william-

a 25% discount rate means the klingons would come out ahead trading all 30 D6 hulls in mothballs for 8 D6s available to be activated on turn 1.

it would mean direct building a B10AA for _280_ EPs (in one turn) would be a fair deal, compared to the normal procedure... or a one time payment of 24 EPs at the beginning of the ordinary 12 turn process.

10% discount rate makes the numbers work out to 15, and 120, respectively. the 13-extra-D6 gambit seems like an amusing idea to playtest. it's quite the passel of extra hit points on CT2, but you best be pretty selective about flinging low density expensive repair units at alliance hard-points zulu style.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - 01:24 pm: Edit

Chris

Sorry, I think you have missed Williams point (or have replied to the wrong game)?

We are only playing with basic F&E2K and so it will take nearly 4 turns for the Kzinti front crippled to be repaired by he Alliance (and William is being Sarcastic ).

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Wednesday, December 26, 2012 - 05:50 pm: Edit

C21 movement is well underway. By throwing a lot of crips into various pinning battles, the Coalition has managed to put together assaults on some key planets. The Fed supply line into Kzinti space is under threat.

On the Hydran front, the Coalition is moving to cut off the Old Colonies from Hydrax . . . and not much else. It appears the Hydrans have earned themselves a breather with their latest offensive, though one suspects rather strongly that it won't last long.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Thursday, January 03, 2013 - 03:04 pm: Edit

C21 movement has been completed.

As William mentioned - I have sent a significant number of cripples forward to pin key forcs (3611 being a good example).

3 of the 4 Federation reserves are pinned - the 4th will save the Major planet at 3306 - which is a shame, as the planet was weakly defended and still has 4 PDU's on it (so would have been nice to devastate and capture for a turn!).

1 Gorn DN in a reserve wasn't pinned - alas the plan started to fall apart when William reacted where I didn't expect (net result was that I could get a CR10 hull to pin it - but William could have reacted 4 other hulls into the battle - thereby freeing up 4 hulls to move!).

Someone how - also overcounted Coalition hulls in key areas - which would have allowed further key attacks (I thought 3611 was going to fall this turn).

Net effect through should several Federation planets being captured.

One 'cost' of the Federation offensive is the Hydrans are going to have a very easy turn - with only a single battle in Hydran space.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Saturday, January 05, 2013 - 03:37 am: Edit

Combat has started.....with a Coalition win (well with 2:1 odds, it was unlikely to fail, although the dice did try there best - another 2 v 6 on the dice ).

3706 has been liberated from their evil Federation overlords! The Romulans lost fighters (and about the only 'lucky' thing was that I got to owe the Alliance 2 damage points!) and the Alliance crippled a HD (plus killed the RDU).

If the dice had been the other way around - it would have cost the Alliance another cripple (and there would have been a persuit roll)!

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, January 07, 2013 - 03:41 am: Edit

Well the dice gods have pretty much started off 2013 as 2012 finished.

Four rounds of combat so far, Coalition average is 2.75 and Alliance average is 5.0.

Nothing too major so far (other than losing a FH to a 6 and missing doing greater damage and so more Ep damage) but I can't see why my luck is so poor.....constantly.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Monday, January 07, 2013 - 11:03 am: Edit

Have you executed an Admiral lately? I hear that they get more motivated to succeed if they know their own arses are on the line.....

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Monday, January 07, 2013 - 01:00 pm: Edit

Yes, clearly the Coalition's bad luck is due to insufficient ruthlessness . . .

By Michael Parker (Protagoras) on Monday, January 07, 2013 - 02:28 pm: Edit

I am glad somebody finally fully understands coalition strategy!

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, January 08, 2013 - 03:47 am: Edit

Other than Shadowdice and Pbegames, as one know a good random dice roller?

I no longer have any faith in the PBE one as it now constantly is rolling unbalanced dice.

It shouldn't, but the evidence is now overwhelming.

On this turn we have rolled 5 sets of dice, my average is now 2.6 and Williams average remains at 5.

No game is designed to have that much constant spread and it again is destroying the game for me. Any suggestions?

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Tuesday, January 08, 2013 - 07:41 am: Edit

You could try this one Paul:

evil dm

It seems to be pretty random for me. I've had good and bad rolls with it. So has Lee when we've fought our rounds in the Wild Wild West game.

I'd suggest giving a bunch of trial rolls to see if you think it will be better than the others.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Tuesday, January 08, 2013 - 10:12 am: Edit

We've tried it. There was a period in the game when Paul was rolling poorly in small battles and pretty well in big ones. Was that the evildm era?

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, January 08, 2013 - 05:22 pm: Edit

I think Shadowdice was the original one we used...

I don't recognise Evil DM.

I did have a quick and brief look at some of the earlier turns.

Certainly from turn 10 - my luck has been pretty poor - across the board!

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Tuesday, January 08, 2013 - 06:22 pm: Edit

Paul, admit it. It's just you.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Wednesday, January 09, 2013 - 11:07 pm: Edit

There is no question that Paul's dice have been bad. It is not a figment of anyone's imagination.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, January 10, 2013 - 11:46 am: Edit

You are all a figment of my imagination.

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Friday, January 11, 2013 - 05:55 am: Edit

Ted it is a fig newton of your imagination. The question is, is it a good fig newton or a bad fig newton? lol

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, January 11, 2013 - 12:14 pm: Edit

A good one!

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Saturday, January 12, 2013 - 09:28 am: Edit

Evil DM doesn't look too bad...

2 batches of 4 sets of 10 dice.

Batch A average
'VBIR' 3.5
Side A 3.625
Side B 3.8

Batch B average
3.6, 3.675 and 3.45 respectively.

Best 10 roll average was 4.4 (which did occur in 3 of the 24 sets) and worst 10 roll average was 2.6 (next two lowest was 2.7 and 3.0).

William - are you happy to use this new dice roller?

I should get some time tonight to finish the corrent battle - otherwise it will be tomorrow.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Saturday, January 12, 2013 - 11:08 am: Edit

Sure

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Friday, January 25, 2013 - 04:45 pm: Edit

Any other suggestions for a fair dice roller?

My horrible luck contines.

Averages over 9 battles so far is 3 v 4.89.

How can one side constantly get so much higher?

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, January 25, 2013 - 05:20 pm: Edit

Paul, send an email to Eric Smith. He has a solution he might let you in on.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Friday, January 25, 2013 - 05:34 pm: Edit

Alas I just think I am going to be constantly unlucky in this game.

Doesn't matter what BIR or force I have - I always seem to miss getting the roll - and William almost never misses getting it.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, January 27, 2013 - 03:59 am: Edit

Well, dice luck are still pretty variable.

William caught me again in persuit - but dice gods were nice so I only lost 1 small ship - and my good roll meant I forced a larger ship to be crippled on Wlliams side.

Finally won in a Single Combat (even on the dice)..

...and then missed again by 1 pip on the dice (needed 3+) the 25% needed to kill a Fed ship - while William got the required roll (which was 2+ - EW was effective again for William - William gets I think 2 in 3 benefits in the EW was - I rarely do!).

So - if we got average dice - I think the Alliance would have lost 3 more ships and I would have lost 1 less!

And this is only after 12 combats!

Averages have moved abit - now is 3.18 v 4.27.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, January 27, 2013 - 06:10 am: Edit

Been going through some of the older posts.

"By David Slatter (Davidas) on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - 04:37 am: Edit


There is only one thing I can think of - and that is to use a "pack of numbers". I.e. have a randomiser that has 10 1s, 10 2s, 10 3s, etc....

It picks out one of the remaining options each time you take a *combat* roll (only). So, eventually, you get the same number of 1-6s. other rolls stay truely random, or are taken from a different pack of numbers

I don't know of any dice servers that can do that tho. There may be some card sharp sites that do somthing like it with cards tho. And it may be possible to set up an excel spreadsheet. "

Although I thinks its now too late for this game (Alliance have rolled better every turn since round 6 I think, and the first five turns weren't good for me - they were not this one sided) - does anyone know any dice rollers which work on a 'pack' system?

Atleast if I and William was getting the 'average' - his luck for getting the right roll at the right time would only come into play.