Federation Commander

[Commodore Mendez]

thank you starnite! (and of course to the author of the Empire campaign rules Pallida mors)

I also want to see 1.3

any thought to more fleshing out of planets/bases/terrain?

[bolog]

Sorry if this has been covered before but I am a bit confused by the set up phase. Could I get a better definition of :

" |Rank | Size |Lines|Maps|Production|"

and

" System Size | Defense Line | Sectors per Line | Defenses/Planets | "

Size seems straight forward enough, but what are lines? Are Maps the number of map boards used when fighting for the system? Same questions for "Defense Line and Sector Line"?

And in general Thanks for posting this campaign. I've really enjoyed it.

[Mike]

Thanks to this thread, several players in our group talked me into starting a small campaign game. We have begun a limited campaign between the Federation and Kzinti. Each side has a battle station with 10 sectors between them. The goal is to destroy the other side's battle station. They had 750 points to build their initial fleet and get 15 points per sector per campaign turn for reinforcements. We put in some rules for repair between campaign turns for crippled ships.

The first battle will be Friday afternoon a Fed Light Command Cruiser and regular Command Cruiser versus a Kzinti New Command Cruiser and Destroyer Escort.

The Kzinti overwhelmed a lone Fed NCL in another sector with a DN, a NCC, and a DE. The NCL retreated and gave the sector to the Kzinti.

The Kzinti can't figure out what other ships the Feds have or where they are...hmmmm....

[Starnite]

That was one of the things I meant to unify but forgot to. They are the same thing in actual usage

they are slightly different but discuss the same things for the most part

Each hex has a size (and value)


in the first method of system setup (everything is explored, empire boundaries predefined) each hex is described by:

System Size | Defense Line | Sectors per Line | Defenses/Planets |

System size- quick descriptive of how big a system is

Defense line- Each system (hex) has different defensives sectors, the larger the system, the more sectors and defensive lines there are. This describes which line we are talking about.

Sectors per Line- This is how many sectors must be invaded or defended. If the attacker does not have enough ships to cover every sector, then he can not attack. If the defender does not have enough ships to cover every sector, then he must fall back to the next defensive line, until he can defend all the sectors of a line

Defenses/planets- objects in the defensive line, usually bases.


An example would be below

System size is "medium" it has 4 defensive lines

First line of defense is 4 sectors wide and contains 2 base stations. It can be thought of as below. Note that bases can be placed however the defender sees fit, not necessarily as I have depicted it, but they must go in their proper line.

(empty) (empty) (Base) (Base)

An attacker would have to have 4 ships minimum to attack, one or more per sector. A defender would have to have at least 4 ships ( I think, this is a little unclear, might only need 2 due to the bases) to have each sector defended. If the defender does not have the required ships, they drop back to line 2. If the attacked does meet the defender in this line, and wins 50% of the battles, he advances to line 2 which looks like:

(Bats) (empty) (empty)

same rules as before. Attacker has to have at least 3 ships, as does the defender. if the attacker wins or defender doesn't have enough ships, proceed to line 3, looking like

(empty) (empty)

Same as before, then proceed to line 4, which contains the system objective (ownership essentially)

(Star Base, Minor World)

Winner keeps the system, and any surviving bases.


The exploration version uses a rank rather then size for faster exploration marking, but is otherwise identical and no bases are initially set up. This does mean you can populate every sector with a star base, but that is really expensive.

Hope this helps, if not, please ask for clerification on whats confusing

Mike

[PallidaMors]

Mike that was an excellent example of the Hex/Sector/line set-up, There is a ton of unique strategy that can happen in this, what has basically been created is campaign game that takes the concept of the "admirals game" from SFB and encapsulates it into a galactic campaign format.

Interesting concepts lay out in this.

1. reserves
2. fast warships and reaction
3. cloacking devices ( in this set up the Romulan or TSE can poisiton thier attacking and or defensive ships after the placement of thier foe) of course this is covered in strategic cloaking and then Federation has an inherent bonus against cloaked ships.)

It is possible for the game to be in movement while elements of each empire are crawling through slugfest in a large hex, moving through various sector lines.

If the battle rages for long periods then the game reverts back to the strategic level (though the tactical battles in any or all hexes are still happening) this allows for the empires in question to bring in reinforcemets to hard hit or besieged hexes.

The grand addy of all battles happens in a level 6 hex or the Home sector of an empire.

In version 1.3 the following is an optional rule.

1. Each sector explored will have a particular prime production and prime world type. this will make certain worlds and or systems more of a target and more stratigic to hold or gain for each race. as each race will have a prime world type that gives the maximum production value to a hex.

2. the sectors may contain asteroids/nebula/blackholes...ect


summation of the unique qualities of the game:

It is interesting to note that the Empire rules were forged in order to create an easy and diagnostically simple game to play, that was credidble and deep enough to allow for several layers of depth at the strategic level. (pirates, raiders, escorts, light rading DN's, exploration, skirmashes, war, diplomacy, random encounters) but the end results was always geared to get the ships into position to battle and to have an impact on a living breathing campaign rather than a scenario that is not connected to anything really in particular.
we (I) love Federation Commander it is the Best and the rules allow us to keep playing this great game and have each battle resonate through our campaign, in a connected yet non-linear sequence.
the legendary nature of the ships has created an element that one would find in a RPG game, where the controlling player values the ship not just because of it's class and capabilites, but for the hard earned experience, ship based characteristics and legendary officers. These ships are hard to develop and grow thier own noteriety in the game. We are watching closly in our campaign as the D-5W Hammer grows in level and experiance, the ship has 4 victories and is the pride of the Klingon fleet.

Regards,

P
_________________
Creator Empire campaign rules and Code of War (COW)Expansion.
review rules on the Federation Commander Campaign post, 123,000 views and growing

[Starnite]

I do have one question I keep forgeting or ask, and I may have missed the post somewhere, but how is experiance handed out?

[PallidaMors]

7. Victory Point Chart

Description Victory Points

Score internal hit 1
Score 1/4 internal hits on enemy 3-5
Score 50% hits 6
Cripple 8
Destroy 10

Win scenario 10-20

Kill officers 2 Vp per level

Roleplay 1-10

Lose scenario -5
Get crippled -4
25% dmg -2
do not roleplay -2-5
_________________
Creator Empire campaign rules and Code of War (COW)Expansion.
review rules on the Federation Commander Campaign post, 123,000 views and growing

[bolog]

Thanks Starnite that does help. I guess my specific question now is what is "Maps"? Also in your example, the defender would have to have 10 ships or can ships that retreat from one line defend the next?

I also saw that you are awarded VP for scenarios, are these preset encounters or just the battles that take place within the game.

I'm sure I will have more questions but this is it for now.

[PallidaMors]

Hello Bolog, I hope this helps.

1. Maps refers to the sector in each line (secotr and map are interchangable) at the strategic level the line is broken into sectors that can be attacked or defended in, once battle is joined the sector becomes a map (the playing surface that you position your counters or starline minatures)

in each battle a random roll is made to determine the map size
also we play on fixed maps so that they do not take all night

2. the Scenario is the battle that the ships take part in

P
_________________
Creator Empire campaign rules and Code of War (COW)Expansion.
review rules on the Federation Commander Campaign post, 123,000 views and growing

[PallidaMors]

Also Mike from SC, let me know how your battles go, and how your players like the rules.

Mike
Lieutenant Commander


Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 322
Location: South Carolina
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:35 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to this thread, several players in our group talked me into starting a small campaign game. We have begun a limited campaign between the Federation and Kzinti. Each side has a battle station with 10 sectors between them. The goal is to destroy the other side's battle station. They had 750 points to build their initial fleet and get 15 points per sector per campaign turn for reinforcements. We put in some rules for repair between campaign turns for crippled ships.

The first battle will be Friday afternoon a Fed Light Command Cruiser and regular Command Cruiser versus a Kzinti New Command Cruiser and Destroyer Escort.

The Kzinti overwhelmed a lone Fed NCL in another sector with a DN, a NCC, and a DE. The NCL retreated and gave the sector to the Kzinti.

The Kzinti can't figure out what other ships the Feds have or where they are...hmmmm..


Thanks!

P
_________________
Creator Empire campaign rules and Code of War (COW)Expansion.
review rules on the Federation Commander Campaign post, 123,000 views and growing

[PallidaMors]

starnite can you email me the edited copy of my rules that you worked on??
_________________
Creator Empire campaign rules and Code of War (COW)Expansion.
review rules on the Federation Commander Campaign post, 123,000 views and growing

[PallidaMors]

also to further explain the sectors and hexes....


1. the systems at the start of each game are randomly rolled up in each hex of each empire, with the following exception. Each empire has a home system which generates 100 Ep and has 8 lines.

so how this would look is on your hex map you roll a D6 to determine the system size for each and every hex. (note the Orions and Wyn which on my map only have 1 hex are both home systems.

2. Sectors are each the number of areas in each line that have to be defended or attacked when a system is invaded. Example a tiny system (1) has 2 lines and 3 sectors. the first line has 2 sectors and the back final line has 1 sector (plus a Base station and colony world) in order for an invading empire to take the Hex all sectors must be taken. so for a tiny system there is the possibiliby of 3 separate battles (one for each sector)

Let's hypothosize:

The Romulans invade the Gorn Confederation with 5 ships onto a tiny system on the border.

The romulan player must have enough ships to engae each of the front line sectors in order to invade ( in this example there are 5 ships, the player only needs 2 because there are 2 sectors) the romulan player then divides his invading fleet into 2 forces one for each sector, he places 2 in each secotr and holds the 5th ship for reserve (roll a \D6 to see how manay rounds into a actaul FC battle to see when this reserve ship is available)

Then the Gorn player selects defending ships from his Romulan border fleet (the player has a total of 12 ships on the border and selects 6 ) the Gorn player splits the defending forces into equal sets of 3.

Then the 2 battles are resolved using FC,

Then if the attacking player won at least 50% of the battles then the attack may continue to the 2nd line and third sector.

Lets look at a huge system:

it would have 5 lines with a total of 15 sectors (15 differnet potential battles to be fought and won for the ataking player to take this hex on the strategic empire map.

the first line has 2 base stations ( each in thier own sector on the far ends of the sector line and 1 BATS in the middle sector and 2 blank or empty sectors) 50% of these front 5 sectors have to be victories in battle before the attacking player can move to the next line of the system....this goes on until there is a vistor or the attacking player is pushed back and out.

Next question:

the advantage of a captain using his/her ability slots to be promoted to commodore has great advantage a commodore adds 2 to the command rating of a fleet, this type of flag officer can tip the balance of power in large engagements.

I am working on Both Commodore and Admiral ability sets than can be gained. A commodore would potentialy look like this.

at second level the captain chooses command star1
at third level the captain would choose command star 2 and one ability from level one ( say command tactics is choosen)
at 4th level the captain chooses command star 3 and any level 2 ability ( say perogative of Command)

then the captain can be promoted to Commodore, and start gaining commodore abilities, there is only 2 levels in the flag officer level)

I hope this answers the questions!

Pete

p.scott9@comcast.net
_________________
Creator Empire campaign rules and Code of War (COW)Expansion.
review rules on the Federation Commander Campaign post, 123,000 views and growing

[Starnite]

bolog- You only do one defense line at a time. So if a system has 3 lines, and the first defense line is 3 sectors wide, then their needs to be minimum of 3 ships on each side. If the attackers do not have enough ships, the attack can not be done. If the defenders do not have enough ships, they fall back to the next line and the attackers advance.

Example-

The Federation of Cheese is attacking with 3 ships, a CA and 2xDD.

the Royal Hyrdan Empire of Fergie Worshipers is defending with 2x RN.

The attack is taking place in a hex with 3 defensive lines. The first line looks like this:

[Empty] [Base station] [Empty]

The Feds have enough ships to attack. The Worshipers of Fergie do not have enough ships to defend, even though the base would allow all the sectors to be ocupied. Without ships, the enemy can just fly right by.

Thus the WoF fleet falls back to the second defense line. Which looks like:

[Empty] [Empty]

The WoF player has sufficient ships now and places an RN in each sector.

The FoC player has two options at this point with three ships. He must place a ship in each sector, so one sector gets a CA, the other a DD. Now the stratagy is where to place the second DD. Lets say for now, he puts the DD and CA together.

Two battles will now be fought. 1) RN vs DD and 2) CA+DD vs RN

Lets assume Battle 1 had the RN as victor, and battle 2 both the CA and DD destroy the RN.

Since the attackers won 50% of their battles, they advance to the last defense line of 1 sector, which contains a BATS. The RN that survived battle one will have fallen back before the advance of the attacker and a battle will be fought between the CA+DD and the BATS+RN

If the CA and DD win, they take control of the sector, and any surviving bases.



PallidaMors - Email is on it's way

[DArc_Tangent]

[DArc_Tangent]