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Targ Lieutenant SG
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Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 125 Location: York U.K.
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Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2011 6:37 pm Post subject: |
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After much heated discussion we are going for a Sparrow Hawk – B. Plasma F fighters, oh yes ![Twisted Evil](images/smiles/icon_twisted.gif) |
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storeylf Fleet Captain
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 1897
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Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2011 7:15 pm Post subject: |
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Still pondering, but I think I'm going for a fed carrier, I can just (by 10 points) fit in the cheapest fighter wing - 12 F-18. I would like a plasma ship as well though, that Gorn BC is still looking tempting. |
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Targ Lieutenant SG
![](images/avatars/gallery/fed_command/ESS.jpg)
Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 125 Location: York U.K.
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Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2011 7:59 pm Post subject: |
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CJ came up with buying an Orion; I’ve no problem with this, but is this going to be X3 or X4 the cost for hiring mercenaries. And can its load out be changed from campaign round to round?
PS did you make the show |
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JonPerry Lieutenant SG
Joined: 12 Jul 2010 Posts: 124
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:41 pm Post subject: |
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I'd like to see the different scenarios that you guys have come up with for this campaign. It sounds like a great thing to look at over here in my neck of the woods.
Pretty please? |
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storeylf Fleet Captain
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 1897
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:55 pm Post subject: |
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All I have done is 'genericise' a few scenarios that already exist, and create a few based on what I think represent campaign style objectives - attacks on commerce platforms, repair docks, etc.
Its an ongoing process, adding missions whenever. Each has the basics written on a smallish card, forming a deck to pull from.
We may modify them after playing - or indeed even whilst playing if something comes up that needs covering.
Basic format at the moment:
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Convoy:
Default: -700VP
Map: 32*50, or 35 location map if location terrain added.
Terrain: Any but pulsar
Force: Defender gets +50 pts. Defender must buy Freighter/Qships with at least 125 cargo.
Exit: Defender must disengage from far side of map.
Victory: 4Vp per cargo destroyed
Campaign: Defender forfeits a point card next campaign round at least equal to the value of cargo lost if he loses any cargo.
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'Default' is where if the defender has played the 0pt card, so hasn't bothered to defend, he takes a VP hammering.
The deck isn't that big at the moment, I created enough to start the campaign round and not be sure what would come up. I'm intending adding at least another 6-10 more before this friday when we start the next campaign round.
That will just be a case of go through all the various products reading the scenarios and thinking how could you make that handle 2 sides of unknown, but roughly equal, points value possibly with different terrain. Are there any interesting campign effects to add that make sense. e.g. One I added was destroying a research facility where successful defense will allow the use of a 'special weapon' in 1 battle next campign round (maybe a 'refiners fire frigate' or 'experimental scatter packs').
I'm probably going to try and add a few of the uneven style battles as well - e.g. a possible surprise reversed scenario, or the hood goes down type of scenario but with a some feature to balance out the one sidedness - massive campaign VP for 'heroic victory in defeat', or a campaign effect for failing to crush the surprised defenders. |
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JonPerry Lieutenant SG
Joined: 12 Jul 2010 Posts: 124
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Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 9:54 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: | Extra new ships: In order to help prevent total escalation to large ships, there will be a trickle of FF/DD size ships that arrive without playing a card, 1 per campaign round, or every other round - we'll see which works better. |
I was wondering why this would be an issue. Then I saw that your smallest card was 100 points, so the smallest ship you'd be buying each round would be a war destroyer. Also saw that you could only buy a single ship per turn. I'm wondering if rather than giving a free small ship every other turn, if you might instead allow multiple ships to be bought at once. Of course if a player was allowed to play his 800 point card in the purchase phase, that might remove the incentive to keep your ships alive, knowing you could buy a new fleet every turn. In which case you break one of the key concepts of a campaign, which is that your actions have consequences. |
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JonPerry Lieutenant SG
Joined: 12 Jul 2010 Posts: 124
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Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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If my math is right, current undamaged Klingon vessels total around 1,150 points, while the Klingons were called upon to deploy up to 1,500 points worth of vessels last round. It'll be neat to see what this means for the next round of the campaign. |
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storeylf Fleet Captain
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 1897
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Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 12:33 am Post subject: |
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JonPerry wrote: | Quote: | Extra new ships: In order to help prevent total escalation to large ships, there will be a trickle of FF/DD size ships that arrive without playing a card, 1 per campaign round, or every other round - we'll see which works better. |
I was wondering why this would be an issue. Then I saw that your smallest card was 100 points, so the smallest ship you'd be buying each round would be a war destroyer. Also saw that you could only buy a single ship per turn. I'm wondering if rather than giving a free small ship every other turn, if you might instead allow multiple ships to be bought at once. Of course if a player was allowed to play his 800 point card in the purchase phase, that might remove the incentive to keep your ships alive, knowing you could buy a new fleet every turn. In which case you break one of the key concepts of a campaign, which is that your actions have consequences. |
More or less bang on. By restricting to 1 ship a round it isn't a given that you can absorb heavy losses/damage, hence there is both a need to preserve what you have and try and pace your self. Smaller battles risk less and allow bigger cards to play for repairs etc. Bigger cards on battles are required to represent aggression and choose 'attacker' or force the other side into a larger battle, but don't allow so much repair. Also I don't want to see an immediate shift to the 'new' ships, part of the fun is making do with old/ inferior ships (never mind smaller) and making those extra 'new'/special ships feel really valuable cos you only have 1 and may struggle to replace it.
There is still some use for smaller ships, by having a wider selection of ship values it is easier to make up the points for a battle. The klink is now short of individual ships for a 200 pt battle, without the smaller ships he would be forced to field a D6 or D7 size ship and potentially be badly out pointed, the smaller ships allow him to fill that gap - an E4 and a D7 nicely comes in at 200pts. Also the way the campaign is structured it doesn't favor really big ships in that you would need to play larger cards in order to get the battles where you can field them, but if they are damaged then you will also need those same larger cards for repairs. For example at the extreme you would have to play the 700 pt card to fight a battle which would definatley allow a BB to be deployed, and you would need to keep the 400+ pt card to be sure that you can repair it if it is damaged. That means that unless your opponent also plays large cards you would never really be able to deploy more than 1 BB per campaign round, and even then you are stuggling to repair anything else etc.
The other reason escalation to large ships is 'bad' is that it is a bit unreal, smaller ships are the bulk of most fleets and I would like to see them in campaigns. They offer different challenges and perspectives on the game.
As I noted, round 1 can be seen as both sides be extermely aggressive (keen to make an impression with high command), but having taken the risk that they would out pace their logistical capacity to maintain that sort of tempo. The klinks have come off badly in terms of losses, and are going to struggle next round if they are not careful. But I think it will be a longish campaign - there has been hardly any seperation this round in VP. So if the klink can keep the battles small, not losing much, whilst repairing his DN, D6 and bringing on a carrier and something else next round then he will be back up a decent strength. That of course offers me the chance to grab the initiative and be the attacker in what ever missions come up. Long term that commerce platform penalty is going to hurt, it means I need that 800pt card to bring on the really good stuff, like a BB or some nice allied ships. Hopeufully that will come up next round and I get to be attacker (god help me if I end up defender again!)
Whilst we are constantly discussing the rules, so far I think things are going broadly as I was hoping they would in terms of general rules and their effect.
Certainly the change in play style is quite obvious, there is a definatly an increased tendency to keep an eye on how quickly you can reach that disengagement edge. Simple things like which way to turn as you are being chased - towards your edge so you can disengage if needed even though there is way more manouver room the other way. That may be interesting with plasma, mm, do I really want to out run it and end up miles from my escape route. It was that aspect that made battle 2 interesting when the D6 found that it had out flanked me mid battle and nobbled a freighter only to find that it then had issues escaping as klingon space was the other side of my ships.
It should also be borne in mind that the Klinks may well be a lot worse than might be expected as they are at a disadvantage in being 2 players. Capt Jack is no where near as experienced as Targ or myself, and has a definate propensity to do his own thing no matter how much one advises him not to. Whereas being on my own I have no such issues. But its all good fun, Jack is great good fun to play with - I wouldn't be bothered if he was playing with me, heh, we'd probably lose but at least I'd probably lose laughing.
Quote: | If my math is right, current undamaged Klingon vessels total around 1,150 points, while the Klingons were called upon to deploy up to 1,500 points worth of vessels last round. It'll be neat to see what this means for the next round of the campaign. |
Yup - I'm expecting something like them playing the 0pt card on 1 mission - giving me an auto decisive victory but risking no ships. They can still then go for 1 large battle hoping to get 'attacker' (or even defender if that is appropiate), and play a poxy 100pt card on another battle to keep it hopefully smallish and within budget for a proper force to fight with. But it may depend on what missions come up. I'm sure Targ will want to play with his new toy (Rom carrier), and I'll probably want to play with mine
Any way I'm rambling now.. |
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storeylf Fleet Captain
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 1897
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Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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Only managed to write up another 5 missions so far, may manage a couple more tonight.
Assasinate Ally: An important allied admiral is in the area in his command vessel. Nobbling him would cause political embarasment for the enemy, and in particular the admiral in charge of that sector (You). Losing the admirals ship will make all future ships of that empire more expensive.
Delaying Action: The defender is outgunned 2:1, but every turn he can maintain a presence brings in VP and also allows him to reduce an enemy card value on one battle next campaign round, by an amount based on how long he delays the enemy, possibly even to point of auto defaulting.
Survey: A survey team is on an 'unimportant' enemy planet that unknown to them (so far) is a source of a rare and potent energy source. If the survey team is given long enough and escapes off the map then it will become common knowledge and a pirate magnet, and the defender will be ordered to forfeit a ship from his OOB to patrol the area.
BreakDown: The defenders largest ship that has existing campaign damage (but not cripples) has suffered a breakdown, the attacker tries to finish it off as the defender rushes to protect it. The ship has no warp power to start with (only starts with reac, imp), the warp repairs at D6 a turn (think wyn radiation).
Approach battle: The attacker is preparing to attack a base, suicide freighters have been spotted being moved up, and the defender moves to engage them long before they arrive. If the attacker gets them through there will definately be a BATs assault as one battle next campaign round with the same attacker. |
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Targ Lieutenant SG
![](images/avatars/gallery/fed_command/ESS.jpg)
Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 125 Location: York U.K.
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Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:13 pm Post subject: |
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After seeing this I’m not sure how aggressive we want to be next turn, it may well depend on the results some of these new scenarios give and a lot of coded sub space communication between myself and CJ i.e. a load of humming and haring in the kitchen, allready invited him round for an early dinner. |
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storeylf Fleet Captain
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 1897
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Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:26 pm Post subject: |
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They'll be added into the pack of existing scenarios, so they may not come up this round. |
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storeylf Fleet Captain
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 1897
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 1:48 am Post subject: |
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The Klingon brought in his romulan Sparrowhawk carrier with plasma fighters and his F5.
VP cost = 792 + 82 = 874.
The Fed brought in a Carrier with 12 F-18 and his DD.
VP cost = 690 + 105 = 795.
Leaving the overall scores at end of round 1 as:
Klingon = 9543
Fed = 9715 |
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storeylf Fleet Captain
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 1897
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 1:49 am Post subject: |
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Round 2 started tonight. Clearly the klingon attacks had faltered under the losses he suffered, and the Feds launch a massive counter attack. 3 Fed groups surge into Klingon space, the main group led by a DN comes aross a poorly defended convoy. The second group led by a BC comes aross another convoy that looks a more even fight, the final small group strikes lucky and finds a klingon Mobile base that is a key repair point for damaged ships, but may be a bit to weak to take advantage.
No special terrrain was encountered, as both sides playe the 0pt card for terrain choice.
Missions:
Convoy (Fed = 800pt, Klink = 500, Battle = 650pts)
Convoy (Fed = 700pt, Klink = 200, Battle = 450pts)
Mobile base (Fed = 500, Klink = 100pts, Battle = 300pts)
Ship assignments:
Convoy 1.
Fed: DN, CA, CA, FF
Klink: E4, D6 (damaged), 2 Large Freighter, 2 Small Freighter.
Convoy 2.
Fed: BC, CA, FF
Klink: D7, D7, F5, 3 Large Freighter.
Mobile base.
Fed: DD, DD, FF
Klink: D7c, E4, F5, Mobile base.
2 Convoy mission came up, mm, Convoy attack and meeting engagement are cards that appear 3 times each, as they represent fairly basic style battles that can be assumed to happen a fair bit.
Basically the Klingon found himself fighting bigger battles then he wanted and being short of ships to cover has largely given up on convoy 1 - though the maths of the cargo (minimum of 125) means there could be a Q ship or 2. Convoy 2 also probably had a Q-ship.
Campaign effects are the same as before for the convoys, lose a card next round if you lose any Cargo. The fact that I'm attacking in both of those missions is looking bad for the klingons - they could be 2 cards down next campaign turn, which will really hurt their supply phase. The Mobile base if it is destroyed will double the cost of damage repairs this round only (not cripples). I'll be surprised if I take out that with just 3 small ships, though I did try and max out on the photons for the points (10 photons).
For the supplty phase the cards left are,
Fed: 400, 200
Klingon: 400, 700, 800.
The klingons are in a good position to repair stuff this round if they can avoid losing the Mobile base, and of course the ships them selves. The Feds are looking a bit strained on the supply side, as all logistical effort has been put into front line weight.
Neither side has commited the carrier, slightly surprised by the non appearance of the romulan carrier. The Feds were just to spoilt for choice in terms of ships, and the one battle I might have put it in was a bit to small (mobile base), it would have been alone. |
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storeylf Fleet Captain
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 1897
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 1:51 am Post subject: |
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As we had a 4th player tonight, who would be on my side, we played convoy 2 first so that he'd get a more even game to play.
Admiral Howard, a visiting VIP from high command usurped my command position on the BC and I took command of the CA and FF.
For the klingons, Targ took the F5 and freighters, whilst Capt Jack took the D7s.
There was an abundance of communications emanating from the kitchen area pre-game, and indeed during the game at the klingon end. At my end I was happy that my temporary commander was up to the job and we engaged in little idle chatter (beyond laughing at the klingons).
With the Feds coming in half way across the map and on the route the convoy would have to take we plotted 16 to intercept the convoy with preloaded photons. The Klingons also plotted 16. About half way through the turn the Feds were just outside the 15 bracket, with the FF slightly ahead, at which point it declared EM. That caused a spike in klingon communication traffic, they were clearly flustered by the move. A couple of drones are launched by the D7s at the FF.
The CA slips out a bit to come in slightly behind the Klingon forward oblique. However the D7s who are already lagging slightly behind turn away, and end up directly behind the freighters - It isn't clear who is escorting whom at this point!
The F5 and a Large-Q ship (revealing itself) opens up on the FF as it closes, but the EM keeps it fairly safe, but more drones from all round are launched at it. As Impulse 8 starts the FF drops EM and lines up a large Freighter on the centerline at range 4, the D7s turn to head in the direction of the convoy now a few hexes behind the freighters. The CA is coming in to the left of the klingon convoy, whilst the BC is slightly beyond the FF and to the forward left of the convoy. The FF damages the large frieghter, but no where near hitting cargo, it does however pretty much gut its power leaving it a sitting duck. At last the klingons deliver a decisive blow as the 2 D7s open up with overloads and Phaser 1s that tear apart the FF at about range 7, resulting in the first Fed loss of the campaign. The BC unleashes a barrage of phasers and a couple of overloads that cripple the F5.
Turn 2 sees the BC make a clear statement of intent as he fully overloads all photons up front, and goes speed 8. The CA hits speed 24 as he seeks the intiative and the speed to pull in behind the D7s without getting out manouvered. All klingons go 16 (apart from the damaged freighter who can only manage 0+).
The entire klingon force pulls away from us and towards one of the edges that the klingon warships can disengage (the freighters can only pull of the far disengagment side). However as it is still turn 2 the rules of engagment are still that you can't withdraw unless you have lost a shield and taken some interna damage. They are basicaly trying to get round the slow moving BC. After several impulses they are at a point where the Bc cannot close any further, with the D7s at range 5. The CA is at range 2 to the D7s. Unfortunately for the D7s their attempt to end run the BC has meant that we have ended up outside the FX arc, and all the D7s can bring to bear is a few phaser 2s. The F5 has disengaged. Admiral Howard sees he has his best chance he will get and fires everything that will bear, the poor D7 that is picked is left crippled, the BC then turn back to deal with the stranded freighter. The CA however continues to close to get a range 1 shot. The crippled D7 Hets back towards the BC (as that is now the safe direction) and out of the way of the CA. The other D7 and CA end up in a range 1 exchange. The Q ship is also near by and joins in, but its fire is ineffective. THe D7 lacking power for overloads aims at power, whereas the CA aims at weapons. Both sides are hit hard, the CA losing 25% of its power but the D7 in return loses most of its weapons. The CA has however kept back enough power to tractor the D7, and succeeds, as a desperate H&R raid by klingon marines on our last tractor is gunned down. Wit the tractor link the Fed is able to stop the D7 disengaging, and also it is able to pull round another couple of phasers and further hammer the hapless vessel.
At the start of turn 3 I am clearly not in a position to maintain the tractor due to the power damage, and let go. The D7 decides to stay for an extra impulse though, thinking it may outmanouver me for a parting volley. It fails and is instead clobbered again by Fed phasers as they cycle around. At which point it does disengage, as does the other crippled D7.
To round the game off the stranded frieghter surrenders (Additional rule: civilian ships will surrender if no warships are around to protect from clear destruction).
Game end:
Klingon: Large freiggter captured. F5 and D7 crippled. other D7 just (by 3 boxes) misses out on cripple status, instead having damage rating 11.
Fed: Destroyed FF and damaged CA (6).
VP:
Fed +200Vp for cargo destroyed, +17 for caprtured frieghter, -78 for lost FF. total = +139.
Klingon -17 for lost frieghter.
Campaign: Klingons lose the 200pt card next campaign round. |
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storeylf Fleet Captain
Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 1897
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 1:58 am Post subject: |
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Scores so far:
Fed: 9854
Klingon: 9543
Fed OOB (damage status)
DN
BC
CC
CA (6)
2 * CA
3 * CL
DD (cripple)
2 * DD
2 * FF
CVS [12* F-18]
Klink OOB (damage status)
C8 (cripple)
D7C
D7 (cripple)
D7 (11)
D6 (5)
2 * D6
F5 (cripple)
2 * F5
3 * E4
Rom SPH-B [16 fighters (8 + 8 )] |
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