Where Wisdom Fails – Part 2: The Pursuit

by on December 12, 2014 at 6:59 pm
Posted In: SFB

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

[See Part 1.]

Patch and I did the second scenario of the UL2 mini-campaign this Tuesday.

I knew, going in, that this was going to be bad. It wasn’t until I started looking at the DG again for repairs that I realized how bad.

The idea is that there are three Klingon ships available to counter the two-ship Hydran raid that assaulted their BATS. The raiding ships head their separate ways, trying to lose their pursuers, and the Klingons also split up. In the campaign structure, each Hydran ship goes through two follow-up scenarios, “The Pursuit” and “The Ambush” against either a D7 and F5 or a single D6.

In my case, only the Dragoon survived, so all three Klingon ships were present. As there is no time to visit a base, the only repairs allowed are the standard Continuous Damage Repair set, which on a cruiser is four boxes, and pulling out spare shuttles, which gave the DG its full complement of shuttles and a second fighter (there had been one recovered during the first scenario). And all shields are repaired, which was good, since the DG only had two left in decent shape.

I had already repaired one Warp box during the previous scenario, and so selected two more Center Warp and one of the hellbores for the rest of the CDC.

Because of the unbalancing caused by the newer base rules, I also did a round of Emergency Damage Repair as if I had done it on turn 0. There were only three labs left, so I eliminated the top ‘4’ box on the DamCon track for chances to repair another C Warp, Ph #3 (FA+L) and another hellbore.

All three repairs succeeded, giving me 27 power (19 warp), two phasers and three hellbores. I had 10 turns to disengage by separation from all Klingon ships, which meant finding some way of slowing them down significantly.

The best I could manage was speed 14, arming all three hellbores and holding a suicide shuttle. The Klingons start 10-11 hexes behind the DG, and all went speed 22, putting up 1 ECM and one 1 ECCM.

I ran straight for a few impulses, and the D7 and F5 (which start on either side of the DG) started sideslipping in, and so I turned to the left, to bring the what I had to bear on the D7.

We both opened up at range three on impulse 11. The Klingons launched drones, and I launched the suicide shuttle. The D7 fired the five bearing phasers (mostly 5s and 6s), and hit with 3 disruptors, to do 7 internals through the #5. The DG fired both hellbores on that side, but one missed (again!) to seriously dent the weak #4 without actually bringing it down.


Impulse 11; too expensive, and no meaningful result.

I turned off after that, but I couldn’t afford internals at all and lost 6 power, and the one bearing phaser in that exchange. I could have set up a longer range pass, but wanted the hellbores in the 15 damage bracket… not that it did me much good.

Patch took a couple of phaser shots to kill the shuttle before he reached it, and the D7 managed to get back onto the #5 shield to do another 3 internals (a ‘6’ at range 3…) to knock out another power.

I then turned the other way to get the #5 away from him, and fire the third hellbore at the F5. I hadn’t counted on the #3-5 shields being equal, so even with a hit, it didn’t do much. I launched the two fighters at this point, since they had a chance of living until they could fire as long as he concentrated on the ship.

He managed to pick off one of the fighters while all the disruptors on the D6 and F5 fired on the DG with two hits at range 1 (!!) The D6 then tractored the DG and then fired bearing phasers, which rolled only slightly better and the disruptors to put 15 internals through the #4 shield. The F5 followed up several impulses later with the RX phasers for another 12.

At that point, I was down to four power, a FA ph-2 that had never been hit (never bore on anything…), a probe launcher I didn’t have the power to arm, and two shuttles. We called it at the end of the turn for a Klingon Substantive Victory.

In the more ‘normal’ form (D7 & F5 vs a DG with about six internals) it should be a challenging scenario. The hellbores will punch through the weak rear shields fairly easily, so some lucky hits can definitely give the DG a real breather. Though its top speed is 28 (only 27 warp), so getting away from speedy Klingons is a problem.

We’re going back to our usual ASL next, but hopefully we’ll be playing SFB a little more regularly next year.

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Where Wisdom Fails – Part 1: The Attack

by on December 2, 2014 at 2:01 pm
Posted In: SFB

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Patch and I regularly game online, and we decided to have another SFB outing a little while ago. I’ve been going for a ‘historical order’ system, to see how things evolve, and we’re currently in Y157, which is the revised date for the mini campaign in Captain’s Log #4.

We decided to go full-bore with revised rules for this old scenario, which was probably a mistake. Bases were made much tougher in the 1999 version of Advanced Missions, and the first scenario isn’t balanced for that, and we’re not good enough to need bases being made tougher in the first place.

At any rate, Patch took the defending Klingons, who just have a Battlestation (BATS) with reinforcements arriving on Turn 6, and I took the Hydrans, who are testing out the Hellbore Torpedo by assaulting the base with a Ranger (RN) and a Dragoon (DG).

My initial plan was to start bombarding the BATS from just out of overload range, since Hellbores are good moderate range weapons, and Fusions act the same from ranges 3 to 10.

I went in somewhat slow to get the 9-10 bracket with the RN while the DG lagged behind. Towards the end of the turn, the BATS opened up with disruptors and a pair of Ph-4s, hit with both disruptors and got ‘1’s with both phasers to take the RN’s #1 almost halfway down. Patch followed that up with another pair of Ph-4s for 10 more points (1 & 4) and a total of 23 on that shield. In return, the RN missed with two Fusion shots before turning off to show the #2. The DG then hit with one Hellbore, which was absorbed by general reinforcement.

For turn 2, I stayed near speed 10 with both ships, with the idea of continuing the bombardment for a turn. However, I launched all twelve fighters while the BATS launched a shuttle on impulse 1. Patch followed up with a second shuttle on impulse 3, while the RN did the same, BATS shuttle #3 launched on 5, and #4 (and last) on 10.

Mid-turn, Patch used a couple Ph-4s to auto-kill two of the Stingers. A few impulses later, the Stingers and shuttles exchanged fire, killing three of the shuttles, and damaging (but not crippling) two of the fighters. One was a point short of crippling though, and missed with both Fusions at range 5 on a +3 shot before turning off to find the RN.

On impulse 22, the remaining fighters hit ADD range, and the base started picking them off with that. (There was some mix up as Patch didn’t realize that it took time for the rack to switch from one magazine to another at first.) The BATS opened up on Impulse 25, firing overloaded disruptors at two of the Stingers, killing them, and a pair of Ph-4s at the DG, putting 23 points on its #1.

Two surviving Stingers made it to range 1 on Impulse 27, and I should have fired with both of them, as the Ph-3s opened up at that point, but I only fired with a damaged one, doing a total of 6 points through a +2 shift. The DG fired two Hellbores the impulse after, and missed with one, putting 15 points on the #5 shield the fighter had weakened and sandpapering 3 off all the others (except #6 which was reinforced).


Impulse 28, DG misses with one Hellbore, but weakens shield #5.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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R vs B Alliance Turn 9 in Review

by on September 27, 2012 at 9:19 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG

The Kzinti continue to recover, with their economy up to 78.2 this turn (plus 24.6 treasury, thanks to the Feds). They built a full schedule and replaced a PDU on 1502 (which had been reduced to 1), as well as converting a CVL to a full CV. Cycling the repairs is continuing, and the end of the backlog is in sight.

On the other hand, the Hydrans lost another three economy in the Capital grid, reducing it to 13 EP. Seeing the writing on the wall, I repaired another SIDS, built a TR, a pair of CUs (and a third at the off-map SB), and repaired a spare AH to bring the UH group up to full (overstuffed) strength, leaving 0 EP left in the treasury. The Old Colonies didn’t have much to do, and is now sitting on 58 EP.

I considered attacking a broad swath of northern Klingon space, mostly to keep some of the Coalition reserves out of the way, but ended up sticking with the main plan: I hit a few other targets to try and sweep the Klingons out of the 13-15 columns, and then sent the Home Fleet in to 1202 to try and retake the last Klingon-held planet in Kzinti space. He reacted out a sizable force to hold some of the fleet away, and then sent in the Lyrans from 1001.

Meanwhile, available Federation forces that I haven’t actually moved into Kzinti space have moved closer to the Klingon border, and in range of a few bases in Klingon space.

The Hydrans contented themselves with kicking the Klingons off of 0519 with overwhelming force (I was expecting the Lyran reserve to come in and force me to take damage, but nothing doing), which was about all they could do without the nearby Klingon forces reacting in.


Kzinti front.


Hydran front.

Combats:
1106: Klingons: crip F5
1107: Klingons: crip D5; Kzinti: crip 2xMEC
1305: Klingons: dest D5
1505: SSC: Klingons: dest D5; Federation: crip FF, retreat
1202: Klingons: PDU; Lyrans: crip BC, CA, 2xCW; Kzinti: dest SF, capture planet
1303: Klingons: crip F5S
1302: Klingons: dest D6M; Kzinti: crip BC, MEC, dest CLE
0519: Klingons: dest F5L; Hydrans: capture planet
1807: Klingons: dest F5, BATS

I was expecting to see a hard fight for 1202. The Kzinti fleet is getting pretty impressive, but it was fighting over Coalition defenses for a change, and he needs to start slowing the Kzinti down.

Belirahc has been shooting SFs every chance he gets, and I am feeling the effects. I’m going to have to start building MSCs just to make it more expensive (though most of the CMs are still going to escorts…).

This marks the end of the second scenario of the General War, “The Tempest”. Here’s how the Victory Conditions break down:

For any level of victory, the Coalition must have more ships than the Alliance (only counting Federation ships in released fleets):
Lyrans: 109; Klingons: 276; Total: 385
Kzinti: 150; Hydrans: 63; Federation: 61; Total: 274 Check
(The totals are adjusted for three Klingon ships that have been captured, which I forgot last turn.)

For a Tactical Victory:
A) The Alliance must have a total economy of 250 or less: 281.95 EP X
B) The Coalition has destroyed 35 Alliance Battle Stations: 29 X
(see the Turn 6 wrap up for how bases are calculated)

Even with the Federation economy at 75%, it counts for 165.75 EPs. The other two are only going to be under 84.25 if the Coalition has used the opportunity to really lock up Hydran and Kzinti space. And generally if it can do that, there will be a invasion of the Federation to cut it down to size before its build schedule kicks in.

Again, the 35 bases is going to be hard to do without invading the Federation (which should make that total easy). It’s still possible, as the bases left in the Marquis zone, which I’ve concentrated on keeping him out of, are worth another five. Combine that with fewer losses on the Coalition side, or more new bases built in Alliance territory, it’s not hard. And that’s not even considering the SBs in the two Alliance capitals.

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Second Wind Coalition Turn 3

by on September 19, 2012 at 10:18 pm
Posted In: Second Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

With everything moved up to—and past—the borders, turn 3 tends to be a bit simpler for the Coalition. Also, I knew that the Duke’s SB was weaker than it ordinarily should be, as he was out of carrier escorts there. I contemplated a raid into the capital, hoping to devastate a few planets while the fleet was elsewhere, but it just too easy for major elements to get intercepted on the way, so I settled for a more normal ‘sweep the Kzinti off the map’ approach.

Builds:
Lyrans: BC, CA, 4xCW, 2xDW, DWS, 3xFF, PDU, CL->BC, 3xFF->DW, MB->BATS
Klingons: D7C, D7, D6M, 7xD5, LTT, D5S, F5L, 4xF5, FV, E4, E4A, E4R, Activate 2xD6, 3xF5, 3xE4, D6->D6S, D6->D6D, CapDD->K-DD

Converting smaller captured ships to your service is somewhat expensive, but I figure it’s less expensive than overbuilding the equivalent ship, so I’m still EPs ahead. Also, I’m planning on converting the DD to a DDE, though I’m still waiting for an answer as to whether the Klingons get to use it as a light or heavy escort. If the latter, it is a poor heavy escort, but serves as an extra for a second-line group as I get all the AD5s in place. If I can use it as a light escort, it’ll be the best one I can have for quite a while.

Combat:
1001: Kzinti: dest MON; Lyrans: crip CL, FF, capture planet
1202: Kzinti: dest MON; Lyrans: crip CW, capture planet; Klingons: crip E4
1502: Kzinti: dest BC, EFF; Klingons: crip D6M, F5, dest D7A
1504: Kzinti: dest 3xEFF, 2xPDU; Klingons: crip D6, 2xD5, 4xF5, dest F5L, F5, E4
1304: Kzinti: dest SB, CC; Klingons: D7C, D6M; Lyrans: crip 2xCA
0902: Kzinti: dest FKE, FFE, wound PT; Lyrans: crip CL, 3xCW, dest CC, DW

As you can see, I’m doing a lot of directing. In fact, my general plan is to try and wear the Kzinti fleet out. The early schedule is sparse, and there’s not a lot of spare ships available. In fact, he had no real light escorts for his carriers at the Duke’s SB battle at all (1304), which led to it being a single-round affair.

One of the additions of Combined Operations are troop ships and marine assaults on bases. Many people don’t care too much for them, and largely ignore them. I don’t have enough experience to have a real opinion of them. But the idea is that you can use them to attack ground bases (or regular bases) and do extra damage—if you can roll well. You can also lose your ground troops for no gain, though they get replaced for free like fighters. The main cost is that troop ships have a lower offensive ComPot, so you’re doing less direct damage.

Against regular bases, they can cause an extra SIDS of damage, which can make them very useful in a hotly contested SB battle. If you need to direct SIDS to get the SB, this can speed the process up, if the defender is voluntarily taking SIDS, he may find it getting unexpectedly crippled by the ground troops. The problem is the odds aren’t too good of making it work, and a SB inherently has a defending marine unit (‘G’) that must be killed before damage can be done.

Naturally, I rolled two 12s in a row to actually do a SIDS to 1304 with a single D6G.

Overall, the turn went very well for me. SB 0902 is still there, but I took the entire ‘second line’ of planets (1001, 1202, 1504), and got SB 1304, all for minimal losses. Sadly, I didn’t parse the situation with the Marquis area correctly, and that’s still on the main grid. Cutting it off will certainly be a priority for next turn.

But now the Hydrans are about to join in, and I have some strategic decisions to make…. Right now, I’m splitting my attention (and new builds) between the two and where I go next will likely depend on how his turn 3 goes.

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F&E for Vassal v2—Someday

by on September 4, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Posted In: F&E

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

As I hinted when I released version 1.3.1 of the F&E Vassal module, I had something new in mind. Specifically, I’m looking to start over and do a brand new Vassal module. My hope is to be able to add new features that I can’t current do.

One of the pain points of the current module is actually the map. It is half done in CorelDraw, and half in Photoshop, and exporting the first into the second is a challenge (there’s some places where it’s kind of coming apart in the latest revision that I just can’t get fixed). So, I have done an all-new map purely in CorelDraw. Since it can’t be exactly the same size as the old one, using it would break all saved games in the current module. Therefore a new module is needed.

And since I’m starting over, and I have a pure vector map, I can handle a request that’s been popular:

While I’m at it, I’m re-doing the counters to get away from the pixel-twiddled images I have now, and make them a little easier to do. Though doing all those counters all over again will take time. A lot of time.

Also, the new map comes at a price. It takes a lot of memory, and is too big for Vassal 3.1 to handle. However, Vassal 3.2 (which is just entering beta) can do it. It also has a few other new features, dealing with math that should allow the new module to handle stats around crippled status and showing the stats associated with a fleet marker.

What I need now is people to discuss the new module with. I want to bounce ideas off other people, and get input so that I can make it the best module I can, and I can get started on it from the beginning, rather than having to re-do things constantly. If you’re interested in discussing this, contact me, I want to have an email conversation with everyone who’s interested to hammer out ideas. The only caveat is that you will need to install the test version of Vassal v3.2.0 so you can follow what going on. (Note that doing so will require you to be cautious with Vassal, as you need to remember to switch back to 3.1.20 with any ongoing Vassal games you have.)

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