Re: [FT] FB2 Balancing Corrections Proposed

Brendan Pratt wrote:

>>>Question: Does anyone on the list know how large tables the
>>>CanCon FT competition uses? (Since Brendan Pratt is one of the
>>>organizers for that tournament, and it is his testimony which
>>>worries Alan :-/ )
>> 
>>6ft x 4ft
> 
>8ft x 4 ft 

Allows a bit more time for acceleration, but no more lateral space to
dodge in than a 6x4 table (assuming the fleets set up at the short
edges of the table). I'm not sure the difference between a 5ft wide
table and a 4ft one is that critical (cf. the previous report where the
1500-pt Phalon fleet got virtually annihilated for only light NAC
losses on a 8'x5' table), but it does make it harder to dodge than on
my 120x100mu table (equivalent to 10'x8'4"for you inch-measurers) :-/

>I'm not prone to knee jerk reactions - I used NAC to defeat all 
>comers two years ago after the 1st book came out and wasn't 
>bothered by SMs  this last years gone by I used FSE to do the 
>same thing only with a higher enemy body count than before - 
>interesting weapon with many tactics for use with and against.

I don't know your personal initial reaction to the Salvo Missiles, but
during the first summer (1998) after FB1 was published quite a few
player described their reactions to them in almost identical terms as
you described your group's reaction to the Pulsers.

We also had a *very* similar reaction to the FB2 Kra'Vak from two
players after their first FB2 battle - IIRC they  recommended removing
the "double-damage" feature of the K-gun completely and/or increase the
cost of the K-guns considerably in order to balance them, though these
recommendations were withdrawn after some further analysis. At least
one of those players is what I'd consider "not prone to knee jerk
reactions", but his initial battle report was strongly coloured by the
reaction of the other player (who *does* seem somewhat prone to
knee-jerking when certain other subjects come up, so it's anyone's
guess whether or not he did so in this case as well). 

So... whether or not you actually *were* knee-jerking, your post to Jon
sounded very much like other posts which have since proved to be just
that :-/

That said, the tactics needed to defeat the Phalons are quite different
from those effective against the FB1 designs (and against most custom
designs you can build with FB1 technology). Indeed, both the Phalons
and the Kra'Vak were deliberately designed to turn the "traditional"
concepts of "effective tactics" in FB1on their heads (as well as some
extreme human-tech design styles that are very effective against other
human-tech ships) - but that only means that these aliens are
vulnerable to other tactics, not that they are invulnerable or
unbeatable.

>Thanks for passing thios along - I look forward to further 
>comment.

Jon had a whole bunch of posts he was going to forward to you. Did you
recieve those?

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry