(OS___.0) A Dragon Story

(Omega Y189) by Scott Tenhoff

As the Alunda continued to press on the Branthadon during their Operation Genocide, they eventually came upon one of the Branthadon’s last-ditch efforts to defeat the approaching Alunda. One of their Elder Dragons, grown to an enormous size, never before seen under Branth control.

Could the Branth’s last effort, derail the Alunda drive towards their homeworlds?

(OS___.1) NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2; the Branthadon player and the Alunda player.
(SP___.2) INITIAL SET UP

Branthadon:
Ancient, see (OS__.45) below
2 Hatchlings
Within 4 hexes of 0404, both at WS-III, heading C, speed max.

Alunda: see (OS___.47) for special rules.
Punisher, PR, see (OS___.46)
Hurricane, HSC
TR1name, TR
TR2name, TR
TR3name, TR
TR4name, TR
Within 4 hexes of 3826, all at WS-3, heading F, speed max.

Reinforcements, see (OS__.49), enter within 10 hexes of 4230, WS-3, speed max, on Turn 5.

YEAR: Y189

(OS___.3) LENGTH OF SCENARIO: The scenario continues until all forces belonging to one side have been destroyed, captured, or have disengaged.
(OS___.4) SPECIAL RULES
(OS___.41) MAP: Use a floating map.
(OS___.42) SHUTTLES AND PFs: All shuttles and PFs do NOT have warp booster packs.
(OS___.421) MRS shuttles may be purchased [up to the limits in (J8.5)] under (SP___.431).
(OS___.422) There is no fighters in this scenario.
(OS___.423) There are no PFs in this scenario.
(OS___.43) COMMANDER'S OPTION ITEMS
(OS___.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.
(OS___.432) The races that are involved in this scenario do not use drones. In a variation where a drone-armed race is used, drone speeds will depend on the year selected for the scenario.
(OS___.433) If players wish to use the optional rules for Prime Teams (G32.0), they can purchase such teams (25 points each) as part of their starting forces (not part of Commander's Options).
(OS___.44) REFITS:
(OS___.45) Ancient. The Ancient Dragon is incomplete as it is presented in Omega-4. It does not have 10 shuttle boxes, and there is no fighters ready racks installed. As such, it is carrying 6 shuttles.
(OS___.46) As the Punisher has been leading the Operation Genocide forces for so long, it’s fighters have been removed, and reassigned to a separate Huntship Carrier and are not present. As these are external fighter bays, or the equivalents, they are empty and cannot carry admin shuttles.
(SP___.48) Dragonship crippling. Any dragonship is considered “Crippled”, rule (x0.0) if it exceeds the following damage limits in any area (round any fractions down):
Head: 75 %
Body: 80 %
Wings: 75 % (total wing damage points, not each)
Tail: 80 %
Claws: 80 % (total claw damage points, not each)
Vitals: 67%
Exo-skeleton: 75 % of total internals or 1 excessive damage.
(SP___.49) Alunda Reinforcements: At the begining of Turn 5, the Alunda receive what would of been their "Breakthrough" force called here as reinforcements. It consists of HSV (with the best fighters available), 2Devourer Escorts, and 2 Trackers.

(OS___.5) VICTORY CONDITIONS: The Branthadon player is attempting to inflict as much damage as possible before he is forced to withdraw. Each SC-3 ship counts as 2 VP, each SC-4 ship counts as 1 VP, and the PR as 4 VP. If the Ancient is crippled, increase the victory level by 4 for the Alunda, if it is destroyed, it is an automatic Victory for the Alunda. Compare it to the following chart:
6 Branthadon Overwhelming Victory
5 Branthadon Decisive Victory
4 Branthadon Tactical Victory
3 Draw
2 Alunda Tactical Victory
1 Alunda Decisive Victory
(OS___.6) VARIATIONS: The scenario can be played again under different conditions by making one or more of the following changes:
(OS___.7) BALANCE: The scenario can be balanced between players of different skill levels by one or more of the following:
(OS___.71) Change one or two Alunda Trackers to Devourers
(OS___.8) TACTICS:
(OS___.9) PLAYTESTERS COMMENTS:
(OS___.X) DESIGNER'S NOTES:
HISTORICAL OUTCOME
See story.

By Scott Tenhoff (Scottt) on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 07:48 pm: Edit

That is a scenario I'm writing currently, right now, the Branth's are wrecking the Alunda wholesale when I play this solitare.

Anyone want to play it out in their group and see if the Alunda have a chance?

By Daniel Riegler (Futonrevolution) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 04:05 pm: Edit

The Alunda have gotten smashed up good the two times I tried it, too.

How about...
Since the Ancient Dragonship was created in Y190 and the Regime was destroyed as a power at that time, I've always seen the Ancient as being a prototype - almost an accident even. For example, the Ancient in this scenario could have been an Elder that went rogue or simply couldn't get to a supply station for its anti-growth hormones. To represent that, I would have the exoskeleton damaged enough that it could just barely be repaired up to full strength during the scenario and replace the Hatchlings with the two surviving Babies that still fit in the compressed pouch.

By Scott Tenhoff (Scottt) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 04:15 pm: Edit

I had thought of downgrading the Hatchlings to Babies (actually it had been babies in the original writing..).

But it still seems just so overpowering because of the Ancient. I don't know how much 'damaging' the exoskeleton will help, I'll bring out the books again to look it over. (It's been shelved the 4 months since I posted this scenario).

What if the Ancient's Plasma does 1D6 damage less per Fasload/Bolt. And 2D6 damage less per normal/Enveloping. Rolled when the torp hits the target. (The unknown equation of such a huge dragonbreath)?

By Daniel Riegler (Futonrevolution) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 05:04 pm: Edit

Checking my handy spreadsheet here... the Ancient Dragonship's exoskeleton has 2 Impulse, 3 APR, 3 Batteries, 2 Bridge, 1 Emergency Bridge, 5 Transporters, 1 Shuttle, 8 Fighters, 1 Probe Launcher, 1 Armor, and 1 Excess Damage more than the Elder Dragonship's exoskeleton. That's 28 extra boxes altogether and the Ancient Dragonship's exoskeleton has a damage control of 4 so most of that would be unrecoverable during the scenario.

Another possibility stemming from that would be that outgrowing its exoskeleton would have damaged the dragon itself as well. However, the explosion of an Elder Dragonship's exoskeleton only inflicts 33 damage onto its dragon which isn't exactly worrisome to an Ancient Dragon - it can Fast Regenerate it within 2 turns - but it could help make the Ancient a little easier to tackle.

Perhaps also having a Whip Cruiser along would help. The HSC could be downgraded to a WS which would leave enough points left over to give the Pursuer Dreadnought two Remora fighters. It would most likely make the Dragonship think twice before swooping into range zero.

I'm not sure about the dragonbreath idea - I'll have to try it out first but it might be a bit much to remember during the game.

By Scott Tenhoff (Scottt) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 05:06 pm: Edit

Well I had (hoped) that the 6 Alunda w/ their countless ARF's would prevent the Ancient from getting to range 0, and preventing the claw attacks.

Not so huh? Even outnumbered you've gotten the Dragon to claw the Alunda to death?

By Daniel Riegler (Futonrevolution) on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 05:45 pm: Edit

What generally happens is that the Ancient hits a Tracker with enveloping dragonfire and, as the Hatchlings take it down, follows up with a Power Dive with some Raking claws. While waiting to be able to Power Dive again, the Ancient will Snatch or tractor a Tracker so that the ARFs will carry it away from the other Alunda.

Once the Hatchlings are gone, being tractored isn't as much of a concern but the Ancient keeps its special abilities for so long that it's still very difficult. ARFing is always a hard decision to make since would you rather be clawed or get a Bite and Tail Slap attack from range 3?

So far everything depends on how many Alunda can survive until the reinforcements come. The times I've played the Dragonship slaughters the Trackers and then splits once the cavalry arrives but if the two larger ships are pretty battered by that point, any reinforcements killed are just gravy.

Maybe if the Branthodon player could only disengage from one direction, the Alunda could blockade it in and gain a moral victory by eventually destroying the dragon. Also the reinforcements don't seem to be accounted for in the Victory Conditions.