All posts by Tom

Building Print Editions of the Star Frontiersman

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.

Detailed Frontier Timeline – FY61.294 to FY61.325

A new year and here’s the recap of the details happening in the Frontier over the past month.

The beginning of the month was the final battle of the initial sathar foray into the Frontier. There could have been a couple more but the sathar, being significantly outgunned, decided to fall back and retreat. Another sathar starship construction center joins the war effort and this month sees a lot of repositioning of ships as well as reclaiming control of the Liberty system. The sathar are getting ships into position for another major push in the coming month.

Early in the month, I started reporting all the movement of ships in and out of the UPF starship construction centers as Spacefleet took control of their operations. By mid-month, I realized that was a little much and scaled it back only reporting ships completed or started for Spacefleet and the militias. All the commercial construction and maintenance will not be mentioned.

Date (FY)Events
61.295– The HSS History’s Hope safely arrives in YS06 and begin working on a jump to the YS07 system.

– The CMS Osprey arrives back at Clarion and is quickly admitted into the shipyards for repair.

– TF Cassidine jumps into the K’aken-Kar system and begins decelerating toward Ken’zah-Kit.  Once again they won’t make the initial engagement arriving a few days too late.  However, they are determined to stop the sathar here if PG Meteor and the militia ships cannot.

– 15 HS of space opens in the CDC shipyards (Triad, Cassidine). Spacefleet starts construction on another light cruiser to finish filling the holes in their ranks and allows the Truane’s Star militia to begin construction of a final assault scout.
61.296– With the loss of the Liberty system, and the massive losses in the initial foray into the Frontier, sathar forces and production from SCC#10 are committed to war effort against the Frontier.  This adds 9 fighters, 3 FF, 5 DD, 3 LC, 2 HC, and 2 AC to the sathar roster in addition to the SCC’s production capacity.

– The CMS Osprey emerges from the Clarion shipyards fully repaired and ready for action once again.  A small HS:4 yacht is moved in the SCC for maintenance.

– Battle of Ken’zah-Kit (K’aken-Kar) – The sathar obliterate the station with a single concentrated barrage but then are quickly destroyed by the combined UPF and militia forces.  Besides the station, only a single militia assault scout was lost with damage to three other ships that will require time in a shipyard to repair.

– Sathar SCC#4 (OFS111) completes construction of a new frigate.

– Realizing that SF Nova will reach New Pale in time for the battle, and having a nearly 2:1 hull disadvantage against SF Nova, PG Virgo, and the remaining Truane’s Star militia, SBF-E2 reverse course and start plotting a jump back to Zebulon.

– 12 HS of space opens up in the CDC SCC (Triad, Cassidine).  Construction is begun on two new assault scouts to replace those lost by the Kizk-Kar militia.  The remaining space is given over to a HS:6 ship for annual maintenance.

– 22 HS of space opens up in the PGC shipyards (Gran Quivera, Prenglar).  With Spacefleet’s immediate needs being met, they move two HS:11 ships in for maintenance.
61.297– SF Nova arrives in orbit around New Pale.  The crew spends the day resting from their hard trip as they watch the sathar begin to fall back.  The remaining ships of PG Virgo are absorbed into the Strike Force.

– The White Light militia jumps back to their home system and begins deceleration toward Clarion.

– The UPF minelayer jumps into the Fromeltar system and begins decelerating to join up with the militia forces holding that system.

– With the loss of SBF-C1 in the K’aken-Kar system, and recognizing that they are out gunned by the UPF forces there, SBF-B2 does not jump to K’aken-Kar but begins decelerating back toward Kawdl-Kit in the K’sta-Kar system.

– With its engines repaired, SF Nova’s assault carrier, together with its four surviving fighters, begin a high-speed jump to catch up with the main group.  At the same time PG Virgo’s carrier, leaving its 3 fighters behind, begins a transit back to Prenglar.

– The newly constructed sathar frigate at SCC#4 (OFS111) begins a transit to SCC#5 (OFS019)

– SBF-J1 (1 AC, 1 HC, 2 LC, 1 DD, 1FF, & 8 fighters) departs SCC#10 and begins a high-speed transit that will eventually take it to K’sta-Kar.

– SBF-J2 (1 HC, 1 LC, 3 DD, 2 FF) departs SCC#10 and begins a high-speed transit to the Liberty system.

– 8 HS of space opens in the Hentz (Araks) SCC for a total of 9 HS of open space.  A small HS:9 freighter is moved in for maintenance.

– SBF-E1 jumps back into the Kazak system.  They do not slow down and start plotting a jump back to SSC#5 in the OFS019 system.

– An additional 13 HS of space opens in the Hentz (Araks) SCC.  A HS 11 mining ship is moved in for annual maintenance.
61.298– After rearming the ships in the K’aken-Kar system, TF Cassidine and PG Meteor begin accelerating for a jump to the K’sta-Kar system to confront SBF-B2 or drive it out of the system.

– The damaged ships (a frigate & assault scout from PG Meteor and the surviving K’aken-Kar assault scout), designated Repair Group (RG) One are ordered to Fromeltar for repairs. They begin accelerating for a jump to Kizk-Kar.

– 13 HS of space opens in the PGC shipyards (Gran Quivera, Prenglar).  A HS:12 ship is moved in for maintenance.
61.299A small group of 8 civilian privateer vessels, hailing from the yazirian worlds of the Frontier and calling themselves the Yazira Squadron, arrive in orbit around Morgaine’s World (Prenglar) and request permission to assist Starfleet in the fight against the sathar.
61.300– The HSS History’s Hope arrives in the YS07 system and begins decelerating toward the inner system.  Back at the last system explored, they plan to spend a few days resting here before starting to chart new routes toward their destination.

– SBF-E2 jumps back into the Zebulon system and starts decelerating toward Volturnus.

– SBF-B2 settles back into a high orbit around Kawdl-Kit (K’sta-Kar).

– SBF-E1 jumps back into the OFS019 system and begins decelerating toward the starship construction center there for repairs.

– 8 HS of space opens in the PGC shipyards in Gran Quivera (for a total of 9 HS of space available).  A HS:9 ship is moved in for maintenance.
61.301– Worried that since the sathar have a route into Prenglar they may also have one to Gruna Garu, Spacefleet sends the Yazira Squadron back to Gruna Garu to bolster the defenses there.

– With the sathar mostly on the retreat at the moment, and based on the success of the fighters and assault scouts in the recent engagements, Spacefleet announces the creation of the Frontier Fighter Corps with a plan to station multiple squadrons of fighters in every system of the Frontier.

– As the first step of implementing the Frontier Fighter Corps, all currently available space in the Type I and II shipyards around the Frontier are used to start construction of new fighters.  At the moment that means 2 are started in Hentz (Araks) and 2 in Minotaur (Theseus).
61.302– The White Light militia arrive back in orbit around Clarion.

– The UPF minelayer arrives in orbit around Terledrom, joining up with the Fromeltar and Dramune militias.

– SF Nova’s Assault carrier jumps into the Dixon’s Star system and starts working on calculations for the jump to Truane’s Star.  The carrier leaving PG Virgo also arrives in the system and starts working on calculations for the jump to Prenglar.

– The lone sathar frigate jumps into OFS110 and begins calculations for a jump to OFS022.

– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS170 system and begins calculations for a jump to OFS169.

– SBF-J2 jumps into the OFS177 system and begins calculations for a jump to the Dayzer system (OFS178).

– Sathar SCC#5 (OFS019) completes construction of a cutter.
61.303– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS169 system and begins calculations for a jump to the OFS167 system.

– Task Force Cassidine and PG Meteor jump into the K’sta-Kar system and begin decelerating toward the sathar forces orbiting Kawdl-Kit.

– RG One arrives in the Kizk-Kar system and begin engine overhauls and plotting a jump to Fromeltar.

– 11 HS of space open up in the Triad (Cassidine) SSC.  Work is begun on 11 fighters for the newly formed Frontier Fighter Corps.  There are complaints that over half the SCC’s capacity are being used for Spacefleet but Spacefleet points out that some of that usage if for planetary militias as well.

– Deciding not to wait any longer, two HS:6 ships under construction in the Pale SCC (Truane’s Star) are moved out of the shipyard by Spacefleet to make room for the damaged light cruiser.
61.304– The crew of the HSS History’s Hope start working on the next jump in their journey to a small red dwarf star.  It’s a long one, just under 12 light years long jumping a big void of stars in this region of space.  They designate their target system YS08.

– Detecting the inbound UPF forces, and recognizing that they are still outgunned, SBF-B2 decides to abandon K’tsa-Kar. They break orbit from Kawdl-Kit and begin accelerating to jump out of the system.

– 13 HS of space opens up in the Hentz (Araks) shipyard.  Two HS:5 ships are moved in for maintenance and work begins on constructing 3 new fighters.

– 4 HS of space opens up in the Clarion (White Light) shipyard and a small HS:4 ship is moved in for maintenance.

– The sathar SCC#10 (OFS174) completes construction of a fighter.
61.305– SF Nova’s assault carrier jumps into the Truane’s Star system and begin deceleration toward the rest of the Strike Force.

– The lone sathar frigate jumps into OFS022 and begins calculations for jump to OFS018.

– SBF-E1 arrives back at SCC#5 (OFS019) and is disbanded.  The work halts on the heavy cruiser currently under construction and the damaged frigate and destroyer enter the shipyard for repairs.

– 6 HS of space opens up in the CDC SCC (Triad, Cassidine), with another 17 HS opening up tomorrow, the space is held to allow some larger ships to move in for maintenance.

– 9 HS of space opens in the Terledrom (Fromeltar) SCC.  With RG One only a few days away, the space is held for those ships so that battle repairs can begin immediately when they arrive.
61.306– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS167 system and begins calculations for a jump to the OFS166 system.

– SBF-J2 jumps into the Dayzer system (OFS178) and begins calculations for a jump to the OFS179 system.

– 11 HS of space opens in the PGC shipyards (Gran Quivera, Prenglar).  Spacefleet begins construction of 8 fighters and an assault scout using the available space.
61.307– The lone sathar frigate jumps into OFS018 and begins calculations for jump to OFS019.

– The damaged sathar destroyer under repair at SCC#5 (OFS019) is finished and emerges from the shipyard ready for battle.

– SF Nova’s assault carrier arrives in orbit around Pale and rejoins the fleet.  It collects the fighters left by PG Virgo as part of its compliment.

– The assault carrier from PG Virgo arrives back at Morgaine’s World (Prenglar).  The crew is debriefed on their trip to the Rim and recent battle at New Pale (Truane’s Star).

– After four days of round-the-clock work by the engineers from the Pale SCC and SF Nova, the light cruiser emerges from the Streel shipyards fully repaired and ready for action.  The two ships that were moved out to make room resume construction.
61.308– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS166 system.  Upon arrival, their orders are changed, and they are ordered to proceed to SCC#3 (OFS138) instead of heading into K’tsa-Kar.  They begin plotting a jump to OFS157.

– RG One arrives in the Fromeltar system and begins deceleration toward the shipyards at Terledrom.

– Task Force Cassidine and PG Meteor arrive in orbit around Kawdl-Kit, much to the relief of the planet’s populace.

– The damaged sathar frigate under repair at SCC#5 (OFS019) is finished and emerges from the shipyard ready for battle.  The damaged heavy cruiser is moved in to begin the extensive hull repairs it needs.
61.309– SBF-J2 jumps into the OFS179 system and begins calculations for a jump to the Liberty system (FS30).

– SBF-B2 jumps into the FS33 system and begins decelerating.

– After two days rest, the assault carrier at Morgaine’s World (Prenglar) is ordered to Triad (Cassidine) to await completion of the first fighters for the Frontier Fighter Corps and then to shuttle them to the Kizk-Kar system.  It is designated Shuttle Group (SG) Alpha.

– 18 HS of space opens in the Hentz (Araks) SCC.  A HS 14 ship is moved In for maintenance.  Another fighter is started for Spacefleet and the remaining space is held for an upcoming ship maintenance.
61.310– Jump calculations complete and verified, the HSS History’s Hop starts accelerating for the jump to YS08.

– Yazira Squadron arrives back in the Gruna Garu system where they join up with the local militia to coordinate the defense of that system.

– Strike Force Nova, together with the remaining ships of the Pale militia, leave Fortress Pale and begin accelerating toward the Zebulon system to engage the sathar forces now orbiting Volturnus.
61.311– The lone sathar frigate jumps into OFS019 and begins decelerating toward SCC#5.

– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS157 system and begin calculations for a jump to the OFS156 system.

– With the sathar apparently gone from the system, PG Meteor is ordered to the Kizk-Kar system where they will be supported by the fighters being delivered by SG Alpha and joined by their flagship, the battleship Admiral R’kazk’tar which will be completed in 33 days.
61.312SBF-J2 jumps into the Liberty system and begins decelerating toward Snowball.
61.313– PG Liberty and the Mhemne belters detect the sathar ships that have arrived in the system.  An alert is immediately sent out to Spacefleet alerting them of the sathar presence.

– RG One arrives at the Terledrom shipyards (Fromeltar).  The militia assault scout and UPF frigate are immediately moved into the shipyard to begin repairs.

– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS156 system and begins calculations for a jump to the OFS155 system.
61.314– SBF-B2 arrives in the inner system of FS33 where they await orders from the sathar high command.

– Recognizing that they are no match for the inbound sathar forces, PG Liberty, with the assistance of the Mhemne belters, go into hiding in the Liberty system to watch the sathar’s movements.  Evacuations begin immediately on the L4 and L5 stations.

– Receiving the alert from PG Liberty, the Theseus militia ships in the White Light system depart Fortress Redoubt and begin accelerating for a jump home.
61.315– The HSS History’s Hope successfully jumps into the YS08 system.  They begin decelerating toward the inner system and working on engine overhauls.

– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS155 system and begins calculations for a jump to OFS150.

– SF Nova and the Pale militia jump into the Zebulon system and begin decelerating toward Volturnus and the sathar forces.

– The K’akan-Kar militia assault scout completes its repairs in the Terledrom (Fromeltar) SCC.  As it emerges the UPF assault scout is moved into its place.
61.316– The sathar frigate arrives at SCC#5 (OFS019) joining up with the other ships there.

– SBF-J2 arrives in orbit around Snowball and finding the L4 station abandoned settle back into the berths there. 

– Detecting SF Nova, SBF-E2 decides to avoid engagement and departs Volturnus and begins accelerating for a jump to the Kazak system.

– PG Meteor jumps into the K’aken-Kar system and begins working on calculations for the jump to Kizk-Kar.

– The UPF frigate and assault scout complete their repairs in the Terledrom shipyard and emerge once again ready for combat.  A HS:6 ships is moved in for maintenance and Spacefleet begins construction of 3 fighters.
61.317RG One, now fully repaired, departs Terledrom for the Kizk-Kar system.  The  Spacefleet vessels will remain in that system to await the arrival of the rest of PG Meteor while the militia ship will return to its home system.
61.318– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS156 system and begins calculations for a jump to the OFS146 system.

– SG Alpha arrives in orbit around Triad (Cassidine) just in time to pick up the five fighters completed in the CDC shipyards.  The fighters are taken aboard the assault carrier which prepares to depart for the Kizk-Kar system the next day.  Construction begins on five more fighters.

– After two days in the Liberty system, with no indication of any UPF presence, the heavy cruiser and 3 destroyers of SBF-J2 split off (now SBF-J3) and begin accelerating for a jump back to OFS179 leaving the light cruiser and 2 frigates in the system.
61.319– Arriving at the inner system of YS08, the crew of the HSS History’s Hope begin working on calculations for the return jump to YS07.

– Taking several days longer than expected, the damaged sathar heavy cruiser emerges from SCC#5 (OFS019) fully functional once again.  The hull of the heavy cruiser whose work was paused is moved back into the shipyard to resume construction.
61.320– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS146 system and begins calculations for a jump to SCC#3 (OFS138).

– SF Nova arrives and settles into orbit around Volturnus (Zebulon).

– PG Meteor arrives in the Kizk-Kar system and begins decelerating toward Zik-Kit.

– SBF-E3 (1 C, 1 FF, 1 DD, 1 HC) departs SCC#5 (OFS019) for a jump to Kazak to join up with SBF-E2.
61.321SBF-E2 jumps into the Kazak system and begins decelerating toward Stenmar.
61.322– RG One arrives in the Kizk-Kar system and the Spacefleet vessels start decelerating toward Zik-Kit while the militia assault scouts remains at speed and prepares for a jump back to its home system of K’aken-Kar.

– A fighter for the Frontier Fighter Corp is completed in the PGC shipyards (Gran Quivera, Prenglar) and construction begins immediately on another.
61.323– The Theseus militia arrive back in orbit around Minotaur.

– SG Alpha jumps into the Dramune system and begins calculations for a jump to Fromeltar.

– SBF-J3 jumps into the OFS179 system and begins calculations for a jump to the OFS168 system.

– One of the sathar frigates in the Liberty system begins accelerating out from the inner system and appears to be on a course to jump to the Waller Nexus system. It is designated EG-1. PG Meteor could intercept from their hiding place in 2 days.

– Detecting the outbound sathar frigate, PG Liberty notifies Spacefleet and are told to let it pass but take it out if it returns to the system.
61.324– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS138 system and begins deceleration toward SCC#3.

– PG Meteor arrives in orbit around Zik-Kit (Kizk-Kar).

– A UPF fighter is completed in the Terledrom (Fromeltar) shipyards and construction begins immediately on another.
61.325– Calculations complete, the HSS History’s Hope stars accelerating for the jump back to YS07.

– SBF-E2 arrives in orbit around Stenmar (Kazak).

– SBF-E3 jumps into the Kazak system and begins decelerating toward Stenmar and SBF-E2.

Here’s the full timeline PDF for download:

DetailedFrontierTimelineDownload

State of the Frontier – Dec 2020

You may have noticed that I didn’t have a post last week. I think that was the first weekly post I’ve missed since I started the blog. The truth is, I just didn’t have anything ready to write about, nor the time to generate anything. Hopefully you were too busy with the holidays (like I was) to really notice or miss it.

I don’t do yearly retrospectives in these updates so looking back will only be December. However, given some of the things that happened this month, looking forward will take a bit longer view than just January. Read on.

Looking Back

As I already mentioned, I missed last week’s post. That said, I still managed to get four posts up (this one makes five) this month. It’s just that one of them was the off-schedule battle report post of the Battle of Ken’zah-Kit. We started the month with the usual Detailed Frontier Timeline post which I followed up with some musings on the Second Sathar War triggered by all the work I’ve been doing on that in the the timeline. I then posted the first part of a series with videos showing how I make my ship deck plans as I work on the deck plans for the HSS History’s Hope.

And that was it on the blog front. The reason for that is that there has been a lot going on behind the scenes.

First and foremost, I changed jobs mid-month. Now instead of being an Adjunct (part-time) Professor at the local university teaching an occasional computer science class and working full time as a software developer at NASA, I’m now an Assistant (full-time, tenure-track) Professor at the university and only part-time at NASA. Making that transition (I’m no longer working from home), plus the holidays, has severely cut into my free time this month and I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to work on game related topics. I’m still getting my schedule sorted out and figuring out when I have time to schedule my various activities.

What time I did have was put primarily into the next issue (#31) of the Frontier Explorer. I’ve edited most of the articles and will finish those up this week and get the preliminary layout done so we can figure out what art is still needed. Once again, I had more things scheduled for the issue than will fit so we’re already well on our way to having all the content for issue 32.

Another chunk of time was spent on the timeline. With the aftermath of the battles last month and this, there was a bunch of logistical things I had to track and work through for the timeline and that ate up a bunch of time.

The other thing that happened is that I started looking at the Star Frontiersman magazine again. Ever since Bill Logan passed the magazine off to me, I’ve had two things I’ve wanted to do. The first is bring it back to life, probably on an annual or semi-annual basis filling the pages with adventures, kind of like TSR’s old Dungeon magazine. Looking over the magazine submission queue, there are several adventures in there and it may be time to kick that project off.

The second is that I’d like to make print versions of the Star Frontiersman issues available for those that want them. The first 17 issues used to be available in black and white from Lulu but with the trademark kerfluffle a a couple of years ago, WotC had Lulu take them down. I want to make the full color versions (like the PDFs) available. The problem is that for most of those back issues, I only have the PDF files, not the original documents, and the format needed to make the print version is not just the PDF that currently exists. I started to go into an explanation of the issues involved but realized I should save that for a separate post and do it proper justice. The short version is that I managed to get proper print files for issues 1-6 ready and sent off. I’ve received the print proof or issue 1, which I did first, and am happy with it. I’m just waiting on the other five. This project sucked up the remaining free time I had this month (including some time I probably should have spent on the Frontier Explorer).

Looking Forward

On the blog, there will definitely be another Detailed Frontier Timeline post next week, and toward the end of the month, three more battle reports (which I still need to play out the battles for). I also hope to finish the History’s Hope deck plans and post those and the associated videos. Beyond that, I don’t know what other posts, if any are coming. It’s really going to depend on what I end up working on.

The other thing that is definitely coming out this month is the next issue of the Frontier Explorer and the print-on-demand editions of the first six issues of the Star Frontiersman. I haven’t missed an issue of the Frontier Explorer since we started in 2012 and don’t plan on starting now. That will always get my #1 priority slot. And the Star Frontiersman issues are just waiting on the print queue and shipping. Once they arrive and I can look them over, I’ll make them available.

Over the past month or two, I’ve been thinking a lot about what projects I want to work on going forward and what that will mean for this blog.

For the past half year or so, I’ve felt really pressured to try and get an article out each week even when it hasn’t been something I really wanted to work on for focus my time on. When I started the blog, I also launched my associated Patreon campaign. I originally promised one post a month but later decided to try to get a weekly post out as a way to generate interest and Patreon supporters even though a weekly post was way down on the goals list. But I felt that a more frequent and regular posting schedule would be helpful in growing my readership and patronage. And I was was able to keep it up for over 2.5 years. However, I think going forward, I’m going to dial back my posting a little bit.

I’ll continue to have the Detailed Frontier Timeline posts on the first Tuesday of each month, and I’ll continue to do these State of the Frontier posts on the last Tuesday of each month. In between that though, I think I’ll be posting on a more sporadic basis as I finish projects and/or have progress to report. I also might start doing more small announcement type posts when I learn about other things going on or have something to mention. But that begs the question of what will I be working on beyond the Detailed Frontier Timeline.

First, I want to finish up the deck plans of the HSS History’s Hope and produce a Technical Manual for the ship. That should be good for at least two posts. One, which I hope to have ready by the end of the month, on the rest of the decks, and a second giving more details about the ship in general, maybe with more detailed room descriptions. Then there will be an announcement post when the final Technical Manual is available.

Second, I want to get back to my 3D modelling. Both finishing up the recreations of the miniatures from the Privateers boxed set that TSR created, and making new ships of my own design. I’m going to start with the Privateers. If I can manage to get one done each month, that will get me through to June. When I get to my own designs, they may or may not come with deck plans. I’d like to Technical Manuals for each one but may shift to a lighter “spec sheet” version that doesn’t go into quite as much detail as my Technical Manuals but still provides game data on the ships.

Third, and related to the modeling effort. I have a new starship construction system nearly complete (it has been for a long while) that I want to finish and make available. I’ve posted excerpts from this in the past and really need to just finish it and get it out there. My plan is to base all the miniature designs of my own creation on ships created with this system.

Fourth, I want to finish the Death at Rosegard and Ghost Ship Osiris adventures that I started when I began this blog. I’ll probably start with Death at Rosegard as that one is mostly done, I just need to stitch it all together. Then I can tackle Ghost Ship Osiris. The latter was put on hold as Bill wasn’t really doing anything with FrontierSpace. However, with Trevor Holman’s FrontierSpace adventures coming out (that I edit for him), and Bill starting to get things going again with FrontierSpace, it’s time to finish that one up as well.

Finally, I want to get back to writing. I’m 75,000+ words into a first draft (probably about a quarter done) of a Star Frontiers novel and have an outline for the sequel to my book Discovery. I’d like to start spending more time on those as well. I’m not sure how much of the writing will show up in the blog until I get toward later drafts and have excerpts I can post, but it’s something that I will be spending time on.

Final Thoughts

Things are going to look a little different going forward, but hopefully there will still be plenty of content for you to enjoy. What types of material would you be interested in seeing that I haven’t mentioned already? Or what aspects of the mentioned projects would you be interested in seeing me write about here? I’m always open to suggestions.

I want to end this post 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.

HSS History’s Hope Deck Plans – part 1

This is going to be a two-parter, mainly because I haven’t finished all the deck plans. The reason is that instead of just drawing the deck plans, I decided to record myself doing so and make a set of how-to videos about how I make the deck plans, similar to what I did for drawing the Rosegard maps (part 2, part 3, part 4) a couple of years ago. But because of that, I haven’t had a chance to record all the videos with everything going on. This post will provide links to the maps and videos I have finished, and the next one (hopefully sometime next month, I hope to record the rest over the Christmas break) with provide the rest of the decks.

All of the maps are drawn at 140 DPI or 70 pixels per grid square which is exactly the size needed for Roll20 and most virtual table tops.

Getting Started/Cargo Deck

The first video shows the set up of my drawing environment and then we draw the first/lowest deck on the ship, the cargo deck, which is also the simplest. Here’s the video:

Here’s the final map for the Cargo Deck.

Cargo Deck map. Click for full-size image.

This map is fairly simple, there is the elevator and ladder well, the main cargo bay, and two smaller sealed cargo bays on the right side. These smaller rooms have secure doors that can be locked. There is the main cargo bay doors at the bottom of the map. These open downward to form a loading ramp to get into the cargo bay if landed on a planet’s surface.

Crew Deck

There are two videos for this deck. The first one fixes some minor issues with the cargo deck and then gets to work on the crew deck. The second one adds in the portholes for the deck.

This is actually the deck plan for five different decks on the ship as they are all the same except the Officer’s Deck which has a ceiling access to the bridge deck. Here is the final map for these level.

Officer Deck. The only difference between this and the other decks is that the dashed square (which represents the access to the bridge) is absent on the other decks. Click for full-sized image.

Once again the deck is fairly simple, consisting of four nearly identical cabins, with one being slightly smaller due to needing to access the ladder well.

Each cabin has a bed, desk, table, several chairs, wardrobe and private bath.

Science and Exploration Deck

This is the final deck for this installment. This is the deck that houses all the exploration equipment (atmoprobes, remote probes, landing drones), the ships laboratory, a small lifeboat and workpod, and the hydroponics and life support system.

And here’s the deck plan.

Science and life support deck. Click for full-sized version.

You may notice that this deck looks a bit different than the end shot in the video. As I mentioned in the video, I forgot about the life support machinery when I was drawing it. I’ve gone back and fixed that mistake.

The missile silhouette is the atmoprobes, the are two of them, one on top of the other, The two bays on the left with nothing drawn in them are the landing drone (top) and remote probe (bottom) bays. The area on the right is the laboratory and the large area at the bottom is the hydroponics bay (left) and life support machinery (right).

This deck changed the most from my original sketches due to the creation of the 3D model. You may notice that the three bays at the top “stick out” from the the basic shape of the ship. As I was making the model and working on the hull, I found that there was more space available given the angular shape I gave the hull. So I was able to extend these bays out instead of having them take up space from the hydroponics and life support area and still be within the sloped edges of the hull. You can see the cutouts for these bays doors on the model.

Final Thoughts

There are only three maps here but they actually represent 7 of the 12 decks in the ship so on some level, I’m over half done. This is a short post, although if you watch the videos, you’ve got a bit more than an hour and a half of viewing ahead of you.

I had hoped to finish all of the deck plans but I’ve been crazy busy this month (among other things I start my new position as a computer science professor today) and just haven’t had the time to dedicate to this project as I’d like. So I decided to do this post for today and finish up the other ones in a future post.

Thoughts on the Second Sathar War

Obviously, as I’ve been playing through the battles and coordinating the movements of the UPF and sathar forces for the Detailed Frontier Timeline, the events and conditions surrounding the Second Sathar War have been on my mind. A lot.

While the rules in the Knight Hawks Campaign Books are really geared around a balanced war game, I’ve been porting the scenario over more to the RPG side and looking at it from that perspective. In this post, I thought I’d collect some of the ideas I’ve had along the way. The topics are not necessarily connected or in any particular order but all relate to the how the Second Sathar War would impact or play out in the Frontier. So let’s get started

The Rim

I already mentioned this in one of the battle reports, but I’m not really considering the Rim in my narrative beyond the two battles I’ve already reported. I’ve never sat down and worked out the starship construction capabilities of the Rim, the order of battle for the Flight (the Rim’s version of Spacefleet), or any of those logistical considerations.

When I set this scenario up, literally decades ago, I didn’t have a copy of Zebulon’s Guide so the Rim was never in my considerations. Since I’m really just playing out that setup from so many years ago, and I never did the background work necessary for the Rim, they just weren’t part of the plan. I’m really just assuming that their fortunes go the same as in the Frontier.

Civilian and Megacorp Ships

I think handling these other Frontier ships is the biggest issue that moving this from a war game over to the RPG side of things needs to consider and I’m not sure how I’m going to address it completely yet.

In looking at starship construction based on the listed starship construction centers in the Frontier, I’ve estimated that without any changes to the SCCs, there are probably about 2300 ships flying around the Frontier, which is probably low. But let’s use that number to start.

There are 23 worlds in the Frontier (including Volturnus), so if you just divide those ships out, that’s about 100 ships per world. That probably shifts around a bit, for example, Laco, in Dixon’s Star, is an outpost world with very low population, so it probably doesn’t have as many ships. Neither would Volturnus. And the more heavily populated worlds probably have a little more. Morgaine’s World in Prenglar is also an outpost but since that’s the home of Spacefleet, I give them just as many ships as at least a medium population planet and say that those are all the Spacefleet ships.

Plus there are the ships that the megacorps own. We know that Streel and Pan Galactic have military ships, it stands to reason that WarTech and CDC do as well and I even gave some to Trans Travel in my timeline. So some fraction of those 2300 ships are going to be military vessels owned by the megacorps. All of which could do some damage to sathar ships invading a system.

Finally, and what I really want to focus on, is that given that piracy is a concern for ships in the setting, even the “non-military” ships are going to be armed to some extent or another, even if it is just a laser battery or three on any ship HS 6 or larger.

Let’s assume for a minute that every ship in the Frontier has at least a laser battery. Now some won’t have any weapons but others will have more than one so it probably all averages out. What happens if 50 of these ships decide to not sit idly by while Spacefleet dukes it out out with the sathar but join the fight?

First, lets just look at the “average” hull damage done by a laser battery. On the damage table, there is a 10% change of double hull damage, a 35% chance of regular hull damage and a 55% chance of damaging some other system. The laser battery does 1d10 damage for an average of 5.5 hull points of normal damage and 11 points when double damage is called for. Multiplying that out by the percentage that they occur means that on average, ignoring the damage from system hits, a hit by a laser battery does 3 HP of damage (11 points 10% of the time, 5.5 points 35% of the time and 0 points 55% of the time).

At an average of 3 HP of damage per hit, 14 hits kill a frigate, 17 kill a destroyer, 24 kill a light cruiser, 25 kill an assault carrier, and 27 kill a heavy cruiser. Do you see where this is going?

The next question is how often do these laser batteries hit? The base “average” chance to hit with a laser battery is 50%. But since laser batteries suffer from range diffusion, it’s only that high if the ships are within 10,000 km (1 hex on the game map) of each other. Getting that close means that the sathar can use their rocket batteries and torpedoes against you if they want and since these are civilian ships, we’ll assume they try really hard to stay out of the range of those weapons. So they shoot from 50,000 km (5 hexes) away and have a chance to hit of only 25%. Which means that the average laser battery shot, factoring in the miss rate, does a little over 0.75 HP of damage any given round.

That doesn’t seem like a lot, but remember that is an average taking into account of all the probabilities and that is per ship. So let’s look at those 50 ships. If you take 50 ships, each doing ~0.75 HP each time they fire, you have a combined damage output of 37-38 HP. And since the laser battery can fire both offensively and defensively, that doubles to about 75 HP each round of combat. That’s enough damage to take out any single ship expect a heavy cruiser.

And the truth is, that there is a good chance that the HP damage output is actually larger. We have 100 shots (50 ships, 2x each) at 25% to hit. So 25 of those shots hit the target. 11.25 (45%) of those do hull damage while the other 13.75 (55%) do system damage. But if the system damage results calls for a hit on a system already destroyed, you get hull damage instead. Some of those system hits are going to shift over to the hull side and increase the damage. (I really should write a program to analyze this and get the actual numbers.)

The bottom line is that in any give turn, that swarm of civilian ships could take out any one large sathar ship, two frigates, or a swarm of fighters.

From the sathar side, there is really nothing you can do about this. You are looking at 25-50 targets (depending on how you distribute the laser batteries), each with 30 or more HP, and taking out 2 or 3 each round is not going to make much difference in their damage output. They will overwhelm you with sheer numbers. Death by a thousand cuts.

This is something that the war game doesn’t have to deal with but which will definitely come into play in an RPG-level look at the conflict. Maybe the civilian and mega-corps ships won’t get involved. But if their worlds are threatened, I don’t really see them not stepping up, at least a good number of them. And what if Spacefleet calls for a 3rd Common Muster? (There has to be something in the UPF charter about that.) Then they will be involved. The sathar are going to need more ships.

Starship Construction Centers

In the war game, ship construction and replacement is very abstracted. Every 20 days, the UPF get 2 fighters and/or assault scouts for each fortified station on the map and a capital ship for every fortress. The sathar just have a base 35% chance to replace every ship lost in the previous 20 days.

A big part of this project for me was to see how using the starship construction rules, combined with the distribution of UPF starship construction centers, and giving the sathar some SCCs as well, would play out in the logistics of what ships were available for combat. I knew this would drag things out as you couldn’t replace ships that quickly but wanted to see what would actually happen. We’ll find out as this plays out.

But, as the first battles have been fought, and the UPF is looking to replace ships, I started really looking at the distribution of the SCCs in the Frontier. Until now I had just taken them for granted and not though much about it. And for the most part, the type of construction center and its location make sense for the SCCs described in the book. Analyzing that (and maybe reorganizing them) may be another post in the future. But three of the SCCs stood out as a little odd. Let’s look at those from least troublesome to most (in my opinion).

Clarion (White Light)

This is a Type III SCC which means it can have up to 20 hull sizes (HS) of ships under construction but they cannot be military vessels and cannot have atomic drives.

To me, this feels a little bit odd. White Light is the nexus for jumps to four different systems so it’s a major hub system (and the only access to Theseus). Maybe because it is the setting for the Warirors of White Light adventures but it seems to me that there should be a more major construction center here.

However, with the Type II center just a system away in Theseus, and the fact that the main output of the planet is resources, not industrial products, maybe having a small shipyard is okay even if the planet does have a high population and is a major crossroads.

Outer Reach (Dramune)

Like at Clarion, the Outer Reach shipyard is a Type III SCC. There are a couple of things that stand out for me here.

One is the lack of an SCC at Inner Reach. Given the animosity between the two worlds, which is part of the canon background material before you even factor in the events of the Dramune Run module, and the fact that animosity has erupted into fighting in the past, if Outer Reach has a SCC, I would expect Inner Reach to have one as well. I don’t see them being willing to wait for ships to come in from Fromeltar or Cassidine, they would want to be able to build them themselves.

The other issue I have is the SCC class. As a Type III SCC, this shipyard is not supposed to have the capability to produce military vessels or ones that use atomic drives. But since this world is the home of a major crime syndicate, and supplies and supports pirates, I see this shipyard as where many of those pirate vessels, which are assault scouts, corvettes, and frigates, are created. Thus the shipyard can obviously handle military class vessels and atomic drives and should really be a Type II.

Because of this, for the Second Sathar War, I’m classifying this shipyard as a Type II-s (the s is for small). It can still only handle 20 HS of ships total like a Type III SCC, but like a Type II, can build ships with atomic drives and military ships up to HS 6 (i.e. destroyers).

Pale (Truane’s Star)

This is the one that baffles me the most. The rules say that this is another Type III shipyard. Pale is classified as a medium population, which tends to indicate a smaller shipyard, but its main economies are industry and resources, which would lend itself to ship building and therefore a larger SCC. Having a Type III SCC here just doesn’t make sense to me for a couple of reasons.

First, everyone knows that the sathar have a jump route into the Frontier that goes through Truane’s Star. This was the locus of the First Sathar War that resulted in the founding of the UPF. Spacefleet has a fortress here, it would stand to reason that there should be a good shipyard to build up ships here as well.

Second, and more important to me, this is the world where Streel is headquartered. We know they make ships, the corvette is designed by them, and they have a number of ships to fight against the ships of the Pan Galactic Corporation in the corporate wars. Assuming the shipyard at Gran Quivera (Prenglar) is owned by PGC where they have their headquarters, and the one at Triad (Cassidine) is owned by the Cassidine Development Corporation where they have theirs, if the #1 and #3 megacorps have Type I SCCs, then the #2 megacorp should have at least a Type II shipyard, If not a Type I. It’s a matter of corporate pride and sustainability. I mean, if they don’t have their own shipyard, PGC and CDC could just deny building them ships and they’d have to travel even farther afield to Hentz or Fromeltar to get ships build. It just doesn’t make sense.

I’m leaving it as a Type III SCC for the Second Sathar War in the timeline, but if I ever revisit the SCC distribution in the Frontier, I think Pale will be getting a bigger one.

Other Thoughts

It seems I had one more item that I wanted to talk about but it is slipping my mind at the moment and I didn’t write it down when the idea occurred to me to write this post a week or so ago. If it does come back to me, I’ll have a topic for a future post.

Overall, the sathar did not fare too well in their initial foray into the Frontier. In fact, if this was just the war game, they may very well have lost the game as I believe every retreat condition that the sathar players could have chosen have been met. Although if I was using those retreat conditions, I probably would have set things up a little differently and made a few different choices. However, I’m not using those conditions directly and the sathar have another wave of ships coming later this month. After that, however, it might be a while as they rebuild their forces.

This post has given me the idea for a few other posts that may show up in the future. The first looking at the distribution of starship construction centers in the Frontier (and probably the Rim) and another looking at the average damage output by the different ship types. The third one would be a look at exactly what is in the UPF Charter. We’ll see when or if those actually materialize.

Have you ever tried to incorporate, in detail, the Second Sathar War into your campaign? What assumptions did you make and what ideas did you incorporate? What other ideas should I consider? Let me know in the comments below.

Battle of Ken’zah-Kit (K’aken-Kar) – FY61.296

Arriving from the recent engagement in the K’tsa-Kar system, the local militia ships, together with elements from Spacefleet arrive back at Ken’zah-Kit just as the sathar arrived at the planet. Arriving just too late to prevent the destruction of the fortified defense station in orbit, the militia and Spacefleet vessels made quick work of the sathar invaders, destroying all five ships in just twenty minutes of fighting.

While several ships will need time in a starship construction center to complete repairs, the only loss, beyond the station, was one of the militia assault scouts which was lost with all hands.

With Task Force Cassidine in-system and only three days out, it feels like Ken’zah-Kit is secure for now.

Rak’tal-ka, StarPlay News

Background

The UPF forces had wanted to engage the sathar in deep space, but having jumped in on the opposite side of the system, they were only able to intercept the attacking forces as they approached the planet. The frigate UPFS Flying Cloud, which has been on a continuous high speed transit from the Liberty system before the fighting started, finally joins up with the rest of PG Meteor just a day before the sathar are engaged. Task Force Cassidine is also in the K’aken Kar system. However, they just jumped in a day ago and are too far away to participate in this fight.

With Task Force Cassidine coming in behind them and the militia and PG Meteor ahead of them, the sathar have to fight and intend to take on the smaller group first, hoping to defeat them and then join up with SBF-B2 that is currently en route from the K’tsa-Kar system before taking on the UPF task force.

While the UPF have more ships, the sathar have a slight hull advantage in this fight.  It was supposed to be a tough fight for the UPF forces.

Order of Battle

K’aken-Kar Militia

  • 2 assault scouts
  • 1 fortified station

UPF – PG Meteor

  • 3 assault scouts
  • 1 frigate
  • 2 destroyers

Sathar

  • 1 frigate
  • 2 destroyers
  • 1 light cruiser
  • 1 heavy cruiser

The Battle

Setup

The station is on the side of the planet facing the invading sathar forces and orbiting counterclockwise.  With both fleets racing to intercept and coming directly from jumps into the system from opposite directions, they are starting on opposite sides of the map. The K’aken-Kar militia and PG Virgo are coming in fast on the left side of the map moving at speed 30.  The K’aken-Kar militia assault scouts are high above the planet with the UPF assault scouts are below the planet. The frigate and destroyer are flying in formation in the middle and come in just above the planet.

The sathar, moving fast at speed 25, appear in their standard diamond formation headed straight at the station and planet.  They intend to make a fast run at the station before engaging the smaller ships.

Initial positions for the battle. Click for full size image.

Turn 1

The sathar maintain their speed making a full frontal assault on the station, veering off just 20,000 km away to avoid colliding with the planet and turn toward the UPF capital ships and the militia.

Defensively, the stations fires all of its weapons at the closest sathar destroyer hitting with its laser batteries knocking out the destroyer’s masking screen launcher and causing an electrical fire. It also fires all of its ICMs at the salvo of incoming torpedoes.

Offensively, the sathar fire every weapon they have at the station. The UPF and militia forces can only watch helplessly as 17 of the 26 weapons fired, including 3 torpedoes that made it through the ICM screen, connect with the station and obliterate it.

Angered by the destruction of the station, the Frontier forces swoop in to exact their revenge. The UPF assault scouts use their maximum acceleration and swing up from below the planet to fire at the lower destroyer. The militia assault scouts line up for an assault rocket run at the sathar frigate and then veer off behind the planet, accelerating to speed 34. The frigate and destroyers slow to speed 29 to just come within rocket battery range and fire on the sathar heavy cruiser; they turn away from the planet at the last moment to prepare to fire at the sathar ships as they fly by.

Defensively, the sathar frigate and light cruiser fire their energy weapons at the militia assault scouts, each targeting a single ship, and their rocket batteries at the UPF frigate. The other three ships target the lead UPF destroyer. The sathar frigate misses completely but the light cruiser connects with its laser battery and electron battery damaging the assault scout’s engines and causing a loss of navigation control. It also hits the frigate with the rocket battery knocking out its laser cannon. The other sathar ships don’t do much better with the far destroyer and heavy cruiser missing completely while the closer destroyer only hits with its electron battery shorting out the UPF ship’s defensive systems.

While the gunners on the sathar vessels were not very effective, the same cannot be said for the gunners on the Frontier ships. The militia ships hit with one laser battery and both assault rockets destroying the sathar frigate. Similarly, the UPF assault scouts hit the lower destroyer with a laser battery and two assault rockets destroying that vessel. The UPF capital ships fare nearly as well. While the torpedoes didn’t make it through the screen of ICMs fired by the heavy cruiser, the large ship was still hit by a rocket battery from the frigate and each destroyer hit with their laser cannon, laser battery, and a rocket battery. Combined, the damage from the weapons disabled the cruiser’s distruptor cannon, damaged its engines, knocked out its maneuvering, and seriously damaged it, leaving it’s hull integrity at a mere 26 percent.

Courses and positions after the first round of combat. Click for full size image.

Turn 2

Seriously damaged, the sathar heavy cruiser just drifts away from the battle firing at the UPF frigate as it passes.  The light cruiser and surviving destroyer loop around the planet (speed 25 and 26), buzzing the UPF capital ships and firing their torpedoes at the lead destroyer. They then train all of their energy weapons on the militia assault scouts and fire their rocket batteries at the UPF assault scouts.

Defensively, the UPF frigate fires at the heavy cruiser and connects with its laser cannon, cutting the large ship’s remaining hull integrity by over half but not quite destroying it. The UPF destroyers fire at the remaining sathar destroyer only missing with a rocket and laser battery. The weapons that do hit knock out the destroyer’s electron battery before ripping its hull to shreds. The assault scouts all fire at the light cruiser and two of the UPF assault scouts hit knocking out the light cruiser’s laser batter and causing significant hull damage with maximum damage laser battery hit (20 HP).

Of the weapons brought to bear, only the heavy cruiser’s electron battery misses the UPF frigate with the torpedo slipping through the ICM screen. The frigate has its damage and navigation control systems comprised and its hull severely damaged, knocking its hull integrity down to just 32 percent. The torpedo from the light cruiser misses the UPF destroyer, but it hits the trailing militia assault scout with it’s proton battery and distruptor cannon destroying it. It also hits one of the UPF assault scouts with the rocket battery knocking its hull integrity down to less than half.

The 3 UPF Assault scouts chase after the Heavy cruiser while the destroyers and surviving militia assault scout go after the light cruiser.  The UPF Flying Cloud (frigate) with a damaged navigation control system, pulls a hard turn to starboard, looping around the planet.  It manages to hold its damaged hull together and not break up from the strain of the maneuver.

The heavy cruiser fires at the incoming assault scouts but only hits one with a laser battery knocking its hull integrity to just 33 percent. The light cruiser fires at the militia assault scout hitting with an electron battery knocking out half of the small ship’s hull integrity. It fires its rocket battery at the lead UPF destroyer but misses.

The UPF assault scouts hit the heavy cruiser with 2 of their assault rockets finally destroying the larger vessel. The other ships combine their fire on the light cruiser hitting with 2 laser canons, a laser and rocket battery, and an assault rocket and torpedo. The torpedo took out the cruiser’s proton screen but the other weapons all ripped into its hull destroying it.

Final moves and positions. The heavy cruiser and assault scouts are an additional 8 hexes off the map with the assault scouts veering of at a range of 4 hexes after making their assault rocket attack. Click for full size image.

Repairs

The UPF frigate manages to hold together after another hard turn to port and then gets its navigation control issues fixed despite its reduced damage control capabilities. Over the next 3 hours it repairs the rest of its systems but can only get its hull to 75% without spending time in a shipyard. The militia assault scout repairs some of it’s hull but only gets it back to 66% before running into issues that will require a shipyard. The UPF assault scout hit by the heavy cruiser repairs most of its hull but has a little (13%) that needs attention in a shipyard. The other assault scout and the damaged destroyer get all their systems back online in under an hour.

Lessons Learned

This one didn’t go anything like I expected. With the ships staring out on the opposite sides of the map, I knew the sathar would get a free round on the station. I expected them to take out the station (it was a primary target) but maybe not as spectacularly as they did (170 of 140 HP with three weapons, including 2 torpedoes, doing double damage).

From there everything went pear shaped for the sathar. Their tactics were actually pretty sound but their gunners couldn’t hit to save their lives (literally). The sathar light cruiser gunners did just fine, constantly hitting their targets but the other ships, beyond hitting the station, were not so accurate. This really didn’t help the sathars’ cause as they were unable to eliminate the assault scouts and suffered a few more assault rocket hits than they would have liked.

That, combined with the absolutely amazing firing from the UPF, both just in accuracy in hitting and also some well-placed double-damage rolls on the first round (two AR for 34 HP each on the frigate and destroyer, a LB hit for 14 HP on the destroyer, and a RB hit for 34 HP on the heavy cruiser), destroyed two of the sathar ships and seriously wounded a third right off the bat shifting the balance of power to the UPF. Had those ships survived that first round, the UPF would have probably still won but the casualty list would have been much higher. The rapid destruction of the ships on round one allowed the UPF to focus their fire on round 2 and keep the engagement short.

The incoming SBF-B2, being a just slightly larger version of the fleet destroyed here (an extra destroyer plus an assault carrier with 7 fighters) doesn’t have a chance against the combined forces of Task Force Cassidine (which is roughly the same strength, substituting a frigate, 3 assault scouts and a battleship for the three sathar destroyers), PG Meteor, and the surviving militia assault scout. The sathar are going to have to reasses their strategy.

Detailed Frontier Timeline – FY61.265 to FY61.294

This months sees the opening battles of the Second Sathar War. Maneuvers and engagement from this conflict overshadow nearly everything else happening in the Frontier as everyone watches the events unfold.

It is this conflict that I originally started this timeline to track so it will be heavily focused on the events of the battles and how the sides react for the next little while. Also things get really busy so there are a lot of entries every day this month. I think there are only 2 or 3 days that don’t have at least two entries and toward the end when the invasion starts, it’s rare to have a day with less than 5 or 6 entries. Links to battle reports on all the ship engagements are linked in the timeline.

On day 61.280, the arrivial of Strike Force Nova in the Prenglar system on the same day as the sathar fleet was pure coincidence. I had planned out the maneuvers of SF Nova separately from the sathar movements without consulting between the two. I was completely surprised when they ended up jumping in on the same day.

Settle in. This one is a bit of a read.

Date (FY)Events
61.265– After eight days of exercises with the crews of Fortress Kdikit, SF Nova departs Kdikit (Madderly’s Star) for a jump to Triad (Cassidine).

– PG Virgo arrives in the Zebulon system and begins work for the jump back to Pale (Truane’s Star).
61.266– Sathar Fleet SBF-C1 (1 HC, 1 LC, 2 DD, & 1 FF) departs SCC#3 (OFS138) and begin accelerating for a jump to the OFS137 system.

– PG Liberty arrives at Snowball (Liberty) and joins up with PG Lancet.  The assault scout in PG Lancet is transferred to PG Liberty, with the UPFS Flying Cloud (frigate), UPFS Eleanor Moraes, and UPF Backdoor (sathar scout ship) remaining attached to PG Lancet.
61.267– The SF Meteor destroyers arrive at Lossend (Timeon).

– The CMS Osprey arrives back at Clarion.  The ship is immediately put into the starship construction center for maintenance, repairs, and refits while the crew is given some much needed leave.
61.268– Sathar Fleet SBF-B1 (1 HC, 1 LC, 2 DD, & 1 FF) departs the rendezvous point in OFS167 and begins accelerating for a jump to the OFS166 system.

– The HSS History’s Hope and escorts jump into the OFS222 system.  They begin work on engine overhauls and jump calculations for the YS01 system.
61.269– The SF Meteor destroyers depart Lossend (Timeon) and begin accelerating for a jump to the White Light system.

– After three days debriefing the commander of PG Liberty and introducing him to the Mhemne contacts, Captain Reider and PG Lancet depart Snowball (Liberty) for a jump back to the Waller Nexus system and a high speed transit to Minotaur (Theseus).
61.270– Sathar Fleet SBF-A1 (2 HC, 2AC, 1 LC, 4 DD, 2 FF & 14 fighters) departs SCC#1 (OFS203) and begin accelerating for a jump to the FS12 system.

– PG Virgo arrives in the Truane’s Star system and begins decelerating toward Fortress Pale (Pale, Truane’s Star).
61.271-= Sathar Fleets SBF-E1 (1 HC, 1 LC, 2 DD, & 1 FF) and SBF-F1 depart SCC#5 (OFS019) and begin accelerating for a jump to the Kazak system in the Rim.

– Sathar fleet SBF-C1 arrives in the OFS137 system.  It maintains its high speed and begins calculations for a jump to OFS136.
61.272– Sathar Fleet SBF-D1 (1 HC, 1 LC, 2 DD, & 1 FF) departs SCC#4 (OFS111) and begins accelerating for a jump to the OFS020 system.

– The HSS History’s Hope and escorts jump into the YS01 system.  They detect transmissions from several other ships in the system.  Hoping to avoid a confrontation, they begin work on engine overhauls and jump calculations for the YS02 system.
61.273Sathar fleet SBF-B1 arrives in the OFS166 system.  It maintains its high speed and begins calculations for a jump to FS33.
61.274– Sathar fleet SBF-C1 arrives in the OFS136 system.  It maintains its high speed and begins calculations for a jump to FS56.

– Strike Force Nova arrives at Triad (Cassidine).  They will spend just 2 days in the system exercising with Task Force Cassidine before heading back to Morgaine’s World (Prenglar).

– PG Lancet arrives in the Waller Nexus system.  They immediately begin work on overhauling the ships’ engines and plotting a jump to Padda.
61.275– Sathar fleet SBF-A1 arrives in the FS12 system.  It maintains its high speed and begins calculations for a jump to Prenglar.

– Another small fleet of sathar ships, consisting of 2 LC, 3 DD, & 1 FF, designated SBF-F2 arrive at SCC#5 (OFS019) from deeper in sathar controlled space.

– PG Virgo arrives at Fortress Pale (Pale, Truane’s Star).  The crews are given a week of leave while the ships go into the starship construction center for repairs and maintenance.
61.276– Sathar fleets SBF-E1 and SBF-F1 arrive in the Kazak system.  SBF-F1 begins decelerating toward the inner system to engage the Rim forces there.  SBF-E1 maintains its high speed and begins calculations for a jump to Zebulon.

– Sathar fleet SBF-B1 arrives in the FS33 system.  It maintains its high speed and begins calculations for a jump to K’tsa-Kar.

– SF Nova leaves Triad (Cassidine) for a jump to Morgaine’s World (Prenglar)
61.277– Sathar fleet SBF-D1 arrives in the OFS020 system.  It maintains its high speed and begins calculations for a jump to Fromeltar.

– Sathar fleet SBF-C1 arrives in the FS56 system.  It maintains its high speed and begins calculations for a jump to Kisk-Kar.

– The sathar fleet (SBF-F1) decelerating toward Stenmar (Kazak) are detected by Rim forces in the system (10 F, 3 AS, 2 FF, 2 DD, 1 LC), alerts go out to systems in the Rim and the Frontier.

– Just hours before the engine overhauls are complete and the HSS History’s Hope is ready to jump once again, the ship and her escorts are attacked by three unidentified vessels. 

– A running battle ensues as the escorts attempt to screen the HSS History’s Hope long enough to make the jump. In the ensuing fight, one of the escort vessels is destroyed along with two of the attacking ships. The last attacker manages to get a hit in on the History’s Hopes engines but it is not enough to stop the ship and it slips into the Void.

– After the HSS History’s Hope jumps out of the YS01 system, the remaining escorts ships finish off the final attacker.  After the fight, the escorts repair what damage they can and begin heading back to Scree Fron for repairs.
61.278– Now in the YS02 system, the crew of the HSS History’s Hope works on repairing the battle damage to their ship and preparing for the next leg of their journey, a jump to the YS03 system.

– The 2 destroyers arrive at Fortress Redoubt (Clarion, White Light).  They join with the other ships of PG Meteor which now consists of the two destroyers and 3 assault scouts.

– With the alert from the Kazak system, PG Virgo’s maintenance is fast tracked and the crews are recalled from leave after only 3 days.
61.279PG Lancet makes the jump to the Padda system.  Work begins immediately on the engines and calculations for the jump to Minotaur (Theseus).
61.280– Sathar battle fleets appear in five different Frontier system within hours of one another and most begin decelerating towards the inhabited worlds in those systems.  SBF-A1 arrives in the Prenglar system, SBF-B1 arrives in K’tsa-Kar, SBF-C1 arrives in Kizk-Kar, SBF-D1 arrives in Fromeltar, and SBF-E1 arrives in Zebulon.

– Unlike the other sathar fleets, SBF-E1 doesn’t slow down in Zebulon but prepares for a jump to the Truane’s Star system.

– Due to the alert sent out by forces in the Kazak system, these fleets are detected within hours of their arrival in system.  Alerts are broadcast all across the Frontier.

– Task Force Cassidine, leaving its minelayer in the Cassidine system, departs on a high-speed risk jump to Dramune.

– PG Meteor is dispatched on a high risk run to reinforce the armed station at K’tsa-Kar as there is no militia in that system.  The Clarion Royal Marines (1 FF, 4 AS) join PG Meteor.

– The two ZKKDA assault scouts, currently in K’aken-Kar also depart on a high risk run to the K’tsa-Kar system per the defense agreement.

– Both of the planetary militias of Dramune independently agree to make a high speed risk jump to the Fromeltar system to assist with the defense of that system, hoping to stop the sathar before they can get  any further into the Frontier.

– Strike Force Nova arrives in the Prenglar system within hours of the sathar fleet appearing.  They begin decelerating to engage the sathar fleet simultaneously with Task Force Prenglar.

– Sathar Fleet SBF-B2 (1 HC, 1 AC, 3 DD, 1 FF, 7 F) departs the rendezvous point in OFS167 and begins accelerating for a jump to the OFS166 system.
61.281– Battle of Stenmar (Kazak) between Rim forces (1 LC, 2 DD, 2FF, 3 AS, 10 F & 1 fortified station) and SBF-F1.  The sathar forces are completely destroyed and the Rim only lose 1 LC, 2 DD, and 1 AS with the station severely damaged. Word of the victory is broadcast across the Rim and Frontier.

– PG Lancet jumps back into the Theseus system and is dissolved. The UPFS Eleanor Moraes and UPFS Backdoor break off from the group and start decelerating toward Minotaur.  The UPFS Flying Cloud remains at velocity and starts working on the jump to White Light.

– The last of the ships of PG Virgo emerge from their maintenance in the Streel shipyards (Pale, Truane’s Star).  The crews go on high alert as they monitor the sathar progress across the Frontier.  While cheered by the news of the Flight’s victory in Kazak, they mourn the loss of friends made while stationed in that system.
61.282– The sathar forces from the Sauria system arrive back at their base, SCC#10 (OFS228) where they stand down to effect repairs from the recent campaign.

– Sathar fleet SBF-E1 jumps into the Truane’s Star system and begins decelerating toward Pale.  The Truane’s Star militia, along with PG Virgo, prepare to meet them.

– Task Force Cassidine successfully jumps into the Dramune system, they maintain the high speed and start working on a risk jump to Fromeltar.

– The Dramune militias successfully jump into the Fromeltar system and begin decelerating toward Terledrom, the apparent destination of the sathar forces in that system.

– PG Meteor and the White Light militia successfully jump into the K’tsa-Kar system and begin decelerating toward the planet and sathar forces approaching it.

– The ZKKDA assault scouts also successfully arrive in the K’tsa-Kar system and race to join the fight.
61.283– Sathar Fleets SBF-E2 (1 HC, 1 AC, 1 LC, 1 DD, 1 FF, & 8 fighters) and SBF-F2 depart SCC#5 (OFS019) and begin accelerating for a jump to the Kazak system in the Rim.  After the initial loss in the Kazak system, the sathar commit their 4 new cutters to SBF-F2 to boost the strength of that fleet.

– Deciding that PG Liberty can provide advanced warning if sathar start to come from that direction, the Theseus militia, together with the remaining saurian forces in Theseus, begin accelerating for a jump to the White Light system.
61.284– The HSS History’s Hope jumps to the YS03 system and begins preparations for a jump to YS05.

– Sathar fleet SBF-B2 arrives in the OFS166 system.  It maintains its high speed and begins calculations for a jump to FS33.

– TF Cassidine makes the jump to the Fromeltar system and begin a hard deceleration.  They won’t arrive in time for the initial battle but can engage any sathar forces remaining in the system if the militias cannot successfully hold the line.
61.285– Battle of Zik-Kit (Kisk-Kar) – Overwhelmed by the forces of SBF-C1 the two militia assault scouts and the armed station are destroyed with only minimal damage to the sathar vessels.

– Battle of Terledrom (Fromeltar) – The combined militias of Dramune and Fromeltar quickly overwhelm the sathar forces in an intense 20-minute battle. The only loss is the Inner Reach destroyer with the 2 Outer Reach destroyers sustaining heavy damage.

– Battle of Kawdl-Kit (K’sta-Kar) With some amazing gunnery by the UPF and militia forces, the sathar fleet is reduced to scrap in just 20 minutes.  However, before they are destroyed, they manage to obliterate the armed station orbiting Kawdl-Kit.  No UPF or militia forces were lost although the CMS Osprey sustained some hull damage that will require a shipyard to repair.

– Battle of Gran Quivera (Prenglar) – Approaching cautiously due to the expected minefield, the sathar’s slow speed limits their maneuverability and they are overwhelmed by the combined forces of TF Prenglar and SF Nova in less than an hour. The UPF only lose 2 F, 5 AS, 1 DD, and 2 LC in the battle. Several other ships will require shipyard repairs.
61.286– The UPFS Flying Cloud jumps into the White Light system.  It maintains its high speed while performing engine overhauls and jump calculations to get to K’sta-Kar and join up with PG Meteor.

– The CMS Osprey leaves Kawdl-Kit and begins accelerating for a jump back to the shipyards orbiting Clarion. The White Light SCC has space for up to a HS 4 ship so space is held for the Osprey.

– A HS 8 freighter completes its annual maintenance at the Terledrom SCC giving a total of 12 HS of space in the SCC.  The two Outer Reach frigates are immediately admitted for repairs.

– Orbiting high above Zik-Kit the sathar ships spend the day rearming but make no move toward the planet. All UPF and militia ships that were in battles the previous day also spend the day rearming and checking that all systems are ready to go.

– With the militias in control of the Fromeltar system, Task Force Cassidine immediately starts calculations and acceleration for a jump to the K’izk-Kar system.
61.287– Sathar fleet SBF-B2 arrives in the FS33 system.  It maintains its high speed and begins calculations for a jump to K’tsa-Kar.

– Battle of New Pale (Truane’s Star) – Sathar target the smaller UPF vessels to great effect destroying 5 fighters, 6 AS, and 1 LC while only losing a DD & LC.  While their remaining ships are damaged, so are the remaining UPF vessels which are unable to purse as the sathar break off the fight.

– After finishing what battle repairs they can, the remnants of SBF-E1 start accelerating for a jump to the Zebulon system.

– SBF-C1 leaves orbit around Zit-Kit (Kizk-Kar) and begin accelerating for a jump to the Kaken-Kar system.

– Spacefleet now has several damaged ships in need of immediate repair and a need to replace ships lost in battles with the sathar. However, there is no space in most SCCs across the Frontier and especially in Prenglar.

– Given the state of the Frontier’s starship construction centers, and expecting things to get worse, Spacefleet addresses the Council of Worlds and requests that the Wartime Construction Control clause of the UPF charter be invoked.  A relic of the original charter, it has never been invoked in the history of the UPF.

– Receiving word of the departure of SBF-C1, PG Meteor and the K’aken-Kar militia, now rearmed, begin accelerating for a jump to the K’aken-Kar system to meet the on-coming sathar forces.
61.288– Sathar fleets SBF-E2 and SBF-F2 arrive in the Kazak system.  SBF-F2 begins decelerating toward the inner system to engage the Rim forces there.  SBF-E2 maintains its high speed and begins calculations for a jump to Zebulon.

– Shortly after their arrival in the Kazak system, the sathar fleets are detected and an alert is sent out.  The Rim forces brace for another battle.

– Space clears in the Outer Reach (Dramune) SCC and construction starts on a new Destroyer for the Inner Reach militia.

– Space clears in the CDC shipyards orbiting Triad (Cassidine), Spacefleet convinces the shipyard managers to start construction of 5 fighters and another assault scout, preempting the regular construction schedule.

– One of the Outer Reach frigates completes its repairs in the Terledrom (Fromeltar) shipyard freeing up 5 HS of space. 
61.289– Receiving the alert from Kazak, Spacefleet realize they only have 10-11 days to reinforce Truane’s Star.  Replenishing SF Nova’s order of battle with ships from TF Prenglar, but having to leave the damaged assault carrier and its fighters behind, it begins a high risk jump to Dixon’s Star and then on to Truane’s Star.

– Betting that Cassidine is safe, the third UPF Minelayer is ordered to Fromeltar.  It begins accelerating for a jump to Dramune as the first leg of its trip.

– Realizing that there is still enough room in the Outer Reach (Dramune) SSC, Spacefleet gets construction started on a new assault scout before anything else can be moved in.

– The second Outer Reach frigate completes its repairs in the Terledrom (Fromeltar) shipyard freeing up 5 more HS of space.  As HS 10 mining ship is moved in to the shipyard for its annual maintenance.
61.290– Two-day end of year celebration on Hum begins. With the events currently happening in the Rim and Frontier, the celebrations are more subdued than normal.

– The HSS History’s Hope arrives in YS05 and begin preparations for the jump to YS06.

– Overhauls complete, the UPFS Flying Cloud jumps into the K’sta-Kar system.  It remains at high speed working on calculations for a jump to K’aken-Kar with the rest of PG Meteor.  It will be just a day behind them.

– More space opens up in the CDC shipyards (14 HS worth). However, having just bumped six ships ahead in the queue for Spacefleet, they resist efforts to start more military construction giving the space to a large freighter that has been waiting over a month for its annual maintenance.

– Space opens up in the Minotaur (Theseus) shipyards (6 HS worth).  The Theseus government starts construction of a new destroyer for the militia although they suspect the hull will be assigned to Spacefleet.

– Space opens up (4 HS worth for a total of 6 free) in the Terledrom (Fromeltar) SCC.  The Terledrom government alerts Spacefleet of the availability and starts construction on 2 assault scouts, one for Spacefleet and one for the militia.

– Space (8 HS) opens up in the PGC shipyard at Gran Quivera (Prenglar) as a freighter completes maintenance. After the recent battle, shipyard owners are more than happy to hold the space for Spacefleet. The damaged assault scout and frigate are moved in immediately and begin repairs.

– TF Cassidine jumps into the Kizk-Kar system.  They don’t slow down but immediately begin working on engine overhauls and calculating a jump to  K’aken-Kar.
61.291– Sathar fleet SBF-E2 arrives in the Zebulon system.  They don’t slow down but begin immediate calculations for a jump to the Truane’s Star system.

– Sathar fleet SBF-B2 arrives in the K’tsa-Kar system and starts decelerating toward the White Light Militia ships there. PG Meteor and the K’aken-Kar militia are less than 10 hours from jumping out of the system when the sathar are detected.

– Realizing that the K’aken-Kar militia will suffer the same fate as the K’izk-Kar militia if they return to face the sathar alone, PG Meteor continues with them for the jump to K’aken-Kar.

– SF Nova jumps into the Dixon’s Star system.  Working feverishly on overhauls to the assault scouts’ engines, they begin calculating the jump to Truane’s Star.

– The UPF assault scout and frigate complete their hull repairs after a single day in the PGC shipyard (Gran Quivera, Prenglar) and return to active duty.

– Another 6 HS of space open up in the PGC shipyards (Gran Quivera, Prenglar) for a total of 16 HS of space available.  The damaged assault carrier is moved into the shipyard to have its engines repaired.

– Realizing that they cannot withstand the incoming sathar force, the White Light militia starts plotting a jump back to their home system. They delay departure, however, acting as bait and hoping to draw SBF-B2 deeper into the system so they don’t jump immediately after PF Virgo or straight to White Light.
61.292– SBF-C1 jumps into the K’aken-Kar system and begins decelerating toward the planet.

– PG Meteor and the K’aken-Kar militia jump into the K’aken-Kar system and begin decelerating to meet the sathar.

– The Theseus militia, along with the second saurian Ark Ship arrive in orbit around Clarion (White Light).  The saurians join their sister ships in orbit while the Theseus militia confers with the Clarion Royal Marines and Fortress Redoubt to establish defensive plans.

– SBF-E1 jumps into the Zebulon system and establish contact with SBF-E2 relaying full details of their encounter.  They start working on a jump to Kazak System and then back to SCC#5 (OFS019) for repairs.

– The UPF assault carrier’s engines complete their repairs.  With 16 HS of space available at the PGC shipyards, Spacefleet begins construction on a fighter, an assault scout, and a light cruiser.
61.293– Second Battle of Stenmar (Kazak) – seriously outgunned, the Rim forces are nearly all destroyed with only a single fighter surviving.  They manage to take out a sathar light cruiser and cutter before being overwhelmed.

– The UPFS Flying Cloud jumps into the K’aken-Kar system. It remains at high speed to catch up with the rest of PG Meteor and will execute a hard deceleration to match speed with the group when it does.

– Having succeeded in drawing SBF-B2 into the K’sta-Kar system, the White Light militia, reluctant to abandon Kawdl-Kit, begins acceleration for their jump home.

– Seeing the White Light militia start to leave the system, SBF-B2 changes course and start accelerating for a jump to K’aken-Kar to join SBF-C1.

– The UPF minelayer jumps into the Dramune system.  It doesn’t slow down but begins calculations for its jump to Fromeltar.

– Space (5HS) opens up in the Hentz (Araks) shipyards. It is not immediately filled as there is a larger ship waiting on maintenance.
61.294– SBF-E2 jumps into the Truane’s Star system and begin decelerating toward New Pale.

– SF Nova arrives in the Truane’s Star system just hours after the sathar.  Unfortunately, they arrived much farther out in the system than anticipated.  They begin a fast run and hard deceleration toward New Pale in order to arrive before the sathar forces.

– Seeing more and more sathar ships arriving in the Frontier, the Council of Worlds stops blocking the activation the Wartime Construction Control (WCC) clause in the UPF Charter. Spacefleet is granted complete control of all starship construction centers in the Frontier.

– With the activation of the WCC clause, Spacefleet, with the assistance of Star Law, move to take control of the shipyards. They temporarily suspend any new maintenance work while they sort out the schedule and priorities.

– More space opens in several SCCs across the Frontier: 2 HS at Hentz (Araks) for a total of 7 HS, 18 HS at Rupert’s Hole (Cassidine) emptying that facility, 6 HS at Terledrom (Fromeltar) 12 HS at Gran Quivera (Prenglar), and 5 HS at Minotaur (Theseus)

– Working to replenish their immediate losses, Spacefleet takes control of the destroyer construction at Minotaur, and start construction of 2 assault scouts at Hentz, a light cruiser at Gran Quivera, and a fighter and assault scout at Terledrom.

– Lacking facilities to construct military vessels, the Rupert’s Hole SCC is designated for ship maintenance and two ships are moved in immediately.  The other Type III SSCs at Pale & Clarion are given the same designation.

– Spacefleet also authorizes the start of construction for two assault scouts to replenish some of the ships lost by the Truane’s Star militia with the understanding that they may be deputized by Spacefleet during the conflict. Construction starts in Terledrom and Minotaur

Here’s the full timeline to download:

DetailedFrontierTimeline-1Download

State of the Frontier – Nov 2020

It’s another month down. I hope everyone in the United States had a great Thanksgiving holiday and the rest of you had a good month as well. I’ve been having a blast.

Looking Back

The biggest thing this last month has been the start of the Second Sathar War in the Detailed Frontier Timeline. This has resulted in a number of reports for the battles that have happened so far. To date these are:

Tracking the Second Sathar War and playing out the battles has definitely take up most of my time this month. I’ve been having a lot of fun with this. I was quite a ways ahead on the narrative but playing out the battles has eaten most of that buffer and I’m only a couple days ahead at the moment. However, now that the big initial push is over, things will settle down a bit. Expect to see a few more battles in the next few days and then they will start to really spread out as the sathar replenish their ships.

Beyond the battle reports we had the usual Detailed Frontier Timeline post at the beginning of the month, a post on the HSS History’s Hope describing the 3D model for that ship, and a look at the sathar starship construction centers. The battle reports represented the post for the 4th week.

Behind the scenes not much was happening beyond me working on the SSW narrative. The only major event was that the hard drive on my server failed and had to be replaced which took all of my Star Frontiers sites down for about 36 hours while I got a new disk installed and everything restored. Luckily I had good backups and nothing was lost.

Looking Forward

Tomorrow will be the next Detailed Frontier Timeline post that will have all the details of the events surrounding the opening of the Second Sathar War that happened this last month for those that don’t follow along on Twitter.

Next week I plan to talk a bit about the Second Sathar War in the timeline and muse on some of the ideas I’ve had relative to the setting and this fight since I’ve been playing out the battles.

Beyond that, I don’t have any specific plans. I’m working on the History’s Hope deck plans so those might come out this month. I am making “how-to” videos showing how I make my maps and the recording of those got put on hold with all the SSW battles, which is why they aren’t done yet. (It would go much faster if I wasn’t recording as I could squeeze in bits of time here and there instead of needing some dedicated time.) I’m also still thinking about that astrogation rules post. We’ll just have to see what comes up.

There is a major behind the scenes change coming next month. I’ve been offered a full-time, tenure-track faculty position teaching computer science at the local university and I start mid-December. Which means I’ll be leaving full-time at NASA but will remain as a consultant on the project I’m working on there. I have no idea right now what impact this job change will have on my time so we’ll just have to play it by ear and see what happens. Which is why I don’t have any specific plans for the end of the month.

There are at least two more battle reports to come in the near future. One will be on the 2nd and another on the 4th. Depending on the outcome of the fight on the 2nd, there might be a third on the 5th of December. But beyond that, it might be a while before another battle to be reported. It depends on the outcome of those battles.

I’m also starting on the next issue of the Frontier Explorer. Most of the articles have been selected and I’m planning on front-loading the editing work on this issue due to my job change and the holidays. We’ll see if I can actually pull that off.

Final Thoughts

I don’t really have anything else. If you like what your seeing on the blog, consider supporting me on Patreon. Just follow the link or click on the “Become a Patron” button. As always, comments and feedback are welcomed and encouraged.

Second Battle of Stenmar (Kazak) – FY61.293

This will be the last battle I report that occurs in the Rim. I had these two battles set up in the timeline already so I’ve been reporting them. And while I really should have handled the sathar and Rim interaction in this timeline, the truth is I have never really worked out what the Rim has in terms of ships and ship production capability. So that will have to be a project for a future date.

A second sathar force was engaged today in the space around Stenmar by the surviving Flight elements in the system. Lacking reinforcements from the core Rim systems, the Flight forces were severely outnumbered and succumbed quickly to the sathar onslaught with only a single fighter surviving to seek shelter in the outer system. Before being overwhelmed, Flight forces managed to destroy a sathar light cruiser and a new vessel never seen in the Rim before.

Limited reports from the battle indicate this new sathar vessel falls in size between an assault scout and a frigate and seems to sport dual laser batteries. Not much more is known due to the limited engagement and savagery of the sathar attack.

Kaarln Duggart – Stenmar News Syndicate

Background

Intended to reinforce the original fleet sent to the Kazak system, this battle fleet was already preparing to depart when the first battle occurred. Surprised by the initial resistance in the Kazak system, the sathar committed their four new Cutter-class vessels to the conflict as well to boost the firepower of the fleet.

Worried about sathar incursions into the core Rim worlds, no reinforcements for the Kazak system were readily available so the surviving elements of the Flight from the first battle were all that remained to face the new onslaught. Seriously outgunned, they hope to pull off another victory relying on the success they had in the first battle with their assault rocket attacks.

The sathar have other plans.

Order of Battle

The Flight

  • 10 Fighters
  • 2 Assault Scouts
  • 1 Frigate
  • 1 Fortified Station

Sathar

  • 4 Cutters
  • 1 Frigate
  • 3 Destroyers
  • 2 Light Cruisers

The Battle

Setup

The station is on the side of the planet directly opposite the sathar, orbiting counter clockwise. The Rim forces form up close to the planet with the frigate and a wing of 5 fighters above the planet and the assault scouts and remaining fighters below the planet. They are all moving at speed 20.

Having learned from the engagement at New Pale (Truane’s Star) four days earlier, the sathar forces come in fast, starting at speed 25. They form up directly opposite the Flight forces allowing them to bring their forward firing cannons to bear in the initial engagement, knowing that in later phases of the battle, this might not be possible due to the higher maneuverability of the Rim ships. The cutters form a flight to square off against the upper flight of fighters, a frigate and destroyer line up opposite the Rim’s frigate, the remaining two destroyers go after the assault scouts and the light cruisers plan to take on the lower group of fighters.

Initial setup for the conflict. Click for full size image.

Turn 1

The sathar all fly straight toward their intended targets. The cutters accelerate to speed 29 to come into point blank range with their laser batteries while all the other ships accelerate slightly to speed 26 to bring them within range for their rocket batteries.

Defensively the frigate and station fire at the sathar frigate hitting with a laser cannon and rocket battery from the frigate and a laser battery from the station. They manage to damage the frigate’s engines, knock out its masking screen launcher, and reduce its hull integrity by over half from a well placed hit with the rocket battery. The assault scouts fire at the lead destroyer and manage to inflict some minor hull damage with one of their laser batteries.

The sathar cutters open fire on the upper flight of fighters with their dual laser batteries, nearly destroying the lead fighter, damaging and reducing the maneuverability of her wingman, and destroying a third fighter. They missed the other two.

The sathar destroyer hit the Rim frigate with its laser weapons starting a fire and damaging the ship’s engines. The gunners on the sathar frigate must be veterans or well trained as they landed a hit on the Rim frigate with nearly every weapon fired, only missing with the laser battery. They knocked out the Rim vessel’s masking screen and damaged it’s hull with the laser cannon and rocket battery before it was obliterated by the torpedo.

The two fighters and remaining assault scout, all seriously damaged, just drift forward. The other fighters accelerate to 25 and loop around remaining out of range of the sathar energy weapons. They all fire at their closest target as they fly out.

Defensively the sathar continue to fire at the same targets expect that the frigate and two of the destroyers shift their fire to the station. The cutters finish off the two wounded fighters in the upper group and hit a third for serious hull damage an a navigation control hit. The fourth fighter remains unscathed. The light cruisers are not as effective with the first hitting one fighter for some minor hull damage, and another knocking out its engines. The other light cruiser misses with all weapons. While the destroyers both miss the station, the frigate hits with is laser and rocket battery doing some significant hull damage.

The assault scout hits the lead sathar destroyer with its assault rocket damaging its maneuvering. One of the cutters is hit with 2 assault rockets damaging its engines and nearly destroying it. The lead light cruiser is hit by all four assault rockets which rip through the hull destroying it.

Initial round of combat. Click for full size image.

Turn 2

The damaged sathar cutter and frigate drift away from the battle hoping to survive and get repairs done while the other ships finish off the Rim forces. All the other sathar ships loop around the planet to attack both the station and the surviving Flight vessels.

The surviving cutters loop around to go after the larger group of fighters below the planet. The two destroyers go after the group of fighters above the planet. The remaining light cruiser and third destroyer go after the Rim assault scout. The ships use their energy weapons on the smaller ships while firing their rocket batteries and torpedoes at the station.

Defensively the station fires at the cutter and frigate that are drifting away attempting to finish them off. The laser battery hits the cutter inducing a navigation control hit while the rocket battery hits the frigate knocking out some of its acceleration ability. The assault scout fires at the destroyer chasing it cause some significant hull damage with its laser battery.

The lead sathar destroyer in the upper flight only hits the lead Rim fighter with its laser battery inducing a loss of navigation control. The other destroyer is much more effective hitting with all three energy weapons destroying the other fighter.

The cutters eliminate two of the four fighters in the lower group, completely missed a third, and damaged the navigation control system on the the fourth. The third sathar destroyer hit the lone assault scout with its laser canon, destroying the smaller vessel.

The station fires all its ICMs at the incoming torpedoes. Despite this, 3 of the 5 torpedoes, and an equal number of rocket batteries slam into the station from different directions completely destroying it.

The lone Rim fighter above the planet, spinning out of control, manages to line up for a shot on the sathar destroyers, but the destroyers hit it with an electron battery that knocks out the assault rocket launcher before it can fire. The undamaged fighter in the lower group, hoping to eliminate the crippled ships to prevent their repair and subsequent use, races off after the damaged frigate and cutter, unfortunately, it is hit by two laser batteries from the cutters, destroying it before it can catch the crippled ships. The final fighter, its navigation control system damaged, spins to port and manages to get an oblique shot with it assault rocket launcher at one of the cutters, scoring serious hull damage on the ship (just over 60% of its total). Amazing, the fighter flies through the barrage of laser batteries unscathed.

Positions and courses at the end of the second round of combat. Click for full size image.

Turn 3

The damaged seriously damaged cutter with the navigation control damage pull a hard turn to port and breaks up from the strain of the maneuver. The sathar light cruiser and destroyer chase down the fighter that escaped the cutters and eliminate it with their energy weapons. The sathar allow the other fighter to escape.

Repairs

The damaged Rim fighter gets its navigation system repaired and, realizing it is no match for the combined sathar fleet, heads out to the outer system to find somewhere to take shelter.

Over the next hour and a half, the sathar repair what damage they can. All of the damage to internal systems are repaired but the three ships with hull damage (a cutter, the frigate, and a destroyer) all require time in a starship construction center to fully repair, the cutter and frigate are seriously damaged with less than half of the their hull integrity intact while the destroyer only has a small bit of damage.

Lessons Learned

The Rim leaders were forcibly reminded that while the fighters and assault scouts pack a serious offensive punch, they have little to no defensive capability and quickly succumbed to the overwhelming sathar fire without being able to return much of their own. With a lack of capital ships by Flight, the sathar effectively got two shots for every one that the Rim forces had.

The rapid advance of the sathar forces, here and at New Pale, have shown that the Rim and UPF fighters are quite vulnerable to a first strike by sathar forces that target them. They are going to have to stand off further from the beginning of the battle in future engagements so that the sathar cannot have that first strike advantage.

The sathar cutters seem to be effective against the small ships with their pairs of laser batteries and could proved to be quite useful in an anti-fighter role.

Battle of New Pale (Truane’s Star) – FY61.287

This battle actually occurred two days ago in the timeline. However, since I was still catching up on the battles from the opening day of the conflict, this posting got delayed. Going forward, the battles will be much less frequent and the battle reports will arrive on they day they occur.

After a nearly an hour of intense battle around New Pale, militia and UPF forces manage to drive off the invading sathar fleet destroying two sathar vessels and seriously damaging the other three.

Unfortunately, due to heavy losses and critical damage, the UPF and militia forces were unable to pursue the fleeing sathar ships which began accelerating out of the system for a jump back to Zebulon shortly after the battle ended.

While the sathar have been driven off, the losses around New Pale represent the most damage to militia forces yet seen in this conflict and the second highest loss of ships overall, coming in only after the massive battle at Prenglar two days ago.

Goolar Nadd, New Pale News

Background

The Truane’s Star militia is supported by the remaining elements of Patrol Group Virgo which just returned from being stationed in the Kazak system in the Rim days before the sathar fleets appeared. Bolstered by the Spacefleet forces, and having seen the success of the UPF forces in the other systems two days prior, confidence is high that they can defeat the sathar ships.

The sathar have learned from those other engagements as well. Knowing that there is a second fleet en route just 11 days behind them, this battle fleet has some very specific orders: Eliminate the fighters and assault scouts!

Order of Battle

Had Patrol Group Virgo not been in the system, and the militia not had the extra assault scout, this would have been the scenario I presented as “A Pale Prospect” in the Stand Your Ground article in issue 3 of the Frontier Explorer (p30) back in 2013. Before starting this timeline project, this is how I thought the first fight in Truane’s Star would play out.

However, the additional ships completely change the dynamics and with the sathar’s new tactics, this turned out to be the most interesting battle for me so far as it did not go at all as I expected. And the high speeds meant that the ships were flying everywhere on the map.

Truane’s Star Militia

  • 4 Assault Scouts
  • 1 Frigate

Note that this is one more assault scout than described in the order of battle for the game in the KH Campaign Book. They captured this assault scout from the Star Devil pirates early in the timeline so it is available in the fight.

UPF – PG Virgo

  • 8 Fighters
  • 2 Assault Scouts
  • 2 Light Cruisers
  • 1 Assault Carrier

Sathar

  • 1 Frigate
  • 2 Destroyers
  • 1 Light Cruiser
  • 1 Heavy Cruiser

The Battle

Setup

The UPF and militia forces, deploying tactics that have worked in the other systems, set up in a broad line with the smaller ships on the outside, the two LC near the station at speed 15, with the assault scouts split into a flight of 4 (below the planet) and 3 (above), both groups at speed 20, and a flight of 4 fighters on either wing at speed 25.  The assault carrier is on the far side of the planet orbiting at speed 10 with the militia frigate acting as escort.  The station is in on the far side of the planet from the approaching sathar and orbiting counter clockwise.

The sathar, however, are not using the tactics they have used in other systems. With their new directive, they come in fast, high above the planet at a speed of 25! Additionally, they are formed up in an inverted form of their standard diamond formation with the heavier ships leading and headed straight for the upper group of fighters.

Initial positions of the UPF and sathar forces. Click for full size image.

Turn 1

The sathar ships advance straight at the fighters and at the last moment turn toward the upper group of assault scouts. The heavy cruiser remains at speed 25, while the light cruiser and frigate accelerate by 1 and 2 respectively to join up with the larger ship. They fire all weapons expect their torpedoes at the flight of 4 fighters. The destroyers accelerate to speed 27 and 28 and join up directing all their fire at the flight of assault scouts.

Defensively only the upper light cruiser and flight of assault scouts are in range and they fire everything at the lead destroyer. Only the light cruiser connects with its laser battery doing some minor hull damage.

The sathar open with a devastating barrage at the smaller ships. The light cruiser’s disruptor cannon vaporizes the lead fighter, while the disruptor cannon from the heavy cruiser knocks out the assault rocket launcher on his wingman. The third fighter is hit by a pair of laser batteries and the sathar frigate’s laser cannon damaging its acceleration and navigation control system and nearly destroying it. The final fighter is hit by an electron battery and destroyed.

The destroyers do just as well. The lead militia assault scout is hit by a laser battery, electron battery, and laser canon destroying it. The second assault scout is hit by a laser battery and laser cannon and also destroyed. The last assault scout in the group is hit by an electron battery and rocket battery knocking out its assault rocket launcher and nearly destroying the ship.

The sathar have done well, eliminating four ships and knocking out the assault rocket launchers on two others and severely damaging the last. Caught off-guard by the speed of the sathar advance and initial devastation, the UPF and militia forces scramble to react.

The surviving assault scout, heavily damaged, just drifts away from the battle at speed 20. The fighter with the damaged navigation control system pulls a hard turn to starboard remaining at speed 25 and flies away from the battle. Luckily, it doesn’t break up from the maneuver. The other fighter, relatively undamaged but unable to fight due to the loss of its assault rocket launcher, loops away from the sathar ships back toward the assault carrier and slows to speed 20.

The assault carrier and frigate accelerate to speed 12 and turn away from the oncoming ships. All of the other UPF and militia ships loop around and head toward the group of sathar ships centered on the heavy cruiser, the ships coming from below the station accelerating to get in range.

Defensively, the sathar continue to focus on the smaller ships firing all their energy battery weapons at the incoming fighters and their cannons at the wounded assault scout as it drifts by. They fire their rocket batteries at the light cruiser that has come into range.

All five cannons hit the assault scout causing a fire and damage to its maneuvering and damage control system before destroying it. Three of the five rocket batteries slam into the UPF light cruiser disabling its ICM launcher, completely knocking out its maneuvering and doing significant hull damage. The lead fighter is hit by a laser battery reducing its acceleration ability while the shots at the second fighter completely miss. The third fighter is hit by a laser and electron battery and destroyed. The final fighter takes a hit from an electron battery which starts an electrical fire on-board.

The surviving fighters with operational assault rockets fire at the light cruiser, three of which hit doing significant hull damage and causing a power short circuit knocking out its screens and ICMS. The assault scouts and more distant light cruiser fire at the heavy cruiser. Only two of the assault rockets from the assault scouts hit but cause significant hull damage (65% of total). The light cruiser hits with its laser battery and disruptor canon knocking out the heavy cruiser’s distruptor canon and acceleration capability. The other light cruiser hits the sathar frigate with its laser, electron, and proton batteries knocking out most of its acceleration ability and causing a fire.

Positions and courses of the ships at the beginning of the battle. Click for full image.

Turn 2

Unable to accelerate, the sathar heavy cruiser drifts down toward the assault carrier. It fires at the militia assault scouts with its energy weapons and its rocket weapons at the damaged light cruiser. The sathar destroyers decelerate and make a run at the undamaged light cruiser. The sathar light cruiser and frigate loop around and fire all their energy weapons and rocket batteries at the fighters and UPF assault scouts while they fire their torpedoes at the damaged light cruiser. The fire on the UPF fighter burns through over half of the small ship’s hull.

Defensively, the two UPF light cruisers focus their fire on their sathar counterpart hitting with multiple weapons reducing its acceleration ability, inducing a navigation control failure, knocking out its ICMs, and doing more damage to its hull but not destroying it. The assault scouts fire at the sathar frigate and hit with 2 laser batteries causing some minor hull damage. The station fires at one of the destroyers as they pass but misses and the assault carrier and militia frigate take long range shots at the heavy cruiser but also miss.

The militia assault scouts are both hit by a laser battery which knocks out all the maneuvering capability on one and slight reduces the maneuvering on the other. The lead (damaged) UPF light cruiser is hit by a rocket battery and torpedo doing some minor hull damage and shorting out its screens and ICMs. The trailing UPF light cruiser is pummeled by the destroyers having its screens and ICMs disabled and losing over half of its hull integrity.

The three fighters are each hit with a battery weapon destroying one, reducing the damage control capability on the second, and damaging the navigation control system on the third. The two UPF assault scouts are hit by a rocket battery and distruptor cannon respectively that knock out just over half of the first’s hull integrity and damages the assault rocket launcher on the second.

The seriously damaged fighter (off the top of the map) continues to spin out of control but still manages to hold together. The fighter with the disabled assault rocket launcher continues to approach the assault carrier, and the other fighter with the navigation control spins hard to starboard and flies off the top of the map. The assault carrier accelerates to speed 14 and loops down under the path of the heavy cruiser. The militia frigate splits off from the assault carrier and turns to engage the heavy cruiser. The lead light cruiser, its maneuvering knocked out, decelerates to speed 12 and drifts straight, currently out of the fight but trying not to get too far away. The other light cruiser turns to follow the heavy cruiser and manages to hold together through the maneuvering. The militia assault scout with no maneuvering left, decelerates as much as possible to avoid passing the sathar light cruiser and coming in range of its disruptor cannon. Unfortunately, it is now only 10,000 km away. The fighters still in the fight fire at the frigate while the assault scouts fire at the light cruiser. The fire on the sathar frigate does some minor hull damage.

Defensively the frigate and light cruiser fire at the assault scouts and fighters, destroying one of the fighters and seriously damaging the hull of the non-maneuvering assault scout and causing a fire on the same ship. The heavy cruiser fires at the militia frigate and knocks out its masking screens and reduces its acceleration ability.

Offensively, the frigate is hit by one assault rocket knocking out its laser battery, the light cruiser is hit by an assault rocket and two laser batteries destroying it, and the heavy cruiser is hit by the militia frigate’s laser canon knocking out its ICMs.

Courses and final positions after 20 minutes of fighting. Click for full image.

Turn 3

The sathar frigate accelerates and makes a pass at the assault scouts. The destroyers loop around to fire at the UPF light cruiser, and the heavy cruiser turns to strafe the assault carrier and flies out of the battle. The fire on the UPF assault scout burns through the hull destroying it.

Defensively, the assault scouts fire at the frigate and hit with a laser battery knocking out its laser canon. The station scores a long distance hit on the lead sathar destroyer knocking out its ICM launcher. The assault carrier hits the heavy cruiser knocking out its maneuvering engines. All other defensive fire misses.

Offensively, the sathar frigate hits the lead assault scout with a rocket battery, destroying it but misses with the torpedo aimed at the other assault scout. The sathar destroyers hit the UPF light cruiser with nearly everything, including both rocket batteries and torpedoes, and destroy it. The heavy cruiser hits the assault carrier with all of its energy battery weapons but the torpedo is intercepted by ICMs launched by the carrier. The hits knock out its navigation control system and causing some minor hull damage.

The two UPF fighters off the map continue to spin out of control but the damaged one doesn’t break up. The assault scouts make another run at the sathar frigate. The militia frigate strafes the sathar destroyers focusing its fire on the lead one and then loops around the planet. The lone UPF fighter continues to follow the assault carrier. The light cruiser off the map slows to speed 9. The assault carrier’s damaged navigation control system pulls it to port and it fires at the lead sathar destroyer as it passes by. The fire on the sathar frigate does some minor hull damage.

Defensively, the sathar destroyers fire at the militia frigate and while the lead frigate misses, the other hits with its laser and electron batteries knocking out the frigates laser cannon and maneuvering engines The defensive fire at the assault scouts miss.

The assault scouts hit the sathar frigate with a laser battery and assault rocket damaging its hull and knocking out its masking screens. From all the shots at the lead sathar destroyer, it is hit by a proton, rocket, and laser battery doing some significant hull damage.

Positions and courses at the end of the first half hour of battle. Click for full image.

Repair Turn

Almost every ship in the fight has some damage at this point. The only one that isn’t is one of the sathar destroyers.

On the UPF side, the fighter trailing the assault carrier, as well as the second UPF assault scout, repair their assault rocket launchers. The fighter that’s been spinning out of control from the beginning of the fight manages to repair its navigation control system as does the assault carrier. The carrier also repairs some of its hull. The militia frigate restores some of its maneuverability as does the light cruiser off the map. Unfortunately, the light cruiser’s hull repair runs into significant problems and its hull can only be repaired in a shipyard.

The sathar frigate puts out the fire while the other two ships repair some of their hull damage.

Turn 4

The sathar heavy cruiser, unable to maneuver and not wanting to risk acceleration and breaking up with its weakened hull, continues to drift away from the fight (its already off the map). The frigate, out of rocket weapons and with its energy weapons knocked out, is unable to fight and turns to follow the heavy cruiser, accelerating as much as possible with its damaged engines. The destroyers loop around the planet and strafe the assault scouts each firing all their energy weapons (their rockets and torpedoes are depleted) at a different assault scout.

Defensively, all ships fire at the lead sathar destroyer. The assault carrier and station hit knocking out its navigation control system and electron battery and causing some minor hull damage.

The lead sathar destroyer hits the surviving militia assault scout with it’s laser canon nearly destroying it. The other destroyer hits the UPF assault scout knocking out half of its hull integrity with it’s laser battery and damaging its combat control system with its electron battery.

The seriously wounded UPF ships continue to drift away from the battle or spin out of control while those that can, converge on the sathar destroyers again firing at the lead destroyer. The light cruiser (off the map) accelerates and starts to turn back toward the battle now that it has some maneuvering capability restored. With its limited maneuverability the militia frigate turns and takes long distance shots at the destroyers.

Defensively the destroyers fire their laser cannons at the militia frigate (which miss) and their energy batteries at the fighter and assault scout. Th trailing destroyer hits the assault scout with its electron battery slightly damaging its hull.

The UPF fighter and assault scout both hit the lead destroyer with their assault rockets. The fighter, frustrated at being out of the battle from the start, scores a massive hit knocking out nearly half of the destroyer’s hull integrity. The other assault rocket damages the destroyer’s combat control system. The gunner on the militia frigate lands an amazing long distance shot with the laser battery scoring a maximum damage hit and destroying the sathar vessel.

Positions and paths at the end of the fourth round of combat. There aren’t too many ships left and many have left the battle. Click for full sized image.

Turn 5

Knowing that it can out run the assault carrier, the destroyer fires its laser battery at the fighter and electron battery at the assault scout attempting to take them out of the fight and accelerates at maximum thrust to fly off after the heavy cruiser and frigate.

The assault scout and assault carrier return fire hitting with all of their batteries damaging the destroyer’s engines slightly and weakening its hull. The sathar’s electron battery connects with the UPF assault scout and destroys it. The laser battery misses the fighter.

With all of their ships damaged (expect the fighter) and many seriously out of position, the UPF commander calls off the pursuit of the sathar ships. The surviving UPF and militia vessels begin repairs and return the station.

Final ship positions and path as the sathar retreat. Click for full sized image.

Repairs

Over the course of the next thee hours, the UPF repair what they can and the assault carrier collects its scattered fighters. In the end most of the ships are fully repaired but the UPF light cruiser has hull damage that will require time in the shipyard.

The sathar form up and manage to repair most of their systems but all three ship have hull damage that will require time in a starship construction center to fully fix. While the damage to the destroyer is relatively minor (only 24% of its hull), the damage to the frigate and heavy cruiser is much more significant, 43% and 61%. Since they lost the fight here, they cannot use the local shipyard and must return to SCC#5 for repairs. They start accelerating out of the system being careful of the heavy cruiser’s hull.

Lessons Learned

When they want to, the sathar can do significant damage to the smaller UPF ships. Their tactics worked out quite well. In fact, much better than I expected. I really thought the UPF would win this one and eliminate all the sathar ships but would take significant damage. I never expected that the sathar would get away with three of their ships, although heavily damaged. The time to get those ships back into the fight will be much shorter than having to build new ones.

While the UPF and militia “won” and drove off the sathar, this was really a victory for the sathar in many ways as well. In the end, if you factor in the damage that requires a shipyard to fix, the sathar lost 198 hull points in this fight while the UPF and militia lost 228. If you just look at ships destroyed, then the sathar lost 2 ships for a total of 120 hull points while the UPF lost 12 ships, most of them fighters and assault scouts, totaling 200 hull points. Either way the sathar came out ahead. And they achieved their goal of taking out most of the assault rocket capability of the UPF forces in this system in advance of the next sathar attack in 11 days. While it doesn’t make up for the beatings they took in some of the other systems, it is definitely a boost to their morale.

There really isn’t much the UPF could have done differently other than be placed a little closer together for mutual support. The small fighters and assault scouts had no defense against the initial onslaught and paid the price. The only real defense there would have been to be further back from the station but then the sathar may have made a run at the station instead. This battle will definitely shift the tactics of both sides, at least somewhat. We’ll have to see what develops.