Rindis.com

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Largely thanks to repairs, the Kzinti are running a bit low on cash already. They built everything, but the ending total was 4.25, which is less than he received in salvage during my Turn 2.

Builds:
Kzintis: CV, 2xMEC, DD, FFK, FKE, FF, 4xPDU, MB->BATS, FF->FKE

With the inclusion of the first three expansions, a lot of new ship types are added to the game, both in new base hulls, and in variants. Most of the base hulls show up mid-war, but the Kzinti get an important one right off the bat: the Killer Frigate (FFK).

Because of the way damage and repairs work, ships with odd numbered factors are considered very important by experienced players. This is because the crippled factor usually rounds up, so a 7-point CW is just as tough when crippled as an 8-point CA. More importantly, repair costs are based on the difference between the uncrippled and crippled values, making a 7-point CW no more expensive to repair than a 6-point CL or DD, even though it absorbed more damage in the process of being crippled.

Most empires have at least one ship type in each slot from 4 to 10 points. The Kzinti were one of the empires missing the efficient 5-point slot (along with the Hydrans and Tholians). Advanced Operations introduces the FFK, the Kzinti’s last attempt at getting better performance out of their frigate. It is actually introduced right before the General War, but it also has a variant of its own, the FKE, or escort version, that gets introduced on turn 2. The FFE is a pre-war design, and is a 2-4 escort, the FKE is a much more effective escort at 4-5.

Production of both versions is extremely limited (two of either type, three total), causing the Kzintis to get a slow trickle of good small escorts and a few of the ‘efficient’ FFKs while managing the shrinking budget. Personally, I think it adds nice little bit of interest in the early Kzinti shipbuilding schedule

I was surprised when both Raids hit Lyran territory. Both disrupted provinces with no loss to the Kzintis.

Belirahc fell afoul of a beginner mistake during movement. He initially just started a bunch of small battles against province raiders, and tried to raid anything I had captured, and I reacted ships out to handle them. When he ended movement without doing anything more, I pointed out that I’d just move my reserve onto any battles that were close and just pound his one- or two-ship forces. He then decided to pick a few larger battles to attract my reserves. This worked, but some of his forces weren’t really in a shape to get into a large battle.

Combats:
0701: SSC; Lyrans: retreat; Kzinti: dest FF
0903: SSC; Lyrans: retreat; Kzinti: crip FF & retreat
1203: SSC; Klingons: crip F5L & retreat
1602: Kzinti: dest FF
0802: Lyrans: crip CW, 2xDD; Kzinti: dest EFF
1305: Klingons: crip F5; Lyrans: crip CW; Kzinti: SF captured
1505: Klingons: crip 2xD5, F5, dest F5L; Kzinti: dest BC, SF

1305 was particularly rough on him. The force was still missing escorts from my turn, so he ended up feeding the fighters forward without the carriers on the line, while I had toys from the starbase assault left over in the hex. He tried to go EW heavy, but I had decided to abuse my D6S and D6Ds, and beat him 8 to 4 on that as well.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with an SF. All my scouts are better than it, and I really don’t have a need for a 1 EW scout. Possibly the best thing to do is to scrap it for the money (1 EP). Though I might convert it to a SDF for DB duty (3+1+2 = 6 EP… oy). At least he isn’t salvaging it.

Overall, the Kzintis are down seven frigates through the course of the full turn, and lost two CVEs and a BC. The lack of SFs and EFFs is going to be felt in my turn 3 attack.