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Didn't you hear the man? They have no rulers over them. They probably have no concerns about things like "consistency with species names" or "copyrights." Pah!
 
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Part Ten: The First Golden Monenary Compact-Rothak War (2274 to 2279)
First Battle of Holdebaana.jpg


Yldar ships attack a Rothak starhold at the First Battle of Holdebaana, 2276.


Part Ten: The First Golden Monenary Compact-Rothak War (2274 to 2279)

The bridge was full of smoke and heat and Navigation Officer Rhethana could taste an unfamiliar odour in the air as she flickered her tongue in and out. It took her a moment to realise that it was blood, her blood at that. Her eyes widened as she saw the red gash in her left arm, vivid against her silver scales and the olive of fabric of her uniform. Somehow in the shock and possible concusion when then last missile had hit them she hadn't registered the pain. Until this moment. Rhethana flexed her arm and hissed, instantly regretting it.

A groan distracted the young officer and Rhethana's golden eyes flicked over to a slumped, furry shape slumped on the deck. 'Admiral!'

The only other bridge officer still on his feet was a Kammarian ensign whose name her frazzled mind couldn't recall and together with his help Rhethana managed to half-drag, half carry the quasi-conscious Admiral B'Scul towards the nearest escape pod. The Glost-Weherni momentarily regained awareness sufficient to focus four blurry eyes on Rhethana's face.

'The... battle...?'

'We're winning sir,' Rhethana replied as she pushed her commander through the open door of the escaped pod then clambered in herself along with the Kammarian ensign. All around them the destroyer gave ominous groans and she could hear explosions on distant decks but as the pod door sealed behind them and the escape pod jettisoned into space and towards safety she fell back against the seat, exhausted and relieved beyond words. 'We're winning.'

~~~~~~

Yldar Rothak frontier.jpg


The Yldar-Rothak Border, 2274.

On paper the Golden Monetary Compact enjoyed a more than two to one advantage in numbers of her foes in the Rothakan Fire Tribes in 2274. Yet this nominal disparity was less secure than it seemed. As we have seen previously that save for heavier armour (itself balanced by inferior shields) the Kammarian warships were considered weaker and slower than their Yldar or Rothakan counterparts, and their crew enjoyed a mixed reputation, a legacy of many of the best and brightest being lured away to serve in the Federal Fleet. Those ships were highly regarded, but it was unclear whether the Kammarians, who as head of the Compact at this time controlled the Federal Fleet, would use them to best advantage. There was a suspicion in Oros that even though they had begun the war the Kammarians would prove skittish when it came to fighting.

The Yldar Free Traders had perhaps the most advanced Navy in the war, but it had still come before Chairman Rhethan's naval program had truly borne fruit. The Yldar Star Navy entered the war with five destroyers, twenty four corvettes and the formidable - if hard to classify - former Kobarian ships which amounted to four 'raiders', two 'frigates' and the imposing if unhandsome YSS Limpok the Baneful, a cruiser and one of the most powerful warships known. These vessels were divided into two fleets of 'armadas'. 'Suthnar's Armada' [1] was composed of the five destroyers and twenty of the corvettes and was under the command of the Glost-Werheni admiral Mak B'Scul. Most of these ships and crews had seen battle before, against the void cloud creature, the ancient mining drones or pirates. They were a well trained and motivated force who knew their ships well.

The 'Salvaged Fleet' [2] was a different business. Though it had been reinforced by four new Yldar built corvettes the majority of the ships were Kobarian and their crews had yet to see much action in their powerful but unfamiliar craft. The Navy had taken the decision to strengthen the marauder vessels with Yldar designs, but this made for an uneven balance. There was also the fact that the Salvaged Fleet was led by Kesh na-Solpan. The Kobarian admiral obviously knew his people's ships better than anyone, and his military genius was not in doubt but there were understandable nerves about putting a barbarian mercenary in charge of half the Navy.

Intelligence regarding the Rothakans was scanty thanks to the Fire Tribes ferocious approach to patrolling their own borders that allowed only the most cunning and creative Yldar merchants to slip through the net. It was known that they were engaged in a bitter rivalry with the Zelvan Interplanetary Empire on their far flank but the pacifist yet advanced Irenic Kazam Compact acted as a counterweight to any slide in the balance of power in the region. Neither the Rothakans nor the Zelvans wished to alienate the Kazams so they kept an uneasy peace. This would allow the Rothakans the opportunity to send their entire fleet west, counting on the fact the war would be won or lost before the Zelvans intervened.

The Yldars struck first. Suthnar's Armada under B'Scul moved against the Rothak border system of Sanach. The Sanach system itself was a mineral and energy rich target but it was even more important for its strategic location at a hyperspace junction. The Free Traders had long coveted Sanach and together with the equally important Holdebaana system to the north it was a prize they wanted to win during the war.

Admiral Mak B'Scul was an auburn furred Glost-Werheni, the first of his species to reach flag rank in the Navy. As a younger officer - and at forty eight for his rank most would still call his young - he had been famously eager, occasionally to the point of throwing caution to the wind in battle situations. Talkative and clever he was the kind of sapient who was either good friends with his peers or irritated them endlessly. Nevertheless he was popular among his subordinates for his energetic style of leadership. During the war he had his flag aboard the destroyer YSS Kodram the Suave. At the very beginning of 2275 her ships dropped out of hyperspace in the Sanach system and the first shots were fired.


Suthnar's Armada.jpg


Suthnar's Armada in 2275.

The Rothak outpost at Sanach quickly fell to ship bombardment and an assault by Yldar marines with disruptor rifles and nova grenades. It was not a bloodless victory for the Yldar; casualties amounted to three hundred and twenty sailors and marines no ships had been destroyed or even put out of commission but Kodram the Suave and two of her sister destroyers, Khabbash the Furious and Damghalla the Heroic had taken direct hits from Rothakan missiles and with their armour plating cracked B'Scul took the fleet back home for repairs.

Sanach was a system the Yldars wanted to take but B'Scul's raid was also a tentative attack to see what the enemy were made of. It would not be until the following year that the first significant battle of the war took place at the Holdebaana system. Holdebaana, a blue-white star was protected by a starhold, a space station far larger and more heavily armed than the mere outpost at Sanach. When Suthnar's Armada dropped out of hyperspace in Seventhmonth 2276 B'Scul and her officers knew they would be in for a far tougher fight.

The Rothak starhold peppered the Yldar ships with UV-laser fire and missiles while it's FTL inhibitor prevented an easy retreat to hyperspace should events go against the Yldars. B'Scul's flagship escaped mostly intact but her other four destroyers bore the brunt of the enemy fire; Dassmath the Fighter lost much of her shielding and armour but the central core of the warship was intact. Khabbash the Furious was in similar shape though her shields and armour plating had failed completely. Hemphanir the Savage and the luckless Damghalla the Heroic were all but floating wrecks but tireless work by their crews prevented their loss and both mangled destroyers would prove spaceworthy enough to travel back to Cevant for repairs. B'Scul's score of corvettes had suffered various stray hits but all remained capable of travel. The Free Traders had suffered about three thousand casualties, which pushed north of five thousand when the marines stormed the battered station.

The First Battle of Holdebaana was a major victory but it would be overshadowed within days by word that the Rothakans had retaken Sanach. The Yldar garrison had been forced to surrender but not before transmitting chilling data of what the enemy had. The Rothakans had assembled their entire fleet, some thirteen destroyers and forty three corvettes into a single battlegroup and were rolling the dice on knocking the Yldars out of the war with one massive counter-strike.

Standard naval theory in the Free Traders (and the Kammarian Centralized Systems), first articulated by the late Admiral Darmull held that truly massive agglomerations of warships were impractical. Besides the difficulty in keeping so many vessels coordinated in combat it deprived the naval power of flexibility. The favoured strategy of the Yldars was based on heavy raids, leaving a large force in reserve. In the case of this war that reserve had been the Salvaged Fleet. Naval Command admitted the individual power of the Kobarian ships but wanted to shore up the numbers with Yldar vessels before unleashing them. Until then, Suthnar's Armada would do the raiding. That at least had been the theory and the capture of Holdebaana (not just an outpost but a proper naval base) suggested it was working. Then came the Rothak counteroffensive under the venerable Rothak leader Torba' Malas.

Admiral Malas was a tough old soldier with a long and adventurous career behind her. She had first entered the military life aboard a system patrol scout in the days before hyperdrives became universal and over her ninety two years had seen almost everything. Age had not fossilised here and if anything she had grown more adaptable. The conduct of the war was in her hands and she would come within an ace of winning.

The fall of Sanach would be followed a few weeks later by the capture of Irriamun by the Rothakans. Like Sanach, Irriamun was a mere outpost but it was still a rich system and a key point in the routes to the great trading hub at Davassa. It also gave the enemy a beachhead in Yldar space.

The Free Traders had been caught on the hop. The plan for the second half of 2277 had been for a new offensive against the Rothakans, with the Salvaged Fleet operating from Sanach while the Kammarians advanced on the enemy outposts in the south (the wargoal for the Kamarians conveniently enough.) Now with the enemy across the border in force the Navy was forced to improvise. The badly battered ships of B'Scul's fleet were sped to the Cevant system for emergency repairs while Kesh na-Solpan and his ships trailed Malas as she made her way across Yldar space. The Salvaged Fleet had been greatly reinforced since the beginning of the war with three 'siege destroyers' [3] and eight more corvettes. Even so it did not measure up to great Rothakan battlegroup. For months the Kobarian mercenary would shadow the enemy, unwilling to commit to full battle but trying to restore Yldar control wherever the Rothakans struck.

The Rothakans and the Yldars were both looking for the decisive naval battle but only on their own terms. Torba' Malas wanted to force the Yldars hands by striking at targets of opportunity, briefly taking a largely evacuated Davassa and then the outposts at Ostichi (terrifying the nearby inhabitants of the Irjamma's Treasure habitat though Malas avoided attacking the moon-sized structure) and Jamor. Kesh na-Solpan refused the bait, staying on his opponent's tail and only swooping to rescue once she had jumped to hyperspace. In time he was joined by the hastily repaired ships of B'Scul's Suthnar's Armada as they chased the cunning Rothakan warrioress.

It would not be until Ninthmonth 2278 that the great ship to ship clash occurred. Malas had feinted at attacking Mosir, a key Yldar anchorage but instead jumped to Holdebaana. The starhold there, still in Yldar hands after two years blocked an easy return to Rothakan space and if she could retake it before the Yldar fleets caught up she'd be in a strong position to face whatever they threw at her. She nearly managed it too but the exhausted Yldar garrison aboard the starhold were still holding out when B'Scul and Kesh na-Solpan dropped out of hyperspace.


Second Battle of Holdebaana.jpg


The Second Battle of Holdebaana, Ninthmonth 2278.

The Second Battle of Holdebaana would be fought over thirty nine hours and involved a hundred different warships to say nothing of the partially operational starhold itself. Lasers, missiles and railguns scored hit after hit. And when it was all over the Rothakans were the ones who blinked, retreating to hyperspace and abandoning the wrecks of a destroyer and a dozen corvettes. An unknown number of the surviving Rothakan craft, all suffering some sort of damage, would not survive the journey home.

It was a bloody victory. The Yldars had lost the destroyers Damghalla the Heroic and Kodram the Suave with Mak B'Scul pushed into an escape pod and safety even as the command deck of her flagship buckled around her. Also lost had been two of the four 'raiders' recovered from the Kobarians and five corvettes. Many other ships had wrecked shields, holes in their armour or even severe cracks in their hulls and the Free Traders had suffered perhaps seven thousand casualties across the fleet. But it was a victory, and the Fire Tribes had lost their strategic gamble and with it the war.

In fact peace did not come immediately. The very last strike of the war took place in Fourthmonth 2279 when Kesh na-Solpan attacked the Rimdur system to the immediate east of Holdebaana. Rimdur station was a mere outpost that surrendered after the first shots were fired but the system was also home to the Rothakan colony of Shi'Pator. The Kobarian admiral lacked the troops to invade the planet but he quickly began to organise a blockade. His ships were still getting into position when arrived from Oros: the war was over.


Peace with Rothakans.jpg


The peace with the Rothakans, negotiated in Fifthmonth 2279.

While the focus of the Yldars and the Rothakans had been on fighting each other the Kammarians had been on the offensive in the south. The Kammarian invasion was limited in scope and their opposition weak with the entire Rothak fleet in the north but they had exchanged shots and taken casualties in a few skirmishes. More importantly they had conquered the border systems they claimed. After Second Holdebaana when it became clear the Fire Tribes could not win negotiations were opened between Emperor Zoz I of the Kammarians and Clan Speaker Hask' Kurnir of the Rothakans. The armistice of Fifthmonth 2279 would eventually see the uninhabited but mineral rich border systems of Obsholla and Keid handed over to the Centralized Kammarian Systems.


Obsholla and Keid.jpg


The new Kammarian-Rothak Border with Obsholla and Keid transferred to Kammarian control.

The diplomacy of 2279 would be subject to much controversy among the Yldars. Zoz represented the Golden Monetary Compact as a whole, not simply the Kammarian Centralized Systems. Under the articles that underpinned the federation this was his right as long as he held the rotating presidency and strictly speaking he went further than the letter of the law insisted by making sure the Yldar representatives to the Compact were part of the negotiating team. Nevertheless there was chagrin among the Free Traders that the Yldars who had very much done the heavy lifting during the fighting received no territorial concessions.

Chairman Rhethan worked hard to prevent a breach between the two member states of the Golden Monetary Compact. Whatever his private disappointments that the Yldars had not won more in public he championed the peace as a victory for the Golden Monetary Compact. The Emperor Zoz, who was one hundred and one in 2279 had long enjoyed a certain respect from the Yldars for his able management of the Compact and his sheer age gave him a certain gravitas to the comparatively short lived Yldars. Rhethan was able to use this personal popularity to blunt the grumbling among the merchant princes.

Besides if it was true the Free Traders had won no new territory they had won something even more precious that was less immediately visible on the map. As part of the peace the Rothakans lifted their border restrictions and the road to the galactic east was now open...


Borders 2279.jpg


The borders of the Golden Monetary Compact after the peace of 2279.


Footnotes:

[1] By long standing tradition Yldar squadrons and fleets tended to be named after great figures of the past, in this case a merchant adventurer.

[2] Formally designated 'Kesimor's Armada' but the nickname 'Salvaged Fleet' stuck around in all but the most official context, even when the majority of ships in the fleet were of Yldar construction.

[3] Specialised destroyers with an artillery focus, designed more for bringing down stations and starholds than ship to ship combat.

 
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This update was published slightly earlier than I expected because the forums will be offline for a day's maintenance. Though... um, of course you might already know that if you are first reading this on Thursday...

The next update will be an appendix post looking at the warships of the recent war. Hope you guys enjoy it!

~~~~

Uh oh... The Barbarians are coming and there ready...

Likewise! Now just don't get killed by your own Slave Race and you'll be great;)

Thanks, will try! :D

Cold war is cold no longer. One can only hope that it is not a miscacluation to force the issue now.

Short of abstaining and thus collapsing the Golden Monetary Compact the Yldars didn't really have much choice but to join the war. I do think it would have come sooner or later though.

The game trolled you with those Yldar barbarians. :D

Let's see how the first interstellar war goes, but if the Tribes power is equivalent to yours and you have the Federation with you... It seems it is going to be too much one-sided for their taste.

Yeah, the Pseudo-Yldar were a surprise!

While my side did win I have to say the Tribes put up a very effective effort, and it certainly didn't feel one sided though the lacksidasical attitude of my ally might have contributed there...

w05eKF4.jpg


Seriously, though, between the Vultaum and the Pseudo-Yldars, it does make one wonder whether the Progenitors might have been having a laugh at someone's expense...

Hah! :D

And yes I can easily believe they might have, though the Yldars don't really think of the Vultuam (extinct for literally millions of years) as linked to them.

Time to try and split the Rothak in half so the Yldar have a pathway further east.

That might take more than one war but at least the borders are open. :)

Hopefully you have many claims and luck in war!

Well it didn't work out like that but I was on the winning side. :)

In a war of corvets, the destroyer is king.

I shall be going into exactly that in the next update! :)

Didn't you hear the man? They have no rulers over them. They probably have no concerns about things like "consistency with species names" or "copyrights." Pah!

Hah! :D

Playing a trade league you can bet that irks the Yldars!

Ooh, a first taste of galactic war. Let's hope the Yldar have prepared as well as they think :)

Well they didn't do too badly. :)
 
That was a very exciting battle scene to start off with :)

Somewhat cheeky of the Kammerians, but even so the experience is worthwhile. It may be, though, that the Yldar need to consider more forceful negotiating tactics themselves with the Rothak in the future.
 
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Well it didn't work out like that but I was on the winning side. :)
Did you not have any claims or did the war end before you could get to the systems you had claimed?
 
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A hard-fought struggle, and ultimately a victorious one. A shame the Yldars weren't able to get any concessions themselves, but the goodwill of an ally and access to the broader galaxy aren't necessarily bad prizes themselves.
 
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A first taste of galactic war ends with a victory. Concessions would have been nice, but surviving the baptism was perhaps more important. Good news for future conflicts.
 
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Appendix: Warships of the 2270s
Fleet in formation.jpg


Daskall-class destroyers and Damghalla-class corvettes in close formation at Ostichi, 2279.

Appendix: Warships of the 2270s

The war between the Golden Monetary Compact and the Rothak Fire Tribes was not first interstellar clash, even in the ‘modern’ era of galactic society but it did see a leap in technology, tactics and scale. Certainly for the powers of the galactic north this was the birth of a new type of warfare.

The war ended before either side committed to a serious ‘ground’ invasion, be it of a planetary colony or a Yldar habitat. Even so there was significant fighting in close quarters between marines as the Yldars, the Kammarians and the Rothakans were all involved in storming space stations and exchanging laser or disruptor fire with the garrisons. As exciting and important as these firefights were they paled in comparison next to the ship to ship and station to ship combat.

This study focuses on the warships of the war that captured the public imagination through their heroics, their victories – and their defeats.

The Yldar Star Navy entered (and exited) the war as the least numerous but most technologically advanced faction. Generally speaking Yldar ships were a little faster, better armed and especially had superior combat computers than their rivals. The one area where they lagged behind the enemy was in armour. The Yldars still used nanocomposite armour while the Rothakans and even the Kammarians had switched to the more advanced ceramo-metal armour. At the beginning of the war the Free Traders authorised the use of 'volatile motes', a rare but valuable resource mined in Yldar space. These motes would help boost many key systems in the Yldar fleet during the war and perhaps proved a decisive edge.



Mitgapp-class.jpg


A design model for the Mitgapp-class torpedo corvette.


Corvettes were by far the most common ships in the war, amounting to approximately two thirds of the total number of warships involved. The label ‘corvette’ was a notoriously vague one, especially in informal use where it might apply to anything from a hundred metre non-hyperspace capable system patrol craft used by police forces to something almost the size of a destroyer. In formal naval designation it was more restrictive; lightly armed fast warships between two hundred and three hundred meters long and with crew up to four hundred strong.

Corvette crews had a reputation for being black comedy that ranged from the self deprecating to the caustic jokes shared over a case of Kammarian brandy. They were aware they were not the poster boys and girls of the Navy and a disproportionate number were drawn from talent civilian pilots. The majority were Yldars but Glost-Weherni (who were shorter and more slender than their humanoid-reptilian counterparts) featured in greater numbers than their share of the population which added to the different feel of the corvette service.

The backbone of the Yldar Star Navy in the 2270s was the Damghalla-class corvette, two hundred and sixty metres long and carrying a crew of three hundred. By this point the basic design was not far short of a century old, though the sheer strength of the original ship and constant refinements had kept her competitive. More than any other craft the Damghalla-class epitomised the pre-war Yldar concept of the ‘generalist’ warship. Armed with a mix of railguns and plasma disruptors the Damghalla-class was intended to face almost any opposition, though this also left them weaker against some foes.

The Free Traders had twenty four of the Damghalla-class at the start of the war and would build two more but there were feelings that a more specialised craft was needed. That was the Mitgapp-class. Slightly shorter and narrower than the older corvettes the Mitgapp-class also carried a railgun turret but their main weaponry were torpedoes. Space torpedoes were new technology in the 2270s and there was a lot of debate in the YSN over their use. Their supporters pointed to their sheer destructive power and their ability to punch through both armour and shields. The anti-torpedo minds in the Navy on the other hand questioned the use of a weapon that even its designers admitted was slow and could be shot down.

Ultimately the pro-torpedo lobby won enough support to at least try the Mitgapp-class as a ‘siege weapon’ against enemy stations (in contrast to the Damghalla-class which intercepted hostile starships.) Half a dozen were built between 2274 and 2275.

The corvettes might have had the numbers but to the Free Traders public the face of the war were the destroyers. These powerful yet sleek craft had been in use for some decades at this point but they still retained a certain glamour denied the corvettes. In theory, if less often in practice, a destroyer was far more of an independent ship than a corvette, able to sustain itself in deep space for longer.

Destroyer crews were famous for their ambition and spit and polish attitude. Like all cliches this wasn't entirely fair - they were still sailors and marines who went bar hopping while in stardock, gambled and visited clubs were consenting adults engaged in often expensive pleasures. Still, this was where the professional careerists in the Navy made made their trade and dreamed of becoming captain of their own vessel.

The key Yldar destroyer and by far the best known among the public was the four hundred metre long Daskall-class. Like the Damghalla-class corvettes these were ‘generalist’ warships. The bow was built to ‘gunship’ designs with a medium sized railgun as the main turret, supported by smaller railgun and plasma disruptor batteries. The stern was based on the ‘interceptor’ idea and had smaller railgun turrets. The idea was that the destroyer could easily outgun any corvette foolish enough to approach within range while also being able to fire at range herself with her main battery.

Functionally the five Daskall-class destroyers were used as the main line of battle in clashes with the enemy, which probably accounts for the severe losses even these rugged designs faced, and injuries among their eight hundred men crews accounted for many of the casualties of the war.

The same voices in the Navy that had suggested moves towards more specialised corvettes were not shy about speaking up about destroyers. The main weapon of the Daskall-class (of the fleet generally) were potent railguns but, as deadly as they were against shields there were always concerns about such guns performed against armour. A theoretical ‘all disruptor’ destroyer never materialised after it was determined that even allowing for disruptor utility against both armour and shields such a ship would grossly underpowered. Much more promising – but ultimately not built at least during the war – was the idea of simply swapping the railguns aboard the Daskall-class for UV-lasers. These ‘variants’ would accompany their standard sisters and used their lasers against enemy armour as the other destroyers stripped away shields.



Siege Destroyers.jpg


The three 'siege destroyers' at Rimdur in 2279: YSS Campranar the Pernicious, YSS Yhlat the Saviour & their 'half sister' YSS Nehdaban the Holy.

In fact the three new destroyers built during the war would only broadly resemble the Daskall-class. After the Battle of Sanach it was recognised that the Yldar fleet was ill-prepared against missiles and also that stations were best taken on at range. The solution were the so-called ‘siege destroyers’: the two ships of the Joddam-class and their ‘half-sister’, the singleton of the Yllmassa-class.

The two Joddam-class destroyers were YSS Campranar the Pernicious and YSS Yhlat the Saviour, both named after philosopher kings of the Early Transitory Period of Oros history and a sign of the growth of the spiritualist faction in the Free Traders. Abandoning the otherwise ubiquitous railguns in favour of flak batteries on their sterns, the sisters main weapon was derived from the cloud lighting of the void cloud creatures. Weaponised void cloud technology was an oddball, fringe pursuit and quite a few Navy traditionalists were alarmed than such a weapon was being tested at all. The idea behind the lightning weapon was that it could sizzle through both shields and armour.

The third ‘siege destroyer’ built came after initial tests with the lightning weapon proved mixed. Neither Joddam-class destroyer electrocuted their own crews during their test firing (considered an unlikely possibility but still) but the damage inflicted on the dummy target proved wildly inconsistent. The
Yllmassa-class had the similar hull layout as her two half-sisters (flak batteries in the stern and an artillery turret in the bow) but instead of the temperamental lightning cannon YSS Nehdaban the Holy had a tried and tested but enlarged railgun.

Nehdaban the Holy held the sad honour of being the least loved ship in the fleet. To the experimentalists who had pushed for something different she was a lost cause before she slipped out of her shipyard. Even the traditionalists in the Navy who belong to the 'Cult of the Railgun' as some called them found flaws in the vessel. For starters she was sinfully ugly, a lumbering top heavy design that violated every aesthetic principle in Yldar ship building. Her oversized forward turret performed well in tests, but took up as much room inside the hull as it did outside. Those unlucky enough to serve aboard the ship called her 'the prison barge' for her infamously cramped and obstructed bow (and the legendarily terrible food served in her galley.)

Even if they never quite lived up to their hopes all three 'siege destroyers' made it through the war intact and with relatively few casualties.



Kobarian ships.png


Front to rear: YSS Petrobon the Contender, YSS Limathar the Majestic and YSS Limpok the Baneful at Rimdur, 2297.


The Kobarian ships were part of the YSN and their crews were Navy officers and men but they were always a strange subset of the fleet with advanced weapons and odd features inside and out. Some of their innovations, like plasma drives were being worked on already by Yldar scientists while other arcane systems like their advanced sensors and regenerative hulls remained the stuff of wistful dreams for the shipwrights of Oros. Of the seven re-purposed marauder warships six were roughly equivalent to Yldar made craft. The seventh, the 'cruiser' YSS Limpok the Baneful was like nothing else in civilised space.

Smallest and most numerous of the Kobarian vessels were the Outrider-class raiders. Sharp and predatory looking and of similar dimensions to standard corvettes - the 'raider' designation was more a recognition of their origin than a difference in scale or purpose - the four Outrider-class ships were armed with the impressive ripper autocannons. Save in shielding they were equal or superior in every respect to the Damghalla- and Mitgapp-class ships and were by some measure the fastest warships in normal space (their hyperdrives were no more advanced than anyone else.)

The fine features of the Outrider-class raiders did not make them immortal and two of the four were lost during the war at Second Holdebaana.

If any of the Kobarian ships won the actual affection of their new crews it was the 'twins', the Lancer-class frigates YSS Limathar the Majestic and YSS Nimpac the Observer. Slightly longer and noticeably broader than the Daskall-class destroyers the frigates were armed with similar weapons to the Yldar standard, a large railgun battery and two smaller UV-laser turrets. It was the other refinements common to the Kobarian machines that made them impressive craft and unlike the raiders they were large enough to be comfortably renovated inside for multi-species crews.

The
Lancer-class frigates could not really be called conventionally 'pretty', but their strong lines and cobalt blue colouring at least made them striking starships in a good way. The same could not be said for Limpok the Baneful. The huge, eight hundred metre ship resembled no other craft in the Free Trader ranks. She was a Void Champion-class cruiser and carried a mix of weaponry: autocannon, railguns and UV-lasers. Her two thousand strong crew had required extensive training to get used to this flying oddity that in some ways had been less built than found. Much of the hull of the ship consisted of two captive asteroids that had been hollowed out by the Kobarians and fitted with a linking superstructure, bridge, weapons and engines. Limpok the Baneful was an ugly ship but unlike Nehdaban the Holy there was an excotism to her ugliness that offset it. Her sheer toughness and firepower also inspired awe in many who worked on her.

None of the three larger Kobarian ships were lost during the war and the regenerative hull plating they employed meant they shrugged off much damage before they even returned to port.



Rothak ships.jpg


Rothak ships in action at Second Holdebaana: three Trum'Reeken-class corvettes and the Alam'Tannek-class destroyer RFTS Pob'Greefad.


Finally a brief note should be made of the warships employed by the other two powers in the war: those of the Rothak Fire Tribes and those of the Centralized Kammarian Systems.

The Rothakans had been prepared for war for at least as long as their neighbours and if they lacked the benefits of a found fleet they had devoted much more of their budget to their Navy than their neighbours. The two main Rothak ships of the war were the Alam'Tannek-class destroyer and the Trum'Reeken-class corvette, both similar in size and role to their Yldar counterparts.

The Rothak warships had superior armour to their opponents, but similar shielding and hyperdrives and inferior sublight drives and combat computers. In contrast to the Yldars the Rothakans favoured the UV-laser over the railgun and the powerful purple beams were used to devastating effect against Yldar fleets. Perhaps the most impressive quality of the Fire Tribes fleet was their ability to coordinate large ship formations. Even Admiral Kesh na-Solpan commented admiringly on the Rothak discipline and organisation.

By the end of the war there was a certain grudging respect between the Yldar Star Navy and the Rothak Hallowed Starfleet. National loyalty and religion divided the two sides but they both took prisoners and respected truces - and admired the cunning and resilience of their opponents. This was not a war of extermination and there were certain rules. Perhaps had the war gone longer or had the two sides come to close quarters over a planetary or habitat invasion things would have been different. As it was the two starfaring powers had fought each other and there was now a certain understanding.



Kammarian ships.jpg


Kammarian ships on manoeuvres at Obsholla in 2279. Visible are two Zulxari-class destroyers (KSS Dargaxor & KSS Descorax) and their Darbix-class corvette escorts.


The Kammarian Imperial Fleet did not enjoy a high reputation before, during or after the war. In some ways this is unfair. The Kammarian sailors and marines that saw battle were as brave as anyone. It was simply that while the great battlefleets of the Yldars and the Rothakans were engaged in epic ship-to-ship clashes the Kammarians were left to take over two minor outposts next to their own borders - and were amply rewarded for their efforts.

Much of the mockery from the Free Traders crews was directed less at the Kammarian crews and more at the ships they flew. Save for armour, where like the Rothakans they were ahead of the Yldars, the Imperial Fleet was positively antiquated, still using second generation 'blue' lasers and coilguns. Had they actually engaged with the main enemy battlegroup the outcome would have been ugly.

Like the Yldars and the Rothakans the Kammarian fleet was standardised around corvettes and destroyers, respectively the Darbix-class and the Zulxari-class. All too aware that their vessels lagged behind their neighbours the Kammarians had built proportionately more vessels (especially destroyers) and at the end of the war they had twenty destroyers and forty nine corvettes, making them the largest fleet in terms of pure numbers.

One curiosity of the war was the similarity of the Rothak and Kammarian designs, apparently the result of convergent evolution. Despite their many physiological and cultural differences in some ways both reptilian species were closer to each other than either was to the humanoid Yldars, who despite their own reptilian appearance had many more internal 'mammal-like' traits.

As the dust settled all three powers licked their wounds, reviewed the performance of their ships and crews and began to put hard earned lessons into practice for the next generation of warships...
 
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So, first update in the new forums. I have to admit I'm not really a fan and losing threadmarks really hurts (I'll have to add a contents page I guess), but let's put that behind us and focus on good old fashioned AAR-ing. :)

~~~~~

That was a very exciting battle scene to start off with :)

Somewhat cheeky of the Kammerians, but even so the experience is worthwhile. It may be, though, that the Yldar need to consider more forceful negotiating tactics themselves with the Rothak in the future.

Thanks! I enjoy writing these little glimpses into the universe. :)

I agree the Kammarians were a little 'cheeky', but on the plus side it made the outcome more uncertain. I agree the Yldars might have to consider being more forceful down the road!

Did you not have any claims or did the war end before you could get to the systems you had claimed?

I did have claims (on Sanach and Holdebaan, the latter of which was in my control) but I guess the Kammarians as the ones running the war had diplomatic control.

A hard-fought struggle, and ultimately a victorious one. A shame the Yldars weren't able to get any concessions themselves, but the goodwill of an ally and access to the broader galaxy aren't necessarily bad prizes themselves.

An astute way of looking at things and I'm sure Rhethan would agree with you. :)

The Yldars fought well in a difficult situation and with (militarily) unreliable allies. They deserve kudos even if they won very little materially from the conflict.

That's true. It was a harder fight than I expected and I think valuable lesons have been learned.

A first taste of galactic war ends with a victory. Concessions would have been nice, but surviving the baptism was perhaps more important. Good news for future conflicts.

That's a cool attitude to have. In some ways this helps more than an easy victory that might have led to complacency and arrogance!
 
I feel like I have just read one of your quality "naval" posts from a Victoria II AAR. I feel remarkably refreshed. No small thing today, so I must regard this as a very serendipitous update to have just read before bed.
 
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The sudden forum upgrade was certainly a bit disorienting. Overall I've gotten adjusted to it, but there are still a few things here and there that grate on me a little.

Definitely enjoying the detailed look at the Yldar battle fleet (and their allies and foes). The rationales for the specialist ships were particularly interesting; Stellaris is one of those rare Paradox games where customizing weapons and armor loadouts is something that actually matters in-game, and I've always found the wide array of options that allow you to tailor a design to play to particular strengths to be one of the game's better features.
 
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The loss of threadmarks (and other functionality) has also highly irritated me and I'm not looking forward to retroactively putting a contents page of my own in, but I'm hoping that in terms of style the new forum will eventually grow on me (or at least become tolerable) as it becomes the norm; much like every time Facebook, Twitter, or Steam throw out some UI updates.

Enjoyable update on the fleets of battle, and getting a close look at just how bizarre the 'rescued' ships are to look at is certainly something :D. I wonder, are they likely to be copied/reverse-engineered (if that's possible), or will they remain the oddball outsiders of the Ylder fleet?
 
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This is quite an informative appendix, one for which I am glad.

I, too, am quite frustrated with the loss of threadmarks, though I, fortunately or unfortunately, only have one AAR to update with a contents page.
 
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Excellent narrative as always.
 
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Part Eleven: The Post-War Boom (2280 to 2296)
Frontier space 2285.jpg


Yldar exploration of frontier space, c. 2285.


Part Eleven: The Post-War Boom (2280 to 2296)

The spaceport bar at Katz outpost was typical of the kind littered throughout the backwaters of known space heavy with scent of half a dozen different species and alcohol from twice that many civilisations. Hexagonal shaped, with the lavender lighting the Yldars preferred and a score of tables and private booths were the usual mix of honest asteroid miners looking to get honestly drunk, independent merchants looking for a bargain and dubious characters looking to make deals was best not to look too closely at. Katz was also home to a xenoarchaelogical site so an unusual number of scientists could be found among the locals, drinking watered Kammarian kryl at thrice the market price found in civilised space.

One of the booths was currently home to a private freighter captain who had just made his fortune in some unclaimed system back west. He was going to lose some of that fortune tonight if Othana had anything to say about it. The silver scaled Yldar spaceport harlot (and thief) in the scandalously revealing attire had snuggled up to her mark early in the evening over a glass or six of platinum wine and watched him get more and more moronically drunk. However a strange thing had happened over the past hour; the captain had begun slurring details about 'mystery ships' way out west and despite her dagger sharp cynicism Othana found her thoughts straying from strictly business back to the stories.He seemed
so convinced he'd seen something.

'Do you think they could be Originators?' she'd asked, unable to stop herself saying it aloud.

The reply was an incredulous drunken braying of laughter that made Othana extra resolved to fleece this fool. Even so she made her mind to keep her attention to stories coming out of the unclaimed territories. If there was something out there and it was hostile or even if it wasn't then she might have to consider a new spot to work. There might be a lot of attention here soon...


~~~~~~

The 2280s saw a post-war boom for the Yldar Free Traders. The economy surged, rapid strides were made in technology and space exploration enjoyed one last golden age. The period would draw to a close in the outbreak of another war but for many years the Free Traders enjoyed peace, prosperity, and a spirit of confidence.

During the war scientists had been working on third generation hyperdrives and sublight plasma drives. The application of these technologies made the Yldar military and civilian ships some of the fastest in the galaxy. With the opening up of borders with the Rothak Fire Tribes many enterprising merchants took advantage of their improved ships to trade with the galactic east. The main port of call for these entrepreneurial adventurers was the Zelvan Interplanetary Empire. The Zelvans were the perpetual rivals of the Rothakans and the gnome-like humanoids were happy to deal with the Golden Monetary Compact. By 2286 these links initially created by individual merchants had extended to a commercial and research pact between the Free Traders and the Empire and the eventual extension of associate member status in the Compact to the Zelvans.

While some were exploring the markets of the east the last two decades of the century saw one final flurry of true voyages into the unknown along the fringes of Yldar space [1]. By 2280 there remained two sectors of unexplored space open to the Yldars. The Northern Frontier lay to the north and west of the Kobarian Freeholds while the Western Rim lay between the Kobarians and the Kammarian Centralized Systems. A few explorers hoped to uncover living alien civilisations or signs of the Originators in these borderlands but as the years passed and the unknown receded that vision was replaced by the more realistic one of archaeological finds and non-sapient but intriguing plants and animals.

Much of this activity was in the hands of private citizens, though the line between a successful merchant or industrialist and a political leader was a fine one in the Yldar Free Traders and to a great extent a member of the Board was simply a merchant prince or princess who had decided to dabble in politics among their other pursuits. Chairman Rhethan, a shipping magnate was very typical of the tycoon turned politician, though his personal level of scientific knowledge was uncommonly high (most merchant princes did not themselves design their own ships.) Where the government did step in was in truly large scale projects and matters of national defence.

Population growth had been building in Yldar space for decades by this point and with the Rothakans no longer an (immediate) threat the Chairman turned his attention to building a new habitat. Earlier successes with Madragons's Stronghold and Irjamma's Treasure had proved encouraging and the ambitious leader could dream of permanently attaching his legacy to a new moon sized station. The choice of location was even more ambitious than the decision to build; the Chiminol system was in the 'Slice', directly bordering the Rothak frontier. Rhethan was determined to send a message to the Fire Tribes that not an inch of Yldar space would be yielded [2].

Curiously the one thing Rhethan didn't do was leap into a new shipbuilding program. Those vessels damaged in the war were fully repaired and those, like the controversial 'siege destroyers' that had been rushed into combat almost directly out of dock were standardised but no new hulls were constructed. Partly this was because other projects drew so much men and material: building began on the habitat in the Chiminol system only in 2283 as the alloys and specialised engineers were simply not available. Two other reasons were at least as important in the delay. Firstly the early 2280s were a time of rapid technological flux and there was no appetite to build a destroyer that was obsolete before her shakedown cruise. Secondly the Yldar Free Traders was due to assume leadership of the Golden Monetary Compact in 2286 - and with it the Federal Fleet.



Federal Fleet.jpg


The Federal Fleet in orbit around Kenn Hijal, 2288.


The official military force of the GMC the Federal Fleet was by it's very nature a hybrid force. A slight majority of the officers and crew were of Kammarian origin, reflecting the greater population of the Centralized Systems but more than a third were Yldar with Glost-Weherni and a few smaller groups of emigres making up the balance. Pay was excellent and it was a constant source of friction in both the Yldar Star Navy and the Kammarian Imperial Fleet that many a promising cadet was lured over to the Federal Fleet by the glow of credits. The Federals were a smaller organisation than either of the 'national' navies and they had not played any part in the recent war [3]. As a service their primary role was patrolling the spaceways and protecting shipping and they had taken over many of the duties of the old Stellar Patrol.

Federal ships were built in the shipyards of whichever power held the presidency of the Golden Monetary Compact at the time, meaning all the ships built between 2266 (when the fleet was authorised) and 2286
looked Kammarian, at least on the outside. Inside it was another story, with integrated components and systems giving the vessels their own feel. That combination of Kammarian and Yldar extended to the culture of the crews. Federal warships observed different holidays, invented their own card games and slang and if fusion Kammarian-Yldar 'cooking' was an acquired taste it had a devoted following. The music and dance of the felinoid Aramathi of the Artisan Troupe, popular throughout Yldar and Kammarian space found some of their best customers of all in performing for the free spending Federal crews - which did little to increase the affection of those in the 'national' navies that many of the most sought after artistes were booked up with Federal credits.

In Ninthmonth 2286 the presidency of the Golden Monetary Compact passed back to the Yldars and Rhethan ordered the Federal Fleet to the newly built Yldar shipyards at Kenn Hijal to be inspected and if necessary refit. The fleet that eventually assembled included eleven
Centor-class destroyers and eleven Ethill-class corvettes. This unusual concentration on destroyers had always been a feature of Kammarian shipbuilding which prized power to make up for technological shortcomings. Not the Federal ships suffered from any; they had been built with the combined tech and expertise of the two powers and reflected that. Rhethan was suitably impressed.


Early Cruisers.jpg


The Shoshona-class cruisers YSS Goron the Shining (top, closer to the camera) & YSS Petessa the Symbol in 2292. These two were the first purpose-built Yldar cruisers.


The great advance in shipbuilding that had taken place during the decade was the development of the cruiser. The Yldars already had experience of cruiser-scale warships thanks to unglamorus and unequaled YSS Limpok the Baneful but home built warships of that size and power had proven notoriously difficult to get right. It had not been until 2284 that ship designers working on a next-generation colony ship experimental hull had realised the ideas they had investigated could be applied to cruiser construction. Even then it would not be until 2287 and the creation of an antimatter reactor that the power requirements seemed feasible.

Rhethan was a firm advocate of cruisers from the beginning but others, even in the Navy were less convinced. Cruisers were expensive ships to build and run and they had the obvious problem that they only be in one place while a brace of destroyers could split up. The destroyers had shown they could support a wide variety of weaponry and tactics. There was also the fact that many destroyer captains and even first officers who had become names during the war were not thrilled about 'their' ships being outshone. One of the most eloquent voices in this regard was Captain Ketrilla of the YSS Hemphanir the Savage who had won much praise for her courage and quick thinking during the war. As she noted in a report to the Chairman: 'A pair of mated rajdons make for a better hunt than a lane otanyx.' It was unanswerable logic, at least if one knew the species in question.

One event overshadowed every argument and won the day for the cruiser advocates. In 2284, for the third time, the Kobarians demanded tribute and the Yldars swallowed their pride and paid the marauders off. The portion of minerals paid as tribute was trivial next to the vast stores the Free Traders had but it was a great loss of face for the merchant princes. If they were to refuse tribute in future they needed ships that could stand up to the barbarians, and that meant cruisers.



Jesslur.jpg


Jesslur is elected Chairman of the Yldar free Traders, 2288.


In Thirdmonth 2288 Chairman Rhethan suddenly died of natural causes. The Chairman was seventy seven, certainly on the older side for a Yldar male but not so ancient abrupt death might be expected. The Board scrambled an emergency election to replace the late leader. Remarkably one of the candidates who put her name forward was the former Chairwoman Cognati. The indefatigable ex-leader had resumed her career as a scientist, playing a part in numerous breakthroughs. Now at the age of eighty she was prepared for another go. The merchant princes decided that a leader likely to die of sheer old age less than half way through her term decided to look elsewhere and instead elected the young male Jesslur to the office.

Jesslur was thirty seven years old and being hatched on Madragon's Stronghold was the first Chairperson to hail from outside the Cevant system. He had made his name as an envoy to the Golden Monetary Pact, winning a good reputation with the Kammarians and the support of the powerful Xeno Rights Organization. Despite his youth Jesslur had cannily established deep connections with a variety of merchant princes, all of whom saw him as someone who could achieve things (for them.) In office the new Chairman continued with most of the policies instituted by his predecessor, even silencing one of Rhethan's critics by transferring and promoting the overeager Captain Ketrilla to flag rank and command of the Federal Fleet. Naturally delighted tendrils of gossip swirled about the relationship between the smooth dusky scaled politician and the glamorous silver scaled naval officer, both of whom were of similar age and represented a definite generational shift. But then there was always gossip.



Ithill refugees.jpg


Ithill refugees arrive in Yldar space, 2294.


Jesslur's affinity for alien civilisations helped him maintain the growing relationship with the Zelvans, and smoothed over any cracks when Ithill refugees arrived in Yldar space in 2294 [4].

The great difficulty that Jesslur and the Yldar Free Traders were about to face had not yet become apparent, though that soon changed. The Azax system in the Northern Frontier had a naturally occurring wormhole, discovered when the system was first charted in the early 2280s. At first the Yldars had paid little interest to this. Natural wormholes were rare but not unprecedented and the Free Traders lacked the technology to traverse them safely. It was only gradually that reports began to circulate of unfamiliar ships sighted in the Northern Frontier.

At first there was excitement that these mystery ships were from a previously contacted alien civilisation in some hidden corner of fringe space, but with almost all such systems explored (if not claimed) such theories seemed unlikely. Yet still the nature of these vessels baffled the xenologists. It was only once a seasoned hand at Naval Intelligence took a closer look at the 'indecipherable' transmissions intercepted from the mystery ships that he realised that far from an unknown language the aliens were using a (rather simple) code for a known language: Glyrran.



Glyrran territory in the Northern Frontier.jpg


Glyrran territory in the Northern Frontier by 2296 (note the wormhole entrance at Azax.)


The Glyrran Union was fully half a galaxy away from the Yldar Free Traders, so distant that it would take even the fastest vessels years to traverse the intervening void. However the Glyrrans had a wormhole entrance of their own in the Saiph system. They had been studying it for far longer than the Yldars had examined their own wormhole and developed a rudimentary method of stabilising it. Sending ships through they had arrived in the Azax system and begun exploring - and claiming territory.

Suddenly an entire sector of space the Yldars had assumed to be their's for the taking was being threatened by a hostile power thousands of light years distant. No Free Trader leader, even the xenophiliac Jesslur, could simply have stood back and allow the Glyrrans free reign over the Northern Frontier. By 2293 as the threat became clear the Glyrrans and the Yldars were in a race to claim territory. The all important Azax system with it's wormhole was claimed by the Yldars but not before a sufficient fleet Glyrran science and construction vessels had established a toehold in the western systems.

The first sightings of the then unknown ships in the Northern Frontier had seen a surge in shipbuilding that only gained pace after it was realised that the the Glyraans were seriously moving into the region. Old fleets were reinforced and a brand new fleet was under construction at Kenn Hijal, centred around four new Shoshona-class cruisers: YSS Goron the Shining, YSS Petessa the Symbol, YSS Haghonon the Watchful and YSS Limathir the Majestic. The powerful new ships had been designed with the Kobarians in mind but by 2296 it was becoming clear they'd fight the Glyrrans first.

The
casus belli for the war was the Glyrran closure of the border in Firstmonth 2296. It was a move that meant only the most skilled diplomacy could have averted war and frankly neither side was looking for peace. The Glyrrans wanted to protect their holdings in the Northern frontier and seize the lifeline of the Azax system while the Yldars wished to push this existential threat out of their territory altogether.

On the seventh day of Secondmonth 2296 the Yldar Free Traders declared war on the Glyrrans.



war with the gyrrans.jpg


The Yldar Free Traders declare war on the Gylrran Union, 2296.



Footnotes:

[1] The 'Slice', a triangular wedge of unclaimed frontier space stretching from the galactic rim to the Yldar-Rothak border was sometimes considered part of this 'fringe'. Though explored in previous decades it remained somewhat unsettled as the Yldars and the Rothakans pushed against each other to claim mineral rich systems. The 'Slice' was also home to a minor alien civilisation - the arthropoid Multyx, a vaguely slug like race of beings who ran the Curator Order, an apolitical enclave of knowledge brokers, historians and other scientists from their habitat enclave orbiting the black hole Rixikar's Maw.

[2] This new habitat would eventually be termed 'Yltar's Bulwark' and be completed by the end of the decade.

[3] As a force themselves that is. Several officers of the Federal Fleet had seen action in either the olive uniform of the YSN or the dark blue of the KIF before transferring over to the Federals and donning their khaki.

[4] The Ithil were a primitive lithoid species from the tropical world of Samnivik III who had been scattered to the stars after their conquest by the Zelvans. Jesslur like most Yldars sympathised with the Ithils (and were prepared to offer some of them habitation) but were coolly pragmatic about condemning the Zelvans - a business partner and counterweight to the Rothakans.
 
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Threadmarks are back! Still, having already set up a contents page I'll keep adding to it at least for the moment.

I feel like I have just read one of your quality "naval" posts from a Victoria II AAR. I feel remarkably refreshed. No small thing today, so I must regard this as a very serendipitous update to have just read before bed.

Very glad you liked it! It was a lot of fun to write and I'll do something similar for future advances. :)

The sudden forum upgrade was certainly a bit disorienting. Overall I've gotten adjusted to it, but there are still a few things here and there that grate on me a little.

Definitely enjoying the detailed look at the Yldar battle fleet (and their allies and foes). The rationales for the specialist ships were particularly interesting; Stellaris is one of those rare Paradox games where customizing weapons and armor loadouts is something that actually matters in-game, and I've always found the wide array of options that allow you to tailor a design to play to particular strengths to be one of the game's better features.

Thanks, and I really agree! I love the ship designing element of this game and I'm very fond of the humanoid ships, even if the reptilian and avian vessels also have their charms. I like to give character to my vessels too, and try and get a feel for how people would see them in-universe. :)

The loss of threadmarks (and other functionality) has also highly irritated me and I'm not looking forward to retroactively putting a contents page of my own in, but I'm hoping that in terms of style the new forum will eventually grow on me (or at least become tolerable) as it becomes the norm; much like every time Facebook, Twitter, or Steam throw out some UI updates.

Enjoyable update on the fleets of battle, and getting a close look at just how bizarre the 'rescued' ships are to look at is certainly something :D. I wonder, are they likely to be copied/reverse-engineered (if that's possible), or will they remain the oddball outsiders of the Ylder fleet?


Sadly reverse engineering is impossible, so the 'rescued' ships are doomed to gradually become obsolete. I won't scrap them however - assuming they survive long enough to become obsolete the'll still make a nice reserve and floating museum! I was partially inspired to have a ship museum by this old, very non-canon Star Trek fansite.

This is quite an informative appendix, one for which I am glad.

I, too, am quite frustrated with the loss of threadmarks, though I, fortunately or unfortunately, only have one AAR to update with a contents page.

Thanks, glad you liked it! :)

Excellent narrative as always.

Thank you very much, it was fun to work on! :)
 
What an unpleasant surprise to find oneself so outflanked. And indeed, a simple cost/benefit analysis shows that any cost from a conflict now is miniscule compared to the cost of allowing the Yldar to yield the sector. One can admire xeno culture, and advocate xeno rights, but when it comes to matters commercial the Compact must stand firm.

And so the new cruisers will get their baptisms of fire. It will be very interesting to see how the new ships perform, and how the Federal Navy performs.
 
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I was almost dissapointed that you do not explain the issue with the refugees. Glad to see that footnote. :)

Anyhow, I find weird that the Glyrran did not secure the wormhole before expanding. o_O
 
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