federation commander campaign

[PallidaMors]

good evening;

campaign turn #12 will happen tomorrow night, I will post results and new developments ASAP.

thanks!!

PM

(once again if anyone reads this in the sacramento area and wishes to join us, please let me know!)
we have 6 players curretly, I would like to have 7-8

[PallidaMors]

well one year later and we are on turn 12 of the campaign.

we had an anomoly occur on this rutn...NO BATTLES.

the hydrans and the Kzinti almost allocated tons of destruction on each other but it did not come to pass.


Summary:

Political:
The Kligon empire upheld thier agreement with the main Oriono Home cartel and provided them with a new D7-C. this is the only command level ship in the ORion fleet, and is a worthy addition to thier growing fleet of ships.

The Lyrans requested a system in Klingon territory for payment, roughly the Lyran Star Empire was wiling to provide 40 PP for a level 4 system that borders the Lyran and Klingon Empires. The Jade System as the Lyrans call it and it is important to the Lyran Militray Caste to posess it. The Klingons met the Lyran ambassador with a Battle cruiser, after the ambassadro was back aboard the lyran armed priority transport eh Klingon orders. Vack! and destroyed the Lyran ship.......

The TSE transferred the ownership of a huge volcanic world to the Tholian Assembly, they also transfered ownership with the Kzinti and the Kzinti returnd the favor. providing a huge terran world for the TSE right on the Hydran Border. The Hydran Monarchy already has attacke dthis system and it's attendant world of Tarsk.

The Hydrans formally declared war on the Kzinti Theocracy, the Theocracy responded with religious celerations over teh possibility of a crusade in the name of the Patriarch.

the Federation starfleet dispatched 4 federation starships to assist the Hydrans in their war against the Kzini, they transferred 2 NCL, and 2 DW to the Hydran Kzinit Border.

The Romulans maintained their Orion contacts in termes fot ehorions providing movement of the romulan economy on Orion freighters in exchagne for 60% of the total. the Orions also continue to provide the ROmulans with escort protection of all Romulan freighters whether they are under Romulan control or Cartel control.

The Romulans in a sudden movement withdrew all diplomatic contact with all majour races and severed thier alliances with all empires they had previuos treaties with. with the exception of the Orions. this caused massive stir in the Beta quadrant as the Romulans re-assigned thier 30+ ship fleet to Federation and Klingon Borders.

The Hydrans attempted to reach out to the TSE, they threatented the TSE with War if they took possesion of the World Tarsk on the Hydran Border, the TSE repsonded with nothing.

The Federation called upon the Klingon Empire to join them in thier war against teh Terran Star Empire, the Klingons did respond to the electronic communication but the Federation for some reason did not return thier communications.

that is it political...time is short this evening so I will pst the military, research, and other componentes of turn 12 tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!!!

PM

[Commodore Mendez]

wow no battles? the drama must be building? what were the Gorns doing and the Tholians?

[pinecone]

Aw, rats. I was hoping the Feds and Klingons could become partners.

[PallidaMors]

I beleive that is Inevitable. we shall see on turn 13. a lucky Klingon number.

[PallidaMors]

OK here is some more of turn #12.

I debriefed on the political overtures. but here is a more comprehensive snapshot of current affairs as well as a brief summary of the campaign engine and how it is working for the players.

At this point the campaign is poised at a potential crossroads, the norhtern powers of the Federation and Hydran monarchy have formed a strong militray alliance that is dedicated to the halting of TSE and Kzinti aggresion. potentially joining them are the Klingons, who have gained a foothold in TSE territory when they took the TSE end of the Maelstrom wormhole that connects them together. the Tholians are still providing support to the TSE, and have moved a major battle fleet into TSE territory, rumor has it that the battle flett is comprised of their massive Neo tholian BattleSHip the Sword of the Holdfast and it's attendant escorts. The ROmulans have withdrawn from the political arena and the Lyrans are now a power to be respeceted with eh commisioning of their first cave lion class Battleship.

It is interestting to see the mjor powers parade thier new powerful battleships in thier fleet rosters, only two powers are left that have not purchased the incredibly expensive BB's (the Kzinti and Hydrans) the game though takes on so many different levels, and each way that we are playing it (which depends on the players approach to how they run thier empires) unlike other games where players are merely spending time in order to win, or conquer a certain enemy our campaign has retained and will maintain a non-linear open ended dynamic.

it was discussed by the players that there are many ways to populate the fleets, the use of fast warships and their roles, and the roles of the Light Raiding DN's adds one element, the use of raiders, escorts, marauders. Orions pirates as potential mercanaries or as brokers of your economy. spies......research, legendary officers and the unique qualities of each ship as it gains experience, or the basic construction of the ship may have made it unique.

the empires may take on the classic aggresor role with classic battle fleets arranged around powerful battleships, or these powers may opt for many more faster smaller ships, or maybe purely defeisive or escort heavy or maybe the fleet is set up around more versatile cruisers that operate in wolf packs. players choose a mix of ship types and fleet types and the empire posture is just as varied. the strategic avenues are manay the tactical avenues are just as unlimited. and as one of the players said in conversation the powerful attribitue of these tactics is that they are valid, and not merely lip service by rules that only actually support one end result of conquest. other empires have taken on powerful political roles or economic roles, others have taken on isolationism as a role or a new emerging role of a research power, influencing the game through powerful new advances. othere have allowed other races to populate key worlds inside thier own space, the tholians have built whole systems that are isolated from teh assembly and in TSE territory that are web systems and guarded passionatly against any intrusion. there may be a point that as the empires grow and they position thier fleets that the idea of 'total' war beomces very unpopular and is replaced by the tyoe of cold war that was seen in the clasic TOS series between races and thier powerful singe starships with legendary captains at the helm, and while these battle may tale place the actual governments may deny or dismiss the hostilites as recklessness or independent action to avoid warfare.

Here is the current fleet levels of each empire and thier purchases from turn 12.

Terran Star Empire:
24 ships
4 allied ships in TSE territory
total 28
Purchases: 1 new hades class Battleship, 2XAssasin class DD (saladin class) and they spent 62 pp in upgrading existing ship characteristics.


In case any of you are wondering that means that the TSE player used money to upgrade 1 of 5 standard ship stats that each ship roles when they are built. this includes the following:

Hull, Weapons, Power, Command and General, much like a character in some games has strength, agility..ect each starship also has stats.


Lyran Star Empire:
16 ships
purchases: 1X BB, 1X BCH, and 5 large freighters

United Federation of Planets:
18 ships
Purchases: 100 to pay for Orion mercanaries from turn 11

Kzinti Theocracy:
17 ships
2 allied ships
19 total
Purchases: 1xBCH, 1xCM, and repaired 1 CM that had been crippled fighting the federation on turn 11.

Hydran Monarchy:
17 ships
4 allied
21 total
Purchases: 1XLB command Cruiser, 2Xcuir FF

Tholian Assembly:
14 ships
Purchases: 2X photon armed CW

Gorn Confederation:
21 ships
Purchases: 1XBB, 1XLDN

Klingon Empire:
20ships
Purhcases: 1XB-10, 1XD-7C (given to Orions) 1XD-5 and 1X large ore freighter.

Orion Pirates:
12 home system ships
37 cartel ships
49 total
Purchases: 6x Large ore carriers

Romulan Star Empire
31 ships
Purhcases: 1XBB, 3XKR

that is the purchase history for turn 12 and the current fleet strength, including the purchases.

Note the Gorn, Klingon and Romulan BB were started on turn 11, and completed this turn. the lyran BB was just started on turn 12 and will be completed on turn 13.

Thanks!

PM
so with so many layers available for the players it is not suprising that one turn of the empire campaign at the strategic level takes 4-5 hours to complete.

PM

[PallidaMors]

see above

[PallidaMors]

I am going to start profiling some of the unique ships in the campaign for you to review.

Ship: Orion pirate Salvage Cruiser
Aegon the Terrible
Operating for the blackthorn cartel in the Klingon Empire

100 Victory Points

Hull 3 (takes 1 extra point of internal damage for each 1o scored) This ship was built with inferior hull plating.
Weapons 11
Power 15
Command 9
General 9

Officers:
Lvl 5 legendary Captain
Abilities:

Combat Strategies (once per turn the captain may change facing of ship by 60 degrees)

Command tactics (Once per turn player may move ship one extra hex forward in current facing)

Acedemy Mastery ( counter any single enemy legendary officer ability once per turn)

for the rest you need to look in the campiang rules posted in this thread.

Captains Bluff
Veteran Captains Bluff
Captains justice
One last duty
Gatling plasma

[pinecone]

Will the ISC and Andros become full-time empires once that set coes out? Will the Vudar be a "Minor" power?

[PallidaMors]

hello Pinecone,

the ISC will be a major galactic power, and is already on the campaign map we use. the Andros will be a special circumstance, similiar to a random encounter or cataclysmic event, that has multi turn repercussions, for specific areas of the map or maybe all areas of the current map. the Vuldar will be a Minor power that can attack and as a result has the ability (if they survive) to become a major power...soon we will see that in action on turn 13 when I introduce the LDR to the campaign....whci will follow the same rules as the Vudar. I wonder if any of the War college will see that

[DNordeen]

So how do you go about introducing new races to the campaign? I'm assuming you give them some hexes at the edge of the map or something.

[PallidaMors]

hello!

yes the ISC is already configured and set on the map. the advent of the LDR and Vuldar is an event where the host empire will see 1 -2 systems break from thier empire and form the nucleus of the new power.

[PallidaMors]

Research from turn 12:

There was only 1 new research item introduced during turn 12, The Klingon Empire opened research into a new fog of war system. In essence it allows the Klingons to keep the disposition of all ships on a specific border hidden, in terms of type of ships in class. Players will still be able to see how many DN, Ca or FF there is on that border but the players will not be able to determine the class.

very effective tool

cost is extensive, as it is a moddable research item which means that it can be researched to a further level to add more borders.

cost: 300 Rp, 5 turns, 1,500 production

[PallidaMors]

Ship Profile:

Ship: Romulan Condor Dreadnaught
RIS. Imperial Messiah

Flagship of Romulan fleet until new King Condor Battleship RIS Rex Tyrannus is commisioned and assinged. after that it will be the flagship of the Gorn Border fleet.

15 victory points
battles 1
victories 1

Hull: 13
Weapons: 11
Power: 17
Command: 16
General: 9

Officers:

Legendary Weapons officer level 2
Abilities

Whirlwind (reduce arming time of a single multi arm seeking weapon by 1 turn.)

[PallidaMors]

There were no battles to be resolved from turn 12.

however there were 'almost' a few battles.

first there were three federation systems that fell to invading TSE

the TSE hit the federation with 2 massive fleet and took a level 1 system that almost surround the federation home system of Sol as well as a LEvel 4 system that contained a federation Mobile Base that had been isolated from previous TSE acquisitions. The TSE also took a level 2 system on the Kzinti border with a small force.

the federation tried to counter attack but realized that his forces neededto be held for defense as the TSE war machine closed in on the home system.

The Orion pirates in an unusual cavalier move attempted to protect one of the invading TSE single ship attacks at the level 2 system on the KZinit border. the Romulans paid PP to stop the Orion defense..all in all it was a weird move.

the Romulans invaded the Federation with a KRC and 3XKR and took a level 2 system.

the Hydrans attack dthe Kzinit with 2 fleets and the federation attack ed the Hydrans with 1 fleet.

the attacking forces were outgunned by the Kzinti fllets and withdrew before the fight began so did the federation. the Kzinit successfully tied up all the attacking forces of both empires without being abelt o counter atack in turn but at the same time protecting all of their interests. the Hydrans learned that you dont take a knife to a drone fight.

KLingon emperial and TSE fleet units stared at each other but no further hostilities broke out.

more tensions and conflist will happen I am sure on turn 13.

thanks!