Scenario: The Last Line of Defense

Hi all, 

After all the discussion of James Butler’s “Battlepod Swarm From
Hell” idea,
I thought it might make an interesting basis for a
last-ditch-defense-of-the-home-planet scenario, ala the Battle of the
Line
from Babylon 5. So while doing laundry tonight (doesn’t everyone design
sci-fi battles at the laundromat?), I put together a scenario, throwing
in a
couple stations and some mines for the sake of variety.

It is (needless to say) a HUGE scenario -- even counting the
“Munchkins” by
squadrons of 5, you still have about 20 ships/squadrons per side. I
would
probably want to play it with multiple players per side. Alternately,
you
could increase the number of ships per squadron to have fewer “groups”
to
control. (You can use either the simple squadron rules in MT, or the
more
involved system posted here by Joseph Haygood a couple months back.)

So, with apologies to J. Michael Straczinski, here is “The Last Line of
Defense.” If anyone is brave enough to try it out, let me know how it
goes! 

Scott Field

“Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put
into
it.”
								       
Tom
Lehrer

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
----------------

THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE

Background:
The war had been going badly for the Deltans from the very beginning. In
almost every encounter with the hated Alphans, they had been out-gunned
and
out-fought. When they intercepted a set of Alphan battle plans showing
that
the Alphan home-world was virtually undefended, they sent all their
FTL-capable ships to attack it. Unfortunately, it was a trap; the Deltan
fleet was ambushed and destroyed. Knowing that the Alphan invasion fleet
would not be long in coming, the Deltans slapped together a makeshift
force
of courier ships to augment their system defenses, armed them with what
weapons they could, and waited for the coming storm....

Attacking Forces: 

The invasion fleet consists of 4 troop transports, 2 planetary
bombardment
monitors, 3 capitals, 4 cruisers, 7 escorts and 7 fighter squadrons. To
simplify things, I've taken all attacking ships (except the minesweeper)
straight out of FT/MT. 

Attacking Fleet: 
4 * Assault Transports (use the example on p16 of MT)
2 * Planetary Bombardment Monitors (PBMs)
1 * BattleDreadnought
1 * Light Carrier
1 * Escort Carrier
1 * Heavy Cruiser
2 * Escort Cruisers
1 * Minesweeper   (see below)
2 * Destroyers
1 * Torpedo Destroyer
2 * Frigates
2 * Scouts

Minesweeper
   Mass: 26
   Damage: 13
   Thrust: 4
   FTL Drive
   2 * B-Batteries (P/F & F/S)
   1 * Minesweeper
   1 * PDAF
   LVL-1 Screens
   2 * FireCon
   2 * Damage Control Parties
   Cost: 188

Defending Forces:

The defenders have 1 military station, 2 civilian stations, 10 defense
satellites (6-mass mini-stations), 2 system defense cruisers, 4 fighter
squadrons, and 15 squadrons of "Munchkins."  Each squadron of Munchkins
consists of 5 ships: there are 6 squadrons of Mk I's, 6 squadrons of Mk
II's,
and 3 of Mk III's. Additionally, the defender may pre-deploy 25 mines.

Defending Fleet: 
1 * Military Station
2 * Civilian Stations
10 * Defense Satellites
2 * System Defense Cruiser (as per MT)
30 Mk I Munchkins
30 Mk II Munchkins
15 Mk II Munchkins
25 Mines (deployed before game starts)

Defending Ship write-ups:

Military Station
Mass: 200
Damage: 100
4 * A-Battery (1-arc)
8 * B-Battery (2-arc)
12 * C-Battery (3-arc)
4 * Pulse Torpedoes
1 * ADAF
4 * PDAF
4 * Fighter Bays
LVL-2 Screens
Enhanced Sensors
Individual ECM
5 * FireCons
5 * Damage Control Parties
Cost: 721

Civilian Stations
Mass: 200
Damage: 50
8 * C-Batteries (3-arc)
4 * Sub-Munition Packs
3 * PDAFs
LVL-1 Screens
Superior Sensors
1 * FireCon
1 * Damage Control Party
Cost: 395

Defense Satellites
Mass: 6
Damage: 3
1 * A-Battery (4-arc)
1 * FireCon
Cost: 28

Munchkin Mk I
Mass: 2 
Damage: 1
Thrust: 8
1 * FireCon
1 * Sub-Munition Pack
Cost: 11

Munchkin Mk II
Mass: 2
Damage: 1
Thrust: 6
1 * FireCon
1 * C-Battery (3-arc)
Cost: 12

Munchkin Mk III
Mass: 4
Damage: 2
Thrust: 4
1 * FireCon
1 * Missile
Cost: 18

Set-up:
I’ll keep this vague, since it will all depend on the size of the
playing
surface you have available. (It had better be big!) The defenders set up
on
the “east” 1/3rd of the table, and the attackers enter from the
“west” side.
The defender notes the locations of his mines on graph paper, revealing
them
whenever an enemy ship comes within passive sensor range of the mine.
All
ships begin with a max. velocity of 5.

Withdrawal:
Since the defending ships are all sublight, they effectively cannot
withdraw.
(Besides, they’re fighting to the death here!) Attacking ships may
withdraw
by leaving from the “west” side of the table.

Objectives/ Victory Conditions: 

Attacker Decisive Victory: More than 1/2 of troop “cargo mass” and 3
or more
functioning Ortillery systems make it off the east edge of the table.
All the
defending stations are destroyed. 

Attacker Marginal Victory: Less than 1/2 of troop “cargo mass” and 1-2
functioning Ortillery systems make it off the east edge of the table. At
least one of the defending stations is destroyed.

Stalemate: All troop transports are destroyed, but less than 1/4 (by
mass) of
the defending force survives.

Defender Marginal Victory: All troop transports are destroyed, and less
than
1/2 (by mass) of the defending force survives.

Defender Decisive Victory: All troop transports are destroyed, and more
than
1/2 (by mass) of the defending force survives.