Fwurg

[Brend]

A call has gone out for armies to be deployed on the Remunzian homeworld.

My question pertains to this specific situation only.

Since we have no rules for deploying armies to the ground, I have a few questions that I would like to know the answer to before figuratively seeing my fleets burn up in the atmosphere (In effect my questions boils down to "How is this going to work for this specific case?" ^_^)

- Do the Slave Rebellion planetary defence zones still defend the planet against fleets that want to drop armies? (Especially given that the Slave has a very efficient setup on the planet with two 6 attack rings and an army that boosts the other ring)

- Must the fleet carrying the army be in the Combat-Ready state, Defensive state, or can it simply carry the army over while being Inactive? (The latter would help if people want to fly "home, deactive, attach army, and carry them over to help")

[Chriz]

I would say that the Union Defence Fleets can deal with the defence zones while the armies are being landed. They could be blanketed with an orbital bombardment as a distraction.

To be honest we are now in a boring logistical situation that is already taking a lot of time.

I would really like the Hiocans to get the opportunity to deploy their army as well. From a player involvement perspective this would be preferable.

Rules wise I would say that landing the troups would require a combat-ready fleet, since it is an offensive action. However, to be honest since we have already decided that the rules on military fleet did not prove to be as effective as we wanted I would prefer keeping it simple and just getting the armies there on this occasion...

@Mercury, you are the storyteller on this plotline. Can't we just toss around some tax to get the Hiocan army there as well? The minister of defence already offered support. The UDF CORE 8 is currently in the sector next to the Hiocans and could pick them up I guess.

[Mercury]

I will first try to answer the logistical question:

A fleet carrying an army to actually invade a planet is "Combat Ready". By the rules as they are written, you don't theoretically -have- to be Combat Ready while carrying your army from your planet to Remunzia. That being said, while I understand the desire to save some tax, can an argument really be made that a fleet carrying an army with the purpose of invading a foreign planet is "defensive"? I find that hard to believe. My ruling would be that fleets flying armies to invade must be "Combat Ready". There is no obligation for fleets to be Combat Ready while you're waiting for the Union to decide when they will invade - as long as your troops are at home, you don't have to be Combat Ready.

Regarding allowing people to join more easily by flying home, deactivating, loading troops, etc... On the one hand, I don't want to exclude people. On the other, I don't feel that the delay this might cause is unrealistic. You're invading a planet, not declaring you own a mountaintop - its a lot of effort. Yet on the third hand, it may not be beneficial to make people wait too long before resolving the storyline.

To sort this out, without changing the actual game rules, would it help if people were allowed to load an army onto a Combat Ready fleet as part of a special exception for purposes of this?

Secondly, let me cover the planetary defences. They are there and they are active. They'll fire on invaders. Be prepared to suffer losses as a result - the Slave Rebellion is exceptionally good at guerilla warfare against a superior foes as the Hutt very well know.

However, we won't be going into "fleet battle mode". I understand the many questions over how this ground offensive will work, how it will interact with the fleet combat rules, etc. Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to give an answer that consists of clear and concise rules that determine what can be done and what effect it will have. Besides the effort of writing and balancing new rules for this, I don't feel that the game would benefit from an extended battle a la the recent fleet combats.

Instead, I have some different idea's. A lot of it will be story, there'll be some events and hopefully it will be fun for everyone. I have some special rewards in mind as well, though nothing too unbalanced.

The first task for players will be to gather as large an army as possible - that is, agree to find as many troops as possible - get them to a staging ground near Remunzia so they are all ready to invade and then have the Minister of Defence declare that they are ready for a ground offensive. From there, I will start the invasion events. Players who actually have an army in the game will get more opportunities, but players who don't may also be able to participate.

I do advise you gather all your troops beforehand

Does this all seem sensible?

[Brend]

My question(s) have been answered. I mostly wanted to make sure my fleets are not simply going to get ripped a new one due to the powerful planetary defenses.

while I understand the desire to save some tax

That is in no way my desire — my desire was to be able to actually get my bloody army over there in the timeframe that Chriz declared in the IC thread. I just wanted to know if it would be possible to not have to do the whole "Stand down for 2 , attach army for 1 , get back to combat-ready for 3 " cycle. I hadn't even thought about saving money by not going Combat-Ready, but now that you bring it up, this is going to be expensive T_T

To sort this out, without changing the actual game rules, would it help if people were allowed to load an army onto a Combat Ready fleet as part of a special exception for purposes of this?

Yes. That would actually be the answer to my second question. But I have been busy standing down my fleet just to attach the army. So for me this would be too late, since the fleet is now already inactive, I'll have to take the 3 to get it back up to Combat-Ready. Is there anyone for which this would work?