Alpha Star Trek Sim discussion

[Tsukiyumi]

I'm thinking a "carrier" may be called for. Fighters could effectively engage and destroy these ships and still provide less materials for them to reclamate.

Good point.

[stitch626]

I wonder, would my plasma torps be any good against the bigger ship?

[Tsukiyumi]

You mean the "Balance of Terror" super-powerful ones, or the ones the Cardassians used in DS9?

[stitch626]

BoT ones. They are what was used to blow Deep's station to pieces.

I figure since the speed of the big ships is so slow, with BIG's permission, I may be able to use them on the bigger ships, to great effect.

[Tsukiyumi]

Actually, that makes a lot of sense. The big ships are extremely unmaneuverable.

[Mark]

Maybe several of us should combine resources and really build the "battlestar" we're working on. This would be MADE TO ORDER ops for it and it's Vipers.

[Lt. Staplic]

to be honest I'm finding my self on the opposite end of the spectrum from everyone here....I don't think we should go at them.....if they know more tech is this way they'll just come faster. On the flip side the Borg will take them out. (the borg are down but not out...with enough time they'll reclaim their territory and squish the Hur'q.)

I also think that a more effective defense against this ship is torpedoes rather than fighters....especially the larger ships.

I have PTL's QTL's and Transphasics at a fairly high ROF.

My thinking is this:

I'll have a small force (2-3 Defiants) warp toward the Hur'q with their cloaks on, observe what their doing, where their at, then report back. If they start moving aggressively toward us, then we may attack, but until they pose a greater threat (3-6months travel isn't big enough for me) I say we let them go to work on the Borg, it'll give us more time to do what we need to do to fight the Borg and make them even weaker when they do finally destroy them.

[Tsukiyumi]

I'm with that. If they ignore us, and smash the Borg, that's great.

Problem is, these are Von Neumann probes. If they beat the Borg by that much, they'll have millions of ships... We'd better have something better than torpedoes to meet them.

[Lt. Staplic]

I'll make LOTS of torpedoes

[stitch626]

Not being selfish, but would it not be more prudent to have the Romulans do the spying? That is their specialty, after all.

And I see standing by as a very bad idea.

If the Hur'q win against the Borg, they have billions of resorces at hand. In the process, they may also find out about us, and place us on their list.
However, if the Borg defeat the Hur'q and gain usage of their tech... well, we are royally ****ed then.


Hmm, we should have a mulipower conference about this.

[BigJKU316]

Here are the proposed Combat rules. I would like to give them a test run (using some sim fleets) to see how they are balanced. Please read and make suggestions. I have put this all into a single spreadsheet that I think will let me run this much faster than before. Hopefully this makes battles more realistic for everyone.

Will take the first two players who want to make the spreedsheet entries on their empire sheets after this weekends turn that want to participate in a mock battle.


Tactical Combat Rules

If both players consent this is how combat will be resolved.

There are three types of engagement, depending on how contact was made.

Meeting Engagement- Both forces meet, knowing the other force is coming and combat ensures. Everyone deploys along their back 1/3rd of the map.

Assault- The Defending force can deploy along 1/2 of the map. The attacking force must in its 1/3rd of the map.

Ambush- One force is caught by surprise by a force it did not expect. You do not get to move on turn 1 if you are ambushed and can only return fire. If you are the ambushing force you can deploy along 2/3rds of the map.

Essentially you can sub-divide your fleet or task force (whatever is engaged) however you choose. This is the part that is up to the players. For you to subdivide you are going to have to give me a breakdown of unit types in each group and figure the combat power (and break it into an overall/torpedo category) for each group you are using in a tactical situation.

YOU MAY HAVE NO MORE THAN 16 SUBGROUPS. NO EXCEPTIONS.

EACH SUBGROUP MUST CONTAIN NO MORE THAN 8 SHIPTYPES. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Each hex is 50,000 KM.

Turn Structure

Turns will now be broken down into two phases.

Movement Phase

Move-You can go move to any adjacent, unoccupied hex. You are allotted 3, 5 or 7 moves per sub-group per turn depending on the manoeuvrability rating of each group. Highly rated groups move more. Low rated groups move less. Changing facing cost one movement point for each hex faced turned. (IE I want to go from facing due North to due South, this is 3 faces to turn so it takes 3 movement points)

Retreat- If you wish to retreat certain units from the map you may do so by moving them to the edge of the map side from which you started and waiting one full turn to jump to warp. If your enemy is faster than you at warp you must keep them from reaching your backline of the map for two full turns or your forces will be placed back on the map, facing the wrong way as they will be run down by the opposing force. This basically means you have to dedicate a force to holding the enemy off.

When a group retreats all of its associated damaged units are considered destroyed.

There is no provision for going to warp within a battlefield. Movement is completed and then attack orders will be given. Cloaks cannot be used once the tactical phase is entered. They can only be used to ambush an enemy fleet beforehand.

Tactical Phase

Attack- Pick an enemy target and open fire. This automatically orients the attacking group in that direction and takes 3 moves. Torpedoes are given a range of 1 Million KM, though their accuracy increases greatly as you close distance. Beam weapons are useful from 300,000 on in and your combat rating will be figured by adding your Torpedo and Beam ratings together.

Attacks are stackable which means that if three of your groups attack one enemy group it is all resolved as one combat action with the combined rating of your forces against their one.

When figuring damage each attack ordered is considered a separate event. Your forces now take no damage when attacking, except in Melee combat where both units target one another until someone breaks.

To determine the result of an attack your attack rating is totalled against the opponent's defensive rating for the targeted group. A random number, 1-100 is generated and based on the offensive vs defensive ratings three break points are calculated. If two forces had equal strengths in these two areas an attacker will win if the roll is less than 50 and achieve major victory if the roll is less than 10. The defender will achieve victory if the roll is more than 50 and a major victory if the roll is more than 90.

A defender achieving victory does not mean that no damage is taken.

To determine damage a damage roll is then done on the same 1-100 scale, with 100 being the highest. This is modified by ranges (different tables for both Torpedo and Beam range combat) and the result. For example a 50 damage roll during a beam battle at 200,000 km would destroy 3% and damage 5% if the target achieved a regular victory. The same 50-damage roll would destroy 15% and damage 30% if the target had suffered major defeat. In a torpedo battle at 500,000 km a major defeat would only lead to 8% and 15% being destroyed. If you were in a melee battle at close range a defeat would destroy 40% of your ships and damage 80% of them due to the tight quarters you were fighting in.

In short, the situation determines a great deal about the amount of damage you are able to do. Even high damage rolls during long range torpedo exchanges won't do decisive damage.

Each turn you get a report of damage. There are combat bonuses and penalties for the following.

Flank attack- If you are able to attack from the flank (defined as not directly to the rear of the enemy but behind the direction they are facing and the two adjacent hex faces to that) you get a 25% bonus to your combat power.

Rear attack- If you are able to attack from the rear quarter (directly behind enemy orientation) you get a 50% bonus to your combat power.

Combined attack- If you gain the bonus of a flank or rear attack it applies to the whole group that is involved in the attack.

Flagship attack- You can order your group to target the flagship of the enemy. Your combat power is reduced by 50% for this specialized targeting but your chances of taking out the flagship triple (normal chances are figured by taking the number of ships destroyed and dividing it by the total in the group so if the group has 50 ships and 10 are destroyed it has a 1 in 5 chance of being destroyed). If you take out the flagship your enemy loses the ability to issue commands for 1 turn while command is switched to another ship.

Melee- If two units occupy adjacent space a commander may order their forces to enter a Melee in which all ships press to point blank range. At this point it becomes impossible to disengage except for retreat or rout of one of the two units involved. Any unit attempting to attack the two units in the melee must also enter that state. This takes 4 moves.

Retreat- If you order a unit to retreat from Melee it will move at maximum speed to your side of the battle map. Once there it must wait one whole turn before jumping to warp. During that time it has an effective combat rating of 10% its total and will take heavy losses. You can do this to get out of a melee not going your way.

Rout- If a unit loses 50-75% of its units there is a chance it will rout with every ship making a mad break for its own safety. Klingon, Breen and Dominion ships will not rout under any circumstance (though this is not always a positive as routing preserves ships for later use that otherwise would be destroyed) Other powers have different chances of doing so based on their cultural standing.


Other Issues

When you issue your next round of movement orders you have one major decision to make. Will you send your damaged ships to the rear or will you have them soldier on and fight with you. Damaged ships fight at 50% of the combat power of undamaged ones. In any combat rounds that follow if you were to have more ships damaged those ships will be destroyed. So if you have 8 damaged ships with you and the result states 10 more were damaged then those 8 will be destroyed and you will have 2 damaged ships.

This will vastly increase your losses. You can mitigate that by sending the ships to the rear. If you win the battle or are able to successful retreat from the battle the sub-group to which those ships belonged you can repair them and use them again later. But you lose the firepower those damaged ships could have contributed.


Special Units

Starbases- Starbases are represented by a cluster of icons. They have no facing and may direct all their combat power in any direction at any time. Thus they may not be flanked. However the combat power of all units firing upon a starbase in a given turn are totalled together. Depending on the type of starbase its combat power will be reduced each time it is engaged and loses, until it is destroyed.

[Lt. Staplic]

Alright, that wasn't so bad....I've almost finished all my ships battle stats, just need some help finishing a couple I designed.

[BigJKU316]

Got Feds, Ferengi, Klingons are Cardassians turned in at this point.

If we can get the rest this evening or in the AM we can turn it around pretty quick.

[stitch626]

I think I should have mine in tonight.

[Tsukiyumi]

Done deal.