Federation Commander

[zebulon8]

I was watching one of my favorite episodes from the remastered TOS the other day: The Enterprise Incident.

Now, I am trying to figure out how I could create a workable Fed Com scenario that captures the same feeling as that episode.

I want to start at the moment when the Fed CA pulls away from the two KRs and the King Eagle (?), with engineering desperately trying to get the cloaking device installed.

I think the Fed CA should have maybe a 50/50 chance of getting the cloaking device to work and one of the Rom ships should be without their cloak. (Which one? I am unsure which ship was the command ship.)

In the episode, the CA gets a head start and is trying to get back across the neutral zone. My question is: how much of a head start should they get?

If they are too far ahead, the CA just runs at speed 32 and it is a pretty boring scenario.

If they are too close, the roms just blast the CA with everything they have on the first impulse and it is still pretty boring.

Also, to capture the flavor, the roms should really be trying to capture the CA. That was the commander's main goal. Failing that, it should be destroyed, of course.

And, the CA should really get a benefit from the cloak. This part I am really having trouble with.

I am unsure if the cloak rules as written would be useful enough for the Fed captain to even bother with it.

Anyway, this idea is not really fully-formed (as you can see), but I want to solicit feedback from others who have more experience with the system.

Thanks in advance.

PS. I wasn't really sure which forum was intended for scenario ideas, so apologies if I posted this in the wrong place.

[Mike]

Someone else will probably point this out, but in the episode the Big E jumps to warp 8 and the Roms follow suit.

Consider that dramatic effect for the Federation citizenry who was the target audience for those tri-vid military channel broadcasts.

The entire thing must take place at tactical warp speeds.

Refresh our memories...does the Fed CA engage the cloak before it takes off or after?

Besides that, you could place the Rom ships pretty far away from the Fed CA to begin with. Under cloak the CA could only run at speed 16 and at least 2 of the Roms could converge. If the CA does not cloak and runs at speed 32, the Roms would still have the chance to converge and cut off the escape. Perhaps put all 3 Roms on the side of the map the CA must move toward to escape.

A meeting engagement where one side (or ship, in this case) is trying to run is a tough situation for the pursuing ships. If they close, they stand the chance of having to waste time turning to give chase after the initial pass.
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Mike

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Sandpaper gets the job done, but makes for a lot of friction.

[zebulon8]

[Bolo_MK_XL]

The CA would have to be within Transporter range to start.
Under the conditions in the episode, how long before the KRs understood what was happening and received orders to pursue.
Though FC doesn't cover Weapons Status, what would the KRs have charged and ready to fight with.
Almost a scenario that would start with Prime Directive and move to FC or other SFU ruleset to finish.

[zebulon8]

[Klingon of Gor]

How far would the Feds have to run before they were assumed to be safe? Do they have to make the Neutral ZOne, or do they have to actually cross back into Federation space?

Start at range 5. Both sides have paid pre-arming costs, so that plasmas and photons are both available on turn 1 if the last turn's arming cost is paid. However, both sides start with full batteries, since the time that elapsed between when the Enterprise was surrounded and when she put the pedal to the metal allowed both sides to recharge all batteries, though the weapons remained warmed up.

You could make the Feds roll to see if Something Bad happens when they cloak, since they weren't familiar with the cloaking device. That Something Bad could be anything from an outright breakdown to maybe cloak costing an extra power point

Rom force is two KRs and a KRC.

Depending on how far you want to take things, if the CA makes Fed space and the Romulans pursue, there could be a Fed quick reaction force on call to provide cover.
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"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away" - Philip K Dick

[Kang]

Regarding weapons status, you're right in that FC doesn't cover that SFB rule, but the scenario designer is allowed to stipulate which weapons are armed at game start.

For instance, in another scenario, you may have a ship which has been recently repaired (i.e. two minutes ago) and the crew have not yet run the QC checks on their repairs to the Plasma-F boxes. So they begin the game cold. That sort of thing....
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[markgeorgetwo]

If i remeber the episode in question the roms where ready to fire on the enterprise if it did not surrender so i would say they was holding their plasmas and the other weapons where ready to fire.

But i will watch again and take notes also with the weapons trained on the enterprise they did say if they try anything they would fire.

[zebulon8]

[Nerroth]

It may be worth noting that the "five-year mission" took place from 2554 to 2559, which places it within the bounds of the Middle Years, as portrayed in FC courtesy of Briefing #2. (According to GURPS Federation, the prior ill-fated incident at Talos IV took place in 2542.)

So the KRs available to the Romulans at that time would have been armed with plasma-G torpedoes, rather than the -S torps they had been upgraded to by the Day of the Eagle. (Since the Federation ship would have been of Middle Years vintage also, it would have lacked a drone rack and other "post-refit" add-ons.)

Also, according to the data in SFB Module R8, many of the early "Kestrels" shipped to the Romulans under the Treaty of Smarba were old D4s and F4s which the Klingons had kept in storage after they had been withdrawn from service (or used as LD4 and LF4 "local defence" hulls inside Klingon space). After stocks of more "modern" hulls were built up, these KD4s and KF4s were transferred to the Great Houses, who used them in a broadly similar role as the Klingons had used their own local defence ships.

Rather than having a KRC and two KRs, perhaps many of the very early Kestrel cruiser squadrons in Romulan space might have comprised of a KR and two K4Rs instead.
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FC Omega Discussion (v3)
FC LMC Discussion

[Kang]

IIRC the Neutral Zone is about 50 light-years deep. That's one heck of a lot of 10,000km hexes.....
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[Nerroth]

Each Neutral Zone hex on the Federation and Empire map sections is 500 parsecs across, though the natures of the Fed-Klingon and Fed-Romulan NZs are somewhat different.

(The Treaty of Organia permitted the Feds and Klingons a limited degree of colonisation within their shared NZ, technically under Organian arbitration. While the Fed-Romulan NZ was essentially off-limits to either party, at least prior to the use of certain planets in the Zone as trade waypoints under the period of Detente in the 2560s.)
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FC Omega Discussion (v3)
FC LMC Discussion

[markgeorgetwo]

in the episode the roms have two kr cruisers and what looks like a war eagle or a king eagle.

ps watching the episode at this minute i will post more to this subject.

[Nerroth]

The "eagle" was added to the remastered version of that episode - the original broadcast had three Kestrels instead.

(From what I gather, the original Warbird's filming model had been destroyed by that time.)
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FC Omega Discussion (v3)
FC LMC Discussion

[markgeorgetwo]

very true my friend i also remeber that i remeber the original has well has the remastered version .and you forget iam 51 years old