So as an Excelsior-A commanded by Sadek, the stats of the Courageous would be:

C10 S9 H6 L8 P9 D7
+5% Evasion

That's a ship that could take on the Enterprise in combat with even odds and can still perform most excellently on any standard EC mission.
Is Courageous Elite now, then? (Elite would make it equal to Enterprise's C10 S9 H7 L8 P9 D7, which would give it a straight +5% evasion over Enterprise).

[-][FYM1] Captain Sadek
[-][FYM2] Captain Demora Sulu

Still undecided on [EC].

Edit: removing vote as I'm undecided now...
 
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Against anyone except the Licori, Sadek would be better choice in battle on the Courageous. But this is the Licori we're talking about, where we far outclass them in combat, and they're relying on out-sciencing us.

So the EC candidates that have a science bonus are:

Captain Samyr Kanil
Human Female, 48
Current Assignment: Captain, USS T'Mir
A calm and steady head, with a temperament for long-term missions, and a keen mind for science. +1 S, chance to roll to escape ambushes/Hostile Threat event types.
...
Captain Jeanette Devereaux
Human Female, 40
Current Assignment: Captain, USS Typhoon
A science division officer at heart, Captain Devereaux is in rare company among officers for protesting being assigned the brand-new Typhoon over the old Suvek. +1 S, +1 to First Contact missions

And Samyr also has additional an additional bonus that could be helpful against Licori shenanigans. She's now a prominent character too. The only downside is that she's human in a human-dominated org...actually we already have two Vulcans, a Tellarite, and a Caitian in FYMs, so diversity is fine so far.

As for the Voshov, Demora Sulu with here myriad bonuses, prominence, and now experience is a shoo-in.

[X][FYM1] Captain Samyr Kanil
[X][FYM2] Captain Demora Sulu

We can't rush the Pathfinder or Sojourner separately, anyway. Remember that they're being built using Chen's dual construction ability so that they both have to be built according to the exact same schedule.

Oh right. Would only work if we had two heavy industry teams working on both at the same time.

In which case, the only feasible option that would finish this year would be ... the Connie-B or Kumari repair that would finish next quarter anyway, and the Kumari is being sent back to the GBZ. Not worth it :/
 
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Nash has the best bonus, and I think withdrawing Ainsworth from the GBZ now is a big mistake.
She has proved an effective combat Admiral, and is placed to have the best read on the dynamics of the situation in theatre.
We are just about to commit our combat reserves to war with the Licori, now us the most opportune time for the Cardassians to make a play in the GBZ, we need to keep the best officer for the job at her post now mote than ever.

In fact if Cardasdian intel gets wind that we have withdrawn our fire-eating combat commander, it may provoke them into making a move.

And I think she is a great offensive Admiral that is very effective when you/she has access to a large reserve force to make good on any losses to maintain combat operation but I don't think that she is a good choice for a more defensive campaign with limited resources where the goal of preserving as much of our forces as possible it is just as important as defeating the Cardassians. I don't think we have the resource to sustain two offensive large scale military campaigns and unlike most I expect the Licori campaign to be longer than we may expect. I think a change in strategy is necessary/welcome and that is best done by replacing the commander.. Plus, she has spent enough time on that post and it is time for another admiral to prove her/his/its worth.
 
[X][FYM1] Captain Sadek
[X][FYM2] Captain Demora Sulu
[X][EC] Commodore Nash ka'Sharren

I don't think reassigning Nash away from the Licori war will do more damage than reassigning Ainsworth away from the GBZ, particularly given that we don't really have anyone to replace her there. The most promising candidates that could replace her are currently busy with the Licori war. Also the capital research part of Ainsworth's bonus is likely to end up being useless (we probably aren't going to do much capital research in the immediate future), and promoting someone who never was in the EC or at least served in a related shore position doesn't sit well with me. Finally when in doubt I prefer promotions over lateral moves to help push carriers along.
 
Why do the combat stats of the Courageous matter against the Licori in the face of all the other combat that we're throwing against them? It's science rolls, and maybe presence rolls, that will carry the day.

If any of the EC candidates with a science bonus captain the Courageous, she'll be our first S10 ship ever.

I don't think reassigning Nash away from the Licori war will do more damage than reassigning Ainsworth away from the GBZ, particularly given that we don't really have anyone to replace her there. The most promising candidates that could replace her are currently busy with the Licori war.

Oh yeah, Harriman is no longer available. Hmm... I still think there will be viable enough candidates for the GBZ - they don't necessarily need to have screen time. I'd rather give Nash more time in rank and more opportunity out in the stars then promote her to further desk-dom.

The bonus of Anyth sh'Nathriq could have prevented the Courageous disaster (too late in the year for Ainsworth's bonus, I think), but on the other hand, I expect the next few years to be full of relatively-stripped garrisons, so her bonus wouldn't be that useful.

[X][FYM1] Captain Samyr Kanil
[X][FYM2] Captain Demora Sulu
[X][EC] Rear Admiral Rachel Ainsworth
 
Remember it's in or near and nearby ships.

And that it can call in auxillaries. So when appropriate hospital or engineering or whatnot ships will show.
 
I was looking at the list of candidates for LBZ posts and it's a little thinner on the ground than I would like. I want someone with at least Medium Diplomacy, and I prefer not to have Low Aggression (that way lies Revak). The only candidates to repalce Ainsowrth that fit that requirement and are not in the LBZ are:

Rear Admiral Ikitha zh'Bessash
Current Posting: Commander, Starbase 5 [Amarkia]
Rule-Abiding: Medium
Aggression: High
Nerve: Medium
Diplomacy: Medium
Politics: Low

Rear Admiral Pathe Lathriss
Current Posting: Independent Research
Rule-Abiding: Medium
Aggression: High
Nerve: High
Diplomacy: Medium
Politics: Low

And if he were eligible for promotion to Rear Admiral, Gorac Crogan would be my ideal candidate for overall GBZ command. Plus I had him make an omake appearance, so I like him for that.

Commodore Gorac Crogan
Current Posting: Commander, Sydraxian Border Zone
Rule-Abiding: Medium
Aggression: Medium
Nerve: Medium
Diplomacy: High
Politics: High
 
@OneirosTheWriter, may I ask why Captain Winslow isn't on the list when his former executive officer is? Is it because I didn't make up a last name for him? ;)



[X][FYM1] Captain Demora Sulu

Every damn five year mission something terrible happens to Courageous, and every damn time the captain pulls her through by the skin of her teeth. This ship needs the captain with the Hull reroll, and needs her very badly.

I get the arguments for handing Courageous to a more 'warlike' captain, but quite honestly I don't think +1 Combat is going to help that ship very much. The evasion bonus might, though.

[X][FYM2] Captain Samyr Kanil

She's very much earned the uptick in status and recognition, she's got massive seniority in grade, and hopefully she'll be able to stage a cunning escape from any monstrosities that try to eat another one of our poor little Green/Blooded explorers.

[X][EC] Rear Admiral Rachel Ainsworth

I think this is definitely a good choice. There's a lot of support for replacing Ainsworth in the Gabriel Expanse even if I'm not 100% sure that's the right idea. Plus, if we bring Ainsworth back to a staff position, maybe we can work on her bad Politics skills, which would be... kind of a prerequisite for promotion to vice-admiral.

Nash would make an EXCELLENT choice as head of the Explorer Corps, but I'd rather not yank her out of the Licori Border Zone just as the war revs up; we put her there for a reason just as we'd be putting her in the Explorer Corps for a reason.

Maybe when Sulu's seat at Tactical opens up, we can promote Ainsworth to fill it, then promote Nash to the Explorer Corps.

...

Also, I like Amin. As I recall, I'm the guy who pulled him up from out of obscurity and yellow-striped his entry in the character listings. But remember what @AKuz said about how she wanted to make sure all our Explorer Corps captains had prior command experience? She's right. Amin's never sat in the captain's chair before, except in emergencies as a stand-in for the 'real' captain. Let him have a year or two of that before handing him an explorer.



Actually now that I think about it the lack of senior Starfleet Apiata in any fics despite their popularity is kinda weird.
The Apiata themselves are kinda weird. Queens have too many responsibilities at home to join Starfleet, and 'defective' workers are very likely to join Starfleet at lower ranks and may actually be biologically uncomfortable giving orders in some cases.

Amin and Makpol are the only two who don't already have ships of their own.
Arguably, not having captained a ship before is exactly why we shouldn't give them Explorer Corps ships for their first command.

I am not sure if I want to pull Ainsworth out since she has done such a great job there. Also we may want to consider if we want one of the candidates for the enterprise.
The only people currently on the list who have any 'special' claim to Enterprise are Sulu, Leaniss, and Zhang. Sulu's unlikely to get the nod for Enterprise specifically if she's competing with Leaniss, and Zhang's still a bit new. I say, give Sulu Courageous, and worry about Enterprise next year.

So as an Excelsior-A commanded by Sadek, the stats of the Courageous would be:

C10 S9 H6 L8 P9 D7
+5% Evasion

That's a ship that could take on the Enterprise in combat with even odds and can still perform most excellently on any standard EC mission.
The flip side of this is that if we hand the same ship to Sulu we get

C9 S9 H6 L8 P10 D6
Reroll Hull checks, Reroll in-Federation diplomacy, +1 Espionage

That's a ship that's still pretty much on par with Enterprise in terms of combat performance. Moreover she becomes our go-to woman if we need to send an Excelsior on a special single-ship mission. Because unlike Enterprise and Sarek, Courageous isn't already acting as a task force flagship- she's supernumerary to the existing order of battle. We can snip her out of the line and dispatch her on a special mission (benefiting from Sulu's espionage bonus) without disrupting the existing structure of our fleet.

EDIT:

Also, I want to think long-term here. After the war's over we still get another four years or so of event checks out of Courageous.

With Sulu aboard, Courageous turns into another one of those souped-up event-passing juggernauts that tends to make everything look easy, much as Enterprise has been under Nash's captaincy (and Sam's, since the ship hit Elite almost immediately after she took the chair).

Whereas Sadek's bonuses become much, much less important as soon as the Licori war is over.
 
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I was looking at the list of candidates for LBZ posts and it's a little thinner on the ground than I would like. I want someone with at least Medium Diplomacy, and I prefer not to have Low Aggression (that way lies Revak). The only candidates to repalce Ainsowrth that fit that requirement and are not in the LBZ are:





And if he were eligible for promotion to Rear Admiral, Gorac Crogan would be my ideal candidate for overall GBZ command. Plus I had him make an omake appearance, so I like him for that.

I'd be interested to see how Lathriss does at the job. We've had him running wargames and simulations for over a decade now, about time he went back into the field.

Might also be a morale hit to the Cardassians, if our GBZ force has an Amarki face. Remind them of one of their failures.
 
[X][FYM1] Captain Sadek
[X][FYM2] Captain Demora Sulu
[X][EC] Rear Admiral Rachel Ainsworth

Sadek and Sulu bring excellent bonuses.

Holy molly, Ainsworth bonus is amazing considering how vital EC missions tend to be. From First Contact to politically sensitive situations like the Seyek separatist movement, from the most hostile anomalies in space to the most unique opportunities, getting a second chance at a failure could be a lifesaver.
 
I'd be interested to see how Lathriss does at the job. We've had him running wargames and simulations for over a decade now, about time he went back into the field.
he is by far the worst choice we could possibly make, we'd be taking a very high risk of losing a irreplaceable (due to high skill) tech team in battle. It also wouldn't make sense for him to have the time to continue to do doctrine research narratively. The only additional assignment we should consider him for is tactical, which is both pretty safe and makes perfect sense for someone who is concurrently doing doctrine research.
 
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he is by far the worst choice we could possibly make, we'd be taking a very high risk of losing a irreplaceable (due to high skill) tech team in battle. It also wouldn't make sense for him to have the time to continue to do doctrine research narratively. The only additional assignment we should consider him for is tactical, which is both pretty save and makes perfect sense for someone who is concurrently doing doctrine research.

Yeah, he's not a GOOD choice, at least at the moment, but he is certainly an interesting one. Ah well.
 
Okay, I've been convinced.

[X][FYM1] Captain Demora Sulu
[X][FYM2] Captain Samyr Kanil
[X][EC] Rear Admiral Rachel Ainsworth

And yeah, we need more/better candidates. Though I do wish we could throw Adm. Lathriss a bone sometime, it seems Starfleet's been giving the man a hard time for nothing but the blood in his veins.
 
-Because she finally Deserves a shot, and I'd like to see Zhang succeed her for her own seasoning period:

[X][FYM1] Captain Demora Sulu

- Because she Deserves a chance to do some actual science for once and her bonus might keep a brand new EC ship from getting Miracht-ed:

[X][FYM2] Captain Samyr Kanil


-I want Nash in more active roles for as long as possible, so giving her a Licori war post then moving her to the GBZ is what I'm vaguely mulling over.

-And WE CAN'T move Ainsworth away from the GBZ right yet. We seem to be falling into Victory disease there. Sure the Sydraxians are out, but the Cardassians are still there and they may take advantage of our preoccupation on the other side of the Federation if we don't keep them honest. Ainsworth should stay in place until we're back down to one Crisis.

-And finally, with so many junior EC ships around I want someone that can help shepherd them to higher veterancies and generally support our ships, so:

[X][EC] Rear Admiral Anyth sh'Nathriq
 
-I want Nash in more active roles for as long as possible, so giving her a Licori war post then moving her to the GBZ is what I'm vaguely mulling over.

-And WE CAN'T move Ainsworth away from the GBZ right yet. We seem to be falling into Victory disease there. Sure the Sydraxians are out, but the Cardassians are still there and they may take advantage of our preoccupation on the other side of the Federation if we don't keep them honest. Ainsworth should stay in place until we're back down to one Crisis.

-And finally, with so many junior EC ships around I want someone that can help shepherd them to higher veterancies and generally support our ships, so:

[X][EC] Rear Admiral Anyth sh'Nathriq
Hm, I'd considered that, but I dunno. I don't think we want the GBZ campaign to be aggressive right now, if we push the Cardies we are gonna be taking hits and now of all times we can't afford more repairs and reinforcements anywhere. Which means we don't want a commander whose expertise is in aggressive pushes there, since either her talent will be wasted or we'll be soon faced with a bill we can't pay. That, and Ainsworth has kinda earned a new spot somewhere where she can get the necessary experience to become a VADM.

Though I'll admit sh'Nathriq's description is appealing and I don't want Nash anywhere but the LBZ right now.
 
-Because she finally Deserves a shot, and I'd like to see Zhang succeed her for her own seasoning period:

[X][FYM1] Captain Demora Sulu

- Because she Deserves a chance to do some actual science for once and her bonus might keep a brand new EC ship from getting Miracht-ed:

[X][FYM2] Captain Samyr Kanil


-I want Nash in more active roles for as long as possible, so giving her a Licori war post then moving her to the GBZ is what I'm vaguely mulling over.

-And WE CAN'T move Ainsworth away from the GBZ right yet. We seem to be falling into Victory disease there. Sure the Sydraxians are out, but the Cardassians are still there and they may take advantage of our preoccupation on the other side of the Federation if we don't keep them honest. Ainsworth should stay in place until we're back down to one Crisis.

-And finally, with so many junior EC ships around I want someone that can help shepherd them to higher veterancies and generally support our ships, so:

[X][EC] Rear Admiral Anyth sh'Nathriq

Is there a problem with replacing Ainsworth with a more defense-focused commander, now that we've secured a good beachhead and locked in the Sydraxians?
 
And here's a tally:
Adhoc vote count started by AlphaDelta on Apr 19, 2017 at 4:47 PM, finished with 77 posts and 39 votes.
 
Is there a problem with replacing Ainsworth with a more defense-focused commander, now that we've secured a good beachhead and locked in the Sydraxians?

I'm afraid that if we begin to "back down" and enter a far more defensive position the Cardassians will think that is their cue to start shit because we've become weak. The Cardassians respond to aggressive posturing and I worry that settling back will only embolden the Cardassians. And we don't need them starting shit right now.
 
I'm afraid that if we begin to "back down" and enter a far more defensive position the Cardassians will think that is their cue to start shit because we've become weak. The Cardassians respond to aggressive posturing and I worry that settling back will only embolden the Cardassians. And we don't need them starting shit right now.

Hmm, yeah. I'd LIKE to give Ainsworth that promotion, but with the Licori War eating up so many of our commanders we don't have a good replacement for her at the moment. Hopefully we'll have another good post for her soon.

[X][FYM1] Captain Sadek
[X][FYM2] Captain Demora Sulu
[X][EC] Rear Admiral Anyth sh'Nathriq


EDIT: FFFFFFFFFF....I dunno, now the Caitians are joining the GBZ too and politics/diplo are getting even more important. Maybe Ainsworth does need to get out now after all.
 
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I've given it a bit more thought and I'm not so sure on Ainsworth either, really. It occured to me there might be some serious friction if we take a no-holds-barred combat officer, fresh from a war, and put her in command of the Explorer Corps.

Not saying she'd do anything crazy I'm just not sure it's the best fit for her.

EDIT: Also, yeah, see Leila's edit above. Until the Licori war winds down -- and possibly even after -- we're going to need diplomacy to really be able to wrassle with the Cardassians, I figure. I dunno if this is the right spot to put Ainsworth tho.

[X][FYM1] Captain Sadek
[X][FYM2] Captain Demora Sulu
[X][EC] Rear Admiral Anyth sh'Nathriq
 
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I'm willing to think about this. Let me ask, straight up, what do people think about Ainsworth's chance of doing good versus disaster if we leave her in the Gabriel Expanse?

She will try to seek out a confrontation with the Cardassians. It's in her nature. I mean, she won't do so recklessly. She'll try to make sure she has the advantage. But ultimately she's going to try to get the Cardassian fleet into a situation where she can come at them in battle and eliminate as many ships as possible and put a halt to their expansion. She won't play the defensive game.

This is compared to the alternative of, well, the defensive game. Setting up outposts and colonies and trying to settle a broader swathe of space than the Cardassians, using our fleet primarily in a defensive role to ward them off when they come after us.

What is the actual best strategy here?
 
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