The DESRON Commodore’s Tournament

(DESRON: Naval abbreviation for destroyer squadron)

 

The objective here is to come up with three ship destroyer squadrons (close to 300 BPV) and adjust them for unsanctioned tournament style play.


Rules are essentially identical to existing tournament rules, with some obvious exceptions. Unless noted below, these are the standard ships as they appear in "normal" SFB. Number of systems, BPs, shuttles, etc have not been adjusted to keep things simple and preserve "racial flavor". They attempt to mirror the Tournament ships to some extent, but this is not always possible. For example, allowing only G-torps to use PPTs can have a greater impact on some squadrons than others.

Set up: Same as standard tournament. All ships must be within two hexes of the starting positions (1701 and 2530). All ships must be facing D or A, respectively.

Federation: DWL, DW, DDG+
1. Photons: All ships are allowed to have overload energy at start (S4.32)
2. G-Racks: All G-racks have no reloads. The Federation player may select any combination of medium speed drones and ADDs to fill each drone rack, but only four Type-IV drones may by used (total, not per ship).
Note: I replaced a second DW with a DDG because I thought 9 photons would be a bit much.

Klingon: FWL, 2xF5W (Note the two F5W do not have the K-refit).
1. No mutiny
2. No drone racks have reloads.
3. Each Klingon ship may have 1 scatterpack; see Drones #6 in Tournament Rule Book.
4. Each ship may exchange two Type-IM for a Type-IVM, twice.
5. Each ship has two points for drone upgrades; see Drones #2 in Tournament Rule Book.
6. The ADD racks have no reloads and may not use Type-VI drones.
7. Each ship has a UIM that burns out after its first use. ("The never burns out" UIM was not used because the Klingon squadron is BPV heavy. If a F5 squadron was used instead, I think it would be more appropriate.)

Romulan Hawk: SKL, 2xSKA
1. No PPT for F-torps. (A compensation for the high BPV (328). The fact that Skyhawks can cloak on battery power is a nice bonus)

Romulan Kestrel: K5L, 2xK5RB
1. All plasmas have PPTs.
2. One ship has a cloaked decoy (G27.0). Which ship has the decoy is secretly recorded by the player during set-up.
3. The squadron has two T-bombs at start. They are distributed at the player’s discretion during set-up. These T-bombs may only be dropped from a shuttle bay. They may not be transported. T-bombs are not hidden.

Romulan Eagle: 3xBHp
1. All plasmas have PPTs.
2. Each ship has one NSM. NSMs are not hidden. Compensation for the very low BPV (264).

Kzinti: DWL, DW, DWD
1. All C-racks are replaced with B-racks. No racks have reloads. (The drone waves will be massive enough)
2. Each Kzinti ship may have 1 scatterpack; see Drones #6 in Tournament Rule Book.
3. Each ship may exchange two Type-IM for a Type-IVM. The DWL and DW may do this three times. The DWD may do this four times.
4. The DWL and DW have four points each for drone upgrades, the DWD has six; see Drones #2 in Tournament Rule Book.
5. The ADD racks have no reloads and may not use Type-VI drones.

Gorn: BDL+, 2xBDD+
1. No PPT for F-torps.

Tholian: NDD, DD, DDP
1. The PCs on NDD are replaced with range 22 disruptors.
2. All web generators are equipped with snares.
3. The Tholian player may replace 1 shuttle on each ship (3 total) with a web anchor buoy (G26.0). These buoys may be ready for use at start (G26.2).
Note: This is one of the forces I'm particularly concerned about. The anchor bouys don't seem like adequate compensation for the low BPV (272).

Orion: 3xDW
1. No ships receive the stealth bonus.
2. All ships have a cloaking device.
3. No ships have an OAKDISC.
4. The Orion force has two option packages for the total squadron. Each set of 9 options must be selected together. A player may not, for example, take package A on ships 1 and 2 and take package B on ship 3. All ships must use either package A or package B.
5. Options mount restrictions: No more than 3 hellbores. No more than 2 gatling phasers. Four options must be Drone-B, Ph-1, or Fusion.
6. If photons are selected, no overload energy is allowed at start. If fusions are selected, they may use holding (E7.5) but not at start.
7. If drones are selected, each ship may exchange two Type-IM for a Type-IVM, twice.
8. No drone racks have reloads.

Hydran: DWL (w/2 St-2), DW (w/2xSt2), KN+
1. Fusions may use holding (E7.5) but not at start.
Note: This force has a high BPV (325). The DWH was replaced with Knight to compensate. That may not be enough. Not sure.

Andromedan: PYT, 2xCOB
1. Displacement device may be used on any Andromedan ship, but not opposing units. A written destination hexes is required each time it is used.
2. PYT can start with up to 25 points in batteries (D10.55).
3. Each COB can start with up to16 points in batteries (D10.55).
4. Each ship has one T-bomb and one dummy that can be laid by transporter. T-bombs are not hidden.
Note: I really considered putting a TER in place of one COB.

Lyran: DWLp, 2xDWp+
1. All ships have ESG capacitors.
2. Each ship has a UIM that burns out after its first use. (Same reason as the Klingon above)

WYN: 3xDW
1. Options limited to Drone-B, Phaser-1, and ADD.
2. Each ship may exchange two Type-IM for a Type-IVM, twice.
3. No drone racks have reloads.

ISC: DDL, DD, DDG
1. All plasmas have PPTs except rear facing F-torps.

LDR: DWL, 2xMP
1. All ships have ESG capacitors.
2. Each ship has 1 UIM. It does not burn out. (Compensation for the low number of disruptors)

Seltorian: 3xDD
1. Each ship has two Commando squads added to the boarding parties.
Note: This is the other weak force. BPV is only 285 before commando squads. A three boom version of the DD is really need as a leader to bring this force up to par.

Jindarian: 3xDW
Note: The number of BP is pretty high on the Jindarian DW and might need to be scaled back.

FRAX: DWL, DW, SDD
1. The SDD does have an AFD system and an A-rack, not a B-rack. All four drones on the SDD are Type-IM-Catfish (FD51.0). They cannot be upgraded to Type-IV.
2. No drone racks have reloads.
3. The DWL and DW may have 1 scatterpack; see Drones #6 in Tournament Rule Book.
4. The DWL and DW may exchange two Type-IM for a Type-IVM, twice.
5. The ADD rack portion of the AFD has no reloads and may not use Type-VI drones.