Re: FTFB- After Action Report/Newbie questions (longish :-) )

Jef spake thusly upon matters weighty: 

> On a more general question, Why would you build ships faster than
Thrust
> 2? The extra 10% hull space dropping from Thrust 4 can be a lot of
> weapon systems, and with the ability to swing ship direction under a
> vector movement system even a Thrust 1 ship can almost always face
> towards an enemy.

Sure, you may be able to face me, and if you are a big enough ship, 
hold me outside of weapons range fearing your batteries, missiles, 
etc. But if we're playing a scenario where you have to stop me doing 
something, my better thrust may let me pull you out of position and 
take advantage of that. Otherwise, I just run rings about you and 
settle for a stalemate since you can't catch me if I don't want you 
to. 

There are good reasons why some decently offensive bits of your fleet 
should be fast moving. It opens up a whole range of capability. Now, 
OTOH, clustering ships for overlapping fire is quite devastating and 
usually good defensively too. But if you don't have the speed, and 
your opponent does, he'll either decide he's outnumbered, take his 
toys and go home, or he'll run around you and make you look foolish 
by attacking the objective or whatever. 

> We incline towards a strategic reason for higher thrust ratings;
perhaps
> thrusters are used in FTL travel, the FTL drive giving the ability to
> enter FTL mode, but thrusters determining how fast one travels.  We
are
> looking at this as there seems to be no tactical reason to be faster
> than Thrust 2.  I know you can refuse to fight superior forces if
> faster, but Thrust 2 seems find for an aggressor attacking somewhere.

This presumes of course you know in advance exactly where he'll be 
attacking. And what if he engages with part of his force and draws 
you off in pursuit, then moves in the other part of his force. If you 
can't get back fast enough, bad news. Further, lets say you were 
divided into two fleets and he was too. His two fleets separate, and 
you pursue to get equal odds battles. He lets you get just far enough 
apart, then zooms one set in to join the other for a battle where he 
has superiority for a period of time (long enough to do you some big 
damage) before your clunkers can catch up. 

> Have a Thrust 8 ship to check out the local defences, call in the big
> boys, and "Bobs yer uncle." 

Thrust is a tool of people who use manoevre agressively. It favours 
fast attack ship tactics (PT boat, destoryer, etc tactics). Now, mind 
you, such ships had better run from the thrust 2 weapons platforms 
unless they have numerical advantage to compensate, but they have a 
real tactical niche. Imagine you need to respond quickly to an outer 
system planet being attacked (a small outpost) by a fleet. If 
you aren't fast yourself, you'll never get there in time. If you 
aren't fast enough, and do get most of the way there, and he sweeps 
around you to hit the main planet from an unexpected direction, you 
can't get back. 

Lumbering behemoths have their place, but so too do faster vessels 
with a tad lighter armour or weapons. A good fleet has a good mix, 
and a good admiral knows how to use that mix effectively. Good 
scenario design takes this into account - trying to force a fast 
light fleet to slug it out with a line-of-battle fleet made of speed 
2 tanks is basically putting it at a disadvantage from the start. 
Proper thought in how the scenario would come about will influence 
what is played, and if the scenario is fixed, should influence the 
fleet elements chosen to execute the mission.  
/************************************************
Thomas Barclay		     
Voice: (613) 831-2018 x 4009
Fax: (613) 831-8255

 "C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot.  C++ makes
 it harder, but when you do, it blows away your whole leg."
 -Bjarne Stroustrup
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