SV: SV: Pulse Torpedoes vs. Submunition Packs

> Simon wrote:

> Personally, I find pulse torpedo's more enjoyable to use than scatter

But I was discussing PTs vs Submunition Packs. No mention of Kra'Vak tech
(Scatter Packs) from my side...

> I though Full Thrust was about tactics and using a bit of

If both you and your player use tactics and stick to a background flavour, you
can play it that way. If one of you does a quick analysis of the design rules
and starts using the loopholes (eg, never using B batteries instead of A if
you use the original design rules, never using PTs at all, etc) the game can
devolve all too rapidly into a "cheese slugfest" (ask Mark Siefert about
that!).

The reason I analysed the design rules was to find at least the majority of
these loopholes, and try to plug them. I like games where nominally equal
forces actually are equal in combat power - that's when the combat
skills of the players (rather than their design skills) gets important; I
_don't_
like games where each fleet consists of massive capitals with level-3
shields and nothing but A batteries... but this is what the FT design rules
produces for one-off games in the hand of an optimizer.

Regards,

> Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
Status: RO

> If both you and your player use tactics and stick to a background

I can't stand cheesy games like that either. It makes better sense to develop
some interesting scenarios and have them with you when trying to
do a one-of game.  You design the scenario and let your opponent study
it and choose which side they would play. If it is recognizably unbalanced,
you'll have your head handed to you.

Another alternative is to define the defense and the victory conditions, and
have the players bid on the attacking force. Lowest bidder gets the offense
and highest bidder gets to defend. The Avalon Hill game Squad Leader used this
technique for developing random scenarios. I had one player abuse it when he
purchased a score of Russian rocket launchers. THAT was a cheesy game.

Scatterpacks, with their all-round aspect, don't belong on human ships.
I have a bit more manuever to do if I'm charging at a Superdreadnought
with a squadron of subpack frigates and the one-arc limitation.  I
figure that the frigates will die, but inflict some screen thresholds on the
capital ship.