At Stratcon this year (2023) in Amarillo, we will be playing the Eye of the Storm scenario, from Tactical Ops

We will be playing with the following rules:

2010, Fighter Ops, Combined Ops, Advanced Ops, Planetary Ops, Strategic Ops, ISC War, Minor Empires (rules only, not the empires), and Tactical Ops

We'll post setups and battle reports. Follow along here!

By Joe Stevenson (Ikv_Sabre) on Wednesday, July 19, 2023 - 06:25 pm: Edit

Waiting for Fed setup

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 11:34 am: Edit

Good morning everyone. While I'm waiting out a thunderstorm before working on cleaning and packing my car in order to depart this afternoon, I was checking here for any last minute details or changes.

This weather might not let me get away from Little Rock when I wanted.

Is there a point of contact to check in with when I get into Amarillo?

By John Wong (Thefeds) on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 02:40 pm: Edit

This is the latest update. Please update if not correct. If anyone has Email for people on the messages on currently on here. Please update.

Roger R-F10-Gorn and ISC. Counters for Gorn and ISC.
Strong-F10-Fed2
Lar-F10-Fed1. Counters for Feds
David H-Fed4. Leaving Wednesday
Turtle-F10-Feds3. Counters for Klingon/Kzinti and LDR
Joe-F10-Romulans. Counters for Romulans
Schaff-F10-Kzinti. Fleet Charts and Markers.
David Jannke-P10?- Maybe he can take Lyran
John W-F10-Hydran/Tholian. Counters for Hydran/Lyran and Tholian.
Lyran ???
Dan K-F10-Klingon
Jeff Guthridge-F8/P10
Ken K-P7 Leaving Wednesday
Patrick C-P10-Thurday-Sunday. Anything but prefers ISC.
Brian K-P??

Al-Map

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 04:29 pm: Edit

Map is here, in all its laminated glory.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 05:34 pm: Edit

I have packed the Fed stuff.

I sent out a barrage of emails and the fed setup (we what we could do anyway)...wont be very valuable until you can visualize it

More updates to come later (tomorrow morning as I travel)

I resent the address to everyone attending that I had an email for. You can ask any of us now.

By Joe Stevenson (Ikv_Sabre) on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 11:28 pm: Edit

After I'm done putting together the Tholian counter box, I'll see if I can get the Fed setup into Cyberboard.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, July 22, 2023 - 03:35 am: Edit

What is the address where the game will be? If I can get by I might as well know where to get.

As posted elsewhere, I have a VERY sick cat who requires constant attention if he is going to survive the infection that almost killed him. Thor comes first, and I don't know how soon I'll be able to get away. I cannot really stick Leanna with all the caregiving duties. I'm not sure now if I'm going to be at the office next week.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Saturday, July 22, 2023 - 11:41 am: Edit

SVC we are reviewing both places later today for that final decision. Should know after 3pm when we gain access to the 2nd house

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Saturday, July 22, 2023 - 11:42 am: Edit

Boarding in CA

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Sunday, July 23, 2023 - 03:58 am: Edit

In case you did not hear game site is Mesa Circle not far from Jean/Al. House is stocked up for the most part. Met a bunch of new friends.

Table map and setups are mostly complete.
Coalition sees bear and will poke at it Sunday.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 09:24 pm: Edit

Jeff reports should go here.

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 10:54 am: Edit

With one full day of gaming behind us, the game stands at the middle of turn 1. The Coalition managed to kill ten BATS and a few ships at the cost of around two dozen ships


The Feds have produced 45 ships and activated 77 ships to bolster their forces. The Coliation mangled to whack ten Federation BATS and ship losses were relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.

Things are moving slowly, but moving, with hope things will accurate some today. Hoping to see the start of Turn 2 soon.

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 10:55 am: Edit

Just a note for those watching at home…. Reports from StratCon might be more limited than they could be because of network protection settings imposed by the Air BNB host’s WiFi blacklisting the BBS.

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 01:34 pm: Edit

Okay, now that I’ve had more than one cup of coffee and see how my fingers totally disobeyed orders and injected typos…..

Allow me to present an updated, edited, and corrected SitRep…

Turn 1, Coalition spent most of their attacks on Fed BATS, killing 13, mostly on the Western front, though the Gorn managed to kill the critical one within strike range of their Capitol. The Tholian Holdfast struck out and smashed the Southern BATS stations facing them, and participated in a Romulan attack on the Fed Seventh Fleet Starbase with the Klingons, and while fought to a draw, it was for the purpose of pinning the Seventh Fleet, which was successful.

Almost all of the remaining Fed BATS on the Western side were killed, though there is one left within range of the Klingon Capitol.

Losses were 17 Coalition ships and 7 Federation ships and the aforementioned 13 BATS.

The Federation began their turn by building 45 units and then activating 77 more. At the time of this writing the Fed are still behind closed doors working on battle plans.


.

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Wednesday, July 26, 2023 - 04:16 pm: Edit

Beginning of turn Economic data:

	Turn1	Turn2
Coalition:	817	846.9
Federation:	648	833
Klingon:	148	152
Kzinti:	96	99.2
Lyran:	119	121
Hydran:	79	84.5
Tholian:	23	24.6
Romulan:	105	106
Gorn:	89	92.6
ISC:	158	167

—


During the Federation phase of turn 1 they pushed out into Gorn space and Klingon space, and started killing Coalition BATS, wiping out 4 Klingon BATS and 5 Gorn BATS. Two of the Klingon BATS were killed without loss, but the other two were relatively costly. The Federation did not remain in Klingon space, their losses amounted to around 24 ships on the Klingon frontier. Of particular note was the Kziniti captured a Federation CC. Of even more interest is the Klingons managed to use E3s and they are surviving!

On the Gorn side, the Federation smashed the Gorn frontier BATS, three of which did not have additional forces in support and fell easily. The two remaining Gorn BATS were lost at a high cost for the Feds, losing 20 some ships at the cost of 4 Gorn ships and 8 cripples. The Feds retro’d back to the Gorn edge of the boarder and occupied two hexes that previously held Gorn BATS.

The Western Romulan Starbase was attacked, but successfully defended with several small skirmishes nearby. Several Fed FFs ended up crippled and several Snipe-B’s were lost.

At the start of turn 2, the Coalition on the Western Front went in hammer and tongs. Between the Kzinti and the Klingon the Federation frontier BATS were nearly all killed, the Klingon having left one alone and the Kziniti’s were rebuffed in their attacked. A note on the former, the Kziniti battlegroup was forced to pulled back leaving a BF and and SF to screeen the withdrawal, both of which died horribly, but luckily BOTH MADE their depot rolls to much acclaim and gnashing of Feddie teeth.

The Klingons made out better in the exchange of ships expended in order to kill two more Federation BATS including one past the frontier. The Klingons are at a net plus on maulers too. Further to this, 5 Federation provinces were disrupted, two were captured, and the Kziniti even captured a Federation Planet!

The Thoilans and the Hydrans(!) managed to capture a planet in the Romulan neutral zone. The Hydrans also began deploying a Mobile Base in the Tholian Capitol, even more interesting was the Hydrans managed to get a task force of 7 Rangers, 2 Lord Marshall’s and a tug to the Tholian Capitol!

The Romulans killed two Federation BATS for the loss of a cruiser and a Falcon Mauler. Further they managed to shore up their lines and reserves while holding a strong force at the Starbases towards Tholian Space. The Romulans having about 50 ships on each of these Starbases, with ten Hydran ships on the Western Starbase.

The Gorn took the turn to pull back and repair and rebuild, to the mild surprise of the Feds. Unlike the previous turn, the Gorn didn’t have enough concentrated ComPot to risk a strike at either Federation strike forces sitting in range, and after the grand success during the previous phase, the Gorn didn’t want to get too greedy. This had the effect of not permitting the Feds to bring up their reserves closer. This allowed the Gorn to set several reserves ready and move the cripples to where field repairs could be made. The Southwestern Gorn Starbase is the forward strong point, having an armada of 70 ships including a number of ISC ships.

The ISC has been moving up fleets, pushing units into the Gorn and Romulan capitols and pushing into range to support both empires along the Romulan-Gorn Neutral zone. They have a task force in the Southwestern Gorn Starbase in striking range of Federation space, but its the only ISC force so far forward. They will be in position by the end of Turn 3.

The Hydran and ISC economies has been helping to fund the rest of the Coalition, including by bank transfers. The Lyran’s also helped out on Turn 1, but had to focus their cash internally in Turn 2.

The Lyrans are also now fully in position to strike next turn and support both Klingon and Kzinti space. They did assist with the capture of a neutral zone planet and several raids.

Several statements of particular note have been “I’ve never played a scenario in which the Klingons had so much money!” The Hydran’s concurred.

The Kziniti have been shocked they still have pre-war drone stockpiles, and was lost in confusion of another sort, “What do I do with all this money?”

Clearly the biggest winner so far has been the Bank of Wyncovia!

Additionally, the Fed players have been forced to open up the “Counter Baggies of No Return” to fetch out the x3 and x6 unit counters.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Sunday, July 30, 2023 - 11:29 am: Edit

I had been reading this with interest. Has anything more happened?

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Sunday, July 30, 2023 - 10:33 pm: Edit

William, there is more. I just hadn’t had the time to post about it yet as we called the game Friday night at the end of Turn 3, and yesterday was all about breaking down and cleaning up.

The short version is that on the Fed phase of turn 2, they counterattacked, and were mostly rebuffed. Some small gains and losses but for the most part they simply moved their forces out. My general recollection is the Fed took around 40 crippled FFs and maybe a dozen or so DDs. The Gorn managed to capture a Fed CC to match the Lyrans, and continued to sell their lives dear in the defense of their space.

The Fed counter attacks on the Western Coalition front seemed to stall out, though both sides took significant losses. The Fed movements did help pull Coalition forces to the front, which they then used to goo effect on Turn 3.

At the start of Turn 3, things took a turn. A Lyran DNL was dispatched to raid two federation ships, and the dice proved once again they have a sense of humor and no allies. For the cost of crippling a Frigate and forcing a retreat, the Feds inflected 8 causality points on the Lyran Dreadnaught, killing it.

The Gorn had pretty evil luck, their abortive attack on a BATS went poorly, resulting in a couple of cripples for the cost of Fed fighters. The big surprise was the way in which the Fed reserves were deployed, which ended up costing the Gorn a few more ships, though the Feds took crippling damage to a number of FFs and a few DD and even a CL, the Gorn losses were less, but in the grand scheme of things, expensive. Had not the ISC be there in force enough to permit the Gorn BC’s to supplement the Echelons that formed up, things would have been far worse.

The Romulans managed to do wonders with the vast numbers of under gunned ships they had available. Yes, they lost ground, but nothing critical.

The Klingons managed about dead even returns for their gains, loosing E3s for FFs. The Imperial Fleets were moving quickly, and a grand battle force smashed the Fed Starbase in their sector.

I regret I do not remember much of what the Hydrans did in Turn 3, other than joining several other fights and lending fighter support to a couple of the big battles, including both Starbase battles.

On the Fed phase, they started attacking the way we would have seen them do in future turns. With a 2/3s battle line of cruisers, fighter support, and FFs on the line as attrition units. During their production on turn three, the Fed overbuilt ninety FFs.

For all that they had numbers working for them, they couldn’t seem to buy much space for all that both sides sailers were buying farms.

When the game was called, I think the total Fed losses were north of 86 ships lost or captured, and half again as many cripples. They had been getting lucky on Depot rolls and had around a dozen hulls working through the queue there.

I don’t have economic data, but it was mentioned to me that the Fed carried over from Turn 1 over 200 EPs, and that on Turn 3, they maxed their production of carriers, cruisers, and escorts before overbuilding simple FFs to soak damage.

Opinions varied on details, but all present concurred that neither side had scored enough ‘on points’ for this war to be anything other than a draw.

There were careful notes and pictures taken in case the scenario were to be picked up at a later date, though no one thought it likely.

With all due respect to the three Fed players, there was some talk about trying it again from the top with a more aggressive Fed from the onset. They started with a conservative bent to their tactics and managed to hold onto that mentality throughout the game, only breaking it on turn 3 when they started to show massive task forces everywhere.

At the end of Turn 3, the Feds were fielding twelve full reserve fleets, almost all of which were a Cruiser leading a FF force.

Like a lot of these games, the players simply ran out of RL time.

My own opinions (and mind you I was playing the Gorn) was that it was a miscalculation for the Fed not to detail as few ships to the border with the Western front as safety demanded in order to form a massive spear to thrust into the heart of Gorn space, with the intent of taking the Gorn Capitol early before it’s shipyards fully wake up, then turn South for the Romulan before they start getting better ships. The ISC will be a pain, but a harder space grab may have had different results.

By Bill Phillips (Praetor) on Wednesday, August 02, 2023 - 07:58 pm: Edit

Perhaps for 2024, TWO weeks may be advisable to complete more turns.

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Wednesday, August 02, 2023 - 10:53 pm: Edit

Bill, if you hit the Mega Millions, you can fund it, and offer us a stipend for the time off from our day jobs. (teasing grin)

Seriously, I'm not so sure it would have helped, things were just that much of a logistical headache for the Feds, and it was only getting worse as they were building new ships to replace battle losses (kills, captures, and cripples) at better than 2 to 1. The logistics of the fleet would have grown progressively worse.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Thursday, August 03, 2023 - 12:25 am: Edit

Anyone who I missed in the email I sent earlier I'd like to hear your thoughts on the scenario and how it can be made better.

Email in profile or post here