OK, so this is the solo replay using a different set of equipment than chosen in my previous account. The Viking player rolled a 6, giving them 66 points. That is sufficient to buy a cruiser with ECM and missile pack, a fighter, a powertrooper and a raider unit, and keep two points in the treasury. Unit types as reference (units with * have more than 1 step): Ships: CR Viking Cruiser* SL Viking Sloop* FF Fed Frigate* FE Fed Escort* Spacecraft: FT Fighter PB Patrol Boat AM Armed Merchant Ground GA Grav Armor* PT Power Trooper* SF Fed Special Forces RD Viking Raider unit FD Fortress Defense* AG Army Group* TC Tank Corps AW Air Wing MI Militia HO Horde Turn 1. The Vikings decide to go for one of the Class C worlds, Raneb (tax income 8). Unsurprisingly, there are no defenders in orbit, but a fairly massive local (green unit) garrison on the ground: a fortress (FD), two air wings (AW), one tank corps (TC), two army groups (AG), 1 militia unit (MI). However, they are no match for the Viking forces. The Vikings unload only the fighter and fight the locals from the air. The fighter is lost quickly, but the cruiser is unhurt, while it dispatches of the ground units within a few rounds. Raneb falls to the Vikings. In the political phase, the Federation rolls a 10 (Civil War), but declines to convert units into VPs. Of its tax income of 122, it can rebuild much of the local units lost on Raneb on other worlds. Of the federal portion of 61 megacredits, it builds a new escort unit (FE) for 25, and 6 victory points for 24. The Vikings build the fortress, three fighters, and 2 tank corps to defend Raneb, and buy 5 VPs. Viking VP 5, TR 4. Fed VP 6, TR 12. Turn 2. The Viking cruiser, being unharmed, continues to attack Tiergran, a class B world (tax income 12). Here they meet a much stronger defense. In orbit, the federation has an FE (escort) unit (with a Special Forces unit on board), two fighters (FT), and a patrol boat (PB). In the first round of combat, the cruiser destroys the fighter, but takes a hit in its ECM unit from the FE unit. The second round sees another hit scored by the FE, but in the third round the missile pack scores a critical hit on the FE unit and destroys it pluse the Special Forces (SF) unit it is carrying as cargo, while the cruiser's weakened main guns finally zero in on the PB and destroy it as well. The missile pack is now used up. Only the cruiser remains in orbit, but the ground defenses are stronger than on Raneb: 1FD, 2 Grav Armor (GA), 1 T, 2AG, 1 AW. They are all stacked on the sector capital for maximum firepower, and one feature of Tiergran is that the sector capital has a +2 Attack rating, i.e., all defenders fire at +2 against invading units. The cruiser declines to attack and instead plunders all the ungoarded areas in the system, yielding a total of 4 money. In the political phase, the dieroll yields "Federal Avarice". With most of Tiergran being plundered, the Fed tax income has dropped to 112. This leaves just enough for the Fed player to buy 7VP (for 28 megacredits) and a FE to replace the escort destroyed over Tiergran. The Vikings build an ECM and missile pod to reequip the cruiser when it comes back to the base, and buy 5 VPs. Viking VP 10, TR 14. Fed VP 13, TR 13. Turn 3. The viking cruiser returns home to repair the damage. The Federation does not try to recapture Tiergran (they cannot rule out the possibility that the Vikings spend the double price, 8 points, to repair the cruiser on the spot) so there is no combat. The Fed gets 108 tax, building only an ECM pod and 7 VP, as all local (green) units are used up, so they can only spend half of the money. The Vikings repair not only the cruiser, they also build a sloop (rated 645) with an ECM pod. This will enable them to either threaten more worlds or put together an even more formidable raiding force. Viking VP 17, TR 0. Fed VP 20, TR 36. Turn 4. The cruiser loads the fighter unit built in turn 2 and proceeds back to Tiergran with the sloop. Here they run again into 2 FEs, and the rebuilt patrol boat and a fighter. Again, the Viking fighter is knocked out immediately, but in exchange the Federation PB is lost, a hit is scored on each FE. In the next round, the cruiser scores a critical hit on one of the FE's, destroying it, while the sloop loses its ECM pod to the second FE and is hit by the Federation fighter. In the third round, the cruiser dispatches the second FE with another critical hit, but the sloop is hit twice twice more by that FE and the fighter. In the fourth and last round, the cruiser destroys the fighter, but uses up its missile pack in the process. Leaving the crippled sloop behind, the cruiser proceeds to attack the ground units, but. in exchange for 2 hits on a grav armor unit, has to suffer one hit and loses its ECM pod, and withdraws. Again the bolstered defenses of the sector capital prove too tough. The Vikings plunder most of the planet, obtaining 12 money, but withdraw from Tiergran again. In the political phase, the Federation Civil War continues. Tax income on Tiergran is sufficient to repair the damaged GA unit. A new FE is built elsewhere to replace one of the destroyed ones, replace the FT, and buy 7 VP. The Vikings buy 10 VPs of their income of 18. (The plunder has to arrive at a Viking owned world or base before it counts.) Fed VP 27, TR 34 Vik VP 27, TR 8 Turn 5. Again, the cruiser returns to the Viking base, the sloop also limps home. The Federation's tax income has rebounded to 122 as there is no raiding, but of the "local" half of the budget only 6 is spent, since there are no local units left to buy. The second lost FE is replace, and the last few local units (militias) in the pool are built. This leaves enough money to buy 10 VP for the Federation. The Vikings repair their damaged ships, buy some new ECM and missile pods, and another fighter. They also can afford to buy 10 VP. (The Viking tax base is 18 since the conquest of Raneb and they gained the 12 megacredit income from last turn's plundering. One could argue that these turns when the Vikings are fairly likely to take time out are a good opportunity for the Federation to reoccupy Viking-taken planets, such as Raneb. On the other hand, by this time I had a fairly healthy respect for the ability of ground forces to hurt the weaker spaceships.) Fed VP 37 TR 26 Vik VP 37 TR 6 Turn 6. Almost halftime and the Federation is still very much in the race. However, what is becoming clear is that if the Viking really wants to get ahead he has to cut the Federation tax base. That means taking worlds, and because of the way that the raising of local units works, going for the same world again will meet less resistance. Of course the Feds know that, too. So both sides meet again over Tiergran. This time the Federation has only one FE, a FT (fighter) and a PB (patrol boat). That won't be enough, but perhaps they can take out the Viking sloop. However, in round 1 the FE takes a hit immediately from the cruiser's weapons. The Viking fighter is lost to the Fed fighter. In round 2, the Patrol Boat knocks out the sloop's ECM pod. In round 3, the cruiser scores a critical hit on the FE, blowing it up, and the PB is also knocked out. Over the planet, the ECM-less sloop is sent to engage in some preemptive plundering in case they fail again on the ground, before the cruiser goes in against the capital. The local commander decides that mathematically, his chances are better using his mobile units against the plunderer than wasting them against the cruiser. Apart from the capital's fortress, he has two grav armor (GA) units, one power trooper (PT) unit, and two army groups (AG). However, while they manage to score two hits on the sloop, the sloop first scores multiple hits on one GA, then quickly knocks out it and the other GA with critical hits, and then makes a clean sweep of the other units. An unlucky campaign for the defenders. The cruiser then goes after the fortress, and while it loses its ECM pod on the first round, by the second round it has scored 3 hits and reduced the fortress to 0 attack value, so that the outcome is no longer in doubt. On the third try, Tiergran falls. The Fed taxbase is now down to 108, and news of the fall of Tiergran sends the economy into a depression, so the income is halved. However, the reserves are large enough to again replace the lost FE unit, provide the new unit with an ECM pod, and buy 2VP. The Vikings can't use their plunder yet but spend most of their tax base on bolstering the defenses on Tiergran, building a local grav armor unit and a Viking power trooper unit, and two Viking fighters for space defense. They do spend to buy 10 VPs. Fed VP 39, TR 2 Vik VP 47, TR 1 Turn 7. The Federation decides that the loss of territory can no longer be accepted, and sends a Frigate (FF) and escort (FE) from Zoser, one of the Class A world, to Raneb. For the price of two hits, they eliminate the Tank Corps and fortress stationed there, and bring it back under Federation control. The damaged Viking sloop goes back to the Viking homebase for repairs, while the cruiser, carrying a power trooper (PT) unit, travels to a new world, the Class D system of Nebka (wealth 6). Predictably, the system is weakly defended, and against 2 hits on the PT, 4 Horde (HO) and 2 Militia (MI) units are destroyed. Again, there is a civil war in the Federation but the Fed player decides he is too weakened to accept the loss of further units. At least a number of local units has become available, and he rebuilds the fortress of Raneb and strengthens the defenses of Udimo and Demar. He also spends 40 megacredits on 10 victory points to catch up with the Viking. The Vikings build some low-tech units on Nebka, and grav armor, fighters, and power troopers for Tiergran, and 7 VP. Fed VP 49, Treasury 10 Vik VP 54, TR 0 [Side note: Around this stage, to sort of replicate the fog of war aspects of interstellar movement, I had started to each turn set a group of objectives for either side, assign them probabilities, and then roll a die to see where they'd actually go. So the encounters of the next few turns are not "fake", they result out of the probabilities inherent in both sides' plans.] Turn 8. The Federation sails in force (FF and FE) to retake Tiergran but finds that the Vikings have brought both the cruiser and sloop there to guard it. They decide that this is a bit much to take on at this point and withdraw. Distant Wars are occurring in the Federation. This is probably the worst event for the Fed player since it requires him to hand over one of his precious frigates to the central government. He builds an escort to at least partially replace it, buys 7VPs and some local units. Fed VP 56, TR 0 Vik VP 65, TR 15 Turn 9. Having been stymied at Tiergran, the Feds decide that the Vikings will probably try to retake Raneb next, a guess that turns out to be correct. The Feds send two FEs to support the ground units, and indeed both the Viking cruiser and the sloop turn up on schedule. The Federation ships concentrate on the sloop as the easier target and within a few rounds score two hits. However, by this time each of them has been hit twice, so they choose to jump out of the system and withdraw to Demar. The sloop will not participate in the attack on the planet as it would be too risky. This leaves the ground troops on the planet, 2 SF, 1 PT (still with one hit), 2 AG, and the sector fortress, as defense. They give a good account of themselves, scoring a hit on the cruiser in the first round, but the PT is out on round 2 and by round 5 only trhee units are firing back at the cruiser, all at the lowest column. The Fortress is taken out by a critical hit on round 8 (emptying the cruiser's missile pack) but manages a second hit on the cruiser. A third is scored on round 9 by the power trooper unit, but by round 10 none of the ground units are capable of firing any more and they are wiped out. Raneb falls back under Viking control. The political event is Bloated Bureaucracy which makes the purchase of Fed VPs harder. They still buy 8 VPs for 40 megacredits, repair their two damaged escorts, and build some more local defenses. The first unit chosen is the Fortress unit just destroyed at at Raneb. It is built at Horus, since taking it out of the pool means the Vikings cannot rebuild it at Raneb (bit of a strange effect). The Vikings now have a tax base of 38 megacredits, sufficient to let them build a second sloop. The Vikings add 10VP, the Federation 8. At this point the Federation player's main problem is already showing. He simply cannot buy VPs at a rate that competes with the Viking player; in fact by doing nothing the Viking player could add 10 points per turn through his homebase tax alone. To protect against this, the Fed player would have to try to spend much of his tax base on VPs early on, which would of course leave him vulnerable to losses of his federal units. Fed VP 64, TR 2 Vik VP 75, TR 0 Turn 10. The Federation side decides that Tiergran must be retaken if they want to have a chance to win the game, and sends all their remaining starships there. The opportunity is there since the Viking cruiser and sloop will likely be at the homebase for repairs. Two frigates (one with repulsors and missiles, one carrying a fighter and special forces) and no less four escorts (one equipped with an ECM pod) enter the system. The space defenses they encounter encompass three fighter units and just-arrived, newly built Viking sloop. Even these four units have no chance against the concentrated Federation firepower. Within a single round of combat they are all destroyed, while scoring hits on two of the Federation escorts. The Federation armada continues on towards the planet. The ground defenses are likewise not a pushover. 3 grav armor units, two power trooper battalions, and a Tank Corps are stationed on the planet, all in the sector capital with the +2 attack value for defending units. And on the first round of combat they score hits on two of the escorts, while the tank corps is destroyed, and one GA and the PT suffer a hit. At this point, the Fed player is in a quandary. He would like to withdraw the FEs off the planet but now it's the Viking movement phase - they will have to weather one more round of fire before they are safely out of range. And the Vikings make the most of it. One grav armor unit scores a critical hit on one of the damaged FEs, and the other two score two normal hits on the other one. Neither of the two FEs makes it back into orbit. Meanwhile the PT's fire has eliminated the Federation fighter unit. In exchange the FF with the missile pack empties it on one of the GA units, scoring a critical hit and destroying it; another one is hit. In the next round, the carnage continues. The third FE unit suffers two hits and is then eliminated by a critical hit from the last undamaged GA unit, in exchange for two hits on the PT. In round 4, the ground units score a hit on one of the frigates, but by then so much damage has accrued that this remains their last hurrah. By round 5, no resistance remains on the surface and the short Viking rule on Tiergran is over, for now. This was a very expensive fight for both sides, the Federation lost 76 megacredits' worth of units, and the Vikings 77. And the bad news is not over for the Federation, another Distant Wars event sees yet another Frigate withdrawn (they hand the damaged one back to the central government). The Feds hurriedly reestablish a grav armor unit and tank corps on the planet and buy 14 VP. The Vikings, repairing and reequipping their damaged ships, have nothing left for such luxuries and only add one. Fed VP 78, TR 0 Vik VP 76, TR 0 Turn 11. The Federation decides that defending Tiergran is the highest priority and leaves their remaining two ships (one FF, one FE) in orbit. The two Viking ships go to Raneb and overwhelm the lone defending AG in a single round of combat. Disaster strikes for the Federation, as the third Distant Wars event takes their last frigate out of the game. They buy as many VPs as possible (13) but the Vikings know the threat to their forces is much weakened and splurge almost all their income (now back down to 24 from its high of 38) on VPs, 22 of them. The game is essentially decided since there is no way for the Federation to catch up to the next turn's theoretical worst Viking outcome: if they lose all worlds and spend only the 10 megacredit homebase income, they will end up at 108, and the Federation does not have enough money saved to buy 17 VPs in the next turn. They could still bank on a Civil War event and hope to turn their last Federal ship into VPs. Fed VP 91, TR 0 Vik VP 98, TR 0 Turn 12 sees the final defeat of the Federation player with what is obviously the start of a permanent Viking presence in Federation space. The Vikings go back to Tiergran, defended in space by the single remaining Federation escort. In two rounds, the escort manages two hits on the Viking sloop, but is hit three times by the cruiser and vaporised by a critical hit from the sloop. This time, both ships continue on to the planet, defended by 1 GA, 1 AG, 1 SF, and 1 TC unit. Again, with the attack bonus for the sector capital, the defenders give a good account of themselves, shutting down all the sloop's weapons systems on the first round with two more hits, in exchange for the tank corps eliminated and two hits on the grav armor unit. Again, on the next round the sloop cannot withdraw (defender's movement phase) and while the cruiser destroys the special forces unit, it and the grav armor unit score two more hits on the sloop, shooting it out of the skies. This is the Fed's last success as the cruiser eliminates all ground units within two rounds. The Fed tax base is now down to 90. Ironically, another Civil War breaks out. This could be theoretically useful for the Federation except there are no ships left to convert into victory points. So they spend as much as they can (11VPs worth) leaving them at 102 VPs. The Viking player simply uses his whole income (back to 38 megacredits) for VPs, ending the game at 136. A comfortable Viking victory. Of course, this still doesn't tell me about real balance. All it means is that that, yes, the Viking player can eventually punch through the Federation defense. Next time, playing the Federation, I would probably put a higher emphasis on massive and immediate retaliation missions early on; arguably I frittered the Federation ships away a bit in an attempt to defend against all possible Viking attacks. That won't work anyway in the long run; you have to take them by the horns at some point. Also, the longer you wait, the more likely it is for a Distant Wars event to occur, at which point you lose a frigate without having used it for anything except fleet-in-being purposes. So, for now the verdict remains open. Markus Last 3 games played: Gunslinger, ASLSK, At all Hazards --------------- http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/user/mst/games/ --------------- "We've got them now." -- last dispatch to General George Crook by General George Armstrong Custer _______________________________________________ Consim-l mailing list Consim-l@mailman.halisp.net http://mailman.halisp.net/mailman/listinfo/consim-l