This is a basic F&E game between Richard Eitzen and me. We're using only the basic rules (as I've only a few games under my belt) plus the advanced combat table.

I am playing the Alliance, and Richard has graciously offered me a few balance factors - I only gave the Hydrans a small mothball fleet of 2LN 2HN (hence the name of the game, as I think I can win).

Turn 1 is complete, with the Lyrans killing BATS 0701 and 0703 while taking a few cripples and losing an FF over 1001. For their part, the Kzinti decided to hunker down and prepare for the worst, building 4PDU over the capital and beginning to set up a mobile base over Keevarsh.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Tuesday, May 08, 2018 - 06:32 pm: Edit

This game is in the op move phase of turn 3 (Coalition). It's been pretty harsh for the Kzinti.

They haven't lost any starbases yet, but turn two saw the devastation of most Kzinti planets (and the destruction of all but two of the remaining border bases. Lumien (1504) still has PDUs, but all other Kzinti planets in play have been devastated (apart from KZintai and a major in 1401).

Turn three sees a modest fleet defending SB 0902, no ships defending SB 1304, two reasonable reserves are at the Marquise SB and offmap. About sixty+ SEQs of ships are defending 1401.

Casualties in this game have so far been very light for the Coalition.

Op moves have started with the Coalition sending small attack groups to strike BATS 1605 and 1805 (the last Kzinti border BATS).

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Friday, August 17, 2018 - 12:50 pm: Edit

This game is on hold pending the return of the alliance player.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Monday, December 03, 2018 - 07:16 pm: Edit

Turn C3 is almost done, SB 0902 and 1304 went down (reserves went to Duke's SB and 1401). The Coalition took something like a dozen crippled ships over those two battles.

The Coalition also attacked 1401, stripping 4 PDU off Kzintai and two more off the lone undevastated major (still 2 PDU and a MB there). The Coalition lost 2D6M as well as a CC (in pursuit) and had 2 crippled CC and 4 crippled CW or so (or was that D5s?). The Kzinti still have 12 PDU at 1401.

Strategic movement and reserves need to be done, but I anticipate having a reasonable number of Coalition ships on the Hydran border and reasonable defense for the Kzinti theatre Coalition BATS and SBs.

Income for the Kzinti will be less than 60 EP on A3. The Coalition will probably do a serious attack on 1401 (only Lumien and the SE BATS for hardened targets otherwise). The Coalition could have as many as three maulers to use against 1401.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Tuesday, December 04, 2018 - 12:12 pm: Edit

Turn C3 is over. Coalition set up decent sized fleets on the Hydran border, the Lyrans have 20ish ships in 0413 and a reserve in 0608 and 0411.

Reserves:
Lyran reserves:
(0608) 1st: CC 5CL DW 2DD FF SC.
(0413) 2nd: BT BC 3CA 4CL 2FF SC.
(0411) 3rd: DN BC CC 5CW 3DW SC.

*Klingon reserves:
(1013) 1st: BT D6M 2D7 6D5 D6D.
(1011) 2nd: 4D5 3F5 E4 D6V.
(1212) 3rd: C8 D7C D6M 3D7 D6 3D5 D6V F5S.
(1719) 4th: D7C 3D7 3F5L D6V 3D6D.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Tuesday, December 04, 2018 - 02:50 pm: Edit

A3 begins. The Kzinti and Hydrans build 4 PDU. The Hydrans do not carriers or escorts, build a DG rather than tg and convert a couple of DG to LB. They do activate an LN and HN. The Kzintis generate 59 EP, have a small deficit, and build some of their scehdule, do repairs and conversions.

In op movement, the Hydrans (who set up all their fleets on the various SBs) have attacked the Lyrans, striking both bordder BATS and starting to move on SB 1411.

It may be that Sam will have more to say about this.

By Sam Benner (Nucaranlaeg) on Tuesday, December 04, 2018 - 11:34 pm: Edit

I figure that the Kzinti will lose the capital on C4 or C5, but they'll extract their pound of flesh in doing so. They're not in good shape, but they will be able to get all of their ships back to the capital. I'm not sure whether setting up the MB was worth it - the planet was undevastated for at least two turns because of it, so it's a solid maybe.

The Hydrans upgraded 2 DGs to LBs, in the expectation that they'd get directed and the upgrade would pay for itself in reduced damage to other ships. This did mean not building any DEs this turn, as I didn't want to reduce my hull count too much either. The other benefit of that is, of course, the increase in compot and repair efficiency if I cripple them myself. Unfortunately, due to poor planning on my part, the two from the 2nd fleet are pinned out of 0411. It's unlikely but not impossible that the Hydrans will destroy the starbase.

The Hydrans are also setting up a mobile base at Hydramax, in the vain hope that it'll forestall the collapse of their capital. I think I will be able to prevent any kind of capital assault next turn, which is probably my biggest goal for this turn.

I would have posted earlier, but I forgot where I had written down my password. :P

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Thursday, December 06, 2018 - 09:08 pm: Edit

Operational movement is complete.

The Kzinti withdrew ships that retreated from last turn's SB battles all the way to 1401, they also moved a force in 1802 and one defending Lumien to 1401 as well, essentially abandoning the defense of most of Kzinti space. The Coalition did not react to create any battle hexes as no Coalition reserves were in range to reach battle hexes that would have resulted (all were positioned to defend Coalition space, particularly against the Hydrans.


The Hydrans are setting up a MB at Hydramax. Most of their ships went to attack the Lyrans, 4HN staying at 0617 and most of the 1st Fleet (minus the tug which set up the mentioned MB) sitting on the 1st Fleet SB.

The Hydrans attacked SB 0411 and BATS 0212 and 0413. There's also a pin battle in 0312 where the Lyrans had intercepted a force heading to 0411.

Klingons sent reserves (from 1011 and 1013) to defend 0411 and 0413, a reserve at 0608 went to defend SB 0411 while 3 DW from a reserve at 0413 were freed up and went to defend BATS 0212.

At 0411, the Hydrans offer an approach battle, it was decline, and then announced retreat. The Lyrans also retreated, going to 0412 (within range of 0617 now), the Hydrans to 0512, the Klingons present do a split retreat, heading NE. I had 3 CA here that would have been nice to upgrade to CCs, but it's better to pressure the Hydrans, I think.

The battle at 0312 has concluded, each side having a few cripples with the Lyrans retreating to 0411.

BATS 0212 has a few Hydrans there and a few Lyrans, the Hydrans are outgunned and will probably just fight a round and retreat.

There are a lot of ships at BATS 0413 (on both sides), the BATS could fall, depends on what the Hydrans want to do.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Thursday, December 06, 2018 - 09:10 pm: Edit

I vould have reinforced SB 0411 with 4-5 ships from 0413 (good ships), but I was hoping the Hydrans would try to destroy SB 0411 as I wanted the chance to weaken their fleet significantly and felt there was a good chance the Hydrans would try to destroy that SB if I didn't reinforce it.

By Sam Benner (Nucaranlaeg) on Friday, December 07, 2018 - 09:48 pm: Edit

Well, that didn't work out. A quick check made me rather confident I couldn't take the starbase, and a bad roll against 0413 meant I was taking more damage than I would like. I didn't feel like risking too much (trying to avoid the sunk cost fallacy...).

Overall, the Hydrans were too optimistic on their moves and lost a little for it.

Hydrans moved the 1st fleet to the capital to use as a reserve, but at best I can defend the Expeditionary starbase and one other. The 2nd fleet starbase has 3 crippled KNs, so the 1st fleet SB might go down for free.

The Kzinti set a pair of pretty dangerous reserves, but I don't expect to be able to use them. :P

Hydran Reserve:
LM 3RN 3LN CR 3HN SC (0617)

Kzinti Reserves:
DN 3CV MEC 2CLE 3EFF BC SC (1401)
DN 3CV MEC 2CLE 3EFF BC SC (1401)

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, December 10, 2018 - 02:44 am: Edit

"At 0411, the Hydrans offer an approach battle, it was decline, and then announced retreat. The Lyrans also retreated, going to 0412 (within range of 0617 now), the Hydrans to 0512, the Klingons present do a split retreat, heading NE. I had 3 CA here that would have been nice to upgrade to CCs, but it's better to pressure the Hydrans, I think"

Why was 411 done prior to 413 (and 212)? (It might have been due to 411 getting cut off or something!)

Allowing the Lyrans to forward advance is never a good thing

By Sam Benner (Nucaranlaeg) on Monday, December 10, 2018 - 07:51 am: Edit

Yeah, I was hoping it was possible to keep the (sizable) fleet on 0413 out of supply by taking down the base there and having the Hydrans retreat to surround it. In retrospect, that didn't work out so well. :P

By Sam Benner (Nucaranlaeg) on Tuesday, December 11, 2018 - 11:19 pm: Edit

C4 movement is complete. Everything in Hydran space that isn't a planet is under attack, and I'll definitely lose 1st and 2nd fleet SBs. The Expeditionary starbase will likely survive, and I won't be surprised if the Klingons don't fight over it at all. The capital wasn't attacked, so the Old Colonies fleet isn't available until next turn.

On the Kzinti side of the map, everything is in the capital. In addition to a crippled d6 (?), the Coalition have 129 SE and 45 fighters in 1401. Fortunately, that only includes 2 maulers, and the Kzinti have 16 PDUs. The Kzinti have 83 SE and 88 ship-based fighters.

The Kzinti have 1.2 EP, and can spend up to 11.8 more EPs in DB. That's enough for almost 13 rounds of DB, so I should be fine there. I've also got 2PDUs and a MB set up at Keevarsh, so that should be good for soaking one round's worth of damage. I think the Kzinti will be able to keep their capital, but I think this will also be the last turn it's worth defending it.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Wednesday, December 12, 2018 - 12:20 am: Edit

At 1401 the Coalition have around 60 war cruiser sized ships or larger (including 3 D6D), so it's probably going to be a fight.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Thursday, December 13, 2018 - 04:42 pm: Edit

*Lyran C4 Eco.

*Survey roll: 14. New total = 26 + 14 = 40 (2 provinces explored).
*Starting treasury: 22.8.
*Income: 115 (base) + 4 (explored) + 1 (5NZ) + 2 (provs 0701, 0803) + 1 cap min(1202 Zimdars) - 1 = 122.
*New Treasury: 145.8 EP.
*Used two CP on C2.

*Production (0408):
16 DN
8 TGC
15 3CW
12 3DW
7.5 3FF (404 608 408)
0 CP (now have 7 - 2(C2) + 1 = 6 CP)
10 FRD
-------------------
68.5

*Overbuilds:
30 3CW

*Repairs:
5 (0404) 2CW ZFF SC
6 (0502, 0504, 0705, 0707) 4CW
3 (0411) 2CL
2 (0413) CC
------------------
16

Conversions:
3 0404 FF->ZFF
6 0408 CL->BC
-------------------
9


Homeless ships paid for:
Klingon 9:
4.5 Klingon homeless ships (9) BT D6M 2D7 4D5 D6D in 0413.

*Total spent: 128
*Treasury: 16.8 EP.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Thursday, December 13, 2018 - 04:43 pm: Edit

*Klingon C4 Eco.
*Survey roll: 4. New total = 13 + 4 = 17.
*Starting treasury: 19.4 (DBB adjustment below).
*Income: 142, 6FFF + 4 EP (cap prov 1101 1104 1203 1404) +2 (min 1105 Zelkrat 1506 Zursk)+ 3.6 (18NZ hexes) = 151.6.
*DBB C3-A4: -1.2
*New Treasury: 169.8 EP.

*Production (0408):
5 B10
16 C8
8 D7
10 D6M(sub)
55 D5V(6FFF) 8AD5
24 6F5E (one in 1716, one in 1509).
7.5 3E4
0 CP (now have eight (-2 C3 + 1 free C4) =7 CP).
7 Activate 2D6 2F5 3E4.
-------------------
132.5 EP

Repairs:
2 (1307) D6
2.5 (1509) D5 F5
12 D6M D7 4D5 F5
------------------
16.5

Conversions:
12 (1411) D7->D7C D6(activated)->D6M, D6(activated)->D6D 2F5->2F5E
3 (1716) D7->D7C F5->F5E
3 (2318) D6->D6D
2 (1509) D5->AD5 F5->F5E
-------------------
20

Total spent: 169.


Treasury: 0.8 EP.

“No, see, you’ll profit as well. All you need is to convince five others of contributing coin and when they do you’ll get a part of their own contribution. It’ll all work out, I promise.”
– Dread Emperor Irritant, the Oddly Successful, convincing High Lords to invest in the construction of a ritual pyramid outside Ater.

By Sam Benner (Nucaranlaeg) on Saturday, December 15, 2018 - 10:07 am: Edit

Capital defense is a success! The coalition manage to kill 11 of the 16 PDUs before they retreat. They haven't lost any ships except maulers (though retreat hasn't happened yet and I should be able to get a C8 there), but did cripple BT 3BC 7CC 2D7C DWS 2C8 6CW 2D5 3D7 for a total repair cost of 50.5 EPs.

The Kzinti should be able to mount a decent defense next round, but it really depends on how much the coalition is able to bring to bear.

The dice favoured the Kzinti slightly (55556) to (65416).

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Saturday, December 15, 2018 - 11:05 am: Edit

Also crippled 2c8. :p

Note that over defenses of 250-330 for each of the four rounds over the capital high rolls are particularly devastating.

After that fourth round (where I managed to direct 3 PDU without a mauler even with 8ish minus points against me, I was looking at a -16, so would have taken quite a few more cripples to get just one or teo PDU (probably just one).

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Saturday, December 15, 2018 - 11:22 am: Edit

Otherwise in the Kzinti theatre, the COalition took everything outside the capital province and the Marquise area and also cut the Marquise area off from the offmap. The Coalition retreated after capturing Klindai.

***

In the Hydran theatre, things did not go well for the Hydrans. All on map BATs were destroyed, most for one crippled small Coalition ship, a few for two. Most provinces are devastated or captured.
The old colonies have been cut off from the capital supply grid.
SB 0215 and 1017 were also destroyed, the Hydrans lost 3 ships at 0215, the Lyrans lost BC 2CA here, and the Klingons lost an F5L at 1017 because I got a little sloppy picking BIRs and managing minus points there. A modest number of cripples were also suffered by the Coalition at these battles.
The Hydrans lost 2LB KN and the Coalition BC 2CA F5L.
The Hydrans had a ln and hn crippled this turn (they do have 2kn in 0316 that were crippled on turn 3).

The Coalition have cc 3cw 3dd 5f5 3ff 2e4 3e4a crippled so far this turn in this theatre. Considering the costs of repair from the battle of 1401, a lot of the smaller ships here probably won't see repair this coming turn.

*** Most notably for the Coalition, the Klingons constructed or converted 10 D5s and 12 F5s (approximately) into escorts, their carrier groups next turn will finally be useful on the line in serious combat.

There are a couple more BATs to destroy (they are doomed) where the Coalition will probably end up getting 2-3 more small ships crippled.

The Hydrans have BT LM 3RN 2DG 3LN 2CR CU 2HN 2SC within range of 0411 so I'll probably end up putting a modest reserve there. The rest of the Hydrans are offmap (the Old Colonies' Squadron) or in 0617.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, December 17, 2018 - 01:00 pm: Edit

*** Most notably for the Coalition, the Klingons constructed or converted 10 D5s and 12 F5s (approximately) into escorts, their carrier groups next turn will finally be useful on the line in serious combat.

Once of my pet peeves with Multiple SB conversions...

I don't think any Empire benefits from a mass Escort upgrade as the Klingons do on turn 4.

Kzinti never build enough CM's to build a stack of MEC's (and are initially limited on FKE's) and the Feds start with pretty good escorts!

All those terrible early Klingon Carriers gain 6 Compot per group (D6V/CVT+E4A+E4A to D6V/CVT+AD5+F5E) instantly

Perhaps the only other Empire would be the Hydrans with DWE and NEC's - but that only gains 5 Compot for a lot more Ep's....

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Monday, December 17, 2018 - 02:24 pm: Edit

The benefit the Klingons get is probably not significantly realized until C5, really.

By chris upson (Misanthropope) on Monday, December 17, 2018 - 04:07 pm: Edit

the AD5 is significantly the more important of the two classes, and the klingons made 8/10 of those through substitution. // lightly edited

The ones who really (IMO) love 3 escorts per starbase are the lyrans. being able to crank out absolutely first rate escort groups for 2 LAVs, 2 carrier tugs (hey, borrow klingon pods), 1 or 2 JPG-V and a CVL all in one turn is pretty darn sweet.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Monday, December 17, 2018 - 04:42 pm: Edit

The Klingons made 8 by substituion, 1 by conversion to be exact (9 total rather than 10).

I skip making the JGP into a carrier, I go commando ship, much cheaper, and use early FFF for aux carriers.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Monday, December 17, 2018 - 09:20 pm: Edit

At the end of C4, the Coalition put a Lyran strong reserve in 0411 and 1407 and a weak one in 0906 (a CC leading eught 5 and 4 compot units). The Klingons put up a good reserve in 1407, a strong one in 1013, a moderate one in 1214 and a weak second reserve on 1013.

The Lyrans also field repair 3CC 4CW for 24 EP at 1407. The Coalition will be able to repair most of the other ships there.

By Sam Benner (Nucaranlaeg) on Monday, December 17, 2018 - 11:24 pm: Edit

A4, both Alliance races are cut off from a portion of their income. The Hydrans still manage a PAL and an RN as well as 3PDUs, but the Kzinti forego defenses in favour of building a few more CMs.

Combat is starting - the Kzinti are going to kill a few province raiders with more force than necessary (and accidentally stranding a moderate fleet of 14 SE including DN 2CV CVL out of the capital). The Hydrans didn't want to pull reserves forward, so they're just hunkering down and preparing for the worst.