Re: strike the colors rule

>>>> Striking colours (suggest a check every turn at last
>>>> hull box and get damaged - score must equal the
>>>> number of hull boxes left, but a 6 always fails)

On Tue, 02 January 2001, GBailey@aol.com wrote:

>>> This is not the Wooden Ships & Iron Men era. How
>>> many ships "struck their colors" in WW1 & WW2?

None that I can think of. The WW1 German fleet scuttled
itself at Scapa Flow AFTER it had been surrendered.
The last case of warships surrendering to an enemy en
masse was at Tsushima Strait, though a lot of obsolete
Japanese ships were captured in 1945 for lack of fuel, etc.
(Mes Il Kebir / Oran doesn't count; they were FSE*)

>> From: Beth Fulton
>> Date: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 10:44
>> Subject: Re: strike the colors rule

>> So ... the weapons of Nelson's day were man killers
>> but by WWI they were designed to defeat armour plate
>> and explode inside ... wrecking the ship.

A badly smashed-up ship might not be capable of making
a coherant surrender. The crew would probably be
reduced to struggling teams separated by areas of
extensive damage, with no clear idea of how the battle
was going or how spaceworthy their own ship was.

From: Laserlight
Date: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 12:05
Subject: Re: strike the colors rule

> I wouldn't necessarily play it as "strike" but I would have
> morale effects, at least as an option. I'd make it about
> the same as a Core Systems roll--if the ship loses its
> morale and has a reasonable prospect of getting away,
> it tries to break contact.

I would also agree with the other previous comments I
haven't included here. Ships will only surrender if they
cannot escape and have no chance of damaging the
enemy, and even then would not surrender in cases
such as that outlined on MT pg 8.

Where the morale factor should come in to play is
before this point where one side believes that it has
been placed at a disadvantage and no longer wishes
to continue the action. In these cases the losing side
would wish to disengage before it had suffered any
significant damage. Historians failing to take this or
the benefit of hindsight into account might think that
the side had fled before it was necessary.

I suspect that all we can do is write Morale off to "It
can only be done properly in campaign" and put a
very basic (and optional) break rule into effect.

Has the list raked over changing threshold checks?
If you want to see more crippled ships for boarding
practice, consider modifying the current rules.

* my personal entry for tasteless comment of the month,
but I'll let it stand.