The purpose of the battle office is to stage and coordinate Imperial assaults and campaigns against any threat to the Empire. This is done by gathering Intel on a Rebel activity and risk assessment. Based on that Intel obtained a battle strategy will be formulated and executed.

The battle flown in the campaign may or may not tie directly in to the defined mission. There is just no easy way to create squadron or assault specific missions. Though it could be done. (hint, hint) so to keep the participation level high for each campaign we will simply use the submitted TFRs regardless of actual TIE Battles and a little imagination.

This rest of this Document will try to capture the workings of the battle office and the responsibilities for those who will participate in it and to generally inform the rest of you as to what we are up to in the battle office, besides the deep stuff.

The battle office will create campaign descriptions that will fully describe the goals the battle group must fulfill. This description can be obtained from the Battle Group CIC. (http://www.geocities.com/area51/chamber/BOffice/BOffice.htm)

Battle Group Tactical Orders

1. Tactical orders (Document BGTO-1) will be formally sent to the BGCOM and COM’s. Within the orders will be a number of sections (see Attached Example)

New Battle Group Orders

Campaign Description

Reconnaissance Report

TIE - Battle or Mission that must be completed

Return Address of Battle Officer

2. Battle Group commander will acknowledge receipt of Order to battle officer listed in transmission.

Once the Battle Group has received and acknowledged the new orders the Battle group will assign resources to the tactical campaign as outlined below in the Battle Group Command Procedures and transmit the resource assignments (Document SRA-1) back to the Battle Officer.

The battle office will update the Squadron Assignment Bay web page with Battle Group assignments along with any new Intel. (Battle Officers: If the resource assignments are to low additional Intel should be presented to allow Battle Group to revise resource assignments.)

Resource assignments may be revised 72 hours prior to mission launch.

The COMS will be submit a weekly progress report (Document CPR-1) to the battle office, the progress report will be go through a review process. Results derived from the review process will be posted in the CIC Message Center and CIC Mission Center if new Intel is to be presented. We encourage the battle officers to be creative in there review of progress reports and final mission results.

The COMS can monitor the results of the weekly message board and may assign reserves to the battle in progress, if, they have reserves to use.

Combat Information Pages:

The BGTO-1 document and ongoing Intel in the Battle Group CIC define for you the resources your opponents (the Rebels) have to bring to bear against you. Pay close attention to the INTEL.

The Intel will give you the latest information on the number and types of ships you must attempt to overcome. You will be expected to figure out how many of what types of your own resources you will need to accomplish the objectives.

Squadron Resources:

Each ship has a known number of Flight resources or pilots and fighters.

Example:

Part or all of these resource can be assigned to a campaign, this is typically the COMS and WC’s duty though how any particular unit comes up with the assignments is their concern so long as it is certified by the COMS, after all it is their butt in a sling if things go wrong.

These resource are the basis of your success against your opponents.

You will be faced with trying to create a balanced attack group to complete your mission. How is this done.

Each of your fighters has a certain effectiveness against certain targets, so a GUN may be more effective against a freighter than a TIE Defender.(note: in the TIE game a TIE Defender is pretty much the ultimate weapons platform and is good for almost all types of assaults, in real virtual life this is not true, this divergence will also help make this a more realistic encounter) We will try to remain as true to the roles of the various fighters as possible.

Now let us go through an example of trying to create a force strong enough fulfill our objectives without over taxing our pilots. Oh yes pilot fatigue and a couple of other factors plays a role in this so you just can’t throw all of your fighters at a target. Well actually you could but there could be some unpleasant repercussions, such as a rebel sneak attack on your fighter poor ISD.

Ok on with the example.

Our Mission states that a force of 2 M/CRV and 2 Flights of X-wings are in route to a rebel outpost and we are to take them out.

Ok I look up in my fighter efficiency table (Document ITC-1) and I see that the:

I now take my SRA-1 form and fill in the Assigned section, I also decide to add 2 GUNS in reserve, after all not all the INTEL you get is completely accurate, and submit it to the Battle Office.

Example:

Key Tags:

Ok now for this attack to be successful Dagger must submit at least 3 tfrs. If for example Dagger only submits 2 tfrs and Crossbow 2 tfrs the WC or COMs may opt to use the reserve units from Crossbow to make up for the lack of 1 tfr from Dagger.

(Battle Office View): The battle office has what is called an optimal battle force attribute to every campaign. For this example the OBF factor was 2 TIE Defenders due mostly to the fact that the X-wing pilots where all novices. So this means that if the COMS had no reserves and had only submitted 2 TFRs the outcome of the battle would still have be positive.

Of course not all results may be positive. COMS are always responsible for the outcome good and bad (mostly bad) of a mission. Depending on just how bad a mission goes a COM may simply be ignored by the Battle Office or be brought before a court of inquisition (ahhh).

This is where the Battle Officers may get creative. I will not go into a lot of detail on these items, I will just make you aware of them.

Squadron Fatigue: If you use 100% of you forces expect them to have battle fatigue if you send them out again right away.

Bad Intel: You may find your hands full because of some bad reconnaissance data, be sure to keep some reserves in place.

Rebel elite: Yes the Rebels have their own group of Elite pilots and of course Jedi’s.

The Force: If you are facing Rebel Jedi’s you want to make sure you have a couple of Dark Jedi’s in your squadron assignments.

Here is a step by step synopsis of what the COMS and WCs should do upon receipt of new orders.

1. Send Acknowledgement to battle officer.
2. Forward orders to you groups.
3. Review orders and begin formulating your assault resources and strategy
4. Setup meeting (IRC of Email or whatever) with decision makers.
5. Fill out SRA-1(Squadron Resource Assignments)
6. Forward SRA-1 to Battle Office.
7. Email Squadron with Assignments and location of battle.
8. On a periodic basis (will be finalized later, probably one a week) submit progress report (CPR-1) to Battle Office
9. Regularly review result reports in the CIC message center.
10. Make any resource changes, such as reserves.

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.