The White Flame.

[thescreamingswede]

Nov 22, 2018 5:19:46 GMT -7 trynda1701 said:

Another interesting AAR, swede. Thanks for posting.

I'd like to see what rules you came up with for regarding boarding combats and capturing freighters when you ran your real time convoy games. Just before our gaming group went their separate ways, we were planning to run a pirate scenario as our third campaign. We were thinking of using a simple trading system along the lines of the Elite computer game, and were thinking about more detailed capture rules.

Our first thought was a simple system like a table, which I think is what may be used in the SFB Cadet Training Manual? I don't have that book to hand. But I'd like to see your thoughts on this.

When I devised my boarding rules, we were heavily into playing RISK, so we wound up doing something along those lines.

We determined there are three main centres that primarily see combat; Engineering, Life Support, and the Bridge. There were also three secondary locations that might see combat; Auxiliary Control, Transporter Room, and the Shuttle Bay. We also allowed a percentage of forces to be dispersed in the corridors, however during Red Alert, most of these more mundane corridors are usually cut off, either with bulkheads or force fields. Regardless, if any squad was to move to attack/defend another location, control of the corridors was essential.

In order to take control of a ship, you needed to capture either all three primary centres or two primary and two secondary locations in any combination. During a boarding action, both players needed to decide on how many personnel were attacking or defending the locations mentioned. Every 5 man squad constituted one die six and followed the rules for RISK. Once a location was under control, either held by the defenders or overrun by the attacker, a squad had to remain to hold the location while the rest moved on.

Once a particular battle for a location was completed, casualties were rolled for since a loss did not mean instant death for the combatants. If enough personnel remained, they would be reformed into new squads of 5 and combat could continue.

Admittedly, it wasn't a perfect system, but it has worked quite well for all these years.

At one point, we were looking at doing up deck plans for various ships in a RISK style format and actually playing RISK within a starship. With the number of ships out there though, it was deemed impractical, so we kept it more abstract by focusing on the aforementioned locations.

[starcruiser]

Actually - the RISK approach makes a ton of sense for boarding actions. There are naturally restricted routes, limited resources and I would assume time...

You could create a generic combat sheet based around a given fleet's basic style (Federation, Klingon etc...) and just provide the basic spaces with the "corridors" between. Setup the base rules along the RISK model and provide for a logical victory condition system and done!

[thescreamingswede]

The last mission in the book is kind of an odd affair. It features one of the 123rd facing off against six Orion Lightnings who, apparently, intercepted the Waraxe before the convoy they were protecting was detected by the big frigate. I feel it odd in the fact that it doesn't seem to fit any of the story arcs that were previously covered; almost like it was tacked on.

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
Lightning Blockade Runners are not a major challenge for a frigate. Even twoor three achieve little. When a vessel faces four, five, or more of these little terrors, the situation offers deadly experience.

The Waraxe, an L-9 frigate of the White Flame, discovered this while chasing I.K.S. vessels through the Triangle. The Waraxe was attacked by a large number of Orion blockade runners operating in within the area.

The Attacker is the L-9B (Waraxe), which enters the field from the left side of the map. The Defenders in this case happen to be the six aforementioned Lightnings. They are deployed along the right hand side of the map board and enter two at a time, starting from the first turn. This obviously can't be programmed in, so instead of starting each group of Orion ships along the edge, I figured out how far each group would have got in each turn, moving at the A.I.'s preferred rate of movement of 7 Movement Points, placing the last group to enter along the edge and spacing out the other two groups accordingly. I also moved the L-9B in from the edge, however I chose to be more conservative, using only 3 MP per turn. Sadly, this only leave three turns left to destroy six ships, so I fudged a bit and started the battle from that point.

The attacker wins the scenario by destroying all six Orion Lightnings by turn six. The defenders therefore win if it takes longer than six turns OR destroy the frigate.

The big caveat in this mission is that none of the combatants may escape by warping out. This is a fight to the death.

Six to one odds. I could see how a Klingon would be hard pressed to not test his mettle against such a lopsided affair, even if they are only Lightnings, so I took on the role of Krolk and subjected myself to the same challenge.

Heh. Only Lightnings he said.

The first wave of Lightnings start out about a dozen hexes away from the L-9B, but they close really quickly, forcing the frigate to take a more defensive approach, spending a fair amount of power for more shields. This tact seemed to work the best however as you can't really outmaneuver six Lightnings. It became the staple tactic for most of the attempts I made.

The first kill came rather easily as Lightning number one (aptly named Snowball I) ate a withering barrage of disruptor fire and suffered a total crew meltdown, so I was lulled into a false state of confidence and figured winning this scenario should be a breeze. Snowball II however (what I named the second one) managed to outflank the L-9B to the Starboard side, effectively reducing the frigate's overall firepower to two measly disruptors.

Snowball III and IV (hmmm, I sense a theme coming on) closed the distance quickly and began peppering the front of the L-9B with 8 shots (4 each). This would also become a common practice since, as I've said before, the A.I. on the PC Sim likes to power EVERYTHING it can, which means each disruptor, whether it could actually be brought into range or not, was powered to one or two points and relied on the damage bonuses to inflict the pain. When it did this however, one Lightning would never be able to pierce a shield alone. Snowball II continued to hide to the Starboard side. I had damaged it, but couldn't afford to waste time trying to kill it when I had two more bearing down in front of me and could focus a greater volley of fire on one of them in the hopes of killing it like I did Snowball I.

By turn 4 the area around the L-9B was a swirling mass of Orion metal as by now the last two Lightnings had engaged. The best I could hope for was to keep the bulk of them from piling into one side, so I had to restrict my fire in order to put power to shields and movement. I was able to knock out Snowball IV before Snowball V and Garfield (Hah! Gotcha) arrived, but it was still four to one, with two damaged to various degrees and two fresh.

The A.I. somehow figured out that if it turned the Lightning's hind quarters to me at an oblique angle, it could now bring five disruptors to bear, but again, the best one Lightning could do was 15 points of damage in one volley, which wasn't going to be enough to penetrate the frigate's shields single handed. [generally speaking, the A.I. would power the front three multi arc disruptors to 2, gaining a +1 for range bonus damage, and the other three disruptors to 1 with the +1 for range bonus damage, causing the five disruptor volley to be even weaker]

This worked out well as generally, when the Lightning was oriented in such a fashion, the A.I. didn't take the angle into account when assigning shield points, leaving me with an unprotected side to shoot at, and I did. I managed to silence two Lightnings in this manner. I wasn't sitting pretty either, but I managed to outlast one more Lightning before succumbing to the vacuum of space (crew meltdown). This was turn ten, so I had technically lost four turns earlier.

The next attempt saw pretty much the same result, except two Lightnings outlived my frigate and managed to push it to eight turns.

Try number three was a total debacle on my part. Trying a different tact, I used most of my power for movement in a bid to outmaneuver the Lightnings. Bad idea. The little buggers ate me alive and I never killed a single one. You just use too much power to move at 8 or 9 MP to have anything left for shields and weapons of any kind. Against another large capital ship the tactic works great, but six little terrors, who can put 4 dents into you from any bloody angle six times over is just too much.

The last attempt I came really close to actually winning the scenario. The blessings of Khaless were upon me as my first volley eliminated Snowball II. My second volley in turn two eliminated Snowball I in a similar fashion (he went kablooey!). Turns three and four saw the frigate flanked by Snowball III on one side and Snowball IV on the other side, with Snowball V and Garfield sitting off about 5 hexes away, one behind the other. Ignoring Snowball III and IV, I focused a heavy barrage on Garfield, who was behind Snowball V. Garfield erupted all over the ass end of Snowball V, snuffing out most of the engine power and melting the crew, earning me a glorious two for one kill.

I began using a little more movement in turn 5, bringing the aft disruptors to bear on Snowball IV while fending off the attack from Snowball III in the front. Both disruptors were at full charge and ripped into the unprotected side of Snowball IV. I didn't kill it, but I had reduced the crew to about 17% and blinded it for a turn with a sensors hit.

Turn 6 I got to focus on Snowball III with all my forward guns, cutting the ship in two and having it explode. I took some damage though and was also temporarily blinded with a sensors hit.

Turn 7 saw victory in the last phase as my sensors FINALLY were repaired and I hammered into Snowball IV with fervor.


Aftermath:
Lightnings are far more effective when used en-masse, though with only approximately 50 built (according to the Orion Book of Common Knowledge), their use as a swarm seems rather unlikely. Nevertheless it isn't a ship to be underestimated. Six could easily handle a lone frigate if used the right way. Additionally, since this scenario is supposed to last only six turns, the Lightnings need not engage the Klingon's so aggressively.

Devil's Advocate:
This mission is nigh impossible for the Klingon to win unless the Lightnings line up one behind the other and allow the frigate to blast each one out in the order they come in on the board. While they may not seem like much, the Lightnings are sufficiently tough enough to survive more than one turn of fire. And if the ships come on the board two at a time for three turns, that's three turns of the six you have to kill them all.

[thescreamingswede]

When I did the mission "OPERATION ERADICATE: THE DESTRUCTION OF OUTPOST 4", I made mention that it was unfortunate that none of the Romulan ships that might have survived the first three confrontations in the story arc could not return to defend the base. Well, after slightly modifying the battle parameters and including two Romulans to enter the fray, I can see why they didn't.

OPERATION ERADICATE: THE DESTRUCTION OF OUTPOST 4. ALTERNATE HISTORY 1

The initial set up remains the same, with the eight listed Klingon vessels from the book taking on an X-3 Aviary. This time however, I added two Romulan ships from two of the previous episodes, the V-8 Type 4 (Pheaton) from "Cat and Mouse", and a T-10 Type 2 (Noisy Cricket) from "Pursuit". These two ships "enter" from the bottom right, near the station. They were allowed to cloak after the first turn.

Needless to say, the introduction of two ships radically changed how the battle went. The Klingons didn't dive straight for the station like they had the first time out. Instead they kind of went a little wonky, flying a few ships to one side, some down the middle towards the station, and a few off to the left and down. I think they were looking for the Romulan ships and didn't stay focused on the objective of smashing the station.

They were also apparently unsuccessful in finding my cloaked ships since I was able to slip the T-10.2 past most of the squadron looking for it and saddle up behind the L-9B. The little destroyer managed to follow the big frigate for a turn or two without being found, which put most of the ships that could return fire out in the weeds.

The V-8.4 did the old "up the middle" stand by, bypassing both D-10Gs and the D-7M, of which had been the squadron to first face the station. The L-42B did what it always does when the A.I. is running it; cloak and crawl across the map. One of the D-18Bs was acting as wing man for the L-9B, but wound up wandering off somewhere before turning its attention to the station. The other D-18B and the D-2B scurried off across the board before turning south towards the station.

This allowed me to get nice, focused shots on one of the D-10Gs (Claw of the Riyity) with the station, effectively snuffing it out in one turn. The other D-10G (Gloryseeker) and the D-7M (Deathmonger) kind of stopped for a moment, which allowed the slow moving V-8.4 time to set up for a perfect plasma shot.

I decloaked the T-10.2 first, right behind the Waraxe (L-9B), ripping into its unprotected aft arc and utterly obliterating engineering. 40% casualties and loss of all three power grids in the first volley. Since none of the other surrounding ships were in firing position, I got away with it... for a bit. I tried to cloak the next phase, and it bought me some time, but I took a fair amount of damage nonetheless, so I was forced to make a choice. The next turn I decloaked the delicate little destroyer and unleashed once more into the aft of the floundering frigate, which was still inching forward, unable to maneuver or fire.

At the same time, I was able to decloak the Warbird right behind the Gloryseeker and rake the cruiser with a full power plasma shot, ripping at least one nacelle off and shredding most of the impulse deck. Engineering took damage as well and I knocked out the aft torpedo completely. Sadly, the victory was short lived as the Pheaton became the focus of most of the combined firepower of the Deathmonger, the Guardian, and the Hunter, which had regrouped towards the Gloryseeker. Even the L-42B decloaked, but it focused on the T-10.2.

The little Romulan destroyer didn't stand a chance and eventually popped, barfing a small amount of damage over most of the gathered Klingon ships. The station, in the mean time, was litterally tearing the Deathmonger a new one, as well as the Defender (the other D-18B) which had also trained its sights on the two Romulan ships that suddenly appeared among the flotilla. Both the cruiser and the destroyer took heavy beatings, with the D-7M crew finally succumbing to the cold grip of space.

The V-8.4 survived another round of focused fire, but took so much damage that it lost all its crew, superstructure, and engine points, exploding harmlessly, but its sacrifice was not in vain. The station, which had pretty much been left alone for the last several turns, took out one D-18B, then the other, leaving only the badly damaged L-9B, the barely functional D-10G (Gloryseeker), the D-2B (which was untouched at this point) and the L-42B, also practically untouched.

The two damaged ships were moving very slow at this point, so the D-2B and the L-42B closed quickly. I chose to ignore the D-2B, not by choice, but the one design flaw I found with the way I set up the station to work in the PC Sim leaves a blind spot right down the forward arc hex line. The D-2B got close enough to stay hidden in that narrow row or park on top of the station hex. The L-42B wasn't so lucky though, and I managed to rake it several times with beams and torpedoes from two arcs via rotating the station.

When the L-42B died, I still couldn't hit the destroyer, so I systematically took out the L-9B, then the D-10G. Both ships were at range, but they were so badly damaged it didn't take many hits to silence them both.

This left the D-2B all by its lonesome to take on the station, which had only started to take some damage thanks to the concentrated torpedo strikes of that glass cannon. Ultimately, I did get the little bugger, but it took a few turns of no fire to finally get it into an arc, which made it pretty easy to obliterate.

Aftermath:
Even with a small destroyer and an antiquated cruiser, the defense of the station was much easier. The battle could have probably been won with only the addition of the T-10.2, but the old V-8 became a damage sponge for two turns, drawing critical fire away from the station and leaving the Klingon ships that focused on it vulnerable to the station's guns.

Devil's Advocate:
This subtle change in the scenario parameters speaks volumes on the necessity to focus on objectives. Had the A.I. chose to focus more on the station rather than hunting down two ships that would eventually show up, it could have done more damage to the station instead of wasting time.

I intend to retry this particular scenario, but from the Klingon perspective. The only caveat will be that I will have to play the starbase as well, since I am certain the A.I. will move it about just like any other ship instead of keeping it in orbit around the planet and only use enough MP to turn a hex side. It would be interesting though, if things like an Alamo, or the Aviary, or the Deathgame could move like a ship in combat. They might be a lot more scary.