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.
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
The Mhemne ships only posses limited chemical drives compared to the atomic drives of the sathar and UPF vessels and required significant help to boost up to the required speed. For the purposes of this battle they all have 25 HP, 2 ADF, 2 MR, and a laser battery. In addition, they can only use a total of 8 MR and/or ADF before their fuel supply is exhausted.
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.
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
Okay, I thought the Second Battle of Kwadl-Kit was a long one, this one went even longer. Sorry about the delay in getting it out but it took a while to play out. Task Force Cassidine just seems to like these long, spread-out battles. The map is going to really shift around this time as this fight involves a long chase and at one point it’s happening on two different maps as the battle spreads out. I hope you enjoy the narration. I also think this might now be the longest blog post yet.
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.
Spacefleet (Task Force Cassidine)
3 Fighters
2 Frigates
1 Light Cruiser
1 Assault Carrier
1 Heavy Cruiser
1 Battleship
Sathar
7 Fighters
1 Frigate
1 Destroyer
2 Light Cruisers
1 Assault Carrier
1 Heavy Cruiser
The Battle
Setup
The UPF elect to battle near the planet although with no station left to defend, they start far back from the planet at a moderate speed of 15 for all ships, including the fighters. The two frigates form a battle group and the light cruiser and the battleship team up. Those two groups form the center of the battle line. The heavy cruiser escorts the assault carrier toward the bottom of the battle area while the three fighters form a flight near the top. They deploy four of the six seeker missiles available on the side of the planet the sathar will be approaching from. The heavy cruiser and battleship each retain one seeker missile in their magazines for deployment during the fight.
Like the UPF, the sathar come in at only a moderate speed to try to gauge the other side’s tactics and responses before committing. They too are only moving at speed 15 but are split up to go wide around the planet. The sathar heavy cruiser and assault carrier, escorted by a destroyer come in opposite their UPF counterparts with a flight of three fighters just off their wing. The light cruisers, escorted by a frigate, come in opposite the UPF fighters, with a flight of four fighters off their wing.
Initial positions of the ships. The seeker missiles are not shown. Click for full sized image.
Turn 1
The sathar capital ships maintain their speed and advance on the UPF forces. The fighters accelerate to speed 20 and fly farther out on the wings of the formation.
The UPF ships converge toward the lower group of sathar capital ships. The heavy cruiser and assault carrier continue to advance at speed 15. The light cruiser and battleship accelerate to speed 17, the frigates to speed 19, the fighters to speed 20.
No shots are fired this round as the two forces remain out of range.
Positions after the first turn of maneuvering. Also the seeker missiles are shown on this one for reference. Unfortunately, the file was partially corrupted and the bottom of the map was cut off but the three sathar fighters just mirrored the maneuver of the fighters at the top of the map. Click for full size image.
Turn 2
The sathar all begin accelerating toward the UPF. The group centered around the heavy cruiser accelerates to speed 17 and flies straight at their UPF counterpart while their wing of fighters accelerates to 25 and makes a pass at the same group. All the sathar ships fire at the UPF assault carrier. The upper battle group accelerates to speed 18 and turns down toward the UPF forces while the upper flight of fighters accelerates to speed 25 and sets up for an attack run next turn as they are too far away to engage this round.
Defensive, the UPF ships all focus on the flight of three lower fighters with the UPF heavy cruiser taking a long-range shot with its disruptor cannon at the sathar destroyer. They don’t do too well and of the 17 shots fired at the three fighters, only one connects with each ship, knocking the hull integrity down by half on one, inducing a navigation control hit on a second, and knocking out the maneuvering on the third. The disruptor cannon shot at the destroyer also misses.
Offensively, the sathar fare a bit better. Two of the assault rockets hit the assault carrier knocking out half its engine capability and reducing its hull integrity by 17%. The sathar destroyer hits with its laser cannon further reducing the hull integrity of the UPF assault carrier by another 19%. The heavy cruiser’s distruptor cannon knocks out the assault carrier’s masking screen launcher.
The larger UPF capital ships maintain their speeds and converge on the sathar battle group. The heavy cruiser and assault carrier fly right over the group turning up toward the planet at the end of their move. The battleship and light cruiser maneuver down to take point blank shots at the sathar as well. The frigates accelerate to speed 20 and come just in range of their rocket batteries while the fighters accelerate to speed 25 and make an assault rocket pass from below.
Defensively, the sathar ships continue to fire at the assault carrier with their energy weapons while they fire their three rocket batteries at the lead frigate. The frigate is hit by two of the rocket batteries reducing its hull integrity by 28% and knocking out a third of its maneuvering capability.
The assault carrier is hammered by the sathar’s weapons being hit by 2 electron, 2 laser, and one proton battery as wall as a laser and disruptor cannon. All told the damage knocks out all of the UPF assault carrier’s weapons, starts a fire, damages its combat control system, induces a navigation control failure, and reduces its hull integrity by another 13%.
Offensively the UPF focus on the sathar assault carrier and heavy cruiser with the frigates and fighters firing at the assault carrier and the other ships firing on the heavy cruiser.
Only one of the fighters hit the assault carrier but it scores a critical hull hit dropping the carrier’s hull integrity by 40%. The frigates combine to hit with a laser battery, laser cannon and rocket battery knocking out the carriers engines and further reducing its hull integrity by 7%.
The sathar heavy cruiser fares even worse being hit by a barrage of weapons from the UPF battleship, light cruiser and heavy cruiser. All told it is hit by all 3 distruptor cannons, 2 rocket batteries, 3 laser batteries, two proton batteries, and an electron battery. The damage knocks out the sathar heavy cruiser’s engines and maneuvering, ICM launcher, laser battery, proton screen and stasis screen, cuts it damage control ability in half, and starts a fire. Surprisingly, the weapons did little hull damage only reducing the ship’s hull integrity by 25%.
Positions and course after the first shots were fired. Click for full size image.
Turn 3
The sathar fighter and heavy cruiser, both with no MR, fly straight ahead (to the left). The fighter slows down to speed 20 while the heavy cruiser, with no ADF either, just stays at speed 17. The fighter with the navigation control hit slows to speed 20 and spins to port flying up toward the planet while the remaining fighter from the lower group accelerates to speed 20 and goes after the pair of UPF frigates. The other fighters also speed up to 30 hexes/turn and go after the frigates as well, both fighter groups looping around the planet.
The sathar assault carrier, with its navigation control hit, pull to starboard and with no ADF, flies up away from the main battle. The sathar destroyer loops around to go after the UPF frigates as well and the light cruisers and frigate decelerate back to 15 and light up for a shot at the UPF battleship. The fire on the UPF assault carrier damages its hull (5%).
Defensively, the UPF frigates fire their laser batteries at the fighters and rocket batteries at the destroyer while the other UPF ships concentrate all their fire on the lead sathar light cruiser.
The UPF frigates miss the fighters completely but hit the destroyer with two rocket batteries seriously damaging it and deducing its hull integrity by 72%. The other ships hit the sathar light cruiser with 2 laser, 2 rocket, 1 electron, and 1 proton battery knocking out its ICM launcher, engines, and stasis screen, starting a fire and reducing its hull integrity by 16%.
Offensively, the sathar fighters hit the lead UPF frigate with and assault rocket reducing its hull integrity by 43% and the second one with an assault rocket as well reducing its already damaged hull (from the previous battle) by 38%. The destroyer also hits the second UPF frigate with its electron battery and laser cannon knocking out the frigates engines.
The sathar frigate and light cruisers hammer the UPF battleship hitting it with 2 disruptor cannons, 2 proton batteries, 1 electron battery, and 2 torpedoes that slip through the battleship’s ICM screen. The weapons short circuit the battleship’s defensive system, reduce its maneuvering ability by half, knock out its proton battery and reduce its hull integrity by 66%.
The two UPF frigates, now heavily damaged, drift on their current course firing at the destroyer as they leave. The assault carrier also drifts but its navigation control hit causes it to pull to port. Despite its weakened hull, it holds together. The battleship also drifts away from the fight firing all its weapons at the damaged light cruiser.
The UPF heavy cruiser turns parallel to the course of the assault carrier but lines up for a direct shot with its disruptor cannon at the sathar destroyer. It fires its rocket battery and torpedo at the undamaged light cruiser and uses its energy batteries to fire on the sathar fighters. The light cruiser follows a similar path and firing at the same targets. The fighters loop up around the planet and come up behind the sathar frigate firing their assault rockets at it.
The fire on the sathar light cruiser and sathar heavy cruiser damages both ships’ hulls reducing their integrity by 13% and 11% respectively.
Defensively, the sathar ships continue to fire at the battleship, hoping to destroy it before it can fly out of range. The sathar assault carrier makes a long range attack at its UPF counterpart with its proton battery but misses. The sathar destroyer fires at the lead UPF frigate hitting with its electron and rocket batteries knocking out the frigate’s masking screen launcher and damaging its combat control system.
The battleship manages to get off lightly and is only hit by 2 distruptor cannons and a laser battery cutting its damage control capability in half and reducing its hull integrity by another 14%.
Offensively, the UPF battleships hits the lead sathar destroyer with its laser and 2 electron batteries and slips a torpedo through the cruiser’s ICM screen destroying it and scoring the first kill of the battle. The UPF heavy cruiser manages to get its torpedo through the other light cruiser’s ICM screen cutting the sathar ship’s maneuvering in half but otherwise missing.
The UPF fighters hit the sathar frigate with all three assault rockets destroying it completely. The sathar destroyer is hit by disruptor canons from the UPF light and heavy cruiser, as well as a laser battery and two rocket batteries from the frigates. The frigates also manage to get a torpedo through the destroyer’s ICM screen. The combined damage from the UPF weapons obliterates the sathar ship. The sathar fighters get away with only minor damage: one loses 60% of its engine capability, one has its damage control capabilities cut in half, and the third loses 38% of its hull integrity.
Repair Turn
As the ships work on repairs, the lead UPF frigate finds that it’s hull is too damaged to repair in space and must find a way to a shipyard with only 30% of its hull intact. The other frigate manages to repair a bit of its hull restoring 10% of its integrity. The UPF assault carrier puts out the on-board fire while the battleship repairs 3% of its hull.
The two sathar fighters with hull damage find that they need a shipyard to repair their hull as well with their hull integrity sitting at 62% and 50% respectively. The sathar assault carrier restores 11% of its hull integrity while the heavy cruiser gets its fire under control.
Courses and positions after a half hour of combat and repairs. Things are starting to scatter as ships are damaged and lose maneuvering capability and control or are too damaged to risk maneuvering. Ships moving off the map will have a yellow number by them showing how many hexes off the map they are. Click for full size image.
Turn 4
The flight of four sathar fighters all go after the UPF assault carrier hoping to finish it off. They loop around to make a direct assault and then fly off to chase after the UPF frigates. The lone fighter, after firing its last assault rocket at the heavy cruiser loops around and starts heading for its carrier to dock and rearm. The fighter with the navigation control damage loops to port and fires one of its assault rockets at a UPF fighter as it passes by. The remaining fighter, with no maneuvering, along with the sathar heavy cruiser in the same condition, continue to drift away from the fight. The sathar assault carrier, with its navigation control damage, pulls to starboard and passes distantly in front of the UPF cruisers and assault carrier. The remaining sathar light cruiser turns to go after the battleship hoping to finish it off.
Defensively, the UPF cruisers fire at the sathar fighters hoping to take them out before they can fire their assault rockets. The battleship fires at the light cruiser pursuing it and the frigates get a couple of distant shots at the sathar fighters.
The sathar light cruiser is hit by one of the battleship’s laser batteries and both electron batteries which score a critical hull hit (integrity reduced by 26%), knock out its ICM launcher, and damage its navigation control systems. Four of the five sathar fighters are hit by the UPF ships knocking the hull integrity down to half on one, destroying a second and damaging the assault rocket launcher on the other two (including the lone fighter going after the heavy cruiser).
Offensively, the two fighters with working assault rocket launchers firing at the assault carrier both miss while the sathar fighter with the navigation hit firing at the UPF fighter hits with its assault rocket destroying the UPF fighter, the first (and as it will turn out, only) UPF ship destroyed in the fight. The battleship is hit by the sathar light cruiser’s electron battery, proton battery, and distruptor cannon knocking out its proton screen, damaging its combat control system, and reducing its hull integrity by another 12% (only 11% remaining).
The two UPF frigates continue to drift and fire long distance shots at the fighters. The battleship drifts away from the light cruiser firing at it as it goes. The two UPF fighters loop around and take a run at the sathar light cruiser firing their last assault rockets. The UPF assault carrier pulls to starboard and runs parallel to its sathar counterpart while the UPF light and heavy cruisers maneuver directly onto the sathar assault carrier’s tail and take point blank shots with all their weapons.
Defensively, the sathar light cruiser fires at the battleship and the sathar assault carrier fires at the UPF light cruiser. The UPF light cruiser is hit by a rocket battery reducing its hull integrity by 17% while the battleship is hit by an electron battery knocking out its ICM launcher.
Offensively, the sathar light cruiser is hit by one of the battleship’s laser batteries knocking out its proton battery and by both assault rockets from the fighters which damage its combat control system and knock its hull integrity down by 20%. The lead UPF frigate manages to score a long range laser battery shot on the lead sathar fighter knocking out its assault rocket launcher. The UPF cruisers hit the sathar assault carrier with a distruptor cannon and a laser, electron, and rocket battery knocking out the carriers maneuvering, laser battery, and masking screen launcher and damaging its combat control system.
Maneuvering and positions after forty minutes of battle. The UPF are stating to score kills and the ships are really starting to scatter. Click for full size image.
Turn 5
The group of three sathar fighters sets off after the two UPF frigates, the lone fighter, with its assault rocket launcher disabled, and realizing that the assault carrier is probably not going to survive the battle, attempts to ram the UPF light cruiser. The sathar light cruiser pulls to port and slows down, firing at the two UPF fighters. The other ships just continue to drift away with the assault carrier firing at the UPF light cruiser as it drifts.
Defensively, the UPF frigates fire at the remaining fighter with a working assault rocket launcher but miss. The UPF light cruiser fires at the oncoming fighter and destroys it before it can ram the larger ship. The UPF heavy cruiser hits the sathar assault carrier with its laser and rocket battery and reduces its hull integrity by another 36%.
Offensive, the sathar fighter misses the UPF frigate with its assault rocket while the sathar light cruiser hits one of the UPF fighters damaging its combat control system. The sathar assault carrier hits the UPF light cruiser with its proton and rocket battery short circuiting the cruiser’s defensive systems and reducing its hull integrity by 20%.
The UPF assault carrier’s loss of navigation control pulls it to starboard and the fighters, out of assault rockets, start heading back to the carrier to rearm. The heavy and light cruiser stay on the tail of the sathar assault carrier while the frigates and battleship continue to drift.
Defensively, the sathar assault carrier continues to fire on the UPF light cruiser hitting with its rocket battery for another 16% hull reduction on the cruiser. All other ships are out of range.
Offensively the UPF frigates fire at the pursuing fighters but miss. The UPF cruiser open fire on the sathar assault carrier and hit with 3 laser batteries, 2 proton batteries, an electron battery, a disruptor cannon, and two torpedoes completely destroying the sathar carrier.
This is the ships off the top of the main map (UPF cruisers and frigates, sathar assault carrier and fighters). The bottom row of hexes on this map exactly correspond to the top row of hexes on the main map (below). Click for full size image.Main battle map after turn 5. Things continue to spread out. Click for full size image.
Turn 6
With their carrier destroyed and being either out of weapons or their weapon system disabled, the three sathar fighters attempt to ram the UPF frigates. The sathar light cruiser pulls to starboard and accelerates back to speed 16, the lone fighter near the planet pulls to port with its navigation damage and the other two ships continue to drift away.
Defensively, the frigates fire everything they can at the incoming fighters hitting two with their laser batteries, the lead fighter for 75% of its hull and the second for a navigation hit but not enough to destroy them before they ram. Two fighters slam into the lead frigate and despite its damaged hull fail to destroy it only taking out 20% of the remaining 30% hull integrity. The third fighter hits the second frigate for a measly 5% of its hull integrity.
The UPF frigates and battleship continue to drift, the assault carrier pulls to port and the fighters continue to close on the carrier to rearm. The heavy and light cruiser start accelerating and turn to head after the sathar light cruiser. No shots are fired as everyone is out of range.
Repair Turn 2
The lead UPF frigate repairs the damage caused by the two ramming sathar fighters but can repair its hull no further. The other frigate repairs 12% of its hull integrity while the light cruiser repairs 3% of its. The assault carrier gets its navigation control system fixed as well as repairing 8% of its hull. The battleship repairs 5% of its hull and brings is damage control system fully back on-line.
The sathar light cruiser repairs its navigation control system while the heavy cruiser discovers that a shipyard will be required to bring its damage control system back fully on-line.
The upper map after an hour of fighting. The second blue line by the assault carrier should have fighters at the end of it but I forgot to move the tokens. Click for full size image.The main battle map after an hour. The poor sathar fighter can’t get is navigation system under control and is stuck near the planet. Click for full size image.
Turn 7
With its navigation control system repaired, the sathar light cruiser sets off at max acceleration to attempt to intercept the UPF battleship and finish it off. The damaged fighter comes to a stop near the planet as the pilot continues to work on its navigation control issues.
The UPF cruisers continue in pursuit of the sathar light cruiser while the assault carrier, its hull and navigation control fixed, starts to turn around and head back toward the planet. The two surviving fighters pull alongside the carrier and start docking procedures.
We’ve now shifted the map to track the sathar light cruiser pursing the battleship and the UPF cruisers pursing it. The other ships are effectively out of the battle. The planet is some 200,000 km off the left side of this map. Click for full size image.
Turn 8
The chase continues. The sathar light cruiser continues to close on the battleship but the UPF light cruiser, which had a slight speed advantage on the sathar light cruiser, continues to close on it as well as it starts to outdistance the older heavy cruiser that has a lower acceleration. The two UPF fighters dock with the assault carrier.
The gaps between the ships are narrowing. Click for full size image.
Turn 9
Since relative speed are all that matter, I’ve adjusted the speeds shown on the maps down so that the battleship is stopped and the other three ships have been scaled accordingly.
The chase continues as the light cruisers close on their targets. The UPF heavy cruiser is as close as it is going to get to the sathar ship unless the sathar vessel’s engines are damaged as the greater acceleration of the sathar light cruiser has allowed it to match speeds with the heavy cruiser. The UPF fighters are rearmed.
Repair Turn 3
The lead UPF frigate repairs some of its maneuvering while the other frigate repairs 10% of its hull. The UPF light cruiser also repairs 10% of its hull while the assault carrier brings its laser and proton battery back on-line. The battleship, expecting to have to defend against torpedoes from the the sathar light cruiser, gets its ICM launcher working again and repairs another 5% of its hull.
The lone sathar fighter repairs some of its maneuvering capability and starts to maneuver to meet up with the heavy cruiser. The sathar light cruiser repairs 13% of its hull while the heavy cruiser restores half of its engine capability and begins accelerating to out of the system.
The ships have almost come in range of the battleship. Speeds have been adjusted so that they are relative to the battleship being at rest. Click for full size image.
Turn 10
The sathar light cruiser continues to close on the battleship and the UPF light cruiser continues to close on the sathar light cruiser. The two UPF fighters, rearmed, launch from the assault carrier and go after the lone sathar fighter near the planet.
The heavy cruiser is now starting to fall behind. Click for full size image.
Turn 11
The UPF light cruiser continues to close the gap but it is looking like the sathar ship will get to the battleship before the UPF light cruiser can intercept it. The battleship, at relative rest to the other ships, rotates to face the direction it expects the sathar vessel to come from in order to bring its disruptor cannon to bear.
It’s taken nearly an hour, but the sathar light cruiser is nearly in range of the battleship with the UPF light cruiser in hot pursuit and gaining. Click for full size image.
Turn 12
Realizing it cannot quite get into torpedo range this round, the sathar light cruiser remains at its current speed staying at extreme range for the battleship’s defenses although this will also allow the UPF light cruiser a chance to close as well.
Defensively the battleships fires all of its energy weapons at the sathar vessel but they all go wide although one of the electron batteries would have hit except for the battleship’s damaged combat control system. The sathar light cruiser returns fire but also misses.
The UPF light cruiser and heavy cruiser close in on the sathar vessel but the heavy cruiser is still well out of range. The sathar ship fires once again at the battleship this time hitting with its distruptor cannon shorting out the battleships defenses and ICMs. The battleship and light cruiser return fire. The battleship connects with a LB damaging the sathar light cruiser’s hull (11%). The UPF light cruiser is still too far away and its shots go wide.
The UPF fighters hit the sathar fighter with one of their assault rockets knocking out it’s assault rocket launcher.
Repair Turn 4
The lead UPF frigate repairs its combat control system and is now as functional as it can be without getting to a shipyard to repair its heavily damaged hull. The other frigate restores more of its engine capability. The UPF light cruiser repairs 13% of its hull while the assault carrier also gets a minor hull repair restoring 1%. The battleship focuses all of its repairs on its hull, hoping to survive the oncoming attack and restores 13% of its hull integrity.
The sathar fighter under attack by the UPF fighters finally fixes its navigation control system while the other fighter restores some of its maneuverability. The UPF light cruiser fixes its combat control system and brings its proton battery back on-line in preparation for attacking the UPF Battleship.
Shots are fired as the ships once more come in range. Click for full size image.
Turn 13
The sathar light cruiser makes a pass on the battleship firing everything it can at the larger vessel and using its maximum acceleration. The lone sathar fighter, its navigation control issues solved, begins accelerating away from the planet, hoping to surviving the next two rounds of assault rocket fire from the two UPF fighters.
Defensively, the battleship and light cruiser try to take out the sathar light cruiser before it can inflict any more damage on the battleship. The UPF light cruiser, at nearly maximum range misses, while the battleship connects with 2 laser batteries, a proton battery, and its disruptor cannon slightly damaging the cruiser’s hull (8%), knocking out its laser battery and engines, and inducing a malfunction in its navigation control system.
The sathar light cruiser returns fire with all of its function weapons but in the excitement of the moment, the gunner all miss and the battleship escapes unscathed.
The UPF light cruiser closes to torpedo range on the sathar vessel and opens fire with everything it can. The heavy cruiser continues to close and the battleship fires a long range salvo at the now retreating sathar light cruiser. The fighters again fire at the lone sathar fighter, this time hitting it with one of their assault rockets and destroying it.
Defensively the sathar light cruiser now focuses on its pursuer and fires at the UPF light cruiser hitting with both its electron and proton battery inducing a fire and damaging the light cruiser’s damage control system.
Returning fire at the sathar light cruiser, the battleship misses and the UPF light cruiser hits with its laser, electron, and proton batteries damaging the ship’s hull (14%), knocking out its rocket battery, and damaging its combat control system.
The sathar light cruiser gets its shot and fails. It probably should have stayed closer to the battleship to get one more try. Click for full size image.
Turn 14
The sathar light cruiser pulls to port and holds together. The fire on the UPF light cruiser knocks out its laser battery.
Defensively, the battleship and light cruiser fire on the sathar ship. The battleship hits with an electron and proton battery starting a fire and knocking out its stasis screen. The light cruiser hits with its proton battery and disruptor cannon knocking out the sathar ship’s disruptor cannon and electron screen.
The sathar light cruiser fires at the UPF light cruiser but misses.
The UPF light cruiser continues to tail the sathar vessel closing to rocket battery range while the heavy cruiser starts catching up with the other ships. The fire on the sathar light cruiser damages its hull (6%)
The sathar light cruiser fires on the approaching UPF light cruiser hitting with its electron and proton battery damaging its hull (4%) and knockign out a third of its engine capability.
The UPF light cruiser hits the sathar ship with its electron and rocket batteries destroying it and ending the battle.
Final moves of the fight. Click for full size image.
Turn 15
The fire on UPF light cruiser damages its navigation control system.
Repair Turn 5
The UPF light cruiser gets its fire under control, the assault carrier repairs its rocket battery but discovers that any more repair of its engines will require a shipyard, and the battleship repairs another 11% of its hull.
The sathar heavy cruiser fully repairs its engines.
Final repairs
Battle repairs of the UPF ships continue over the next four and a half hours as the ships return to orbit around Ken’zah-Kit. In the end, the second UPF frigate can only get its hull up to 65% integrity, and the battleship can only get its hull up to 58%.
The lone sathar fighter meets up with the heavy cruiser and is attached to the hull of the larger vessel where it will remain until they get back to a shipyard. It’s maneuvering is fully repaired as the ships accelerate out of the ship. The heavy cruiser gets all of its systems repaired over the next four hours expect its hull which it is only able to restore to 81% outside a shipyard.
Lessons Learned
The sathar just can’t seem to catch a break and finish off the UPF ships. I though the light cruiser was going to finish off the battleship but rolled over 80 for every single attack so it missed completely. The battleship only had about 26 HP at that point. (On a whim I rerolled all the attacks and the second time it hit with a PB and RB, the latter did double damage and destroyed the battleship. But alas, that wasn’t the actual roll.) The same with the ramming of the frigates. I thought for sure the UPF frigate hit by two fighters was going to be destroyed, it only had 12 HP left but then I just rolled 8 on 2d10 for the hull damaged sustained. And it wouldn’t have done any good for the third one to hit it as I only rolled a measly 2 HP damage for that ship as well. There were several other times where I expected the sathar to get better hits but the dice were just against them. The UPF had bad spells as well but it didn’t seem to be at those critical, ship-finishing moments.
I considered having the light cruiser ram the battleship but the odds were in the favor of the battleship avoiding the ramming attempt and if it failed, the sathar ship would have been at point blank range for both the battleship and the oncoming UPF light cruiser so it didn’t try. Although it probably should have stayed a bit closer to the battleship as it ended its movement. But I really didn’t expect it to completely miss. This does have me thinking a bit about the ramming rules, however, so there may be a blog post about that when I have time to think on it some more.
The UPF are pretty beat up with the two cruisers and a fighter as the only ships not needing to go to a shipyard for repairs, but they only lost a single fighter. The sathar on the other hand lost everything expect a fighter and a heavy cruiser. Task Force Cassidine has now destroyed two major sathar fleets while only losing 3 assault scouts and 4 fighters.
There is one more battle coming up (in the Liberty system) and then things are going to quite down a bit as the sathar just don’t have very many ships surviving at the moment. They are done to just 9 fighters, 1 cutter, 2 frigates, 1 destroyer 2 light cruisers, 2 heavy cruisers, and two assault carriers but they are spread out all over the Frontier and the starship construction centers (and two are in the battle coming up in the Liberty system and may not survive). Its going to take some time to get them all together and build a few more ships.
This is only a week later than I had planned. I’ve gotten behind on updating the timeline entries and am still trying to catch up. I’ve had some big battles to play through and I just haven’t had the time to do so. There will be another battle coming in a few days as soon as I get it played out.
The timeline this month, like last, focuses almost exclusively on the maneuvering, battles, and logistics of the Second Sathar War. There are a few entries on the HSS History’s Hope but that is really the only not war related thread I’m tracking right now. This month saw a couple of battles. There was originally going to be one more but the UPF withdrew seeing as they faced almost certain destruction.
This month also sees the fast-track completion of pilots in the current class in the Gollwin Academy to service as pilots for all the new fighters coming out of the starship construction centers for the newly formed Frontier Fighter Corps. This is a process that will continue of the next several months until all the pilots are graduated or the class completes their current training.
There might be a bit of other, non-war stuff next month but not much. The next two posts after this one will be battle reports that I’ll get up as soon as I can. Depending on how those play out, there might not be much in the way of ships left to fight for a while so things will probably quiet down.
Date (FY)
Events
61.326
– Sathar SCC#4 (OFS111) completes 5 fighters.
– The K’aken-Kar assault scout jumps into its home system and begins decelerating toward Ken’zah-Kit.
– RG One settles into orbit around Zik-kit and joins up with the rest of PG Meteor already in orbit.
61.327
SG Alpha jumps into the Fromeltar system and begins calculations for the jump to the Kizk-Kar system. The pilot of the recently completed fighter takes on extra life support and begins boosting to join SG Alpha as it transits the system.
61.328
– SBF-J1 arrives at SCC#3 (OFS138). After a rapid reprovisioning, during which orders are issued to all existing sathar vessels, SBF-J1 departs the SCC and begins accelerating for a jump to the OFS137 system.
– Sathar EG-1 jumps out of the Liberty system but does not end up in the Waller Nexus system as expected. Rather it overshoots and arrives in the Padda (FS11) system instead. The astrogators begin working out where they are at.
61.329
– SBF-J3 jumps into the OFS168 system and begins calculations for a jump to the OFS167 system.
– SBF-E3 arrives at Stenmar (Kazak) and merges with SBF-E2.
– The fighter in the Fromeltar system joins up with RG Alpha as it crosses the system for its jump to Kizk-Kar.
61.330
– The HSS History’s Hope makes the jump and ends up in a binary system but it is not the two stars of YS07. While the engineers start to work on the engine overhauls, the astrogators try to figure out where they are.
– The lone K’aken-Kar militia assault scout arrives back in its home system and the crew stands down for some leave but remain on alert for rapid recall if needed.
61.331
– SG Alpha jumps into the Kizk-Kar system and begins deceleration toward Zik-Kit and PG Meteor.
– SBF-J3 jumps into the OFS167 system and begins calculations for a jump to OFS166.
– 2 UPF fighters are completed at both the Minotaur (Theseus) and Hentz (Arak) SCC and 2 more go into production in each location. The fighters are temporarily manned by the local militias until UPF pilots and be dispatched to the system.
61.332
Realizing that they need pilots for all the new fighters being produced, the current cadets at Gollwin academy are polled for volunteers for the Frontier Fighter Corps. Those that volunteer are put on a fast completion track to get their Pilot and Rocket Weapons certifications.
61.333
– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS137 system and begins calculations for a jump to the OFS136 system.
– SBF-J3 jumps into the OFS166 system and begins calculations for the jump to FS33 to join up with SBF-B2.
– 11 UPF fighters are completed at the CDC shipyards (Triad, Cassidine). With no pilots ready, they are put into storage and Spacefleet temporarily gives the space over for commercial ship maintenance.
61.334
– A fighter and assault carrier are completed at SCC#10 (OFS174). Instead of starting another AC and fighter, construction begins on 2 destroyers and a frigate.
– The new sathar assault carrier at SCC#10 (OFS174) collects the 3 fighters in the system and begins a transit to SCC#4 (OFS111). The ships are designated Transit Group (TG) 1.
– Astrogators aboard the HSS History’s Hope work out their position and discover that they went nearly twice as far as they intended. The system is designated YS09 and they decide to take two smaller jumps to get back to YS07 to reduce the chance of error. They begin working on jump calculations for an 8 ly jump to the next system.
– 3 more fighters are completed at the Hentz (Araks) SCC for the Frontier Fighter Corps, 2 more go into production, the other slot being given over to commercial ship maintenance for now.
61.335
Initial calculations complete, the HSS History’s Hope begins accelerating for a jump to the first system on their way back to YS07, another binary system 8 lightyears away.
61.336
– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS136 system and begins calculations for a jump to the FS56 system.
– SG Alpha arrives at Zit-Kit (Kizk-Kar). The fighters are stationed on the planet’s surface while the assault carrier begins preparations for a trip back to Prenglar to pick up more fighters.
– SBF-J3 jumps into the FS33 system and begins decelerating to join up with SBF-B2.
– 8 fighters are complete for the Frontier Fighter Corps at the PGC shipyard (Gran Quivera, Prenglar). They are shuttled over to Gollwin academy to serve as trainers for the accelerated pilot classes. Construction begins on 8 more.
61.337
– The astrogators in sathar EG-1 are able to localize their position. Being only a single jump from Theseus, they begin calculating a jump to that system first.
– SBF-E2 leaves orbit around Stenmar (Kazak) and begins accelerating for a jump to the Zebulon system and Strike Force Nova.
– SBF-B2 leaves orbit in the inner FS33 system and begins accelerating for a jump to the K’sta-Kar and Task Force Cassidine. SBF-J3 changes course to meet them enroute.
61.338
– After another 100 days of exploiting their secret jump route between Truane’s Star and Cassidine, Obar Enterprises has grossed another 1.47 million credits. In the year since charting the route they have grossed over 6.8 million and paid off the loan on their new freighter. Given the current crisis, they turn over the details of the jump route to Spacefleet.
– Initial jump calculations complete, sathar EG-1 starts accelerating for a jump to the Theseus system.
61.339
– SBF-J1 jumps into the FS56 system and begins calculations for a jump to the Kizk-Kar system.
– SBF-J3 meets up with SBF-B2 enroute to K’sta-Kar and merges into that battle group.
– Another UPF fighter is completed at the Hentz (Araks) shipyard. The extra capacity in the shipyard will be used for the next six days to accelerate construction on two of the other fighters to get all four fighters on the same schedule.
61.340
– The HSS History’s Hope successfully jumps into their target system which they designate YS10. They immediately begin working on engine overhauls and calculations for the 6 ly jump to return to YS07.
– The initial group of more advanced students at the Gollwin Academy (Morgaine’s World, Prenglar) complete their fast-track certification for the Frontier Fighter Corps. The ten of them are dispatched to Triad to take command of some of the fighters there.
61.341
SG Alpha jumps back into the Fromeltar system and begins calculations for a jump to Dramune.
61.342
– SBF-J1 jumps into the Kisk-Kar system and begins decelerating to engage PG Meteor.
– SBF-E2 jumps into the Zebulon system and begins decelerating to engage Strike Force Nova.
– SBF-B2 jumps into the K’sta-Kar system and begins decelerating to engage Task Force Cassidine.
– The sathar battle fleets are detected within hours of their arrival in their respective systems and alerts go out across the Frontier. Spacefleet is out gunned in nearly every case but is determined to stop the worms.
– Sathar EG-1 jumps into the Theseus system. They immediately begin decelerating to stay in the outer system and begin working on calculations for a jump back to the Padda system.
61.343
– Construction of the Spacefleet battleship, Admiral Dooltan, at the Pan Galactic starship construction center orbiting Gran Quivera (Prenglar) complete. With the new sathar offensive, Spacefleet starts construction of a light cruiser, frigate, and assault scout.
– 2 assault scouts of the Theseus militia detect the sathar frigate of EG-1 and immediately begin boosting to intercept the ship. An alert goes out and the other ships of the militia boost to intercept as well although they will be two days behind.
– Suspecting FS33 to be the origin of the sathar fleets jumping into the K’sta-Kar system, the K’aken-Kar militia assault scout starts working on calculations to chart a jump route to that system.
61.344
– Construction of the Spacefleet battleship, the Admiral R’kazk’tar, at the Cassidine Development Corporation starship construction center orbiting Triad (Cassidine) completed. The crew takes command of the ship and begins a short shakedown cruise in the system as they await the arrival of the fighter pilots and SG Alpha.
– With the completion of the Admiral R’kazk’tar, Spacefleet uses the space in the shipyard to begin construction of two destroyers and two assault scouts.
– With plans to send the Admiral R’kazk’tar to Truane’s Star, the Admiral Dooltan is ordered to the Fromeltar system and then on to Kisk-Kar to take command of Task Force Meteor if the patrol group survives the coming attack.
– Detecting the incoming militia assault scouts, sathar EG-1 change their deceleration profile to try to avoid the ships while they change direction for the return jump to Padda.
– Realizing that they have an opportunity to exploit the new jump route provided by Obar Enterprises, Spacefleet HQ orders Strike Force Nova and supporting militia ships to fall back to the Truane’s Star system and expect reinforcements.
61.345
– The HSS History’s Hope successfully jumps back into the YS07 system. They begin working on engine overhauls and calculations for a jump to return to YS08.
– SG Alpha jumps into the Dramune system and begins calculations for a jump to the Cassidine system.
– SBF-E2, detecting the departure of SF Nova, vector to follow them to the Truane’s Star system.
61.346
– Unable to avoid intercept by the 2 Theseus assault scouts, the sathar frigate turns to engage them. They transmit all their jump data back to SBF-J2 before engaging.
– Battle of Theseus – In a short, 20-minute battle, the sathar frigate managed to damage one of the assault scouts before being destroyed by a single volley of assault rockets and laser batteries from the 2 militia ships. The damaged assault scout heads to Minotaur for repairs.
– Calculations complete, the K’aken-Kar assault scout begins accelerating for a jump to FS33.
– Three more fighters for the Frontier Fighter Corp are completed in Theseus. Construction begins on 3 more.
61.347
– Second Battle of Kwadl-Kit – Though outgunned by the sathar, Task Force Cassidine put up an amazing defense and over the course of 1.5 hours completely destroys the sathar fleet. While almost no ship goes unscathed, they only lose 3 fighters and 3 assault scouts.
– SG Alpha jumps into the Cassidine system and begins vectoring for a jump to the Truane’s Star system using coordinates provided by battleship Admiral R’kazk’tar.
– After a detailed assessment of the strength of SFB-J1, PG Meteor and Spacefleet command decided that they cannot hold the Kizk-Kar system and the jump capable ships start accelerating for a jump to the Fromeltar system. The fighters go into hiding on the planet’s surface.
– Seeing PG Meteor departing, the sathar forces vector to intercept but the acceleration of the UPF ships is such that only the smaller sathar vessels could intercept which would give the advantage to Spacefleet. After a few hours of pursuit, they reverse course and settle into orbit once again around Zit-Kit.
61.348
– Sathar SCC#1 (OFS203) completes construction of a light cruiser.
– Arriving back at Minotaur (Theseus), the damaged militia assault scout is immediately put into the shipyard. A HS:7 ship under construction is moved out to make room.
– 5 fighters are completed at the CDC shipyards (Triad, Cassidine). Work begins on five more. These fighters are put in storage until crews can be obtained for them.
61.349
– SF Nova and its supporting militia ships jump into the Truane’s Star system and begin decelerating toward Pale.
– The group of 10 FFC pilots arrive at Triad (Cassidine) and take command of their fighters. They immediately take on extra life support and begin a high-g boost, together with the battleship Admiral R’kazk’tar, to join SG Alpha.
– After a day rearming, Task Force Cassidine begins acceleration for a jump to the K’aken-Kar system and then on to Kizk-Kar to engage the sathar forces there.
– The Theseus militia assault scout completes its repairs and the HS:7 ship is moved back in to resume work.
– The battleship Admiral Dooltan jumps into the Cassidine system, it remains at high speed to transit to Dramune.
61.350
– Joining up with SG Alpha, the fighters are quickly taken aboard the carrier and stowed for jump. The battleship, assault carrier, and fighters are designated Task Force Relief and prepare for level 2 risk jump to the Truane’s Star system.
– SBF-E2 jumps into the Truane’s Star system and begins decelerating toward New Pale. SF Nova and the local militia begin maneuvering to intercept.
– SBF-J1 departs orbit around Zit-Kit (Kisk-Kar) and begins accelerating for a jump to the K’aken-Kar system to intercept TF Cassidine.
– Detecting the departure of SBF-J1, PG Meteor puts its jump on hold and drifts in the outer system to observe.
– The UPF minelayer, currently in the Fromeltar system, begins accelerating for a jump to the Kisk-Kar system. It will join up with the Admiral Dooltan as it transits the Fromeltar system before making the jump.
61.351
– TF Relief jumps into the Truane’s Star system and begins a hard deceleration toward New Pale.
– The K’aken-Kar militia assault scout misjumps and instead of reaching FS33 ends up in an unknown star system (OFS169). They begin working on determining their location.
– With a HS:12 ship completing maintenance in the CDC (Triad, Cassidine) shipyards, Spacefleet starts work on 3 new assault scouts to replace those lost by Task Force Cassidine. The remaining space is used for civilian ship maintenance.
– The battleship Admiral Dooltan jumps into the Fromeltar system. It begins vectoring and performing jump calculations to take it to Kisk-Kar.
61.352
– The HSS History’s Hope makes the return jump to YS08 and begin decelerating toward the inner system as they once again overhaul engines and try to plot the route back to YS07.
– Seeing that SBF-J1 seems to be committed to jumping out of the Kisk-Kar system, PG Meteor changes course and starts to decelerate back toward Zit-Kit.
– A fighter is completed at the PGC shipyards (Gran Quivera, Prenglar). It is transferred to Gollwin Academy (Morgaine’s World, Prenglar) for use in training the accelerated cadets.
– Detecting TF Relief, the sathar reassess their position and despite being out gunned nearly two to one, press on toward New Pale and the UPF forces.
61.353
– Strike Force Nova and the Truane’s Star militia ships arrive back at the armed station orbiting New Pale (Truane’s Star). Just hours later, they are joined by TF Relief. The incoming sathar ships are only a day away.
– The UPF minelayer in the Fromeltar system joins up with the Admiral Dooltan and then continue on their way to the Kisk-Kar system to join with PG Meteor.
61.354
– Second Battle of New Pale – The UPF destroy or drive off most of SBF-E2 but both battleships, including the newly constructed Admiral R’kazk’tar, are destroyed in the fighting.
– The fleeing sathar ships accelerate for a jump back to the Zebulon system.
– The UPF destroyer damaged in the Second Battle of New Pale heads to the starship construction center on Pale for repairs.
– TF Cassidine jumps into the K’aken-Kar system. Alerted that SBF-J1 is headed their way, they begin decelerating toward the inner system instead of continuing on the Kisk-Kar.
– Another UPF fighter is completed at the Terledrom (Fromeltar) shipyard. It is temporarily manned by militia forces until Spacefleet can get fighter pilots to the system.
61.355
– SBF-J1 jumps into the K’aken-Kar system and begins decelerating to intercept TF Cassidine.
– The UPF battleship and minelayer jump into the Kisk-Kar system and start decelerating toward Zit-kit.
– The damaged UPF destroyer arrives at the Streel shipyard (Pale, Truane’s Star). A HS:6 ship under construction but nearly complete is temporarily moved out to provide priority access for the Spacefleet vessel.
61.356
– PG Meteor arrives back in orbit around Zit-Kit (Kisk-Kar).
– A HS:5 ships complete maintenance in the CDC shipyard (Triad, Cassidine). Spacefleet holds the space in anticipation of more ships finishing and beginning construction on a new battleship.
In a short, high-speed battle around New Pale today, the invading sathar forces were destroyed or driven off by the militia and the augmented Strike Force Nova.
The victory was not with out cost, however, as both UPF battleships were destroyed in the fighting, along with one of the UPF fighters. While the sathar losses were much higher, we mourn the loss of the crews of those ships
Goolar Nadd, New Pale News
Background
With the arrival of Task Force Relief (battleship, assault carrier, and 10 fighters) and its merger with Strike Force Nova, the UPF and Truane’s Star militia outgun the invading sathar fleet nearly two to one. Despite these odds, the sathar continue on to engage the UPF forces although they aim for New Pale instead of Pale to avoid the UPF Fortress at that world.
Order of Battle
Pale Militia
Armed Station
1 Assault Scout
1 Frigate
Strike Force Nova
17 Fighters
3 Assault Scouts
3 Frigates
1 Destroyer
3 Light Cruisers
2 Assault Carriers
2 Battleships
Sathar
8 Fighters
1 Cutter
2 Frigates
2 Destroyers
1 Light Cruiser
1 Assault Carrier
2 Heavy Cruisers
The Battle
Setup
Expecting the sathar to make a run at the station as they have in other systems (and in the battle here over a month ago), the UPF position the battleships on either side of the planet, one supported by a destroyer and the other a light cruiser. Out from the battleships is a pair of frigates on each side with a pair of assault scouts out and slightly back from the frigates. There are two wings of fighters beyond and a bit back from each pair of assault scouts. The assault carriers, each escorted by a light cruiser, are far back from the planet. The capital ships and assault scouts are all moving at speed 15, the assault scouts are at speed 20, and the fighters are at speed 30. The eight seeker missiles from the two battleships are arrayed in an arc around the planet.
The sathar, recognizing that they are not going to win this fight, are planning a high speed pass hoping to take out the UPF battleships and assault carriers and then escaping the system. They line up in two groups directly opposite the battleships. The upper group is comprised of a heavy and light cruiser, a destroyer, and a frigate while the lower group is composed of a heavy cruiser, the assault carrier and cutter, and a destroyer and frigate. The fighters are divided into two flights of four, one on each wing. All of the sathar vessels come in much faster than the UPF expected and are moving at speed 35.
Positions of ships and seeker missiles at the beginning of the battle. The two main groups of sathar ships are represented by a single marker with the actual ships displayed at the top and bottom of the map. Click for full size image.
Turn 1
The sathar capital ships accelerate to speed 37 and fly straight at and past the UPF battleships. The fighters accelerate to speed 40 turning in to fire at the battleships as well.
Defensively the assault scouts and frigates fire their laser batteries at the fighters and the frigates fire their rocket batteries at their sathar counterparts in each group. The battleship and destroyer in the upper group, along with the station, fire at the sathar destroyer, while the battleship and light cruiser in the lower group fire at the assault carrier.
The defensive fire at the sathar fighters is fairly ineffective, slightly damaging the engines on three fighters and knocking the hull integrity down to 38% on two others. However, none are destroyed and all are able to fire their assault rockets at the battleships.
The sathar frigate in the upper group is hit by a rocket battery knocking out 30% of its hull while the sathar frigate in the lower group is hit by two rocket batteries knocking out its laser battery and slightly damaging its maneuvering.
The destroyer in the upper group is pummeled by the UPF destroyer and battleship being hit with 2 laser batteries, 3 electron batteries, a proton battery, a rocket battery and the cannons from both ships. In the end, it has it defenses knocked off-line, its electron battery and engines knocked out, a hit to its combat controls system, its hull integrity reduced by 68%, and a fire breaks out on-board.
The assault carrier in the lower group doesn’t fare much better. It is hit by 2 laser batteries, an electron battery, 2 proton batteries, a disruptor cannon and a rocket battery. It loses its laser battery and 65% of its hull integrity.
The sathar unload all of their weapons at the battleship they fly over with the battleships firing 3 ICMs at each incoming torpedo.
The Admiral Clinton (upper battleship) is hammered. All 4 assault rockets from the fighters hit knocking out its engines and maneuvering capability and reducing its hull integrity by 22%. The sathar frigate hits it with its laser cannon knocking out the battleship’s disruptor cannon. The sathar destroyer hits with its laser cannon, rocket battery, and a torpedo that slipped through the ICM screen knocking out the battleship’s torpedo and ICM launchers and knocking the hull integrity down another 16%. The sathar light cruiser lands a series of hull hits with its disruptor cannon and electron and rocket batteries reducing the battleships hull by another 28%. Finally, the sathar heavy cruiser hits with its laser, electron, and proton batteries as well as its disruptor cannon knocking out the battleship’s proton screen, damaging its combat control system and reduces its hull integrity by another 28%. In the end, the Admiral Clinton has only 6% of its hull integrity left.
The sathar is the lower group were not as effective firing on the new UPF battleship, the Admiral R’kazk’tar. Only one of the four assault rockets connect knocking out the battleship’s disruptor cannon while the cutter misses completely. The sathar frigate hits with everything but its torpedo knocking out the battleship’s torpedo and ICM launcher and knocking half of its engines off-line. The sathar destroyer hits will everything expect its torpedo inducing an on-board fire and knocking out 35% of the battleship’s hull integrity. The sathar assault carrier scores a minor (<2%) hull hit with its laser battery while the sathar heavy cruiser only hits with it’s laser battery and disruptor cannon cutting the battleship’s maneuvering in half and knocking the hull integrity down another 13%.
Each sathar heavy cruiser deploys a single seeker missile, about 40,000 km behind their final positions where they expect the UPF to end the movement to fire their torpedoes at maximum range.
The maneuvering on this turn was so complicated, that I almost did a sathar movement map and a UPF movement one but in the end I left them on the same map. It’s a bit confusing but so was the maneuvering.
The seriously wounded battleship drifts away from the fight and two frigates join it as escorts. The other battleship, its MR reduced by half, turns and uses the gravity of New Pale to gain an extra turn. The other ships also loop around the planet, accelerating as much as possible to come around and bring all their weapons to bear on the various sathar vessels. The fighters split their fire between the heavy cruiser and frigate in the upper group, and the heavy cruiser and assault carrier in the lower group, assisted by the assault scouts firing on the heavy cruisers as well. The other ships focus their fire on the smaller more maneuverable ships. The assault carriers and their escorts accelerate and cross the sathar battle line hoping to get out of the maneuvering arc of the larger ships. They fire what weapons they can at the sathar fighters. The fire on the sathar destroyer knocks out its laser cannon.
Defensively, the upper flight of sathar ships focus their particle battery weapons at the damaged battleship, hoping to finish it off but they all miss. They use their laser batteries defensively against the fighters destroying one, nearly destroying another, lightly damaging the engines on a third. They fire their rocket batteries at the light cruiser but they all miss.
In the lower group of sathar ships, all the beam weapons are focused on the fighters but only one hits damaging the fighter’s combat control system while the rocket batteries are fired at the UPF destroyer but they all miss as well.
The upper UPF assault carrier connected with its laser and proton battery destroying one fighter and knocking out the assault rocket launcher on the other. The lower assault carrier hits with it’s proton battery and almost takes out a figher but it manages to hold togheter. The carrier’s light cruiser escort hits the same fighter with its laser battery, damaging the fighter’s engines, and a different fighter with it’s proton battery damaging its maneuverability.
The sathar heavy cruiser in the upper group is hit by 5 assault rockets and a laser battery from the fighters and assault scouts which damage its combat control system, short circuits its defenses, and reduces its hull integrity by 98% nearly destroying it.
The sathar heavy cruiser in the lower group gets away fairly unscathed as it is only hit by 3 assault rockets from the fighters and assault scouts knocking out its ICM launcher and maneuvering and reducing its hull integrity by 16%.
The sathar frigate in the upper group is hit by 2 assault rockets from the fighters as well as an electron batter, disruptor cannon, and torpedo from the light cruiser which knock out its defenses before the torpedo destroyers the ship.
The final fighter flight hits the upper sathar assault carrier with four assault rockets destroying it. while the sathar destroyer is destroyed by its UPF counterpart which hit with its laser and rocket batteries as well as torpedo that got through the ICM screen.
The sathar frigate in the lower group is hit by its UPF counterpart with a laser battery that damages its maneuvering and a torpedo that slips through the ICM screen but only manages to take out the frigate’s laser battery.
Maneuvering and final positions after the first ten minutes of battle. Click for full size image.
Turn 2
With the assault carrier destroyed, the sathar fighters are stranded and so continue the attack on the battleships. The flight that lost a fighter loops around to go after the heavily wounded battleship (Admiral Clinton) while the other group goes after the less damaged one. The heavily damaged heavy cruiser just drifts away from the battle while the light cruiser from the upper group turns to make a pass at the less damaged battleship (Admiral R’kazk’tar) as it accelerates away from the battle. The lower group, minus the destroyed assault carrier, just accelerate straight away from the battle at the heavy cruiser’s max acceleration (it has 0 MR), staying in formation. They fire on the UPF destroyer as they fly away. The fire on the Admiral R’kazk’tar induces a navigation control hit.
The sathar also activate the two seeker missiles they deployed the previous round. Unfortunately for the sathar, the UPF did not react as expected and the only ships nearby are the assault scouts. Each seeker missile goes after one of the assault scouts but they both miss.
Defensively, the battleships fire at the incoming fighters as do the assault scouts and the frigates escorting the heavily damaged battleship. They are assisted by the station and the lower assault carrier and it’s escort. Together the UPF ships manage to destroy two of the three fighters headed for the Admiral Clinton and two of the four headed for the Admiral R’kazk’tar, inducing a fire on a third.
The upper light cruiser and assault carrier fire at the light cruiser as it passes. It is hit by 2 laser, an electron, and 2 rocket batteries damaging its combat control system and engines, knocking out its ICM launcher and reducing its hull integrity by 23%.
The lone light cruiser fires at the drifting heavy cruiser connecting with a rocket battery and its disruptor cannon destroying the heavily damaged sathar vessel.
Finally, the group of frigates and destroyer focus their fire on the fleeing heavy cruiser from the lower group connecting with 3 laser batteries, a rocket battery and a laser cannon damaging the heavy cruiser’s combat control system and reducing its hull integrity by 46%.
Offensively, the surviving figher manages to hit the Admiral Clinton with its assault rocket destroying the battleship. The Admiral R’kazk’tar is hit by an assault rocket from the two fighers and a torpededo from the light cruiser reducing its hull integrity by another 36%.
The fire from the remaining ships are focused on the UPF destroyer. It is hit by 4 laser batteries and an electron battery which knock out its masking screen launcher, short circuit its defensive systems, and reduces its hull integrity by 46%.
The surviving battleship, with its navigation control damage and seriously damaged hull, pulls to starboard but manages to hold together. Given the speed differentials, and despite the greater acceleration of the smaller UPF ships, Spacefleet decides to not purse the main surviving group of sathar vessels but the upper two flight of fighters do go after the lone light cruiser. The assault scouts and the frigate and destroyer group go after the surviving sathar fighters. The fire on the sathar fighter induces a navigation control hit. The fire on the light cruiser cause 9 HP of damage.
Defensively, the sathar light cruiser fires at the incoming fighters but only manages to hit one with a proton battery lightly damaging its hull.
Offensively, the UPF fighters hit the light cruiser with all eight assault rockets destroying it while the frigates and destroyer destroy two of the three surviving fighters with the remaining fighter having its combat control system damaged, its assault rocket launcher knocked out, its hull integrity reduced by 38% and a fire started onboard.
Final positions after the second round of combat, the destroyed sathar light cruiser, damaged UPF battleship and UPF fighters are off the top of the map while the fleeing sathar ships are off the left side. Click for full size image.
Turn 3
The fire on the battleship burns through the hull reducing its hull integrity by another 10%. Its navigation control damage causes the large ship to pull to port and the strain on its severely damaged hull causes it to break apart destroying the vessel after only 10 days of active duty. The remaining sathar fighter is obliterated by the combined fire of the destroyer and frigates.
Repair Turn 1
The lightly damaged fighters manage to repair their systems almost immediately and the destroyer manages to repair some of its hull. The sathar heavy cruiser manages to repair some of its hull as well.
Final Repairs
After another hour and a half the damaged UPF destroyer manages to fix as much as it can in space. All of its systems are fixed but the hull is stuck at 66% integrity and it will need to get into the starship construction center at Pale to complete repairs.
After another hour the sathar heavy cruiser has repaired enough of its hull that the surviving ships resume their acceleration out of the system. Another 2.5 hours later, it has repaired as much as it can outside of a shipyard. All of the internals systems are back online but it’s hull is stuck at 75% integrity until it gets back to SSC#5 for final repairs.
Lessons Learned
I knew the sathar were going to lose this one but I expected them to do a little better than they did. They managed to take out the two battleships, part of their primary objective, but didn’t do as much collateral damage as I was expecting/hoping they would. Part of that was the dice were just not cooperative, especially on the defensive fire round of the UPF move in turn one. I rolled a bunch of 80’s on the sathar’s to hit rolls and nothing really connected. Although the same thing happened to the UPF at another point so I guess it evens out.
The sathar misjudged the positions on the first round and were unable to make pass at the assault carriers like they wanted. They managed to get some ships out of the battle but not as many as I was hoping they would. The UPF really cleaned up.
The loss of the battleships will be significant, those won’t be replaced anytime soon. It will be interesting to see how that affects the fights going forward.
What are your thoughts on the battle? Share in the comments below.
Can you believe it’s 2021 already? Time seems to be really flying. Probably because I’ve been so busy. Truth be told, I’m glad January is over. With the university starting up, it’s taken a bit to get settled into the new routine. Hopefully things have settled down and going forward it will be a little less hectic.
Looking Back
As expected, I wasn’t able to keep to a regular posting schedule this month, and probably won’t in February either. That said, I still managed to get five posts out (six if you include this one) even if they were relatively small ones.
We started with the usual Detailed Frontier Timeline post. Related to the timeline, there were two battle report posts (Battle of Theseus and Second Battle of Kawdl-Kit). There was originally going to be a third one (in the Kisk-Kar system) but looking at the orders of battle, the UPF decided it wasn’t in their best interest to get annihilated when they could fall back to a stronger position, so they evaded that combat. There is another battle coming (Battle of Pale) that should have been posted this month, but I’ve gotten a bit behind in the timeline posting and playing out the battles. With my reduced time to work on projects, I just haven’t had time to work through it. Also related to the timeline, the last post of the month was a discussion of the fleet designations I use for Spacefleet and the sathar.
The other major event was that we got issue 31 of the Frontier Explorer out the door. You can grab it on the Frontier Explorer website or DriveThruRPG. I’ll be working on getting the print version set up in the coming weeks.
Behind the scenes, there hasn’t been much happening as I’ve been settling into my new job as a computer science professor at the local university. I’m no longer working from home and that has required a change in everyone’s schedules. The biggest impact is that I have less free time, taken up by the drive to work, but I do get to spend more time with my wife as we drive in together (she’s been an astronomy professor there for 13 years now). That said, I did start working on a new 3D model, recreating a miniature from the Privateers box. The box calls it the Moonbright Stinger, but you may recognize it more as the Gullwind from the Dramune Run adventure. The picture at right shows where the model is currently at.
Looking Forward
We’ll have a timeline post as the first post of the month although it might be a few days late. I’ve got to get the timeline caught up and play out that last battle and I’ve fallen behind over the last week. There’s also going to be another battle later in the month. Those two fights are going to be pretty important and determine the way the Second Sathar War will proceed. So that means we should have two more battle posts this month.
I hope to finish the Moonbright Stinger model this month. I’m about 5 hours into it and probably have 5 more to go but I should be able to finish it up. All of the “positive” features are done, and now I need to go through and carve out all the features that are etched into the body of the miniature.
Otherwise, I don’t know what else we’ll see. I’ll probably spend a bit of time converting the files needed for the POD version of the Frontier Explorer to the new format. It is just the cover file that needs to change and I don’t foresee that being difficult, but it is going to take some time, maybe 20-30 minutes per issue. Although it is the same process for each cover and I I can use the same template for each issue so Imight actually be able to get each one done in 10-15 minutes. But with 30 back issue to process, I’m looking at 5 to 15 hours of work just for that. Assuming my estimates are correct. I’ll probably spread it out over a couple of months. But if you want the Frontier Explorer issues as saddle-stitched POD version, you’ll need to head over to DriveThruRPG and order them this month. I’ve also been asked about building omnibus editions of the Frontier Explorer and putting say 8 issues into 400-page soft or hardback editions. So I might look at that for both the Frontier Explorer and the Star Frontiersman.
Otherwise, I have ideas for a couple of starship related posts but those are going to require some work. And I hope to get back to the adventures I started with blog with years ago and make some progress on those.
Final Thoughts
Truth be told, I can’t believe I’ve kept the Detailed Frontier Timeline going for over two years. It has spun off some interesting side projects like everything related to the HSS History’s Hope. In fact, that is the only part of the timeline not specifically related to the Second Sathar War at the moment. But that’s okay since I originally conceived the timeline to focus primarily on the war.
If you have ideas or topics you’d like to see explored, feel free to reach out to me and let me know. I’m always interested in feedback.
I’ll end with a big thank you to all those who have supported me on Patreon over the years. You have really helped to keep this blog going. If you are already a supporter, thank you again. If you’re not a supporter, consider helping out.
As I’ve been working/playing through the Second Sathar War in the Detailed Frontier Timeline, I’ve used a bunch of designations for the various groups of ships that the UPF has created. It thought I’d give a quick overview of how I’m using them and what each name represents. This may evolve in the future, but it’s what I’m using at the moment.
Some Background
In the setting material, there are two designations explicitly given, namely Task Force (Prenglar and Cassidine) and Strike Force (Nova). It then goes on to say there are other patrol groups and strike forces exist. The exact quote from the rules is:
Each of these battleships is the flagship of a fleet task force. Task Force Cassidine (flagship: Admiral Harsevoort) is centered at Triad; Task Force Prenglar (flagship: Admiral Morgaine) is based at the UPF base orbiting Morgaine’s World; and Strike Force NOVA (flagship: Admiral Clinton) has a home base at Gran Ouivera, but spends much time patrolling the travel lanes of the Frontier.
Many smaller strike forces and patrol groups are active throughout the Frontier. The composition of these task forces does not remain constant, as ships are often reassigned from one group to the other. The patrol groups usually consist of one or two assault scouts and a frigate. Small strike forces often contain several frigates, a destroyer and a light cruiser.
p48 -Knight Hawks Campaign Book
From there, I’ve expanded things out a bit. Here’s what I’m currently doing.
Designations
Task Force (TF)
A task force is a large group of ships, centered on a battleship or heavy cruiser, that is organized for a specific purpose. In the case of Task Force Prenglar and Cassidine, I see that purpose as the defense of the two core worlds of the Frontier, which is why these task forces include the UPF minelayers and are named for the systems they defend.
Strike Force (SF)
Similar to a task force, a strike force is a larger group of ships that is centered on a light cruiser or larger vessel (but not an assault carrier, these are always ancillary vessels). The main purpose of a strike force is rapid deployment and offensive action.
The main difference between a task force and a strike force (other than the light cruiser requirement) is speed. In a strike force, no ship can have an ADF of less then two and thus the strike force is capable of risk jumps. The inclusion of a minelayer, with its ion drives and ADF of one, precludes this designation. For example, in the Detailed Frontier Timeline, the group that was going to be Strike Force Meteor initially has a minelayer added to it when the battleship arrives (in a few days from now in the timeline as I post this) so it gets the Task Force Designation instead of the Strike Force as originally intended. When the minelayer leaves, it will probably be reverted to the Strike Force designation.
As I’m writing this, I thought of a related designation that I have never used. That would be Rapid Strike Force (RSF) and would be a group that is all light cruisers or smaller and have a minimum ADF of 3. There would be no fighters or assault carriers in this group. But maybe that’s being a bit to specific.
Patrol Group (PG)
This is the generic designation for any group of Spacefleet vessels but typically carries the connotation of a traveling group that is moving around the Frontier. These groups could be organized for any reason, from pirate deterrence, to exploration, to local militia support, to just showing force around the Frontier.
A notable example of this from the Detailed Frontier Timeline was Patrol Group Virgo. Originally constructed to be a show of force in the Dixon’s Star system to help cool the corporate war heating up between PGC and Streel, it was augmented by some Streel vessels and the Truane’s Star militia to deploy to the Zebulon system to counter the imminent sathar threat there. (Had these ideas been more crystalized in my mind back then, I probably would have changed the designation at that point to Strike Force.) After that fight, and with the events surrounding the militia/civilian Discovery Squadron, they were deployed into the Rim to support the Flight. Thus they took on a number of different roles before finally being dissolved.
Repair Group (RG)
This is one I made up for the timeline. I needed a designation that allowed me to refer to a small group of ships that were currently non-combatants that were traveling to a shipyard for repairs and so the repair group was born. I don’t know that this one would get used much outside of wartime but I’m still thinking through its use.
Shuttle Group (SG)
This is another one I made up for the timeline but imagine that it could be used regularly. The specific use I invented it for was a designation to give an assault carrier that was transporting fighters between the shipyards and the systems (that don’t contain shipyards) where those fighters were going to be stationed.
The thought was that this was primarily for a non-combat role but if an assault carrier with 8-12 fighters showed up, pirates might very well think twice as they are definitely combat capable, especially against small numbers of vessels. But I can also see it being used in other contexts. For example, if you use the Jump Tug (Star Frontiersman issue 9, also a write-up on the starfrontiers.us website) in your setting, I can see Spacefleet having a few of these to move assault scouts and fighters over long distances to save on having to do overhauls every jump. In any case, this designation would be used for any group of ships, military or civilian, used by Spacefleet to rearrange their assets in the Frontier.
A Note on Sathar Designations
If you’re following the Detailed Frontier Timeline, you will have noticed that I’m referring to all the sathar fleets using SBF designations. SBF is short for “sathar battle fleet.” The SBF designation is then followed by a letter-number combination, i.e. SBF-E1 or SBF-J3. The letter designation simply represents the sathar starship construction center the fleet originated from and the number is just incremented for each fleet.
This was just a shorthand to help me keep track of the sathar ships. It doesn’t even reflect how Spacefleet would refer to them. They would probably either refer to them by the system they first appeared in or just give them incrementing some index for them.
Your Thoughts
Those are the designations that I’m currently using. Beyond the three main fleets (TF Prenglar, TF Cassidine, & SF Nova) I see most of the Spacefleet ships grouped into Patrol Groups as this is the generic designation. The others have more specific uses.
What designations (if any) do you use in your game? What other ones do you imagine Spacefleet using? Share your ideas in the comments below.
Earlier today, in the space around Kawdl-Kit, Task Force Cassidine engaged the invading sathar forces. After nearly an hour and a half of fighting, the last of sathar forces were destroyed.
While almost all of the Spacefleet vessels sustained serious damage, battle losses were light with the Task Force only losing three fighters and three assault scouts.
Hours after the battle, repair work for the heavily damaged assault carrier and battleship are still ongoing.
Vah’zen’rk – Kawdl-Kit Global Reporting
This one was a doozie. This was the longest lasting battle as far as number of turns of play go. Although that’s partially because the combination of speeds, damage, and lack of maneuverability caused everything to get spread out. You’ll notice the maps shift around a bit, especially toward the end as I shifted the view to keep the main part of the battle in view. I might have to shift to a larger map grid. As always this fight held a few surprises, not the least of which was the final outcome.
Background
Reinforced with some additional ships from SCC#10, veterans of campaign against the saurians, SBF-B2 reenters the K’tsa-Kar system with the intent to wipe out Task Force Cassidine. The UPF forces, while somewhat outgunned, are determined to hold the line here.
Order of Battle
Task Force Cassidine
6 Fighters
3 Assault Scouts
2 Frigates
1 Light Cruiser
1 Assault Carrier
1 Heavy Cruiser
1 Battleship
Sathar
7 Fighters
1 Frigate
6 Destroyers
1 Assault Carrier
2 Heavy Cruisers
The Battle
Setup
Task Force Cassidine elects to hold the battle around the planet, hoping to use the planet’s gravity well to their advantage even though there is no longer a station there. With no station to defend, the UPF form up in a broad line far back from the planet and the oncoming sathar forces to give them time to study the sathar deployment before committing. The capital ships are moving at speed 15 while the fighters and assault scouts are moving at speed 25. The six seeker missiles (from the battleship and heavy cruiser) are deployed in an arc on the side of the planet the sathar are approaching from.
The sathar, also cautious for this major battle, come in relatively slow, with their capital ships moving at speed 10 and fighters at speed 20. The assault carrier, escorted by the frigate, take the center position with a heavy cruiser on either side which is in turned flanked by a trio of destroyers and a flight of fighters.
Deployment at start of battle with seeker missiles shown for reference (they will only show up later when activated). Click for full size image.
Turn 1
While the sathar destroyers all accelerate to speed 13, the rest just drift forward at their current speed.
Closing ranks to defend against the expected oncoming flights of fighters, the light cruiser and assault scouts join the battleship while the frigates join up with the heavy cruiser and assault carrier. The fighters slow to speed 20 to remain out of range of all of the approaching sathar ships except possiblly the lower flight of fighters.
No shots are fired as everyone is still out of range.
Both sides approach the planet. Click for full size image.
Turn 2
Yhe upper flight of sathar fighters accelerate to speed 25 and make a pass at the upper group of ships, firing on assault rocket each at the assault scouts and light cruiser. The lower flight make a pass at the UPF fighters and fire an assault rocket at three fighters in that group. The sathar destroyers accelerate to speed 16 and fly out to the flanks with the upper group turning to head back into the fight while the lower group keeps their forward firing weapons aimed at the UPF fighters. The heavy cruisers accelerate to speed 12 and turn to cross in front of the planet while the frigate and assault carrier remain at speed 10 but turn to pass below the planet.
Defensively, all of the UPF ships fire at the upper group of incoming fighters, while the more distant ships don’t connect, it adds to the crossfire and shots from the closer ship manage to destroy three of the four fighters while almost destroying the fourth (it has 1 HP left).
The surviving fighter fires at the light cruiser and knocks out its engines, it will be stuck at speed 17 until it can get those repaired. The lower flight of sathar fighters all hit with their assault rockets destroying three of the UPF fighters (half the flight).
The UPF activate two of the previously placed seeker missiles. Upon activation, each of them detects the nearby heavy cruiser and accelerate, driving home into the ships. Both cruisers fire 3 ICMs to attempt to intercept the missiles but they fail. The upper cruiser has its ICM launcher knocked out while the lower suffers a devastating hull hit (76 HP – double damage) nearly destroying it.
Ignoring for a moment the fighters and the upper group of destroyers, the UPF ships focus on the other capital ships. The remaining fighters, the assault scouts, and the frigates and make a pass at the lower group of destroyers. The heavy cruiser and assault carrier go after the severely damaged heavy cruiser and the sathar frigate, while the battleship and light cruiser go after the other heavy cruiser.
Defensively, the frigate, upper heavy cruiser, and assault carrier focus their fire on the UPF light cruiser damaging its maneuvering, taking out its laser and proton battery, slightly damaging its hull, and starting an on-board fire. The heavily damaged heavy cruiser fires at the UPF assault carrier knocking out its engines (stuck at speed 16) and severely damaging its hull (a little over 1/3 of hull integrity lost). The lower flight of destroyers focus their fire on two of the assault scouts. One is lightly grazed suffering a 20% hull integrity reduction while the other is destroyed.
Under combined fire from the UPF light cruiser and battleship, the upper sathar heavy cruiser has its maneuvering and proton battery knocked out, and suffers a 43% hull integrity loss from multiple hits. While the UPF assault carrier misses, the UPF heavy cruiser finishes off the heavily damaged sathar heavy cruiser with it’s pair of laser batteries. The shots by those ships at the frigate are much better. The frigate manages to intercept the heavy cruiser’s torpedo with its ICMs, but the sathar vessel is hit with the cruiser’s disruptor cannon and rocket batteries from both vessels damaging its damage controls system and reducing its hull integrity to only 8%.
The lower flight of sathar destroyers doesn’t fair much better. The lead destroyer is hit by an assault rocket and laser battery inducing a navigation control hit and suffering 28% hull integrity reduction. The second is hit by an assault rocket from one of the fighters which scores a critical hit and the laser cannon from one of the frigates and is destroyed by the damage inflicted. The last destroyer is hit by two laser batteries and an assault rocket knocking out 54% of its hull integrity.
First shots fired. Click for full size image.
Turn 3
The surviving heavy cruiser, having no MR, accelerates to speed 14 to come in range of the assault scouts and frigates. The seriously damaged frigate just drifts forward at speed 10 and the assault carrier follows it but accelerates to speed 12 and turns to cross its path near the end of its move All three ships fire at the UPF assault carrier. The upper flight of destroyers swoop down and are joined by the surviving fighter from the upper flight. They unleash everything they have at the UPF battleship. The lower flight of fighters loop around and fire on the UPF frigates (2 AR at one and 1 at another) while one of the destroyers loops around to fire at the lead assault scout with everything but it’s torpedo which it fires at the second frigate. The destroyer with the navigation control hit loops away from the fight but fires at the remaining assault scout as it passes by. The fire on the UPF light cruiser damages its combat control system.
Defensively, the frigates and assault scouts fire their laser batteries at the oncoming fighters destroying one and lightly damaging another. The frigates fire their other weapons at the damaged destroyer making the attack on them knocking out another 30% hull integrity and short circuiting out its screens and ICMs.
The UPF heavy cruiser and assault carrier fire their laser batteries at the sathar frigate (short circuiting its screens and ICMs and inducing a navigation control failure) and all their other weapons at the passing heavy cruiser. The battleship and light cruiser fire their disruptor cannons at the heavy cruiser, which combinded with the fire from the heavy cruiser and assault carrier, destroy that ship. They fire 2 laser batteries at the incoming fighter but miss and concentrate the rest of their weapons on the lead destroyer damaging its damage control system, inducing a fire, and nearly destroying it with a critical hit (only 8% hull integrity left).
The lone sathar fighter fire a salvo at the battleship. While most of the shots miss, the ones that hit are significant. The fighter’s assault rocket knocks out the battleship’s ICMs, the lead destroyer’s torpedo scores a critical hit knocking out 25% of the battleship’s hull, and the second destroyer scores a critical hit with its rocket battery taking out another 22% of the hull.
The UPF assault carrier is hit by both the sathar frigate and assault carrier knocking out its proton and laser batteries and multiple hull hits knocking another 40% off of it’s hull integrity. Shots at the surviving assault scouts destroy the lead assault scout while completely missing the other one. The lead UPF frigate is hit by an assault rocket damaging its engines while the other is hit by an assault rocket and torpedo knocking out nearly half its hull and acceleration ability.
The UPF light cruiser, with its engines nearly completely off line, turns to starboard and drifts down toward the lone sathar destroyer at the bottom of the map. The battleship turns hard to starboard and flies down over the wounded sathar frigate and flying past the assault carrier. The surviving UPF fighters and assault scouts loop around and make a run at the sathar assault carrier. The two frigates go after the lone sathar destroyer at the bottom of the map and loop back toward the main fight. The UPF assault carrier, severely damaged and with its engines disabled, drifts away from the fight escorted by the UPF heavy cruiser. The fire on the sathar destroyer rampages through the ship knocking out its engines and damaging its combat controls system
Defensively, the upper flight of sathar destroyers once again concentrate all their fire on the battleship, hoping to do better defensively than they did offensively. Their hope is in vain however as only one hit does hull damage (reducing it by another 10%) but they also induce a navigation control malfunction, knock out its stasis screen, and damage its combat control systems.
The lone sathar destroyer in the middle of the fight fires at the UPF assault carrier short circuiting its defensive systems and reducing its damage control capabilities.
The lone destroyer at the bottom of the map with the navigation control malfunction focuses its fire on the more damaged frigate knocking out it’s laser cannon.
The sathar frigate and assault carrier fire their energy battery weapons at the incoming UPF fighters (one is hit for a 38% hull integrity reduction) and the frigate fires its rocket battery at the assault scout (critical hit destroying the scout) and laser cannon at the battleship as it flies by (that’s the shot that induced the navigation control hit mentioned above).
The UPF fighters fire at the sathar assault carrier but only connect with one assault rocket knocking out the carrier’s maneuvering. The frigates work to finish off the damaged destroyer with the navigation hit but only manage to hit with a single laser battery inducing an onboard fire.
The light cruiser fires at the second destroyer in the upper group as it flies away hitting with its laser, proton, and electron batteries damaging it’s hull and weapons before the light cruier’s torpedo slips past the ICMs launched by the destroyer and scores a critical hit, destroying the sathar ship.
The battleship fires it’s disruptor cannon and a laser battery at the frigate hitting the laser battery and destroying it, two laser batteries at the damaged destroyer in the upper group, one of which connects destroying that ship, and the rest of its weapons at the third destroyer connecting with the electron battery and torpedo and knocking out 70% of the sathar vessel’s hull integrity.
Finally, the assault carrier and heavy cruiser fire at the damaged destroyer in the middle of the map destroying it with multiple hits.
While the UPF ships are fairly damaged, they are definitely in control of the fight at this point.
Positions after the first half hour of battle. This is the first of the map shifts (moved up slightly this time for that destroyer at the bottom to stay on the map). Click for full size image.
Repair Turn
On the UPF side, the damaged fighter fails its repair attempt on its hull which will have to be repaired at a shipyard, luckily it is still over 50% hull integrity and doesn’t have to worry about breaking up. The second UPF frigate and the battleship both manage to repair some of their hull while the battleship also effects repairs to its combat control system. The light cruiser gets its fire under control while the assault carrier repairs its damage control systems.
On the sathar side, the two damaged fighters repair their hull while the surviving destroyer from the upper group fails its hull repair, leaving it permanently damaged below 50% hull integrity. The other surviving destroyer gets its fire under control while the assault carrier repairs its maneuvering and combat control systems.
Turn 4
Recognizing that they can’t win, the sathar attempt to at least finish off the already damaged ships. To that end, the upper destroyer and 3 fighters go after the assault carrier. Though severely damaged, the destroyer manages to hold together (rolled 37 with a 30% breakup chance). The assault carrier turns away from the battleship and accelerates as much as possible. The other sathar destroyer, although it put its fire out, still has a problem with its navigation control system and pulls a turn to port. It also accelerates.
Defensive fire:
The UPF assault carrier and heavy cruiser fire defensively at the sathar fighters, using their ICMs to defend against the incoming torpedo, managing to destroy two of the three fighters. The battleship fires everything it can at the assault carrier causing significant system damage (all maneuvering, navigation control damage, half engine capabilities, and knocking out its ICM launcher) and some minor hull damage (20%). The UPF light cruiser and frigates fire long distance shots at the other destroyer but the shots all go wide.
The sathar fighter fires its final assault rocket at the UPF assault carrier knocking out that ship’s masking screen system. The sathar destroyer hits the assault carrier with its laser battery and a rocket battery but only causes minor hull damage (15% hull integrity reduction). The sathar assault carrier hits the UPF battleship with both of its energy weapons inducing a loss of navigation control and some minor (~6%) hull damage. However, that is enough to put the battleship below 50% hull integrity and with the navigation control damage, it could break up
At this point, I really thought we were going to loose the battleship. Especially when it takes even more damage as part of sathar defensive fire phase of this round. But that same destroyer saved the battleship as well. This is where the damage to all the ships combined with their high speed, really started to spread things out. Any of the ship staying in the fight (mainly the UPF light and heavy cruisers) I tracked on separate maps so they could loop around and come back in if the fight lasted that long.
The battleship, with its navigation control damage pulls a turn to port. Luckily its damaged hull holds together (rolled 24 on 14). The frigates, unable to reach the assault carrier, go after the destroyer at the top of the map. The light cruiser, with its limited maneuverability turns to try to come back around to the battle area. The UPF fighters make a final run at the sathar assault carrier before turning to return to their assault carrier. They also activate two more seeker missiles, one accelerates and slams into the remaining sathar fighter destroying it. The second starts to go after the battleship but as the battleship flies away, turns its sights on the sathar destroyer.
Defensively the sathar assault carrier misses its shots at the UPF fighters while the sathar destroyer hits the battleship for another 5% hull integrity loss and knocks out all of its maneuvering. The sathar destroyer connects with the damaged UPF frigate knocking out some of its engines and nearly destroying it.
Two of the three assault rockets from the UPF fighters connect with the sathar assault carrier, one of which scores a critical hit and between the two of them reduce the carriers hull integrity by another 64%. The UPF frigates, assault carrier and heavy cruiser all fire at the remaining sathar destroyer at the top of the map connecting with multiple weapons and destroying it. The battle ship hits the destroyer at the bottom of the map with a laser and electron battery reducing its hull integrity by another 24%.
Start of the cleanup phase for the UPF. Click for full size image.
Turn 5
The two remaining sathar ships are heavily damaged. The assault carrier just drifts away while the destroyer, with its navigation control system damaged pulls a hard turn to starboard and accelerates to speed 19. It doesn’t break up from the strain.
Defensively, the battleship is the only ship in range and it opens fire on the destroyer hitting with all of its battery weapons damaging its combat control system and short circuiting its defensive systems, knocking out its torpedo launcher, reducing its maneuverability, and slightly damaging its hull (6%).
Offensively, the destroyer fires back at the battleship and hits with both its rocket battery and a torpedo (the battleship’s ICM launcher is damaged) which both damage the battleships hull and nearly destroy it. It has only 6% hull integrity left.
If the destroyer hadn’t knocked out the battleship’s MR, it would definitely have broken up from the strain of the turn this round.
The seeker missile reverses course and heads after the battleship and sathar destroyer, the undamaged UPF frigate turns and accelerates to speed 24 to chase after the sathar assault carrier. The UPF heavy cruiser (off the top of the map) with no foreseeable danger to the damaged UPF assault carrier, turns and starts to pursue the sathar assault carrier as well. The light cruiser (off the bottom of the map) continues to slowly turn back to the combat area and the damaged battleship, frigate, and assault carrier just drift on their current course. Finally, the fighters start to close with the assault carrier to board and rearm.
Defensively the assault carrier fires at the oncoming frigate but misses. The destroyer takes its final shots at the battleship hitting with its laser battery. Unfortunately for the sathar, it only damages the battleship’s engines instead of damaging its hull.
Offensively, the battleship fires its final salvo, including a torpedo at the destroyer but only hitting with an electron battery damaging its engines and a proton battery knocking it out its rocket battery launcher . The UPF frigate fires at the sathar assault carrier but doesn’t hit at the extreme range.
Chasing down the stragglers. Click for full sized image.
Turn 6
The sathar assault carrier continues to drift while the destroyer’s navigation damage causes it to pull to port and fly up toward the planet, its reduced maneuverablity reducing its chance of breaking up and spreading out its movement. Defensively the frigate fires once again at the assault carrier, this time dialing in the range and hitting with both the laser battery (damaging the combat control system) and the laser cannon (16% hull integrity), nearly destroying the ship. The assault carrier returns fire but misses.
The UPF frigate chases down the assault carrier and surviving the defensive fire (laser battery hit for 18% hull integrity), hits the carrier with its laser cannon for 20% hull integrity and a rocket battery knocking out is proton battery and destroying it. The seeker missile continues to pursue the destroyer.
Main battlemap after an hour of combat. Most of the surviving combatants are off the map which has shifted down to keep the sathar assault carrier in view. Click for full size image.
Repair Turn 2
The two UPF frigates, assault carrier, and battleship all repair some of their hull while the assault carrier also repairs the short circuit in its defensive systems and the light cruiser restores complete maneuverability.
The sathar destroyer manages to repair 18% of its hull
Turn 7
The destroyer’s navigation control damage causes it to turn to port toward the light cruiser and it accelerates to continue to stay away from the seeker missile. The light cruiser, its maneuvering repaired continues a wide turn to avoid the seeker as well, otherwise, it could have closed on the sathar ship. The frigate turns after destroying the assault carrier, accelerating to chase after the destroyer. No shots are fired.
The map has shifted up again and the UPF light cruiser is back in view. It would have been visible last turn except for the map shift. Click for full size image.
Turn 8
Continuing to accelerate, the sathar destroyer’s navigation damage turns it to starboard and it passes within 40,000 km of the light cruiser. Defensive fire from the more distant frigate misses, but the light cruiser connects with its electron battery knocking out the destroyer’s masking screen. The destroyer returns fire and hits with its electron battery knocking out the cruiser’s ICM launcher.
The seeker missile continues to chase the ships but can’t catch them at their high speed. The light cruiser turns to run parallel to the sathar destroyer’s path. The frigate loops around and comes up directly behind the destroyer and the heavy cruiser completes it large turn and comes in directly at the destroyer.
Defensively, the destroyer fires at the frigate as it closes but misses with everything.
The light cruiser can only fire it’s EB and misses. The frigate fires its energy weapons (everything else is expended) and scores critical hits with both knocking out 52% of the sathar destroyer’s hull integrity (it only has 6% left). The heavy cruiser opens up with all of its energy weapons but misses as well.
Final positions of the ships still in view at the end of the end of the fight. The UPF heavy cruiser, has managed to turn around back to the battle area. Click for full sized image.
Turn 9
Now severely damaged after the hits from the frigate, and with the navigation control damage causing it to pull to starboard, the strain on the sathar destroyer’s hull is too much and the ship breaks apart as the crew tries to save it.
Task Force Cassidine has won the day, and while most of the capital ships are damaged (the heavy cruiser is the only one unscathed), they have only lost 3 fighters and three assault scouts. The crews get to work immediately upon field repairs.
Final Repairs
The frigate still in the fight completes its repairs in another half hour and just needs a reload to be fully operational. An hour an a half later the light cruiser finishes its repairs. An hour after that the other frigate completes as much repair as it can, its hull is only at 73% integrity but the rest of the work is going to need to be done at a shipyard. Another hour and a half (4.5 hours after the battle ended) the assault carrier completes all of its repairs. Finally, 6 hours after the battle is over the battleship completes the repairs of all its systems except for its stasis screen which is going to require a work in a shipyard.
Lessons Learned
I was really surprised the UPF did as well as they did. I really thought the sathar were going to win this one or at least leave Task Force Cassidine gutted. From a purely hull point perspective, the sathar had the advantage 631 to 518. Some lucky damage rolls, like the seeker missile doing 76 HP to the heavy cruiser on round two, and bad rolls on the sathar’s side, definitely helped tip the scales in their favor.
The other problem was that the sathar just couldn’t manage to finish off the UPF ships. The UPF battleship, one of the frigates, and the assault carrier were all nearly destroyed. They all were down to single digit hull points during the fight. The sathar just couldn’t manage to get the killing blow in. Those low hull points were late in the battle (expect for the assault carrier) so eliminating the ships would not have made much difference in this fight but eliminating them would have definitely helped the sathar’s war effort later on. As it is, Task Force Cassidine is almost completely intact. They will have to replace some fighters and assault scouts, but that’s relatively easy compared to having to replace a battleship and assault carrier.
What did you think of this fight? What should either side have done differently? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
A lone sathar frigate, detected three days ago shortly after it entered the system was engaged today by two militia assault scouts. While one of the assault scouts was heavily damaged in the encounter, the militia ships eliminated the enemy vessel in a single assault run.
Speculation rages as to the origin of the sathar vessel. There are unconfirmed reports that Spacefleet has established routes outward from Theseus toward the Great Void. Could it be that the sathar are coming in along those routes?
Victoria Sorensen, StarPlay News
Background
A lone sathar frigate jumped into the Theseus system as part of an effort by the sathar to chart a route to the Frontier from the Liberty system. Due to an alert that the ship was headed in that general direction from the forces of PG Liberty, the Minotaur militia was on alert and patrolling the system. The frigate was detected by two of the militia assault scouts and they vectored to intercept. Unable to jump out of the system before being caught, the frigate turns to fight the oncoming militia ships. This battle occurs in deep space.
Order of Battle
Minotaur Militia
2 Assault Scouts
Sathar
1 Frigate
The Battle
Setup
The opposing forces enter from opposite sides of the map. The militia are moving at speed 30 while the sathar frigate is moving at speed 20. The militia are the attackers in this scenario and will move first. The sathar are not necessarily trying to destroy the militia ships but rather escape the battle.
Initial positions of this fight. Click for full size image.
Turn 1
The two forces close with each other but no shots are fired. The militia ships swing wide to flank the sathar and maintain their speed. The sathar frigate changes course to go after the upper assault scout and uses its maximum acceleration but remains just out of laser canon range.
Initial closing movement. Click for full size image.
Turn2
The closer assault scout turns to avoid flying into range of the frigates laser cannon and loops around, remaining at speed 30 and ends in a position to fire its assault rocket at the frigate. The farther assault scout accelerates to speed 34 and makes a pass at the frigate firing its assault rocket from the same position where the other assault scout ends its movement but flits out of torpedo range to end its move.
The frigate focuses its fire at the closer assault scout while firing all of its ICMs at the incoming assault rocket from that ship. The laser battery hits for 8 HP of damage. The ICMs are ineffective and both assault rockets slam into the sathar frigate. The laser battery from the second assault scout also hits the sathar vessel. The combined damage from both ships obliterates the sathar frigate and that quickly the fight is over.
Final positions when sathar frigate is destroyed. Click for full size image.
Repairs
Unable to repair the hull damage, the wounded assault scout heads carefully back to Minotuar where it will enter the starship construction center for repairs.
Lessons Learned
The sathar should have matched the militia ships’ speed. Or at least started at speed 25. If it had, it could have brought at least its laser canon and laser battery to bear on the lone assault scout on turn 1 and possible even its rocket weapons (if it had started at speed 30). That would have significantly changed the outcome of the fight as it would have had another salvo at the militia and could have possibly eliminated one of the ships right away.
Once again this went faster than I expected. The damage rolls for the attacks were 18 and 20 HP for the assault rockets and 10 HP for the laser battery. While I rolled well for the damage effects (all of the hits did hull damage which I wasn’t suspecting), I actually rolled really low on damage for the assault rockets as both of those were double damage rolls! They should have done more on the order of 30 HP each. But it was still enough.
The sathar have part of the route to the Frontier from Liberty mapped, but because of the misjump the frigate made, the route in not complete.
As I mentioned in the last State of the Frontier post, one of the projects I want to tackle is to make print versions of the Star Frontiersman issues available for those that want them.
Once upon a time, the first 17 issues were available with black and white interiors from Lulu. However, with the trademark kerfluffle a couple of years ago, WotC had Lulu take them down. I have copies of all of these (ordered in a batch just before they were no longer available) and they are okay, but being black and white, lack something compared to the full color PDFs.
Plus, I found that the page registration was lacking on several of them. This manifested by having the border not on the edge with a gap around them on some sides. I suspect that this registration issues are simply a by-product of the way Lulu does its printing. It uses the original PDFs with no bleed. That combined with the fact that it prints the pages oversized, binds them, and then trims the pages to size means that things like that are going to happen. I was just surprised by how bad it was in some cases.
At some level, that is neither here nor there as those versions are no longer available.
What I want to do is make full color versions (like the PDFs) available via print-on-demand through DriveThruRPG. Much like the issues of the Frontier Explorer. While there are several hurdles to making that happen, the biggest problem is that most of the original (non-PDF) files for the early issues have been lost due to hard drive failures or the person who had the files leaving the gaming scene and dropping out of contact. I have issues 9-11 (I edited those so I have the original files) and can get issues 19-25. But for the others, I just have the PDFs.
This is an problem because the files I need to supply to DriveThruRPG for print editions are different than just the regular PDFs. First, I need a separate file for the cover (front and back combinded) and then a file for the interior pages. Both of those need a “bleed” region where the images and border art extend beyond what would be the printed part of the page to handle minor variations in the printing process – those same registration issues I saw with the Lulu prints. PDFs are not designed for extensive editing and having the original files would make things easier.
And truth be told, if it weren’t for the border art on the pages of the Star Frontiersman, this wouldn’t be too much of an issue. I could just increase the page size and be done. Of course, that means there wouldn’t have been the noticeable registration issues in the Lulu printed ones either. But those borders are definitely a problem. In fact, that’s exactly why the Frontier Explorer doesn’t have page borders; I didn’t want to have to deal with this issue and we were planning on print-on-demand versions of the magazine from the very beginning.
Additionally, in the Star Frontiersman, those borders changed starting in issue 7 and the new border art looks like it extends off the edge of the page. Which would be great for the bleed. Except that the border was drawn to exactly fit the page, not factoring in bleed. It has been dealing with these borders that has been the biggest concern that has kept me from really getting started on this project for the past few years. Having the original files would make it not so daunting but working with the PDFs is not easy. However, issues 11 & 12 will be easy to do as we changed the border on those issues to a much simpler line border. This is because we had feedback from readers saying that they were printing out the issues at home and the complex, detailed border was using up a lot of ink. So we went with a simpler border. But the magazine reverted back to the complex border starting in issue 12 again. And in fact, some of you may have issues 11 and 12 with the complex border as Larry changed the border on those issues and re-uploaded the new version. I think the ones on DriveThruRPG have the more complex border while the ones on the magazine website have the simpler border.
Cover of issue 7 with full page cover image.
Another problem is that later issues of the Star Frontiersman, also starting with issue 7, had cover images that fill the entire cover. The first six issues had the cover images in a frame and just a solid blue color for the rest of the cover. This was really easy to extend to make a bleed region for printing the cover. For all the later issues, I need to try to find the original cover images (which were almost guaranteed to be cropped to fit the cover) so I can get the rest of the image for the bleed on the cover. Otherwise, I’m going to have to do something to extend the cover to give it a bleed region, possibly, just using a black region.
Those are the hurdles. And they are understandable as the Star Frontiersman was never conceived to be a printed product and was designed as a digital product. In fact, the first few issue were just something Bill whipped up to give to his players, they weren’t even originally designed for public distribution. To get the POD version, we’ll just have to work around these hurdles.
Getting Started
In November 2020, I decided to bite the bullet and see what I could do. I started by trying to tackle the first six issue of the magazine. As I mentioned above, the covers for issues 1-6 are nice in that they just are a solid blue that extends to the edges with the image in a frame. Making the POD file for the covers was easy enough. Using my 4K monitor, I rotated the cover sideways, put it in to full screen mode, and did a screen capture. This gave me a fairly high resolution image of the cover which I scaled to the correct resolution for the print file. I then just had to fill in a little bit of the blue color for the bleed (and a bit of black for the issue block). And then I was done. (I actually did that last, after figuring out the interior). Here’s what that file looks like:
Cover file that needs to go to the printer.
The interiors of those six issues are also the same (almost) but took a bit more work. The interior pages were designed to look something like a file folder with a hatched background. The challenge was to extend this hatching out beyond the original page edge for the bleed and have it line up a closely as possible. If I had the original files, I could probably just change the page size to include the bleed area, check that the images didn’t move, and be done (That’s what I do with the Frontier Explorer) as I suspect that they were just using a pattern as a background. Unfortunately I don’t, and working with just the PDF version was going to take a bit more work.
What I have to do is a multi-step process. First I have to increase the size of the pages in the PDF to be the correct size for the POD version and include the bleed region (which is 1/8th of an inch on the top, bottom, and outside edges). Then I have to add the content for the bleed. This will be done by adding a background to each page of the file that extends the hatching out to the edge. The left and right pages have the hatching going the opposite direction. Luckily, they are mirror images of each other (or, as it turns out, nearly so).
So the main task was to make a background image that I could drop in behind the existing pages that lined up with the existing hatching border. I started with doing a high resolution screen capture of a page of the magazine. I then imported that into GIMP, enlarged the image size to be the correct size for the bleed, and deleted all the content except the border and hatching. Finally, I used regions where the hatching was prominent to grab a pattern and replicated that all around the edges. It turned out it didn’t exactly line up in places which required a bit of tweaking but in the end I was able to get a pretty good image. I then mirrored it to get the background image for the facing pages. Here’s what they look like:
The background spread. These are actually two different images, show here together.
Finally I added the background into the expanded PDF pages. This is where I discovered that they weren’t exactly mirror images of each other but I was able to shift things to line everything up well enough. Remember, if all goes well, this bit that I’m adding will get cut off and you’ll never see it. It’s just there as a contingency.
I did all that for issue 1 and sent the files off to the printer. And then I waited. It took about two weeks for the print proof to come back. Looking over it, it all looked fine. I could see some small variations that I knew were from the bleed area but I could only really notice them because I knew exactly what I was looking for. But that justified the work because if I hadn’t done it, there would be a bit of white border around the edges of the page.
And I have to say, I like the color. Here’s a picture of the Lulu black and white version next to the new color version.
Issues 2-6
With issue 1 looking good, I started working on the other issues. That actually went fairly quickly. Using the hard won experience of getting issue 1 set up, it only took about 20 minutes to convert each of the other issues to create the interior files.
Until I hit issue 6. I had never noticed, but issue 6 has a different hatching scheme. Instead of the diagonal lines, it uses a grid. So I had to make a new background image. But again, I knew what to do here and resolved that in quick order. Here’s the background images with the new gird that I used for this issue:
Background images for issue 6.
Once the interiors for those issues were complete, I created the cover image files for each issue. Again, this was a fairly straightforward and easy process. The biggest problem here was the fact that each issue is larger than the one before and I had to grab a separate template file for each one and adjust the size of the area used for the bleed and, due to the way the file is set up for the printer, shift the position of the barcode box (and the exact position of the classified ads on the back cover).
Speaking of the classified ads, due to their size, there is always going to be a bit of the lower right one that is cut off by the barcode that the printer uses to identify the cover and match it to its interior. This is just another casualty of the fact that the Star Frontiersman was designed with printing in mind. Luckily the box is fairly small and doesn’t have a large impact.
Print Proofs
With everything done, I uploaded the files for issues 2-6 and ordered print proofs. Strangely, even though I ordered them all together, they only printed issues 2-5 and sent them out. Issue 6 got delayed for a while. After waiting a couple of weeks, the print proofs showed up.
The covers all looked good and issues 2, 3, & 5 looked good inside. But when I opened issue 4, I got a bit of a surprise.
The cover and interior of the issue 4 print proof. It’s the interior for a stretch goal from the 2013 Kickstarter for White Wolf’s Exalted game 3rd edition.
Somehow, they put the wrong interior inside my cover! Remember that barcode I talked about earlier. They print that on the cover and on the last page (which has to be black) of the interior and use them to match things up. In the case of this print, they don’t match. Something didn’t work and someone else’s interior got put into my cover and someone else got the Star Frontiersman interior in their cover. Oops.
The barcodes from the cover (left) and interior (right). As you can see, they don’t match. They do in all the other proofs.
By this point issue 6 still hadn’t shipped so I contacted DTRPG and they check on the status of issue 6 and got their printer to order me a new copy of issue 4. Issue 6 shipped a couple of days later and arrived just this week. I’m still waiting on the reprint of issue 4.
Available for Order
I had planned on posting this last week but was still waiting on the print proof of issue 6 to arrive. Now that it has, I’m making the first six issues available on DriveThruRPG. I haven’t gotten the corrected proof of issue 4 yet but given that the others look fine, and the error seems to be a mix-up of the printing process and not a problem with my files, I’m not too worried about it.
If you want printed copies of the Star Frontiersman, just head over to the Star Frontiersman page on DriveThruRPG and select the issues you want. Like the PDFs, these are pay what you want. The difference is that the minimum is not free (as it is for the PDFs), but the “at cost” price to print the book (i.e. no money to me, just to the printer). These issues range in price from ~US$3.75 to ~US$7.00. The exact price depends on where you are in the world (inside or outside the US as the print prices are a little different) and the page count of the magazine. Issue 6 is about the same size as an issue of the Frontier Explorer and so costs about the same. Some of the later issues are much larger, and so are going to cost more.
Also, I recommend you order as many as you can at once to save on shipping. At least in the United States, where I’m at, it costs basically the same to ship one issue as it does to ship five. In either case it’s about US$5.00 using media mail. I can’t speak for other shipment options or foreign shipping but I suspect it’s similar.
Going Forward
There are more hurdles for the remaining issues as I’ve mentioned. My plan is to work on these off and on over the coming year to make them available. As I do, I’ll post notices here that you can get them.
Once all the individual issues are up, I may go back and do omnibus editions that combine the individual issues into larger volumes. But that is something that will have to wait at least until 2022.
