What's Going On In Your Empire: C# Edition

[Kurt]

More fun stuff, Kurt! It's always fun to read about the times when things don't go so well, and of course how such setbacks can be dealt with. 

A couple notes on mechanics in case they are helpful:

• It's not clear from the reporting, but the sensor signature you detect from orbit may be several times smaller than the actual force due to fortification. If the detected signature was 50,000 tons I would guess you're actually fighting more like 150,000 tons which is a much harder battle to win.
• Artillery could actually help a lot as they do have a bit more penetration than PW/CAP weapons and could at least have an easier time penetrating the infantry units. Probably still a lost battle but you might have killed more of them in the process.
• As far as I know, there is no effect on ship-to-ground fire accuracy from distance, but there is an effect for damage the same as in ship-to-ship combat. So the only reason to close the range is if you need to do more damage to guarantee that a hit will kill the STO. Not sure what weapons you were using so I can't say if it mattered - if you're using particle beams, it definitely doesn't matter so you can hold the range open.

Yeah, I noticed during the battle that my artillery didn't seem to be firing, but it wasn't until after that I figured out I had to assign higher level units to support lower level units.  Same with orbiting ships. 

As for distance for ships engaging the STO's, I didn't know the chance to hit remained the same, but they were using lasers, so closing the range was definitely the right choice as they needed to penetrate the STO's armor.  Unfortunately, when they closed to point blank range, the ground forces unmasked their heavy hitters, which I assume are plasma batteries, which then gutted one of my battlecruisers.  Fortunately, that was their last gasp. 

As for the detected size rating not being accurate, I am aware.  I'm also aware that combat against their forces is heavily weighted by their entrenchment as well.  I was pretty sure my invasion force was going to get wiped, but I really wanted to get the experience of fighting through a ground battle.  I learned a lot, and I'm hoping my Bolo CSU's fair better against the enemy. 

[Kurt]

The next set of battles from my learning campaign....

I love it!
I think this deserves its own thread...

I'm glad you like it.  I've been keeping notes on this, but not to the level I usually do, as I've been treating this as a learning campaign.  I plan on posting the more interesting bits here, but after I get everything I can from it I'm going to move on to another campaign, which I'll post in my area. 

[Kurt]

This contact takes place almost immediately after the last posted story.  As always, this involves spoilers, so if you don’t want to know, don’t read!




August 30, 2095: A second group of hostile alien ships is detected 150 million kilometers from New Washington.  This group is composed of three small contacts identical to the first ship, and one different contact.  New Washington now has only her STO’s to defend the colony, as the interceptors were dispatched back to the Solar System for repair and reloading. 

The alien squadron heads first to the wreckage of their ship.  After a short time, the alien ships turn towards the colony.  As they approach the colony the ground-based sensors determine that the new ship type is nearly the same tonnage as the others, 701 tons compared to 707 tons.  When the aliens cross an invisible line in space the ground batteries open up with their 6 inch lasers, even as the aliens open fire on the surface.  The aliens are attacking the colony as well as the STO’s, and casualties begin to mount.  40,000 colonists are killed immediately, and the planet’s infrastructure is damaged.  One surface-based laser is killed, but the ground batteries get multiple hits on two of the alien ships. 

Ten seconds later the new ship in the alien fleet fires again, this time destroying four laser batteries on the ground and killing thousands of colonists.  Finally, after taking more damage from the ships, the ground batteries fire again after taking 30 seconds to recharge.  Once again, they get multiple hits on two of the alien ships, which don’t seem affected.  By the third time the batteries fire they have been reduced to nearly half strength.  This time, though, there is a result.  The targeted alien ship explodes when the third salvo hits it.  The next salvo thirty seconds later destroys the second alien ship. 

The aliens are now down by half their fleet, but the STO’s on the ground are at half strength as well.  The next salvo destroys the third alien ship, reducing the alien fleet to one ship.  Thirty seconds later the last ship was destroyed by the ground batteries. 

The two intact interceptors of the defense group return to New Washington, much to the relief of the people below.  Even though only one of the interceptors has missiles, they are much better than nothing.  The Assault Fleet is still over thirty days away in the outer system, and the detached frigate is six and a half days from the jump point to Sol. 
 
September 9, 2095: The frigate detached by Captain Balint jumps into the solar system and immediately sends a message to the inner system.  The message causes dismay in both Naval HQ and the Parliament.  The failure of the invasion of Alexandria III and the attack on New Washington is an unmitigated disaster.  There is no way the government can hide the fact that nearly a million colonists were killed during the surface to orbit fight for control of the colony. 

The Parliament was right to be concerned.  The news leaks out almost immediately, and by the time the government finally admits what happened less than twelve hours after receiving the message, they are already being accused of a coverup.  There is unrest across the globe, and in the end an uprising in the Parliament ends with a vote of no confidence and a call for a general election.  In the ensuing upheaval the PM and most of his cabinet lose their seats, as do a majority of representatives.  The public was emphatic, they wanted the government to take the defense of the home planet and the colonies seriously, and would throw out anyone who tried to talk about ‘getting along’, or “talking to” genocidal aliens that had no interest in talking to humans. 

In the meantime, things begin happening almost immediately.  Transports are dispatched to New Washington with three additional STO batteries.  These are two heavy laser batteries and a point defense battery.  Additionally, the Commonwealth’s research priorities are changed.  Development of new heavy armored units are moved to the front of the queue, and development of a salvage module, that will allow the navy to field a ship to recover technology from the destroyed alien ships, is begun.  Once that work is finished, research assets will begin working on developing a heavy plasma weapon that could be deployed in a new STO battery to defend Earth and her colonies. 

Industrial priorities are changed as well, but the Commonwealth finds itself with many competing needs.  The Commonwealth desperately needs more ordnance factories to supply missiles for its growing fleet.  It also needs infrastructure to expand the New Washington colony to accommodate the additional naval assets that will be deployed there.  Also, it needs additional ground force training facilities to build the STO’s needed to defend the colonies and the armored units needed to defeat the aliens in the Alexandria system. 

October 6, 2095: The Assault Fleet, now re-designated Task Force Balint, is now in orbit over New Washington.  There is intense relief on New Washington at the arrival of the fleet.  With the fleet in orbit, and the arrival of the new ground-based defenses, the people of New Washington are beginning to feel safer. 

November 17, 2095: There has been no sign of the aliens, and Captain Balint has received orders to return to the Solar System.  Before departing he detaches all six of his interceptors to bolster New Washington’s defenses, and perhaps as important, he leaves behind all of his ASM’s as reloads for the interceptors.  New Washington will now have eight interceptors in its defense group, along with the new STO’s on the surface. 

[Kurt]

Another battle by Commonwealth Forces

As before, the battles involve spoilers and my flailing attempts to deal with them, so if you don't want to know, don't read.





June 4, 2098: The planetary sensors located on one of the inner moons of Los Angeles II, a large gas giant, detected a ship just over 250 million kilometers away.  The ship is headed inwards, towards the inner system.  Alerts are sent to the other three mining outposts, all of which are located on moons of the same gas giant.  An alert is also sent to the eighteen fuel harvesters in low orbit over the gas giant, and to the six interceptors aboard their base in orbit over the Los Angeles Moon Base.  The interceptor crews scramble, and in short order the 1,000 ton interceptors are out-bound towards the alien ships.  By that time the sensor crews have determined that the alien ships are consistent with the raiders that attacked the Washington system.  Fortunately, the interceptors are 50% faster than the alien ships.  Finally, the contact report is sent to a group of troop transports in the outer system.  The transports had just dropped off reinforcements for the garrison on the moon base, and were headed back to Earth.  They would carry the word back to Fleet HQ of the alien attack force. 

Six hours and ten minutes later the interceptors have closed to twenty million kilometers, just outside of maximum missile range.  The group commander wants to close to ten million kilometers before activating his sensors and firing.  Unfortunately, at just over eleven million kilometers range the alien ships turn away, and the chase was on.  Another ten minutes allowed them to close to ten million kilometers.  The Standard III ASM’s that the interceptors were carrying had a powered range of thirteen and a half million kilometers against the fleeing alien ship, so they were well within range.  Unfortunately, the interceptor’s fire controls wouldn’t lock on to the alien ship, so the interceptors continued to close.  Finally, the interceptors were close enough to lock on to the alien ships, and ten seconds after the group commander gave the command, two interceptors launched six missiles each at the alien ship. 

Even as the missiles left the interceptor’s tubes, two additional contacts appeared 1.7 billion kilometers from the moon base orbiting the gas giant.  That was alarming, but they were too far away to affect the events transpiring in the inner system.  Seven minutes and forty-five seconds later the missiles slammed into the alien ship.  The alien ship intercepted two before they hit, and three missed, leaving seven to hit the desperately dodging alien ship.  The missiles did severe damage and left the alien ship drifting.  The interceptors turned towards the new contact and, as they began accelerating away, they launched three additional missiles at the drifting alien ship.  Lt. Commander Cotman, the CO of the squadron, didn’t want to leave an enemy behind him while he engaged the new contacts.  All three missiles hit the damaged alien ship, eliminating it. 

In the meantime, while the squadron was eliminating the damaged ship, the other alien ships moved out of the planetary base’s sensor range.  Lt. Commander Cotman ordered his ships to return to base rather than chase enemies he could no longer see. 

Thirty-nine hours later, a new alien ship was detected in-bound 1.4 billion kilometers out-system.  This ship was much slower, moving at 1,641 km/s and the thermal signature indicated that this alien ship was much bigger than the previous contacts.    Lt. Commander Cotman’s squadron was launched with orders to intercept this contact. 

Forty-four hours later, as the interceptor group closed on the contact 1.18 billion kilometers from the planetary base, a new contact appeared in between the interceptors and the base just 350 million kilometers out.  It was too late to turn the interceptors back as they were nearing missile range. 

Just over four hours later the interceptors’ sensors determined that the contact was 114,229 tons, making it either a massive warship or a commercial vessel.  Not wanting to take a chance, Commander Cotman ordered his squadron to attack.  The alien ship continued plodding ahead, as if the human ships weren’t there.  Commander Cotman ordered his lead interceptor to launch twelve missiles at the alien ship when they reached thirteen million kilometers range. 

Shortly after launching a second ship appeared next to the massive contact, this one similar to the alien warships encountered before.  Commander Cotman ordered a second launch against this new contact.  Even as the interceptor group prepared to fire at the new contact, three more contacts appeared on the interceptor’s sensors, all consistent with the alien warships previously encountered.  Commander Cotman ordered three more interceptors to engage the alien warships, leaving one interceptor in reserve.  Unfortunately, the new warship’s ECM made it impossible for the interceptor’s fire control systems to lock on to them, so they were forced to close on the contact.  Finally, at 9.5 million kilometers the interceptor’s sensors managed to burn through the interference and lock on, allowing them to launch their missiles against the four warships. 

Four minutes later the first salvo targeted on the massive ship in the center of the formation closed in on its target.  Only two managed to get through the point defense fire from the four warships to hit their target.  Both penetrated the target’s hull, but there was no observable change to the massive ship’s behavior. 

Just over four minutes later the forty-eight missiles targeted on the four warships arrived.  The warships managed to intercept sixteen, and eight missed, leaving twenty-four to hit their targets.  Two of the warships were destroyed outright, while the other two were reduced to minimal power.  The massive ship at the center of the formation cut its speed to remain with its escorts.  With the warships disabled Commander Cotman was tempted to launch his remaining twelve missiles against the big ship, but there was still an alien contact in the inner system and if he launched on the big alien ship he wouldn’t have anything left to engage that alien ship.  Therefore, he ordered his ships to turn back towards the alien contact in the inner system. 

As the interceptor group turned away, the big alien ship began advancing towards the inner system again, once again moving at 1,641 km/s.  One of the remaining warships was escorting it, while the other was drifting.  Once again Commander Cotman was tempted to launch his remaining missiles at the two ships, but he resisted the temptation.  They were moving at a quarter of his ship’s speed, and they would have plenty of time to return with their launchers reloaded, if they could eliminate the remaining contact in the inner system. 

Forty minutes later the contact in the inner system disappeared from the ground base’s sensors.  It reappeared soon thereafter, hovering at the edge of detection.  Eventually the alien contact turned in-system again, and when it reached 280 million kilometers from the moon base four additional contacts appeared in close escort of the original contact.  The four new contacts were consistent with the alien warships previously encountered. 

Fourteen hours later the five alien ships merged with the wreck of the alien warship destroyed first by the interceptors.  After hovering there briefly the five alien warships turned inwards.  After proceeding inwards for an hour they suddenly turned away, towards the interceptors racing towards them from the outer system.  It soon became clear that they were not moving towards the interceptors, but rather out-system on a course generally towards the interceptors.  Lt. Commander Cotman ordered his squadron to deactivate their active sensors in an attempt to reduce their profile, so that they could avoid the alien warships and return to base to reload their launchers. 

Once the alien warships moved beyond 280 million kilometers from the ground base the four smaller warships disappeared from sensors, leaving just the original contact.  The alien warships appeared to be moving towards the other two alien ships that were off sensors but were presumed to be moving in system behind the interceptors.  Hours later the interceptors had reloaded their launchers and departed again.  The alien ships were not on sensors, but their approach vector was known.  The interceptors moved out towards a waypoint two hundred and thirty million kilometers from the base, which would put them in a good position to strike at the alien force once they appeared on sensors again.  Thirteen hours later they were on station. 

June 15, 2098: At 4:58 PM the Los Angeles moon base picked up a single alien ship at 400 million kilometers.  The interceptor group was hovering 245 million kilometers from the moon base, so were much closer to the alien ship.  Lt. Commander Cotman ordered his group to close on the alien ship, which he suspected was actually the entire alien squadron.  The contact was moving at 4,049 km/s, which meant that it likely did not contain the large ship they had detected before.  Four hours later the interceptors had closed to the point that the alien ship was on their active sensors, and it was resolved as being 1,419 tons.  If its hull was made out of the same cloaking materials as the other warships, this meant that it was 14,190 tons, or twice as large as the other warships.    Twenty-seven minutes later the squadron’s active sensors picked up two additional contacts, both consistent with the warships detected before.  At this point the alien warships were twelve million kilometers from the interceptors.  Seconds later the interceptor’s sensors picked up two additional alien warships, bringing the total to five. 

Lt. Commander Cotman ordered his group to open fire at 7.7 million kilometers.  He assigned one interceptor to each of the smaller warships, and two to fire on the larger ship.  Twenty seconds later the missiles were away.  The interceptors immediately turned away and began opening the distance on the alien warships, which were now pursuing them.   The strike was devastating.  Thirty-two missiles were intercepted short of their targets, and five missed, leaving thirty-five out of seventy-two missiles to hit their targets.  Two of the alien ships were destroyed outright, including the largest one, and all of the other ships were hit.  Unfortunately, the three remaining warships were still capable of 4,049 km/s, but as the interceptors came about to return to base, the three remaining alien ships turned away from the inner system and began moving away.  After a short time spent moving away, they apparently changed their mind and turned inwards, in pursuit of the retreating interceptors.  The interceptors were faster, though, and soon left the pursuing alien ships behind.  The pursuing alien ships were soon off the group’s sensors. 

In the end the aliens dropped off all sensors and did not pursue the interceptors into the inner system.  The interceptor group returned to base, but after so many sorties there weren’t enough missiles to reload their launchers.  This was alarming as there were at least four known functional alien ships remaining in the system.   

[Marski]

Carrying out opposed planetary landing to put a foothold in the system in a mad race with USA (NPR I share homeworld with) to grab the juiciest habitable, low-cost terraforming planets in 100-lightyear range.

[Garfunkel]

That's a lot of wrecks, seems it has been an interesting case!

[Marski]

That's a lot of wrecks, seems it has been an interesting case!

Oh yeah, me and USA been taking turns throwing ships into this meat grinder. It took me two battles to finally clear the space, losing total of 19 ships which was about 70% of my total fighting force. Now I'm rushing with the invasion even thought I'm not ready because american ships are already sending scouts into the system. The two motorized rifle regiments gotta hold the bridgehead until reinforcements arrive.


Poor Bloody Infantry holding the line


Severe losses due to technologically very advanced adversary. In just 5 days of war, one of the two motorstrelki regiment HQ's were destroyed by artillery and it's units were wholly used for replacements for 2nd Motorstrelki Regiment. Several battalions and companies exist merely on paper and some tank companies have the strength of a single squad.

Here's what intact Motorized Rifle Regiment looks like;


Here's what the one on the planet looks like;


By January 1st I was forced to begin evacuating the remaining troops or risk losing all of them as it became apparent that the beachead was going to get overrun. In the night of witherin cold winter where temperatures sometimes dropped to -42 Celsius, soviet troops began retreating to the sole troop transport left behind as precaution.

There's the dudes that got off the planet in 4th of January;


New assault began with 5th Motorized Rifle Regiment, 6th Mechanized Rifle Regiment, supported by 1st Guards Tank Battalion equipped with T-80BVM main battle tanks, with 4th Motorized Rifle Battalion as source of replacements. Heavy orbital bombardments provided by 6 frigates of the 2nd Missile Brigade. After several days of heavy shelling, the maintenance supplies ran too low and using gauss cannon artillery became unsustainable and as such missile frigate "Vnusmegelny" deployed all 20 of it's nuclear-tipped missiles against the enemy ground forces with minimal effect due to the heavy foliage of the forests covering the planet. Which was rectified by the nuclear fire which soon afterwards changed the terrain from "pine forests" to "mountaneous".

Despite all this, it's still a rough going. However the aliens rate of losses are increasing with each attack.

[Kurt]

Earth Commonwealth Forces slated for the invasion of Abyss

Ground Force:
Crusher Heavy Tank: 156 tons, Armor 60, HP 60, 1x Hvy Anti-Vehicle, 1xHvy Autocannon
Bolo Mk II: 340 tons, armor 90, HP 120, 2xSHvy Anti-Vehicle, 1xHvy Autocannon

Hvy Tank Brigade: 55xCrusher, 12xFFD Team, 2xBolo IIC command Unit
SHvy Tank Brigade: 25xBolo Mk II, 12xFFD Team, 2xBolo Mk IIC

An Armored Division includes three heavy tank brigades, a superheavy tank brigade, and an HQ unit that includes anti-air, artillery, and supply units.  A Corps includes four divisions, and the corps HQ includes additional artillery and AA support, along with supply.  So, all told, a Commonwealth Armored Assault Corps included 660 heavy tanks and 100 super heavy tanks.  Because of minor variations in units, and the inclusion of two additional superheavy brigades, which replaced heavy brigades at the last minute, the entire assault force consisted of 1946 heavy tanks and 356 superheavy tanks, along with almost 1900 HQ and support units.  The artillery were a mix of medium and heavy vehicles, with medium and heavy artillery. 

Space Force
The Commonwealth Navy is primarily designed for engaging the Enigma raiders, not planetary bombardment.  However, the entire assault fleet will be assigned orbital support duties during the invasion.  The invasion support fleet consists of a Strike Carrier, five Motherships, four battlecruisers, four monitors, four destroyers, six missile defense frigates, twelve interceptors, eleven heavy fighters, and thirty-nine ground attack fighters.  The fleet mounts the following weapons:

19xTriple 4.7 inch laser turrets ROF 5, 4 pts of damage
13x10 Inch Spinal Laser ROF 20, 16 damage
48x8 Inch UV Laser ROF 15, 10 damage
4x11.8 Inch Plasma Cannon, ROF 25, 24 damage
12xGunship Plasma Cannon, ROF 10, 6 damage
11x4 Inch Meson Cannon, ROF 5, 1 damage
39xFighter Autocannon Pod, Shots 3, Damage 24, Penetration 38

In addition, the fleet mounts the following missile launchers, although they were not used in support of the assault:
21xASM-10 launcher (Falcon II standoff missiles) ROF 25
80xAAM launcher (Streak II AAM’s) ROF 10

Falcon II standoff missiles: WH 24
Streak II AAM: WH 1

[Kurt]

The Final Battle, Commonwealth vs Spoilers

Note, this battle involves spoilers, so if you don't want to know about them, avoid please!

March 6, 2108:  This is a momentous day!  On this date the Assault Fleet sets out for Abyss, escorting the last ground troops assigned to the invasion force.  It will take two months for the force to arrive at the base on Alexandria II, where they will refuel and load the other ground troops assigned to the invasion.  All told, twenty-six warships, twelve interceptors, eleven heavy fighters, thirty-nine ground attack fighters, and fourteen divisional transports are assigned to the assault.  The ground invasion force is composed of three entire corps of heavy and superheavy armored units, approximately 720,000 tons all told.  In addition, seven smaller troop transports accompany the force, carrying replacement units that can be fed into the frontline units as needed.  It has taken the Commonwealth thirteen years to complete this massive military buildup. 

June 11, 2108: Finally, the day has arrived.  At 15:45 hours the landings on Abyss begin.  The first on the ground are the leading elements of the three armored corps, dropped from the orbiting transports.  The replacement and reserve units will arrive later. 

Estimated Enemy force (Beginning):
Battlewagon 371
Combatwagon: 223
AA Tank 60
HQ 23
Warrior: 5929
Anti-V team: 110
AA Team: 150

From the very first the Commonwealth’s losses were heavy.  Even the superheavy Bolo Mk II tanks were being taken out at an alarming rate.  It very quickly became clear that the orbital support and artillery were not performing as expected, and the heavily dug in enemy was largely proof against their fire.  Only direct fire by the heavy and super heavy tanks were having an effect, and they were taking immense casualties in taking the fight to the enemy. 

By the 13th it was clear that the invasion was in trouble.  The three assault-corps have been reduced to 50% strength and the enemy’s attacks are unrelenting.  Now would be the time to commit reinforcements, but there are none.  Everything was committed to the initial assault. 

By the 17th, the invasion had failed.  Most of the heavy and superheavy tanks have been destroyed, and the enemy is now cutting into the headquarters formations, slaughtering everyone they find.  Captain Pohlen, CO of the Assault Fleet, acting on orders from Earth, orders her fleet to switch from ground support to wide-spread bombardment of the planet and the defending forces.  Her orders were clear, If the invasion were to fail, the planet will be glassed.  Captain Pohlen was appalled when she received the orders, finding the thought of bombarding the surface of a habitable planet repellent, but after watching the decimation of the ground force over the last several days her hesitation had dropped away.  The aliens were evil and would be destroyed, at any cost. 

The bombardment is intense.  Beam weapons of all descriptions, from heavy plasma weapons to point defense lasers, lash out at the ground targets.  They accomplish little.  The ground targets are small, and evasive, and there are few hits.  The missiles, though, began carving a swath through the enemy ground forces. 

After thirty seconds Captain Pohlen ordered the beam bombardment stopped, as the continuous use of the beam weapons is causing failures in the equipment that are growing increasingly concerning, and their bombardment has been almost useless.  The missile bombardment continues, though, and intensifies as she orders the anti-missile frigates to join in. 

The carnage on the ground is terrible.  The enemy infantry bears the brunt of the orbital assault, and many are killed.  Unfortunately, relatively few of the enemy tanks are killed by the missile attack.  Eventually, with missile stocks depleted, Captain Pohlen orders the rest of the fleet to cease fire, while her flagship, the Star class strike carrier Pride of Sol, continues the bombardment alone. 

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the bombardment ended.  Captain Pohlen had drained her flagship’s magazines of both the larger standoff missiles and the smaller standard missiles carried for the ship’s fighters and interceptors.  There was nothing left.  Below, the planet’s atmosphere was choked with dust and the surface temperature had dropped one hundred degrees.  The planet was effectively uninhabitable for the near and medium future.  In spite of this the carnage on the surface continued as the rear area human forces were cut down mercilessly.  It finally ended a day and a half later when the last human forces surrendered. 

Summary
Invasion started on June 11, 2108

Best estimate enemy ground forces (40% error) Early in battle
620xTank, 210xCombat car, 38xAA Tank, 11xTank HQ, 5061xWarrior, 129xAV team, 80xAA team, 3xPL Def HQ

Human losses
8xGS Fighter, 1946xHvy Tank, 356xSHvy Tank, 545xFFD team, 337xAA tank, 270xHvy aRty Tank, 86xSHcy HQ, 7xInf HQ, 183xHvy AA, 413xMed Arty, 12xCorps HQ, 24xArm Div HQ, 3xInf HQ

Alien Combat losses
224xTank, 59xCombat car, 155xWarrior, 38xAA Tank, 6xAA Team, 3xAT Team, 1xTank HQ, 2xPl Def HQ

Alien Losses to orbital bombardment
33xTank, 9xCombat Car, 906xWarrior, 1xAA Team, 2xAA Tank, 6xAA Team, 17xAT Team, 1xTank HQ,

Best estimate of enemy strength towards the end of the battle (9% error)
388xTank, 147xCombatwagon, 29xAA Tank, 12xTank HQ, 4623xWarrior, 93xAT Team, 74xAA Team, 2xPlanetary HQ, 7xWarrior HQ

13 years of preparation, 30 Ground Force Construction Complexes

The invasion was a disaster.  Three heavy armored corps were lost, a planet was irradiated.  Worse, the enemy was defiant, broadcasting taunts as the fleet pulled away. 

This single event caused a change in humanity’s course.  The Commonwealth’s government fell when the word of the defeat made it back to Earth, and riots and dissention rocked the planet and the Solar colonies.  For weeks civilization tottered on the brink, and then finally, when all else had failed, an officer took action.  On August 23, after the mobs stormed and burned the government capital complex in New York and killed most of the ministers that had stayed to try to deal with the defeat and its aftermath, Brigadier General Hans Blackstone ordered his marines into action.  General Blackstone, along with several other generals and colonels, had tried to convince the government to allow them to put down the unrest, to no avail.  The Parliament had insisted that the people would see reason, after being allowed to “blow off steam”, and had refused all efforts by the generals to secure governmental operations.  After the burning of the New York complex, the generals commanding the divisions that had remained on Earth fell to arguing among themselves, and General Blackstone was left to act.  His was the smallest command on Earth at the time, but the marines were the elite of the ground forces. 

The Marine EVA Regiment was composed of four marine boarding platoons and four marine EVA battalions.  Each marine was equipped with the latest heavy powered armor and heavy crew served ant-personnel weapons.  A marine in heavy armor could walk through a bonfire untouched, and nothing short of a military class armor-piercing weapon could penetrate their armor.  General Blackstone unleashed his marines on New York, and in a matter of hours the rioters had been put down.  No marines were killed in the action, although the death toll among the rioters was high.  At that point no one cared.  The people were tired of the unrest, and were ready to follow anyone who could restore order. 

With a fragile peace achieved in and around New York, General Blackstone ordered his marines to round up every government official who had survived.  In the meantime, General Blackstone ordered the other generals commanding Earthside units to move into the nearest cities and restore order.  Although he wasn’t technically authorized to issue such orders, most of the generals had been waiting for just such an order and they leapt to obey, especially as Blackstone’s assurance that no one was going to look very closely at how they restored order accompanied the orders. 

Within a week order was largely restored across the planet, although several brigades refused to obey orders and had to be forcefully confronted before they backed down.  Only fourteen members of parliament had been found alive, and neither the Prime Minister or his ministers survived.  At Blackstone’s urging, they formed an Emergency Council two weeks after the riots were put down.  Their first official act was to appoint General Blackstone head of the emergency government and military. 

Over the next year General Blackstone spearheaded the reconstruction of Earth and the colonies, and exactly one year after the fall of the Commonwealth he crowned himself Hans the First, Emperor of Mankind, vowing vengeance on the aliens who had threatened humanity. 


Final Notes: The orbital support was relatively useless.  The beam weapons had a very hard time hitting the dug-in ground units, and when they did hit they largely didn't penetrate their armor.  My ground support fighters were steadily whittled down and also had little effect.  As others have said, my AA units were useless, as the enemy didn't use air units at all.  My artillery was also not particularly useful.  I believe this is largely because I didn't update it when I updated my tanks to the latest tech, so they were older and smaller than they should have been, and had a hard time penetrating the enemy's armor. 

My strategy was largely developed after my first disastrous attempt.  My plan was to confront the enemy with heavy and super heavy tanks with the heaviest armor and weapons I could field, as I needed to penetrate the enemy's armor, which was significantly boosted by fortification.  The heavy and super-heavies were equipped with auto-cannons to make them at least somewhat capable of engaging the enemy infantry.  Unfortunately, the enemy proved to be more than capable of engaging even my super heavies, and my tanks, while capable of destroying enemy units, couldn't do it at a rate that would make a difference.  My tanks outnumbered the enemy's by almost four to one, but completely failed to destroy the enemy tank force.  I didn't include infantry this time because they so completely failed to deal with the enemy's infantry last time.  This was probably a mistake. 

If I could go back and do it again, I'd include heavy infantry and more advanced heavy and super heavy artillery.  At this point I think I'd need a force at least twice as big, maybe three times, to defeat this enemy.  That would be 1.4 to 2.1 million tons of troops. 

At this point I'm considering moving on from this campaign.  I feel like I've learned what I can at this point. 

[nuclearslurpee]

In addition, seven smaller troop transports accompany the force, carrying replacement units that can be fed into the frontline units as needed.

I assume this was because you're using this as a learning campaign? Mechanically I don't think there's any reason to use replacement units as there's no mechanic to take advantage of reserves, which is a change from VB6.

Now would be the time to commit reinforcements, but there are none.  Everything was committed to the initial assault. 

 

Final Notes: The orbital support was relatively useless.  The beam weapons had a very hard time hitting the dug-in ground units, and when they did hit they largely didn't penetrate their armor.

I've found railguns are usually the most effective for this since they get so many shots, lower damage per shot but you don't need too much to shred lighter units. Also they are usually relatively cheap so MSP consumption is not as crippling. That said, you really need a large fleet of them to get much benefit and I'm not sure the MSP use is worth it compared to just building a couple more artillery brigades.

If I could go back and do it again, I'd include heavy infantry

I'd actually consider light infantry (light as in without power armor). They're very cheap to build which means you can build a lot of them and they can eat a lot of anti-tank weapon fire to keep your tanks alive longer. One of the big downsides to a tanks-only force is that if the enemy can reliably penetrate their armor, there's not very many of them so you lose a lot of your force very quickly. A basic rifleman can eat a 203mm tankbuster shell to the face and you only lose 5 tons of units, way better than 150 or 340 tons gone in one shot.

At this point I'm considering moving on from this campaign.  I feel like I've learned what I can at this point.

I'd say the only consideration besides that is if you want to hold out for 2.2, although conversely I'm sure another learning campaign with a different focus would also be useful if you want to hold off starting a big, complicated AAR of some sort. Maybe something with a lot of NPRs in close proximity to play with diplomacy, I think that's also revamped from VB6?

[Kurt]

In addition, seven smaller troop transports accompany the force, carrying replacement units that can be fed into the frontline units as needed.

I assume this was because you're using this as a learning campaign? Mechanically I don't think there's any reason to use replacement units as there's no mechanic to take advantage of reserves, which is a change from VB6.

This is roleplaying more than anything else.  I had a bunch of cast-off units left after fiddling with the designs, and intended to use these to feed additional units into the frontline units as they suffered losses.  It didn't really work out, but more because I didn't handle it right for out-side the game reasons. 

Now would be the time to commit reinforcements, but there are none.  Everything was committed to the initial assault. 

 

Again, roleplaying.

Final Notes: The orbital support was relatively useless.  The beam weapons had a very hard time hitting the dug-in ground units, and when they did hit they largely didn't penetrate their armor.

I've found railguns are usually the most effective for this since they get so many shots, lower damage per shot but you don't need too much to shred lighter units. Also they are usually relatively cheap so MSP consumption is not as crippling. That said, you really need a large fleet of them to get much benefit and I'm not sure the MSP use is worth it compared to just building a couple more artillery brigades.

If I could go back and do it again, I'd include heavy infantry

I'd actually consider light infantry (light as in without power armor). They're very cheap to build which means you can build a lot of them and they can eat a lot of anti-tank weapon fire to keep your tanks alive longer. One of the big downsides to a tanks-only force is that if the enemy can reliably penetrate their armor, there's not very many of them so you lose a lot of your force very quickly. A basic rifleman can eat a 203mm tankbuster shell to the face and you only lose 5 tons of units, way better than 150 or 340 tons gone in one shot.

At this point I'm considering moving on from this campaign.  I feel like I've learned what I can at this point.

I'd say the only consideration besides that is if you want to hold out for 2.2, although conversely I'm sure another learning campaign with a different focus would also be useful if you want to hold off starting a big, complicated AAR of some sort. Maybe something with a lot of NPRs in close proximity to play with diplomacy, I think that's also revamped from VB6?

That's an idea.  I have little to no experience with diplomacy.   

[sneer]

I am dropping towel after 70 years of very nice play and around 150 systems surveyed
Game is unplayable for me at this stage
I did a sneak into database and found 16 NPRs ( zero starting - only 3 visible to me) and 29! Swarms out of which 3 neighboring me are decimated but not that this bring any change
I guess early Invaders scouts went deep into my universe starting cascade of new entities emerging

Any good idea how to extend the "playable" period of game ?

[nuclearslurpee]

Any good idea how to extend the "playable" period of game ?

You can go into the DB and set some or all of these races to human control (table FCT_Race, set "NPR" to 0/false) and then open the game and delete them (do NOT try to delete them from the DB directly, do this in-game). I seem to recall there is also some secret key command that lets you view NPRs in SM mode but I can't remember what it is - this could be another way to select and delete races which are not currently relevant to your player race.

In the game settings, set the probability of new NPR generation by NPRs to zero and turn off Swarms. This should prevent the Invader scouts from generating a lot of new races and slowing down the game again. Turning off spoiler races should leave any ships or races they currently have intact, just FYI, so any spoilers you are currently facing will remain in-game and you should not see any continuity errors. 

[sneer]

turning off swarms seems to take major opponent out as NPRs are rarely as agrressive and technically competitive in early to mid game
Basicly the only idea I see new generation of NPR by NPR to zero but question is if when I discover the system already scouted by other entity will there be any NPR roll
I fear lots of empty space this way...

[nuclearslurpee]

turning off swarms seems to take major opponent out as NPRs are rarely as agrressive and technically competitive in early to mid game

If you turn off swarms, any which already exist will remain in play, so as long as you don't delete all of them there will still be some aggressive opponents.

Basicly the only idea I see new generation of NPR by NPR to zero but question is if when I discover the system already scouted by other entity will there be any NPR roll

No. New NPR rolls only happen at system discovery/generation.

I fear lots of empty space this way...

Keep in mind that you don't need the game to last forever, because at some point you will be stronger than any NPR you might run into. If you defeat the Invaders and the various swarms already present, you probably are stronger than any regular NPR you might generate after that. If your goal is to extend the current game, this is very much possible, but there's not a certain solution to extend the game indefinitely.

If you really want indefinite, very long games my recommendation is to get comfortable with multiple player races. It takes getting used to but this is the most reliable way to keep a game running almost indefinitely (at least until the tech tree ends) since NPRs are not really able to keep up past some point. Plus this way, you have more control over the galaxy state and can always add more races if the game starts to get stale.