[I'm new to the list, so if all this has been rehashed a thousand times
before, sorry.]
First off, hello!
Second, I took Mark Kochte's ECM ideas on the Unofficial FT Web Page (thanks
Mark and Mark) and refined and expanded them a bit, and we tried
it out the other night. I was pretty pleased -- it makes ECM and
sensors an important part of the game, but not overwhelming.
As experienced and wise (?) players, I attach them here to get your comments.
One player suggested allowing a ship to loan sensors (ECCM) to another ship,
but I can't think of a good way to justify being able to loan it to one ship
but not everyone in your fleet, so I said "keep it simple and no loaning
sensors".
Thanks, Daryl poe@fc.hp.com
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Electronic Counter-Measures (ECM) rules additions:
I addition to the intelligence-gathering functions of ECM and sensors
listed in "More Full Thrust", ECM can be used to decrease the effectiveness of
enemy weapons fire. Sensors are used to offset the effects of ECM.
There are two types of ECM in the game -- Personal ECM (symbol "X") and
Area ECM ("X in a box"). Personal ECM gives your ship, and only your ship, one
level of ECM protection. Each Area ECM System on a ship can loan one level of
ECM to *one* ship or fighter group within 6" (including the ship itself). ECM
cannot be loaned to missiles. The
target of loaned ECM must be written in the orders for the ship -- if
not written, the ship is assumed to be using the Area ECM system to protect
itself. The target is announced after all orders are written.
The effects of personal ECM and Area ECM (or even two Area ECM's) are
cumulative; however, no ship or fighter group can have more than two levels of
ECM of any type.
Enhanced sensors negate one level of ECM (in an ECM-free environment,
they have no effect). Superior sensors negate two (all) levels of ECM.
The effects on each weapon *per level* of ECM are as follows: Batteries,
submunition packs, mines, most fighters, PDAF, and ADAF act as if the target
had one additional level of screens. (Though the cumulative effect of screens
and ECM cannot exceed level three
> At 17:02 07/03/97 MST, you wrote:
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RESPONCE TO ECM SUGGESTION.
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Having been on this list for a time I have not seen ECM discussed, so well
done for starting one.
Since the introduction of the Sencors and ECM, it has been a house rule that
players only have to disclose the type of ship. If you require more
information you use sencors. If you fire at a ship and then forget which one
it was, your hard luck. At the range that the battles would take place (
1,000,000 Km plus) what else would you know? This can be taken as far as not
disclosing when thresh hold tests are taken and so on.
The idea to extend the use of ECM to decrease the effectiveness of enemy fire
is execelent, so it the use of sencors to counter that. My own experiments
from your suggestion show a marked impact.
I fear that the idea of loaning ECM to other ships is too simple, any ship can
cover any other and if ECM may be loaned why not Sencors? To allow for this
and to control the loaning of ECM I suggest the following system:
DATA LINK:
Cost: 10
Mass: 1
The data link system consists of a communication system that allows data to be
passed between of the Fire Control System(s), Sensors and ECM on different
ships. Both the sending and receiving ship must be fitted with the system. A
data link system may send OR receive data. One data link system may send data
to one ship only, like wise one system may only receive data from one ship.
Any ship may be fitted with more than one system. The Data link system has a
range of 12", this is reduced to 6" when ECM is in use.
Any ship fitted with a data link system may use the ECM or Sencors on any
other ship fitted with a data link. Thus is may "Borrow" ECM protection as
suggested above or It may "Borrow" sensor information and target it's weapons
as if it is fitted with same type of sensor.
Note: that a ship fitted with two plus units may send data to more than one
ship or receive data form one ship and send to a second, The up shot of this
could be very interesting.
Even with out the data link system I could fore see the appearence of EW ships
to provide ECM cover. with Data link thay would become a vital part of the
fleet.
Under the present rules you could end up with a EW Cruiser with the following
stats:
Mass 36 ( 18 H.P.) 72 Drives 4 72 FLT 36 Sensor ( Superior) 2 30 ECM ( Area) 3
30 ECM ( local) 2 20 Data link ( 2 of) 2 20 Shield ( Level 1) 3 25 PDAT ( 2 of
) 2 6 Beam 'B' ( 3 arcs) ( 2 of) 4 18
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Totals 18 329 points.
-- ---
This has the abbility to provide one level of ECM cover to any single craft
with in data link range and sencor data for two craft. It also has an
equilvant shield level of 2.
One methord we have used in some battles is for the person firing to call out
the dice rolls, missing out the lower rolls, so you only call out the 4's, 5's
and 6's. The other person would mark up the charts accordly. By this methord
you would only know that the sensors would tell you. Makes for an interesting
battle.
> DATA LINK :
That could be a lot of fun, as it would encourage formation flying and would
give players interesting decisions to make. Starfire has a similar system
(though it's also used for coordinated missile fire).