Freelancer: Terminus (Freelancer/MassEffect)

[X] Gateway to Heaven
[X] The Corsair Agreement
[X] Increased Patrols
[X] The bad kind of alien
[X] Ancient Wrecks
[X] Native Sources - Focus
[X] Alien Pirates
-[X] Option 3: Joint operation
 
[X] Plan Last Chance

Not exactly my favorite, but I'd rather have the last-minute diplomacy with Kusari, rather than trying to set up an intel service yet.
 
[X] Plan Last Chance

I really don't think working with Larissa is a good idea. We need to keep our edge as long as possible.
 
I'd prefer to not blow up the pirates; we could wait a turn and do something else instead, and next turn use a focus point on the Ambush variant to maximize the amount of tech we'd be able to capture.
Not exactly my favorite, but I'd rather have the last-minute diplomacy with Kusari, rather than trying to set up an intel service yet.
I'm willing to cut Ambush to double down on something else, per my GM question above.

I really don't think working with Larissa is a good idea. We need to keep our edge as long as possible.
(I also don't want to piss off the old guard just yet.)
 
Vote closed
Adhoc vote count started by Erandil on Aug 15, 2017 at 6:52 AM, finished with 1010 posts and 12 votes.

  • [X] Plan Last Chance
    -[X] Gateway to Heaven + Focus
    [X] The Corsair Agreement
    -[X] Last Minute Politics
    [X] Increased Patrols
    [X] Ancient Wrecks
    [X] The bad kind of alien
    [X] Alien Pirates
    --[X] Option 1: Big Boom
    [X] Gateway to Heaven
    [X] The Corsair Agreement
    [X] Increased Patrols
    [X] The bad kind of alien
    [X] Ancient Wrecks
    [X] Native Sources - Focus
    [X] Alien Pirates
    -[X] Option 3: Joint operation
    [X] Gateway to Heaven
    [X] The Corsair Agreement
    [X] Increased Patrols
    [X] The bad kind of alien
    [X] Ancient Wrecks
    [X] Native Sources - Focus
    [X] Alien Pirates
    -[X] Option 3: Joint operation

Adhoc vote count started by Erandil on Aug 15, 2017 at 6:53 AM, finished with 1010 posts and 12 votes.

  • [X] Plan Last Chance
    -[X] Gateway to Heaven + Focus
    [X] The Corsair Agreement
    -[X] Last Minute Politics
    [X] Increased Patrols
    [X] Ancient Wrecks
    [X] The bad kind of alien
    [X] Alien Pirates
    --[X] Option 1: Big Boom
    [X] Gateway to Heaven
    [X] The Corsair Agreement
    [X] Increased Patrols
    [X] The bad kind of alien
    [X] Ancient Wrecks
    [X] Native Sources - Focus
    [X] Alien Pirates
    -[X] Option 3: Joint operation
    [X] Gateway to Heaven
    [X] The Corsair Agreement
    [X] Increased Patrols
    [X] The bad kind of alien
    [X] Ancient Wrecks
    [X] Native Sources - Focus
    [X] Alien Pirates
    -[X] Option 3: Joint operation
 
Turn 17: The quiet before ... - End
Turn 17 – End
Date: 06/819 AS

Report: Kusari Naval Operations in Northern Sigma

Despite the continued buildup of both sides in the Sigma systems the feared pirates were still caught off guard when the KNF transferred two full carrier groups as well as nearly a fifth of their cruiser forces into the region. Joined by the local forces of the Gas Miners Guild, the Bounty Hunters Guild and military contractors from Samura and Kishiro the Kusari military forces pushed deep into the territory held by the Outcasts, destroying several Outcasts raiding groups before they had the chance to reorganize.

After the initial, for them unfavorable, engagements the Outcasts opted to retreat deep into the gas clouds on the edges of the systems. Unluckily for them the Kusari forces countered by employing new sensors, developed by the GMG and Kishiro for exactly that kind of environment, which turned what should have been an Outcast advantage into something of a disadvantage. The new sensors seriously limited the effectiveness of the traditional hit and run tactics of the Outcasts, allowing the KNF and its allies to continue its push into enemy territory nearly unhindered.

But when they began to threaten the small, only recently built, Outcast base in Sigma 17 and the nearby jumphole the infamous pirates decided to accept the challenge and met the Kusari battleship Tadakatsu and its escorts in open battle. The fight took over twelve hours but at the end the Outcast force and its exceptionally skilled pilots proved to be no match for the sheer amount of ships and firepower their enemies were able to field, especially not with the KNF also being supported by a small detachment of Corsairs (operating officially as independent Freelancers), and were defeated, their base destroyed and the jumphole encased by a minefield as well as automated weapon platforms.

The KNF and its allies also made serious efforts to "fortify" the tradelanes and the most common trade routes in the territory with widespread deployments of automated weapon stations, minefields and extensive patrols that have so far proven surprisingly effective against Outcasts attempts of interrupting trade and supply movements in the area. Indeed UTA led convoys were only attacked two times this turn and in both times the escorts were able to drive the attackers away before they were able to inflict any significant losses on your shipping. So far it seems like the KNF operation is a complete success though you are a bit more skeptical since experience tells you that the Outcasts are no pushover.

Result: KNF offensive off to a great start, no interruptions to UTA activities, plus 1 military in Kappan Gate



You have 7 (6+1) Action Points that you can spend any way you wish at generally 1 point per action. You can also add 1 Focus Point (giving a + 20 Bonus) to a chosen action, representing UTA focusing on that action.

Sirius Sector:
With the restructuring of the DSX into UTA your activities in Sirius have been notably reduced to little more than guard duty. However with your position and ability to act dependent on the political support of the Houses it is still important to maintain strong ties to the rest of Sirius.

[] Gateway to Heaven:
As you were returning to Solitude you made a stop on New Berlin to take care of some personal business you were also approached by the Rheinland government who asked for your assistance in convincing the other Houses, mainly Liberty, to help finance a jumpgate from Saarland to Omicron Theta. Such a connection would likely reduce travel time from many parts of Sirius and likely be a significant boost to Rheinlands economy once the operations in the Terminus region really get started but as it stands the Rheinland government simply doesn't have the resources to finance this additional jumpgate on its own. They hope that you use your influence as the director of UTA to convince the other Houses of the strategic utility and need for such a project. It seems like a good way of strengthening your relations with Rheinlands government but it might complicate the situation with the Corsairs if you don't act manage to convince them (and the Houses) to come to a more benign relation.
Chance of success: 75%, Result: Construction of a Jumpgate between Saarland (new Rheinland system east of New Berlin) and Omicron Theta (Will take 3 ½ years till fully complete (7 turns), Rheinland is thankful


Needed: 25 Rolled: 55

It took some work but you were able to convince most of the other houses, with the exception of Kusari, to support Rheinlands proposed new Jumpgate. While there were some who questioned such a huge investment in light of the new drive system, which would make such gates obsolete, most of them agreed with your assumption that jumpgates will continue to play a major role in the future, especially for large scale trade and transportation. The first teams of the DSE and Ageira are already in position and are preparing the building sites with the production facilities back in Liberty gearing up to produce the necessary parts a quickly as possible.

Both Rheinland and Liberty have expressed their satisfaction and your contacts on Crete report that the Corsairs seem to accept the increased presence of the Houses near their border, though many of them only grudgingly so.

Result: Construction of Jumpgate commenced, Rheinland +10, Liberty +5


[] The Corsair Agreement
With the Corsair leadership finally agreeing to the idea of your initiative all that is left to do is to bring all the factions together and get to work on the actual treaty.
Result: Starts single turn interlude regarding Corsairs, Corsairs become legitimate faction
GM: Needs to be taken this or next turn


You decided on the luxury liner Hawai, operated by Orbital Spa and Cruises, as the location for the meeting and preparations for it are nearly finished. Most of the delegates are already on their way and you too will start the journey in a few hours.

Result: Interlude


[] Last Minute Politics:

The only big faction that is still opposed to acknowledging the Corsairs as an independent faction is Kusari. It's opposition won't be enough to truly stop the project or strongly influence its outcome and it has agreed to attend your planned talks but you would still feel better to have them on your sight. Alternatively, you could wait till the actual talks and try to convince them then though that would likely require cashing in some of your favors.
Chance of success: 70% Result: Kusari supports your initiative


Needed: 30 Rolled: 27

Kusari has always been the country you had the least amount of connections with, especially in regards to its political elite. A political elite that tends not only tends to favour an isolationistic and often xenophobic approach but which also fear that the legitimization of the Corsair may encourage their own domestic criminal groups like the Blood Dragons or Golden Chrysanthemums. Convincing those people to give up their resistance against your initiative and switch to support it proves to be every bit as challenging as you expected and while you manage to get a sizeable minority on your side you fail to secure enough support for your plan before time starts to run out.

You are now faced with option of either using your position as head of the UTA to pressure the Kusari government into supporting your initiative, costing you some political support, or accept the failure and try your best during the conference.

[] Pressure Kusari
Cost: 5 Political support (Kusari), Result: Kusari supports your initiative

[] Accept failure
Cost: Nothing, Result: Kusari will continue to oppose you


[] Increased Patrols
With the KNF planning to start its operation against the Outcasts in the next few months Admiral Tomoe has already strengthened your own patrols and escorts in the area but maybe an even more substantial increase in the defensive force would be prudent. After all you know from personal experience just what experienced raiders and ambushers the Outcast pilots are.
Result: Increase security of northern regions even further than what you would normally do


While the increased patrols and escorts turned out to be unnecessary you can't say you are that unhappy about your decision anyway. Far better to have them and not need them then the other way around.

Result: Stronger UTA activity in Sigma systems (influenced the KNF offensive and Outcast reaction)


[] The bad kind of alien
With all your dealings with the Asari it easy to forget that there is another race of blue skinned aliens that are far less peaceful and cooperative. You have already notified the Order of the possibility of Nomad presence in Omicron Phi and a Order strike group is on the way. Hopefully they are enough to deal with the Nomad, if those sensor ghosts are actually Nomads and not simply Outcasts or some other rogue faction, but you are still sorely tempted to order Tomoe and the fleet to assist directly to make sure nothing bad happens.
Chance of success: ???% Result: UTA assist Order troops in scouting and securing Omicron Phi

Needed: 40 Rolled: 98


Bitter experience tells you that underestimating or ignoring the Nomads can have fatal consequences and therefore you order Tomoe to do her best to assist the Order with their operations. Alexandra and her team are also doubling down on your anti infiltration and screening processes and so far it there doesn't seem to be any sign of the Nomads having managed to infiltrate the UTA yet. Indeed, you even order your own ship to be readied, just in case it turns out to be necessary.

But Tomoe and Karl Marshal, the commander of the Order strikeforce, prove to be up to the challenge and do a great job of exploring system and locating and identifying the threat. As you feared it turns out to be Nomads, originating from a jumphole located within the asteroid field. Their ships prove to be every bit of a difficult and dangerous enemy as you remember them to be but no match for the heavy fighters of the Order supported by the elite pilots of the UTA. Within a few weeks your forces manage to secure the system and locate the jumphole.

Scouts send through the jumphole quickly locate the origin of the enemy forces, a seemingly damaged Nomad battleship drifting near the jumphole. It appears like the Nomads are in the process of repairing the ship with significant progress already being made. However a quickly assembled strikeforce makes short process of the enemy capital ship and it escorts, hopefully putting an end to the Nomad threat for now.

After some consultation with the Caspar it was decided that the Order would take over the follow up operations from here and take possession of the newly discovered system (named Omiricon 114) for now till it can be sure that there are no Nomads remaining there.

Result: Omicron Phi secured, Nomad threat dealt with, Order thankful


Terminus Sector:
The new frontier, full of alien artifacts to discover and resources to exploit.

[] Ancient Wrecks:
Cursory analysis of the ship wrecks in the Nokkar system have so far produced little of note other than the apparent age of the ships and a strong suspicion that they might have equipped with a variant of the Mass Effect Drive and considering the age and state of those ships that might be all that you will ever get. Still quite a few in the UTA (and on the oversight committee) would like to set up a more in-depth research effort.
Result: Set up research team to research Nokkar wrecks


So far the reports from the Nokkar system are interesting but not terribly useful for the ongoing UTA operations. The wrecks are all heavily damaged and in many cases it will take months if not years to comprehend even the general outlines of the various ship classes. What is interesting is that your initial suspicions of the ships being ME capable seems to be true and some of your scientists harbor some hopes that a more precise analysis of the alien capital ships might give them valuable insights for your own projects in that field. The current focus of the research teams is to determine if the wrecks are the result of battle in the system, as it was initially suggested, or if this is a ship graveyard akin to what one can see in for example near the Southhampton shipyard.

Result: Start research of Nokkar wrecks, receive periodic updates, possible boon to capital ship ME development


Alien Pirates:
The likely pirate hideout in the Syrma system offers an interesting opportunity to gain some additional information about the various factions in the Terminus regions while also presenting a possible security threat. Tomoe and you have therefore drawn up a number of plans on how to deal with the issue.
[] Option 1: Big Boom
The easiest and safest option would be to rig the whole asteroid to blow once the pirates have landed while a of your ships hide near it to deal with any potential survivors. Unless detected the pirates should have no chance to escape or warn anybody and while this approach would likely also seriously damage most of the tech you intent to recover but this may simply be the cost of doing business. Granted there is a small chance that the pirates arrive with several ships or simply take a transport down to the asteroid but the size of the hideout and its layout does suggest that it is intended as a dock for a corvette sized ship while the size of the base and hoard doesn't exactly suggest a big or especially successful operation. And in the worst case your ships should be enough to deal with any pirate fleet if the alien technology behaves as you expect it to.
Chance of success: 80% Result: Pirates in the Syrma system destroyed


Needed: 20 Rolled: 4

Well this was a disaster. In a perfect meeting of bad luck and a severe case of underestimating the enemy the pirates manage to escape both your trap as well as the pursuing forces without incurring any serious damage on their side. You are currently not sure if your forces over looked an sensor in the enemy base or if they noticed your ships laying in wait but as the pirate, in a single ships as you expected and hoped, came near their hideout they suddenly turned away and made full speed away from the base. You ships tried to catch up but were unable to come within effective weapons range before the pirates were able to complete an ME jump out of the system.

True your own ships managed to escape unharmed but this still presents a serious breech in security and quite a few people have openly critiqued your handling of the situation. In the worst case you just brought the attention of one of the myriad of criminal factions active e in the Terminus region on you and in the best case there is still somebody out there with the knowledge about your area of operations and (and to a limited extent) capabilities.

Result: Pirates take notice of UTA presence in the region, Oversight Committee very unhappy


UTA information can now be found in a googledoc for hopefully easier access and use.

"Civilian" Information

Military Information

Diplomatic Information
 
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[x] Pressure Kusari

Annoying, but I'd guess that them opposing the matter would be even more problematic.

But, man; our rolls this turn were all over the damn place.
 
Should we even bother, though? IIRC we managed to convince everyone except the Kusari to support the Corsair integration. Does their disagreement really matter now?
That's a pretty good question, actually. @Erandil, could you chime in on this?

While waiting for the GM, though, my guess would be that we might either lose more support from Kusari for forcing things through despite their opposition, have lower initial support from the Corsairs because the Kusari do their best to make as much trouble for the Corsairs as possible, that sort of thing.
 
Should we even bother, though? IIRC we managed to convince everyone except the Kusari to support the Corsair integration. Does their disagreement really matter now?

That's a pretty good question, actually. @Erandil, could you chime in on this?

While waiting for the GM, though, my guess would be that we might either lose more support from Kusari for forcing things through despite their opposition, have lower initial support from the Corsairs because the Kusari do their best to make as much trouble for the Corsairs as possible, that sort of thing.

Kelenas is correct, their disagreement can matter depending on just how far you want to go with the Corsairs and how fast. Like for example Kusari might cause some issues (for example cost extra support or simply delay matters) if you want to do things make them a significant partner in the UTA, give them the "full rights" of an offical House government etc. directly after the conference.
 
Well, we definitely want the Kusari on board, then. Inviting the Corsairs into the alliance only to block them on vital things like eezo tech leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and would likely cause political problems both internally and externally for the Corsairs. After all, why would we even invite them into the house if we're not going to let them sit at the table?

[X] Pressure Kusari
 
i say lets not poke the kusari any more then we need too

also to bad about that push
did not think it would fail that bad
 
[X] Pressure Kusari

zzzz dice. I said I wanted to cut it and double down on something else but we can't do that, so...

To be honest I feel like we should have more options for things to do so we're not forced to pick middling success options or do nothing.
 
Well, we definitely want the Kusari on board, then. Inviting the Corsairs into the alliance only to block them on vital things like eezo tech leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and would likely cause political problems both internally and externally for the Corsairs. After all, why would we even invite them into the house if we're not going to let them sit at the table?

[X] Pressure Kusari

They wouldn't be blocked completely, just not treated as a government that is part of the UTA and thus gets first dibs on everything and more like any other non-government group/faction (mostly mega-companies). And really when you started out that was the best you and many other actually hoped for - making them directly into a full member is more or less the "completionist" path (which also has its downsides since the Corsair as a member of the supporting factions doesn't necessarily make things easier for you politically speaking).

[X] Pressure Kusari

zzzz dice. I said I wanted to cut it and double down on something else but we can't do that, so...

To be honest I feel like we should have more options for things to do so we're not forced to pick middling success options or do nothing.

Actually running the risk of failing actions is in my opinion an integral part of a quest like this - I don't want you to succeed at everything at the first try. Setbacks and the like are, for meat least, key aspects of any form of story telling, even in a format like this.
 
Actually running the risk of failing actions is in my opinion an integral part of a quest like this - I don't want you to succeed at everything at the first try. Setbacks and the like are, for meat least, key aspects of any form of story telling, even in a format like this.
But it just doesn't make any sense from a gameplay perspective. As presented, I want to deliberately select fewer options until I feel comfortable with overall plan success and we believe we can devote more time to what's important.

There's limited advantage to gaining more AP from higher relations because we simply don't have anything worth doing and you won't let us spend more AP to double down on riskier actions.
 
But it just doesn't make any sense from a gameplay perspective. As presented, I want to deliberately select fewer options until I feel comfortable with overall plan success and we believe we can devote more time to what's important.

There's limited advantage to gaining more AP from higher relations because we simply don't have anything worth doing and you won't let us spend more AP to double down on riskier actions.

If you only want to pick options that succeed/have plans that nearly always succeed 100% then this probably isn't the right quest for you since I am not interested in giving you that option/GM such a quest. As I said I want you guys to pick a risky option or two and risk failure, not every turn of course but in 1/2 to 1/3 of the turns. I find it more interesting that way and believe it makes for a better experience and story.

And you will likely get 1/2 additional actions per additional AP but the current mix of safe and risky actions is something I plan to continue to keep since once again, failure/risk is part of the design.
 
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I'm worried about pressuring them. All our Kusari actions go to shit lately, so we can't really afford to lose more reputation with them right now.
 
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