Star Fleet Warlord Historical Game
"The General Takeover War"
Official Rules • Revision 2 • June 1995 • by Bruce Graw (reprinted by Pagoda Games April 1998)
Background
In the years following the surprising success of Olivette Roche's miniseries "Warlords of the Cloud" (on which Star Fleet Warlord is based), many stories were written using her fictional universe as their background. One such novel, "History of the General Takeover War," was a tongue-in-cheek attempt to rewrite the General War as though it had been fought by Corporations rather than the races.
To simulate this concept, a historical variant of Star Fleet Warlord was developed. This is a "team" game in which two teams of six players control the races of the Alliance and Coalition. These teams then fight each other for domination of the galaxy.
The standard rules of Star Fleet Warlord are used in all cases except as noted in the following game overview.
Galactic Setup
The Historical Star Fleet Warlord galaxy is a 10x3 array, not 10x10 as in the standard game. In addition, the galaxy does not "wrap around." Movement off of any side is not allowed and will be marked as illegal if attempted.
There is no Graveyard of Ships sector, so the GRAV order will not function.
The Corporations in the Historical Game are arranged as shown below:
The capital letters indicate player positions (Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Kzinti, Gorn, Hydran, and Lyran). Note that the Klingons, Federation, Gorns, Lyrans, and Romulans have two players apiece (each of whom control a Corporation representing half of their race) while the Kzintis and Hydrans are played by just one player each.
The lower case letters are non-player Corporations played by the computer. The darker grey sectors with no letters are standard wild sectors which might contain Andromedans or Orions just as in any normal game of Star Fleet Warlord.
The Frax and Seltorians will not appear in this game.
Alliances and Diplomacy
The Grand Alliance (usually referred to as simply the Alliance) is composed of the two Federation players, the two Gorn players, the Kzinti player and the Hydran player. The Coalition consists of the two Klingon players, the two Romulan players and the two Lyran players. The ISC, WYN, LDR, and Tholians are minor races controlled by the Star Fleet Warlord computer. (Note: They will be far more difficult to conquer than the minor races SFW players may be used to.) There will not be space monsters in home sectors, but some of the nastier types of monsters will be found in the wild "neutral zone" sectors.
Because of the nature of this game, diplomacy between team members is vital. It is recommended that all six players on a team be able to communicate by phone as often as necessary. At a minimum, the two players of any given race (e.g., the two Federation players) should be close enough to each other to meet face-to-face as their moves will depend on each other more than any other Corporations.
If one player wishes to play both of these Corporations at the same time, this will be allowed, but both still count as separate Corps for ALL purposes, including turn fee’s.
Despite being allied, members of a team are still treated as independent Corporations and are under the normal Star Fleet Warlord restrictions (they cannot merge fleets with teammates; attempts to enter hexes containing sites or ships owned by an ally will fail automatically).
This is all a matter of game balance—if, for example, the Lyrans and Klingons could combine fleets, they could wipe out the Hydrans in no time flat.
The Initial Build
Alliance players are each provided with 1000 EPs with which to buy ships during the initial build. Coalition players receive 1250 points each, simulating their larger treasuries and war-based economies. (The Alliance will likely have a higher income base to draw on later in the game, so the Coalition should make good use of this starting bonus!)
You are reminded that no more than 10 orders are allowed on the initial build, although more orders could be bought in anticipation of the next turn’s purchases. The Request Loan order will not function in this game, so it will not be possible to ask for more money early on. Players will still start with one Warp Gate in addition to the ships bought with the initial 10 orders (note that additional warp gates could be bought during the build, a common strategy for races with enemies on more than one front).
The game begins in Y168 (not Y165), so Y168 is considered to be turn zero. This means, among other things, that ships from Y168 and earlier will be available during the initial build. Each player is required to play ships of their race only (no outside buys allowed except for Civilian ships). This restriction lasts throughout the game and includes the initial build. Attempts to buy ships of other races will fail utterly! Note that Frax and Seltorians will not be available (normally they are available for purchase on one specific game turn).
Standard supply and demand will be turned off in this game. This means you can buy unlimited quantities of the same ship and its price will never go up (or down, for that matter). This applies during the build and throughout the rest of the game as well. Note, however, that if you buy more than one of the same type of ship during the same turn, you will pay a 15% surcharge. This works the same way as standard SFW.
Strategic Note: In the initial build you should buy ten non-combat ships, especially small scouts, police ships, armed freighters, etc. These units will quickly be used to grab your home sector bonus and proceed to prospect. You MUST prospect your home sector as quickly as possible to get your economy on the right foot! You will also want to scan the sectors adjacent to you as quickly as you can, so consider sending two scouts in those directions to make sure you get the map. A one- or two-turn delay in entering the wild sectors can be costly!
Game Sequencing and Scheduling
The Coalition will run their turns first, starting with the left-hand Lyran Corporation and moving across the galaxy from left to right, in this sequence: Lyran-1, Lyran-2, Klingon-1, Klingon-2, Romulan-1, and Romulan-2. After this, Alliance turns will be processed in a similar order: Hydran, Kzinti, Federation-1, Federation-2, Gorn-1, and finally Gorn-2. The monsters, Andromedans and Orions will run at the start of every turn in the normal sequence.
Strategic Note: The Coalition moves first, and has more initial money, so they should go on the offensive. If they do not do so, they will find the going very difficult. Most General War historians agree that if the Hydrans can be taken out of the picture early, and the Coalition can concentrate on assaulting the Federation, they can win the war. If, on the other hand, the Alliance is given time to get their economy clicking, they will take the initiative and drive to victory.
Each Historical turn will be run on a two-week turn cycle (or another schedule if both teams agree). A specific due date will be listed for each team. If all six turns are not in the hands of Pagoda Games by the morning of the scheduled day, any turns which are not present will be run as "null turns" (that is, with no moves or orders entered except that all ships prospect). A printout of the resulting report will be mailed and a standard turn fee will be charged.
Note that this firm schedule is a major difference between Historical Warlord and standard Warlord. It is vital that your turn be submitted on time. If you wish, you can call Pagoda the day before the due date to make sure it arrived in the mail, and if not, you will be able to use an alternative method such as faxing in your turn. LATE TURNS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED. There is no "double-turning" in a Historical Game, and due to the ability to pass intelligence along to team members, it is not possible to run part of a team’s turns while others have not arrived.
Messages to Teams
It is possible to send a message to all players on a given team. This is done with a special variant of the ME order, ME TEAM. The Coalition is team #1, and the Alliance team #2. To send a message to the Alliance, for example, issue an order such as the following: ME TEAM 2 "Prepare to die!"
You can send a message to either your own team or the opposing team if you wish. Of course, you can still send messages to ALL or to specific Corporations or sectors.
The format of the ME TEAM order is shown in the Star Fleet Warlord rulebook.
Economic Gifts
It will be possible to give economic point gifts to another player on your team if they run into problems. To do this, issue the EG order, which has the following parameters:
EG (amount) (type of resource) (Corp#)
This order cannot be used during the initial build, but is available on any ensuing turn. You can send resources to the other team if you wish, although there is little point to doing so (except as an insult, or perhaps a handicap factor).
The type of resource sent can be PE, OR, DC, FP or EPs. The amount of EPs you can send during any turn is limited by your stock value. This means if your stock is 50, you cannot send more than 50 EPs, in any combination of EG orders, during your turn. (In other words, only 50 EPs can be sent in total, not 50 to every Corp on your team!) If you send a resource type specifically, each resource point counts as one-fourth of an EP point, so a Corp with 50 stock could send 200 PE, for example. Combinations are allowed, e.g., 25 EPs and 100 PE would not exceed the limit on 50 stock points, but these would still be two separate EG orders.
Strategic note: This order is what will prove your worthiness as a team. You must decide when it is right for you to give money to someone else at your own expense.
Note: For game balance purposes, there is no way to transfer legendary officers between Corporations. (The Hydrans, for example, would dearly love to receive legendary aces from their allies!)
Non-Player Races
WYN: The WYN sector will be surrounded by a special terrain type, the WYN Zone (WZ). This is both an area and point terrain type, so no sites can be located within it. The WZ terrain type is treated as a standard radiation zone (i.e., it drains crew) combined with a nebula (shields are dropped by entering it). Scans cannot be performed from within a WZ hex! The 01xx, 16xx, xx01 and xx16 rows of the WYN home sector will contain this terrain; no other hexes will have it. WYN ships will not enter these hexes or attempt to leave their sector. Terrain elsewhere in WYN space will be randomly generated normally.
Tholian: The Tholians will possess large numbers of ships. All of their sites will be fortified to at least base station level. In addition, many of their ships will be stationed at these bases with their speeds marked as zero. This will make the Tholians extremely hard to conquer! Hint: Don’t even try. If you want to, send a raiding fleet in, but don’t send too much after Tholian sites.
LDR and ISC: These races will also have large numbers of ships, many of them very powerful, but will otherwise be treated as any other non-player race. This means they will be played very unintelligently. Still, their ships will be a major nuisance if you wish to attempt to attack their sectors.
General: All of these races will be located in standard NPC-level sectors (not wild sectors) so the quantity of terrain will be low. Each sector will possess a Home Office which, if conquered, will terminate all movement and building by that NPC. Note that the ISC are treated as two separate Corporations, one in each of their two sectors, and will have to be defeated individually. (There is no third ISC Corp for game balance purposes.)
Strategic Note: Entering one of the non-player home sectors is a dangerous thing. A small fleet is required to have any chance of conquering any of the sites you will find within. In addition, the amount of energy you have to spend to attack these sectors will probably be better off spent elsewhere.
Romulan Special Cloak Abilities
The Romulans are able to purchase the "hidden cloak" as a special option. Normally this becomes available in Y183 in standard games, but in Historical SFW it is available at all times for the Roms.
To do this, Romulan ships should be bought using the PS order’s CLOAK parameter, which costs 20% of that ship’s EP cost in dilithium resources. (The GETC order can also be used later in the game if the ship visits a base.) Thereafter, the ship will cloak out automatically at the end of each turn without needing to issue the CLOAK order. Of course, if the ship is in a dust cloud or some other cloak-cancelling terrain, this will not take effect, and it will also be cancelled if the ship issues a SCAN order. Needless to say, Romulans will more than likely be begging for dilithium from their allies!
Civilian ships bought by the Romulans can also be equipped with the cloak, as if they were Orion ships—i.e., use the CLOAK parameter to the PS order, or a GETC order later on. If desired, this can be later improved with the hidden cloak by using another GETC. Warp Gates are primary recipients of this improvement!
Note: Even if they are bought at a cloaked Warp Gate, ships will not be cloaked at the time of purchase, unless they are bought with the hidden cloak (which takes effect automatically). Civilian ships cannot have the hidden cloak when purchased (they must use GETC later), so they will be visible to the enemy. Obviously, there is no reason to buy the cloak on an obsolete Warp Gate—there’s no way to upgrade it to a hidden cloak!
Unavailable Game Features
In standard SFW, there are many features which have no worthwhile purpose in the historical game, or are game-unbalancing. These features are therefore unavailable, and are listed below.
Random Events have been removed, as many of the events can ruin a strategy if received at the wrong moment. A team plagued by bad events will be disadvantaged to the point of frustration, while a team with many good events can gain an advantage because of it.
Trading with Corporations (the TC order) is unavailable as the EG order supersedes this ability. The TE (Trade EPs) order, which allows you to swap resources internally, is available normally (every 4 turns starting in Y171).
Free things (such as Free Drones, Free T-bombs, etc.) are not available due to the lack of a Galactic Council to provide them. The Alliance stands most to gain from these, especially the Gorns and Federation, so it was also a matter of game balance to take them out.
Frax and Seltorian are not available and cannot be bought when they normally could. There are no computer Frax or Seltorian races.
The Old Ship Sale and Optional Item Sales will not occur.
The Graveyard of Ships does not exist in Historical SFW.
The Change Primary (CP) and Primary Race (PR) orders are not available as you are limited to your race’s ships and Council ships at all times. You may see messages "reminding" you of these orders; simply ignore them.
The Best Corps Lists and Stock Awards will not appear. Stock listings will appear normally.
Battle Tactics are not available as they are redundant.
Buying Stock in other Corporations will not be allowed.
The Defend Corp (DC) and Ally Corp (AC) orders ARE allowed (in a previous version of these rules they were listed as unavailable).
Stargate and Cloak Cloud terrains will not appear. In addition, some of the nastier terrain combinations (such as MO+NE) will not be possible. Major sites will not be located on the edges of home sectors (either player or NPC sectors).
Decoys are available, but only the Romulans can use cloaked decoys. If another race issues the DECC order it will be converted to DECY automatically. (Tip: Decoys are much more useful in this game than in a standard SFW game!)
Espionage will be available normally, and you should really consider using Espionage Countermeasures, lest the enemy easily learn where your Home Office and other sites are located. Too bad there isn’t an "EC PERM" order (and there won’t be, so don’t ask).
Note: If both teams agree before play begins, Agents of Gaming can modify some of the above rules. Any such request must be made in writing and agreed on by both sides, and will turn the historical game into a custom game. We highly recommend that random events NOT be allowed, but if you insist, please note that some of the more powerful events will still not appear. There are some that would disrupt the balance so tremendously that they simply could not be allowed in the game.
Victory and Defeat
Victory is determined on a team basis. A record of site ownership (per team) will be shown with each turn. After Y172, if one team owns at least twice as many sites as the other team at the end of a complete turn, the game will be over. For example, if the Alliance owns 120 sites and the Coalition only 60, the Alliance wins! Of course, any team may issue (or demand) surrender at any time which, if accepted, will terminate the game. It is possible for both teams to agree on a draw, and this can be done at any time at the consent of both teams.
If a Corporation is destroyed, any sites it controls remain the property of its team until conquered by the other team. However, upon the death of the owner’s Corp, those sites may be captured by the same team’s members. That is to say, the "allied" flag will be deactivated when a Corporation is destroyed (for this purpose only).
Like most "custom" games, Historical SFW is too small (in number of players) to make giving "victory awards" (free turn credits or free games) feasible. The only reward we can offer you is the satisfaction of a job well done!
Hints and Tips
The Alliance must be patient, for later on in the game you will be able to out-income the Coalition, once most of the prospecting is gone. Try to deny the Coalition a foothold in the wild sectors, and jealously guard your borders from scouts. If they get a scan of your home sector, they can send raiders in, and you can’t afford to lose your sector bonus and give up the income advantage to the other team!
Hydran: You must accept the fact that you will eventually be forced to play defensively, but don’t let this stop you from jumping out into the neutral zones and delaying the inevitable. The longer you can hold out, the more money the Coalition will have to spend on your demise. Remember, once you are gone, Lyran-1 and Klingon-1 can funnel EPs and ships into the war against the Kzintis and Federation, making their survival all the more difficult.
Kzinti: Reach an agreement with the Federation on the wild sector between the two of you. How you split this sector is a matter of personal taste. You have enemies on two borders, so you can’t afford to spend a lot of effort in conquering this sector in any case. Like the Hydrans, do your best to keep the Klingons and Lyrans out of the wild sectors, but be prepared to go to defensive mode when you have to. Don’t forget the BOMB order!
Federation: You are Income Central! Build another warp gate and send your two in opposite directions. Part of the way the game will play out will depend on your choice to send more forces against the Klingons or the Romulans. You have little need to defend your home sectors.
Gorns: Simple, really: Attack the Romulans! You won’t know where their ships are, assuming he takes advantage of the hidden cloak, so be wary of sending small ships out alone. Convince the Feds to send a high-crew ship over to make SCAN CLOAK orders. Like the Kzintis, come to an agreement on the shared wild sector. Also, avoid attacking the ISC unless you have nothing better to do with your money.
The Coalition, as already mentioned, needs to take the initiative right away. You can’t afford to let the Alliance get the initiative. Send two scouts into every critical wild sector and make sure you get your scans on turn 3. Many of your Corporations’ goals are obvious: Lyran-1 needs to attack the Hydrans (as does Klingon-1), Lyran-2 needs to go after the Kzintis with Klingon-2’s help, and so forth. It is vital that you take control of as much of each wild sector as you can, to bolster your income. Otherwise, once Federation-1 is able to control the sectors to either side of him (or someone else on the Alliance team does), they will have an income advantage over you. The Coalition also possesses maulers, so you can prospect variable pulsars much easier than your opponents.
Lyrans: Drive for the Hydrans and Kzintis. You might need to give some gifts to the Roms, but otherwise you are single-minded. When you have them on the run, you might go after a few LDR sites, or you might try to use LDR space to sneak around the wild sectors.
Klingons: Like the Lyrans, tackle the Hydrans and Kzintis right away. The sector to the right of Klingon-2 is yours if you can control it, but stay out of Tholian space. Make sure you go into 41 at some point to keep the Feds from getting an easy sector bonus. Once the Hydrans are on the defensive, increase your efforts here.
Romulans: Rely on the cloak to make life difficult for the Gorns, but it won’t do everything. Watch out for big Gorn death fleets, and guard your borders against encroaching scouts. You might try using cloaked decoys, which will look like your ships on SCAN CLOAK order reports!
Incidentally, the original playtest reports showed that the game was balanced between the two teams, but as the first set of historical games began to end, the Coalition is the team racking up the victories. Is the Coalition too powerful? Or did we just give Coalition teams to the stronger players? Keep us informed, and stay tuned to the newsletters for reports from the field!
Getting Started
Interested in a game like this? Joining one is simple. Just put together a team of six players and contact us at Pagoda Games. Let us know the address and phone numbers of your team members, as well as the name of the main point of contact. We will get in touch with you to set up the game. Please realise that there may be a delay while we locate another team willing to fight you.
When we let you know the game is ready to start, we’ll tell you which side you will be playing and you can send us your initial builds. (Of course, you can request to play a specific side if you wish, and we’ll do what we can to make sure you get this team.)
If you don’t have six players, there are ways to work around this. Since this is a team game, we’d have no objection if one or more players were to take on two (or more) of the Corporations at one time, though youíll have to pay for each position that you play of course.
Also, we will keep a list of interested players who would love to play but are by themselves. If you are one of these people or need one to fill a team, let us know and we’ll see what we can do for you.
Due to the team nature of the Historical Game, you will be required to make a deposit of £15.00 in order to play. In the event that you or your team quits before turn 10, this deposit will be forfeited and is non-refundable. Since Historical Games depend on team play, this protects Pagoda Games from surprise dropouts by players who are not truly committed to the game.
Questions? Contact Pagoda Games: PO BOX 5155, Tamworth, Staffs, B77 4QQ: Tel/fax 01827 703251 : You can email us at the following address mail@pagodagames.co.uk or visit our website for more details (www.pagodagames.co.uk). Thanks!