Draft Rules Proposal for Low EL Player Race Start

[Mjorr]

In line with trying to line up rules for Non-Player and Player races, I have come up with the following proposed rules for Player Race starts at IND-2 and EL 1:

(Add) [K2.04.5] Ground Forces
A new HEL player race (EL 2 or higher) will begin with 2000 Qt at BG, and 17,500 Hv
A new HEL player race at EL 1 will begin with 1850 Qt at BG, 60 Qtc at BG-1, 90 Qtc at BG-2, and 18,500 Hv
A player race beginning at Ind2 will have 775 Qt at BG, 60 Qtc at BG-1, 90 Qtc at BG-2, and 11000 Hv.

Add Qt, Qtc and Hv to the items that can be built with the Other Fund [K2.05].

K2.07 EL 1 and Ind2 Start

A campaign that starts at a lower EL than standard will involve some adjustments to the starting infrastructure.

[K2.01] Change: any player race starting at EL 1 or Ind2 will know about warp point travel but will not have conducted any warp point surveys, warp point probes, or system body surveys.

K2.07.1 EL 1 Start
{K2.02.1] Change: Start with 1600 PU and 440 IU (no PTU).
[K2.02.3] Change: Start with 4 (SY). Additional (SY) will become available during the first 6 months of EL 1 in accordance with [N12.02]
[K2.04.2] Start with the following Tech Trees open (all at SL 0 unless otherwise indicated)

Construction (Con) (EL 1): (SY), (SYM), (AC), H, Hs, Hb, Qt, Qtc, PDC, Hidden Ground Bases and Silo Missiles [E8], and the following hulls already prototyped: FG, FGf, and FT3 [AppAA-Con.03]
Small craft (SL 1): gig, st, (Bsa)
Life Support (Q): Qv, Qa
Electronics (Elec): M1, (CICa)
Sensors (Y): Ya
Science Instruments (X) (SL 1): Xp, Xa
Armor (A): A
Shields (S) (SL 1): S
Tractor Beams (T) (SL 1): Ta

[K2.04.3) Select which engine type the empire starts with:
Inertialess drives: (Ia) and (Ica)
Tactical Drives: (Ja) and (Ica)

[K2.04.4] Weapon Trees start at SL 0.

[K2.05] Pre-Game Month

The race will have one fund of 7500 MC. This fund may be freely spent on Qtc, Hv, PDC, and IU. Up to 2000 MC out of this fund (limited to 160 hull spaces of construction) can be freely spent on SS and SS modules (not (SY)). Any further spending on SS and SS modules (which can include (SY)) will be at +50% cost, as these would have to be built with planet-side industry.

K2.07.2 Ind2 Start
A player race starting as Ind2 will have 20 RP purchased toward EL 1. The race will start with 1320 PU and 440 IU. Available technologies are found in [N12.01]. The race will start with 1 (SA), 1 (RDS), 1 (CAP), 1 (QTF), and 1 (PSF), but no other STARFIRE units (other than the ground forces listed in {K2.04.5]). Technological progress is covered in [N12]. Spending is covered in [Y7.02.7].

Comments are welcome,

Michael

[Mjorr]

Rationale for the numbers listed in the above rules:

Note: these are copied from the notes given for the spreadsheet that I used to calculate the numbers.

Start Population Sheet

The purpose of this sheet is to determine what starting population at the beginning of Ind1 will result in
a population of 2000 PU at the beginning of EL 2.
First, the midpoint of how many turns are likely to be required to get from EL 1 to EL 2, assuming maximum
purchase of EL RP each month.
: This is determined to be 13.
Next, working backwards through 13 turns at EL 1, 25 turns, at Ind2, and 50 turns at Ind1, the starting point
at the beginning of Ind1 in order to reach 2000 PU at the beginning of EL 2 is determined.

Ind1 Purchases sheet

Starting at 950 PU and 0 IU.
Start with leaders as per [K2.04.2], but no promotions.
Spending according to [Y7.02.7].
Army funds are used to purchase Qtc in sufficient quantity to raise the number of Qtc at BG-2 to 100,
the remainder is spend on Hv.
Available income is increased (on turn 3 and later) by .5% of income of the previous turn (FRD), in accordance with
[L7.06.4] (Placed in the SDF Refund column).
The LG+0 General (from the {K2] player race setup) trains 100 Qtc per turn, with Qtc at BG-1 having priority. Average results for promotion rolls (FRD) are assumed.
Remaning funds (listed in the Available column) are used to purchase as many IU as possible, with any remainder
placed in the treasury.

Ind2 Purchases Sheet (additions from Ind1).

Assumpion is that 1 (SA), 1 (RDS), 1 (CAP), 1 (QTF) and 1 (PSF) are acquired at the start of Ind2.
Addition to Army funds purchases: 40 MC per turn are used to acquire Qt at BG directly.
[N12.01.1] Tech development assumptions:
(SY) technology is acquired once the first 25 RP are earned.
LRW and A technology is acquired once the next 25 RP are earned.
The first task of the prototype (SY) is to build a clone of itself. Once this is done, each of the two (SY) then builds
another (SY).
After turn 10 at Ind2, the race spends 500 MC per turn to build planetary defenses against attacks from space
(listed as Other Purc).
Once planetary defenses start being constructed, available income is increased to cover maintenance on these
defenses until 5% of available income is reached, in accordance with [L7.06] (Placed in the SDF Refund column).
(SY) are maintained at 4% of cost per turn (doubled as per [L7.01.3]).
Other Purchases are maintained at 3% (the percentage for PDCs).

Michael

[Cralis]

I wanted to let you know that I saw these... I've just been very busy with family stuff going on. I will return with more, but I have a couple of initial questions:

1. It looks like the Ind2 start is intended that on turn 1 the race will complete the 25 RP research for LEL development in N12 -- basically they will immediately gain access to Cp drives, CT, and shuttles.

Why not have that at turn 0 so the race can build some initial ships?

2. You added that all races will start with fairly sizeable armies of Qt. You also added large stockpiles of Hv. Do you think that is necessary?

1000 Qt only require 50 Hv. That 2000 Qt at EL2 will take 175 turns to burn through that stockpile when at peace; or 8 invasion months in-combat. It seems a little high for a starting stockpile...

It's also odd that EL1 has more Hv than EL2. Also, why the variety of grades (and if so, then why no variety if you start at EL2?)

3. Why change K2.05 to a single fund or smaller size? (7500 MCr vs 12000 MCr as per the rules, albeit in three separate funds)

For that matter, a consideration for #1 is that the LEL race should have a much smaller fund, even if you change it to allow for pre-game turn building as I'm suggesting. I'd probably reduce the funds to 2000 MCr (Battle Fund) and 1000 MCr (Other Fund), though I could see it being 2000 + 2000.

[Mjorr]

Reasons for posting these proposed rules on the board:

1) To have some initial feedback on the rules
2) I was intending to put an LEL campaign on the board and wanted those looking at it to know what rules are being used.

In answer to question 1:

I was not assuming that the race would complete Cp development on turn 1, or any other turn for that matter (note that ships are not one of the build options for the EL 1 start, nor is Cp one of the available technologies). I set up the starting point when I did because that was then the race would have to make its first important decision – which technology to select under [N12.01.1].

If I were to select a starting point that would allow the player to have options, I would start at turn 11 of Ind2, assume that Cp and (SY) were developed on turn 5, one of the other tech choices of [N12.01.1] on turn 10, either S or A (possibly according to the roll in [N12.01.1], possibly player choice), and that 50 HS of the second (SY) module had been built.

Even if the race does develop Cp on turn 5, there is not much that can be built at that time (other than freighters) – the race has no S, A, SRW, LRW, or even Xp.

I could put an alternate start at turn 11 of Ind2 together but given your other comments we need to come to an understanding of how the Qt and Hv numbers, and the other numbers for that matter, are to be calculated.

How the numbers that I used were calculated:

Starting at 2000 PU, I calculated backward through 13 turns of EL 1, 25 turns of Ind2, and 50 turns of Ind1 to arrive at a starting number of PU. Then starting from turn 1 of Ind1, that number of PU and nothing else (other than the starting leaders in [K2.02.4]), and using [Y7.02.7] as a guideline for spending, I worked back forward through Ind2 and Ind1 to arrive at numbers for initial assets.

As for why the Qt and Hv numbers are so high, in a nutshell, that is what happens when you spend 25% of a races’ available MCr on building Qt and Hv for 75 turns.

As for the different classes of Qt, this is because as a consequence of [AppAA-FAC.QTF.01] a race is limited in the number of fully trained Qt that it can build directly. As a result of this, the race is assumed to be building Qtc as well with the intent of training them into full Qt using the LG+0 General that is part of the starting forces. The Qtc at BG-2 and BG-1 are a snapshot of this training in process.

Why are the Hv numbers less for EL 2 that EL 1? Because I am assuming that once the race reaches EL 1, spending priorities change from ground-based to space-based. As a result of this, the army uses some of those massive reserves of Hv that you referred to earlier to maintain the Qt.

The single fund of 7500 MCr is mostly intended to allow the race to choose between building PDC now or placing the money into IU to be spent later. Also, this accommodates the two life types, Gaseous and Cold Gaseous, that cannot build PDC at Ind2. I am presuming that a race might want to build PDCs for the same reason that it would spend as much MCr as it is on Qt and Hv; defense against alien races.

I would think that it would be difficult to build a significant space fleet at Ind2 without reducing the number of (SY) available at the start of EL 1 or building the ships using ground-based industry (at +50% cost). Also, don’t forget about the doubled maintenance cost as per [L7.01.3].

Could the fleet be built late in Ind2, after the initial 4 (SY) have been completed? Possibly, but I would think that considering how close the race would be to reaching EL 1 at that point, and considering maintenance and refit cost, that a better option would be to wait 4 turns to reach EL 1 and for HEL drives to be available

In summary, should I continue to use the assumptions that I have been using or should I modify them to some extent?

Michael