Battles and how they would have been depicted

My original intent was to show the battle using F&E counters as shown below. In a full blown display of the General War this would have taken of more space then I have available on my server. So I would have used "text" only version. I have kept the original idea ( shown below) so players could see what it would have looked like.

Notations

Following a suggestion by Joe Stevenson, I then turned to using notations that were used in the "Goliath" game that was chronicled on the ADB's BBS. Because it is possible to have a Flagship that is not in the Formation Bonus slot, I took the liberty of adding more additional notation to show which is the flag ship. While not all the notations are used in this example I included them all for the sake of completeness. The notations are shown in the table below.

Symbol	Description
%	Flagship  (302.32) Basic Rules
< >	Ship with Formation Bonus (308.7) Basic Rules
[  ]	Group Basic Rules
(  )	Crippled Ship and/or Unit Basic Rules
#	Free Scout  (308.53) Basic Rules
*	Drone Bombardment  (309.0) Basic Rules
@	SWAC  (518.0) Carrier Wars F&E Module 1
&+	Legendary Admiral    (Play test Rule (3A.0) in Captain's Log #18)
&	Standard Admiral      (Play test Rule (3A.0) in Captain's Log #18)
&-	Incompetent Admiral  (Play test Rule (3A.0) in Captain's Log #18)
&?	Unknown Admiral       (Play test Rule (3A.0) in Captain's Log #18)
$	Prime Team (522.0) Marine Assault F&E Module #2

The battle chosen for the example is from a Tactical Note by Joe Stevenson titled "Weight The Attack" in Captain's Log #16. The battle is a small Klingon force attacking a undefended BATS and lasts four rounds. The concept is to only bring enough forces to do the job, leaving other forces for other attacks.    For those of you who have not read it I suggest you do as he makes an excellent point.

The battle in Joe's tactical note is 4 rounds of combat between a Klingon force consisting of the following forces: <%D5>, 3F5, F5, E4 vs a Kzinti BATS. First Combat Round. The Klingon uses his entire force <%D5>, 3F5, F5, E4, giving him a ComPot of 32, but because he has no scout, he will suffer a shift of -1. (See 308.51). He does 6 points of damage. The Kzinti only have the BATS. The Kzinti ComPot is 18. He does have the EW capability of the BATS. He does 4 points of damage. Damage Resolution: The Klingon cripples an E4. The Kzinti kill the BATS 6 fighters.

Second Combat Round. The Klingon uses <%D5>, 3F5, F5 (he leaves the crippled E4 out of the Battle Force) and has a ComPot of 28. Despite the fact that he crippled the BATS he still suffers a shift of -1. He does 6 points of damage. The Kzinti still has only the BATS. Losing the fighters however, reduces his ComPot to 12. He does 3 damage points. Damage Resolution: The Klingon cripples an F5. Note! The F5 requires 5 points to cripple and the Kzinti did only 3 points, so the Klingon will go into the next round of combat with two Minus Points. See (308.2). The Kzinti cripples the BATS leaving him with only 6 points of damage remaining.

Third Combat Round. The Klingon puts <%D5>, 3F5 (leaving both the crippled F5 and E4 out of his Battle Force) and now has a ComPot of 23. He still suffers a -1 shift and does 5 points of damage. The Kzinti has only the crippled BATS with a ComPot of 6, and does 1 point of damage. Damage Resolution: The Klingon uses 1 of his minus points to resolve the damage. The Kzinti loses 5 of the 6 points left on the BATS.

Fourth Combat Round. The Klingon puts <%D5>, 3F5 (again leaving both the crippled F5 and E4 out of his Battle Force) and has a ComPot of 23. He again has to fire with a -1 shift and does 5 points of damage. The Kzinti BATS even though crippled retains its ComPot of 6 and does 1 point of damage. Damage Resolution: The Klingon uses his remaining minus point. The Kzinti has 6 point to resolve but only 1 point remaining, so is forced to destroy the BATS.

The battle is now over and the Klingon will take his force including the 2 crippled ships to fight another day.

---

Example of how a battle would have been visually displayed.

All hexes that result in a battle hex would have been shown by a battle hex counter . This counter would have linked you to a page showing the forces involved (using F&E counters) in the battle on a round by round basis with results for each round.

In a larger battle this page would also have shown all the forces available to both sides. Each side would also have a display like the one shown below. Each square would show the ships being used. For the sake of this example I have simplified it somewhat, and chosen a smaller battle.

First Combat Round.    The Klingon will use the following to attack the BATS. The Klingon ComPot is 32, but because he has no scout will suffer a shift of -1. He does 6 points of damage.    The Kzinti only has the BATS. The Kzinti ComPot is 18. He does have the EW capability of the BATS. He does 4 points of damage. Damage Resolution: The Klingon cripples the E4 to resolve his damage. He will leave it out it of the next combat round. The Kzinti resolves his damage by killing his fighters.

Second Combat Round.    The Klingon will use the following to attack the BATS. The Klingon ComPot is 28, and he still must fire through a shift of -1. He does 6 points of damage.    The Kzinti still has only the BATS. Losing the fighters however, reduces his ComPot to 12. He does 3 damage points. Damage Resolution: The Klingon cripples a F5 to resolve his damage. He will leave it and the crippled E4 out of the next combat round. The F5 takes 5 point to cripple so the Klingon will go into the next round of combat with 2 minus points. The Kzinti cripples the BATS which now has only 6 points remaining.

Third Combat Round.    The Klingon will use the following to attack the BATS. The Klingon ComPot is 23, and he still suffers a -1 shift.  He does 5 points of damage.     The crippled BATS is all the Kzinti has. The Kzinti ComPot is 6 and he does 1 damage point. Damage Resolution: The Klingon uses 1 of his minus points to resolve the damage. The Kzinti loses 5 of the 6 "minus" points. The Klingon will again leave the cripple F5 and E4 out of the battle.

Fourth Combat Round.    The Klingon will use the following to attack the BATS. The Klingon ComPot is 23, and he still must fire through a -1 shift.  He does 5 points of damage.     The crippled BATS is all the Kzinti has. The Kzinti ComPot is 6 and he does 1 damage point. The battle is now over as the BATS has to resolve 5 points but only has 1 "minus" point and is destroyed. The Klingon will take his force including the 2 crippled ships to fight another day.

Top of Page

Introduction