Topic: So a war is coming. Whataya gonna do?

[GDA-S'Cipio]

So you've had a nice little quiet career.   You've got a command, you've earned the respect of your crew, and the Crown (president; whatever) knows he can depend upon you.  That's all find and dandy, but it's not enough to make List and everyone knows it.  You think about this a lot at night, alone with your brandy, but you butted heads against a few people with better sponsorship in your youth and now it appears your career has stagnated unless you do something big.  Really big.

Now the Crown (president; whatever) has come to a group of officers like you and told you that a war with your neighbors is considered inevitable.  The good news is that you truly believe your neighbors need killing.  (They look funny and they have bad accents.)  The bad news is that you, the Crown (president; whatever), and everyone else in the room know that your stellar nation is not ready for a war.

The crown orders you to act as a Privateer and go forth to do damage to your neighbors.  They must be weakened before war is declared.  However, the Crown (wussmaster; whatever)  will deny any knowledge of your actions and -- if you are captured -- the Crown will hang you at your neihgbor's request in order to prove what a friendly guy (gal, neuter; whatever) he is to his neighbors.

That's it.  That's the whol setup.

Now, it's day one of the server.  Amazingly enough the SFC engine has been expanded to let you do whatever you want in this new scenario.  So, what do you want to do?  What sort of things do you think a privateer could do to damage an empire's ability to wage war?  Do you want to raid commerce?  Sabotage fleet units?  Seduce the neighbor King's daughter (son, cell divisions; whatever)?  Foment rebellion?

I'm looking for thoughts.  The wilder the better, but have it make sense in context of the scenario.

-S'Cipio

[KBFLordKrueg]

So you've had a nice little quiet career.   You've got a command, you've earned the respect of your crew, and the Crown (president; whatever) knows he can depend upon you.  That's all find and dandy, but it's not enough to make List and everyone knows it.  You think about this a lot at night, alone with your brandy, but you butted heads against a few people with better sponsorship in your youth and now it appears your career has stagnated unless you do something big.  Really big.

Now the Crown (president; whatever) has come to a group of officers like you and told you that a war with your neighbors is considered inevitable.  The good news is that you truly believe your neighbors need killing.  (They look funny and they have bad accents.)  The bad news is that you, the Crown (president; whatever), and everyone else in the room know that your stellar nation is not ready for a war.

The crown orders you to act as a Privateer and go forth to do damage to your neighbors.  They must be weakened before war is declared.  However, the Crown (wussmaster; whatever)  will deny any knowledge of your actions and -- if you are captured -- the Crown will hang you at your neihgbor's request in order to prove what a friendly guy (gal, neuter; whatever) he is to his neighbors.

That's it.  That's the whol setup.

Now, it's day one of the server.  Amazingly enough the SFC engine has been expanded to let you do whatever you want in this new scenario.  So, what do you want to do?  What sort of things do you think a privateer could do to damage an empire's ability to wage war?  Do you want to raid commerce?  Sabotage fleet units?  Seduce the neighbor King's daughter (son, cell divisions; whatever)?  Foment rebellion?

I'm looking for thoughts.  The wilder the better, but have it make sense in context of the scenario.

-S'Cipio

Well, I kinda like the "seduce the King's daughter thing, but...that wouldn't make for good gameplay, huh? 
Interesting idea...I like it.
Well, first thing I'd insist on from my King (or whatever) is premo, top of the line ship (and crew) to carry out said actions (assuming raiding or base destruction, etc).
And of course, the payoff after said deed is done had darn well make it worth the risk. 
Playing another neighbor against the one in question...that way your "hands are clean" is my favorite...

[Hexx]

So I'd kinda be disavowing myself?

[Bartok]

Hmmmmmm,

You've whetted my appetite S'cipio - a decent backtory is what's needed for a server to be really fun... to have a "reason" to be.  The fan fiction you've penned (by the way when's the next installment) assures me that if you put up a server, admin it or whatever it's going to be well thought out..... without an endless balancing of ships/stats and just a good ole immersive storyline that justifies whatever get's flown / is flyable....

That being said -

- I concur with LK "playing one neighbor off the other" to foment breaks of alliances ... flatten the field so to speak.  Feds masquerading as Roms attacking Klinks or any number of fun permutations.... 

- Privateers / Privateering - Hmmm some souped up pirate vessels (presumabley every power has captured some - used as testbeds - Xtech) -- gives the top of the line (engine doubling?) ship to use

- 3rd party aggressors/mercenaries - Mr. Morden walks in the room of the Klink Chancellor and asks "What do you Want?"  (maybe sneak some Shadow vessels B5 into it)

Anyhow .... my preliminary $.02

Cheers   

[Julin Eurthyr]

You want an idea on how to do this... 

Go with a mixed up shiplist.  Each race has their usual stuff (or a specialty-ship heavy subset of it), and a mixture of "enemy" ships (line / command) added in.

The trick is that "native" ships have to stay in hexes of their own color, while the "enemy" ships really need to be out in enemy (or neutral) territory. 

Now, an example of all this:

The Klingons.  Their shiplist would have the usual Fx, Dx, Cx series, possibly heavier on -D, -V -G and -C/L variants.  Meanwhile, there would be a smattering of Fed and Hydran line (command too?) ships in the Klingon yards.

A pilot in a Klingon hull would have to stay in red Klingon hexes, while the Klingon-owned Feds / Hydrans have to spend as much time as possible in the neutral zones / attacking enemy space.  They should only return to "home" hexes for a resupply run / sale, and if there is a 90% available "on demand" repair / resupply mission that can be run often in enemy space, the only time a privateer should "go home" is to sell the ship.

As far as RP goes, here's the rationale:
As you said, war really ain't an option.  Therefore, if a native ship flies off into a neutral zone or "enemy" territory, there's that act of war that everyone's trying to avoid.  So, native ships need to stay in hexes of their own color.
Meanwhile, the privateer fleets are off in enemy space.  Since they're flying "enemy" designs in "enemy" space, they'll look (at least to the natives of a hex) that the current government is a corrupt morass with hideous allies, and they would eventually seek the protection of the other team, who would fly their native ships in to reinforce the now-appropriate colored hex (explains the hex flip nicely, doesn't it... :p).

[Alphageek]

Lots of shipping raids.  Lots of  hitting small police units. 

[Bartok]

As far as RP goes, here's the rationale:
As you said, war really ain't an option.  Therefore, if a native ship flies off into a neutral zone or "enemy" territory, there's that act of war that everyone's trying to avoid.  So, native ships need to stay in hexes of their own color.
Meanwhile, the privateer fleets are off in enemy space.  Since they're flying "enemy" designs in "enemy" space, they'll look (at least to the natives of a hex) that the current government is a corrupt morass with hideous allies, and they would eventually seek the protection of the other team, who would fly their native ships in to reinforce the now-appropriate colored hex (explains the hex flip nicely, doesn't it... :p).

Very Nicely done Julin!!! - Often times the way the map works etc. can be a liability/restraint in setting up a decent scenario I like the way this works .... bravo!  EvilDave does have a "resupply/repair" type mission that can work in neutral hexes right?  would be awesome.  I also like Alpha's suggestion of shipping raids and police units.... 

[KBF MalaK]

If my empire ain't ready for war:

1. I'm certainly not going to get top of the line ships
2. support for large cap ships is going to be spotty at best.
3. I won't be getting infinite reloads of my 'perishibles' (missles, photon torps, fighters, spare parts)
4. legendary crew members ?? no way, jose !
5 dern pirates keep raiding my supplies.

get the idea ?

[Alphageek]

Apart from being low on line ships ( i.e. having light cruisers and smaller as your main ships), is there a difference between hitting civilian and military shipping?  What about  hitting civilian privateers and police?  Would there be a difference?

[KBFLordKrueg]

And I was thinking in terms of "top of the line ship" as a decent Command Cruiser...
Maybe with a hand-picked crew.
Such a risky assignment would definitely call for choosing officers you knew and had experience to increase your chances of success. 
Capitol ships would attract too much attention and are obviously too expensive to replace for the Empire in such a endeavor.

[CaptJosh]

CapitAl ships, damnit. Capitol is for ONE THING and ONE THING only. Seats of government.

[Julin Eurthyr]

If my empire ain't ready for war:

1. I'm certainly not going to get top of the line ships
2. support for large cap ships is going to be spotty at best.
3. I won't be getting infinite reloads of my 'perishibles' (missles, photon torps, fighters, spare parts)
4. legendary crew members ?? no way, jose !
5 dern pirates keep raiding my supplies.

get the idea ?

But why (and Herr Burt didn't tell us why) is your nation not ready for war?
Your description looks like, say, the Federation during the early 4-powers war (before GW buildups).
Here's a nation / empire / hegemony that's not ready for war because they just ended one...
1.  The fleet is devastated from long-term conflict.  About all that's left in the fleet are the expensive "specialty" ships that see limited use (bombardment / commando) or are overprotected (carrier).  Line and attrition (escort, FF) ships are rare due to losses.
2.  Despite the costs, continued solo operation of capital ships (DNs, CCs) may be necessary due to line losses.
2.5: Nobody will advertise these weaknesses, so seeing a privateer line ship will not be questioned...
3.  Munitions / attrition unit (fighter) stockpiles may be high due to wartime production.  Look at how much surplus 'Nam - WW II munitions the US Army has...
4.  Legendary officers will be a dime a dozen, as the fleet just ended a period of intense combat.  Crew rosters probably will be depleted, and due to necessary recent transfers / fresh crewmen being trained, crew cohesion on a shipboard level will be poor, nullifying officer bonuses...
5.  You too can be a privateer raiding someone else's supplies...

[KBF MalaK]

Just speculation around this opening statement:

So you've had a nice little quiet career

I theorize that:
peace with my neighbors has been shaky but long lasting
so
large cap ships have been mothballed as they weren't needed for police actions of the past few years, and production of new ships/technologies/weapons and fighters has been halted so that funds could be used for less militaristic purposes, and as no large military actions took place recently no legendary crew members floated to the top of the personnel pool.

This just seemed a logical assumption based on the 'nice quiet career' statement.

But as we've seen from the collapse of the Soviet Union a war was needed to save that 'empire' as they we're building up for a conflict that never materialized, SO this must be the premise YOU assume- that your empire forced a war as you have the latest hardware, the best trained crews, unlimited supplies, and the need to use them lest your populace overthrow you because of funds mismanagement.

But I could be mistaken.

[FPF-Tobin Dax]

CapitAl ships, damnit. Capitol is for ONE THING and ONE THING only. Seats of government.

Hey Mr. spellchecker is back! 

[Julin Eurthyr]

Just speculation around this opening statement:

So you've had a nice little quiet career

I theorize that:
peace with my neighbors has been shaky but long lasting
so
large cap ships have been mothballed as they weren't needed for police actions of the past few years, and production of new ships/technologies/weapons and fighters has been halted so that funds could be used for less militaristic purposes, and as no large military actions took place recently no legendary crew members floated to the top of the personnel pool.

This just seemed a logical assumption based on the 'nice quiet career' statement.

But as we've seen from the collapse of the Soviet Union a war was needed to save that 'empire' as they we're building up for a conflict that never materialized, SO this must be the premise YOU assume- that your empire forced a war as you have the latest hardware, the best trained crews, unlimited supplies, and the need to use them lest your populace overthrow you because of funds mismanagement.

But I could be mistaken.

Good call...

Thing is, I was working from a premise (stated in the 3rd line of my post) that a war recently (like a year or 2 ago) ended.

Hence the situation.  Line portion of fleet devastated, fancy ships only thing left to work with.  Lots of legendary officers, working with green - barely veteran crews essentially being a wash.  Wartime production resulting in large stockpiles of consumable materials, though maybe not 100% updated (fast drones could be rare, but medium drones could be stockpiled).

And, to top it off, the character in the story could be that "graduated head of class just before / during / right after the armistices were signed" type.  With all that training and potential, his quiet desk-job career comes to a halt when he gets the offer to head off in a captured / reconstructed enemy ship to be the swashbuckler...

[AlchemistiD]

Steal the ship, make money privateering.

Or is stealing the ship just your cover story?

Either way is fun.

[CaptJosh]

What can I say, Tobin. This was the third webboard in one day on which I had seen the same mistake. I couldn't take it anymore.

[GDA Valcarve]

Throw cows at them!

Or how about adding some Q ships to catch those sneaky privateers.

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

Smaller buffer empires, they sit betweeen the major powers and the various factions look for aid from either one of the other of their larger neighbors.  These smaller empires are really below the concern of the majors except for 2 things, natural reasourses and spacedock and supply facilities.

Your empire would benefit from being the puppet-master of these smaller regimes, but a full scale invasion would ignite the war you are not ready for, so you get your guys into power.  How do you do this?  Some smaller ships (frigate sized or PFs)  disguised as pirates or native vessels, if you need larger ships you have to  pay off neutral pirates to hit the other guy, but know they could doublecross you if you don't watch them carefully.  You provide financial aid and arms to your faction sending in innocent looking trade and humanitarian convoys which can only be escorted by specially designed Q-ships or local vessels as your military presence must be undetected.

Of course you may have occassion to send in one larger "diplomatic cruiser" of your own race, but these would have to stay in the zone between your empire and the capital of the smaller state since any further movement would definatly be considered an act of war.  These would act as enforcers should the enemy try to penetrate too deeply into the smaller space empire and approach your own borders.

Of Course once you secure a smaller empire you can "encourage" it to wage war on those neighboring smaller empires that you suspect your larger enemy is pulling the strings of, or to take over another non-alignment smaller state.  Having completed your conquest of the smaller state you are now able to scale up their military production using your own superior military capabilities and produce some local cruisers that are comparable to your own line forces.

Anyway, thats kinda my idea war and conqust through proxy.

[CaptJosh]

Call the server "A Private Little War" in that case.

You're basically setting up a Cold War scenario, with brush wars in Korea and Vietnam, as well as "border incidents" and "renegades acting without orders."