10-22-2007, 10:49 PM
Star Fleet Warlord I
Part one of ROBIN ORMAN's diary of a US v UK game (game EH7) ...
THIS ARTICLE is the first part of my diary of game EH7 of Star Fleet Warlord (SFW), run by Pagoda Games. The game is still ongoing as I write, but these diary entries have been written largely in the present tense, based on my notes made at the time.
EH7 stands for European Historical (game) 7, and presents a different scenario to the standard SFW one. In particular, the Historical scenario is a team game, and this makes it ideal for trans-Atlantic matches: there have been four such matches so far, with the UK currently leading 3-1. Both teams involved in EH7 played in the preceding game (EH6, would you believe) where the UK won a resoundingly solid victory as the Alliance. To give the Americans a chance to save face, we agreed to a rematch and thus EH7 was born.
A note on terminology: throughout the diary I'll be making mention of Y123 and similar dates. These are the turn numbers (eg Year 123) with Y168 being the start-up turn, Y169 being the first turn, etc. I'll also be referring to sector numbers, which are shown in the map illustration opposite.
The scenario
The Historical variant of SFW is a team game which pits the Alliance (the Federation, Gorn, Kzinti and Hydrans) against the Coalition (the Klingons, Romulans and Lyrans). After turn 5 (Y172), the first team to possess twice as many major sites as their opponents (major sites are planets, gas giants and the like), wins the game - unless one team surrenders beforehand.
Each team comprises six corporations - with each of the races (except the Kzinti and Hydrans) split across two positions. The initial map layout is shown in the illustration, with the capital letters and numbers denoting each position's Home Sector ('Z' is for the Kzinti). The lowercase letters represent the Home Sectors of minor races (the LDR, WYN, Tholians and ISC) who don't take an active part in the war, other than to viciously defend their territory. The remaining sectors are 'wild' - generally possessing more resources than Home Sectors, but also infested with pirates and monsters.
Taking sides
In EH6 it was the US team's turn to have choice of sides and they opted for the Coalition, leaving the Alliance in the hands of the UK players. Now it was our turn and we decided to switch sides - both to experience the other aspect of the game, and to give the Yanks a chance with the 'winning' side.
Plus I wanted to get my hands on the Romulans, and their lovely, sneaky cloaking devices.
Both teams fielded roughly the same players as the last match: we had lost one and were reduced to four, so Mike Lay (our team captain) and I offered to take two positions each. After some discussion, Steve Howick took the Eastern Klingon corporation, with Mike Lay commanding the other half of the Klingon empire as well as the Eastern Lyrans. David Alsford opted to lead the Western Lyrans, whilst I took the reins of both Romulan positions.
The Coalition begins with a stronger economy and moves first, and is thus suited to take the initiative for an aggressive, early strike. The Alliance has the greater potential for growth however, and the longer the game lasts, the more things are likely to go in their favour, all else being equal. With that in mind, we prepared our plan of action. The Western halves of the Lyran and Klingon empires would proceed to hammer the isolated Hydran position, removing them from play as quickly as possible and securing our western flank. The remaining Lyran corporation would expand east and southeast, rapidly taking out the neutral WYN before they became too entrenched (a tactic I perfected as the Kzinti in EH6) and slamming into the Kzinti for a real cat-fight - meanwhile the Eastern Klingons would attempt to keep the Federation penned up and scrabbling for income in the bordering 'neutral zone'. Finally, on the eastern side of the map, the Romulans would use their unique cloaking technology to catch the two Gorn players off-balance.
At least, that was the plan.
First moves - Y168-Y170
Early turns went more or less smoothly for the Coalition. Sector bonuses - which are economic boosts for holding every major site in a sector at the start of a turn - were acquired in good order for all positions, and scouts were deployed to neighbouring sectors. Unlike a standard SFW game, our Home Sectors were completely devoid of the Nasty Space Monsters - saving us the bother of having to hunt them down before they chewed up our valuable ships - although we were promised especially nasty ones in the Wild sectors.
The Klingons and Lyrans efficiently dealt with their own sectors and started to expand outwards with ruthless efficiency... A slight change was also made to The Plan to give the Western Klingons the responsibility for the subjugation of the WYN sector (#21). It was deemed they would have more forces to spare with only the Hydrans to deal with (and that with the aid of the W. Lyrans), allowing the Eastern Lyrans to concentrate on the Kzinti threat.
My Romulans also made an early mistake by forgetting to issue Counter-Espionage orders - the intelligence officers responsible for this oversight were quickly executed and more conscientious (and highly motivated) ones took their place. Fortunately the opposition didn't send their spies in, which could have resulted in the early identification of my Homeworld locations - the loss of which eliminates a position.
Scouts and decisions - Y171
This turn the scouts' terrain scans started flowing in. Or at least, some did: the scout I'd sent into sector 81 got clobbered by a marauding pirate cruiser between turns. This is something of a setback, since I'm going to be competing with the Eastern Gorn player for control of that sector, and I don't dare to send ships into unexplored territory (they're too likely to be destroyed or disabled by nasty terrain). Fortunately, I've got some backup scouts ready to take their late comrade's place - but it will still cause me a delay of two turns before I can enter the sector.
My other Romulan position to the west managed to get their critical scan - sector 71 - but discovered to their dismay that the majority of terrain suitable for prospecting was in the north and central regions - closer to the Western Gorn player.
In order to ensure that I'd secure some decent prospecting terrain, I decided to adjust my strategy to take an even more aggressive approach. With this in mind I carefully examined the Romulan ship lists to pick out a small, cheap fleet, but with sufficient firepower to eliminate most opponents. I settled on a large carrier, which boasts high Attack and Defence Factors (AF and DF) due to its fighter complement, supported by three 'shield-ships' - tough vessels that would withstand a maximum of damage for a minimum of cost. These latter ships are important: because of the way the combat system works in SFW, damage dealt by an enemy fleet is distributed more or less evenly across all of the ships in the opposing fleet. Damage also initially goes to a ship's shields (which doesn't affect its combat ability) before affecting the hull (which does). So having a numerical advantage means that the ships in your fleet will tend to last longer and fight more efficiently than your opponents'. To protect my carrier and its vulnerable fighter-craft, I wanted to keep this damage-division effect going for as long as possible.
Each of my positions will prepare one of these mini-fleets for deployment into the contested sectors of 71 and 81, where they will be used for hunting down monsters, NPCs, and Gorn ships that come too close.
Good news and bad news - Y172
Y172 saw the remainder of the scout reports come in (except for 81, of course). My Western Romulans have pulled some rather appealing territory in sector 62, which promises a decent prospecting income. The Eastern Romulans also received their scan of sector 92, which they should be able to secure and exploit relatively free from enemy interference.
To ensure I got my scan of sector 81 next turn, I had sent no fewer than three scouts across the border. One of these had the misfortune to fly too close to a Neutron Star, and so had its engines drained to the point where the ship is practically useless (and can't scan). This one will now prospect a nearby asteroid field before limping back for repairs. The other two encountered no such obstacle, and hopefully at least one will survive the pirates long enough to get me the information I need.
Space monsters and pirates - Y173
The turn got off to a good start with a report from subspace (battle reports intermittently received from nearby sectors) of a small tussle between the Western Gorn and the resident Space Monster in sector 71: a Giant Space Brain. Despite throwing three small frigates and a fast-attack cruiser at the beast, the Gorn failed to do more than give the Brain a headache, and were mercilessly crushed. This means that the Western Gorn will be operating at around a 300 Economic Point (EPs - the currency of SFW) disadvantage to my own economy for a while, assuming all other factors to be equal. Only a small lead for me perhaps... but a few more such mistakes could give me a decisive advantage.
For the Eastern Romulans, the scan of sector 81 finally arrived. Fortunately, my side of the sector has been blessed with a surfeit of asteroid fields and nebulae - all good prospecting terrain - and a lack of the same for my opponent. With the bevy of prospectors I've assembled on the border, I'm confident of a large cash boost in a few turns time, which I can use to fuel my war machine.
Meanwhile, a brave little freighter in sector 71 has 'bounced off' of (encountered and retreated from) the Orion Pirate battle station in the region - the freighter had been on the way to claim and prospect the gas giant there. Eliminating this NPC installation will prevent the Pirates from building any more ships - and my mini-fleet is close by. The Admiral in charge is given his orders and the ships' weapon banks are primed for an imminent engagement...
Covert planning - Y174
Battle-scarred debris is all that remains of the Pirate base in sector 71, which was crushed with ease by my fleet - as was another such base in sector 81, which my fleet there ran into unexpectedly! These two conquests will reduce the remaining pirates to the status of pests, since their ships will slowly be destroyed by chance encounters with Gorn or Romulan vessels, and no new ones will be built.
At another planet in sector 71, my engineers had spent the turn constructing my own battle station. This brings the benefit of an improved scan each turn, pinpointing the exact numbers of ships in each hex. This has yielded a nasty surprise however: a five-ship fleet has been spotted a mere two turns from my border. Since NPCs do not tend to bunch together in such large numbers, this can only be a Gorn fleet sent down to either disrupt my prospectors or attempt a scan of my Home Sector. To counter, I will divert the remainder of my available resources for the Western Romulans into the construction of a fast-moving fleet of destroyers and fast cruisers - these will patrol the northern edge of my Home Sector, in the hope of catching the enemy fleet if and when it attempts to enter for a scan.
Of course, my own scouts are busy trying a similar trick against the Gorn. One that had obtained a scan of sector 61 is busy making its way up the eastern edge of that sector, ready to slip across into the corner of sector 70, whilst my sector 71 scout (rendered obsolete by the new battle station) will refit itself before sneaking northwards on a similar mission. Here the cloaking device should give me a definitive advantage: cloaked ships can only be detected by a special scan issued by a well-trained ship or powerful base, making them the very devil for my opponent to track and intercept.
Orders are given and the Romulan Supreme Commander waits anxiously for his next turn. The enemy are mere hexes away from his forces - the war for supremacy between the Gorn and the Romulans is about to begin...
To be continued...
StarFleet Warlord at a glance
Run by Pagoda Games, this s/f wargame with an authorised Star Trek theme has several variants:
Part one of ROBIN ORMAN's diary of a US v UK game (game EH7) ...
THIS ARTICLE is the first part of my diary of game EH7 of Star Fleet Warlord (SFW), run by Pagoda Games. The game is still ongoing as I write, but these diary entries have been written largely in the present tense, based on my notes made at the time.
EH7 stands for European Historical (game) 7, and presents a different scenario to the standard SFW one. In particular, the Historical scenario is a team game, and this makes it ideal for trans-Atlantic matches: there have been four such matches so far, with the UK currently leading 3-1. Both teams involved in EH7 played in the preceding game (EH6, would you believe) where the UK won a resoundingly solid victory as the Alliance. To give the Americans a chance to save face, we agreed to a rematch and thus EH7 was born.
A note on terminology: throughout the diary I'll be making mention of Y123 and similar dates. These are the turn numbers (eg Year 123) with Y168 being the start-up turn, Y169 being the first turn, etc. I'll also be referring to sector numbers, which are shown in the map illustration opposite.
The scenario
The Historical variant of SFW is a team game which pits the Alliance (the Federation, Gorn, Kzinti and Hydrans) against the Coalition (the Klingons, Romulans and Lyrans). After turn 5 (Y172), the first team to possess twice as many major sites as their opponents (major sites are planets, gas giants and the like), wins the game - unless one team surrenders beforehand.
Each team comprises six corporations - with each of the races (except the Kzinti and Hydrans) split across two positions. The initial map layout is shown in the illustration, with the capital letters and numbers denoting each position's Home Sector ('Z' is for the Kzinti). The lowercase letters represent the Home Sectors of minor races (the LDR, WYN, Tholians and ISC) who don't take an active part in the war, other than to viciously defend their territory. The remaining sectors are 'wild' - generally possessing more resources than Home Sectors, but also infested with pirates and monsters.
Taking sides
In EH6 it was the US team's turn to have choice of sides and they opted for the Coalition, leaving the Alliance in the hands of the UK players. Now it was our turn and we decided to switch sides - both to experience the other aspect of the game, and to give the Yanks a chance with the 'winning' side.
Plus I wanted to get my hands on the Romulans, and their lovely, sneaky cloaking devices.
Both teams fielded roughly the same players as the last match: we had lost one and were reduced to four, so Mike Lay (our team captain) and I offered to take two positions each. After some discussion, Steve Howick took the Eastern Klingon corporation, with Mike Lay commanding the other half of the Klingon empire as well as the Eastern Lyrans. David Alsford opted to lead the Western Lyrans, whilst I took the reins of both Romulan positions.
The Coalition begins with a stronger economy and moves first, and is thus suited to take the initiative for an aggressive, early strike. The Alliance has the greater potential for growth however, and the longer the game lasts, the more things are likely to go in their favour, all else being equal. With that in mind, we prepared our plan of action. The Western halves of the Lyran and Klingon empires would proceed to hammer the isolated Hydran position, removing them from play as quickly as possible and securing our western flank. The remaining Lyran corporation would expand east and southeast, rapidly taking out the neutral WYN before they became too entrenched (a tactic I perfected as the Kzinti in EH6) and slamming into the Kzinti for a real cat-fight - meanwhile the Eastern Klingons would attempt to keep the Federation penned up and scrabbling for income in the bordering 'neutral zone'. Finally, on the eastern side of the map, the Romulans would use their unique cloaking technology to catch the two Gorn players off-balance.
At least, that was the plan.
First moves - Y168-Y170
Early turns went more or less smoothly for the Coalition. Sector bonuses - which are economic boosts for holding every major site in a sector at the start of a turn - were acquired in good order for all positions, and scouts were deployed to neighbouring sectors. Unlike a standard SFW game, our Home Sectors were completely devoid of the Nasty Space Monsters - saving us the bother of having to hunt them down before they chewed up our valuable ships - although we were promised especially nasty ones in the Wild sectors.
The Klingons and Lyrans efficiently dealt with their own sectors and started to expand outwards with ruthless efficiency... A slight change was also made to The Plan to give the Western Klingons the responsibility for the subjugation of the WYN sector (#21). It was deemed they would have more forces to spare with only the Hydrans to deal with (and that with the aid of the W. Lyrans), allowing the Eastern Lyrans to concentrate on the Kzinti threat.
My Romulans also made an early mistake by forgetting to issue Counter-Espionage orders - the intelligence officers responsible for this oversight were quickly executed and more conscientious (and highly motivated) ones took their place. Fortunately the opposition didn't send their spies in, which could have resulted in the early identification of my Homeworld locations - the loss of which eliminates a position.
Scouts and decisions - Y171
This turn the scouts' terrain scans started flowing in. Or at least, some did: the scout I'd sent into sector 81 got clobbered by a marauding pirate cruiser between turns. This is something of a setback, since I'm going to be competing with the Eastern Gorn player for control of that sector, and I don't dare to send ships into unexplored territory (they're too likely to be destroyed or disabled by nasty terrain). Fortunately, I've got some backup scouts ready to take their late comrade's place - but it will still cause me a delay of two turns before I can enter the sector.
My other Romulan position to the west managed to get their critical scan - sector 71 - but discovered to their dismay that the majority of terrain suitable for prospecting was in the north and central regions - closer to the Western Gorn player.
In order to ensure that I'd secure some decent prospecting terrain, I decided to adjust my strategy to take an even more aggressive approach. With this in mind I carefully examined the Romulan ship lists to pick out a small, cheap fleet, but with sufficient firepower to eliminate most opponents. I settled on a large carrier, which boasts high Attack and Defence Factors (AF and DF) due to its fighter complement, supported by three 'shield-ships' - tough vessels that would withstand a maximum of damage for a minimum of cost. These latter ships are important: because of the way the combat system works in SFW, damage dealt by an enemy fleet is distributed more or less evenly across all of the ships in the opposing fleet. Damage also initially goes to a ship's shields (which doesn't affect its combat ability) before affecting the hull (which does). So having a numerical advantage means that the ships in your fleet will tend to last longer and fight more efficiently than your opponents'. To protect my carrier and its vulnerable fighter-craft, I wanted to keep this damage-division effect going for as long as possible.
Each of my positions will prepare one of these mini-fleets for deployment into the contested sectors of 71 and 81, where they will be used for hunting down monsters, NPCs, and Gorn ships that come too close.
Good news and bad news - Y172
Y172 saw the remainder of the scout reports come in (except for 81, of course). My Western Romulans have pulled some rather appealing territory in sector 62, which promises a decent prospecting income. The Eastern Romulans also received their scan of sector 92, which they should be able to secure and exploit relatively free from enemy interference.
To ensure I got my scan of sector 81 next turn, I had sent no fewer than three scouts across the border. One of these had the misfortune to fly too close to a Neutron Star, and so had its engines drained to the point where the ship is practically useless (and can't scan). This one will now prospect a nearby asteroid field before limping back for repairs. The other two encountered no such obstacle, and hopefully at least one will survive the pirates long enough to get me the information I need.
Space monsters and pirates - Y173
The turn got off to a good start with a report from subspace (battle reports intermittently received from nearby sectors) of a small tussle between the Western Gorn and the resident Space Monster in sector 71: a Giant Space Brain. Despite throwing three small frigates and a fast-attack cruiser at the beast, the Gorn failed to do more than give the Brain a headache, and were mercilessly crushed. This means that the Western Gorn will be operating at around a 300 Economic Point (EPs - the currency of SFW) disadvantage to my own economy for a while, assuming all other factors to be equal. Only a small lead for me perhaps... but a few more such mistakes could give me a decisive advantage.
For the Eastern Romulans, the scan of sector 81 finally arrived. Fortunately, my side of the sector has been blessed with a surfeit of asteroid fields and nebulae - all good prospecting terrain - and a lack of the same for my opponent. With the bevy of prospectors I've assembled on the border, I'm confident of a large cash boost in a few turns time, which I can use to fuel my war machine.
Meanwhile, a brave little freighter in sector 71 has 'bounced off' of (encountered and retreated from) the Orion Pirate battle station in the region - the freighter had been on the way to claim and prospect the gas giant there. Eliminating this NPC installation will prevent the Pirates from building any more ships - and my mini-fleet is close by. The Admiral in charge is given his orders and the ships' weapon banks are primed for an imminent engagement...
Covert planning - Y174
Battle-scarred debris is all that remains of the Pirate base in sector 71, which was crushed with ease by my fleet - as was another such base in sector 81, which my fleet there ran into unexpectedly! These two conquests will reduce the remaining pirates to the status of pests, since their ships will slowly be destroyed by chance encounters with Gorn or Romulan vessels, and no new ones will be built.
At another planet in sector 71, my engineers had spent the turn constructing my own battle station. This brings the benefit of an improved scan each turn, pinpointing the exact numbers of ships in each hex. This has yielded a nasty surprise however: a five-ship fleet has been spotted a mere two turns from my border. Since NPCs do not tend to bunch together in such large numbers, this can only be a Gorn fleet sent down to either disrupt my prospectors or attempt a scan of my Home Sector. To counter, I will divert the remainder of my available resources for the Western Romulans into the construction of a fast-moving fleet of destroyers and fast cruisers - these will patrol the northern edge of my Home Sector, in the hope of catching the enemy fleet if and when it attempts to enter for a scan.
Of course, my own scouts are busy trying a similar trick against the Gorn. One that had obtained a scan of sector 61 is busy making its way up the eastern edge of that sector, ready to slip across into the corner of sector 70, whilst my sector 71 scout (rendered obsolete by the new battle station) will refit itself before sneaking northwards on a similar mission. Here the cloaking device should give me a definitive advantage: cloaked ships can only be detected by a special scan issued by a well-trained ship or powerful base, making them the very devil for my opponent to track and intercept.
Orders are given and the Romulan Supreme Commander waits anxiously for his next turn. The enemy are mere hexes away from his forces - the war for supremacy between the Gorn and the Romulans is about to begin...
To be continued...
StarFleet Warlord at a glance
Run by Pagoda Games, this s/f wargame with an authorised Star Trek theme has several variants: