[Consim-l] Star Viking solo replay - part 1

[Markus Stumptner]

OK, so this is the solo replay using a different set of equipment than
chosen in my previous account. The Viking player rolled a 6, giving them
66 points.  That is sufficient to buy a cruiser with ECM and missile pack,
a fighter, a powertrooper and a raider unit, and keep two points in the
treasury.

Unit types as reference (units with * have more than 1 step):

Ships:
CR Viking Cruiser*	SL Viking Sloop*
FF Fed Frigate*		FE Fed Escort*

Spacecraft:
FT Fighter		PB Patrol Boat
AM Armed Merchant

Ground
GA Grav Armor*		PT Power Trooper*
SF Fed Special Forces	RD Viking Raider unit
FD Fortress Defense*	AG Army Group*
TC Tank Corps		AW Air Wing
MI Militia		HO Horde

Turn 1.  The Vikings decide to go for one of the Class C worlds, Raneb
(tax income 8).  Unsurprisingly, there are no defenders in orbit, but
a fairly massive local (green unit) garrison on the ground: a fortress
(FD), two air wings (AW), one tank corps (TC), two army groups (AG), 1
militia unit (MI). However, they are no match for the Viking forces.
The Vikings unload only the fighter and fight the locals from the air.
The fighter is lost quickly, but the cruiser is unhurt, while it
dispatches of the ground units within a few rounds.  Raneb falls to
the Vikings.

In the political phase, the Federation rolls a 10 (Civil War), but
declines to convert units into VPs.  Of its tax income of 122, it can
rebuild much of the local units lost on Raneb on other worlds.  Of the
federal portion of 61 megacredits, it builds a new escort unit (FE)
for 25, and 6 victory points for 24.  The Vikings build the fortress,
three fighters, and 2 tank corps to defend Raneb, and buy 5 VPs.

Viking VP 5, TR 4.
Fed VP 6, TR 12.


Turn 2. The Viking cruiser, being unharmed, continues to attack
Tiergran, a class B world (tax income 12). Here they meet a much
stronger defense.  In orbit, the federation has an FE (escort) unit
(with a Special Forces unit on board), two fighters (FT), and a patrol
boat (PB).

In the first round of combat, the cruiser destroys the fighter, but
takes a hit in its ECM unit from the FE unit.  The second round sees
another hit scored by the FE, but in the third round the missile pack
scores a critical hit on the FE unit and destroys it pluse the Special
Forces (SF) unit it is carrying as cargo, while the cruiser's weakened
main guns finally zero in on the PB and destroy it as well.  The
missile pack is now used up.  Only the cruiser remains in orbit, but
the ground defenses are stronger than on Raneb: 1FD, 2 Grav Armor
(GA), 1 T, 2AG, 1 AW.  They are all stacked on the sector capital for
maximum firepower, and one feature of Tiergran is that the sector
capital has a +2 Attack rating, i.e., all defenders fire at +2 against
invading units.  The cruiser declines to attack and instead plunders
all the ungoarded areas in the system, yielding a total of 4 money.

In the political phase, the dieroll yields "Federal Avarice".  With
most of Tiergran being plundered, the Fed tax income has dropped to
112. This leaves just enough for the Fed player to buy 7VP (for 28
megacredits) and a FE to replace the escort destroyed over Tiergran.
The Vikings build an ECM and missile pod to reequip the cruiser when
it comes back to the base, and buy 5 VPs.

Viking VP 10, TR 14.
Fed VP 13, TR 13.

Turn 3. The viking cruiser returns home to repair the damage. The
Federation does not try to recapture Tiergran (they cannot rule out
the possibility that the Vikings spend the double price, 8 points, to
repair the cruiser on the spot) so there is no combat.

The Fed gets 108 tax, building only an ECM pod and 7 VP, as all local
(green) units are used up, so they can only spend half of the money.
The Vikings repair not only the cruiser, they also build a sloop
(rated 645) with an ECM pod.  This will enable them to either threaten
more worlds or put together an even more formidable raiding force.

Viking VP 17, TR 0.
Fed VP 20, TR 36.

Turn 4. The cruiser loads the fighter unit built in turn 2 and
proceeds back to Tiergran with the sloop.  Here they run again into 2
FEs, and the rebuilt patrol boat and a fighter.  Again, the Viking
fighter is knocked out immediately, but in exchange the Federation PB
is lost, a hit is scored on each FE. In the next round, the cruiser
scores a critical hit on one of the FE's, destroying it, while the
sloop loses its ECM pod to the second FE and is hit by the Federation
fighter.  In the third round, the cruiser dispatches the second FE
with another critical hit, but the sloop is hit twice twice more by
that FE and the fighter.  In the fourth and last round, the cruiser
destroys the fighter, but uses up its missile pack in the process.

Leaving the crippled sloop behind, the cruiser proceeds to attack the
ground units, but. in exchange for 2 hits on a grav armor unit, has to
suffer one hit and loses its ECM pod, and withdraws.  Again the
bolstered defenses of the sector capital prove too tough. The Vikings
plunder most of the planet, obtaining 12 money, but withdraw from
Tiergran again.

In the political phase, the Federation Civil War continues. Tax income
on Tiergran is sufficient to repair the damaged GA unit.  A new FE is
built elsewhere to replace one of the destroyed ones, replace the FT,
and buy 7 VP. The Vikings buy 10 VPs of their income of 18. (The
plunder has to arrive at a Viking owned world or base before it
counts.)

Fed VP 27, TR 34
Vik VP 27, TR 8

Turn 5. Again, the cruiser returns to the Viking base, the sloop also
limps home.  The Federation's tax income has rebounded to 122 as there
is no raiding, but of the "local" half of the budget only 6 is spent,
since there are no local units left to buy. The second lost FE is
replace, and the last few local units (militias) in the pool are
built. This leaves enough money to buy 10 VP for the Federation.  The
Vikings repair their damaged ships, buy some new ECM and missile pods,
and another fighter. They also can afford to buy 10 VP. (The Viking
tax base is 18 since the conquest of Raneb and they gained the 12
megacredit income from last turn's plundering. One could argue that
these turns when the Vikings are fairly likely to take time out are a
good opportunity for the Federation to reoccupy Viking-taken planets,
such as Raneb.  On the other hand, by this time I had a fairly healthy
respect for the ability of ground forces to hurt the weaker
spaceships.)

Fed VP 37 TR 26
Vik VP 37 TR  6

Turn 6. Almost halftime and the Federation is still very much in the
race. However, what is becoming clear is that if the Viking really
wants to get ahead he has to cut the Federation tax base. That means
taking worlds, and because of the way that the raising of local units
works, going for the same world again will meet less resistance. Of
course the Feds know that, too. So both sides meet again over
Tiergran.  This time the Federation has only one FE, a FT (fighter)
and a PB (patrol boat). That won't be enough, but perhaps they can
take out the Viking sloop. 

However, in round 1 the FE takes a hit immediately from the cruiser's
weapons.  The Viking fighter is lost to the Fed fighter. In round 2,
the Patrol Boat knocks out the sloop's ECM pod. In round 3, the
cruiser scores a critical hit on the FE, blowing it up, and the PB is
also knocked out. Over the planet, the ECM-less sloop is sent to
engage in some preemptive plundering in case they fail again on the
ground, before the cruiser goes in against the capital.  The local
commander decides that mathematically, his chances are better using
his mobile units against the plunderer than wasting them against the
cruiser.  Apart from the capital's fortress, he has two grav armor
(GA) units, one power trooper (PT) unit, and two army groups
(AG). However, while they manage to score two hits on the sloop, the
sloop first scores multiple hits on one GA, then quickly knocks out it
and the other GA with critical hits, and then makes a clean sweep of
the other units. An unlucky campaign for the defenders.  The cruiser
then goes after the fortress, and while it loses its ECM pod on the
first round, by the second round it has scored 3 hits and reduced the
fortress to 0 attack value, so that the outcome is no longer in doubt. 
On the third try, Tiergran falls.

The Fed taxbase is now down to 108, and news of the fall of Tiergran
sends the economy into a depression, so the income is halved. However,
the reserves are large enough to again replace the lost FE unit,
provide the new unit with an ECM pod, and buy 2VP.  The Vikings can't
use their plunder yet but spend most of their tax base on bolstering
the defenses on Tiergran, building a local grav armor unit and a
Viking power trooper unit, and two Viking fighters for space
defense. They do spend to buy 10 VPs.

Fed VP 39, TR 2
Vik VP 47, TR 1


Markus

Last 3 games played: Abensberg/Eckmuehl, Star Viking, WW I
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