FFW in Solomani Rim/Rebellion Era

[captnchuck]

As I am bored and waiting on some stuff before I embark on my Alt History project I think I might tackle this.
Start with maybe 3 Sectors. Same scale with a few changes.
1) SDB,will be squadrons and divided into light and Heavy(Maybe even Monitors)
2) Focus a little bit more on Logistics because in all the TAS articles on the wars they talk a lot about it but in FFW it is nonexistent.
3) Allow independent movement of squadrons as the density of Fleets is greater than the Marches.
4) more functions for Scouts.
5) some more detail for land units
6)special rules/detail for the various bases and starports.

I plan on using Heaven and Earth to pull Data from for the raw numbers then working down.
Right now I think the hardest part will be numbers on the counters. Ground are easy. Space will be a little harder.

Any help or suggestion are appreciated. I been wanting to do this for a long time

 

[whartung]

At the fleet level, the only thing that should distinguish fleets from each other is the TL of the fleet, as it's the sole driver of change.

Since you're not doing all out on the economies in terms of converting Credits in to Fleets, you can scale the number of fleets roughly to the populations of the territories, but when it comes down to "fleet on fleet", higher TL fleets have an advantage (positive DM, more "attack factors", etc.) over lower TL fleets.

 

[McPerth]

IMHO, Solomani War or Rebellio nare too large to be rpresented by FFW rules and be playable, even with computrer support... YMMV.

As for the points you say:

1) SDB,will be squadrons and divided into light and Heavy(Maybe even Monitors)

Don't forget static deenses (deep MGs).

3) Allow independent movement of squadrons as the density of Fleets is greater than the Marches.

This can easily be abused, unless you make it multi-player, with each player plays a fleet and all communications through the referee (difficult to enforce).

5) some more detail for land units

This is (IMHO) one of the main flaws in FFW. An invasion of Efate would be resolved in 1-3 turns (bombasrding to reduce defenses and then invading) , while the Invasion of such a HiPop HiTech planet in Traveller would be a long, costly enterprise.

Time ago I was thinking on the told milti-player game for FFW, and my related ideas were (numbered as answer to each point):

1) Aside form SDBs, planets had some defenses according to their pop and TL (if TL 12+, aas lower ones cannot sustain deep MG sites)
2) The Overall commander received resource points, mostly usable to repair units and ressuply after battles. He distributed them as seen, and they moved at J4, with the possibiliyty to intercept them. Naval bases also counted as Resource points.
3) As said, multi-player, with all communications passing through the referee, that would take care of how long they take to reach each commander (if they ever do). Detached squadrons made pre-designed moves, with assembly points in case they had to abort.
4) Each Aldmiral had an intelligence rating (his relations and capacity for military intelligence, not IQ), that gave him infromation about surrundering zones. Scouts helped on this.
5) I divided each planet a number of zones, each of them having to be taken, based on size and pop , so that a large planet with high pop would have many zones, while a small or low pop one just a zone or two. Also the bombing capacity of orbit ships should be reduced (e.g. to a single unit, and dividing the planetary defense battalion into units)

Hope that helps. Ignore it if not.

 

[whartung]

Don't forget static deenses (deep MGs).

I have yet to see the mechanic of Deep MGs documented anywhere. It's "easy enough" to just add several large MGs to a planet, but there's no game mechanic to subdue or defeat them that I'm aware of. Nor is there any doctrine described about how the various governments deployed them, and how often.

Honestly, they're a bit of a fairy tale. Referenced in mythology, but never seen.

 

[McPerth]

but there's no game mechanic to subdue or defeat them that I'm aware of

The only reference I know about is in MT: Assignment Vigilante...

 

[whartung]

The only reference I know about is in MT: Assignment Vigilante...

What does it say about it?

 

[McPerth]

What does it say about it?

Spoiler

In one of the adventures they are attacked by one of those sites. IIRC the way to silence it is by knocking out its sensors, that must be in surface.

 

[McPerth]

Some time ago, on another discussion, someone (ITTR it was Mike, but not sure) said the SDB factor in FFW featured them, and that it was so squadrons in the system are able to avoid them just by staying out range (if they were true SDBs, they could pursuit)

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Well one thing to look at and decide is if it is the Rim. Terra is stated to no longer be under MR by 1110:
If the Imps are relaxing on Terra by ten, what other worlds of the region.
Depending on which story you believe, is there the planetoid squadron in the Oort Cloud waiting for "the signal"? I mean if Zhos can have Ine Givar commando counters for first turn surprise, why not the Solomani ?

 

[Condottiere]

The Confederation Navy is slipping in black budget stealthed cruisers into the Sol system.

I suspect they'll be activated shortly before the arrival of a Solomani battle fleet.