Cold War Comments Thread

[Gyrfalcon]

What's motivating the Russian's instance on renewing the war? Are they convinced that they have an insurmountable military edge against the aliens and the Alliance so that they can go it alone?

It's been interesting to see how each of the powers is developing in different directions - the Alliance securing several prime colony sites gives them their first real chance of catching up with the USSR since the game began. If they can begin building ship building industry there, they can safely build their fleet without worrying the Soviets and escalating the situation in the Sol system.

[Warer]

I love this, cant wait to see the fate of this Co-Dominion.

[Kurt (OP)]

What's motivating the Russian's instance on renewing the war? Are they convinced that they have an insurmountable military edge against the aliens and the Alliance so that they can go it alone?

It's been interesting to see how each of the powers is developing in different directions - the Alliance securing several prime colony sites gives them their first real chance of catching up with the USSR since the game began. If they can begin building ship building industry there, they can safely build their fleet without worrying the Soviets and escalating the situation in the Sol system.

The Russians are relatively sure that the Coalition won't attack them, at least not without provocation, and so can focus their fleet on the D'Bringi (Raiders).  They feel that they can beat the D'Bringi, as they seem to depend on commercial engines, which will allow the Russians to control the range.  If they can defeat the D'Bringi fleets and conquer their worlds, this will give them a large advantage over the Coalition.  Perhaps an insurmountable lead.  However, lots can happen, to both sides. 

Kurt 

[Kurt (OP)]

I love this, cant wait to see the fate of this Co-Dominion.

Thanks!  And I absolutely and categorically deny any link to Jerry Pournelle's Co-Dominion what so ever.  Just because I read every one of his books, and loved them all, means nothing.  Nothing I say!

[Migi]

I just wanted to say I'm enjoying reading.
I do have a question, did the Russians not keep all the known jump points under sensor coverage after breaking the alliance? That seems rather short sighted if they were intending on starting a war with a power which could potentially be behind any of them.
I don't quite see how else the Collation managed to jump to a new system and survey it without the Russians knowing. Even then they might have been able to infer what they were doing by tracking ship numbers.

[Kurt (OP)]

I just wanted to say I'm enjoying reading.
I do have a question, did the Russians not keep all the known jump points under sensor coverage after breaking the alliance? That seems rather short sighted if they were intending on starting a war with a power which could potentially be behind any of them.
I don't quite see how else the Collation managed to jump to a new system and survey it without the Russians knowing. Even then they might have been able to infer what they were doing by tracking ship numbers.

The Russians were watching the warp points that led to the contact point with the D'Bringi, but not the ones that led the other way, beyond the Moskva (Sigma Draconis) system.  Thus they will know when the Coalition begins sending colony fleets down that warp chain, as the colony transports will have to pass through the Sol warp point and the warp point in the Moskva system, which is picketed by the Russians.  What they can do about it is a whole other thing.  While they do have the edge on the Coalition, their lead isn't that big and they have to worry about the D'Bringi as the primary threat right now.   

[Father Tim]

Looking at the latest designs reminds me why I changed DAC formatting to have spaces after each component (or group).  Things were hard to read in the old days.

[Paul M]

Some other higher tech changes we made were in the SM2 where we changed how it gets its extra range by adding +1 hex to each of the 8,7,6 to hit bands and then adding the rest to the 5 to hit band.  We also added in F2, E2, and L2 as in our game only BC+ ships can use "c" systems.  The fP doesn't exist...as that is just too crazy.  We also added in a GM2 missile as the Gun system is something the Shanirian's continued to use long after it was abandoned by other races.  Also we use the -1 to all point defense systems.  We also boosted the speed of prototype gunboats to 9.  I still think that both ast2 and pn2 should be able to form some sort of datagroup even if only 3 of them.  The changes in the UTM remove a lot of the reasons why it was a bad idea in the past and itsn't terribly logical they can't.  I also have never figured out why they came out with KBS but never came out with fkbs or whatever that could be used by ast2 and pn2 or never expressly state what they give for airsupport (outside of the value of their point defense equivalent)....that has always struck me as a bit low.

All in all it is a fair number of changes...

Interesting times are happening in your game to be sure...the D'brin are certainly loosing ships at a high rate.  I did notice the fleet HQ asteroid fort has no massive storage capacity in it...and I would consider collapsing systems a bit more when designing such a thing.  I'll add more to Starslayers data dump over the week.

[Kurt (OP)]

<snip>

Interesting times are happening in your game to be sure...the D'brin are certainly loosing ships at a high rate.  I did notice the fleet HQ asteroid fort has no massive storage capacity in it...and I would consider collapsing systems a bit more when designing such a thing.  I'll add more to Starslayers data dump over the week.

Okay, I read this and had it in the back of my mind that I needed to look at this a bit before I responded, then I got busy and forgot.  I thought that I had included storage capacity on the Fleet HQ, and your comment about that meant maybe I misremembered.  So I looked and saw that I had included it.  So then I looked at the version I posted, and realized that it didn't show the capacity, and I realized what I had done.  My original design, which I posted, didn't have extra storage capacity for fleet maintenance, but when I looked at it again, before I began building it, I remembered my intent was to provide an anchorage away from Earth where the Soviets could shelter their fleet, so I added the hold capacity and then started building it.  I forgot that I had posted it, so here is the revised version that got built:

FLEET HQ class AF        104 XO Racks    554 Hull    TL 4
[1]Sx100Apx300ZH(BbL)Qx5Lh(CIC)QMgWx5MgQDDTWx5MgQDDTWx5MgQDDQLhM3Wx5MgDXr(DCS)(CC)Hx30LhQDQs[0]
554 RCP  21 MCP       Trg:4        Cost =  3882/ 194.1
HTK 488   Sx100  Apx300  Dx8  Wx20  Tx2  Mgx5 
850x SM, 30x EDM (Mg)

Note the 30 holds tucked away, buried deeply within the fortress.  The holds are large enough to carry 15,000 mc, or enough to supply the entire Soviet fleet for around two months. 

Kurt

[Paul M]

I would have added 6 more HS and made it (Hx5B)x6 just to stop the collapse!

[JacenHan]

I know next to nothing about Starfire, so I can't comment on the ship designs, but I will say that I am really enjoying this story! It sounds like the Soviets might lose their advantage soon as long as the Coalition can keep ahead in colonization like they have been.

Also, the update about the Coalition colonizing next door to the poor Tarek reminds me of another game you once played .

[Kurt (OP)]

I would have added 6 more HS and made it (Hx5B)x6 just to stop the collapse!

I thought about that, but it is so deeply buried that the Soviets weren't too worried about collapse damage.  If damage gets that deep, they are screwed anyway.   plus, the Sovs are all about saving a few mega-credits where they can. 

Kurt

[Kurt (OP)]

I know next to nothing about Starfire, so I can't comment on the ship designs, but I will say that I am really enjoying this story! It sounds like the Soviets might lose their advantage soon as long as the Coalition can keep ahead in colonization like they have been.

The Soviets probably noticed this too.  I wonder what they'll do about it?

Also, the update about the Coalition colonizing next door to the poor Tarek reminds me of another game you once played .

Ah, the Strug and the Twin Moons campaign.  I liked those guys.   While there are some superficial physical similarities between the Strug and the Tarek, they differ greatly in terms of psychology and mindset.  The Strug were nice guys.  The Tarek, well...

[Paul M]

I would have added 6 more HS and made it (Hx5B)x6 just to stop the collapse!

I thought about that, but it is so deeply buried that the Soviets weren't too worried about collapse damage.  If damage gets that deep, they are screwed anyway.   plus, the Sovs are all about saving a few mega-credits where they can. 

Kurt

Makes sense though in that case I'd have put them at the very end:  so it ends up "Hx30LhQ" but another thing that the München campaigns showed was that there was a lot of variance in how people built ships even for the same mission.  I have to admit that the theory of Asteroid Forts never quite makes it to reality for me...I'm damned if I know why but I've never built one though a race facing off against the J'Rill horde had 2 of them and they were a good part of the reason they survived as long as they did.

I should do that MCr saving thing more often but it is hard to not use the best toys when you got them sorta thing.

Did you manipulate the luck of the draw for the recent survey gold mine the Soviet-ski's have come up with?   The closed warp point will be very interesting for the humans.   Though the D'bring will need to have more of a fleet then 9 CAs to even make a showing against the soviet-ski's ...it might be time to break out the gunboats!

[Kurt (OP)]

I would have added 6 more HS and made it (Hx5B)x6 just to stop the collapse!

I thought about that, but it is so deeply buried that the Soviets weren't too worried about collapse damage.  If damage gets that deep, they are screwed anyway.   plus, the Sovs are all about saving a few mega-credits where they can. 

Kurt

Makes sense though in that case I'd have put them at the very end:  so it ends up "Hx30LhQ" but another thing that the München campaigns showed was that there was a lot of variance in how people built ships even for the same mission.  I have to admit that the theory of Asteroid Forts never quite makes it to reality for me...I'm damned if I know why but I've never built one though a race facing off against the J'Rill horde had 2 of them and they were a good part of the reason they survived as long as they did.

I should do that MCr saving thing more often but it is hard to not use the best toys when you got them sorta thing.

Did you manipulate the luck of the draw for the recent survey gold mine the Soviet-ski's have come up with?   The closed warp point will be very interesting for the humans.   Though the D'bring will need to have more of a fleet then 9 CAs to even make a showing against the soviet-ski's ...it might be time to break out the gunboats!

No, the Soviets came up with that nexus all on their own.  I'm not above manipulating certain things to create a better story, but I try to stay hands-off as much as possible.  The Soviets had very good survey luck in that nexus they just discovered, while the Coalition's initial luck in finding habitable planets has kind of petered out recently.