Well, the Romulan front is completed and half of the Kzinti and Fed fronts are done.

Losses so far are

Klingons - 3 x F5
Romulan - 2 x SP, BH, 2 x SK, SN

Kzinti - MEC, FF
Federation - FRD, 5 x FF
Gorn - FRD, 2 x DD

Federation will have 2 Dozen ships cut off South West of Romulus - which crucially means 5318 will be safe this turn.

(I was worried Romulus and 5318 (the only remaining proper hard point for the Romulans) would be attacked thus turn.

But for once, the plan worked.

In Kzinti space - one Kzinti fleet got lucky (needed 15 damage to direct on the MEC and got only 12 damage!) and took only fighter losses - but remains cut off and out of supply.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, June 29, 2022 - 04:14 pm: Edit

Well, dice have flipped.

Early battles, the Coalition did roll well - but other than having the chance of crippling a good hull and trying to bag it in persuit, the good rolls only resulted in a Frigate dying.

Alas the dice have flipped - and in 3 battles, I failed to do enough damage to do anything (not even crippling) and dice have been pretty good for William - especially some smaller battles where he sent a reserve to rescue a Kzinti CVL - and rolled well in the battle and pursuit - meaning I had to self kill a E4, CW and F5.

Although William did fail a persuit were the Kzinti reserve went.

Lyrans - CW
Klingons - D7C, 2 x D5, 5 x F5, E4
Romulan - 2 x SP, BH, 2 x SK, SN

Kzinti - 2 x MEC, 2 x FF
Federation - FRD, 6 x FF, FFE, 1 SID on 1903 SB
Gorn - FRD, 2 x DD


The attack on 1903 failed though - I pulled too many ships from the planned attack forces, to hurt the Kzinti more -and then missed the 50/50 to get the 7th SID - so ran after the second round.


Hydran Front battle is the last thing to do.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Thursday, June 30, 2022 - 09:29 am: Edit

And combat for C31 has ended.

Using a Cruiser heavy line (139 v my 83! and 1 CP in 117 - the Hydrans scared the Coalition away - losing a CU in exchange for 2 crippled AD5's (and a stack of fighters on both sides).

I could have stayed and fought (hoping to get some 50/50's on killing RN's) - but a good roll by William could have seen me having to eat alot damage - so running seemed the better option.

Lyrans - CW
Klingons - D7C, 2 x D5, 5 x F5, E4
Romulan - 2 x SP, BH, 2 x SK, SN

Kzinti - 2 x MEC, 2 x FF
Hydrans - 1 CP spent, CU
Federation - FRD, 6 x FF, FFE, 1 SID on 1903 SB
Gorn - FRD, 2 x DD

Dice was pretty much bang on equal (I think I rolled 1 pip higher over 23 or so rolls) and William got average on persuits (2 of 3 successful - and my 1 Offensive Cloak did work.

I think William got 1 unlucky combat roll and 2 lucky combats rolls - I think got 2 unlucky combats rolls and 1 lucky combat roll - so for once, not too far out.

The Romulan plan worked pretty much 100%, the Kzinti Plan about 75% - but the Federation Front is less than 50% (made an error in a retreat, which didn't cut some Feds forces off) and the SB assault lacked sufficient heavy hulls. The Hydran front I suppose is equally a 50% success.

So, as my old Report Card would say 'Some really good improvements in some areas, but attention to detail still lets him down'.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Thursday, June 30, 2022 - 01:36 pm: Edit

Normally when Paul thinks the dice were "equal", I think it means I got clobbered. But this time I think it's actually true. He did fail in a longshot attempt to score the last 3 SIDS he needed to cripple SB 2103. But the dice could have chosen to fail him in a more spectacular fashion, i.e. allowing him to score number 7, but then declining to give him enough damage to get past the inevitable overcripples and score SIDS number 8.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Thursday, June 30, 2022 - 05:02 pm: Edit

A single 50/50 isn't a long shot (but two or three might be)

But I do agree, the 7th and 8th SID would have needed a bit of luck.

(7th SID needed a 50/50 - 8th might have needed a 33/67, unless I got really lucky on the 7th SID and did exactly a net 18 damage, which needed a 4 IIRC (so 1/6 chance - as VBIR increases or decreases would have kept it a single die result needed).

For once though, I decided early to run - rather than keep bashing my head into a brick wall, hoping the next 50/50 goes my way.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, July 03, 2022 - 02:00 pm: Edit

Coalition turn 31 is finished.

Re-enforcements have mainly gone to the Hydran Front and Central Federation Front.

Lyrans spend 1.5Eps on PFs and Klingons spend 2.0 Eps.

Bulk of Romulan forces are in their Capital.... waiting the oncoming storm.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 03, 2022 - 05:21 pm: Edit

More like the Southern Federation front, I think. The Klingons do have one planet in the Earth region, with 27 equivalents on it. But in light of the overall correlation of forces in the region, and the lack of nearby supporting Klingon forces, that's really only a token attempt to remain anywhere near Earth.

By contrast, planets 2214 and 2715 are both strongly held by the Klingons. The Feds could probably capture one of them but definitely can't capture both.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 03, 2022 - 05:30 pm: Edit

Kzinti economy, turn 31

Survey roll 6
Survey total 329
Survey EP 22
Offmap 17
Provinces 2
Total 41
Percentage 0.5
Income 20.5
From last turn 0
Total Money 20.5

Repairs 2
Builds
CMV 7
MEC 6
2FF 5
Total spending 20

Money after Econ 0.5

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 03, 2022 - 05:32 pm: Edit

Hydran economy, turn 31
Survey roll 13
Survey total 284
Survey EP 20
Offmap 17
Provinces 3
Total before exhaustion 40
Percentage 0.5
Income 20
From last turn 1
Total Money 21

Repair 2
RN 6
3CU 7.5
HR 5
Total spending 20.5

Money after Econ 0.5
3CP available (one spent during C31)

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 03, 2022 - 05:38 pm: Edit

Federation economy, turn 31

Survey roll 22
Survey total 510
Survey EP 32
Offmap 6
Capital 59
Planets 20
Provinces 55
NZ (incl. Planet) 5
Conquered from Romulans 12
Income 189
Percentage 0.75
Exhausted income 141.75
From last turn -26.15
Scrap CW, FH 4
Total Money 119.6

Repairs
Earth 19.5
Near Earth 16
6th 4.5
3912 6
9th 8
BATS 2
Survey 8
Subtotal 64

Builds
13FF, FFS 43
NCL, NVS 12
Subtotal 55

Total spent 119
Remaining after econ 0.6

1CP available

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 03, 2022 - 05:41 pm: Edit

Gorn economy, turn 31

Survey roll 2
Survey total 128
Survey EP 10
Offmap 12
Capital 24
Planets 15
Provinces 36
NZ (incl. Planets) 8
Conquered from Romulans 8

Income 113
Percentage 0.75
Exhausted Income 84.75
From last turn -15.65
Total Money 69.1

Repairs
SW 3
Gdhar 3 3.5
Subtotal 6.5

Builds
TG 6
MB 10
HDP, HD, HDE 21
2DD, 2DDE 14
Subtotal 51

Total spending 57.5
Money after Econ 11.6
3CP available

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 03, 2022 - 11:48 pm: Edit

After a correction to the above, Fed build + conversion expenditures were 57EP. This is down from the freak peak of 175EP on turn A27, and also from the 135 average of turns A28-29. The biggest reason is exhaustion. But the recent concentration on Romulan space also played a role because it caused the Feds to lose ground to the Klingons. A further reason is higher repair expenses. But after the repair phase, the Fed crip count is down to about 20.

The Gorns are rich, and the Hydrans and Kzinti are as usual mired in poverty.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Saturday, July 09, 2022 - 11:42 am: Edit

Alliance turn 31 op move is done. The Feds are trying, with some Gorn support, to take Romulus. They are also pushing into the South and South-West portions of Federation, which they had previously mostly conceded to the Klingons.

The Gorns are moving their crips from last turn's Romulus battle to repair sites. They are also helping out the Feds in a lot of places, including inside the Federation. Their new supply point at Earth is already helping.

The Kzinti are trying to take two minor planets and to get some fleets into supply.

The Hydrans are trying to kill an FRD.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 10, 2022 - 05:55 pm: Edit

The Romulus assault is underway. Even though there is no SB, the Romulans are continuing to put up a fight. It has gone 8 rounds so far, with both sides losing ships to both autokill and directed damage.

The Alliance generally has better compot, while the Romulans have far more available attrition units.

Thus far, deadcount is 6-2 in favor of the Alliance, while crip count is 12-22 in favor of the Romulans.

The Romulans are on the verge of running out of line ships, but they still have 155 fighters, 9 PF, and 6 Lyran PF.

The Alliance have only 32 Fed fighters remaining, but they still have a lot of uncrippled ships.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 - 03:28 pm: Edit

And Romulus has fallen!

After 9 rounds, I had to run.

I'll let William go through the specifics, but this was the first very late war battle where 'we' (William might have noticed it before, so it might be 'I') found a new game dynamic.

Once bases** are gone - the Federation CVBG can crush through pretty much any hex.

Accepting the Romulan line was less than ideal (the Alliance line could have been slightly better - but was 'solid'), an Alliance line can deal 40+ damage a round and can easily take 40+ damage a round (probably low 50's), without breaking into a sweat - and just push the Coalition out of the hex.

It might be different with additional rules (Interdiction Carriers for one), but only being able to kill 6-12 Fighters a round for free damage AND 12-6 PF's a round might seem good - but thats only 24 to 30 damage a round - so 2 or 3 escorts a turn get crippled with 40+ damage being eaten.

The Feds meanwhile can burn 24-33 Fighters a turn plus cripple 1-3 escorts a turn (all safe in the middle of a CVBG).

Afew extra Romulan hulls would have added perhaps 2 or 3 rounds - but that would have only perhaps killed 54 more fighters (Romulans retreated with 135 fighters!!!).

So, I can see how (don't laugh!!!!!) in 'real life' the Feds were able to push the Coalition back.

The CVBG is just ultra robust and although a 3 x PF line could get more compot**.... they are not sustainable AND are very expensive once the free pool has been used up.

But not that much :-

A CVBG with a SCS and CVL gets the CVL 'for free' and you can add 8 Fighters for Free for the 4th Squadron (CVA or CVB and the SCS holds back 3 from a normal squadron), so your plus 14 Compot!!

Perhaps I should have switched to 3 x 6 Fighters - but when the compot difference is already 20+, that just hurts more.

(There was 1 round when the Gorn carriers came to the line.... but that was only 1 rounnd).

CVBG's just rock!!

** - i.e. no additional fighters can be killed to help soak damage.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 - 03:49 pm: Edit

@Paul: For once I agree with you. CVBGs do rock! The Third Way is decisive. At least until X-ships are widespread, and even then it's still excellent.

Then again, the Alliance is *supposed* to have an advantage late war. So, it's all good in my book.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 - 04:38 pm: Edit

Paul,

Could you post some example full lines that illustrate what you are describing in your game?

--Mike

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 - 06:07 pm: Edit

Tick, tock.

The biggest challenge for the Alliance is now the clock.

The Coalition is on the run. But if the game were to end at the end of turn 31, they would still tie or win on victory points. Even though we just took Romulus. We have just three turns to turn that around!

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 - 06:23 pm: Edit

As I've noted previously, the Romulan fleet has a big problem with non-carrier ships. For example, they started the Romulus battle with a grand total of six 9+ compot ships that were not in carrier groups: B-10, 2xLyran BC, SUP, KE, and FH.

One option in the battle would have been to use dirdam to kill all of the above except the B-10. The hex would then have fallen easily on turn 32.

If we were still playing the "long game", that might well have been the best approach.

But in light of the approaching end of the game, it wasn't good enough. If we take Romulus on turn 32, and reposition our fleets forward on turn 33, we have only one turn remaining to reduce the three provinces the Romulans still fully control. And the hoped-for completion of our takeover of the remaining contested regions would have been similarly rushed.

We didn't have the luxury of gradually building a further fleet advantage. We needed to take Romulus this turn, right now.

Hence my strategy was to let the damage fall in order to burn through the Romulan PFs and to cripple a bunch of their ships. I was pretty sure this would force the Romulans to retreat from Romulus this turn. It required very high compot, including drone use. It will also require some expensive field repairs.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 - 07:12 pm: Edit

Romulus battle butchers bill:

Alliance dead: 3, including Gorn BT
Romulan dead: 7, including SUP

Alliance crippled: 26 ships, nominal repair cost 36EP
Coalition crippled: 13 ships, nominal repair cost 21EP

Fed drones 8.7EP
Romulans spent 2CP
Romulan PF pool was 36pf prior to the battle. It was used up. However, once the Alliance take the hex, it is destroyed anyway. The fact that it ran out was likely a big part of the reason the Romulans retreated.

For both sides, certain things are more expensive than they appear:

Many Alliance crips are likely to be field repaired, thereby doubling the repair cost.
The Romulan repair situation is also problematic, as they have limited base repair capacity and limited EPs.
The six small Romulan ships that were killed are important as they are already suffering from a shortage.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 - 04:50 am: Edit

Hi Mike

Initial round 1 lines were : -

Alliance : CVBG [SCS*+CVL+NAC+NAC+DE+FFE], F-Battle TG(Form) BCH, G-Battle TG, BC, FH, DD, SC(Scout) - plus 4 Fighters from a CVA* - plus 3 x NCD for Drone) for 127 to 139 compot and EW.

* - SCS holds back 3 Fighters from a Normal Squadron and the CVA sends forward 4 Fighters - thinking about it, William might have short changed himself - the SCS could have held back 6 Fighters and the CVA sends a full squadron on 8 fighters forward (as the 'free' forth Squadron), for an extra compot in the initial round? - But on subsequent rounds, the poor CVL had lost it's fighters and so the CVA did send 8 forward

Coalition : B10 (Form), 2 x L-BC, FH, KE, SUP (2 Fighters held back), 2 x SP, PHX+SP+SKE+SK, SPC(Scout) for 127/EW.

The lack of escorts for the Romulans does cost a couple of compot, but it does have the B10 which pretty much does offset the lack of 10+ Compot hulls.

The Alliance also spent 0 Command Points - Romulans 2 Command Points (1 ship per system as William could Devastate the Capital and then attack the other system).

Weakest Alliance line was round 6 (which allowed William to use his 12 Gorn Fighters)

Alliance : Gorn BCH, 2 x G-BC, HV+HDE+DE, 6 F from other 3HV Group, DD, F-BattleTug (Form), 2 x Fed-CC, FFS Scout), plus 3 x NCD Drone for 98 to 110/EW

(Drone wasn't used)

Coalition had : B10 (Form), 2 x L-BC, KE, SP, SPC, SPH, 6PF from 4PHX, CNV(8 Fighters used) +SP+SKE+SK, SE(Scout) for 112/EW.


Final round was

Alliance : CVBG [SCS+CVL+NAC+NAC+DE+X**], F-Battle TG(Form) G-BCH, 2 x G-BC, FFS (Scout) - plus 8 Fighters from a CVA - plus 3 x NCD for Drone) for 130 to 142 compot and EW.

Coalition : B10 (Form), L-BC, SP, 3 x SK, PHX+SP+SKE+X**, SPC(Scout) for 112/EW.

** - Escorts killed - NOTE!!! The Federation Compot actually GOES UP after the FFE was Self Killed (Auto Kill rule applied), as the FFE was an extra Light Escort and so doesn't count as a Ghost slot.

(The CVL is added to the CVBG as a Single Ship Carrier and so no escort is needed and SCS (or CVA) takes an extra Light Escort to pad the group out).

I had burned up all the surplus PF's and my Carrier Groups were running out of Escorts - and although William only had 28 Fighters left, I felt losing more hulls wasn't ideal (he had 20% more compot and the dice, other than 1 round, we were rolling very well for both sides - so I couldn't take 18 damage on fighters and just a cripple.

Lowest damage we did was 21 v 30 (when we both went low on BIR) - highest was 55 v 45.

Romulan lines are not well suited to trade 40+ damage a round (and as there was non-Romulan ships there, couldn't do Offensive Cloak to potentially reduce the damage taken).

So, Third Way rocks - and although expensive, a second Fed SCS would make them even nastier - in basic F&E - as that would allow a full 10 Compot 4th Squadron to be fed into the battle for free.

(Although a CVA+CVB combo is also nasty, you do end up with a lower compot as you need more escorts!).

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 - 09:25 am: Edit

Thanks so much Paul. Having the lines right there makes it so much more clear. What a wild game! A B10 and 2 Lyran BCs defending a Romulan capital?!

--Mike

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 - 09:33 am: Edit

Yes - they got sent over to help bolster the Romulans, who has been losing Compot 9+ hulls hand over fist.

(I think William would agree, other than William not getting a good roll more than once to cripple the B10 - and chose another target, the Romulans have always got the short end of the straw on dice - i.e. never getting the right roll to kill a CC or better hull and almost always having the right roll against them - best example being the number of FH's the Alliance has captured - probably 5 or 6? - and so the compot imbalance has only grown).

A Third Lyran BC was also sent - was directed and then captured.... and was then recapture!!

I'll try and list the hulls captured (above a DW in size)...

Kzinti - CVS
Lyran - BC
Klingon - 3 x D6M, 5 x D6/D5
Romulans - Con, FAL, 5 or 6 FH's
Federation - NCL, L-BC

Yep thats two good hulls v 10+!

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 - 01:56 pm: Edit

Well, 3 ships captured so far this turn...

1 Kzinti FF
1 Romulan SK
1 Klingon D5


The Alliance luck in capturing hulls is unbelievable!

The D5 is worth 2 Ep's at least (and to make matters worse it only died after William got another 50/50 pursuit roll - and then rolled a 6, although it would have died on a 3+).


At least combat dice are pretty even....

...shame the rest is all in the Alliance favour!

I did look at some of the other rolls earlier.

Romulan Offensive Cloak is only 80% as successful as it should be (and failures are at 115%)

Cloaked Withdrawal is around 60%

Haven't looked into it (as I didn't note the rolls) but Coalition capture is probably north of 80% of what it should be (but well down on quality of what is captured) and Alliance rolls are well over 200% (and probably 4 x as many good ships as poor ships should be captured).

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 - 02:07 pm: Edit

The dice at least have been nice in some combat...

Needed a combined 4 or higher (with VBIR and Combat roll) and VBIR did indeed drop 2, but I rolled a 3.

Elsewhere (and I think the Alliance should surrender due to the shock) - for the first time ever I think (which is some going for 31 turns...), I killed a Gorn DD in an even SSC combat!