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Luke...Stay on Target!!

I think thats the main issue with the Mudslide... -its very easy to get distracted or think Option B is now the better strategy!!

And you suddently find you have been pulled in too many directions and the Feds are stronger than you wanted.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, June 26, 2025 - 06:55 pm: Edit

I did not use the Mudslide strategy. Not sure why you're talking about that. I attacked the Fed on CT7 on schedule. I captured the Hydran capital at great cost. I've made multiple capital assaults on Kzintai to reduce it's economy. That's, like, the *opposite* of the Mudslide.

Two issues have put the Coalition behind in this game.

1) William's defense play has been really very excellent.

2) My luck has been bad, and William's good, at several key battles (including SB and capital assaults).

Note that, overall, the pips on the dice average out at 3.5, as they should. But just as an example, in the last 1401 capital assault battle, out of 36 killed coalition ships William captured 3 - including a DNL, an STL, and an F6. Plus he rolled high combat numbers *and* I rolled low on the majority of rounds in the critical early rounds, so I took a lot more damage than I should have.

The critical factor, of course, is the quality of play. I haven't seen William make a mistake, whereas I've made a few. The dice just "hammer home" the nail in the coffin.

Though, to be fair, that last statement really is overly dramatic. While the Coalition are behind - and I just do not see a 3 capital knockout, they still have plenty of fighting strength. Nevertheless, I still anticipate an Alliance victory in this game. The question is how high a level that victory will be.

Then again, I've pulled bacon out of the fire before. William or Gary could still make a mistake, or the winds of luck could change. All I know is that I'm not giving up outside of a Coalition knockout or natural game end.

-T

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Thursday, June 26, 2025 - 07:24 pm: Edit

I watched the "mudslide" game, and I still don't know what "mudslide" even is. My impression is that it was a strategy with a catchy name. But I might be missing something.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, June 26, 2025 - 07:30 pm: Edit

Mudslide is a tactic wherein the Coalition saves ships and resources by NOT attacking the Hydrans or the Kzintis (other than low hanging fruit BATS). A modified version takes one, but ignores the other (other than fruit BATS).

In another variation you do not attack the Fed at all until CT10, building up as much as possible.

The idea is that you have a much larger fleet which is then poised to "Mudslide" over the Fed. Concentrate most firepower on the Fed while keeping the Kzinti and Hydran at bay. After the Fed is defeated, the other powers (though certainly tougher) can't complete, resulting in Coalition victory.

I have *never* seen Mudslide work. In theory it seems nice. In practice it does not work.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Friday, June 27, 2025 - 02:32 am: Edit

Doh!!!

Sorry - somehow I confused this game with 'Its full of Stars'

My theory of Joe's Tactic is the Coalition adjust the Tempo of their attack on Hard points to maintain both a ship Advantage but also an Economic Advantage over the Alliiance.

And as Ted said - the main aspect of the idea is then to flood Federation space (ideally on turn 7) and break the Federation Economy before it's ship building gets up to speed.

If the Federation stays enough 'behind the curve', they never recover.

It has been attemped various times - but I don't think it's been proved sufficently to say it will always works (it has been attempted in various games - in some it has worked (poor Alliance luck* for example) and failed in others (Coalition Tempo goes too high).

* - The Alliance need to do enough to disrupt the Coalition - and so the Alliance Counter attacks become crucial.

Anyway - wrong game.... so sorry - wrong rambling comments from me at 4.13 pm on 24th!

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Friday, June 27, 2025 - 06:15 am: Edit

Pete DiMitri is the originator of the mudslide strategy.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Saturday, June 28, 2025 - 07:26 pm: Edit

Hey, I'm glad to have any comments

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Monday, June 30, 2025 - 07:06 pm: Edit

fruit BATS haha

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Monday, June 30, 2025 - 08:13 pm: Edit

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Tuesday, November 11, 2025 - 05:02 pm: Edit

Alliance turn 18 combat is underway. There are a lot of back-and-forth type planet captures. Alliance is taking 1205, 1502, 1802, and 2103. NZ planets 416, 519, 2214, 3812, and 4309 have yet to be resolved. Romulans double reserved 3812 and have more than the Feds there. Alliance is stronger at the other two. Which doesn't necessarily mean the battles will turn out that way.

Kzinti are apparently getting a breather as the Coalition sent three reserves from K/Z border regions towards the Feds. The Feds will be under correspondingly more pressure next turn.

Coalition is apparently more defensive on the Hydran front, at least for the moment. The Hydrans were able to get a large fleet into Hydrax. But the Coalition has a double SB there, so they should keep it.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Friday, November 28, 2025 - 04:03 pm: Edit

Alliance turn 18 is done.

Battles at NZ planets 3415 and 3912 both went several rounds with quite a lot of directing. Feds lost CVL and 3CFS, all directed in form or the scout box, with one CFS captured. That's four heavy scouts. In return they killed three maulers and a C7 and inflicted maybe 12 crips.

The Coalition held both hexes, as the Klingons at 3415 were stronger than I had realized.

On the Gorn front, Gorn CMs were taking the brunt of dirdam, but the Gorns killed some D6D in return.

Feds could come under heavy attack on turn C19. They are braced for impact.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Tuesday, January 06, 2026 - 06:11 pm: Edit

Turn C19 is done. The main excitement of the turn was the Klingon capture of 2610. With that, all of the four planets where the Feds first started building PDUs have lost the PDUs and been devastated or captured at some point.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Tuesday, January 06, 2026 - 08:36 pm: Edit

2610 is also important because the Feds on AT19 will not be able to block supply to it (not without a major concerted effort and lots of ships deployed in empty space). That means I can leave a substantial fleet there and threaten Earth.

Oh, I have no illusions I can take the capital of the Hu-Mans, not by a long chock. However, it does allow me to threaten most of the remaining BATS, 3SB, 7 other planets. He could get aggressive and try to force me to pull back to defend Klinshai, which could get interesting. I'm hoping to force him to turtle up a bit, but William is wily and so I'm sure he'll find a way to prevent me from doing serious damage on CT20.

However, from my perspective, this is the first turn in like 6+ turns where I felt like the Coalition was kind of recapturing the initiative.

The HTO I recaptured 416 and 519. Unlikely I can keep them if Gary wants them back.

In the ZTO I took back 1001, 1105, and 1802. Again questionable whether I can hold them. However, it does prevent the Kzinti from any kind of deep penetration of the Coalition on AT19.

The RTO also saw successes. I retook 3711, 3612, and also 4309 (from the Gorn). Thus, forestalling deep penetration into Rom territory on AT19.

I don't really anticipate being able to really make deep inroads on future turns. However, it definitely was a good turn for the Coalition.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, January 07, 2026 - 09:25 am: Edit

Ahh the Partial Supply Grid of a captured planet and afew Orion 'traders' providing supply!

How are the Coalition handling Economic Exaustion?

(You might say fine - we can eat Federation food rather than supply it ourselves!! )

Can the Gorn, Hydrans and Kzinti do much to pull stuff away from the Feds?

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Wednesday, January 07, 2026 - 10:23 am: Edit

There are 20 Fed equivalents at Kzintai, as C17 had me wondering if an assault there was coming. I can try to pull them back. I did try to pull some back last turn, but I made an error with retro paths, causing it to fail.

There is a K-L double SB at 1403.

One thing I'm sure of is that Ted can't threaten strong assaults on both Earth and Kzintai.

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Saturday, March 07, 2026 - 03:07 pm: Edit

Alliance turn 19 is done. The only major event was a raid on 1910, where Ted didn't realize the Feds could get into the Lyran FRD park. The Alliance managed to kill 3FRD but then chose to retreat as they had run out of fighters. The Lyran convoy there survives.

The Kzinti built an SAF. This gives them at least a little threat to the Coalition double SB in 1403. In addition, they invested in devastation recovery. Absent Coalition action, all majors in 1401 will resume full production next turn.

One thing I like about this game is that just when it appears that everything is going to be the same, it's not.

On to C20 . . . and the appearance of PFs!