Monday game; background

A brief headsup so that those of you who actually check your email can think about forces.

As morning dawns over the capital planet Auriq, the occupation forces are getting ready to leave with their ill gotten gains. It’s just another day in the continuing pillage of a resource rich, stability poor galactic dead end. It just happens to be the last day for the current bunch of looters peacekeepers. The home government has finally tired of the exorbitant cost of stealing everything that isn’t nailed down bringing stability in Auriq, and the troops are being pulled out. That happens tomorrow. Today the private sector is leaving. Despite their polite requests, the military has been just a little bit too busy holding the perimeter to provide an escort out and the private sector has been forced to engage Whitespace Intergalactic to provide a high quality market sensitive protective detail for the departing executives and their executive compensation package.

The upcoming game will model the departure of the convoy from Auriq, focussing on the slightly awkward moments between leaving Auriq orbit and coming under the umbrella of the Whitespace Intergalactic protection force, who’ve been unavoidably delayed in their arrival due to unexplained but presumably incredibly profitable circumstances “beyond their control”.

Players wondering about creating their own forces should keep in mind that it’s all about the loot, baby.

Roles will be assigned on the night. No-one should be planning to be assigned to anything particularly well meaning.

Scratch forces will be available for anyone who didn’t see this or didn’t cook something up. Those who cooked something else will be given an opportunity to reconfigure to their role as they see fit.

Since it’s no fun to get blown to bits early on through miscalculation and then have nothing to do, there’s a fiendish and simple plan in place to give anyone so unlucky something else to do.

The convoy will be DM controlled. The DM will try to avoid the temptation to turn it into Benny’s World of Blood, but a savvy player might keep in mind the DM’s known propensities.

After Action Report; the McGuffin mini-campaign

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy, and equally no campaign design ever survives contact with the players. What I'd planned for was a scramble to board and then somehow keep control of a huge wallowing freighter making its way through a chokepoint of interstellar commerce. I'd written rules to cover boarding, and then I'd tried to cook up five mission profiles which would put the players at each others' throats for a couple of evenings.

I've always argued that you can tell a lot about how people really are by watching them do something with no real consequences. People will fake a lot if there's something at stake like money or sex, but give them a game with no money riding on it and all the extremes of their personalities will bubble to the surface, a process which is only very occasionally as pretty as it sounds.

The centrepiece of the whole mess was RMS McGuffin, which I had thoughtfully stuffed with 33 small warships before setting it on its way through pirate country. I armed the McGuffin in keeping with its size, and then added a detachment of marines and some close in weapons as insurance put in by the shippers.

The McGuffin was carrying a cargo of warships, so I could plausibly put in a force sent by the buyers to make sure they got their toys, and another one sent by their enemies to stop that. And then I added a group of pirates, out for the loot. What else might add to the fun? I needed to have enough stuff on table to keep five people busy. Well, you couldn't go wrong with MORE pirates, so I added another group. But just to keep it interesting, I made their objective slightly different - the second group was briefed to keep other pirates away. Finally, no conflict is ever complete without ineffectual bumblers.

I looked on it all, and found it good. The various forces should come in at different times and points, and all somewhat disorganised. Their objectives were at odds with each others, but not by so much that two or more players couldn't cooperate to clobber one of the others if he got too much of an advantage.

Just hold that contentment in your mind for a moment. That's long enough. That's about as long as mine lasted.

The well-meaning pirates started on table, lurking near the bottom of the map waiting for everyone else's plans to become apparent. The traditional pirates entered somewhat above them on the map and spread out to scout the area. The McGuffin plodded on, little knowing its fate. The Republic Navy beamed in from its home system well below the McGuffin and wondering why it never occurred to the high command to tell them where the McGuffin would be coming from. The Imperial Sudanese Navy came in behind the McGuffin moving at a well chosen pace that allowed them to catch up without overshooting. The UN came in between the Republicans and the Imperials moving flat out towards the McGuffin's entry point.

Well, it was already apparent that my cunning plan was showing leakage. The UN were in earlier than I expected them, and so were the Imperials. The two pirate players were well off the axis of the likely combat, and the Republic, which I'd hoped would be early, was in at exactly the same time as everyone else.

Most of the first evening was preliminary manoeuvre on the map. Some interesting lessons from that. For one thing, use the same scale on the map as you do on the table. For another, map movement actually works, but it's frustrating moving back and forth between the players looking at each map and trying to make sure no-one saw anything they shouldn't see. Next time I may print the map out on acetate so that I can just stack them all on top of each other and see what's on top of what. Finally, it may be pointless. Give the players a big enough area of operations and they'll use all, but as a corollary, they'll move fast on it so as to cover ground. And when they do that, they'll wind up moving too fast to engage each other.

So for the first evening, what happened was that the Republican Navy headed towards the McGuffin, the UN shot right past it at such a speed that the main force never really got back in the game, and the Imperial Navy closed with the McGuffin before opening fire and doing heavy damage from the outset. Meanwhile, the two pirate squadrons were off in the rough shaowing each other and trying to figure out where the action was. By the end of the second evening, the UN force had gotten off a couple of shots at the apparent aggressor (the Imperialists), the Imperialists had knocked a quarter of the McGuffin's hull boxes off while taking some punishment in turn from the concealed weaponry in Hold number 3 (I may have been over sporting in that regard - rather than shooting off all the ordnance as soon as the Imperialists closed, I elected to fire one system per arc per turn; if I'd fired everything at once, the Imperial commander would have got a very bloody nose, and the midgame might have been very different).

The second phase began with the Imperials coming under the guns of the Republicans, their natural enemies. The Imperialists displayed an admirable mission focus and kept firing on the McGuffin even while their ships took more and more fire from the Republicans. Slightly less admirable was the order to the fast picket which had used up its supply of missiles and was instructed to ram the McGuffin. The crew decided to seek paradise elsewhere and left the table rather than obey orders. While the Imperialists clobbered the McGuffin, and the Republicans shot all the light combatants off the squadron, the Imperialist commander had the brass balls to radio the UN commander and ask him to back off and not interfere with legitimate anti-smuggling operations. We may never know what happened in the rest of that conversation but for the remainder of the evening the UN player deployed an increasingly baroque splatter of explanations for why his vessels were never quite in position to engage.

It didn't take long for the McGuffin to be reduced to a drifting hulk; under the normal rules it would have just fallen apart once the Imperials shot off all its hull boxes, but there would have been no fun in that, so it was allowed to drift freely to see what the players might do to try to salvage it and nurse it to port. The Imperialists were effectively reduced to their main unit (the combo carrier/BDN Madinah) with the two cruisers and one destroyer still on table but effectively neutered. The Republican player kept firing steadily on the Imperials for as long as his guns would bear, but with diminishing effect as the one shot SMPs started to deplete (at this point, the inevitable complaints began that everyone else had been given better ships...). By this stage the two pirate squadrons had finally got into range of the furball and the roleplaying began in earnest.

At this point, I was laughing myself sick. The well meaning pirates made overtures to everyone but the UN, but somehow managed to emerge without a useful deal of any kind. The traditional pirates started trying to pick off the surviving Imperial cripples, while cheerfully making it clear that it was all about what they could salvage, not about a stand up fight. The well-meaning pirates checked the instructions from their shadowy backers, and made another attempt to make a deal. Then they squared their shoulders and to my astonishment opened up on the Republicans, the one group of people with whom they shared an objective. The Republican player rapidly discovered that there were plenty of players with problem ships, as the first serious exchange of fire knocked out two pirate ships. After another round of fire which saw the well-meaning pirates reduced to less than half their strength it was nearly midnight and I had to intervene, if only to find out what the well meaning pirates thought they'd just done. The expression of chagrin on the commander's face was worth the whole effort....

All in all, although nothing actually worked, I'm pretty pleased with how it worked out. People had things to do, and I have to say I always think the game has done SOMETHING right when we keep right on playing through the moment that we usually go to the pub.

The amazing thing was how little communication there was between the players. Nothing in the briefings had told anyone to maintain radio silence, and yet we were halfway through the second evening before anyone got serious about trying to negotiate or discover whether they had anything to negotiate about. The Republic and the well-meaning pirates were natural allies, and yet wound up hammering away at each other in the end game - simply because communication between them was sufficiently unclear that the well-meaning pirates didn't twig that the Republicans were the rightful owners of the cargo. That lack of communication was something I really hadn't counted on - I'd correlated the forces on the expectation that with one force on "exterminate" orders one on "pillage" and three on variations of "protect" there would always be a coalition available to prevent an unrelenting attack on the McGuffin to destroy it.

in fact, the one force that came closest to achieving its mission was the Imperials, who displayed alarming focus on mission. I'm still not sure whether the UN player was role-playing ineffectuality or just hamstrung by poor initial deployment, but the result was stereotypical UN - if we'd played a third night, the UN would have arrived just in time to write up the war crimes indictments and shake its head wearily at human folly. The traditional pirates were brilliant, although they didn't really achieve anything, they took no losses and might well have made a dollar on the scrap which was filling the system at the end. The Republicans were doggedly aggressive, and might well have been in a position to shepherd the McGuffin home depending on whether they could face down the pirates. Doomed, perhaps from the outset, by their determination to be reasonable, the well-meaning pirates are the force most to be pitied - they tried so hard to be reasonable, and then when it seemed that only desperate measures would let them achieve their objective (not getting killed by their backers for not trying hard enough) they got butchered through an easily avoidable misunderstanding.

Now, back to the drawing board.

Local Businessmen squadron; briefing

Pirate Squadron
Jardine Mathiesen have paid you a hefty fee up front with the promise of more to follow if you loiter in the A’den system for a couple of weeks and scare off pirates until the RMS McGuffin makes a transit. Ordinarily you’d laugh in their faces and take the cargo, but the money’s better than it usually is on these protection gigs and it came with a none too veiled threat about what might happen if the ultimate customers for the cargo got to hear about you letting the side down.

Point of entry; in system, just hanging around. Pick a location.

Likely opponents; The McGuffin for starters. The clients have made it pretty clear that the McGuffin is no ordinary freighter and that you should stay away from it if you don’t want to be blown out of the sky. You’re not sure how seriously to take this - why hire you if the ship can look after itself? But why take chances? The big worry is other pirates; you figure to chase them off before they can close. There’s no need to worry about government ships - if they were in the neighborhood, Jardine would have pulled the tax payer schtick and stiffed you in favour of a real navy.

Force
Either - your own design, or if you brought nothing:

2 x Ravager Carrier each with one fighter squadron and one heavy boarding launch (4 marine boxes, one armour one PDS count as heavy) 614
3 x Ravager Cruiser 609 1223
1 x Ravager Raider II/N 93 1316
4 Ravager Attacker 176 1492

Pirate squadron briefing

Pirate Squadron

Go, go, go.

Your source in Jardine Mathiesen has just told you that RMS McGuffin is on its way through A’den carrying the dream cargo of all time. 33 IJN strikeboats in mint condition, on their way to the wartorn Sudan system. If you move fast, you have the chance to lay hands on a supply of agile modern warships which will end your reliance on the jerrybuilt raiders you’ve been using for the past five years.

Your mission is to seize the McGuffin and get it back to base with cargo intact.

Point of entry: any except Gouanbou Kong or Novy Yoreki. Roll one red d6 and one black d6. Subtract the red score from the black. This is the number of turns before or after the arrival of the RMS McGuffin that you will arrive. Negative numbers are before the McGuffin, positive after (so ideally you’d like a red 6 and a black 1).

You MUST exit through the same jump node that you entered.

Expected opposition:
Your Jardine mole assures you that the freighter has no escort. There has been little anti-pirate activity lately, and the UNSC is rumoured to be refitting at its base at Novy Yoreki before undertaking a major sweep with heavy carriers equipped with dedicated boarding craft. Your main worry is that your mole has told other pirates and that you’ll have to fight them off. Government forces are unlikely to be an issue this far from main bases.

Force; Either your own force or the following
3 x Ravager Carrier + 2 Fighter squadrons, 2 heavy boarding launches (three marines, one armour box 2 PDS, count heavy), 2 squadrons of light boarding launches. 777 + 36 + 36 + 60 = 1009
5 x Ravager Attacker 220 1229
3 x Ravager Raider 258 1487

McGuffin briefing

RMS McGuffin
Cargo; 33 strikeboats
Escort: none

You are the commander of the RMS McGuffin, a massive bulk freighter transiting the A’den system. For reasons that you’ve decided not to probe too deeply, Jardine Mathiesen have told you that 300 Mtons of “agricultural machinery” are urgently needed “to forestall famine” in the wartorn Sudan system.

Travelling with the “agricultural machinery” are the ugliest bunch of “agronomists” and “aid consultants” you’ve ever seen. They keep themselves to themselves and you like it that way. Nor have you asked them anything at all about the “crop survey scanners” which have been mounted in cargo bay three.

Point of entry to A’den: The Goanbou Kong jump node
Point of exit Paleo Khartoum jump node.

Likely opposition; you’re worried about pirates, but Jardine assures you that they’ve been paid off and will leave you alone. You’re also worried about the UN, who will probably arrest you if they board you and find out that the agricultural machinery is what you think it is. If a UN patrol shows up you plan to pile on the acceleration and pretend your radios aren’t working properly; if you can get to the jump node before they overhaul you, you should be OK. And you’re not too happy about the possibility that the combatants from Sudan might take an interest in you either.

Your vessel - see attached diagram.
Basic stats
Cargo 400 M in four holds
Passenger space 12
Hull boxes 60
M-Drive 2 10% mass 60
FTL 10% mass 60
4 PDS systems
2 Beam 1
2 Fire control
carried weapons 8
Total mass 600 tons.
12 crew factors

main cargo; 330 tons

Also carried
6 crew box equivalents of agronomists
25 ton “sensor package” in cargo hold 3 (aft, topside)

Sensor package contains
rl arc 1 fire control, 3 SMP 2 PDS (rear arc only)
rr arc 1 fire control, 3 SMP 2 PDS (rear arc only)
fl 2 SMP
fr 2 SMP

Imperial Sudanese Navy Briefing

The Imperial Sudanese Navy

The treacherous enemy has finally found an arms dealer unscrupulous enough to sell it more than 30 of the deadly IJN Naginata class strikeboats. For the past three days your squadron has been shadowing the freighter carrying them. At last they’re going through the A’den system, giving you a perfect opportunity to capture the cargo for your own navy and let piracy take the blame.

Your mission; capture of the McGuffin. No witnesses can be allowed to escape. If capture is out of the question, destruction of the McGuffin will do.

Point of entry: the Goanbou Kong jump node, one turn after the RMS McGuffin (but see below)

Force: Either your own design or (if you brought no design)
1 x CVB Madinah class carrier/BDN 705 points with two standard fighter squadrons and two squadrons of 6 Marine landing craft (each is unarmoured and unarmed and carries a single Marine box; treat as fighter squadrons but with no secondary move)
2 x CP Sahaabah missile cruisers 434 1139
2 x DD Saladin 228 1367
2 x CT Shaulah 74 1441
1 CT Khabar 50 1491

Problems; maintainability on your heavy and poorly understood units. Roll 1 d6 for each Sahaabah CP. Roll better than the number of crew factors to enter with the light forces; otherwise entry for each ship is delayed by the difference between the roll and the number of crew boxes. The Madinah cannot enter till both Sahaabahs are in system.

Options; see attached sheet for rules governing heavy missiles. Choose loads now

For own design, roll 1d6 for all vessels, entering only if die roll is greater at least equal to crew factors. One turn delay for each crew box more than your dice roll. Ships with more than 6 crew factors enter with the last of the lighter vessels

Opposition:
The Republicans are obviously incapable of protecting the freighter or they would have sent an escort. They can be ignored. The UN will do nothing. You’ve heard the rumours of a supercarrier strike group being prepared to sweep the region, but these decadent mongrels lack the stomach for firm action or even for serious defence expenditure. Your only worry is the possibility that pirates may get in the way; destroy them if they show any sign of interfering.

Republic of Sudan Navy Briefing

The Navy of the Republic of Sudan
Despite all your precautions, it seems that the warmongering enemy has learned of your purchase of vital weapons of self defence and dispatched a fleet of its terror wagons to destroy the peaceful and unarmed freighter carrying them. Intelligence suspects that the perfidious scoundrels will seek to blame the loss on pirates, so you have been dispatched to A’den to pre-empt the attack.

Your mission; protect the freighter and ensure its safe passage.

Point of entry to A’den; the Paleo Khartoum jump node. Roll one red d6 and one black d6. Subtract the red score from the black. This is the number of turns before or after the arrival of the RMS McGuffin that you will arrive. Negative numbers are before the McGuffin, positive after (so ideally you’d like a red 6 and a black 1). The McGuffin is coming in from the Gouanbou Kong node
Desired point of exit; the Paleo Khartoum jump node

Forces; Either your own design, or the following
2 CH Samurai 562
2 CL Arashi 406 1068
3 Bakemono SB with the main beam armament replaced by embarked marines (2 boxes) 165 1233
3 Ashigaru FF with the Class 2 beam replaced by embarked marines (2 boxes) 258 1491

Likely opponents
The perfidious imperialists, of course. And maybe pirates. And those useless do-gooders in the UN. Although the pirates are supposed to have been paid off. And the UN’s reportedly trying to raise the money to refit three supercarriers with class three grasers so as to finish off the pirates with overwhelming force. A likely story