RE: Capital Ships in Campeign Games

On Thu, 27 Mar 1997, Ground Zero Games wrote:
> ... The question
> is, how do we persuade all the powergamers/munchkins/anoraks* that
this is
> the way to go? 

To dream, the impossible dream...

As long as there is a system for building your own ships, there will be
people who will try to powergame the system.

The problem with campaign games is that everyone started learning the
system in one-off games, where the fast-attack spacecraft has the
advantage. In a campaign, however, the surviving cruisers and escorts
are
usually damaged beyond usefulness after their first fight, and can't
stick
around after the battle to try to hold the system that they fought over.

In the two campaigns I've played in, the most valuable ships I had were
the straight-from-the-book Superdreadnaughts, because they could survive
two or three battles and hold on to the objective after the fight. I had
to play them carefully, holding them back out of missile range and
saving
them in reserve until my opponent had committed his forces, but their
role
wasn't to be in the front line -- that was the job of the escorts &
cruisers. Four or five straight-from-the-book Heavy Destroyers make an
excellent distraction that your opponent can't afford to ignore,
especially if you can get them on his flank.

Rick Rutherford       rickr@digex.net	    The above opinions are mine.
"It seems to me that the nearer painting approaches sculpture the better
it is, and that sculpture is the worse the nearer it approaches
painting."
					     -- Michelangelo