Alpha Star Trek Sim discussion

[BigJKU316]

Wow... I hope we dont do battle with over 100 ships involved... that could get nasty.

Well they are all combined into task groups. So the difference is just going to be the strength of each unit, not the number of them really. I suppose you could in theory have as many sub-units as there are squares across the map. But that would spread you pretty thin.

[Lt. Staplic]

depends on how big your fleet is compared to you opponent.

One question....what if you have two fleets that combine? See my recent battle orders assuming invasion to see what I mean.

[BigJKU316]

depends on how big your fleet is compared to you opponent.

One question....what if you have two fleets that combine? See my recent battle orders assuming invasion to see what I mean.

It would be driven by location. IF they are in the exact same spot at the same time then they would just fight together.

[Lt. Staplic]

thats what I mean...say I get for example 6th Fleet falling back to a more dependable location, while 3rd Fleet warps out for reinforcements, if they combine first then I just treat both fleets as one unit....what if 3rd fleet shows up halfway thorugh?

[BigJKU316]

It is either there at the start or not there for that battle. You could retreat and link up if you wanted.

FWIW I would consider any ship within say an hour of travel time there given the imprecision of that aspect.

[BigJKU316]

I think I am going to switch to a hex-grid as it will be simpler to handle facing on that.

[BigJKU316]

Here are the style of maps I settled on.



This shows two fleet with 4 divisions in starting positions. Each hex is 50,000 KM.



This shows those same fleets manuvering. Changing your facing takes one move and is represented by the dot in the hex.



This shows fleets in close combat, with one red unit routing, two groups locked in a close melee and a red space station in the background.


Unless there are objections or suggestions I will formalize the rules based on this system later today.

[stitch626]

I really like the hexes, makes it better.

I also really appreciate the work your going to for this. Thank you very much.

[Tsukiyumi]

Hexes work for me. I'm an old Panzer General and Star General vet.

[Deepcrush]

I got used to them in Battletech and Midway.

[BigJKU316]

This does lead to one additional question I leave fully up to the players.

Do you want to see every battle result and if so in what level of detail?

IRL for example one might never know of a clash between say the Tholians and Gorn if they never went public about it, much in the same way that exact details about the Soviet/PRC border conflicts in the 60's were not really well known. Even if it is an open society such as the Federation you would not get a blow by blow type look at it, just a general overview and the media's impression of a winner.

Approaching it in that way and making you use intel to find out about exact results is more realistic and can be done pretty simply.

Then again, it may not be as fun. If you all want to see details of every battle we can do that as well and basically do them open book for the group to see each time. Or we can do some level in between where you get to watch the battles and see a winner but not know the exact losses.

Just need direction from you guys so everyone can get the most out of things. Even if we do the most realistic version of it you will still see things eventually. I keep a turn diary where I would put this stuff and put out when it is no longer important to game decisions.

[Lt. Staplic]

I vote that if your one of the parties involved then you get full disclosure, if your nearby then you'll get a general impression of the battle without specifics, and if not then you have to rely on media. Using your example, the Gorn and Tholians go to war, well then both those powers would have full disclosure on battle statistics, the Klingons and the Federation would be able to get most information like general fleet sizes, and the victor, maybe not exact losses. Everyone else would have to wait for an FNN article.

[BigJKU316]

I want to give this system a test run before doing it in the context of the larger game. Anyone interested in trying it out first? This one is fully public so everyone can watch and we can tweak things. I will just make up two fleets to go at it.

[Lt. Staplic]

I'm in

[stitch626]

Just curious, how do we want to handle this?

An actual battle that influences politics. Or perhaps a friendly wargame between powers...