Re: FTIII: A Plea to End "Me Too" Firing.

	I've been following this thread for a while now, and as iniative
and fire has always been a debated issue amongst our group, we decided
to
put it to the test.

We played several games, using differant methods of firing.

1) Firing as per FT2 - The fleet of the largest numbers, wone on 2/3
occasions here.  It managed to retain it's numerical superiority
throughout the game (well it's these cowardly ESU guys), and on a number
of occasions, their first fire made a world of differance, with NAC
ships
going down, before they could unload their deadly payload.

2) Firing simultaneously.  All damage takes effect at the END of the
round.	A different story here.  NAC ship triumph on 3/3 occasions
thanks
largely to a heavier array of beam weapons. 

3) Firing alternately, but dicing for who fires first.	End result 3/5
(to
ESU).  By far the most satisfying way to play.	The greater numbers of
the
ESU fleet still gave them an advantage, in that they were free to fire
at
the end of the turn without fear of retaliation.  Their numbers were
soon
wittled nown to size, by cruiser fire however, and all of these games
proved close, with little of the surviving fleet limping home each time.

4) We also tried a system where everyone was give a number of counters
(in
this case playing cards) equal to the number of ships/groups in their
fleet.	Following movement these cards were placed next to each ship.
Then a D6 was rolled and the highest roll then reviels his "ace" who
fires.	The opponant then fires his "ace".  Back to the first player who
fires his "king" etc...  Result NAC 1/1 (ran out of time).  We liked
this
system a lot and will play again.  It maintains the importance of the
order in which ships fire, but eliminates retalitory fire, as you don't
know which order your enemy will fire in.  
	There were a number of situations where many ships paired off in
one game turn.	If these ships were all assigned the same order by both
players, then one player will score an outstanding success. However if
you
feel unlucky and like you may loose the dice roll, it is possible to
skip
"acing" your most important coflict and garuentee(sp?) a situation
elsewhere.
<My favourite here, but takes a little longer to play>

-Entropy