Detailed Frontier Timeline – FY61.357 to FY61.381

This post is only a bit over a year late. These are the events that I posted to twitter back in February of 2021 just before I stopped blogging. I’m finally getting them online. I also plan on resuming the daily Twitter posts of the events. starting on day FY61.382. If you want to get the daily updates, follow the @StarFrontiers account on twitter or the #SFTimeline hashtag. If you want to review everything that has happened, or are new to this series of posts, you can grab the PDF file linked at the bottom of the post that contains every entry in the timeline since I started it. Its up to 81 pages so there’s a bit of reading there.

Also, depending on how things go generating the timeline, I might start posting events using the GST calendar of the Frontier. Which means you’ll get 36 Frontier days worth of events every 30 Earth days as the GST calendar only has 20 hours per day instead of our 24. We’ll see if that actually pans out.

The events in this post include the two battles I posted the detail of early last year which are linked in their appropriate entries. With the conclusion of the Battle of Liberty, the war cools down for a while. The sathar are currently out of ships at the moment although they have dozens under construction. Both sides are now maneuvering to reposition and rebuild forces. Otherwise, not much happening in this post outside of the war events.

Date (FY)	Events
61.357	– Ten more pilots complete their fast-tracked certifications for the Frontier Fighter Corps. They immediately depart for Hentz (Araks). – SBF-J2 (Liberty system) begin calculations for a jump to the Waller Nexus system.Spacefleet holds the space in anticipation of more ships finishing and beginning construction on a new battleship.
61.358	– Second Battle of Ken’zah-Kit (K’aken-Kar) – After nearly 2.5 hours of fighting TF Cassidine defeats SBF-J1 losing only a single fighter while the sathar only have a fighter and heavy cruiser surviving. Most of the UPF ships have damage requiring a shipyard to repair. – The surviving sathar heavy cruiser and fighter from SBF-J1 accelerate for a jump to the K’sta-Kar system. – The damaged UPF destroyer completes repairs in the Streel shipyards (Pale, Truane’s Star) and the ship that was moved out to make room resumes construction (it will be done in 23 days). – SBF-E2 jumps into the Zebulon system. It remains at high speed and begins calculations for jump to Kazak. – A HS:8 ship completes maintenance in the PGC shipyards (Gran Quivera, Prenglar). Spacefleet moves a couple of small ships in for maintenance to coordinate their completion with more ships finishing and beginning construction on a new battleship.
61.359	– Calculations for the jump back to YS07 complete, the HSS History’s Hope begins accelerating for the jump while the astrogators get a day of rest before double checking the figures on the way out. – Sathar TG-1 jumps into the OFS136 system where SCC#3 is located as they continue on their journey to SCC#4 (OFS111) – The battleship Admiral Dooltan and accompanying minelayer arrive at Zit-kit (Kisk-Kar) and join up with PG Meteor. With the addition of the battleship and minelayer, the fleet is now designated Task Force Meteor. – After spending a day rearming, Task Force Cassidine splits up with the undamaged heavy and light cruiser, now designated Patrol Group Vigilant, departing in pursuit of the sathar heavy cruiser which is headed toward K’tsa-Kar. – The main force of TF Cassidine, all needing time in a shipyard to fully repair, begin accelerating for a jump to the Kizk-Kar system and then on to Fromeltar. The Terledrom (Fromeltar) shipyard is notified that they will arrive on FY61.375 and begins making preparations to receive them. – The Clarion (White Light) militia, at the request of Spacefleet, depart for a jump to K’sta-Kar to join up with PG Vigilant and patrol that system. The saurians send 3 of their 6 Battle Rays to assist.
61.360	– Calculations complete, SBF-J2 (LC & FF) begin accelerating from the Liberty system for a jump to the Waller Nexus system. PG Liberty detects the departure almost immediately and subspace radio the intel back to Spacefleet. – Stationing 8 of the fighters at Fortress Pale as the first official squadron of the Frontier Fighter Corps, the second assault carrier currently with Strike Force Nova is designated as Shuttle Group Alpha and departs back to Triad (Cassidine) to start moving more fighters around the Frontier.
61.361	– PG Liberty are authorized to engage the outbound SBF-J2 if conditions are favorable. Several Mhemne Belter ships offer to assist although their outdated engines mean that they will only be able to make a single pass at the sathar vessels. The ships all boost for intercept. – Four fighters are completed at the Hentz (Araks) shipyard. They are put into storage awaiting the arrival of the Spacefleet pilots. Construction beings on four more fighters. – Two fighters are completed at the Minotaur (Theseus) shipyards for the Frontier Fighter Corps but are currently manned by the militia. Construction begins on two more fighters.
61.362	– SBF-E2 jumps into the Kazak system and begins calculations for a jump to OFS019 and SCC#5. – Battle of Liberty – PG Liberty, augmented by Mhemne ships, engage the sathar in the outer system. The fight does not go well for the UPF who lose their frigate and an assault scout although they do manage to destroy the sathar frigate. – After fighting the UPF in the Liberty system, the surviving sathar light cruiser of SBF-J2 continues on its course to jump to the Waller Nexus system.
61.363	– CDC staff arrive back on Alcazzar (Rhianna) in anticipation of the new mining season. (SF4) – SBF-J1 jumps into the K’sta-Kar system. They remain at speed and begin calculations for a jump to FS33.
61.364	– The HSS History’s Hope successfully jumps back into the YS07 jump completely charting that route. They begin decelerating to turn around and jump back to YS08 to continue their journey forward. – PG Vigilant and the Clarion militia both jump into the K’sta-Kar system from opposite directions. Keeping an eye on the retreating SBF-J1, they start deceleration toward Kwadl-Kit. – TF Cassidine jumps into the Kizk-Kar system and begin calculations for the jump to Fromeltar. They transmit details of their recent battles to TF Meteor to share their experiences.
61.365	– SBF-E2 jumps back into the OFS019 system and begins decelerating toward SCC#5. – SBF-J2 enters the Void and like the frigate before it, misjumps, this time ending up in the OFS196 system. – Enough space has cleared in the CDC shipyard (Triad, Cassidine) to allow Spacefleet to begin construction on another battleship to replace one of the two lost in the Second Battle of New Pale.
61.366	– SBF-J1 jumps into the FS33 system and begins calculations for a jump to OFS166. – Eight more fighters are completed at the PGC shipyards (Gran Quivera, Prenglar) and shuttled to Gollwin Academy. Spacefleet delays the start of construction of more fighters as production of the ships is outpacing training of pilots and they want to use the space for construction of another battleship.
61.367	– As OFS196 is a system in the sathar charts, being on the route to OFS203 and SCC#1, SBF-J2 determines it position after just two days. It decides to take the known route back to Liberty and try again. – Enough space opens up in the PGC shipyards (Gran Quivera, Prenglar) for Spacefleet to begin construction on the second battleship to replace the second one lost in the Second Battle of New Pale.
61.368	– The HSS History’s Hope arrives in the inner system of YS07 where they will rest for a day before they begin accelerating for the jump back to YS08. – Task Force Cassidine jumps into the Fromeltar system and begins a slow deceleration toward Terledrom and the shipyard there. They radio ahead that they are a few days early. – Spacefleet resumes fighter construction in the PGC shipyards (Gran Quivera, Prenglar) but only producing five at a time instead of eight. The other 3 HS worth of space is dedicated to constructing an assault scout. Additionally, 3 more assault scouts are started in the CDC shipyards (Triad, Cassidine).
61.369	– PG Vigilant and the Clarion militia, together with the saurian battle rays, arrive in orbit around Kwadl-Kit (K’sta-Kar). They set up a patrol schedule to watch for new sathar threats. – SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS166 system and begins calculations for a jump to OFS167. – SG Alpha arrives back at the CDC shipyards (Triad, Cassidine). The fighters in storage are transferred to the carrier while they await the arrival of their pilots, scheduled to graduate from Gollwin Academy tomorrow.
61.370	– SBF-E2 arrives back at SSC#5 (OFS019). The heavy cruiser under construction is moved out of the shipyard to make room for the damaged one to receive the necessary repairs. – Nine more pilots graduate in the accelerated cadet class at Gollwin Academy. They immediately depart to take command of the fighters currently sitting in storage at Triad (Cassidine).
61.371	SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS167 system and begins calculations for a jump to OFS169.
61.372	An attempt to explode a bomb at the Council of Worlds building while the council is in session is foiled by Star Law agents and local law enforcement. Unfortunately, none of the perpetrators survived. An investigation is launched immediately to track down the origin of the plot.
61.373	TF Cassidine arrives in orbit around Terledrom. There is currently 6 HS of open space in the shipyard and the heavily damaged frigate and fighter are moved in for repairs.
61.374	– The HSS History’s Hope jumps back to the YS08 system. They begin decelerating and working on the jump calculations for the next system, a binary system 5 ly away. – SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS169 system and begins calculations for a jump to the OFS170 system. – The K’aken-Kar militia assault scout, also in OFS169, happens to detect the heavy cruiser just hours after it jumps into the system. Realizing they are in sathar controlled space, the ship goes into as stealthy a mode as possible to avoid detection as they monitor the sathar vessel. – SBF-J2 jumps back into the Liberty system. – The TF Cassidine fighter in the Terledrom (Fromeltar) shipyard competes its repairs. The space is held in reserve for the larger ships needing repairs.
61.375	– Princess Leotia’s 35th birthday. Major celebrations are held all over Clarion (White Light) in commemoration of her coming of age. While her father had planned to step down and hand the government over to her during the ceremonies, this has been delayed due to the ongoing sathar conflict. – SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS170 system and begins calculations for the final leg of their jump back to SSC#10 in the OFS228 system. – PG Liberty detects the returning light cruiser and radios its presence back to Spacefleet. – The damaged sathar heavy cruiser at SCC#5 (OFS019) completes repairs and construction is resumed on the new heavy cruiser.
61.376	Three UPF fighters are completed at the Terledrom (Fromeltar) shipyards. They are transferred to Task Force Cassidine. The shipyard space is held in reserve to fit the larger ships needing repair.
61.377	– SBF-J1 jumps back into the OFS228 system and begins decelerating toward SSC#10 – An assault scout is completed in the Outer Reach (Dramune) shipyards. It sets off immediately for the Fromeltar system to join TF Cassidine. Construction begins on a new assault scout.
61.378	– SBF-J2 arrives back in orbit around Snowball. After rearming, it sets off once again to try to jump to the Waller Nexus system. – Calculations complete, the HSS History’s Hope begins accelerating to the next system on their route, which they designate as YS11. – A UPF assault scout is completed at the CDC shipyards (Triad, Cassidine). This is the first of the replacement ships larger that a fighter to come out of the shipyards since the conflict began. 5 fighters are also completed and work begins on another AS and 5 fighters. The completed ships join SG Alpha. – The first damaged frigate from TF Cassidine emerges from the shipyard at Terledrom (Fromeltar) fully repaired. The other frigate enters and work begins on it.
61.379	– The Frontier Fighter Corps pilots arrive at Hentz (Araks) to take command of their fighters there. There is some initial tension between the UPF and militia forces as the latter do not want to turn over control of the ships. – The Spacefleet pilots arrive at Triad (Cassidine). They are immediately transferred to the carrier in SG Alpha where their ships are awaiting them. SG Alpha departs immediately for a jump to Dramune and then on to Fromeltar where the fighters are to be delivered. – The Yazira Dome completes its second year of operation. With the on-going sathar conflict, travel has been curtailed and off-world yazirian visitors diminished but the Dome is still wildly popular with on-planet visitors. – Detecting SBF-J2 outbound once again, PG Liberty sends a subspace message informing Spacefleet and continues to monitor the sathar ship. – Calculations complete and checked, the HSS History’s Hope begins accelerating for the jump to the next system on their route, designated YS11.
61.380	– Sathar TG-1 arrives at SCC#4 (OFS111), joining the other ships there. – After several back-and-forth communications, including a threat by Spacefleet to dispatch TF Prenglar to the Araks system to eliminate or take control of the militia, the Hentz militia turns over control of the Frontier Fighter Corps fighters to the UPF crews. – The second damaged frigate from TF Cassidine completes repairs at the Terledrom (Fromeltar) shipyards. A new UPF assault scout, along with an assault scout for the local militia are also completed. This frees up enough space that TF Cassidine’s assault carrier can move in for repairs.
61.381	TF Cassidine’s assault carrier completes repairs at the Terledrom (Fromeltar) shipyards. There is not enough free space to move the battleship in, but that space will free up in three days. With 30% of the shipyard empty, the work crews can each get a full day off to rest over the next few days.

Full timeline file:

DetailedFrontierTimeline Download

Back to Blogging

Hello everyone!

It’s been a long time but I’m back to blogging and you can expect content to appear on this blog fairly regularly again. With the exception of the post about the Moonbright Stinger miniature, it’s been over a year. I’ve just had too much going on and, honestly, been very distracted by other activities, to do much in the way of posting. That is changing.

First, if you haven’t seen it yet, I just released issue 36 of the Frontier Explorer. You can grab a copy at DriveThruRPG or on the Frontier Explorer website. This was the last issue of the magazine. I was seriously burnt out on producing the fanzine and had to force myself to put out every issue for the last year. I threw in the towel with this one. Thirty-six issues and ten years of production was a good run. It’s time for new activities. If you want more details, check out my Endings and Beginnings article at the end of issue 36. A lot of what I plan on working on will appear here on the blog, either as entries or reports on “behind the scenes” activities.

That said, it won’t be the last fanzine issue. Tom V., who I co-created the Frontier Explorer with, is going to revive the Star Frontiersman fanzine. So you can expect to see more content there as well. I’ll probably write for the magazine, but I won’t be producing it any more.

What to Expect

With that out of the way, let’s look at what you can expect here at the Expanding Frontier going forward. I currently have no idea what my publishing schedule is going to look like. I hope to get back to a post a week, and maybe even more, but we’ll see what happens. Here are some of the projects I’m going to be working on and posting about.

Detailed Frontier Timeline

First, I’m resuming the Detailed Frontier Timeline project where I am posting a day-to-day series of events going on in the Frontier, these posts go out daily on Twitter and monthly here on the blog. Currently, the timeline is in the thick of the opening events of the Second Sathar War. I tweeted nearly a month’s worth of events back in February 2021 that never got posted here on the blog. That summary post will be the next one after this post. (In fact, it’s already written. I just decided to get this post up before I posted that one).

If you want to get the daily updates, follow the @StarFrontiers account on Twitter or the #SFTimeline hashtag. I post these in the Star Frontier account instead of my personal account (@dagorym) and every post has the #SFTimeline hashtag. They will start back up on day FY61.382. Otherwise, my plan is to publish the summary blog post here during the first week of each month that collects all the Twitter posts from the previous month. So you’ll be getting the summary from February 2021 in a day or two, Twitter posts starting back up, and the next summary post in the beginning of June.

3D models

I want to get back to modeling. I still have 5 miniatures from the Privateer boxed set to recreate and then it will be off to to the races creating ship models of my own design. Probably several space stations to start. I don’t know exactly when I’ll get started on this, but I hope to start working on models by the end of May. We’ll see what kind of progress I make and how often I post these.

HSS History’s Hope

Back in December 2020, I posted a set of videos showing how I was creating the deck plans for the HSS History’s Hope, a ship that features in the Detailed Frontier Timeline. The idea was to both show the deck plans and talk about how I create them. I need to finish the deck plans for that ship. The question is, would you be interested in seeing videos of how I draw the remaining five decks or do you just want to see the final plans. If you want me to record the design/drawing process for the maps, let me know in the comments. I’m happy to do so, but that might delay getting this project restarted.

Regardless of whether I record videos of the deck plans being drawn or not, I have two projects in mind related to this ship, maybe three. The first is to do a Technical Manual for the HSS History’s Hope like I’ve done for the UPF Assault Scout and Sathar Destroyer. It will include details of each deck, a bit of history on the ship, and its stats, all in a nice little manual.

The other project I want to do is a write-up of an exploration campaign to use the ship to search for the Yazirian homeworld, exactly what is happening in the Detailed Frontier Timeline. This is an ambitious project so I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull it off or finish it (I’m really bad at that), but I’m going to give it a go.

The third possible item related to this is doing a write-up of the History’s Hope’s travels as chronicled in the Detailed Frontier Timeline but in a more narrative form with additional details added.

Writing

Which brings me to my next topic, fiction writing. I have a short sci-fi novella, Discovery, that I wrote over a decade ago. While it’s not exactly Star Frontiers, it’s also not explicitly not Star Frontiers either. I wrote that novella to describe how I envision Void Jumping to work. I have a sequel planned and I might start working on that. And it’s possible to tie this into the Star Frontiers universe if I wanted to as the story is about humans discovering FTL travel and they could discover the other SF races in a later novel.

However, more likely, I am going to keep working on my explicitly Star Frontiers novel, A Pale Survivor. That one is already half again longer than Discovery and about a quarter of the way through the story. This is a story of events on Pale during the invasion of that planet during what would eventually be called the First Sathar War. I posted the prologue to the story back in 2019.

I hope to spend some time every month working on one or both of these novels. If you’d be interested in seeing excerpts from the stories as I write them, let me know in the comments.

Technical Manuals

I mentioned the HSS History’s Hope Technical Manual above. Once that one is done, I plan to start doing more technical manuals of other ships. I think this, combined with the 3D modeling, is going to become my main focus. This is where my interest is being drawn more and more and I think that’s where I want to focus my time. We’ll see if it happens.

Miscellany

There are a number of projects that I started here on the blog that I may or may not get back to. Hopefully I will, but I’m not making promises at this point. In addition, I have a list of (currently 8) topic ideas for one-off posts that are sitting in my draft ideas folder. Some of those might end up as posts on this site and/or articles in the Star Frontiersman.

Website Work

The other major project that I have planned is to redesign and revamp all the websites I host. This site probably doesn’t need much work, but all the other Star Frontiers sites are getting pretty long in the tooth and need some serious effort and updating. I’ll probably start with the Frontier Explorer site but the list of sites needing work include:

the Frontier Explorer website (frontierexplorer.org)
the Star Frontiersman website (starfrontiersman.com – this one is going to Tom V)
the Star Frontiers Revival forum site (starfrontiers.us)
the Star Frontiers Network site – wiki, game forums, and old website archive (starfrontiers.info)
my New Frontier Games site (newfrontiergames.com)
a couple of personal sites

My plan is to consolidate and streamline those sites and make them more user and mobile device friendly.

Related to this, I want to get all the articles from the Frontier Explorer online as individual HTML pages that can linked and referenced. Some of them are already online and that was the plan when we started the magazine but it fell by the wayside. I’m planning on putting my librarian hat back on and getting them all finished.

There are a host of projects involved with this effort and I’ll report on them as they get completed.

Patreon

That’s quite a list of projects. The last item I want to mention is that I have a Patreon campaign that supports the work on this blog. If you’d like to support me in my efforts as I work on the projects above, consider becoming a Patreon supporter. You can click the “Become a Patron” button on the upper right of the page (or this link) to sign up as a supporter. I need to update my patreon page to reflect what is going to be happening still and especially update the goals/rewards, but the general idea is still there. If you’re already a supporter, thank you. If not, consider becoming one.

Last Thoughts

That’s it for this post. There are a lot of things I want to do. We’ll see which and how many of them I get to in the coming months and years. I hope to be here for the long haul but we’ll see how it goes.

As always, feel free to leave me comments or suggestions below. I have several old comments that I need to respond to, but I will be more responsive going forward and am interested in hearing what things you’d like to see on the blog.

Moonbright Stinger Miniature and Model (aka The Gullwind)

It’s been over seven months since I last posted a miniature. And a month and a half since I posted anything at all. I didn’t get back to posting in May like I had hoped but I have started working on projects again. I just haven’t found time to write up the posts. That will probably continue through mid-July (once I finish the next issue of the Frontier Explorer) but things should start picking up after that.

Which brings us to the Moonbright Stinger model. This is a miniature from the Privateers boxed set. I had mentioned in the past that I had all the miniatures from that set that I had collected loose, but not from a single set. I also mentioned that I had misplaced three of the minis. Several people offered to send me theirs so I could use them to recreate the miniatures. I’m grateful to those that offered. However, during the intervening months when I wasn’t posting, a new, still in shrink-wrap Privateers boxed set came up on Ebay. While I’ve been burned with sealed minis having lead rot, that has only been on the Federation Ships boxed set. I’ve never had an issue with any other ones. I really think it was something in the production run of that particular set of minis.

In any case, I decided to take the chance and exercised the “Buy it now” option on Ebay and purchased the miniature set. It arrived a few days later and when I opened it up, I was happy to discover that the figures were in pristine condition.

Miniatures from my new Privateers boxed set. The Moonbright Stinger with its engine that needs to be attached is there at the bottom left.

I had already started working on the Moonbright Stinger model by then as it was one of the ones I still had, but this gave me a second miniature to compare to. The name Moonbright Stinger is the name of the miniature that is give on the Privateers box. Most Star Frontiers gamers know a much more famous ship of the same class. In fact, after the assault scout, this is probably the second most iconic ship of the game. Of course I’m referring to the Gullwind, which features in the Dramune Run module:

The Gullwind. From SFKH:1 The Dramune Run, p 6.

And while the miniature doesn’t quite have the detail of the artist’s drawings, it’s pretty close.

The 3D Model

The above is a render of the completed 3D model as seen from the “top” of the ship. The decks are perpendicular to the thrust axis as is true for all ships in Star Frontiers, but the artists like to draw this ship this way so I oriented the image that way as well.

This model was a bit complicated but I think of all of the Privateer models, it’s going to be the easiest to recreate so that’s why I started with it. I began by roughing out the body. The engines were easy as was the fuselage up through the cargo bay (that large cylinder at the back). Forward of the cargo bay, the “underside” (not seen) is cylindrical while the “top” is a trapezoid. It took a little bit of jiggling to get that just right and in the end, I ended up making the top of the trapezoid a bit too wide but not enough to worry about.

The other thing is the nose of the ship is 1) not perfectly round, and b) off-center from the axis of the ship. Luckily my modeling software has a “hull” command that allows you to define a series of shapes at various layers and then the computer will smoothly connect them to form a surface. I used this to do both the nose (below where it became cylindrical) and the transition region from the main body to the nose. The roughed out body is shown in the image to the right. The observant reader may notice that the engines are not lined up in this roughed out version as they are in the final model. I didn’t notice that I did that until I was comparing the printed version of the miniature with the original.

After I had the basic hull done, I added in all the details on the miniature. Adding the positive features was fairly straightforward although those pods on the side of the ship just forward of the cargo bay were a bit tricky. With the easy stuff done, it was time to start adding in the negative details that were cut out of the body of the ship.

Of course life got in the way and there was a five month gap between adding the positive features and when I started added the negative details. I did this in sections, first I added details to the “top” of the ship, working from the cargo bay to the nose. I then went back and added in details on the starboard side and then port side, and finally the the rounded bottom of the ship. While I measured out all the features to get their sizes and positions, the final placement was done by eye to try to match the miniature. In the process, I discovered that I had gotten the length a bit wrong on parts of the ship’s fuselage (the final model is 1mm longer than the original miniature) and had the positions of some of the positive details slightly wrong as well. Positions and sizes (except for that 1mm length difference) were corrected as I went along. That gave us the final model as seen in the images below showing the two sides of the ship.

The “top” and starboard sides of the ship.

The port and “bottom” sides of the ship.

Printing

With the model done it was time to print it out and compare it to the original. Here’s what that first print looked like:

First print compared to the original model.

After putting these next to each other and taking this picture, I noticed a few thing immediately:

I need to get a better camera than just my cell phone for taking close-up (macro) shots. Also, the discoloration on the printed miniature is is probably due to my haste in the cleaning and curing process. I might not have let it dry enough before curing.
This is when I noticed that the engines in the model are rotated 30 degrees from where they should be. I’m not sure how I missed that. The hole in the top of the metal miniature near the back is where the third engine on that mini is supposed to attach when you glue it on.
The positive features are mostly fine, but it turns out the negative feature on the fuselage are not quite deep enough to really make them stand out like they do on the original. I thought that might be the case when I was making the mode and it turns out that I was right. I will need to tweak them all to make them deeper.
The big dome and boxy structure near the nose of the ship are a bit too big. They need to be shrunk down just a tad.
Finally, this is when I noticed that the model is 1mm longer than the original. The discrepancy is in the nose area starting in the transition region down to the smaller nose and the nose section being a bit too long. When I was building the model I noticed I had a bit more space there but wasn’t sure why. I’m not going to fix this.

Observations in hand, I went through and doubled the depth of the negative features, tweaked the size and positions of the positive features, and reprinted the model.

And then I noticed I rotated the engines the wrong direction so now they are 60 degrees off instead of 30. Oops. But the negative details stand out much better now and I’m happy with the way it looks. After this print I fixed the engine position and that resulted in the model image at the top of the post. I haven’t since reprinted the model but will at some point.

What’s next?

Next up is one of the smaller Privateer models, the Thruster class. It’s the small one in the upper left of the group picture up above. That one will take some work to get the wing features correct as that smoother shape is not something my CAD software does natively. I did it for the Freighter miniature, so I just need to relearn how.

I will be getting this model up on DriveThruRPG along with the rest of the models there as well as getting a price on to the price list here on this site.

Let me know what you think about this miniature and model in the comments below.

State of the Frontier – April 2021

Hey everyone. I’m back.

I basically dropped off-line and out of the Frontier mid February and haven’t done anything related to Star Frontiers or RPGs (with one exception, see below) in the intervening time. I’ve even stopped posting my Detailed Frontier Timeline tweets. In hindsight, I was seriously burnt out and just needed a break. About the only communications I had relative to this blog or other gaming content were messages to my Patreon supporters to let them know that they wouldn’t be billed in March or April. They also aren’t getting billed in May (since I didn’t do anything in April). Thank you to everyone who has stuck by be through this.

The one thing that I did do, was get the next issue of the Frontier Explorer ready and out. It came out on the 28th and you can grab it at DriveThruRPG or on the magazine website. And to be honest, getting the magazine ready almost didn’t pull me out of my slump as I didn’t start on the magazine until the beginning of this month when I would normally have started at the beginning of March. But I haven’t had an issue come out late (even if my deadlines are self-imposed) and didn’t want this one to either. In the end I got it finished (even with a drive failure right as I was finishing that corrupted the document forcing me to redo the layout from scratch) and you can grab the current issue for your reading pleasure.

Looking Forward

There really isn’t anything to look back at so let’s look forward. I’m going to start out small and probably won’t get a post out every week but try to get back to that schedule by the end of summer. But to start I’m going to focus on finishing some small projects.

The first thing I’m going to do is get my Detailed Frontier Timeline posts back up and going. I need to create about a week worth of entries and I’ll have another month ready to post here. I’ll start posting on Twitter again (follow the #SFTimeline hashtag) on May 1st and work to get caught up. I’m several months behind so that might take a while.

The second project I’m going to focus on is the video series I was doing on drawing the deck plans of the HSS History’s Hope. That should account for a post or two.

Finally, I’m going to get back to working on the 3D ship models. I recently was lucky and picked up an brand-new, unopened Privateers boxed set and the minis are in pristine condition. So now I have all six and I’m going to work on trying to get one of those recreated each month. As I’m already halfway done with one of them, I will hopefully get the first one done in May and then one a month until October. We’ll see what happens after that.

Beyond that, I have no idea what will happen but that’s enough to get me started. I have several topic ideas that I might flesh out into full posts but we’ll see how things go.

Last Thoughts

This post also marks 3 years since I started the blog. There have been 196 total posts (including this one) over those three years, even with the two and a half month hiatus I just took. Thanks to all of you who have followed along on this journey so far and especially to my Patreon supporters.

There isn’t much else to say. I’m looking forward to posting again and hope to keep doing so for a while.

Battle of Liberty – FY61.362

*** FLASH FLASH FLASH ***
TO: Spacefleet Command
FROM: PG Liberty
Engaged sathar forces outbound from Snowball. Lucky hit by sathar torpedo detonated magazine on UPFS Singing River (frigate) during initial engagement. Mhemne forces, together with assault scouts (UPFS Dirk and Heron) destroyed sathar frigate but UPFS Dirk lost maneuvering and pursued by sathar light cruiser. Damage to engines resulted in light cruiser overtaking and destroying UPFS Dirk. UPFS Heron remains on station in system.
*** FLASH FLASH FLASH ***
Spacefleet Signal Traffic

Background

With the loss of the single frigate comprising Exploration Group 1, the sathar decide to go with a stronger reconnaissance force and dispatch SBF-J2 (a light cruiser and frigate) to explore the route to Theseus.

Detected departing Snowball by PG Liberty, Spacefleet authorizes them to attack the sathar vessels on their way out of the system. The Mhemne offer some of their ships to help. Although limited in technology compared to the UPF and sathar vessels, the Mhemne ships will be able to make at least a single pass at the sathar vessels.

Three days out from the planet, the UPF and Mhemne forces intercept the sathar vessels.

Order of Battle

UPF

2 Assault Scouts
1 Frigate
3 Mhemne vessels

Sathar

1 Frigate
1 Light Cruiser

The Battle

Setup

The UPF are the attackers in this scenario. The sathar ships are flying in formation moving at speed 15 entering from the right of the battle area.

The three UPF ships are in a formation with the three Mhemne ships flying together nearby. They are also moving at speed 15. The plan is for the Mhemne to make a single pass at the sathar vessels firing at the frigate and then continue on while the UPF continue to engage and hopefully destroy the sathar.

Initial positions. Click for full size image.

Turn 1

The UPF and Mhemne forces drift forward maintaining their speed of 15. Perceiving the UPF forces to be the bigger threat, the sathar maneuver to take the UPF ships on head-on while also maintaining their speed of 15. No shots fires as the combatants are all out of range.

Initial maneuvering. Click for full size image.

Turn 2

Seeing that the sathar are tracking them, and hoping to draw them into the firing range of the Mhemne, the UPF forces pull up parallel the Mhemne course and accelerate to speed 19. They turn to face the oncoming sathar vessels in the hope that that will cause the sathar ships to fly up near the Mhemne vessels.

The UPF plan works (maybe too well) and the sathar accelerate to speed 16 and maneuver so that they don’t come into the forward firing arc of the frigate’s laser cannon and move into rocket battery range. However, that brings them within 20,000 km of the Mhemne ships.

Defensively, the UPF and Mhemne all focus their fire on the sathar frigate. Two of the Mhemne ships hit lightly damaging the frigates hull (5%) and knocking out its laser cannon. The UPF forces all miss.

Offensively, the sathar ships fire their energy weapons at the assault scouts and rocket weapons at the frigate. They miss the lead assault scout but the light cruiser its the second assault scout with its disruptor cannon damaging its navigation control system. They do much better against the frigate hitting it with a rocket battery and a torpedo that slips through the ICM screen destroying the UPF vessel.

Positions after initial engagement. Click for full size image.

Turn 3

With the UPF frigate destroyed right off the bat, the UPF forces are now seriously out gunned. The assault scout, its navigation controls system damaged, turns to port and accelerates to maximum to try to get away. It doesn’t have a perfect shot but fires its assault rocket at the sathar frigate. The other assault scout loops around and fires on the frigate from behind before heading off away from the sathar vessels at maximum acceleration. The Mhemne ships continue to drift away reserving their limited maneuvering in case they need it later.

Ignoring the Mhemne ships, the sathar vessels fire all their energy weapons at the two assault scouts. The lead assault scout is hit by a laser and electron battery as well as the light cruiser’s disruptor cannon seriously damaging its hull (60%) and crippling its damage control systems. The second assault scout is hit by a proton battery damaging its hull (47%).

The Mhemne ships fire at the frigate as they pass hitting with 2 laser batteries damaging the sathar vessels hull (33%). The assault scouts both fire everything at the frigate as well hitting with 1 laser battery and 2 assault rockets knocking out the frigates maneuvering (with the laser battery) before destroying it with the assault rockets.

The sathar light cruiser accelerates to chase after the assault scout directly ahead, ignoring the other ships. The assault scout fires its laser battery in defense but misses. The light cruiser fires its energy weapons at the assault scout hitting with its electron and proton batteries damaging the assault scout’s engines and knocking out its maneuvering capability.

Repair Turn 1

Neither of the assault scouts are able to effect any repairs. No other ships are currently damaged.

Positions after the first half hour. Click for full size image.

Turn 4

The UPF assault scout and Mhemne ships continue to drift away from the sathar ship. The assault scout being chased, lacking any maneuvering maxes out its acceleration as it tries to escape the pursing light cruiser.

The light cruiser hits the assault scout with its proton battery knocking out half of the assault scout’s acceleration capability. The assault scout misses the light cruiser. The light cruiser continues to accelerate as it chases the assault scout and maneuvers to come directly astern of the smaller ship. It drops a bit behind this turn but with the assault scout’s engines mostly disabled, it will close on it soon enough. It gets some extreme range shots with its energy weapons but misses.

It’s a tail chase now. The other ships are far enough away that they get away safely and we are just tracking the sathar vessel and its target. Click for full image.

Turn 5

Using what acceleration it has, the assault scout continues to speed up as it tries to get away. The LC hits it with its disruptor cannon igniting a fire. It returns fire with its laser battery but misses. The assault scout’s initial speed advantage temporarily takes it out of range of the light cruiser’s weapons.

To avoid having to draw long trails, and since relative velocity is all that really matters, I’ve adjusted the displayed speeds down. Click for full-size image.

Turn 6

The gap between the ships widen but the light cruiser’s greater acceleration will start closing it once again soon.

Repair Turn 2

Again the assault scouts fail to repair any systems.

Positions of the two ships still engaged after an hour. Click for full size image.

Turn 7

The light cruiser matches the assault scouts’ speed and will begin to overtake it on the next turn. (I forgot to save an image but it was just more of the same.)

Turn 8

The light cruiser starts to close the gap and is just out of range of its electron and proton battery weapons.

The gap between the ships start to close. Click for full size image.

Turn 9

The light cruiser closes to within 90,000 km. The assault scout fires on the cruiser with its laser battery but misses. The light cruiser fires with its energy weapons and hits with its proton battery destroying the small UPF ship.

And the fight is over after an hour and a half. Click for full size image.

Final Repairs

It takes another 8 hours but the damaged UPF assault scout manages to repair its damage control system (7 hours) and its hull (another hour).

Lessons Learned

That didn’t go at all like the UPF planned. They did manage to destroy the sathar frigate but expected their frigate to survive a bit longer. Poor shooting by the UPF and great shooting by the sathar on the first round definitely tipped things in favor of the sathar.

The Mhemne acquitted themselves well hitting with 4 of their 6 shots. Had the frigate survived the first round they might have tried to loop back around for a second pass but the quick destruction of the frigate put survival ahead of damaging the sathar.

The second assault scout almost got away but the long range hit by the light cruiser’s distruptor cannon that knocked out its engines, combined with its failed repair rolls, spelled eventual doom for that ship as it was seriously outgunned by the light cruiser.

The sathar finally won a battle but unfortunately for them it was just a minor one on the periphery of the battle.

Second Battle of Ken’zah-Kit (K’aken-Kar) – FY61.358

After nearly two and half hours of fighting, Task Force Cassidine defeated the invading sathar forces destroying all but a heavy cruiser and fighter which are currently departing the system. The ships of the task force are almost all heavily damaged but only a single fighter was lost in the battle, the pilot of which ejected safely and has been recovered.
Rak’tal-ka, StarPlay News

Background

Fresh from the battle with the other sathar force in the K’tsa-Kar system, Task Force Cassidine is ready to face this new sathar threat. While the presence of the militia assault scout that recently disappeared trying to probe the source of the sathar fleets would have been helpful, it would not have made a lot of difference in the fight.

After the recently losses in the K’tsa-Kar and Truane’s Star systems, SBF-J1, crewed by veterans of the campaign against the saurians, look to turn the tide and chalk up a victory for the sathar forces. The fleets are fairly evenly matched with the UPF forces leaning more toward the larger ships with the loss of their assault scouts and half of their fighters in the previous engagement.

Order of Battle

This is probably the most evenly matched battle, in terms of hull points and capabilities, of any fight yet in the war. Looking at hull points, the UPF are coming into this with a total of 435 HP of ship compared to the sathar’s 441. Three of the UPF ships are slightly damaged: one fighter only has 5 of 8 HP, a frigate is at 29 of 40, and the battleship has a damaged stasis screen. Those were all battle damage that couldn’t be repaired in space after their recent battle in the K’sta-Kar system. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out.