior to the arrival of a given group and the science officer of the scout does not survive onto a current vessel in the scenario then that group can still use the wormhole but must roll against each units own size class or higher or be destroyed by the wormhole as listed for the Seltorians.
(NO CRIPPLED, UNNASSISTED SIZE CLASS 4 UNIT CAN MAKE IT THROUGH WITHOUT AN OUTSTANDING CREW...AND THEN ONLY HAS A 1-IN-6 CHANCE OF SURVIVING)
Starmass:
All of Map 3 (and adjacent left/right Maps and all of Direction D from Map 3) is a very treacherous mass of material being sucked from one star into another. The entire map (and adjacent floating sections) has the following terrain features: Every hex is an asteroid hex with one column shift to the right and minimum speed consideration of 1 (the Starmass is moving as well) plus the ships speed. The entire zone is a combination of Nebulae, Heat and Radiation Zones. Random Movement (P6.5) is limited to Directions 4, 5 and 6 in this Zone.
(Note: NOT REALLY NEW TERRAIN JUST A COMBINATION OF EXISTING EFFECTS)
Map:
Use floating map(s) if agreeable to both players. otehrwise any unit that leaves the map has disengaged and will not return.
Initial Layout:
Maps 1, 2, 3 with map 1 XX30 meeting Map 2's XX01 edge and the same for map 2 and 3 meeting etc.
All Maps are Radiation (P.15) and Heat (P.10) zones. 100 Maps in direction A from Map 3 the effects drop to Heat zone only and direction A is then considered shadowed. 120 maps in direction D from Map 3 the shadow is direction D.
All maps along the line of shifting Map 3 are Starmass. The Starmass extends in
Direction D from Map 3 for twenty Maps.
The Wormhole starts in Hex 2215 on Map 2.
Forces:
The Seltorians are limited to Three DNs, of which one of each must be in the turn ten and twenty reinforcements. NO HIVE SHIP, NO fighters, NO PFs and NO Seeking weapons... and did I mention no Hive Ship?
Tholian:
Turn 1
Map 2, 1xNeo-Tholian Scout (or one PC Scout) and 1xPC Within 4 hexes of the wormhole.
Map 1, 42XX edge, 1xNDN, 1xNCA and 1xNFF, 1 Large Freighter.
Turn 2
Map 1, 42XX edge, 1xNCL, 2xNFF
1d6 Freighters(50% chance each is large or small).
Turn 3
Map 1, 42XX edge, 1xNDD and 2xNFF
1d6 Freighters(50% chance each is large or small, arriving in hex#).
Turn 4
Map 1, 42XX edge, 4xNFF
1d6 Freighters(50% chance each is large or small, arriving in hex#).
Turn 8
Map 1, 42XX edge, 1xNDD and 1xNFF
1d6 Freighters(50% chance each is large or small, arriving in hex#).
Turn 15
Map 1, 42XX edge, 1xNCL, 2xNDD, 3xNFF, 3xPC and 2d6 Freighters (50% chance each is large or small)
Tholian Units can arrive 30 hexes from any Seltorian unit if Seltorians are within that range to the 42XX edge of Map 1. Tholians arrive first on turns when Seltorian and Tholians arrive.
Seltorian:
Turn 1
Map 1, 01XX edge, 750 Point Fleet
Turn 5
Map 1, 01XX edge, 750 Point Fleet
Turn 10
Map 1, 01XX edge, A big honkin' 1,250 point fleet...
Turn 20
Map 1, 01XX edge, A 1,250 point fleet.
Any Tholian not "escaped by wormhole" by turn 25 are considered destroyed... any Tholian that escapes by distance, accelleration, sublight etc is also considered to be hunted down and destroyed. Of course the Tholian may want to "take a few more with him" if using standard victory conditions for some reason.
All Seltorian reinforcements must be taken on the turn called for if the scenario has not ended. The Tholians may delay/not take the Turn 15 arrival at the Tholian players option.
Old galaxy "heavy scout":
Take an NDD, Replace Particle Cannons and Phasers #2 and #3 with Scout channels (or replace Phaser #1 instead of #2 and #3, or just replace Particle Cannons only).
COMMANDERS OPTION ITEMS:
Tholians; All have double the number of Crew and Boarding Parties (Refugees) PLUS the normal allowance for Commanders Options.
G.21: Outstanding Crews.
If Crew quality is used the Seltorians have no poor crews. Any ship with a poor crew MUST roll to survive the wormhole if it attempts to navigate it. Any ship with an outstanding crew makes full repairs once the trip is over (ie is uncrippled if it was crippled). Otherwise apply campaign repairs.
G.22: Legendary Officers.
If used, use G22.111 to assign them for each ship, no officers may be purchased by either side. If a campaign is attempted track these officers. A Legendary Captain OR Science Off/Engineer are needed to establish any kind of production/repair/colony facilities. If lacking a Legendary Engineer the Tholians cannot build anything larger than a PC and can only build a small unit, size class 4 ship building facility AFTER A colony is established and a repair/support station AND a BS (inclusive minimums) are completed. Any ship with
any L.O. other than (or in addition to) Doctor is considered uncrippled once the escape is completed, if crippled prior to that point. The escape is considered a manuever for purposes of Legendary Navigator/Crew status rolls if applicable to the ships point of navigating the wormhole.
Victory conditions:
Units that do not arrive prior to the end of the scenario do not count for victory calculations. Forces not used by the Tholians do not count (they went elsewhere to distract Seltorians). The scenario ends when the following two conditions are met;
1. The wormhole collapses.
2. There are no more Tholian or Seltorian Units engaged in the scope of the scenario ie one side is destroyed or disengaged. Unnarrived Units do not count for this purpose. If this is the case the and the Tholian has the map all surviving Tholians (not including forces unarrived) may escape at once safely if there are no Seltorian ships on the map or coming.
Escape points:
Each Tholian ship that "escapes", uncrippled, counts as one victory point for the Tholian Player.
Each Tholian ship that "escapes", crippled, counts as one half of a victory point.
Each Tholian ship that does not "escape" counts as minus one victory point.
Freighters count DOUBLE for this calculation. This includes all Tholian ships present in the scenario that fail to navigate the wormhole succesfully.
Total out the escape points and apply the remaining number as follows:
0 Tholians escape=Seltorian Decisive Victory
Any - number + Seltorians succesfully navigate wormhole=Seltorian Major Victory
Any - number=Seltorian Victory
0-9 points of escaping Tholians=Draw
10 points of ships disengage succesfully=Tholian victory
30 points of ships disengage Tholian Major Victory
31+ points of ships escape and no Seltorians succesfully use wormhole=Tholian Decisive Victory.
Tactics:
Tholians, Don't expect the wormhole to last more than nine turns! If by some stroke of luck it does AND you have run off/destroyed the first 1,500 points of Seltorians stick it out for the turn 15 refugees UNLESS grossly outnumbered by
the incoming Seltorian Fleet.
If the Wormhole survives hitting the Starmass it's well worth the risk to try and get in before it collapses.
Seltorians, Bring a Scout and destroy the Tholian Scout as quickly as possible. Kill Freighters!
Choose between defeating the Tholian navy ships and killing freighters from the outset. Also note that even if your fleets are totally destroyed so are any trapped (un"escaped") Tholians after the wormhole collapses. If part of a campaign send a Fleet after the refugees (if you've figured it out and have time)(All restricitons on construction etc are same as Tholians). Don't chase the Tholians if they run into the Starmass unless you REALLY have to.
Play Balance:
Adjust the arrival time of the Seltorians.
Adjust the starting hex of the wormhole further or closer to Map 3.
Historic outcome:
TBD
Old galaxy "heavy scout"
Take an NDD, Replace Particle Cannons and Phasers #2 and #3 with Scout channels (or replace Phaser #1 instead of #2 and #3, or just replace Particle Cannons only).
Other considerations:
For an interesting campaign;
Take a strategic map for the whole Galaxy... Assign all areas of the map a number. Each group that "escapes" in a given turn arrive in the same random area... if in different impulses they are one strategic hex apart per impulse in any random direction from the previous impulse in that sector... Use the Strategic map to move them together with an eye towards finding/establishing a new "home". Note that Seltorians can also "escape" and certain races may help/hinder the Tholians/Seltorians... You could end up with several "wagon train"/"BattleStar Tholaxia"'s, or one (or none)...
Time could also be played with as well... the groups may arrive in the same timeframe as when they left or... year(s) apart for each turn they left on...
They could arrive in Early years at the sime time as the Tholians arrived historically OR they could arrive decades further like around the same time as the Big Fleet arrived or somewhere in between.
The Old Galaxy races didn't have scouts.
Not a problem.
Replace Scout with NDD and a very dedicated and motivated science officer/staff who worked out the whole thing just like above.
Not a bad idea, but it would have to be non-historical for the fact that fiction established that the trip took many many years to make. On the other hand, what's in the Milky Way is not the Homeworld, but instead a major colony. So this can be a valid scenario about the homeworld and leaves open the question, where did it land?
That's why I threw in the the proviso that time may be altered in respect to the wormhole travel. Theoretically it could lead to a very tiny colony on the other side of the Milky way as well if a large enough force went there. I like the idea of the Seltorians having some way of getting a clue about where the Tholians transported that world to as well, but without pinpointing the location.
Also, IIRC reading about the Tholian escape years ago is that I thought it was the homeworld that they "transported" into the Milky Way. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong or maybe it was that it's the homeworld in the Milky Way that threw me off.
If wrong about that part of it then (I don't have all the CL and may be remembering it wrongly) it could just be changed to "the Major colony of the Binary Sytem Quatloos-2" or whatever had dissapeared instead.
Tholia (in our galaxy) was a provincial capital, that was transported here from the Old Galaxy.
This would probably be better as an (SGxx.0) what if, rather than trying to bend it into something historical (e.g. this is plan 3347/e from the Seltorian Tribunals files, based on the contingency of the Tholians trying to use such a wormhole to escape justice).
Ok.
The potential historical outcomes could be warped because of the unstable wormhole itself as well... this leaves an easy out for maintaining a particular timeline and for inserting NeoTholians into the Omega quadrant (if that's ever desired) or starting yet another line of modules, like if they don't arrive in the Milky Way at all or they arrive in a certain timeframe or miss the Milky Way all together. I was thinking Andromeda might be a relatively good place for a (very) large Tholian force to drop in and colonize. Of course that depends on Andromedan technological development and if/when/where the Tholians pop-in.
OR the Worm Hole didn't transport them to the MIlky Way at all but somewhere in between. They got away but had to travel for two hundred years to get here.
By the way, you don't have to use the term Wormhole. That may lead to dificulties. Spacial Anomoly would work. Or Sub-Space tear. Hyper-conduit. Hyper-rift.
WOrmhole is too defined in Sci-Fi.
Regarding the main scenario, 3,000 BPV of Seltorians arriving will take a long time to play and between Heat Zone and Radiation Zone there will be a lot of record keeping needed. It will be very bloody. The scenario is unbalanced in favor of the Seltorians who can easily block the Tholian path. Stopping the final Tholian force almost ensures a Seltorian victory since about 1/3 of the Tholian force arrives then.
Suggestions: Shrink the scenario. Let the Tholian cancel the scenario at any point. After the scenario is canceled, no additional Tholian ships will arrive and therefore the Tholians can't suffer losses on ships unable to make it out. A quick thought test indicates the Seltorians can't lose if they keep at a distance and snipe at some of the Tholian vessels. Blocking later Tholian arrival plus limited damage to early Tholian ships gives the Seltorian an easy victory. Changing the timing would force the Seltorian to close and fight the Tholians rather than stand off and concede the Tholians a victory.
The (not so) Great Escape (rehashed) Tholian old Galaxy scenario...
Three "huge cubes" are found circling a "hole", that takes up the entire hex 2015, left by an entire world recently being moved to the Milky Way... Unbeknownst to the Seltorians the cubes will self destruct on impulse 1 of turn 12 ending the hole's existence.
Part of the 312th Fleet is there to fend of the small Seltorion Task force sent to probe the planets defenses while the rest of the 312th was engaged elsewhere...
Special Rules:
The creation of the hole has caused massive sunspots to start occuring, roll 1d6 at start, this is how long the sunspots initally last for. Once the intial sunspots run out roll 1d6 for the number of clear turns before the next sunspot occurs. Rinse and repeat the process.
Hole; the "hole" takes up the entirity of hex 2015, any unit entering it is considered disengaged, should Selt be disengaged this way no scientific information is retained from that unit for victory points.
No Tholian may disengage by going into the hole before turn 11 unless crippled.
All old galaxy rules in effect, except as noted in alternate force rules.
Forces:
Seltorian;
1xDD 2xFF
or
1xCL, 3xAXC*
Tholian;
1xNDD, 2xNFF
Objectives:
Seltorians gain scientific information about the cubes and the hole.
Reinforcements:
On turn 10 the main 312th battle fleet returns, all Selts remaining are destroyed and the 312th plummits to an unknown fate with any other Tholian survivors on turn 11. On turn 10 Any nondisengaged Seltorian unit is considered destroyed by the main force of the 312th battel fleet.
Victory conditions:
Victory is based soley on the information gathered and removed by the Seltorians.
Each surviving Seltorian unit is responsible for it's data as part of the whole. The data may be sent by a single surviving unit in a catastophic situation, ie a shuttle, or shared by sending a copy by shuttlecraft/transporter to another Seltorian unit. Points not disengaged, no matter how, do not count for calculating victory.
0-99 points= Major Tholian Victory, the Seltorians will never find them.
100 points= Minor Tholian Victory, the Seltorians will arrive to meet Tholian X-ships.
200 points= Draw, the Seltorians arrive historically.
300 points= Minor Seltorian victory, the Seltorians will arrive 5 years early.
400 points= Major Seltorian, the Seltorians will arrive 10 years earlier.
700 points= Total Utter Double Dog Seltorian Victory-they replicate the technology and send fleets straight to the hidden planet destroying it utterly and ending the Tholian menace forever.
*The TWILIDAR were one of many subject races that began building warships during the great strife between the Tholian Will and the Seltorians and joined with the Seltorians during this operation to test out there newly converted freighters in battle. The converted freighters are identical in all ways to WYN AXC, except no t-bombs wild weasels etc, and may only be one each of the folling types: 4xPC armed, 2xPC+2xDrone, 4xDrone. Drones are type IS with no upgrades. Eventually the TWILIDAR and others would betray the Seltorians and all but wipe them out before vying with one another for supremacy in the wake of the Tholian will collapsing. But that was long, long after the hive ship departed on it's singleminded mission.
Campaign notes:
All Tholian Units escaping down the "hole" must do so in the same impulse of the turn they go or they are scattered from each other by random distance and direction in F&E hexes (set for your own campaign). Any crippled unit disengaging this way must roll below it's damage control rating or be destroyed. If the Unit has no Damage Control Rating it must roll a 1 to survive. Historically the 312th, leaving on turn 11, ended up so far from the final destination that it took them decades to arrive there. Seltorians will not attempt to go down the hole for two reasons, the first is they must gather information and get out with it the second is the thought that even if they survived the trip they would not have sufficient forces to take on the Tholian world alone.
(assume WS-III)