[FT] Scenario for review

I mentioned that I was working on a large scale game (40 or so ships on
each side) about a month ago; it's been on hold ever since, due to the
untimely demise of my printer.	I've gotten back to work on it, though,
and
I even have a scenario to work with.

The attackers have about 35 ships, standard NSL designs out of FB1 with
a
preponderance of CH and BC classes -- nine Battlecruisers, actually, of
three different styles.

The defenders have three groups of ships, ranging from 8 to 12 in each
group.	The designs will be standard NAC, FSE, and ESU ships...again,
right
out of FB1.  I might be giving some of the ESU designs some version of
the
EFSB Heavy Beam Weapon (I'm using the GW Imperial miniatures for these
ships), just for laughs.

Each of these three groups will have 5 or 6 civilian ships assigned to
them, unarmed with anything heavier than PDS and maybe a Class 1 battery
or
two.  One of these ships, at the players' discretion, will be replaced
with
a Q-Ship, armed with a lot of Submunition Packs and Class 1 batteries.

Lastly, the defenders have a stationary base, built into an asteroid. 
The
base will have a good amount of armor, no screens, and a scattering of
PDS
and small beam batteries.  Oh, and maybe a squadron or two of fighters.

The board will be 5X12 feet.  The Northern half will be mostly clear,
with
a scattering of asteroids.  The Southern half will be more densely
populated with asteroids, as well as that big asteroid base.

The attackers will enter from the Northern board edge, at a maximum
velocity of 6.	Their primary objective will be to destroy -- or
preferably
capture -- the civilian ships.	The secondary objective is to destroy
the
asteroid base, and their tertiary objective is to kill as many of the
defenders' ship as possible.

The defenders will be scattered along the Southern edge of the board;
the
starting velocity of each ship is equal to its Thrust Factors -- they
didn't have a lot of warning before the attackers arrived.  The
defenders'
primary objective is to get the civilian ships off of the Northern board
edge, with a maximum velocity of 6, and to keep them as intact as
possible.
 Secondary objective is to defend the base, tertiary is to kill enemy
ships.

 To give the defenders a better chance of getting their charges to
safety,
I will give them the option of assigning an escort to each civilian
ship.
The escort will have to remain in base-to-base combat with the ship that
it
is guarding (for range purposes, both ships will be assumed to be
located
at the centerpoint of the civilian ship), and must maintain the same
velocity and maneuvers as that ship.

Whenever an escorted ship is the target of enemy fire, the escort may
elect
to attempt to intercept the attack.  In order to do so, the escort must
roll less than its current Thrust Factor on 1d6 -- if it succeeds in
this
roll, the attacks are resolved as if the escort was the original target.
The escort may only block attacks from one, and only one, enemy ship in
the
course of a single turn.  Any number of attacks may be intercepted in
this
fashion, as long as they are from the same source, but the escort will
only
need to roll for the initial attack.

(I know that this isn't a particularly realistic rule, but without this
the
attackers should have little or no problem picking the civilian ships
off.
Plus, this will give the defenders more reason to use their smaller
ships.
Besides, if I wanted realism I wouldn't be playing with little
spaceships....)

So what have I forgotten?  We'll be using cinematic movement, and these
players generally limit themselves to velocities of 12 or less	--
something that the "terrain" should tend to encourage.	I'll be giving
the
defenders a slight point advantage; I haven't determined exactly how
much
yet.  Does everything seem fair and workable?  We haven't done anything
on
this scale before -- our previous games have had a total of maybe 20 or
25
ships on the table.  This game will involve 80 or 90, and that's quite a
different prospect.

John X Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com
  "...is one of the secret masters of the world: a librarian.
They control information.  Don't ever piss one off."
  --Spider Robinson, The Callahan Touch.