Star Trek Alpha Quadrant Map and Informative

Star Trek: Alpha Quadrant







Concepts for factions:
Factions generally have themes in the form of their military structure. Ground units either can't move without a transport, or in the form of patrol craft and/or fighters can't leave sector space. Naval units don't move and typically make up the defensive structures of a world (or system). Air units comprise of the starships that can transport ground units to other sector space. A further breakdown is provided below:

• Ground
Patrol Craft: Secondary defensive unit that can be moved in sector space to form defensive lines to protect worlds or block cloaked movements.

Ground Crews: Both offensive and defensive role units; can't move on their own without a transport.

Fighter Craft: Cheap offensive version of the patrol craft, good for quick and cheap expansion for carrier factions.

• Naval (Stationary Defensive Structures)
Bunker: Defensive structure that is effective against ground crews.

Space Station: Defensive structure that is effective against all.

Secondary Defensive Structure: From Planetary Shields to Tholian Webs, these are the second best defenses after Space Stations.

• Air (or rather Space)
Cargo Ship: Cheap and slow transport for ground units to use to move beyond sector space.

Destroyer: Defensive ship usually capable of carrying two ground units.

Strike Cruiser: Offensive ship that gains a bonus against naval units.

Heavy Destroyer: Advanced offensive ship, capable of carrying ground units.

Cruiser: Advanced defensive ship, capable of carrying ground units.

Battlecruiser: Mid range starship with no inherit weaknesses, capable of carrying up to four ground units.

Battleship: Powerful starship with superior stats to the battlecruiser.

Heavy Cruiser: Much like the battleship but with superior speed.

Dreadnought: The largest most technologically advanced starship any faction can field.

Factions and Strategy:

The Federation:
The Federation can utilize several strategies that generic empires that are largely without cloaking devices can use. Economic holdings in Risa, Tellar, Sol, and the Vulcan sectors, amongst others should be prized targets for any player. Sol is not only the capitol but allows production the Sovereign class dreadnought. Special ground units can be found in Vulcan, Ktaris, Andor, and Trill.

The Federation has several varying units in their more southern territories, including Akira class, Saber class, Centaur class, Norway class, and more. Allowing for more unique strategies and tactics to be applied.

Bajor is home to a Federation fleet as well, and is one of only two sectors to have access to the cloaked Defiant class heavy destroyer; the other being Andor. Bajor builds the Cardassian Nor type space station (DS9), and is the only Federation world to build cloaked Mines instead of Planetary Shields.

The Klingon Empire:
The Klingons vary greatly depending on house, but all get access to cloaked Bird-of-Prey, or B'rel class destroyers. Excellent for surprise attacking patrol ships defending worlds, hunting down cargo ships behind the lines, spying on enemy movements, or even using their anti-ground crew bonus to lay siege to unsuspecting worlds.

Klingon fleets that utilize more cloaking ships than not might want to use the Klingon Veteran ground crews in their assaults instead of the regular Warriors. Veterans have the stealth ability that hides their presence while being transported, therefore not giving away the cloaked vessel(s) presence to enemy forces.

The Klingon Empire is one of the more closest in terms of border distances, and is therefore fairly quick to invade and secure compared to other large empires. Uniting the Klingon Houses under yours is a great way to raise your war banner and let the rest of the quadrant know whom to fear and respect.

The Romulan Star Empire:
The Star Empire employs cloak on almost every unit they have. At a cost though, their borders are farther between and not so quick to secure. Cloaked units cost more, but a decent strategy is to bide your time and deep strike were least expected. Keeping opponents off guard and spying deep into their territory so you know what's coming turns in advance.

The Scimitar dreadnought is available out of the Border Star Empire only.

The Cardassian Union:
The Cardassians have a a cheap scout unit that is often overlooked and ignored. Make use of them to spy or harass enemy patrols, or lone ground crews. The Galore is one of the best anti-cloak defenders in the game.

The Dominion:
Stealth Jem Hedar soldiers mean that the enemy will not see how many invaders are truly on their way. Dominion carriers can be an early game alternative to cheap and quick expansion; just make sure you don't send the carriers into battle with your strike craft or losses and delays will mount.

The Borg:
OP is an understatement with this faction, though at a cost. The Borg Cube is arguably the most powerful dreadnought in-game. The best Borg strategy I can offer is to expand, but keep more focused on a main force than several spread out. The Borg high-end units are too costly to quickly replace, especially early game without first making huge economic gains by targeting the richest sectors.

Hey, this looks pretty cool - I saw it once before but never found the blog post that described its operation until now. Very cool. I love Star Trek, and thought that there would be a number of versions that could work - an Alpha Quadrant, an Alpha Quadrant with invading Borg and/or Dominion, like you have done...certainly some interesting options.

Anyway, back to the specific map at hand - I really like the idea of how the units are set up insofar as working within the atWar framework to make the distinction between within-sector movements (patrol ships, troop movements) vs. sector to sector movements (transports and other starships). Clever.

In other respects, I think it can get too complicated with all the different types of ships...of course, I haven't played the map, so it is certainly possible that I do not appreciate the differentiation due to a lack of experience. Please include me next time you run a test of the map! I would love to play, help and provide input, but since I haven't played, any valuable input is limited.

If you've seen my post regarding a World Map clone I'm experimenting with (tra115's World v.1.1), I am keenly aware of upgrades and strats when developing/fleshing out units. I could either help you in that area, or if you are happy with your current framework (which looks pretty cool), maybe we could collaborate on a clone/variation that is strat-friendly.

In fact, I started drafting a set of units on a spreadsheet for a Star Trek map of my own (which I have not started beyond brainstorming units...I postponed that in favor of experimenting with the existing World Map). I approached it from the atWar framework directly, such as identifying a ground unit for each civilization that would satisfy secondary defense, main defense, main attack and stealth (and then, I couldn't decide whether the ships would be naval or air, but it looks like you've already worked that out), and I started identifying a ship for each standard category - main attack, stealth, and transport. After that, unique units could be built, such as the star bases, planetary shields, Borg Queen, Founder, non-standard ships, etc., some of which could fit in the ground special defense category, air special attack category, or just "other".

I got stuck because I am not as well-versed in the various ships as you are, so I came up with ships, statistics, etc., for each category, but didn't have a name for some of them. If you are interested, I can share that with you sometime.

Well, that's enough rambling for now. I wish I could be more help because I would love to see a map like this complete and playable, as would quite a few others, I would think.

Of course, not all civilizations will have units that fit all categories. Unless there is something out of DS9, the Cardassians don't have stealth ships. The Borg and the Dominion only have 1 ground unit each, unless you add something like a Founder or the Borg Queen, and all of those would be Ground: Other (where all Jem Hedar are stealth, as far as I know).

I've created a "Vanilla" map version of this as well. One that plays a bit more like the standard atWar game, but still theirs not enough in-game options to have a complete transfer for strategies and upgrades to work effectively or accurate.

I see people playing my maps, but get little feedback here on which of the two they like.

Opinions welcomed! And would mostly be preferred, as I'd like to delete one of the two and advance the remaining with updates.

I'll have to join a game on each one, or start one of each over the next month or so. I haven't taken the time to try them out yet. I've been playing around with my world map clone, my Houses of Westeros scenario (on jammyme's map) and more recently, 4 different scenarios on CD's Eben maps (just setting up 2x3 or 3x3 team play - there are no events or anything).

I'll be sure to play both versions of your Alpha Quadrant maps in the near future (once one or two of my current games end). You'll be sure to get feedback from me, ad nauseum.

Thanks Tra115!

Update:

Role types have been uniformed to most empires. Strike cruiser tend to work will against more stationary defenses (space stations, planetary shields, bunkers, etc.). Fighters are used to counter ground crews (Starfleet engineers, Vulcans, Romulan Star Marines, etc.).

As the balance gets a bit more fine tuned, expect a scenario done up for the Dominion War.

Update:

Updated OP with the latest info that is most relevant and not overly worded.

Scenarios: Dominion Wars (at the moment plays out like a wave attack game)
The Klingon Civil War (Splits the Klingon Empire into two warring factions; each side with either a Federation or Romulan ally)
Star Trek RP (Grants a whole empire to a player and comes with a hero unit)

None of the scenarios is published yet, but I'll be play-testing them in the near future and working out the balance for them.

Rare ships that appear in game.


The Ambassador is an older battleship of the Federation and can be captured at several of their shipyards where they rest in mothballs.


The Assimilated Ship is a former Nebula class that can be found in Borg space.


"Andorians are a tough race, but you've earned their respect."


"Warriors from a rival house join your glorious cause! They excel against ground crews (+2)." Klingon B'rel class Bird-of-Prey (cloaked) joins your force.


"Cardassian guls are opportunistic and will change sides when they sense wavering in the current leadership." A Galor class battleship joins your force. It also gains the same +2 def against cloaked ships that the regular Galors possess, making them one of the best anti-cloak ships in the game.


"This Romulan commander crosses enemy lines to join your cause." A Talon class scout with a cloaking device joins your force. One of the best scouts in the game.


"The Son'a ally with you."


"Bribed pirates and hired outlaws join your cause. Experts at raiding stationary defenses (+5)." Nausicaan Raider joins your force.


"The logical thing to do is to make use of every resource in ending this conflict." -A Vulcan commander's reasoning for joining your force.

Updated ground tier and strike cruisers.

Strike Cruisers - Now get a +5 attack instead of +10 against defensive structures.

Ground crews - Repriced. Some slightly modified. Fighters greatly reduced in price and lose the +5 attack against ground crews.
Ground crews Defensive - Given +5 against all defensive structures except bunkers.
Ground special/rares - Given +5 against all defensive structures except bunkers. Includes Orions, Vulcans, Trill, Tal Shiar, Obsidian Order, Founders, Section 31, etc.

Updates:

Additional Klingon Houses have been added. Old Klingon Houses have been resized and moved about.
Dominion got a new sector.
Neutral Zone expanded into three sectors and expands around the Romulan border with any other factions.

Map up top is out of date and will be updated shortly.
Star Trek RP scenario is published and playable. You can see its own forum post here: Star Trek RP Link

Updates:

Ground crews HP raised to +10
Bunkers are now stealth
Space stations HP raised to +25 (Borg +35)
RP scenario has minor rule changes and updates.

Updates:

Ground crews cost reduced by $10
Maquis Raider (stealth destroyer) and Maquis Scrapper (stealth cruiser) added to the DMZ
Dreadnoughts +1 HP (new total HP 16) for all except Borg (HP 20)
Tholian Widow heavy cruiser reduced cost by $20

Star Trek: Duet (FFA) scenario published, but balance is still being worked out.