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Given the stated extra-galactic origin of the Juggernaughts, what do you expect to be different?

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Thursday, August 19, 2021 - 12:02 pm: Edit

For some reason, I've long been under the impression that the Juggernaught tentatively named Gamma is headed for the Omega region.

Still, Juggernaughts in the Omega Octant do pose some questions (at least for me).

Omega weapons versus Juggernaught defenses. How do Energy Howitzers interact with the Juggernaught shield and armor? What about Plasma Whips or TCBs? For that matter, what about the special ammunition types the Drex use?

(Guesses: the reduced effectiveness of Energy Howitzers against armor and internals will severely limit how well the `Phon can fight Juggernaughts, but the greater effectiveness of Plasma Whips and TCBs means the Alunda and RYN will do better, but these are just guesses.)

(Likewise, my guess is Drex enveloping ammunition will only have the "Go up the Pipe" benefit when fired directly astern of the Juggernaught, but IIRC, their other special ammo might have special benefits.)

At this point, I don't even have guesses on Juggernaught drive interactions with coagulated space ("Spore Casters") or the Qixa nebula.


(...Aaaannd if someone now posts formal rules for all these things I'm taking WAGs at, I'm gonna feel SSOOOOO stupid!! )

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Thursday, August 19, 2021 - 10:34 pm: Edit

Ah, you want the interaction rules, you do not expect the Juggernaught itself to be different. That makes sense.

By Joshua Ivan Driscol (Gfb) on Wednesday, December 01, 2021 - 04:52 am: Edit

My local group is considering doing a Soludra vs United Federation of Planets scenario.

What I have proposed to the weed group is this. A Soludra CV has been feeding on the population for 23 days.

The Federation task force sent to evacuate what the Federation believes is plague survivors. Unfortunately the colony has been called by 91 percent in 23 days by mere six Black shards.

But to the rescue of Phylox colony comes (GaiusFBaltar) Commador Baltar and (Greg_T).
Commander of the s
Soludra is Matthew Potter(Neonpico).

A full battele report will follow in the fullness of time. I predict after some initial dickering we can agree on starting forces. To he scheduled reinforcents should keep both sides happy.

The game should be about getting the 3000 crew units or as many as possible off the planet and off map.

The poor planet Phylox has literally provided the energy to grow numerous shards and frigates worth of life. It cannot be overstated the magnitude of loss of life on Phylox.

Commador Baltar has been given the job of relieving fleet. It's a battle my local group hope to play out over the next 4 months in face to face sfb combat.

We wish I think that the Steve's and their entourage could attend. Because we truly love this game and our host Greg_T cooks a brisket to die for.

That's the backdrop to our battle good food and good conversation.

I just want to meet the powers that be in the sfu someday to say thank you.

Gone are the days of gencon and origins even council of 5 nations isn't as easy to get to these day. I owe the game a debt of gratitude one which I can't repay.

It's going to be so much fun.

We have a soludra CV with 6 black shards and 6 Green Shards landed on a moon 26 hexes away from the planet Phylox. Each hex side of Phylox has 500 crew units. They want anywhere but Phylox colony.

The Federation has sent what relief it can.

Two refitted CL.
A Pol
A Tug with 3 Empty Starliner pods.(not the Boeing one)
A Q Large Q Ship
3 F-L
2 F-S

But turn 1 the Soludra have a CV, turn 3 they get 2 FF and turn 5 they get 2 Torpedo frigates.

The Federation will be lucky to beam out half the colonists.. it will be a good battle.

We will play it face to face December
18th if Paul Can get us Soludra shard support in the client in time. We want to do it face to face but with positions recorded for online play uh as well.

The soludra are just lovely any my group is really ready to try them. We simply need a bit of online support from Paul which I bet will happen soonish.

I once knew a guy who could make me soludra soul shard definitions. And God •••• I think his name was AwwwDrat. ..

By Joshua Ivan Driscol (Gfb) on Wednesday, December 01, 2021 - 04:55 am: Edit

He was so cool.

He was in Australia. Doesn't anyone remember him. I miss that dude and Tugger too. And so many others. The Tartan Army.

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Monday, July 18, 2022 - 11:00 am: Edit

This weekend we had two Omega battles. The first one was quick. We had 200 points to play with and had randomly rolled which race we flew.

Bob took a Trobrin Torpedo Cruiser. He got a weapons officer and an engineer with his extra points. It had 2 medium implosion torpedoes and 2 heavies. That's a lot of firepower but the torps have to hit the target.

I took 2 frigate leaders with weapons officers. They have 4 Fireballs but, more importantly, they have 2 PQ-1s and 2PQ-2s. It also has only 39 power (including the engineer) and needs 10 for bookkeeping.

I completely ignored my fireballs. Quite frankly, they suck. rolling to hit and then rolling or damage means you're likely to do very, very little damage. They're also two turn weapons and cost triple to overload instead of double like most other heavy guns. Finally, their overloads don't do double damage. They do 1 point of enveloping damage to all other shields.

My game plan was to keep the distance as open as possible and my ECM high. Quantum phasers have 4 built in ECCM which made it hard for a power-starved Trobrin cruiser to get any defense in, especially considering my bonus from the weapons officer.

Turns 1 and 2 I went speed 27 and did 11-ish damage to two different shields. I then looked closer at the Phaser-r charts for the Trobrin and realized I could move in closer. They do one damage at range 15 while my PQs do an average of 15 at range 15. I was flying on erratics the whole time thanks to my built in ECCM. That means the PRs would do 0 damage unless Bob put power into ECCM. Power he couldn't afford. He had to choose between going fast and taking less damage.

I was never going to let him catch me and would sandpaper his front shields completely away. If he gave full chase it would all be on the front shield. On turn 4 he realized that he didn't have a goo enough net to catch a butterfly and disengaged.

Officers B'Uhter Fly and his brother P'arKay Fly returned home victorious, having taken no damage at all.

While picking my ships I was severely underwhelmed by the Loriyill. I had focused on their heavy weapons. Jessica Orsini pointed out the long range firepower of the PQs. That coupled with the fact that most Omega ships can't keep up with a Loriyill frigate turned the tide in my thinking. I'd also considered going with a cruiser and a frigate but , like most Omega ships, the cruiser can't go faster than because they don't have enough warp engines.

Bob may have done better if he'd gone with implosion bolts but it would have taken luck to do any appreciable damage at range 15 when dealing with 7 ECM (5 to-hit on two dice for 9 damage against 28 point shields.

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Monday, July 18, 2022 - 12:51 pm: Edit

Note: see the pics Steve will be posting for an exciting development coming down the pipe from ADB. In the meantime, giggle at my shameful defeat.

Our second battle yesterday was much more brutal. Bob was crippled but trashed me even worse. He took a torp cruiser. I took a bolt cruiser with a legendary engineer.

We do a little bit of jockeying for position on turn one. Then I close in for a high speed past. The plan is to bolt the crap out of him, toss some torps into the mix, and then flee at high speed so his torps can't hurt me. It worked like a charm. Until it failed miserably.

1) I didn't realize I had a heavy torp. I could have done another 30 internals if I'd been smart enough to look at my SSD. I'd still have lost because he had shuttles on the board and I didn't. I wouldn't have the power to shoot them don before they popped me.

2) He moved really slow (speed 10) to lure me in. I closed to range 3 to fire. He fired as well, knocking down a shield and doing a handful of internals. I did a lot more. Then he proved how stupid I'd been. 6 points into tractors grabbed me at range 3 and 100 points of torps came screaming out at me. I ate approximately a bajillion damage.

3) His shuttles survived and our tractored speed meant I couldn't get my down shield away from them. They circled, ate the rest of my power, and ready to kill me on the following turn. Assuming he didn't decide to try and capture me instead, which was a distinct possibility.

Great flying by Bob. Congrats on trouncing me severely!

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, July 13, 2025 - 08:05 pm: Edit

I wasn't sure exactly which category of thread to post this in, so here goes:

I had asked a question to this effect elsewhere on the BBS; but my current understanding is that, for a range of Alpha Octant empires at least, there are certain play aid and munition record forms (for such things as drones, plasma torpedoes, and so on and so forth) in such places as Module A+.

My first question would be this: what, if anything, might a set of Omega-specific forms of this kind look like?

And my second question: where, if anywhere, could such forms be provided?

-----

To give a prominent example:

Anyone familiar with the rules for tachyon missiles is aware of how careful one might have to be, in terms of keeping track of the sheer range of customization that is possible with these munitions.

While there are unofficial ways in which players of TM-using empires can do this, it might be helpful to offer a purpose-built form on which these things can be tracked and properly accounted for.

-----

So, does anyone have any suggestions about how, or if, such a thing might best be handled?

By Steve Stewart (Stevestewart) on Monday, July 14, 2025 - 07:24 am: Edit

Sounds like it might be a good subject for a PDF module?

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Tuesday, July 15, 2025 - 05:57 pm: Edit

I did submit a Branthodon energy allocation form to handle their unique system to ADB ages for a future omega module. Still have it with me.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Wednesday, July 16, 2025 - 12:02 am: Edit

Nick, did you also make your own Omega SSDs?

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Thursday, July 17, 2025 - 05:42 pm: Edit

Shawn, I remade some of the Omega SSDs to standard SSDs so I could develop some variants for a campaign.

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Friday, October 09, 2026 - 08:06 pm: Edit

Curiosity question, is there a timeline on when we might get the remaining Omegan gunboats?

The list of empires with the "Future Development" note.
(OR7.PF0) CHLOROPHON, (OR9.PF0) ALUNDA, (OR11.PF0) SIGVIRION, (OR13.PF0) SOULDRA, (OR15.PF0) YMATRIAN (OR18.PF0) SINGER, (OR19.PF0) RYN, (OR20.PF0) BOLOSCO. I will add the (OR23.PF0) Zosman.

I suspect not all nine will get gunboats, for example the Yamatrians are no longer in space by the time gunboats are built.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, October 09, 2026 - 10:29 pm: Edit

For what it's worth, I have put some thought into what, if any, "volatile warp" Interceptors and/or PFs might yet be worth considering someday...

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Vulpa: The first Mæsron INTs and PFs show up too late for the Vulpa insurgents to make use of. However, by the onset of the independent Vulpa Confederacy in Y203, there is every reason to assume the Vulpa would have a "volatile warp" gunboat design of their own.

In contrast to the Mæsron PF, I could see a Vulpa PF having a hull profile akin to that of the VBR. In terms of heavy weapons, perhaps the "standard" loadout would have only one tachyon gun on the prow, but two tachyon missile racks instead.

As the Seventh Cycle progresses, one might picture variant Vulpa PFs with samples of Nucian technologies after their annexation of the Nucian Cluster; and/or Vari technologies, in the wake of the Confederacy's victory over the Vriss-led Vari Combine.

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Chlorophons: Neither the Phons nor Keeprs would be able to make use of "volatile warp" attrition units directly.

However, by the time this technology is made available, there are various Mæsron and Probr "exile colonies" to be found in Association space - akin to the oxy-nitrogen species under Hydran rule over in the Alpha Octant.

Design-wise, I would assume the Phons would not bother drawing up a PF type of their own, for such "exile" species to operate. Rather, I would suggest importing the Probr phaser PF design, and swapping out the port and starboard HEATs for energy howitzers.

-----

Alunda: I'm not entirely convinced that the Mirn would be able to find a biological species which would just so happen to serve in a role comparable to that of a "volatile warp" PF - or, indeed, of a Branthodon Baby Dragonship.

In any case, I might sooner suggest the Alunda Host lean more heavily into... whatever advantages are to be provided by "Sig-Tech" (their answer to Omega Octant X1-tech), as and when that is reported to appear.

-----

Hivers: I could very well see the Hivers operating "war destroyers", akin to other empires' PFs. Whether this would involve bothering with an INT equivalent is another story.

At some point, it might be worth considering how the various "heterodox" Hives - those which use particle phasers instead of wide-angle phasers, and/or which use tachyon guns or particle beams in place of sting torpedoes - might arm their would-be "volatiel warp" units also.

-----

Sigvirions: The last known Sig outbreak was defeated prior to the onset of "volatile warp" technology. So I would not expect the Sigs to deploy historical INTs or PFs of their own design, unless yet another infestation is found to exist at some future point in time.

However, there is always the possibility of individual boats from those species vulnerable to Sig infection being taken over here or there: keeping up with one's regimen of anti-Sig vaccines is a full-time job, after all.

And, of course, whatever the Alunda end up doing in terms of "Sig-Tech", as noted above.

-----

Souldra: Much as the Andromedans never deployed the conjectural Adder PF outside of the simulators, I would not expect there to have been an historical gunboat equivalent in Souldra service.

And even if there was such a thing, I would not advise it use the same afterburner rules as "volatile warp" PFs operated by "metal-hull" empires, or for that matter by their Loriyill nemeses. Rather, it would use a variation of the "dark warp" engines seen on full-sized Souldra warships.

-----

Ymatrian: As noted above, the Ymatrians are no longer an active power by the time "volatile warp" INTs and PFs appear in Omega.

That said, I could see them being called upon to serve aboard antiproton variants of Omega-Paravian PFs, once the latter succeed in reverse-engineering Ymatrian antiproton technology in the Seventh Cycle. (See further below.)

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(Broad) Worb: Much as the Broad Worb rely exclusively on phasers for their ships and fighters, I would expect them to operate dedicated phaser PF and PFL designs for their own use.

Actually, there could be scope for a Worb PF variant armed with an SEF, also - one which might appear in a variety of Worb caste flotillas.

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Singers: The Singer home world was lost to the Souldra before the onset of "volatile warp" technology. So any would-be Singer PFs would be conjectural.

Given the "exotic" nature of Loriyill starship designs, I would not expect any Singer exiles in the Home Stars to be able to operate Loriyill PFs directly. Bu then, we don't yet know what kind of allowances are provided to said exiles, so who knows...

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Ryn: The Ryn disappear from their home nebula prior to the onset of of "volatile warp" technology. So any would-be Ryn PFs would be conjectural.

In any case, such a unit would not use "volatile warp" (though would still have Impulse engines), and instead "bounce" around the game board using their unique quantum transporter technology.

-----

Bolosco: The Bolosco home colonies are lost to the Souldra before the onset of "volatile warp" technology. A plurality of those who escaped settled in Mæsron space, where they joined the New Alliance; the rest wander the Omega Octant as lone traders.

It remains to be seen what kind of logistical setup the exile "Mæsron-Bolosco" are able to get up and running. Attrition unit-wise, this could lead to them designing "volatile warp" PFs of their own design: or, it could be the case that, by the end of the Seventh Cycle, more than a few Mæsron PFs have one or more Bolosco crewbeings aboard them...

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Zosmans: I would expect to see the Zosmans deploy "volatile warp" Interceptors and PFs.

Such units might make use of some kind of modular technology, though not the same as those modules seen on Iridani PFs.

The question would be how such units can be deployed, so as not to mess up the host ship's Stealth field. In this, I would avoid giving Zosman base hulls a "casual" mech-link refit, and instead oblige them to operate dedicated "system" modules with repair-capable mech-links (and pairs of repair boxes) instead.

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Omega-Paravians: To start with, I would assume the Omega-Paravians adopt "volatile warp" equivalents of the Hummingbird PFs seen for their "lost empire" counterparts in Module C6.

Once Ymatrian antiproton technology is made available, both antiproton beam and antiproton phaser variants of these PFs would no doubt appear - complete with fanatical Ymatrian slave-crews to die while flying them on the Paravians' behalf.

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Omega-Jindarians: I would expect the Jindarians of Omega, not least those in the Freehold, to adopt "volatile warp" PFs.

It could be as simple as drawing up "volatile warp" iterations of the "hot warp" PFs used by the Jindarians in the Alpha Octant. Or, it could be that the Jindarians in Omega decided to go in a different direction, design-wise.

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We'd need to know more about the likes of the Echarri, the Scon, and others to be able to speak on their behalf here.

And, I suppose one could consider a "volatile warp" iteration of the Adder itself, for use in the Omega simulators...

Any thoughts on the above?

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Saturday, October 10, 2026 - 02:43 pm: Edit

Generally, fairly straight forward ideas that should work, key quibbles;

Omegan Paravians, like the FRA, I see no reason for the Omegan faction to mimic conjectural Alpha designs.

Jindarians, given their tendency to share technology far and wide I could see Alpha style gunboats already being on file and ready to build. I could see some local ones trying out the Omegan volatile warp. If it is a good idea, I could see volatile warp Jindo gunboats showing up in Alpha.

Souldra, I think that an interesting idea, for the Souldra, would be a gunboat that can attach like a black shard and absorb crew units faster or more at a time.

As too the empires that end before the creation of volatile warp, as I stated above, this is a list of empires marked ""Future Development", I short handed this point by only listing the Yamatrians for brevity.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, October 10, 2026 - 05:20 pm: Edit

Since the Federal Republic didn't use "saucer-and-nacelle" starship designs, and instead leaned into the Terran hull templates they brought with them back in Y130, it makes sense for their conjectural PF to have a Terran design aesthetic.

In my view, that kind of design divergence would be much less of a factor for the Omega-Paravians, relative to their "lost empire" counterparts.

-----

Indeed: if one were to provide the Omega-Paravians with the same phaser-1s and quantum wave torpedoes as seen in Module C6, one might still end up with a broadly similar PF design.

In terms of heavy weapons, there is no real benefit to installing more than two QWT launchers onto a single boat. Unlike the case with, say, a standard Probr PF, which is well placed to alternate between its port and starboard pairs of HEAT launchers on consecutive turns. Here, by contrast, a larger boat (with fewer boats per flotilla) would reduce the number of QWTs in flight overall - not least once scout PFs start to appear in the Y210s.

While a physically larger "volatile warp" PF frame might allow for more phasers to be installed at once, this would have to be weighed against the overall number of phasers a smaller flotilla would provide instead.

Also, by the time "volatile warp" technology would make it over to Omega-Paravian space, the primary threat would be the Andromedans: the Souldra would have been defeated by then. So, if a larger PF frame would, say, add a pair of aft-mounted phaser-3s, this might not necessarily be seen as preferable against Andro opposition.

In short, I would say that a "volatile warp" Hummingbird is viable for the Omega-Paravians, even before one gets around to considering any later antiproton variants.

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It's noted that the networks which exist within different settings for Jindarian Caravans do not, in and of themselves, cross from one setting to the next.

The Jindarians of Alpha and the LMC had no contact with, or even awareness of, one another prior to Operation Unity. (Notably, the LMC Jindarians never adopted fighters or PFs, but did begin to deploy X-technology in the post-Unity era.)

Similarly, while the Jindarians of Omega might have learned something about their Alpha counterparts by way of the Federal Republic, neither the Alpha nor LMC Jindarians knew of the Freehold until at least the mid-to-late Y210s.

So, whatever kind of "volatile warp" designs the Omega-Jindarians were to develop, it would be in isolation from the Alpha and LMC Jindarians.

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Given how Souldra Shards are operated at present, I would expect there not to be any sort of equivalent to a mech-link refit.

Indeed, I would not be surprised if even dedicated PF tender equivalents were not possible for them.

Rather, any Size Class 5 units they'd field - conjecturally or otherwise - might be more akin to an Alpha Octant skiff, or a Hiver destroyer. As in, it would be obliged to operate independently.

Which raises a problem, in terms of how to deploy them at any sort of distance from a dark matter cache or Tanker ship, before their on-board stores of life energy run out.

In other words: I would not expect such units to be used in offensive operations, but rather placed at various fixed installations - to include whatever as-yet-unaccounted for facilities the Loriyill Splinter Collective ran into over at the Black Sun system in the Void.

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By and large, while it is possible to draw up conjectural PF designs for at least some of those factions which would not have deployed them historically, I would personally suggest waiting until after a more thorough accounting of the "real" gunboats in Omega has been made.

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Saturday, October 10, 2026 - 07:25 pm: Edit

There is a key point here.

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Quote:

The Jindarians of Alpha and the LMC had no contact with each other

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By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, October 10, 2026 - 07:44 pm: Edit

To quote from Page 1 of the 2011 Omega Master Rulebook:

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Quote:

With the Void blocking scans, the region of space on its opposite side is totally unknown to the empires we have seen in Star Fleet Battles so far. Even the Jindarians, who have been wandering for ages, do not attempt passage through the Void. There are, of course, Jindarians on the other side, but they have no contact with those we are familiar with, and are in some cases quite different than might be expected.

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By A David Merritt (Adm) on Saturday, October 10, 2026 - 08:59 pm: Edit

Fair enough.