[Consim-l] Star Viking solo replay - part 2

[Markus Stumptner]

Finally got around to finish the Star Viking replay.  On turn 6 (halfway 
point) the Vikings had managed to grab Tiergran, a Class B world, on their 
third attack, this is where we continue.

Turn 7.  The Federation decides that the loss of territory can no
longer be accepted, and sends a Frigate (FF) and escort (FE) from
Zoser, one of the Class A world, to Raneb. For the price of two hits,
they eliminate the Tank Corps and fortress stationed there, and bring
it back under Federation control.  The damaged Viking sloop goes back
to the Viking homebase for repairs, while the cruiser, carrying a
power trooper (PT) unit, travels to a new world, the Class D system of
Nebka (wealth 6).  Predictably, the system is weakly defended, and
against 2 hits on the PT, 4 Horde (HO) and 2 Militia (MI) units are
destroyed.

Again, there is a civil war in the Federation but the Fed player
decides he is too weakened to accept the loss of further units.  At
least a number of local units has become available, and he rebuilds
the fortress of Raneb and strengthens the defenses of Udimo and Demar.
He also spends 40 megacredits on 10 victory points to catch up with the
Viking. The Vikings build some low-tech units on Nebka, and grav
armor, fighters, and power troopers for Tiergran, and 7 VP.

Fed VP 49, Treasury 10
Vik VP 54, TR  0

[Side note: Around this stage, to sort of replicate the fog of war aspects 
of interstellar movement, I had started to each turn set a group of 
objectives for either side, assign them probabilities, and then roll a die 
to see where they'd actually go.  So the encounters of the next few turns 
are not "fake", they result out of the probabilities inherent in both 
sides' plans.]

Turn 8.  The Federation sails in force (FF and FE) to retake Tiergran
but finds that the Vikings have brought both the cruiser and sloop
there to guard it.  They decide that this is a bit much to take on at
this point and withdraw.

Distant Wars are occurring in the Federation.  This is probably the
worst event for the Fed player since it requires him to hand over one
of his precious frigates to the central government.  He builds an
escort to at least partially replace it, buys 7VPs and some local
units.

Fed VP 56, TR  0
Vik VP 65, TR 15

Turn 9. Having been stymied at Tiergran, the Feds decide that the Vikings 
will probably try to retake Raneb next, a guess that turns out to be 
correct.  The Feds send two FEs to support the ground units, and indeed 
both the Viking cruiser and the sloop turn up on schedule.  The Federation 
ships concentrate on the sloop as the easier target and within a few 
rounds score two hits. However, by this time each of them has been hit 
twice, so they choose to jump out of the system and withdraw to Demar. The 
sloop will not participate in the attack on the planet as it would be too 
risky.

This leaves the ground troops on the planet, 2 SF, 1 PT (still with
one hit), 2 AG, and the sector fortress, as defense.  They give a good
account of themselves, scoring a hit on the cruiser in the first
round, but the PT is out on round 2 and by round 5 only trhee units
are firing back at the cruiser, all at the lowest column.  The
Fortress is taken out by a critical hit on round 8 (emptying the
cruiser's missile pack) but manages a second hit on the cruiser.  A
third is scored on round 9 by the power trooper unit, but by round 10
none of the ground units are capable of firing any more and they are
wiped out. Raneb falls back under Viking control.

The political event is Bloated Bureaucracy which makes the purchase of
Fed VPs harder. They still buy 8 VPs for 40 megacredits, repair their
two damaged escorts, and build some more local defenses. The first
unit chosen is the Fortress unit just destroyed at at Raneb.  It is
built at Horus, since taking it out of the pool means the Vikings
cannot rebuild it at Raneb (bit of a strange effect). The Vikings now
have a tax base of 38 megacredits, sufficient to let them build a
second sloop. The Vikings add 10VP, the Federation 8.

At this point the Federation player's main problem is already showing. He 
simply cannot buy VPs at a rate that competes with the Viking player; in 
fact by doing nothing the Viking player could add 10 points per turn 
through his homebase tax alone.  To protect against this, the Fed player 
would have to try to spend much of his tax base on VPs early on, which 
would of course leave him vulnerable to losses of his federal units.

Fed VP 64, TR 2
Vik VP 75, TR 0

Turn 10. The Federation side decides that Tiergran must be retaken if
they want to have a chance to win the game, and sends all their
remaining starships there.  The opportunity is there since the Viking
cruiser and sloop will likely be at the homebase for repairs. Two
frigates (one with repulsors and missiles, one carrying a fighter and
special forces) and no less four escorts (one equipped with an ECM
pod) enter the system.  The space defenses they encounter encompass
three fighter units and just-arrived, newly built Viking sloop.  Even
these four units have no chance against the concentrated Federation
firepower. Within a single round of combat they are all destroyed,
while scoring hits on two of the Federation escorts.  The Federation
armada continues on towards the planet.

The ground defenses are likewise not a pushover.  3 grav armor units,
two power trooper battalions, and a Tank Corps are stationed on the
planet, all in the sector capital with the +2 attack value for
defending units. And on the first round of combat they score hits on
two of the escorts, while the tank corps is destroyed, and one GA and
the PT suffer a hit. At this point, the Fed player is in a
quandary. He would like to withdraw the FEs off the planet but now
it's the Viking movement phase - they will have to weather one more
round of fire before they are safely out of range.  And the Vikings
make the most of it. One grav armor unit scores a critical hit on one
of the damaged FEs, and the other two score two normal hits on the
other one. Neither of the two FEs makes it back into orbit. Meanwhile
the PT's fire has eliminated the Federation fighter unit.  In exchange
the FF with the missile pack empties it on one of the GA units,
scoring a critical hit and destroying it; another one is hit.  In the
next round, the carnage continues.  The third FE unit suffers two hits
and is then eliminated by a critical hit from the last undamaged GA
unit, in exchange for two hits on the PT.  In round 4, the ground
units score a hit on one of the frigates, but by then so much damage
has accrued that this remains their last hurrah. By round 5, no
resistance remains on the surface and the short Viking rule on
Tiergran is over, for now.

This was a very expensive fight for both sides, the Federation lost 76
megacredits' worth of units, and the Vikings 77. And the bad news is
not over for the Federation, another Distant Wars event sees yet
another Frigate withdrawn (they hand the damaged one back to the
central government). The Feds hurriedly reestablish a grav armor unit
and tank corps on the planet and buy 14 VP. The Vikings, repairing and
reequipping their damaged ships, have nothing left for such luxuries
and only add one.

Fed VP 78, TR 0
Vik VP 76, TR 0

Turn 11.  The Federation decides that defending Tiergran is the
highest priority and leaves their remaining two ships (one FF, one FE)
in orbit. The two Viking ships go to Raneb and overwhelm the lone
defending AG in a single round of combat.  Disaster strikes for the
Federation, as the third Distant Wars event takes their last frigate
out of the game. They buy as many VPs as possible (13) but the Vikings
know the threat to their forces is much weakened and splurge almost
all their income (now back down to 24 from its high of 38) on VPs, 22
of them. The game is essentially decided since there is no way for the
Federation to catch up to the next turn's theoretical worst Viking
outcome: if they lose all worlds and spend only the 10 megacredit
homebase income, they will end up at 108, and the Federation does not
have enough money saved to buy 17 VPs in the next turn.  They could
still bank on a Civil War event and hope to turn their last Federal
ship into VPs.

Fed VP 91, TR 0
Vik VP 98, TR 0

Turn 12 sees the final defeat of the Federation player with what is
obviously the start of a permanent Viking presence in Federation
space. The Vikings go back to Tiergran, defended in space by the
single remaining Federation escort.  In two rounds, the escort manages
two hits on the Viking sloop, but is hit three times by the cruiser
and vaporised by a critical hit from the sloop.

This time, both ships continue on to the planet, defended by 1 GA, 1
AG, 1 SF, and 1 TC unit.  Again, with the attack bonus for the sector
capital, the defenders give a good account of themselves, shutting
down all the sloop's weapons systems on the first round with two more
hits, in exchange for the tank corps eliminated and two hits on the
grav armor unit. Again, on the next round the sloop cannot withdraw
(defender's movement phase) and while the cruiser destroys the special
forces unit, it and the grav armor unit score two more hits on the
sloop, shooting it out of the skies.  This is the Fed's last success
as the cruiser eliminates all ground units within two rounds.

The Fed tax base is now down to 90. Ironically, another Civil War
breaks out. This could be theoretically useful for the Federation
except there are no ships left to convert into victory points. So they
spend as much as they can (11VPs worth) leaving them at 102 VPs.  The
Viking player simply uses his whole income (back to 38 megacredits)
for VPs, ending the game at 136. A comfortable Viking victory.


Of course, this still doesn't tell me about real balance.  All it
means is that that, yes, the Viking player can eventually punch
through the Federation defense. Next time, playing the Federation, I
would probably put a higher emphasis on massive and immediate
retaliation missions early on; arguably I frittered the Federation
ships away a bit in an attempt to defend against all possible Viking
attacks. That won't work anyway in the long run; you have to take them
by the horns at some point.  Also, the longer you wait, the more
likely it is for a Distant Wars event to occur, at which point you
lose a frigate without having used it for anything except
fleet-in-being purposes. So, for now the verdict remains open.

Markus

Last 3 games played: Gunslinger, ASLSK, At all Hazards
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