Micro ships (Was Re: [Fwd: Full Thrust])

Actually, as the rules are written, you can do this with a MASS 1 ship,
because you round up to compute usable mass. 8)

There are 3 solutions I know of to this little problem:

1. Don't allow it. If you look at some of the campaigns presented in MT,
you'll see they have a requirement like "No more then 50% of the ships can be
from any one size class." While the micropod works fine in

a one battle situation, a navy made up entirely of them just wouldn't be

capable of doing all the things a navy needs to do. It seems like an artifical
restriction for a one shot battle, but reflects a larger reality.

2. Submunitions have a range 12" (?, maybe 9", I'm at work and the book's at
home), and missiles have a life of 3 turns. Either of those can be defeated by
good tactical movement and superior weapon ranges.

3. Use ADAF. No, not the things they call ADAF in the rules, but the REAL area
antifighter weapons: Nova Cannons and Wave Guns. Those 100 ships they built
with 1500 points are going to have be crowded awfully close together. And
since they only have 1 damage point, anything a template touches is vapor. The
micropod fleet should never even have a chance to fire if they are using
submunitions, and if they are armed with missiles, those will be destroyed
just before the ships.

All in all, that's why people use balanced fleets.

Scott

> Mark A. Siefert wrote:
Including
> an FTL drive, these little battlepods come out to 15 points total!