Federation Commander

War has raged for many years, the old empires are laid low. Out of this war a mere bit player has managed to obtain some sembalnce of independence from the klingon empire - the Vudar. However, barely have they smelt the sweetness of this than the ISC sweep across the sector and decide to tell the vudar where their border is. The Vudar are not about to accept this, and look to defy on the mighty ISC. The local Orions have also got a tad annoyed at this break out of enforced peace, it just isn't good for the bottom line. So the Vudar have persuaded them to join forces (for a fee of course) and stand up to the ISC.

The mouse has roared.

This is our new camapign. It is based on our campaign system that we last played but with some modifications based on our previous run through.

There are 3 of us, Me, Jack and Targ. Targ struggled along with Jack last time around so this time he gets to play on his own as the ISC. I get to play as the Vudar with Jack and his perfidious Orions as my allies.

The fleets are not fixed up front, and there are no cost modifiers for later ships, as the campaign is set very late on. Everyone has the ships they want. Each side gets to choose 2000pts of ships to start with. However in order to encourage smaller ships there is a hierarchy. There are 5 categories of ship based on move cost, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1 and >1. In order to buy a ship there must be that many ships in each lower level. So to buy a CA you would also need 1 FF 1 DD and 1 CL (or equivalent).

The starting fleets are:

Vudar/Orion:
FW, FW /LR, LR, LR
DW, DW /DW, DW , PR
CW, CW /BR, BR, BR
CA, CA, CC /----

ISC:
FF, FF, FFL
DD, DDL, Scout
CL, CL, CS
CVS, CC, CA
DN

The orions can only take hydran or vudar options. Most Orion ships have a gatling and where possible a hellbore. Ph1s are in other options.

So our Vudar and orions are very much a smaller ship force, where as the the ISC are more top heavy and specialised. NB the ISC must follow usual PPD number limits during battles, but not in the overall fleet.


The other major changes to the sytem:
1) The addition of an extra card option. Playing the 800 card at the beginning of the campaign round results in an extra battle. This allows more engagemnents that must be fought between repairs, and may allow one side to stretch the other, forcing more damaged ships to be committed as the campaign progresses. It also means that each side will be down cards to play during the repair phase as they will have had to play that card on the extra battle. If both sides take the option then there are 2 extra battles.

2) Buying new ships is now a bit different. The value of the card is how many points you can spend, but you are not limited to 1 ship. You can buy 1.5 move cost worth of ships. So 1 CA + 1DD or 6 FF or 2 CL etc.

Note on maps.
Most fights are either floating maps, or location. However, for practical reasons (table size) there is only ever 4 * 4 panels in play (large hexes). If the map needs to float then the panels on the far side are picked up and brought over, but only if there is not ship on those panels. It is therefore possible to 'pin' a map by holding a ship at the far edge of map and preventing the floating. Location maps work this way as well, we do not count hexes from the location, but use panels. The Location has to remain on the 4 * 4 playing area so effectively there is a possible 7 * 7 total map space but it can also be prevented from floating by the same 'pinning' effect as above.


edit:

Current status

Vudar = 11106
ISC = 10037.


Vudar/Orion:
FW(crip), FW, FW, FW /left LR (3) , right LR (4), LR, Scout
DW, DW, DW / DW(3) , PR(5)
CW(7), CW /BR(7), BR, BR
CA, CA, CC(crip) /----


ISC:
FF(crip), FFL (7), Pol (crip)
DD (4), DDL, Scout
CL, CS
CVS, CC, CA
BB (crip)

First campaign round.

We play the extra battle option, figuring that we might be able to strecth his top heavy force and make life difficult with the PPD limits. So there are 4 battles.

1) Delaying action. defender gets half points, but scores VP for each turn they survive and get to reduce an enemy card next campaign round by an amount based on how ling they survive.

2) FRD. The defender has to protect his FRD. Big VP points for killing it. If the defender had a crippled ship then he must have 1 at the FRD but with no crew so it would be a static target. Losing the FRD doubles cripple repair costs this campaign round.

3) meeting engagement. Straight up fight in open space.

4) BATS. assault on a BATS, decent VP for killing the BATS and auto attacker choice on a mission next round as the attacker breaks through.

We played cards for each mission, and as it happened we each played the same value on each mission. The end result was.

1) ISC attack. 400pts vs our 200 pts.
CC + CL vs FW + OLR

2) We attack. 200pts
FW + OBR vs CA + FRD

3) 100pt
DW (us) vs DD (ISC)

4) ISC attack 700pts plus 300pts (BATS cost). so a 1000pt game.
DN, CS, Scout, FF, FF, CL, DDL, POL, small suicide vs BATS, CW, CW, CC, ODW, ODW, OPR.


So the ISC start the campaign to pacify us with an attack on one of our battle stations, and another attack on some as yet unknown target which has run into a couple of our light ships who will try to delay as long as possible. Mean while we have caught a protected FRD but with only a light force, and 2 destoyers meet in open space whilst on patrol.

Delay AAR

This takes place around a planet. It is one of our location maps around the planet.

We look at a our tiny frigates and at the large ISC CC and CL and gulp. We start next to the planet and the ISC enter at the far edge. The game though is all about us hanging on as many turns as possible for the VP and campaign effect, not actualy damaging the ISC. In order to advance his force has to clear the area of us.

Turn 1:

We run away. The ISC follow. We go EM at the back end of the turn as the ISC come around the planet. At the end I am just outside range 10 to the CC who has come round one side of the planet and the CL is just coming round the other side.

Turn 2:
We carry on EM, I turn across/into the CC, and the LR also turns round. We are expecting that 1 of us will get hammered, but that the other will run back round and be able to out manouver the ISC for another turn or 2.

My IPG + EM gives me +3, but the CC PPDs me at less than range 10 anyway- probably noticing that I may end up getting into the myopic otherwise. 1 misses totally and 1 hits, painful but not to bad. The CL turns to intercept the LR, so I turn back away from the CC, othewise I am heading at the CL, and the idea is that we will try and remain seperate as much as possible. The LR manages to dive between the CC pointing at me and the CL who can't turn back in fast enough. The CL has to HET back round, as the LR finds himself with 2 rear firing Plasma Fs converging on him (1 from each ship). He has to take 1 hit, but the luck of Jack strikes and his stealth spoofs it. The CC also turns back round to try and catch the LR. Having hit my shields quite hard both the ISC ships are now after the almost untouched LR and running away from me. Phew.

Turn 3:

The LR is heading back past the planet. The ISC split up and go round each side so as not to get into a keystone cops style chase around the planet. They are chasing him into a corner, launching extra plasma which whilst not hitting make it harder for any attempt at outturning them. I am the far side of the map, manouvering in sligtly to ensure that the LR can keep the map panels floating across. Towards the back of the turn the CC HETS back round to me, thinking the LR is almost at the corner and the CL can handle him.

turn 4:
The CC and my FW are going to skirt round the Planet, but map issues (the orion is by now pinning the map from floating) limits my ability to keep away. I manage to pull a cheeky little manouver and end up behind the CC practically in the planets atmosphere having avoided PPD and mass Ph1 fire. However, I have to drop EM to HET and take a plasma F after a couple of impulses. The LR is by now turning back up the map but kept to to the edge by plasmas following him. The CC and FW circle round the planet in contra directions, as we come out the other side and see each other he fires a PPD and hits me full on, my shields hold, but I'm rapidly running out of them. With the pinned map edge trapping me I have to turn in on the CC and hope to get out of his forward plasma arc, I can't quite make it and an S is launched that traps me against the planet. Only an emergency HET can get me away, but alas we fail the roll and breakdown. The random direction at least comes out the best possible for me, but the impacting plasma pretty well cripples me.

Tunr 5:
I try to disengage, but need 2 impulses. The CC isn't letting that happen and overkills me with his mass PH1s at range 2. The LR then disengages rather than risk the pristine ship for what would be at most one more turn. We are happy with our 4 turns survival.



An interesting little game that involved no real fighting on our part. Our stealth/IPG plus EM made it hard on the ISC, though the ISC did make a couple of mistakes that hepled us.



Campaign points.
Vudar
4 turns = + 400
lost ship = -65.

ISC
Hold the map = +200.

Campign effect = next round we can nominate 1 mission that reduces the value of the ISC card by 400 pts. This may result in a default bythe ISC if that means their value is zero or less.

A another good AAR by Storeylf. BUT!

The Vudar Universal translater hit an error.

What Should have been stated as"Captain Jacks super space ship flying handling skills saves the day".

Came out as "Luck of Jack strikes again and his stealth spoofs it"

I hope the Vudar sort out this error, Unless It was just ISC misinformation?

Fleet Repair Dock AAR

This didn't go well, in fact it is hardly worth the term AAR.

We had a chat about what to do, our problem was that our 2 small ships were faced by the CA, and only the Orion had the fire power to get in and really stick it to the FRD. Cleary the ISC ship was capable of stopping that.

Obvioulsy the FRD hasn't turned up in FC before, so some stuff is maybe not how it would be if it was in FC.

Turn 1

The ISC goes 8 and stays close to the FRD. I go 24 and zip down one edge of the map, the Orion BR oes 16 and heads across the other way. WE are hoping to get one of our ships in to the dock by splitting up.

We end up still out of range at the end of turn 1.


Turn2

I swing in fast with enough power to overload the ICs and get to range 5. The BR carries on round looking to get closer, but the ISC is pointing at him and making it hard to close on the dock. I end up at 5 and fire, I get a good hit in and do some internals. But take quite a pounding in return - the FRD has a good chunk of firepower relative to my FW. The BR hasn't managed to get close, but should get to close next turn.


Turn 3

The FRD repairs nearly all of its shield damage, and its DamCon [8] starts reapiring its damage quite fast. At this point I realise ( and so does everyone else I think) that there is no way we are going to take out the FRD. I pull away under EM. The BR closes to range 8, but with the CA at range 4. The BR gets smacked, then turns and disengages a few impulses later.



So not a good fight for us. We underestimated how tough the FRD was, particularly in terms of spare power for shield repair. It probably would have been a fairly easy target in a larger fight, but the size of this fight put it beyond us.


Both our ships come out damaged, the FW = 2, and the BR = 7.

The ISC gain +200VP for being in control of the map at the end. +300 VP for giving up no VP.

The Isc have been making overtures to a peace deal With the peace loving and free trading Orions!

And you believe a drunken Klingon, having said that the offer still stands.

Anyone who deals with an Orion has lost!

(Unless another Orion!)

Destroyer engagement.

This was a meeting engagment between one of my DWs and an ISC DD.

Turn 1.

I close slowly filling up my IPG, whilst the ISC comes charging across.

Turn 2.

We both go speed 24, early in the turn I get to within range 8 and fire all ICs (standard) and the phaser 1s. The ISC holds fire. I get a good hit and almost take down the front shield. We then get into a running game, with the ISC unable to close, and he ends up phasering me in the back.

Turn 3
Is much the same, as I start rearming IC, whilst running and take another rear end phaser volley. At the end of the turn I manage to slightly increase the range due to simultaneous moves.

Turn 4
Becomes a turning game, I manage to keep out of the front arc of the ISC mainly, with him out of mine. I do get my FX cannon in arc and fire an overload but it misses. A rear plasma is launched at me to limit my turning.

Turn 5
Deciding that I need more energy I do not rearm the fired cannon. We start with the ISC on an intercept course to my current heading, but outside range 8. I have decided that I need to go for the close range pass as I'm not doing well in the turning chase type of game. So I turn in on the ISC aiming for a range 2/3 shot. I get that on his still damaged front shield, and fire 2 overload cannons and phasers. That leaves me with a bit of power for running from plasma. However, it is the bolts I'm more concerned about and use 1 point of IPG which drops his bolts to a 50/50 but still leaves my cannons with a good chance. The ISC saves the plasma and just uses phasers. I take the phasers no problem, and in return both my cannons hit which along with phasers do 20 internals. The 2 front plasma are launched.


The rest of the turn sees the ISC turn away to disengage, whilst I try to head ini the same general direction, I have to take the plasma as I run outof power, but it is not much.

Turn 6
The ISC disengages via speed.

NB - for floating maps (only) we have a form of speeding up and warping out, as there are no map edges and in a large fight it can be otherwise impossible to pull away.


A fairly tense duel, especially as it started to look like I was stuck in circling match allowing his phasers to shoot but not mine. Whilst I appear to have more energy, the cost of ICs left me very limited moving at high speed against a plasma vessel. In the end I had to drop arming one IC to give me more options.


The ISC DD is damaged (9), mine is pristine, the minor burnthrough being repaired.

The Vudar gain 23 VP for forcing the disengagemnt of the DD and 200VP for being in possesion of the area at the end and 300 VP for giving up no VP.

BATS assault part 1

The major assault on the BATS started last night, it is still ongoing, but this is what has happened so far (before I forget).

We have:
BATS
CC
CW * 2
O-DW * 2
O-PR

The ISC have:
DNP
CS
CL
DDL
FF * 2
Scout
Pol (we think a police constable has come to arrest captain jack and has brought some back up in case he resists!).
Small Suicide Freighter

(NB - the ISC are using some ships from SFB that are not yet in FC, the DDL, Pol, and scout)

The map is a 4 * 4 panels location around the BATS. We start in opposite corners.


Pre-game thoughts:

The ISC have 6 PPDs on the DN plus CS, that could well shred the base from range. They also have a fair bit of plasma, which whilst mainly Fs can also hammer the base if they get to range 8. Our plan is roughly that the orions will try and engage the plasma ships, either taking out the CL if it gets close enough, or causing them to launch plasma at the the orion ships rather than the base or me. The vudar vessels will try and get past to the PPD ships (expecting them to be behind the plasma ships) and hit the DN before it reaches range 10 (15 ideally, but 10 definitely).


Turn 1:

Not much, the ISC close to about 26-30 hexes away from the BATs, we move forward slightly. Scout channels make sure any fire at the back end of the turn is inconsequential. A few suicide shuttles are launched by the orions at the freighter.

Turn 2:

Every one plots speed 16 except the ISC scout and POL who are 8 (hanging back). The ISC fleet intercepts the shuttles and vaporises them.

Then at about range 10 (and with the ISC about 20 from the base) on impulse 5 the fleets turn in on each other. My vudar all spend 2 points on IPG (to mitigate any possible PPD volleys), I am still in sensor range of the base for a final +1 if needed. At this point the CL, DDL and a FF are leading the ISC, with the DN, CS and a FF a hex behind. I am just off center to them 10 hexes away from the PPDs and the orions are a couple of hexes to my left (11 hexes from the PPDs).

We continue closing, I slip out and am 6 hexes away from the lead ISC ships, and the orions have closed in on me a bit. Again I blip the IPG. There is no fire so things are about to get very bloody. We have not quite got our manoeuvring right, ideally the orions would have been closer to take on the plasma, but they haven't launched so I am not forced into any fancy manoeuvres.

Impulse 7 is where most of the evening is spent. I am going to get to range 3 of the DN/CS unless it turns away, which would not be that bad. The orions have a slight problem, as they find themselves looking at turning in on the ISC, which results in a long discussion on the merits of turning in for a brutal range 0/1 shot but having to accept the plasma, or holding back somewhat (and maybe not killing the CL) to avoid the instant plasma hit and speed up over the turn break. In the end the DWs turn in and go to range 0 of the first ISC stack, with the PR (hellbore armed) at range 1. The fact that the DN/CS do not turn off sort of seals the deal on that one, as hanging back may have left them outside the myopic zone, and as I am going to be firing at one of those ships we don't provide a useful 'me-to' target for any PPDs about to be blown up.

The resulting fire sees the ISC CL blown up with overkill by the orions, who in turn kills an O-DW. The ISC have arranged their fire on the basis of the extra +1 from a sensor, but had missed that the sensors are now out of range, so they also end up with large amounts of overkill on the DW. The DN/CS hit my CC and it takes a good number of internals, that fall heavily on power. The Vudar fire is terrible, with my overloaded ICs doing poorly, but we do significant damage on the DN hitting a lot of weapons (though it has a lot of phaser 3s and back plasma to take as padding). I was pondering whether to kill the CS or go for crippling the DNP, I may regret not killing the CS, but the DN was the more important target. The DN 'me-to' fired the PPDs at the BATs (as that was the only target) and even though the BATs had already used 3 IPG in anticipation of this it was still hit with some accuracy (10 out of 16 pulses), but the range (16-20) kept the damage down.

The ISC then launched all forward plasma, 4 at the O-PR and 2 at the O-DW. As the orions were speed 16 these were guaranteed to hit straight away on sub pulse 1. There was a quick radio message from the base to the orion commanders to HET and accelerate back to the base, as that got back to our sensor range. Once in range of the bases sensors the base was able to spoof the plasmas and reduce the warhead strength, the DW was still hit by 2 reduced strength plasma, but the stealthy PR in an amazing demonstration of skill (or luck ) dodged 2 of the plasma entirely and was hit by 2 reduced strength torps. So by the end of that, the PR had snatched a mere scratch from the jaws of death, and the DW had escaped with some minor damage.

The base also fired at an ISC ship who were now turning away, presumably to rearm, and demonstrated to the vudar ship gunners how to use ICs, as 3 out of 4 hit at long range through scout EW, which with ph4s just about took a DDL shield down.


We finished early, leaving it ready to start turn 3. The ISC have turned away (just beyond 15 from the base), having used most heavy stuff and in need of rearming. The Orion ships are heading back to the base having used the HET. The vudar ships are half a dozen hexes behind the ISC, deciding whether to turn to phaser them in the back, or turn back to the base and regroup with the orions. Ship wise, the ISC have lost the CL and have a heavily damaged DN, the DDL and a FF have some shield damage. The orions have lost a DW, and the remaining ships have shield damage and some internals. the Vudar CC has been somewhat damaged, noticeably on power. The initial exchange has gone well for us, but we are not safe yet as we could still be facing plenty of PPDs again in a few turns time with a still good chunk of plasma escort ships. Moving out and hassling him is awkward, as he still has a better fleet if the base is out of the equation, and a scout to make things difficult for us if we are not right up close.

Sounds like a really fun battle. Too bad for the ISC he forgot the range zero plasma rule "Fire everything at those ships" as it would have used both your remaining.g scout channels but put 4 more plasmas on the DW's possibly getting a kill. Those rear firing plasma f's can be nasty watch out if you chase him.

As far as I can think he did launch all his forward bearing plasma at the orions. There might have been one rear plasma that wasn't launched that could have been. The orions were to the front of all but the DDL at that point (the CL being just debris by the launch phase - it had bolted the S in view of its imminent demise). The DDL and 2 frigates only had 6 forward plasma to launch.

Not sure whether the ISC were deliberately keeping the one rear plasma on the DDL that could have launched, or whether they just missed that is was in arc amongst all the confusion.

Lee, I meant "fire everything at the those ships which are range zero" but I had misssed that they had already killed one of the O-DW's, well played there. As an 'Armchair quarterback' I may have been better to fire the DF weapons available on the O-PR and launch plasmas at the O-DW's, but again that is my after the fact. Sounds like you have a fun game going. Do you guys play this on FConline or F2F?

This is a local friday night gaming session, chatting, drinking beer (for those who like it), eating lovely food made by Targs girlfriend, and trying not to hit ships with giant ravioli monsters.

BATs AAR part 2.

We managed a few more turns last night, the game is still ongoing, but again before I forget the details:


Turn 3
Not much happened, after a good bit of thinking I decided just to pull back to base rather than try and turn in on the ISC for a few phaser shots, that may have left me in an awkward position if any plasma came out at me. We regrouped around the base, though on different facings. The ISC did a circle and ended up facing us again at the end of the turn outside range 15, but somehwat spread out. Sensors made any fire this turn was fairly minor - I think the base almost took back down the DN No3 shield that was already badly battered. The suicide freighter got next to the base where it was handily dispatched.

Turn 4
The ISC now have their PPDs up, and the DDL could 2 turn its plasma Gs. Although we are practically on top of each other, the Orions are facing in such a way that they will be turning with thier right side to the ISC, whilst I am going to be turning the opposite way. Our pre turn discussion was to head back at the DN and see if we could further hammer that. If it advanced we could hit about impulse 4 then turn back to base. The Orion ships (not together) went 8+ and 16, whilst my stuff went 16. My CC was struggling a bit on power due to its earlier damage. The ISC caught us out a bit with speed 0 and 8 declarations. It appeared they were going to hang around where they were waiting for the remaining plasma to come online, maybe tempting us to come beyond base coverage.

We advanced as planned to start with, most ISC ships started turning away in a tight cirle, but the 2 frigates that were closest to us kept facing us. I think they were looking to get a good phaser shot as we closed, but I just used IPG as I advanced into range 8. We had another discussion and decided that we would try and nobble both frigates, then turn back away. We could get close enough to hopfully kill them whilst still being in sensor range. The ISC realised they had hung around a bit long as they tried to pull away and go EM, but it was a bit late. We unloaded everything and the kitchen sink on them. My CWs were at range 5, but everything else was range 6-8. Yet again my cannon gunners showed that I need some radical reform of the training regime, as they missed with more than they hit. As the flashes of phasers cleared one of the frigates had survived, battered, but still holding together. Disappointing. The scout probably saved it with its jamming reducing the damage and causing 1 or 2 misses of ion cannon.

The ISC DN then turned back to bring its 2 remaining PPDs in arc, and the CS used a HET to do the same as we turned to get back to base. The Vudar used their 'please fire at captain jack device' (aka the IPG), which worked, the PPDs targeted the Orion pirate raider (with a +2 sift) and badly damaged it, but at least it survived. The damage fell heavily on phasers, leaving it fairly toothless.

The rest of the turn saw us pull closer to base, whilst the ISC regrouped again.

Turn 5.

A quick turn, we carried on getting back to base and circled. The ISC circled and regrouped properly. Ending the turn facing back at the base again just beyond the range 15 point. But they will be fully armed next turn. So we will be facing 4 PPds again, but they are running out of plasma escorts, only the DDL (with a decent bit of shield damage by now) and POL are with the DN and CS. Our O-PR is largely out of it hanging on the far side of the base.


We ended there, ready to continue.

.........
The ISC came off worse again, losing a FF and a cripple for a cripple O-PR. I think the base is now safe, but 4 PPDs, about 20 ph1s and a few plasmas still demand a bit of respect as we try to stop what is hopefully going to be the last attack run. Obviously I'd like to finish the DN off if possible. I'd settle for killing the CS or DDL if we can do it without losing a ship as well. I'd accept a ship loss for the DN, though I doubt I'll persuade Jack to lose one of his ships again . I can't complain though Jacks orions have performed well.