Point 2 is wrong, though Paul sort of explains it.

SSC is disqualified if one side has more than 3 ships OR if one side has an offensive compot totalling 15 or more (not including prime teams) or a defensive compot of 20 or more.

I dunno why Paul wanted to confuse the issue by saying two or more.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Friday, July 10, 2020 - 01:21 pm: Edit

OK -

"no more than 3 ships" would have been a better explanation

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Friday, July 10, 2020 - 10:29 pm: Edit

Alliance turn 22 is done. The Feds are daring to leave some fleets in forward positions. They have four widely scattered reserves, with only one pair in range of each other.

As this is the end of an even-numbered turn, we have the usual fleet counts:

	Uncrippled	Crips	Total
L	135	67	202 (+4)
K	228	127	355 (-17)
R	99	43	142 (-13)
Coalition	462 (-28)	237 (+2)	699 (-26)

Z	46	9	55 (+2)
H	45	6	51 (+1)
F	224	71	295 (-2)
G	84	14	98 (-1)
Alliance	399(-9)	100(+9)	499 (unchanged)

As usual, the numbers in parentheses are the changes from two turns ago.

The Alliance gain rate of 13 ships a turn is still not enough to get them up to parity by turn 34. But with the Gorn shipyard and exhaustion part 2 pending, plus the still-hoped-for-but-not-yet-realized recovery of territory, they may yet get there.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, July 12, 2020 - 01:40 pm: Edit

And so turn 23 starts

Lyrans build a normal run (including converting the CA to a DN).

Klingons build everything and Romulans skip the Condor build.

Large repair bill again 41, 51.5 and 26.5 Ep's spent.

Lyran supply in Federation space I trouble some, so via partial grid, Homeless and Expeditonary supply, the bulk of the Lyran forces remain in supply.

Klingons reach PF3 so all bases now have PF's.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, July 12, 2020 - 01:47 pm: Edit

So only 3 Klingon PF Squadrons go to the free PF pool.

As William didn't kill 2519 on A22, I have to waste a Squadron going on it now.

Op move as started - Hydran forces are pinned in 117 and 517 and the first moves on other fronts starts.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 12, 2020 - 04:32 pm: Edit

All in the plan to not kill the BATS so that PFs have to go there. Honest.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 12, 2020 - 07:19 pm: Edit

Coalition turn 23 op move is underway. So far, we have a bunch of pinning battles and a Klingon attempt to retake planet 2610. This will succeed unless the Feds reserve the hex.

There is also an attack on major planet 2306. Its defenses are gone, but it is still not devastated. The attacking fleet looks pretty serious, with 2PFT for example. Put the defending Feds are also no joke, including a CVA group, BC and 2CC, among other things.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, July 13, 2020 - 02:45 am: Edit

2519... That's what I thought.

Very cunning those Tholians.

All part of a master 'evil alliance plan', no doubt

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Monday, July 13, 2020 - 04:46 pm: Edit

Movement continues. The Gorns still have two live BATS, and one of them (4904) is under attack. There are also a bunch of Romulans pinning a Fed reserve near the Gorn 6th fleet SB. These battles have tied up enough Romulan ships that an assault on the Gorn home region appears unlikely.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Saturday, July 18, 2020 - 04:16 pm: Edit

Coalition turn 23 movement is completed.

Two battles are occurring in the Hydran front - the main one versus the Blockaid breaking fleet and the second one versus the Out of Supply Hydran Home Fleet.

3 pinning Battles are happing in Kzinti space.

A major Offesnive if occurring Federation and Gorn space, with battle ranging from North West Federation Space down to the South East - although no assault for Sol.

In Gorn Space, 2 SB's, 2 Minor planets and 1 BATS is under attack.

In Romulan space, various battles are occurring with Federation garrison forces.

The Hydrans have no reserves, the Kzinti 2 reserves, the Gorn 2 reserves, but only 1 Federation Reserve (in Sol) is available as the other 3 are pinned.

3 Federation Major planets are under attack - as well as several minor planets, so hopefully the Federation will lost a lot of territory this turn.

The Tholian front has no battles in it.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Saturday, July 18, 2020 - 08:07 pm: Edit

I made the mistake of retreating towards the Tholians with some Feds. This left insufficient Feds in the center region.

The Gorns will lose at least one SB this turn. Kudos to Paul as I've played the Gorns several times, and this will be the first time I've lost a Gorn SB.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, July 19, 2020 - 07:31 am: Edit

To be fair to William - holes have been appearing in both sides defences for about 3 turns.

Too many bases now gone to cover everywhere.

And if hadn't been the Fed reserve in 4007 - I would have visited the Gorn Homeworlds again!

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 19, 2020 - 08:04 am: Edit

On second thought, it's actually the second one I've lost with them, as the one over the capital this game surely counts.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 19, 2020 - 08:16 am: Edit

One interesting thing about this game is that the combined fleets of the two sides are remaining roughly constant over time. There were a total of 1180 ships as of the end of turn 12. The current total, not counting the Tholians, is 1198.

I'm curious if that's the case in other games or not. My impression is that our battles tend to go further than in a lot of games, so other people are likely seeing growing fleet counts.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - 03:25 am: Edit

Well not too many longer battles this turn and from School Reports from old - "The Coalition offensive was well thought out in some areas and effort was excellent - but not necessarily accurate in it's implantation."

In other words it worked in some areas - and didn't in others.

Losses for the turn : -

Lyrans : STT

Kingons : D6D, D5, 5 x F5, E4

Romulans : FH, 2 x SP 2 x WE, SK, SKE, SN

Kzinti : 4 x FF

Hydrans : RN, CU

Federation : TG, 4 x NCL, 3 x FF, FFE, FFS

Gorn : BC, 2 x HD, BD, SB


So 17 v 21 dead hulls (some were already crippled) and I think the Coalition also used 14 PF's.

On Planets, Federation lost 1 Major Planet (not captured before!) and 5 Minor Planets (and 2 Neutral Planets) - but did successfully defend 2 Major Planets and 2 Minor Planets.

The Gorn lost 1 minor planet and defended 1 minor planet.

Haven't analysed the dice yet but in brief :

Off the top of my head, combat dice seemed pretty even.

Coalition Shock rolls continue a 100% failure rate (4 for 4 now I think)

Persuit - Lots of failures for the Coalition and most were successful for the Alliance (only failure was a 50/50). Coalition have rolled 6 6's in their last 15 pursuit rolls (2 6's for the Alliance).

Captures - Coalition is actually up - with 2 Kzinti FF's captured.

Federation space is a mess with ships literally all over the place.

Due to failure on the 2708 assault, 4 Klingon ships are out of supply - plus afew Klingon Ships in Gorn/Romulan/Eastern Fed Space are also Out of Supply.

2103 us again Out of Supply (along with the Kzinti there) and some Feds South East 3611 are also OOS.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - 07:14 am: Edit

Well I analysed the combat dice and I rolled below average.


Mind you so did the VBIR and William!

VBIR was 3.4 and William and I rolled the same as 3.285714!




I am pleased to also only the dotted Klingon ships on the Eastern side of the map will remain out of supply at the start of A23 - as the newly liberated planets provide supply to the Klingons in Federation space.

Main Fleets out of supply at the start of A23 will be

Hydrans in 417 (but they have the Hydran Expeditionary Supply Tug with 12 ships of supply - 12 ships are left in the fleet)

Kzinti and Federation in 2103 (about 30 ships) - Kzinti are down 8F and Federation also down 8F - basic Base supply can be used (but as it's a Partial Grid, the Kzinti I don't believe can be Homeless Supplied - as the Main Federation Grid was suppling them previously).

Federation in 2815 (9 ships - Tholians are alreasdy supplying 12 Fed ships in the same/adjacent hex).

Federation in 3811 (Alas a supply Tug can be used to get them back into supply).

About 6 Lyran and Klingon ships are OOS in the East (some are on bases) and a Fed NCL is OOS in Romulan space.

Retrograde movement is about to be started!

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Friday, July 24, 2020 - 03:46 pm: Edit

Retrograde and SM has been done.

Modest forces remain forward deployed in Gorn and Federation space.

Due to the positions of Coalition forces in Hydran space - 1 Lyran reserve was sent to that front.

2 Coalition reserves are on the Kzinti front and 4 Coalition reserves are on Fed/Tholian Front.

3 weak Romulan reserves cover the Gorn and Eastern Fed Fronts.

Lyrans send 20 Ep's - 10 to the Klingons and 10 to the Romulans (which is still on route).

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Saturday, July 25, 2020 - 09:44 am: Edit

Kzinti economy, turn 23

Survey roll 9
Survey total 233
Survey EP 18
Offmap 17
Provinces 4
Total 39
Percentage 0.75
Income 29.25

From last turn 2.25

Total Money 31.5

Builds
CMV 7
2MEC 12
5FF 12.5

Total spending 31.5

Money after Econ 0

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Saturday, July 25, 2020 - 09:45 am: Edit

Hydran economy, turn 23

Survey roll 10
Survey total 209
Survey EP 16
Offmap 17
Total before exhaustion 33
Percentage 0.75
Income 24.75
From last turn 1.25
Total Money 26

Repairs
Offmap 11

Builds
2RN 12

Conversions
KN>DE 1

Total spending 24

Money after Econ 2

7CP available

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Saturday, July 25, 2020 - 09:49 am: Edit

Federation economy, turn 23

Survey roll 19
Survey total 328
Survey EP 22
Offmap 6
Capital 53
Planets 22
Provinces 39
NZ 1.4
Income 143.4
From last turn 0.25
Total Money 143.65

Repairs
Earth 30
Near Earth 14.5
2nd 8
6th 20
BATS 8.5
Survey 8

Subtotal 89

Builds
14FF 42

Conversions
NVS 2
5FFE 5
2NAC 2
Lyran BC 3

Subtotal 12

Total spent 143
Remaining after econ 0.65

9th SB grid: 0.4EP saved, 2.2EP income, 2EP scrap captured ship, total 4.6EP. Spend 4.5EP on repairs. 0.1EP remaining.

Command points: 1+1=2.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Saturday, July 25, 2020 - 09:57 am: Edit

Gorn economy, turn 23

Survey roll 8
Survey total 83
Survey EP 8
Offmap 12
Capital 19
Planets 6
Provinces 20
NZ 0
Income 65
From last turn 2.6
Total Money 67.6

Repairs
SW 2.5
Gdhar 2 9
Gdhar 3 7.5
Offmap 8
4904 2
Subtotal 29

Builds
4DD 12
Shipyard (5/6) 15
Subtotal 27

Conversions
3DE 3

Total spending 59

Money after Econ 8.6

Partial grid 3.4EP at planet 5403, none spent

Start 8
Received 1
Available 9
Spent
End 9

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Saturday, July 25, 2020 - 09:58 am: Edit

Tholian economy, turn 23

Balance 1
Income 23.6
Total 24.6

Repairs 10.5
2PC 5
3PC>DN 6
Upgrade one more Fed support line to a carrier. Now 12 ships including up to 4 carriers 1

Remaining 2.1

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Saturday, July 25, 2020 - 01:20 pm: Edit

The Feds currently have 9 SB, 3 FRD and 5 BATS. Their theoretical maximum repair expenditures are therefore 72 + 18 + 10 = 100EP. Their actual repair expenditures, including the partial grid, were 93.5EP. They still have a fair number of crips, maybe 40-50EP worth.

Their economy also hit a new minimum this turn as they collected 145EP this turn, including the partial grid. I still think the dawn is just around the corner for them, though I have to admit that thus far, the evidence on that question is not in my favor.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, July 26, 2020 - 05:37 am: Edit

Good to see the Federation are really hurting...

...although only 2 turns to go before full exhaustion hits the Coalition - that's over 100 Ep's (about 112 based on Turn 23 income) more lost from the Coalition budget - I need to hope my own repair budget is under control by then.

And just to make turn 26 super cool - the Feds 3rd Way arrives too


So dawn is coming!!

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 26, 2020 - 09:34 pm: Edit

In order to lower your own repair budget, we suggest running away from battles as early as possible.