I hadn't considered damage control when considering which class of beam weapon
to install. I had very little chance to make repairs in the two combats (an
NSL SDN just pummels little NAC BBs to death). And there is a priority to the
core systems when they get hit. Speaking of which, I dislike the bridge core
system hit. It is
too severe with a high die roll (4+). No turning is not too much
of a problem but what about all those gunners and their officers? Don't we pay
them to fight? Do they need new orders every turn to fire on an enemy,
especially one they fired on before?
My purist miniature friend is going to order a lot of the "official" GZG
minis, so I offered to buy one of the fleets so he doesn't have to spend all
of his money (ain't I nice?). So I looked through the fleet book and decided I
like the FSE and ESU miniature styles the best, with the ESU coming out
favored since I dislike the carrier versions of the FSE (why wet navy style
flight decks?). But I dislike the lack of armor on the ESU ships. I know the
purist, and others, will dislike me changing the designs, even a little
(remove some systems to add armor). What are the benefits of armor vs no
armor? What has been the results of combats? Any "official" refit suggestions
I can put in the face of complainers?
> I hadn't considered damage control when considering which class of
I was going to pipe in the other day with this thought: it's a hell
of a lot easier to repair 1 Class-4 beam than a billion Class-2 beams
(as John Leary can attest to, from our PBeM duel we fought a while back
using an all-Class-2 beam ship vs a Class-4 beam ship). So while yes,
the Class-2s are more *efficient* to buy, doesn't necessarily mean that
they are the most *optimum* to buy. If your opponent is able to maintain
an open range on you, you won't be able to bring your Class-2s into
play.
> And there is a priority to the core systems when they get hit.
Core systems are *optional* systems. I personally think they are too harsh,
too severe, and don't like using them very much. Daryl Poe came
up with an alternate set of core/critical system hits that plays well,
yet doesn't immediately knock a ship out of the game for a bad roll. I have
his rules webbed in at:
http://scivax.stsci.edu/~kochte/core-systems.html
> My purist miniature friend is going to order a lot of the
For your complainers about 'official' refits, note the following entries from
the FleetBook:
(page 2, last paragraph from Introduction) "The most important thing, as we
always emphasized in the original Full Thrust, is that you should feel free to
modify and adapt the game to the personal preferences of yourself and your
gaming group - use as much or as little of the new material here as you
wish, and don't let anyone else tell you are doing it wrong!"
(page 2, under Designer's Notes) "...Each entry is a REPRESENTATIVE EXAMPLE of
one particular class of ship for a given fleet, and IN MOST CASES IS NOT THE
ONLY CLASS OF VESSEL THAT FILLS THAT SLOT in the fleet inventory. For example,
the New Anglian Royal Navy has several different classes of Destroyers in
service aside from the Ticonderoga class shown - some are much older
designs, while others are new construction that will supplement and eventually
replace the current classes." [emphasis mine, for any others who may have
missed this in the FB:)]
Anyway, for what it's worth. I would be hesitant, as Tim Jones points out, to
strip out the SLMs en mass from the FSE fleet and replace 'em with PTs, but
beyond those radical changes...exercise your own discretion. I've been working
on fleet rosters for the major powers (including the UN) and if you want ideas
you can see some of the class variants I came up with for some of the powers
(still working on the NSL, FSE, and UN) at:
www.bcpl.net/~indy/full-thrust/***_roster.html
(where '***' can be replaced with nac, esu, un, fse, nsl...though nsl won't
work just yet)
Mk
Glen said:
> armor on the ESU ships. I know the purist, and others, will
The "official" word is, play the game the way you like it. Tinker with the
rules. Redesign the ships. Use other people's minis, or scratch built, if you
like.
If you want anything more official than that... "As senior [oldest] member of
the Islamic Federation Working Group, I hereby dub thee a designer of IFN
ships. The Islamic Fed Navy uses FSE and ESU ships as modified, so any
variants you come up with are Officially Blessed, just send me a copy. Any
designs you come up with that I don't publish on
the web site are still Official, I just haven't HTML-ized them yet.
Salaam and fnord."
Satisfied?