Federation Commander

[DNordeen]

Sebastion380 and I are facing off in frigates. He took the Fed FFB and I took the Kzinti DF.

We just finishing turn 1. I lobbed out 6 drones in the Kzinti version of catch. We'll see how that vegetable-eater reacts to that!
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Speed is life; Patience is victory

[Sebastian380]

It's an interesting solution to two players who want to play an email game.
We are using a 3rd party web site to roll dice for us. The problem is that I see all of D's SOPs but he doesn't see mine. D is playing at a disadvantage because of this and I feel really, really bad about that. No, really. I do.

Anyway, the ships are approaching and my map-making skills are improving so I'll soon be posting reports from the front.

All kidding aside I'd like to thank both DNordeen and Scoutdad for their help and their patience in teaching me to moderate email games. I would have been lost without their help.

[DNordeen]

Poor S...he launched 1 drone at me. Oh No...what will I ever do
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Speed is life; Patience is victory

[DNordeen]

Just turned in my impulse 1 SOP. Another full drone launch. I'll see your drone and raise you 6 more

Capt: Message to the Fed plant eater
Comm officer: Recording, sir
Capt: Catch.
Comm officer: Recorded and sent, sir.
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Speed is life; Patience is victory

[DNordeen]

Whew! Things just got turned into a twisting dogfight here. I mistakenly ended Imp 2 heading away at range 12 instead of 13, but the FFB didn't take the chance to fire photons. Instead, he blinked at the 12 drones and turned away.

Of course, that provided the perfect opportunity for a HET! Accel and now I'm sitting at range 8 off Shield #5. Firing Overloaded disruptors and I'm out of his arc!

Best of all, if he turns to engage, the drones will impact! I've got him bracketed with 2 different waves I love drones
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Speed is life; Patience is victory

[DNordeen]

Even better...my turn mode is SATISFIED again!
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Speed is life; Patience is victory

[DNordeen]

My shot went off well. Got a leaker through to take down a Ph-3. That's not going to be good when those 12 drones catch up. I've managed to bracket S with drones to RR and LR and the DF in the middle.

Now for the decision...do I stay close in the dogfight and risk getting caught in his photon arc or do I back off out of range of those things?

Hmm...Aggressive or patient. That's a tough one.
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Speed is life; Patience is victory

[Sebastian380]

The highlights thus far:

The Kzinti Drone Frigate draws first blood and displays cat-like reflexes in flying and beautiful timing in the weapons fire and launches.



The Fed is focused on the drones on the board and completely overlooks the possibility of a HET and a nice round of fire from the Kzinti--and I thought playing by email would prevent this kind of mistake, sigh.

In Captain's Log #45 Patrick J. Doyle lists 3 functions of drones in Fed Comm and first on the list is 'Influence Movement'. The Fed frigate's situation is a good example of this. The timely launch of the drones dictates the Fed movement. As the great chessplayer Aaron Nimzowitch said, 'the threat is greater than the execution.'



The Kzinti can control 12 drones at once. My hope here is that I can turn this against him in some way. After all, he can't launch any more drones for the time being. Now to see if the Fed can make use of this.

On the technical side of things, i.e, the moderator side, I've used the 3rd party site 'Secure Dice' for our first rolls of the game. My first attempt was botched but it went smoothly the second time around. I've made some mistakes in the paperwork but I'm having a great time. I'm still open to moderate another game if anybody's interested.

[Scoutdad]

Sebastian: Will email step-by-steps tomorrow.
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Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF

[DNordeen]

Actually I could cut tracking and launch new drones...but these are in such a nice position.

Too bad I miffed the roll against your drone. Now I have to open the range to bring my other phaser to bear on it.
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Speed is life; Patience is victory

[DNordeen]

S...are you trying to get my drones too far away from me so they lose tracking? Just so you know, it's not going to happen. I'm coming back to get on your #5 again.
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Speed is life; Patience is victory

[Sebastian380]

The Federation Frigate...a little worse for wear and tear



and my worthy opponent...

[DNordeen]

Ha! I love your blog post "The Better Part of Valor"

Got a good chuckle on that title
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Speed is life; Patience is victory

[Sebastian380]

Note to self: check your map twice drones are always naughty--never nice.



I was careless in plotting my last moves of the turn and what looks like a bit of clever flying was actually a near catastrophy ( get it? Kzinti? CATastrophy??) My mistake was this: although each player submits moves for 4 sub-pulses of movement the actual movement on the board takes place sub-pulse by sub-pulse. I hadn't planned for this and I thought, for a while, that the drones catch me and end the game quickly. While I was wailing and gnashing my teeth my opponent pointed out that I actually do evade the drones. But it was close.

And so, we come to the end of turn 2 and what I thought would be a painfully slow beginning was instead very exciting. PBEM is a very intense way of playing Fed Comm. I look forward to Turn 3.

[DNordeen]

For about 5 minutes I thought they'd hit too. Was very disappointed. Especially since that Ph-3 was disabled. With only 1 ph-1 able to bear, I had images of a big ship-cracking KAABOOM!

It was so close.
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Speed is life; Patience is victory