Re: house rules/offline

Status: RO

> > 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.
> 
> Does this apply to escorts or simply to all ships with Thrust of 7 and
> 8?
> 
> If you allow these ships to mount B and A batteries, they will be able
> to engage enemy targets with impunity.  If you restricted escorts to B
> batteries and also allowed B batteries to engage these ships, it would
> raise the value of the underrated B battery.
> 
> Jon Davis

No we do not restrict big guns to big ships, if someone wants to use a
small attack craft with a single A gun, then thats ok and yes in a one
on
one battle with something much bigger and less manoeuvrable, the small
ship
will be virtually unkillable. That is why a balanced fleet of big battle
ships and small escorts are necessary - consider how much damage could
be
done to a battleship by a single biplane armed with a torpedo, even with
the large number of A/A guns available it was quite hard to hit a small
plane.

No battleship would travel in space without a few escorts armed with 3
(or
6 or 10) C guns to go chasing after the other little guys with the A
guns.

Alternatively, arm the battleship with some sub-packs which will force
little ships to stay out of range and thus reducing the effectiveness of
their big gun, or some missiles which can be used to restrict the
movement
of fast ships so that slower ones can catch them.

If it comes down to a lone battleship without any means of hitting a
(some)
fast attack boat, then it can always ftl out of there.

Todd Mason