[Lorric]

Spoon, feel free to move this if you like.

What is this? I came up with a simplified version of Spoon's first forum game. I ran it today to test it, without the Hertak Flag Fleet and the Special Fleet. Humanity won a very close victory after 24 turns. I enjoyed doing it, it was on a knife edge nearly all the way, I didn't expect it to be so well balanced. But now I intend to add those two fleets and destroy that balance.

This is where you come in. By creating RP content. What good will that do? If I like it and it isn't tiny (and I liked I think everything last time, I'm easy to please! ) your fleet will gain a permanent power boost. These boosts will stack with additional RP. They also stick on your fleet if your fleet is destroyed and respawns. And anyone who RPs will jump the respawn queue over all other fleets who their owner hasn't RPd. If you didn't have a fleet last time but want to contribute, you can. And a boost will be assigned to a fleet in a faction of your choice (you can't choose the CSA.) Or you can just leave it to me to assign it. The RP doesn't have to be about a fleet. Such as when I did news reports last time.

Tomorrow the conflict will begin. I intend to move the conflict forward one turn per day until there is a winner. If people intervene with RP, humanity may win the battle. If not, The Hierarchy will almost certainly prevail. RP can begin immediately to get a jump start on things if anyone wishes.

A reminder for who had what fleet:

Sol Force: 4/4
1st Fleet - under the command of Vice Admiral Dovorek Iera (CommanderDJ) on the flagship Hand of Absolution (Master in Logistics)
2nd Fleet - under the command of Vice Admiral Xeus L. Fremont (X3N0-Life-Form) on the flagship Swift (Master in Logistics)
3rd Fleet - under the command of Vice Admiral Aaron Soryu (mobcdmoc3) on the flagship Sovereign (Aggressive leader)
4th Fleet - 'Battlegroup 11' under the command of Vice Admiral Jason Windforce (Jellyfish) on the flagship Firelance (Breakthrough Specialist)

Delest Defense: 3/3
1st Fleet - 'Fist of Silva' under the command of Fleet Admiral Jason Ralwood (AdmiralRalwood) on the flagship Aurora (Inspirational Leader, Aggressive leader)
2nd Fleet - under the command of Fleet Admiral Georgiy Kuznetsov (Admiral MS) on the flagship Nova (Inspirational Leader, Master of Logistics)
3rd Fleet - under the command of High Fleet Admiral Ivan Dimitrievic Kalazonitov (Enioch) on the flagship Katyusha  (Inspirational Leader, Master in Logistics, Breakthrough Specialist)

Commonwealth Royal Fleet: 4/4
1st Fleet - under the command of Fleet Admiral Veers on the flagship Silver Arrow (Aggressive leader, Master in Logistics)
2nd Fleet - under the command of Fleet Admiral Lorric on the flagship Soaring Spirit (Master in Logistics, Breakthrough Specialist)
3rd Fleet - 'Task Force 765'  under the command of Vice Admiral Hilda Alcott (Hartzaden) on the flagship Hood (Aggressive Leader)
4th Fleet - under the command of Vice Admiral Carlos Santiago (Lepanto) on the flagship St. Louis IX (Aggressive leader, Master of Logistics)

United Guilds of Commerce Regulars: 2/2
1st Fleet - 'The Feather Ones' under the command of Fleet Admiral Andrew Bradwater (Andrewofdoom) on the flagship Garuda (Aggressive leader, Master in Logistics)
2nd Fleet - 'The 88's' under the command of Fleet Admiral Yuen Ah Luc (niffiwan) on the flaghship Inevitably Successful in All Circumstances (Master in Logistics, Breakthrough Specialist)

League Star Forces: 2/2
1st Fleet - under the command of Rear Admiral SpardaSon21 on the flagship Dire Wolf
2nd Fleet - 'The Stormlords' under the command of Rear Admiral Augustus Corvus (Dragon) on the flagship Scimitar

Cyrvan Star Armada: 1/1
1st Fleet - under the command of Admiral Freyalis Elsperth Almereya (Droid803) on the flagship Ataraxia (Breakthrough Specialist)

I don't think I'll be RPing my own fleet.

This is the thread for if anyone wants to ask me anything or talk about this. I'm happy enough to talk about how the game work mechanically if anyone's interested in the numbers, otherwise I'll just report what happens in the turns. I'll make a thread for RP posts and a thread for turns.

[Lorric]

Apologies to the UGCR admirals, I've cleaned up the turns so it now shows what your fleets are doing properly! I ended up forgetting about the 1st with it not moving and then mixed up the 1st and 2nd. Even if an allied fleet does not move, I'll always state where it is each system to make it easy to track your fleet and also so someone doesn't slip off my radar when writing up the turns. It won't happen for the actual game (missing fleet turns), I can't produce Spoon's fancy maps, but I have a physical map of the Spooniverse and square paper tokens for the fleets for keeping track. They're double sided for turning over when a fleet takes a hit.

As for the game so far, I'm quite amused by the Hierarchy's complete impotency after I talked them up in here, while the Terrans went on a rampage today after a fairly low key start. Cordera fleets aren't great, but collectively they should have managed to dish out some damage by now. If they go another round without damage with the Zy and Hertak getting involved, they'll be accusing me of loading the dice.

[Spoon]

Here's the .psd of the map how it was at the last turn of the first forum game
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6576073/ForumgameStarmap.psd
it's a **** ton of layers

[Lorric]

Here's the .psd of the map how it was at the last turn of the first forum game
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6576073/ForumgameStarmap.psd
it's a **** ton of layers

How long did they take to make?

By the way, you said you hadn't expected us to do as well as we did in the game. If the Hierarchy had broken through our lines, would you have given us any help, or did we already have everything we were allowed to have?

[Enioch]

Hmmmm. Interesting.

So, let me see if I understand this. We RP. And the fleets gain mechanical advantages for it?

Hmmmm.

Yeah, I can get behind this. Expect some RP soon. I always wanted to explore the Archangel workers / Katyusha sailors a bit more.

BTW, would it be possible to slow this down a bit (i.e. one turn per two days?) I really want to participate in this, but I have limited time available right now, what with finishing my doctorate and all.

EDIT: Spoon. Pls. RP. Make canon. Pls.

[Lorric]

Hmmmm. Interesting.

So, let me see if I understand this. We RP. And the fleets gain mechanical advantages for it?

Hmmmm.

Yeah, I can get behind this. Expect some RP soon. I always wanted to explore the Archangel workers / Katyusha sailors a bit more.

BTW, would it be possible to slow this down a bit (i.e. one turn per two days?) I really want to participate in this, but I have limited time available right now, what with finishing my doctorate and all.

EDIT: Spoon. Pls. RP. Make canon. Pls.

Yes, you understand correctly. You'll also (all being well) be getting your super fleet like Spoon's game, there's no other player who'll be able to make a bigger impact on the battle than you.

I'll do the next turn tomorrow as planned (Hierarchy needs to do some damage, damn it!  ) then slow down to 2 days unless inexplicably the Hierarchy has another horrendous round.

[Enioch]

Check. Many thanks.

[Lorric]

Check. Many thanks.

Oh, will you need to engage in battle to produce RP or will you be fine without it? The 3rd DD will probably see little or no action until it merges with the 2nd DD Homeguard and gets back on the front. I could keep the one day thing going until you fight if you need action.

[Enioch]

Nah, I'm mostly focusing on the behind-the-lines preparation for now. I've always been one for worldbuilding over action.

[Lorric]

Nah, I'm mostly focusing on the behind-the-lines preparation for now. I've always been one for worldbuilding over action.

I'm very much looking forward to it then! Really enjoyed your work last time, very happy I'll get to see more of it.

Oh, and to you and anyone else who may want to join in, don't feel restricted by the point the game is at. RPing events that have already gone by is perfectly fine.

[Lorric]

Aaaaand the Hierarchy sucked again. And the Terrans went on another rampage.

Cordera finally made a contribution, but the big fleets all failed, even the Hertak. It's 13-1 to the Terrans right now for successful hits. I looked at my notes for last time, and at this point it was 10-6 to the Terrans. Which is probably about "right" for the Terrans and mildly overperforming for the Hierarchy.

So Turn 5 will be tomorrow. If the Terrans have another round like this, there's gonna be a lot of dead bugs.

[Enioch]

There. That should be enough for now.

[Lorric]

There. That should be enough for now.

It doesn't feel right to only give out one boost for that so I've given the 3rd DD two.

[Enioch]

o7 Glad you enjoyed it. Hope it wasn't too cheesy

[Lorric]

Well both sides swung for the fences in this round. Surprisingly it was the lesser fleets that came through for the Hierarchy in this round, although the big players all avoided damage so they did still collectively win the round. Strong round for the Hierarchy overall, so the game now slows to one turn per two days. Enioch, please let me know if and when you're happy for the game to resume at one turn a day.

[Lorric]

So I boosted the 5th Cordi, because it was singled out for acknowledgement last turn. So I added to that post with the Hertak doing more than just recognising the 5th Cordi's achievements. And then my fleet took it down before it could use it's new power in a low key round for both sides.

My fleet is doing really well! A stark contrast to the test game where it humiliatingly lost a straight fight to the 3rd Cordi, though did do some damage on respawning.

[Spoon]

You guys are still writing cool things

[Enioch]

Well, on the bright side, we now have three fleets in Sol ready to dogpile the Special Fleet. (two of which have like +22 and +27 to hit) (also, wtf, 3rd DD, how could you miss THAT fat ass?)

On the not-so-bright side, I'm getting a distinct note of defeatism from the Alliance command.

[Lorric]

Well, on the bright side, we now have three fleets in Sol ready to dogpile the Special Fleet. (two of which have like +22 and +27 to hit) (also, wtf, 3rd DD, how could you miss THAT fat ass?)

On the not-so-bright side, I'm getting a distinct note of defeatism from the Alliance command.

The roll was particularly bad actually, you could have been in double figures for boosts and still have missed that one.

It's not about missing, it's about not doing enough damage to penetrate shields and xentronium. Still, with that roll, they may well have missed that fat ass...

Yeah, I'm really struggling to think of any way to have allied command be positive. Even if you drop the Special Fleet, the rest of the Hierarchy is probably going to crush you.

[Enioch]

Eh, who cares about Earth.

Not like we've been building an empire off-map