R vs B Coalition Turn 9 in Review

by on August 17, 2012 at 9:13 am
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG

Turn nine has been a turn of surprises for me. The Klingons actually cancelled a couple ships this turn, so they could support maximum carrier builds (D7V, D5V, F5V).

Meanwhile, the Lyrans are rolling in EPs.

Movement was much shorter than I figured. More cripples pulled out to better repair facilities, and the Coalition went in for the Third Battle of Hydrax.

Meanwhile, he pulled back to defensive positions on the Kzinti front. I’m all too aware that my forces are getting spread out, now that there’s more things to protect, and I refused to take the few reactions I could, since I didn’t know what was coming, and what location he might try to pick off on the cheap.

As it turned out, nothing was coming as movement ended.


All quiet on the Kzinti front…


Hydran theater

Combats:
0119: Hydran: dest RN; Klingons: crip 2xD6D; Lyrans: crip CW
0617: Hydrax I: 3xPDU; Lyrans: crip BC, 3xCW, 3xDW, dest 2xBC
0718: Hydran: dest AH; Klingons: capture planet

If I had examined the forces that went into the Hydran capital, I might have acted differently. The Lyrans had a decent force, and I assumed the Klingons had a fleet just about as big as the Lyrans, but it was only a few small ships.

As it was, he spent one round stripping PDUs over the capital, crippled almost all his big ships and retreated.

However, he has now taken the major planet in 0718, reducing the main grid to the capital and a disrupted province.

I’ve been starting to wonder if I should just abandon the capital shipyard and voluntarily start on a new one in the Old Colonies, but have held off to keep his attention focused down there.

Well, it’s working. The vast majority of his new ships and repairs moved into Hydran space. The Fourth Battle of Hydrax will likely be the last, save any Hydran attempts to take it back.

When I saw ships pulling out of Kzinti space, I was wondering if he was starting preparations for an invasion of the Federation. Not yet. Instead, he used field repair on the new Lyran cripples, moved more ships into Hydran space, and sent money to the Klingons. I’ve been hinting that he should be doing that, but I think watching me do it in Second Wind has brought it to his attention.

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F&E Vassal Module 1.3.1

by on July 30, 2012 at 8:22 pm
Posted In: F&E

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Well, this one is a minor update:

Download it here:
http://www.starfleetgames.com/documents/F&E 1.3.1.zip

Change log:
-Fixed GCEs (copy and delete commands)
-Added R-NHBH and R-FHBH
-Improved Empire reporting on H- & L-shipyards; F-Fighter chits
-Overlays no longer report in the unit summaries
-Updated (603.U) setup to eliminate some minor errors
-Re-worked Battle Mats to have space for BIR/DRMs for each side
-Added CPF and CPX chits to all empires (except Feds)
-Fixed L-Base Module (not reporting fighter factors correctly)
-Fixed stats on L-PF marker
-Fixed F-, K-, R-, Z-, H-MC (no fighter property)
-Fixed T-Base Module art
-Fixed R-4CNV (bad fighter reporting)

The first item was the reason for the new release. It was found that Independent GCE markers could not be deleted. Along the way, I found a number of minor problems that likely no one else has ever seen.

One of the few feature requests left that I can do was for specific CPF and CPX markers (casual PF flotillas from AO), so they’ve been put in. Also, just about all the saved files have been updated to take advantage of the improvements.

I am hopeful that this is everything. All the bugs worth worrying about squashed, all the features that the current module can handle have been added. No need for a 1.3.2 or especially a 1.4.

(Wait, did he say current module…?)

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Second Wind Alliance Turn 2

by on July 25, 2012 at 8:37 pm
Posted In: Second Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Largely thanks to repairs, the Kzinti are running a bit low on cash already. They built everything, but the ending total was 4.25, which is less than he received in salvage during my Turn 2.

Builds:
Kzintis: CV, 2xMEC, DD, FFK, FKE, FF, 4xPDU, MB->BATS, FF->FKE

With the inclusion of the first three expansions, a lot of new ship types are added to the game, both in new base hulls, and in variants. Most of the base hulls show up mid-war, but the Kzinti get an important one right off the bat: the Killer Frigate (FFK).

Because of the way damage and repairs work, ships with odd numbered factors are considered very important by experienced players. This is because the crippled factor usually rounds up, so a 7-point CW is just as tough when crippled as an 8-point CA. More importantly, repair costs are based on the difference between the uncrippled and crippled values, making a 7-point CW no more expensive to repair than a 6-point CL or DD, even though it absorbed more damage in the process of being crippled.

Most empires have at least one ship type in each slot from 4 to 10 points. The Kzinti were one of the empires missing the efficient 5-point slot (along with the Hydrans and Tholians). Advanced Operations introduces the FFK, the Kzinti’s last attempt at getting better performance out of their frigate. It is actually introduced right before the General War, but it also has a variant of its own, the FKE, or escort version, that gets introduced on turn 2. The FFE is a pre-war design, and is a 2-4 escort, the FKE is a much more effective escort at 4-5.

Production of both versions is extremely limited (two of either type, three total), causing the Kzintis to get a slow trickle of good small escorts and a few of the ‘efficient’ FFKs while managing the shrinking budget. Personally, I think it adds nice little bit of interest in the early Kzinti shipbuilding schedule

I was surprised when both Raids hit Lyran territory. Both disrupted provinces with no loss to the Kzintis.

Belirahc fell afoul of a beginner mistake during movement. He initially just started a bunch of small battles against province raiders, and tried to raid anything I had captured, and I reacted ships out to handle them. When he ended movement without doing anything more, I pointed out that I’d just move my reserve onto any battles that were close and just pound his one- or two-ship forces. He then decided to pick a few larger battles to attract my reserves. This worked, but some of his forces weren’t really in a shape to get into a large battle.

Combats:
0701: SSC; Lyrans: retreat; Kzinti: dest FF
0903: SSC; Lyrans: retreat; Kzinti: crip FF & retreat
1203: SSC; Klingons: crip F5L & retreat
1602: Kzinti: dest FF
0802: Lyrans: crip CW, 2xDD; Kzinti: dest EFF
1305: Klingons: crip F5; Lyrans: crip CW; Kzinti: SF captured
1505: Klingons: crip 2xD5, F5, dest F5L; Kzinti: dest BC, SF

1305 was particularly rough on him. The force was still missing escorts from my turn, so he ended up feeding the fighters forward without the carriers on the line, while I had toys from the starbase assault left over in the hex. He tried to go EW heavy, but I had decided to abuse my D6S and D6Ds, and beat him 8 to 4 on that as well.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with an SF. All my scouts are better than it, and I really don’t have a need for a 1 EW scout. Possibly the best thing to do is to scrap it for the money (1 EP). Though I might convert it to a SDF for DB duty (3+1+2 = 6 EP… oy). At least he isn’t salvaging it.

Overall, the Kzintis are down seven frigates through the course of the full turn, and lost two CVEs and a BC. The lack of SFs and EFFs is going to be felt in my turn 3 attack.

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R vs B Alliance Turn 8 in Review

by on July 18, 2012 at 10:11 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Federation aid to the Kzinti is really making a difference, as their economy jumped from 61 to 74.2 EP this turn. In addition the Federation had sent 20 EPs of financial aid last turn, some of which was absorbed by drone bombardment costs from last turn.

All in all, the Kzinti had 87.9 EP to play with, and were able to build their first new DN in three years, with no ships being canceled. The backlog of cripples is still a problem, however.

The Hydran on-map economy, meanwhile, shrank from 20 EP to 16. They built a HR, a CU (off-map), a new PDU and repaired a SIDS, in addition to repairing all off-map cripples, and converting a DG to a LB.

The Federation built its second CVA, and an FV. The Limited War provisions really tie their hands. No overbuilds, and no new tug pods. Pity, they can build a very nice heavy carrier pod (VAP), and have the money to do it, but it will have to wait. They did upgrade every DN in Star Fleet to DN+.

I had initially thought to strike at the Klingon minor planet in 1407, but Belirahc reacted off of 1504 as my first strike force went by. At that point, I shifted gears and hit the three planets under Klingon control in Kzinti space. This allowed me to use the Federation Carrier Fleet 1 (centered around the CVB), as it had been out of range of any targets in Kzinti space on the original plan.


Kzinti theater


Hydran theater

Combats:
1605: Klingon: cripF5L destroyed
1504: Klingon: dest 2xD5; Federation: crip FF; Kzinti: capture planet
1505: Klingon: dest D5; Kzinti: dest FF
1303: SSC; Klingon: crip 2xF5 & retreat
1202: Klingon: dest PDU; Kzinti: dest SF
1105: Klingon: dest F5; Kzinti: capture planet
0418: Klingon: dest D5
0519: Lyran: crip CW

The Kzintis lost two ships and took no cripples. That certainly helps with the cripple situation. Though I need to remember to get another couple of scouts soon, Belirahc is starting to go after them, which means I probably need to use the much tougher MSC in place of the SFs.

And another quick look at the numbers says that the Alliance is up another 19 ships, mostly from 11 Federation new builds. The Kzinti are up 7 ships and the Hydrans up one, for a grand total of 240 (only including released Federation ships). The Coalition is up 22 ships for a total of 368, fairly evenly split between the Klingons (10) and the Lyrans (12). Since the Klingons have the bigger build schedule, this points up the fact that they are tending to take the losses at the moment, something that will presumably accelerate when the Federation gets fully involved in the war.

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R vs B Coalition Turn 8 in Review

by on May 23, 2012 at 11:23 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve reported in on this game. Sorry about that, some of that is my fault, as I generated some technical snafus and challenges with Vassal, and some is the fault of Belirahc’s job keeping him too busy.

The bulk of the turn was watching him move a very satisfying number of cripples out of Hydran and Kzinti space. The rest of the turn saw very limited attacks in Alliance space.

In Kzinti space especially, he avoided any confrontation that the Federation could aid with, hitting 1105 (out of range of all Federation ships and defended by a lone CM), and 1506 (in the Kzinti-Klingon neutral zone; the Federation will only help in Kzinti space proper as long as Limited War holds).

In Hydran space, the Lyrans pinned my on-board reserve at 0118 (again) while the Klingons reworked their garrison network and hit the major planet in 0718.

The CM in 1105 was a sacrifice to force him to send something more important than an E4 or two, so both Kzinti reserves went to the neutral zone planet to save it.


Kzinti theater


Hydran theater

Combats:
0119: Hydran: crip LB; Lyran: crip 3xCW
0718: Hydran: 4xPDU, planet devastated; Klingon: crip 2xD6, D6M, F5L, F5, F5V, 3xE4A, dest 4xF5L, 2xF5
1506: Kzinti: crip CC; Klingon: dest F5E
1105: Kzinti: dest CM; Klingon: crip F5, capture planet

0718 showed that Belirahc is learning his lessons. The fleet wasn’t too great, but he stuck it out three rounds to kill the PDUs and devastate the planet, seriously reducing what little economy the Hydran capital has left to it.

Most of the Klingon new ships went to Kzinti space for the assault on 1506. Lyran production all went to the Hyrdran front. The Kingdom isn’t going to be able to hold out forever under this pressure, but it’s a slow, hard grind at the moment.

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