Dominion War Wargame

[Kodiak]

Uhlan, most of the battles were what I believe would be called “point defense objectives,” essentially no maneuver, just whoever has more combat power. With one exception, the attempt to reinforce DS9 before the minefield fell. That battle seems to be fought at sublight speed, but why did it happen?

The Federation forces would have much preferred to fight at the wormhole, even if DS9 could add its combat power, rather than be blocked far away and unable to do any thing. In this case the Dominion was able to achieve its objective (would have, without outside intervention) simply by fighting, I do not think they were interested in destroying federation ships, but preventing them from traveling to the wormhole.
Why didn’t the Federation ships warp out?

Regarding Star Trek Star Charts, check out the location of Bolarus, note that it was attacked and then check out what the Dominion forces would have had to do to attack it. Makes you wonder why Trill was never attacked. But the maps are very slick looking.

On rereading the history it looks like Bolarus was just threatened, bringing Federation and Klingon ships into battle, if that was the case then the maps pass this check, but the Klingons and the Romulans seem to be situated overly far away from the Cardassians, but that is just me.

One point that can be easily solved is the communications lag time, simply by making the turn length long enough to hide propagation time.

Sensor effectiveness and counter measures will need to be taken into account, some how.

Something I noticed while checking out The Dominion War Source book is that terms like “bottled the enemy up” seems to imply a more of a ground based mindset. That reference is on page 13 in regards to the Kumarek system. If that system is held by the Dominion, then it should be blockade, if it was held by the Federation, we’d need to establish why safe harbors exist in systems.

-Kodiak

[Eric R.]

Originally posted by Kodiak
Eric,
These are a few notes that I had from when I gave this a go, maybe you’ll find them useful:
1) Be mindful of the relation between sensor range, distances and ship speed, thanks to the really long sensor range, 15 ly, and the great variance in speed, an Intrepid could move either three hexes (cruise) or 13 hexes (sustained) (assuming 5 ly and 14 day turns).

Right, the whole reaction system if I use it to simulate the sensor effectiveness would have to take into account tha the ships range might be increased due to such factor as max speed and etc.. no real big trouble there.

2) Keep the doctrine in mind, once you have the types of operations you want, determine why they happen and then build the rule set, check out The Complete Wargames Handbook

Opens the drawer beneath the computer desk, shining up at him is that nice book that nice Mr. Dunnigan wrote. Check

3) Finding a good map of the entire region will cause problems, be wary. On the other hand, if you have a good map that makes sense, please post the URL.

-Kodiak [/B][/QUOTE]

As is, there is no doubt that the map in the starcharts is basicially unworkable for a game so I am more incline to come up with my own to better the feel of the game and make it workable. A few years ago I drew a map based on the old Fasa map, turned so as both the ROmulans and Klingons where in the Beta Quadrant and which essentuially fit "under" the old FASA map In other words if your ship flew up ward far enough they would fine themsleves in the corresponding area on the old map. My Idea at the time was that there were three levels one above and below the older map. I need to find the sucker again its on a disk someplace, I do remember sending a copy to Sig, (any chance the map cave achives still has it?")

[Eric R.]

My first Rules draft suggestion for Reaction (Sensors) Remeber the scale of the game is One week turns.

STARSHIP REACTION

Kelvin Hughes looked at the "G^D D^MN" sensor screne again as he had for most of the last 3 hours and still nothing but black open space. His eyes were growing tired and his back screamed for relief from the uncomfortable crew chiar he sat in but he remaind true to his duty. He was alert, God was he ever alert. How many starships had already been lost to a missed sensor contact or some sensor officer brushing a contact off as "Space Dust"

Then he saw it a small blip, then another and another, three marks he quickly listed as Contacts Alpha 1, 2 and 3. They were at max range but he worked hard at getting another read on them. The ultra high tech sensor ID computer worked over time searching for any data which would give awy the contacts ID. Within a nano second Kelvin was reading the ID tag, three Jem'Hadar attack fighters.

Within fifteen seconds of first seeing the contact Kelvin sounded out, "Captain we have three hostile Contacts bearring 02367 mark 8. Repeat Three contacts . . . "

All ships have a basic Sensor (reaction) range this may be 2,4,6,8 or more hexes away. The range is determined if the wing is on patrol (larger range) or picket duty (short range).

Federation Escort Wings, Klingon Bird of Pry Wings and Dominion Fighter wings have a raction bonus of +2 to all reaction attempts due to there agressiveness.

Only one wing in a stack may make a reaction attempt, once per turn. i.e. Once the reaction attempt is made the wing can not make another for the rest of the turn. The wing with the highest reaction score makes the attempt.

If a unit is positively ID by a Reaction attempt the Enemy player stops all movement and the defender can move all units within a reaction range which encompasses the spotted unit. These units can:

1.) Attack the ID unit
2.) Reinforce likily threaten areas
or
3.) Retreat

Once the Defender has finshed his reaction movements, the attacker may continue his movement phase, but is still eligibale for another reaction attempt by another stack (Force).

[Kodiak]

A few comments Eric,
Assuming that a ship is able to move at cruising for a week, an Intrepid could move 4 hexes (assuming 5 light year hexes), what this means I don’t know, but your idea of giving fleets missions is a good answer to movement problems, and as you noted reaction. At sustained it can move 7 hexes. Compare this to a Galor at 3/4 gives you a possible justification for how the Federation won at least the Cardassian conflict. I hope that the Dominion ships will be faster, it seems that various speeds need to be taken into account, but having ships able to cruise (I’m assuming some sort of a supply system that limits the ability of a force to operate at sustained) at the same speed as another forces sustained would seem to be a massive advantage.

For sensor ranges, you might want to take into account how much time a ship spends patrolling. In this case it would be a trade off for defensive ships, a unit that was always patrolling wouldn’t be at the defensive post (or would have a very slim chance), while “tight perimeter” would almost always get in on the action.

I think that the reaction rules are a good start (the missions idea is outstanding), are you basing them on any existing rule set?

-Kodiak

[Kodiak]

I reread part of the DSW today and I have some thoughts based on the reading:
1) Fluid Fronts – definitely has the right idea. To simulate this I think the concept of ZOC works well. The size of the ZOC would be based on speed and mission, patrol, defense, ect. It can also be increased by adding more ships to the picket. What happens when the ships violate the ZOC? I don’t know, it depends on the ZOCing force and the attacking ships, ZOCs could have levels that would determine how many ships (or what speed of ships) could respond). This would have the effect of forcing detours that will cost time.
2) Supply lines – somehow the effects of being in and out of supply need to be taken into account, especially for Dominion troops. Perhaps in addition to everything else, only ships that were in supply could use sustained speed?
3) Supply points – what counts as a supply point?
4) Stars seem to be anchors, can we assume that only star systems will have bases?
5) If supply routes are established for commerce, can enemy ZOCs be defeated by allocating escorts to the pool, if so how would it work?
6) How far out system does it become unsafe to use warp speed?
7) Chance events seem to be behind many of the events that happened. Depending on the stances that ships had, it would be possible for them not to be in their base hexes during part of a turn, if they are on patrol or escort duty. It might be wise to have a general “theater intelligence level” that could allow attacks against only part of a fleet.

Just as a little note, with the idea of escort polls and theater intelligence, we take more ships off the map and make their appearance less directly felt, and giving fewer options to the commanders, is this a bad thing or not?

-Kodiak

[Eric R.]

RIght now two games standing out in my mind for references are:

Gulf Strike, excellent Operational game with all three elements interacting (air, land and sea). the two expansions sets have excellent rules for speical forces.

Stonewall Jacksons Way or The Great Campiagns of the American Civil War Series. This is where I got the idea of the leaders and the action cycle for movement/combat.

[Antonsb214]

What about Ground Forces/Marines *gasp!!! I used the M word!* and RRTs? They have to take planets and starbases unless the objective is to simply destroy it, well... they can do that too.
How many classes of ship will there be in the game, specific classes or generic types? Either send in some Galaxy-class and Akira-class ships or say several Explorers and Heavy Cruisers.
I think formations could come in handy during battle, with different combinations of offensive and defensive formations giving the attacker or defender different bonuses to rolls. The old 1776 game had commanders selecting formations before battles and then showing their cards when the battle was fought. And of course legendary officers will give a bonus to rolls made with a fleet, the big Federation vs. Empire game had fleets calculating their damage points and then applying them to the enemy fleet, it was pretty difficult to completely destroy a starship unless you had overwhelming force advantages. Of course fleets are also much smaller in FvE.

[Eric R.]

4.) Planets would not be the only anchors there would be deep space starbases (only the most important ones with repair and sensor capabilities) though locating this in a system would give certain defensive bonuses. The bases would be units and not printed on the map

5.) Commerce might best be handled by an abstract Strategic warfare segment akin to Rise and Fall of the Third Riech. This would 1.) take a large number of units off the map freeing it up for the more pure combat units and 2.) streamline the game a little since you would not have to resolve these movement and strikes.

6.) at the game scale I think what speed a ship is making is not as important as its range per turn. For instance heavy Federation units EX & CA can roll for movement twice per turn, Escorts three times per turn and Aux. 1 per turn. If they are apart of a fleet and move as a fleet/force then the leaders movement rate is the force movement allowence rate for an example Admiral Ross (w/a command bonus of +3) in command of the seventh fleet rolls a 5 which when added with his Command bonus equals 8, meaning all ships in his fleet have a movement allowence of 8 hexes for that cycle. Since Ross has a Command Bonus of +3, he can move his fleet three separate times per turn.

[Eric R.]

Units
Starship Units
While there are countless numbers of actuall starships in the warzone in reality only those concentrated for combat duties are showed by a unit on the map.

Large Capitol Ships - these are counters which represent one or two large starships commonly used as fleet flagships such as Federation Explorers, Romulan and Dominion Battleships.

Medium Capitol Ships - These are counters which reprsent large type wings such as Federation Frigate Wings

Squadrons - Squadrons represent either escort/destroyer type vessels or fighters such as a squadron of Klingon Bird of Prys. These units usually operate independently from the fleet.

Starbases/facilities these show important spacebases, deep space stations and stardocks as while as Sensor platforms and Defense outpost.

Ground Units
Ground Forces- these are the ground combat forces usued to sieze or defend planets by planetary assault, they have no movement allowence themselves and require a starship unit for transport.

Planetary Defense Artillery- these are units which can defend against orbital starship bombardment and assualting ground froces.

Special Forces- these units can conduct raids and board space stations to take them over (or defend them) as well as other missions.

Others
Mine Field - emplaced mine field which has been deployed

Fleet/Force marker- are used to reduce the amount of units on the map at any one time and produce some Fog of War. Each fleet has 5 force markers which reprsent as many starship units as possiable.

[redwood973]

Originally posted by Eric R.
SNIP

Planetary Defense Artillery- these are units which can defend against orbital starship bombardment and assualting ground froces.

SNIP

I have often wondered about planet based defense. I was unable to be a consistant viewer of DS9 but I am aware of the orbital defense platforms. Was there ever a planteray based defense platform?

What would a planetary based platform be? Phasers? Lasers? Photorps? I remember something in the DS9 TechMan. about blooming effects of large planet based phaser emplacements (overcome by [insert name] jacketing). With this being new tech would planetary phaser emplacements just becoming more common and replacing older planetary based photorp artillery?

Then again, why have a planetbound defense when you could have the orbital defense platforms? They have phaser and photorp capability, right?

[Eric R.]

Phaser batteries would have provided point defense, as would Photon based systems when emplacd on a Planets surface. I have a feeling that the Dominion war might have been the swan song for these systems, as newer and more esily produced Orbital system came into use. However there is no doubt that a Defense using both would be a very tough nut to crack. Inaddition I am thinking that the PDA is mobile and can be moved from planet to planet.

[Kodiak]

Eric,
One thing that I’d be careful of is making units too generic, if a given counter represents 1-2 explorers, a frigate wing (6-9 frigate) or a passel of fighters, they need something else to distinguish them, the reaction bonus will distinguish “aggressive units,” but you might want other special abilities to make units a bit more defined.

Part of this is to justify the existence of large ships, and part is to make sure that players don’t have the feeling that they are just pushing counters on a map.

Another possibility would be to adapt Prefect’s rules for task forces (more units, slower movement) to represent coordination problems.

-Kodiak

[Antonsb214]

It always seems that most capital ships can move at least at warp 9.3, some of the older ships, like Mirandas, probably a little slower. Tugs will probably move at a low warp, around 6 or so, but would be able to tow disabled ships back to base for repairs instead of leaving them to be listed as casualties. The usual rule about convoys and squadrons is that they can only move as fast as the slowest ship in the squadron.
And about ship counters and classes, some people are just going to want to see their favorite sillouette (sp.?) on the counter. People will just love to see Akiras, Nebulas, Novas, and the rest, and expect the counter to do the same as the ship on it.
So ships will have a combat rating, a command rating, movement rating, sensor rating, and what else? What would be the layout of such a counter? Anyone have any ideas or pics of prototype counters?

[Eric R.]

I like the Gulf Strike style myself, which had a sillouette of the ship/aircraft and what type of ship it was or type of fighter aircraft, on the back was listed the stats.

BTW, the command rating would be for leaders only.

[Kodiak]

I played around with a little map exercise today, assuming 60 hour turns and 2.5 light year hexes, and I have a few observations.
1) A larger scale would be better, more objectives, otherwise it becomes too predictable.
2) Scouting needs to be more detailed, this problem may go away with a larger scale, but if the scale is kept low, you may know that an enemy fleet is out their, but you may not know the specific composition. CODA has sensor modifiers, perhaps this could further be expanded by adding modifiers for ship speed and fleet size.
3) Fleets should have orders and this should change how they can react to events. Such orders could be Movement, Patrol, Strike, Defend, ect that would effect reaction and sensor capabilities.
4) Specific limitations on sustained and maximum need to be established.
5) At least for the Federation, technology should be taken into account, ships should have command modifiers.
6) The logistics issue really needs to be nailed down.


Well, that’s all I have for right now, I’m going to be posting a volley of questions in this same forum in a few minutes, with some of these question and others. I’ll also see what I can do about making a 40 ly x 60 ly area with 2.5 ly or 1.0 ly hexes, depending on feedback. I know that this is a small region, but I think that things will get unwieldy if we do anything bigger soon, but I am open to suggestions. It’s going to be crowded as it is.