Game A0108: Best for BPV: Alliance Team vs. Coalition Team

TURN ONE

*** turn 1 ***

TURN TWO

*** turn 2 ***

MAP



Fitting the map together:

There are 'new' hexes between maps A & C and maps B & D.

Example: Moving from A0130D to C0101D does not involve a 'new' hex.

         Moving from A0230D to C0201D involves moving through A0231D, a 'new' hex.



There are no new hexes between maps A & B and between maps C & D.

Map C & D Link
 

Game:  A0108 "Best for the BPV" Fleet Battle Turn: 2   Impulse: 24                              Game Status: Effectively Dead My Ships: Lyran Battlecruiser Fireclaw              Status: UNDAMAGED                 Klingon D5A          Cold Storage    Status: UNDAMAGED

This little fracas grew out of a topic on Mark Means' BBS #1 about what standard-SFB tech ship was most useful in a fleet fight.  A number of hulls were bandied about.  Then someone noticed that the 8 most-talked-about hulls balanced evenly Coalition (Klingon, Lyran, Romulan) vs. Alliance (Fed, Gorn, Kzinti, Hydran) and what's more, the BPV cost of the ships also balanced. (or came pretty darn close).  So someone had the bright idea of getting the nominees together for a little violence.  I did my share of shooting off of mouth, so I ended up as a player.  The Alliance players were the quickest to sign on because they had several kick-butt ships, but when the Coalition jelled, we formed a solid team.    Our Cast of Characters Moderator (to whom all sympathy is due)  F.Michael Miller First the Good Guys (yay, cheer)  The Coalition Romulan KillerHawk; flown by Admiral Rob Crapnell III  Lyran BC+,p, etc. (every refit but mech links and the kitchen sink), flown by me (Vorlon)  Klingon D5A (Y'know, the stasis ship), was flown by Jeff Tonglet, now flown by me (Vorlon)  Romulan Falcon (Yup.  The original mauler), was flown by Jeff Tonglet, now flown by Rob Crapnell III   Now the Bad Guys (boo, hiss)  The Alliance Federation BCG; flown by Often Acting Admiral Sjakko (who I beat handily in HR4 #4089)  Gorn BCH; flown by Min Chen (whose bark, I expect is worse than his bite)  Hydran Iriquois; flown by Admiral Monty (whose skill I have respect for.  I lost to him in HR4 #4130)  Kzinti Drone Frigate; flown by Min Chen  You can see why the Alliance found players first.  A LOT of pure firepower on their side, whereas the Coalition is a wacky collection of oddballs.  If this were a comedy movie, you can bet the heroes would be the Coalition. In the movies, the Universe cheats for Wacky Collections of Oddballs.  Unfortunately, this is the Real World.  (well not REAL-real, but it occurs in the Real World)  No writer for this story save Fate itself and no help for the Good Guys save nifty dice rolls and whatever luck they make with their tactics.  Sandy "Firemane" Hemenway finalized what ships were on each side.  Since people recommended the "Fed BCH" without choosing which one they meant, Sandy threw out the 6-photon BCJ (which is generally unpopular anyway. Probably because of the shock generated by Photons E and F) and flipped a coin.  It came up BCG and boy am I happy.  I would much rather face a pumped up CB with 4 drone racks than a pumped-up CB with 2 drone racks and 2 Plasma-Fs.  The BCF is one of my favorite Fed ships partly for the power and diversity of the weapons mix.  I'd take it even over the 6-photon BCJ (it's cheaper too).  The moderator is his own web-meister and he even built quickie SSDs of each ship. Turn 1 We're ready to rock at last! Both of us are starting with tight formations.  The Alliance guys have everything in the same hex except the Kzinti DF, who is a hex off their collective #3 shields (They're in the lower-right corner facing F). All the Coalition ships are in the same hex bar none (we're in the upper-left corner facing C).  The distance between us is so huge (80 hexes), we may not be within weapon range until turn 3 (maybe the end of turn 2).  I did the EA for my first turn assuming a distance more like 50.  I hope I didn't charge my disruptors...  IMP 32: Realizing how this was going to go, the moderator fast-forwarded to the end of the turn for us.  On IMP 32, we shot every bearing P-1 at the Fed's ECM drone.  We even got 2 points of damage.  *Sigh*  I charged my disruptors.  We ended the turn still 60+ hexes apart.  The Alliance had the ZFF hang back a bit.  Wise move.  Turn 2 We just got the IMP 16 SOP in and I can *almost* fit both parties on one map.  We're getting there.  Another week or two and this will heat up.  Or four...or 8...  IMP 16 we're finally all on the same map,  About 35-40 hexes apart.  We're dropping to 4-impulse format...  Well, we'll drop to it once the game actually resumes.  It's the moderator for this game that first intimated that Monty, my HR4130 opponent and Alliance Admiral here, might have disappeared.  RATS!  No such luck.  12/15/98: I think we can safely refer to this game as "stalled" now...  12/22/98: The rats are leaving so I think this ship is sinking....  I tried, but failed to taunt Min Chen into returning.  Sjakko's just gone.  1/20/99:  A new hope!  We may get this thing off the ground yet.  Monty's looking for players.  Maybe he can send one our way to replace Blackbeard (Jeff Tonglet) who will have his hands full with the Fog of War fleet fight. Rob and I split up Jeff's ships.  I got the D5A, he got the Falcon. 2/8/99:  Well the opposition has found some help and the Moderator has found his ass.  Maybe we can get moving?  3/15/99  Still nothing.  The next update, this this game goes to the dead-letter office.  3/23/99 Just when I'm about to drop this game in the dumpster I get a SITREP! (and a new one at that).  Not that much happened, you understand, but it's the point of the thing...  Maybe there's hope for this game after all.  Maybe we can finish by Christmas.  Don't want to set too ambitious a schedule, now... 6/4/99...and that WAS ambitions enough.  Maybe we can finish by the Millennium.  I mean 3000... Or we can simply call it all off.  Having heard nothing for about 10 months, this game is considered officially toast. Rob and my plan was to tow the D5A into stasis range of the Alliance ships and drop it, enabling it to instantly put 3 of the four enemy ships in stasis (the rules say there's a delay if it E-Decelled or or otherwise slowed to 0).  We then rat-pack the remaining ship.  Rinse and repeat, un-stasis-ing one ship every turn or two. In an interesting side-note, Min Chen turned out the be the runner-up for command of the Coalition forces in the Fog of War fleet game under the name Kal Vas Flam (He's now a moderator, so that's not tipping much about the Coalition besides the fact that I'm running one of the 12 ships).  He's now the Coalition moderator since the original FOW moderator (and this game's original D5A/Falcon player) Jeff Tonglet disappeared off the face of the planet.  As Kal, Min talked a good fight and made sense.  I may have underestimated his skill as SFB.

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