Star Fleet Battles

[Watchman]

   So, the current battle took place on the Romulan/Inter Stellar Concordium border.  Map plan is from the Star Fleet Tech Manual and would place the I.S.C. to the right of Gorn and Romulan space. 

   Both Admirals committed tactical errors but the I.S.C. fared the worst.  The I.S.C. entered the battle with a 700+ point force facing an 1,100+ Romulan force of five heavy Cruisers and one Dreadnought, whereas the I.S.C. had three Destroyers and one heavy Cruiser and one Dreadnought. The weapon status of the Romulans was level 3, which required the Romulans to charge all heavy weapons for three turns. The I.S.C. took advantage of this fact and raced in reaching an uncomfortably close range the Romulans had not planned for.    The Romulans had cloaked before they were too close but then started to de-cloak the three heavy Cruisers to the right.  The I.S.C. immediately opened fire on the closest of the three and quickly reduced his shields and his shield reinforcement to the point of the Romulan Captain reversed his de-cloaking.  The I.S.C. quickly switched fire to the other two but neglected to concentrate fire and merely reduced their shielding.  The critical mistake for the I.S.C. came when he reversed course in front of a, now, fully charged Romulan force that promptly de-cloaked and launched many Plasma Torpedoes that caught up to the retreating I.S.C.   The Romulan fire was concentrated on the Dreadnought and a Destroyer.  The Destroyer was crippled and had to be towed from the area and the Dreadnought suffered heavily also.   The best course of action for the I.S.C. would have been to proceed through the Romulan formation using his superior speed advantage over the Romulans Tactical maneuvers, also dropping mines in front of the Romulans and then behind them after passing through the line.  The Romulans would not have been able to respond fast enough to track and fire upon the I.S.C. until well out of effective range.  The mine placement may have been sufficient  to reduce the force size advantage.  As it were the I.S.C. determined the damage suffered, warranted  a retirement from the area, the Romulans had avoided having their shields breached.

  

 

[Watchman]

The Romulans now decide to take on the Federation.  They are facing the 6th. Fleet, whereas the I.S.C. is facing the 5th. Fleet.   The 7th. Fleet faces the Tholians,  the 4th. Fleet is on the Kziniti border, the 3rd. Fleet on the Klingon border, the 2nd. Survey Fleet positioned in the 4th. and 5th. Fleets facing the Galactic Center, and the 1st. (Home) Fleet in the central part of the Federation.

This sector has 8 Fed Heavy Cruisers vs. a mix of Heavy and Light Cruisers. As you can see from the deployment the Romulans want us to split our force.  As it stands the Feds have 32 Photon Torpedoes at the ready but rarely are they used at full effect due to the very close effective range of 8 hexes.   At that range they are 8 points per Torpedo and 4 points if used as Proximity Torpedoes beyond that range, as the accuracy drops off rapidly.   The Plasma Torpedoes, on the other hand have an effective range twice as far with a compliment of R Plasma (50 Points) out to 10 hexes and 35 points to double that range and lesser strength but not much chance of missing, unless a Wild Weasel Shuttle is deployed.   The down side to that is your speed is restricted to 4.  Otherwise you can only rely on your Phasers to reduce the warhead strength @ 2 hit points to knock off 1 warhead strength point.  The Plasmas can also be used in a direct fire mode as a Plasma Bolt at half the warhead strength, but with the same chance of missing as with Photon or Phaser fire.   For regular Plasma useage, you better be in a position to run, and hopefully be up to speed to do so.

This is the ships SSD, Ship System Display.  If you notice none of the shields would with stand a Plasma hit.   With shield reinforcement, possibly.

I am keeping him guessing as to which group I will assault.  I know he will drop his Cloak so as to keep me from getting too close, from prior experience.    Combat without a Lock On can be performed at point blank range and I can do some serious damage to him.At this point he launch Suicide Shuttles, basically robot drone type missiles at very slow speed of 6, but hits with 18 points of damage.   His furthest group decloaked, with a 6 impulse fade in period, which allowed me to fire all my Photons with about a 50% hit rate for around 64 points of damage.  It blew through his shield and reinforcement.    Now it is time to vacate the kill zone before the Plasmas are used.Here I am moving to the rear to charge up my Photons before turning to reengage.His Suicide Shuttles are still tracking but easily dispached with 6 points of damage each from Phaser fire.His damaged Heavy Cruiser is maneuvering out of the line of fire with no front shield.This is how we track energy usage for Systems, Weapons, Movement, Damage Repairs, etc.

Damage is tracked on the SSD by blacking out a box in the System hit.   All of my forms are in page protectors and I use a Grease Pencil.

Unfortunately he chose to use his Plasmas in Bolt Mode and added his Phaser fire to hit a Cruiser to the point of crippling it.   I am coming around for another pass with 7 Cruisers nowHe is moving in reverse at a high rate of speed catching me off guard.   He decided to retire from the battle field based upon the Feds having 64 Phasers ready at any time, even though they are spread around the ship.  He could see I was always maneuvering to get full effect from them.   He has somewhere around 30 Phasers.  He was the winner based upon the total damage points each side received.

[lowlylowlycook]

I've never played Star Fleet Battles but given it's reputation for details these seem like quite the battles.  

[Watchman]

37 minutes ago, lowlylowlycook said:

I've never played Star Fleet Battles but given it's reputation for details these seem like quite the battles.  

We have been gaming 20+ years.   Using FASA's Federation Space Game's economic system, we worked it in with SFB's system.  Set up the Fleets, made maps for everyone, and had at it and have been going ever since.  The only real point has been continual tweaking of the Victory Conditions to try to have a fair and balanced out come, based upon: Damage and Force Size (i.e. did a larger force run from a weak one, not to mention ADB changing the rules somewhere in that time frame.)

[klarg1]

Very nice looking setup.

 

It's been years since I played SFB though.

[Watchman]

16 minutes ago, klarg1 said:

Very nice looking setup.

 

It's been years since I played SFB though.

There seems to be a shortage of Ship Captains out there.  I may be incorrect on this, but it appears the focus is on Fantasy.

[klarg1]

2 hours ago, Watchman said:

There seems to be a shortage of Ship Captains out there.  I may be incorrect on this, but it appears the focus is on Fantasy.

 

That is definitely a factor.

 

I also think that heavy-weight games which involve any non-trivial level of record keeping have fallen way out of fashion. I'm a fan of that style of game, but it is a very hard sell to a market that expects board games to finish in 2 hours, or less, and are unwilling to plough through a lengthy rulebook. (Too say nothing of the encyclopedia-scale mass of the full Starfleet rules!)

 

I'll admit that Babylon 5 Wars put a somewhat premature end to my Starfleet career back in the late 90's. It was more my speed for multi-ship combat, but that's just a matter of taste.

[Lars Porsenna]

31 minutes ago, klarg1 said:

I'll admit that Babylon 5 Wars put a somewhat premature end to my Starfleet career back in the late 90's. It was more my speed for multi-ship combat, but that's just a matter of taste.

 

Are you aware of Star Fleet Battles: A Call to Arms? This is my main "entry" into the SFB universe as it hits just the right level of minis on the table for my tastes (basically fleet actions) while still maintaining some of that Trek flavor & detail. Also the SL2500 minis are great so far!

 

Damon.

[jsalyers]

I started playing SFB in 81 or 82 back when the game came in a small plastic ziplock style bag. I enjoyed it a lot. Taught my wife to play when we first got married and she got good enough to beam boarders over and capture a ship after smashing its front shields.

 

Neither of us have played in years... too many other good games and not enough people interested in the minutia of a complex game.

 

I'm enjoying your battle reports please continue.

 

J--

[klarg1]

56 minutes ago, Lars Porsenna said:

 

Are you aware of Star Fleet Battles: A Call to Arms? This is my main "entry" into the SFB universe as it hits just the right level of minis on the table for my tastes (basically fleet actions) while still maintaining some of that Trek flavor & detail. Also the SL2500 minis are great so far!

 

Damon.

 

I am aware, but, haven't tried the Star Fleet version so far. To be honest, I wasn't much taken with the B5 version of ACTA, when it came out.

 

You may already know this, but "Babylon 5 Wars", by Agents of Gaming, was a completely separate game, which predates ACTA by several years. It's much more SFB-like, although it lacks the complexity of energy allocation, impulse resolution, etc. Sadly, AoG lost the license in 2002, and closed their doors, taking the rules set with them.

Edited September 7, 2017 by klarg1

[Club]

Then there is the other SFB-alike, Starfire. Pretty similar, just simplified damage, and no energy allocation weirdness, and a campaign/4X system bolted on.

[Sergeant_Crunch]

There is also a version based on Starmada that I really like.  Haven't tried the latest iteration based on Starmada Unity edition.  It's another product of ADBs campaign to license the setting out to other rule systems.

[Watchman]

Battle 2 Report:    This encounter occurred on, what would normally be the Federation/Gorn Border.  But as there is no one running the Gorns we directly face the I.S.C.  The sector invaded by the I.S.C. happened to include a contingent of Kzintis.  They have eight squadrons deployed along the Romulan/I.S.C. front to obtain direct combat experience against other race tactics and weapons.  Neither opponent relishes action against the Kzinti due to there over whelming number of Drone launchers. (Side note: This happens to be the Wife of the German pilot who shot her down in the Wings of Glory WWII report.)(Side note 2: She got her revenge in a Wings of Glory WWI battle where she shot him full of holes and he managed an "exit, stage right" with one point left to his plane.)

     This is a map of the known Galactic Space created from a combination of the FASA: Federation Space Game with the Lyran update and Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Tech Manual.

The I.S.C. force consists of various types of Destroyers, a Strike Cruiser, and a rather large Dreadnought.

Facing them from Kzin is a Scout, Light Cruiser, two Heavy Cruisers, a Battle Cruiser, along with four Patrol Frigates, adding three Fed. Light Drone Cruisers.

The Feds begin advancing on the I.S.C. under the cover of the I.S.C.'s scout providing ECM coverage, which caused the I.S.C. to turn toward the Feds.  The Feds immediately launch their Drones of various sizes to keep the I.S.C. guessing.  He usually does not take advantage of Tactical Intelligence or use his Labs to identify what is coming at him.   With eighteen Drones, at strengths of 6-18 points each bearing down on him, keeps him focused on direct offensive response.   He tends to end up wasting fire power in shooting down the Drones.

The less powerful Drones have more armor and takes more hits to destroy, so some of those got through his defensive fire and hit the second (from the top) and fourth Destroyers, severely weakening their front shields.

     In the mean time the I.S.C. begins advancing their Cruisers up the I.S.C.'s left flank and at the same time I try to draw the enemy in by reversing and keep my strongest shields toward him with shield reinforcement.  I continue to launch Drones at him and try to keep his focus off the Kzinits weaker strength ships.

The I.S.C. is using a combination of Plasmas, Phasers, and holding some Drones in a Tractor Beam to shoot  them later.  He is so distracted he neglects to use Tractor Beam rotation to move the Drones to other firing arc weapons so as to not use up his frontal defense.  The Kzintis are cautiously moving in keeping high front shield reinforcement.  Their Drones are more powerful than the Feds at up to 24 points per Drone.

The Kzin Light Cruiser returns to keep station near the Scout and the Scout moves the E.C.M umbrella to the three heavy Crusiers as I keep the Drone barrage up continuously as long as possible.  Soon I will have to rely solely on Phaser fire as I reload.   Fortunately the I.S.C. decides to stay their advance and head for the Kzintis, but it allows me to reverse course to send off my last volley of Drones   In the mean time the Kzintis are in Disruptor range and hammer the second Destroyer.  I have been using my Phasers to weaken the I.S.C.'s Plasmas  to the point where they will not destroy a Drone on impact.

The I.S.C. is turning away and the second Destroyer is being concentrated upon and shield six is taking a beating from the both of us.  With the threat of the Kzinti Drones coming on line causes the enemy to retire from the battle field.

As you can see from the Ship Systems Display, the fourth Destroyer completely lost its front shield.  The second lost his sixth shield and suffered some internal damage.  The mass of black X's show his use of his Plasma-D defense Plasmas.  No damage was suffered by the allies.

Edited September 18, 2017 by Watchman

[TheAuldGrump]

One of my all time favorite battles was in SFB - at a Maine Con back in 1982.

 

Sealed orders - the Federation mission was to protect their ambassador as he was taken through the Neutral Zone.

 

The Klingon mission was to destroy a particular ship in the Federation fleet.... Which wasn't the one carrying the ambassador....

 

So both sides managed to fulfill their mission objectives, with neither realizing what the other side had wanted in the first place.

 

The Auld Grump - specifically, the Klingons wanted to destroy a ship that had a captain that they had a grudge against....

[klarg1]

16 hours ago, TheAuldGrump said:

One of my all time favorite battles was in SFB - at a Maine Con back in 1982.

 

Sealed orders - the Federation mission was to protect their ambassador as he was taken through the Neutral Zone.

 

The Klingon mission was to destroy a particular ship in the Federation fleet.... Which wasn't the one carrying the ambassador....

 

So both sides managed to fulfill their mission objectives, with neither realizing what the other side had wanted in the first place.

 

The Auld Grump - specifically, the Klingons wanted to destroy a ship that had a captain that they had a grudge against....

 

 

KOSNETT!!!!