From: Tim Jones <Tim.Jones@S...>
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 09:04:41 +0100
Subject: FLEET BOOK (REVIEWED)
Here is my review of the Fleet Book, all comments are meant to be constructive, this is a great piece of work JT! This is a must have for any FT player. A very nice simple design system Some much needed changes to the core rules. For 8 quid this is incredible value for money. Contents ======== Real Thrust movement system Mega weapons phased out 60 degree fire arcs Rolling manoeuvres Changes to the damage track Penetrating damage system Critical system hits New fighter rules - greater range and endurance and fighters as PDS Beam weapons now have numeric size designation Pulse torpedoes - upgraded Needle beams - upgraded PDAF -> Point Defence System (PDS) - upgraded ADAF changed to a special fire control Hull Armour No level 3 screens Fire control has to be paid for in design system Crew factors and Damage Control linked to damage track New turn sequence (like MT) Salvo Missile System (SLM) - new very powerful offensive system Super new mass based design system No class breakpoints Hull strength system using percentage of mass Some beam classes get free arcs Screens get expensive Multi arc pulse torpedoes Percentage mass system for main hull components Fleet Designs ============= This is a brief design synopsis of the 4 fleets in the book NAC - Fast speed, beams, pulse torpedoes, few SLM's, heavy screens, medium armour, and PDS/ADS NSL - Medium speed, beams, few SLM's & pulse torpedoes, no screens, heavy armour, PDS FSE - Fast speed, SLM's, beams, few sub-munitions, no armour, medium screens and PDS ESU - Fast/Medium speed, beams, few SLM's, strong hulls, heavy screens and PDS How these play? I'll trust the playtesters. Everyone has lots of PDS as the SLM's are dangerous. The 4 fleets are different as if they are using various doctrines. Lack of anything but standard sensors? No ECM or MT missiles. The crew levels on the ships are incredibly low, compared to say the contemporary wet navy. I think this reflects the high level of automation in the future perhaps? Aliens to be in Volume II Graphical Design ================= Overall I preferred the look of MT but I suppose the changes are to emphasise the differences... Goodbye digital title font, modern chunky sans replacement Small sans main text font (8pt?) so lots of information packed in the 48 pages. I found it small and would have preferred something a bit bigger ( the font size has got progressively smaller from FT, MT to FB) Nice clean look cover - black/silver/red Each of the main fleets has a 1/3 page intro New look SSD, systems aligned on a grid. No ship outline diagram, as its replaced by the 3d ship view. New system icons for firing arc's, SLM's, critical systems, armour, crew factors Nice isometric drawings in pen of fleet ships, direct replicas of the miniatures, grouped with SSD and blurb boxes about 2 per page giving about 28 pages of ship designs for the 4 main fleets and merchants ( 1 pp). Good background blurb boxes for each ship, service details, technical specification and design history Few bitonal counters for new systems, not too inspiring but adequate Usability ========== Generally really very good, the new rules are introduced then the design system and then the designs. So it takes you through the required steps. I only had a couple of minor issues: SML's salvo specifics are mentioned in the point defence rules on pp 7 before the SML rules are actually introduced on pp 9 The section on how to interpret the SSD's (pp 41) comes after the actual SSD's I managed to not find it for the first 2 hours as I expected it to precede them This explains what TMF and NPV are on the SSD's. pp 9 Salvo Missile Systems Doesn't explain the range of enhanced range (ER) salvos (this - 36 mu - is found buried in a summary later on pp 12 ) Addenda ======= I noticed a few funnies: pp 3 Thruster Pushes 2nd para - '6 manoeuvre points' should be 3 pp 7 Area-Defence Fire Control (Fighters, SMB's etc) whats an SMB? (SML maybe?) pp 19 Ark Royal class fleet Supercarrier Crew factor star next to PDS system There are quite a few discrepancies between the SSD and the technical specifications. In these cases which is correct the SSD or the technical specification, its important to know to stop disputes in a canonical source. pp 17 Majestic class Battlecruiser SSD has no area defence fire control but in technical specification pp 25 Szent Istvan class Battledreadnought SSD has 4 PDS but 3 in technical specification pp 33 Jeanne D'Arc class Fleet Carrier SSD has 7 fighter bays but 3 in technical specification pp36 Volga class Super Destroyer SSD has 2 PDS but 1 in technical specification Tibet class Light Cruiser SSD has 2 fire controls but 1 in the technical specification