From: Thomas Barclay <Thomas.Barclay@s...>
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2001 20:11:47 -0400
Subject: Fighters, Canadians, and GZG-ECC CanAm
As author of the Canadian misfortunes at CanAm, I can say: 1) Fighters have a per unit value that is non- linear (as Brian so rightly pointed out). Few is almost valueless, some is about right, lots are overpowering (value wise). Note that very few cannon ships have ADFC or enough PDS for a high fighter environment. 2) I misinterpreted a piece of oblique intelligence provided by the ref which should have clued me in to the huge fighter assault. I thought I was being denied information, the truth is I was being given a fact in a roundabout way. Mea culpa. 3) Our fleet was based around ripping out everything that wasn't a beam 2 or 3 pretty much or a ptorp. The idea was to throw the max beam dice. One of my modified Komarovs could throw an entire BRICK of dice (or pretty close) at once. But the enemy took the fighters- weak carriers fleet and correspondingly sent out the fighters and hid the carriers. Only one third of our fleet got within interception range, and it met the remainder of 25 fighter squadrons (about 15 or 16) and a few SML salvoes all at once. By this time, the fighters had killed our 6 squadrons of heavy interceptors (we had fighters and good ones, just not rafts of them) as well as about a third of the fleet. Once again we see the problem with ships only being able to fire at fighters attacking them... it was interesting to watch the fighters gnaw on them one at a time. 3) We're ground pounders (except for Jim) so it was Adrian's first FT game and I've played a couple of times but always with canon ships. Jim had played before somewhat more, but always with canon ships IIRC. And he missed the slingshot around the planet. His fleet third took no casualties, but nor did it get in range to fire a shot. The guys against us mostly played FT more than we had (I suspect) and some had played with homemade fleets before. 4) Even the US players (well Mike and Aaron) agreed the slaughter wasn't all that much fun. In terms of competition, it was paper scissors rock and they brought the dynamite. But they didn't enjoy their victory because they could see it wasn't much of a tense battle. If I hadn't of dived my fleet into planet-skimming depths to get inside engagement range, the battle would have ended with Team USA killing about 1/3rd of our fleet, taking only fighter casualties, and us hypering out. That seemed a wimpy way to end it, so I charged, all guns blazing, into the teeth of the enemy with fighters on my heels and destroyers, light cruisers, and such coming at my front. The end result was Jim got away, me and Adrian died grotesquely. But it wasn't the most fun FT game I've ever played (no one's fault, it just ended up that way). 5) Had I understood what Chris was trying to obliquely hint at, the Komarov nearest the fighter swarm would have been a Komarov E with an ADFC and (yes, count them) 70 PDS. That plus the DEs would have let Adrian throw 110 or so PDS dice versus the first fighter attack. That would have probably slowed them down significantly. Then our remaining 2/3rds (sans inept piloting from Captain Bell of Fleet Engineering Construction) could have beaten up the carriers and escorts fairly well. But, it didn't happen like that..... I must admit the FT game that was just run at Campcon was (I believe) much more fun for all participants. Saw some exciting die rolling, things died, and it was more balanced. (Of course, we worked to make it so!).:) Better luck next time (in the rules setup for the CanAm - I'd suggest letting each team ask 2 questions of the ref about the other teams designs then make some tweaks). And maybe next year Jerry "Papers? I don't need no stinking papers!" Han or one of the other Canadian FT players will come down and replace the Groundpounders since we were FAR outside our element.:) Tomb