From: starflt@athena.mit.edu (Derrick Kong)
Subject: Re: Fed and Emp
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 23:52:43 GMT

In article <15DEC199202395124@venus.cc.hollandc.pe.ca> jdoucette@venus.cc.hollandc.pe.ca (Jingle bells, mortar shells, VC in the grass...) writes:

	   I disagree that the attacker is at a disadvantage.  I own Deluxe 
   F&E and with the changes instituted such as increased cost for fighters, 
   scaled-down fleets at start, and other changes to how battles are fought, 
   it is very hard to hold on even with the Federation.

I agree COMPLETELY.  I have played 3-4 games starting at turn 1 with the
regular DF&E rules and every time, the Alliance has just gotten crushed.
The Coalition just starts with far too many ships and it's initial
attacks just overwhelm Alliance defenses.

	   I am currently playing a Grand Campaign scenario at turn 15 or so (
   mid-war) and the Federation has lost one-third of its territory, the 
   coreward Federation is a wasteland, the Kzin are just barely there, the 
   Hydrans are skulking on map (trapped in the capital because of an adjusment 
   rule), the Gorns and Romulans are pounding each other's frontier areas into 
   slag and ship losses are hideously cruel.

This sounds very familiar.  I'm surprised that the Hydrans still have
their capital; every other time I've played, they've been kicked out by
turn 7 at the latest...

	   The point I'm making is the key to attacking is the willingness to 
   be utterly ruthless when it comes to accepting casualties (cripples when at 
   all possible).  Almost every ship that has died has been the result of 
   Directed Damage.  Most fleet engagements result in masses of cripples 
   heading for the repair yards.  
	   Taking out a SB or BATS is not a trifle.  These installations were 
   designed to hold territory.  

Exactly.  In a previous game, (which actually started with the turn 10
setup), 70 Romulan ships attacked a Gorn starbase with about 40 ships.
EVERY single Rom ended up crippled.  In the Alliance part of the turn,
a Federation assault on a Romulan major planet resulted in another 40
Rom cripples.  Literally 90% of the whole Romulan fleet was crippled.

However, taking out a BATS via directed damage really isn't that hard.
A 90-100 point fleet should be able to do it in 2 rounds at worst...
 
My question for anyone out there is whether anyone else has tried using
the Militant Federation rules from Captain's Log #10.  For those of you
who do not have it, here they are:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(656.0) Militant Fed rules

(656.1) War: The Federation can exercise the Limited War option at any
point after the Klingons invade Kzinti space, and can declare war on the
Klingons on turn 4 or later.

(656.2) Economy: The Federation, like the Klingons, can go to a wartime
economy at any point, even if not "at war" in the sense of engaged in
active combat.

(656.3) Star Fleet: The fleet of a militant Federation would be more
powerful than shown in the historical OB.

(656.31) All dreadnoughts are 12-points (DNG's).

(656.32) The Federation can withdraw more survey ships from the 2nd
fleet (one per turn, up to a maximum of three additional ships) and use
them as CVL's.  (The fighters are free.)  This will reduce the number of
survey ships searching for new provinces under rules (505.2).

(656.33) The Federation can begin activating the mothball fleet on any
turn, at the rate provided.

(656.34) The Feds use the Y173 production schedules starting on turn 1
instead of the pre-war construction rates.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

In contast to the slaughter that the game usually is, this variant has
turned out to be pretty interesting.  The Alliance is doing fairly well
for once, so much so that we're letting the Roms enter on turn 6 and the
Gorns on turn 8.  (Currently, we're about to start the Coalition part of
turn 5).

Has anyone else tried it?  If not, I'd suggest it as an interesting
change of pace...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's a sucker born every minute.
		-P.T. Barnum			Derrick Kong
And they die about that fast too.		starflt@athena.mit.edu
		-Grimtooth
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