Developer's Diary: Single Player Campaign

I've run what I think was a fairly balanced simple single-player campaign on
an Excel worksheet measuring 37X26 cells. Aside from a nebula and a few
planets that didn't really play a part, I had twelve Klingon Heavy Cruisers
sent after two Federatiom Shipyards. The Klingons moved one box a turn, and
the shipyards each launched a ship every two turns. I marched the Klingons
in two pretty straight lines across the border and punched a hole in the
wall of Federation ships. Then my Klingon fleets surrounded the shipyards,
took them out in pretty short order. (Five heavy cruisers versus a shipyard
isn't much of a contest). By that time I'd lost four ships. The remaining
eight ships went after the remaining Federation ships (about twenty). I lost
three more ships in the process, but won the day.

I played both sides, obviously, using the combat chart and AI rules (meaning
that the computer evenly divided available points in combat). And I didn't
really manuever the enemy ships. I just stacked them in a protective
formation around the shipyards. That means that they didn't initiate combat,
but that will change when the scenarios get a bit more complex. I didn't use
any troop transports or construction ships. That will change in the future.
All together, the game probably lasted a few hours from start to finish.

If you have Microsoft Excel (or want to use a compatible alternative, like
Google Apps and Docs), I can send you the map... or I can point you to one
that I have uploaded in Google Docs.