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

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

Background

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

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

Order of Battle

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

Spacefleet (Task Force Cassidine)

3 Fighters
2 Frigates
1 Light Cruiser
1 Assault Carrier
1 Heavy Cruiser
1 Battleship

Sathar

7 Fighters
1 Frigate
1 Destroyer
2 Light Cruisers
1 Assault Carrier
1 Heavy Cruiser

The Battle

Setup

The UPF elect to battle near the planet although with no station left to defend, they start far back from the planet at a moderate speed of 15 for all ships, including the fighters. The two frigates form a battle group and the light cruiser and the battleship team up. Those two groups form the center of the battle line. The heavy cruiser escorts the assault carrier toward the bottom of the battle area while the three fighters form a flight near the top. They deploy four of the six seeker missiles available on the side of the planet the sathar will be approaching from. The heavy cruiser and battleship each retain one seeker missile in their magazines for deployment during the fight.

Like the UPF, the sathar come in at only a moderate speed to try to gauge the other side’s tactics and responses before committing. They too are only moving at speed 15 but are split up to go wide around the planet. The sathar heavy cruiser and assault carrier, escorted by a destroyer come in opposite their UPF counterparts with a flight of three fighters just off their wing. The light cruisers, escorted by a frigate, come in opposite the UPF fighters, with a flight of four fighters off their wing.

Initial positions of the ships. The seeker missiles are not shown. Click for full sized image.

Turn 1

The sathar capital ships maintain their speed and advance on the UPF forces. The fighters accelerate to speed 20 and fly farther out on the wings of the formation.

The UPF ships converge toward the lower group of sathar capital ships. The heavy cruiser and assault carrier continue to advance at speed 15. The light cruiser and battleship accelerate to speed 17, the frigates to speed 19, the fighters to speed 20.

No shots are fired this round as the two forces remain out of range.

Positions after the first turn of maneuvering. Also the seeker missiles are shown on this one for reference. Unfortunately, the file was partially corrupted and the bottom of the map was cut off but the three sathar fighters just mirrored the maneuver of the fighters at the top of the map. Click for full size image.

Turn 2

The sathar all begin accelerating toward the UPF. The group centered around the heavy cruiser accelerates to speed 17 and flies straight at their UPF counterpart while their wing of fighters accelerates to 25 and makes a pass at the same group. All the sathar ships fire at the UPF assault carrier. The upper battle group accelerates to speed 18 and turns down toward the UPF forces while the upper flight of fighters accelerates to speed 25 and sets up for an attack run next turn as they are too far away to engage this round.

Defensive, the UPF ships all focus on the flight of three lower fighters with the UPF heavy cruiser taking a long-range shot with its disruptor cannon at the sathar destroyer. They don’t do too well and of the 17 shots fired at the three fighters, only one connects with each ship, knocking the hull integrity down by half on one, inducing a navigation control hit on a second, and knocking out the maneuvering on the third. The disruptor cannon shot at the destroyer also misses.

Offensively, the sathar fare a bit better. Two of the assault rockets hit the assault carrier knocking out half its engine capability and reducing its hull integrity by 17%. The sathar destroyer hits with its laser cannon further reducing the hull integrity of the UPF assault carrier by another 19%. The heavy cruiser’s distruptor cannon knocks out the assault carrier’s masking screen launcher.

The larger UPF capital ships maintain their speeds and converge on the sathar battle group. The heavy cruiser and assault carrier fly right over the group turning up toward the planet at the end of their move. The battleship and light cruiser maneuver down to take point blank shots at the sathar as well. The frigates accelerate to speed 20 and come just in range of their rocket batteries while the fighters accelerate to speed 25 and make an assault rocket pass from below.

Defensively, the sathar ships continue to fire at the assault carrier with their energy weapons while they fire their three rocket batteries at the lead frigate. The frigate is hit by two of the rocket batteries reducing its hull integrity by 28% and knocking out a third of its maneuvering capability.

The assault carrier is hammered by the sathar’s weapons being hit by 2 electron, 2 laser, and one proton battery as wall as a laser and disruptor cannon. All told the damage knocks out all of the UPF assault carrier’s weapons, starts a fire, damages its combat control system, induces a navigation control failure, and reduces its hull integrity by another 13%.

Offensively the UPF focus on the sathar assault carrier and heavy cruiser with the frigates and fighters firing at the assault carrier and the other ships firing on the heavy cruiser.

Only one of the fighters hit the assault carrier but it scores a critical hull hit dropping the carrier’s hull integrity by 40%. The frigates combine to hit with a laser battery, laser cannon and rocket battery knocking out the carriers engines and further reducing its hull integrity by 7%.

The sathar heavy cruiser fares even worse being hit by a barrage of weapons from the UPF battleship, light cruiser and heavy cruiser. All told it is hit by all 3 distruptor cannons, 2 rocket batteries, 3 laser batteries, two proton batteries, and an electron battery. The damage knocks out the sathar heavy cruiser’s engines and maneuvering, ICM launcher, laser battery, proton screen and stasis screen, cuts it damage control ability in half, and starts a fire. Surprisingly, the weapons did little hull damage only reducing the ship’s hull integrity by 25%.

Positions and course after the first shots were fired. Click for full size image.

Turn 3

The sathar fighter and heavy cruiser, both with no MR, fly straight ahead (to the left). The fighter slows down to speed 20 while the heavy cruiser, with no ADF either, just stays at speed 17. The fighter with the navigation control hit slows to speed 20 and spins to port flying up toward the planet while the remaining fighter from the lower group accelerates to speed 20 and goes after the pair of UPF frigates. The other fighters also speed up to 30 hexes/turn and go after the frigates as well, both fighter groups looping around the planet.

The sathar assault carrier, with its navigation control hit, pull to starboard and with no ADF, flies up away from the main battle. The sathar destroyer loops around to go after the UPF frigates as well and the light cruisers and frigate decelerate back to 15 and light up for a shot at the UPF battleship. The fire on the UPF assault carrier damages its hull (5%).

Defensively, the UPF frigates fire their laser batteries at the fighters and rocket batteries at the destroyer while the other UPF ships concentrate all their fire on the lead sathar light cruiser.

The UPF frigates miss the fighters completely but hit the destroyer with two rocket batteries seriously damaging it and deducing its hull integrity by 72%. The other ships hit the sathar light cruiser with 2 laser, 2 rocket, 1 electron, and 1 proton battery knocking out its ICM launcher, engines, and stasis screen, starting a fire and reducing its hull integrity by 16%.

Offensively, the sathar fighters hit the lead UPF frigate with and assault rocket reducing its hull integrity by 43% and the second one with an assault rocket as well reducing its already damaged hull (from the previous battle) by 38%. The destroyer also hits the second UPF frigate with its electron battery and laser cannon knocking out the frigates engines.

The sathar frigate and light cruisers hammer the UPF battleship hitting it with 2 disruptor cannons, 2 proton batteries, 1 electron battery, and 2 torpedoes that slip through the battleship’s ICM screen. The weapons short circuit the battleship’s defensive system, reduce its maneuvering ability by half, knock out its proton battery and reduce its hull integrity by 66%.

The two UPF frigates, now heavily damaged, drift on their current course firing at the destroyer as they leave. The assault carrier also drifts but its navigation control hit causes it to pull to port. Despite its weakened hull, it holds together. The battleship also drifts away from the fight firing all its weapons at the damaged light cruiser.

The UPF heavy cruiser turns parallel to the course of the assault carrier but lines up for a direct shot with its disruptor cannon at the sathar destroyer. It fires its rocket battery and torpedo at the undamaged light cruiser and uses its energy batteries to fire on the sathar fighters. The light cruiser follows a similar path and firing at the same targets. The fighters loop up around the planet and come up behind the sathar frigate firing their assault rockets at it.

The fire on the sathar light cruiser and sathar heavy cruiser damages both ships’ hulls reducing their integrity by 13% and 11% respectively.

Defensively, the sathar ships continue to fire at the battleship, hoping to destroy it before it can fly out of range. The sathar assault carrier makes a long range attack at its UPF counterpart with its proton battery but misses. The sathar destroyer fires at the lead UPF frigate hitting with its electron and rocket batteries knocking out the frigate’s masking screen launcher and damaging its combat control system.

The battleship manages to get off lightly and is only hit by 2 distruptor cannons and a laser battery cutting its damage control capability in half and reducing its hull integrity by another 14%.

Offensively, the UPF battleships hits the lead sathar destroyer with its laser and 2 electron batteries and slips a torpedo through the cruiser’s ICM screen destroying it and scoring the first kill of the battle. The UPF heavy cruiser manages to get its torpedo through the other light cruiser’s ICM screen cutting the sathar ship’s maneuvering in half but otherwise missing.

The UPF fighters hit the sathar frigate with all three assault rockets destroying it completely. The sathar destroyer is hit by disruptor canons from the UPF light and heavy cruiser, as well as a laser battery and two rocket batteries from the frigates. The frigates also manage to get a torpedo through the destroyer’s ICM screen. The combined damage from the UPF weapons obliterates the sathar ship. The sathar fighters get away with only minor damage: one loses 60% of its engine capability, one has its damage control capabilities cut in half, and the third loses 38% of its hull integrity.

Repair Turn

As the ships work on repairs, the lead UPF frigate finds that it’s hull is too damaged to repair in space and must find a way to a shipyard with only 30% of its hull intact. The other frigate manages to repair a bit of its hull restoring 10% of its integrity. The UPF assault carrier puts out the on-board fire while the battleship repairs 3% of its hull.

The two sathar fighters with hull damage find that they need a shipyard to repair their hull as well with their hull integrity sitting at 62% and 50% respectively. The sathar assault carrier restores 11% of its hull integrity while the heavy cruiser gets its fire under control.

Courses and positions after a half hour of combat and repairs. Things are starting to scatter as ships are damaged and lose maneuvering capability and control or are too damaged to risk maneuvering. Ships moving off the map will have a yellow number by them showing how many hexes off the map they are. Click for full size image.

Turn 4

The flight of four sathar fighters all go after the UPF assault carrier hoping to finish it off. They loop around to make a direct assault and then fly off to chase after the UPF frigates. The lone fighter, after firing its last assault rocket at the heavy cruiser loops around and starts heading for its carrier to dock and rearm. The fighter with the navigation control damage loops to port and fires one of its assault rockets at a UPF fighter as it passes by. The remaining fighter, with no maneuvering, along with the sathar heavy cruiser in the same condition, continue to drift away from the fight. The sathar assault carrier, with its navigation control damage, pulls to starboard and passes distantly in front of the UPF cruisers and assault carrier. The remaining sathar light cruiser turns to go after the battleship hoping to finish it off.

Defensively, the UPF cruisers fire at the sathar fighters hoping to take them out before they can fire their assault rockets. The battleship fires at the light cruiser pursuing it and the frigates get a couple of distant shots at the sathar fighters.

The sathar light cruiser is hit by one of the battleship’s laser batteries and both electron batteries which score a critical hull hit (integrity reduced by 26%), knock out its ICM launcher, and damage its navigation control systems. Four of the five sathar fighters are hit by the UPF ships knocking the hull integrity down to half on one, destroying a second and damaging the assault rocket launcher on the other two (including the lone fighter going after the heavy cruiser).

Offensively, the two fighters with working assault rocket launchers firing at the assault carrier both miss while the sathar fighter with the navigation hit firing at the UPF fighter hits with its assault rocket destroying the UPF fighter, the first (and as it will turn out, only) UPF ship destroyed in the fight. The battleship is hit by the sathar light cruiser’s electron battery, proton battery, and distruptor cannon knocking out its proton screen, damaging its combat control system, and reducing its hull integrity by another 12% (only 11% remaining).

The two UPF frigates continue to drift and fire long distance shots at the fighters. The battleship drifts away from the light cruiser firing at it as it goes. The two UPF fighters loop around and take a run at the sathar light cruiser firing their last assault rockets. The UPF assault carrier pulls to starboard and runs parallel to its sathar counterpart while the UPF light and heavy cruisers maneuver directly onto the sathar assault carrier’s tail and take point blank shots with all their weapons.

Defensively, the sathar light cruiser fires at the battleship and the sathar assault carrier fires at the UPF light cruiser. The UPF light cruiser is hit by a rocket battery reducing its hull integrity by 17% while the battleship is hit by an electron battery knocking out its ICM launcher.

Offensively, the sathar light cruiser is hit by one of the battleship’s laser batteries knocking out its proton battery and by both assault rockets from the fighters which damage its combat control system and knock its hull integrity down by 20%. The lead UPF frigate manages to score a long range laser battery shot on the lead sathar fighter knocking out its assault rocket launcher. The UPF cruisers hit the sathar assault carrier with a distruptor cannon and a laser, electron, and rocket battery knocking out the carriers maneuvering, laser battery, and masking screen launcher and damaging its combat control system.

Maneuvering and positions after forty minutes of battle. The UPF are stating to score kills and the ships are really starting to scatter. Click for full size image.

Turn 5

The group of three sathar fighters sets off after the two UPF frigates, the lone fighter, with its assault rocket launcher disabled, and realizing that the assault carrier is probably not going to survive the battle, attempts to ram the UPF light cruiser. The sathar light cruiser pulls to port and slows down, firing at the two UPF fighters. The other ships just continue to drift away with the assault carrier firing at the UPF light cruiser as it drifts.

Defensively, the UPF frigates fire at the remaining fighter with a working assault rocket launcher but miss. The UPF light cruiser fires at the oncoming fighter and destroys it before it can ram the larger ship. The UPF heavy cruiser hits the sathar assault carrier with its laser and rocket battery and reduces its hull integrity by another 36%.

Offensive, the sathar fighter misses the UPF frigate with its assault rocket while the sathar light cruiser hits one of the UPF fighters damaging its combat control system. The sathar assault carrier hits the UPF light cruiser with its proton and rocket battery short circuiting the cruiser’s defensive systems and reducing its hull integrity by 20%.

The UPF assault carrier’s loss of navigation control pulls it to starboard and the fighters, out of assault rockets, start heading back to the carrier to rearm. The heavy and light cruiser stay on the tail of the sathar assault carrier while the frigates and battleship continue to drift.

Defensively, the sathar assault carrier continues to fire on the UPF light cruiser hitting with its rocket battery for another 16% hull reduction on the cruiser. All other ships are out of range.

Offensively the UPF frigates fire at the pursuing fighters but miss. The UPF cruiser open fire on the sathar assault carrier and hit with 3 laser batteries, 2 proton batteries, an electron battery, a disruptor cannon, and two torpedoes completely destroying the sathar carrier.

This is the ships off the top of the main map (UPF cruisers and frigates, sathar assault carrier and fighters). The bottom row of hexes on this map exactly correspond to the top row of hexes on the main map (below). Click for full size image.

Main battle map after turn 5. Things continue to spread out. Click for full size image.

Turn 6

With their carrier destroyed and being either out of weapons or their weapon system disabled, the three sathar fighters attempt to ram the UPF frigates. The sathar light cruiser pulls to starboard and accelerates back to speed 16, the lone fighter near the planet pulls to port with its navigation damage and the other two ships continue to drift away.

Defensively, the frigates fire everything they can at the incoming fighters hitting two with their laser batteries, the lead fighter for 75% of its hull and the second for a navigation hit but not enough to destroy them before they ram. Two fighters slam into the lead frigate and despite its damaged hull fail to destroy it only taking out 20% of the remaining 30% hull integrity. The third fighter hits the second frigate for a measly 5% of its hull integrity.

The UPF frigates and battleship continue to drift, the assault carrier pulls to port and the fighters continue to close on the carrier to rearm. The heavy and light cruiser start accelerating and turn to head after the sathar light cruiser. No shots are fired as everyone is out of range.

Repair Turn 2

The lead UPF frigate repairs the damage caused by the two ramming sathar fighters but can repair its hull no further. The other frigate repairs 12% of its hull integrity while the light cruiser repairs 3% of its. The assault carrier gets its navigation control system fixed as well as repairing 8% of its hull. The battleship repairs 5% of its hull and brings is damage control system fully back on-line.

The sathar light cruiser repairs its navigation control system while the heavy cruiser discovers that a shipyard will be required to bring its damage control system back fully on-line.

The upper map after an hour of fighting. The second blue line by the assault carrier should have fighters at the end of it but I forgot to move the tokens. Click for full size image.

The main battle map after an hour. The poor sathar fighter can’t get is navigation system under control and is stuck near the planet. Click for full size image.

Turn 7

With its navigation control system repaired, the sathar light cruiser sets off at max acceleration to attempt to intercept the UPF battleship and finish it off. The damaged fighter comes to a stop near the planet as the pilot continues to work on its navigation control issues.

The UPF cruisers continue in pursuit of the sathar light cruiser while the assault carrier, its hull and navigation control fixed, starts to turn around and head back toward the planet. The two surviving fighters pull alongside the carrier and start docking procedures.

We’ve now shifted the map to track the sathar light cruiser pursing the battleship and the UPF cruisers pursing it. The other ships are effectively out of the battle. The planet is some 200,000 km off the left side of this map. Click for full size image.

Turn 8

The chase continues. The sathar light cruiser continues to close on the battleship but the UPF light cruiser, which had a slight speed advantage on the sathar light cruiser, continues to close on it as well as it starts to outdistance the older heavy cruiser that has a lower acceleration. The two UPF fighters dock with the assault carrier.

The gaps between the ships are narrowing. Click for full size image.

Turn 9

The chase continues as the light cruisers close on their targets. The UPF heavy cruiser is as close as it is going to get to the sathar ship unless the sathar vessel’s engines are damaged as the greater acceleration of the sathar light cruiser has allowed it to match speeds with the heavy cruiser. The UPF fighters are rearmed.

Repair Turn 3

The lead UPF frigate repairs some of its maneuvering while the other frigate repairs 10% of its hull. The UPF light cruiser also repairs 10% of its hull while the assault carrier brings its laser and proton battery back on-line. The battleship, expecting to have to defend against torpedoes from the the sathar light cruiser, gets its ICM launcher working again and repairs another 5% of its hull.

The lone sathar fighter repairs some of its maneuvering capability and starts to maneuver to meet up with the heavy cruiser. The sathar light cruiser repairs 13% of its hull while the heavy cruiser restores half of its engine capability and begins accelerating to out of the system.

The ships have almost come in range of the battleship. Speeds have been adjusted so that they are relative to the battleship being at rest. Click for full size image.

Turn 10

The sathar light cruiser continues to close on the battleship and the UPF light cruiser continues to close on the sathar light cruiser. The two UPF fighters, rearmed, launch from the assault carrier and go after the lone sathar fighter near the planet.

The heavy cruiser is now starting to fall behind. Click for full size image.

Turn 11

The UPF light cruiser continues to close the gap but it is looking like the sathar ship will get to the battleship before the UPF light cruiser can intercept it. The battleship, at relative rest to the other ships, rotates to face the direction it expects the sathar vessel to come from in order to bring its disruptor cannon to bear.

It’s taken nearly an hour, but the sathar light cruiser is nearly in range of the battleship with the UPF light cruiser in hot pursuit and gaining. Click for full size image.

Turn 12

Realizing it cannot quite get into torpedo range this round, the sathar light cruiser remains at its current speed staying at extreme range for the battleship’s defenses although this will also allow the UPF light cruiser a chance to close as well.

Defensively the battleships fires all of its energy weapons at the sathar vessel but they all go wide although one of the electron batteries would have hit except for the battleship’s damaged combat control system. The sathar light cruiser returns fire but also misses.

The UPF light cruiser and heavy cruiser close in on the sathar vessel but the heavy cruiser is still well out of range. The sathar ship fires once again at the battleship this time hitting with its distruptor cannon shorting out the battleships defenses and ICMs. The battleship and light cruiser return fire. The battleship connects with a LB damaging the sathar light cruiser’s hull (11%). The UPF light cruiser is still too far away and its shots go wide.

The UPF fighters hit the sathar fighter with one of their assault rockets knocking out it’s assault rocket launcher.

Repair Turn 4

The lead UPF frigate repairs its combat control system and is now as functional as it can be without getting to a shipyard to repair its heavily damaged hull. The other frigate restores more of its engine capability. The UPF light cruiser repairs 13% of its hull while the assault carrier also gets a minor hull repair restoring 1%. The battleship focuses all of its repairs on its hull, hoping to survive the oncoming attack and restores 13% of its hull integrity.

The sathar fighter under attack by the UPF fighters finally fixes its navigation control system while the other fighter restores some of its maneuverability. The UPF light cruiser fixes its combat control system and brings its proton battery back on-line in preparation for attacking the UPF Battleship.

Shots are fired as the ships once more come in range. Click for full size image.

Turn 13

The sathar light cruiser makes a pass on the battleship firing everything it can at the larger vessel and using its maximum acceleration. The lone sathar fighter, its navigation control issues solved, begins accelerating away from the planet, hoping to surviving the next two rounds of assault rocket fire from the two UPF fighters.

Defensively, the battleship and light cruiser try to take out the sathar light cruiser before it can inflict any more damage on the battleship. The UPF light cruiser, at nearly maximum range misses, while the battleship connects with 2 laser batteries, a proton battery, and its disruptor cannon slightly damaging the cruiser’s hull (8%), knocking out its laser battery and engines, and inducing a malfunction in its navigation control system.

The sathar light cruiser returns fire with all of its function weapons but in the excitement of the moment, the gunner all miss and the battleship escapes unscathed.

The UPF light cruiser closes to torpedo range on the sathar vessel and opens fire with everything it can. The heavy cruiser continues to close and the battleship fires a long range salvo at the now retreating sathar light cruiser. The fighters again fire at the lone sathar fighter, this time hitting it with one of their assault rockets and destroying it.

Defensively the sathar light cruiser now focuses on its pursuer and fires at the UPF light cruiser hitting with both its electron and proton battery inducing a fire and damaging the light cruiser’s damage control system.

Returning fire at the sathar light cruiser, the battleship misses and the UPF light cruiser hits with its laser, electron, and proton batteries damaging the ship’s hull (14%), knocking out its rocket battery, and damaging its combat control system.

The sathar light cruiser gets its shot and fails. It probably should have stayed closer to the battleship to get one more try. Click for full size image.

Turn 14

The sathar light cruiser pulls to port and holds together. The fire on the UPF light cruiser knocks out its laser battery.

Defensively, the battleship and light cruiser fire on the sathar ship. The battleship hits with an electron and proton battery starting a fire and knocking out its stasis screen. The light cruiser hits with its proton battery and disruptor cannon knocking out the sathar ship’s disruptor cannon and electron screen.

The sathar light cruiser fires at the UPF light cruiser but misses.

The UPF light cruiser continues to tail the sathar vessel closing to rocket battery range while the heavy cruiser starts catching up with the other ships. The fire on the sathar light cruiser damages its hull (6%)

The sathar light cruiser fires on the approaching UPF light cruiser hitting with its electron and proton battery damaging its hull (4%) and knockign out a third of its engine capability.

The UPF light cruiser hits the sathar ship with its electron and rocket batteries destroying it and ending the battle.

Final moves of the fight. Click for full size image.

Turn 15

The fire on UPF light cruiser damages its navigation control system.

Repair Turn 5

The UPF light cruiser gets its fire under control, the assault carrier repairs its rocket battery but discovers that any more repair of its engines will require a shipyard, and the battleship repairs another 11% of its hull.

The sathar heavy cruiser fully repairs its engines.

Final repairs

Battle repairs of the UPF ships continue over the next four and a half hours as the ships return to orbit around Ken’zah-Kit. In the end, the second UPF frigate can only get its hull up to 65% integrity, and the battleship can only get its hull up to 58%.

The lone sathar fighter meets up with the heavy cruiser and is attached to the hull of the larger vessel where it will remain until they get back to a shipyard. It’s maneuvering is fully repaired as the ships accelerate out of the ship. The heavy cruiser gets all of its systems repaired over the next four hours expect its hull which it is only able to restore to 81% outside a shipyard.

Lessons Learned

The sathar just can’t seem to catch a break and finish off the UPF ships. I though the light cruiser was going to finish off the battleship but rolled over 80 for every single attack so it missed completely. The battleship only had about 26 HP at that point. (On a whim I rerolled all the attacks and the second time it hit with a PB and RB, the latter did double damage and destroyed the battleship. But alas, that wasn’t the actual roll.) The same with the ramming of the frigates. I thought for sure the UPF frigate hit by two fighters was going to be destroyed, it only had 12 HP left but then I just rolled 8 on 2d10 for the hull damaged sustained. And it wouldn’t have done any good for the third one to hit it as I only rolled a measly 2 HP damage for that ship as well. There were several other times where I expected the sathar to get better hits but the dice were just against them. The UPF had bad spells as well but it didn’t seem to be at those critical, ship-finishing moments.

I considered having the light cruiser ram the battleship but the odds were in the favor of the battleship avoiding the ramming attempt and if it failed, the sathar ship would have been at point blank range for both the battleship and the oncoming UPF light cruiser so it didn’t try. Although it probably should have stayed a bit closer to the battleship as it ended its movement. But I really didn’t expect it to completely miss. This does have me thinking a bit about the ramming rules, however, so there may be a blog post about that when I have time to think on it some more.

The UPF are pretty beat up with the two cruisers and a fighter as the only ships not needing to go to a shipyard for repairs, but they only lost a single fighter. The sathar on the other hand lost everything expect a fighter and a heavy cruiser. Task Force Cassidine has now destroyed two major sathar fleets while only losing 3 assault scouts and 4 fighters.

There is one more battle coming up (in the Liberty system) and then things are going to quite down a bit as the sathar just don’t have very many ships surviving at the moment. They are done to just 9 fighters, 1 cutter, 2 frigates, 1 destroyer 2 light cruisers, 2 heavy cruisers, and two assault carriers but they are spread out all over the Frontier and the starship construction centers (and two are in the battle coming up in the Liberty system and may not survive). Its going to take some time to get them all together and build a few more ships.

Detailed Frontier Timeline – FY61.326 to FY61.356

This is only a week later than I had planned. I’ve gotten behind on updating the timeline entries and am still trying to catch up. I’ve had some big battles to play through and I just haven’t had the time to do so. There will be another battle coming in a few days as soon as I get it played out.

The timeline this month, like last, focuses almost exclusively on the maneuvering, battles, and logistics of the Second Sathar War. There are a few entries on the HSS History’s Hope but that is really the only not war related thread I’m tracking right now. This month saw a couple of battles. There was originally going to be one more but the UPF withdrew seeing as they faced almost certain destruction.

This month also sees the fast-track completion of pilots in the current class in the Gollwin Academy to service as pilots for all the new fighters coming out of the starship construction centers for the newly formed Frontier Fighter Corps. This is a process that will continue of the next several months until all the pilots are graduated or the class completes their current training.

There might be a bit of other, non-war stuff next month but not much. The next two posts after this one will be battle reports that I’ll get up as soon as I can. Depending on how those play out, there might not be much in the way of ships left to fight for a while so things will probably quiet down.

Date (FY)	Events
61.326	– Sathar SCC#4 (OFS111) completes 5 fighters. – The K’aken-Kar assault scout jumps into its home system and begins decelerating toward Ken’zah-Kit. – RG One settles into orbit around Zik-kit and joins up with the rest of PG Meteor already in orbit.
61.327	SG Alpha jumps into the Fromeltar system and begins calculations for the jump to the Kizk-Kar system. The pilot of the recently completed fighter takes on extra life support and begins boosting to join SG Alpha as it transits the system.
61.328	– SBF-J1 arrives at SCC#3 (OFS138). After a rapid reprovisioning, during which orders are issued to all existing sathar vessels, SBF-J1 departs the SCC and begins accelerating for a jump to the OFS137 system. – Sathar EG-1 jumps out of the Liberty system but does not end up in the Waller Nexus system as expected. Rather it overshoots and arrives in the Padda (FS11) system instead. The astrogators begin working out where they are at.
61.329	– SBF-J3 jumps into the OFS168 system and begins calculations for a jump to the OFS167 system. – SBF-E3 arrives at Stenmar (Kazak) and merges with SBF-E2. – The fighter in the Fromeltar system joins up with RG Alpha as it crosses the system for its jump to Kizk-Kar.
61.330	– The HSS History’s Hope makes the jump and ends up in a binary system but it is not the two stars of YS07. While the engineers start to work on the engine overhauls, the astrogators try to figure out where they are. – The lone K’aken-Kar militia assault scout arrives back in its home system and the crew stands down for some leave but remain on alert for rapid recall if needed.
61.331	– SG Alpha jumps into the Kizk-Kar system and begins deceleration toward Zik-Kit and PG Meteor. – SBF-J3 jumps into the OFS167 system and begins calculations for a jump to OFS166. – 2 UPF fighters are completed at both the Minotaur (Theseus) and Hentz (Arak) SCC and 2 more go into production in each location. The fighters are temporarily manned by the local militias until UPF pilots and be dispatched to the system.
61.332	Realizing that they need pilots for all the new fighters being produced, the current cadets at Gollwin academy are polled for volunteers for the Frontier Fighter Corps. Those that volunteer are put on a fast completion track to get their Pilot and Rocket Weapons certifications.
61.333	– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS137 system and begins calculations for a jump to the OFS136 system. – SBF-J3 jumps into the OFS166 system and begins calculations for the jump to FS33 to join up with SBF-B2. – 11 UPF fighters are completed at the CDC shipyards (Triad, Cassidine). With no pilots ready, they are put into storage and Spacefleet temporarily gives the space over for commercial ship maintenance.
61.334	– A fighter and assault carrier are completed at SCC#10 (OFS174). Instead of starting another AC and fighter, construction begins on 2 destroyers and a frigate. – The new sathar assault carrier at SCC#10 (OFS174) collects the 3 fighters in the system and begins a transit to SCC#4 (OFS111). The ships are designated Transit Group (TG) 1. – Astrogators aboard the HSS History’s Hope work out their position and discover that they went nearly twice as far as they intended. The system is designated YS09 and they decide to take two smaller jumps to get back to YS07 to reduce the chance of error. They begin working on jump calculations for an 8 ly jump to the next system. – 3 more fighters are completed at the Hentz (Araks) SCC for the Frontier Fighter Corps, 2 more go into production, the other slot being given over to commercial ship maintenance for now.
61.335	Initial calculations complete, the HSS History’s Hope begins accelerating for a jump to the first system on their way back to YS07, another binary system 8 lightyears away.
61.336	– SBF-J1 jumps into the OFS136 system and begins calculations for a jump to the FS56 system. – SG Alpha arrives at Zit-Kit (Kizk-Kar). The fighters are stationed on the planet’s surface while the assault carrier begins preparations for a trip back to Prenglar to pick up more fighters. – SBF-J3 jumps into the FS33 system and begins decelerating to join up with SBF-B2. – 8 fighters are complete for the Frontier Fighter Corps at the PGC shipyard (Gran Quivera, Prenglar). They are shuttled over to Gollwin academy to serve as trainers for the accelerated pilot classes. Construction begins on 8 more.
61.337	– The astrogators in sathar EG-1 are able to localize their position. Being only a single jump from Theseus, they begin calculating a jump to that system first. – SBF-E2 leaves orbit around Stenmar (Kazak) and begins accelerating for a jump to the Zebulon system and Strike Force Nova. – SBF-B2 leaves orbit in the inner FS33 system and begins accelerating for a jump to the K’sta-Kar and Task Force Cassidine. SBF-J3 changes course to meet them enroute.
61.338	– After another 100 days of exploiting their secret jump route between Truane’s Star and Cassidine, Obar Enterprises has grossed another 1.47 million credits. In the year since charting the route they have grossed over 6.8 million and paid off the loan on their new freighter. Given the current crisis, they turn over the details of the jump route to Spacefleet. – Initial jump calculations complete, sathar EG-1 starts accelerating for a jump to the Theseus system.
61.339	– SBF-J1 jumps into the FS56 system and begins calculations for a jump to the Kizk-Kar system. – SBF-J3 meets up with SBF-B2 enroute to K’sta-Kar and merges into that battle group. – Another UPF fighter is completed at the Hentz (Araks) shipyard. The extra capacity in the shipyard will be used for the next six days to accelerate construction on two of the other fighters to get all four fighters on the same schedule.
61.340	– The HSS History’s Hope successfully jumps into their target system which they designate YS10. They immediately begin working on engine overhauls and calculations for the 6 ly jump to return to YS07. – The initial group of more advanced students at the Gollwin Academy (Morgaine’s World, Prenglar) complete their fast-track certification for the Frontier Fighter Corps. The ten of them are dispatched to Triad to take command of some of the fighters there.
61.341	SG Alpha jumps back into the Fromeltar system and begins calculations for a jump to Dramune.
61.342	– SBF-J1 jumps into the Kisk-Kar system and begins decelerating to engage PG Meteor. – SBF-E2 jumps into the Zebulon system and begins decelerating to engage Strike Force Nova. – SBF-B2 jumps into the K’sta-Kar system and begins decelerating to engage Task Force Cassidine. – The sathar battle fleets are detected within hours of their arrival in their respective systems and alerts go out across the Frontier. Spacefleet is out gunned in nearly every case but is determined to stop the worms. – Sathar EG-1 jumps into the Theseus system. They immediately begin decelerating to stay in the outer system and begin working on calculations for a jump back to the Padda system.
61.343	– Construction of the Spacefleet battleship, Admiral Dooltan, at the Pan Galactic starship construction center orbiting Gran Quivera (Prenglar) complete. With the new sathar offensive, Spacefleet starts construction of a light cruiser, frigate, and assault scout. – 2 assault scouts of the Theseus militia detect the sathar frigate of EG-1 and immediately begin boosting to intercept the ship. An alert goes out and the other ships of the militia boost to intercept as well although they will be two days behind. – Suspecting FS33 to be the origin of the sathar fleets jumping into the K’sta-Kar system, the K’aken-Kar militia assault scout starts working on calculations to chart a jump route to that system.
61.344	– Construction of the Spacefleet battleship, the Admiral R’kazk’tar, at the Cassidine Development Corporation starship construction center orbiting Triad (Cassidine) completed. The crew takes command of the ship and begins a short shakedown cruise in the system as they await the arrival of the fighter pilots and SG Alpha. – With the completion of the Admiral R’kazk’tar, Spacefleet uses the space in the shipyard to begin construction of two destroyers and two assault scouts. – With plans to send the Admiral R’kazk’tar to Truane’s Star, the Admiral Dooltan is ordered to the Fromeltar system and then on to Kisk-Kar to take command of Task Force Meteor if the patrol group survives the coming attack. – Detecting the incoming militia assault scouts, sathar EG-1 change their deceleration profile to try to avoid the ships while they change direction for the return jump to Padda. – Realizing that they have an opportunity to exploit the new jump route provided by Obar Enterprises, Spacefleet HQ orders Strike Force Nova and supporting militia ships to fall back to the Truane’s Star system and expect reinforcements.
61.345	– The HSS History’s Hope successfully jumps back into the YS07 system. They begin working on engine overhauls and calculations for a jump to return to YS08. – SG Alpha jumps into the Dramune system and begins calculations for a jump to the Cassidine system. – SBF-E2, detecting the departure of SF Nova, vector to follow them to the Truane’s Star system.
61.346	– Unable to avoid intercept by the 2 Theseus assault scouts, the sathar frigate turns to engage them. They transmit all their jump data back to SBF-J2 before engaging. – Battle of Theseus – In a short, 20-minute battle, the sathar frigate managed to damage one of the assault scouts before being destroyed by a single volley of assault rockets and laser batteries from the 2 militia ships. The damaged assault scout heads to Minotaur for repairs. – Calculations complete, the K’aken-Kar assault scout begins accelerating for a jump to FS33. – Three more fighters for the Frontier Fighter Corp are completed in Theseus. Construction begins on 3 more.
61.347	– Second Battle of Kwadl-Kit – Though outgunned by the sathar, Task Force Cassidine put up an amazing defense and over the course of 1.5 hours completely destroys the sathar fleet. While almost no ship goes unscathed, they only lose 3 fighters and 3 assault scouts. – SG Alpha jumps into the Cassidine system and begins vectoring for a jump to the Truane’s Star system using coordinates provided by battleship Admiral R’kazk’tar. – After a detailed assessment of the strength of SFB-J1, PG Meteor and Spacefleet command decided that they cannot hold the Kizk-Kar system and the jump capable ships start accelerating for a jump to the Fromeltar system. The fighters go into hiding on the planet’s surface. – Seeing PG Meteor departing, the sathar forces vector to intercept but the acceleration of the UPF ships is such that only the smaller sathar vessels could intercept which would give the advantage to Spacefleet. After a few hours of pursuit, they reverse course and settle into orbit once again around Zit-Kit.
61.348	– Sathar SCC#1 (OFS203) completes construction of a light cruiser. – Arriving back at Minotaur (Theseus), the damaged militia assault scout is immediately put into the shipyard. A HS:7 ship under construction is moved out to make room. – 5 fighters are completed at the CDC shipyards (Triad, Cassidine). Work begins on five more. These fighters are put in storage until crews can be obtained for them.
61.349	– SF Nova and its supporting militia ships jump into the Truane’s Star system and begin decelerating toward Pale. – The group of 10 FFC pilots arrive at Triad (Cassidine) and take command of their fighters. They immediately take on extra life support and begin a high-g boost, together with the battleship Admiral R’kazk’tar, to join SG Alpha. – After a day rearming, Task Force Cassidine begins acceleration for a jump to the K’aken-Kar system and then on to Kizk-Kar to engage the sathar forces there. – The Theseus militia assault scout completes its repairs and the HS:7 ship is moved back in to resume work. – The battleship Admiral Dooltan jumps into the Cassidine system, it remains at high speed to transit to Dramune.
61.350	– Joining up with SG Alpha, the fighters are quickly taken aboard the carrier and stowed for jump. The battleship, assault carrier, and fighters are designated Task Force Relief and prepare for level 2 risk jump to the Truane’s Star system. – SBF-E2 jumps into the Truane’s Star system and begins decelerating toward New Pale. SF Nova and the local militia begin maneuvering to intercept. – SBF-J1 departs orbit around Zit-Kit (Kisk-Kar) and begins accelerating for a jump to the K’aken-Kar system to intercept TF Cassidine. – Detecting the departure of SBF-J1, PG Meteor puts its jump on hold and drifts in the outer system to observe. – The UPF minelayer, currently in the Fromeltar system, begins accelerating for a jump to the Kisk-Kar system. It will join up with the Admiral Dooltan as it transits the Fromeltar system before making the jump.
61.351	– TF Relief jumps into the Truane’s Star system and begins a hard deceleration toward New Pale. – The K’aken-Kar militia assault scout misjumps and instead of reaching FS33 ends up in an unknown star system (OFS169). They begin working on determining their location. – With a HS:12 ship completing maintenance in the CDC (Triad, Cassidine) shipyards, Spacefleet starts work on 3 new assault scouts to replace those lost by Task Force Cassidine. The remaining space is used for civilian ship maintenance. – The battleship Admiral Dooltan jumps into the Fromeltar system. It begins vectoring and performing jump calculations to take it to Kisk-Kar.
61.352	– The HSS History’s Hope makes the return jump to YS08 and begin decelerating toward the inner system as they once again overhaul engines and try to plot the route back to YS07. – Seeing that SBF-J1 seems to be committed to jumping out of the Kisk-Kar system, PG Meteor changes course and starts to decelerate back toward Zit-Kit. – A fighter is completed at the PGC shipyards (Gran Quivera, Prenglar). It is transferred to Gollwin Academy (Morgaine’s World, Prenglar) for use in training the accelerated cadets. – Detecting TF Relief, the sathar reassess their position and despite being out gunned nearly two to one, press on toward New Pale and the UPF forces.
61.353	– Strike Force Nova and the Truane’s Star militia ships arrive back at the armed station orbiting New Pale (Truane’s Star). Just hours later, they are joined by TF Relief. The incoming sathar ships are only a day away. – The UPF minelayer in the Fromeltar system joins up with the Admiral Dooltan and then continue on their way to the Kisk-Kar system to join with PG Meteor.
61.354	– Second Battle of New Pale – The UPF destroy or drive off most of SBF-E2 but both battleships, including the newly constructed Admiral R’kazk’tar, are destroyed in the fighting. – The fleeing sathar ships accelerate for a jump back to the Zebulon system. – The UPF destroyer damaged in the Second Battle of New Pale heads to the starship construction center on Pale for repairs. – TF Cassidine jumps into the K’aken-Kar system. Alerted that SBF-J1 is headed their way, they begin decelerating toward the inner system instead of continuing on the Kisk-Kar. – Another UPF fighter is completed at the Terledrom (Fromeltar) shipyard. It is temporarily manned by militia forces until Spacefleet can get fighter pilots to the system.
61.355	– SBF-J1 jumps into the K’aken-Kar system and begins decelerating to intercept TF Cassidine. – The UPF battleship and minelayer jump into the Kisk-Kar system and start decelerating toward Zit-kit. – The damaged UPF destroyer arrives at the Streel shipyard (Pale, Truane’s Star). A HS:6 ship under construction but nearly complete is temporarily moved out to provide priority access for the Spacefleet vessel.
61.356	– PG Meteor arrives back in orbit around Zit-Kit (Kisk-Kar). – A HS:5 ships complete maintenance in the CDC shipyard (Triad, Cassidine). Spacefleet holds the space in anticipation of more ships finishing and beginning construction on a new battleship.

Full timeline file:

DetailedFrontierTimeline Download

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.
61.299	A 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.
61.312	SBF-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.
61.317	RG 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.
61.321	SBF-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:

DetailedFrontierTimeline Download

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.

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.
61.273	Sathar 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.
61.279	PG 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-1 Download

Battle of Gran Quivera (Prenglar) – FY61.285

A major battle occurred today in the space around Gran Quivera between UPF forces and a massive sathar fleet that was more than twice the size of the fleets reported in the other systems.
Task Force Prenglar, aided by the timely arrival of Strike Force Nova returning from the Cassidine system, met the sathar forces as they approached the planet. After nearly an hour of fighting, and suffering major casualties, Spacefleet forces defeated the sathar invaders.
Frustrated by the inability to immediately get the more seriously damaged ships into the PGC shipyards for repairs, Spacefleet has sent a delegation to the Council of Worlds demanding activation of the Wartime Construction Control clause of the UPF charter that would grant them full control of all starship construction centers in the Frontier.
Kami Hemsley, Frontier News Network

Background

The sathar launched their biggest fleet of the opening offensive at Gran Quivera, hoping to strike at the heart of the Frontier and sever the various segments of the Frontier joined by this core system. With a fleet double the size of the ones appearing in the outer systems, and supported by a pair of assault carriers each carrying seven fighters, the sathar fleet outgunned Task Force Prenglar by a decent margin. Their only major concern were the two minelayers that were part of the Task Force. They fully expected to win this fight. And they may well have.

Unfortunately for the sathar, Strike Force Nova was already en route to the Prenglar system after an extended patrol of the Frontier and arrived in the system just hours after the sathar fleet was detected. With two of the Frontier’s major fleets to deal with, the tables turned and the sathar were now facing a superior foe. When news of the arrival of Strike Force Nova in the system reached the sathar commanders, they no longer expected to win, but they were committed to doing as much damage as possible.

Order of Battle

Task Force Prenglar

5 Assault Scouts
3 Frigates
2 Destroyers
2 Minelayers
3 Light Cruisers
1 Battleship
1 Fortified Station

Strike Force Nova

6 Fighters
3 Assault Scouts
2 Frigates
1 Destroyer
2 Light Cruisers
1 Assault Carrier
1 Battleship

Sathar

14 Fighters
2 Frigates
4 Destroyers
2 Light Cruisers
2 Heavy Cruisers
2 Assault Carriers

The Battle

Setup

Everyone knows that it’s a literal minefield between the sathar and the planet, the question for both sides is how the sathar are going to attempt to navigate it.

The UPF set up in a battle line with the center anchored by the battleships and light cruisers, with the destroyers, frigates, and assault scouts out from there on either side of the planet. SF Nova’s fighters are on the far wing above the planet. The line is positioned slightly behind the planet to allow the sathar to commit before the UPF move into the fray. The larger capital ships are moving at speed 10, the smaller capital ships at speed 15, and the fighters and assault scouts are moving at speed 20. The assault carrier, escorted by a light cruiser, along with the minelayers, are far behind the line above the planet and moving at speed 10. They plan to orbit out there and hopefully stay out of the fighting. In advance of the fight, the UPF have deployed all 40 mines from the two minelayers as well as all 16 seeker missiles (4 from each minelayer and battleship).

The sathar set up their capital ships in two of their “diamond” formations with some modifications. The HC is joined by an AC and there are two fighters with each of the frigates. In addition, there are two flights of 5 fighters on the far wings. The capital ships are all moving at a cautious speed of 5 while all the fighters are moving at speed 30. The sathar suspect that the fighters on the wings will fly around the mines while the ones with the capitals ships are intended to be used as sacrificial probes to clear a path to the planet and beyond. The sathar intend to punch through and fight on the far side of the planet where they believe the mine threat to be smaller.

The initial positions of all the ships. Click for full size image.

And here is the starting positions with the mine field (red circles) and seeker missiles (grey counters) shown. Click for full size image.

Turn 1

The two sathar diamond formations advance maintaining their initial speed with the destroyers on the wings flying in to close the formation with the heavy cruiser and assault carriers. The two flights of fighters on the wings accelerate to speed 35 and make a run at the assault scout squadrons on each wing. The other four fighter fly ahead of the diamond formations and as they approach the planet, split up with one from each pair looping around the planet and making a pass at the station (accelerating to 35) while the other two remain at speed 30 and turn at the last minute to line up on the destroyers.

Unfortunately for the fighters in the middle, but per the sathar plans, each pair trips 3 different sets of mines that the UPF had laid out. Unsurprisingly, all four fighters are obliterated. However, they have done their job and cleared a path through the minefield for the capital ships.

Defensively, the assault scouts all fire their laser batteries at the fighters. The more distant UPF frigates and destroyers also target the fighters in an attempt to destroy them before they can fire their assault rockets. The assault scouts manage to destroy the lead fighter in the upper flight while another has its navigation controls damaged and one has its maneuvering engines knocked out. The frigates and destroyers score some long-distance hits nearly destroying another fighter and causing an electrical fire on the one with its maneuvering knocked out (in the lower flight).

On the upper flight all four surviving fighters hit with their assault rockets seriously damaging two assault scouts and destroying a third. The fourth assault rocket knocks out the assault rocket launcher on the last assault scout. On the lower flight, only 3 assault rockets hit, two on the lead assault scout knocking out its LB and nearly destroying it. The other assault rocket slams into the trailing assault scout and it is destroyed.

With the sathar’s cautious movement placing their ships right in the middle of some of the seeker missile deployments, the UPF active two seeker missiles on either side of the sathar formations. Both missiles in each group home in on the light cruiser in each formation. The UPF also activate 2 seeker missiles in the more distant groups that they expect will intercept the formations on the next turn. The sathar light cruisers fire ICMs at the incoming seeker missile in an attempt to nullify the threat. Both missiles aimed at the upper light cruiser miss. One headed for the lower light cruiser is destroyed by the ICMs while the fourth missile slams home dropping the hull integrity of that ship to less than half.

The UPF ships on the battle line advance maintaining their speed with all of the ships preparing to engage on the next turn while the assault scouts get some maximum range shots with their laser batteries on this turn. The minelayers, assault carrier and light cruiser advance and turn in their orbit and fire at the fighters, attempting to take them out.

The fire on the sathar fighter damages its combat control system.

Defensively the sathar ships fire all their energy weapons at long range at the lead assault scout in each flight. The upper assault scout is hit by a laser battery from the frigate and proton battery from the assault carrier destroying it. None of the shots at the lower flight of assault scouts hit but the particle weapons from the light cruiser and assault carrier come close.

Offensively, only one of the assault scouts in the lower flight connects with the sathar’s frigate damaging its acceleration. One of the minelayers’ laser batteries connects with one of the damaged fighters destroying it, while the UPF’s assault carrier takes out a second fighter with its laser battery and the light cruiser takes out the navigation control system on a third.

Paths and positions for the first round of combat. Triggered mines are marked with a new counter I made for the fight. Paths of seeker missiles are shown in green. Click for full size image.

Turn 2

The sathar capital ship formations accelerate to speed 7 and each focuses all their fire at the closest UPF destroyer while preparing to defend against the incoming seeker missiles. The upper flight of fighters, two out of three of which have navigation control hits, spin a bit out of control but manage to line up briefly to fire their assault rockets at the assault carrier. The lower flight of fighters split up with the main group of 4 going after the assault scouts and the other one (with a fire and no maneuvering ability) just flies straight and out of the battle. All the fighters slow to speed 30.

Defensively, the minelayer and assault carrier group, as well as the lower flight of assault scouts, fire at the fighters attacking them while all other ships focus on the closest sathar frigate.

In the upper flight of sathar fighters, the UPF manage to destroy two of the fighters before they get their shots off. The third puts an assault rocket into the assault carrier damaging its acceleration.

The assault scouts in the lower flight all miss as they fire on the incoming fighters. The fighters on the other hand do a bit better hitting two of the assault scouts with assault rockets and destroying both of them.

The UPF capital ships fare no better than the assault scouts with only a single destroyer hitting the frigate in the lower formation with a laser battery doing some minor hull damage.

The sathar only manage to do a bit better. With all the weapons being brought to bare, the upper UPF destroyer is hit by 3 laser batteries and an electron battery slightly damaging its hull and knocking out all of its weapons except its rocket battery. The lower UPF destroyer doesn’t get off so easy as, despite firing ICMs at it, the torpedo from the sathar frigate hits nearly destroying it. It is also hit by an electron battery from the assault carrier that does a bit more hull damage.

The seeker missiles all home in on the closest heavy cruiser. The cruisers fire 3 ICMs at each incoming seeker missile. Against the upper formation, one of the seeker missiles miss while the other connects damaging the cruiser’s acceleration. On the lower heavy cruiser, one of the missiles is intercepted by the ICMs while the other impacts the cruiser and takes out nearly half of its hull integrity.

With its hull nearly destroyed, one of the UPF assault scouts in the upper flight drifts off the map and out of the fight taking a long distances shot at the sathar frigate as if flies away. Similarly, the seriously damaged destroyer just drifts by the sathar formation firing everything at the frigate as it passes by.

The UPF fighters accelerate to 25 and make an assault rocket pass at the sathar heavy cruiser in the upper formation before darting out of range and preparing for another run. The 2 surviving assault scouts in both the upper and lower flights make a similar run (remaining at speed 20) but fire at the assault carriers in each sathar formation.

The surviving frigates and destroyers loop around behind the sathar ships and focus their fire on the assault carriers as well. Defensively, the sathar ships fire ICMs at the incoming torpedoes.

The UPF battleships & light cruisers all slow to speed 8 and turn in to focus fire on the sathar light cruisers. The light cruiser, assault carrier, and minelayers continue their speed 10 orbit away from the battle.

The fire on the sathar fighter knocks out half of its damage control system.

Defensively, the sathar fire at a number of ships instead of really focusing on a few. In the upper group, the destroyers, assault carrier, and heavy cruiser spread their energy weapon fire across all the fighters, attempting to take them out before they can bring their assault rockets to bear. The destroyers in the upper group only hit with a single laser battery and electron battery seriously damaging the hull on one fighter and knocking out the assault rocket launcher on another. The heavy cruiser hits a third fighter with its laser battery but only scratches the hull slightly. The assault carrier does a little better and it laser battery destroys one of the UPF fighters. With the fighters and battleship out of range, the heavy cruiser and assault carrier fire their rocket batteries at the lead UPF light cruiser. Both hit taking out nearly half of the light cruiser’s hull. The frigate and light cruiser in this upper group focus their fire on the UPF battleship. While the frigate completely misses, the light cruiser hits with a laser, electron, and proton battery each doing damage to the battleship’s hull.

In the lower group, the sathar frigate fires at the damaged UPF destroyer as it flies by and hits with its rocket battery destroying it. The lower destroyers fire at the lead UPF light cruiser and one hits with a rocket battery causing some significant hull damage. The light cruiser fires at the battleship hitting with its laser and proton batteries knocking out the battleship’s maneuvering engines and damaging its navigation control system. The heavy cruiser and assault carrier split their fire with the energy weapons targeting one of the UPF frigates and the rocket batteries going after the lead light cruiser in the bottom flight. The rocket batteries both hit knocking out most of the ship’s acceleration and seriously damaging its hull dropping the hull integrity to less than half. The UPF frigate is hit by two laser batteries and a proton battery causing some hull damage, completely knocking out its acceleration, and damaging its maneuverability.

The four surviving UPF fighters all hit the sathar heavy cruiser in the upper formation with their assault rockets, destroying it.

The assault carrier in the upper group is hit by a laser canon, electron battery, and two torpedoes that slip through the ICM screen knocking out the carrier’s masking screen and ICM launcher, causing a power short circuit in its defenses, and taking out a third of its hull integrity.

The assault carrier in the lower group is hit by a laser cannon, two torpedoes, and an assault rocket. One of the torpedoes damages the carrier’s combat control system before it is destroyed by the other weapons.

The sathar light cruiser in the upper group is pummeled by the weapons from the two UPF light cruisers and the battleship being hit by a distruptor cannon, 2 laser, 3 electron, 2 proton, and 2 rocket batteries as well as a torpedo that slipped through the ICM screen. It suffers damage to its hull and a number of systems before finally being destroyed by an electron battery hit from the battleship.

The light cruiser in the lower group doesn’t fare any better. While it is only hit by 2 laser, 1 electron, 1 proton, and 2 rocket batteries, being already damaged by a seeker missile hit it is destroyed as the last rocket battery from the battleship impacts the hull.

Ships and positions after the second round of combat. Click for full sized image.

Turn 3

The sathar capital ships all accelerate to speed 9 and fire at the closest light cruisers, splitting shots between the each pair. The surviving fighter group decelerates to 25 and loops around to make a pass at the station. Unfortunately for them, they pass through another mined hex. Finally, the single surviving fighter that flew off the top of the map comes screaming back in at speed 32 and fires its assault rocket at one of the minelayers.

Defensively, the UPF battleships fire at the assault carrier or heavy cruiser in the sathar formation they are targeting. The light cruisers each pick a sathar destroyer and focus their fire on that ship. The frigates and destroyers spread their fire around the same ships. The minelayer and assault carrier group fires at the lone fighter. The mines are not very effective only damaging the assault rocket launcher on a single fighter; the other four make it through the minefield unscathed. The station fires on the incoming fighters.

The surviving sathar assault carrier is savaged by shots from the battleship and a pair of UPF frigates knocking out over half of its hull integrity, a laser battery, its maneuvering engines, and its navigation controls system. The lead destroyer in the upper group has over half of its hull integrity knocked out by the lead light cruiser while the trailing light cruiser and a UPF destroyer hit the trailing destroyer in this group damaging its maneuvering and damage control systems, disabling its ICM launcher, and nearly ripping the hull to shreds.

In the lower group of sathar ships, the UPF battleship and frigate completely miss the heavy cruiser. The lead sathar destroyer is hit by one of the UPF light cruisers knocking out its ICM launcher and damaging its combat control system. The other destroyer is hit by the other UPF light cruiser and a frigate for some serious hull damage. The station misses the incoming fighters but one of the minelayers hits the lone fighter destroying it before it can fire its assault rocket.

Having survived the barrage of defensive fire, the sathar open fire on the light cruisers and station. The station is hit by 2 assault rockets which damage its combat control system and score a significant hull hit. The lead UPF light cruiser in the upper group, already damaged, is hit by two laser batteries and a torpedo from the sathar frigate which destroy it. The second light cruiser in that group are hit by multiple weapons from the sathar assault carrier and one of the destroyers including a rocket battery and torpedo suffering only a minute bit of hull damage but significant damage to its acceleration and maneuvering and damage to its combat control system.

In the lower group the lead UPF light cruiser, again already heavily damaged, is hit by a laser battery and torpedo from the sathar frigate knocking its proton battery before the cruiser is destroyed by the torpedo. The second light cruiser takes a beating from the other sathar destroyer and the heavy cruiser being hit by 2 laser, 1 proton, 1 electron, and 2 rocket batteries as well as a torpedo. Knocking out over half of the light cruiser’s hull integrity, the shots also knock out its distruptor cannon and ICM launcher as well as damage its maneuvering capabilities.

The two surviving assault scouts, only one of which has a working assault rocket launcher, join up and make a pass at the sathar heavy cruiser. The UPF fighters make an assault rocket run on the sathar destroyers in the lower group where they are joined by the lower flight of UPF frigates. One of these frigates, whose acceleration is damaged, turns off to follow the assault scouts while the other two slow down to speed 9. The frigate and destroyer group slow to speed 10 and the frigates fire at the assault carrier while the destroyers each target a different sathar destroyer. Screening the smaller ships behind it, the upper battleship slows to speed 9 and pulls to within 10,000 km of the sathar vessels firing on the assault carrier. The damaged light cruiser in the upper group, with reduced maneuvering and a navigation control hit, turn to port and maintains its speed taking a long-distance shot at the assault carrier. The seriously damaged light cruiser in the lower group just drifts away from the battle followed by the battleship that has had its maneuvering systems knocked out. They fire long-range shots at the sathar heavy cruiser. The minelayer and assault scout group accelerates to speed 11 and turn away from the oncoming sathar vessels. They, together with the station, fire at the group of sathar fighters. The fire on the sathar fighter that has now drifted off the map damages its navigation control system.

Defensively, the sathar ships in the upper group fire everything at the battleship knocking out one of its laser batteries and causing some significant hull damage (a quarter of its total hull integrity). In the lower group the heavy cruiser and frigate fire at the incoming fighters while the destroyers target the assault scouts. One of the fighters has its assault rocket launcher disabled, taking it out of the fight, one is hit by a electron battery for some minor hull damaged and a third is hit by a laser battery, destroying the small ship. The lead assault scout it hit by an electron battery starting an electrical fire on board and the other is hit by an electron battery serious damaging it’s hull (dropping it below half integrity).

Despite the long-distance shots, one of the sathar fighters his hit by a laser battery damaging its combat control system and the UPF assault carrier scores an electron battery hit on another, destroying it. The surviving sathar heavy cruiser is only hit by the single assault rocket and an electron and proton battery knocking out its maneuvering and doing some minor hull damage. The lead sathar destroyer in the lower group gets off fairly easy as well being hit by a laser cannon and battery which damage in maneuverability and disable its laser battery. The other destroyer takes a bit more damage being hit by two assault rockets and two laser cannons dropping its hull integrity by more than half and damaging its acceleration and combat control systems.

The ships in the upper group are not so lucky. While the lead destroyer survives, it suffers a significant hull hit, has its electron battery disabled, and suffers a navigation control hit. The other destroyer is hit by every weapon fired by the trailing UPF destroyer completely obliterating the ship. The assault carrier doesn’t fare any better being hit by 10 different weapons from the battleship and two frigates and is completely destroyed.

Positions and course after a half hour of battle. Click for full size image.

Repair Turn

On the UPF side, the station manages to repair its reduced damage control repair system bringing it fully back on-line. The assault scout with the fire manages to extinguish it before it can do any damage. The other two assault scouts (one of which is off the map) both repair some of their hull damage as does the heavy damaged light cruiser and one of the battleships. The other battleship repairs its navigation controls system and restores some of its maneuvering ability. The upper light cruiser also repairs it’s navigation control system. The two damaged fighters both manage to restore their assault rocket launchers bringing them back into the fight. One of the UPF frigates restores some of its acceleration while one of the destroyers repairs its laser cannon. The assault carrier attempts to repair its damage acceleration but something goes seriously wrong and it seems that it is going to require a shipyard to fix properly.

For the sathar, the lone fighter way off the map gets its fire under control and the frigate in the upper group repairs its laser canon. The other ships all attempt to repair some of their hull damage (and most succeed although the destroyer with the navigation control damage does not).

Turn 4

The two sathar frigates and the less damaged sathar destroyer from the lower group all accelerate and turn to make an attack pass at the station. The destroyer in the upper group with the navigation control system damage makes a hard turn to port. Unfortunately, its severely damaged hull cannot stand the strain and the ship breaks apart. The sathar heavy cruiser and final surviving destroyer just drift forward firing at the assault scouts. The fighters fly out to attempt a run on the UPF minelayers.

Defensively, the UPF focus on just a two of the ships headed toward the station and the fighters. The first target is the sathar frigate from the upper group. All of the ships above the planet fire at that ship, which is really their only target. While the UPF frigates miss completely, the battleship and destroyers land a series of blows. However, despite hitting with 8 different weapons including a rocket battery and two laser canons, the frigate survives the blast suffering a near 75% hull integrity loss, a defensive power short circuit, and damage to its repair ability and maneuverability.

The UPF ships below the planet, together with the station, fire at the destroyer approaching the station from that direction. It is hit by 3 laser batteries and a laser cannon knocking out nearly half of its hull integrity and maneuverability.

Finally, the minelayer and assault carrier group fire at the incoming fighters reducing the acceleration and maneuverability of one, damaging the hull and knocking out the maneuverability of a second and destroying a third.

The surviving sathar fighters fire at one of the minelayers damaging its combat control system and inflicting some hull damage. The wounded and drifting destroyer and heavy cruiser fire at the assault scouts damaging the repair systems on both of them. While the frigate coming in from above misses the station completely, the ships coming up from below do much better hitting with both laser canons, a laser and rocket battery, and slipping a torpedo through the ICM screen. The station suffers a power short circuit in its defenses with the other weapons ripping into its hull including a massive explosion by the torpedo. All told, the station loses over half of its hull integrity.

The minelayers and assault carriers continue to accelerate away from the fight while the undamaged light cruiser loops back to engage the oncoming sathar ships. In an attempt to finish the fight, the UPF ships all spread out to target different sathar vessels. The assault scouts slingshot around the planet and make a run at the heavy cruiser which is also targeted by the UPF fighters. One of the UPF frigates and the destroyers chase down the frigate from the upper flight. Two of the UPF frigates go after the destroyer that made a run at the station, the battleship goes after the other sathar frigate, and the other two frigates go after the wounded destroyer with the heavy cruiser. The seriously damaged UPF light cruiser continues to drift away from the battle while the other turns to go after the surviving sathar fighters. The other UPF battleship, some navigation control restored, accelerates and turns back toward the planet as it slowly rejoins the fight.

The sathar all fire at the ships attacking them. The UPF battleship suffers some minor hull damage from a laser battery hit, one of the UPF frigates attacking the upper destroyer has its navigation control system damaged, and three of the UPF fighters are hit for a slight damage to maneuvering on one, a navigation hit on a second and the assault rocket launcher knocked out on a third. The most serious damage was one of the frigates near the sathar heavy cruiser being hit with a rocket battery that destroyed half of its hull integrity.

The sathar frigate from the original upper flight of ships, barely holding together as it is, is hit by two laser cannons and a laser battery, destroying it. The other frigate, despite being hit by 1 laser, 1 proton, and 2 electron batteries, as well as a distruptor cannon from the battleship, manages to pull through with only minor hull damage but also having its laser cannon knocked off-line, it acceleration reduced, and its maneuvering completely knocked out. The sathar destroyer that just attacked the station is hit with 2 laser canons, a laser battery, and two rocket batteries destroying it. The other destroyer is hit by a laser cannon, laser battery, and 2 rocket batteries. It too is destroyed. The heavy cruiser is hit by 3 of the 4 assault rockets that were fired at it and breaks apart as the explosions rips through the hull. The light cruiser manages to get a long distance hit on one of the sathar fighters igniting an electrical fire.

Positions and courses after the fourth round of combat. Note that the map has been shifted slightly to keep the minelayers and assault carrier on the map. The battleship and light cruiser at the bottom have moved off the map although the battleship is slowly maneuvering to come back to the fight (I’m tracking it on a separate map). Click for full size image.

Turn 5

The sathar fighter with the fire also has no maneuvering capability (or assault rockets left) and just drifts by the UPF light cruiser passing with 10,000 km of the larger ship which hits it with a laser and electron battery destroying it.

The other sathar fighter, also out of assault rockets, accelerates to sped 27 and attempts to ram one of the UPF assault scouts. It is intercepted by multiple hits from several ships that vaporize it.

The sathar frigate, having no maneuverability, accelerates to speed 15 to try to clear away from the UPF ships. However, between the battleship, the undamaged light cruiser and the frigates that were nearby, it is hit by 10 different weapons and destroyed.

The only surviving sathar vessel at this point is the lone fighter that was damaged on the first round of combat and has been drifting away for the past 40 minutes with no maneuverability. The two surviving assault scouts chase it down over the next couple of hours and eliminate it.

Ship positions at the end of the battle when the last sathar ship was destroyed. The map is shifted again to keep the sathar frigate attempting to flee on the map. Click for full size version.

Repairs

With most of the UPF ships damaged to some extent or another, it is six hours before all the battle damage that can be repaired has been. By then the lone sathar fighter has been destroyed and all of the ships return to take up orbit around the planet.

In the end, four vessels have damage that requires shipyard work to repair. On is the fortified station, having been reduced to less than 40% of it’s hull capacity, it is only back to 57% capacity before problems arise that require outside assistance. The assault scout severely damaged early, that drifted out of the battle, is only able to restore 80% of its hull and one of the frigates has a small hole in the hull that just refuses a patch.

The other ship is the assault carrier assigned to Strike Force Nova which suffered permanent damage to it acceleration. If it and its four surviving fighters remain with the Strike Force, they will not be able to execute any high speed risk jumps until that is repaired.

Lessons Learned

While the sathar played it well using the fighters to clear paths through the minefield, and did a good job targeting the assault scouts early to reduce the assault rocket threat, they were a bit too timid trying to traverse the minefield and came into the battle with not enough speed to clear it quickly. This severely hampered their combat options and it turned into a shooting gallery for the UPF ships which were free to maneuver. Had Strike Force Nova not been in the system, their tactics might have been sufficient and though they would have suffered some loses traversing the minefield, more ships would have made it across to really engage with the UPF. Next time they are in a system with minelayers, they might try something different.

One thing I completely forgot were the seeker missiles on the sathar heavy cruisers. After the fact I realized that I could probably have deployed them on round 2 or 3 and activated them to keep the UPF ships circling around in the mined area on their toes and possibly affected their maneuvering. If nothing else, they may very well have impacted the station and possibly have destroyed it. You would think that with the UPF seeker missiles flying around I would have remembered the sathar ones but it completely slipped my mind until I was doing this write-up.

The ability to maneuver in the minefield, as well as the superior numbers allowing them to focus their fire on more ships, really served the UPF well as they were able to whittle down the sathar ships and use their weapons to full effect. While they suffered some serious losses in numbers of small ships and the loss of the two light cruisers and destroyer, yhey gave much better than they took and definitely came out ahead.

The only real problem is that now most of the UPF force is in the center of the Frontier at Prenglar, while the sathar forces are on the periphery. It’s going to take some time to get ships where they are needed but at the same time, knowing that the sathar could strike at Prenglar again at any time, they have to keep forces here to defend this core world.

Sathar Starship Construction Centers

I had planned to do an article on an alternate set of astrogation rules, but as I started looking at it, it was going to require more time than I had to get it done properly. So that one will come at some point in the future.

If you’re following the Star Frontiers Twitter feed, you know that yesterday started the main events of the Second Sathar War. A lot of my free time has been spent working on that and staying far enough ahead that I can get the battle posts up, track the ship movements, record and schedule repairs and new ship construction, and figure out strategy and tactics as they shift after each encounter. In fact, if I hadn’t posted it early to get some feedback, the Battle of Stenmar post I did a while back would have been today’s post as the tweet about that battle will be going up at some point today. Tracking all the ship movements and playing out the battles is keeping me busy. Who knew that managing a Frontier-wide battle for both sides would be so much work! 🙂

Given that the Second Sathar War narration is where my focus is right now, I thought I’d do a related post and talk about the Sathar starship construction centers (SCCs) in my version of the setting.

Some Background

Placing the SCCs

If you have looked closely at the Extended Frontier Map, you already know the locations of these SCCs – they are marked on the referee version of the map. And as I mentioned in the posts about the creation of that map, the sathar worlds and jump routes were originally laid down decades ago. I modified them slightly to account for the Zeb’s Guide data and fan material that I included in the map as the latter hadn’t been produced and I didn’t own a copy of the former when I made the original map as a teenager.

On that original map, only the first five SCCs were marked. I had originally created the map to help track the exact project I’m doing now as part of the Detailed Frontier Timeline, namely track the Second Sathar War from a ship construction and movement perspective with the RPG rules rather than the board game rules in in the Campaign Book. It was also made for a exploration campaign where the PC would go out to expand the borders of the Frontier and look for the sathar worlds but that’s a different set of posts. Because of that, I only included the five SCCs that I envisioned participating in the conflict and which is why those five, closest to the Frontier, have the first five numbers and not the ones deeper in sathar controlled space which arguably were created first. If I ever go back and rework everything, I might change the numbering.

When I was setting up the Detailed Frontier Timeline project and making the Extended Frontier Map, I realized that I needed to add in a few more SCCs in the other parts of sathar-controlled space to handle all the other ship construction needed by their empire. That got me up through the ninth SCC. I then realized they needed one to manage the fight against the Saurians and so added in the tenth one. So while they are numbered in order of creation, it was their creation in my head for the setting, not their creation dates in the timeline.

Sathar Ship Hull Sizes

Another item of note relative to the SCCs is the hull sizes I use for each of the sathar ships. These are slightly different than the values I use for the UPF ships but all fall within the range of sizes given for each class of ship on page 5 of the Knight Hawks Campaign Book. The sizes I use for the sathar ships are:

Fighter – HS:1
Cutter – HS:4
Frigate – HS:5
Destroyer – HS:6
Light Cruiser – HS: 14
Assault Carrier – HS:16
Heavy Cruiser – HS: 18

In the timeline the cutter is a new ship type that will see action first in the Rim and later in the Frontier. The specs for the ship can be found on page 6 of Frontier Explorer issue 2.

It’s my take that the larger sathar ships are a bit bulkier than the corresponding UPF version. So sathar light cruisers are HS:14 while the UPF ones are HS:12, the sathar assault carriers are HS:16 while the UPF ones are HS: 14, and the sathar heavy cruiser is HS:18 compared to the single UPF heavy cruiser which is HS:16. Even the sathar destroyer is actually HS:6+ being just a bit larger than the standard HS:6 volume but not enough to actually be HS:7.

The reason for this is the role I have for these larger ships. In addition to being mainline fighting ships, the larger capital ships also double as troop transports. You can see this in the Sathar Destroyer Technical Manual. Someday I’ll detail out the light and heavy cruisers similarly. In any case, this makes the sathar ships a bit bulkier and take a bit longer to produce. They aren’t being used for the troop transport role at the beginning of the war but the capability is there. While this doesn’t have any impact on the actual battles, it does impact the starship construction centers and so needed to be spelled out.

The Starship Construction Centers

In this section, we will look at each of those starship construction centers in turn to talk about their capacity, production queues, and main focus.

If you’ve been following along with the Detailed Frontier Timeline and playing close attention, you could probably reconstruct the production queues of SSCs two through five as I’ve been posting the ships that were produced there as part of the timeline. SCC#1 has just come online and only produced a single ship (a light cruiser) so it’s full queue hasn’t been revealed and SCC#10 will soon be shifting from the Saurian conflict, which has ended, to the Second Sathar War. The first ship out of that SCC (a fighter) to participate in the SSW will complete construction in early December (FY61.304).

The production queues for SSCs one to five were specifically set up to try to produce the sathar Order of Battle from page 55 of the Knight Hawks Campaign Book at the time I started up the war in the timeline. I started with an initial semi-random “seed” of ships, modified for the encounters in the Detailed Frontier Timeline (like the fight a Volturnus), and then allowed the SSCs to crank out ships. I came pretty close with only a few more fighters (most of which I destroyed in the fight in the Liberty system) and one extra destroyer. I have a small computer program that allows me to run the production queues and add (and remove) SCCs as needed to produce the ships so I don’t have to do it by hand.

Okay, let’s look at these construction centers. Directions for the locations of the SCCs are given on the Extended Frontier map assuming the top of the map is “north.”

SCC#1

Location: OFS203 (“S” of Prenglar)

Capacity: 48 HS worth of ships

Production Queue:

42 HS of capacity dedicated to the production of light cruisers (3 under construction at any one time), staggered to produce a new LC every 140 days
6 HS of capacity dedicated to the production of destroyers, one every 180 days

Notes: This is the newest of the starship construction centers with its first ship being produced on FY61.208. It is at the far end on the sathar jump routes (without passing through the Frontier). It was constructed specifically to be a jump off and repair point to strike right into the heart of the Frontier at Prenglar.

The recent loss of SSC#2 and the Liberty system has actually isolated this SSC from the others. Ships produced here (or headed here) will have to pass through the Liberty system. This will give the UPF a chance to detect these ships if they try to get into the Frontier anywhere other than Prenglar.

SCC#2

Location: FS30 – now Liberty (“SE” of Theseus)

Capacity: 46 HS

Production Queue:

16 HS of capacity devoted to production of assault carriers, one very 480 days
24 HS of capacity devoted to production of destroyers (six under production at any one time), staggered to complete one every 45 days
6 HS of capacity split between production of fighters and destroyers. Produces 6 fighters in 30 days, then a destroyer 180 days later, than back to fighters.

Notes: This SCC has been operating for a while and is responsible for the production of most of the destroyers seen in the Frontier recently and present in the fleets in the initial attacks in the Second Sathar War and produced some that were used against the saurians. It was also the driving force behind the exploration that established the sathar jump routes over to SCC#1 and in to S’esseu space.

In the notes in the SFKH4 module The War Machine (the Beyond the Frontier series), it said that this SCC was responsible for about 20% of the ships in the second sathar war. This is why I went with five SCCs when creating the original map.

This SCC was lost just recently along with a large number of fighters in the events of the SFKH4 module which wrapped up on FY61.40, only 40 days before the first sathar ships appeared in the Frontier to start the Second Sathar War. It will be interesting to see how things play out with the loss of this system, but that was always intended from the start.

SCC#3

Location: OFS138 (“NE” from Kizk-Kar)

Capacity: 59 HS

Production Queue:

54 HS of capacity devoted to heavy cruiser production (three under production at any one time), staggered to produce one HC every 180 days
5 HS of production dedicated to frigate production, one completed every 150 days

Notes: This is an older SCC as well and originally fueled the sathar exploration on the eastern side of the Frontier that resulted in the discovery of the saurians and the Mhemne.

Now focused on the battle with the Frontier, this SCC is responsible for the construction of the majority of heavy cruisers present in the early days of the conflict.

SCC#4

Location: OFS111 (“N” of Fromeltar)

Capacity: 49 HS

Production Queue:

16 HS of capacity dedicated to assault carrier production, one every 480 days
28 HS of capacity dedicated to light cruiser production (two under production at any one time), staggered to produce one every 210 days
5 HS of capacity dedicated to frigate and fighter production, completing 5 fighters in 30 days, then a frigate 150 days later and then back to fighters.

Notes: This is a older SCC established after the First Sathar War to explore more into the Frontier sector and the Rim. The route to Zebulon has been known for hundreds of years but most of the other routes are fairly new.

SCC#5

Location: OFS019 (“N” of Truane’s Star/Zebulon)

Capacity: 50 HS

Production Queue:

28 HS of capacity dedicated to light cruiser production (two under production at any one time), staggered to produce one every 210 days
18 HS of capacity dedicated to heavy cruiser production one every 540 days
4 HP of capacity dedicate to cutter production, one every 120 days

Notes: This is a newer SCC set up to provide ships for fighting in the Rim and the Frontier and built as part of the preparation for the Second Sathar War.

The cutter is a new ship that the sathar have developed partially in response to the UPF’s assault scout. It is not battle tested and at the start of the Second Sathar War, only 4 have been produced. They will see first blood in the Second Battle of Stenmar (coming on FY61.293).

SCC#6

Location: OFS117 (upper left center of Extended Frontier Map)

Capacity: 200 HS

Production Queue: Random, mostly non-military ships

Notes: This SCC is located in orbit around what in my game is the sathar homeworld. It is larger than even the largest SCC in the Frontier but is not currently involved in the SSW conflict, although that may change. This SCC primarily is responsible for producing “civilian” ships that the sathar use for non-military purposes.

It did, however, supply the ships that comprised SBF-F1 and SBF-F2 that attacked Stenmar (in the Kazak system) in the Detailed Frontier Timeline. Since those battles were outside the scope of the simulation I was working on (I’m ignoring the Rim), I had the ships for the fight in the Rim come from somewhere other than the five main SCCs.

SCC#7

Location: OFS101 (upper right of Extended Frontier Map)

Capacity: 75 HS

Production Queue: random, “civilian” ships

Notes: This is a new SCC and is currently focused on producing “civilian” ships and ships for exploration to the “NE” of the sathar homeworld. Not currently involved in SSW production.

SCC#8

Location: OFS097 (“N” of OFS117)

Capacity: 75 HS

Production Queue: random, “civilian” ships

Notes: This is another SCC that is producing civilian ships for the day-to-day operation of the sathar worlds. Not currently involved in SSW production.

SCC#9

Location: OFS064 (upper center of Extended Frontier Map)

Capacity: 75 HS

Production Queue: random, military and exploration vessels

Notes: This SCC is focused on an active campaign to explore the upper left corner of the Extended Frontier Map. It was ships from this system that many years ago discovered the Tetrach complex on OFS070 that the Discovery Squadron went looking for and which was contacted by the complex on Laco (Dixon’s Star) back at the end of FY59. It was actually this signal, plus the events of Volturnus, that kicked off the Second Sathar War.

The sathar are currently trying to find a way through the large nebula in this region as they have detected signals from another race on the other side of the nebula that they intend to conquer. It is not currently producing ships for the SSW and probably will not be used for that purpose at it is focused on a different threat.

SCC#10

Location: OFS174 (“E” of White Light)

Capacity: 60 HS

Production Queue:

18 HS of capacity dedicated to heavy cruiser production, one every 540 days
16 HS of capacity dedicated to assault carrier production, one every 480 days
14 HS of capacity dedicated to light cruiser production, one every 420 days
6 HS of capacity dedicated to destroyer production, one every 180 days
5 HS of capacity dedicated to frigate production, one every 150 days
1 HS of capacity dedicated to fighter production, one every 30 days

Notes: This SCC is producing some of every type of main-line sathar warship. For the past several years, it has been focused on the war with the saurians and is responsible for producing most of the ships that destroyed their worlds.

Being already focused on military production, and with the campaign against the saurians now ended (finished on FY61.282) and the loss of the SCC in the Liberty system, this SCC will shortly be added to war effort against the Frontier (officially on FY61.296).

Last Thoughts

Those are the sathar starship construction centers scattered about. All told, there are 737 HS of capacity across the 10 SCCs. It’s about 45% more capacity than in the Frontier, although more spread out. It is also more focused on military ships. The UPF has 430 HS of capacity that can produce military vessels and another 80 HS of capacity that can produce civilian ships and do maintenance.

As the battles play out, the sathar may shift the production queues to different mixes going forward (e.g. they have lost most of their destroyer production) but we’ll have to see how the upcoming battles play out. Look for the first play report later this week and running into next week as the initial battles occur around the Frontier.

How do you see the sathar starship construction being set up and handled? Have you every attempted anything like this for your game? Or have you been more sensible and just hand-waved it? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

HSS History’s Hope – The 3D Model

Not much has happened in the way of progress for the HSS History’s Hope in the Detailed Frontier Timeline. The crew decided to go back to the Frontier for maintenance after their radar system failed during a jump. They were surprised to meet ships to escort them in YS01, the last system they had reported the jump route for and they and their escorts were attacked on the way home to the Scree Fron system. After maintenance was completed, they started on their way back out and have just arrived back in YS01. The adventure continues.

However, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been working on the 3D model of the HSS History’s Hope. This is now completed. I’m still working on the deck plans, which I’ll save for a future post. The reason I held off on doing those was because I suspected they would change slightly when I made the model. And I was correct, based on the hull design, there was a little more room for some of the ship bays which I expanded.

I’m making a series of videos showing my process while creating the deck plans, much like I did for the Rosegard maps. Once that is all done, I’ll post the deck plans and videos and start working on the Technical Manual for the ship.

But for now, let’s look at

The 3D Model

This is the front/top of the ship. I started the model by building the “skeleton” of the ship, namely putting in all the decks as I had sketched them out. I then wrapped a smoother hull around that skeleton to get the outline you see here.

I played a little with some different shapes to smooth out the profile but in the end decided to go with this simpler model. It’s a ship that while capable of planetary landings, isn’t really designed for it. There is some streamlining and thought given to atmospheric travel, it’s not a lot.

The ship stands 61 meters tall and is 30 meters wide (ignoring the engines and struts) and 13 meters thick (plus another 3.5 meters for the astrogation dome – this side, and the laser battery – far side) down where the engines attach.

Let look at some of the features.

Already mentioned, the big dome on this side of the ship is the astrogation dome. The ship has a deluxe astrogation suite so there is a 2-meter diameter telescope inside that 4-meter diameter dome

All the little circles are portholes, mostly in the crew cabins and common areas of the ship. Each of those are 1 meter in diameter. The row of what look like holes in the hull above and to the left of the astrogation dome are small cutouts in the hull to allow for portholes in the dining/lounge area of the ship.

Below the astrogation dome is the main cargo bay doors of the ship. These open, hinged at the bottom to lay down and form a ramp up into the ship.

The other noticeable feature on this side of the ship is the bit at the bottom of the upper wide section of the ship, This is the airlock, which sticks out a bit from the ship and has a bit of hull built up around it to reduce drag when flying through an atmosphere. I’ll admit that this was probably more of a cosmetic addition rather than a necessary one. I had a nice airlock structure from the UPF Light Cruiser model that I wanted to reuse so I did. I could have made it more flush with the hull but decided not to.

Looking at the other side of the ship we see the laser battery on the widest part of the ship.

Below that are the bays for the ships’ launch, the work pod, atmoprobes, and landing drone. There is a remote probe bay door opposite the landing drone bay (on the other side of the ship) but it doesn’t show up in either of these projections.

The feature sticking out on the right of the upper wide portion of the ship is the lifeboat bay.

Astute observers will notice that I used the same engines from the assault scout. I’ve decided that after their introduction for the assault scout, this model design for Class A atomic engines has become fairly standard, at least on ships that want to be able to operate in atmospheres.

And that’s it for the model.

Printing

With the model in hand, it’s time to print it. I created the model, as usual at 1/1000th scale with 1mm on the model representing 1 meter on the actual ship. Normally I then export the final STL at 1/3000th scale which is the scale I’ve decided to use for my ships. However, this time I forgot to scale it down in the final model. But that’s not a big deal as I can do that in the printing software.

I started by printing a 1/3000th scale version of the ship. You can see it here with a pair of hull size 6 ships printed at that same scale, the sathar destroyer and the CDCSS Nightwind, a freighter. The other ship I have at that scale, the hull size 10 agriculture ship, is nearly twice the size of the destroyer so I left it out of the image (There is a picture of the Nightwind and sathar destroyer next to the ag ship in the linked post).

To scale comparison of the HS:6 CDCSS Nightwind (left), HS:4 HSS History’s Hope (middle) and a HS:6 sathar destroyer (right)

After printing that one, I printed one at 1/2000th scale, which is the scale I use to print the small assault scout miniatures. You can see the History’s Hope next to a Swift assault scout in the following image.

To scale models of the HSS History’s Hope (left) and a Swift Class Assault Scout (right)

You can see that the engines are the same size (although they are rotated 90 degrees on the History’s Hope). Also if you look closely at the left side of the History’s Hope model, you can see the cut out in the hull for the remote probe launch bay that I mentioned above that wasn’t visible in the renders.

Looking at these small models, I’ve noticed that I need to put a few more supports on the undersides of the engines as they are not printing as clean or as straight as I’d like. But you only really notice on these zoomed in image. You have to remember that that assault scout is just 1″ tall.

What’s Next?

I’ve sent out the model file for this ship to may Patreon supporters. I’m planning on getting this one, along with the agriculture ship, UPF Freighter, and sathar fighter models, uploaded and available on DriveThruRPG with the rest of the models already there sometime later in the month. I really just need to sit down and upload them.

For the History’s Hope, I’m working on making digital deck plans as I’ve already noted. I have them all sketched out in my notebook, I just need to make the files. Then I’ll be doing a complete technical manual write-up for the ship with all it’s details. Which means I need to make a full color render of this ship like I did for the Swift Class assault scout. Any suggestions on a color scheme?

On the modeling front, it’s probably time for me to tackle the Privateer models. I’m getting the itch to do some more modeling so that will probably be where I scratch it to start.

What are your thoughts on the model and the ship? Let me know in the comments below.

Detailed Frontier Timeline – FY61.234 to FY61.264

This month sees the conclusion of the Beyond the Frontier series of modules (SFKH2-4) with UPF forces driving out the sathar from the FS30 system which is named Liberty. They also destroy a sathar starship construction center which will cripple the sathar efforts in the Frontier in the coming conflict, the wheels of which are already turning.

Also this month, the HSS History’s Hope makes it back to Frontier space for some much needed maintenance and starts back out to hopefully completely their voyage of discovery and the Saurians begin to set up an initial settlement on Clarion in the White Light system.

The last day of the month sees additional sathar ships arriving at their forward posts in preparation for the coming conflict. Next month with see the sathar forces set in motion and the opening shots of the Second Sathar War. If you want to follow along as events unfold, remember that I post the daily updates on Twitter. These posts are just the monthly summaries. As the battles play out, I’ll be doing posts on the day they occur as I described in my State of the Frontier post a couple of days ago. You can see a sneak peek (if you haven’t already) of these battle posts in the Battle of Stenmar post from a couple of weeks ago. That battle actually occurs on day FY61.281 but I provided it early to get feedback on the format.

Here are the most recent events in the timeline.

Date (FY)	Events
61.234	– Investigating the wreckage of the ships that attacked the HSS History’s Hope points to the involvement of the Family of One but the evidence is inconclusive. The ships repair what damage they can and resume preparations for the jump to OFS224. – On-board preparations complete, the first shuttle loads of materials for their new settlement depart the 7th saurian Ark Ship for the surface of Clarion. – Within hours of their landing, protesters arrive at the saurian settlement site and attempt to disrupt the operations. However, the Clarion Royal Constabulary, already on-site to maintain order, quickly gets the situation under control.
61.235	The HSS History’s Hope jumps to the OFS224 system on high alert. However, there is no indication of hostile forces and they begin preparation for the jump to Scree Fron.
61.236	– Two destroyers, slated to join Strike Force Meteor, are completed in the Hentz (Araks) shipyards. They begin a shakedown cruise to Prenglar via the Gruna Garu system. – Strike Force Nova jumps into the White Light System and begins decelerating toward Clarion. – The UPF ships under Command Reider in the FS30 system initiate Operation Cracker to attack and draw off the sathar ships from the occupied Mhemne L4 station. – The ensuing battle of Operation Cracker manages to destroy many the remaining sathar fighters in the system which seemed to have very poor pilots. The sathar LC and AC retreat to the strong defenses of the planet’s moon. – Simultaneous with Operation Cracker, the CMS Osprey, UPFS Eleanor Moraes and the two captured sathar shuttles lift off from the surface of Snowball and approach the L4 station. – Gaining access to the L4 station, the UPF/Mhemne forces wage a running battle with the sathar forces occupying the station in an attempt to capture it before the sathar can destroy the station and kill the inhabitants. – Having successfully captured the L4 station, the UPF and Mhemne forces brace for a sathar counterattack. – Instead of attacking, the sathar abandon their positions on Snowball’s moon, the planet’s surface, and head to the L5 station. All sathar installations are destroyed by nuclear blast. Surprisingly, the Mhemne installations and cities are not destroyed. – After collecting fighters at the L5 station, the remaining ships begin accelerating for a jump out of the system. As they leave L5 station, the sathar ships under construction at the L5 station are destroyed by explosions. – After waiting to ensure the sathar don’t double back, Commander Reider pursues the sathar vessels as they continue to accelerate. The sathar send their inexperienced fighters after the UPF ships which are destroyed in the ensuing fight. The UPF remain safely out of range of the sathar ships’ heavier weapons as they trail them out of the system. – Sathar SCC#4 (OFS111) completes a frigate
61.237	After a week of additional patrols in the FS26 system, PG Meteor begins acceleration for a jump back to the Theseus system.
61.238	Due to the scrutiny after the rubies deliver, Obar Enterprises takes some lower profile cargos for the next few runs on their secret jump route between Truane’s Star and Cassidine. While not as profitable as the last few runs, they still gross 1.365 million credits.
61.239	News of the events in the FS30 system leak to the public on Gran Quivera (Prenglar). The Frontier Peace Organization stage a protest outside the Council of Worlds building demanding a cease of hostilities against the sathar and a stop to Spacefleet expansion.
61.240	– The HSS History’s Hope and her remaining escorts jump in the Scree Fron system and begin decelerating to Hakosaur. – Strike Force Nova arrives at Clarion and settles into berths at Fortress Redoubt. They open communications with the commanders of the saurian vessels to arrange a meeting between the ship captains to discuss sathar tactics observed by both forces. – The sathar HC and AC from FS30 jump into the OFS179 system, they maintain their high velocity and begin calculations for a jump to the OFS 168 system. Commander Reider turns his ships around to return to the inner system.
61.241	Responding to the activities of the Frontier Peace Organization, the Anti-Satharian League stage a counter protest demanding even greater Spacefleet and Star Law funding. The two groups clash and the Port Loren police have to intervene to stop the fighting.
61.242	– The commanders of the Strike Force Nova vessels meet with their saurian counterparts. Over the next 6 days, they host each other on the various ships and stations and trade intelligence on the sathar. – While most of the information on the sathar flows from the saurians to the UPF, the recent experiences of the Discovery Squadron provide some information to flow the other direction
61.243	After months of negotiations, the Consolidated Nebula Energy Group has signed on all the independent power distributors on Groth (Fromeltar) and many distributors on Terledrom (Fromeltar) and Inner Reach (Dramune). They continue to recruit others and begin sending delegates to other systems as well.
61.244	The HSS History’s Hope arrives back at Hakosaur and lands at the starship repair facility on the surface. While the ship goes in for maintenance, the crew take a much-deserved rest and spend time with their families.
61.245	The two UPF destroyers arrive at Hargut (Gruna Garu), while the rest of the crew takes a bit of shore leave, the astrogators get to work immediately on the calculations for the long jump to Prenglar.
61.246	– The sathar forces in the Sauria system, having finished the cleansing of that system, begin accelerating for a jump to the Tischen system, the first leg of a journey back to their base in OFS228, the site of another sathar starship construction center (SCC#10) – PG Meteor arrives back at Minotaur Station (Theseus). They transmit their findings in FS26 back to UPF Headquarters. The crews are given 3 days of shore leave. – The sathar HC and AC from FS30 arrive in OFS168. They begin calculations for a jump to OFS167.
61.247	– Initial jump calculations complete, the two UPF destroyers at Hargut (Gruna Garu) leave the station and begin accelerating for their jump to Prenglar. – Commander Reider arrives back at Snowball with PG Lancet. The CMS Osprey is released to return back to Clarion (White Light). It begins accelerating for a jump back to Waller Nexus.
61.248	– Meetings with the saurians complete, Strike Force Nova departs Fortress Redoubt and begins accelerating for a jump to Madderly’s Star. – Calculations complete, the sathar HC and AC in OFS168 jump into the OFS167 system. The begin decelerating to join the other ships rendezvoused there.
61.249	PG Meteor in split apart once more. 3 Assault scouts, keeping the PG Meteor designation, leave Minotaur station and begin accelerating for a jump to Clarion (White Light). The frigate and remaining assault scout, designated PG Liberty, start accelerating for a jump to Padda.
61.250	– The FS30 system, in consultation with the Mhemne population, is named the Liberty system in UPF records. – After over a year on patrol, PG Virgo departs the Kazak system to return to the Frontier. It will make a high-speed transit back to Pale (Truane’s Star).
61.251	After a week of ship maintenance and crew leave, the HSS History’s Hope emerges from the starship repair facility with a clean bill of health. The crew prepares to depart once again into the Yazira sector to continue their voyage of discovery.
61.252	The CMS Osprey arrives in the Waller Nexus system. They maintain their high velocity and begin calculations for a jump to the Padda system.
61.253	Preparations complete, and fully restocked with food and fuel, the HSS History’s Hope, along with three other vessels acting as escorts, leave Hakosaur (Screen Fron) for a jump to OFS224. They plan to make another high-speed transit back to YS07 to continue their exploration.
61.254	PG Liberty arrives in the Padda system where they maintain their high velocity and begin calculations for a jump to the Waller Nexus system.
61.255	– Sathar SCC#3 (OFS138) completes a heavy cruiser and frigate. These are the last of the ships that will comprise the initial volley of what will come to be known as the Second Sathar War. – PG Virgo jumps into the Osak system and begins calculations for the jump to the Capella system.
61.256	– The two destroyers designated as part of SF Meteor arrive at Gollwin Station (Morgaine’s World, Prenglar). – The CMS Osprey arrives in the Padda system and establishes contact with PG Liberty briefing them on the events in the Liberty system. They maintain their high velocity and begin calculations for a jump back to Theseus.
61.257	SF Nova arrives at the new Fortress Kdikit (Kdikit, Madderly’s Star). They begin a series of maneuvers to fine tune the station’s tracking systems.
61.258	– PG Meteor arrives at Fortress Redoubt (Clarion, White Light). UPF High Command decides to station the patrol group there indefinitely while the remainder of the ships for the strike force are completed. They will assemble here as they are finished. – The SF Meteor destroyers are dispatched from Gollwin Academy (Morgaine’s World, Prenglar) with orders to join up with the other ships in White Light. They begin accelerating for a jump to Timeon. – PG Liberty jump into the Waller Nexus system. They begin calculations for their final jump to the Liberty system. – The CMS Osprey jumps into the Theseus system. Deciding to head straight home, they continue at high velocity across the system and begin calculations for the jump to White Light. – The HSS History’s Hope and her escorts jump into the OFS224 system. They begin overhauling the ships’ engines and calculating their jump to OFS221.
61.259	After several weeks of intensive work, the first saurian dwellings on Clarion (White Light) are completed and ready to be occupied. They just need the power generator to be finished.
61.260	PG Virgo jump into the Capella system and begins work for the jump back to the Zebulon system.
61.261	PG Liberty jumps into the Liberty system and begins decelerating toward Snowball.
61.262	The first power generator at the saurian settlement is completed and brought on-line. The construction crews can now move into permanent residences and begin working on expanding the settlement.
61.263	– The CMS Osprey jumps into the White Light system and begins decelerating toward Clarion and home. – The HSS History’s Hope and her escorts jump into the OFS221 system and begin work on jump calculations for the jump to OFS222 and work on overhauling the ships’ engines.
61.264	A small fleet of sathar ships, consisting of 1 HC, 1 AC, 1 LC, 4 DD, 2 FF, and 8 fighters), designated Sathar Battle Fleet F1 (SBF-F1) arrive at SCC#5 (OFS019) from deeper in sathar controlled space.

The full timeline for download:

DetailedFrontierTimeline Download

Skills For Hire – Lab Crawl

So last week I wrote up the location of the GODCo bio-lab. This week we’re going to look at what my players found when they got there. First I’ll provide my game notes with the details of what had changed, and then so a short write-up of the players’ actions. “Lab Crawl” is the title I gave this scenario in my notes.

Background

GODCo has been operating the lab on Pale for about 20 years now. The lab is a location the GODCo scientists are studying the Pale flora and fauna and looking for ways to adapt various yazirian plant species to the environment as well as improving flora and fauna used by Frontiersmen to be more adaptable to the Pale climates.

A few days ago the quarterly supply delivery to the “secret” base left but the drivers and vehicles (two ground trucks) never returned. Yesterday an aircar flew out to the site and was shot at by the site’s defenses (heavy laser). The PCs are being sent in (on the ground) to investigate. Their objectives are:

Figure out what happened
Rescue any personnel trapped and still alive in the lab
Secure the site if possible.

What Happened

In my game, there are still sathar on Pale from the First Sathar War (referred to as the Great Sathar War on Pale as the second one is just now brewing). While a few of the sathar on the planet are holdovers from the war, many more have actually slipped to the surface over the intervening years. They have been working to subvert the society and develop new bio-weapons (e.g. lesser quickdeath, sathar poison squirrel). It is to do some work on the poison squirrel that they have capture the lab.

A few weeks ago, a team of sathar attacked and captured the base. They needed access to the equipment and facilities to complete some work that they had been doing in more makeshift labs elsewhere on the planet. The staff that survived the attack are being held as prisoners and used as test subjects (and food) for the creatures they brought with them.

Changes From Last Post

In my previous post, I described the lab during “normal” operations. Here is what changed when the PCs arrived

Staff

There are only 1d5+5 of the original 44 staff members still alive, all scientists. They are locked individually in the living quarters and isolated from one another. They are all malnourished and weak. They will not be able to assist the PCs in any fighting.

I put them in the rooms farthest from the elevator/stairs but you could put them anywhere. The sathar have changed the computer security system so that none of the staff ID cards work to open the living quarters doors.

Vehicles

There is a ground transport in the garage (area 3, ground level). It is only partially unloaded.

Robots

All of the security robots were destroyed in the original attack. The sathar have reprogrammed all the maintenance and service robots to have attack/destroy programs and will attack any non-sathar beings on sight. These robots are all level 3 and have only their mechanical hands as weapons. The security locks have all been removed by the sathar as they modified them. They have the following stats:

STA: 100 ATT: 60 IM: 6 DMG: 2d10 Move: 30 m/turn

The remaining robots are located in the following areas:

2 service robots – Ground Level in hallway (area 5)
4 maintenance robots – Level 1 area 30. There is a random 10% change per minute that one will emerge and go about some maintenance task. If attacked, it can summon the others.
4 maintenance robots – Level 2 area 11 (at the far end of the lab area). There is a random 10% change per minute that one will emerge and go about some maintenance task. If attacked, it can summon the others. They can also be called by the sathar on this level.

Sathar

There are 10 sathar at the facility.

Two are security officers and will be in the security office on that level (area 8). If the robots start fighting they will emerge and attack the intruders. These sathar have laser pistols with 3 power clips and a level 3 skill. Their stats are:

STA: 45 ATT: 50 IM: 5 DMG: 2d10 PS: 3 Move: 30 m/turn

The other eight are in the lab areas on level 2. Divide as desired among 3 labs. These are all scientists and will only have improvised melee weapons when attacked but do have a level 1 melee skill. Stats for these sathar are:

STA: 40 ATT: 30 IM: 4 DMG: 1d10 PS: 2 Move: 30 m/turn

In addition to the sathar on level 2, there are a number of sathar attack monsters with them in some of the labs. There are 2 cybernuks in one of the bio-labs, although only one has the cyber implant, and a caged juvenile quick death in another (use the Lesser Quickdeath stats). A third lab has a cage containing 10 tailless squirrels. If freed, any of these creatures will attack the PCs. If they can, the sathar scientists will release the creatures into the lab hall (area 14) to attack the PCs as part of their defense.

Place the sathar and creatures in the labs as desired. In my game, I had them all in labs on the right side of the map. The first lab had 3 sathar, the second had 2 sathar and the nuks, the third had 3 sathar and the squirrels, and the fourth lab had the quick-death.

Other Notes

The computer is level 4 with a level 3 computer security program. Lab doors have level 5 locks, bedrooms have level 1 locks.

Something got out and the power generator level is overgrown with a blue fungus/moss that is mildly toxic to the touch (S1/T20) toxin. This is currently growing on all the walls on level 3, part of the stairwell between level 2 and 3, and in the elevator shaft near level 3. It has not yet traveled to Level 1 or 2. Due to the fungus, the power occasionally will short out and brownouts occur occasionally around the lab. There is a 5% chance any minute that the power will temporarily go out or lights will dim in any given room.

Loose Ends

Some things I left open ended and which didn’t really come up when playing that you can flesh out as desired for your game:

Where’s the other ground truck? There were two in the convoy but only one is here. I honestly forgot about there being two when I was running it but it never came up directly. This is an opportunity to expand the scope of this encounter if you want your PCs to possibly pursue the sathar across the planet.
The fungus/moss on the generator level – Was this something the sathar brought with them? Was it something GODCo was working on?

Running the Adventure

This adventure played out over two game sessions.

The PCs had no idea there were sathar involved when they were hired. The job was simply to go to the lab, investigate what happened, rescuing any survivors, and secure the facility. GODCo offered a generous bonus of 500 cr. per staff member recovered alive.

After about six hours of travel, mostly in an explorer, the PCs arrived at the facility to find the gate closed. As they got close to the site, however, they noticed that no radio communications were working. The site appeared deserted. The humma decided to jump the fence and got shot at by the heavy laser for his trouble. Luckily, it missed him. He was able to open the main gate and the explorer entered the compound.

They gained access to the garage and discovered the partially emptied ground transport. Exiting into the hall, they were attacked by the robot stationed there. They took some damage but were able to quickly deactivate the robot. (Since the sathar removed the security lock, I only required a DEX roll – the robot was attacking them after all – to switch it off. Their roboticist has a high DEX but still missed a few of the rolls throughout the adventure.)

As they rounded the barracks (not knowing what they were) they encountered the other robot and after starting to engage that, the two sathar emerged and started firing at them. A well tossed tangler grenade captured both sathar (although one was killed by laser fire the same round). Realizing it was caught and the robot deactivated, the captured sathar committed suicide.

Clearing the rest of the level, they opted to take the stairs down and not alert anyone else by using the elevator. As they emerged into the hall on level 1 they experienced their first brownout of the power. They entered the security office and found a number of CCTV cameras looking at different parts of the lab including the hallways on level 1 and one into each lab on level 2. They saw the 8 sathar and the attack creature but didn’t know where in the complex those images were coming from.

Examing the hallways, they ran into two maintenance robots coming out of area 30 on the fall left hall way. A fight ensued with those robots and the other two that were called out of room 30 after the fight was engaged. They managed to deactivate two of the robots while the other two were destroyed.

The fighting was occurring at the end of the hall by area 30 and the prisoners in the rooms there heard them and tried to get their attention. They proceeded to open (via tech or brute force, depending on the player) each of the doors and discovered that 9 of the scientists were still alive, although is fairly poor shape.

From the scientists they got the information about the attack and current situation as they understood it. They also learned that the brownouts only started occurring after the sathar arrived. Speculation began on what the sathar were doing that needed that much power.

With the scientists found, they shepherded them up to the surface, planning on driving them out in the ground transport. At this point a discussion ensued on what was next. Fighting sathar is a job for Star Law and really above their pay grade and several PCs were all for bugging out with the scientists, reporting what they found, collecting their rewards and walking away. However, one of the PCs is a member of the Anti-Satharian League (ASL) and floated the idea that they might be able to get some reward from that group for the sathar if they took them out themselves.

In the end, they decided that the Anti-Satharian League PC would drive the scientists out and call in for medical pickup once he got out of the radio jamming. He would report the sathar presence and request instructions from Galactic Task Force (GTF). He’d also contact the ASL and see what he could negotiate. That discussion ended the first session.

Session 2 started with finalizing the plan. While the ASL PC headed out with the scientists, the other PCs set about exploring the rest of level 1. They realized part of the way through that they should have asked the scientists for a tour. Meanwhile, the PC with the scientists, after about 40 minutes of driving, got out of the jamming range. Calling in GTF immediately dispatched some flying transports to pick up the scientists and told him to stand by on the sathar situation. While he waited, he called ASL and got the same response. After a few minutes, GTF told him that if the team chose to go in after the sathar, they would be deputized by Star Law for the operation (Star Law couldn’t get anyone there for many hours and didn’t want the sathar to get away) and offered a bonus of 1500 cr. each. Just after that conversation, he was called by his ASL contact and offered a 250 cr. reward for each sathar killed plus and additional 500 cr for any sathar data collected from the computer systems.

With the offers in hand, he headed back to the compound once the medical team arrived to escort the scientists. Having been gone a couple of hours, the rest of the team was getting a bit antsy and debated exploring the generator level but decided to be patient and wait. They also reprogrammed the two maintenance robots to obey them and attack sathar while they were waiting. When the offers were presented, they decided to take on the sathar and collect the reward from both sources.

Not wanting to walk down 50 m of stairs, and figuring they had the drop on the sathar, they opted to take the elevator. They quickly examined the areas outside the decontamination airlocks on that level. Hoping to reduce the odds, they hacked into the life support and ventilation systems for the labs (all 10 individually) and dropped a doze grenade into each system to try to knock out the sathar. They had to do all 10 because they didn’t know which system went to which lab or even which labs the sathar were in. Luckily they had 11 doze grenades between the 5 PCs.

Doze grenades dropped and hoping they worked, they went through the cleaning rooms into the lab area. Upon entering and seeing into the labs, they found that the sathar in the lab with the cybernuks had been knocked out but the other were still up and about.

They rushed the robots over to the first lab and had them block the door preventing the sathar from exiting while the PCs headed down the the third lab where the three sathar were working with the tailless squirrels. As they were approaching, the sathar let the squirrels out and there were suddenly several critters attacking most of the PCs.

On the second round of the fight, the four robots emerged from the robot storage area and started to advance on the PCs as well. An on the next round they realized the flaw with having the robots block the sathar in the first lab as one of the sathar deactivated one of the two robots.

With enemy both in front of them and behind, they started to fall back and regroup trying to deactivate robots, kill sathar, and fight the squirrel critters. A well placed frag grenade managed to kill most of the squirrels as they fell back but not before a couple of the PCs were bitten and poisoned.

Just as they were starting to get the situation under control, one of the sathar in the nuk lab woke up (I had rolled for the time each were going to be out and rolled low for that one). After spending a round trying to rouse its comrade (with no success), it then headed to the doors to let the nuks out into the fight.

The sathar and squirrels turned out to be the easy targets with the nuks and robots providing the most challenge. They managed to take out the sathar that had freed the nuks before it could let the quickdeath out or things might have been really bad for the team. As it was, two of the team members, wounded and cornered, retreated into the lab that the squirrels had come out of pursued by one of the robots. They trapped one of the nuks in the entrance to another lab, and then finished off or deactivated the remaining robots and creatures.

When the fighting was over, they had deactivated two more robots, killed seven sathar, 10 squirrels and one nuk. The last sathar never woke up and they hit it with a StayDose to keep it sedated. They left the trapped quickdeath and nuk for StarLaw and GODCo to deal with. They decided to report that there were only 7 sathar (they had miscounted) and secret the live sathar away to turn over to the Anti-Satharian League for a 2000 cr. reward.

It was touch and go there in the middle of the battle with a couple of PCs getting down to single digit STA, but they pulled through in the end. Each PC ended up with 6 XP and 3600 cr. They also ended up with 7 damaged service and maintenance robots that they took with them as well.

Final Thoughts

It was a good adventure. It just took longer to finish than I had hoped due to scheduling conflicts (on my part) and not being able to get it all done in a single session (or I would have posted this sooner).

I actually completely forgot about the quickdeath in the heat of the battle which is why the sathar didn’t immediately make a bee-line for that lab to try to get it out. But that was probably just as well. Had the quickdeath came into the fray it might have been too much. As it is, the fight went well. They PCs were a little worried there for a bit, but managed to pull it out in the end. I actually thought the squirrel were going to do a bit more damage but the frag grenade really did a number on them, only three of the 10 survived the initial blast.

The activating and deactivating of the robots was a bit of humor (at least for me) during the big fight. There was a bit of a go around of the sathar turning their robots off, them trying to turn the sathar robots off and also trying to turn their back on, and fighting the robots that weren’t deactivated. And the moment when I said that the sathar turned their first robot off definitely seemed to catch them off guard and ratchet up the tension.

This will be the the last Skills for Hire post for a while. As I talked about in my “What I need is … more focus” post back in August, I have a lot of things going on and that was the main cause of the scheduling conflicts. As such, I’ve decided to put the game on hiatus for now. My players are going to take up the GM mantle and run games for each other in the meantime but I won’t be doing anything for a while.

Did you like the adventure? What might you have done differently? What changes or additions would you make? How could you use this in your game? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.