DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER
Sunday's Game: Japanese vs. Holy Russian Empire
Setting up for tomorrow’s game with @rasmus, the Imperial Russians are going up against the Japanese for control of these two stations in low orbit of a roughly Mars-sized planet.
It’s a classic tech / speed / accuracy vs. bruising weight match up.
135 points on a side.
No Campaign Advantages / Upgrades.
A high tech Japanese light cruiser + a high tech Japanese destroyer vs. medium tech Russian light cruiser + destroyer + frigate.
Japanese advantages are accuracy, thrust, maneuverability, initiative, and torpedoes.
Russians have slightly tougher shielding, more guns (just not as accurate), many more torpedoes (just don’t hit nearly as often or as hard) and of course were able to afford one extra small ship.
Game time tomorrow at 12:00 Noon EST! We’ll see what happens!
Overall battle area. Japanese are coming down from the north pole / daylight side of our roughly Mars-size planet (6700 km , 37 hexes diameter). Russians are coming up from the southern pole / night side.
A close up on the Japanese battlegroup. We have the Taiho class light cruiser Nagara and the Takashiro class destroyer Arashi. Both are very fast, bristling with electronics, but also a little fragile. 
The Russian battlegroup is a lot chunkier. By no leans low tech (actually everything here is "standard") - but they have tougher shielding, more harder-hitting guns (just not as accurate) and more torpedoes (again, just nowhere near as fast, accurate, or hard-hitting as those Japanese Class V ... the Ki-45 "Toryu" (Dragon Slayer) torpedoes.
Looking forward to it
Awesome, @rasmus . Either way, someone is getting redemption, either the Japanese for the pounding they took against @dignity ‘s UK task force, or the Russians after losing to @davehawes last week! 😀
In other news, the “Christmas Carnage” table was set up and shot today. I’ll coordinate with the team about how it might pop up on the site. Meanwhile, I’ll probably start posting Christmas Carnage Episodes I-IV in the projects, since they are all still currently lost in the forum archives of BoW 1.0.
I always enjoy reading about the Darkstar games because they also come across as very cinematic.
Thanks very much! Indeed, that’s what we were going for in the background. By creating a history that accelerated certain technologies (aerospace and theoretical physics) while slowing down others (computer science and the push toward true AI), I hoped to set up a world where men and women still hand stand on decks of warships and make tough decisions. Also, the lack of FTL communications (deliberate) means that starship / battlegroup / task force commanders are always on their own. Finally, the “independent” nature of FTL travel (limited as it is) means there are no “gates” or “wormholes” or “portals”… Read more »
Great fun was had – I don’t want to steal the thunder from the AAR
No worries at all, @rasmus ! Glad you have fun! We’ll have to do something like that again soon!
Of course, my real goal is to get players playing EACH OTHER. 😀
I will try to start posting AAR segments tomorrow some time (busy in the shipyards at the moment).
I think that I start to have the mechanics down. So might be able to fly off on my own
I saw your e-mail with the re-play, @rasmus . Three Class Vs torps into the stern of that poor little frigate?
You REALLY don’t like Russian frigates, do you?
😀 😀 😀
a spread of 5 agaist the undamaged cruiser and destroyer sharing a hex did not seem likely to do any damage- but the Frigate by it self only supported by scouts it seemed likely to do damage (all 3 hit column 2) – had i been smarter i had send it on the other side of the Japanese ships, let it shred the cruiser armor before the rest of the Russian guns going in from a distance … Reason to play with a replay picking up little things like that
There are definitely “tactics” hidden in the math and geometry of the game, @rasmus . A lot of it is emergent, as in no charts or rules that I designed, but tricks and angles that players found that worked. The ones that the rules encourage are those that loosely model real naval tactics (raking the stern, crossing the T, ships together for supportive defensive fire, but not TOO close to present an easy target, etc …
@oriskany which is why sneaking in a light one like the frigate make it a hard choice
1 continue the medium/long range gunduel with the cruiser and destroyer
2 deal with the close range frigate before it rip you apart
If you are on the same hex as the target can you choose where you want to attack? I mean if the Russian player send in the frigate to a hex with the Japanese fleet … Or does that depend on the hex the frigate come from?
If two warships are in the same hex, the interrelationships between their positions and facings is up to the ship that won initiative (i.e., moved last). But you’re right, such an interrelationship has to make geometric sense with the facing of the “losing” ship and from which hex / facing the “winning” ship entered.
@oriskany Help, I get confused when games make logical sense 😉
No worries, @rasmus – The rule as written (in the book that I hope to publish before the new year) … 4.5.3.B. Facings for Ships in Same Hex: When ships wind up in the same hex, the interrelationship between two ships in the same hex (which weapons arcs can come to which target facings on a ship in the same hex) is up to the second ship to enter the hex (i.e., the ship that won initiative between the two). i. This is subject, of course, to the facing of the two ships. The positioning of the second ship as… Read more »
@oriskany Thanks I did mean it more as a dig at those rules that don’t have an internal logic to them 😉
No worries, @rasmus – I totally understand. Lots of people are looking at these threads,though, so since I had the full rule clarification readily available (simple copy/paste) I went ahead and added the extra detail. Yeah, a lot of this rule book is becoming very wordy, but really it’s just very exacting text definitions of “common sense” concepts. I want as small a FAQ page as humanly possible. 😀 Imagine writing a document, for someone who has NEVER worn shoes before, and without video or even very many illustrations – how to tie your shoes. It’s a simple thing, we… Read more »