[GZG] AI fighters

Noticed in part 3 of the Two Moons battle that there are high numbers of AI
fighters but only 2 crewed fighters--how are AI fighters handle? Do the
crewed fighters act as a "control" ship for the fighters?

Just curious what the mechanics are for AI fighters....thanks.

I noticed this as well...

In my group we invented "robot fighters' and we use them like normal fighters
than make their secondary move at the same time as other missiles rather than
after ships move (for a reduction in points).

Makes the harder to use but you get more for your points.

While I liked Beth's stories they didn't feel like FT battles to me. maybe it
is vector movement based but I fail to see how a KV fleet would fail to out
manoeuvre a human fleet or why a fleet with all frontal armament would advance
in line astern.

I would have expected that KV ships would have operated in line abreast or
maybe like ww2 bomber wings in arrow head formations.
[quoted original message omitted]

G'day,

> Noticed in part 3 of the Two Moons battle that there are high numbers

Basically the idea is that part of being a top pilot is instinct or experience
or whatever, that deep down stuff you can't verbalise so well that some people
have and some haven't. Something that's hard to program so humans aren't out
of the loop yet.

There is no in game effect as yet, purely the fictional colour. There's been
lots of back and forth about why you'd have AI fighters in the GZG verse, but
I like the idea of having some humans about, so had to think of how I could do
that. So most obvious way was a compromise. Humans would like to have Ais, but
they're not quite good enough yet to be
completely effective vs this alien threat. So you have a human per 3-6
fighters to help train up/guide the AI ships. The AIs aren't completely
useless without the humans (otherwise I'm sure the KV would have figured that
out and would knock the human crewed fighters off first etc), but do function
better with the humans around (thus the reason to keep
humans in the flight line-up).

Cheers

G'day,

> While I liked Beth's stories they didn't feel like FT battles to me.
maybe
> it is vector movement based but I fail to see how a KV fleet would

There is a bigger drop off in KV performance in maneuvre vs human ships in
vector, but the effect came out of the KV player setting up in a long
line side-by-side (as he is always apt to do) before reading his orders
or listeniing to the hints being thrown his way by an amused ref. Eventually
after game start he then realised he had to get up out of the gravity well to
engage the humans, who were effectively off to one side. He probably should
have come round sooner than he did, but I think he wanted to start firing as
soon as possible and try and draw attention off some of his bigger ships by
having sacrifical bunnies out front (by this point he'd figured I was up to
something plot wise) so he stayed that way (given he was pretty good at
rolling the 5s and 6s he needed for even his mid and rear ships to get a good
shot off and given there is also no risk of friendly fire in FT there was no
real incentive to
quickly come side by side again - or at least that's what I'm guessing
he felt).

Story wise, the emphasis on the formation of line astern was probably also
over played in the write up as I was basing the tone and flow of the piece on
Admiral Togo's AAR for the Battle of Tsushima (dropping our results and
distances etc into an outline made by stripping down the structure of his
report).

Plot wise this also opens the option for later KV commanders to learn from
this one's collossal goof;)

Cheers

[quoted original message omitted]

G'day,

Sorry for the slow reply server issues st my end.... And getting over the
shock of a white Christmas... In Tassie...the world has gone mad.

> If the KV Player got out manoeuvred by the deployment and found that

I would agree, unfortunately he's one of those guys who can't be told and
knows everything. The other KV commander down here is back from his diving
trip so maybe we can see about setting the score straight;)

> The last thing your KV admiral should have wanted to do was send his

Unfortunately for him, but maybe fortunately for the fact I needed to get rid
of the KV fleet for the land attacks to sensibly go in
un-ortillery molested he didn't and paid the price ;)

> I still think that a series of diamond formations would be the most

Well if John isn't game keen I'll give Lachy a crack, after handing him your
email as a hint;)

> Was your battle restricted to fleet book designs or did you have to

Wasn't restricted to FB designs but the KV guy didn't take the opportunity to
use anything but.

> Now that you mentioned the source it definitely did read like a 1900s

I'm trying to read a wide bunch of old reports to give it a 1900-1950
style writing feel, but from lots of different angles and personality types so
you get a mix of a feeling of what the new society is like. I think I'm having
mixed success. As the next article is a photo compilation by a free lance
photographer sending it to the list will be
tricker - I'll send a link instead and just get cracking on the backlog
of half finished story ideas for the actual land attack;)

> Most of our fleet engagements read more like fighter combats or

Our pick-up games typically run like that too. Its been interesting to
see how the different players have/haven't adapted as I've tossed
plot-line inspired scenarios at them to game out for me.

Next installment in a few days, assuming paintshop pro and my patience holds
out;)

Cheers