Joe Block:
>Steve, I have a request about your TCS campaign. Would you be willing
>to post information that any player in the game's spies would have
>heard? I'm referring to incidents like the starport trashing you
>mentioned in one of your recent TML posts. I, at least, am interested
>in finding out how the war is going. Also, I vaguely recall you
>mentioning that you had prepared a Jane's Fighting Ships document with
>(not necessarily accurate) information that all the players know about
>the other fleets. If I'm not misremembering things and you still have
>a copy, would you please email it to me, as I am interested in what
>strategies the various players chose for their ship designs.
Well, if no-one thinks it would be a waste of bandwidth, I'll start
posting such whenever they get all the way across the Islands...
As to the "war", it's over. More or less. Maybe. But the *other*
war seems to be heating up.
The starport bombing incident was actually two separate incidents.
Early in "the war" (Officially the Old Islands War. The "other war" is
officially the Topas War (names assigned by players, but made "official"
by my use of them in my records)), Amondiage sent two fleets out to raid
the enemy home systems. In Neubayern, the fleet appeared at the 100
diameter limit, accelerated toward the planet, fought the Neubayern
Fleet in passing, and carried out a nuclear bombardment of the starport,
associated shipyards, and associated industries. They then jumped away
(those that were able). The entire attack lasted 154 minutes from the
appearance of the raiding force to the jump of the last ships. In this
time, they killed around 200,000,000 people who had the misfortune to
live near a target area, and reduced Neubayern's starport to "B", and
shipyard capacity by half.
At about the same time (one day earlier by my records), the second
Amondiage fleet arrived in New Home system, and engaged the New Home
System Squadron. Since most of New Home's fleet was elsewhere (beating
up on Sansterre's fleet in St Genevieve), the System Squadron was
soundly trounced. Then about one-half Amondiage's survivors carried out
a raid against New Home's starport exactly like that against
Neubayern's. Differences: New Home has IMPRESSIVE planetary defenses.
All but a handful of the attacking ships were destroyed, though not
before New Home's starport/shipyards/industries were trashed to a degree
similar to those on Neubayern.
Simultaneously (as much as such is possible over interstellar
distances, which is to say *NOT*), New Home and Neubayern's main fleets
were pounding Sansterre's fleet into grape jelly at St Genevieve.
One week later, Sansterre's System Squadron was defeated by a
combined attack force from New Home and Neubayern, and Sansterre
surrendered.
Two weeks after that, Amondiage's fleets caught Neubayern's 2nd
Strike, 3rd, 4th, and 2nd Assault Fleets dispersed throughout St
Genevieve system, and trounced them, capturing a *whole bunch of ships*
(details must be kept secret, as not all affected players know the full
truth of that engagement yet).
Shortly thereafter, the warring parties agreed to a cease-fire, and
met on New Home to discuss terms of a permanent Armistice. During the
ensuing discussions, the players completely lost their grips on reality,
and ironed out an Alliance, but forgot to do the Armistice. So New
Home, Neubayern and Sansterre are now allies, even though technically
they are still at war with each other. Amondiage is technically at war
with New Home, Neubayern, and, by extension, their Alliance. So,
technically, Amondiage is at war with his ally Sansterre, too.
The Topas War isn't really much of a war. Serendip Belt grabbed
Topas from Neubayern (who grabbed it early in the game), and the two of
them have squabbled about it since. Serendip Belt's army is busy
grinding up Neubayern's army on Topas, and there has been only one fleet
action. When Serendip Belt attacked Neubayern's army on Topas,
Neubayern's Topas System Squadron (as opposed to Serendip Belt's Topas
System Squadron, and New Colchis' Topas System Squadron) attacked the
Belter force in an attempt to insert some fighters into the ground
battle (so as to keep Serendip Belt from totally controlling the air
over the battlefield). The fighters were successfully inserted, and
both forces suffered heavy losses. Neubayern's Topas System Squadron
was forced out of Topas system as well...
As to "Jane's", I am currently putting together the 5628 issue,
which will include more information about the ships that actually
fought, as well as information about the new ships being built at
various yards around the Islands. I'll send you a copy when I get
done. Which may be several weeks yet. Patience. I won't forget...
---Steve