Re: Still Lousy After All These Years

>	Well, I'm bummed.  Last night I had proven my own tactical 
>incpmpetence regarding FT.  It is FT night at my local game store, and 
>since it had been a month since I played a game I decided to go.  I got 

Well, gee, Mark, whaddya been doin' for the past month or two? B5W
testing??
;-)

>	They had changed the house rules since the last time I played:	

See above

>	*First, they changed the fleet points.	It was originally 2000. 

>Now it's double that.	

Okay, either big ships or large fleets. I'd personally want to play
large
fleets in this situation, but I'm guessing they went large-@$$ ships,
eh?

>	*Secondly, they don't allow fighters.  They didn't tell me this 
>until AFTER I launched my fighters.  They claimed that it's not because

>they think they're unbalenced.  It's because they think they take up
too 
>much weapon space.  (One ship had 12 A batteries!)  They made an 
>exception in my case, because I wasn't around when they made up the new

>rules.

Sounds *lame* to me. If they think fighters take up too much weapon
space,
then it would *seem* to me that they consider fighters a *detriment* and
would encourage people not to use them because they are lacking in
ability.
I think maybe they're afraid of them (hell, *I* am!) and feel they are
unbalancing. Fighters take up the space of 1 C-battery, period. 3
fighters
take up the space of an A-battery.

Plus, if they don't have to worry about fighters, then they can drop all
those extra *DAFs and put more Batteries in...I'd argue this is a lame
excuse of a rule.

Feh. Fighters are just a pain-in-the-ass to hit with *DAF weapons, which
is why I think they're unbalancing (if the *DAFs hit on a 5 or 6, or a
4-6
against missiles, I'd feel a *lot* happier and feel more balanced with
things). 

Double feh; more I think about the above excuse, the lamer it seems.
I'll give
them a ship that has 12 A batteries and take a carrier carrying an
equivalent
mass of [fast] fighters...who'll win??	;-)

>	Third:	We have to wait 3 turns before any fire can take place.

Why??? What justification is there for this???

>	Finnaly:  They came up with a new maneuver:  the slipside.  
>Operates the same as a 2, 3, or 4 point turn, however the facing is
just a 
>little different in the end (i.e. the same direction as ship started).

Not all that new. I and one or two others proposed this as an optional
maneuver last year. I allowed it to be used in my last B5 PBeM scenario
(the 'Call To Arms' one, if you remember ;-)  a couple people actually
did use it).

>	In the end both my destroyers got dusted and my CA and BC died
an 
>undignified death.  I had to leave early in order to get to bed at a 
>reasonable hour.  

Ahhhh, blow off sleep.	;-)

>I only killed a couple of dinky ships that were 
>swarming me.  Other than that, I barely scored a point of damage. 
Maybe 
>the problem isn't with me, but the people I game with.  These people
take 
>4000 points and make monster ships that can total my largest ship 
>(usually a SDN) in a single beam salvo.  (Don't ask me what our Kra'Vak

>player fields!  10 "3" railguns and 15 scatterpacks!)

Uh-huh....large-@$$ ships...

>Answers for questions people are bound to ask me:
>	Q:  Why do you bother playing?	
>	A:  Well because it's fun.  I just wish I can win sometimes.  

Looks like either you have to change their rules, or play their rules.

>	Q:  Why don't you find another play-group?
>	A:  This FT group is the only one in the bloody state!	The only
>thing people do here in Wisconisn is drink beer, eat bratwurst and
potato
>salad, and talk about "da Packers...ainna hey?" (This, from a native.)
>There's not a lot of gamers around here.  I don't want to wait until
>GEN-CON to play a decent game of FT.  Besides, I operate on the
hopelessly
>optimistic assumption that I MIGHT one day come up with the tactics to 
>destroy any enemy fleet.

Then instead of just accepting their rules (no fighters, 4000 pt fleets
with
the biggest ships one can possibly field, etc), play a genre-based
enviroment.
You're making up your own B5 rules; use em! Or use Tom's, or mine, or
someone
else's. Go Star Trek. Battlestar Galactica.

Or impose limitations on the size of ships and *numbers* of ships of
that size
(max mass for a ship is 150, no more than 2 of that size, no more than 4
ships
between mass 80-100, etc).

OR impose a rule that ships must correspond to the size of the minis
being
used. If you have a big mini, that can be a big ship. Minis of 2-3
inches
are cruiser-sized and can only be cruisers. Minis smaller can be DDs and
less.
There's a group down in Virginia that I believe either already does
this, or
is thinking about putting together a 'gathering' using this rule
limitation.

>	Q:  Why don't you start your own?
>	A:  I tried.  The trouble is that there is no real fan-base for 
>FT in this state.  (All the other space gamers are into SFB.)	The few 
>times I attempted to start a group I wind up sitting in the gaming room

>while the 12 year old play with their Magic cards and pay no attention
to 
>me.  Yes, I posted eye-catching annoucements.	No one pays attention to

>them either.

There is that problem, too. I experience it. Alas.

>	Q:  Why are you b----ing about this?
>	A:  Because it p---es me off. 

Heh.

See the suggestions above.

Another thing, by 'playing in their rules', look for things they haven't
outlawed yet (cloaking devices, waveguns, reflex fields, missiles,
sub-packs,
etc) and max them out. Build on your groups weaknesses. All it becomes
then
is an arms race, sure. But maybe you'll demonstrate to them how silly
they are
being (well...then again, maybe not; they'll probably just outlaw
anything you
come up with the kill their ships that they aren't prepared for).

Mk
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