CT11

This just in! The Hydran Capital has been captured by he Coalition!

After 11 rounds of combat, the Hydrans fled the capital, avoiding pursuit, as the homeworld was still undevastated. Both sides lost 10 ships of various levels of quality; the Hydrans also burned 3 small auxes on the last two rounds to avoid abandoning them (and get a little salvage); both sides lost a lot of fighters, the Coalition also took about 10 cripples. The only Hydran cripple was a scout tug that was direct crippled on the first round.

The Hydran fleet is still in supply in 0518; they still have SB 0215 for refuge.

By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Sunday, February 07, 2021 - 01:05 am: Edit

Congratulations to Jason. I'm always interested in decisions like that about whether to fight and when to leave. It seems to me that the Alliance should try to fight over hard points and not ... not ... over hard points. But the Capital kind of has to be defended; staying over an empty planet makes sense when there are a few tens of billions of methane-breathing life forms on the surface very worried about the terraforming prospects after Klingon occupation.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, February 07, 2021 - 08:52 am: Edit

Yeah, the Capital loss was a forgone conclusion this turn, after the starbase died last time. The Coalition had more ships, better EW, and consistently higher compot. The Hydrans were willing to stick around long enough to do some damage, trying to get a positive exchange (which, generally speaking, they did; they killed as many ships as they lost, killed probably a little better ships, and also crippled things), but when I was down to only 3HRs in the hex, I pulled them off the line (to save some for escort and scout conversions) and then fought till I didn't have full CV groups left; at that point, my compot was down, like, a dozen lower than the Coalition, with a negative EW shift, and it was futile.

I did get to burn the 3 auxes (I had a naked SAV on the line the whole battle, a naked SAS most of the fight, but Jason wouldn't take the bait to direct them :-) for a little salvage, rather than them just getting killed alone over the homeworld.

As of press time, the Hydran fleet looks like this:

2PAL, 2TGB, 2LGE, 2THR, 5HR, 8TR, 2CR, 2SA, 45CU, 32HN

2CV, 2TGV, 2LNHV, 2PGV, UH, GRV, 2NEC, 13DE, 3FCR

2TGS, PGS, 3SC, TFC-S (FCP supply TG, still full), LAV, SAV.

137 ships, 2 Aux, 193.5+[45] fighters.

Only 2 ships are currently crippled (TGS, CU). The LAV/SAV are with SB 0215. Both FRDs and MBs are off map. The 2THR are still alive as they have been on raiding duty the whole game.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, February 08, 2021 - 08:49 am: Edit

CT11

Combat in Kzinti space has finished up; the Lyrans recaptured planet 1001 (killing an FF); the bulk of the Kzinti fleet which ended up on planet 1202 held the planet by repulsing the Coalition (trading an FFK for a CA); the Klingons took back planet 1504 in force (killing an FF and losing a D5) when the 15 or so Kzinti fled after a round; the brand new Kzinti CVA saved planet 1802 from being recaptured when all the Kzinti reserves showed up to reinforce the 4 ships that were there, killing a DWS and losing an FFK.

All fights in Kzinti space were 1 round, and all were pretty well determined before combat started. I was a little unsure if I could save planet 1802, but when we lined up ships for combat, it seemed a forgone conclusion.

Still a bunch of fights in Fed space, including SB 3611 probably getting blown up by the Romulans.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, February 13, 2021 - 09:08 am: Edit

CT11

Fights in Fed Space are underway. On the Klingon side, the Klingons killed BATS 2609 (i.e. 3 hexes from the Capital), were chased away from planets 2509 and 2610 with some minor combat, and recaptured planet 2106 with no opposition.

On the Romulan side of things, the Romulans killed BATS 3209 (also 3 hexes from the Capital), were repelled from planet 3210, captured planet 3612, and are fighting over BATS 3212 currently; the Feds have a defending line of about 100 compot, but the Coalition have about 30 ships, a mauler, and it is unlikely the fighti will go longer than 1 round.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, February 14, 2021 - 07:08 pm: Edit

CT11

This just in! I thought I had chased the Klingons off from 2610, but after a round of approach, they came in and mauled the 2PDUs; losing a couple small ships, taking a few cripples (and causing a few cripples in the approach) along the way.

2 fights left:

-SB 2211 where a lot of Klingons (about 100) are fighting a lot of Feds (60+). Seems possible that the Klingons are intent on SIDSing the SB here.

-SB 3611 where a lot of Romulans (70+) are facing a lot fewer Feds (30+).

SB 3611 will certainly die if the Romulans want it to. Unclear on what is going to happen at 2211, but if the Klingons want to kill it, they are gonna take a lot of damage. We'll see!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, February 15, 2021 - 10:10 am: Edit

CT11

The Romulans are now fighting over SB 3611. In the first round, the Romulans had a compot of 101/5 while the Feds were at 132/7 (the Romulans used a command point, the Feds did not, saving it for SB 2211 if needed). Both sides rolled well, did 30 and 40 damage respectively. The Romulans mauled an FFE on a [CVB, 2DE, FFE] group, causing the Feds to cripple 3 ships and kill some fighters. The Feds vaporized a small scout on the line, and dropped 22 damage on top of that, which will cripple some ships and kill some fighters.

Which is to say that the Romulans aren't gonna SID this SB (they don't need to), and the Feds probably aren't gonna last that long.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, February 17, 2021 - 07:39 pm: Edit

CT11

After 9 rounds of combat, FED SB 3611 has fallen to the Romulans.

The Feds lost 6 ships, an SAV, took 5 cripples, and the SB exploded. The Romulans lost 7 ships and took 23 cripples. Nothing real spectacular died in the fighting; the Feds lost a CC and some light escorts/FFs; the Romulans lost an SPC and some light escorts/FFs.

The SB was down to it's last SID step at the end of R8, the Feds were out of fighters and couldn't field a full line, so they fled. The 9th round, the SB didn't do any further damage.

Dice were pretty even with the Romulans probably rolling a little up; the Feds had a -1 EW advantage most rounds. There was one round that saw a 1/6 split in favor of the Feds, but BIR rolled down 2, so no free autokill.

One fight left; the battle over SB 2211, which may or may not be a fight.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, February 18, 2021 - 08:50 am: Edit

CT11:

In going back and looking over the fight in 3611, it turns out each side only lost 6 ships (and the Fed self burned the SAV late in the fight; the SPC I thought I killed was blown up over a previous BATS fight):

-ROM: 2SKE, K4, BHE, SEH, K5S

-FED: CC, DE, 3FFE, FF, SAV

The Romulans took 23 cripples, totaling 68 points of repair (34EP).

Feds took 5 cripples, totaling 12 points of repair (6EP).

Dice shook out as ROM avg 3.625; FED avg 3.625 (i.e. exactly the same and slightly above average); as noted, there was one terrible 1/6 split in favor of the Feds, but no auto kill as the VBIR rolled down, and all the Feds did with the 6 was drop 37 damage on a line that was out of fighters and crippled half a dozen ships, but that was round 7, and the fight was mostly over already anyway (the Romulans dropped their 18 damage, which burned the last Fed fighters at that point).

The Feds might have been able to fight a little longer by aggressively crippling escorts on CV groups that were pushed off the line anyway, but the Feds didn't have many non CV group hulls in the hex (starting with CC, 3CA, 3CL, 7 or 8FFs), so as the CV groups got pushed off the line by having escorts burned, the ability to field a full group ran out fast, the Feds didn't want to see too many DEs get killed, and by the middle of the fight, the line was mostly FFs and 6IFF squadrons.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, February 22, 2021 - 04:03 pm: Edit

CT11

Combat is over! The last fight was a giant mob of ships on both sides over SB 2211, which was going to be the Klingons coming in with half a dozen D6Ms and probably SIDsing the SB to death, but then we both realized that the Klingons only had a single C8 in the hex (and no other CR10 ships), which seemed like a bad idea to proceed with, so the Klingons offered an approach, the Feds declined, and the Klingons will be back.

In Hydran space, the Coalition killed a province raider, recaptured planet 0718, failed to recapture planet 0416, and finally pushed the Hydrans out of their capital, destroying their shipyard.

In Kzinti space, the Coalition recaptured planets 1001 and 1504, were repelled from planets 1202 and 1802, and recaptured Kzinti provinces.

On the Fed/Klingon front, the Coalition retook planet 2106, destroyed BATS 2609, stripped PDUs off of planet 2610, and were repelled from planet 2509. And they did not fight over SB 2211.

On the Fed/Romulan front, the Coalition killed SB 3611, BATS 3209, BATS 3212, and captured planet 3612.

Ships Killed:
-ZIN: 2FFK, 2FF
-HYD: NSC, 6HR, TR, 3CU, HN, 2SAV, SAS
-FED: CC, DE, 3FFE, FF, SAV

-LYR: BC, CC, CA, STJ, DWS, FF
-KLI: 2D6D, 5D5, F5E, 2F5, 2E4, E3A
-ROM: SPC, WE, 2SKE, BHE, K5S, SNB, SEH, K4

The Feds also lost SB, 3BATS, 4PDU; Hydrans lost their shipyard (and capital).

So the Alliance lost 22 ships and 4 auxes (all 4 were intentionally burned in combat to absorb damage and generate some salvage); the Coalition lost 28 ships; 50 ships got vaporized in total for the turn, which might be the current high point of ship death.

By Richard Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Monday, February 22, 2021 - 10:52 pm: Edit

Andros eat popcorn while watching.

By Karl Mangold (Solomon) on Saturday, February 27, 2021 - 07:05 am: Edit

The time is ripe for conquest of the galaxy! But, as procrastinating overlords/robots, they might not get around to conquest for another 20 years...

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, May 02, 2021 - 05:18 pm: Edit

This game is currently on a pause, as Jason continues to work insane hours for his job; we are hoping to pick it back up again soon!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 01, 2021 - 12:34 pm: Edit

And we're back! Sort of!

Jason has some time off, so he finished CT11.

On the Hydran front, the Coalition have just captured the Hydran capital, but after retrogrades and strategic moves, the mostly pulled back to their staging area in 0815, which contains a MB, half a dozen FRDs, a dozen cripples, and then 100+ SEQ. They left token occupation forces over the Hydran capital and planet 0718. The Lyrans also have about 67 SEQ and 4 cripples at SB 0411. There are no reserves on the Hydran front.

On the Kzinti front, other than holding a few provinces and planet 1105, the Coaltion have mostly pulled back to their SB in 1403, where they have about 50 SEQ. The Klingon border is well defended, with about 40 ships in 1507, 35 ships in 1407, and a solid reserve (along with a dozen cripples) at SB 1509. The Lyrans have about 2 dozen ships and then a solid reserve at BATS 0705.

The Klingon/Fed front sees the Klingons mostly on the Klingon border, with about 50 ships between planets 1910 and BATS 1811; two dozen ships at BATS 1813; 50 ships at BATS 2215. There is another ok reserve at planet 1611. The Klingon also hold planets 2106 and 2715 with token occupation forces, and a handful of Fed provinces.

The Romulan/Fed border, the Coalition have about 50 ships there defending MBs in 2914, and the Feds have not even that many ships in range that can reach that hex. The Romulans hold numerous Fed border provinces and planets 3612 and 3711 with small occupation forces, but most of the Romulan fleet is inside the Romulan border, with large fleets in/around BATS 4012 (including a pair of reserves). The Romulans have two dozen plus cripples spread around the map.

Jason feels pessimistic about his chances at this point, so he may surrender soon. I'm hoping we can play out AT11 at least, and see where things stand at the end of the turn.

Map:
http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/SCD3CT11end.html

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Thursday, July 01, 2021 - 01:29 pm: Edit

Oh, come on! It's obvious from the map that the Tholians are in an unassailably dominant position and the rest of the galaxy should just surrender to the Will!

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, July 01, 2021 - 02:00 pm: Edit

Maybe it's just me, but my surface-level glance suggests the Alliance is in a pretty good position for this particular game.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 01, 2021 - 02:10 pm: Edit

AT11

y173 FA T11

Kzinti Econ:

Command Points: 1

Exploration: (3) 107+10=117 (+5, 130 next)

Treasury: 24.65 (CT11)

On Map Provinces (24): 14
Off Map Provinces (6): 16
Captured Provinces: 0
On Map Planets: (52): 35
Off Map Planets: (11): 11
Captured Planets: 0

Total EP: 100.65

Construction T11:
-8 BC (CV)
-5 CM (MEC)
-3 FFK (EFF)
-2.5 FF (BC)
-5 2FF (CL)
-8 MSC
-5 CM
-4 FKE
-10 4FF

Construction Total: 50.5

Conversions:
-4+3 CVL>CV (1401)

Conversion Total: 7

Repairs:

Repair Total:

Adopt Homeless Ships: (2 lines; 2TG)

Total Spent: 57.5

Treasury: 43.15 (AT11)

FFF Left:
————————————————————

Hydran Econ:

Command Points: 1-1=0 (CT11)

Exploration: (5) 140+22=162 (+7, next 190)

Treasury: 24.675+14 (CT11)=38.675

On Map Provinces (22): 7
Off Map Provinces (4): 18
Captured Provinces: 1
On Map Planets: (35): 1
Off Map Planets: (13): 13
Captured Planets: 0
Guild Treasury: 5 (20/30 AT11)

Total EP: 81.675

Construction T11:
[IC available T13, 9+20 true CV fighters]
-15 Shipyard 1
-5 2CU (0215, off map).

Construction Total: 20

Conversions:
-3+3 2HR>NEC, TR>NEC (0215)

Conversion Total: 6

Repairs:
-1 (CU off map)

Repair Total: 1

Total Spent: 27

Treasury: 54.675 (AT11)

FFF Left: 3 (Hybrid, OCS, AT11)

—————————————————

Federation Econ:

Command Points: 1, +1=2 (AT11)

Exploration: (8): 126+24=150 (+6, next 130)

Treasury: 209.6 (CT11)

On Map Provinces (92): 70
Off Map Provinces (6): 18
Captured Provinces: 0: 1
On Map Planets: (123): 103
Captured Planets: 0

Total EP: 401.6

Construction T11:
-14 DN+
-10+12 CVS
-8 CA
-12 2NEC
-45 9NCL
-10 SC (sub NCL)
-36 12FF (2204, 2211, 3604, 2808, 3008)
-0 SWAC
-5 Command Point

Construction Total: 152

Activations T11:
-1 CA
-3 3CL
-3 3FF

Activation Total: 7

Conversions:
-3 3FF>FFE (2908)
-2 NCL>NCD (2211)
-1+6 FF>FCR (2211)
-1 FF>FFS (3604)
-2 2NCL>NEC (2204)

Conversion Total: 15

Repairs:
-4.5 (CC, NCL, FF 2211)
-1 (FF 2908)
-1.5 (DE 3008)

Repair Total: 7

Adopt Homeless Ships: (2 lines; LTT, FFK)

Total Spent: 181

Treasury: 220.6 (AT11)

DBB:

FFF Left: 0

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 01, 2021 - 02:13 pm: Edit

So the Alliance is, indeed, loaded. The Kzinti do a full run (with some downsubs), including converting the last CVL>CV, and still have 40+EPs left. The Hydrans start a new shipyard, build a couple CUs, convert some NECs, have 50+EPs saved. The Feds build everything including a full cost CVS, convert a bunch of things, repair what they need to repair, and still have 200+EPs in treasury.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, July 01, 2021 - 02:14 pm: Edit

Holy cow! That would be 20 overbuilt NCLs!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 01, 2021 - 02:40 pm: Edit

Yeah, that just seems excessive :-)

The game is probably ending this turn, but I did econ assuming the game would continue and didn't do anything preposterous.

By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Thursday, July 01, 2021 - 03:54 pm: Edit

I mean, 20 NCL's is a lot, but suddenly having 40 FF's would have been fairly amusing. And turning that 2nd CA into a 2nd CVS for the turn would have been totally reasonable.

Is there a reason to do the escorts as conversions rather than substitutions, given that escort substitutions are not limited? (For the ones in 2908).

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 01, 2021 - 05:02 pm: Edit

Not really; it's the same either way. Mostly it was the result of doing my builds, and then seeing how much money I had, and just doing the conversions to avoid changing the build orders I already wrote. The new FFEs are converted new/activated ships, so they still get free strat moves, and the difference is irrelevant.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, July 01, 2021 - 05:18 pm: Edit

Fed FFs are 6 - so you'd end up with 33 overbuilt FFs.

But, yeah, exactly. I've seen Richard Eitzen do it. Just the extra pincount makes life much more obnoxious for the Coalition.

By Richard Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Friday, July 02, 2021 - 03:46 pm: Edit

Yes, the Feds built 60+ SEQs in a single turn and the alliance in that game managed SEQ parity with the Coalition on A12 or some such. A barely failed 1401 capital assault contributed heavily; the Coalition destroyed all static defenses at 1401, couldn't actually take the hex and then the alliance kept them pinned out of 1401 long enough to be able to rebuild the SB at 1401.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, July 02, 2021 - 04:05 pm: Edit

I was losing that game as Coalition, but it got abandoned for some reason I don't remember...