 August 20, 2016 - 6:50am | In Star Fleet Battles there were some solo encounters : planet crusher and space ameba IIRC, they operated by a set of automatic rules and dice rolls. Next issue of FE is ships themed and I was brainstorming ideas: 1. Create a similar "space monster" ? 2. Convert a Star Trek one? With the planet crusher the SFB player has to keep it from a populated planet. Not to exciting but one plausible "space monster" is a comet is on track to slam into a populated planet. But it has broken up so that its a cloud of large chunks and all the chunks must be stopped. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 20, 2016 - 6:59am | In fact the comet could start with an AD encounter to plant a nuke and destroy the comet before it can threaten the planet. This leaves the comet in d10 dangerous fragments. Now the militia must intercept these but I'm guessing that a comet has a lot of speed so the militia will have to set up intercepts. Each intercept is a die role for effectiveness. Or is this a sathar plot to slam a comet into an important colony? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 20, 2016 - 9:31am | Couldn't the KH mission with the giant Sathar Dreadnought be a solo mission? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
August 20, 2016 - 4:20pm | Couldn't the KH mission with the giant Sathar Dreadnought be a solo mission?
Is that the one with the Zuraqor? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 21, 2016 - 4:20pm | No, you might be thinking of the Omicron mini-module that came with the Referee Screen. The Juggernaut is the big 500 hull point automated behemoth that released the 20 robotic laser battery armed heavy fighters to fend off Strike Force NOVA as it attempted to bombard Hakosoar. It's the event that spurned Operation: Dreadnought in my campaign.  |
August 23, 2016 - 8:56am | what if there was a sathar plot to effectively devestate a high value world? they have been stooging out in the oort cloud for a year setting up Operation Comet-gedon They have outfitted some of their frigats with grapples and these ships have latched onto comets and slowly, with timing being done via subspace communication, nudged them on intercepts with the Clarion. game starts on a strategic level with 1/2 dozen freighters inbound and under ion window. assault scouts are in various places except one plus the frigate is in orbit. The robotic brain that is tasked with "sky watch" of the white light system alerts the Royal Marines that its spotted a comet on collision course with Clarion. RM player may begin moving ships to respond. Each turn there is a 33% cumulative chance of something else showing up until one other unscreened comet and another ion screening ship show up. Each game turn the RM player can refine data on target or look for new targets. refining datat tells you if target is shephered by sathar ships. looking for new targets means the random roll for where the new target will turn up is done now before the new target arrives this means the RM player knows where the new target will arrive and can begin moving ships toward that. RM frigate starts in orbit and will be quickly loaded with nukes to deal with the comets. Assault scouts do not start with nukes but can rendezvous with the frigate or clarion station to transfer 1 or more nukes during a strategic game turn (there is a limited supply of nukes). if the AS is unmolested it can rendezvous with a comet and leave a nuke. if an assault scout arrives in a strategic hex where there are sathar ships is can either commit to attack or shadow till other vessels arrive to aid in the attack. any time a ship commits to attack the game ships to standard KHS play. Sathar have sent in red herring ships with ion screens up forcing the RM to investigate them, only one ion screen ship will have a comet behind its screen. The sathar has a frigate or destroyer with each comet. Note since its easy for an assault scout to destroy a sathar destroyer I think all the sathar ships will be upgraded from frigate to destroyer. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 23, 2016 - 2:58pm | Interesting idea. It would have to happen further out in the system because by the time comets get in to about 1 AU their comas could be 6-12 hexes across. You're not going to mask that with an ion window.  Also I think this would have to be a really long play. First you'd have to find object out there (think densities even less than the asteroid belt where there are millions of km between objects). Next you got to get them moving in the right direction which could take a long time. Mass of a typical comet is 1013 kg. A frigate probably masses in about 106 kg. So and ADF of 4 means that you get a net accleration of 0.0000004 m/s/s (assuming 1 ADF = 1 g. If you use the 1ADF = 2.8g its 0.000001 m/s/s). So you are going to change velocity very, very slowly. To get a 1m/s delta v would take 106s or about 14 days (actually not as bad as I thought). Something out in the Oort Cloud has an orbital velocity anywhere between say 100 m/s for the really distant (50000 AU) ones to 420 m/s for the closer ones (5000 AU). You'd need to basically cancel that out to get it headed in. If you did nothing else, you'd have to wait several thousand years for it to fall in. So you'll going to be pushing it inward as well at the same acceleration which will take some time to build up speed. So it could take several years (maybe decades, I'd need to acutally do the math) to get this going. Now you could use objects in the Kuiper Belt which are closer (50-150 AU) but the initial velocities you need to overcome are much larger (in the 2500 m/s to 4300m/s range) and still looking at years of effort to remain undetected which will be harder since you are much closer. Not saying it couldn't be done, just that it would take a lot of effort. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
August 23, 2016 - 7:47pm | It would have to happen further out in the system because by the time comets get in to about 1 AU their comas could be 6-12 hexes across. You're not going to mask that with an ion window.
That all depends on how many ion drives are present for the masking, the rules allow a ship to mask one 10,000km hex plus one adjacent hex per additional drive (hence a three ion drive HS:6 freighter can mask three adjacent hexes). Get enough of those ships to surround the comet and they can mask it. However, once the CMS Leo's energy sensor gets within 200,000km of it they'll see right through that smoke screen.  |
 August 23, 2016 - 8:19pm | Now you could use objects in the Kuiper Belt which are closer (50-150 AU) but the initial velocities you need to overcome are much larger (in the 2500 m/s to 4300m/s range) and still looking at years of effort to remain undetected which will be harder since you are much closer. Not saying it couldn't be done, just that it would take a lot of effort. Ah, this is the Sathar we are talking about. I think their leaders think in the long-term. That's why they sought to destabilize the Frontier after their defeat in the First Sathar War. Joe Cabadas |
August 24, 2016 - 6:36am | Alright, water and rock are easy to come by so what if the Sathar made a comet. Probably not the size of a real comet but something that could be prepared ahead and boosted into void space in the hold of a ship. A number of specially designed ships arrive in a system. Adjust their course and release their icy payload of death. They then Shepherd it in system providing cover fire against attempts to stop it. Note: I'm getting no where with coming up with a playable solo encounter. Note 2: maybe a minesweeper, clearing mines might work for a solo encounter. Job must be done in X amount of time so that strike force Nova can advance on objective. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 24, 2016 - 6:38am | A comet that fits in the hold of a HS:20 freighter is still smaller than the HS:20 freighter... |
