Federation Commander

I can turn up

So a Fed vs Andro fight then

A map update.

Mid way through the turn, there are a couple of fights to yet resolve in region 11 (the Andro main force has jumped into try and weaken the Gorns before they assault the Feds) and 22 (An intruder retreating from 1 meets an LDR FF around its planet with DefSats.

The Feds are now looking very much against the ropes. The Gorn this turned moved to fully cut them off, advancing into region 10, where a bizarre force of 2 tugs, 1 scout and 1 NCA supported by an orion DBR tried to hold off the Gorns. That went predicatbly bad for the Feds - the Orion was lost and the NCA sacrificed itself (why!!) crippling the CL.

It was another interestingly odd game though, the dust cloud makes for amusingly slow games, as ships crawl at speed 0 - 8, and asteroid shifts plus scouts make shooting beyond range 8 all but impossible.


The Andros are trying to regain lost regions and establish some sort of economy after their attempt at the LDR base failed. They have, however, had to commit their main fleet to try and save the Feds (for myself). So next week will see a pretty big game in the asteroids oout side the Fed Home base. Can 2 motherships and 12 andro frigates (about 1450pts) take on 10 Gorn cruisers and Battleships (about 1900pts), and do enough to blunt any subsequent assault on the Fed home world. I'd have felt happier if I had a scout left - the loss of that in the assault on the LDR home could prove unfortunate, I didn't have time to pick up another. Scout plus asteroids might have helped me quite a bit.

Well the Gorns are thinking since they have taken area 10 - they may just pop their main fleet into that area to avoid playing with the Andros and keep their invasion fleet intact....

Remember you have to retreat towards your home base, that would be region 12.

But, can't pass up such an opportunity - wot a bunch of geet lumbering wussies!

cool map, good campaign.

Don't worry Lee, I need to stand and fight - I reckon it might take two turns to defeat the Federation. Your fleet is the only one that can really put a spanner in the works, I would need to take you on either this turn or next...

I reckon I can lose up to 4 crippled/destroyed ships and still be OK - so I might be quite aggressive in the asteroids - worked last time against the Federation and I don't want you turning up again next turn...

Well I clearly can't take the area having arrived as a raider, and I don't think I can win per se. But I think I can take a out a few ships.

Top of the list are the BB (to reduce your command rating) and the scout (make taking on photons more problematic). A couple of BCHs would be nice as well.

So long as the Dominator survives you can be sure I'll be back next turn, I'm not short of satelitte ships and intruders

Plus I'll have an Eel (scout) next time

At any rate I'm looking forward to this, I think it is going to be a very interesting fight.

Hmmm... All very Interesting.

I know it's looking bad for me (Fed). I think the fightback against the gorn is to little too late. It will look a bit better if you would put my Light raiding dreadnought on area 37!

Sorry Do that at end of turn(couldn't see it at first)

Out of interest, how did you come up with the map design? It seems to be working very well and is an excellent departure from the usual grid or hex map.

I have a hankering to do similar over a weekend in an upcoming convention, but obviously using some kind of abstraction engine to resolve the battles, possibly Star Fleet Battle Force.

I wanted a region based map to keep the strategic level movement simple, but not the obvious 4 way totally symmetrical style. So I just sat around one afternoon drawing circles and stuff until I got something that looked OK.

The terrain was added by the players, we took it in turns adding a terrrain feature to a region. First round you choose a region and a terrain, the 2nd round you choose a region, but the player to left choose the terrain. 3rd round was the player to the right choosing terrain for a region you selected

Its not necessarily balanced, in that the middle players are squeezed, but that creates a tension that forces a certain amount of 'cooperation'. We knew that when we started. I think we have decided that if we used the same map again we will put a couple of extra planets near the middle players to help them a bit more. Though that problem may have been exacerbated by the strange Fed strategy of spread out all over, then rely on Pols, Tugs and Scouts to defend with

That makes sense. I think sometimes you get a much more interesting result when you let something organically happen rather than trying to balance it to the nth degree.

Maybe a more circular six player version would suffer less from certain players being squeezed. I'll have a go at something.

This is certainly rivetting stuff to read.

History sits on a Knife edge and I await the result of this battle with great interest. Now off 2 mine astriods (make a load of templates 4 2nite).

Gorns no show as LDR lose planet.

As the andro forces choose the battlefield for the much anticapted big fight a sub space communication was received by our commications officer, M. Obile. The Gorn fleet had failed to turn up due to propulsion issues - apparently the lizards warp engines require ICE (internal combustion engines) to kick start them, but that there was a problem with the ICE. This technology is not known to the more advanced Andromedans. Engineers Ssskoda and Sssab had failed to sort out the ICE problem, and Admiral Trotsky had therefore failed to arrive at the appointed hour of battle.

In another area of the galaxy however, the Andromedans report an easy win, as the Intruder obliterated the Ldr FF in region 22.