A New Beginning - Early Federation Campaign
Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2015 6:11 pm
As a distraction from writing rules and trying to get new books done, I'm starting a small solo exploration campaign using the ships from the old Starfleet Museum site. I'm doing a very loose conversion, just using the basic class concepts and order of introduction to build my initial force list.
I'll be playing as the Federation in this game, and as I explore I'll see if I run into any other aliens (oh, but of course I will!) and then convert them over, too.
My starting Tech Year is this game is 2157, which is the baseline year on my conversion list and gives me 10 unit classes up to and including the Tannhauser cruiser. One of the conceits of the Starfleet Museum ships is that the early Federation vessels were hobbled by old engines and power systems. As such, most of my ships start out with the Slow trait.
I'm going to start with a single Homeworld system and expand outwards from there, so let's roll up those stats.
The base Homeworld has 10 Capacity, 3 Raw, 9 Census, 8 Morale, and 6 Productivity. I then roll 3 times on the Special Traits Table to see what I get. My rolls give me +2 Raw, +1 Census, +1 Morale. This gives Sol final stats of:
Sol: 10 Capacity, 5 Raw, 10 Census, 9 Morale, and 6 Productivity.
I then roll for jump lanes. I roll poorly, and Sol only has 2 jump lanes connecting to it. Well, at least that might make the system easier to defend!
My economic output in Sol is 6 Utilized Productivity x 5 Raw = 30 economic points. That gives me 150 economic points to spend on starting forces. I know I'm going to spend 20 points on an Orbital Shipyard, and another 10 points on a Trade Fleet for Sol (for the income bonus). That leaves 120 points to spend on military units.
I know I need ground forces in Sol to keep it from having Morale problems. I'm going to purchase 6 Infantry (18 EP) to patrol the system and keep the population in line. That leaves me with 102 points for ships. I don't think I'm going to build any bases right now, but I added one to my force list during setup just in case I needed one later on. And technically I have the units off of the Universal List, too.
I need two scout forces to explore from Sol. Right now my only Scout is the Baikal, and it is a Scout (1). I need 2 Baikal to get a +1 to my exploration roll, or 4 Baikal to get a +2 to my exploration roll. I'm going to go ahead and assemble my scout forces like this:
Scout Force One
4 Baikal CL
Scout Force Two
4 Baikal CL
This costs me 40 points, leaving me with 62 to spend on actual warships.
The core of my fleet is going to be the Tannhauser CLs, because they have a good mix of Defense and Command to anchor squadrons. I'm filling that out with Krechet DD and Archer GB, which are unfortunately my best fighting ships. I'm also picking up a pair of Bison supply ships that can travel with my fleet and keep it in supply.
Task Force 1.1
2 Tannhauser CL
1 Krechet DD
2 Archer GB
Task Force 1.2
1 Tannhauser CL
2 Krechet DD
2 Archer GB
Task Force 1.3
1 Tannhauser CL
2 Krechet DD
2 Archer GB
Task Force 1.4
2 Bison CL
Task Force 2.1
1 Krechet DD
6 Archer GB
This gives me a total of 4 Tannhausers, 6 Krechet, 2 Bison, 8 Baikal, 12 Archer, 6 Infantry, and 1 Orbital Shipyard. The cost to maintain these are 2 + 2 + 3 + 6 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 17 EPT. That leaves me making 13 EPT from Sol, plus an additional 3 EPT from the Trade Fleet in Sol, for a total of 16 EPT. That's enough economic points to purchase a Colony Fleet every other turn, or I could save up and start upgrading Productivity in Sol to maximize my income.
Looking at the ships I'll have available going forward in this game, it's going to be awhile before I get anything all that remarkable. I'll end up getting a fighter and carrier fairly soon, but it's going to be awhile before I get any truly good ships. And the time period I picked means that I'll never see any of the iconic TOS ships unless I make them available early and the game lasts much longer than I foresee happening. Optimistically, I would only ever expect about 10 years of tech advancement to happen, or about one a year. If the campaign were to somehow last 20 years, then we'd start getting into some newer, more interesting tech.
Anyway, that's my starting position! I'll be playing a bit later today and will report back with what happens.
I'll be playing as the Federation in this game, and as I explore I'll see if I run into any other aliens (oh, but of course I will!) and then convert them over, too.
My starting Tech Year is this game is 2157, which is the baseline year on my conversion list and gives me 10 unit classes up to and including the Tannhauser cruiser. One of the conceits of the Starfleet Museum ships is that the early Federation vessels were hobbled by old engines and power systems. As such, most of my ships start out with the Slow trait.
I'm going to start with a single Homeworld system and expand outwards from there, so let's roll up those stats.
The base Homeworld has 10 Capacity, 3 Raw, 9 Census, 8 Morale, and 6 Productivity. I then roll 3 times on the Special Traits Table to see what I get. My rolls give me +2 Raw, +1 Census, +1 Morale. This gives Sol final stats of:
Sol: 10 Capacity, 5 Raw, 10 Census, 9 Morale, and 6 Productivity.
I then roll for jump lanes. I roll poorly, and Sol only has 2 jump lanes connecting to it. Well, at least that might make the system easier to defend!
My economic output in Sol is 6 Utilized Productivity x 5 Raw = 30 economic points. That gives me 150 economic points to spend on starting forces. I know I'm going to spend 20 points on an Orbital Shipyard, and another 10 points on a Trade Fleet for Sol (for the income bonus). That leaves 120 points to spend on military units.
I know I need ground forces in Sol to keep it from having Morale problems. I'm going to purchase 6 Infantry (18 EP) to patrol the system and keep the population in line. That leaves me with 102 points for ships. I don't think I'm going to build any bases right now, but I added one to my force list during setup just in case I needed one later on. And technically I have the units off of the Universal List, too.
I need two scout forces to explore from Sol. Right now my only Scout is the Baikal, and it is a Scout (1). I need 2 Baikal to get a +1 to my exploration roll, or 4 Baikal to get a +2 to my exploration roll. I'm going to go ahead and assemble my scout forces like this:
Scout Force One
4 Baikal CL
Scout Force Two
4 Baikal CL
This costs me 40 points, leaving me with 62 to spend on actual warships.
The core of my fleet is going to be the Tannhauser CLs, because they have a good mix of Defense and Command to anchor squadrons. I'm filling that out with Krechet DD and Archer GB, which are unfortunately my best fighting ships. I'm also picking up a pair of Bison supply ships that can travel with my fleet and keep it in supply.
Task Force 1.1
2 Tannhauser CL
1 Krechet DD
2 Archer GB
Task Force 1.2
1 Tannhauser CL
2 Krechet DD
2 Archer GB
Task Force 1.3
1 Tannhauser CL
2 Krechet DD
2 Archer GB
Task Force 1.4
2 Bison CL
Task Force 2.1
1 Krechet DD
6 Archer GB
This gives me a total of 4 Tannhausers, 6 Krechet, 2 Bison, 8 Baikal, 12 Archer, 6 Infantry, and 1 Orbital Shipyard. The cost to maintain these are 2 + 2 + 3 + 6 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 17 EPT. That leaves me making 13 EPT from Sol, plus an additional 3 EPT from the Trade Fleet in Sol, for a total of 16 EPT. That's enough economic points to purchase a Colony Fleet every other turn, or I could save up and start upgrading Productivity in Sol to maximize my income.
Looking at the ships I'll have available going forward in this game, it's going to be awhile before I get anything all that remarkable. I'll end up getting a fighter and carrier fairly soon, but it's going to be awhile before I get any truly good ships. And the time period I picked means that I'll never see any of the iconic TOS ships unless I make them available early and the game lasts much longer than I foresee happening. Optimistically, I would only ever expect about 10 years of tech advancement to happen, or about one a year. If the campaign were to somehow last 20 years, then we'd start getting into some newer, more interesting tech.
Anyway, that's my starting position! I'll be playing a bit later today and will report back with what happens.