Player generated scenarios for the STSTCS system

[trynda1701]

Here is a place for players on the forum to post their ideas for scenarios for the game.

I mentioned to Gorn in the Doomsday Weapon thread about posting his port of a computer game scenario from the "Klingon Academy" PC game. So here's a thread for exactly that purpose!

I'm thinking of the following sources of ideas...

1) From STSTCS games you've played in the past.
2) New games you've recently played.
3) Ideas you've ported over from various Trek computer games.
4) Ideas you've ported over from other games or computer games!
5) Any other category you can think of that isn't mentioned above!

So why not share some of your ideas for other players to try? It might seem obvious to us older players, but it gives ideas to new players, and becomes a resource for all players.

Mark

[trynda1701]

Here's my first contribution.

Arena by trynda1701

This is sort of a transposition of the "Masters" idea from SFB (aliens capture starships to fight for their own amusement), which is based on "The Gamesters of Triskelion" episode in my opinion. I actually first used it at our Games club for a Full Thrust scenario where three young players new to the Club saw us about to play a small Trek based Full Thrust scenario and wanted to join in, so I made this up on the spot!

So say you have eight players? For an interesting free for all brawl, give them one ship each from various factions of approximately the same CE value, say 120. So Enterprise class or similar. Have them come in at different points around the game map at the start (in this case, the four corners and the midpoints of the four edges), splitting up players who are of the same faction. Then everyone has at it!

If you lose a ship, you get a new ship, say of 80 CE. Roll randomly this time to see where they rejoin from the edge of the map! If you lose the second ship, get a new one at say 50CE and roll again for entry onto map, and if you lose THAT one, you get one at 25CE coming in somewhere else!

It's not meant as a serious game, but it still encourages tactics, because even if your Enterprise class blows up a Winged Defender, that Romulan player might roll lucky, and appear behind you in a smaller, but UNDAMAGED ship!

Try it, and try a bit of roleplaying for laughs too. Just don't trust 'nominal allies'. Yes, the Klingons and Romulan have a mutual aggression treaty against the Feds, doesn't mean they won't backstab each other! And in the Full Thrust game where we first tried this, one of my 'friends', flying a SFB Gorn cruiser, unloaded a full plasma attack into the hanger deck of my Federation Constitution class! Bloody reptiles!

Variations

1) You can alter the CE values to suit your game and ship designs.
2) Swap the crews to a different factions ship! So a Fed crew on a Klingon ship maybe. Do a few and don't tell everyone it's happening! So did Klingon 1 fire on Klingon 2 cos of House rivalry, or because the Fed outfoxed him!
3) Add asteroids or a planet into the game.
4) Add MOVING asteroids into the game. Simple version, they all move at the same speed and direction. Move after ships, do 2D10 damage to shields!
5) Make them RANDOMLY moving asteroids! Go on, I dare you!

Mark

[Gorn]

From: Starfleet Command, Starbase 17 To: Captain Palin, USS Agincourt NCC-1813 Subject: Emergency escort duty
Orders: Captain, you will cease all scientific studies currently underway in the Pascal system and engage course to the Laurentian system, best possible speed. Once there, you will meet up with an emergency Dilithium shipment convoy bound for Laurier 4, in the Neutral Zone. An attack by raiders of unknown affinity has been repelled, but has rendered their escort destroyer, USS Baker, unable to protect them further. Your primary goal is to ensure delivery of the Dilithium to Laurier 4. Your Secondary objective is to beam any equipment/personnel you can spare to the Baker to expedite their field repairs. Use your best judgement in regards to standby time/resource cost for the Baker to either rejoin or rendezvous at a later time with the convoy. We suspect likely Klingon or Romulan involvement; Dilithium shipments to this key planet have been raided with greater regularity lately.
- Admiral Pearson, sector 17.


Captain k’Orge, your orders are to stop any Federation convoy from delivering its cargo to system k’lEth IV. This system lies in the Neutral Zone enforced by the smiling Org An’IAn dogs. The convoy carries Dilithium for the planet, and for Federation interests. Without Dilithium, it is only a matter of time before the planet wails for our protection.
Follow the Federation vEq, and remain cloaked until you can jam all cries for help. When you are sure of victory, strike - for the glory of the Empire. While the Org An’IAn Peace Treaty does not allow all-out war, YOU are free to destroy any Starfleet vessels seeking to remove a klIng’An advantage in this sector.
Now go. And do not fail.
General ch’Ang


Commander Loskene: Tholian Assembly. Star Transport: Twin Cruiser class.
Gorn BH-1 Long Claw: is wanted for incursion into our annexed space: TG-17. It has been tracked to system: NZ-3. Enter: turn 3. Capture using: Web device. Transport to: T-1. Gorn High Command: is known for their sense of honor. They will capitulate: TG-17 in return for their ship + crew. Future conflict over TG-17: avoided. Beware Klingon presence: NZ-3. Use any Federation presence NZ-3: to Tholian advantage.


Communication from Tal Shiar to Commander T’annik winged defender IRW DEVORAS
Commander, planet 4 of the Suvak system has been starved of dilithium in the past full cycle. Although Orion pirates appear to be responsible, we suspect Klingon manipulation. You are to proceed to this Neutral-Zone system under full cloak, (10 spaces from planet) where you will await developments. While the Klingons are unpredictable and violent, we prefer them to win this system under the accords of the Organian Peace Treaty rather than allowing the Federation to gain more power. To that end, you must de-cloak and aid the Klingons ONLY if it suits Romulan goals. Do NOT allow your ship to be captured by any race. If you are seen, do NOT allow the Federation or her allies to escape and report Romulan involvement.
Jo Lan Tru, Commander.


Messsage to captain Sslar,
Cruiser BH-1: LONG CLAW.
CAPTAIN Sslar, we have tracked dilithium piratess to a ssysstem near the humanss neutral zone with the klingonss. You sshall Drop out of warp 13 spaces behind red planet on turn 3. Find the 2Li piratess that have sstolen from gorn sspace and desstroy them. Aid the humanss if you can, but they should not get in your way of jusssticce.
Fleet alpha male SSHERUDON.


Scenario: Convoy Run in the Neutral Zone

Federation: Primary Goal: must protect and ensure delivery of at least 1/3 merchants to the planet @ 2 pts per merchant ship. (Any enemy ship within 4 spaces of the planet will be fired upon from the ground base, 3 regular Q chart phasers, (no bank): 6 power. Base shield is 10, SS = 45) Secondary Goal: restore Baker to help in the fight, 4 pts. Cost is one full game turn; -2 power off each warp engine OR -1 each warp TOTAL and 3 full game turns. APPLY CORRECT CASUALTY % to reflect crew transfer; 20 crew max/phase. Optional: -1 more warp power (total) to restock Baker’s depleted photon torpedo inventory. Fail 2nd goal = -4 pts. Secret Goal: aid in Gorn/Tholian settlement = 4 pts.
Federation ships that disable/drive off enemies get full advancement points. Destroy = only 1 pt advancement Unprovoked attack = -2 Captain rating

Klingon: must destroy, or, for more points, capture the entire convoy @ 2 pts per merchant ship. They are aggressive and utterly dismissive of danger. Destroying any interference is icing on the cake, for regular advancement points. Secondary: they would love to court the Gorn into a new alliance for 7 pts.

Romulan: must aid the Klingons @ 2 pts per merchant ship. Neither the Federation nor their allies the Gorn must be allowed to escape and report Rom involvement! (+5/-5 pts bonus + reg AP for destroying feds) Romulans like to hang back, cloaked, until involvement is absolutely required – or very very advantageous! If they stay undetected the entire scenario, they gain 5 pts for watching only and risking nothing!

Gorn: honor-bound to aid the Feds @ 2 pts per merchant ship, no matter the repercussions. 5 pts for following this goal without divergence. Any Tholian should be destroyed if possible to demonstrate Gorn superiority +2/-2 pts. Gorn do admire the strength and militant nature of the Klingons. A new treaty is allowed if the Feds can be manipulated into dishonor.

Tholian: Their only concern is to regain their annexed systems recently lost to the Gorn. They target the Gorn exclusively due to a recent skirmish on their common border resulting in Tholian withdrawal. If they can capture the Gorn, they hope to force capitulation of the disputed territory. They will give no consideration whatsoever to a Klingon alliance as they are notorious for violating Tholian borders whenever it suits them. Due to the Tholian’s cultural nature of precision, they will go straight for their goal of Webbing and towing the Gorn off the map = 7/-4 pts + BH-1 advancement pts. If they can instead negotiate a binding settlement without risking their ship, they gain 8 pts. They wish no conflict with the Federation, but will not run from one, either.
Orion Pirates: if present, are in it for the money. They will hire themselves out to whatever ship offers the most bonus points in payment for their services. If a ship reneges, the Pirates will try to capture them for the slave/scrap market. Destruction of enemies is a regrettable, but preferable goal to being robbed blind by the very ships YOU hope to rob blind. They especially want to obtain the merchant ships’ cargo, 4 pts for each one boarded and raided – 2 phases! __________________________
Any Dilithium taken by any ship can be used to replace any burned out crystals or as payment to Orions.



_________________________________________________________________________________________________

This is how my scenarios generally look. Ships are alot more balanced under my system.

[trynda1701]

Looking forward to seeing more, Gorn. I'm going to see if I have any notes left over from old scenarios we played, or can remember a few we've played years ago. I can definitely post our Klingon vs Romulan campaign starting conditions.

And anyone else, if you have scenarios you've played, or are about to play, feel free to post them here.

Mark

[trynda1701]

Klingon vs Romulan Border Campaign by trynda1701s' Gaming Group

Back in 1998, after playing the game since about 1990 or so, our STSTCS players played out a campaign representing a Klingon / Romulan border incursion. Our two referees had sat down and discussed the FASA rules, originally discussing seventeen points expanding on the rulebook and ending up with two dozen typed pages and three sets of amendments after the campaign completed!

It included startup conditions, repair rules and costs, expanded cloak detection, long range sensor rules and victory points, amongst others. A map was created using a photocopy of the playing mapsheet, with a meandering border going bottom left to top right, and certain star systems marked on it, covered in plastic to map players movements with non permanent marker pens.

The Campaign was played out over four campaign days and several months of playing, with a few short breaks in between. The campaign ended as a tactical victory to the Romulans with the border changing in their favour. The decisive battle was when the Romulan scouts detected that the Klingons had amassed most of their cruisers for a massive strike on the Romulan Starbase. I, as acting Romulan Commander (original Commander had swanned off on holiday to New Zealand for a couple of months!) brought back as many ships in range as I could to defend the Starbase, while sending a strike force to head for the Klingon Starbase.

In said critical battle, the Klingon Commander did not take note of the damage being done to the enemy base, and as it went into negative superstructure, a lone Klingon cruiser decloaked as point blank range and fired everything! Starbase fall down and go BOOM! And so did a lot of the attacking fleet in the resultant matter/antimatter explosion as the base still had mostly intact reactors!

The referees, upon hearing that a Romulan strike force was heading for the Klingon base, which had no similar defense force in place, realised that the Klingons would lose the base, and the Romulans would be the only side with an effective fighting force left, so declared the tactical victory!!!

It should be noted than the player of the offending decloaking cruiser who caused so much havoc (so much for Shakespeare!) was declared a War Criminal!!!

So here are the starting conditions for our first campaign.



Provisional Campaign Rules by I. Wilson and G. Short - Page 1

Section A: Initial Startup

A:1 Each side will start with 2000 points combat efficiency. This figure can be amended accordingly to your own design providing ALL RELEVANT PARAGRAPHS in Section A are amended accordingly.

A:2 This figure will include a Defense Outpost(s) which will be referred to from now on as a 'Starbase'. This Starbase will be then equivalent of a Z-4C Outpost which has a Combat Efficiency of 317.73. The referees note this is not possible for the Romulans. It is assumed that their Starbase was a former Klingon colony and that they modified a captured Z-4C. The design was approved by the Referees.

A:3 NO Mobile Repair Facilities are permitted but Repair Tenders will be accepted under Rules C:3 and, in particular, Rule C:4. It is assumed that there are none in this 'Quadrant' and none will be sent for reasons unknown.

A:4 Repair Points: Refer to Section C:3 for details of Repair values for the different systems.

A:5 The following designations are SPECIFIC and MINIMUM requirements.

A:6
i) Each side cannot have more than 3 ships with a C.E. over 150 points. You must, however, have a minimum of 1 ship.

ii) Each side cannot have more than 10 ships with a C.E. between 80 and 149 points. You must, however, have a minimum of 3 ships.

iii) Each side cannot have more than 10 ships with a C.E. of less than 5 points e.g. Warpshuttles.

it) The sky's the limit on any number of ships within the range of 5.1 and 79.99 points.

A:7 MODIFIED MISSILE CRUISERS

Each side is limited to ONE modified missile cruiser should they decide to use it I.e. Andor Mk.III, Andor Mk.IV, the FU-12 models and the Romulan equivalents. If you use them, they must be within the confines of Paragraph A:6.

================================================================

A:8 REFEREES EXPERIENCE NOTE!

Some of the players were excellent at designing and upgrading ships within the instructions of FASAs' "Ship Construction Manual". At this time, we had legitimate Missile Cruisers. They look good on paper, but are TOO powerful. We had never used them, or at least only the ones with the lowest C.E. They still caused havoc! On this occasion each side was allowed to use one to " prove their battle worthiness".

================================================================

A:9 Prior to the immediate start of the Campaign both sides MUST have ships panels FOR EVERY SHIP BEING USED. Everything from Freighters, Repair Tenders and Orbital Stations.

A:10 When the participants of each side are selected, you will choose a Fleet Commander/Admiral who will be responsible for the overall tactical plan and strategic decisions. HE HAS THE LAST SAY IN ANY JOINT DISCUSSIONS WITH HIS FELLOW TEAM MEMBERS. Remember, this is a military command structure.

A:11 The Fleet Commander must agree to keep his job until the end of the Campaign. They must follow the job thru to the end. N.B It is G. Shorts' experience that in other systems some Campaign Commanders have walked away as there has been much disagreement with the participants on his side. The Referees reserve the right to inflict penalties on argumentative persons. SEE SECTION R.

A:12 In allocating the ships to the various Starmap hexes each side will not have more than 3 ships on the "wrong" side of the border.

A:13 Once war is formerly declared both sides may "infringe" each others territory for the purposes of spying, attacking and capturing enemy properties.

A:14 THERE WILL BE NO RAPING AND PILLAGING IN THE HALL. IT MAYBE OFFENSIVE TO THE OTHER WARGAMERS!!! (And they may even want to take part, bringing the Club into disrepute and blackening the good reputation of the CLUB!)

A:15 Please do not get over excited. It is only a game. It is impossible for the Referees to come up with a written rule in advance for every occasion. We will always do our best to come up with an appropriate answer. You may not like it so TOUGH.



This was a more general starting setup, unlike say a scenario by Gorn where he lists off specific ships. I can't remember what exact forces we both ended up playing with, although I remember the Romulans went with my Y-2 Phoenix Class Battlecruiser instead of a Z-1 Nova Class Battleship because it was a lower C.E. I think I used it to lead the prospective strike force on the Klingon Starbase. The one specific battle force that I can remember was three standard D-2 Stingtongue Missile Destroyers being ambushed from cloak by three heavily modified Romulan V-11 Stormbird Cruisers with a C.E. of about 90 each. It was rather one-sided to say the least!

Mark

[Gorn]

Wow. That sounds like fun/grounds for divorce. I had a Galactic War posted somewhere in here. The only drawback is how much time it takes for Power Allocation. Worth it.


Some of my missions require specific ships due to the story, but other missions you can adjust for whatever class of ships you'd like.

[Gorn]

I'm running out of interesting scenarios for ALL the races to take part in: Fed, Kling, Rom, Gorn, Tholian, Orion even adding space going life or Venturi Refugees...

I have a maximum of 7 players coming for a game in 9 days - I'm thinking Enterprise class, but I can't come up with a good scenario. I might have every civ hunting Carol Marcus as the last surviving info source on the Genesis Torp...
But I like it alot better when there is some sort of conflicting morals involved. The Sun Creature storyline from SFA was perfect for that. But we've played it! I'd rather not make a team-vs if I can avoid it. I'd also like to make up something more involved than "capture the prize and run".

[trynda1701]

Gorn, I've sent you a PM about your upcoming game.

[RedRom]

Hey gang here is the latest story idea. A lot of these descriptions I made somewhat general so you can put in your own ships except the last one which kind of yelled at me. Hope you enjoy and here goes. A Klingon spy, (call sign: Valkrus) has intercepted a federation coded communique stating federation colony Cestus III was known to have unknown alien Life, but thought possibly abandoned. Federation businesses coupled with Orion families had some federation council members in their pocket ordered the immediate colonizing of Cestus III. The Colony opened a vital trade route making all listed above very rich, in addition Cestus III added a strategic surveilance point against Romulan incursion. Unknown to Federation intelligence Romulans used Cestus III as a honey Trap to spy on federation activity as well. Using a few subtle skirmishes the Romulans led the Gorn back to CestusIII in an attempt to start a war between the Gorn and the Federation. The result to weaken the Federation, and keep the Gorn distracted to gain a larger presence in the Outback. Its very likely the plan might have worked if not for the interference of the Metrons, Now armed with proof the incursion was deliberate Romulan diplomats in their subtle way start a propaganda campaign, blaming federation government of sheltering profiteering corporations at the cost of others cultures. Those same companies deny any wrongdoing as they have all worked in the confines of Federation law and in good faith with Starfleet. In the wake of these statements indiscriminate attacks occurred on federation shipping and their Orion Partners causing shaky alliances. Federation escort groups were formed to protect shipping rights against Gorn attacks resulting in small skirmishes. Gorn federation relations are on the verge of breakdown as diplomats have been recalled. No formal declaration of war is declared but skirmishes continue to escalate. In lieu of these events a federation reconnaissance mission (Chandley frigate) ventures into Gorn space and the unknown areas of the Outback and encounters a romulan V30 who cloaks and makes it's attack run.

[Gorn]

Hm. Cestus 3 has been under development by both Feds and Gorn jointly, hasn't it? I seem to remember something in DS9 about that. I think we're ALOT more concerned with continuity than CBS, that's for sure!

How does that affect the scenario?

[tosfan1956]

So, is this a dead thread? I was watching the TOS episode “Errand of Mercy” (Organia) and noticed Kirk mentioning tensions increasing between the Federation and the Klingons but nothing specific. Stardate of the show was 3198.4. I was wondering if any of you have any material or FASA scenarios building up to this? BTW I’m not positive that was the name of the episode but I’m sure you can figure it out. I’ll double check after the wife goes to bed. She’s not a fan. One of the few things we don’t agree on ;-)

[trynda1701]

Sept 11, 2019 16:18:55 GMT -7 tosfan1956 said:

So, is this a dead thread? I was watching the TOS episode “Errand of Mercy” (Organia) and noticed Kirk mentioning tensions increasing between the Federation and the Klingons but nothing specific. Stardate of the show was 3198.4. I was wondering if any of you have any material or FASA scenarios building up to this? BTW I’m not positive that was the name of the episode but I’m sure you can figure it out. I’ll double check after the wife goes to bed. She’s not a fan. One of the few things we don’t agree on ;-)

Is this a dead thread? Hell no!!! (plus, we've just posted in it! )

If you want to post any scenarios you've ran before, or scenarios you plan to run, p!ease feel free to post them in this thread. That's why I created it in the first place!

I don't think FASA had anything specific on the build up of forces in that episode, other than maybe mentioning it in their timeline.

[tosfan1956]

Thank you for the info. Just trying to work something out. Still not much more than a vague idea so far.

[Meteo Ascension]

I did up a rather bizarre little scenario for the Computer Game: Three WYN ships against a Lyran Battleship heading to rendezvous with a fleet sometime in around 2288. The three WYN ships were an Orion-purchased Wanderer-Class Blockade Runner, a Auxiliary Cruiser, and a Kzinti Missile Frigate, each rather weak and lopsided, but together, were sometimes able to beat the Lyran Battleship (design made up by me).

[trynda1701]

THE GORN SUPPLEMENT - Gorn vs Federation Border Campaign by trynda1701s' Gaming Group

So, I meant to post this set-up of our second campaign after posting our start-up conditions for our first campaign, but obviously never got round to it. Let's rectify that!

Hope you like this, especially you, Gorn !

trynda1701 note: I take NO responsibility for any funny names or bad puns in this transcript of the second Campaign set-up. That's ALL on the original Referees!



THE GORN SUPPLEMENT by G. Short and I. Wilson

BACKGROUND

We realised from the Klingon/Romulan Campaign that it was too big. It was, after all, an experiment and we learned many things from it. During the run up to the end of this campaign, G. Short and I. Scott had been designing lots of Gorn ships but didn't have much opportunity to use them. Equally, others had been designing Orion ships with little constraints put upon them.

The referees now realised that Refereeing was a lot of fun but we also wanted to take part, therefore we decided to run a small Campaign ourselves designed for a minimum of two players. Much time was spent discussing variations of minor points and the history leading up to it. We also wanted a different scenario! The conditions and objectives would have to be different otherwise it would just have been a re-run of the previous Campaign. These details will shortly become apparent.

HISTORY

G.S.1 The Gorn government is made up of various Clans. We assume that there has been a lot of internal fighting over a long period of time and this has been the longest period where the government has remained stable. Therefore they do their best NOT to upset other Clans in case it leads to yet another Civil War.

G.S.2 A renegade Gorn Commander (G. Short) wants to use his influence and his ambition to climb up the Gorn government. He sees one way to do this by trying to drive out the Federation near their official border.

G.S.3 The official Gorn government will NOT get directly involved in any combat scenarios NOR will they openly or overtly assist the 'rebels'. The Gorn government will continue to apologise to Federation Commissioner Gordon for the attacks on Federation shipping, i.e. undisclosed freighters and the occasional hostility towards Federation Starships e.g. Larsons and Remoras amongst others!

G.S.4 The Federation (I. Wilson) have now lost patience with the Gorn government due to their apparent lack of action in stopping the rebels. The Federation has now requested all official Gorn (and other alien races) ships to leave Federation Space otherwise they will be attacked, in effect an "exclusion" zone now exists.

G.S.5 The Federation are now under orders to seek out and destroy the Gorn trouble makers and, if possible, capture their ships which they can present as evidence to the Gorn government (hopefully to bring them to justice). The Federation has now increased their presence so that it can achieve this objective.

G.S.6 The Gorn renegade objective is to cut off the supply lines to the Federation Settlements without physically attacking the Settlements. (This would lead to an official war declaration) and Commander Shortosaurus(!) does not want to do this as the other Gorn Clans would rise up against him and he would have to take them on AND the Federation!

G.S.7 The same starmap will be used as per the last Campaign but ignoring the Border lines. Federation Space will consist of the top two portions and the bottom left quarter.


G.S.8 The main Federation Colony will be at Hex 0404 - Called "Jurassic Halt"

The First Settlement will be at Hex 0414 - Called "Didtheysaurus"

The Second Settlement will be at Hex 2804 - Called "Proto-bronto"


G.S.9 The Gorn will have three supply dumps sited in Federation Space. It is also a Federation objective to destroy them! These supply dumps must be supplied from a Gorn Clan planet, NOT the official Gorn Government planet.

G.S.10 As this is a "Seek and Destroy" mission ALL the star systems have been allocated a number of planets in their solar systems. See - Gorn Supplement One. **

G.S.11 It will take ONE CAMPAIGN HOUR to orbit and scan each planet to detect a foreign presence that should not be there e.g. Gorn ships.

G.S.12 One throw of a D10 designated the number of planets in the system. If a '10' was thrown, a further D10 was rolled to determine at which location in the system where an asteroid belt could be found.

G.S.13 The GREEN spots on the Starmap indictate that there is an uninhabited Class M planet in that system. The Referee can designate which one it is.

G.S.14 It will take ONE CAMPAIGN HOUR to scan asteroid belts. This should reflect their density. If a belt is located in position 3 it will therefore be more dense than a belt found in position 8. The denser the belt the more hazardous it would be to navigate should anyone travel into it.

G.S.15 All asteroids are stationary and in a fixed orbit.


G.S.16 The Federation side will NOT exceed 840 pts Combat Efficiency.

The Gorn side will NOT exceed 670 pts Combat Efficiency.


G.S.17 It was decided that the Gorn had an advantage in that they would be striking out from secret bases. It was decided that the Federation ought to have a larger force as they were going to have to spend more time flushing them out.


G.S.18 The following limitations were imposed on both sides:-

Nos. of ships less that 1.0 CE - Not to exceed 5 ships

Nos. of ships between 1.0 & 5.0 CE - Not to exceed 5 ships

Nos. of ships between 5.1 & 12.0 CE - Not to exceed 5 ships

Nos. of ships between 12.1 & 30.0 CE - Not to exceed 8 ships

Nos. of ships between 30.1 & 50.0 CE - Not to exceed 8 ships

Nos. of ships between 50.1 & 80.0 CE - Not to exceed 5 ships

Nos. of ships between 80.1 & 120.0 CE - Not to exceed 2 ships

Max total =38 ships

** The supplement mentioned in G.S.10 consisted of a list of the 108 hexes (out of 680 on the 34x20 map) which had planets, the number of planets present, asteroid belt if present and its orbital position, and if a Class M planet was present (18 out of those 108).



When we gamed this in 1999/2000 or thereabouts (which we tried to do weekly, either at a players home, or the fortnightly gaming Club), I sometimes ran the session, and determined whether the two sides weekly plotted movements intersected, resulting in an actual battle.

I remember one night when the Gorn decided to make a run for it when their plotted movement left them in sensor range (1 hex) but not actually in contact. A chase ensued, that then meant that more movement from both sides had to be plotted. This resulted in another blip heading towards the fleeing Gorn ships. Heading and warp speed changes galore! I actually got a headache from plotting the new movement on the night in real time!

Other things I remember...

The Gorn renegades, realising the Feds were now actively out to get them, moved their supply dumps back across the border! The Federation, not knowing this immediately, of course kept looking for them!

There was a couple of battles where a couple of Federation ships tracked down and picked on a lone and lowly Gorn scout ship! Hey, it happens!

The Gorn, determined to chase the Federation out of the sector, irradiated the two Settlement systems (with 'malfunctioning' orbital probes I think!), to try and force evacuations.

And when the Gorn got a small cruiser force to arrive at the main Colony of Jurassic Halt, which outgunned the R-1 Defense Outpost and a couple of ships in system, they actually roleplayed with the Federation Commander, insisting that if the colonists were evacuated, they would be allowed to leave safely! Which the Federation Commander agreed to! The Gorn SubComander (I. Scott) then allowed the colonists to be evacuated and leave! I can't remember if the Gorn commandeered the abandoned Outpost or just blew it up!

It just goes to show how enjoyable this little 35+year old game of ours can be!

Mark

[SITZKRIEG!]

Things definitely play out differently than you think. I don't have any recent actual tabletop experience but, after I got the PC game working a year or two ago, I played that a fair amount and was surprised how things frequently worked out despite supposedly balanced CE. Obviously random dice rolls play into that but even beyond that I was frequently defeated by inferior ships when outnumbered. I don't think the rules take that into account as much as they should.

[trynda1701]

Aug 31, 2020 10:53:43 GMT -7 SITZKRIEG! said:

Things definitely play out differently than you think. I don't have any recent actual tabletop experience but, after I got the PC game working a year or two ago, I played that a fair amount and was surprised how things frequently worked out despite supposedly balanced CE. Obviously random dice rolls play into that but even beyond that I was frequently defeated by inferior ships when outnumbered. I don't think the rules take that into account as much as they should.

Oh, definitely. The CE figure should be used as a guide. But numbers against one larger vessel will count in the larger numbered forces favour. Remember, three Klingon D-7S cruisers at a total of 121.8CE will start to tell against a Mk.I Enterprise class cruiser of 129.5CE!

Also, when I designed my Orion Assassin class raiders, to match the approximate CE of Federation destroyers like the Larson and Baker classes, while I might have more efficient Orion shields, that 8-point maximum can be a bitch!

[SITZKRIEG!]

Yeah, the defensive benefits are obviously supposed to play into the D stat but they don't take into account having multiple ships with their own damage charts and independent power supplies. I found that if you're in the superior single vessel that you really need to avoid the pack as much as possible and take out stray loners in order to survive (and on top of getting lucky with hit/damage rolls!). I really had to stick to the edges of the map when I was running scenarios against the AI (let alone if there was a human player that could instantly see my strategy!) and it was still a very uphill struggle for single ship scenarios.

[trynda1701]

While I've never been able to play the computer version of STSTCS FASA, I have played the "Starfleet Command II" PC game, based on SFB, and the "Orion Pirates" updated version.

It was fun taking one Constitution class in SFC II in the free play scenario mode against three smaller enemy vessels, say like the small Klingon F-5 frigates. You've got to work HARD to win in standard ships. If you use the top line Connie from "Orion Pirates" against standard ships, it's easier against the F-5s, but when you're against D-7s, it's generally difficult to get a win!