Coalition turn 18 combat is over. The Coalition took out the Hydran 1st fleet SB with overwhelming force. Other losses in the battle were:

Hydrans: 4RN
Klingons: C8
Lyrans: BC, 2DN

The Fed 6th Fleet SB had 4 SIDS, and the Coalition appeared to attempt to finish it off with dirdam. However, after the Feds overcrippled on the first round, the Coalition forces withdrew, appearing to believe that the risk of failing to score the required 18 damage was too great.

As usual, the Coalition retook a bunch of devastated minor planets all along the Kzinti/Fed/Gorn fronts.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, October 17, 2010 - 01:30 pm: Edit

6th Fleet SB.

Indeed!

I knew it was going to be close - and the overcrippling would have meant I wasn't guaranteed a SID for the following round (plus risked taking a stack of damage!) and I expected William to direct kill a ship....which did't happen - so I left with minimual damage being done, but not taking too much either.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, November 02, 2010 - 02:12 pm: Edit

Coalition turn 18 is done.

As usual, not enough ships to do as I please!

However, reserves have been set up in -

Lyran Reserves are in 1401 (inc the B10) 914 and 1013
Klingon Reserves are in 1407, 2214, 3213 and 3317
Romulans Reserves are in 4318, 4613 and 4812.

Hopefully, the addition of 25+ more Klingon ships to the Rom/Fed border will boost the Romulans!

The only Coalition (Lyran) FRD is in 1407 and Romulans set up a MB in 3817.

1401 has 10 PDU's on it - hurrah!

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Tuesday, November 02, 2010 - 02:30 pm: Edit

Paul,

I'm curious. How are you holding 1401 for so long with a major 150+ Zin fleet sitting just offmap?

BTW: Will be working on our game later this week.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, November 02, 2010 - 03:21 pm: Edit

....Another Romulus Senate Session....

The newly promoted Defence Minister, Weagle stands for the first time - arms outstreched.

Weagle - 'Fellow Senators, I bring grave news. The first major Romulan attack in Federation space for over 2 years has failed. The 6th SB remains. It is clear the previous Defence Minister, once more allocated insufficent resources for this major objective.

The incomptence of that traiter Maximus is clear and I would like to thank Senator Sushon of the Tal Shiar for her assistance in the review of Maximus's treachery...

....(a silence falls over the normal background talking in the room)...

....The Tal Shiar has discovered Maximus had not only been allocating significant resources from the Defence Budget, to his personal 'projects', but also personal accounts.

Therefore, Maximus was found guilty in his trial this morning and sentence was carried over a little over 2 hours ago...

(a pin is heard to drop in the upper balconies...)

...and all of his former personal assets are hearby claimed by the Romulan Government.

Senator Vulis (a former ally of Maximus) stands - 'Why was the senate not consulted on this?'

Weagle - 'Senator, the Tal Shiar are still following up some of their leads, and secrecy was required....although no doubt the Tal Shiar will be speaking to you after this session'.

Vulis sat down rapidly....although it was clear what was on his mind, as his eyes started to scan the room for possible escape routes...

Weagle - 'Thank you Senator, I now call to the floor Ambassador Kurang who has a plan to resolve our immediate problems'

Ambassador Kurang stand - 'Thank you Minister. After the recent failed assault on 6th Fleet Star Base, it has been agreed the Klingons do need to put further pressure on the Federation. The Emperor, has therefore personally...

(several sleeping senators awake with a start)

......dispatched not only the bulk of new production over the last 6 months, but also several repaired vessels, to a new Klingon Command, the 'Tholian Front Sector'.

The Emperor has also designated that Front Sector Commander ....as myself.

I have therefore created TWO Reserve Fleets...

...(and waiting for the applause to die down)....

..... which will protect not only the Western areas of Romulan space, but also protect the recent Romulan gains in Federation space.'

(noticing the interest of the Pro-Consul Ramus, the Ambassador pauses...)

Ramus - 'Ambassador, we are very grateful for these additional forces. However, please liase more closly with the new Defence Minister, than you did with his predecessor.'

Kurang - 'Thank you Pro-Consul, I am already working closing with Weagle to implement a new Joint Command structure....obvously under an overall Romulan Commander... to ensure the failures around the destruction of BATS 9 and failed assault on the 6th Star Base are not repeated.'

.........as a roar of approval comes from the Senate, Kurang slowly rotates himself receiving that applause..........

By Stewart W Frazier (Frazikar2) on Tuesday, November 02, 2010 - 06:31 pm: Edit

Ted - obvious answer, by staying until the Kzinti leaves to save (what's left of) his fleet [or the Kzinti doesn't feel he has enough ships]

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 09:11 am: Edit

Ted

Didn't see your posting last night (and my posting took a while!)!

Stewart is partially correct...

...but the main two reasons are

1) The Kzinti don't have 150 ships (off hand it's probably 60-70 ships) - the Kzinti have really been hurt in the game - and the 5 or so years with no shipyatd has meant their navy basically got smaller every turn.

2) I have left a very strong garrison force on 1401, for every turn (bar 1*).

The current line over 1401 would be something like B10, 6 x DN, 4 x BC, SC and 10 x PDU...

I did mess up on 1 turn (the main fleet guarding 1401 left, and then my dice rolling was appaling - net result was 1401 was recaptued by the Kzinti - even though I had 9 PDU's there!).

William did raid the hex a couple of turns ago - and again got very lucky on the dice and killed 6 PDU's - and he didn't lose much, but is still repairing the backlog....

On average dice, a 3CV group will die a round (I would probably direct on it) - for probably 3 rounds - and the Kzinti probably can't throw that number of ships away at the moment.

(The Kzinti on a good turn get 3 or 4 Ep's from their on map provinces - but most turns is 2 Ep's or less and for several turns it has been zero - as I was claiming it all!).

It's hard, and it has taken alot of resouces (Lyrans have built 25 PDU's I think!), but owning 1401 is possible!

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 09:17 am: Edit

I'm just *shocked* that the Zin navy is that small. Heck, the Zin *starting* navy is pretty much 150 SEs. Even if you take the Zin capital on turn 4 and you wack a bunch of ships it should stay nominally at around that value. Your opponent must have burned a bunch of ships......

Normally that doesn't happen. I've seen Alliance players (wisely I might add) preserve large navies, which forces the Coalition to tie down ships to give the Fed time to build up strength. A large navy also makes keeping 1401 very tough.

Interesting.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 11:40 am: Edit

I'll count the Ship equivalents later - it might be higher than my estimate!

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 03:04 pm: Edit

Well, I am shocked..

...the Kzinti have only 36 ships, with 62 fighters (including Tug fighters).

Of those 36 ships, 7 are CV's!

I can only think that I have over committed resouces to the Kzinti front - and they have paid a terrible price.

(If I remember, I took 1401 on turn 3 - hence why so few CV's!))

Probably explains why the Feds are 'OK' and Gorns very healthy!

By Chris Upson (Misanthropope) on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 03:14 pm: Edit

it's vanilla. one could never take 1401 as cheaply or as quickly as happened here, in "full" F&E.

with substantially fewer units, lacking 14 factors of free drone bombardment, and without the more-or-less automatic EW two-shift, compounded by trying to hold the secondary starbases, it was catastrophe for the zin, and they were pretty much guaranteed to be spectators to the general war, from that point.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 03:44 pm: Edit

I'm utterly shocked, even with vanilla F&E. 46 SEs total?!?!?

From what I've seen the best Alliance strategy is NOT to give up your fleet - even to protect the homeworld (assuming a concerted and probably inevitable Coalition push). Give the Coalition a schellacking while eating fighters and hard point assets, maybe cripple a few ships that you can for sure repair later, and then retreat.

Yeah, you lose the homeworld, but your fleet remains large. As a result, the Coalition is required to leave a large fleet around to keep that large fleet at bay. That takes away assets from the Fed front. Also, eventually, shipyards are rebuilt and the Alliance fleet continues to get stronger. Feds then build up strength and begin the apparently inveitable grind towards Alliance victory.

At least, that's the pattern of the full game - and I haven't seen a good stragety around it (except for maybe Tim Linden's one reported victory, I haven't seen any Coalition successes in the full game).

Vanilla game, though - yeah, I can see the Coalition doing better.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 06:39 pm: Edit

Chris

I didn't think the Kzinti defence was that bad.

Both sides have lost lots of forces in Kzinti space.

Ted

Well, I honestly thought they had more - I am guessing losing 2 or 3 hulls a player turn has just been too much.

If it wasn't due to the dice, the Coalition would be alot stronger - Sol would have probably been raided twice more, and the Roms abit stronger.

Playing just 2K does make some things stronger - other weaker. No salvage has really hurt the Kzinti and Coalition.

I suppose no fast ships has been a massive Alliance gain - I think William missed one good persuit (over the 18 turns) - I miss probably 2 key persuits a turn!

No doubt there are rules which have helped the Coaliton more than the Alliance though!

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 10:29 pm: Edit

Kzinti Economy Turn 18

Total from Previous Turn -1.55
Capital
Onmap majors
Onmap minors
Onmap Provinces 5

Offmap 31

Survey Roll 10
Survey Total 180
Total Income 36
Exhausted Income 27
Grand Total 25.45

Econ and Repair Phase Expenditures

Repair SF 1

CVS 12
MEC 6
EFF 3.5

Support line for 5 more homless Feds 2.5
Total 6 now

Total E+R expenditures 25

Left at end of Econ Phase 0.45

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 10:30 pm: Edit

Hydran Economy 18

Total from Previous Turn 0
Capital 14
Onmap majors
Onmap minors
Onmap Provinces 1
Offmap Treasury 0
Offmap

scrap

Survey Roll 13
Survey Total 173
Total Income 15
Exhausted Income 11.25

Grand Total 11.25

Econ and Repair Phase Expenditures

Build:
RN, HR 11

Total E+R expenditures 11

Left at end of Econ Phase 0.25

Offmap grid:
Offmap income: 31
Onmap income:
Total income: 30
Exhausted income: 22.5
From previous turn: 20.6
Total money: 43.1
Repairs: 8
Build CU: 2.5
On tug headed for Hydrax 10

Remaining: 22.6

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 10:31 pm: Edit

Federation economy 18

Total from previous turn -6
Capital 59
Onmap majors 20
Onmap minors 13
Onmap provinces 57
Off-Map base 6
Survey 24
Conquered from Coalition 1
NZ 2

Survey Roll 26
Survey Total 310

Total Income 182
Grand Total 176

Econ and Repair phase expenditures:

Builds
4CVN 53
CC 9
4NCL 20
12FF (one is sub for NCL) 36
NCD 8
DE 7
EFF 4
Support for 1 homeless Gorn ship 0.5

Repairs
Offmap 5
2nd 8
2907 2.5
Earth 11
3008 5
6th CC, FFS, FF, SIDS 6

Total Expenditures 175
Left at end of Economic Phase: 1

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 10:33 pm: Edit

Gorn Economy 18

From Previous Turn -10.3
Capital 24
On-Map base 51
Off-Map base 12
Survey
Lost to Coalition -7
Conquered from Coalition 1
NZ (including planets) 8
Other

Survey Roll 8
Survey Total 56

Total income 89
Total money 78.7

Repair:

4006 2
4004 2.5
5203 2.5
6th 5
2nd and FRD 10
4402 8
4403 5

Build:
DN 18
1HD 5
BD, 4DD (one is sub for HD) 16

Convert:
Gdhar 1 3HV (FFF used) 4

Total spent 78

Left at end of econ 0.7

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 10:38 pm: Edit

About the Kzinti . . .

My main goal in the early game was to have the Federation come out in decent shape. To that end, the Kzinti crippled most of their fleet over Kzintai, then actually delayed rebuilding their shipyard for several turns, so they could have more EP for repairs.

After Kzintai fell, their SB were still up, and all those repairs allowed them to force the Coalition to take a lot of crips over their SB. They actually held off several assaults on the Counts and Dukes, with a lot of Coalition casualties.

This in turn meant that the Western Coalition had a repair backlog until about turn 15. And that, with some help from the dice, led to the strong Federation we have now.

The price I paid for this was that Paul was directing on Kzinti ships whenever he could. Between his dirdam and their delayed shipyard, the outcome is a small Kzinti fleet that can't retake Kzintai without help.

By Chris Upson (Misanthropope) on Thursday, November 04, 2010 - 05:10 am: Edit

william

i did not mean to imply that i thought zin play was atrocious, sorry if that is how it reads. with your resources so thin (CT4 is the most uneven turn in the game, and with the basic rules only, it is substantially more uneven than in the full game), small miscalculations can have shattering ramifications.

forcing serious fights at all three SBs is a coup for the alliance, but if the bad guys have 1401 to subsidize the repairs, because the SBs fall "out of order", that undermines the achievement.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Thursday, November 04, 2010 - 08:35 am: Edit

If I were to do it over, I would have defended Kzintai more and the other SB less on turn 3. Overall, forcing the SB fights was not worth the early loss of Kzintai. But once Kzintai was gone, I'm convinced it was correct to focus on repairs instead of a new shipyard.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Thursday, November 04, 2010 - 09:02 am: Edit

Alas for me, I think William got that right.

If the Kzinti hadn't been causing trouble in the North so much, 1017 would have died alot earlier and I wouldn't have lost 63 Ep's of PDU's for no real gain on 1401!

Although it's painful, the Kzinti have to keep probing where they can to keep the Coalition setting up a good defensive line in Kzinti space (which they can do - i.e. the 1001-1202-1401-1502 - 1504 'box')

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, November 14, 2010 - 04:59 pm: Edit

Well, Alliance Operational movement has ended.

Hydrans go on the rampage in Hydran space - reserves will save 2 Coalition ships.

There will be some interesting battles in Kzinti space.....and at 1509 as the Northern SB is under attack!!!

The Fed's will clear alot of Federation space out of Coalition forces....

.....and Romulus is being Raided!

The Gorn were able to draw enough forces away from the Romulan Capital, although the forces which are left, supported by a Reserve are more than enough to keep the homeworld safe.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - 07:36 am: Edit

Well, I really hope my dice luck improves....

First 7 battles averages

VBIR 3.28
All 3.71
Coal 2.00

(and my second best roll - a 3 - was irrelevant as I only had 1 ship there!)

Alliance is up 3 good rolls v 1 good for me!

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - 10:50 am: Edit

Paul. All of your luck in this game has been sent to our game.

Which is, in itself, unlucky. Because in our game you don't NEED luck anymore to win - whereas in this game you do need it. Heh.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Saturday, November 20, 2010 - 04:20 am: Edit

Well, Williams luck continues...although FINALLY I get to kill an Alliance carrier (A Kzinti TGT+VP) - which I direct crippled and will kill in persuit....

.....Only took a B10 led line to achieve this!

Elsewhere a couple of good rolls by William meant I again am taking alot of damage in the smaller battles (good example was I could have lost a DW by just putting that on the line - but worked on the basis I might escape a persuit - ended up with a dead DW and crippled FF and DD - all for no gain!).

1509 and 4613 haven't been fought yet!