SFB The Farthest Star Campaign Archive 2009 January -March

SFB The Farthest Star Campaign Archive 2009 January -March By

Kerry E Mullan (Nomad17)

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Thursday, January 01, 2009 - 04:49 pm: Edit

Folly of Men Finshed through T10. T9 Had CS close to within R20 and Bolt an R plus phasers from it at the most hurt DWs 2 point #1 shield. R missed and phasers rolled poorly not getting past the allocated reinf. BTF finished its EDR this turn and SRV sat still and gave out a lot of EW. My p4's at R20 blew doing like 2 dam after reinf. T10: He closed to the right of planet keeping some of the p4 batteries outa arc. Again BB bolted R and fired some 10 p1s from R19 or so. R missed, and some 5 damage with 10 p1's just hit the allocated rein on the DW. I had the undocked DW close to R15 of his CS and did 9 damage to its #1 then fled taking some p1's into a flank shield(like 6 p1 shots) for 5 damage to the shield then it returned close to the base. I hit his SRV at R22 with all bearing p4s for 9 damage after reinforcement. T11 starts with BB at 15 and most of his other ships at 20, BTF coming up at R24. This turn Pulsar goes off. For DWs I have one free with no dam, one docked with a 5 point #4 and a trans hit, then the hurt DW with a 3 point #1, and 20 or so ints but he has all hull rpred. Turn 11 shuold be interests as well as BB has an R, 2 S coming plus the reloaded BTF. By

Dale McKee (Brigman)

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Requiem Redux The whirling dervish continues. We got through three turns, ending after 10.32. Early in T8, the Klingon B10 and F5C stop so the B10 can stasis the F5C, making the S that was 1 hex away from its down shield detonate harmlessly. The Condor lobbed its R at the B10, then turned off and lobbed an S and an F at the B10. All managed to hit the same shield but of course were heavily cut down by phaser fire. When the #6 went down, the BATS fired 4x Ph-4 at range 17, scoring 5 more in for a total of about 26 internals on the B10. Took out some phasers, some fat, and both aft disruptors. The B10 and BT were able to blast the PDW's #4, taking it down but doing no internals due to a heavy brick.

Unfortunately due to its piggish turn mode the CON found itself inside OL range from the B10 and the BT, albeit on seperate shields. At one point it almost looked like it would be in stasis range but it managed to evade that disaster. Throughout T8 the BT conducted repairs, as did the PDWL docked to the BATS. T9, disruptor fire from the B10 and BT heavily abraded the CON's #2 and 3 shields, but since the 9.1 shot was so obvious, heavy reinforcement prevented the shields from going down or internals to be scored. The GCA and GBDD pressed in, with the BDD's plasmas scoring light shield damage on the B10 and the CA dinking the shields of the D6D (due to high ECM levels) with phasers. T10, well, the Gorn CA had gotten overenthusiastic and was at R6, just barely out of stasis range. She ate 4 OL and 12 standard disruptors, but bad die rolls meant she didn't get hit as hard as she should've. After her #5 shield and reinforcement she took 13 internals, losing 3 ph-1s and 3 warp. The Klinks were forced to hold back ph-1s though because of the PL-S launched on 10.1. The PDW moved in and launched QWTs, the GCA looped around and got the other S off. Both S-torps ended up hitting the B10, but for phasered-down damage (less than half). No internals were scored. All the while, everyone was plinking away with repairs, with the BATS regenerating the PDWL at an impressive rate. 10.32 saw the Klinks headed away from the BATS and Rom fleet; the GCA headed back near the base with its tail between its legs; the PDW turned back in towards the Klinks; and the CON turning in as well, with her heavy plasmas ready on 11.1. Both the Klinks and Roms have their fighters in the air, with the Klinks having salvoed drones on T10 and having half left on the fighters. Throughout the game the Klingons have volley'd large drone swarms at the CON, forcing the BATS to use channels to break locks and at least 3 Tbombs from the various ships to take out big stacks. By


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At this point, most everything on the board has some damage. The CON took about 20 internals, but has repaired everything "important". Her sheilds are getting soft in most directions. The GCA has lost 3 warp, 3 phaser-1s, and some hull/fat. She has one down shield and moderate damage on several others. The BDD is still down a warp box, most of its hull, and a phaser; and, its #1 shield is back to 8 boxes after many turns of repair.

The PDWL is docked to the base, but still has heavy shield damage and a lot of missing fat. The PDW has 2 boxes on her #4 after repairs, but has taken no internals. The BATS has taken no damage. On the Klingon side, the BT and B10 have each taken around 25 in. The BT has very weak shields all around, with her half-strength #4 being her best shield; the B10 has several weak shields and moderate damage on several shields, but wow. What shields she has. The D6D has taken some moderate shield damage but no internals; and the F5C has taken about 20 internals and has one down shield. None of our fighters have taken any damage yet. By

Jon Berry (Laz_Longsmith)

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Friday, January 02, 2009 - 12:26 am: Edit

BATTLE UPDATE; Spitting into the Wind continnued into Turn 4 this evening. The Andros were Labbing and shooting drones as best they could. The Midnight Eye deployed a shuttle - probably a SP, but the gunboats were close enough to drop a T-bomb right in front of it. Mischa pondered his options, and accepted the loss of the SP to the explosive, although he was kicking himself for it. On 4:23, he called for fire, and began the slow process of filling up the forward panels of the first Gunboat. He did pretty good, and used the base to deal decent internals. Then his Scout Frigate launched H&R on the damaged Gunboat, but failed at hitting the PA panel or the remaining battery. But the Mizia from the Base was total, reducing the gunboat to three power, and no batteries, forcing it to spend all its power on Panels or implode. At the end of the turn, the remaining gunsled and the cargo sled downed, the #6 of the Large Armed Freighter(Disruptor) but did no internals, while the Gunboat 2 became the target of remaining phasers. Question - can I not pay for Panels on my crippled gunboat, causing it to implode, as an alternative to SD? By

Mischa Chad Robuliak (Alias)

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"kicking himself for it" is putting it lightly. There was a lot of swearing. Honestly,

it's the same way I felt when I was playing Jon with an Orion ship, and never even thought that the shuttle he'd launched could've been a scatterpack until it blossomed in my face. > I'll have to see if I can pull off a trick to get my bruiser (the FA-L) out of the fire without taking many internals... By


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You just have bad luck with Scatter Packs. ;) By

Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar)

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Jon, To answer your question, yes. By

Richard Sherman (Rich)

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but what you couldn't have done is launch the H&R raid. Andro PA panels actually have to be down (or destroyed) not just filled. Filled PA panels still blick H&R raids. In this case, no harm, no foul. And no do-overs anyway. By


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BLOOD OF MY ENEMY The next Lyran (and Peladine)/Gorn battle got kicked off tonight, getting through the end of turn 3. Gorns initially took a direct approach, and got the CLE Dragonscale bloodied for their trouble. It lost it's #1 shield and took about 15 in. At this point, the Gorns switched commanders, and pressed on. As the Lyran BC and CWL turned off to circle the planet and reload, the Peladine DDs came up to volley torps. Their initial launch was marginally effective, hitting the CV for 6 on the #6, but the second launch was too forced, and ineffectual. They did however, draw 4 plasmas from the Gorn fleet, 3 S and a G. These did no damage, but did force the Peladine ships to run like hell, and soaked up MASSIVE phaser firepower from the DDs, the BATS, and the ground bases. In the end, it was overkill on 2 of the plasmas, and the other two turned out to be fakes. the DD's came around the backside of the planet, and are forming up with the two Lyran ships as they reload.

The Peladine, thinking the Gorns were still coming in, launched two SPs. But with the change in commanders and the turn out by the Gorns, all the drones did was follow them away. In the end, about half of them were broken by the Gorn LSC, and the rest (except 1) were taken down plasma-D's from the G18s (one of which now has light damage from a distruptor hit from the BATS). At the end of turn 3, the Gorns are starting to bring their formation around to starboard in the southwestern quadrant of the board. The Lyrans/Peladine are "lazily" closing, but still within EW range of their home BATS. I would say that the Lyrans/Peladine are significantly advantaged in this battle. But if the Gorns can make their fighter squadron work for them, that advantage will be eroded. And 6 Plasma-S doesn't hurt either! While it seems the Lyrans need to depend on an awkward combination of 10 Disruptors and 4 plasma-G, it's really the awesome phaser firepower they possess that could make things really hard on the Gorns. As usual of late, it seems that EW is going to be the key to the battle here. The Gorns have an excellent mobile scout. The Lyrans have a better one, but it doesn't move... Next session may be tomorrow, depending on Dale's availability. By


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What I love about this report is that, after reading it (twice), I don't know whether Rich flew for the Lyran(peladine) or the Gorn. Truly, an impartial report. Well done, Rich. By


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Saturday, January 03, 2009 - 05:29 pm: Edit

That was a great report, Rich. Hopefully we can continue Sunday evening. Rich is, in fact, flying the Lyrans/Peladine. I took over for the Gorn when the original captain had to step down. Tough one, but we'll see how it goes! By


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"I can think of no person more reliable than Admiral Richard Sherman." G. Patton (and yes, I rode a Sherman) "I wish I knew him when I was younger." L. Anderson "I thought he was my younger brother and when we found him dead, I knew it

wasn't him, so I guess he's not my younger brother. Those damnn parasites." J. T. Kirk "I wish he were my son." Carl Sagan "I wish I could give him a son." (only Rich can insert a female name here) okay . .. enough. By


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This was actually my first opportunity to fly Rich. He's a very gracious opponent and nowhere NEAR as much a pain-in-the-ass as he is as an Admiral. . . . . Just jerkin' yer chain, Rich. By


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Oh, he's defintley a pain-in-the-ass, but a better friend. By


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And I seemingly cannot spell, either. By


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Sunday, January 04, 2009 - 01:43 am: Edit

Ahem. Gentlemen. Enough. Sincerely, Admiral Pita

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Head to Head finished T3 Peladine had Torps hot on the 2 SC4 and recharging nearly all but 1 F on each larger hull. SRV was at R13-15 to his entire fleet with the D6S running from 2 torps launched late T2.

End result was KZI launched a lotta drones including 3 scatters and 3 MRS. Peladine went defensive fire on drones although the three scatters broke around imp 20 or so and are still 7-12 hexes from their targets. D6S lost it's #5 from torps and P1's from the DW taking 2 ints(a drone rack was one). In return the SRV got hit for 53 damage, taking 29 ints. The ints were light though leaving 4 hull left, and hitting 1 channel, 2 warp, and 3 phasers. After decel period was over the main fleet elements all went spd 9 in reverse. Peladine also were able to kill one MRS and a shuttle before it was landed. Otherwise killing drones was a major job of the turn. T4 starts with the BC, DW, DD within R15 DN at R19, with all KZI forces in the upper left quadrant. R torp+5 S won't be ready til T5 and some 17 drones are still inbound. Their are 6 ftrs and some 9 shuttles out for drone killin. By


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Sounds like the SRV is taking a beating, but the Peladine have tough ships. Kerry, regardless of the turn out, sounds like you're doing a good job. The Queen thanks you. By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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This was really a recovery turn for the Klingons and Kzinti. I really drained them pretty badly on turn 2. The late turn 2 decel helped, but I was still stuck with the T-bombs nearly on top of me and with all of my potential targets running under really heavy EW. I had launched MRS shuttles late on turn 2 to help with the EW situation, but it was going to take a while for them to kick in. As a result, I didn't think it likely that anything would be left in overload range. I elected to leave most disruptors loaded as standards, with the exception of the DN, which overloaded 3. At the end of the day, the Pel destroyers did get beyond overload range, and I was left with the option of a shot at the DD or DW against a 1 shift, or a brief window to take an even shift shot at the SRV. Given the heavy EW at play, I felt the SRV was the better target. The reverse movement kicked in just in time, as a number of Peladine drones were approaching the stopped formation. Luckily, I was able to back away from the T-bombs just before the inbound drones set them off. I did launch a few drones from the D6s and the DN, but most of my drones came from scatterpacks. It shouldn't be a shock to anyone that I had some racks reloading this turn (especially those rapid firing C-racks and the small racks on the BT). Additionally, I did manage to bag 3 Pel shuttles with overloaded disruptors and a drone. When the Pel DD turned in to go after the MRS shuttles, I put the last overload into its #2, which is now down to 4 points. After the Pel launched

plasma at the MRS shuttles I decided to grab them with long range tractors and recover them. I managed to save the MRS from the CC and DN, but the BTs MRS bought it in a volley of Ph-2 fire. I also managed to recover a couple of the shuttles launched as scatterpacks. They could be critical...one of the big weaknesses of this Klingon/Kzinti fleet is a very small number of shuttles, not a good thing when you want to use scatter packs and you need to weasel plasma. One question on the Peladine SRV: Does it store its carrier stores in cargo boxes like other survey carriers? If so, those stores have been destroyed. I checked Jessica's Peladine website and couldn't find much on the SRV. One other comment about the Peladine: This is the first time I've played in meaningful a battle involving them. My initial impression of the Peladine was that they were not all that impressive, and that they were basically glorified anchor boats. That opinion has changed. They not only combine plasma and drones for a lot of seeking weapon throw weight, but their big ships have a ton of shuttles. Kerry has launched a number of shuttles in seeking weapon defense, but he could have used them for a lot of other nastiness. Additionally, with the introduction of ECM plasma, they have very deep pockets in the EW department. The seeking weapon armament leaves them with little dependance on ECCM, and the combo of ECM drones and ECM plasma mean thay can stay under a heavy shift most of the game. Getting into a fight with these guys without a scout with channels to break locks and/or enough ph-1s to make long range shots at ECM plasma/drones is a receipe for disaster. By


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Sunday, January 04, 2009 - 02:21 pm: Edit

Quote: "One question on the Peladine SRV: Does it store its carrier stores in cargo boxes like other survey carriers? If so, those stores have been destroyed. I checked Jessica's Peladine website and couldn't find much on the SRV." I suspect if the cargo is destroyed, so are the stores. I've found that much of the Peladine (ironically) are fashioned after the Federation (don't believe me? look at the scout). I've studied the Peladine since I've adopted them in this campaign. As Queen of Peladine, unless there is a higher authority on this, I'd say make this so. By


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Right for the peladine unless I am misunderstanding it: Ftr reloads are stored on the ftr deck which gets destroyed on last shuttle box. In addition to this Ftr reloads can also be resupplied with additional drone storage from cargo if there is any storage in the cargo boxes, this has to be specified in ship descrition aka the kzinti DN. To Skin a Cat through 6.16 Lyrans are R11-13 and closing so all will be able to achieve R7 by End of turn. KZI

have another idea and send out the DN and CD to rumble with me at SPD 8, following some 15 or so drones in with 2 scatters just recently breaking as well. At R8 the CD and DN run into a TBomb Killing their ECM drones and doing 10 to the facing shields and all hell breaks loose. Over 3 imps CD gets hit with 55/12/8 damage killing about half the ship and both sensors(initial 32 int did not kill a sensor). KZI fires the wad at my hurt DWL and due to rolling well on his R15 fire is able to blow it up on internal 49 of 50, taking out 4 shuttles as well. On imp 16 there is one DW at R5 to DN/CD(only p3's left) with 12 or so drones within R3-4. the rest of the fleet is at R7 to the DN with SR at R12. Getting through the drones on the DW may be tough but the next 6-8 imps will show how that works. DN/CC have some 4 p1/4p3 remaining with another DW fully loaded in the same hex. DN has 2 of its 4 ESGs up, while both DWs have none up yet. DN/CC still have yet to deploy Tbombs, but the next couple imps may see that change. Destroying the CDs sensors means next turn may be a little bit easier if I can get through this one ;) By


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Guys: Regarding the cargo boxes on the SRV: I am looking into this issue. Most survey cruisers store fighter reloads and extra drones in the cargo boxes, unlike normal carriers. But, I will email Jessica (the Peladine designer) and / or make a judgement call on my own regarding this issue. Stay tuned. By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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Dale, Kerry, Glenn, Correction to my last. I think I was projecting something unique to the Fed GSC/CVL onto other survey cruisers operating as carriers. I was under the incorrect perception that all survey cruisers operating as carriers filled their cargo boxes with stores as the the Fed CVL did. however, after reviewing the ship descriptions, its clear that only the Fed does this. The other two good example of "Survey Carriers", the Kzinti and Gorn models, list no reference to putting anything in the cargo boxes when configured as a carrier, either in the description or on the SSD. I therefore assume all of the carrier stores on the Peladine SRV are outside the cargo boxes and relatively safe. As an aside, this really makes the Fed CVL kind of a brick in comparision to other survey carriers. While most have stores more or less invulnerable to damage and cargo boxes to store extra stuff (useful in campaigns), the Fed CVL tees up all of

its carrier stores in relatively vulnerable cargo boxes. I've never been a huge fan of the Fed GSC/CVL...this only intensifies that dislike. Kind of like an imitation Swiss Army Knife. Can do all kinds of great/cool/gee-whiz things, but doesn't do any of them well (and breaks when you drop it). There is a broader issue however. Does anybody know if the Peladine have anything like the carrier data in annex 7G? The real reason that's important is it lists how big the carrier stores for the Peladine carriers are. You could probably just use Lyran or Kzinti data for similar classes in pinch, but I don't know that specific Peladine data exists. By


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Monday, January 05, 2009 - 12:28 am: Edit

BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Dog Soldiers One Last Duty BATTLES IN PROGRESS: The Folly of Men (Godzilla) Head to Head Requiem Redux War Machine To Skin a Cat Spitting Into the Wind Blood of My Enemy BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura By


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Monday, January 05, 2009 - 11:19 pm: Edit

The Folly of Men through 11.22 BB finally "manned up". Turn started at R15 to BB, R22 to SRV+CS R29 to BTF. BTF goes spd 16 in reverse, BB comin in at SPD 17/20 on imp 7/ 12 on imp 19 others around 10. Pulsar goes off on imp 15. BTF comes in with 11 ECM before its shot, and 6 lent ECCM(on imp of shot goes to 5/12 with batts). Imp 1 gets 6 offensive and then it's a waiting game. BB

launches a R at R10 and centrlines Base there. No bolt shot, but continues to come in with SS right. Pulsar goes off Doing 8 to all his units including the just launched torp. All my units are base-side and protected. As he has a single Psuedo R left I assume it's the one he launched. Find out it's on the base so I fire the MRS at it and let it hit when at 40. After 1 rein I still have a shield facing the BB as he reaches R5 on imp 18. The base lends to itself to give the BB a shift of 2. BB unloads 10 p1's into my most hurt DW. After a 3 point shield and 12 reinf it's about half dead(we think 34 to blow). Imp 19 BB turns away to parallel base. Bolting S, 2 D, F torps and 1 p1 at DW. Missing with the S 22 more ints has a DW with like 5 power left. As he had shifted EW on 18 my return fire of 4 p2's rolled all 2's so I got 28 ints through his #6(5 power, 3 phasers, and hull+7 balcony shuttle!). Then BB isolated 1 Ground base and most likely will be internalling it with a tbomb. As well one DW started out towards the BTF and this forced a R14(BATTs) torp launch(R11 to DW). DW will get a R9+ shot on the BTF to start the damaging cycle but will most likely run afterwards(BTF still has psuedos for S's so these 3 may be psuedos). Continuing late sat. By


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Tuesday, January 06, 2009 - 08:59 am: Edit

Oops 2 corrections. The hurt DW has the following left: 2 CW, a BDG, full scanner, 1 box sens, 1 box Dam Con, and all excess dam. Some rprs may be forthcoming at EOT(but before this it only had engine dam and 1 disr/ESG hit) so only 2 power. The BATTs fired 4 Phaser 4's NOT phaser 2's. By

Patrick Hill (Dread_Lord)

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Is there a current taker for "One Last Duty"? If not, I am a fan of fighting against overwhelming odds, and would be happy to try and give the Romulans one last glorious battle. What is the Romulan's goal, to try and do damage to the planet or just do as much damage to the Gorn fleet as possible? By


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Tuesday, January 06, 2009 - 01:01 pm: Edit

Pat: Let me check with Ken Rotar. He may be available. Thanks for your spirit of adventure. ;) I'll email you the Rom's goals. By


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Ken's busy. Anybody else willing to fly the Gorn? By

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Not at the moment. Still have to get with Sheap to finish the Juggie, finish the battle with Mischa, and there is still once more fight I want to do myself. By


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Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:17 am: Edit

To Skin A Cat T6 finished The last 16 imps I killed a lot of drones and used 3 tbombs killing them. A total of 6 scatters used although 2 were blown up by OL disr fire. KZI DN was able to trac a DW for a short while before I counld counter tractor it. 5 big drones are chasing it. Althuogh I killed 2 of them on imp 32, it has a 10 pt ESG up and 2 tracs so its safe from em for now. near end of the turn got my remaining 7 p1 into the DN's #2 from R5 knocking it to half. DN turned out as did CD. Overall main fleet for me is R10 to base R7 to DN, R11 to CD. I have decelled to keep all 3 ships in same hex for easier ESG usage. Have 2 coming up and 7 drones incoming at em. Main 3(DW,CC,DN) are pretty hail with just DW having 8 ints(no shield damage though). KZI still has a lotta racks left but scatters are running dry as well some of the CLs may be light on drones. Again if continueing next turn will be another OL turn. The target is the hard part as well the only sensors are on the MB for KZI while SR has 6 which have been using 30 or so EW/turn. We may be resolving it off camera as Tom has made a decent clean-up, but wanted the lyran admiral to OK it. By


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BLOOD OF MY ENEMY Progress Update Dale and I got another turn in. Not to much happened. The Lyrans crashed down another shield, this time on the DE, and plinked a G10. Everybody's reloading. At the end of the turn, other than a few shield repairs and landing a couple of G18s,

the big news is that the CLE did some EDR, getting 2 RW engines back. Next session will be Thursday night. By


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I always prefer my captains to agree on a handshake if the battle is not to be played to the bitter end. In any case, if not, I will adjudicate an ending, and no, yon hecklers, that's not an invitation to instigate a long argument with the GM about "what should have happened". ;) By


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BLOOD OF MY ENEMY Rich, it was the LWarp I repaired, get it straight. ;) Pretty much what Rich said, tho the DE's #2 still has one box left to it. It is, sadly, no longer facing the Lyrans. By


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OK, since it appears "To Skin a Cat" is coming up on an ending, I'll let a few more 'cats' out of the bag... By


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CAT SCRATCH FEVER The Lyrans assault Kzinti Colony-5 in force, with both sides meeting in a titanic clash of titans! Can the Kzinti hold on to Colony-5, having lost Colony-2? Can anything stop the Lyran war machine? KZINTI FLEET: BS Schwarzgeist; TGC Magic (P-B3, P-B3), Vudar CA Thunderhead, BC Killer Instinct, FFK Dominions, SDF Grace Note. LYRAN FLEET: BCbp+ Ransacker, SR+ (P-SC) Ranger, JGPu Frazikar, DWLbup Punisher, DWbup+ Skullcrusher, DWbup+ Fiend. Both sides WS-III, speed max! The Kzinti set up within 5 hexes of the planet, which is in the middle of a 84x60 map, as per usual.

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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Dog Soldiers One Last Duty Cat Scratch Fever

BATTLES IN PROGRESS: The Folly of Men (Godzilla) Head to Head Requiem Redux War Machine To Skin a Cat Spitting Into the Wind Blood of My Enemy BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura By


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So I lost Colony-2? That's not good... By


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Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:06 pm: Edit

It's still in play but the outcome seems inevitable. We'll see. By

Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto)

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I'm willing to play either side in Cat Scratch Fever. I have a pref for the Lyrans, as I love flaying that SR, but that won't stop me from playing Zin. By


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The SR does seem to be a popular ship, since it shows up in practically every Lyran fleet. I wonder if that was one of my failings... not producing sufficient scout ships on larger hulls. I only built the one MCS, the second got aborted when I started losing RPs. I've never played much with EW, so it seems I underestimated its value... By


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Well the CD is a decent KZI ship but with only 2 channels it has issues supporting a whole fleet. The SR by itself isn't so great it's when podded up that it becomes a 43 power 6 channel MC 1 unit that has great drone defense. Especially agaisnt drones it can run around at spd 15 loaning 15-18 points and using 3 or so channels to break lockons. It is a great ship!

As for Colony 2 it isn't lost yet, but the indications are there it will be lost in the near future. The question abounding is how much it's gonna cost both sides. The current forces have 2-3 ships(DN,CD,CL) who have a good chance to escape if they abandon the rest. If they stick around thuogh all have a chance to escape, but it risks all the ships allowing the lyrans to choose which ones they want to kill. As the DN is about half the firepower of the remaining fleet what it does means a great deal. By


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Given the sheer number of excess ships I have, I'm not sure how much of an issue that is. As it stands, I think I have nearly a second complete battle fleet in Colony 2, that I couldn't use for FCR reasons. (That mobile base really hurt me... ) I might have to talk with Tom about the situation, and see if I have to revise my earlier assessment about what (if any) vessels I want to salvage. By


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I was thinking . . . (and yes it hurts), that given Mischa's circumstances, if it was a determining factor to save the system, could he simply and arbitrarily scuttle the MB to bring in more combat able ships? By


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I don't know... I'd hate to be responsible for bending the rules, just to hold onto a system. Even if I do lose the system, and the Kzinti end up getting knocked out in a few turns, I won't be the first race eliminated from the campaign. :3 By


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No. By


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Dale, your answer is a bit vague. Did you answer no or were the letters N and O meant to be an acronym for Not Objectional?

By


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Glenn, You got it wrong. Dale was saying "no" as a negative form of agreement with Mischa's statement that he won't be the first race eliminated from the campaign.

As to scuttling the MB in the middle of the combat, Dale is silent. When Dale is silent, everyone knows that the players can do whatever they wish with their own forces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wanna buy a bridge? No, really, I got this bridge in the Florida Everglades for sale...barely used...Really!

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John Smith (Johnsmith)

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The SR gets even better (or worse, depending on your point of view) once you start slinging on the Klingon pods. By


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Thursday, January 08, 2009 - 12:01 am: Edit

Please see my personal announcement below. By

George Duffy (Sentinal)

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Dog Soldiers First turn: Was just a slow approach for the Hydrans, with the MON traveling at speed 10 and the LM accompanying him near till the end with a 10/19 split, moving further south about 5 hexes. The Carnivorns traveled speed 16 all the way thru. (They started in the lower left corner of the board facing 'B') Second turn:

All ships maintain their previous speeds from the last turn. The MON started to deploy it's fighters out in pairs thru out the turn. While the LM seeing that he wasn't going to be able to flank the fleet cuts back up towards the MON in the hopes of getting around the other side. around 2.27 the Carnivorns all turn up towards 'A' and the LM turns back down facing 'E', unfortunately for the LM he is still in their FA arc for this impulse and the fleet fires off 13 DCs at range 14, even with the +1 shift (one with a +2), 5 of them land on the LM's #1 bringing it down to just 3 boxes. a few impulses later, the LM has moved into the opposing fleets rear arc and turns back into them. Launching all of his fighters at the end of the turn Third Turn: The MON continues truding along at speed 10 While the LM does a 28/19/16/-? split. The Carnivorns having to reload their cannons are limited to a speed of 15 (spd. 14 for the SC4 ships) this turn. Because of the angle, the fighters will gain a few hexes on the ships before they can turn away fully. As the fighters approached most of the MON's fighters go on EM. When the first two get close, the crusiers fire all of their bearing ph-2s killing one and crippling the other. Two impulses later, the YDN finishes of the cripple but not before leaving a parting ph3 shot onto the CA's #3, causing 2 damage. 3.16- The Carnivorns all turn toward 'B' and fan out forming a line abreast formation, where each ship (except the CLs) drops off a (Y)t-bomb into a nice line. (Because of the detect range of 0, all of the fighters and the LM will be able to navigate around them.) 3.18- The LM fires of 4 ph-1s and a hellbore at the YFF's #4 from a range of 5, doing a total of 9 ints (both Impulse, a L-warp and a ph-3). Which is where we halt the game for the evening. To be continued either tommorrow night (tentivatly) or Monday night. B^) By


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TO SKIN A CAT Unfortunately this battle was resolved via adjudication, after input by both sides, because it was not going to be continued. In addition to what has ALREADY transpired, the end result is: (1) all three CLs die; (2) the Lyrans scratch one DW and take 50% damage subject to strategic repairs

on the other DW; and (3) The base and shipyard self-destruct. Thus, the Lyrans take the system, destroying the MB and SCD, along with all three CLs. The Kzin escape with the DN and CD, and in addition manage to kill a DWL and DW and cripple a second DW. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: One Last Duty Cat Scratch Fever BATTLES IN PROGRESS: The Folly of Men (Godzilla) Head to Head Requiem Redux War Machine Spitting Into the Wind Blood of My Enemy Dog Soldiers BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat By


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Glenn: Hang in there man. We'll be here. By


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Any takers in Cat Scratch Fever? By


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Ted: I believe Kerry Mullan will be flying the Lyrans at Marc's request. Mischa (the Zin Admiral) knows you are interested, and he should contact you about flying the Kzinti shortly. ;) By


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Given a nick like mine, how could I refuse to play Zin?

By


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So Ted when is good for you? I think I am open next week tues-thurs sat after 4 pm sunday after 1 pm, but may schedule something over the weekend. Again I am central and generally avail from 6:30 pm til 12 ish. So Pick a time to start and we'll get it rollin. If this kind of schedule does not work for you then we may need to discuss it a little. Kerry By


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BATTLE REPORT: PUSSYCATS AT PERRYWINKLE A Lyran carrier group launches a raid across the border at the Gorn system of Perrywinkle - only to realize they've bitten off more than they can chew! LYRAN FLEET: CVp+ Red Claw Glory, 12xZ-2 (I-M drones), FFAp+ Red Claw Guardian, FFAp+ Red Claw Warrantor. GORN FLEET: BATS (Y170/175), 2xGB P-IV; MON+ SupP - Composite, BDD+ Iron Hide, FF+ Proven Slayer. Both sides were WS-III, speed max, with the Gorn set up within 5 hexes of the planet in the middle of an 84x60 map. Assessing the Gorn defenses, the Lyrans chose the better part of valor, and turned to disengage. By


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DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES An Orion pirate squadron launches a major operation at the Hydran world of Ankrogea! The Hydrans are ready for the incursion, and both sides square off for battle! ORION FLEET: OK6, DWV (8 ZV fighters), LRE, LRS. HYDRAN FLEET: LNH-CS Klarion Wind, LNH-V Levantine, LNH-ER Graf Eisen, SRG+ Rain of Tears, 23xST-2, 2xST-H, ST-E. Both sides WS-III, speed max, with the Hydrans setting up within 5 hexes of the planet, at the center of an 84x60 map!

By


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COMEBACK AT COLONY-6 The Kzinti, vowing not to roll over and die quietly, launch a counter-attack at Colony-6, their former colony now held by the Lyrans! KZINTI FLEET: DN(2) Lunar Edomae, CC(1) Nuku-Nuku, BC(1) Fatal Fury, CD(1) Raystorm, SDF(4) Hot Conductor, DD Endymion. LYRAN FLEET: OB, PAM; STL King of Beasts, NCAu Crimson Death, TGCpu+ (PSC) Sure Fire, LDR CWbu+ Gray Fang, SC+ Tigereye. As both fleets square off, long range scans detect a drifting derelict on an offside vector; a crippled LDR DD is 35 hexes from both fleets on an angle. The Lyran fleet sets up within 5 hexes of the planet, with the Kzin coming in from a corner; the derelict is placed so that it is 35 hexes from both fleets. Both sides WS-III, speed max! By


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THE AUDACITY OF HOPE The Kzinti system of Colony-12 bravely digs in and tries to hold off a joint Peladine/Lyran assault! LYRAN/PELADINE FLEET: LDR CCu+ Necromancer, Frax CW Defector, SC+ Predator's Eye; Peladine CA+, FF+, SC+. KZINTI FLEET: MB(ph-1), GBD4x2; TGC(2) Yugio (P-B3, P-B3), CMF(1) Damocles, DDL(2) Valkyrie, DD+(7) Sturmvogel, DD(5) Silver Hawk, POL+(2) Intrepid. Both sides WS-III, speed-max, with the Kzinti setting up within 5 hexes of the planet, at the center of an 84x60 map. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: One Last Duty Cat Scratch Fever Dead Men Tell No Tales Comeback at Colony-6 The Audacity of Hope BATTLES IN PROGRESS: The Folly of Men (Godzilla) Head to Head Requiem Redux

War Machine Spitting Into the Wind Blood of My Enemy Dog Soldiers BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle By


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GORN CAPTAIN NEEDED for "One Last Duty", above. Pat Hill has offered to fly the Roms, we just need a Gorn captain. If you know anyone else who might be interested, point them here k thx. By


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Dale you're killin me here ;) Currently out of the 3 just announced games I would rather play in the following order: 1.Audacity 2.Comeback at Colony 6 3. Cat Scratch fever If anyone else wants to play one or more be my guest. I would rather do audacity first though, any possibility of me not playing Cat til either another captain can be found or I clean my plate a little? ie BB game is on T11 but as its a BB there is a lotta fight left there. The Peladine is still hot and heavy as well. I can easily pick up one game, possibly a second but most likely other captains will be needed for Cat and possibly col 6. Is this possible at this point? I may also be able to pick up one of the unannounced games in a couple weeks.

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Kerry: I already have you down for "Cat Scratch Fever"... By


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Kerry: Please understand that there are too many Lyran battles for you to call 'dibs' on all of them. And that I generally hand out battles as I go, and let people fill them in as best they can. That said, if you and Ted would rather do "Audacity of Hope" instead of "Cat Scratch Fever", I have no objection; but if we find another captain for "Cat Scratch Fever" while you're busy, that battle will get handed out. If Ted doesn't want to do "Audacity", since he's already been recruited to do "Cat Scratch Fever", I will try to find a Kzinti captain for Audacity and a Lyran captain for Fever, while both battles sit idle until they have two captains; but this seems wasteful. Nothing personal, but there are a LOT of Lyran battles and they need to get handled or this turn will take forever. By


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Looking for an Orion to impale themselves on the Hydrans for 'Dead Men'. By


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Ted: You willing to fly "Audacity of Hope" (above) with Kerry in lieu of "Cat Scratch Fever"? Let Mischa and I know... By


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Sorry maybe I was misleading in my response. I understand I will not be able to play all 12 or so battles this turn. I just wanted to do audacity instead of Cats scratch fever(this is totally due to me never flying a LDR and want to see if the crack is all that it's meant to be). So if it's agreeable for you let's see if Ted's game. Ted are you willing to play Audacity instead of cats scratch fever? Note I totally am not calling Dibs on the other two either. If captains can be found for them then "play on" with whichever captain is available. Overall this turn there are a lot of battles although many are involving the lyrans-I think we only attacked like 6 locations though ;) I totally agree that having battles sitting due to one captain trying to do it all blows chunks, and am more than happy to share the wealth with other captains. Selfishly I just wanna pick certain ones ;) Unluckily many of the battles this turn are very close so the games will tend to run tight. By


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Kerry: No problem man, I understand, and believe me, it's not a race - but I do like to see forward motion. Nobody expects complex multi-ship battles to be resolved overnight! As I said, no objection to you flying "Audacity" instead of "Fever", as long as you can find an opponent. By


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Admittedly, I'm fairly certain the Enclave of Colony 12 is a lost cause... so I'd rather see Ted Fay flying the more valuable battle of Cat Scratch Fever. :3 But it's honestly up to him which he'd rather fly... By


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In "Audacity of Hope", it is worth noting that the LDR CCu+ Necromancer has a LC, LD, and LMM. Likewise, the TUG-C Yugio has a LSO. In "Cat Scratch Fever", the Kzinti BC Killer Instinct has a LWO, while the Lyran BC Ransacker has a LMM. In the future, guys, it would be helpful if you'd include LO's in your systems listing, in parentheses, with the ship's class and name. Example: LDR CCu+ Necromancer (LC, LD, LMM). By


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Francois LeMay will be flying the Gorn in "One Last Duty". By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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These are the last Lyran battles so no more flood of cats. And this has been the sad result of the Kzinti-Gorn conspiracy to menace the peace loving Lyrans. We urge all enlightened peoples to fight Kzin-Gorn oppression. The Klingon crew that have been captured with their vessels will be freed from Kzin slavery soon. By


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Marc: Well there is one more Lyran-Gorn battle yet to be announced. ;) By


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Yeah one more against the gorn who=ich will be a tough battle. Dale as well I have listed the NCA Crimson Death in the Col 6 battle having a LC can You confirm this? Kerry

By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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There are no Gorn in Lyran space! By


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"Peace loving Lyrans" WTF? Is that your idea of some sick, twisted joke? If so, it ain't funny. Lyran Admiral, you are - without a doubt and without regard to anyone's particular alliances - the BIGGEST threat to peace in the Far Stars. Sincerely and collectively, Federation Admiral Pita Commodore Disney Commodore Mackey All Star Fleet Officers All Peoples of the Federation By


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After much thought of the strategic situation, the Peladine Queen has a statement. (on a podium revealing exquisite wealth in its decorations, she strolls up and stands proudly in front of all the cheering Peladians) "The objective of the Peladine (which differs on some levels of the Lyrans') have been met. We refrain from combat when it is possible, but yield to it if necessary (and it was necessary a year ago), but we must withdraw lest we get drawn into something most horrible. "I have relieved our fleet commander of his duties and have instructed vicecommander of fleet operations to remove our forces, our people, from conflict. Instructions to our ships in foreign territory who are indeed in combat will be ordered to leave. This has been sent on all subspace channels. We have come too close to being the people who have preyed upon us in the distant past. I have spoken." By


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Kerry, confirmed. Marc, good one. By


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One thing I'm curious about, is that Audacity has 2 scouts. I thought only one pure scout could participate per battle? By


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All battles with any Peladine units involved are unfortunately put on "hold" until this gets sorted out. Stay tuned. By


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John: We're not following S8, we're using the Flexible Command Rating System from the Campaign Designer's Handbook. Thus, there is no free scout, but you can have more than one. Some S8 limits (maulers, tugs) are applied. By


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So let me get this right, The gorns and KZI are attacking at 5 different locations and it's the lyrans fault for fighting back. Okay looks like the plan for half the nations here are to just roll over or try solely peaceful means? I didn't know we were playing civilization- I thought the purpose of the campaign was to generate fights? Maybe I am misunderstanding the whole purpose then. Hopefully the fed and Pels like it when the thols/KLI/Gorn/KZI/ISC roll over em. Good luck with that. Dale tell me what I am doing on the peladine fight Head to head. If I am withdrawing I'll take a second lyran fight then. By


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OK, here is the score. The Peladine fleet in "HEAD TO HEAD" is Peladine-led and pure. They will disengage at first opportunity, although Jeremy is within his rights to demand a final turn be played IF HE CHOOSES to inflict any "parting shots" he wishes. I generally suggest we avoid this and just end the battle, with both sides falling back to their launching points this turn. The Peladine units in "BLOOD OF MY ENEMY" and "THE AUDACITY OF HOPE" are integrated into the Lyran command structure - and FCR structure - and are Aggressive, and about to engage in (or already engaged in) battle. Thus, they will receive the Peladine "recall" AFTER the battles are concluded. Until such time they remain under Lyran fleet command. This is neccessary for several reasons, but the least of which is not the integrity of the FCR system. So, Kerry... you may fly "Cat Scratch Fever" AND "The Audacity of Hope". You will need an opponent for ONE of them, depending on which Ted prefers to fly. Keep us informed, and I'll try to assist in finding a Kzinti captain for the off one.

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Yeah in Head to head he can internal a ship but as the only one hurt is the SRV at R20 I doubt it'll be a killing shot. If that's the case then my weekend just opened up. Frank I can play anytime after 3 pm eastern on sat so Email a time thats good for you. Ted I will do whichever fight you want to take sunday or tuesday works for me. Can you let me know which battle you want to take though. I am getting to know how you felt with the rommies By


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... Apparently Kerry is unfamiliar with the Far Stars map. Perhaps I can explain. You see all those battles with "Colony X" in the name? That's the Kzinti naming system. Colony 2? Kzinti colony. Colony 12? Kzinti colony. Colony 5, Colony 6? You guessed it. Kzinti colonies. Since launching an unprovoked attack, the Lyrans have managed to conquer no fewer than 4 Kzinti systems, as well as the territory the Kzinti shared with the Lyrans in the Cat's End system, and isolated 4 more from our homeworld. Their Peladine allies have conquered 2 Kzinti systems. In fact, I had been negotiating peacefully with the Peladine until they (to their regret) had to declare war against me. This is hardly a war of Kzinti aggression. The Gorn and Klingons have demonstrated their alliance previously. Lyran forces entered Gorn space, and apparently provoked a Gorn counterattack. The Gorn also have shared a system with the Kzinti peacefully since I took the reins (and I believe since their first encounter), so it can be said we are at least friendly, if not formally allied. Any assistance they provide the Kzinti is appreciated, but is not the result of some background conspiracy. :3 It should also be noted that if the Lyrans complete the conquest of Kzinti space, they will probably have roughly doubled the size of their empire. The Peladine have their own sizable empire, but geographically are pretty much limited by the Lyrans and Hydrans, so they have to either be Lyran friends or be next on the chopping block. So the Lyran/Peladine power bloc is not to be dismissed casually. :3 By

Peter Thoenen (Eol)

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I can do "One Last Duty", either side. My available times are any Friday/Saturday for the rest of the month (not 30/31) from 03:00 Eastern until 16:00 Eastern. I

can also Thursdays from 11:00 Eastern until 16:00 Eastern. If I have to pick sides, would prefer to play the suicide Rom's By


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Peter: Pat Hill's already taken the Roms, and Frank LeMay had offered to do the Gorn. However if Frank for soem reason doesn't want it, or your schedule matches up with Pat's better, I have no objection to you flying the Gorn in "One Last Duty". By

Peter Thoenen (Eol)

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Works for me .. noticed they were still under "Battles Announced" so figured nobody took. By


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Mischa I understand that the Lyran has attacked some kzinti sites(aka col 6, 11, 7), but I thought the purpose of the campaign was to do such attacks. If I thought the purpose of the campaign was to get online and have tea and crumpets by sending pictures of such to each other, well maybe I would be taking a pass on that one. Obviously on the Roms side more than one opponenet attacked that empire as well. For all this I don't throw fault for the attacks and counter-attacking etc.(aka back to the purpose of the campaign). What really gets me is when those involved with all the attacking and counter-attacking try to make it seem like they are or are not the bad guy through diplomatic means. I mean once again I thought the purpose of the campaign was to generate battles etc. If the purpose of the campaign is to "just play nice with each other and never attack others at all, we should all just verbally chastize those who wish to do so" -well that makes for a rather dull SFB campaign. ;) Now I may not be privy to the lyran making an alliance with you and then attacking you at a weak point(I thuoght the campaign was set-up to not allow the surprise attack, but give you a 1 turn warning). This may have happened in the past, as I have only been following for the last 3 turns or so. But as the purpose is to take over planets it should have been expected that sooner or later such may happen. Again for the KZI you have almost as many full fleets as the lyrans are currently fielding so it's not like the lyran is taking some kind of advantage here. You know he's coming in so defend yourself as best you can. Note again I am an OK captain not so great as a world leader. Of course I know where my abilities are so I try to stay away from the world leading stuff. But as the lyrans there are only the KZI, Gorn, Pellie, and Hydrans close(althuogh thols and KLI just joined the party). If any attacks are to be made they have to be

against those nations. Currently nuetrals and Allies aren't bad to have though. By


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Kerry, that is essentially the purpose of the campaign. I just had to object to your portrayal of the Lyrans as being the defenders, who are simply fighting back against Kzinti (hah!) or Gorn aggression. The Gorn have invaded Lyran space, but only this past turn, and after several turns of Lyran incursions into Kzinti space. : 3 Now of course, yes, I saw the Lyran attacks coming. It was my own mistakes and errors (and dare I say incompetence?) that cost me my systems. Insufficient scouts, inadequate defenses (particularly for Colony 7), and so on. I've tried to learn from those mistakes, but unfortunately a campaign is not the kind of setting where that helps, since I likely won't have any opportunity to take advantage of what I've learned. :3 By


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Oh I commonly misspeak at times. If my defense of the lyrans is interpretted as them only being a chaste babe being set upon from all sides from the wolves well that is not anything close to reality. I think all know that each nation is trying to defend or attack to gain ground or hold what they have is the general purpose here. I believe both sides are doing this, and classifying the lyrans as the only aggressor here seemed a bit naive to me. The political "fronting" going on seems to be eggrarious on all sides, although this fronting does nothing but make the side look good to thiose who believe it. As I am more of a "I hate politicians and every lie they state" I generally have a distaste for the "posturing" a lot of people seem to enjoy here. Especially when the posturing is "poor me" and then they attack you immediately following it. Overall the campaign seems to be working well with the exceptions that some are taking the "diplomatic" route to heart. Maybe a difference in philosophy for me but it is a viable route til the the opponents just run you over as you have crappy fleets out there to defend with. By


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Friday, January 09, 2009 - 12:01 pm: Edit

Kerry, I can play Audacity as Zin. I'd also LOVE to play Comeback at Colony 6 as Lyran; however, that's just because I *LOVE* that STL. It's a fantastic ship to fly. However, because I already got to fly the STL once, and you want to fly the LDR CC, I'll pick Audacity to give you the wiz-bang of LDR against drones. Comeback at Colony 6 is still available after we're done with Audacity, then

If

maybe I'll fly that STL again. Fortunately, our times are very compatible. I'd already agreed to play Frank in another campaign game this weekend, so that's *probably* out. My schedule is that I can usually play on weeknights after about 8:30 pm CST - though sometimes I run late till 9 depending on what's going on with the family. Let's shoot for Tuesday. If Frank is not available for TD this weekend at the same times I'm available, then we can schedule something for this weekend. Lemme know. By

Peter Thoenen (Eol)

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So whats actually outstanding with no players? Looking for one sided fights (or nearly so) and / or under 4 ship fights By

John Trauger (Vorlonagent)

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggy' while reaching for a stick." I forget who said it but it seems to apply. By


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Peter there are 2 closer fights for the KZI/Lyrans but they are like 6 ships per side. The fights are somewhat close to even althuogh the Vudar CA will bring it's own uniqueness to the battle. Any chance you want to pick up one of these? Kerry By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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Chaste babies....set upon by wolves is exactly right! With that said, the Lyran Admiral character is just that - a charater. I try to amuse, with applause from "The Masters.". Note some of the Tariq Aziz-like statements. So, let's try to enjoy? If I offend, I apologize. By


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No offense taken here. Mischa are you on SFBonline? care to grab one of the remaining 2 battles? I think in col 7 you are disadvantaged, but the other seems fair if not in your favor. Let me know if you want to give it a shot. Kerry By


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Peter: Probably the closest thing to your criteria is an Orion attack on the Hydrans, as described in "Dead Men Tell No Tales", above. Jon (the Hydran admiral) needs an opponent; let us know if you're interested. By


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BATTLE REPORT: REQUIEM REDUX The Condor chased the depleted Klingon fleet into a corner, backed up by a Paravian DW and Gorn BDD. With a massed plasma launch, and their shields in tatters, the Klingons gave up the ghost and slipped off the map edge, disengaging. While they could have dealt with this launch, they were steadily being worn down... more rapidly than the Roms were being worn down, especially with the BATS in the picture. Romulus holds for another day! By


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SLIDARIAN SHOOTOUT An Orion raiding squadron hits the Klingon system of Slidaria, resulting in a "battle of the gnats". KLINGON FLEET: 3x GMG, AxC Slidar,E4B Tanist, F-S Bakurian Race. ORION FLEET: 1x F-AS, 2x LR. Both sides WS-III, speed-max, the usual setup. John and I have powered through T2, and are starting T3. So far, the Orions came in, nearly took down the front shield on the E4B on T1 with disruptor shots backed by ph-1s at R15, without doubling engines. The Klinks in return nearly caved in the front shield of the F-AS. T2, the Orions doubled, kicked out scatter packs, and used OL disruptors to kill 3 of the advancing shuttle horde (tm) the Klinks are using to screen their planet. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: One Last Duty Cat Scratch Fever Dead Men Tell No Tales Comeback at Colony-6 The Audacity of Hope BATTLES IN PROGRESS:

The Folly of Men (Godzilla) Head to Head War Machine Spitting Into the Wind Blood of My Enemy Dog Soldiers Slidarian Shootout BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle Requiem Redux By


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Marc: The masters find the political yammering amusing. Everybody else should too. Else they need a laxative. ;) By


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Marc (not Lyran Admiral): yeah, I was "role-playing" right back at you and Kerry. I also didn't mean to offend. Just trying to keep in the swing of things. Kerry, My apologies if I ticked you off. My statement above was "in character" (actually, characters...ya'll might've noticed I've got - counting my DNL commander - no less than 5 different and distinct personalities...who's schitzo? Me?). I'm very well aware the purpose of the campaign is to get our fight on. The rest is just colorful. If you're not into the color, no problem...I'll make sure to stay "out of character" when you and I chat if you prefer! Plus, I admit that I'm not really much of a role-player so don't ever hesitate (and this goes for everybody) to tell me I'm going too much "over the top."

There's a couple of other players that I don't use my personalities with either 'cause they don't seem to like it, so no biggie... By


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Geeee-zuz, there's a pile of battles this turn. And I only got one. And it was a friggin' monster. I shoulda accepted the Hydran offer to help him kill the Juggernaut. I was afwaid... [insert picture of rather boyish dejected-looking Fed Admiral - in a uniform jersey 4 sizes too big - standing by himself in an empty field holding a football in both hands and staring at the ground] By

Francois Lemay (Princeton)

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I just noticed that Pete is interested in flying the " One Last Duty " battle. I offered to fly it because it looked like there were no takers at the time. Just sent an email to all concerned re the transfer of the Gorn Fleet's helm in this battle over to Pete. Cheers Frank Lemay By


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BATTLE REPORT: SLIDARIAN SHOOTOUT After 8 turns of mayhem, the Orion LRs were losing too many engine boxes to stay. They had blown up the Klingon-WYN AxC, and crippled the E4B, but the cowardly Klinks kept the E4B near the planet, with the F-S, screened by the ground bases and a huge swarm of GAS shuttles. Easy come, easy go. Once the Orions saw the E4B failed to mutiny and repaired its SCTY station, they disengaged. The Orion F-AS had taken a wallop too, and lost several shields. The LRs took only shield damage... well, except for that cocaine nosebleed they had running... By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: One Last Duty

Cat Scratch Fever Dead Men Tell No Tales Comeback at Colony-6 The Audacity of Hope BATTLES IN PROGRESS: The Folly of Men (Godzilla) Head to Head War Machine Spitting Into the Wind Blood of My Enemy Dog Soldiers BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle Requiem Redux Slidarian Shootout By

John Carroll (Jcwl)

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A Proclamation of His Imperial Majesty Klothar IV, Emperor of All the Klingons; The Kzinti systems of Colony 1 and Colony 4, as well as the Kzinti portions of the Crimson system, have been extended the protection of the Klingon Deep Space Fleet and are declared to be a Protectorate of the Klingon Empire. These systems remain independent of the Klingon Empire, but have nonetheless been extended Protectorate status. Any hostile action against Klingon interests or Kzinti assets in these systems will be treated as a defacto declaration of war against the Klingon Empire.

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I'm assuming that I'm playing the Zin in "Audacity" and am setting up accordingly. Dale or Kerry, please advise if otherwise. Zin admiral: email me any orders you might have - otherwise I'll just assume

"defeat the enemy while trying to preserve your own ships." By


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Rich; You may yet get the chance for cooperation. By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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Saturday, January 10, 2009 - 09:13 am: Edit

Wow, I step away for a few days and the thread explodes! No problem on the Peladine retreat from "Head to Head". I can't stop Kerry from withdrawing, and could, at best, get light to moderate internals on something. Fighter damage would be another possibility, but the ranges are pretty great, so I would not hold my breath. I do want to complement Kerry on a couple of things in the battle: The decision to press the Kzinitis/Klingons early under heavy EW wasn't a bad one. Its a tactic the Roms have used against the Klingons in the past in this campaign with some success. It basically prevents a long sabre dance and forces the Klingons into a close range exchange earlier than they would like. The only reason I hooked back in as early as I did is that I saw it developing and I didn't want a repeat of some past battles against Ted. It worked out OK, and I would have gotten away with it had Kerry not fired a very well timed bolt shot on the D6B and did significant internals. Had that not occured, I think the Peladine would have been clearly "behind" in the battle by the end of turn 2. After completing the turn-in, I e-deceled the whole fleet. I had no idea where all the inbound plasma was headed, and I didn't want the fleet to get spread out. It was late in the turn, and I figured I could just fire the ships right back up to resume the chase in the middle of the next turn. Kerry solved that by placing a couple of T-bombs right in front of the fleet. Dropping the shields in close was gutsy move...I had a number of weapons unfired, and Kerry could not have known for certain that they were in fact unpowered. I decided to put the fleet in reverse to back away from the T-bombs. It worked out OK on the following turns, as I was able to back away from the Peladine that still had some torps and still do some disruptor damage, but in hindsight, I kind of regret it. Backing down has some obvious advantages against plasma, but against a manuvering opponent on an open map, its difficult to control the timing of shots, and you get left with less than optimal opportunities. If I'd found a way to move forward instead, getting past those T-bombs (or maybe just running over them), there is a pretty good chance I would have gotten very close the SRV by the end of the turn. It might of cost me some casualties in the long run, but it would have been more decisive. Anyone fighting the Peladine in the future should be prepared to face a LOT of

ECM toys. With access to ECM drones and ECM plasma, they can keep a steady stream of those devices coming. Showing up to fight them without a good scout is near-suicidal. Thanks again to Kerry for the fun game. -----------------------------------------I'm actually thankful to have some time freed up this evening. The last week at work has been a long one, and I've briefed more Flag Officers between Norfolk and DC than I can count. I have a bunch of stuff to do in preparation for the move to Germany this weekend, and the extra time will help. With regard to future jobs as a Captain, I'm probably not going to be available for a couple weeks. I'll be on travel from the 16th-20th, but the following weekend is a possibility if there are is still something that needed to get wrapped up. Otherwise, I'll assume the role of cheerleader for a while. I'll have some free time in Feb, but we move to Germany in the Mar-Apr time frame, so my full time availability for games is going to be touch and go for a few months. I'll keep the hand on the wheel for the Tholians strategically while all this is going on, but if battles come up, I may need a Captain. Might not be much of an issue in the immediate future...most of the action has migrated away from my little corner of space. By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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Dear Emperor Klothar: We are pleased to see that you have recognized the need for the Kzinti people to be offered protection in their revolution from the Usurper Robuliak (all true Kzinti hail to the true Patriach, Patriarch Lorenzen, whose interests we represent). We agree and have already taken similar action. Now that you have created what we call the Klingon Revolutionary Administrative Protectorate ("KRAP"), we feel the need to prevent any confusion with our own Kzinti Revolutionary Administrative Protectorate (similarly, "KRAP"). Since we now each have our own KRAP to protect (and given the fact that we have more experience with our own KRAP), we have some suggestions of what you can do with your KRAP: (1) given that your KRAP ain't free (and frankly is probably downright expensive to run), we suggest you embrace our policy of using the resources from your KRAP to make these fertile systems safe by establishing defenses that can protect Kzinti interests from the Usurper Ribouliak and his co-conspirators - if you are defending your KRAP, it is only fair to pass-through the costs of your KRAP; (2) you should make sure that no one touches your KRAP. Why anyone (other than the Usurper) would want your KRAP is beyond me, but beware; and (3) Similarly, you must safeguard your KRAP such that your KRAP does not fan

out into neighboring systems. Specifically, we note that several of the attacks into Lyran controlled systems originated from what is now your KRAP. If this continues, it will become apparent that you cannot keep your KRAP together and we will then have to help you impose order. Alternatively, if you are conspiring with the Usurper (which we doubt given your immediate withdrawal of Klingon forces from the battle that resulted from your misunderstanding with the Peladine), it will then be apparent that you will have engaged in a Bilateral Understanding to Leverage the Lyrans with your KRAP (a "BULLKRAP"). If we find that a BULLKRAP was your intent all along, then forces from our KRAP will spew forth and our KRAPs will be in competition for the hearts and minds of the Kzinti people. This is not what we desire. Nonetheless, even if you are not starting some sort of BULLKRAP, we reserve the right to chase down the Counter-Revolutionary Units of the Despot ("CRUD"), which are the armed forces of the Usurper Robuliak, and destroy the CRUD. We suggest that you prepare defenses in the relevant systems so that you can eliminate CRUD and catch it wherever it may go, including those forces of CRUD which accompany your Klingon vessels back to Col-4, especially given your new political position. Remember: with a great KRAP comes great responsibility. We look forward to further exploring how our respective KRAPs can work together to defeat the CRUD and protect the interests of the true Kzinti by putting down the Usurper Robuliak (or otherwise convincing him to abandon his CRUD). Most respectfully, The Lyran Emperor By


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Folly of men: End of T11 BB used planet to block fire frombase and his other units used 8 p1's to kill hte MRS from range 9-15. He tbombed one of my ftrs and crippled it while placing a tbomb 1 hex in front of the planet launching shuttles to try to detonate it. To prevent that the Batts put up an ESG to cover the planet(a lotta discussion here on the legality of this, but as written it seems legal). CS ended turn at R10 to BATTS and ftrs were able to P2 3 ints on the BB(hull and a p3). Frank is using the arcs of the ground bases to only be in arc of 1 base. T12 I got stupid here. Undocked the unhurt DW(only 11 shields on #4). BB basically turned around coming under fire from imp 25+. The CS was going spd 0 and launched a 100 pointer on imp 2. I fired some fire at his SRV as it put a 10 point

shield to me at R15, doing some 10 ints. The mobile DW put 2 p1's into a ftr at R5 crippling it and then ran from the plasma D launches. BB fired around 10 p1's into a pair of ftrs from R8 killing em. My stupidity was in launching the weasel I wasn't paying attention and launched it off my 1 point shield. with 5 p1s from R9-15 he killed the weasel and took out the batts armor. Later in the turn the BB with a 21 point #2(with 13 rein) came under fire from everything. I rolled poorly doing only another 10 or so ints. At one point for 4 imps I fired p2's from 9-15 for mizia, but got 0. He phasered the crippled DW but wasn't able to blow it as well as launching Dtorps to kill a shut and int a ground base. On 32 he bolted the bearing S+F to destroy the crip DW as well as firing some 6 p1's into the batts for ints. Batts has a total of 22 or so ints after the explosion which knocked out 2 p3 and a ton of hull. T13 starts with the BB at R6 others at R12-25. By

Mike Strain (Evilmike)

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I can't believe the Romulans are still kicking. You magnificent Romulan bastards. I salute you. When the campaign ends, the Roms definitely need to be awarded the 'Hung In By Their Fingernails' title. By


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Well, the Roms as an independant nation are pretty much done. They have their homeworld; they have sent some ships to co-belligerant space; and some ships survive as independant raiders. Plus, they still have a decent homeworld defense fleet. By

Michael C. Grafton (Mike_Grafton)

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Can the Roms ships "invade" someone (that they like) and then surrender (be donated?) By


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I haven't been able to get a CMF ship def. Kerry, we might need to delay for a while till we get that ship def for SFBOL. By

Paul Franz (Andromedan)

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CMF is now in the SFBOL library. By


Paul, Thanks!!!

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Kerry, I'll still have to do some setup - but I think we can play tonight. By


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Yet another dazzling turn done on "Blood of My Enemy"! Yet MORE shield boxes on the DE shot up! Yet MORE boxes on the CLE repaired (2 BATT and 2 shield #1). Oh, and 2 S-torps hit the #4 of the Lyran CW for a stunning 3 points after all the ass-ton of phasers they shot at them. Stay tuned for even more dazzlement on T6... maybe tomorrow, maybe Thursday. By


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"ass-ton?" Oh, come on. I shot a total of 7 phasers at the two torps, 5 of them were P3s. No, Dale, the ass-ton of phasers were shot at the DE, remember? 14 P1 with no shift at range 15. And I did.... .... ....wait for it.... .... 3 damage! Yee-hah! Woohoo! My gunners kick holy...petunias?

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I watched a piece of a game tonight. Of the 30ish die rolls that I saw, probably 60% were 5s and 6s. I think it's the client's way of saying "Don't be a coward, overrun!" By


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Audacity T1: All drone forces of the lyrans launched ECM drones then we slow approached at Spd 15.

KZI turned and made a circle around the planet ending at R34, Base ended at R29. I pinged 8 disr into the base for 8 dam while KZI launched some 15 ECM drones amongst their various ships(note I have 12 available scout channels in this battle). A p4 battery did 1 dam to one ECM drone. Cont possibly this weekend or early next week By


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Hey overrun a carrier force when you have a base with defsats to hide behind? Richard Stand the course! I'll take your 18 damage a turn to the gorns 3 damage

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What Kerry said. By

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Defsats? What defsats? I have defsats? By


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True should be corrected to state Ground bases not defsats. By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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I agree - 18 is better than 3. But this battle sounds frustrating given the absurd die luck. By


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Any takers out there for Catch Scratch fever? We need a KZI captain and he gets the dreaded vudar CA+BStation for defense!

Yeah I never was a great cheerleader By

Eli Patterson (Rakishan)

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OOC Computer security warning. I just got a message involving going to the site for fanbox.com. Googling the site resulted in some pretty negative articles about it. If you get a solicitation to visit the fanbox site, the recommendation is to delete it. By


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Dale, I had a major computer crash last night, its now fixed (though I had to trash my

newer hard drive). Please send me my latest turn spreadsheet. Thanks. By


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Eli and all: I got the same e-vite, and it came from "John Carroll." John, You might want to check your system; you may have some malware... By


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NO HAVEN The Gorn lead an attack on the Lyran system "Cat's Haven", taking the fight to the Lyrans yet again! GORN FLEET: DNT Gamera, CCF Dragonicon, CLF Dragonfire, BDD+ Jaws, BDL+ Thorn, BDS+ Oeil Vert. LYRAN FLEET: BATS (175), PAM, HBM, 6xZ-1 (I-M drns), 2xGBDP; DNE Heartseeker, DWLbup Deathdealer, DWbup+ Rending Jaws, DWbup+ Savage Fangs, 5xINT, INT-E. Both side WS-III, speed-max, with the Lyrans setting up within 5 of the planet in the middle of an 84x60 map.

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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: One Last Duty Cat Scratch Fever Dead Men Tell No Tales Comeback at Colony-6 No Haven BATTLES IN PROGRESS: War Machine Spitting Into the Wind Blood of My Enemy Dog Soldiers The Audacity of Hope

BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle Requiem Redux Slidarian Shootout Head to Head The Folly of Men (Godzilla) By


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With the announcement of "No Haven", all battles for the turn have been announced.

Now we just need to get them flown! Carry on people... By


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Folly of Men Ends after T12 The Gorns offered a cease fire if I allowed the 2 hurt ftrs to be picked up on their retreat. Wtih none of his ships seriously hurt(The BB only had 50 ints but was running outa good shields), I accepted it in a heartbeat. Further play could have resulted in Gorn ship loss, definitely woulda resulted in DW hurtings. Gorns end up losing 10 ftrs and some 21 shuttles and can repair all current internals. Lyrans Lose DWL Sabre adn DW Hraths whiskers By


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WE NEED CAPTAINS for... CAT SCRATCH FEVER (Kzin) COMEBACK AT COLONY-6 (Kzin) NO HAVEN (Gorn)

Kerry Mullan is available to play the Lyrans in at least two of these, but we need a sparring partner for him. By


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BLOOD OF MY ENEMY More flying around. This time the Gorns have found the nice shadow of the planet to screen them from that mean ol' BATS and are staying in it until they are good and ready (they're good enough now, but they're not ready). Phaser fire from the CC and the G18s nearly brought down the #2 of the Pel DD D'Vein. Rich has been very good at teasing out my plasma and then gunning it and running it out, so I gave in to temptation and bolted an S and 2 Fs at R10 at the D'vein's weak #2. 6, 6, 4. Are you frikkin' kidding me? Oh well. Two G's from the Peladine ships hit the #3 of the CC after being phasered down a bit. Thanks to Jeremy making me neurotic about not using specific reinforcement but general, and a timely use of batteries, the shield only took about 16 and held. Phasers from those Racoon-eyed Dolphins took out one G18 and damaged another. The three survivors launched D's at them and then HET'd to run for it. Yeah, this is when the Peladine shot up to 24 and outran the D's. The G10s manuevered in, and the Lyrans shot 'em up with disruptors, killing one and dinking another. On 6.32, as the base cleared the planet, the Lyran BC and CW were at R8, and the only target in sight for the BATS were the G10s, the pilots all launched their torps, and then prayed. 4 of the 5 remaining G10s were crippled, but none killed, by the BATS' wrath at R10. Oh, and somewhere in there, the DE had to turn and ate 2 Ph-4s on its weak shield. No, not just ANY of its custom-built weakass shields - the one that had been shot before and was up to 2 boxes. 13 internals, but no torpedo hits. Go me. More mayhem this weekend, next week, or sometime. By


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What is an "INT-E", as listed in the Lyran side of the last scenario? By


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EW warfare Interceptor. By


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Hmm, I didn't think interceptors had EW versions. Is it in K?

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Marc Baluda (Marc)

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Yes. Also note that the interceptors don't have warp booster packs. By


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Message from UPS: What do you mean 4-6 weeks for delivery of my warp booster packs! That wasn't in the sale advertisement. And note you also get to kill despised Lyrans in all these battles! It is the best of all worlds beating up on the lyrans in their own territory, even! Strike a blow against the agressor while the chance is available. Crush em now before they overthrow all the local governments! Viva la Resistance! Okay that's about as political as I get ;) This message is brought to you by the lyran republic. Innovative ways in improving everyday life. By

Jim Davies (Mudfoot)

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This is where we learn that Interceptors without packs are glacially slow. Especially if they mount disruptors. Plasma would be OK (until you have to reload). Do the Lynxes have a PFT? I couldn't see one. If they're casual, can they be treated as a flotilla for the EW unit? By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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Jim, their is no PFT supporting the interceptors. By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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They are a flotilla for the INT-E. By


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Warmachine - Scheduled to pick up again about 5PM mountain on 17 Jan. Come one, come all, and watch the battle unfold! By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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Gents, the Tholian admiral is visiting family in Charlotte this weekend. My e-mail connectivity is spotty at best. Should be back at in the Holdfast late on the 20th...should be fun driving up I-95 on Inauguration Day! By

William T Wilson (Sheap)

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Turns 5 and 6 played in War Machine. This part of the battle favored the Juggernaut. Turn 5, the Hydran ships retreated to the base while the Juggernaut "pursued." The Hydrans did not have very far to go and the Juggernaut had emptied its

phasers on turn 4, so this turn took place at slow speed (Juggernaut was 10 all turn). Most of the time the range was 13-17. The fighters that were previously launched attacked the Juggernaut with fusions, gatlings, and two phaser pods each. The base chipped in some long range P4 fire. The ships were largely lacking in rear firing weapons due to either design or damage and held fire. The Hydrans attempted to split shield between the base and fighters, but estimated the speed wrong and everything ended up hitting the same shield arc. The Juggernaut repelled all of the damage with the shield, and return fire crippled or destroyed the fighters. The fighters went on EM. Long range P4 fire from the Juggernaut scored a few points on the Traveler, knocking down the #4 shield again and adding seven more internals. Late in the turn, a rules mistake cropped up which disrupted the Hydran battle plan. Jon believed his ships could fly into the base's hex at warp, ED, and dock immediately, but I pointed out that docking requires an entire turn of stoppedness. Jon therefore was forced to wait until the end of turn 6 before docking. EOT some more shield repairs, patching up the #4 on the Traveler again, which turned out to be significant. Turn 6 the Hydrans launched their remaining fighters for cover while the ships and base sat around trying to dock. The Juggernaut continued to close, going 10 with a jump up to 30 about 2/3 of the way through the turn. One fighter got picked off by a long range P4 but the other eight closed in. The Juggernaut was in dir C from the base (but headed F), the fighters were in dir E from the Juggernaut. The fighters had to fire at R4 again due to the Juggernaut's speed increase and another attempt to split shields failed as the Juggernaut reached the shield spine on the base that impulse, resulting in everything hitting the #6. Fighter firepower (including the 1.5 gatlings each) and base P4s/fusions at R8 scored 90 damage to the shield, which was pretty good, but both base OL hellbores rolled 9's and missed. The Juggernaut turned to E and flew through the cloud of now toothless fighters, crippling or destroying a couple with close range P3s. The EW situation was very bad, with the Juggernaut suffering 6 points of OEW, as is typical while attacking a base. The base's last two P4s and P-Gs did 30 more damage, knocking down the remnants of the shield and putting 20 damage on the Juggernaut's #2 armor (most of the Juggernaut's armor had been damaged previously by hellbores). Some more rules questions involving docking, another couple of fighters shot down by P3s, then the Juggernaut closed to R2 near EOT and unloaded on the damaged Traveler on the 2-box #4 shield. Dice were good and the Traveler took 70 damage, but barely held together thanks to 8 points of reinforcement. Return fire from the two cruisers penetrated the Juggernaut's #2 armor, destroying three warp and a P3 on eight internals. The Juggernaut then turned off and fired a rear

P4, which destroyed the Traveler. The explosion scored 16 damage to the base and both other cruisers (which were still all docking), and destroyed three fighters that were on landing approach. EOT the two surviving ships docked to the base, and performed a couple of minor repairs. The Juggernaut ended the turn at R5 from the base. Two crippled fighters are also on the map between the Juggernaut and the Hydrans, the others all having been destroyed. Next turn, both sides will be short of power as the base must attempt repairs, recharge weapons and supply EW, while the Juggernaut recharges phasers and deals with minor warp engine damage. The Hydran ships have plenty of power but can't do much with it as they can transfer only 4 power each to the base and cannot fire their weapons while docked. The Juggernaut has the initiative as all the Hydran ships are stopped and their fighters are used up. Battle resumes at 6 PM Pacific tomorrow (Sunday). By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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check the rules on ships use of additional power to fuel repair pods to which they are attached. By


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Check the rules again on not firing either. Docked ships cannot fire through specific arcs, but can fire out of the non-blocked arcs. This normally means that most sihps can fire something for some portion of the turn. Well this is if they are extrenally docked. If internally docked yeah they are totally hosed. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Cat Scratch Fever Dead Men Tell No Tales Comeback at Colony-6 No Haven BATTLES IN PROGRESS: War Machine Spitting Into the Wind Blood of My Enemy Dog Soldiers The Audacity of Hope One Last Duty BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather

War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle Requiem Redux Slidarian Shootout Head to Head The Folly of Men (Godzilla) By


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Negative on firing at all, even while externally docked. Passive FC cannot be used, and Active FC is "disrupted." Can do other functions like EW, tran, trac, lab, etc., but no fire. By


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Rich the disrupted rule D6.68 states that the no fire restriction is for the first 4 imps. After that FC goes back to normal. Note this is all in D6.68. So for externallly docked they get 4 imps of "no fire" and then the rest of the time they have fire capabilities for the rest of their docked stay. By

Michael Lui (Michaellui)

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Nomad How the rule (C13.762) reads seems like it lasts as long as the ship is docked, not 4 impulses. You may want to do a Q+A question to clarify it. And it doesn't say no-fire from the ship, you can shoot at any seeking weapons that are approaching you. However the Juggernaut doesn't have any more (I think) so it does work out to not being able to fire. By


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Hmm it seems that G17 repairs are specifically excluded from the power transfer rules. So that's a big advantage to the Hydrans, or I guess a big lack of a disadvantage depending on if you knew that before. I still don't think D6.68 means that the restriction is only for four impulses. D6.68 is written in terms of a single event disrupting the fire control, like being displaced or released from stasis. It specifies a four impulse recovery period. C13.762 implies that the fire control remains disrupted during the entire time the ships are docked. The recovery period would then begin when the ships undock. Nevertheless I have posted this in rules questions. Since I don't know how Jon

stands on the issue (or even if he agrees with me he might want to wait in hopes of a favorable ruling) I'm not sure if we want to continue the game today after all? By


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Michael perhaps I was unclear. G13.762 reads you have disrupted FC as per D6.68. D6.68 clarifies disrupted fc means 4 imps of no fire then normal fc coinditions. I take them as stating once docked you have 4 imps of no fire ten normal fc as per D6.68. Of course furthe restrictions in D13.762 delineate the PC bonus is null and void but as long as it refers to D6.68 as it does I don't see how you do not follow D6.68(of course the exceptions in C13.652 are followed but no exception differentiate firing other than the D6.68 reference). As well for repairs the ships under repair can both give their DC rating in power to the base as well as use any other power for the specific modules repair functions on itself. As bases are unlimited on these repairs(within 100 repairs per box), this gives a quick hull repair or otherwise a quick repair of a lot of systems. By


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WARMACHINE - Finale I'll let Sheap give out the details, but I can give you the general idea. The Hydran loose everything. The BATS, the THR, the LM, the TR, all the Stingers. Poof. Juggie looses 2 armor belts and damage on all the others, plus minor internals, but nothing that can't be repaired. IC; ATTENTION ALL PEOPLES OF THE FAR-STARS; The Royal Hydran Navy declares the Juggernaught to be Outlaw. That is all.

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War Machine complete. Results: Total Juggernaut victory. Turn 7 the Hydrans were docked giving the Juggernaut free rein. The Juggernaut went speed 5, closed to R3 and opened fire on the base, hitting the weak #6 shield that was damaged in the explosion of the Traveler. This penetrated the

shield and armor and did a smattering of internals. Return fire from the base punched through the Juggernaut's shield and scored 20 damage to the #1 armor. The Juggernaut used a series of Mizia shots which stripped the base of all weapons and special sensors, additionally uncovering a client bug involving bases with attached modules. The loss of the special sensors improved the EW situation, allowing the Juggernaut to fire with no shift instead of a +3 shift. The Juggernaut turned off, bringing its rear P4s to bear, which took out the last of the base's weapons. The Hydrans launched some shuttles but these did only some minor damage with their phasers. The Juggernaut lost another warp and some P3s but no significant weapons. Turn 8 the Juggernaut started at range 3, with the base's weapons all having been knocked out. The Hydran ships undocked. The Juggernaut let loose on the Thoroughbred, damaging both hellbores, the facing P2s and ph-G, and destroying all power (4P1 + 2P2 + 1ph-G that were not facing remained as the only weapons). The Juggernaut exchanged some insignificant fire with the shuttles now falling astern, destroying 3 of them and leaving 6. The Lord Marshal tried to get away but was hampered by acceleration limits, finding itself gutted before it could escape the map. The Hydrans conceded at this point, having no spaceworthy units and no way to deter the Juggernaut from pounding the base into rubble over the next 1-2 turns. The Juggernaut continues its quest for battle and search for worthy opponents. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Cat Scratch Fever Dead Men Tell No Tales Comeback at Colony-6 No Haven BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Spitting Into the Wind Blood of My Enemy Dog Soldiers The Audacity of Hope One Last Duty BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim

White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle Requiem Redux Slidarian Shootout Head to Head The Folly of Men (Godzilla) War Machine By


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The following message was broadcast in the clear on all channels, and sent via sub-space to the Cobra system, with the permission of the Hydran Kingdom: JUGGERNAUT! YOU DARE TO CHALLENGE THE COLLECTIVE PEOPLES OF THE FAR STARS REGION! YOU HAVE KILLED WITHOUT THOUGHT TO THE HAVOC YOU WREAK ON PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO QUARREL WITH YOU! THEREFORE, WE, THE STAR FLEET OF THE UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS CHALLENGE YOU! WE ARE COMING FOR YOU...HERE! SO SAY WE ALL! By


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One Last Duty We played through 3 turns, spent more like two boxers sizing each other up (otherwise known as me running like a coward

).

Turn 1 we closed getting into engagement range with the KRL Subjugator and the PDWS Owl coming in under cover of the planet and far away from the planetary defenses under fairly high ECM and the DNF Dragon of 3 Stars, CLF ThunderChild, and the MON Facet being tractored by the Dragon coming out to say hello. Turn 2 the battle started closer to the map edge then the planet. The Subjugator opened up with a full spread of plasma and the Dragon returned a fattie plasma R. With some clever tractor tricks the Gorn Captain adroitly avoided the worst of the incoming plasma, and it only dropped the #4 of the ThunderChild by half. However this gave the Romulans some breathing room as the careful Gorn fleet turned away to deal with the plasma. Turn 3 was spend with the Gorn fleet turning back into the Romulans, and the Romulan fleet skimming along the edge of the map. The Gorn fleet is more or less trailing the Romulans at a range of about 11ish. The Romulans can't dance forever!

"Morituri te salutamus" - We who are about to die salute you By


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Anyone have a chance to beat upon the lyrans in either of the 3 battles outstanding? I have No Haven:a gorn DNT fleet vs a DNE led one Comeback at Col 6: a STL led fleet vs a KZI DN led fleet Cat Scratch fever: A BC led fleet vs a KZI base defense with a Vudar CA All should be interesting battles, but I would rather start one or more up sooner than later as they all seem to be long battles as well. Any takers? Kerry By


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I'd love to fly any of those battles, but we have to finish Audacity first. By


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Audacity finished T2. Started at R34. Allied forces come in slow in the 10-14 range. KZI do 14/20. 16 drones are launched early by KZI and I throw 27 lock-on breaks at em later getting 8. At R15 with shifts to the important targets the KZI unloads on the LYR SC doing 29 in after firing 16 disr+24 p1's. The rolls were almost as bad as my lock on rolls. My return fire was weak doing 19 shield dam to the DDL. Ended the turn at R10. Lyran forces have 4 scatters coming against the KZI while they have only the 8 remaining initial launched drones plus another 15 they launched on imp 32. Pel CA threw out 50 points of plasma to add to next turns seekers. For both of us there were just crappy rolls, and the lyran SC appreciates escaping with so little damage. First Blood goes to the KZI. By


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I wouldn't mind captaining a game, but I'm hesitant to volunteer for the big PvP games. I'm realizing that in joining SFBOL I went from a big fish in a little pond to

a middling fish in the Atlantic. So if there are any smaller, less important battles, or ones where I could fly an NPC, I'd rather have those. I don't want to risk blowing an important battle for someone. By


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What Kerry said. Just to add a little, I just turned into the Lyran/Peladine fleet, which is roughly direction D (slightly E) of the MB at range 24 or so. So, I *will* be dealing with those plasma and drones. I took the damage to the DDL on the #6 and the turn brought the fresh #1 shield to bear. Battle continuing on Thurs. at 8:30 pm CST. By


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How fares Dog Soldiers? By


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BLOOD OF MY ENEMY Quick update I'll let Dale post the play-by-play if he wants, but here's the short version: We got thru 7.24. The Gorn DE Guardian of the Egg is no more. Destroyed by phaser fire on impulse 7.06. The Gorn CLE Dragonscale has a down #1 and #2, lost 8 power and about 1/2 it's weapons. It was previously damaged, and took 5 in through the nose from disruptors and long range phasers, and another 31, getting 13 in, from 2 P4s at range 6 from the planet. Lots of minor shield damage to the Lyran CWL (5 of 6 shields have damage ranging from 3 to 10 points), and the Lyran BC has damage to the #2 (10 points) and the #4 (5 points). Yes, I hit a TB with both ships. The Peladine DD D'Vein lost it's #2 and took 8 internals from a phaser strike from the Gorn CCF Tyranicon. It's down a couple power and a couple phasers and...the bridge! It may be taking more damage in the next couple of impulses... The Lyran BATS took collateral damage from using a WW to ditch 3 plasmas. #2 shield now has 3 damage (had some reinforcement). The Gorns have 2 plasma S in flight, each of which is likely only 4 hexes from its targets, and each have moved 4 or 5 hexes. The bad news is one of them will

likely fly by off-side planetary defenses. The Gorn fighter group is getting ragged. 1 G18 destroyed, 1 damaged, 2 undamaged, 2 embarked on the damaged CLE. 3 G10 destroyed and 3 are crippled. Gorn also has 2 shuttles in flight, and the Lyrans have an MRS out. All the small stuff is well within weapons range of multiple units, including the BATS, so if a better target doesn't present itself, the board's gonna get a little more cleaned up... We play again Thursday night. By


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Dog Soldiers will be continued some time after this weekend. Due to scheduling conflicts and a couple of unexpected delays (my fault), we haven't been able to get back to the game. I e-mailed Tom and we will continue the game next week.

At the moment, it's the trash cans that are chasing after the dogs B^) By


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Audacity through 3.11 Lyrans came launching everything.Pel CA came into R6 or so to see if I could get a good launch. As KZI were all spd 9 I was thinking wasting it on a weasel would be bad. Over imp 5-8 I fired on 2 DDs. Rolling like crap(except the auto hit disr from lyr CC), missing with a S+F bolt. Still ended up doin two groups on both DDs of 10+4. Here my rolls were great getting 4 phasers on 1 DD and 4 power 2 drones on another. On imp 11 about half my ships are R9-10 and the others are R14 or so. He has yet to fire anything significant, but hit the incoming torps with some 20 phasers. His imp 32 drone launch were swordfish at the plasma and 8 counter drones at scatters. This actually worked really well but cleared the board of drones. His CMF also dropped a shield to TBOMB 2 more scatters and I hit him with 3 ints(1 warp). Currently I have the Pel CA/Lyr CC around R9/10 running 10 ECM and the rest slightly back running much less. So he can still pound one or more ships real good. Continueing sometime this weekend. By


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BLOOD OF MY ENEMY


Finished out turn 7. Last 8 impulse involved the Gorn CC launching two 30-point torps (from the same launcher, so one is fake) turning in to set up a solo attack run on turn 8. Meanwhile phaser and disruptor fire took down its #3 shield to 5 boxes. The CLE also took 12 damage to it's #4 shield from GBDP #1. The board got cleaned up a bit as all of the G10s, 1 G18, and 2 shuttles were gunned down. In flight are 4 more admins and 2 G18s (1 has 6 damage). 2 more G18s are on the CLE, presumably rearming. On the Gorn side of it, his fire in the last 8 impulses was all directed at the Peladine DD D'Vein, since he had a down shield for a couple of impulses. Dale couldn't miss. He shot 6 P3s at range 5...and did 6 damage. He got 2 more in with it from other shuttles, and followed it with another 4 damage from a range 8 P1 fired by the CC. Amazing shot! D'Vein is now down 5 power, 3 phasers, and her drone rack, and Ensign Dookiepants in the emer is in command now, as the bridge and auxcon got blown away. The Gorn CV, CLE, and LSC are all up north moving A/B, and have several torps ready. The Gorn CC is to the southwest facing C and closing with the two Lyran ships and maybe the Peladine DD Spitting Cat. It's at range 11 from the BATS and planet, and will only have 1 fastloaded F next turn (along with the S already in flight). Turn 8 early is shaping up to be either VERY lively, or is just a feint by both of us, as after turn 7, all ships except the BATS are pretty much sucking wind. Stay tuned. Not sure when we're playing next, as Dale is a bit under the weather. By


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What Kerry said again. Basically I took the beating without returning fire and am closing slowly - still speed 9. My main problem is the *extremely* heavy EW that makes shooting back effectively very problematic. That Peladine scout is a beast. Hopefully my plan will bear some fruit later. By


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Just to keep it on the docket. Anyone for either: No Haven:a gorn DNT fleet vs a DNE led one

Cat Scratch fever: A BC led fleet vs a KZI base defense with a Vudar CA Sheap, Francois, or anyone ese interested? Again the fleets are pretty full but both fights seem to be somewhat evenish. I believe Dale has offered to try the STL fight FTF in the next couple weeks. By


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I've asked John Carroll if he's interested in "Comeback at Colony-6" and I think he is. We would have started today but I've got a bad cold. So, hopefully, we'll start it next Friday... UNLESS someone online here wants it. I'm perfectly willing to pass it on to an SFBOL player; but there are at least two other big battles that also need captains, so I think we're okay on this one. By


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No Haven interests me but my docket is full at the moment. I need to clear up some battles before I take on new ones. Is there a time limit to get these battles done ? Cheers Frank By


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I would be interested in NO HAVEN (either side) as well, but I'll have to wait until I finish with DOG SOLDIERS first. If either game is still open after next week I'll toss my hat in. B^) By


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No time limit. When the campaign turn comes down to one battle outstanding, I reserve the right to give a two-week notice for the battle to be finished, but that's on my discretion. Main reason, I don't want the entire campaign to hang on one slow-moving battle. By


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George, I guess its a race to see who's docket clears up first ! Cheers Frank

By


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Guys, the choice is actually up to the Gorn admiral (in the case of the Gorn battle) or the Kzinti admiral (in the other one). So it's not a race. ;) By


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Man ..... I like races ! Understood Dale ! Cheers Frank By


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Yes in both games I will be playing the lyran forces. My avail is normally pretty open except I am a heavy first shift worker ie mon-thur from 6:30 pm -12 am and most sat/sundays I am open. By


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"DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES" Postponed until Saturday in favor of cookies.

By


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The Masters look forward to more blood for Lord Arioch. By


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Even the Masters serve the Lords of Higher Worlds, hmm? By


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No, we keep him in an aquarium, but we do enjoy watching him feed, and it's no fun if he starves to death. ;) By


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Audacity T3 came to a close. The hurt DDs turned away and started a chase on my hurt Lyr SC. The other 4 ships blew away both MRS and fired at the pel SC killing a shield but not doing any ints. I launched a total of some 25 drones at the KZI, but a couple TBOMBs and the 5 ADDs destroyed them. KZI launched some 12 drones at turns end and are around R7 to the Pel CA, R11

to the LDR CC, Frax CW, Pel FF, and R12 to the Pel SC. R15 to the LYR SC. The Pel FF launched an F torp at the closer ships. By


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I will add that I rolled like maggot-infested dog meat; otherwise, I should have done some dozen internals to the Pel SC. Battle continuing Thurs. By


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Arioch thirsts.

On that note, "Comeback at Colony-6" should begin tomorrow. Hey, Rich, we need to schedule a continuance of "Blood of My Enemy." Next week? By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Cat Scratch Fever Dead Men Tell No Tales No Haven BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Blood of My Enemy Dog Soldiers The Audacity of Hope One Last Duty Comeback at Colony-6 BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle Requiem Redux Slidarian Shootout Head to Head The Folly of Men (Godzilla) War Machine

Spitting Into the Wind By


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Next week, on usual evening schedule, so yeah. Additonally, Wed night is ESPECIALLY good, 'cause I'm not working Thursday. Will have time during the day on Thur as well, but you probably won't... By


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COMEBACK AT COLONY-6: We got through 2 turns. T1, the Lyran fleet was at speed-20, except for the two scouts (SC, TGC) which were at 16, and the STL, which did 31. All units *except* the scouts ran with 6 ECM. The Kzin opened up with speed-12, toting ECM drones and generating 6 ECM on all ships. They quickly loaned to their key ships and were running with 9-12 ECM on all units. The STL turned north and ran like a bat out of hell for the derelict LDR DD. When the Kzin turned (lumbered) towards it, the TGC loaned the STL 6 ECM (bringing it to 12). The rest of the Lyrans made towards the Kzin fleet. The STL dropped the #1 when it reached R5 to the LDR DD and beamed over 2 boarding parties. When the STL reached R3, it locked on a tractor, which slowed it to 23, and shoved the DD towards the map edge. The Kzin didn’t like it but opted to fire their shots at the CW through a 2-shift @ R15. 5/16 disruptors hit, doing 12 to the #1 of the CW after reinforcement. The STL shoved the DD off the map and turned off; with no good targets, the other Lyrans fired disruptors, killing ECM drones, before turning off. The SC shut off tons of drones, rolling really well. Turn 2, the Kzinti lumbered again at speed-12, while the Lyrans kept the previous speed/ECM plot. Both sides had high ECM levels. The Zin were about to blast the SC when the OB leant it 6 ECM. They instead managed to take a shot at the TGC through a 1-shift at its #2 shield, which caved in and let 1 internal through (cargo). The TGC then turned off. The SC continued to shut down drones, often rolling 1s and killing scads of them. The STL eventually turned back in and fired 4 disruptors at R15 at the Zin DD, hitting with 3 despite a 1-shift, and doing 9. The NCA fired 4 disruptors at the CC, but only hit with 1 (rolled 2 6s and a 5 plus one 2). Drones caught up to the NCA and CW, but the CW was able to deal with them using Ph-Gs. Several of the drones were 18/8s. At this point, the Kzinti have shoveled out over 40 drones and I’ve dealt with most of them without firing. The STL has caught back up with the CW/NCA group, and the scouts are keeping everyone protected. The Kzin are back at the top of

the map, hugging the map edge, while the Lyrans are on the same latitude as the OB (the “middle” of the map). Despite the fact the Zin have actually done more damage to the Lyrans than viceversa, the fact of the easy LDR DD capture combined with general frustration with the ECM situation and the massive hordes of drones the Lyrans have just shut off is starting to wear on enemy morale. Battle to continue next week, unless the Kzinti decide to just disengage. By


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How was the LRD DD captured if there was only 2 BP and no crew units aboard? I don't have my rules handy, but is that enough to fly the ship and disengage? If not, then I know Dale has ruled before that you can't tractor-push a ship off the edge of the map to force it to disengage. By


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The LDR DD was captured at the point there were no BPs or crew aboard save Lyran. I have ruled in the past (and stand by the ruling) that you cannot tractor-push an unfriendly unit off the map edge and force it to disengage. This does not mean you cannot tractor-push a friendly, undermanned hulk off the map and ALLOW it to disengage. The LDR DD doesn't need enough crew aboard to operate the ship; they just need enough BPs aboard to make it a "Lyran unit" and if they leave the map, they have disengaged. That is an artifice of the fixed map, for good or ill. By


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(Long rant about kibbitzing, do-overs, and guesswork deleted by author) Suffice it to say both John and I were in full belief we were flying by the rules. I will have to research and see if there was an error made, but if so, it will have no impact on this battle (except during future events). By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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The rules don't really give much in the way of guidance on "capturing" an abandoned ship. If there is no one onboard to resist, is the ship "captured" immediately? Does it happen at the end of the turn? Do you even require a boarding party? Do you need to "capture" all the control stations, even though there is no one onboard? Shrug. I'm guessing SPP would tell us that it would fall to a scenario rule, as no two derelicts would necessarily be created equal. I could easily imagine a range of cases all the way from "just walk aboard" to "prison barge full of criminals who

can't operate the ship". My assumption in this case is that its the "walk aboard" variety. According the rules, the ship would have needed a minimum crew (G9.4) to move, but the actual "capture" is accomplished by BPs (assuming it is "manned" I think, which this one wasn't). Under (C7.51), if boarding parties are onboard and the ship disengages, the boarding action continues until the ship is captured or the boarding parties are killed (only one possibility here - no defenders). The ship then comes to a stop and waits for other ships to "catch up". But the actual "capture" only requires boarding parties. Movement requires crew units. There is probably room for interpretation on how to handle a derelict scenario, but given the scenario conditions described, I don't see how the Lyrans would not have successfully captured the DD in a single turn and I don't see how the Kzintis could have stopped it (moving speed 12). The STL has six transporters and enough battery power to light up every possible system you could imagine on reserve power, so, at most, the Lyran would have needed to use the rest of his transporters to move 4 crew units over and burn an additional .8 power. Probably not an issue. As for rotating or moving a friendly unit off map with a tractor on a fixed map, I've seen it before. I could be wrong, but I think its been done in this campaign before, and I know I've seen it in others. Its wonky, no doubt, but fixed maps are what they are. Anyway, at the end of the day, there was probably a small number of necessary gyrations to go through under the rules to get the derelict off the map, and some of those might have been missed in this case, but I don't think there can be any doubt the outcome is the correct one. I'm not in the business of telling another player how to suck eggs and I agree with Dale's "no-do-overs" policy. I say play on, subtract 0.8 of the ship's 54 points of battery power if you want, and just keep it in mind next time this comes up. By


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Throwing in my 2 cents, I agree with Jeremy. I'm not even sure beaming over 4 crew units would be necessary to accomplish MOVEMENT. An "under-manned" ship can still move (and presumably disengage); there are alot of other things it can't do, but movement would still be ok. So I think even 1 crew unit would've gotten it done. But 4 is good (better, even) too. By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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I think there are no limitations on a ship with nothing but excess damage left sucessfully disengaging at the map edge. This is no different. I'm not sure starting to assess a ship's condition, and what it theoretically could or could not

do (such as move), is a good idea- it will lead to friction and endless hypotheticals. In this particular case there are other ships in the system, and I think the derelict was captured, disengaged, and is forced to strategically retreat (even if the Lyrans hold the system). Artifices exist but are consistent. By

John Carroll (Jcwl)

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As the Kzinti Commodore on scene I agree with Dale's interpretation as to the capture of the LDR DD by the Lyrans. No crew onboard means no resistance to the capture by the Lyran boarding parties. By


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True, but the question isn't whether he captures it. There's no doubt about that. The question is how the dang thing moves after it's captured. A BP can't drive (unless it's a prime team). Gotta have a crew unit for that...

But as stated...no do overs! By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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Richard, we would have to look at that question for every disengaging ship then. That's a can a' worms mano. It's just a map edge that screams freedom to burning hulls, fleeing pirates, captured and disabled ships, etc. By


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Sunday, February 01, 2009 - 12:46 am: Edit

Guys, it has been a long-established artifice of the fixed map in this campaign that even a powerless, drifting hulk that coasts off the board (or is tractor-pushed off) is considered disengaged. This has been covered. I don't know why, every so often, it comes back up when someone expresses outrage about a wrecked/undermanned/seeker-targeted ship drifting off the map and being declared "safe", but enough. We are not changing it. We don't need to argue about it. It is what it is. By


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I will note an exception to this, as per the SFB rules, is a ship that leaves the map (disengaging) with enemy marines aboard (boarding party combat still in question). In that case, as per the rules, the marine combat continues until resolved, winner take the ship. So, had the Kzinti beamed marines aboard the LDR DD in this case, the marines would fight it out for control. But that wasn't the case. By


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Enough quibbling. Arioch thirsts. Any updates on: Dog Soldiers The Audacity of Hope One Last Duty ? By


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Audacity either tonight or this week in the evenings. By

Tom Carroll (Sandman)

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Sunday, February 01, 2009 - 12:20 pm: Edit

Dog Soldiers has not moved forward because of me. I hope to get back to it next week. By


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Incidentally, what state was the derelict DD in? I assume that no shields were operating, but had it taken any damage? In other words, could the Kzinti have blown it up? By


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It had no shields and had suffered 50% internals (fairly evenly). So yes the Kzinti could have shot it and possibly blown it up. However they chose instead to vent their wrath at the LDR CW, which took a 15-point whack on the nose (12 shield boxes after reinforcement). By


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One LAst Duty playing now. Its T4 and Fleets now at R7 ish in lower right corner. Should be some action T5 ! Cheers Frank By


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It seems Sheap's plate is too full to to fly "Dead Men Tell no Tales". Anyone else willing to step into the shoes of those poor, poor, halpless Orions? By


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Starting "No Haven" tomorrow AM with Jeremy flying the Lyrans and me flying the Gorn, with the Admirals' blessings. Should be a fun fight! Lyran confidence aside, I think the Gorns have a good chance in this one. We'll see! By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED:

Cat Scratch Fever Dead Men Tell No Tales BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Blood of My Enemy Dog Soldiers The Audacity of Hope Comeback at Colony-6 No Haven BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle Requiem Redux Slidarian Shootout Head to Head The Folly of Men (Godzilla) War Machine Spitting Into the Wind One Last Duty By


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KZINTI CAPTAIN NEEDED for "Cat Scratch Fever", above. Interested parties apply here! By


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ORION CAPTAIN NEEDED for "Dead Men Tell No Tales", above. Interested parties apply here! Tell a friend! By


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Monday, February 02, 2009 - 09:24 am: Edit

On Last Duty Conclusion The Crew of the Subjugator received the glory of doing their duty to the last, but sadly that was the only glory to be had Turn 4 was spent with the Romulan fleet running away at high speed from the

Gorn while reloading their plasma. (even had to drop fire control for the one extra precious hex). However toward the end of the turn the Romulans were running out of space (must be some kind of Gravity distortion getting out of system - or more like the Master's don't like to see their toys run away before it gets interesting) but either way the Romulans had to turn in. Turn 5 The Romulans tried to slip between the edge of the map and the Gorn fleet. However due to clever tractor tricks the Gorn fleet just kept on coming and were able to trap the Romulans fleet. The Roms took their wild haymaker of plasma, but it bounced off harmlessly and the Gorn Dreadnaught pounded the Roms into dust. Actually with more gusto then intended - the Pavian Scout detonated a bit quicker than expected due to the NWO boxes dodging the DAC. With the Scout gone after fighting off a boarding party, the Subjugator set charges on Turn 6 and finished their last duty. Thanks for the fun game! By


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If there are no other takers, I'd be willing to give the Orions another go. By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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Monday, February 02, 2009 - 09:04 pm: Edit

NO HAVEN - Battle report Dale and I got through 3 turns this afternoon. Let the Bodies Hit the Floor! First turn was uneventful. Lyrans moved out to the range 15 lending boundary and took a range 22 shot at a BDD...and hit with two disruptors. After some cursing and nashing of teeth, they circled back around, with the Gorns continuing to close. On turn two, things heated up. The Gorns plowed ahead, working there way through some Lyran drones. The Lyran INTs hit the accelerator and tried to flank the Gorn fleet. Gorn plasma drove them off, and eventually knocked out half the warp on one interceptor. Meanwhile, the Lyran fleet hooked around and brought its guns to bear on the CCF at range 15. Concentrating all their guns, plus the Ph4s, the CCF lost its #1 shield and took about 35 internals. The CCF turned off, but the rest of the Gorns pressed on. By now, the Gorns were appraoching range 15 on the BATS, and unless the Lyran ships intervened, the Gorns would be able complete their charge at the base. The Lyran fleet turned in, and activated ESGs. On turn 3, the dreadnoughts fell. The DNE lead the Lyran charge, reaching range 4 on the Gorn DNT. The Lyran fleet concentrated overloaded disruptors and ph-1s on the DNT and severely crippled it. However, the range was too close and the Gorn DNT veered directly for the Lyran flagship. A wild melee swirled around the

two DNs, which eventually anchored and crippled each other. The Lyran DWL was forced to use both WWs to dodge plasma, and the BATS used most of its firepower to save a DW from 70 points of inbound torps. The Lyran DNE finally fell to T-bombs and Pl-Ds, while the Gorn DNT drifted powerless until the end of the turn. At turns end, the Lyrans have lost the DNE, the DWL has 8 internals, one DW has lost its #3 shield, and an INT has lost half its warp. The Gorn DNT is a powerless hulk, sitting at range 17 from an angry BATS. The Gorn CCF has 34 points of damage, and is well behind the remaining Gorn ships. Both sides are pretty well used up for now, and will likely draw apart on the next turn or two to recover. My apologies to the Lyran Admiralty for the loss of the DNE, but it was neccessary to prevent a Gorn overrun of the BATS. I can assure the Admiralty that the DNT will not escape this battle, and our position here remains strong. I trust Lord Arioch is satisfied! By


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Jeremy as Dale knows the DNE was a wreck waiting to happen. Other than having an officer it was a command ship at best. Exchanging it for a DNT is a tremendous plus for us as that whole section of gorn space will be weak on command hulls for a couple turns. Of course that just prevents the invasion as we need to get something out there, hmmm what do we have thats close? Great job so far! For both captains, as it woulda been tough for the gorn to turn off and take heavy ints to just wound the DNE. By


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Tuesday, February 03, 2009 - 01:32 pm: Edit

Kerry: Obviously you've never flown the DNE. What a beast that thing is. A great early DN and a super cruiser in "modern" times. Pat: Sorry you got lost in the shuffle. Still want to fly the Orions? I'll send you an email. By


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Dale by wreck I meant as we are rolling out new DNs every turn destroying the DNE by suicide to update our command ships was a big probabilty. It is a good command ship and compares well against our BC, but a DN has it beat a bit. Of course doing so when a replacement is close would have been best but we'll see how quickly Marc wants to send a new ship that way. At least with our losses this turn, maintenance will be cheaper.

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PS: Really, Anyone for Cat Scratch fever? You have foreign tech(VUDAR CA) and a BS with 6 phaser 4s led by a mighty BT(and a legendary captain on a BC) plus the almighty SDF. Facing a BC led fleet(std JGP, 3 DWs plus SR), but remember it's a lyran BC. It should be a fun battle so any takers? I am down to one game so need to keep my game play high. By


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Audacity is delayed by at least a week due to a death in the family (wife's aunt). I've already been in contact with Kerry and Dale. By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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Impressions of the DNE... God awful fast. Can keep speed with DWs with plenty of power to spare. At range 15, where I would normally just fire disruptors, the DNE can fire its phaser-1s as well, with little concern about reloading on the following turn. Biggest weakness is only two ESGs. It made a difference in this battle...if the command ship in the Lyran fleet had 4 ESGs, the DNT would have been hit by 3, not 1, and the DNE probably survives the overrun with time to WW any chasing plasma. Ranges were tight, so that's not gauranteed, but I definately felt the difference. Essentially, the DNE is probably best flown like a fast CCH. Not the best overrun boat, but if you can fight a manuevering battle/sabre dance, it will shine. By


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One wonders how an "early" ship can be fast. Something fishy there. I guess it's just undergunned and overpowered like the original Fed DN. By


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Jim: That's exactly it, it follows the mold of the unrefitted Fed DN. The power and the durability of a DN, but the firepower of a CC (or so). By


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As an aside... and this is *not* directed at anyone in specific... Keep in mind this campaign is NOT historical. It follows the YIS dates closely, with some exceptions. But I don't track or care about "LPW" or such status on builds, and I allow "CNJ" (conjectural) units within reason. I certainly didn't tell the

Romulans they couldn't build KRs ("PUR" - purchased hulls). So, please. Nobody complain to me that "My opponent has 3 Fast Cruisers when historically there were only 2!" for example. Understand that I get everyone's turn orders, I see what everyone builds, and if there is a problem, or a unit that needs limiting, I will handle it as appropriate. So if you see an enemy warship, that means the GM knows about it - and doesn't want to hear complaints about it, either. ;) This ends the public service announcement. Had this been an actual emergency, the GM would be drinking by now. We now return you to your regularly scheduled mayhem. By


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Yay!!!! Unrestricted DLXs for everyone! Yay!!!! [SMACK!] [thump!] uhhhhh* By


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The previous poster has been sacked. Unrestricted DLX builds are clearly ridiculous, and outlawed. We wholeheartedly and unabashedly apologize and retract said poster's unauthorized and obnoxious statements. Clearly the moderator's intent was to allow unrestricted builds of llamas (including rock llamas). Thank you, the management. By


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The management has been sacked. Rock llamas are of course, ridiculous. Everyone will have access to the same, regular llamas. By


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...you guys kill me. By


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I hope not. I'd have to find out where you live, steal your comp, and try to run this campaign all by my self.

By


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Wednesday, February 04, 2009 - 12:24 am: Edit

Jon, I don't know that you've done anything bad enough to deserve having to run this campaign. But thanks for the thought. Me, I need a beer to put these flames out. Rich will be posting the final report on "Blood of My Enemy" soon... By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Cat Scratch Fever Dead Men Tell No Tales BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Dog Soldiers The Audacity of Hope Comeback at Colony-6 No Haven BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle Requiem Redux Slidarian Shootout Head to Head The Folly of Men (Godzilla) War Machine Spitting Into the Wind One Last Duty Blood of My Enemy By


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KZINTI CAPTAIN NEEDED for "Cat Scratch Fever". Guys, as always, if there is ONE BATTLE holding up the turn, I reserve the right to

slap a 2-week deadline on it, after which point it goes to adjudication. And adjudication means adjudication - not litigation. I'll make the call, and that's that. So it's in everyone's interest to get the battle flown. Step up! By


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BLOOD OF MY ENEMY Endgame. Dale and I got 12 impulses of turn 8 done. And that's all it took. The Gorn CCF Tyronicon followed up it's 7.32 launch with an 8.2 launch of a fast-load, and the CLE Dragonscale added a 30-pointer from up top. The Lyran (Peladine) DD Spitting Cat answered with a fast-load of its own. Some planetary phasers got in arc on the damaged #4 of the Dragonscale, punched it down and did a handful of internals. No problem though, it was moving off anyway. But then the CCF Hetted away from its intercept path. It was a head fake. The Lyran ships, seeing that there was no way they were going to get their vaunted ESG overrun, cancelled their ESG announcements. They then turned into spinning thunder-hammers of phaser and disruptor fire, with the DD Spitting Cat and the BATS in support. Nine impulses later, the CCF had it's #3 shield caved in with about 15 internal damage (4 weapon hits), the CLE took another small group of internals (2 or 3, I think), and shot down 2 G18 fighters, an MRS, and 5 shuttles. The Peladine DD D'vein took another Plasma-S to the fresh #4 shield, but with defensive phasers and some reinforcement, only took 1 more internal, an APR (and it was fixing one at the end of this turn). The Lyran CWL took some phaser fire from shuttles before they died (about 6 damage across 3 shields), a plasma-F to the #5 for 7, and had an inbound plasma-S that had already been reduced by 10 from heavy phasers, and another 2 P1 and 2 P3 were waiting for it before we called it. Every shield on the CWL was hit in varying amounts, but no shield had more than 10 damage against it. The Lyrans were really flying around this game... In the end, the Gorns decided that with the DE destroyed, internal damage to the CCF and CLE, and 10 of 12 fighters KIA (not to mention many shuttles), discretion was the better part of valor. All turned to direction F and disengaged. Ending unit status: Gorns ---------CCF - light internals - fully repairable

CV - no damage fighter group - 4 G18, 6 G10 destroyed CLE - moderate internals - fully repairable SC - no damage DE - destroyed with all hands lost (approximately 10 shuttles, incl. 1 MRS, also destroyed) Lyrans ---------4 GBDP - no damage to any ground base BATS - light shield damage only, 1 WW used, MRS used and survived BC - light shield damage only, MRS used and survived CWL - moderate shield damage only DD (Pel.) - no damage Peladine --------DD - moderate internals (3 hits) - fully repairable with or without base assistance On a personal note, I have to say it was a real pleasure to fly again against Ken Rotar, and later against Dale. Thanks for the fun, guys! By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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Wednesday, February 04, 2009 - 12:56 pm: Edit

Thanks for flying this guys. By


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It was fun! By


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The Royal Hydran Kingdom is in mourning this day, as his Royal Highness Hydraxacette XVII died in his sleep last night in the Royal Residence on Hydrax Nova. He has been succeeded by his cousin - His Highness, King Hydramar XL, who issued this statement early in the morning; "We mourn the passing of our prdecessor into the vaunted ranks of those who have led the Hydran people, and merchants into new eras of peace and prosperity. We have much to be thankful for, and I have the highest standards and principles to live up to. With your help I shall, and I help to set the course of the Hydran people into a brave and glorius future." Officials have denied rumors that His Highness was poisoned by a Tholian Prime Team, stating that there is no evidence to support such baseless accusations. By


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DOG Soldiers - Battle report

We completed up to EA of Turn 5 Picking up from 3.18 the fighters and the LM manuvered around the line of Tbombs placed by the Dogs. On 3.30 the fireworks start. The LM's fighters from range 6 hit with all their fusions, while the LM hits with his HB from range 3. The total damage dropped his #5 shield and caused a light amount of internals netting a pair of Ph-3s. The YCA, YDN and a YCL each fired a pair of Ph-2s onto the LM 3-box #1 after reinforcement came to 9 internals netting a pair of Ph-1s and a couple of warp boxes. 3.31 and 3.32 the YDN continued to fire pairs of PH-2s but only netted a few more warp and some more fluff. T4 the Carnivorns headed for their edge of the map with all the fighters and the MON on their tails giving chase . By the end of the turn the Carnivorns hugged the edge and turned to D with the fighters around 6 hexes inside of them and the MON about another 3 hexes back but lower to the bottom as well. The LM hung back to lick his wounds. Eot had the the YDN repair his ph-3s while the LM partially repaired a Ph-1 and put 4 boxes back up on the #1. game continues this sunday around 3 pm By


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Thursday, February 05, 2009 - 01:40 am: Edit

BATTLE REPORT - NO HAVEN I'll let Jeremy throw in his details, but the gist of it was, the Gorns moved to disengage. The CLF, BDL and BDD slipped parallel while the 2x G torps from the BDDs closed on the fleeing Lyran DWL. The BDS ran at high speed (29) and slipped near the DNT. The CCF rant at 24. The Lyrans blasted the CLF, twice over two impulses, doing around 35 in. Ow. Like it needed more encouragement to leave! Around 4.3, the BDS tractored the DNT. The Lyrans shot it. It wouldn't die. The BDDs turned back IN, launching REAL Gs after the fake ones hit the DWL. Much shuttle-launching-fu occurred, with tons of GAS/Admins spewing out of the Gorn fleet.

The Gorn BDDs then fired ph-1s, killing one of the DWs ECM drone, and then fired more ph-1s and Carronades at it, doing about 8 in through a fresh shield. The Lyrans shot the DNT again. It still wouldn't die. The BDDs HET'd away and ran for it, sniping the DWL again for good measure. The DWs were all slow near the base and had fired OLs at the CL, so they were no longer a threat. The INTs ran at the fleeing Gorns, determined to kill the wrecked DNT. Much silly tractoring ensued, with the BDS tractoring the CLF, then dropping both so the CCF could tractor the DNT. Shields were dropped, tons of Tbombs layed out. In the end, the INTs managed to get in close for a killing shot on the DNT (doing 24 to the #2 of the CCF), but in doing so, they were far away from the base and other Lyran units, and took enough damage from Tbombs/phasers that the Gorns were able to kill three of them. The remaining INTs, including one heavily damaged one and one INT-E, turned off and ran for it while the Gorn slipped off the map. Total losses: GORN: DNT. LYRAN: DNE (w/LE), 3x INT. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Cat Scratch Fever Dead Men Tell No Tales BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Dog Soldiers The Audacity of Hope Comeback at Colony-6 BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle

Requiem Redux Slidarian Shootout Head to Head The Folly of Men (Godzilla) War Machine Spitting Into the Wind One Last Duty Blood of My Enemy No Haven By


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Duffy, thanks for the report, and I apologize if I was brief with you on SFBOL. Jeremy and I were in the midst of the battle I just outlined above. ;) We greatly appreciate captains willing to fly for us! By


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Thursday, February 05, 2009 - 03:03 pm: Edit

Dale No problem, I realized afterwards you were flying NO HAVEN. If only I had just checked first, I would have sent you an e-mail instead. Glad to help out anyway I can. Also, Tom is a great and patient player to be putting up with my occasional error or two. B^) By


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Friday, February 06, 2009 - 01:48 am: Edit

For Cat Scratch Fever, what are the NWO selections on the JGPu Frazikar? By


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Friday, February 06, 2009 - 12:20 pm: Edit

Marc, got an answer for the above for Jon? "Comeback at Colony-6" to continue this morning. By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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Jon, 4 shuttles and 2 tractors. Should be a good fight - are you flying the Kzin? I know Kerry wants to get a move on, so whatever it takes and have fun with it. By


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COMEBACK AT COLONY-6 Got through 2 more turns (3 & 4). The Kzinti came in at speeds 12-14, with the DD and SDF doing 22 and 28. The Lyrans stayed at 20 and 17 mostly. Fired on the #1 of the CC at range 8, blowing it down and doing internals with a bunch of

disruptors, then followed with phasers over the next several impulses to strip away power/weapons. Turn 3 return fire from the Zin mostly bounced off a huge brick on the STL's #1 (but it did suck the STL dry of batteries). On Turn 4, the Tug added 4 OL disruptors as well on the down #1. Much pain for the CC. That second turn, the Kzin returned fire on the TGC, doing about 30 in from the kitchen sink. 3 power hits, 4 weapon hits (2x ph-3, ESG, dis), and the rest was fat. On Turn 4, the CW and NCA fired disruptors and phasers, putting 15 internals in through the #5 of the BC. The CC and BC have both turned off and are running for it. The Lyrans used some ESGs to deal with drones. Some mis-timing on my part wasted a couple ESGs on the STL. The Kzinti now have the DN, CD, SDF and DD closing on the base, with the STL moving to intercept, and the CW and NCA outrunning some drones and looping back around. The Lyran TGC and SC are in the middle ground, and the Kzinti BC and CC seem to be running for it. While the Kzinti BC could turn around and contribute, the CC is down to 2 disruptors and only has 20 warp power left (and no IMP). Looks like it will be 2 weeks before we can play again, John's got to pull doubleduty next week at work. By


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I hear rumor Jon Berry is offering to fly the Kzinti for "Cat Scratch Fever". Kerry, Jon, get in touch and get started! By


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DOG Soldiers - Battle report Turn 5 Completed. The Carnivon's chased into a corner, stopped and TACed around to face the Hydrans. Sixteen Hydran fighters followed by the Hydran ships (one at each wing and behind some five or six hexes of the fighter squadron). As various groups of fighters reach range 4 of the Carnivon fleet, Disruptor Cannon’s where fired, followed by phaser-2’s at range 3. Any fighters reaching range 2 or 1 faced phaser-3s and the odd Heel Nipper (more the one fighter was finished off with one damage from a Heel Nipper). While this was going on the Hydran Monitor fired a two hellbores at long range (11-15) at the Carnivon dreadnaught Fenris and missed with both. By impulse 20, all the fighters where destroyed and Carnivons fleet was nearly depleted of direct fire weapons. To distract the Hydran ships, which at this point had reached range 3-5, the Carnivons launched a few waves of Death Bolts. The fleet also kicked into reverse at a speed of 1. The Lord Marshall reached range 2 and the Monitor reached range 3 on impulse 30 after

shooting down five Death Bolts. The Monitor fired two overloaded hellbores over successive impulses at the heavy cruiser Garm, hitting with both and stripping off both Disruptor Cannons as well as some phasers and a Heel Nipper. A well-timed heel nipper (the last!) from the light cruiser Maugrim forced the Lord Marshall Exempary to turn into the remaining Death Bolts. It also gave the Carnivon fleet a shot on its 2 box #1 shield. The Carnivons fired their remaining weapons (2p2, 3p3) at the Exempary, destroying a hellbore and a lot of center hull. The Hydrans in turn, fired at the closest death bolts, destroy 2 of 3. The remaining death bolt hit the #1 shield of Exempary on impulse 32, destroying the remaining hellbore. The Monitor, finishing the turn at range 2, fired phasers at the heavy cruiser Garm, knocking down its #2 shield but doing no internals, and at two Death Bolts, destroying one. Situation at the end of turn: All Carnivon units but the frigate Briavel are at range 2 from the Monitor and range 3 from the Exempary. The Briavel is one hex away. There are 3 Death Bolts on the map. By


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Cat Scratch fever gone through 2 turns. I am rolling poorly, KZI about average. T1 I closed as the KZIs sat stationary on the base. His fire(bearing p1's/heavies/p4's) Did 8 ints through a DWs #1 my fire of 16 disr did like 8 dam. T2 he fires at R18 on imp 14 or so doing 10 ints to DW #2. I wait til I reach R15 and alpha with all on the Vudar doing a whopping 7 ints(35 total dam). At EOT I tbombed some 14 drones and end from R12-15 for gunline ships with SR at R20. Lyrans turned off on IMP 30 to bring drones into the tbomb. T3 shuold be next sat. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Dead Men Tell No Tales BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Dog Soldiers The Audacity of Hope Comeback at Colony-6 Cat Scratch Fever BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim

White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle Requiem Redux Slidarian Shootout Head to Head The Folly of Men (Godzilla) War Machine Spitting Into the Wind One Last Duty Blood of My Enemy No Haven By


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Kerry, Jon, George and Tom, thanks for keeping the games moving! By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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So quiet....... By

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My opponent and I will be starting Dead Men 3 tomorrow night, then Kerry and I will get back to CSF on Saturday. Just resting my batteries, that's all. By


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John and I will be continuing "Comeback at Colony 6" a week from Friday. He had to work a double-shift this week, so no pow-pow this week. By


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Dog Soldiers final report The Hydran's Lord Marshall Exempary and the Monitor disengage after dealing some internals to the YCA Garm and YFF Briavel. The Monitor took 38 or so internals in return but it was enough to stop it from disengaging. Neither side had crippled ships. The ground force strength of the planet was unknown to the players so we couldn't play out that part. Dale, A couple of questions came up in the battle regarding the map edge.

1. What happens if enemy ships are tractored and movement by either pushes both ships off the map simultaneously? 2. What happens to seeking weapons that are held by their target and pushed off map? By


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Generally speaking (unless there are campaign-specific rules) the tractor link is broken if an unwilling ship is pushed against the map edge. By


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I'll have to double-check the troop-count of the Carnivons, but the planet is worth 130 RPs, so it has 13 BPs per hex side, plus the planetary defenses (GCDs). To answer your other questions: 1. Tractor links are broken if the other side does not wish to disengage. 2. Tractor link is broken.

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In response to #2 Situation: Ship was going speed 24 reaches edge of map on impulse 4, speed change to 13 on impulse 5 ship side-slips down along edge of map. Impuls 8, ship exits map. Death bolt (tractored directly in front Ship) travels at speed 8 for turn, was pushed off map on impulse 4. What happens to the DB if it is forced off the map before the ship that was tractoring it? a) Does it come back on during it's movement phase. b) Is the drone considered destroyed because it left the map? c) Does the link break before the ship's movement and then the ship enters the same hex as the drone. [Note: Death bolt(spd 8) had amovement on impulse 4 as well] If result was "C", then the LM would have released the tractor after pushing the DB back the one hex (impiulse 2) and mauvered around it taking the damage on

a fresh shield on impulse 4. BTW - I'm beginning to hate Heel Nippers (I started calling them HELL NIPPERS)

B^) By


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Again, assuming there are no house rules on the subject, attempting to force something off the map edge breaks the tractor link. So the tractor link would break, and the ship would enter the same hex as the drone. I suppose a Hydran would hate Heel Nippers. By


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Quote:

Again, assuming there are no house rules on the subject, attempting to force something off the map edge breaks the tractor link. So the tractor link would break, and the ship would enter the same hex as the drone.

Are there rules published dealing with fixed maps? Other then P17 The Tournament Barrier which doesn't apply. By

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So, the MON and LM survive, and no Fighters? /me gets to updating his fleet manifest. By


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Tom: IIRC, I remember we asked Petrick a while back in our "Day of the Eagle" campaign and that was the answer he gave us. No worries guys, sounds like a good fight. Look forward to more mayhem. By


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Tom: Did you spend any CO's on troops or ground assault goodness? By


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Dale: Yes. Looking at my notes, the force has a total of 74 BPs on board (16 from COs). No other ground assault goodness. All ships but the YFF have all shuttles available (but with no phaser, are they good for anything besides transport?). George and I think the Carnivon raiding party will look something like the

Bumpuses Dogs taking the turkey in A Christmas Story. By


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Cat Scratch fever through T4.17 T3 gunline ships were at or near R15 to him so all moved under spd 4 to get there and have full EW. SR needed 7 hexes to reach r15 so we waited for him until he got there on imp 25. All but 1 DW were on the same shield with that one being to the left of the rest of my force(ie facing ahead of the BS rotation). Mainly due to it's down #6 so it has to show #1 or 2 to shoot. Imp 25 starts the firing. SR pastes his big 3 with 6 offensive, all respond by alphaing the SR. Luckily Jon forgot the MRS for the SR that had been out all turn and most of last turn as well giving shifts to those with OEW and none to the others. Jon rolled a little below average and only did 33 killing the #1(I saved 1 with rein). My fire was going to be at his SDF but I could not break its drones lock on. I did break the bases though and as it had no shift against me I mostly alphaed on 26 doing 6 in after armor. 7 more on 27 and after it rotated on 28 the hurt DW did 6 more in. Got a few phasers but only 1 p4. Although it was going to have that shield facing for the begining of next turn. T4 early I pounded on his Base with a DWL and the hurt DW. Doing another 15 or so in killing all phasers but 3 p4. He pounded on the hurt DW with his BC, Base, and BTug. Doing some 8 in after meeting 8 rein(a couple warp and a p2). Near the middle of the turn my BC reached R8 of his stack with some 18 drones incoming and I hit his SDF with most of my p1's and a couple OLs. Doing 18 ints(4 power and std "first" hits). The BC(who is sitting at 9 ecm) has full ESGs and threw a tbomb out to mitigate drones but both his FFK and Vudar are still packin(no heavies for vudar and both ships have OEW against them). I still have a jagP and DW around R15 to fire, so the last 15 or so imps will see what we can do. From where we are the BC, DWL, SR, and one DW will be hid by planet by the EOT. Does he come out to get me? I also have launched some 10 shuttles but they are around R13-15 mostly. By


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Tom: sounds like that may actually be a ground combat worth playing out. I'll look into it.

By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Dead Men Tell No Tales BATTLES IN PROGRESS: The Audacity of Hope Comeback at Colony-6 Cat Scratch Fever BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle Requiem Redux Slidarian Shootout Head to Head The Folly of Men (Godzilla) War Machine Spitting Into the Wind One Last Duty Blood of My Enemy No Haven Dog Soldiers By


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Cat Scratch fever finished T4 I was late due to oversleeping.. oops sorry about that. KZI launched their full drone allotment at me. Nearly all were 6 warhead 12 damage drones so even after throwing 2 tbombs out there 9 tbomb drones impacted the BCs ESGs. Still 2 drones out there at R1 to BC. KZI bumped up to spd 9 on imp 25 most likely from batts to come out after me. Due to that both the BC and DWL turned off with the BC doing 3 more ints to the SDF as a parting gift. As well after moving 1 hex forward the 2 point #6 shield of the Vudar ship was

pointed toward my unfired Jag and hurt DW. For the next 6 imps I miziad with all bearing doing ints of 13/4/5/2/1/1 the last couple groups being all bearing shuttles firing at him. Getting a lotta hull 4 p1's, the imp deck, and a couple warp. Not a single torp though. I totally misremebered one of his base p4s firing earlier this turn so it did 6 to the SR MRS. KZI then destroyed the BC MRS so we end around 12 to my small ships and 8 to the BC, but only Btug has BC in FA and BC Has turned away as the 4 ships scared me. There are about 12 or so shuts about to be run over by the KZI as they are R4-10 from em. Still a lotta firepower out there. BS then EDR'd a P4 giving it 4. Continueing next sunday night at 8. By


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Quote:

Nearly all were 6 warhead 12 damage drones

Is this supposed to be 12 warhead 6 damage? Because you can't get a drone to take 12 damage since it is illegal to mix internal and external armor modules. By


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I would assume those were Type IV frames with 1/2 space of explosive and 1 1/2 space of armor. But in any event, NO DO OVERS! (crawls back into cave) By


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yes they were 6 warhead and 12 damage to kill. A tiv with 1.5 space of armor. These were all internal modules. I was actually really glad to see how many he launched of em(13). As that means that other than reloads his cracks have just tis in em and the bracks have slightly more availability. Of course base and BTug can just use the other 2 reload ones as they can freely choose which Drack to launch, but it means the next couple turns should see a lot more tis out there. I think I am seeing 2 more in 2 imps as well as the range 1 drones have taken 3 and 4 damage respectively, but I'll see what damage hits the

ESGs to see the effects. I have used 3 tbombs up til now so I am not sure drones will play much of an effect here other than forcing ESG reloading. There is nothing to do over so we shall carry on with the blowin each other up. By


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"his cracks have just tis in em" Am I old enough to read this? What are "tis?" By


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Type Is in his C-racks, obviously. I think you're TOO old to read this. By


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"His Cracks have Justice in them." And yea, verily, Lord Arioch, upon seeing the Cracks of Justice, wept. And Lord Donblas, upon seeing his message carried out in the works of the minions of Arioch, rejoiced. So sayeth the Lords of Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I found Dale's bong.

And aren'cha'll glad I wasn't dirty? Too easy... By


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To the Booth, Rich. By


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Well, ok, but I'm keeping the bong then. And I already disabled the smoke detector in the booth. Take THAT, SPP and yer frackin' booth! By


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Arioch thirsts. "Comeback at Colony-6" scheduled to continue this Friday. Would love to see progress on the other games as well. Gang, we're down to the last four battles. Let's get the turn wrapped! By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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Public Service Announcement to the Far Stars... SELTORIANS! It has come to the attention of the Tholian Holdfast that a race know as Seltorians have been observed operating in the Far Stars region. This ancient enemy threatens every sentient species in the quadrant. We suspect the Masters have introduced them please this "Lord Arioch" by inciting further bloodshed. Given our past experiences with them, we strongly caution against accepting them within you space or integrating them into you fleets. These beasts have demonstrated a tendenacy to turn on their friends and allies with alarming regularity. Additionally, once they infest a region, their extreme reproduction rates will quickly exhaust resources and and create deadly instability. We make this warning to enemies, friends, and nuetrals alike! If you have encountered Seltorians, we urge you to expel them or exterminate them (as you respective beliefs will permit). [I'm obviously bored out of my skull at work.] By


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Tholian Ambassador: Thank you for the friendly warning. Of course, the Federation maintains that ALL powers in the Far Star Quadrant - but especially the Lyran, Hydran, and Tholian powers - must obey the specific protocols previously outlined in order to

peacefully enter Federation space. If the Seltorians do not obey our protocols or respect our space, they will be apprehended...with force if necessary. By


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I always knew the Federation was prejudiced against any race that didn't breathe oxygen. You disgusting bigots! By


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Audacity through 4.22 Note throughout the turn I was rolling well on weapons, average on ints thuogh. At the start of 4 we are all wheezing, KZI has gunline of BT/CMF/DDL/POl at r7 to the pel CA, r9 to LDR CC and R11 to pel sc/frax CW(with the last two being 9 hexes apart imagine a triangle with the pel/frax ships as lower corners and kzi as upper point). Pel FF is at R8 in the right arc of this block and the lyr SC is 8 hexes behind the pel FF. The pair of hurt KZI DDs are 10 hexes to the left of the Pel FF. KZI has some 15 drones out and 10 or so ECM drones out. I have 2 launched scatters, 3 normal admins and a psuedo F torp launched at his Pol. I go spd 0 with the pel CA/LDR CC(they increase to 9 in reverse later) and med spd with all else. KZI starts out at spd 18 or 19 on all ships(near max as he was spd 9 last turn). KZI are mostly doin 0 ew, I am around 4 ecm with the LDR CC having 2 ECCM as well with the scouts lending 4 OEW to the BT/CMF and the pel FF getting 3 ecm from the lyr SC. KZI turns to D with his main gunline immediately to maintain R9 to the LDR CC. Then skirts it so I have to wait awile before determining if he's overrunning or not. The DDL turned a 1 pt #6 to me so the Frax CW fired half its weapons through it doing minor ints. This caused the DDL to HET the shield away the next imp. To keep the time I use the pel/lyr sensors to start breaking lock ons. Over the next 8 imps I break some 12 lockons using 6 channels. Labbing 2 incoming drones and finding them T4 I broke theirs as well. All told I used 8 channels for breaking lockons succeeding on 17 drones. He phasered the psuedo F and then held fire. At this point I launched a fastload on the CMF and the pair of scatters I had launched broke. With all this out there the KZI turned off to E so I fired all I had

through the pol #5 shield. the LDR CC was able to hit it with 5 p1 and 3 std disr with the pel SC and CA adding in 9 p2's and a p1 over a couple imps. Some 13 ints later(5 power and a p3) the pol merrily goes on its way. On the other side the Pel FF was threatening the pair of hurt DDs. After the psuedo was found out I launched the real F from R4 and laid a Tbmb so if the DDs turned to engage they would take the 10 dam. Instead they turned out and eventually took minor damage from FF phasers and the ftorp after he phasered it down. Around imp 16 his whole fleet went to spd 29 and were all pretty much aimed at the ff/lyr SC pair so both ships fled off board after doing the remaining damage they could. On imp 22 the KZI has turned to dir F and is now in the 20sih range to my ships. They have launched few drones this turn, and almost no phasers other than some 25 or so antiplasma ones(5 of these were p1's). They still have 2 ECM drones on board. By


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BATTLE REPORT: COMEBACK AT COLONY-6 We concluded "Comeback" today. Turn 5, the Kzinti speed plot was all over the place, with the DN going 19 and the CD, SDF and DD going 22-24 on a rush to the OB. The crippled CC plotted 11 and limped for the map edge, while the BC went 15ish and escorted her. The DN ran with no EW, with the CD and DD running with ECM. The Lyran STL went 17, with the NCA & CW going 20 and the TUG and SC going 16. The NCA & CW went 3 ECCM. The OB went 6 ECM and self-loaned 6 ECM. 5.1, the Kzin popped off drones in the Lyrans' face. Which the Lyrans mostly turn off with 8 scout channels from the TUG & SC. A few drones lived to be shot down by ph-3s from the STL. More survived but were simply outran when the STL bumped its speed up to 30 and ran for the Kzinti DN, with the rest trailing. Long story short, the CD got to R1 on the base and fired all its phasers through a 3-shift, doing a little damage. The DD came in and alpha'd, mostly missing due to a 3-shift. The DN was loaned 6 OEW by the OB, and lumbered towards the OB. The STL reached R4 on the oblique and fired 4 OL disruptors at the same time as the CW & NCA's R8 standard disruptor fire. Shield went down and internals were scored. Then the STL fired 5 ph-1s. Then the CW and NCA fired their Ph-1s. All through the down shield. The DN made it to R0 on the base, and alpha'd what it had left at the base through a 3-shift after bumping its ECM, scoring 28 internals. Meantime, the OB returned fire with 7 ph-1s and 2 ph-3s, blowing down the front shield.

Late in the turn, the STL reached R1 on the DN and anchored her. The DN attempted to flee but failed. It had no power to break the anchor. It didn't try over the turn break, instead trying to take the STL with it. The 6.1 alpha saw the STL take about 28 internals; but its return fire (Mauler, phasers) vaporized the DN, and in so doing killed all the drones and shuttles she'd just launched. The STL took an additional 31 in from the blast, but wasn't even close to crippled. A R8 shot from the CW and NCA blew down the #5 on the fleeing Kzinti DD, doing heavy damage, but she was hauling at speed-30, and managed to make the map edge. All told, the Kzinti lost their DN, and took lasting damage on the DD (-1 BRIDGE, -1 PRB, -1 DRN, -3 BTTY, -1 Ph-1 360, -2 IMP, -1 CWarp, -1 Rwarp) and CC (-1 BTTY, -6 LAB, -1 IMP, -1 Ph-3 L/LR, -1 Ph-3 R/RR). The Lyrans took no permanent/lasting damage; despite heavy beatings on the STL and TUG, both are fully repairable, as is the OB. The Kzin made a valiant attempt to take out the OB and disengage, but the EW was telling, and they just couldn't get there.

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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Dead Men Tell No Tales BATTLES IN PROGRESS: The Audacity of Hope Cat Scratch Fever BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle Requiem Redux

Slidarian Shootout Head to Head The Folly of Men (Godzilla) War Machine Spitting Into the Wind One Last Duty Blood of My Enemy No Haven Dog Soldiers Comeback at Colony-6 By


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Conclusion to Cats Scratch fever Note a couple questions as well. For legendary officers can they be moved from one ship to another? ie Jon wants to transport off the LWO from the BC for use later and I have no idea if that is doable. From the game point of view he has the chance to do so though. T5: KZI are coming out at me at spd 9. I have 2 close ships(DWL,BC) at R9 and R7 with the rest around R13. In respect to his 4 ship stack, I have the JagP+DW dir A, SR+DW2 on border 1/2 shield, and BC+DWL off #2. I also have some 10 shuttles within 4-8 of him and a MRS at 9. At the beginning of the turn all his SC3 ships get 6 OEW and all my ships are running with 4 ECM except SR at 2 ecm. His ships come out the gate with very little ew(BC at 0/2 vudar at 0/5 with the BC throwing 3 batts later to go 0/5). Due to this fact alone I think Jon decided to take unshifted or barely shifted shots against shuttles instead of targetting ships early on. So He launches drones at BC area(10 drones) then 4 later Dir A. I mob with shuttles he phasers/disr them and then Adds tham after. For ADD rolls he trully rolled horribly, so after the smoke cleared he had killed all but 4 shuts(2 crippled other 2 remained in R6-8 range). As well his BC had 2 disr left to fire. My dw's and Jag P started at Sp 0 but quickly wnet to spd 9 or 10. Both Jag +the hurt DW closed off their full #6 shields with the DW 2 hexes in front of the Jag. All otehrs are turning around except the other DW which alphas the his BCs #2 for 4 dam with 2 disr+2p1(it has a down 1+2 so that DW is trying to maintain distance), and then turns to C and starts to flee. The hurt DW closes to R8 of his stack(Jag at R10) and it and the jag hit his FFK with 2 UIM OL 2 std and 2 p1's. As well I get some shuttle fire on him before the die to ADDs to get like 10 total ints on the FFK. It then turns off and goes to meet up with the base.

That DW turns off and the base +his BC(2 stds) hit it after turning off for 2 ints through a full #5. Seeing as he basically now has just p3's left I turn my DWL and BC around and close with the DWL abuot 2 hexes in front of the BC. It reaches R5 to the stack around imp 18 and it and the BC alpha the KZI BC over 4 imps doing mizia int packages of 9/9/10/14 damage using all disr and p1's of both ships(3 being OLs). DWL then turns off(11 power, 7 phasers-3 being p1's drone disr). His ships all turn in to the pair so next turn may hurt. Turning in though puts the 2 pt #6 of the vudar ship to my JagP so he gets to fire his remaining 4 p1 from r8 through it. As well I get 3 p2's from DW+SR into it and another p2 into the BC. On imp 24 they increease to 18 so he will definitly be within R8 of DWL+BC most likely R5 or closer. DWL sees an opportunity for a rear R3 ESG ram so throws its remaining up and rams thier #6 shield. This causes 5 more ints to the vudar and I get 3 more from a rear p3 into him. At the end of the turn all his ships turn to A and basically follow the DWL for the last imp. DWL announces erratics on 32. At this point Jon asked to discus some kind of terms. As the DWL was at R3(off full shields no ESG avail) and my BC was at R4(off the down #2 of his BC with 2 ESGs coming up on imp 2), Jon thought he could bag the DWL and then escape. I countered that was a good possibility but both the vudar and BC were done for as well as the base eventually(in like 3 turns). SO we concluded that the BTug, FFK, and SDF made it off(the frigates were at R14 to my closest forces). Base would self destruct in a couple turns. The tug could trans off the LWO if allowed(he had a nonfacing shield facing the down #2 of the BC). Killing the DWL on the way out-mostly due to drones as I had enough on the BC to put the BC at no power but not enough to bolw him up til my hurt DW turned around(he could either trac with vudar and then overrun me or hit me with the phaser hose if I resist the 8 point tractor). DWL may have survived if I played it out but it would be doubtful so I accepted the loss. All other hurt ships are fully repairable. For the planetary battle it was 86 bps him plus 3 shuttles versus my 10 shuttles 76 bp, 2 commandos, legendary major and 19 militia. With the commandoes and legendaries there it would allow me to overcome him. Jon stated he wanted to kill the Lmajor if possible and as I was going to use him as much as possible if such is able to be done he'll be dead. By


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I actually had 4 shuttles and an MRS, but that wouldn't have made a difference. Thanks Kerry, for flying a good battle. It was uphill all the way for me, and he made sure I couldn't exploit any opprotunities I made.

Also, I would like to nominate the crew of Lyran Shuttle #9 for legendary status. They survived over a dozen ADD shots without a scratch. That level of luck deserves some reward beyond mere survival. By


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Seems the Kzinti are always lacking enough EW support. The fact that the FCR system allows multiple scouts doesn't seem to help, either... By


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Yes, the LWO could be beamed off and transferred to another ship of the same class. He could even attempt promotion - but that has a good chance of him losing his legendary status. That's stuff for behind-the-scenes. As for the LMM, if you can direct damage at him, then he can be considered dead, but the planet itself falls. Kerry, please wrap up "Audacity of Hope" with you and Ted ASAP - the Orion/Hydran battle is scheduled for this week, and I have a feeling "Audacity" will be the last outstanding battle shortly... By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Dead Men Tell No Tales BATTLES IN PROGRESS: The Audacity of Hope BATTLES RESOLVED: Snakebite Leather War Through the Wormhole Tortuga On My Mind Ivory Hunters Out of Ettinheim White Stripe Wimpout I Can See Russia From My House On a Pale Horse Menace at Mthura To Skin a Cat Pussycats at Perrywinkle Requiem Redux Slidarian Shootout Head to Head The Folly of Men (Godzilla) War Machine Spitting Into the Wind One Last Duty

Blood of My Enemy No Haven Dog Soldiers Comeback at Colony-6 Cat Scratch Fever By


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Well I can try to wrap it up, but as we are in reloading time I ma not sure how quick It'll be. As to the scouts or EW yes multiple scouts are helpful at times. In this battle though I only had one scout while he had 2. The problem was the scout I have is like the best scout in the game, while the KZI had a BS with no power mod. As well a frigate scout who could reliably throw one channel a turn til it took 5 power hits then it could unreliably use it when either were not blocked by thier planet(T5 they were blocked until imp 32). After every game with a lyran SR packed with the ew pallet I fall in love with the ship more and more. Course doesn't hurt that I had equivelent or greater firepower concentrated on 2 hulls for easy lending. As well I know how to fight against a stopped opponent so stopping can be used agaisnt someone in fleet battles. By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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"Seems the Kzinti are always lacking enough EW support." The Lyrans have taken maximum advantage of the Tug/SR+Scout Pod combination. Not a knock on Marc at all (he is getting the most of the cards he's dealt), but the races that have a tug+scout pod combo that has a move cost of 1 now have HUGE EW beasts. A typical scout cruiser can loan 12-14 EW with several channels active for other purposes and operate at moderate speed (around 15-16). I've seen scout tugs generating 20+ EW points at the same speeds. Not to mention they have huge shields, tons of bulk, and plenty of weapons. Generally, as long as its not one of the slower tug types (Hydrans and Gorns are near the bottom), Scout Tug = EW superiority. The Lyrans have one of the best. The whole class is generally gross and far from the "failed experiments" they are described as. In many cases, I'd take one over a battle tug! The Lyrans have a couple of other advantages in this particular time period as well. They have had the luxury of building DW hulls since the beginning of the game, while most other races are just now getting to them. The Lyran DW is one of the best of the breed (equal to only the Fed DW imo). It ain't a cruiser like the D5, but when you consider that a DWL+DW+DW will only cost 21 FCR, they are a honey of a deal. The way I look at it, you get 9 disruptors and 6 ESGs for the FCR

cost of two CAs. Pretty sweet. Clearly, the DW is their money ship and Marc has always known this...(hat tip). He's wisely built them in quantity, as they appear to be present in every Lyran fleet. INTs and PFs haven't quite shown up in quantity yet, but they are no doubt going to be an impact too. Lyran INTs and PFs aren't the best (the PF can be a power hog, the INT is slow as dirt arming the disr), but the Lyrans get them early. Anybody facing the Lyrans right now needs to figure out how they are going to deal with them before they get PFs. Just as a general aside, I got to fly some of the Lyran INTs without packs in that battle with Dale. Interesting experience. They can actually make themselves pretty hard to hit by using EM, but they can't move fast while powering the disruptor. That tends to drive them towards leaving the disr unloaded to buy speed and EW, then plan on getting to firing position at the turn break. They can then pop out of EM and fire on impulse 1. They can overload at this point, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're about to kill the last enemy ship. The overload will take •••• near all the power they have. Life will get a lot better with packs, but then they will blow up if you look at them the wrong way. By


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Kerry: Understood. Just keep in mind I reserve the right to put a 2-week "completion deadline" on a battle once it becomes the "last battle outstanding". I'd prefer not to have to adjudicate this one, and I don't like to rush people, but at that point we will have 7 other players hanging on the outcome of that one battle. Of course, Dead Men Tell No Tales is out there too. But I don't think that will be a long battle; the Orions are clearly outgunned. By


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GENERAL NOTICE: Unless you are the Hydran, Lyran or Kzinti Admiral - get cracking on your turn 14 orders. Once turn 13 is complete, we won't have a long break for orders until Turn 14... By


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As for Jeremy's comments - in hindsight, if I had it to do over, I might charge +2 FCR for a scout pod, just like I do for a battle pod; or +1 maybe. But at this stage, with scout tugs proliferated everywhere, doing so would gimp active combat fleets that have already seen action; and that ain't what I'm about. So... viva la scout tug! By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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I think it fair to consider charging FCR for pods generally, beyond just battle pods. Scout pods are no different than, say, PFT pods or SCS pods so I don't see treating them differently - I think you either charge for pods or you don't. Right now, we only charge for battle pods because of their relative power to make a tug

a super-cruiser. On the scout tug issue specifically, I'll point out that it essentially replaces a battle tug in the formation - you can only have one tug in a fleet under S8. So, the real question is whether you want to have a BT + heavy scout, or Scout Tug + battle cruiser. The BT can be a flagship, thereby ignoring the FCR penalty for battle pods, or if in formation the combo costs 12/14 + 10, and 10 + 12 respectively essentially the same costs for both combos. The BT/HSC has around 8 disr and 4 channels, the ST/BC has around 4 disr and 4-6 channels with slightly more power to feed them. I think one has to use their judgment on what is available and what they want to deploy based on a blend of firepower and EW support (and obviously consider racial advantages/disadvantages). The problem is really the power of tugs generally, not scout tugs. Every fleet wants a tug with a pod, it's just a question of what kind. Soon it will be PFT pods, which are usually just short one channel but have power and carry PFs. Tugs are expensive and have an economic cost in excess of their combat BPV, but it's a cost usually worth paying. Something else worth noting is that my scout tugs have been running roughshot over the Kzinti principally because they have not had heavy scouts, or else have had a base that either: (1) was a mobile base or OB (which is a weak platform); or (2) had a BS or BATS WITHOUT a power module. The result is an EW disparity that would be significantly mitigated, or even disappear, with a stronger Kzinti EW platform. I'll also note that I don't get ECM drones, which help the Kzinti too (although I could build carriers). So the EW issue here is one of construction and deployment, not FCR balance. The bottom line is that scout tugs are great. If you want to put a FCR price in for a scout pod, then all pods should have a cost because they all offer similar density advantages (even a cargo pod - 25 free cargo hits is GREAT on a cruiser hull.....). I'm not sure that changing the campaign rules here would do much of anything. So there are my $.02. By


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Marc, I agree with most of what you said, except for one major thing. All pods (and truly, all tugs) are not created equal. Therefore, not all would "qualify" for a combat adjustment that the FCR increase represents. Certainly, battle pods deserve the adjustment. For most if not all races, it turns what is supposed to be a support ship into a fully functional heavy cruiser, or better. Similarly, the new scout do much the same thing in the EW department, surpassing almost all other dedicated scout platforms in how well they perform the mission.

But this does not equate with other types of pods that are more closely related to the MISSION of the tug. If a tug is used to move cargo (what it was designed for), and uses cargo pods to do it (or self-defense pods, or power boost pods, shuttle conveyor pods, etc., etc.), then it shouldn't pay an additional penalty beyond the 10 FCR it's already paying. That IS it's primary mission. But anytime a Tug is used as any kind of "emergency warship" (contrary to the published data, I use that term quite loosely), there should be a surcharge. Perhaps not the same surcharge as a battle pod(s), but something. So yes, I think PFT or SCS or DB pods would/could/should count the same as scout pods, which should be equal to or less than battle pods. I would even argue that CV-type pods would also count (go take a look at my Fed HVL pod for F111s and try to tell me that's not a good pod equal to or better than most PFT pods out there...it's got PGs AND sensors for pete's sake!). Lastly, because of the range of variation in different empire's Tugs, an across the board surcharge for any pods isn't really justified. The Bottomline is that would be much more adverse to historical Alliance races (Kzinti excepted) and the neutrals, and more favorable to historical Coalition races. My suggestion? The following: +2 - battle pod(s) (light and heavy) +1 - any/all "combat support" pods (CV types, PFT types, SC types, SCS types, DB types, and Marine/Ground Combat types) 0 - all other pods (cargo, self-defense, power boost, conveyor, fighter re-supply, repair, and any of the 'people mover' types)

My $.02 are now on the table next to yours and Jeremy's. By


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Guys, I have no plans to revise the FCR system in regards to tugs any further. Sorry. Maybe next campaign. Those of you with whom I've conversed know I personally wish "Scout Tugs" had never been published, but the genie's out of the bottle now. But Rich is correct, not all tugs are created equal. There's a big difference between a Lyran (or Klingon, or Kzinti) tug toting a cargo pod, and a Fed tug toting a cargo pod... however, FCR is what it is. By


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Believe me, I realize how good the Lyran SR + SC pallet is. I've had to fight them

in a campaign I'm playing. And I'm also fully aware how good the Lyran DW is, it's one of my favorite ships. I was simply noting that the Kzinti seems to generally be relying on frigate-based scouts (which aren't worth beans in my opinion), while the Lyran is bringing heavy scouts. This seems to be a deciding factor in the last several battles. That's all I was saying. By


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Tuesday, February 24, 2009 - 10:53 am: Edit

Dale, My apologies. As you and I had previously discussed, I wasn't suggesting an immediate change to tug pod FCR costs. I didn't make that clear in my post. I was talking about the change for your next campaign, which I fully expect you to run again immediately upon the conclusion of this one, being that you are now completely in my thrall and must do my bidding without question. And I got dibs on the Hydrans for Far Stars 2. Oh yeah, and these are not the droids you're looking for. You can have your bong back now... By


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Tuesday, February 24, 2009 - 11:55 am: Edit

Rich: BWA-hahahahahaahaha!! Oh. Oh My. You think I'd run another one of these right on the heels of this one? Heh. Hee. No.

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Richard, there's always Master and Commander, which actually *will* start up soon. (Ken and I are hammering out the final rules now). BTW: Update on Audacity - Kerry and I hopefully are going to try to play tonight. My assessment: The Kzinti are behind, which is not a big surprise seeing as how they started out behind. However, forcing the SC and FF to disengage has somewhat evened the odds, despite the schelacking the Kzinti are taking. Kzinti Admiral: You *must* take measures to shore up your scout capabilities. You are getting *killed* on the EW advantage the Lyrans are putting out. I know that EW is making an enormous difference in Audacity - where there's enough channels to knock out huge waves of drones *and also* make a few ships (like

that horrible LDR CC) effectively invulnerable to direct fire. The Kzin still have a chance here, especially because the Peladine Scout has to stay very slow in order to remain effective, but don't hold your breath. Kerry's a good player and he holds three pristine cruisers - one with a LWO - along with a fantastic scout. He also has plasma torpedoes as keep-away weapons, and a long-range direct fire power advantage. On the other hand, I'm starting to suffer from down shields and degraded ships. Still, I've pulled victories from worse situations. Not often, but it has happened. He's running very low on drones, whereas I've been fairly conservative with mine so far. So, I'll press on. Have the audacity to hope. By


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Yeah Audacity looks tight. My only good points are that while I am low on drones I have the required ones I need- ECM drones and some anti-drones(yeah like my 7 racks is gonna do anything against 5 ADD racks). While the KZI are actually a little light on their ECM drones. The only route I have minimized their drones is through the 3 racks destroyed on the DDs The main problem I see is bulk of KZI forces remaining against amount of damage output I have. I mean if he wants to close within R2 of the LDR CC I can throw some great numbers out there, otherwise its the std 18-25 damage a turn dance. As I have near EW superiority(an non-moduled MB as a scout) it has only helped minimize the damage. In nearly all the KZI battles the past couple turns the KZI ew minority has really been a telling factor. In any kind of dancing situation protecting the valuable ships is key and without any kind of EW parity the KZI is taking a beating due to it. Hopefully I'll start seeing a ton of scatters so I can kill your reserves there TED, cmon what you waiting for get them puppies out there, I have TBombs awaiting in my transporters I need some tightly packed drones to use em on. By


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Gentlemen: I am pleased to see the battle continue. I would much rather you finish it than be forced to adjudicate it in some fashion. So, by all means, press on! Depending on how long the Hydran game takes to finish, I would guesstimate you have 3-4 weeks. If it's close, I am a reasonable GM - I can give you an additional week. ;) By


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Funny thing for the Kzinti is, if you look at their combat tug and the two scout

pods they can put on it...well, in my view it's even sicker than the Lyran SR + SC pod. Less channels, but MORE power, plus drones (and heavy weapons if needed). Truly a monster. By


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Kerry, I have plans for my drones, and they don't involve all getting blown up in your TBombs. >8) Also, note that I actually brought great numbers of ECM drones to the fight. You just have that many channels. Even with your early bad dice, you've still gotten rid of nearly all of them. By

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Richard! Hands off my Hydrans! I may allow you to play them in FS2 if and only if I can fly Maghadim. By


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No. You may not have the Maghadim. I will have the Hydrans. These are not the droids you are looking for. One of these days, that's going to work, I just know it. By


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Sorry Rich, but playing the Hydrans in this campaign has given me a new, deep and abiding appreciation for them. I used to hate fighter ops as being way too book-keeping-ish. I'm not going to give up on them that easy, and will give them healthy respect should I have to face them down. Thank's Dale, for the opprotunity to improve my horizons.

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Guys, much as I appreciate the sentiment, there's no point in calling "dibs" on a race for a hypothetical "next" campaign I might hypothetically run someday. If I DO run another SFB campaign, everyone will be on equal footing when it comes to asking for their race du jour. But this one isn't even over yet, and when it is, I for one will look forward to a nice break from gamemastering. ;)

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I saw about 5 minutes of Audacity tonight before heading to work. Anyone got an update for us? By


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Audacity update. Started on 4.22 with the KZI having just turned dir F at spd 29. Lyran pellie forces are 20 hexes away off #4/3 shields of KZI. KZI get turned around by going down to spd 14 on imp 25. Nothing else happens except for some minor rprs by his DDs(a shield a piece, a p3). T5 starts at 24 hexes away. Lyran forces are going around spd 8-10 with most being reverse. KZI goes 14 all turn and finishes reloading. His sc4 hulls all go erratic. Before they do thuogh he launches another 10 or so ECM drones. He ADDs the 14 drones I had inbound easily. Near end of turn at R 27 or so I hit reinf with the CC disr(hit with 1 at 1-4) He does 2 to the sc and a shuttle out there. T5 ends with SC repairing 2 on his down shield, his DDs repairing another shield on thier former down shiel;d, and him repairing a drone rack on one DD. I also get the major benifitof the peladine CA reaching T3 charging of some torps..weapons to fire, shiny! Neither side fired phasers so we are all charged up for T6. Pellie and frax fired 0 drones reloading all racks. Only other up side is due to ECM drone launch I know he has very little armor on any drones from his DD hulls due to % restrictions. By


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Kerry, Don't forget double reloads for Y175... I have some armor and specials left.

Also forgot to announce that MB repaired 2 on #1. Turn 6 might see more fireworks. By


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Yeah I was assuming your reloads matched the racks but that is not necessarily a true statement as you can have reloads different than those in the racks- thank god I have those 4 gat phasers. Yeah T6 should definitely see more action as I have the full 90 avail(ie 1 fast load) on the pellie so come on in for a serving of some barbeque! hmm fried Kzinti is a delicacy in most lyran kitchens and I get it on the cheap!

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The Kzin are also well known for their indulgence in canabalism. >8) "Two Kzintis were eating a Lyran clown. One said to the other, 'does this taste funny to you?'" By


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LOL. Well, if a Kzin eats a Lyran, is it really cannabalism? I guess it could be called 'cattabalism', but that would be cat-astrophic... By

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I would define "canabalism," or 'cattabalism' if you will, as one sentient selfaware creature eating another. But, if you want to narrow the definition to same species, then I suppose it wouldn't be the same cat-ass-trophy as canabalism.

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Drinking a G&T made from Lyran leaves one cat-a-tonic...

I'll crawl back into my cave now By


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DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES underway on SFBOL as I type. By


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Details! By


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We finished turn 1. Both sides moved at moderate speed (14-15) towards each other, with the Hydrans having 20 ST-2s, 2 ST-Hs, and a ST-E out. The Stingers are under EM and being loaned from the carrier, so they have 10 effective. T1 fire saw 6 disruptors at one of the Stinger-Hs in the R22 bracket, but only one hit, scoring 2 damage. Near the end of T1/Beginning of T2, 3 SPs blossomed as expected, and a bunch of drones are inbound. The Orions launched more drones and then turned off heading B, with the Hydrans moving to cut them off heading F. The Hydran scouts have shut down 3 drones so far using 2 channels. We had to quit on 2.7 cuz it was getting late. More to follow soon. By


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Sorry. Not seeing how the Orions could possibly put enough Drones into the air to threaten the Hydrans. Sure, tie up a few Gatlings, but they recharge for free on the fighters... By


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I can think of a few ways, Jon. ;) But none will do more than bag a few Stingers. By


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Stingers are expendable. They don't count. By

Sean O'Carroll (Terryoc)

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"cat-ass-trophy" IIRC the Kzin take the ears as trophies. By


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Not using D17 Tactical Intelligence I see. Otherwise you can't tell a Stinger-H from a Stinger-2 until range 8 with a +2 EW shift. Or a Stinger-E. Jon They can always put Starfish or Stonefish modules in them. This is REALLY irritating to Hydrans as range 3 is when the phaser-Gs start to become effective, the bus vehicles are inert afterwards (unless Type IVs with an explosive module in back), and it is not worth shooting the bus vehicles before range 3. That's the main reason to have the scouts shut down drones with the sensors when there aren't enough to get past the Gats. By

Paul Stovell (Pauls)

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Michael, I believe starfish can be launched ballistically (although you wouldn't want to with a bus that also had a warhead) you can't distract a ballistic drone although you maybe able to attract it. By


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I do have 5 channels in that battle, so spoofing drones isn't too much of a deal. By


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Gang, I've posted on this before. Given the level of experience involved in the game on both sides, it's unlikely any of you will come up with something that Dale or I haven't already thought of or are considering.

That said, talking about weapons deployment, maneuver strategies, defenses, or any other tactical consideration in an open forum like this is what I call "kibbitzing". It is uncool. Dale and I are having fun. We always do. Please don't accidentally pootch our game by discussing what could happen or offering either or both of us advice. Unless of course we ask! [Jon, it's your stuff and you have a vested interest, so obviously this doesn't apply to you and Dale...] After the game's over, kibbitz away! By

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/me surreptiously replaces all of Richards's dice and dicebot with ones that will roll straigh 6's. /me does the same for Dale, except all 1's. By


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Finished T2. All drones destroyed; one Stinger killed by a narrow salvo of Ph-1s from the OK6. Previous narrow-salvoes of disruptors missed. Ended the turn at R10 from the DWV, with the OK6 and LRE at R11 and the LRS at R16 or so. Fighters came out from under erratic. May be some pow-pow soon. Unfortunately while working on EA, I lost my connection, and by the time I got back online Rich had to go, so we're looking at continuing probably next week sometime. By


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T6 finished on Audacity. All lyran ships but frax CW(18 forward) went 16 or so hexes in reverse, KZI went 14 all turn. KZI turned to A so Lyran mirrored. near end of the turn KZI turned in to A and fired the BT and CMF at the pel SC killing its #3-I then turned the SCs #2 and KZI went back to dir A. Near end of turn lyrans used CW fire and 3 LDR CC p1's to kill the bases MRS at R22. Drone users for lyrans launched 6 more ecm drones. On 32 the pel CA launched an enveloping S torp. The CC fired 4 stds into the MB at R15 doing 6 dam(hitting on a 1-5). KZI did more minor repairs. Continueing on wed night. By


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As a Cheesy Trick (TM) I beamed the pilot off the MRS before it died to make the

shuttle unmanned. That way, the stalemate clock wasn't reset when the MRS was killed. Stalemate is very unlikely, but we're entering the 4th turn without internals - and the obligation is on the Lyrans to press the attack. I won't attack a retrograding opponent unless absolutely necessary - and it's not necessary here as he has the burden of pressing the attack home. He was going to kill the MRS anyway, but you never know when these little details make the difference to the overall battle. Even if I don't force him to disengage, the time pressure will hopefully force him to shift tactics to something more in my favor. We will see. By


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It was a neat trick and I am sure that the pilot apprecciated it as well. Of course that 0.2 power tends to bite you in the rear more oft than not as well. As for the stalemate clock I thuoght it was both sides, so once you start internalling the peladine SC it'll reset. As well I was closing with you all turn, not my fault you were running away at spd 14 Not that I blame you when I have a fully loaded plasma ship. Hmm how to avoid getting close to p4 batteries is my next hurdle. Wouldn't be so bad if EW didn't do so little against em within R10.

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Kerry, you're right. If I start getting internals on the SC then the stalemate clock is reset. As for closing/not closing, please don't think I'm accusing you of non-aggressive play (I'm not). You invited me to do something stupid (charge a retrograding plasma ship), which is a perfectly reasonable ploy. I simply declined the offer. Normally, such a retrograde tactic works well, as it would take me a long time to pin you into a corner while maintaining a long range. However, given that you are the "attacker," stalemate would favor me in this particular instance. Again, it's not so much about actually *achieving* stalemate as it is trying to force you to stop retrograding and to "come get some!" Then again, maybe you have something more clever planned. As for getting close to ph-4 batteries: Dude, it's easy for you to face only one at a

time. Not a big deal! =8) P.S. - the .2 power is a PITA on the MB. Note to all admirals: A MB without any modules is a steaming, maggot-infested pile of dog cr*p - not enough power to even chew gum, much less walk and chew. By


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Well I'm actually here for just the experience. Another 100 drones killed and I get a cupey doll of a "Rooaaring" tiger. I have always wanted one so I seriously haveta destroy more drones! So the Pel SC has to carry its weight for some time yet!. Yeah I think your upper p4 has fired once in the 6 turns so I am not too worried about them just need to think if I really want to ever get within R5 of it as a 10 pt shield is easy to reset the int clock with. Yeah I agree about all the bases without power modules are definitely a poor investment. What is it 18 points to throw 6 more power/Batt on a base? A moduled base can hang better in an EW environ otherwise the base just is always firing into a shift after it's MRS dies. By


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Well, if all you want is a cupey doll for killing drones, I can toss out another 100 drones and you can leave... No? Ah well, back to fighting. By


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Saturday, February 28, 2009 - 10:27 pm: Edit

Ted Fay: Certainly, it would be nice to shore up my EW defenses. Looking at my tentative orders for next turn, I think I have maybe 50 RPs to spend on new construction. That... isn't going to buy a heavy scout hull. Maybe some power modules. I will freely admit I ran the Kzinti into the ground with my own incompetence. I've maybe played one or two battles with Kzinti ships, so I have no idea what their various flaws or merits are. I rarely play battles with EW rules, so I haven't thought much about scouts, and I have never in my life played a battle that involved a BS or BATS, so I had no clue how vital the additional modules were when constructing them. Heck, before this campaign I hadn't even played an SFB game for what... two, maybe three years? Ultimately, I suspect it was probably a poor choice for me to step up as the Kzinti admiral, and someone more experienced in the game would have been a better

choice. I'm sorry. By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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Saturday, February 28, 2009 - 11:34 pm: Edit

Mischa, you're being hard on yourself for no reason - this is just a game. You also got swarmed. Don't beat yourself up. Cheers By


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Sunday, March 01, 2009 - 01:18 am: Edit

Mischa, as I've told you privately, if you find the campaign so stressful and depressing that it causes you personal grief, you should step out. Not because we want you gone, but because it's a game meant for fun - you shouldn't be angsting over it to the point where it's impacting your personal life. By


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Mischa, from one very inexperienced admiral to another (and I use that term cautiously as up until the point I read your last post, I thought otherwise), you are Hardly a poor choice for the Kzinti . . . no, let me rephrase. You are a great choice for ANY race in this Farstars (and this goes for Farstars2). Seriously, I mean this, and I second what Dale and Marc says also. By

Jean Sexton (Jsexton)

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Mischa, I have been in your boat before, to the point of overstressing and really getting down about the consequences of my actions. Remember it is a game. Thousands of Kzinti kitlings are not starving because of your choices. (That was hard for me at first!) Take what you did wrong (gosh, I did sooooooooooo many wrong things in the GC games I was in) and either move to fix the problems or cut bait and move on to fix what you can fix. Don't throw good EPs down the drain trying to fix what you WILL lose. Get in an alliance (if you can) with an experienced player. Exerienced players can give you advice and let you bounce ideas off someone. Real admirals have advisors and teams because no one can see all the flaws in his own thinking. If you get wound up in the game, get Dale to issue a week-long prescription of "No Gaming". That's right, take a break for a week. Doing so is exceptionally good for the soul and can bring you back in ready to dismantle your foes or at least make them pay for every single solitary hex they gain, weakening them so much that they become a tempting target for someone else to bite their flank. If they are surrounded by allies, then set your own goals for "winning" --you will take so many enemy ships from X empire with you to the afterlife. Then go for it! A man with nothing left to lose becomes dangerous beyond measure. All this is easier said than done. I know--been there, done that. But you seem to

have learned a lot from this campaign. That said, we have an opening for an ISC admiral in Galactic Conquest's U4 (as well as for the Maesron Alliance and Tholian Holdfast admirals). The ISC is a very forgiving empire for a new player and U4 is an excellent learning game with a very patient GM. GC is sort of a cross between SFB and (what would become) F&E. You don't have to know the weaknesses of your ships -- you have to know what you have available based upon the year, the BPV, and how to derive their attack and defense factors. And you have to remember this is Galactic Conquest, not Galactic Pattycake. Honestly, I am more than willing to take any of you under my wing there and get you started with the basic setup and thoughts. Jean By


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Sunday, March 01, 2009 - 12:40 pm: Edit

Jean,

Hey! No pooching FarStars players! Mischa, You got a lot of heart. Don't give up the ghost because of an inexperienced decision regarding scouts. That's a decision made by more than just one player in this campaign... By

Jean Sexton (Jsexton)

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Pooching? Who's pooching? That would make it the Dog Star campaign. As for poaching, well you guys are so talented, I figured you could multi-task! By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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All, I'm in the final throws of getting ready for the movers to show up. Pack-out for Europe starts tomorrow and will run through Thursday. I check out of OPNAV on Friday and go on leave. I'm planning to blow off steam all over the South Eastern US over the month of March, and head to Germany in April. While all this is going on, my e-mail connectivity will be sporatic at times. I'll check in occassionally, and if you need to e-mail me, use the yahoo address in my profile (will up date that momentarily).

For purposes of the campaign, I've already e-mailed Dale the Tholian orders for next turn (I haven't had much happening this turn and it was easy to set up). If a question comes up regarding the Tholians and I can't be reached for 72 hours or more, Dale has the right to direct the Tholian in accordance with my orders and in cooperation with my allies as he sees fit. He and I have yacked on the phone enough about my plans, so he knows the score. By


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Quote:

Pooching? Who's pooching? That would make it the Dog Star campaign.

The Carnivons are pooching all over the place! So, are you going to pull an "SVC" and change the thread title on everybody?

By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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We Lyrans find the "pooching" references to be more than racist and implicit threats against catkind. Highly inappropriate! By


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"Really." A cat-based empire finds offense at the (misplaced) use of the word "pooch?" Wow. I can think of no better example of what our Federation Supreme Court meant by "egg-shell feelings." Which, as you are no doubt aware, civil rights law does not protect. Get a life, Lyran. [now removing tongue from cheek, and returning to your regularly scheduled program.] By


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Talking to Mischa IRL, and he's taking a break from SFB (and the BBS) for a couple days, so he won't be able to respond to you guys right away. By


Blarghalarghle.

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Monday, March 02, 2009 - 02:49 am: Edit

That WAS the plan, but Jon's comments got me a little too stirred up to fall asleep, so I skimmed through things quickly. For now, I would like to say that it honestly wasn't my intention to stir up drama. I was somewhat frustrated at the time, so my tone was probably not the most reasonable. I'm willing to chalk that up as another character flaw. _> >> Kerry vs. Peter, starting this weekend Collide >>> Kerry vs ??? - Captain needed! Remember the Alamo >>> Unclaimed The Ides of March >>> Rich vs. Peter? Boomerang >>> John Carroll vs. Dale, starting this Friday or next War Machine II >>> Rich vs. Sheap, starting? Surgical Strike >>> Tom vs. Peter?

Stone Cold >>> Jeremy solo Letter of Marque >>> Either Ron vs Jon or Ron vs ??? By


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Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - 04:16 pm: Edit

I'll play the Kli/Zin forces in Collide, if acceptable to the Kli/Zin admiral. By


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Ted, heard from John on the phone - he's happy to have you fly it. You and Kerry get started as convenient. This is one of the first battles out of the gate so, you probably won't have any deadline pressure for this one unless it goes MONTHS long. By


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Jon Berry has also decided to fly "Letter of Marque" vs. Ron personally - starting probably late next week. By


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UPDATED status on outstanding battles: Payback's a B***h >>> Jeremy vs. Dale, starting next week Unto the Breach >>> Kerry vs. Tom, starting this weekend You Talkin' to Me? >>> Kerry vs. Peter, starting this weekend Collide >>> Kerry vs Ted Remember the Alamo >>> Unclaimed The Ides of March >>> Rich vs. Peter? Boomerang >>> John Carroll vs. Dale, starting this Friday or next War Machine II >>> Rich vs. Sheap, starting? Surgical Strike >>> Tom vs. Peter? Stone Cold >>> Jeremy solo Letter of Marque >>> Jon B vs. Ron, to start next week By


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Rich and I are starting on the 26th in the evening. We don't have an exact hour picked out. By


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To the Coalition: Obviously my previous declaration to withdraw from any further combat has since changed with our assault on Colony 4 (Boomerang). I, the Queen, had been undergoing a physical health problem that initially prompted me to withdraw all forces. Apparently, I was vulnerable to make unwise decisions. Much time has since passed and it is fortunate my health has returned before my prior decisions (made in haste some 6 months ago) became counter-productive. While our alliance with the Lyrans has produced some political pressures, we

could not turn our backs to them when they needed our help. We never will again. It is unfortunate that the Coalition could not find the cause to reason with them as we have. Much can be said the same for our Hydran allies. Should the Hydrans call for assistance, we will provide it. The unprovoked attack in Hydran territory by the Federation (with the excuse to gain access to Lyran territory) coupled with the coup of Shakespeare is a call for Peladine forces to militarily aid the Hydrans without restriction. Having said all that, the Peladine cannot forgive the Federation for the loss of life at Shakespeare, the destruction of Peladine property and the trust we had in them that was ripped away. The deception they presented (i.e. Requesting military assistance when a grave threat threatened Shakespeare, working as allies in the joint operation and sharing commerse for years) is worse than a blatant attack on any system. The declaration of War against the Coalition (It really hadn't been declared but assumed it was obvious) has officially been ammended to include the Federation. We would have withdrawn our ambassador but he perished along with the commercial platform. Yet more blood on the Federations' hands. Many of you have broadcasted much disdain for the Lyrans, no less so than the Lyrans replied in same (we are all imperfect in this area). Words are minced and split and reassembled in each others interpretations, and words are written with multiple interpretations and often filled with nuances and deliberate misleads. This is exactly what the Masters want . . . and to some degree, especially in the beginning, the Peladine tried to mediate a time or two . . . but it was clearly too late and the Peladine's passivity had to end or we would die without a fight. The Masters are the true victors here. By


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Sheap: Right now, it's looking like 9 PM CST on 3/26. I might be able to shave 30+ min. off that, depending how work goes next week... Good news is that I should have my ship selection and drone loads done by them!

BTW, I want to make sure you saw my post after Dale announced the battle. Two ships on my side of the battle have Leg. Officers: CB has a LC

NCL has a LWO. Just FYI. By


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Honored Peladine Queen: Shakespeare was closed to the Peladine once it was learned that you were reneging on your withdrawal. Your misrepresentation of fact is both disturbing and saddening in light of our past friendly relationship. Even with the break-out of hostilities, we had hoped to salvage our relationship to some degree. In closing Shakespeare, we didn't destroy your CPL - you did. Moreover, unlike our impending operations against the Lyrans and Hydrans (and as memorialized in the post regarding the "battle"), casualties were absolutely minimized. Your few military forces were rounded up, arrested, and disarmed in compliance with Shakespeare protocols. Same was done with the Military Attache's Office. They are being returned to you via civilian transportation immediately. As to the citizenry, while we find it difficult to now keep the peace (with your Declaration of War, most of your portion of the constabulary have resigned and notably - peacefully surrendered their id cards, shields, and emergency equipment), since the colony itself was demilitarized (there were only spacebased military systems), we are happy to report that no fatalities have occurred. We're sorry it had to be this way, but you acted in bad faith against the Coalition first by continuing the attack after initially making the right decision. Unlike the Lyran abomination, we found you to be honorable allies, excellent trading partners, and good friends until this most recent turn of events. This will be my last communication to you, as Admiral Sherman is reassigning me to other duties. No matter the Federation's relations, I wish you well. Very Truly Yours, W. Disney, Commodore Shakespeare Station, (formerly) commanding By


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Thursday, March 19, 2009 - 01:37 am: Edit

The Masters walk through the scene, reading the latest issue of "Maxim" and humming Sir Mixalot tunes... By


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I'd be willing to fly Remember the Alamo. Either side, but with a preference toward the Lyrans (I love the LDR and the STL).

By


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Dale a couple questions on Ion storms and wormhole terrain. For wormhole terrain it is always the same ie unchanging? Just wanted to know if we saw the terrain in the turn prior to this when all used the wormhole-T13 newbie here. For Ion Storms in general they generate a turn based 10 point gravitywave so how is any kind of base or planet habitable much less maintainable by any kind of fleet stds. As well it states that the gravity waves are random at the start of a scenario so in a non-scenario the origination of the wave can change? Unless you can maintain 20 reinforcement time will kill ya so does that mean anything less than a DD is toast? For Alamo John can you play the KZI, if thats OK with the KLI admiral? As a base assault I think that battle is basically a done deal so I shuold be available after this weekend to pick up a third(the intercept shuold be a quick affair). As well if any of my opponents is avail sat evening after 6 I shuold be avail then as well. Ted I shuold be able to set up the Col 2 intercept this weekend. Any chance of starting it on mon or tues of the coming week? By


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Quote:

For Ion Storms in general they generate a turn based 10 point gravitywave so how is any kind of base or planet habitable much less maintainable by any kind of fleet stds.

The battle is taking place within the wormhole. It's not a system location. Quote:

As well it states that the gravity waves are random at the start of a scenario so in a non-scenario the origination of the wave can change?

I took the rules to mean that at the start of the battle, you roll for the direction of the waves and that's the direction the waves will come for the duration of the

scenario. If there is a battle next turn, another roll would be made to determine wave direction. By


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Sorry Tom I am sometimes unclear on my statements. For the lyrans we have another battle sometime this turn in an ion storm. The battle in question has both a base and significant fleet staging going on there(like 2+ full battle fleets). Many of the points I was discussing meant more for that battle than ours which is in the temporary wormhole ie we aren't going to stay there for long. For bases in the past sheltering them on the side of a planet can sometimes be a fix against ongoing damage terrain, but if it truly random then at some point the waves would change. Or by the other option the waves would originate from the same point in the base battle and therefore some kind of advantage can be had by attacking from certain directions. By


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Thursday, March 19, 2009 - 01:21 pm: Edit

Kerry: As for the wormhole, yes, the conditions are always that of an ion storm. Marc, the Lyran Admiral, has been well aware of these conditions, since we discussed them months ago. As for impact of the ion storm strategically, ie., "how is any kind of base or planet habitable much less maintainable by any kind of fleet stds" - No, it means the scenario is played with an ion storm in effect. That's all it means. As noted in (P14.3), you roll a die each turn to see what sunspot effects are present. As for the gravity waves, they are 10 point waves, which means two shields take 5 damage. You only need 10 reinforcement to block it - 5 on each shield. Even a POL can manage that, although fighting at the same time might be tough. Note that gravity waves do not damage planets, ground bases, mines or defsats. The ion storm gravity wave direction is rolled for the scenario and then changes next time. Further, planets provide no "shadow" from the wave, so it doesn't matter WHERE the base is, it needs to reinforce or take damage. Also, by my records, the only battle the Lyrans have in an ion storm is the wormhole. The other battle is with the Peladine against the Klingo/Kzinti - well, there is one Lyran DW present. That's "Boomerang", the one John Carroll and I are scheduled to fly. Unless I'm missing one? An area can be prone to ion storms without having one always in effect.

As for "Remember the Alamo", I've discussed with you before that you can't grab every Lyran battle, and we agreed for you to fly 3 at a time based on your schedule. If you finish up "Takin' to Me?", there will likely be ANOTHER battle as the Gorn/Jindarians presumably reach their target; so if you are involved in "Alamo", you won't be able to fly that follow-up one. Take your pick. You've already got "Unto the Breach" and "Collide" lined up as well. ;) By


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I keep forgetting that the lyrans side is technically only the lyrans. I actually lump in the Peladine and hydrans there as well, maintains that whole us vs the evil coalition in my mind. True it is the Peladine battle I was referring to. I could have misread the rulebook citing the damage I thuoght it was designated as a 10 point wave does 10 to each facing shield ie you need 20 reinf to prevent it. I'll look again at home to see if I missed it. For the jindarian battle if he continues on I was thinking he may become "lost" or was the system already beaconed before I signed on? Either way that battle Peter and I could not do so most probably a new captain for the lyrans who could work with Peters availability would be better. I am normally not available on fridays or sat before 4, but this week the stars aligned and I had both my gaming groups call off so everything opened up. After this week my availabilty does not match Peters so any further battle would need a new captain one way or the other. So if it is my choice I would go with Alamo as battle number 3 starting next week. One good thing about gravity waves is the battles tend to go quicker when ya gotta do your duty and then escape before the auto damage kills you.

By


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Kerry: I have no objection to you flying for the Hydrans or the Peladine, but I do want to keep you to 3 battles at a time, lest the campaign bog down and/or you get overwhelmed. In the case of "Boomerang", the Klingon Admiral wanted to fly it personally, and Admirals have dibsies, so I got elected to fly the Peladine as his opponent. ;) Gravity Waves: No, the 10 points is split between two shields, according to (P9.31). As for the Jindos, since they have Special Sensors in at least SOME of their NWO

boxes, it is not a "blind" expedition and they WILL reach the Lyran system unless that small force can somehow destroy or severely damage both Jindo rock ships. Good luck with that. And, if I understand you right, you can fly "You Talkin' to Me?" with Peter this week, but won't be able to fly the follow-on battle, and instead will take "Alamo"? If that's right, John Smith, come on down - you're needed for Kzinti base defense duty! By


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UPDATED status on outstanding battles: Payback's a B***h >>> Jeremy vs. Dale, starting next week Unto the Breach >>> Kerry vs. Tom, starting this weekend You Talkin' to Me? >>> Kerry vs. Peter, starting this weekend Collide >>> Kerry vs Ted Remember the Alamo >>> Kerry vs. John Smith The Ides of March >>> Rich vs. Peter? Boomerang >>> John Carroll vs. Dale, starting this Friday or next War Machine II >>> Rich vs. Sheap, starting? Surgical Strike >>> Tom vs. Peter? Letter of Marque >>> Jon B vs. Ron, to start next week By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Payback's a B***h Unto the Breach You Talkin' to Me? Collide Remember the Alamo The Ides of March Boomerang War Machine II Surgical Strike Letter of Marque BATTLES IN PROGRESS: BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold

By


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yep as usual you are 100% right Dale. John I tried your email attached to your name, can you resond to nomadwyn1 at yahoo dot com about your availability? Kerry By


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John, email me with any orders for the Collide battle. By


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Email sent. By


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Quote:

As for the Jindos, since they have Special Sensors in at least SOME of their NWO boxes

Are Jindarians special? Most ships cannot put scout sensors in NWOs. By


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Jindarians are special. By


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Unto the Breach through T2.15 T1 Gravity waves come from behind the ISC so he can keep plasma ahead of it to impact B4 gravity wave death. We closed to R20 ish. ISC launched an enveloper then fired some disr at an interceptor but missed with all(we had +8 ECM)-Gravity wave ends turn around 8 hexes behind ISC. T2 We roll a 2(no trans or tracs) so no ECM bonus. Gravity wave rolls over ISC causing minor shield damage. He puts a PPD each into an interceptor and the scout interceptor at R15. With scout support he gets the shift down to one. He ends up hitting with 7 outa 8 pulses causing both targets to HET to keep ints off(both had 5 rein). Then he turned off but launched a pair of S torps at me the imp prior. On imp 15 I get his enveloper at R1 and his ships at R15. I throw some minor p3s into the enveloper and PC his DDP for 21(7 outa 10 sheesh). First gravity wave is like R9 to my main ships.

By


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Friday, March 20, 2009 - 01:59 pm: Edit

Good news and bad... bad news, John Carroll had to work today so we didn't get to fly "Boomerang" - will have to put it off to next Friday. Good news, Jeremy unexpectadly had time and we managed to knock out "Payback's a B***h". Battle report pending... it was short and brutal. By


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BATTLE REPORT: PAYBACK'S A B***H! This one was short and brutal. The Hydrans sallied forth from the MB under heavy ECM and erratics to press for "the shot". I expected they'd really only get one at range 10, and after that, they'd be lucky to get out with their skins. It took me three turns to get there, with the LNH-CS eating a prox volley on the way in which collapsed the #2 and did a handful of internals. I was under orders to preserve the LNH-CS anyway, so I let it fall back a few hexes from the attack wave, with the stingers out front. When I hit R10 on the fourth turn, the Hydrans gave the Tholian CAP Victory "the shot" at R10. Rolled a bit above average, and scored over 130 damage (after the ST-Hs contributed their HBs a couple impulses later at R8). The CAP was a drifting, powerless hulk, but still alive. I then turned the LNHs off and ran for it, accelerating to try to avoid R8. Couldn't quite do it, and turned the Stingers I could not tow back in to ensure the Victory's defeat. The R8 shot was truly staggering, and vaporized the LNH-V in a tremendous fireball. The rest of the Hydran ships were able to make it off the map, and the MB self-destructed to avoid capture. The stingers that turned back in finished off the CAP once their phasers cycled (and its shields dropped), but then had no way to get out and died to a horde of phasers and starfish drones. Hydran losses: LNH-V Raising Heart, 16x St-2, MB. Fed/Tholian losses: CAP Victory. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: You Talkin' to Me? Collide Remember the Alamo The Ides of March Boomerang War Machine II Surgical Strike Letter of Marque

BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h By


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Federation: 1 - Hydrans: 1 3 more matches this season. Well, with the Ares in battle, the victor was a forgone conclusion. By


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Which one did the Feds' lose? I only see one battle...oh, are you counting "Squished?" My bad. Heh...poor Squishy... By

Peter Thoenen (Eol)

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Kerry: Just FYI I am setup and ready to go tomorrow ... ships added, EA's done, ready for 1.1. I set up in 1919 so according to Dale you should be 46 hexes direction C of that. By


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It was marked as a Fed unit on my Encouters sheet, so it counted. Richard, one I've finished spanking your mercenaries from here to Kingdom Come, which one of our last two matches would you like to fly first? By


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Jon (and Dale): Confirming...I see a total of six matches involving Fed/Coalition forces and Hydrans: Python - "Squished" Regulus - "Payback" Cobra - "War Machine" (this is ground combat if I beat Juggie) Krooth - "Marque" Umbrella - (not announced) Ankrogea - (not announced)

Just checking we have the same stuff... Edit: Make that seven. I forgot about "Ides of March." By


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Jon, No preference I guess. The one at Umbrella might be quicker 'cause it's not as EW heavy. If Dale announces either, I'd have some time on Sunday. War Machine II doesn't start until next week with Bill.

Heh, I guess you're rooting for the Juggie now, huh? Also, still not sure when "Ides of March" is going. Peter's schedule didn't seem to match with mine... By


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UNDER MY UMBRELLA A full Fed battle fleet thunders into the Hydran system of Umbrella, intent on war! FEDERATION FLEET: DNG Star League, CSa+ Ajax, NCLa+ Reliant, FFB(L) Enright, DD+ Alexander, SC+ Diana, FFG Burke. HYDRAN FLEET: PAL+ Great Sigmar (10xST-2, 2xST-H), BAR Munchausen (4xST2, 2xST-H), TR+ Cyclone, TR+ Twister, DDS+ All Seeing Eye (3xST-2). Both sides WS-III, speed max, with the Hydrans setting up within 5 hexes of the planet in the center of an 84x60 map (and the Feds coming in from a corner). Rich (the Fed Admiral) and Jon (the Hydran Admiral) will fly this one at their convenience. ;) By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Collide Remember the Alamo The Ides of March Boomerang War Machine II Surgical Strike Letter of Marque

Under My Umbrella BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach You Talkin' to Me? BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h By


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UPDATED status on outstanding battles: Collide >>> Kerry vs Ted Remember the Alamo >>> Kerry vs. John Smith The Ides of March >>> Rich vs. Peter? Boomerang >>> John Carroll vs. Dale, starting this Friday or next War Machine II >>> Rich vs. Sheap, starting? Surgical Strike >>> Tom vs. Peter? Letter of Marque >>> Jon B vs. Ron, to start next week Under My Umbrella >>> JonB vs. Rich, at their convenience By


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Rich, I want to get Letter out of the way first, as it's gonna be quicker. I can't start anything until next Thursday in any case, which I have penciled in for Letter itself. By


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No Stinger-E on that Paladin? By


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Apparently the Guilds were doing some infighting, relocating the ST-E's to either the scrap heap or the wrong ships, and replacing with their own proprietary ST2s. Besides, the PAL+ is a proper carrier, and can lend to her group, so it was viewed by the Admiralty to be an acceptable tradeoff for more Fusion DEATH. By


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Jon, Ok, no problemo. And yeah, that should be quick; it's really just a scouting mission anyway... Dale,

For "Marque", is the "Ron" assigned Ron Schanlaub (schanie@hotmail.com)? If yes, I'll have some instructions for him pre-battle...

By


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Yes, feel free to email him. I already gave him the same guidelines as before, but feel free to add more. By


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Does anyone have anything they need a Captain for on Saturday night and/or Sunday? Alternatively, is anyone willing to pick up one of my two originally pending battles on Sunday (War Machine or Ides of March)? (My apologies in advance to Bill and/or Peter if I get any takers on the second option, but if I can get another battle done, I'm gonna do it, by gosh! By


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Kerry and I are planning on starting at 1630pst on Tuesday. I'll need to get fleet specifics and any special orders before then. Who do I need to contact about that? By


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John: Shoot me an email (in my profile) and I'll put you in touch with the Admiral in question. By


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Rich: If nobody else does, I may have some time Sat night or Sunday. Jon, any objection to me taking "Ides of March"? If no, email me instructions... Peter, there will be other stuff for you, no worries! By


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email sent By


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SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE In the Peladine system of Nuture 2.6, dominated by a black hole, an Orion Raider tries his luck - obviously not deterred by the defeat of his brethren earlier in the campaign! PELADINE FLEET: DD+(Oenplancton). ORION FLEET: CR+ Bad Booty (2x DISR-30, 1x DRONE-B).

Both sides WS-II, speed-max! There is a black hole present in the center of the map so watch out! Rich and Glenn will fly this one this weekend (along with possibly handling "Ides of March"). By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Collide Remember the Alamo The Ides of March Boomerang War Machine II Surgical Strike Letter of Marque Under My Umbrella Supermassive Black Hole BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach You Talkin' to Me? BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h By


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UPDATED status on outstanding battles: Collide >>> Kerry vs Ted Remember the Alamo >>> Kerry vs. John Smith The Ides of March >>> Rich vs. Glenn? Boomerang >>> John Carroll vs. Dale, starting this Friday or next War Machine II >>> Rich vs. Sheap, starting? Surgical Strike >>> Tom vs. Peter? Letter of Marque >>> Jon B vs. Ron, to start next week Under My Umbrella >>> JonB vs. Rich, at their convenience Supermassive Black Hole >>> Glenn vs. Rich By


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I can do Surgical Stike if Pete is unable to. Cheers

Frank By


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I have no objections. I'm not sure when my schedule will align with Pete's. Given his schedule it might be a few weeks and I hoped to get to the battle as soon as I could. Dale has the last say of course. By


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It's fine with me, guys. By

Peter Thoenen (Eol)

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Saturday, March 21, 2009 - 07:57 am: Edit

Frank/Tom: Go have fun. Nothing real exciting on the "You talkin to me"; was one sided from the get go. Best part was the toys and getting some kinks worked out before the next fight. Turn 1: We both close slow cause Jindo's are slow given 12 warp to charge 3 warp rail guns is a PITA. His interceptors split north, his gun boats and FFK split south. Turn 2: I speed up to 12 and continue to plod my way forward. He sets up for his turn 3 battle pass with 14 drones, north / south battle vectors, and ending the turn r11. BDD fires a G/F/F south which eventually hit each gunboat for 5 while the FFK runs the G out. Superstack hits a andro tbomb I can't avoid. Bombers and fighters landed before it explodes, ships all eat 10. Turn 3: I am hot on special sensors rolls and break lock on 13 of 15 drones on first attempt. Gunboat 1 gets to r4 and is melted. Gunboat2 gets to r6 and runs after getting rear and forward panels filled. Interceptors get to r9. Int 1 and 2 are melted, Int 3/4/5/Scout run. We call it here as he will hit map edge before my metal boats catch him. End results: Lyrans: -1 Gunboat, -2 Interceptors. No other damage that isn't repairable (point or two of leak, shields) Jindo (important because fleet has another fight this turn): BDD: 10 to S6, repairable between fights. CA: 5 to S6, 6 to S4, 4 to S1 repairable between fights CA: 5 to Armor belt 6, 15 to armor belt 4. 8 of this is repairable using D25.22 and considering I can't even break out spares guessing the time between the fights isn't long enough to do more than this. Fix 5 on AB6, 3 on SB4 leaving just 12 pre-existing damage on armor belt 4 for next fight.

CVL: 5 to S6, 3 to S3 repairable between fights CVL: 5 to armor belt 6. Repairable between fights per D25.22 (leaves 3 for next fight) DDE: 10 to S6, repairable between fights FFE: 10 to S6, repairable between fights BHB 10 to Shield, repairable between fights BHB down two admin shuttles No fighter / bomber damage or expendables used outside what is listed above. By


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You Talkin' to Me? Lasted 4 turns if you count the retreat. The battle was like trying to have a school of carp take down a submarine.. and I think the carp stood a better chance. Tale of the tape is I killed 2 shuttles and did 25 armor hits through Tbombs and fire. One gunboat and 2 ints bit the dust while all other damage is repairable. Oh yeah and I got the information that this force is a toughie. Peter used his forces well going 6 for 6 on railguns(well it was 1-5) and not losing any ftrs or bombers. The mobile P4 base was a nice surprise as well. As were the large number of sensor channels. Sorry I seemed frustrated in game Peter as I knew the battle was way uphill, just thought I could do better than killing a couple shuttles. By

Peter Thoenen (Eol)

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BTW I need you to rule on this one Dale for the next fight with that Jindo fleet: The CA has three groups of "blank boxes" (2 boxes in each group). You stated that's 2 special sensors and 4 barracks. This isn't legal under R16.1C1 as "No more than one group of boxes can have barracks". Wasn't an issue this particular fight but might be in the next. So I have 2 special sensors, 2 barracks, and 2 what? ALCON: Quit thinking of Jindo blank boxes as HDW NWO .. THEY ARE NOT. R16.1C1 has completed different restrictions and capabilities than HDW NWO's and a couple folk on this thread are confusing them. Hell I wish I had HDW NWO (could take power or fighter bays) but can't. Just a public service announcement. By

Peter Thoenen (Eol)

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Kerry: I posted a couple jindo Q&A rules on the Q&A thread asking some of our questions that came up. Namely the BHB ph4 and does the BHB take tbomb damage. Not going to the results no matter how its ruled (Dale + Do over and ph4 only did 14 the entire fight) but good future reference. By

Marc Baluda (Marc)

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Armor requires a base to repair. By

Peter Thoenen (Eol)

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Marc: No, read D25.22. Read Jindo rules people By


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Guys, I'm pretty sure the "BHB equivalent" on the CA is just a landing pad - no additional guns or systems. In any case, unless it's a monster, I'm also pretty sure any ph-4 on a unit without positional stabilizers is also known as a ph-1. ;) However as is well known, I don't allow do-overs. Glad it didn't make much difference in the fight, though. Be interested to see the answer in the Rules Question thread. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Collide Remember the Alamo The Ides of March Boomerang War Machine II Surgical Strike Letter of Marque Under My Umbrella Supermassive Black Hole BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me? By


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Peter: Those other two NWO boxes on the CA shall be Transporter, then.

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Peter Thoenen (Eol)

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Roger on transporters By


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Saturday, March 21, 2009 - 03:23 pm: Edit

OK, issue with bomber base on Jindo ship cleared up (see Rules Questions thread). Peter, if you do fly the second half, please keep this in mind. What's your schedule like again, Peter? By


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Collide scheduled to begin on Monday night. By


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Questions on Klingon/Kzinti vessels for Collide: DN(1) Akira Kogami: Y175 refit? D6SB Widowmaker: Y175 Refit? D6B Barbarous: Y175 Refit? UIM Refit? DD(2) Vertigo: Y175 Refit?

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DN(1) Akira Kogami has the Y175 refit. DD(2) Vertigo does not. D6SB Widowmaker has the Y175 refit. D6B Barbarous doesn't have the Y175 refit or UIM refit. By


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Klingon/Kzinti have EA done, COs specified, are setup, and are ready for battle. By


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BREACH Fighting through the Lyran intercept, the Gorn/Jindarian fleet arrives at Dark Storm system, intent on mayhem! LYRAN FLEET: BATS(175), PAM, PFM, HBM, 6xZ-1(I-M drns), 6xGBDP; CVp+ Red Claw Glory, 6xZ-2 (I-M drones), FFAp+ Red Claw Guardian, FFAp+ Red Claw Warrantor. GORN/JINDARIAN FLEET: BDD+ Iron Hide; Jindarian CA, 2x Met-HB2, CVL, 8x

Meteor-2, DDE, FFE (damage applied from previous scenario). Lyrans set up within 5 hexes of the planet in the middle of an 84x60 map. Both sides WS-III, speed-max! By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Collide Remember the Alamo The Ides of March Boomerang War Machine II Surgical Strike Letter of Marque Under My Umbrella Supermassive Black Hole Breach BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me? By


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Breach looks fun! However, I won't take it until at least I finish Collide. By


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Ides of March is set up, We're looking at Sunday morning. Additionally, the Black hole scenario should be handled as well, same day. By


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Good luck with both of those, Glenn. I do hope the Peladine go 3 for 3 around that hypermass. It seems to be their good luck charm. By


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As long as that black hole keeps sucking, and those Orions keep tempting fate, we're good. Otherwise it could go ugly. As for Ides of March . . . It's a run for survival. I'll do my best.

By

Peter Thoenen (Eol)

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Dale: (damage applied from previous scenario) ... I assume repairs as I specified earlier are applied? (all shields repaired, 8 armor on the jindo's) As for the scenario itself, I can fly it or give it away, I have no ownership of it ... if somebody can work with my schedule though lets do it I am available (all US eastern times): Friday / Saturday: From 2am until 14:00 eastern (I go to sleep here). Friday though I have to take a break from 6am to 8 am (grocery shopping). And that's about it. Also not available this coming weekend or April 17/18 but am available all other weekends until this is done By


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Surgical Strike 3 turns played. Romulans have launched nearly all their plasma. ISC is still holding theirs. Romulans get a range 5 phaser strike and despite having a +2 shift versus them, they do decent internals on a DD. Man I wish I had my rear F torp refit. By


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LETTER OF MARQUE is hereby cancelled as the Orion movement was illegal. Ron, I swear, I will find you something else to fly! -D By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Collide Remember the Alamo The Ides of March Boomerang War Machine II Under My Umbrella Supermassive Black Hole

Breach BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach Surgical Strike BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me? By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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Dale, go to sleep man! By


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Can't sleep - campaign... takes... precedance!! *Falls asleep drooling on keyboard* By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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I smell blue smoke! By


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Rich, would you mind if Ron flew the Ankrogea battle instead? By


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As currently stands, Rich is slated to fly the battle in Ankrogea personally. I wouldn't expect him to stand aside for Ron for that one, although I hope to find another one for Ron to fly ASAP. By


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I could go to sleep if Jon Berry would stop emailing me with rules nikki-tickis. And, if I didn't know I would be getting an email s**tstorm from Rich as soon as he catches up. Gevalt. My life. Remind me to recommend running a campaign like this... to my worst enemy... Edited to remove expletive (and fixed "campaign" because it made my fingers itch) -- Jean By


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Hey! I am not your enemy! By


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Are you volunteering? By

Ron Schanlaub (Schanie)

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Maybe I'm an agent of the Organians; I show up and fights just go away. No worry, I'm sure there will be plenty of fights to go around. And I just had to add Organian to my spell checker... By


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Ron, I sincerely apologize. I didn't advertise for "captains needed" with the intent to frustrate. I will have a battle for ya soon! By


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For the next one? When this is down to say, the last three? Sure. I'll do it. By


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Ides of March and SuperMassiveShipgulping Blackhole scheduled today. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Collide Remember the Alamo Boomerang War Machine II Under My Umbrella Breach BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach Surgical Strike Supermassive Black Hole The Ides of March BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me?

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UPDATED status on outstanding battles: Collide >>> Kerry vs Ted Remember the Alamo >>> Kerry vs. John Smith Boomerang >>> John Carroll vs. Dale, starting this Friday or next War Machine II >>> Rich vs. Sheap, starting? Surgical Strike >>> Tom vs. Frank LeMay Under My Umbrella >>> JonB vs. Rich, at their convenience Breach >>> Unassigned (captains needed!) By


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Ron, Dale, and all: My apologies as well for "Letter of Marque." Just wasn't paying attention to treating the Orions as "regular ships", and I should have. Those units are of course immediately withdrawn to Douglass. Ron, I'm sure we've got plenty more for ya! By


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IDES OF MARCH Battle Report. Game has ended. Federation Victory, but not total as the Hydran SC manages to get away clean (mostly). Glenn and I got started late, as Glenn still has challenges with the SFBOL interface, the latest being he can't see his opponents SSD's (he can see the list of systems, but no picture). Strangely, he can see his own, just not his opponents. Very odd. Message sent to Paul. I was also having connectivity issues, as I got booted 4 times in 2 hours. Anyway, as to the battle... Impulse 1 ----------Tension, but nothing happened other than the BATS launched her MRS. Impulse 2 ----------Glenn HET'ed the DWH, HN, and SC. Later, Glenn kept the freighters moving in, in the hopes of drawing fire.

The Feds launched 2 shuttles. These were never revealed, but they were each an SP, 1 at each freighter. The BATS and the two ground P4s in arc opened up with everything at the HN. Both prox photons missed. The #4 shield went down, and the HN Bow took 8 internals, including 2 warp hits. Impulse 3 ---------Nothing exciting, just the freighters moved forward. Impulse 4 ---------Movement. The Feds kept coming, and the Hydran warships spread out, hoping to force the Feds to split up to pursue. Good idea, as it would force the issue of "photon luck" to be more acute, and whichever ship drew the FFG would almost definitely get away. Unfortunately, the Feds didn't split up...yet. The BATS and the CB each launched on drone this impulse, one at each freighter. We never saw 'em, but they were the big Type IVMs. The Fed SC made her single contribution, launching an F7! (C'mon, ya know I had to have at least one...

)

Impulse 5 ---------More movement. The Fed CB, NCL, and FFG announce a speed change to 19, popping the clutch. If I needed it, I also had powered a trac on the CB and two on the NCL in case I needed "stupid tractor tricks." Impulse 6 ----------The Fed warships close to range 8. FIRE PHOTONS! There wasn't enough energy to movement a 20-19-20 plot, have 6 ECCM, and overload all tubes. So 6 16pointers were fired, 1 12-pointer, and 3 standards. I got 7 of 10 hits (4 16s and all 3 standards), doing 88 damage to the fresh #4 shield of the DWH. Despite some reinforcement, the damage rolls were just right, and left 2 CW hits and 3 out 4 control spaces when the excess damage went over. For a brief moment, the DWH Quartermain turned into a sun, and then was gone. Impulse 7 ---------FIRE PHASERS! The Feds had the damaged HN centerlined and, realizing we

would not get range 5 before the end of the turn (even with stupid tricks), shot 19 P1 into the HN. Damage was below average, and damage distribution was kind to the Bow. All internals on the SSD were gone (hadn't seen THAT in awhile), but no excess damage hits. A maximum of 7 more damage was needed to kill her, but now the Feds had nothing but drones and small phasers left. ... Glenn and I paused here, and looked at the position and speeds (and acceleration limits) of the ships. We both realized the scenario was over. The F-AS Gas Giant, who continued to come straight in the vain hope to make itself a target, would be damaged by the impact of a type IV drone on impulse 8, and would be destroyed by SP drones it couldn't stop on impulse 12, as well as any needed weapons fire from the Fed SC and F7 fighter. The F-AS Open Nova, which turned north, would survive a little longer as the 7 drones chasing her closed this turn. However, she couldn't make board edge before, at the earliest, the latter half of next turn. The Fed FFG Rickover, already close behind because of the opening moves, would break off and be able to run her down before she'd escape. Once in a tractor beam early on turn 2, she dies as well. The HN Bow couldn't make map edge as a floating hulk either, and had no power left. She would die to a drone hit on turn 2. This means the SC Vigil draws the Fed CB and NCL after her. While unable to open the range, the Vigil can certainly maintain it. Since it has move precedence, a centerline shot with phasers wouldn't happen. Therefore, all the Feds could do would be to shoot 12 P1 at range 7-8 at her. That would do internals, but only about a dozen, and that level of damage wouldn't be "permanent" anyway. ...Vigil lives to report the ambush to the outraged Hydran command. Forced to retreat in the face of the Feds and now low on fuel, Vigil heads back to colony system Cobra and...? -----------------------------------------Ship Status: All Fed ships/units: no damage. (CB, NCLa+, FFG, SC+, BATSF+ w/PAM, 3 GBDP) Hydrans: DWH Quartermain: destroyed (weapons fire) HN Bow: destroyed (weapons fire) SC Vigil: disengaged F-AS Open Nova: destroyed (drones)

F-AS Gas Giant: destroyed (drones) -----------------------------------------While a Federation easy victory, Glenn deserves credit for getting a ship out in an otherwise dire situation! My thanks to Glenn for an enjoyable (if quick) game! My thanks also to my noble opponent Jon, for allowing Glenn to fly his ships. Finally! Feds in action! By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Collide Remember the Alamo Boomerang War Machine II Under My Umbrella Breach BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach Supermassive Black Hole BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me? The Ides of March Surgical Strike By


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Surgical Strike Concluded Turns 4 and 5 where reload and repair turns. The ISC chased the empty Romulans. Turn 6, the Romulans had all plasma available so turned to engage. Early in the turn, both sides launched ECPs, the last pseudo torps available for either side. All launched plasma would be known to be real.

Imp 5, the Romulans, speed 26, turned to face the ISC squadron head on. The ISC slipped towards the Romulans on impulse 6 and launched 60pts of plasma (G, F, F). The Rom continued to close and launched their own spread of 60pts of plasma (F, F, F) from their right side launch tubes. At this the ISC turned away (range 9 from Romulans). The Romulans, closed some, labbed the ISC to find it was all targeted on the Skyhawk Sword. All Romulan ships then turned left towards the map edge (8 or 9 hexes away) and the Sword kicked it speed up to 29 to run out the plasma. The ISC continued to run the plasma out before also turning left towards the map edge. At the point (around impulse 22), the Sword was a hex or two away from the map edge, the other romulan ships trailing and the ISC ships about 12 hexes away off the #3 shields of the Romulan ships. The ISC turned left to close on the Romulans while the Romulans turned right and skirted the map edge. The ISC G torp hits the Skyhawk Sword for ten damage on the #3 shield. Impulse 29, the DDL Audacious and the DD Auspicious reach range 5 (The Aloor Dol-Kaln is at range 6), just out of FA arc of the Romulan ships. The ISC launch their remaining plasma while the Skyhawk Leader SkyFlame launches its G torp. Then all three Romulan ships fire their bearing phaser-1s (9 total) and knock down the #1 shield of the DD Auspicious, killing a warp and some hull on four internals. Impulse 30, the Romulans turn right to face the ISC while the ISC close. The Romulans launch two more torps and then the ISC unleash 12p1s on the Skyhawk Truncheon, doing 22 internals and killing 9 or so power. The Romulans return fire, two p1s at the DD Auspicious do 7 internals and killing 3 phasers and one p1 at the DD Aloor Dol-Kaln do 3 internals, getting a phaser. Impulse 31, the ISC turn left while the SkyFlame and Truncheon close to range 2 of the ISC DDL Audacious and the DD Auspicious. The SkyFlame tries to attach a tractor to both the DD Auspicious and the Sword. The SkyFlame fails in it’s tractor attempt on the Auspicious as the Audacious also tractors the destroyed an wins the tractor auction. ISC labs determine the Romulan G torp is aimed at the DDL while the two F torps are after the DD Auspicious. The ISC squadron lays two tbombs and transports a third in the path of the Romulans. The Romulans fire four phaser-3s at the ISC G torp, knocking its warhead by 6. Impulse 32, the ISC continue to flee the plasma while the Romulans close. The three ISC torps hit the Sword, doing 20 damage to the #2 shield, knocking it down, and 34 to the #3 shield, doing 20 internals, killing an F torp and some power. Turn 7, the ISC plan on outrunning the plasma while the Romulans decide to call

it A day and disengage. Final status: ISC DDL Audacious: Shield damage only. DD Auspicious: a handful of internals but repairable by D9.4 DD Aloor Dol-Kaln: a handful of internals but repairable by D9.4 Romulans: Disengaged Skyhawk Leader SkyFlame: No damage Skyhawk Sword: 20 internals Skyhawk Truncheon: 22 internals. By


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SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE Initial Report. Got to Turn 3.10. Once again, we had significant SFBOL issues, with the first 3 or so hours lost. A very SPECIAL thanks to Tom Carroll for assisting us, and solving a significant ongoing problem Glenn has had with his SFBOL library. Anyway, not much happened...just a lot of dancing at long range around the black hole. The Orion attempted a long range disruptor shot to take down the Peladine ECM drone, but the EW shift was so bad, it was ineffective. That was the only fire. At 3.10, the Peladine DD is inside range 10 to the singularity, but moving perpendicular/away. The Orion CR is at about range 15 on the other side away from the DD, but is closing.

[Of course my CR is closing...like a moth to the flame...

]

We plan again tomorrow night starting at 8:30 pm CST. ------------------Off topic here, but I cannot emphasize the point enough. If Paul Franz wants SFBOL to grow and gain new customers, he MUST find a way to produce a users manual. I know it's potentially expensive, but I don't see an alternative... By


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KALAMITY AT KYNARTH

A patrolling ISC frigate squadron is disturbed on their rounds by a blossoming spatial distortion. When the distortion clears, they find themselves confronted by an angry LDR CWL! ISC FLEET: 3rd FF Squadron (FFL Ongoing Determination, FF Hypermass, FF Aurora). LDR FLEET: CWL Protector (full refits). Both sides WS-III, speed max, with the ISC holding the center of the map within 5 hexes of the planet! Ron, here's one for you - you and Tom Carroll can fly this at your convenience! By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Collide Remember the Alamo Boomerang War Machine II Under My Umbrella Breach Kalamity at Kynarth BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach Supermassive Black Hole BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me? The Ides of March Surgical Strike By


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Monday, March 23, 2009 - 12:01 pm: Edit

Richard, what is your schedule like on Thursday, for us to start with at least the setup of Umbrella? By


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Jon, I think I'm already committed for War Machine with Sheap on Thursday

evening/night. If he cancels, then you're in! By


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Subspace message overheard by ISC Frigates in broken lyran speech.... "No its a left at Romulus, I say again left. Do not go right!"

Come back CWL! By

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Thanks Richard - my next available day would be sunday during the day proper. I have it booked off so I can go to a formal dinner that evening. By


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Kerry, curious, when are you and John flying "Alamo"? And you and Ted, "Collide"?

Not rushing you guys, just curious. By


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Collide scheduled to start tonight. By


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Alamo was scheduled for tues wed but seems to be pushed back to just wed now. I'll be on both days just in case. Collide starts tonight. It's another tight battle. By


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Great! Looking forward to hearing about it, if I don't get a chance to watch. By


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Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - 12:46 am: Edit

BLACK HOLE Continued tonight. Got to 4.32. A little more action. The Orion shot phasers and disruptors on 3.25 thru a +1 shift, doing 6 damage to the #1 shield. The Peladine replied a twin G-bolts at range 10 thru a +1 shift...and hit with both! Mazel Tov! Only 2 boxes left on the Orion #4 shield now. Peladine also launched 2 shuttles, 1 of them an SP. Both were launche in close proximity to the Hole, but Glenn has smartly maneuvered the SP drones so they didn't fall in, and will now have to be swept with a TB. Unfortunately, the 2 shuttles he launched fell into the Hole.

The Orion also launched but a single drone, and the Peladine took it out at range 5 with a TB! I think Glenn feared it was something "special." And who knows? The Orion wanted to capitalize on the bolt attack made by the Peladine, but the SP drones forced him (me) off. So now we're separated on opposite sides of the Hole again, getting ready to re-arm, fill batteries, and re-engage. Footnote to the battle: the Orion seems to be stingy with resources in this game, having launched only 1 drone, and hasn't doubled anything yet... Black Hole to resume tomorrow evening. By


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Collide D7W comes in with a LC so a bad battle becomes even worse!! T1 we come at each other around spd 15 with lyran SS right at most opportunities. Lyran provides EW to his 3 ships and keeps SR trailing by 5 hexes. KZI forces are single stack with ECM drones. Around imp 27 Lyran reaches R22 and fires disr at his D6B(no shift) doing like 9 dam to his #1 after rein. A couple imps later KZI returns fire with most unshifted disr and 7 p1's unshifted. Ted truly rolled crap and did like 6 total dam which I reinforced 2 away. KZI launced 2 ecm drones from most ships and about 8 other drones. T2 KZI 14 all turn Lyran 15/26 at end(a lot of variations getting about the same moves due to TM considerations). Lyran turns right and maintains distance heading for upper left corner. Lyran still running with 7 ecm and 3 ECCM on most. Around imp 20 CC reaches R15 and goes to 9 ecm. His D6S uses Batts and gives both DN+CC 6 OEW. I counter the CCs OEW but can only get 3 to the DN. CC puts up ESGs and on 24 I fire at his D7W doing 15 total dam after shifts(Ted nicely timed an ECM bump which prevented a disr from hitting). KZI return fire of only Disr gets 18 back to the DN. Both shots hit around 6 rein. After all my main ships increase spd to 26 or so I turn the CC in at R11 on imp 29. This entreats Ted toi launch Round 2 of drones from ships as well after an imp a full torp spread from the snipe(which should hit early next turn). The DN uses a tractor to hold the CC from closing after all the toys are out. At EOT CC is at R9 to his ships with drones within 5(T1 launches) and others around R8. Lyrans are in upper left corner with 10 or so hexes to left edge and about 7-10 hexes from upper edge. T3 this weekend where it defintely may get dicey for the lyrans. Guess I'll learn

how effective I am at Tbombing and eating Ftorps pretty soon. By


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Richard and Glenn; After fighting around the hypermass in this campaign before, I can tell you there are two styles of 'fight' around it. First is the close dance, where both ships plot higher speeds, and simply push the edge of hole's gravity pulls to to try and swing around faster, and therefore behind the enemy. It was this game I played myself, and it was extremely nervewracking and intense. No seekers except plasma and Fast drones of any real use in this sort of knife fight. The other is the longer ranged, and as Richard said - more conservative game. By keeping the range open, both sides tend to view the hypermass as a 'no mans land' to be avoided. This leads to a lot of sniping, and on these sizes of map used in this campaign paradoxically gives both sides plenty of room to maneuver, despite the 'hole' in the middle. Sounds like you guys are playing the second style of game, and as such, get used to the idea that this will take some time for a victor to be determined. The infight is a far more tense game, and can be very brutal as one mistake can cost you everything. Keep it up, both of you, and good luck to each! By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Remember the Alamo Boomerang War Machine II Under My Umbrella Breach Kalamity at Kynarth BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach Supermassive Black Hole Collide BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me?

The Ides of March Surgical Strike By


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Jon, Rich and I fought this very same battle before in this campaign. While Rich had the upper hand in that battle, one single slip led the Orion into a spiraling death, even at his high speed. I knew he wasn't going to play around the singularity this time. Yes, long game it'll be. By


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Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - 03:07 pm: Edit

Rich: We have tentatively scheduled for tomorrow but not chosen a time. Earliest I can start is probably about 6 PM Pacific time. By


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AMENDMENT: BOOMERANG There's a mistake in "Boomerang" battle announcement. The F5SB is not present; a Tholian DDP (Quicksilver) is present instead. This was a transcribing error, not any screwup on the part of an Admiral. By


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Due to John Carroll's work situation, he's had to pass "Boomerang" off to his ally, the Tholian Admiral. Jeremy and I have begun the battle on SFBOL, and should have time to complete it before he leaves for Germany. Hopefully John can get back in harness for flying soon! By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Remember the Alamo War Machine II Under My Umbrella Breach Kalamity at Kynarth BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach Supermassive Black Hole Collide Boomerang BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space

Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me? The Ides of March Surgical Strike

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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: War Machine II Under My Umbrella Breach Kalamity at Kynarth BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach Supermassive Black Hole Collide Boomerang Remember the Alamo BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me? The Ides of March Surgical Strike By


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Remember the Alamo T1 Lyran comes in 14/26 KZI doin 10/15. Both of us dawdle for the first 15 imps slowly closing and then turning in after imp 20(imp[28 for KZI). KZI running ECM drones and High ECM plus is using 4 full channels from BATTs/MSC combo(has 7 channels avail). LYR fires all disr at r30 on DDLs #6 for 8 shield hits and on 32 hits a different DD from R20 with phasers for 9. His return fire on my LDR CW does 20(one ship had a shift) netting 13 shields. KZI launched the full drone spread on imp 32. Had to save there as during the week john only has about 2 hours to play. Continuein tomorrow at 4:15 pacific.

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Not much to report yet on "Boomerang", other than the gravity waves came in behind the Peladine fleet (overrunning them on T1) and that the EW situation sucks for both sides (+8 natural to all, no loaning). The Peladine are approaching the planet with the base on the far side, at speed-20, having reinforced away the damage from the wave on T1. By


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Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - 01:29 am: Edit

SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE Endgame. Total Orion Victory. After both sides moved off to reload and repair a few shields, the Orion turned around to close the distance with the Peladine DD on turn 5. Turn 6 saw the Orion forgo shield repair and move a 30/25 speed plot, coming around the north side of the Hole to close on the DD. The DD, perhaps thinking it had another turn, did a 14/20 speed plot, and as the Orion came through range 10, turned away to try to keep the range open as much as possible. At the end of turn 6, the Orion had shot down the Peladine's new ECM drone (but had to use all 4 heavy phasers to do it through a +1 shift), launched a drone, and launched a shuttle on impulse 32. The turn ended with the Orion at range 7 behind the Peladine (and the Black hole more than 20 hexes behind both ships), but with the Peladine's torps coming up on turn 7. Turn 7 turned ugly. The Orion finally doubled both engines, and came in hard and fast (the CR had a 26/30/25/12 speed plot for the turn). The Peladine plotted 22 hexes of movement as well, and HET'ed back into the onrushing CR. A Plasma-G was launched at close range, impacting the CR on the reinforced #6 shield. Perhaps as pay-back for both bolts hitting earlier, the plasma had a +1 shift upon impact, and rolled a 6. After reinforcement, it only did 4 boxes to the #6. The two antagonists were now at range 1 on impulse 7. This impulse decided the game. The Orion placed the Peladine in a tractor, and launched a heavy armored drone (the infamous 8/18). The Peladine opened fire, shooting down the Orion drone launched last turn at range 2, bouncing a P2 off the armored drone, and shooting 3 more phasers and a bolted Plasma G into the same #6 shield on the Orion...through a +2 shift. Unknown to most, Glenn has built-in immunity to EW, and hit the Orion for 20 damage. With a battery committed, left 1 box on the #6. The CR returned fire with her 4 P1 (the last one just barely cleared recycling on impulse 7), doing 21 to the damaged #1 of the DD. 6 damage in. I kid you not, this was the 6 damage rolled: Right warp, 2 Phaser-2s, the drone rack, bridge, C hull. The bad news at that point mounted. On impulse 8, now tractored, the CR moved at speed 17, and turned the #5 shield to the DD. The armored drone impacted,

exactly taking down the #2 shield. The Orion fired 2 P3 thru the down #1, doing another 8 in, netting a Plasma-G, another P2, the Auxcon, another right warp, and 4 more C hull. On impulse 9, the shuttle the CR launched on impulse 6.32 released 4 type I and 1 type IV (1/2 armor) drones. At this point, Glenn called it. It was obvious that... Stuck in the CR's tractor beam, no power for her remaining TB, and only 2 RX P2s left to fire, the drones closed and impacted the honorable Peladine DD. Assuming a new shield turned and shooting down 2 drones, the Peladine will have taken a total of 38 internals in 3 separate volleys, leaving her weaponless, little power, and hopelessly crippled. The Orion finished her on turn 8. The Orion CR+ Bad Booty, living up to her name, presumably then looted the nearby (?) colony. Arrrr. --------------Glenn continues to grow his skills using the SFBOL interface, and I look forward to playing more games on-line with one of my life-long closest friends. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: War Machine II Under My Umbrella Breach Kalamity at Kynarth BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach Collide Boomerang Remember the Alamo BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me? The Ides of March Surgical Strike Supermassive Black Hole

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Dale is obviously either a night owl or an insomniac. By


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BLACK HOLE from the perspective of the Peladine. Captain's log 291524 point 11.19.2947, I woke up 3 minutes ago to a red alert. The ensign on night watch decided she wanted to "show her stuff" and take on the invading Orion. She did much of what I would have done except she failed to ID the last drone launched from the Orion ship and failed to take steps to consider a tractor lock. She also failed to wake her captain in time to deal with this menace. Also, the captain (me) failed to train himself to wake up to the red-alert sounds of his own ship. Even though I'm in an escape pod, I can still read the final minutes of the ship's data logs. Unfortunately, life support is failing and this will be my final report to the Queen. Captain of Oenplancton, for the Queen, out. ================================= Rich, thank you for the game. Not only did you walk me through the subtle nuances of SFBOL, but as usual you gave me your best. I felt it was an excellent game. Dale, as usual, excellent moderation in this otherwise chaotic universe. By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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Bommerang to continue momentarily. Been reviewing the Ion Storm rules...what a pain is the keyster! Web can be used to block gravity waves, but I'm not sure this single DDP is going to be of much use trying. Not enough power to build a web quickly, and sitting behind web with weapons that can't shoot through it in the presence of the sun spot activity seems suicidal. I'd rather be fighting around a black hole. Now I know why the Vudar were not completely subdued. Who in there right mind would want to fight in this mess! By


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I know the feeling. Luckily plasma has a huge advantage in the storm if they can set up trailing a wave in. The ECM most of the time makes it difficult for DF fleets unless they are close.

So basically it means a lot of damage from close range passes or lucky sniping doing little with shifts of 2 on weapons. The waves totally cripple a spd 20 drone launcher as they normally can't reach their target before the wave wipes them away. Ftrs and ECM drones get the same issue. Bases aren't affected as much . By


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Bill, WAR MACHINE start tonight is very likely postponed. Wife comes back from her week-long business trip tonight, and has "advised" me that I am taking her out to dinner, followed by an evening at home! However, we're still good for Thursday evening, start time of ~8:00 pm CST, if you can. On the plus side, I've managed to get my set-up done, including all drones/COI, so when we do start, all we need to do is adjust the counters on the map and go! [after Suzanne goes to sleep tonight, I'll try to log on and get at some EA done too...] Hmmm...actually...just post here your starting hex, and then I'll pick my corner and adjust counters...that should save us a few minutes! By


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Finished turn 1. His fleet took a total of 10 shield boxes (spread over 3 ships) from the first gravity wave. He fired 16 disruptors at R25, hitting with 5 through a shift, and scored 8 on the DW Heinlein's #1 after reinforcement. We continue on... the first gravity wave is nearing the base, while the second has entered the right map edge... By


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Turn 2 complete. Highlights: no gravity wave impact on any one but the BATS (which bounced it). Klinks get R15 and narrow salvo their disruptors; the BT hits, doing 24 to the #1 of the SRV. The BATS throws in 4 Ph-4s for 3 more. The Peladine lob drones, and turn off Klingon drones with scout channels. The DN fires 10 ph-2s to kill 5 drones - •••••• shifts from the storm. Late in the turn, the Pel DN launches an eveloped R about 15 hexes out from his fleet, then turns away to avoid R17 from the BATS and dives for the incoming gravity wave... Continuing. By


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Black Hole. A capture? Or a kill?

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Bill, Well...the wife's stranded in Dallas; flight home was cancelled. I may get some time tonight after all... What drama. By


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Michael Grafton: Kill. By


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Quote:

Dale is obviously either a night owl or an insomniac.

Both. He's up at night, then when the day comes, he can't sleep.

Rich: Let me know whether you are available or not either way. By

John Trauger (Vorlonagent)

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No big deal for me


Kill da wabbit? By


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Turn 3 did NOT turn out as planned. Probably my mistake for MAKING a plan in this chaotic environment. All the nice lovely static that was foiling disruptor shots went away this turn, and we had clear shots. I launched a bunch of plasma (7xS, 2 of which were fake) and turned off, heading north, trying to avoid R15 - but couldn't. The Klinks slowed down and came around the planet and we ended up doing an oblique pass at R11 of all things. On impulse 13, when we hit that range/position, I fired 20 ph-1s and a G- and F-bolt at the DDP's already-weakened #6. Both bolts hit, and I rolled well with ph-1s... nailing the Tholian DDP for over 20 internals. J held fire, fearing that if he shot, I'd turn in (I would have). I took out both shuttles and both photons. 3.14 he returned fire, blowing down the #6 of the BC and scoring about 20 internals. My fleet then turned off.

The Enveloped R went for the BATS, but due to map position, the gravity wave overran it (it had to head north AND west), reducing its range. The BATS phasered it down to nothing the impulse before impact. My other plasma was spread out, trying to cause as much mayhem as possible. He took some light shield damage after phasering them down, and had to weasel on the E7. My first two waves of drones were overrun by the gravity wave a few hexes shy of impact, and my third wave took out 10 Klingo/Kzinti drones. Sadly, this turn I hit TWO gravity waves, due to avoiding death range on his phaser-IVs, and I couldn't fully reinforce away the second wave. Shields are starting to get beat up. At this point my ships are about 23 hexes from the base, heading towards the next oncoming gravity wave, while the entire K/Z fleet is near the BATS at speed4. Jeremy rotated the Thol DDP into the hex with the BATS, where it will presumably dock next turn for repairs (but we'll see; it has no shuttles left and therefore, no weasels). We hope to continue Thurs eve or Friday day. By


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Alamo through 2.17 I fiendishly thought I could do a quick hit N run so do a 28/25(27 on STL) plot on my big 3(with std disr) and 14/10 on CW+tug. KZI has none of it and goes in reverse letting me deal with last turns plus this turns wave if I want to get R8 as well it would draw me into the BATTS. He is still running 9 ecm and with loaning the full monty I get the 3 frontline ships to 9 ECCM. At R10 to STL and like 12 to the otehrs I alpha a DD with 28 point maul thrown in. DD keeps like 9 power a disr and a p1 as well 2 drones. I then start my turn off. He has yet to fire. for T1 drones I Tbombed some 6 and let the otehrs continue onto the CWs gats. The rest of the turn he should get some decent damage out there. By


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Bill: Dunno if you'll see/get this. Wife caught a flight, but won't be home until 10 pm CST. It's 8:00 pm here (I got home about 45 min. ago). I've got about an hour+. We could at least get set-up done... By


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WAR MACHINE, PART DEUX

First turn completed. Nothing happened other than Feds launched about 20 drones. Juggie is closing, currently at range 17/18 to Fed forces. Juggie elected not to shoot at end of turn 1 through a +2 shift. Play resumes tomoroow night (hopefully). By


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One turn played in War Machine II. Juggernaut started center facing A, Feds started top left facing C (of course), stacked in the hex. Feds launched ECM drones on "turn 0" under WS-3 rules. Juggernaut plotted 20/31, Feds went 15 all turn, except CVE which went 13. Feds turned to D and moved down the map edge. Juggernaut went dir F turning to E late in the turn. Toward EOT the Feds launched two SPs and about a dozen rack drones. Range at end of turn was 17, near oblique, Feds still facing D, Juggernaut facing C. No fire. Battle resumes tomorrow, 6 PM Pacific. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Under My Umbrella Breach Kalamity at Kynarth BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach Collide Boomerang Remember the Alamo War Machine II BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me? The Ides of March Surgical Strike Supermassive Black Hole By


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Yes, turn 2 so far has been good and bad. I'd hoped we'd ended close enough that Kerry would try for overloads. If he had, he'd have had to close thru a mess of drones, then be within good ph4 damage range, which I was sure he wouldn't

do (all I wanted him to do was turn off and give me a one turn disr advantage). Unfortunately, he used standards. Worse, after he made R15 without firing (and continued to close), I assumed he was waiting to get to close enough for overloads. I'd completely forgotten that a mauler can fire out to R10. I'd been planning on loaning out a bunch of ECM with the base and BATS as soon as he hit R8. 61 damage later, the DD is pretty well out of it. Good news is that he's used 2 of his 3 batt blocs, and raised two ESGs, so I'm much less worried about an overrun (at least from the STL). I also learned that you can get loaned EW from more than one source. This makes a huge difference, as I've never tried loaning with more than one sensor. It also means my ECM drones will continue to be able to force shifts, as I won't need as much power for sensors. By


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Actually John just for fair warning. The ECM drones will continue to not be fired upon as long as they aren't causing shifts. I can readily reach 9 eccm. The LDR CW I could do so as well, but I think keeping it back for drone defense makes a better plan as your drones don't have ecm. Trust me you only have so many racks and they have to be reloaded eventually. Lyrans with ESGs can tend to make short work of large drone waves..well at least that is my hope anyway. They reload as well and never run out as long as I have the energy for em. Time should be on my side if I keep my large hulls under fire while gutting your smaller hulls. The BT will be a problem, but then again it has trouble moving and shooting so I'll get over it. So there's my plan throw your best wrench in it.

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Quote:

I also learned that you can get loaned EW from more than one source. This makes a huge difference, as I've never tried loaning with more than one sensor.

Ships, but not fighters, can receive lent EW from more than one source. But they still cannot exceed the total of 6 ECM plus 6 ECCM received from lending. Also note that ECM drones have their own rule preventing more than one ECM drone at a time from lending to a particular target. By


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Ah, well then. That isn't as good as I thought. By


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Well actually John as you can recieve it from different sources you can use the ecm from the drone and add from a second source. ie have DDs run with the 3 ecm from the ECM drone and then have a scout lend it 3 more to give a total of 6 ECM lent to the unit. This is what makes KZI so difficult is their ability to blunt the "big shot" by running such high EW. By


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Only got a few more imps in today, as Kerry had to get to another game. Left of after 2.24. The CC has it's #2 down facing pretty much the whole fleet, and doesn't move for the next 3 imps, so it's gonna get miziaed. The CW and STL have multiple drones inbound. The CW just blasted 6 without breaking a sweat (•••• gats). By


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I will be a little bit late, but not too much. 20-30 minutes, maybe. By


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ALAMO til 2.24 He alphaed the CC so far 3 ints, about 20 more to go for 3 imps of mizia(had a fancy SChange setup and then burned batts so I was stuck). CW is just trying to conserve power on the 7 incoming drones some may actually hit his R0 ESG. I am hopelessly outdone on EW so batting up ECM is a huge no no. The STL was fine til 2 6/12s hit is 40 pts of ESGs, Now I have actually had to tractor 2 drones to keep ESGs able to stop all drones(phasers are done). Althuogh he is going spd 20 so I may actually have to turn away. Continuin on Tues. By


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Unto the breach T2: we all get impacted by a wave and my 2 INTs that were PPDed run away. Selt CA takes a 23 point enveloper and WE takes 7 to his #5 from a pair of Storps that rode through the P3 tunnel of death. At end of turn I alphaed his scout as it had a 15 point shield towards me at R22. With 19 p1's and 10 PCs I did a whopping 8 dam. Heh at least he'll have to manuever it away from the wave. T3: Storms brought up +8 ECM. ISC group(the bad guys) ran dir F but turned the

disr guys in to R15 and fired the 5 bearing disr for 3 pts to an INT. Bad guys took 2 waves, good guys only 1. Bad guys SC3s bricked around 9 per sc4s like 4. I bricked 5 per sc3 and 5 on my ints and BH. I took a gamble on a lucky shot doing a R15 narrow PC salvo on his DD needing a 1 to hit. Of course lady luck gave me the one bringing the shield to 6. With the ECM up it's brutal unless you get close or get lucky. We'll see what next turn brings. By


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Friday, March 27, 2009 - 02:23 am: Edit

War Machine II played up to turn 3, impulse 20. Some delays due to client problems and both of us arriving late. Turn 2 I knew that since I was behind the Federation oblique, he would have to turn in if he wanted to shoot me. And he had to do it soon, or I would get a clean shot at the CVE/Scout. Knowing this I powered the shield at 50%, and sure enough, he turned in. I approached to R9, accelerated up to 28 and fired 3P4 at the NCL Kearsarge's #1. Then, I HET 180 degrees and fired the other 3P4, leaving the Federation holding their photons at R9. The dice were not good and the EW was bad too but the damage still was enough to knock out the #1 shield and score 4 internals - 2 control, 1 hull, 1 warp. After the 180 degree HET I was facing toward the planet so I spent the remainder of the turn flying toward it at top speed. The Feds trundled along, leaving their ECM drones behind, but couldn't close, and we ended about R13. The damaged NCL drifted off to the left, protecting his #1 from R9-15 P1 sniping and also opening the range to about 20. Turn 3 I did a high speed pass behind the planet at R1, breaking the all the drone lockons. Slowing to 15, I turned toward the Federation ships with my shield at 100; the Feds accelerated up to 24. The Kearsarge, off in the distance, turned in, but was pretty far away. Eventually, on impulse 20, we reached R5 oblique, with his turn mode satisfied, mine not, with me moving next impulse, him not, and me having accelerated up to speed 28. The Kearsarge was at R12 and the CVE/Scout Viking was at R16. While I was thinking on fire in a very leisurely manner, Rich's work pager went off, so we tabled the game until Sunday (with a slight chance of Saturday). By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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Friday, March 27, 2009 - 08:09 am: Edit

Boomerang to continue today at noon EST. Turn 4 likely to be a quiet one...both fleets are more or less empty and separated by about 20 hexes. We both have gravity waves to ride out, and odds are, the natural ECM will be back. I have a feeling the storm may decide the winner of this one faster than we do. By


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Have I mentioned the way the luck clumps with this server? I fire 3 disruptors & 3 ph-1s from a Lyran DW at R15 thru a 1-shift; roll: 6,5,4,4,4. Klinks narrow salvo disruptors from 3 boats, 16 in total, and roll: 1,2,1. Yeah, that's one Lyran DW that needs a band-aid. By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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Quickey Update on Boomerang... Got through 3 more turns today. Turn 4 - quiet. No shots fired in anger, just riding out gravity waves. Turn 5 - Peladine get between gravity waves and come in. Klinks and Kzin push through a gravity wave and take a disruptor shot (see dales post above)... Lyran DW loses #1 and takes a 20+ internal. With follow up mizia fire, both ESGs, a disr, and about half the phasers gone, down several points of power. Drone force the Peladine to turn off a bit, and the K-K cruisers circle behind the planet to shed a couple plasma. DW breaks off and heads down to map edge to lick wounds. Did I mention docking attempts fail on DDP on both on turn 4 and 5 due to ion storm disruption of tractors. Happened again on 6... Turn 6 - Peladine come in under heavy ECM (except SRV). Storm still raising hell, 8 natural ECM. Both fleets hold fire until the next gravity wave passes. K-Ks and base fire drones. Base launches SP. Peladine reach range 11 and the K-K cruisers go erratic (I was sure Dale was about to bolt at 10). Instead he launches a full spread of plasma+drones and turns off, just skirting range 8. K-Ks drop EM and the shooting begins. The SRV is the target, and after 3 Mizia salvos, the #3 is gone and the ship takes about 45 internals. Surprisingly, mostly fat...a few phasers, no plasma, no sensors, only 2 drones, but 10 power. Probably would have been better just to give it the big blast. Inbound plasma is split between all four defending ships, forcing a lot of WWs. Each cruiser uses a WW (last on E7), and the DDP uses battery power to kick up to speed 10 (buying a couple hexes). The plasma impact catches WWs in the same hex and causes a ton of collatral...rear shields on the K-Ks are a mess...all about 50-60% now. Sporatic phaser fire at plasma bound for DDP reduce it a little, but it will hit next turn for 25 or so (assuming Ph-4s fire at one of them) unless ECM saves the day. Looking bad for the DDP...if it gets hit again, it will probably need to look for the map edge. Its down to 12 crew, and a down shield could cost it 6-8 more pretty easily.

By the end of turn 6, Peladine are out at range 14 from the K-Ks again. Cruisers are coming up on FC, but drones are close by. Imp 2-3 will be busy drone defense impulses, and tractors are not likely to be available. Something might get through if there is armor on some of the drones. Plan to resume on Monday, same time, same Bat channel. Cheers. By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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Assessment of the E7... What wierd duck! Pretty good power for a heavy cruiser (39 + 4 battery) and great disr arcs. Shields of a typical pre-war CL or large-DD...soft as hell in Y175+! Aside from its out of wack BPV (probably too high by at least 10), not an absolutely terrible ship, but kind of ackward. In terms of actual fighting power, more or less the equal of a D5K. Its OK against a plasma race (speed is life), but I would not want to be in one of these boats facing somebody with heavy direct firepower (shields and hull are life)... Of course, I've got this one fighting plasma at slow speed and out of WWs. Not a happy place to be. Back to drinking Carolina Moonshine and Iced Tea! By


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Sheap: Home from the party. It's a tad after 9 pm CST. I'll be on-line. I'll wait an hour or so for ya. By


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Jeremy: Yeah, E7 is one of those Klingon ships that is out-of-whack, but won't ever be corrected because I don't think ADB believes it meets the 10% rule. As a result, when BG Tucson was still together, it was one of the ships we had a house rule for: 1. The E7 gets a slight improvement to its shields. a. Increase all shields by 4 boxes. b. No change in BPV. We found that simple change made it fly a little bit more like a true heavy cruiser, but without destroying or eroding the unique nature of the ship. Especially since 24-box side shields are unusual for the Klingons, and the forward shield is still a

bit weaker than her comparable "heavy" sisters. All told, we changed 14 ships and "created" 3 new ones. By


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Rich: What time are we playing tomorrow? I have the whole day, but probably won't be around until afternoon. By


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Bill: Lots of "honey-dos" this weekend. Probably free by about 7 PM CST. Leaving the house now. Will try to update in another four hours (5:30 PM CST). By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Under My Umbrella Breach BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach Collide Boomerang Remember the Alamo War Machine II BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me? The Ides of March Surgical Strike Supermassive Black Hole Kalamity at Kynarth By


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T4 of unto the breach At start of T4 Tom has his PPDs coming up and 3 of 5 Storps with full phasers. So I hope for the 8 ecm roll. Unluckily a 2 comes up so no tractors/transporters. We start from R16-20 with me getting to take a wave and both of us able to avoid the next one. I am going spd 12 for the most part to get turned into him. We come in and I send the INTs in to die maybe they can do some damage before

they do. His PPD hits my CA for 7/8 pulses in the R13 area. During this time I alpha his CC with 2 gtorp bolts from R10 and hit with 10 PCs plus bearing p1's over 4 imps. The INTS fire their p2's as well for mizia. All told I get 25 or so ints over 5 imps and hit like 6 power, 3 p3 2p1 and no torps or PPDs. I also launch both Rtorps at him and turn off with the WE but keep the RGC coming in. He launches 3 Storps one being an eveloper and afteer IDing all are on the RGC I turn it off. As my ints close Tom puts some 12 p1's into them making the 4 floating husks. He fired all other DF at the CA bringing its rightside down to almost nothing. To avoid the Rtorps he decels his DDL to weasel it, and decels his CAT to do the same but as there is no trac usage it will still get hit, so that rtorp gets hit with 12 p1s and some odd 5 p3s. The CAT also takes 5 shield breakers on his #1 and the 2nd firing of the DNs PCs on his #2(plus some 7 dam from int p3s). The the RGC bolts a Ftorp and fires 3 p1s from R8 getting 4 ints. The rtorp does 2 more through its #3. I get 3 more from some errant p1's and 9 more from an imp 32 turn in of the CA. All told its down a torp, 4 phasers and some 5-6 power(of course I hit 2 "3 " rolls here for phasers). He also fired 10 p1 into the RGC but truly rolled horrible(like a 1 and all 5s and 6s) so the #3 held at 10 str. EOT most of my guys are running RGC has 3 torps at R1(will hit for 1 after a lotta p3s into it), r2(a 42 point env plasma, R4 30 pter at R10). My CA could be in a world of hurt next turn as it is at R8 but we'll see if the storm throws him a bone. By


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Rich: No worries. I'll check in here from time to time. If we need to postpone to a later date that is OK. By


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Monday, March 30, 2009 - 12:16 am: Edit

Think we better call the game off for today. I have evenings available most of this week, plus next weekend. By


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BATTLE REPORT: BOOMERANG END GAME The Peladine pulled away from the base after their last salvo, and the K/Z fleet lambasted the SRV on the way out, causing a chain reaction in the shuttle bay that left the ship a flaming wreck. The K/Z fleet followed them out, and the SRV parked and did EDR near the bottom of the map while the fleet turned off and rearmed. EDR rolls were great, repairing 4 warp on the SRV (and 2 on the BC). Unfortunately the K/Z fleet again blasted the SRV, pounding it mercilessly.

The Peladine was now ready, but the Klinks ran fast, and to make matters worse, the EW snow picked that moment to go away. When they fired a half salvo at the nose of the Pel DW, busting its nose and killing a couple ph-1s, they turned off. At that point, the Pel DW took a bolt shot at R14 at the #4 of the BT, hitting with the F and doing 3 from a ph-1. The shield barely held. The base immediately loaned 6 ECM to the BT to keep the other Pel ships from following suite, but they just shot the E7 instead, bolting 5x S, 1x F, and 9x Ph-1. Hit with 2x S and 1xF, plus did great on the Ph-1s, and did over 30 in on the E7. The SRV crawled for the map edge, using Gravity Waves to shed drones, and got close... but Jeremy was annoyed by my bolt shot and went after it hard. It detonated just two hexes from the map edge under massed disruptors. But this let the Peladine DN and BC make a run at the BATS unapposed, packing an R and several Fs. They basically ran it over. Weasels were launched and shot down; the BC was cored by a R3 ph-4 shot; but in the end, a R0 plasma launch (backed up by drones, Suicide Shuttles and whatever phasers I had left and hadn't fired) did the deed, and the BATS died. The base's explosion finished off the mangled Peladine BC, though. Now the exhausted DN had the bulk of the Klingon fleet looping back after it. The Pel DW and Lyran DW, both wounded, still managed to chase the wounded Tholian DDP off the map, but they were too battered to be of much help. The Peladine took the better part of valor, and disengaged. The Klingo-Kzinti fleet holds Colony 4, with the Peladine/Lyrans in retreat. By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Under My Umbrella Breach BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach Collide Remember the Alamo War Machine II BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me?

The Ides of March Surgical Strike Supermassive Black Hole Kalamity at Kynarth Boomerang By


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Speaking for myself, what a frustrating, chaotic battle "Boomerang" was to fly. The variable effects of the sunspots made it really tough to plan - Jeremy spent several turns trying to dock the Thol DDP but the storm wasn't allowing tractor beams those turns. The snow would block shots - except when it suddenly didn't, and we hadn't planned for it. And of course the dice luck tended to clump pretty heavy on both sides, adding to the "luck" factor. The gravity wave damage was definitely telling; by T10, all the ships had most of their shields beat to hell. By


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Only thing I was surprised at is how much dam the SRV took when it could nearly always be at extreme ECM levels storm or not. Overall the storm makes it tough on all and dice play a big factor..Well except for PPDs as hitting on 4 or less is a common occurance. By


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The SRV can't walk and chew gum at the same time as far as power goes. Many turns, there was no loaning possible due to the storm (save self protection). 32 warp + 4 IMP = 36. Minus 4 for housekeeping, minus 10 to reinforce the gravity wave damage, holding 2 S-torps @ 2 each, powering 4 channels (very useful distracting drones), leaves it... 14 power, and it's a one-cost mover. Obviously something had to give. Mostly that was reinforcement, but sometimes I had to forego powering all 4 channels. The SRV was doing okay in terms of not getting clobbered until the T6 pass, and then it got creamed and its power problems became MUCH worse. A few points late in the battle, Jeremy's disruptor luck went from "un-freakingbelievable" down to merely "average", but he still hit with way above the percentages. By


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Maybe that came off wrong. Not saying anything was misplayed etc. as Jeremy is really good at using the D+D ships well. I always do the following with the SRV when I play it: Hold the Storps as G's using batts when firing them, keeping it 5 or so hexes back of the rest. only

charging 2 sensors as if you have to fire the STorps 2 sensors are blinded so by only having 2 operational the toerh 2 can be used the following turn. For drone defense launching the ftrs to kill all the drones and then landing them to avoid waves works wonders as well. By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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Kerry, thanks for the kind words. Now if I could figure out how to play plasma half as well! This was definately one of the more stange battles I've ever flown. The ion storm was pure pain, but at the end of the day, it can create a more lethal environment. If the opposing fleets can stick with is long enough, ships get beat up and become soft targets, particularly little guys. I'm not sure that reinforcing away the full gravity wave damage is the way to go. The bigger ships can do it and still move, but it really slows you down. If you're willing to forgo that and the other guy isn't, you can gain a big edge in speed and overcome most of the ion storm ECM. Your shields will get pounded, but I think that is something you can accept in the face of big plasma...if you get hit with massed seeking plasma in fleet battle, you are probably dead anyway. The ion storm does produce two effects I actually found useful. One, The shut down of EW loaning softens the ECM/ECCM game. Smaller ships just can't keep the EW up, reinforce shields, arm weapons, and move, and that creates targets. D&D cruisers pull together enough ECCM to get it to a one shift, and massed disruptors at range 15 could be really telling. Two, gravity waves can really help you turn. Because a gravity wave impact forces the ship to turn parallel to the wave and doesn't reset the turn mode, some thoughtful planning could let you pull a 120 degree turn over an impulse or two. More or less an HET if you timed it right. Dale and I both used this to good effect over the course of the battle, both to avoid getting hit and to set up attacks. Speed 20 drones and shuttles were extremely hard to use. The later turns of the battle were fought more or less "north-south" while the gravity waves moved "east to west". That left a fairly narrow window to do anything with drones or shuttles. And with tractors shut down most of the time, launching a shuttle usually ment it was not going to make it back to the carrier again. Dale did get a couple of fighters snuck in neatly between battle passes and gravity waves to threatened the BT, but I would have none of it and blasted them with Ph-4s. But most drone waves simply got shed by the gravity wave or the scouts, who nothing else useful to do with their channels. Thoughts on ships...

BTK - The only reason the Klinks/Kzin held the system. The Klingons are getting a lot of mileage out of these things, but be warned...it is a power hog and is probably best used in base defense battles. E7 - Already covered. A 8 or 9 FCR ship that costs you 10. Biggest problem is the paper shields. It will be OK against plasma, but Lyrans will be licking their chops. Pel DN - Too big to be worth firing at for most of the battle. Thankfully, it only has 3 Ph-1s! Pel BC - Awesome firpower, but the shields you might expect on a CA. In my mind, because of its Ph-1 battery, it was nearly as important in this battle as the DN. Pel SRV - I'm generally not all that high on survey cruisers as scouts. My experience with the Fed GSC has been mixed, and having now faced the Pel SRV in a couple fights, I see it as a similar ship. They basically have about as much power as a D6S, but have way too many things to burn it on. To be good scouts, they need to more or less blow off their heavy weapons, but then it feels like you brought the expensive swiss army knife to the party for nothing. The fighters can be useful, but if you can't put them to good use, they hurt under the FCR system and make the ship too "expensive". That said, the SRV is extremely tough and took a lot of pounding to kill. If for no other reason, its surviveability makes it valuable. Anyway, like I said, a bizarro battle. My apologies to the Klingon/Kzinti alliance for not saving the BATS (or the attached P-R), but I hope a Peladine BC and SRV are suitable compensation. By


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Strategically, the loss of the BATS could be telling. Setting it back up will be hard, and without it the system is much easier to take against most empires' technology. Loss of a BC and SRV is also pretty telling. Strategically, I'd call this a wash, but maybe a Peladine victory, depending on what ships the Peladine have left to take advantage of the hole where the BATS used to be. By


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ION Storms and ECM. Obviously when not generating the 8 ecm this does not hold true. I don't see how you can deny a less than 2 shift against an opponent. ie they throw up 2 ecm and they have a guaranteed 2 shift so there is little use in going more than that. On the flip side if only generating 2 ecm and you do NOT get the +8 ecm roll(4 in 6 chance), it could be either a bad turn or chance to run. Reinforcing the wave. Yeah I am torn on this. I think I am doing a mostly reinforce of the wave..like 5-6 points on my SC3 ships and like 4 points on my little ships. As in my battle I had interceptors it definitely put a clock on em and gave me a choice to retreat em or self destruct em. I chose a little of both.

Things is with plasma against non-plasma I thuoght you could arrange to manuever so as to get your ships behind the wave direction. ie have the wave pass you and then launch all your seekers and follow the wave in giving yourself a turn of no wave damage. Of course later turns you'll hit furhter waves etc. Note for the wave parallel turn does it not reset your TMode? I have been playing that it does and so have manuevered to make the facing change not effect me at all(taking dam on #2/3 shields and reinf the 2 damage taking the 3 shield damage). If it does not reset it then I can use that in the coming turns. By

Jeremy Gray (Gray)

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P9.32 says that "turn and sideslip modes are not effected". Dale and I took that to mean that GW impact does not reset turn mode. (I'm on travel and operating with an older rule book, so its probably worth checking the MRB to be sure). I agree that if plasma ships can fall it behind a wave and fire plasma more or less perpendicular to the wave fronts, it can be very powerful. However, if the plasma ends up tracking "off angle" to pursue a target, it can end up traveling more or less parallel to the waves and get caught. In our battle, this only actually happened one time, but it did influence when Dale could launch plasma (he saw it coming). As for getting that one shift, it happened principly against smaller units that just didn't have the power or when ships were looking to use ECCM themselves (bolts or disruptors in this case). I'm generally willing to shoot what ever target I have if the shift is better, so my fire tended to get spread around early. I did have a two shift at one point and just elected to fire narrow salvos and hope for the best (they ALL hit!). Once the SRV really started getting hammered, it didn't have the power to protect itself and the situation just spiralled downward from there. By


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Kerry, no, I wasn't taking it personally, just have found SRs in general to be a "Jack of All Trades" (and master of none). I think the constant "no loaning" roll on the sunspots led me to just fly the SRV like a cruiser, which led to its untimely demise. By


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PLUM CRAZY The indignant Lyrans launch an all-out attack on the Gorn system of Plum, from whence an attack fleet came... only to find it heavily reinforced! LYRAN FLEET: TGCp+ (P-B, +2 CO) Clawed Provisioner, CC+ (+1 CO) Death Bringer, CWSb+ (LSO) Eye of the Duke, DWLbup First Blood, DWbup+ Shadowstalker, Pel DW Haldeman.

GORN FLEET: BS w/PAM, Y170/175; CCH Desiricon, 6x G-18, BDS+ Black Vigil; CS Death Tongue, CS Death Dealer. Both sides WS-III, speed-max, with the Gorn set up within 5 hexes of the planet in the center of the map and the Lyrans coming in from the corner! By


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FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS Pressing on into the heart of what was formerly Kzinti space, the Lyran war machine crashes into Colony-3 with blood in its eye! The remnants of the Kzinti fleet dig in to defend their new Klingon masters (and mewling Kzinti kits everywhere)! LYRAN FLEET: BCbp+ (LMM, LD) Ransacker, SR+ (P-SC, +3 CO) Ranger, JGPu (4xSh, 2xTr) Frazikar, DWbup+ Skullcrusher, DWbup+ Fiend, SC+ Tigereye. KZINTI FLEET: BS (Y175), (3xP-C,P-R,PAM), MCD; CC(1) Nuku-Nuku, BC(1) Fatal Fury, CD(1) Raystorm, TGC(2) Magic (P-B3, P-B3). Both sides WS-III, speed-max, with the Kzin set up within 5 hexes of the planet in the center of the map and the Lyrans coming in from the corner! By


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BATTLES ANNOUNCED: Under My Umbrella Breach Plum Crazy For Whom The Bell Tolls Nero's Fiddle BATTLES IN PROGRESS: Unto the Breach Collide Remember the Alamo War Machine II BATTLES COMPLETED: Squished Unagi From Space Sweet Sorrow Stone Cold Payback's a B***h You Talkin' to Me? The Ides of March

Surgical Strike Supermassive Black Hole Kalamity at Kynarth Boomerang By


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NERO'S FIDDLE The ISC returns to Romulus in force. The battered Romulans rise to defend their system, having just repelled a B10-led Klingon fleet the turn prior. And as Rome burns, so plays Nero's fiddle... ISC FLEET: Echelon of Righteousness (DNp Concordium(PT), CAp Executer, CATChaosbreaker(LC,LS), CAT- Constable, LAS Trailblazer). ROMULAN FLEET: BATS w/PAM, 2x HBM, 4x G-SF, LCD; CON Senator (LC), GCA+ Glorious Prize, PDWL Peregrine, PDW Osprey (LE), GBDD+ Revenge (LMM). Both sides WS-III, speed-max, with the Roms set up within 5 hexes of the planet in the center of the map and the ISC coming in from the corner! By


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GORN/JINDARIAN CAPTAIN NEEDED for "Breach", above. Ron Schanlaub is available to fly the Lyran side, but needs an opponent. He's typically available 611pm during the week, most Saturdays at least for a few hours and the occasional Sunday during the day. Interested parties apply here! By

Peter Thoenen (Eol)

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Dale / Ron: I'm still ok with flying this (Breach) as long as Ron can do something like 8am to 14:00 pm Saturdays until finished (I'm good every Saturday between now and July I'm also intersted in Plum Crazy (Gorns) if anybody can play with my wacky hours

Otherwise will wait till more announcements or next turn By


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Peter: If Ron can meet your schedule, you guys can roll on with "Breach". As for "Plum Crazy"... anybody up for flying the Lyrans in that mess, that can

make Peter's schedule? Kerry (I know Collide is on the short clock)? By


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Yeah Collide should be finishing soon, most likely tonight or so. I believe I am slotted at playing "For Whom the Bell Tolls" so Plum is open for anyone, unless the KZI in Alamo suddenly wants to run(this is doubtful as we are just getting to the slugging match part of the game). By


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Radical temporary schedule change! Sometimes hard work does pay off... I've just been told by my boss at work that I'm getting the next THREE days off b/c of all the "candle burning" I've been doing lately (including getting called out once late at night for an emergency). What this means is I should have some daytime hours to play tomorrow morning (afternoon is already taken), Thursday, and Friday, in addition to the usual evening times. Specifically: Bill, we should be able to kick back up tonight, but with a late start - wife wants dinner out again to celebrate the passing of one of her students into the land of being "ABD". (All But Dissertation). Should be home by 9:00 PM CST. Jon, maybe we could start Umbrella on Thursday during the day? Let me know. By


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I will try to be home by 9PM CST. Don't hurry home on my account, anyway

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Richard; We can start depending on my RAT fight with Sir Hood. In the afternoon is most likely, although I will try to be on as close to 11am Mountain as I can, as that is when class is let out. By


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Alamo Finished up T2 and got through the first few imps of T3. The further Mizia on the CC was like being hit with pillows. John rolled slightly worse than average and scored like 11 more ints in three groups. Hitting hull, 4 out of 9 control spaces and 3 warp-not a single weapon! Rest of the turn was me firing some phasers at drones. Other than the STL who had 3 6 warhead 12 to destroy drones on em they go down easy- OMG does the LDR CW rock at vaporizing drones. It had a safety ESG up and knocked down

some 9 drones eating a few points on the ESG. The STL has to tractor 2 of em and use offside phasers and his remaining ESG to take the rest. As about 6 more drones are incoming the STL puts up his other 2 ESGs at EOT. T3.1-3.3 STL fires 5 phasers to help clean up drones and takes some 6 points to his still up ESG dropping it the following imp so on 4 when the next 2 R0 ESGs come up all is good. On imp 3 I throw lent ECCM to counter the generated 9 and then fire the front 12 disr plus 6 p1 at his other DD doing 14 internals through its full #2. I hit 2 power, 2 phaser, and a drone. It moves on imp 6 so I may get some more phaser fire through it, but as he has a lotta drones left to launch I may wait. By


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Kalamity at Kynarth Report Turn 1: The LDR Protector approached with a 14/28-speed split while the ISC 3rd FF Squadron engaged essentially at a speed 26. The 3rd squadron launched ECPs in the middle of the turn, boasting each ships ECM to 7. When the range was fourteen, the Protector fired four standard disruptors scoring 6 damage on the frigate Hypermass’s #1 shield. The Protector turned off and forces ended the turn at range nine. Turn 2: The 3rd squadron began the turn at speed 26 with each ship at 7 ECM (4 generated plus 3 from ECP) while the LDR was speed 15 with 1 ECM and 1 ECCM. Impulse 2, the Protector fired three phaser-I’s at the Hypermass’s ECP but rolled poorly and failed to kill it. A few impulses later the Protector announced that it was raising it’s ESGs and next impulse, when the forces reach range four, the Hypermass responded with launching both its plasma torpedoes. The ISC force also fired all bearing phaser-I’s, knocking down the Protector’s #6 shield and doing ten or so internals but failing to hit anything of significance. The LDR in return killed the Hypermass’s ECP with a phaser-I. The following impulse, the Protector fired it’s disruptors on the Hypermass, scoring ten plus internals through the #1 shield but amazingly, not hitting much beyond hull. Both forces turn away at this point and where moving parallel. The ISC squadron to avoid the ESGs while the LDR was avoiding the Hypermass’s plasma. The Protector sped up to speed 25 but wasn’t able to avoid taking the plasma at full strength. To mitigate the damage, the CWL fired both bearing gatlings and it’s remaining two unfired phaser-Is into the plasma. Enough damage was done that the shield stayed up next impulse with five boxes. The following impulse, the Protector dropped a tbomb in the path of the ISC units. Those units responded by slipping closer to the LDR ship and taking the

ESG damage on fresh shields. The squadron then turned towards the Protector and was able to reach range one off the down #6 shield. Sixty points of plasma was launched and 5 phaser-3’s where fired through the down shield. The Protector took the hint and decided to leave. A last dash attempt by the Frigate Leader Ongoing Determination to tractor the Protector and finish it off was foiled by the CWL’s ECM. The Protector vanished into the murky fringe of space know as the Farthest Stars… By


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Collide End Game: Lyran DW gutted, but not destroyed. Other Lyran ships disengage. Kzinti DD is gutted - If allowed, it heads back to the Kzinti space for repairs. At same time, Kzin fleet presses forward to the Lyran colony. I packed it with BPs, HW squads, GAS, etc. to take the planet. That's it. Kzin player will need to calculate XP. Oh, I killed 8 Lyran shuttles and lost none myself.