(SP2.0) The Far Corner of Hell

(Designer’s Note: This is a double-blind scenario for use in PBEM games. Playing it FTF would require a moderator and two boards in two different rooms.)

(Y175) by Jim Hart

In Y158, a field of stellar matter thought to be the enriched by-product of a supernova was discovered in a far corner of space between the Kzinti and the Klingon Empire. Not knowing if the material might have useful properties, both sides set up bases to study the material and to defend it should it prove valuable. But after ten years of study, the material proved too difficult to manipulate for detailed study, and no valuable properties were ever determined. The bases were left with skeleton crews, and assignment there was considered a punishment. The area became known as the Far Corner of Hell because of its distance from anything of interest.

But in Y174, Kzinti scientists developed a new way of gathering the stellar material and made a discovery – the highly-charged heavy metals within it could be used to create very tiny but very powerful warp drives – drives small enough to mount on drones or fighters and propel them to speeds equal to ships or plasma torpedoes (booster packs and fast drones).

For a year the Kzinti kept their discovery secret, but the Klingons noticed increased activity at the Kzinti base and, between spies and research, duplicated the Kzinti discovery. Immediately, the race was on – control of this supply of stellar material was suddenly a high priority for both empires. Fleet elements in the area were sent to defend the friendly base and destroy the enemy base – and quickly. A motley collection of ships from their own and allied races gathered at both bases, both to defend it and to attack and destroy the other before full fleet elements could arrive to establish control.

(SP2.1) NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 sides, with at least 6 players per side.

(SP2.2) INITIAL SET UP

The game is played on a 50x50 map. This map contains a three-hex wide Stellar Matter Zone (SP2.4). The center of the Zone stretches from hex 0150 to hex 5001 and includes all hexes that touch any hex along this line.

One side has a Base Station in hex 1010, the other side has a Base Station in hex 4040. Initial facing and rotation speed at player’s option. Both bases have a low number of crew units and no boarding parties, but are perfectly healthy otherwise.

Each side has several ships, to be determined by (SP2.6)

(SP2.3) LENGTH OF SCENARIO: The scenario continues until one side has achieved the Victory Conditions (SP2.9) or the end of Turn 10.

(SP2.4) STELLAR MATTER ZONE: The three-hex-wide Stellar Matter Zone is a band of highly-charged particles of heavy metals created by a supernova. They impact combat, sensors, and communications in the following ways.

(SP2.41) SHIELD DAMAGE: The radiation of stellar matter causes shields to decay by 1 point for every 10 hexes of the unit’s effective speed for every hex entered. (Divide speed by 10, round up.) This damage is applied to the #1 shield for ships moving forward and to the #4 shield for ships moving in reverse. This is normal shield damage and can be offset by reinforcement.

(SP2.42) UNIT DAMAGE: Flying through particles of heavy metal causes damage to unshielded units.

(SP2.421) Units without shields, including ships whose shield is down, take 1 point of damage for every 20 hexes of the unit’s true speed for every Stellar Matter hex they enter. (Divide speed by 20, round up.) For ships, this damage is taken on Hull boxes until all hull is destroyed, then is taken as internal damage on the DAC. Ships moving forward will take FH, then CH, then RH. Ships moving in reverse will take RH, CH, then FH.

(SP2.422) Plasma torpedoes will lose three points of warhead strength for every Zone hex travelled.

(SP2.423) No amount of phaser damage will clear a path through the Zone, and units cannot follow other units to reduce damage.

(SP2.43) DISRUPTED SENSORS: Sensors cannot penetrate the Zone. When a ship is in a Zone hex, its sensor range is limited to range 1. Units outside the zone can see units in the outer layer of the zone, and units in the outer layer of the zone can see out. If there is a complete hex of Stellar Matter between your ship and any other unit, that unit cannot be seen, targeted, detected, locked onto, or fired upon. It is, to all apparent effects, not there at all.

(SP2.44) DISRUPTED COMMUNICATIONS: Communications cannot travel through a Zone hex. A unit outside the Zone cannot converse with units in or past the center band of the Zone. Units may not control seeking weapons that are in or past the center band.

(SP2.441) Ships with a powered Special Sensor can use it to send a 200-character message through the zone up to twice per turn. Messages are delivered by sending them to the moderator, who will forward them to friendly units on the other side of the Zone.

(SP2.442) A ship with two powered special sensors that is sitting in the center band of the zone can act as a communication channel to forward messages from one side of the Zone to the other. There is no limit on length of message or frequency of delivery. (See (SP2.5)).

(SP2.45) CLOAKS: Cloaked ships can be locked onto when in the Zone, due to the terrain effects. See (G13.48).

(SP2.46) ESGs: Ships protected by an ESG field will not take damage from moving through the Zone. However, the ESG will take damage equal to that done to shields (SP2.41) for every movement in which any portion of the ESG ends up in the Zone. If the ESG goes down during the course of any movement, ships protected by the ESG will take damage as though the ESG had not been up on that impulse at all.

(SP2.5) COMMUNICATIONS: Communication in this game will take place in four Yahoo! Groups forums. Each team will have two forums – one for each side of the Stellar Matter Zone. As ships move from one side of the zone to the other, they will be placed in (and dropped from) the appropriate group. Players may communicate freely with other players in their group.

(SP2.51) Players using a special sensor to push a message through the zone (SP2.44) should send the message to the moderator, who will check it for length and post it to the receiving group. These messages can be sent at any time.

(SP2.52) A player in a ship with two powered Special Sensors can sit in the center band of the Zone and be in both groups at the same time. This player can then pass messages from one group to the other.

(SP2.53) Sitreps and Maps will be posted to the Yahoo! groups, not to a web page. Anyone wishing to follow this game must do so by becoming an observer, either on a ship (in which case the observer changes groups when the ship does) or in a specific group. Observers will be able to see the sitreps and maps, but not comment. Those wishing to kibbutz (watch and post comments) must become an XO on one of the units.

(SP2.54) A unit that is cloaked can listen to communication within their group(s), but posting a message will void the cloak in the same way that using a transporter would (G13.42). The cloaked unit can be locked onto on the first and second impulse of the subsequent foglet.

(SP2.6) UNIT SELECTION: Each player will select three ships and submit them to the moderator. All ships must be designed as they would have appeared in Y175. This means:

· All refits begun in or prior to Y170 are required.

· All refits begun in Y171 or later are optional.

· All drones are speed M.

· Fighters must be legal for the ship within that time period.

· ISC do not have rear F torps – adjust BPV according to R13.R2.

· No Tholian 312^th, no webcasters or snares.

(SP2.61) BPVs: Each player should submit one ship in each of the following BPV slots:

A. 175-225

B. 140-174

C. 139 or less

D. 110 or less (reinforcement only, see (SP2.62) and (SP2.76)

This BPV includes the cost of the ship, refits, modifications, and Commander’s Options up to the 20% limit. Players may hold back up to 15/10/5 BPV for Commander’s Options to buy after fleets have been determined, but such purchases cannot exceed the normal 20% BPV limit per ship.

(SP2.62) SHIP TYPES: Each of the three ships submitted must fall into one of the following slots, and all slots must have a ship in it:

· Combat Slot: A non-variant combat ship with no deployment restrictions.

· Leader Slot: May be another combat ship, or may be a leader (S8.46) or heavy ship (S8.33).

· Variant Slot: May be another combat ship, or it may be a non-leader combat variant such as a tug, scout, carrier, escort, commando, drone, or mauler. It may also be a prototype (a normal non-leader combat ship with an in-service date of Y176, or a ship with refits normally not available until Y176).

· Reinforcement Slot: This must be a standard ship, under the same restrictions as the Combat slot, and must be the 100-point (slot D) ship. This ship will only be used as a reinforcement (SP2.76).

(SP2.63) ADMIRAL’S BASE: Players who are willing to be the Admiral should also submit an outfitted allocation for a Base Station. It should be refit to match the time period. Owing to the fact that these bases were not considered high priority, they have no augmentation modules. Each has 10 crew units and no boarding parties, nor can any be purchased as Commander’s Options (though other Commander’s Options are available).

(SP2.64) ALLOWABLE RACES: Ships may be of any of the following races: Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Kzinti, Gorn, Tholian, Hydran, Lyran, or ISC.

Bases may be of any of the above races with the exception of Tholian.

Players may use their Leader slot to bring an Orion ship that fits in BPV ranges B or C.

Ships allocated do not have to be of the same race.

(SP2.65) OTHER ALLOCATION RESTRICTIONS: The following restrictions will also apply to ship allocation.

(SP2.651) CARRIERS AND ESCORTS: Because each player allocates separately, players may allocate an unescorted carrier or an escort with no carrier. Carriers must carry fighters legal for the year and ship type. Carriers can have no more than 25% of their fighter bays empty. Escorts with fighter bays may have fighters on board, but are not required to do so.

(SP2.652) SHIP TYPES: Ships with the following G3 designations are not allowed: MS, MW, P, PENAL, SFG, UNV, U, X, Y1 176+, Y2 176+, CAM, CAP, CNJ, IMP, LPU, RPA, RPU, UNQ, UNV. In addition, ships from Captain’s Logs or playtest packs that have not been officially published are not allowed.

(SP2.653) OTHER UNITS NOT ALLOWED: Auxiliaries, freighters, civilian ships, Q-ships, sub-light units, prototype fighters, minelaying shuttles, web anchors, and web tenders are not allowed. Stasis Field Generators are not allowed. Heavy fighters, bombers, drogues, and Fed F-111s are not allowed.

(SP2.654) MRS SHUTTLES: The base, and any ship in the Leader slot, can have one MRS.

(SP2.655) SCATTERPACKS: Units with three or more drone racks can have one shuttle capable of acting as a scatterpack. This shuttle may be recovered and reloaded. Other shuttles may not be used as scatterpacks.

(SP2.656) DRONE RACKS AND RELOADS: Players will allocate a legal mix of drones in their racks. Reloads will be duplicates of the rack drones.

(SP2.657) READY RACKS AND RELOADS: Carriers will allocate a legal mix of drone on their fighters. Reloads will be two sets of the same drones.

(SP2.658) ADMIRAL RESERVE: After the moderator has chosen fleets, the Admiral of each fleet will have 10 BPV per ship in his fleet to spend on additional ordinance, commander’s options, or Legendary Officers. Ordinance expenditures will increase the base BPV of the unit. Commander’s Options cannot exceed the 20% limit per ship. Legendary Officers are over and above the normal ship BPV. There is one of each Legendary Officer available except for Captain, and only one Legendary Crew.

(SP2.7) RULES IN USE: The following rules, or modifications to rules, are in use.

(SP2.71) TACTICAL INTELLIGENCE: Tactical Intelligence is used, but at double the normal range. Units on the other side of the zone cannot be scanned at all. A unit that is identified, retreats back across the barrier, then returns is treated as a new unit for TacIntel purposes.

(SP2.72) MINES: On any given impulse, only one mine in a hex will explode. The moderator will check to see which mines in the hex could be triggered, then roll randomly to see which explodes. Mines that do not explode are not counted as having been triggered.

(SP2.73) ADVANCED BOARDING PARTIES: Advanced boarding rules will not be used.

(SP2.74) OPTIONAL RULES: Any optional rules not specifically mentioned elsewhere are not allowed.

(SP2.75) FLEET RULES: The game will use the standard Fleet-level rules, with four-impulse Foglets. However, we will run the first 16 impulses at once, since no information will be gained or enemy ships seen until at least the middle of Turn 1.

(SP2.76) REINFORCEMENTS: If a ship is rendered mission-killed at the end of a turn (a determination to be made by the moderator) and if the owning player’s base is not crippled, that player will receive a reinforcement ship, which will be their Slot C (139-point) ship if the mission-killed unit was their Slot A ship, or their Slot D (110 point) ship otherwise. The reinforcement unit will arrive in hex 0125 or 5025, on the side of the board that the unit is defending, WS-III, speed max.

If the base is mission-killed, the Admiral will receive his 110-point ship as a reinforcement.

No player can receive more than one reinforcement ship.

(SP2.8) INITIAL PLACEMENT: Ship will enter the game in any hex within three hexes of their base, speed max, WS-III.

(SP2.9) VICTORY CONDITIONS: A team is considered the winner if, at the end of any turn, it has destroyed over 50% of the enemy’s total BPV (incluiding the BPV of all reinforcements), including the enemy base. If both sides achieve this condition on the same turn, the game will continue until, at the end of any turn, one side has destroyed 15% more of the enemy’s BPV than the other. At the end of turn 10, if neither side has achieved the victory conditions, the game will be called a draw.

For the purpose of determining how much enemy BPV has been destroyed, I will use (S2.1) VICTORY POINTS RECEIVED from the Captain’s Rulebook. However, capturing an enemy unit will only gain the same BPV as destroying it.