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As I summarized… over two years ago, I’ve taking out my frustrations over not having an opponent to keep up with a Star Fleet Battles campaign by soloing one by myself. Part of the point is to exercise the ruleset I wrote up, and part is to get some fleet practice in; though with being distracted by playing both sides, it’ll never be stellar play. At any rate, since it’s been eating up a fair amount of the spare time that generates entries for this blog, so I’m going to be putting up more of what’s going on here.

I started while the main group was finishing off Y162 play, so that’s where the campaign started. I went for a classic Federation vs Klingon campaign. Slightly after getting going, I discovered the Federation DDG actually exists this far back, and I’ve swapped out one of the normal DDs for USS Czar Alexander IV. With speed-8/12 drones it’s going to be a lackluster class, though she’ll probably be used as drone defense in fleet battles.

I contemplated swapping out a Klingon ship for a penal variant, with a rule that they always have to have one in service. But, that just means a succession of E4Js, which will probably not see much action so they don’t have to waste the EPV building a new one, so I haven’t bothered. Maybe a rule where they have to keep it in the hull of their current FF slot builds? (E4s now, F5s later, and someday—I should live so long—F5Ws; though I don’t see a FWJ; I do have the F6J….)

After studying what my general format implies for everyone, the assumed budget is 350 EPV per turn up through Y160, after which it goes up by 10/year. There’s a couple empires that temporarily blow this budget out of the water, and if using them, there’d probably need to be adjustments to keep them afloat. As it is, the Federation technically wants a budget of 402 EPV right now, but they do have EPs left over after the required four purchases, so it’s not a real problem; they just have to be cautious about getting new cruisers. On the other hand, Klingon equilibrium is 312 EPV, and they can just about build a battlecruiser per year. But the small ships they’re building are small, so the comparative build schedule (of 2xFF, 2xDD, 0.5xCA) is currently:

            FF   DD  CA   Total    Avg
Y160  Fed   75   94  129   402.5          (FFG, DD, CAR)
      Kli   55   71  121   312.5   357.5  (E4, F5, D7)

The Klingons start with 16 EPV left over from the starting budget, 370 income, plus 100 OPV starting budget (shorting the recommended total by a lot to help setup, especially since I’m doing both sides, but not as badly as the early years campaign with Mark, where there was no OPV starting budget), and 37 income.

The Klingons considered using their extra budget for a D6S heavy scout to combat Fed scouts and bases, but then I remembered wonderfully flexible D6D. They’re also looking at the looming transition to speed-20 drones, and will concentrate on getting everyone drone funds over the next few years. For now, they’re just taking the extra cruiser, and letting the income go up a bit more while relying on basic speed-8 drones. T-bombs will continue being distributed among the fleet, with command ships taking priority. (They are also the priority group for drone upgrades, since they aren’t saddled with F-racks.)

Start                                            16  100
Income                                          370   37
Item                  Hull #   Name             EPV  OPV
New Ship   E4         E4-9     IKV Insolent      55	
					
New Ship   E4         E4-10    IKV Safeguard     55	
					
New Ship   F5         F5-12    IKV Volcano       71	
					
New Ship   F5         F5-19    IKV Dasher        71	
					
New Ship   D6D        D6D-14   IKV Stormcloud   113	
P Supplies Drone Fund                            18	
					
T Supplies 6xT-Bomb   C6-1     IKV Victory            24
T Supplies 6xT-Bomb   C6-3     IKV Atrocity           24
T Supplies 4xT-Bomb   D7C-4    IKV Devilslayer        16
T Supplies 4xT-Bomb   D7C-11   IKV Dawnslayer         16
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb   F5C-4    IKV Doom Leader         8
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb   F5C-5    IKV Doom King           8
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb   F5C-6    IKV Doom Lord           8
T Supplies 4xT-Bomb   D7-4     IKV Conqueror          16
T Supplies 4xT-Bomb   D7-8     IKV Thunderchild       16
Remaining                                          3   1

The Federation had one EPV left from the starting budget, with the same income.

Caryover                                          1  100
Income                                          370   37
Item                  Hull #   Name             EPV  OPV
New Ship   FFG        NCC-320  USS St. Vincent   75	
P Supplies Drone Fund                             2	
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb                                    8
					
New Ship   FFG        NCC-321  USS Zhadanov      75	
P Supplies Drone Fund                             2	
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb                                    8
					
New Ship   DD         NCC-511  USS Alexander     94	
					
New Ship   DD         NCC-512  USS Hannibal      94	
					
Refit      CA         NCC-1604 USS Pennsylvania		
           CAR                                    4	
					
Refit      CA         NCC-1707 USS Hood
           CAR                                    4
					
Refit      CA         NCC-1713 USS Monitor
           CAR                                    4	
					
Refit      FF         NCC-324  USS Dunnigan
           FFG                                    4	
P Supplies Drone Fund                             2	
					
Refit      FF         NCC-350  USS Chadwick
           FFG                                    4	
P Supplies Drone Fund                             2	
					
P Supplies Drone Fund NCC-301  USS Burke          2	
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb                                    8

P Supplies Drone Fund NCC-302  USS Hornblower     2	
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb                                    8

T Supplies 2xT-Bomb   NCC-349  USS Shaw                8
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb   NCC-359  USS Berg                8
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb   NCC-594  USS Cody                8
T Supplies 4xT-Bomb   NCC-1706 USS Exeter             16
T Supplies 4xT-Bomb   NCC-1710 USS Kongo              16
T Supplies 4xT-Bomb   NCC-1717 USS Defiance           16
T Supplies 6xT-Bomb   NCC-2101 USS Star League        24
Remaining                                         1    9

With half the fleet unavailable anyway, the Federation is concentrating on refitting FFs and CAs. All the FFGs (there’s two regular FFs left, the Shaw and the Berg) have their drone upgrades; the only other Federation ship with drones is DDG USS Czar Alexander IV, which is in reserve, and she’ll get her speed upgrade budget in Y163. T-bombs have been distributed to the active frigates, dreadnought, and scout, and the bulk of the active cruisers (missing one, USS Valiant).

The next step was assigning ships. The Federation put the minimal 2 everywhere, except at one base they gathered what few spares they had including the DN and SC.

The Klingons sent their four command ships after the four bases, but one of the D7Cs bounced the main Fed fleet. With most of the available force F5s, they declined to take it on, accepting they’ll have to clean up the rear next year. In six other regions, the Federation looked at what was coming at them and left.

However, in Region 4, the best Federation pair saw an opportunity. A CC and CA have an advantage against a D7 and D6. The E4s are a problem… but on the other hand, it might be possible to cripple/destroy one of them and then disengage before taking serious damage. And with current Klingon rear shields, bigger game is tempting….