[FT] Fleet Battles

Do people use the fleet combat rules from MT (page 8: Squadron Operations)when
fighting fleet battles? i.e.. organise ships into squadrons and issue group
movement orders and fire all ships in the group simultaneously.

Only for really big games or when I have large numbers of small ships
(ie 8+
frigates). I usually group anything smaller than a frigate into groups of 3 or
4.

Neath Southern Skies - http://users.mcmedia.com.au/~denian/
[mkw] Admiral Peter Rollins; Task Force Zulu
[pirates] Prince Rupert Raspberry; Base Commander

> -----Original Message-----

> Denny Graver wrote:

I nearly always use identical orders for groups of ships. Something like: Turn
1.     All Spd 6+2=8 R1
2.     All Spd 8-1=7 L2
3.     1 Spd 7-4=3
       2 Spd 7-3=4
       3 Spd 7-2=5
       4 Spd 7-1=6
4.     1 Spd 3+4=7
       2 Spd 4+3=7
       3 Spd 5+2=7
       4 Spd 6+1=7
5      All Spd 7-3=4
which would turn a line-abreast formation heading straight up the table
into a line-abreast formation going left-ish.

However, I always fire ships separately.

I use fleet/squadron movement, but not fleet/squadron firing.

I have used squadron firing on three occasions, however. We subdivided our
fleet into squadrons by mass (100 for 2nd Ed.; 200 for FB). Then took turns
firing the squadrons.

Squadron division was rounded DOWN (minimum of 1 per squadron). Fleet (player)
order was determined randomly each turn (coin toss). Players alternated firing
squadrons. It worked OK and was fast. However, it created some weird squadrons
(BDN and a frigate).

We tried it with "fire any two ships". But this was very unsatisfactory as the
largest two ships almost always fired together. I think that a higher mass in
a squadron would create the same type of result (large ships firing together
for devastating effect).

One last thing, fleet movement is much easier to do in Vector than in
Cinematic. In vector, the ship maintain their spacing. In Cinematic, the fleet
formation is elastic (stretches and contorts) even if all ships follow the
same orders.

> On Wed, 19 Jan 2000, Alan E and Carmel J Brain wrote:

> Denny Graver wrote:

personally, i always use squadrons for movement - i write orders for a
squadron leader, and then draw a little flag in the orders box of the other
ships in the squadron to denote that they're following the same orders (the
flag is a vertical line with a triangle off the right, like an angular P; it's
quick to draw). if i want one ship to break formation, i write orders for it
separately.

> I nearly always use identical orders for groups of ships. Something

i don't usually bother with this, so i would go from line-abreast
heading
north to line-astern heading west. my squadrons are generally 3 or 4
ships in a triangle or diamond respectively, so it makes relatively little
difference. i always use ships of the same class in a squadron (ie a DD sqn, a
CL sqn, even a BB sqn).

> However, I always fire ships separately.

same here; firing as squadrons would change the game: i could lump all my big
ships in one squdron and fire them all at once on my first action. to prevent
this, we'd need rules about valid squadrons, which would be a pain.

tom

> However, I always fire ships separately.
to
> prevent this, we'd need rules about valid squadrons, which would be a

Well, you could say that any two opposing squadrons fire simultaneously. Thus
if you 'win' the first action to activate a squadron, they all fire. Your
opponent then may activate a squadron when you are finished and fire all the
ships in that squadron. After all fire is completed and damage has been
assigned, damage will then immediately take effect and you move on to the next
squadron pair.

Variant on this is that the two sides must pick which of their squadrons will
fire before firing occurs for each iteration of the above cycle. This would
negate the "I'm firing all the ships in my squadron onto this squadron of
yours" "Oh yeah? Well, I activate that squadron for my activation and they
will fire before any are destroyed."

It's not a pretty solution, but a workable one.

Mk

On 19-Jan-00 at 10:26, We have the parachute, yes? (KOCHTE@stsci.edu)
wrote:
> >> However, I always fire ships separately.

Of course there's always simultaneous fire.