In Captain's Log #44, the playtest Klingon Eastern Marches scenario presents a "what-if" scenario in which, having succeeded in conquering the Tholian Holdfast, the Klingon Empire went on to subdue the "pre-Smarba" Romulan Star Empire. In its place, they establish the Imperial Klingon Marches. which is aligned with the "at-home" Klingon Empire.

Meanwhile, in Captain's Log #48, the playtest Winds Aloft scenario makes use of the "lost empire" Paravians from Star Fleet Battles Module C6. The presence of an "on-map" Paravian empire triggers the changes seen on "Mapsheet P", as well as the onset of a Gorn-ISC alliance to oppose a Romulan-Paravian Coalition.

In this thread, I wondered if it might be an option to consider a crossing of the two: as in, to present a "Mapsheet P" campaign in which the place of the Romulans is instead taken up by the IKM - and, thus, what a would-be IKM-Paravian Coalition might mean for the Gorns and ISC in such a setup.

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To start, there is the question of how such a setup might emerge.

In this, I'm minded of the change made in order to make the CL44 scenario work: namely, that the Klingons were able to defeat the Tholians before moving on towards Romulan space.

However, there is an alternate inflection point: what if the Tholians never arrived in the Alpha Octant at all?

Say, if the Holdfast Sphere was to go somewhere else entirely: such as Omega, the LMC, or elsewhere. The exact details of what happens to the Tholians - and to subsequent groups inbound from the M81 Galaxy - need not concern us here; rather, the question would be how this might impact the Alpha Octant timeline.

I would suggest that, with no need to "delay" the invasion of Romulan space in order to deal with the Tholians, the Klingons would launch this campaign much earlier than in the CL44 timeline. Which, in turn, would force the Gorns to call off their own campaign to reach and blockade the Paravian home world, so as to reinforce what is now a far more dangerous border with the IKM. This in turn would enable the Paravians to retain enough of a fighting force to drive off the Sun Snake in Y94; at which point, they would at long last pay heed to Marengo Firecloud Wildfeather's entreaties to focus on building a "true' star empire. This combination of IKM consolidation, Gorn apprehension, and Paravian expansion would eventually lead to "early" First Contact with the Inter-Stellar Concordium, thus triggering a sequence of events which directly lead to the set of borders as seen on "Mapsheet P".

Presumably, there would be a few "four-power wars" in this region prior to the onset of the General War. Although, for the IKM and the Paravians to be aligned, it would be wise for the IKM's Viceroy to keep any of the Empire's "demonic" reptilian subject species - such as the Hillidarians and Vudar - safely back in "at-home" Klingon space...

Oh, and in this alternate timeline, the subsequent groups from M81 never arrive in the Alpha Octant either. So no 312th; no Seltorians; and no contact with the Tholians of Draco - at least, not prior to Operation Unity.


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So, what might this mean in F&E terms?

To start with, there would be a replacement of the Romulan data in the CL48 scenario (orders of battle, production schedules, etc.) with their equivalents from the IKM scenario in CL44.

Some of the technology changes would be the same as in the CL44 scenario: no cloaks, no maulers, and so forth. Some of the logistical factors in place in the CL48 scenario would be in play here: just as the Paravians and Romulans in that scenario setup do not use each other's pod types, so too would there be a divide between pod types used by the Paravians and the IKM.

One key difference for the IKM is that, as is the case for the Romulans themselves in "Mapsheet P" scenarios under (6WA.531), they would in turn be obliged to carry out "off-map" survey missions via leased territory in the Paravian Farnest region - akin to how the "at-home" Klingon Empire has its own agreement with the Lyran Far Stars Duchy.

Speaking of the "at-home" Empire: since the Tholians never showed up in this proposed scenario setup, there would be no need to "liberate" the "bridge" region between the IKM and the Empire proper - nor, indeed, for a "Tholian Border Squadron". Or rather, the TBS would perhaps be referred to instead as the "Rimward Patrol Squadron" (or "RPS"); which would still be assigned to the "bridge" region, as per (659.U22).

On a side note: it might also be possible to lean into the Four Powers War data from the latest revision to Fighter Operations - plus the new set of Middle Years Gorn counters added to the latest crop of countersheet reprints - in order to set up "four-power wars" in the region. Although, there is still the question of how to handle certain Middle Years ISC ships in F&E terms.

Speaking of the ISC: if/when some of the "wartime construction" units (and, perhaps, their would-be mission variants) show up in order to fight the Andromedans in the "historical" timeline, some of these ships would presumably have an impact here - not least in order to counter enemy IKM and Romulan "war" classes.

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As noted in other recent scenario proposal threads, any actual development of this scenario might have to wait until after the Civil Wars rulebook is formally published. And, of course, even after that happens, there's plenty of other things to do - both in game module terms, and in terms of deciding candidate F&E scenarios for future issues of Captain's Log.

Still, in case there is an opportunity to take a closer look at the "lost empire" Paravians at some point, perhaps this scenario might be a way to further leverage the "Mapsheet P" setup - and the playtest Paravian rules and SIT entries in CL48 - in a new and interesting way.