I had an interesting idea. Why not do a semi-floater?
Background: In the 80's I used to play a lot a game called Dreadnoughts. It
was written in Basic and ran on my C64. I had copied it from a book and later
extensively modified. Later I rewrote the whole thing, much improved, for Unix
in C.
As you might guess, the game was about naval warfare in the age of
dreadnoughts. Anyway, it used a floating map, but the map wasn't quite freely
floating. It didn't center to fit maximum number of ships, and
being "off-board" was not without penalties.
The game centered the map on the flagships (or the points where they sank). If
you were off the map thus defined, you were off the screen. And if you lost
your radio antenna while off the screen... well lacking orders the contrary,
the crew had ideas of its own.
How to adopt this to FT:
First, pick the flagship. Ignore the lily-livered concept of cruiser
flagships and pick the most expensive ship you've got. Tell your opponent too.
Obviously, with real miniatures you don't want to float the table every time
one of the flagships moves. Define a "center area", let's say 20x20MU in the
center of the table. As long as the center point of the flagships is in this
area, don't float. If it wanders off, float to recenter.
If you are off the board and get a bridge hit, or otherwise lose contact with
the main fleet, you're gone. If you are off the board and out
of reasonable weapon range from the edge (class-3, let's say), you don't
get to place a mini but must plot moves on paper only.
OR: Apply your regular hard-edge penalties.
If ALL enemy ships are off the board at any time, the battle ends.
Now, this is obviously not without some problems, but it does prevent the
battle from spreading out too much while still preventing tactics such as
parking your most important ship in a corner.
> -----Original Message-----
[Bri] Yuch! This means that your flagship and your opponent's flagship
are
within Class-2 beam range and sit and slug it out. Better would be to
rule that the flagship may not leave the table and float the table to put the
flagships toward the center of the table every other or every 3rd turn (if a
flagship leaves the table, the table is floated immediatly). Also, if one
flagship comes to a dead stop (parks), the table is floated with that ship as
close to the center of the table as possible, while still allowing the
opposing flagship to stay on the table.
> If you are off the board and get a bridge hit, or otherwise lose
[Bri] Or disallow combat off-board. Also, to re-enter the board, they
must, before orders are written, indicate where they will enter, direction,
and at what speed they are at (before applying thrust this turn). Note that
direction indicates only direction when entering, and does not reflect any
course change that happens on-table.
> If ALL enemy ships are off the board at any time, the battle ends.
[Bri] Or if both flagships cannot be placed on the table (too far
appart), the battle ends (and give victory points to the flagship traveling
the slowest, as it is not forcing the end of game). This gives incentive not
to park (as the enemy will close his flagship to optimal range [either for
guns or maneuverability]).
> Now, this is obviously not without some problems, but it does prevent
[Bri] My solution is also not without problems or potential for abuse,
but
> --
Comments above marked by [Bri]
Another good idea is to roll randomly for a clock point on the table where
each fleet must set up. This adds variety to games rather than the straight
face-off from each end of the table. I suggest that players choose
fleets before determining starting points.
Procedure: 1) Players determine fleets they will use. 2) Each player rolls 2d6
2a) The first d6 indicates the clock face on the table in which they must
set up (Player A gets 3-8, Player B 9-2 for clock faces).
2b) The second d6 indicates the course of the fleet (Player A gets 9-2
and
Player B 3-8 for ship course).
3) Fleets must be within "fleet integrety" limits. Every ship must be within
8" of another ship. The entire fleet must be within a 1-1/2' radius of
the entry clock point on the edge of the table. Obviously if you have a lot of
ships, the radius may be expanded. After initial placement, ships do not have
to stay within fleet integrety.
4) Entry speed is limited to 1/2 the short width of the game table or
less (guarantees that flagships will not leave the table on the first turn).
> [Bri] Yuch! This means that your flagship and your opponent's flagship
Brian, with all due respect, I must say I think you misunderstood. I said the
centerpoint of the flagships must be in the center area
-- NOT either ship physically.
Take a string from one flagship to the other, mark the middle point, that's
the center.