Wing Commander for FT?

I just wondering.... Have any one try use FT for Wing Commander type of fleet
action?

> At 12:59 PM 12/26/96 +0000, you wrote:

I've considered trying to convert Wing Commander ships over for FT use but got
stuck when trying to establish a scale for converting Wing Commander tonnages
to FT mass. The Wing Commander ships kinda jump all over the place as far as
tonnage IIRC. If you know where I can get reliable data on the all the ships
from the various WC games, I might give it another shot. Another problem would
be whether or not to try to replicate all those different weapons or just rank
them as batteries.

        James

> I've considered trying to convert Wing Commander ships over

My only concern so far for Wing Commander conversion is Wing Commander is a
fighter based game, the fighters may need be consider as small ships instead
of under current rule of fighters. (Then again, I don't have More Thrust, so I
cannot tell the rule there will help or not.) For example: Broadswords, and
Avengers maybe consider a 5 ton ship? I don't think shield rule need be
rewritten since it's pretty close to how the Wing Commander set it up.

I may just go to buy the Wing Commander trillogy so I can go back and count
the number of guns on those big capital ship..:)

        Kevin

> At 03:50 AM 12/27/96 +0000, you wrote:

> Broadswords, and Avengers maybe consider a 5 ton ship? I don't think

        Thoughts/observations:

        1. If you're going to do a fighter-heavy Full Thrust game you
really need More Thrust and its optional fighter rules (heavy fighters, attack
fighters, torpedo fighters, interceptors, fighter morale, fighter endurance,
etc.).

2. I wouldn't do the larger fighters from Wing Commander as small ships. Small
ships can be targeted at range with all the heavier weapons (including the
huge capital ship mounted AA bats) and thus they will be blown away at ranges
that fighters cannot be engaged at in Wing commander by weapons that shouldn't
be able to do it in wing commander either. I would establish a new type of
"superheavy" fighter to simulate these larger fighters from WC. If you have
them, adopting many of the Star Fleet Battles
rules for double-spaced heavy fighters might do the trick.

3. Except for WC I, you need torpedoes to damage big ships. In Full Thrust,
ordinary fighters and attack fighters can damage big ships without torpedoes.
So I would use only interceptors and torpedo fighters and combinations thereof
to simulate wing commander fighters. (Fighters attacking ships without
screens, like merchants and escorts should be able to damage them just fine,
ala WC.)

4. You might also want to establish a dogfight vs. dogfight rating or
something for WC planes. There is little room for variation in fighter types
in the basic Full Thrust rules; however, you could adopt the dogfight rating
system from one of the more recent Babylon 5 Full Thrust house rule sets.
You'll find them on Mark Siefert's page.

        James

> 2. I wouldn't do the larger fighters from Wing Commander as

Just thought I'd mention the Broadswords, heavy "fighters" capable of jump. I
would probably give these ships a tonnage rating equal to courier or even
scout.

> At 10:58 PM 12/28/96 +0000, you wrote:

> Just thought I'd mention the Broadswords, heavy "fighters" capable of

To cover hyperspace capable fighters, just look for some of the Star Wars
rules that have been floating around. As for Broadswords, they can use a
modification of the CoW rules for Shadow fighters. I don't know who came
up with these but his e-mail address is tsmccart@ewd.dreo.dnd.ca:

"Shadow fighters are Mass 3 and have just a single damage box but can only be
targeted by other fighters, PDAF and ADAF weapons all of which need a '6' to
kill them. They move as fighters and attack with a plasma ball which has a
range of 6" and causes D3 damage to the enemy ship, modified by the universal
(range) modifiers. Enemy fighter groups simply lose a fighter each turn they
dogfight or are fired upon by a Shadow fighter."

If you ask me that pretty much covers superheavy fighters like Broadswords
exactly.

        James