Year 168

The federation destroyer Ares was on a routine patrol near the Tholian border in year 168 when its warp engine overloaded and had to be jettisoned. The saucer section made a forced landing on a planet in Tholian territory. The Federation considered the incident to be a non-military rescue situation; the Tholians considered it to be a clandestine operation to spy on their territory. Negotiations proved fruitless as they had in the year 165 Bowie incident. The new sector Commodore in his flagship was sent to rescue the crew. Their orders were to get the crew off of the planet with the minimum use of force.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: One Federation and three Tholian.

Terrain: Class M planet (P2.21)in hex 2215.

Federation: CC+ (A) enters the map on the xx01 hex row on turn #1; speed max; heading C, D, or E; WS-III.

Tholian: CA (B) in hex 1927, heading A, speed 4, WS-I.

PC+ (C) in hex 0914, heading B, speed 6, WS-I.

PC (D) in hex 3311, heading F, speed 6, WS-I.

LENGTH OF SCENARIO: The scenario continues until all forces belonging to one side have been destroyed, captured, or have disengaged. The Federation ship must disengage by acceleration or disengage by exiting the map by the end of turn 10 or the Tholians win.

Map: The map is fixed; it does not float. Any unit leaving the map has disengaged and cannot return.

The Federation ship can only leave the map in direction A and must be facing in that direction to disengage by acceleration.

The Tholian units can disengage from the xx32 map edge.

Shuttles and PFs: No shuttles have warp booster packs.

MRS shuttles may be purchased [up to the limits in (J8.5)] as commander’s options.

Each ship can purchase additional or special equipment as commander’s option items up to 20 % of its combat BPV. See (S3.2) for details and exceptions.

All drones are medium, speed 20.

Each drone-armed ship can purchase special drones up to the historical racial percentages as pert of the commander’s options.

REFITS: The Federation CC has the plus (+) refit. No other refits are available

There are 19 crew units located on the planet at 2215E. The Federation ship must rescue these by shuttlecraft or transporters. There are two Federation shuttles with the stranded crew units.

The crew units (6 boarding parties and 16 militia squads) are assumed to be located at a Ground Combat Location (D15.0). There are no Defense Systems, but there are three Control Stations at the GCL. The Tholians cannot fire on the GCL.

Any Tholian ship that is crippled will cease firing and leave the board at its best speed. The Federation player cannot fire on a crippled Tholian ship

If the Federation player rescues at least 10 crew units from the planet and leaves the board without his ship being crippled by the end of turn 10, he wins. Otherwise, he looses.