This campaign is set up with the following:

MODIFICATIONS TO PF FLOTILLA CAMPAIGN

This document adds to and enhances the (U9.0) PF Flotilla Campaign from Module K. Primarily, it modifies the rules to allow for more than two sides.

ADMINISTRATION

The current log-sheet can be found here (SHEET)

(U9.1) CAMPAIGN ORGANIZATION

(U9.11) PLAYERS: More than two players can play.
(U9.111) Players can form teams and split up the battles between them (as referenced in (U9.12)). If the players wish to play different empires, then the units that they control are of the empire they select at the start of the campaign.
(U9.112) The initial forces (U9.31) are split between the players. In the case of two player, the BATS and fighters belong to the empire of one player. The three PF flotillas are split so that the player with the BATS recieves one flotilla and the other player gains two. If a team has three players then each player receives a flotilla (including the player who controls the BATS.)
(U9.113) Each player receives replacements as given in (U9.32). The players of a team will take turns receiving the reinforement flotilla of (U9.32) unless they agree that some other player of the team should receive it instead (if, say, one player loses their last flotilla and has nothing to play.)
(U9.114) The forces given in (U9.62) CONVENTIONAL FORCES are per-team, not per-player. If using (U9.62), then those ships should be split between the team players in a fashion that is agreeable. Possibilities include:
• A team member is not given any PFs. Instead they control all of the conventional forces.
• Split the forces up so that a player who does not control the BATS receives the war cruiser. When a conventional ship is added, a player that does not have one of the added ship will gain it.
(U9.14) EMPIRES: The Tholians and the Vudar should not be selected to control the BATS. These empires can be selected by players who do not control the BATS, as that scenario will then not use their BATS. The Tholian web gives the Tholian BATS a large advantage and the Vudar Ion Storm Generators can destroy a whole flotilla very quickly.
(U9.321) VARIANTS AS REINFORCEMENTS: Variant PFs (cargo, mine warfare, etc.), as implied by (U9.32), do not come with the replacement or the reinforcement PFs. As a special exception, FI-CON PFs may replace any of the replacement or reinforcement PFs that a player earns. FI-CONs are assumed to have appropriate fighters loaded onto them before a mission. Note that these fighters are very-likely to increase the BPV of that player's force, and thereby make it easier for their opponent to gain a win through victory points.
(U9.322) Several empires have multiple "combat" variant PFs. The most common are Phaser variants and Drone variants. These may be treated as standard variants for replacement and reinforcement purposes. The modular PFs (Kzinti Multi-Role Needles and Romulan Starhawks) are allowed to replace normal PFs, as the primary benefit of the modules (being able to exchange the modules to fit the battle) is largely moot without the home PFT present in the battle. Due to the rarity (and effectiveness) of the Hydran Howlers and Hellions, Hydran players can gain a full flotilla of Hellions only every 7 rounds and a full flotilla of Howlers only every 10 rounds. The Hydran can put off this choice to a later round, but the "clock" does not reset until they gain the special flotilla.
(U9.323) Once selected as a special variant or not, the PF type cannot change between rounds. The PF may be moved to a different flotilla during the redeployment phase, but it cannot change it's variant. The exception that modular PFs choose their modules when they are assigned to a battle (e.g. before the forces are revealed.)
(U9.35) BATTLE CONTROLLERS: Due to the reality that bringing in more than two players to run battles causes all sorts of scheduling headaches, it should be assumed that all units belonging to the same team in a battle will be run by a single player. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, if team mates can manage to be online together during the scheduled resolution of the battle. However, most battles are likely to go on for more than a single session, and this should be taken into consideration when choosing to allow a side of a battle to be run by multiple team members.

END OF SECTION U9.0

MODIFICATIONS TO (SG14.9) ALTERNATE PF MISSIONS

The Alternate PF Missions section details 14 alternate missions to be chosen. The rules use a selected card from a poker deck to record the mission of each player, as the mission is kept secret from the opponent. As this particular campaign is being conducted with the players remote from eachother, a different mechanism must be used.
A computerized random-number-generator (RNG) can pick a number between any arbitrary digits, with an (effectively) flat distribution. Therefore, the campaign record keeper will randomly select a number between 1 and 28 for each side of each battle (excepting those battles involving the battle stations.) The first entry of the table in (SG14.9) (labelled "2") will be selected if the RNG selects a "1" and the last entry of the table (labelled "Joker") will be selected if the RNG comes up with "14". Values 15-28 will indicate no special mission, preserving the 50% chance given by (SG14.9) that the mission given is to instead patrol the area and prevent the opponent from succeeding in their mission.
Two other methods of selecting the mission were considered. One method was to use a 20-sided die, since those are common and it will capture all 14 table entries. However, this leaves only a 30% chance that the mission will instead be to patrol the area, vice the 50% given by the rules. Another method was to use three 6-sided dice, since those dice can be used inside the SFB Online software. Unfortunately, this would not only lead to a bell-curve distribution of missions given (giving a 13% chance each of the "Jack" or "Queen" missions coming up) but would give only a 9% chance that the patrol mission would come up.

END OF SECTION SG14.9