Anyway, while some people might go Pacifist Doomsaying, my Doomsaying is that the Diplomats get killed and we get presented a literally 100% Cardassian deal. Probably with a few kickbacks to make it look somewhat believable.
The Comet might be a better fit for the Member Fleets who use the Swarm/Wolf Pack Doctrines, specifically the Catians and Sydraxians. The Apita prefer 0-Officer frigates and I wouldn't trust the Yrillians with Starfleet gear just yet.
Way of the Flood
0 / 25 Quantity is Quality (+2 to Escort Research, -1 Qtr to Escort build times)
Building the Den
0 / 25 Streamlined Assembly (Reduce Target ship build times by 25%, to a maximum of 2 Qtr)
So, the Comet, if built by the Catians or Sydraxians, could be completed in 1.75 Years, or 7 Quarters.
0 / 25 Multiple Attack Vectors (+4% Shield Burn-Through Chance)
0 / 25 Float Like a Butterfly (Escorts gain +10% Evasion)
0 / 25 Live Another Day (+2 to Defence when attempting to flee)
0 / 25 Early Wolfpack Logistics (All Ships in a Wolf Pack Gain +1 D)
0 / 25 The Better Part of Valour (Gain +2 D when escaping)
0 / 25 Sensor Dampening Techniques (-2 S to opposing Sci-T to find your Wolf Pack)
0 / 25 Improved Pack Coordination (+1 L, +1 D for a Wolf Pack when outnumbering enemy)
0 / 25 Joint Targeting (+2% Shield Burn-Through for a Wolf Pack)
1. Shield Burn-Through combined with our previous research, which I assume we shared with the Catians and Sydraxians, gives +9% base Burn-Through chance or +11% for Wolf Packs.
Ironically, because the Kepler has two phasers instead of one, it has the best chance of the three ships of applying shield burn-through. Unless I'm completely wrong and have no idea how the combat system works.
I really do wonder if it's worth it for Swarm/Wolf Pack Doctrine Frigates to trade the guaranteed damage of multiple torpedo launchers in favor of multiple phasers hoping for repeated shield-penetrations...
Disproved by SWB.
2. Evasion increased by at least 2% for the Centaur, Kepler, and Comet.
4. "-2 S to opposing Sci-T to find your Wolf Pack" If that is a competing roll against the Kepler's S7, the Kepler effectively has S9 when guiding the Wolf Pack to its target.
The Centaur, Kepler, and Comet would give the Sydraxian and Catian Wolf Packs some real teeth in the event of open conflict with the Cardassians or Horizon.
I'm beginning to understand how the Romulan raiders nearly succeeded in breaking the Klingons where open-conflict failed.
0 / 25 Multiple Attack Vectors (+4% Shield Burn-Through Chance)
0 / 25 Float Like a Butterfly (Escorts gain +10% Evasion)
0 / 25 Live Another Day (+2 to Defence when attempting to flee)
0 / 25 Early Wolfpack Logistics (All Ships in a Wolf Pack Gain +1 D)
0 / 25 The Better Part of Valour (Gain +2 D when escaping)
0 / 25 Sensor Dampening Techniques (-2 S to opposing Sci-T to find your Wolf Pack)
0 / 25 Improved Pack Coordination (+1 L, +1 D for a Wolf Pack when outnumbering enemy)
0 / 25 Joint Targeting (+2% Shield Burn-Through for a Wolf Pack)
1. Shield Burn-Through combined with our previous research, which I assume we shared with the Catians and Sydraxians, gives +9% base Burn-Through chance or +11% for Wolf Packs.
Ironically, because the Kepler has two phasers instead of one, it has the bast chance of the three ships of applying shield burn-through. Unless I'm completely wrong and have no idea how the combat system works.
I really do wonder if it's worth it for Swarm/Wolf Pack Doctrine Frigates to trade the guaranteed damage of multiple torpedo launchers in favor of multiple phasers hoping for repeated shield-penetrations...
2. Evasion increased by at least 2% for the Centaur, Kepler, and Comet.
4. "-2 S to opposing Sci-T to find your Wolf Pack" If that is a competing roll against the Kepler's S7, the Kepler effectively has S9 when guiding the Wolf Pack to its target.
The Centaur, Kepler, and Comet would give the Sydraxian and Catian Wolf Packs some real teeth in the event of open conflict with the Cardassians or Horizon.
I'm beginning to understand how the Romulan raiders nearly succeeded in breaking the Klingons where open-conflict failed.
Couple points:
- Shield burn through does not depend on weapons. I mean, it's in the phaser tree due to the nadion fluff, so maybe it should, but combat isn't modeled that way. Technically speaking torpedoes can penetrate shields too I suppose.
- 10% evasion is a flat +10, not 10% of their %ev.
- The +1L +1D tech works a lot better with small ship wolf pack ships than large ship ones. For example, the total shields from building Caitian Swarmers would be a lot more than from building Comets for the same resource cost.
- Other polities have variant doctrine trees to a degree. They won't necessarily be the same as ours.
The Kepler certainly is a good contributor with S7, but so is the Centaur-B with S4 compared to most member frigates which have S2 or so, and it contributes more in other areas for less.
Comet requires 3 more crew units, 15br, 10sr and another quarter of build time.
In return you get +1H +1L +3D, and the more advanced frames for future refits.
If we can afford it, I expect we will build Comets.
If we are facing a resource or crew crunch, we might get more ships out of the budget with more Centaur-Bs. Just have to wait to see how the numbers pan out.
To me you've already answered your own question. Centaur-Bs have 100% reliability while the Comet has 98.59% reliability. Therefore we don't have to worry about Centaur breakdowns.
Personally, I find that an amazing enough reason on its own.
"Alright SDB, this is your hardest challenge yet. We need the best ship you can make with 0c so our resources and crew don't get throttled back like someone on government insurance not taking all their meds."
Don't our treaty with the Cardassians, like, forbid Lecarre Infiltrators, or somesuch? With penalty clauses or something.
Anyway.
Is there anything preventing the Cardassians from killing the Councillors and replacing them with Lecarre Infiltrators while they're there in Cardassian space or somesuch?
Deep telepathic scans are presumably mandatory for high-level members of Federation government. The right to mental privacy is a wonderful thing which is no doubt guaranteed by an amendment to the Federation constitution by now, but by agreeing to serve in a position of such responsibility I can't imagine there's no "you need to be checked for mind-control parasites" clause. After the first six or seven times they'd learn.
Assuming peace breaks out in Gabriel, Dorsata and, if we keep it, Enio are going to be the best static defended mines in the Federation.
As such, those sites require significant investment, As br sites they are not high priorities currently.
As for getting the other founders involved, this is a significant distance from their other holdings and they may not want to stretch their transport networks this far out.
... It costs 8 crew units vs the CB's 5. That's not 'a bit more.' More importantly, it's an extra point of Officers. We have T out the wazoo and we can buy +1E income cheaply these days but Officers are still a limiting factor. I'd say it's double the CB's crew cost just from that alone. It's marginally better in a fight (+1 HL) and Response wise it is significantly better, but we are likely to build both.
The bigger issue is how the Comet compares to the Rennie-A (because by the time we consider a second wave of Comets, we will have access to the RA). RA is C6 S4 H5 L6 P4 D6 (maybe D7) 2/4/3 85sr. That gives it +2C +2H +1L and if it has D7 then Lone Ranger's +1Response equalizes their D scores for peacetime purposes. Then you're looking at a significantly better combatant for +1E +10SR. THAT is what makes the Comet less competitive, because it isn't competing with the CB, it's competing with the Rennie. As a result, the Comet is going to be a specialist, not a general production ship.
I also think that scrapping Mirandas without a replacement or a pressing need to do so is a bad position. Mirandas can at least serve as tertiary responders and can bulk up combat-focused TFs. And if we get into a war, we WILL be building Mirandas. B-refits, likely, but we have nothing that does their job better and thanks to the Pacfists it is unlikely that we will be able to get a good replacement. Even if we did, the combat frigate that the SDB has been thinking about the most has Miranda stats, it's just much cheaper and faster to build so it can be mass produced in a war!
By my reckoning, including the temporary reinforcements, the Federation has a total of 54 combat-capable ships in the GBZ, summing up to: C222 S158 H142 L242 P150 D216
That's comparable to the amount of forces we gathered for 2318 GBZ offensive: 34 ships, C229 S185 H142 L239 D213 edit: this is off, and I'm not gonna bother to research the actual numbers
Yeah, that would make any enemy admiral hesitate, especially if they don't know the exact numbers and sees evidence of reinforcements trickling in.
Considering how old the Connie-B/Constie is I think either Mothballing them or scrapping them in order to get more material for new better starships so that our Combat Cap doesn't suffer when we inevitably reach it is a good idea.
As for the Miranda and Miranda-A I still see that class as too useful for us to mothball anytime soon. so letting our affiliate members have them is a good idea to me.
That's comparable to the amount of forces we gathered for 2318 GBZ offensive: 34 ships, C229 S185 H142 L239 D213 edit: this is off, and I'm not gonna bother to research the actual numbers
Assuming both our numbers are right then compared to the C222 S158 H142 L242 P150 D216 we currently have in the GBZ the 2318 assault force was, at it's peak, just:
+27C, +29S, +10H, +17L, +24P, +13D
better then our current fleet. That's not that much of a difference.
Hey GMs. I have a of question for you. How many Starships does the federation its affiliates have combined? Both Starfleet and Non Starfleet classes that is.
Hey GMs. I have a of question for you. How many Starships does the federation its affiliates have combined? Both Starfleet and Non Starfleet classes that is.
According to the Boldly Goes-Member and Affiliate Fleets sheet our various Member fleets have 240 ships our Affiliates another 112 and Starfleet itself just 68 for a combined total of 420 ships. Of course that was last updated over two in game years ago (2319.Q1) so the number is almost certainly a good deal bigger.
According to the Boldly Goes-Member and Affiliate Fleets sheet our various Member fleets have 240 ships our Affiliates another 112 and Starfleet itself just 68 for a combined total of 420 ships. Of course that was last updated over two in game years ago (2319.Q1) so the number is almost certainly a good deal bigger.
According to the Boldly Goes-Member and Affiliate Fleets sheet our various Member fleets have 240 ships our Affiliates another 112 and Starfleet itself just 68 for a combined total of 420 ships. Of course that was last updated over two in game years ago (2319.Q1) so the number is almost certainly a good deal bigger.
Commander's Log, Task Force Shield, Commodore Samhaya Mrr'shan
While Task Force Beyond has had a number of successes this month, It has become clear to me that the Harmony truly is engaged in a diplomatic war along our coreward frontier. For every move we make the Harmony has made a matching move, but I can't help but be grateful that we are engaged in a war of words instead of the constant trickle of blood that the Cardassians have forced upon us.
To start with I took Salnas, along with Fozarri, to the Licori capital in order to seal a trade deal for automation technologies that the FDS has been quietly laying the groundwork for over the last year.
We were surprised when, on arrival, we were not alone; a pair of Scientist class Harmony ships were already in orbit. Apparently one of our negotiation partners in House Ixaria leaked word to the Harmony as part of a last minute attempt to force us into a better deal.
Instead of just forcing us to give better terms the Harmony ran with the knowledge and very nearly stole the trade deal out from under us. It was a near run thing, and the Tauni captain of the Theria nas Cheras, Scholar Colum, almost scuttled the deal with a series of questions that caused the Licori negotiators to rethink Federation intentions.
I ended up having to use the brute force method of diplomacy and forced through the trade deal's signing by sternly reminding the Licori of how much reneging on prior negotiations would damage their reputation on the galactic scene. After I was able to extract the proper signatures I've spent the last two months running damage control and unruffling feathers with the negotiators.
While I was solidifying our position with the Licori, Cheron, Iprimazzi, and Harzzira attended the signing of another trade deal with the OSA, and they too had to fend off the interference of a pair of Scientist class vessels. Fortunately the Harmony's attempts to stymie our efforts were less successful in that theater of this diplomatic was and the treaty was signed on time, and without alteration.
And as for Neptune and Burdina, they are attempting to follow up on Captain Kanil's successes on Cradle, though to to date they haven't reported either breakthroughs or setback.
Licori Tag Results:
[Harmony Influence: 15/100]
OSA Tag Results:
[Harmony Influence: 61/100]
Mission: Counteract Horizon diplomatic efforts in the Horizon Border Zone region.
CO: Samhaya Mrr'shan - +1P to Flagship, reroll first failed combat roll each year
FDS Diplomatic Team: Reroll first failed Diplomatic Roll each quarter
USS Salnas
USS Cheron
Iprimazzi
Harzzira
Fozarri
UES Neptune [Renaissance]
OUS Burdina
-
Commander's Log, Task Force Handshake, Commodore Min-Jee Lee
We've had an incredible quarter! Captain Rebin's success with the mining clans was exactly the break we needed exactly when we needed it to keep the window Thane Borin of the Stone Whisperers bought us open, and we've taken full advantage of it.
After hearing about our industrial capability, a delegation from Kharhazad's leading manufacturing guilds wanted to have a look themselves. Unfortunately, they weren't able to get away from the planet long enough to meet aboard the Endurance or the Odyssey, but this group wasn't insulted when we informed them we'd only be able to sneak a frigate into Dawiar space. Part of that might be the younger, more liberal Dawiar subculture they represent, but I think much more of it had to do with the presence of Ambassador Sarek aboard the Charal. Special commendation goes to both Captain ch'Velox of the Charal for slipping in and out without incident, and Captain Daelir Duom of the RDS Hadabat for distracting the border patrols with an uncomfortably close "policing mission."
The industrialists went home happy enough that they were able to talk the leadership into Clan Sounder, one of their biggest patrons, into giving us another chance. We didn't take any risks this time! Thane Torgg was received aboard the QSS Arqeniou Leb Nin, where Sarek worked his magic again alongside a pair of Qloathi diplomats who have had decades of experience with the Dawiar. Clans Sounder and Stone Whisper are historic rivals, but they'll put aside their differences and vote in lockstep in the Dawiar ruling council if both the miners and the manufacturers promise to reward them for it. I think our perception within the halls of power on Kharhazad might be starting to really shift!
We almost had a major setback this last month, when a shakakoun started making the rounds cracking down on "clanless" operations in disputed space. It looked like a normal policing operation, but one of our new friends we made this quarter relayed his suspicions that there might be an Obsidian Order passenger aboard that ship. The T'Mir did what it's famous for, and pulled the shakakoun off course by disguising itself as a clanless ship they had been tracking and leading it on a wild goose chase around the system while its actual target snuck away and rendezvoused with the Endurance outside of Great Kingdom of Kharhazad space. Captain Taggart is in the process of slipping the dissidents back home aboard a series of tradeships that make the rounds between the Dawiar and the Qloathi as we speak; those trade summits we've been pulling off have their benefits as well.
Just a word of warning, though. If there were Obsidian Order agents hunting for those scavengers, its a safe bet that the Cardassians are starting to suspect us. We may be seeing some active response from them in the coming months, but we'll be ready.
Great Kingdom of Kharhazad tag results:
[Ashalla Pact: 73/???]
-
Mission: Conduct covert diplomacy with the Dawiar.
CO: Min-Jee Lee - +1 P on flagship
FDS Diplomatic Team: Reroll first failed Diplomatic Roll each quarter
USS Endurance
USS T'Mir
QSS Arqueniou Leb Nin
RDS Hadabat [Turtleship]
Charal [Centaur-A]
-
Commander's Log, Task Force Shield, Commodore T'Mina
This quarter we increased long-range patrols due to intelligence that they were planning a raid. These patrols had the goal of scattering probing Hishmeri forces, and based on the low activity of the Septs this quarter, it appears we have dissuaded them for now.
I have taken the time to run several interception and combat drills, while monitoring the movements and communications of the Hishmeri closely.
Mission: Dissuade Hishmeri raiding.
CO: T'Mina - Reroll the first failed intercept each quarter.
USS Emancipation
TSS Pralim
CAS Kundaia
CAS Ilotraia
CAS Koorlicail
CAS Anacail - DAMAGED