Andromedan activities

[storeylf]

What sort of day to day activities might andromedan ships (that are in FC) be engaged in? What sort of static (or semi static) points might they need to defend? I'm on about within this galaxy, not elsewhere.

For the normal 'home turf' powers there are a range of activities like chasing pirates, protecting trade convoys, defending planets, raiding planets, exploring new worlds, diplomatic missions. There are a range of [semi] static structures - mobile base, commerce platforms, repair docks, defense satelites etc that can liven up scenarios.

I tend to think of andros as just big bad ships that go around stomping things and protecting their transport network. Would andros have any planets they might defend? do they have convoys of any kind to protect, do they have any kind of base other than BATs (ie. analagous to the variety that galactic powers have)? Do they make use of spies, or engage in any diplomacy (beyond 'resistance is futile')? Do they have mining/industry resources to protect?

[Nerroth]

Once the Andromedans occupy planets, they are as prone as anyone else to want to fight for them.

In SFB, they have a range of bases (satellite base, base station, battle station, and Desecrator starbase, plus an array of ground bases) as well as support units (monitors, cargo and ore-gathering sleds, etc) which act as the logistical basis of their operations in the Milky Way and Lesser Magellanic Cloud.

Most of those remain to be brought over to FC, though.

[gar1138]

The Andromedan Satellite Base (arguably the most important Andromedan base in their transit network) can be found in Communique 55.

Garrett

[Kang]

Even the bad guys have to have to have a day off. On weekdays the Andros go raiding, pillaging and generally invading the he11 out of everyone else - so much we know.

On weekends, though, they totally chill. Barbecues are the order of the day, with perhaps a little relaxing by the pool. Mosquitoes are not a problem because a single boarding-party robot can see them off.

Shopping is usually done over the Internet so that they can maintain their anonymity; the order is of course received by the BP robots.

Ok, that's pretty flippant, but it does beg the question: what do the bad guys do to relax? Once you have conquered the universe, gained your TEN MILLION DOLLARS' ransom money, once Mr. Bond has died as expected, then what? Maniacal laughter lessons? Plastic surgery for the invariably ugly visage? Grooming the white cat with a Furminator brush? Or perhaps just put out recruitment ads for more disposable nameless henchmen?

I will stop there and give your imaginations time to ponder....

[Kang]

Joking aside, the interactions of the Andros with the Galactic races is a largely unexplored area. Try writing some fiction about it and submitting it; flesh them out a bit. But remember that the golden rule is that nobody must ever find out what they look like.....

I recently submitted a short battle report from the Andros' point of view; SVC has it but I don't know if he will publish it. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.....

[Dan Ibekwe]

Andromedan culture is pretty much a grey, as it were, area.

I seem to recall from an SFB product years ago that the planets they conquer get sown with plantations of a strange red weed. It was unclear whether this was their food, or something similar to tobacco. Perhaps the weed actually *is* the dominant Andromedan life form and the ships are just constructs to deliver it, who knows.

I'd see routine Andro missions as being installing, supplying and defending bases; recce and mapping (a major task in an unfamiliar new galaxy), surveying new RTN routes and base locations, intel gathering against galactic bases and colonies, resource gathering (I wonder if we'll ever see their mining and other sleds in FC?) and opportunistic attacks on anything that looks vulnerable.

Leaving them with a little spare time to drop in on unsuspecting planets to make silly patterns in the cornfields, mutilate the livestock and probe the locals.

[Dal Downing]

Seriously what else do you need. They are cold and calculating. They seem to have liegins of soulless robots that cruise around in giant motherships. Asking for no quater and granting none. Bent on complete distruction of all living things. About the only thing you can say about them is...

They have a plan.

Start running as fast as I can knowing full well I am never going to make it...

[storeylf]

Seriously what else do you need

The reason I was asking was to come up with some possible campaign scenarios, straight up battles get a bit boring, so I was wondering what else might they find themselves defending, or what other situations might they find themselves meeting enemy ships.

Our current campaign uses generic scenarios, e.g convoy attack, attack on an asteroid mining platform, raiding repair bases and various others. The attacker is not defined and could be either side as all the main galactic powers have the same basic mode of operation.

We were discussing a possible Andro campaign, pittting andros vs the defenders of a region (one of the galactic empires plus orions), and it may not make sense for some of the existing scenarios to have the andros on one side or the other, or if they did it might be that they would have different units (e.g. generic freighters are not very andro).

[Kang]

Andros and freighters - now there's an interesting idea to look at.

Apart from their value as targets - those of other empires - I feel that the Andros would not use freighters; their ethos does not (I think) work on an economic basis, at least not in our Galaxy. They probably take what they want from the planets they 'visit'; anything that they need to take with them would most likely be carried in the 'Cargo' boxes in their ships.....

In a way, the Andro ships are already freighters in that regard, I suppose. Is it the case that the cargo spaces are there to supply the ships during their intergalactic journey?

[mjwest]

We have no idea how Andromedans run an empire, as opposed to how they run an invasion. We have glimpses of running an empire in the LMG and in LDR space, but they are just that: glimpses. We just have very little to no information on how the Andromedans run an empire once it is established.

We *do* know they don't exterminate. Rather, they use. So, once LDR space was cleared of resistance and the LDR navy, and once the LDR government became irrelevant, they did NOT go and slaughter the population. Rather, they used their worlds as resources. (If I remember the answer to the question right, they pretty much just ignored the people and took whatever resources they needed/wanted.)

But, even in the case of the LDR and the LMC, what we saw was probably still part of the "invasion", not the "empire". So, we really have no idea how an Andromedan empire would work.

[Dan Ibekwe]

Is there a gap in the market for a dedicated Andromedan transport ship?

In SFB there's the Bull Snake, a satellite ship with cargo space and no TR beams. However, it lacks a Displacement Device so cannot use the RTN and is mostly used as an interface/assault transport, so it's a bit irrelevant in FC where the mothership itself can land.

Surely the Andros don't send a Conquistador every time Base 247XXB needs a fresh consignment of knurled flange brackets or live lampreys - the fluff has always emphasised that they don't actually have that many ships.

A Conquistador or Mamba cargo variant lacking heavy weapons but with a DisDev might be a useful scenario target.

[storeylf]

I'd also be interested in any bases, do the andros use any 'bases' apart from the satelite or BATs?

[Steve Cole]

Bull Snakes and King Snakes HAVE displacement devices. They ARE the standard small freighters of the Andro economic system.

[Dan Ibekwe]

My bad.

OK...please can we have Bull and/or King Snakes in FC?

@ Storeylf - they also have a Bsae Station, with two Sat Base modules and a core section.

[Steve Cole]

Petrick says that the Caravel (Conquistador) and Galleon (Intruder) cargo ships are in SFB Module C3A. I will find a place for the ship cards later, perhaps in booster 32 or 33.