Anaxes Fleeting Training (Open to all!)

[Kyrana Gould]

Please signup and ask questions here: http://starwarsrp.net/topic/109614-fleeting-trainingexperimentation/

Instructors
[member="Captain Larraq"] [member="Carlyle Rausgeber"] [member="Cathul Thuku"]

Students
[member="Reshmar"] [member="Isamu Baelor"] [member="Kira Vaal"] [member="Darth Arcis"] [member="Will Sherman"] [member="Darson Rade"] [member="Lynn Nantaris"] [member="Norin Kellarov"] [member="Aermoira Cyone"] [member="Darlyn Excron"] [member="Veiere Arenais"] [member="Aedan Miles"]

(This thread is semi-IC and non-canon so keep any and all IC fighting out of it.)
(We will be discussing OOC issues such as post length and format in this IC medium so things might get a little weird!)

The scene was a large room in Anaxes’ Naval Academy. The occasion, a meeting of new and experienced naval officers and leaders.

Kyrana Gould, now retired admiral, had taken to giving lectures across the galaxy to those who needed training in the arts of war. She had served with Republic, Coalition, Alliance and Independent fleets in her time, fighting many enemies across many battlefields. Now it was time to give something back.

As the various officers and interested parties entered the auditorium she looked around at them all before moving to begin her lecture.

“Welcome all to the Academy of Anaxes lecture and demonstration series on space warfare. I am Admiral Kyrana Gould and I will be chairing this presentation. Alongside me are some experienced fleet admirals who will assist me in presenting their points of view.”

Introduction:

Fleeting is the term given to RPing space battles in a forum setting. It is similar to PVP in some respects, but in others it is a unique writing experience.

The common view of fleeting is that it’s complex, complicated and niche – and to some extent this is true. However, it fundamentally requires no more complexity than fighting a PVP battle or any other area. It just comes down to experience.

Right away there are three fundamental ‘rules’ in fleeting which, more than any other RPing area should be followed:

• Fleet selection is critical.
• Respect your opponents – take damage if you want them to return the favour.
• Teamwork between allies is vital.

Starting off with these ‘rules’ I’ll briefly explain my meaning.

Fleet Selection:

• Fleet selection is done by choosing ships and adding the metres of their largest dimension together. For instance, 2 Imperial II Star Destroyers would be 3,200m (1,600 x 2).
• Fleet battles vary in size but between 5000m and 15,000m is standard, with 10,000m per writer is the most common. This gives a good number of ships to control without having so many that it’s overwhelming.
• It is important to select a variety of ships – selecting all carriers or all star destroyers will leave you open to being countered.
• Sometimes if a faction has multiple writers they will divide the responsibilities of fleeting between writers, having one choose a certain type of ship whilst another chooses a different sort.
• Battles are typically decided by the number of metres of destroyed enemy ships.
• It is acceptable to go up to 25m over the size limit, as some ships have odd numbered dimensions.

Respect Your Opponents:

• More so than even PVP duelling, fleeting requires give and take between opponents. Since everyone has multiple NPC controlled ships the fleeting battle will quickly bog down if neither side takes hits.
• Fleeting battles are often complex, so like with any PVP if your opponent has not acknowledged an action of yours PM them! Mostly they will have just missed part of your post.
• Take damage to gain hits. The more fair you are to taking hits on your ships, the more likely your opponent will be to respond in kind. If a full volley from a Star Destroyer does zero damage then you cannot expect your opponent to be forthcoming in reply.

Teamwork

• In large battles with multiple writers on each side it’s vitally important to work together. Whilst often writers will pair off to duel 1vs1 often these battles turn into free-for-alls.
• Keep communication with other writers on your side via PM or chat. If they need help don’t hesitate to lend them a ship or give them a volley of fire. It will help everyone, and if you’re in an invasion or rebellion it helps your team’s teamwork objective.
• Plan your fleet selections beforehand so your fellow admirals can plan their fleets accordingly.

Finally, there are some definitions to discuss.

Though Star Wars Canon is notoriously fickle with definitions, we’re going to use the following for ease of identification and discussion:

• Capital Ship – Though technically any ship down to frigate or corvette size, we will use it to describe ships larger than a cruiser (500+ metres).
• Escort – Ships of corvette or frigate size, primarily to support larger ships or chase off other escorts.
• Attack Craft – Any smaller than corvette crafts including interceptors, fighters, bombers, gunships, dropships etc.
• Carrier – A ship whose main aim is to carry attack craft. Generally lightly armed.
• Flak – A ship (usually escort) whose main aim is to defend against attack craft.

So that’s a basic overview of the background.

Next post we’ll cover post formatting and layout.

Your 'homework' in your first post is to choose a balanced 5,000m fleet which balances big and small ships, carrier and support. This can be with any Factory 4.0 ship, though select ships which should be able to work together – don’t choose Sith and SJO ships in the same fleet for instance.
Please ask any questions you might have at any stage.

 

[Aedan Miles]

Aedan sat in one of the chairs a datapad in his hand as he browsed through various ship yards looking through their ships as he listened 5000 meters was not a paltry amount but he had commanded larger. Giving a silent sound of thought as he settled on the Imperium Forge Works ships to use as they seemed to have a reasonable selection at varying sizes. He started to browse through their ships tagging some to look at again later and others to ignore because of size. He finally started to organize the ones he liked into a fleet carefully choosing ships that complimented each other. Finally he set his data pad down a very familiar name given to the fleet he had just made he sent a copy of it to the datapads of the instructors mildly upset that he had meters left over spare but unable to find anything to fill the missing slots.

Dragon Reaper

Spoiler

1x Aurora-class siege destroyer Flagship (1,700 meters)
1x Scythe-class Heavy Cruiser (1,000 meters)
2x Carnage-class Assault Frigate (400 meters each 800 total)
1x Ton Falk-class escort carrier (500 meters)
5x Doslanir-class light corvette (120 meters each 600 meters total)
2x Nagata-class Corvette (160 meters each 320 total)
1x IFW Intersector-class patrol picket (50 meters)

[member="Kyrana Gould"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

While her GA friends were busy hashing out a non-aggression pact with the Rogue One Sith on Anaxes, with Darth Abyss having taken over the leadership of the ROS from the Omega-era leadership, Cathul has been summoned to Anaxes in the aftermath of Skor. The Anaxes War College, one of the proposed branches of the GADF naval training facilities. She never received any formal naval training, instead drawing upon the knowledge gleaned by treating Mandalorian naval officers, even though in a therapy capacity, she proved to be questionable at best. Among the panel of instructors were several parties she fought with or against: [member="Kyrana Gould"] was in the GA's center on Kaeshana, [member="Carlyle Rausgeber"] was an enemy she faced on her port on Kaeshana, [member="Tanomas Graf"], but also the infamous [member="Captain Larraq"] and [member="Reshmar"], with a few students that she fought, like [member="Aermoira Cyone"], or otherwise knew in person, like [member="Lynn Nantaris"]. Admittedly she considered Aermoira to be an advanced student, and also [member="Aedan Miles"]. Other noteworthy students were [member="Kira Vaal"], a rebel general, [member="Darlyn Excron"] and [member="Veiere Arenais"] from Commenor, [member="Isamu Baelor"], the Iron Emperor, and a few faces from Sith factions, or even Imperial like [member="Will Sherman"]. However, because the Force was of little importance in fleeting, few Force-users would willingly enter naval service, starfighter or line service. Several line officers in the command training course she knew about had nightmares about the whole "enemy fites X amount of stuff at Y ship of theirs from Z range" or its converse, "A fires B amount of stuff at C enemy from range D" and she could feel that it is one of the more complicated things to juggle for just about any combat scenario.

"Greetings: I am Admiral Cathul Thuku, commander of Therapy Command, and another instructor on today's panel. Some of you may remember me because you either fought with me or against me on Kaeshana, Asmeru or Skor. With that said, there are basic rock-paper-scissors relationships, which usually hold provided no specialty or elite ships are in use. Sometimes elite ships can overstep boundaries, combining the roles of multiple categories"

Rock-paper-scissors between ship types:

• Capital ships usually beat escorts, carriers, flak
• Escorts usually beat attack craft, carriers, flak
• Attack craft usually beat capital ships
• Carriers usually beat attack craft
• Flak usually beats attack craft

"Also, such a relationship exists between attack craft among themselves and also as they relate to larger ships"

• Fighters usually beat interceptors, bombers, gunships
• Interceptors usually beat bombers, gunships
• Bombers, gunships usually beat capital ships
• Gunships are often used for boarding as well

"Range is often an issue so many run into: energy weapons tend to lose power faster over distance than projectile weapons, such as a mass driver, a missile or a hypervelocity cannon. In general, however, weapons ranges come in three bands"

• Point-defense range: the domain of quad-lasers, anti-missile octets, fighter weapons and other weapons designed to deal with missiles and fighters
• Standard turbolaser range: ranges at which vanilla turbolasers can deal effective damage at enemies, or can hit enemies with any accuracy. Usually missiles are fired from within that band, or sometimes shorter than that - fire normal missiles at longer ranges than that and they become dead-stick, that is, they fly in a straight line at constant speed in the direction they flew in when they ran out of fuel
• Long-range turbolaser range: ranges at which long-range turbolasers can deal effective damage at enemies, or can hit enemies with any accuracy. Much easier to fire mass drivers or hypervelocity cannons from that sort of ranges

Usually one would report the damage taken from the enemy first and then give IC orders to maneuver and fire at enemy ships in the following paragraph. Oh and also it is good form to post links on every ship type used. Finally, it is best to list the total number of one type of attack craft; when resolving attack craft losses, they are shot down by the unit rather than by the squadron.

 

[Rick Kaloo]

Will was sitting in a chair at the meeting, with a datapad in front of him. He preferred to command ships he knew well, so he went through Imperial craft. There were plenty of ships that he had used before, even ones in his current fleet, the 7th Heavy Attack Fleet. He went his ways through Destroyers and picket corvettes alike. Being a wise man, he looked not only for balance between ship classes, but also ship capabilities. Eventually, he found a well-balanced fleet selection and submitted it to the instructors.

Spoiler: Fleet Battleborn

1x Interpid-class Heavy Cruiser (Flagship, 1 km)
2x Halberd-class Artillery Frigate (380 meters per, 720 meters total)
4x Seculus-class Frigate (425 meters per, 1.9 km total)
12x Bolt-II Picket Corvette (60 meters per, 720 meters total)

Note: I found a lack of 4.0 carriers in First Order ship submissions

 

[Darth Arkanus]

Darson would sit behind the desk tapping his lips and rapping his other fingers on the desk as he looked through lists of potential ships to use for his assignment. His mind flickered over a few while some he read in depth. Sadly he knew it wouldn't be anything like his ship but he kept looking through to see if anything caught his interest and made for a interesting and perhaps unique perspective of making a fleet that was viable in combat. He decided to go into a very unique section searching for certain specifications and for other kinds of interesting or unique designs. He tapped his chin softly sighing softly scrolling for what it seemed like hours and reading several of them.

Spoiler

2x MC70 Ackbar-class Star Cruiser (950m per, totaling 1900
2x Boneshatter-class Assault Frigate (380m per, totaling 760m)
1x Saotome Carrier (950m)
5x Fortan II, Heavy Corvette (200 per, 1000 total)
20x E-25 Starfighter - The Kathol Outback Varient (12.5m per, 250 total)
2x IFW Intersector-class Patrol Picket (50m per, 10 total)

[member="Kyrana Gould"]

 

[Kyrana Gould]

Instructors
[member="Captain Larraq"] [member="Carlyle Rausgeber"] [member="Cathul Thuku"]

Students
[member="Reshmar"] [member="Isamu Baelor"] [member="Kira Vaal"] [member="Darth Arcis"] [member="Will Sherman"] [member="Darson Rade"] [member="Lynn Nantaris"] [member="Aermoira Cyone"] [member="Darlyn Excron"] [member="Veiere Arenais"] [member="Aedan Miles"]

Kyrana examined the three example fleets turned in. She nodded as she examined each.

“Mr Miles and Mr Sherman have chosen quite well rounded fleets. The temporary lack of modern First Order carriers is something to be noted, but you can use basic specifications if needed. Mr Rade, your fleet is a little older, I would work towards having a modern lineup, but we can work on that. You’ve all done well so far.”

“We will move onto the second section. Admiral Thuku has added some valuable insight, so be sure to study what she has said.”

1. Fleeting Posts

One of the most important aspects of fleeting is having a posting style which clearly conveys both the IC and OOC information.

Every writer has their own unique style, and you too will develop your own system as you go. However, here are some suggestions for the header, body and footer of the post.

Header:
The top of your post should clearly convey the following:

• Your friends and foes in the thread, @mention everyone involved.
• Your location.
• Your faction/allegiance if it’s not obvious.

Body:
The body of the post is important, and covers all your IC actions. Some things to remember:

• Keep it focussed on the situation at hand, don’t ramble off on tangents.
• Split up your post into paragraphs so there is not a wall of text.
• Clarity and ease of understanding is key; describe what you are doing clearly.

Footer:
The footer, or bottom of the post, is probably the most important. It’s here that you provide a summary of your actions and have a list of your fleet.

Your summary should:

• Be in spoiler tags or clearly set apart from the body.
• List all your actions from the body of the post. Do not have important things in the body which are not listed here, as most writers will return to the summary when writing a reply.
• Clearly designate which writers you are targeting.
• Record any major events (reinforcements, ship losses, etc).

Finally you should have a fleet list. This is important for those replying to you to know exactly what ships you have so there is no misunderstanding later.
Your list should:

• Detail each of your ships’ names with the approved submission hyperlinked in easy access. This is vital so your opponent does not have to waste time searching for the submission.
• List the number of attack craft squadrons carried and what type they are.
• List a status of each ship’s shield and hull/health. This can be done either with a summary (Excellent, Good, Average, etc) or by listing a number or percentage.
• Many writers list a ship as having a number of shield and hull points equal to their length. Thus an Imperial II Star Destroyer can be written as 1600/1600 for shield and hull. Alternately you can list it as 100%/100% or use a word description.
• It is possible but not required to list the armament/defence/speed/manoeuvre statistics.

Overall, each post you make should properly convey your actions and reactions. It is also in your post that you react to the attacks of other players and allocate damage accordingly.

Next post we will delve into the technology, jargon and terms you need to know to fleet. It’s less than you might expect!

[SIZE=11pt]Your ‘homework’ for this post is to do a mock post of your fleet chosen above arriving in battle. Put me down as your opponent and one of your fellow writers as an ally. Make the post as long or short as you want.[/SIZE]

 

[Darth Arkanus]

Location: Somewhere in the outer-rim to Anaxes
Allegiance: Trainee
Allies: | [member="Will Sherman"] | [member="Aedan Miles"] |
Enemies: [member="Kyrana Gould"]

Standing on the bridge of a Akbar-class star cruiser he would walk to the helm and look over the reading before opening a comm to his fleet. "This is Admiral Rade. Let's take her to Anaxes." His voice would be heard throughout all the ships in his fleet as the bridge came to life after a moment of still as they made the preparations to go to jump. Folding his arms behind he back he watched his crew as they efficiently worked on getting him out of the sector. Before he knew it they had jumped into the system.

"Make sure we're broadsiding as fast as possible. Get our starfighters out and in a defensive formation from attacks before we figure out what the next move is." His eyes would flash over the reading and the ships moving around as he leaned over the shoulder of an ensign. The ships that carried fighters got them launched as quickly as possible and had them facing towards where we hand jumped in as the larger ships had completed a turn and where effectively broadsiding towards any attacker.

"All ships check in to your respective officers." As he said this he started getting reports from all positions through out his fleet reading the all clear as they kept checking their sensors and waiting for the orders to come through and he nodded as each officer sent their report in slowly waiting until the line stopped and every ship was accounted for.

Spoiler

We jumped into the sector and sent out all the fighters we had and had our Cruisers and and carriers broadside. while the smaller ships (Under 500m) got into a defensive formation.

Spoiler

Target: [member="Kyrana Gould"]

(x2)MC70 Ackbar-class Star Cruiser Excellent
(x2)Boneshatter-class assault Frigate Excellent
(x1)Saotome Carrier Excellent
(x5)Fortan II, Heavy Corvette Excellent
(x20)E-25 Starfighter - The Kathol Outback Varient Excellent
(x2)IFW Intersector-class Patrol Picket Excellent

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Terrain. After reading the after-action reports that were publicly available from Pii and the Chiloon Rift campaign (even though the incompetence of one key Dominion commander was also a factor), she realized that not every space engagement will be fought in open/deep space. While [member="Kyrana Gould"] pontified about the art of writing said AARs, knowing that the etiquette of writing AARs is such that they should only write about actions from their own perspective. [member="Darson Rade"], [member="Will Sherman"] and [member="Aedan Miles"] all began to write one sample section of an AAR, knowing that's often what will the general public on either side will learn about how engagements are fought. While, to many, AARs from ground combatants will be more exciting to read, and there are usually more of such AARs for any large-scale engagement than for any other perspective, often the utility of lessons is limited in scope for each type of AAR. And often such accounts are fragmentary at best: one can only capture so much in an AAR.

"Terrain. You will realize in time that not every engagement will be fought in open space. Sometimes you might want to enter an asteroid field because you would then have cover to make yourself a smaller target to fire back at larger ships. Case studies: the Primeval vs. the Dominion in the Chiloon Rift and the Galactic Alliance vs. the First Order on Asmeru"

• Asteroid fields usually favor small, maneuverable ships even though speed is not necessarily overly decisive; carrier tactics are increasingly useful the more dense an asteroid field is and the advantage of long-range weapons is more difficult to exploit and sometimes even impossible. The Primeval made effective use of escorts around the Time Foundry; fighting in asteroid fields is often done more effectively with escorts
• In nebulae, turbolaser range is reduced due to increased dissipation rates
• Gravitational anomalies, such as black holes, will cause projectiles to arc around it at longer ranges and also to lose power over distance if the target is closer to the anomaly than the firing platform; also, targeting solutions of any dumb-fired weapon must be adjusted to account for gravitational lensing, and even more so the slower the muzzle velocity of the weapon fired

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Location: Anaxes War College
Allies: [member="Aedan Miles"] who knows who else.
Enemies: We will see...

It had been a very long time since Reshmar had been to Anaxes. Unlike many gathered today and many more plied the trade of starship Commanded, Reshmar was not an alumnus of Anaxes. The world was too dry for Mon Calamari. The planet wide city and odd purple vegetation did little for the environment. Many of the underground forest biomes were far more hospitable to his people but like other large citywide worlds, he tried to avoid them when possible. The reason for his presence here outweighed his discomfort, however. This event was the first of its kind in his lifetime. The gathering of navy men and women from throughout the galaxy on this scale was something he knew would not come again while he lived. Friends and enemies side by side fighting in simulations for the better education of the younger generation was a cause worth such an event. Reshmar expected some old rivalries to flare but among the top tier commanders, he knew dignity and prudence would win out when such trivial emotions took over.

Reshmar knew many of the men and women gathered, if not personally by reputation. Many he had sat across cold starlit space from on more than one occasion. Since his retirement and his selling Mon Calamari Shipyards, Reshmar had done little in the way of command and his blood yearned for it once again, even if it was simulated. Many Imperials had joined the event and as such as had many Alliance and other faction personnel joined the event. Looking around the room Reshmar took note of who had joined and more importantly who had not. Across the room, Reshmar did notice a face he was very familiar with, the pirate. He would make his way over the [member="Aedan Miles"] at some point and exchange greetings.

Reshmar looked down at the list of ships he had decided to utilize for the event. He had taken up his old acquaintance Stela'shlit'nuruodo on his offer to try out some of the starships made by IFW for the even. He had met the Chiss officer during his days with the Galactic Republic. The two had worked together at the first battle of Roche and in fleet exercises while the old Galactic Empire had been a part of the now dead Republic. Since that time the Chiss had done work on special operations for The Directorate and for Reshmar himself on occasion. He opened up the page listing his fleet composition and sent it into the events data collection mainframe then closed the pad down and continued to listen to the speakers and study the room and the people within it.

Fleet Composition

Spoiler

1 @ Aurora-class Siege Destroyer 1,700 meters "Termagant"
* 2 squadrons
1 @ Procursator-class Skirmish Destroyer 1,250 meters "Cadence"
* 2 squadrons
1 @ Procursator-class Skirmish Destroyer 1,250 meters "Maverick"
* 2 squadrons
1 @ Ton-Falk-class Escort Carrier 500 meters "Lexington"
* 6 squadrons
6 @ IFW Intersector-class Patrol Picket 50 meters
"IPT1001"
"IPT1098"
"IPT1104"
"IPT1126"
"IPT1128"
"IPT1137"

 

[Aedan Miles]

Location: Anaxes War College
Allies: [member="Reshmar"] apparently [member="Darson Rade"]
Enemies: Someone bring it.

Aedan Miles grinned as he started to manipulate his ships on his data pads screen moving them to different places before rotating them out and swapping places before settling on a decent strategic lay out. Smirking he pressed a button on his datapad an ever common voice message going to each one if anyone listened to it they would find the ever cocky young pirate king's voice echoing forth. "All right you can all go home I have arrived. If anyone wants to try their luck I am more than happy to take them on I could use a good distraction." He looked up and grinned offering the Mon Calamari known as Reshmar a polite nod as he stood to shake his hand before returning to his seat a small dark grin on his lips as he rested his head in his palm the two of them working together would make things interesting.

Dragon Reaper

Spoiler

1x Aurora-class siege destroyer Flagship (1,700 meters)
1x Scythe-class Heavy Cruiser (1,000 meters)
2x Carnage-class Assault Frigate (400 meters each 800 total)
1x Ton Falk-class escort carrier (500 meters)
5x Doslanir-class light corvette (120 meters each 600 meters total)
2x Nagata-class Corvette (160 meters each 320 total)
1x IFW Intersector-class patrol picket (50 meters)