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Last November, Mark and I played the final battle in the first year of our SFB campaign. This was our second open-space battle, and we stuck to the same terrain choices we’d had last time, but this time the dice came up with “Empty Space”, so we had a clear board to work with.

Our setup areas were both in the back center of our respective sides, and I set up as far forward as I could, while Mark set up on the edge of the map. Ironically, I ended up at WS-I while Mark was WS-III. Speeds started low, with the Carnivon WCL going 8, and everything else at 6. The two Carnivon ships put up 2 ECM each, but I, with photons to load, had no energy for such luxuries.

Naturally, at that speed and distance, nothing happened the first turn, and the second was similar, with the WCL dropping to speed 6, while it put up a point of ECCM. While we had opposite courses, closest pass was still going to be quite distant, so I turned to cut across his path on my first move of turn 2. Everyone boosted to speed 9 on turn 3 with the WCL dropping EW to 1/0, and my WRD put up 1/1. Courses stayed constant, and on impulse 29 WCL, Devastator (801) fired on my WOL USS Kayah (SF-93) for two damage at range 34, which I absorbed on batteries. After that, he turned in, putting us on courses 8 hexes off from each other. WRD USS Ravelin (SF-69) fired phasers on 32, doing 1 point which bounced off reinforcement.

My plot was the same for turn 4, while the Carnivons boosted to speed 10, and the Devastator dropped ECM. I turned left near the start of the turn, looking for more of a direct pass. Mark sideslipped the opposite way during the turn, and death bolts were launched on impulse 23. I turned back on 29, and both Carnivon ships fired phasers on 32, while Ravelin returned fire. Only one phaser out of all that hit, which bounced off of reinforcement.

My speeds scattered between 9 and 11 for turn 5, while the Carnivons went 12 (WFF) and 14 (WCL). EW was minimal, and the Carnivons turned away from the pass. This broke me up a bit as I turned to follow as turn modes cleared. On impulse 15, now in a stern-chase with the faster Carnivons, WRF USS Seeker (SF-86) fired its photon torpedo and a phaser at Devastator, missing with the former, and seeing two more damage from the phaser bounce off the rear shield. She then turned off to avoid the death bolts, which did turn out to be targeted on her. On 19, Kayah got onto Devastator‘s #4 shield and missed with a photon and all bearing phasers.

Missing all the shots. Turn 5, Impulse 19, showing movement from the start of turn 4.

Seeker ended up separated from the action thanks to the death bolts chasing it as the chase turned clockwise as turn 6 started. The Carnivons continued crowding the speed on and Ravelin manged to get up to speed 13, while Kayah was stuck at 10 as she reloaded the torpedo. Range opened up a bit during the turn, but the right edge of the map started looming again, and Mark turned down and dropped fire control for turn 7, getting to speeds 14 and 18(!). My speeds were largely the same, and Ravelin tried a range 7 photon shot, missing again on impulse 15.

At the end of the turn, the WFF turned across my path, and I sped up a bit on turn 8 (Ravelin didn’t bother to reload the torpedo, and got to speed 15). Devastator also turned to get out of the corner, and on impulse 9, Ravelin got a range 3 shot on her for 13 damage, which took out most of the armor. The next impulse, Kayah got one hit with two photons to finish off the armor and do seven internals, which took out one power and two weapons.

After that, Mark turned back to disengage off the edge of the map. Kayah fired her last phasers at the down shield, but missed. After that, I was basically dry, and both ships got off map by the end of the turn.

Afterword

With fairly minor ships, and the last fight of the year, I decided to press for a close engagement. For a moment, it looked like Mark was going to accept a fairly close-range pass, but then turned off.

This time, it happened right before the turn break, and I didn’t need to contemplate having anyone go slow in anticipation of that close pass. I was hoping to take out the WCL, even if I had to sacrifice something to do it. As it was, I didn’t get hurt, and while Devastator is out her four armor, everything else was repairable.

My rolls were way under par all game, and if my photon luck had been reversed, Devastator might have far more serious repairs to make. It’s possible I might have managed a kill, but I doubt I could have slowed it down enough for that.

Not that it would have been that big a loss. It sounds like Mark has found light cruiser slot just as lackluster as I have. They’re nicely bulky compared to a destroyer, but are power starved. YCLs should be a bit better, but I kind of doubt either of us will build any, and USS Texas (SF-1) is the only one in the campaign that can be converted up.

This finishes the first year of the campaign, and we’re tackling one of the ‘modern’ scenarios now before returning to the campaign for Y78. We’ll be on defense line 2, so there’s only six regions to worry about, plus the base that I skipped in region 7. Mark will have all his ships (minus whatever he decides to repair armor on), and a pair of YDKs. It’s going to be a fight.

In mid-July, Mark and I returned to our SFB campaign, dealing with one of the small open-space fights we had generated.

But first, we took care of other business. Mark was not really wanting to fight out the last base battle, but didn’t want to let it go without a fight, either. So, we skipped it. We assumed there would be a fight, and it would go much like the last two had: I win, destroying the base, Mark lost all the armor on his large ship (WCC), and I would take a dozen internals on one random ship selected from the two CLs and two FFs present (this would either cause unreparable damage to a frigate, or knock out the armor on a light cruiser).

The roll selected WAL USS Ferocity (SF-84), which took six armor hits, and then would have no trouble repairing the other six. So, another ship that’s perfectly serviceable next round, but less protected, which will be a continuing theme in the campaign.

After that, I also conceded Region 6, putting my two ships into Reserve next time, rather than risk them being crippled and destroyed against a superior Carnivon force. (A light cruiser, given previous experience, may not be that big a deal. But then, neither are my frigates.)

After that, it was time to set up, starting with the terrain rules for the campaign. All bases are automatically far from any kind of terrain, so this is the first time it’s come up. The general idea is like the advanced ‘local conditions’ rule in (S5.4), but without monsters, pirates, and the like, and an initial 2d6 roll with empty space (no terrain) being a 6-8. Both players choose what terrain they’d like to see, with the defender having a better chance of actually getting it. Mark declared for asteroids, I declared for a gas giant, and then the roll went to the actual asteroid field entry. (Getting it on your choice—instead of the normal entry—can give you a greater say in setting it up, though that doesn’t happen with asteroids.) A secondary roll made it a ‘heavy’ field with more asteroid markers than normal.

Set up areas on the large campaign maps are also random (when not at a base), and while I set up fairly forward in one of my central zones, Mark set up close to one edge of one of his rear zones. This put us about 50 hexes away from each other. Longish closing distance for normal ships on a clear map. A bit more of a challenge with asteroids and these more primitive ships.

Weapon status came up as I for both of us, so we had the added challenge of charging everything up too. I wasn’t going to skip the initial volley of photons, but most of these ships can only do speed 0 if you try charging all the phasers while loading photons. I settled for partial charges and going speed 6 (which takes no damage from asteroids), while the Carnivon ships went 8. I sideslipped to go around the cluster directly ahead of me anyway (I’d just be stuck inside it during a turn break anyway, forcing decisions during EA that I didn’t want forced.)

The Carnivons boosted to speed 10 on turn 2, and near the end turned down to avoid a cluster and a direct path to me. Turn 3 saw Mark stay at the same speed, while I went to speeds 8 (WAC) and 9 and some EW as most of the phasers were charged and the photons were all being held. I turned to thread my way nearer, and midway through the turn Carnivon WDD Vainglory (277) turned away, separating from WCA Wolfclaw (106).

On turn 4, Wolfclaw boosted to speed 13, and Vainglory to 16, while I scattered from speeds 12 to 9. On Impulse 3, WAD USS Demolisher (SF-71) and WVL USS Stalwart (SF-65) had fairly clear shots at Wolfclaw (two asteroid hexes, negated by ECCM), but three phasers at range 22-23 only did 2 damage, which did not register on shields.

Turn 5 saw Wolfclaw go down to speed 10, while Vainglory went 17 (with minimal shields and fire control off), and I tightened up my speeds to 12 and 11. Vainglory had continued turning, and now was headed up, far away from the larger ship, while my slower speeds meant my main advantage was the center position I had taken, but now I was slightly faster than Wolfclaw (if 20 hexes away, with lots of asteroids in between). Vainglory started a turn towards the middle of the map, and right afterwards, I turned in that direction too. Mark assumed I was switching to paying more attention to Vainglory, but it was actually just meant to clear the double-mass of asteroids between me and Wolfclaw. Better yet for me, Wolfclaw then turned to parallel me, instead of turning the other way and ducking behind the asteroids I was maneuvering around.

Turn 6 had Vainglory turn everything back on while going 15, and Wolfclaw got back to speed 12, while I continued at 11 and 12. Wolfclaw turned back down, towards the corner instead of heading towards Vainglory. I finally split up during this turn, with Stalwart going one way around an asteroid cluster, while the other two turned to go on the other side of it. As I did so, Wolfclaw launched two death bolts.

Turns 1-6, showing the full map. Normally, asteroids are in every hex within two hexes of an asteroid counter, here we show them directly.

On turn 7, Wolfbite slowed down to speed 8, while putting up 4 ECM, while Vainglory kept at speed 15. I increased speeds slightly to 12 and 13. The death bolts were forced to move into an asteroid hex on impulse 4, but took no damage. On impulse 8, they were able to slip clear of them, confirming they were targeted on WAC USS Norica (SF-73). Norica kept its distance while the other two moved to chase Wolfbite, which now turned around in the narrow confines between asteroids. On impulse 28, it ended up in the corner cluster, taking 6 damage, none of which registered on the shield (I don’t know if that was all a brick on the #1, or if he blew his four batteries to make up any difference). On 32, Stalwart fired the bearing ph-1 at range 8, but missed Wolfbite.

Wolfbite accelerated to speed 14 on turn 8, while everyone else stayed the same. On impulse 4, the death bolts got to range 1 of Norica, which started downfiring ph-3s at them, finishing the second one off the following impulse. On impulse 10, Wolfbite reached the edge of the map, and launched another pair of death bolts on 11, presumably targeted on Stalwart, along with the bearing ph-2s to do one box to the #1 at range 5. I was waiting for her to turn, and the range to get a bit lower, but instead Wolfbite disengaged, eliminating tracking on the death bolts.

Start of Turn 8, showing movement from 7-24 through 8-11.

Afterword

With a WDD alone, it was obvious I’d force it into a corner and disengage, or it’d get destroyed, and probably do nothing in return.

So, we exchanged a few shots, a few shield boxes were hurt, and nothing else. In a campaign, this is going to be a more common result. Full-on committing to an engagement can lose ships fast, and you’re going to want them later. I would have loved to kill a heavy cruiser, which of course was why Wolfbite was my primary target. I think Mark’s idea on splitting up was to try and get on my rear with one while the other held my attention. Or to get me to split up. I refused to that, and Mark’s split would have worked a lot better if his ships had stayed in supporting range of each other. Instead, the range between them grew too great, and Vainglory couldn’t get close to the action when I finally cornered Wolfbite.

With this little action, there’s no “MVP” for the fight, though the WVL is a nice ship. With 12 warp on move cost 2/3, it is capable of speed 18, which puts in between W- and Y-ships, and with the usual 4 impulse on a Vulcan ship, it is close in power to a 2/3 MC YCL (which would typically have 18 total to the WVL’s 16). It had at least some EW up the entire time

There is now one fight left for the first year of the campaign, and it is something of a repeat of this one in that I have three ships to Mark’s two. Just put in CLs for CAs, DDs for CLs, and FFs for DDs. This was also my fifth win, so it is now certain that I’ll get to defense line 2.

Last December, Mark and I got going on a large project that is going to take us a while: Playing a modified version of the SFB Admiral’s Game campaign from Advanced Missions. Once sorting out the basics was done, we decided to try the first region… first. It features his largest base defense force, and my smallest base assault force, “merely” being lead by a CC (it was also the only force where it was not theoretically possible for me to add another ship). It would also serve as a test of just how tough these early bases were going to be for me. We had the following available:

This was about the only fleet where I tried to stick with one particular member navy. The Andorians (xNx ships) use drones instead of photon torpedoes as heavy weapons, so I figured massing them against a static object for a bombardment would be one of my better options for them. (In this era, speed-8 drones are relatively faster, but still slower than what ships can actually do, so base bombardment is still a good option.) It also features my only ‘pair’ of ships, as the only classes I have more than one of are the four that I built new ones of this turn, and the other three all ended up split up from their sisters.

Mark set up with his two ships a few hexes away from the base, but pointed towards it, and a poor roll left him at Weapon Status-I (with his bonuses, the lowest possible). The rules give the attacker an automatic WS-III, but I have to set up at least 35 hexes from the base, which with these ships is over two turns travel at best speed. With my mix of designs, I ended up with my fleet speed scattered from 11 to 14 even at the beginning, while Mark went 12 (WDN) and 9 (WDD). EW was minimal, with only the base and Mark’s WDN opting for any at all. I set up opposite of the Carnivon fleet and headed in, while they passed through the base’s hex and turned right. On impulse 32, the base fired its two bearing phaser-1s at WND USS Battler (SF-75) at range 25, doing one point to its #1 shield.

For turn 2, I kept to the same speed range, though Battler reduced speed to 11 to repair the shield damage, while the WDN dropped to 8, and the WDD boosted to 13; the WDN boosted ECM to 4 (the maximum in this era), and the WNC and WNL started generating 1 point of ECM. On impulse 12, the base fired on Battler again (range 21) and missed. By impulse 24, the WDN was ten hexes away from the base, and turned towards my oncoming fleet, followed by the WDD on the next impulse. I started slipping that way, and then turned to intercept over the next few impulses.

Turn 3, Impulse 1, showing movement from impulse 24 of turn 2, to impulse 8 of turn 3.
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Last year, I had an itch to try out “The Admiral’s Game” campaign, especially as re-done by Jeremy Gray and Dale McKee, and reported on in “Day of the Eagle Comes Early” on ADB’s forum.

So, I wrote up a new set of campaign rules, reverse-engineering everything I could from that, and adding a fair number of new things besides. I pitched it to Mark, and talked him into the general concept. My original idea had been to pair off a couple empires contemporary to our main group games (i.e., Y161), and advance the group and the campaign in tandem, but… Mark eventually gravitated towards seeing the Carnivons in action, especially as he’d been going through the General War-era version of them in Module C6.

I don’t have that, but I (and Mark) do have Y1, where they were first introduced. In addition, I had recently read an update for The Admiral’s Game for the Early Years in Captain’s Log #39, where the Federation has to cycle through the various member navy’s ships in the W-era.

So, the campaign got set at the close of the W-era, with the Y-series ships about to come in, with a fight between the Carnivons and the Federation.

Now… “historically” they did not border each other, but there doesn’t seem to be any big technology mis-matches going on, and if they had, it’s not too hard to believe the Federation would quickly get fed up with the constant raids by various “packs” and feel a need to use their new navy to mount an expedition into their space to put an end to the raids on far-flung colonies and merchant vessels. So, I am playing the Federation, which is attacking the Carnivons.

This campaign is starting in Y77, and each strategic turn in it takes one year. One ship can be a prototype each turn, with cruisers available as prototypes one year before their service date, and smaller ships two years. The structure is explicitly allowing me to build a Federation YCA in the second turn, but we’ll both be fielding mostly W-series ships for a long time to come.

Both sides have six each FF, DD, CL, CA, plus 2xCC and 2xDN. On the first turn, the Carnivons do not have access to half of these (strategic surprise). We both get EPV for new ships, refits, and such, but we must build 2xFF and 2xDD each turn, and then get to do what we like with the leftover budget.

Carnivons:

This canine-like species historically existed between the Kzintis and Lyrans, and getting rid of them was one of the few things they’ve ever agreed on. They generally never developed any stable central authority, with lots of temporary ‘packs’ raiding their neighbors.

Their heavy weapons are Death Bolts (a type of drone with annoying problems reloading), and Heel Nippers, a nearly point-blank weapon that automatically destroys one warp box if it hits, and causes the ship to miss its next move, and turn in place. That last is bad enough, but on the early underpowered ships, the idea of guaranteed power hits through shields is scary. In the Y-era, they get Disruptor Cannons, which is a two-turn version of the familiar Disruptor Bolt.

At first, they had somewhat limited ship classes, but Y2 and Y3 built them out so they have CCs and DNs like everyone else. They hit the Y-era slightly later, but they start with the smaller ships, and should be able to eventually refit all the W-series ships up.

Star Fleet:

I’m attacking as the United Star Fleet of the Federation of Planets. As these are all ships converted to tactical warp from the various member planet’s navies, I will be learning to deal with six different design styles. Also, my new W-series ships must cycle through the six different navies, so I can’t just pick a favorite design in each class and go straight to that.

Earth, Alpha-Centauran, Orion, and Rigelian: These all use the good old photon torpedo (though there’s no overloads, and, worse, no proximity fuses, in this era). Phaser coverage and other details vary from fleet to fleet, but I have no feel for common design elements yet. [The Orion national guard ships never actually directly served in the Federation’s early wars, but they were part of Star Fleet, and I figure it’s the only way we’ll ever get around to seeing them in action.]

Andorian: These ships use drones as the heavy weapon. They’re fairly close to Kzinti drones, but not identical, but the only direct-fire weapons are phasers.

Vulcan: Their CA and DD have a pair of special sensors (the only things outside of a base with them in this era; this is important, as I have a bunch of base battles in my future). The others have the usual photon torpedo, and they all mount phaser-1s (everyone else is stuck with ph-2s on their ships in this era).

The nomenclature for the Star Fleet ships is inconsistent (largely in Y1), and I’ve cleaned them up for reporting here (so, they are all prefixed with “W”, and the Orion ships are WOx). Also, trying to back-port earlier NCC numbers is a mess, so I’ve figured that the initial Star Fleet ships got sequential “SF” numbers as they were converted and commissioned into the fleet. Once new ships are built in the Y-series, then they start using “Naval Construction Contract” numbers.

Y77

So, we’ve assembled the fleet lineups, done the initial builds, and finally assigned everything to the eight regions of the first defense line.

We’re trying a system where the Command Rating of a ship is multiplied by 35 times the current year/100, and it can command that many EPV of other ships (this means a CR 10 dreadnought can command 270 EPV this turn, and 273, next time…). This maxes fleets out somewhere around six-seven ships, and I (with all my ships available) couldn’t fill them out.

Half of the defender’s fleet is in reserve (not including his five new ships), which gets me a fairly free pass to get through this defense line, and why Mark is so thin on the ground right now. This will change. Any ships of mine that disengage this turn will be unavailable next time.

Region 1: Two ships on each side permanently damaged, and the YBS destroyed:
Planets of Tripoli Y77 Region 1

Region 2: Open space fight where a refused close-range pass led to armor being stripped from a C-WCL before disengaging.
UR1 Y77 Planets of Tripoli Region 2

Region 3: Instead of playing another lopsided base battle, we mirrored the approximate results of Regions 1 & 5, with the YBS destroyed and Beast of Beasts and USS Ferocity losing all armor.

Region 4: Mark’s force was completely outmatched, so it was surrendered without a fight.

Region 5: One ship on each side took serious damage, the YBS was destroyed, and USS Mare Serenitatis took two of eight armor damage.
Planets of Tripoli Y77 Region 5

Region 6: My force was not quite minimal in hopes of catching a pair of FFs. Instead, the Carnivons had a heavier force, and I disengaged to Reserve instead of risking my ships.

Region 7: My force was minimal so I could concentrate elsewhere, so I surrendered that region without a fight. And those two ships will be in Reserve next time.

Region 8: Short skirmish that did nothing beyond a few shield boxes:
UR1 Y77 Planets of Tripoli Region 8