Re: house rules/offline

Excerpts from FT: 15-Oct-97 Re: house rules/offline by Brian
Status: RO

Burger@camosun.bc. > > Ref house rules. Someone commented on the limited
survivability of small
> > ships. We have the HR that ships with a thrust > 6 (ie 7 or 8) can
only be
> > engaged with C beams, needle beams, submunitions and missiles. This
has two
> > effects, it forces the bigger ships to spend some mass on the
lighter
> > weapons, and it allows the smaller craft an opportunity to close
with the
> > enemy and get a few shots off before they are vapourised.
> > 
> > Todd Mason
> 
> This sounds like a good rule, and it has a certain amount of
historical
> precedent. Big wet-navy battleships can't aim their huge 15"/18"/etc
guns
> at small, fast vessels - so pre-ww1, ships had quick-firing guns along
the
> sides to deal with the little torpedo boats and stuff that were
popular
> then.
>  
> It also makes the much-neglected C Beam more useful, especially if you
> also allow C Batts to be used as PDAFs as well, as per the More Thrust
> rules...

You know, I'd allow B-batts to aim at such ships as well.  C-batts
already have anti-fighter/anti-missile capability, but the B-batt is
still stuck in the middle with nothing much to recommend it.  (C'mon, 6
mass gets you fewer shots at range with 3 B-batts than it does with 2
A-batts....)  You might consider kicking in a mass limitation too,
otherwise really fast battleships could become quite overpowering. 
(Expensive, yes, but I imagine they could do a *lot* of damage.)

		    Aaron Teske
		    Mithramuse+@cmu.edu