troopships in a campaign, ground combat

Thanks for all the discussions on troop transport requirements. I'm writing up
a FT strategic campaign and as just trying to figure out a simple ground
combat and transporting of troops (think Imperium/Dark Nebula).  I came
up with a simple ground combat but wasn't sure about the transportation. After
all those discussions I still don't know.

Here's what I came up with for ground combat, 1 round per Movement phase (4
Movement phases per strategic turn, each phase 1 week long):
Roll a die for each non-neutralized (a ground unit can be neutralized by
bombardment) and add its combat factor. Units that controlled the planet
(defenders) get an additional +1.  For each roll of 7 or higher one
enemy unit is destroyed (owner of units chooses).

ground unit type	  points     combat factor
milita troops 6 1 regular troops 12 3 drop troops 15 3 armor troops 15 4
air squadron                 12             5-6 craft = 2, 3-4 craft = 1
I'm not sure about using air squadrons, but they are like a standard fighter
squadron except limited to planetside. They can dogfight income fighter
squadrons before ground combat.

My original thought was that the size of the units was regiment or brigade.
Maybe they should be considered smaller? Cost about half as much?

Some things I haven't figured out yet:

The mass required to transport the above troops. I wanted all the units to
require the same mass but the air squadron concept of 6 aircraft throws it out
of whack. Maybe I should remove the air squadron?

Should I worry about landings in a strategic scale? If no, just let everyone
land (as long as there are no enemy FT forces,
such as ships or bases).   Should I require that any transports have a
certain amount of landers or streamlining? If yes, then should every unit
(drop troops) or lander undergo some sort of fire from the ground forces and
how should this be done?

About bombardment, so far I have: Roll a die for every weapon system
(once per Movement phase, before ground combat) - 1-7  = no affect,
8-9  = a ground unit is neutralized, 10+ = a ground unit is destroyed
(owning player's choice). DMs: Beam weapons add their class,
pulse torpedoes +3,
SML +2  with +1 per salvo,
SMR +3,
ortillery +5,
a wave gun gets 2 dice with +3 per die,
a nova cannon gets 3 dice with +3 per die,
other weapon systems +0.
I don't know how Ortillery is supposed to work in FTFB. Currently I'm thinking
of it as its own weapons system and not attached or helping any other weapons.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Glen

If you're only wanting abstract out ground combat, how about a variation of
the boarding rules? If you use 1 mass = 1 combat factor then you don't need to
worry about
individual points/modifiers etc.
Charge a fixed amount (say 5 FT points) per factor to take into account
economics. This still gives the opportunity to choose forces for either DS or
SG from just the mass available if you want extra detail or just allocate a
fixed rating to the planet (say about 30 for a colony planet, 100 for an
industrial centre).

Simply add up the combat factors, roll that many die & read as for beam die
(including re-rolls).
If you want to differentiate, then give armoured units screen-1 &
aerospace
screen-2 to represent the increased survivability.

With regard to opposed landings, give the planet an orbital defence rating.
Each point gives 1 die of unopposed PDS fire against the landing troops. Each
kill removes 1 combat factor before the troops even hit the surface. This
would give a good reason to apply orbital bombardment before sending in the
troops.

With regard to orbital bombardment, you should only allow beams & ortillery,
as everything is inaccurate or has nasty side effects (radiation for
starters). Ships with any amount beams add one combat factor, while each
separate ortillery system adds 1 combat factor.   This should really be
limited to taking out the orbital defences to allow surface landings, as once
ground forces engage, this sort of fire support would be rarely used.

'Neath Southern Skies - http://users.mcmedia.com.au/~denian/

> -----Original Message-----

> sort of fire from the ground forces and how should this be done?