From: David Billinghurst <davebill@c...>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 22:24:14 +1300
Subject: [GZG] Re: Re: Re: [FT] Vectoring Kra'Vak
Hi Laserlight and Oerjan, Many thanks for your comments, they have been very helpful in getting me thinking about game play as opposed to scenario play. Laserlight said: > If you have, say, a Mass120 battleship B3s give you 36 MU range, and 3 of them give you 3 dice on target at 24+ MU, which you can only use if you've got the legs to get you within range. In a set piece or comp battle, this is obviously not a problem, and, I guess, in scenario/campaign play, the escorts are there to run down the runners and force them to turn and engage. Oerjan said: > Sure, but getting back to the fight sooner only really matters if your In the example I was thinking of, a scenario game, a group of frigate and corvette class raiders were to attack a convoy. The defenders (4 frigates, two light cruisers and a crippled Heavy Cruiser moored at a space station) were at rest, relative to the station, when the raiders entered the table. The raiders outnumbered the defenders, but were out-gunned and armoured by the heavier units of the defending force. My opponent elected to accelerate down the table at the slow moving convoy and cranked up a fair velocity. He neglected to shunt so the convoy, even at Thrust 2, was able to evade his line of approach. He literally over-ran the light cruisers, going from out of range to on top of in one move. Pea-shooters, at close range, ripped one of the CLs apart and damaged the second. The defending frigates had accelerated to intercept, but only crossed his stern, taking out his only missle armed ship as they flashed past the formation. The tail end ship of the convoy was potted by the raiders before they vanished off the table. > (Whether or not *you* can stand playing out the slow chase in another Oh, I hear your pain:))) I'm fortunate in that my wife is very understanding about the table being used for non-eating activities. Regarding the stern chase, we looked at the relative Thrust ratings of the ships and their headings and it didn't take a lot of thought to realise that even frigate/frigate chases aren't going to come to a battle if the flee-ees are at V30 and the pursuers are at V6-10 coming out of a turn. All things being equal, and considering John Brewer's micro-Jump rules, the bandits would be hopping across the system and out long before the good guys were within gun range, no matter the exhortations of their Narkoms. Back to your earlier point, yes, getting back into the fight in a reasonable formation doesn't need high V, in fact low V is probably more manageable. I guess I'm impatient and prefer cavalry to infantry (my main ruleset is DBR and my main army is Russian Traditional - lots of cavalry!). I think a NSL fleet would probably give me palpitations as it lumbers about like a pike phalanx!:) > >Or do most big actions take place at low velocity (by big action I'm How big a playing area do you use? I'm clued in on the floating table thing, having used it in Napoleonic Naval (and we played on a 3 metre by 5 metre table with big fleets) but at 40 MU V, you'd be off the table in about four/five turns, and what would you starting V be? Back to the Kra'Vak - prompted by Laserlight's comments, I've just done a quick comparison between a Hu'man BB and a KV one - heck, these guys are attacking Sol??? Or are they doing it in hoard strength. The B3 has longer range than the K gun, hits against an unshielded target on a 4+. At 30 MU (down from the Humie 36), the K gun hits on a 6. If it hits, it will probably do more damage, but are you feeling lucky? Good for bowling small outposts and cruiser squadrons, but in a stand-up fight the KV are going to get whipped. Am I missing something? Regards and Happy New Year