[FT] Command and Control

Has anyone had any ideas about handling fleet command networks in Full Thrust?

The basic idea I've had (and this ties in with my crew quality rules posted
previously:

Basic Command Rules:

Hierarchical Command Structure
============================

Ships are grouped into squadrons which are grouped into fleets (large fleets
may add additional layers of command.

Each ship in a squadron reports to the squadron command ship, by
default, this is an ordinary ship of its type - see Command Ratings
(q.v.)

Each Squadron Command ship reports to the fleet flagship (or the next tier of
the hierarchy).

Effects of the Command Structure.

(If using these, use the crew quality rules previously posted, but reduce crew
quality values by 1)

The Command Staff of each squadron will have a quality, (like those of ships
officers), this can apply a modifier to the crew quality of ships in the
squadron that is the same for the equivalent quality of ships officers.

The points cost of a Command Staff is determined like that for a ships
officers, but based on the total cost of the squadron.

If ships go out of command, they lose any benefits of the Command Staff,
and suffer an additional -1 quality penalty as long as they are out of
command. In addition, they are activated (fired) last of the ships in their
current quality bracket.

Ships that are out of command can only target the nearest hostile ship (maybe
some exceptions?)

Ships are out of command if one of the following occurs:

+ They move out of range of their command ship (say 12 mu for basic
command comms)
+ They lose communications (using the alternative core systems rules,
or as a consequence of EW jamming)
+ The squadron command ship suffers a bridge core system threshold, or
is destroyed.

The last effect persists until a new ship takes over as a squadron command
ship (this takes at least a turn, and may require a die roll?)

Other effects persist until rectified (ship moves back into command range,
comms are fixed, etc.)

The effects of the overall Flagship of a fleet are noticed usually in
its absence - squadrons that are out of command suffer an overall -1 to
quality.

Command Rating of a Ship
========================

This is the maximum tonnage of ships that a given ship has the facilities to
command, given a command staff (who are assumed to be on the bridge for the
sake of core threshold checks). The command rating of a ship equals 5% of its
TMF. Each ship 'uses up' and amount of command rating equal to 1% of its TMF,
including the command ship (i.e. any ship
may command a total of 5 ships of itself - itself plus 4 others).

For the case of squadrons under the command of a flagship, only count the TMF
of the squadron command ships for the purposes of command rating.

Specialist Systems
==================

Control Centre
--------------

This system enhances the Command, Control & Communications facilities of the
ship it is mounted on: It increases the Command Rating of the ship.

It has a separate icon (like the bridge core system, but with a higher
rank badge) - it is classed as a core system.

MASS required: 10 per extra Command Rating Points Cost: 4 times MASS
requirement?? (maybe should be higher?)

Enhanced Comms
--------------

This increases the command communications range to 18 mu. It is NOT classed as
a core system.

To gain the benefits, both the command ship and the subsidiary ship require
this system.

MASS required = command rating (on command ship) = 1% TMF (on subsidiary ship)
Cost = 4 times MASS

Superior Comms
---------------

as above, but command comms range is 24 mu.

MASS required = twice that of Enhanced Comms

Area Defence Interlink (ADI)
----------------------------

A specialised form of ADFC - any ship in the squadron equipped with
ADI may use its PDS to defend any other ship in the squadron with ADI that is
within 6 mu.

MASS = 1, Cost = 4.

Optional Rules
==============
(Mostly to speed up battles)

Squadron Movement - as in More Thrust (p.8)

Charles gave a lot of interesting ideas, plus this one:

> Squadron Co-ordinated Firing

Yuck. Unless you have a lot of squadrons, this makes the outcome of the battle
highly dependent on which squadron wins the initiative roll.

In message <eeb906534b.Charles@nerik.monkslode.fsnet.co.uk>
> Charles Taylor <nerik@monkslode.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:

[snip]
> Command Rating of a Ship
On second thoughts - replace this by:

Each ship has a Command Factor equal to 1% of its NPV (rounded to nearest
whole number, minimum of 1 (maybe have special rules for small
craft?).

Each ship can, if used as a command ship, command a total command factor of
ships equal to 4 times its Command Factor in addition to itself.

A Flagship can command a number of squadrons such that the total Command
Factor of the command ships of each squadron does not exceed 4 times the
Command Factor of the Flagship.

In message <000301c226f5$5e3b9000$c99ec943@pavilion>
> "Laserlight" <laserlight@quixnet.net> wrote:

> Charles gave a lot of interesting ideas, plus this one:
Hmm.. I should have read this before replying to your other msg. :-|

Which is why its only suggested for large battles - to speed up play.

Charles said:
> > Squadron Co-ordinated Firing

I said:
> Yuck. Unless you have a lot of squadrons, this makes the outcome of

Charles said:
> Which is why it's only suggested for large battles - to speed up play.

Most of the others might work okay if you have a small number of squadrons.
This one does not.

eg each side has 1 BB squadron and 2 CL/DD squadrons, total 15 ships per
side--certainly big enough that squadron movement would speed things up.

But if you fire by squadron, whichever side wins initive will fire their BB
squadron first, of course. This just perpetuates the
big-ship/small-ship
imbalance.

I'm not saying this wouldn't be useful in huge battles, but the players need
to be aware of the effects instead of just applying them without thinking.

In message <293580-2200272918372846@M2W066.mail2web.com>
> "laserlight@quixnet.net" <laserlight@quixnet.net> wrote:

> Charles said:
Ok, good point - lets remove that section.

While we're on the subject:

Sa'Vasku Command and Control
============================

Sa'Vasku space bioconstructs (ships) can be either volitional, or
non-volitional.

The Command Ship for each squadron _must_ be a volitional unit, as must
the fleet flagship. Other ships in each squadron are usually
non-volitional, although some squadrons have been known to have a
'back-up' volitional unit in addition to the squadron command ship.

Non-volitional ships have an overall 'crew quality' of 3, but only for
the purposes of initiative - non-volitional units never check morale.
(Non-military SV ships, i.e. transports, have a quality of 2).

Should a Non-volitional ship go out of command, it will go into an
'automatic' mode, as follows:

Power Allocation will go defensive - any power not needed to thrust or
repairs will be used for defence.

The SV ship will attempt to move towards the nearest volitional unit, until it
is within its command range (if possible).

If it cannot sense a volitional ship within range (say 36 mu), it will flee
the area.

While it is out of command, its 'crew quality' is reduced by 1.

Volitional Units have a "crew quality" of 5 for initiative and morale
purposes, otherwise they act as normal ships using the Sa'Vasku rules.

Any Sa'Vasku ship in Fleet Book 2 can be either a Volitional or
Non-Volitional ship, although it is very rare to see a Volitional ship
smaller than a Fo'Vur'Ath. Volitional and non-volitional ships of the
same type are indistinguishable to non-SV ships without a successful
active sensor scan roll of 5+ using the More Thrust sensor rules.

Non-volitional ships cost the base amount, Volitional ships cost 40%
more.