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Getting Started (Turn 0)

There is a lot which the player must do at the beginning of a Starfire campaign. This page describes what a player needs to do under the Balanced Starting Forces rule of Sky Marshal #2 before the first campaign turn occurs.

Assumptions

These setup suggestions assume the following:

Allocate PTU

The specific placement of PTU (Population Transport Unit) will depend on what types of planets, moons, and asteroid belts are present in the race's home system. Certain general considerations do, however, apply. Also, given the low number of PTU, you won't have to worry about converting PTU to PU (Population Unit). That will come later when moving populations between planets. For now, you just have to place the starting populations of the non-home world bodies in the home system.

At its simplest, the idea is spread the 100 PTU available to you so as to get a number of populations started growing, and get good income from the colonized worlds. This is accomplished by looking at two numbers and employing one concept.

First, consider the "Value" of each world. This is found by multiplying the Value Amount for the world's Environment (SM#2, table 15.03.06b, page 49) by the Value Amount for the world's Mineral Content or REI (SM#2, table 15.03.06.1b, page 49) -- or the Space Master may save you the computations and just give you this number. The result is expressed as a percentage from 30% to 150%. The higher the percentage, the more money the world will generate when populated.

Second, consider the maximum population of the world. This may be found in SM#2, table 15.03b (page 49). For this factor, the desirable worlds are those with the highest population limits, since population is the major contributor to the income gained from a planet.

Third, remember that the populations on the worlds about to be populated will grow. It is neither necessary nor desirable to fill the population capacity of a world. Doing such would mean that the growth potential is wasted. In the long run, is better to start with a number of worlds at modest populations and let them grow, even if this does not maximize the early income.

So, where do the PTU go?

  1. Any Compatible world will be the first choice. Place half of the available population (50 PTU, remember half is the upper limit). This will get it off to a good start, and it has a long way to grow.
  2. Next, put 10 to 15 PTU on each of the Very Rich Desolate worlds (105% Value).
  3. If there are not enough Very Rich Desolate worlds, either put more PTU on each of the Very Rich Desolate worlds, or place 5 to 10 PTU on any Rich Desolate worlds.
  4. Finally, if you still have excess PTU (this is extremely unlikely), go back and spread them over the previously populated Desolate worlds.
  5. Avoid populating Extreme environment worlds at this time. The Desolate worlds and Asteroids are better options during startup.

Finally, one last special consideration. Never put less than 2 PU in a Benign, Harsh, or Hostile environment, or less than 4 PU in a Desolate or Extreme environment. The population growth rules, if strictly enforced, will not allow populations smaller than this to expand.

Allocate IU

You start with 100 IU (Industiral Unit) to place. Put them all on the home world. Economically it doesn't make a difference where they are placed (as long as it is an inhabited world and the IU is no more than half of the PU), but the home world is safest and has the most room for IU at this time.

Allocate PCF

The 100 PCF (Planetary Control Force, i.e., ground troops) should be placed on the home world. Divide them as desired between the six sectors of the world.

Design CFN Freighters

This is real easy. You need two designs for each size of hull; one to carry cargo (a "freighter") and one to carry people (a "liner"). You may want to check the Commercial Ships Comparisons for a more complete discussion of freighter designs, but the following designs should be all that you need.

Design A Space Station

You want a space station in orbit around your home world. This is where you will build ships and almost anything else you need in the future. The station should go around your home world, as this is the best defended location you have.

There seem to be two lines of thought on the size of the station. Some want as big a station as they can get. Others, myself included, believe a more modest sized station is the better choice. A large station gets you a lot of production capability right away, and gets all of the station's capabilities and defenses in place. However, it costs a lot of money, which could be spent for other things, and much of its capacity will not be needed at first. A smaller station saves money, which is in short supply early in the game. Further, it has the ability to expand itself in the future, and can grow to any size desired. This is what is described here.

Although the Cost shown above is 7,008 Mc, the actual cost, at startup, will only be 870 Mc (plus 60 Mc for the three shuttles). This savings occurs because you are given, as part of the Balanced Starting Forces rule (SM#2, 24.05b, page 57), one Cargo Handling System (CHS) and ten Shipyards (SYx), plus the hull spaces to hold them, for free. The cost of this space station will be paid out of the "Other Fund" (see below). If, as a result of how the Other Fund is used, you need to make modest changes to the space station, add or subtract Shields (S), Armor (A), or Cargo Holds (H). I would not recommend changing the station's other attributes.

Design Warships

Designing warships is probably one of the most interesting activities in Starfire. It is also the area where everyone has their own ideas about what makes a good space combatant. If you want to design your own ships, fine, have fun. If not, the following are some Technology Level 1 ships from which a fleet may be built. [Note that there is no guarantee that these are the "best" designs, only that they are legal and reasonable.]

In the following list each hull size has at least two designs. One uses missiles as its primary armament, and the other uses lasers for its weaponry. A flagship configured Destroyer design is also included.

Personally, I would have no problem including all of these designs in an initial, TL1 fleet, except possibly the Missile versions of the Corvette and Frigate (the Missile Destroyer is a better deal). Some people have raised questions about the reduced armor on the Flagship Destroyer as compared to the other destroyers. The Flagship Destroyer is designed to appear exactly like a Missile Destroyer. With no active defenses, the flagship's only safety is in not being fired upon.

Design Survey Ships
The design of survey ships is much simpler than that of warships. Early survey ships need to be as small and cheap as possible, so that they may be acquired in large numbers. For this, two designs stand out above all others.

The General Explorer has the minimum number of systems required for effective exploration. The second two Holds (H) will later be replaced by Long Range Sensors (Xr) when you reach Tech Level 3. This should constitute the majority of the survey ships.

The Planetary Explorer is a General Explorer with two Holds replaced by a Medium Boat Bay (BbM). This type of ship is most effective for surveying habitable planets (SM#2, New "Strategic Movement" Survey Method, 19.03b, page 53). Its four small craft (it should be equipped with cutters) each are the equivalent of two ships for this one type of survey. They also insure that a survey force has some small craft present should they be needed. As they are more expensive than the General Explorer type (don't forget to include the cost of four cutters - 8 Mc each), and are special purpose survey ships, only two or three are needed per survey force.

Some people prefer to use the Escort size of ship for a Planetary Explorer. This allows even more small craft to be carried, and so usually only two ships are needed for a Habitable Worlds Survey. Obviously I hold for Explorer sized ships for this job, as they will also be used for other surveys, where their greater numbers are a benefit.

Starting Resources

The New Empires Campaign - Balanced Starting Forces rule (SM#2, 24.05b, page 57) gives you three funds of 5,000 Mc each to buy your starting resources. These funds; Survey, Battle Fleet, and Other, are use-it or loose-it money (so spend it all).

Buy Survey Ships

The Survey Fund gives you 5,000 Mc to be used to create up to 60 survey ships before the first turn. Many variations are possible, depending on the ships you design. Using the previously described survey ships, I recommend the following to give three survey fleets of twenty ships each. Two additional cutters would have to be purchased from the Battle Fleet Fund or the Other Fund.

Buy Battle Fleet

The Battle Fleet Fund gives you 5,000 Mc to be used to create warships and bases. Many variations are possible, depending on the ships you design and your preferences in warships. The following is a suggestion based on the previously described ship types. Spare funds may be used to pay for small craft for the survey ships and/or space station. Although not shown, Bases may also be built with this fund.

Although not shown, base stations may also be built with this fund. A good variant is to construct one BS2 armed with Missile Launchers (R) to guard each warp point in the home system. As the design and use of base stations for warp point defense is a personal decision, base stations are not included here.

Allocate The Other Fund

The Other Fund gives you 5,000 Mc to be used to fund a number of things. The most important thing, in my opinion, is to start the research on the next Economic / Tech Level. Technology is life in Starfire, and every possible chance should be taken to do research. After this, pay for your space station and any small craft not already covered by other funds. Also, start your missile fund, so you will have loads for your warships' magazines (the suggested value below assumes a 50% loadout of the magazines in the Battle Fleet and the space station). The Spare funds may be used to increase the size of the space station, by armed base stations, or build some freighters for the Government Pool of the CFN.

Mothball Your Ships?

The final decision, is to determine how many of your warships to mothball. This will depend on what sort of interactions you expect in your campaign, and how paranoid you are. The one almost certain factor, is that you cannot afford and don't want to keep all of your ships active. The maintenance expense would require a significant portion of your income, and would tend to stiffle your economic development, colonization efforts, and technology researching.

So, if you don't expect significant problems for many turns (ex. the Space Master has promised there are no NPRs through the warp points at your home world), put some of your warships in mothballs. A second option is to wait until you have checked each of the warp points in your home system. If there are no problems, mothball some of your fleet to save money. A good rule of thumb would be to keep your Maintenance expense during the early part of a campaign to no more than about one-quarter to one-third of your total income per turn.

Mothballing is a tradeoff of maintenance cost for crew quality. All of your ships start with a quality of Average. Mothballing a ship will remove the crew. The ship will have a Green crew after it has been reactivated and completed its shakedown cruise. It will then require some time to again reach Average status.

Because of the loss in crew quality, never, never, never, mothball your force flagships. In the early parts of the campaign, until you get graded admirals (if you are using that rule), your initiative roll in battle will be based on the quality of your flagship. You absolutely want this to remain at Average (which is the best you can do at the start of the campaign).

Organize Your Ships

You will need to organize squadrons, flotillas, fleets, or whatever you may want to call your groupings of ships. This will make it easier to move your ships, since you only have to refer to a fleet, not to each individual ship, and it is a requirement if your Space Master is using the Starfire Assistant program, since it only deals with fleets for movement purposes.

When organizing ships into fleet, do so by job or task. That is, each fleet or subfleet should have a specific task it is intended to accomplish (survey, combat, escort, etc.). Once way to think of this is to ask yourself what orders you plan to give, and then group ships so that a fleet or subfleet can execute specific types of orders.

For example, if you want to create a group of ships to go survey systems, and want to be able to optimize their efforts (ex., some do warp point surveys, some surveys worlds, and some act as escorts) you would want a fleet with at least three subfleets. Each of the three tasks suggests three distinct units, one to accomplish each task. By organizing these three units into a single larger fleet, you can give orders for the group as a whole to move somewhere, and then, upon arrival, for each individual unit to proceed to its task.

Organizing the ships suggested for purchase with the Survey Fund and Battle Fund above would create groups of ships as follows. For simplicity, this organization assumes no ships were mothballed.

Assign Your Commanders

Obviously, once you have fleets in place, you will need someone to command them. Not only do admirals give fleets personality, but they also insure that you have someone to blame when your fleets do less well in battle than you would like.

First, you will need a rank structure to identify the relationships between the individual commanders. This can be as fancy or as simple as you want. At a minimum, all you have to do is create a list of the officers, ranking them from hightest to lowest (i.e., write them down in a column, and note that the top one is the highest rank and the bottom one is the lowest rank). For those with a more nautical flair, you can create specific ranks and assign each officer a rank. When assigning officers ranks, if your Space Master is using the Starfire Assistant program, you will also need to assign a ranking within each rank (i.e., within a rank, each officer has a number to show the officer's seniority).

At first, keep it simple. Assign an officer to each significant group of ships (four to six ships organized as a unit), and one commander for each fleet. Under the Balanced Starting Forces rule (SM#2, 24.05b, page 57), you receive two Average grade commanders. While these provide no special benefits in combat, they are the officers who are the easiest to advance to a Crack status as a Graded Admiral. These two should be placed in command of your battle forces, so that they can advance in quality.

The following is a possible list of commanders for the fleets organized previously. This list uses famous admirals from the Second World War as a source for officer names. Units not listed are too small to merit their own flag officer.

I get two Average commanders, why bother with all the rest of these names?

Finally, for those who are not familiar with naval ranks, here are some sample flag officer ranks from World War II. Remember, there is nothing sacred about using these ranks, they are just traditional (here on Earth, that is).

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Back To Play Comments Starfire Previous Next Updated 30 October 2000.