When you all conduct your FT battles, when they contain lots of big ships
slugging it out, do you have escort class vessels too? If so, doing what? In
the few games I've played escorts (destroyers, cruisers, etc.) die quickly and
seem to have little real role in the battle other than to make pretty
explosions.
What I'd like to know, do your small ships participate in big battles, and if
so, in what role?
Thanks!
In message <20010327170040.68906.qmail@web9602.mail.yahoo.com>
> David Griffin <carbon_dragon@yahoo.com> wrote:
> When you all conduct your FT battles, when they
Well, in most of the games I play (so far) we use Allan Goodalls
tormanent fleets - which tend to have 1 or more capitals and a
selection of escorts (usually destroyer sized or larger).
> Beth Fulton wrote:
In the battles we run the escorts aren't always the first ships to go boom,
they usually end up being about the middle of the pack for targeting. First go
cruisers and battleships then pot shots at escorts then the dreadnoughts.
Though we play in vector and not cinematic so fleets send to sit in a nice
little sphere instead of being spread out.
> 1) Strike wing (these do really fast fly by or nip at the edges while
You play cinematic right? These don't really come into play in vector.
> Beth Fulton wrote:
> We get spheres, but we also get "lines of battle", pyramids,
What's the strategy with lines? We had a few early on in our playing but they
dissapeared once the concentration fire that a glob of ships has prevailed.
You should talk to Brian Burger then. He's Captain Crunch of our group
:)
> Nope we play exclusively vector, though I'll admit getting this stuff
hmm.. how much terrain do you use? I've tried using escorts as a sweeping wing
but find that it just splits your forces and having them arrive at the same
time as your capital ships doesn't change much from having a glob.
Hi Beth
Some "interesting" points in your post here:
> ----- Ursprüngliche Nachricht -----
28.Nov.2001? Did you get a time machine for your birthday?
What's the price of Microsoft shares on Nov. 28th ? :-)
> We get spheres, but we also get "lines of battle", pyramids,
Spheres and pyramids? You play Full Thrust in 3D?
:)
> Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 09:00:40 -0800 (PST)
initially, scouting/recon. later, in squadrons to pick off cripples,
weak ships. support hvy ship fire on a target, flank enemy ships, misc mission
objectives.
> On Tue, 27 Mar 2001, Jaime Tiampo wrote:
> Beth Fulton wrote:
Hey, I object to that remark... or I would, if it weren't true that I seem
to regularly stress-test ships against asteroids. One of these days the
asteroid is sure to loose!
But I've never, ever run a ship in to a planet! I'll leave that up to Beth!
Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -
- http://warbard.iwarp.com/games.html -
> > Nope we play exclusively vector, though I'll admit getting this
> Beth Fulton wrote:
Ah now if there isn't a big guy at each end, say slipping a glob fleet to the
side so that it's closer to one end of the line then the other.
> Often not much, but we do also run planets and sometimes asteroids.
There's
> been the odd nebula when Lachy has felt the need to be sneaky ;)
Ah open table games. Never find that it just turns into the straight run at
each other?
> I don't always time their arrival to match exactly and it can be
Ah so. What the strategy I've seen for this is just ignor one of the groups.
Pick the one that you want to cripple the most and just go for it. You'll end
up taking fire from all the ships anyways, so you mights as well concentrate
your fire.
> Its also very helpful if you've got a specific mission in mind for the
<nod> If you're playing a mission based game I can see task forces more.
Unfortunately we havn't started mission based games yet. By the point we were
planning to we ended playing SGII mostly and haven't gotten back to FT yet:)
Doesn't help that I basically have all the fleets and datacards and have been
really slack on updating all the new designs I have on my HD to SSDs:) A lot
of the stuff I have printed up are first gen FB designs and some 2nd gen
stuff. Leaving them mostly note very well designed except for a few good
classes:)
G'day,
> Ah now if there isn't a big guy at
Then you break the line and go one behind the other (or try to). Vector can be
hard to do fancy stuff in, but it is possible (though I fly fast ships mind
you).
> Ah open table games. Never find
Sometimes yes, but not often enough that's bored us to tears yet.... for
those kind of games to become the norm both sides have to take part in
it.....a bit difficult when I have a complete inability to do anything
sensibly and spend much more time seeing what happens when I.....;)
> Ah so. What the strategy I've seen for
Yep that can happen, but even then you can get a few surprises.....submunition
packs in the aft arc can be annoying to even moderately large ships;)
Guess it just comes down to different playing styles. I like dancing around
and my opponents don't always know what to expect so our games don't play out
the same way very often;)
> Unfortunately we havn't started mission based games yet....
Its fun;)
I also guess we tend to avoid the potential problems you remedy with terrain,
by playing missions or campaigns every now and again.
Cheers
Beth
> Beth Fulton wrote:
Vector can
> be hard to do fancy stuff in, but it is possible (though I fly fast
Trust 6+ eh
> Yep that can happen, but even then you can get a few
Or my B3 aft arcs that I have for no reason except the model has em.
> Guess it just comes down to different playing styles. I like dancing
I like that too but found out that it dies horribly to massed fleets.
> >Unfortunately we havn't started mission based games yet....
Yeah I could see that. Waiting to get back into it with some new SSDs so we
can start up the game again. That and I have to paint up my Sa'Vasku fleet
still. Ah, so many miniatures, so little time.
> At 8:12 AM +0800 29/11/2001, Beth Fulton wrote:
> Cheers
G'day guys,
> Please check your internal calendar as CSIRO dates
I finally tracked down what happened (it actually happened to about 80% of the
Win95 machines on site here).
Yesterday Karl asked what Microsoft is worth in Nov 2001, I don't know, but
they must think there's a bad patch coming between now and then as it was the
Microsoft automatic "we've reset your clock because daylight saving is over"
that catapulted us into Nov (it changed the time and date)....I wonder what
they know we don't;)
Cheers
Beth - who thinks the problem is now fixed, hopefully.
G'day Jaime,
> Trust 6+ eh
Yep.
> Or my B3 aft arcs that I have for no
There are those, but we do use the "can't fire out the aft arc if MD" rule
(even if it doesn't make sense for vector).
> I like that too but found out that it dies horribly to massed fleets.
I haven't got caned too often for doing it.
> That and I have to paint up my Sa'Vasku
The gamers lament;)
Cheers
Beth
> Beth Fulton wrote:
Wow, take mostly small escorts? The loss of firepower from larger ships is
crippling.
> There are those, but we do use the "can't fire out the aft arc if MD"
rule
> (even if it doesn't make sense for vector).
Not that I use the MD on ships with rear facing weapons since most of those
are MD 2. No point really.
> I haven't got caned too often for doing it.
hmm... and as always wish other players were closer to see some other views
and tactics.
Jaime Tiampo wrote in reply to Beth:
> Trust 6+ eh
Um. Well. Jaime, if you consider TMF 160 to be a "small escort", I'm not
entirely sure what you'd consider to be a *large* ship...
Regards,
G'day Jaime,
> Wow, take mostly small escorts?
I like playing FSE and other fast races. It can pay off being faster. Though I
must admit sometimes I miss the "punch"....that NSL BB is a pretty mean piece
of kit;)
> Not that I use the MD on ships with rear
Good point;)
> hmm... and as always wish other players
Yep!!
Cheers
On Thu, 29 Mar 2001 23:05:04 -0800 Jaime Tiampo
<fugu@spikyfishthing.com> writes:
> Beth Fulton wrote:
<snip>
> I haven't got caned too often for doing it.
AMEN!
G'day David,
> In the few games I've played escorts (destroyers,
They can die quickly, but they have their role too. We don't have very many
large ships (maybe a SDN and or CVH for each fleet) so most of our games
have a fair few cruisers and escorts in them. Off the top of my head, some of
the roles we've used them for:
1) Strike wing (these do really fast fly by or nip at the edges while the big
plodders get in) 2) Rear guard (catch anything that skip over the big guys and
try to get
behind them)
3) Missile decoys/absorbers
4) "Shield wall" 5) Many parts of a larger fighter delivery force 6) Mass of
SMR platforms (Derek and I were mucking around one day and he
proposed a "Killer ship" for me to knock off so I turned up with 300
scouts/corvettes....)
Lastly though, you can also try "destroyer or below" games etc. They're lots
of fun too.
Cheers
Beth
G'day Jaime,
> Though we play in vector and not cinematic so
We get spheres, but we also get "lines of battle", pyramids,
crosses.....complete and utter messes when I try to do something fancy, get my
starboard and port screwed and fly into a planet....;)
> You play cinematic right? These don't really
Nope we play exclusively vector, though I'll admit getting this stuff to
work can take a bit of a learning curve....it can also be risky, but its a lot
of fun;)
Cheers
Beth
G'day Jaime,
> What's the strategy with lines?
Mostly getting everything that has the same range into combat at the same
time....we've played a bit of old style age of sail stuff and sometimes it
just sort of creeps back to haunt us;)
> We had a few early on in our playing but
You can still get concentration of fire with this especially if there's a big
guy on either end of the line;)
> hmm.. how much terrain do you use?
Often not much, but we do also run planets and sometimes asteroids. There's
been the odd nebula when Lachy has felt the need to be sneaky;)
> I've tried using escorts as a sweeping
I don't always time their arrival to match exactly and it can be helpful if it
forces him to either ignore one lot at his peril or try and second guess
the split and split himself - with amusing consequences if he doesn't
get the turn exactly right and ends up missing everybody;)
Its also very helpful if you've got a specific mission in mind for the strike
wing. This is particularly if I run my race that has some needle
armed scouts - they are really only there to "rope" out a particular
ship while the rest are occupied with the main force.
Cheers
Beth
G'day Karl,
> 28.Nov.2001 ? Did you get a time machine for your birthday ?
Would you like a Jelly bean...... and please ignore the large blue police box
in the corner its there for decoration;P
> What's the price of Microsoft shares on Nov. 28th ? :-)
Umm how to break it to you.... the stock market converted to Microsoft
software in October and tehy're still trying to shut down the paper clip so
all trading has been suspended for the time being.....
> Spheres and pyramids ? You play Full Thrust in 3D ?
Never intentionally...you need to talk to Oerjan about giving ecorts, cruisers
and capitals diffreent sized stands so they'll stack;)
Cheers
Beth