Federation Commander

[Nerroth]

Hi.


Those of you with a copy of SFB Module C2 may be familiar with (D10.6); an Andromedan combat example based on scenario (SH46.0) Three Against Cortez. It looks at things mostly from the perspective of the Cobra-carrying Conquistador Cortez, as it tries to deal with a trio of pursuing Klingon warships.

I was thinking that a re-telling of the events portrayed in that example, but using the FC Andro rules instead of those in SFB, might help demonstrate how things like PA Panel operations operate; since the scenario in question is available in War and Peace as (8WP3), it should allow for as even a comparison as we can get. That said, given how differently certain rules are written, events might not work out in quite the same way.

(As it happens, the individual who converted that scenario failed to replace the hex-based setup in the original with the out-from-the-centre method used in FC; I'm sure that person is suitably apologetic about the mishap. Ahem.)


If there are any comments, corrections, advice, or anything else you might wish to add, please let me know.


EDIT: As changes are made to the piece, I plan to note the date of the most recent revision and which version it is currently at; as noted below.

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CORTEZ AGAINST THREE (Revision 2, 13 Jan 2011)
An Andromedan Combat Example

This example is based on scenario (8WP3) Three Against Cortez, and is inspired by the combat example offered in Star Fleet Battles under (D10.6) (which itself is based on the SFB version of the same scenario). It should cover most of the unique rules used by the Andromedans, but focuses on PA panel operations in particular. It is based on the Squadron Scale version of each ship involved.

The Andromedan Conquistador Cortez has six PA panel boxes to forward, and four to aft. At the beginning of the scenario, none are holding any points of power, and both are fully activated; this means that sixty spaces are available in the forward bank, with forty available in the aft bank. It also has six battery boxes, giving a total capacity of thirty spaces; none are currently holding any points of power. It carries a Cobra in its hangar bay; it has four PA panel boxes to forward and three to aft, and four battery boxes. This proves a forward PA panel bank with forty spaces, an aft bank with thirty spaces, and a battery bank with twenty spaces. None of these spaces are holding any points of power.

On a certain impulse during the first turn, the D7 Chieftain fires on the Cortez, scoring a volley of fifteen Damage Points against its forward PA panel bank. The first nine Damage Points fill nine boxes in the forward bank; the tenth is scored as a "burn through" internal (disabling a lab box), while the remaining five fill five more bank boxes. This leaves a total of fourteen points of power in the forward bank.

At the end of the first turn, the Cortez transfers one point of power into its batteries, and dissipates six more points of power into space. This leaves seven points of power in the forward panel bank. It also uses two Repair Points (out of four the ship generates each turn) to repair the disabled lab box.

(At this point, the Cortez could have chosen to transfer as many as six points of power to its batteries, rather than just the one. It could also have transferred as many as six points of power from the forward panel bank to the aft panel bank. It is unclear as to why the Cortez did not do so; Andromedan thought processes can be difficult to reconstruct. The players are welcome to test the alternatives available and see what changes, and consequences, such alternatives make.)

On the second impulse of the second turn, the Chieftain scores a volley of thirty-eight Damage Points on the same panel bank of the Cortez. As this volley includes disruptor fire, the tenth, twentieth and thirtieth Damage Points "burn through" the panels, disabling a transporter box, a lab box and a forward hull (scored as a center hull) box. The remaining thirty-five Damage Points are absorbed by the front panel bank; including the seven points of power remaining from the first turn's volley, it now has forty-two of its sixty boxes filled.

The next impulse, a drone scores a hit on the rear panel bank, scoring twelve Damage Points. The tenth Damage Point "burns through", disabling a right warp box; the other eleven Damage Points are absorbed by the aft panel bank. It now has twenty-nine boxes remaining unfilled, out of forty total. The Cortez fires on the D5 Reaper, severely damaging it, before displacing away on the same impulse.

At the end of the second turn, the Cortez uses three of its four Repair Points to repair the disabled right warp box, and the fourth Repair Point to begin repair of its disabled lab box. (It will need to use one of its four Repair Points generated at the end of the next turn to complete this repair before it can move on to other disabled boxes.) It dissipates six points of power into space from its forward panel bank and four from its aft panel bank; it then transfers four points of power from the forward bank and one from the aft bank to its batteries (which now hold six points of power, out of a capacity of thirty). The forward panel bank is now down to thirty-two boxes filled; the aft bank six.

During the third turn, the Cortez moves away from the Klingon ships; it foregoes the arming of its tractor-repulsor beams in order to provide more Energy Points for movement purposes. The Chieftain fires a range 15 volley, scoring ten Damage Points; the tenth "burns through" to disable a right warp engine, while the other nine are added to the aft panel bank to leave a total of fifteen aft panel boxes filled. The damaged Reaper also fires, but scores only a single Damage Point; this brings the total to sixteen filled. The F5 War Demon lands a volley of three Damage Points, which also go into the aft panels; this brings the total up to nineteen filled.

At the end of the third turn, the Cortez dissipates six points of power from its forward panel bank and four from its aft bank; then transfers three points of power from its forward bank and two from its aft bank to its batteries. This leaves twenty-three points of power in its forward bank, and thirteen in its aft bank, as well as eleven points of power in its batteries. It uses one of its four Repair Points to complete the repair of the disabled lab box, and uses the other three to repair the disabled right warp box.

On the start of the fourth turn, the Cortez begins to arm its heavy tractor-repulsor beams and displacement devices, but doesn't plan to engage until the fifth turn, when these systems will be fully armed. The Cortez slows enough to allow the Klingons to close the distance. The Chieftain fires a volley at range eleven, scoring seventeen Damage Points on the aft panel bank; the tenth Damage Point "burns through" to disable a phaser box, while the remaining sixteen add to the power already stored in the aft bank, leaving a total of twenty-nine filled. On a later impulse, the Reaper reaches overload range and fires; though due to bad dice rolling only manages to land a volley of six Damage Points on the aft bank. All six go to the panels, leaving a total of thirty-five filled. The War Demon fires a volley in the same impulse, scoring three Damage Points on the same bank; this brings the total to thirty-eight.

At the end of the fourth turn, the aft panels on the Cortez are in a precarious position. It dissipates six points of power from its forward panels and four from its aft; it then transfers two points of power from each of the banks to batteries. This leaves fifteen points of power in the forward bank, thirty-two in the aft bank, and fifteen in the batteries. It uses all four Repair Points to repair the disabled phaser box.

In the fifth turn, the Cortez completes its arming sequence, then turns towards the Klingons. The Klingons, in turn, slow to prepare for overloading and shield reinforcement. The Cortez announces an incoming displacement; while it will not be resolved until after all direct-fire in that impulse are dealt with, it obliges the Klingons to fire in the same impulse in order to avoid risking a less favorable set of range brackets. The Cortez unloads on the Chieftain at range six, scoring a volley of twenty-nine Damage Points on the #2 shield. The Chieftain reinforces the shield using three Energy Points sent via its batteries, but still loses the shield and takes four internals. Chieftain, in turn, scores a volley of twenty-six Damage Points on the forward bank; as this volley includes disruptor fire, the tenth and twentieth Damage Point "burn through" disables one right warp and one impulse box, while the remaining twenty-four go to the front bank to increase the total held to thirty-nine points of power. The Reaper scores a volley of twenty-one Damage Points on the forward bank; as this also includes disruptor fire, the tenth and twentieth "burn through" to disable a phaser and a TR box, while the remaining nineteen go to the front panel, leaving a total of fifty-eight points of power. The War Demon, lining up a classic Klingon oblique shot, scores a volley of eleven Damage Points on the forward bank; two of these fill the forward panel to capacity, while the remaining nine are scored as internal damage; disabling a right warp, impulse, left warp, forward hull (scored as center hull), lab, transporter, battery, rear hull (scored as center hull) and reactor box. The Cortez resolves the battery hit on one of the batteries not currently carrying any points of power; this reduces its total capacity to twenty-five. The Cortez displaces over and behind the Klingons; this obliges them to either use High Energy Turns to maintain close pursuit, or risk increasing the range by using standard battle turns.

(The Cortez could have chosen to attempt an offensive displacement, in a bid to move one of the Klingon ships out of formation. In this case, the Andromedans decided it wiser to displace their own mothership instead. Given that a successful self-displacement offers more control over the procedure, has better odds of success, and affects the ability of all three Klingon ships to concentrate fire upon it, the Andromedans in this case chose wisely.)

In the next impulse, the Cortez uses its remaining transporter to deploy its Cobra between it and the Klingon ships. The Klingons, for their part, decline to use High Energy Turns, and start turning back towards the Andromedans normally. The Cobra fires on the War Demon at range three, catching the weak #5 shield. Scoring thirty-four Damage Points, this crushes the sixteen-point facing shield (and its two-point reinforcement) to land sixteen internals; enough to cause serious damage to the frigate.

At the end of the fifth turn, the Cortez begins the task of doing something about the unfavorable situation in both its panel banks. It uses three Repair Points to repair the disabled battery box, then uses the fourth to commence repairs of its disabled TR box. It then dissipates six points of energy from its forward bank and four from its aft bank; then transfers four points from its forward panels and two from its aft panels to its batteries. This leaves fifty points of power in the forward bank and twenty-six in its aft bank, plus twenty-one in the batteries. (Had the disabled battery box not been repaired, there would still have been enough space in the five remaining batteries to get by... for now.) The Cobra has no power in its panels.

(In this example, the Cortez has been fortunate; had one or more of its PA panel boxes been disabled, the ship may have risked an involuntary release of energy. In such an event, the presence of the Cobra in its hangar bay, which it had yet to launch, may have become relevant; the fourth step of resolution under (3G5c) allows for the involuntary transfer of power to the PA panel banks of a satellite ship still in the mothership's hangar. Under normal circumstances, the Cortez could not voluntarily transfer power to a satellite ship in its hangar bay, but could have chosen to move power to the PA panels of an energy module, had it been carrying one instead.)

On the sixth turn, the Cortez again foregoes its heavy weapon arming, choosing to use as much of its power as it can for movement purposes (and to try and make time for weapon repairs). The Cobra moves towards the Chieftain, but only has its phasers available since its own light tractor-repulsor beams will need another turn to fully arm. The Klingons, for their part, would be willing to let the War Demon take its chances with the Cobra and send the other two ships after the Cortez, but are less likely to catch it; so, they choose instead to concentrate on dealing with the Cobra. The Cobra fires its phasers at range one, scoring sixteen Damage Points on the Chieftain's #1 shield. the tenth Damage Point "burns through", while the remaining fifteen reduce the facing shield strength by half. In turn, the Chieftain scores a total of sixty-three Damage Points in the one volley, easily filling the forty-point forward panel bank and scoring twenty-three internals. The internals gut the Cobra; only the decision to land the three generated drone hits on the aft panels prevents a cascade reaction strong enough to rip the satellite ship apart. The respite is only temporary, however; the vengeful War Demon unloads a volley through the now-completely-disabled aft bank; the volley of only three Damage Points is still enough to trigger another drone hit, cause a cascade from a filled front panel box, and vaporize the Cobra.

At the end of the sixth turn, the Cortez, now without its satellite ship, uses three of its four Repair Points to finish repairing the TR box, then uses the fourth Repair Point to begin repairs to a disabled phaser box. It dissipates six points of power from its forward bank and four from its aft bank; it then transfers three points of power from the forward bank and two from the aft bank to its batteries. It now has forty-one points in its forward bank, twenty in its aft bank, and twenty-six in its batteries.

The Cortez uses the seventh turn to begin re-arming its heavy weapons, and tries to maintain the range in turns eight and nine in order to try and clear its panels (and use up its batteries). For their part, the Klingons use these turns to effect repairs, restore their shield boxes, and take a moment to write home.

Historically, the Cortez disengaged after the Cobra was destroyed, leaving two of the Klingon ships badly crippled. Players are welcome to try (8WP3) and see what result they might come up with.
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FC Omega Discussion (v3)
FC LMC Discussion

[storeylf]

I know it was only an example, but it is in the tactics section. Is there any reason the andro wasn't clearing out panels faster by dumping into batteries faster. It could dump 6 from the front and 4 from the back each turn into battery, but often only did a couple from each a turn - I don't understand why it transfered so little to batteries?

[Nerroth]

I was trying to echo the actions of the Cortez in the SFB example.
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FC Omega Discussion (v3)
FC LMC Discussion

[Shinanygnz]

Nice work. To address the less than optimal decisions by the Andromedan captain, you could simply add a comment to that effect, e.g. "some of the decisions made by both sides might be regarded as erroneous and we encourage you to see if you can do better than the historical commanders."

Stephen

[mjwest]

Another way to address the sub-optimal decisions is to throw in some parenthetical comments that say something like, "one point of power was moved to the batteries (though six could have)". That way you show what the Andromedan player did, but make sure it is obvious what the maximal choice could have been.

You can also add in a few other similar comments on choices not taken. For example, in the first battle pass, the Andromedan could have moved power from the front bank to the rear bank, but chose not to. Instead of not saying anything, point out the option and state it wasn't taken.

Again, the point is not to make the Andromedan make all the right choices. The point is to teach with the example, and to teach you need to hit on the main options available, even those that were done sub-optimally or not taken.

Just a thought ...
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Federation Commander Answer Guy

[Nerroth]

I've made a v2 revision, adding a couple of notes concerning some of the options that could have been made.

Does that help a little?
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FC Omega Discussion (v3)
FC LMC Discussion