> Paul Calvi <tanker@rahul.net> wrote:
> In my continuing quest to degrade the potency of cap ships I wonder if
<5 points snipped>
Well if your intent is to restrict the weapons of the larger ships I think
that they work BUT I am not to clear on why you would want to limit the
Capital ships. It isn't realistic that their batteries are any harder to fire
then the smaller ships that have the same weapons. I think that playing with
the rules like this isn't benifical to the game... (sorry if this arguement
has been around for a while I am somewhat new)
If you find that you need to limit the power of them limit the use of them in
your campaign. If you find that the people that you are playing with seem to
use the points in the game to only create the larger ships then you need to
make the use of the capital ships more realistic.
In Navel battles you don't see two or three Battleships or Carriers always
showing up everywhere in every conflict. You see a lot of Destroyers and other
smaller ships dealing with situations...
I have thought about this for a while and if you use a system like the GW
Warhammer 40k and fantasy game and use percentages as a scale of what ships
you can buy.
In that game they take the total points that you are given and say you can
only use 50% toward Characters, or a minimum of 35% toward main troops, etc...
You could say something like: (mind that this is off the top of my head) 50%
of points must be used on 40 mass or lower ships no more than 40% of points
can go toward one ship.
So in a 1000 point encouter you couldn't have a ship larger than 400 points
and need to keep the remainder under mass 50 or so.
Of course this is just a quick example, but I just wanted to put out the
thoughts...
Very good points and a good idea (don't know why iI didn't think of that
before...). I have the limits though for another reason. I think the A bats
and FT cap ships are "unrealistic". Even with modern fire control a BB would
have a heck of a time hitting a DD with its main guns (pick any historical
battle). The torpedo and aircraft are the true killers of naval ships. My
attempts to limit the A bats and other weapons was to bring the game in line
with this concept.
Paul
----------
From: Blake Tullo [SMTP:blake@cybercomm.net]
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 1997 8:56 PM
To: FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
Subject: Bigger-not always better- but shouldn't be limited
> Paul Calvi <tanker@rahul.net> wrote:
<5 points snipped> Well if your intent is to restrict the weapons of the
larger ships I think that they work BUT I am not to clear on why you would
want to limit the Capital ships. It isn't realistic that their batteries are
any harder to fire then the smaller ships that have the same weapons. I think
that playing with the rules like this isn't benifical to the game... (sorry if
this arguement has been around for a while I am somewhat new) If you find that
you need to limit the power of them limit the use of them in your campaign. If
you find that the people that you are playing with seem to use the points in
the game to only create the larger ships then you need to make the use of the
capital ships more realistic. In Navel battles you don't see two or three
Battleships or Carriers always showing up everywhere in every conflict. You
see a lot of Destroyers and other smaller ships dealing with situations... I
have thought about this for a while and if you use a system like the GW
Warhammer 40k and fantasy game and use percentages as a scale of what ships
you can buy. In that game they take the total points that you are given and
say you
> In message <199703240455.XAA22812@raven.cybercomm.net> you wrote:
> Well if your intent is to restrict the weapons of the larger ships I
> If you find that you need to limit the power of them limit the use of
> In Navel battles you don't see two or three Battleships or Carriers
The problem is that generally, people playing FT are only ever designing a
fleet to fight one battle. In 'Real Life', navies have to allow for the
possibility of fighting more than one battle at once, at different places. Or
at least having dispersed presence.
Having a single 100 mass Super Dreadnaught may allow you to waste a fleet of
10 mass 10 frigates, but only if they all attack the same place, and your SD
happens to be there. If they each assualt a different planet, then you've lost
at least nine battles out of ten automatically.
The ultimate fix for this is to only ever play campaign games, but this isn't
always possible. Another possibility is to design scenarios such that both
sides require a spread of ships, eg protecting and attacking multiple targets
at the same time.