Dice started horribly for the Coalition - but then was nice to the Coalition and then slightly nicer to the Alliance.

Prize for the first correct answer.

Coalition have so far killed
Gorn BC
Federation 2 x NCL, CL
Kzinti BC, D6M, FF
Hydran HR

I finally capture a hull - which one did I capture?

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Saturday, December 07, 2019 - 05:03 pm: Edit

The FF because it is the smallest ship that died.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Saturday, December 07, 2019 - 05:11 pm: Edit

Well, dice have massively favoured the Alliance in the last 3 battles.

2 modest chances of a Gorn BATS dying failed... and in some fairly important battles, the dice were just brutal.

I think there must be a fault with the Romulan Cloaks...

3 successes in a row....but William outrolled me by 4 twice and 5 once!!

After 23 rounds, average is
VBIR 3.22
Coalition 3.34
Alliance 3.73

With average dice - I would have been a lot happier with the battles so far.


Thomas - correct!

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Saturday, December 07, 2019 - 05:28 pm: Edit

Combat is perhaps halfway done. The Alliance has generally lost more ships killed during regular battle rounds while inflicting a lot more crips. The Gorns have killed 2 Romulan ships in each of two pursuits. Those 4 ships included a mauler, but even with that, the Alliance has still lost more ships killed.

As expected, the Feds lost minor planet 2106 (near the Kzinti and Klingon borders). No BATS or SB have fallen yet, but there are two BATS battles to go, and both look difficult for the Gorns.

Three SB battles have been fought. At one, the Coalition fought a base battle but killed an unescorted CVE and a captured mauler with dirdam, which meant that the SB was not going to fall. At the other two, the Coalition did not attempt a base battle.

Four SB battles remain.

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar2) on Saturday, December 07, 2019 - 07:53 pm: Edit

WilliamJ, remember that a mauler in form doesn't maul (308.73) …

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Saturday, December 07, 2019 - 07:57 pm: Edit

Yes I know. Its main use through most of its life was as a 10 compot ship that the Kzinti preferred not to lose. This was plenty good for the Kzintai defense battle, for example.

I believe it mauled a grand total of two times during its 9-or-so turn Kzinti career.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, December 08, 2019 - 05:32 am: Edit

William did a good job of keeping the Mauler safe...

I think I have had 2 chances to kill it (over 1401 when I was defending the BATS>SB upgrade and now).

I only got 42 damage once (over 1401) when it was in Form and never get until now, 28 damage to kill it when it was on the line!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, December 08, 2019 - 08:38 am: Edit

Yeah, the main thing to do with captured maulers is:

A) Use them over the Capital when the Coalition is pretty much forced to kill PDUs, where if they take a round directing the mauler, they are doing you a favor.

and

B) Hiding it until you have a favorable pursuit.

By chris upson (Misanthropope) on Sunday, December 08, 2019 - 09:11 am: Edit

the mauler pursuits are obviously the yahtzee, but if those are infrequent it's not like the mauler isn't pulling its weight. most likely your opponent is continually making small concessions to minimize the potential for atrocious retreat. a mauler is worth two CCs in a reserve, IMO, just for that threat value.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, December 08, 2019 - 02:52 pm: Edit

Hence why it regrettably lived alot longer in Kzinti hands than it did with the original Klingon ownership!

As was noted, it part saved the SB by being directed on - so it's loss wasn't for nothing.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, December 09, 2019 - 04:05 pm: Edit

C13 Update -

Several Romulans commanders have been re-assigned, following poor planning and lack of aggression in 2 major assaults.

I failed to send either enough to 4206, although William did use Cripples to boost his Compot - and not enough quality ships to 3611.

Net result was a barely defended SB lived (OK, it did have 2 Gorn DN's there, plus a HD plus several cripples) and I ran away from 3611.

Dice remain to favour the Alliance - William again rolled enough in a pursuit to kill 2 Romulan ships (after rolling a 4 or less to catch me)

Total lost/captured for turn so far is
Hydrans - HR
Kzinti - BC, K-D6M, CVE, FF, FF (Captured), 1 Minor Planet captured
Federation - NCL, CL, 1 PDU, 3 Minor Planets captured
Gorn - CC, HD 2 x BD, DD, 2 x BATS, SB 4206 3 SIDS, 2 x BATS

Lyrans - BC, CW
Klingons - F5
Romualns - KRC, 2 x FAL, WE, 2 x FE, 2 x SK, 2 x BHE


So the poor old Romulans have suffered probably more with dice and poor attacks!

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Monday, December 09, 2019 - 07:18 pm: Edit

It's amazing how an SB can turn the most absurd fleet into a scary force.

Gorn defenders at their 6th fleet SB consisted of 2DN, CL, 3 crip hd, and 3 crip dd.

On its own, it's an ridiculous little fleet with only 57 compot, no scout, and next to no ability to absorb damage. Not only that, but any battle will be painful as your crips get killed by dirdam.

Add an SB and it's suddenly a 105-compot monster with EW and 12 fighters for attrition, or alternatively SIDS if it needs to maintain compot. And with all that compot, getting one's crips directed on is no longer so bad.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Monday, December 09, 2019 - 07:33 pm: Edit

I wouldn't call 105 compot 'monster', at least not in the Rom/Gorn front.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, December 10, 2019 - 09:45 am: Edit

As I am waiting for an e-mail doing a password reset....

SB 2915 lives - unfortunately!

In a titanic battle, SB 2915 is still alive - with the Klingon force leaving with a single uncrippled E4, the Romulans 4 uncrippled ships (only 2 useable) and the Federation with no uncrippled ships.

The dice were nice to the Coalition - with 2 auto kill rolls occurring (ECL and a FFS died).

The SB is on 5 SIDS and has 6 fighters left. The battered Federation also retreat to 'steal' 1 Ep from the next province, with 3F left.

Romulans and Federation both spent 2 CP's - Federation also lost a CL and FF .

Hopefully - 2915 will die next turn!

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Tuesday, December 10, 2019 - 09:59 am: Edit

Yes, I was rolling a bit below average. I felt this meant I needed to do a little self killing, so I did. It was still very close.

By chris upson (Misanthropope) on Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - 12:26 pm: Edit

seems like the alliance had some success with the "school of fish" defense; so many glittery targets that the coalition kind of got distracted.

how big a raid on earth was possible this turn, do you reckon?

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - 01:23 pm: Edit

idk, maybe 70 ships. We could have had maybe 40-50 for defense though.

I do wonder if he had been planning to raid Earth but was distracted by the Gorns reacting so much off of their SB.

Planet 2610 may be falling.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - 02:08 pm: Edit

Chris

Probably pretty close to the truth...

…. I certainly thought I could get 1 Gorn SB on the cheap as his reserves could only save 1 - but 2 Gorn DN are worth 4 CW's - and so although it looked weeked with 3 uncrippled ships and a pile of crippled ships - his compot at the 'weak' SB was probably mentally 10-15 more than I expected.

The reacting off the SB to defend the BATS seemed a gift I had to take up

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Thursday, December 12, 2019 - 05:52 pm: Edit

Well, 2610 has finally fallen.

William tempted me with unescorted Kzinti CVL's and a Federation FV, but being too close to call, I didn't direct.

No ships died, but both sides have a large number of cripples.

2211 is currently being fought - again looks close after 2 rounds!

No other Planet Battles remain but 2 Federation planets was recaptured by the Coalition and 2 new previously undevastated Federation planets have fallen.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Thursday, December 12, 2019 - 08:24 pm: Edit

Combat is over. Both sides have a tremendous number of cripples. The Feds will spend 48EP on repairs on turn A13, but that will leave them with about 75EP of repair debt, including Kzinti ships in Fed space. Hopefully it will all be paid on turn A14. That's quite a hit to their budget!

The bright side is that a lot of these were taken defending SB, so the Coalition will have to spend even more. The Klingons will be strained but can surely take it. The Romulans have about 100EP of repair debt, which has to be significant.

No SB went down. The Feds lost two minor planets. I had expected to lose 2106, but didn't expect to also lose 2610, which in retrospect probably had a bit over a 50% chance to fall.

The Gorns are in good shape as they lost five 5-7 compot ships, a CC and 2 BATS, but no planets or SB. Ships lost during turns A12-C13 mean that their count of active fleet + waiting-to-be-activated offmap ships is actually the same as it was last turn, but quality has increased.

By Rob Padilla (Zargan) on Friday, December 13, 2019 - 09:56 am: Edit

100 EPs Romulan Repair bill is a death knell. They can't afford anything close to that level of debt. The Alliance has to be happy with that!

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, December 13, 2019 - 10:21 am: Edit

He assaulted starbases that weren't taken down? That's really bad for the Coalition!

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat2) on Friday, December 13, 2019 - 12:49 pm: Edit

The Fed 9th (upgraded BATS near 4th) was not so horrible for him as he got to direct on a captured mauler and a Kzinti CVE, and defending compot was less than stellar; don't remember exactly.

The Gorn one also wasn't bad as my compot was 100-ish and he fried two crips in the two rounds.

And at the Fed 7th, the Feds lost 4 ships -- two to autokill and two to self-kill, which was needed to hold the SB.

The Fed 3rd had to be good for me, yes. There was a strong defending line and no ships were killed on either side.

The 100EP of Romulan crips is total. Many are from prior turns. If he takes crips deep in Fed space, it takes them a while to work their way back.

I ALWAYS find myself thinking that Paul has too many crips to manage well. Yet somehow, he keeps his position together, so idk.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Friday, December 13, 2019 - 02:21 pm: Edit

I did overstretch this turn - probably should have looked more closely at what was in the hexes and avoided 2 of the SB assault.

But I didn't!

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, December 16, 2019 - 02:38 am: Edit

Well, C13 has finished.

Klingons and Lyrans left modest forces in North West Federation space - but the Romulans had to pull large numbers of ships back to guard Romulan space.

Lyrans set up 2 modest reserves in 1401 and 1 in 1407.

Klingons have 4 modest reserves in 1910, 2214, 2612 and 2715.

Romualns have 3 small reserves in 3518, 4514 and 4613.

10 Lyran Ep's delivered to the Klingons.

Over to the Alliance and A13.