Turn 52 Orders

[Dave Baughman]

For the next few turns, we will be running under a streamlined gameflow process intended to allow the GM team to meet our obligations to you from a narrative point of view without requiring the turns to be "stretched" beyond their normal one-month intervals.

When you prepare your orders for Turn 52, please note that the following sections of the rules are suspended:

• Intelligence Gathering and Special Operations*
• Random R&D Rolls (paid or otherwise)
• Focused R&D Projects*
• Technology Transfer, except for those that were already paid and rolled for in previous turns
• Exploration
• Training
• New Unit Construction
• Hex improvement Construction
• Token Construction
• Mercenary Hiring and Contracting (existing contracts are extended indefinitely)

*However, see below for alternative handling.

Additionally, the following activities are not authorized:

• Combat operations against any GM-controlled faction**
• Movement into the Clan Homeworlds

**by combat orders. There will still be player vs GM combat, but it will be by a different mechanism.


What does need to be accounted for on your sheet:

• The current FP and location of your military
• Any player vs. player combat operations
• Spending for repairs and fixed expenses (Star League dues, etc)

Additionally, your cover email for your orders needs to contain the following information:

• Any special operations missions your faction plans to carry out.
• Any specific military objectives you wish to accomplish relative to GM-controlled factions.
• Any specific projects - either in terms of technical research or intelligence gathering - you wish for your faction to carry out.
• Any passive intelligence sources you specifically want to leverage (Homeworlds escapees, etc) for extra information.

Based on your cover email, the GM team will customize your passive intelligence results and will fine-tune your faction's Turning Points to attempt to acommodate your faction objectives.

[Cannonshop]

damn, now I have to reallocate everything.

[Giovanni Blasini]

When is our due date this turn?  I may need a little time to get a handle on the Cat sheet once received.

[Dave Baughman]

When is our due date this turn?  I may need a little time to get a handle on the Cat sheet once received.

Ideally, I'd like to get orders in by Saturday, but under the circumstances we can be a little flexible on that point. Once we get you the sheet (tonight hopefully), just keep us in the loop as to whether or not you will need more time.

[Deathrider6]

Hmmm I will have to prep a detailed coversheet.

[Parmenion]

So we are pretty much in a holding pattern.  Yes?

Three questions from this:

A.  What is going to happen to all the income RP factions will accumulate?
B.  Will factions be able to train up a multiple of units once the training ban is over, and
C.  What about warships currently under construction (ie... Being built over multiple turns).  Will they ever be completed.

[Daemonknight]

Well no, its really not a holding pattern, because we arn't stopping anything. The storylines we currently have active are moving foreward, and several will finally be resolved. Nobody is prevented from moving foreward with plans for their faction.

Question 'A': You'll find out soon enough

Question 'B': No

Question 'C': Since new units are not able to be built for the duration of this modified-schedule, no, the units wont be completed normally. Consider the projects canceled, and bank the RP you've already spent.

[Parmenion]

mmmmm.... Last time something like this happened, the Horses lost a couple of hundred RP due to GM directive.  So forgive me for saying that I'm very wary of what is coming down the pipeline.   

Are we supposed to list on our covering turn email, those units which are most important to our factions?  Thanks.

[Daemonknight]

Well, whatever happens to the Horses, is the same thing thats happening to every other faction, GM factions included.

And I'm not sure why you would need to list military units you consider your most important ones...This isn't the mini-jump me and Dave have mentioned. Thats not ready to happen yet. The current state of affairs is what is leading upto that mini-jump. You still have control of your military forces. We just want to know what your overall military objectives are, so that when we make the Turning Point scenarios, they can be customized for your objectives.

[Dave Baughman]

mmmmm.... Last time something like this happened, the Horses lost a couple of hundred RP due to GM directive.  So forgive me for saying that I'm very wary of what is coming down the pipeline.   

Are we supposed to list on our covering turn email, those units which are most important to our factions?  Thanks.

Its not neccessary to list your core units on this turn's spreadsheet. We'll be asking for exactly this information down the road, but that's still several turns off. As far as resource points go, none of your factions are going to be 'targeted' to specifically lose resources or otherwise get beat up. Actually, MOC and HA are probably going to come out of everything with a net gain relative to most of the other factions due to your size and location.

Basically, as DK said and as we've discussed in some of the other threads, there's a combination of a major rules update and a singnificant balance refresh coming. Originally, the plan was to phase this in gradually over several turns, but that wasn't working out. We were starting to get pushback over the pace of the rules updates and at the same time our workload increased unexpectedly at the end of last turn. Based on those, we decided to try a different approach that gives us what we need (i.e. addressing the game balance problems that are slowly killing this campaign) but doesn't leave you guys out in the cold.

Also, just to clarify two things:

"B.  Will factions be able to train up a multiple of units once the training ban is over, and"

While the draft that I posted may not be the 100% final version that goes into the rulebook, there will be a mechanism to train more than one unit per turn after the rules refresh. You will also potentially see some units gaining skill 'for free' during the rebalance, but that will be a function of your faction's overall ratio of unit skill levels.

There won't, however, be a "giant surplus spend-a-thon" type event, since we tried that recently and honestly it didn't work out well (some factions came out of it dramatically stronger while others got only marginal gains, and the disparities this lead to caused a lot of hard feelings). Instead, the GMs will be taking a more hands-on approach to rebalancing the factions in order to ensure that all factions have the appropriate number and mix of units at the resumption of normal play to be competitive.


"C.  What about warships currently under construction (ie... Being built over multiple turns).  Will they ever be completed."

If you have a specific unit under construction that you definitely want once normal play resumes, we can work that into your rebalanced force list. I wouldn't recommend firmly committing either way this early though, as some of the stuff coming out with the new rules package may make you re-evaluate the merits of specific purchasing choices that are tied into the current (broken) economic rules -- especially warships.

[Cannonshop]

Good thing I bought as much as I did in the current turn-I stayed inside budget and capacity, so it all finished out...

Too bad I can't finish fixing some of the breakage from two turns ago, though. 

Oh..and..."Orders Sent"-with a long, boring, cover-sheet showing just how much patience and persistence the UIW  has.

[Fatebringer]

Lies! j/k 

[Deathrider6]

Orders sent.

[Dave Baughman]

As a sneak peak of what's coming this turn, I posted one of the scenarios early. If folks want, they're welcome to play this one now even though combat hasn't technically started.

[Deathrider6]

Cannot wait to see what unfolds this turn even though I am a bit apprehensive as a faction head of a small faction (CBS)...