OK, here's all the info again, for the BGCOMs, old and new, to review.

Please, ask questions now, and we will settle everything before we start. I have been ready to go, but wanted to wait for the new BGCOMs to settle in.

Imperial Storm V - Race for Conquest

Each BGCOM will command a fleet composed of 8 ESC, 2 INT, 2 VSD, 8 CRV, 15 Squadron T/I, 5 Squadron T/B with rockets, and 30 squadron T/F. The BGCOM will function as a TFA (Task Force Admiral) and will be responsible for the overall strategy of the Task Force, as well as force distribution. Reinforcements will arrive equally to each team as the game progresses. Every Task Force shall be divided into as many fleets as the TFA feels appropriate. Each Fleet must have 1 commander and at least 1 strategist. If the TFA so desires anyone ranked RA or above may command 2 fleets. All fleets shall start at the Task Forces start point (which is not made known to the other Task Forces). The Object of the game is to take and hold (for three consecutive and simultaneous turns) 5 of the 10 Goal Points (planets) that are on the map. Holding shall mean that at least one mothership with at least one fighter squadron is in that sector.

Movement orders will only be accepted from Fleet Commanders (or their strategists) and results will only be returned to same. The Fleet Commanders may of course pass on their information to other Fleet Commanders (including the TFA) but moves will be done on a daily basis, so you may not have time to confer fully. (This is to give the feel of a "real-time" combat. Fleet Commanders will often have to act independantly of the TFA, so make sure you have an overall strategy determined beforehand.) Each fleet (regardless of size or composition) may move one sector per day (Turn). On the subject of moving, returning from Hyperspace will take one turn. So a Fleet that enters Hyperspace (Orders Given) on Turn 1, for a one sector move, will arrive on Turn 2, but not be able to move again until Turn 3. If the fleet had instead been ordered 4 sectors, it would arrive on Turn 5 and be able to move on Turn 6. This means a long move WILL be faster than several short moves, however a fleet in Hyperspace will have NO contact with the outside, any sectors it passes through, it will not see. The only things that will affect a fleet in Hyperspace are: Active Interdictors, Asteroids and Planets (Goal Points).

Asteroids will be scattered throughout the map, passing through an Asteroid field will take two turns per sector. There will also be Nebulae on the map. A ship inside a Nebulae cannot see out, nor can one outside see in.

In addition to the above forces, each TFA shall have 6 TIE Scouts which may be distributed to Fleet Commanders or held personally. To use one of the Scouts, they must be assigned an active pilot. This pilot must be under the command of the using officer. To change assigned pilots, the scout must return to a fleet capital ship. The pilot assigned will then issue all orders for that ship, and may report back as he sees fit to his superior. A scout ship shall move like a regular ship, but will gain a speed bonus of 50% on long trips in hyperspace. It is still subject to normal rules for hyperspace travel. (meaning after he arrives, there will be a 1 turn delay before a new order can be given, gives a chance to communicate with his superior)

The pilot assigned to a scout will not be able to participate in combat, unless the scout ship is present at the time of the battle.

If a scout is caught by an interdictor, the scout pilot will have a chance to escape equal to 5% per FCHG rank he posseses (giving a max chance to escape of 80% at Imperator level).

Additional scouts may be issued at the same time as other reinforcements. Unused scouts do not need to have a pilot assigned to them.

Combat will be resolved through XWA Multiplayer, and multi-platform Single-Player. All missions will be designed "in-house" by a dedicated team of mission makers. Input from the fleet Strategists is encouraged, otherwise ships will just be set to "Superiority" and set in no particular formation or order.

As per usual, the
MP combat will determine the "base" damage done, and the SP will modify it. The total scores of each side will be compared, and the team with the higher total shall have a percentage of the difference returned to him in ships.

Currently I have a couple of misison makers from the TAC office. I am looking for a few more volunteers to help me out on this. It is my intent to use a standard XWA mission for SP, and to have the same mission be converted to a MP one (Through the use of temp.tie to fool XWA). TIE and XvT Misssions will be similar (that is all my mission makers will have the same parameters to work with, so all the missions should be about the same) Preference for MP fliers will be those directly under the command of the Fleet Commanders involved, but anyone on the team will be allowed to fly if needed. The TAC will add the ImpStorm missions to the TAC Database, and FCHG points will be awarded for flying them. Once ImpStorm is over, those missions will be de-activated, and flying them after will no longer count for FCHG points.

And Some Questions and Answers already Asked and Answered

Sovereign staff notes and questions about the IS V outline:

I'll address each point individually, if you need more clarification, please ask.

(Freelancer) Question: Why attach a pilot to a scout? By that I mean what
does
that pilot do? He gets his orders directly from his CO on where to
go, and all it adds is a delay in communications, should that pilot
just miss an e-mail and not log back on until the next day, that
scout has missed a turn, etc.

Please clarify if this is intended to increase the difficulty level,
and the fleet wide participation level, as I suspect.

It's multi-purposed, first it gives more people something to do, secondly it's more "realistic", thirdly by having Scout "skills" count for something (see below questions) it makes you make the choice of putting a poor pilot in a scout, and possibly/probably losing him to the enemy, or putting a good pilot in the scout, and not having him able to help your team in a battle. It is also assumed that the Scout will act independantly (somewhat) of his CO, since the CO does not get direct email reports, the Scout will....so it makes sense for him to move on his own, instead of waiting for more orders....he might only email his CO when/if he finds something to report (for instance)

Question: why use FCHG rank on that pilot? It only leads to stacking
the highest ranked FCHG pilot and leaves the rest out, I would think.

See above. sure you can put your best pilots in the scouts, then they won't be around for combat......it's also just a convenient way to handle it, I don't think a "one TIE fighter vs Enemy Fleet" would be worth playing out, but there's always a CHANCE of an escape (or so the novels imply)

Question: If a scout does NOT escape can the enemy fleet capture and
interrogate him? With the chain of command all they would find out is
what he was ordered to do (rather realistic, no?) I don't mean
interrogation droids and beatings, but something kinder, gentler,
like a truth serum or something :P

The assumption is the ship itself is lost, and the pilot is no longer able to function as a scout (but may still participate in battles for the team....we're not here to kill any individuals fun)

Question: Scout's percentage of chance of escape hinges on FCHG
ranking, but even if an Imperator has 80% chance, that's still a
chance to be captured/destroyed, yes? It's not "Oh, the instant
you're over 50% you get away scott free", right? I'm hoping it's like
putting 80 white bingo balls in a cage and 20 black ones. If you get
a white one you go free. (just a simile)

Yes, if/when a scout is up against an Interdictor, the "dice will be rolled" and perhaps they will escape, perhaps they wont.

Question: Will the map be "dark"? Will we have to search out and find
the planets in order to conquer them?

The planets will be known, and when a team captures a planet the information that they HAVE a planet will be made known, but not which one.

Question: If battle ensues and the cap ships capable of carrying
fighters are lost but the battle is won, what becomes of the
fighters? Is there any provision to rescue the pilots (with a CRV or
something) and leave the fighters there to be salvaged if another cap
ship comes along? We're dealing with fighters and bombers that have
no hyperdrives, so I'm curious if this will play a part in the game
or not.

If they are at a planet that you own, they may land on the planet, if not they will be lost.

Question: Will a "Missions of ImpStorm" pack be released afterwards,
including all the battles/missions, as an archive of what took place?
Might be interesting. The early NLs had lots of goodies in them, and
if you look back it gives a wide range of info on what took place at
that time. Now they don't have as much. This might give people a year
from now some idea of what this wargame was like.

I believe that the ImpStorm missions will still be in the TAC database, but will not be accepted for FCHG credit after the games are over, you will have to speak to the TAC for more information on that.

Question: Since hyperspace is "over" realspace, can you plot complex
courses? Say "straight line from X to Y, then dog-leg from Y to Z"?
Assuming, of course, that nothing stops the trip halfway through.
This would be kind of nice to move around obstacles you have
previously encountered.

Yes, you may....as long as you remember that a long hyperspace trip means a long time before you can issue new orders to the fleet.

(Stele) Pel said he was looking for mission designers to help him out.
Are we
allowed to help? I'd be willing to assist him.

Anyone that I take into the misison making team, will have to recuse themselves from the rest of the wargame....it's not as good as having totally neutral people, but it's the best I can do for now.

(Josh) As far as communication goes, some sort of real-time communication
would
probably be good to have in this sort of thing.

The idea with this game, is to make more people work independantly (the fleet commanders, the scouts) this should A) reduce the individual workloads of most people...B) get more people playing. C) be more fun.
I expect most people to give 2-3 move orders, meaning that each person should only have to give orders twice a week. With some coordination between Fleet Leaders this should allow for some back and forth communication without serious delays. Should a set of Commanders wish to meet on IRC daily, I cannot stop them....

The scouts concept sounds kind of cool. Though I'm wondering why you
specified "kinder, gentler interrogation" Free. It strikes me that
should a
scout be captured, the enemy will interrogate him, gaining knowledge of
his
orders and whatever territory he has seen. The method of interrogation
matters not. I don't see the release of a scout as likely, even should
the
enemy confiscate information in the scout's flight data recorder and
doing
something to the pilot's mind to prevent him from giving his own account
of
what he'd seen. I definitely wouldn't release a scout. But as far as
the
pilot goes, how does this work? If the scout is captured/destroyed, is
the
pilot flying the mission taken out of the game, temporarily/permanently?

I just had a sudden inspiration, A captured scout will have to sit out of the game for 10 days, but if he gives information to his captors as to sectors he has scouted, (maximum 10) he may shorten the time he is held captive. Anyone see any flaws in this? Truithfullness of the scout will be ensured, because he will not actually GIVE the information, but will instruct the GameMaster which sectors should be revealed.

(Jon) As for any planning we really do need to see the map. If the map is
going to
be big, how long is the wargame going to run???

No time limit.....I expect it to be over by Summer, the map will be approximatly 100 sectors large, 10 of them will be goals, 4 will be start sectors, of the remaining sectors about 5-10 percent will be asteroids or nebula

Also you mention that the scout can be used in the actual battle if it is
in
the same grid as it... what Craft is the TIE Scout going to be?

Functional equivalent of a TIE.....the actual craft would be a TIE Scout, but we dont have those in any game (that I am aware of)

Battles, can there be inter BG co-operation politics etc? if 3 BG's end
up
in 1 square can there be co-operation between 2 of them or is it just a
FFA?

It will be a Free for All......if the mission makers can handle it, all sides will be in the same mission....if not, random determination of who fights who first will be made...

is the XWA SP battle going to count to points this time?

I am still working on the exact details of the scoring, but there will be SP XWA, as well as TIE and XvT.

Also we can plan very complex battle strategies by the changing of the SP
into MP yes? as there can be hyperspace points etc?

I would say "moderatly complex" as we will have to work with time limits on the misison makers....The Strategists for the involved sides will tell the Mission Makers basically what they want, and the mission makers will do their best to achieve that. Hyperspace points are not likely, since all ships will be in the same sector, or arriving together (most likely) on a case-by-case basis there will be special exceptions made for unusual circumstances.

Are we going to get resources from the planet?

No, the planets are just Goals

Re-enforcements?

Yes, at certain times (random-ish) more forces will be given to each team (equally) it will be of the same sorts as the starting forces, but of lesser numbers

COM/AD Proton/SSSD Sovereign

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