Strategy in FFW

[The Oz]

I am wondering what others think about the strategy both sides should adopt in FFW?

What I have seen is that the Zhos basically adopt the "sledgehammer" approach as shown in the recent PBEM game Jappel ran, where the Zhos build one huge fleet that steamrollers Jewell, Efate, Regina, and maybe even Rhylanor, while smaller Zho forces scoop up the lesser and neutral worlds. The Vargr make a good distractor running around the backside of the map taking lesser worlds while the Swordies and some extra Zhos take Vilis and Lanth subsectors. This strategy almost always works and produces at least a marginal victory for the Outworld Coalition.

The best Imperial counter-strategy I know of is to have most of your at-start forces hunt down and crush the Vargr, while raiding forces strike into Zhodani space to take their lesser-defended worlds and try to make the Zhos keep some of their at-start forces and reinforcements at home.

The toughest decision the Impies have is what to do with the rimward reinforcements on turn 6. I prefer to keep them all together and send them to smash the Swordies and their Zho buddies, thus saving Vilis and Lanth. I know others like to send them to Regina ASAP to defend it from the Zhodani sledgehammer, but if the Zhos have done things right, their sledgehammer is too big to be dealt with by just the rimward fleet, especially if you're using the fleet quality rules.

Any thoughts?

 

[PBI]

When I play the Zhodani, I usually don't both with Efate or Rhylanor. They just aren't worth the price in time and treasure. I can be hitting several worlds in the time it takes me to divert fleets to attack either of those targets. Not only that, but the amount of force that must be deployed to smash Efate and Rhylanor means the other fleets suffer.

I usually put all the J2 ships in one fleet at Riverland. That's the fleet that takes Jewell and the high VP worlds in the cluster (with the exception of Ruby), then proceeds on a tour of the DMZ, coming out near Extolay and then wanders down the Spinward Main.

I'll form one J3 fleet at Cronor and another at Quare. The Cronor Fleet is the fleet that takes out Regina, then pushes towards Macene and the rest of the high-VP worlds along the Main. The fleet at Quare heads straight for Lanth with the aim of taking it and moving off before turn 7.

Sometimes I'll form a third, weaker J3 fleet in the Cronor subsector that will head up into the Pixie/Efate region and possibly a fourth J3 fleet to follow along behind the Quare fleet to help the Swordies.

If I have enough J4s and J5s, I might form a reaction and/or raiding force of my own to deal with Imperial incusrions (If a raid force, it's the J5 cruisers carrying small units to race ahead taking undefended worlds and vacuum systems).

The Vargr usually split in two; one fleet with the BRs, the other with the rest. The BRs haul 2 divisions with them, hit two targets, then go on to take out 2 vacuum worlds while the main fleet nibbles away at the mid-to-high VP targets like Focaline before the transport and tanker run for the nearest Zho fleet while the empty cruisers make for Macene.

The Swordies will either try for Vilis (if the Zhos are going to help) or they simply take out the rest of Firenze subsector and the DMZ before plonking along the Main. I sometimes split them in two with the idea of being able to use the two fleets to go around retaking worlds the Imperium has liberated.

The other thing I do as the Zhodani is to leave a fair amount of troops on my own lightly-defended worlds in order to radically slow down the normal Imperial raiding parties.

As for the Ine Givar, I use them as garrison troops on high pop worlds or as decoys.

 

[PBI]

When I play the Imperials, a lot depends on initial force selection, but, basically, I form a fleet at Jewell, a fleet at Efate, and one or two raiding fleets, depending on how many and what type of high-jump cruisers I end up with.

The Jewell fleet usually runs like hell for the Imperial Reinforcement box or launches an attack straight from the barracks (if I end up with mostly J3s as my initial draw). At the same time, the Efate force scoops up everything on Efate, pops over to Feri, and then makes a speed run for the Vargr worlds to link up with the J2 scouts.

The raiding fleets usually consist of the J5s and J6s I draw (if any) or the J4 cruisers, all packed with the Huscarles, the Darrian battalion, the elite Marines if I can squeeze them in, plus the elite TL14 and 15 mercs. They zip out to the DMZ on their way to Querion subsector with the objective of taking as many worlds as they can (including vacuum worlds) a turn or two before the Zho T10 reinforcements arrive.

I have, on occasion, grouped my at-start J3 BRs and CRs into a squadron at Lanth and gone after the Swordies right off the bat, using the TL15 infantry brigades.

I also usually make an effort to get the J1 fleet together, provided I get a tanker. They're not spectacular, but 17-24 bombardment points slowly touring up and down the Spinward Main, dropping a 5C-10 armoured army on small Zho troop units, can be useful.

As for the scouts, I leave the J4 at Regina for use as the Duke's personal courier. The J3 scout either goes with the J2s or is slurped up by the J3 fleet (if any).

The Duke is scooped up on T1 and usually arrives in the Rim by T6. By T7, if I'm lucky enough to have gotten 2 ARs, the Rim Fleet makes an appearance carrying almost every Rim troop and heads for Querion via Swordie space and Lanth.

 

[The Oz]

I have often found the Ine Givar useful as a distraction/diversion. Putting some of them at Rhylanor or Porozlo can cause the Imperials to waste many troop units reinforcing planets I will probably never reach. The rest of the Ine Givar I tend to put at Efate to make taking it easier and garrisoning it effortless.

I agree that sending the Imperial Rimward reinforcements after the Swordies/Zhos from Quare is the best use for them.

How heavily do you use the Efate/Feri forces to hunt the Vargr? I tend to push that to the limit, taking their homeworlds and trying to kill their squadrons ASAP.

The way the game is set up there's no way to predict when the main Imperial counterattack will begin since the Imperial reinforcements are random. I do tend to hold my forces in the reinforcement box until I can get a really good fleet (at least 50 combat factors, more if I feel I can wait) put together. That force usually heads for Regina/Efate/Jewell, unless there's a reason to do otherwise.

 

[PBI]

I like to combine the diversionary utility of the Ine Givar with their ability to act as a complementary garrison. Plunk one of them on Jewell, say, covert, and then when the Impies come along and toast the regular garrison, they have to leave a troop of their own behind or, poof, Jewell becomes Zho again

When I send the Efate/Feri forces to the Vargr, I go for speed speed speed. I avoid all combat if I can, concentrating on the landing ops. Sometimes I might decide to send the Jewell forces up to help, depending on how weak my intitial J4 draw is or if the Vargr/Zho have a fleet up there somewhere. I very rarely encounter Vargr squadrons at the homeworlds; my opponent usually pushes them to Rhylanor's doorstep.

When I'm Imperial, it's always that balancing act of waiting for a stronger fleet to build up in the box or heading out slightly under strength. If I can, I'll wait until I have 18-24 bombardment, scoop up what I can, and go. The first fleet I send out tends to be skirting the edge of viability and is usually tasked with developing a counter offensive towards Jewell, or coming to the aid of the Efate lot, if they've gotten themselves in poo.

 

[The Oz]

Judging when and where to commit that first regular Navy reinforcement fleet is probably the most important decision the Imperial player has to make. Only the decision on where to send the rimward reinforcements comes close, and that's usually a slam-dunk decision anyway.

I agree that when hunting the Vargr, speed is more important. You have to catch them and smash them quickly to release your squadrons for other duties. I find this usually means leaving the Feri squadron behind (or having someone come from Regina to pick it up) since the Feri squadron is only Jump-2. I'm not sure about avoiding combat; my goal would be to find and kill the Vargr fleets as soon as possible so they can't play raider behind the lines.

 

[PBI]

Oh, I never grab the Feri squadron, just the TL11 armoured corps, then run for Pixie and on into Vargr space. The reason I don't generally both with their fleets is that, in my games, by the time the Efate force is entering Vargr territory, the Vargr fleets are somewhere around Shionthy, so I'd never catch them anyway.

 

[The Oz]

It is very difficult in FFW to catch an enemy because of the delay between writing your orders and executing them. The only way around that is to have one of those very few admirals with no response delay commanding your fleet, and there's always such a need for that officer elsewhere.

Still, I think the effort is worthwhile to kill the Vargr because once you kill one of their squadrons you don't have to worry about seeing it again. Same with the Swordies; once they're dead, they stay dead.

 

[PBI]

I usually assign the task of killing the Vargr to the first fleet out of the reinforcement box (unless the Efate group has done much better than expected, in which case they have no troops and kill the Vargr on the way back to get more), as the Vargr have usually peaked by then and are holding soft targets. It does get quite dicey with the VPs, but once the fleet gets away from the box, the VPs start tumbling again

Of course, if the first few reinforcement rolls suck, things can get a bit grim. I've found, though, that it the Vargr worlds aren't falling by T8-10, the Impies are done for anyway.

 

[PBI]

The problem is the Imperium can't really make much, if any, mistakes in the early game whereas the Zho can afford things to go a little bit off the rails and still win. Even when the Imperium gets strong forces in the combat zone, the stress level surrounding where to send them doesn't drop.

That's when I start hunting Zhodani forces, usually breaking things up in two forces, one with troops, the other without. The Impies with troops take the war to the enemy, the ones without just wander around Imperial space attacking enemy ship concentrations or bombarding enemy troops.

I figure if I can force a unilteral cease fire, I've gained a moral victory, at least

 

[The Oz]

I agree the game is more difficult for the Imperial, which is how it should be for the player on the strategic defensive (maybe not this difficult).

The Zhodani player has to make it difficult on himself by making bad decisions (like attacking Jewell with too little force) and as you say, even that isn't too bad since the Zhos have so much initial force and can more easily recover from any early bad luck/bad judgement.

It's certainly much easier to be the Zhos.

 

[PBI]

Much easier

Of course, for the Zhos, they are labouring under a rather huge sword of Damocles in that they will be largely running out of troops right around the time the Imperials begin compiling enough force to launch serious counter offensives.

If the Imperium can survive long enough, the Zhos are doomed. In a way, the game plays out very much like we all thought a war in Central Europe would, with the colours being switched in this case

The one strategic problem I've always laboured under is what to do with the Swordies. Nothing I've tried with them, from the obvious of taking Vilis and Garda-Vilis, to the tour of the DMZ, has sat well. I've even held them back to guard Swordie space, but I wasn't entirely happy with that option either.

 

[The Oz]

The best use I've found for the Swordies (and I'm not saying it's a great use, just the best use I've found) is to start on the conquest of the Vilis subsector, and then to act as bait for the Imperial Rimward reinforcements. If you can manage to spare enough regular Zhodani squadrons to get close enough to jump to the aid of the Swordies, you have a chance (not a good chance) of catching the Imperial colonial squadrons with enough regular Zhodani squadrons to put the Imperials on the short end of the squadron quality rule for once.

And the Imperial is not as likely to spend his replacements on reviving lower-quality squadrons, so killing colonial forces is somewhat more "permanent" than killing regulars.

Other than that there's isn't much I've thought of for the Swordies because they can't go very far and take a long time getting anywhere.

 

[JeffreyAllanBeeler]

One Swordy strategy is take all the J3 units and the two brigades and bypass Lanth and head into Rhylanor subsector looking for targets.

 

[The Oz]

Originally posted by GrognardJeff:
One Swordy strategy is take all the J3 units and the two brigades and bypass Lanth and head into Rhylanor subsector looking for targets.

I don't think I can agree with this. The Swordies have a fair chance of running across the massed Imperial colonial reinforcements if they try this, and if they avoid those squadrons they're certain to run into the leading edge of the Imperial Corridor Fleet.

As a Zhodani, I try to keep the Swordies and the Vargr alive as long as I can, to maximize their distractive nuisance value.

 

[PBI]

I have to agree with Oz on this one; the Swordies will only be able to take a couple of targets with those brigades. It'd be better to use them in the DMZ to hunt Imperial vacuum world task forces, or defending Swordie space (or even Zho space). Even just gathering up all those Swordie troops and touring the Spinward Main would be better.

 

[JeffreyAllanBeeler]

I suggested the Swordy's strategy because they deploy closer to Rhylanor and to give them something exciting to do.

I was thinking they would dash in garrsion a naval base and then run away long before turn 6.

 

[The Oz]

Originally posted by GrognardJeff:
I suggested the Swordy's strategy because they deploy closer to Rhylanor and to give them something exciting to do.

I was thinking they would dash in garrsion a naval base and then run away long before turn 6.

Something like that might be worth a try. I also like to keep the Swordies and Vargr alive to use as sacrificial allies in the event I do get a big Zhodani fleet close to Rhylanor.

 

[PBI]

The only reason I don't like splitting the Swordie fleets (I do, of course, group the J3s and J2s into different fleets, they just move together) before I've used up the troops is the paltry bombardment. When grouped, they at least have an adequate bombardment factor. After Villis, though, it can be worth it to split off the J3s and go on a quick strike and then meet up with the J2s later.

Oz's idea is something I hadn't considered before (then again I never go for Rhylanor), but it would be nice to use the Swordies and Vargr for armour if the Zhos decide to do some sort of Operation Downfall re-enactment

 

[JeffreyAllanBeeler]

How can you move the Swordy fleets together?

The J2 can refuel everywhere however the J3's can only refuel at gas giants and owned bases.

The J2's break out through either Saurus or Vilis but would it be wise to also jump in the J3's?