Re: Perfect Campaign Rules

-- Quote --
Let's say you've got a moderated campaign game with Admiral X and
Admiral Y.
Admiral X attacks Admiral Y's fleet A in an area where he has no FTL
comm
(other than courier ships).  Admiral Y sends a courier for help to fleet
B
which is several turns away.  How does one keep Admiral Y from taking
actions with fleet B (or other units) that would work to his advantage
in a
situation that fleet B doesn't technically know about yet?
-- Unquote --

I usually have one fleet per player.

Alternately have the player be a Fleet Admiral (Grand Mof ;-) ) incharge
of more than one task force. Play of the task forces (except in combat)
are under the judges control but under the Fleet Admiral's orders that
arrive via courier.

Now the question becomes "how will the courier know where to go?" The
answer is that the courier would need to go to a planet with a
"Hyper-Telegraph" or to the expected location of task force B. I would
have the player give expected "patrol" paterns for each task force. If
task force B deviates from the expected path, they may not get the
message at all!

Probably each task force would have a "tail" of 5 or so courier ships to
help maintain communications between a task force and the nearest planet
with a "Hyper-Telegraph".
The further you are from "friendly space" the harder it is to maintain
communications and logistics.

It will also be improtant to keep track of where resupply ships are.
Those small missile boats may be in big trouble during an extended
campaign into "hostile space". Also, these resupply ships (convoys) will
become major targets.

How do you handle FTL travel? If it is not instantanious, how long does
it take to travel in hyperspace? If it is instantanious (jump) how far
can you jump? Can you leap-frog star systems or do you have to visit
each system along a given path?

I usually prefer the BattleTech style solution: limited range jumps and
must recharge for a given amount of time before another jump.
--
Brian Bell
brian.bell@axom.com

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