FT - No initiative simultaneous fire

> So, now we have unbalanced firing in favor of a lot of 'little'
> starships?  <grin>
> >We have played FT this way, with large battle as well. It work very
> >well,
> >as that lovely SDN you have does die before it can fire anything.

I've been thinking about the different fire options, including
simultaneous,
thrust based, mass based and just plain old random.  All the arguments
I've
heard so far have been very good and quite convincing, which leads me to
think that perhaps a combined system might be best.  I was thinking that
initiative could be divided up into groups, and each groups fire would
be
simultaneous within that group.  The groups could first be formed based
on
thrust, so as to give the more nimble ships a first shot, by taking the
thrust of the "fastest" ship and averaging it with the thrust of the
"slowest" ship.  All ships with thrust ratings greater than that average
are
in group one, all other ships are in group two.  Then, maybe the groups
could be divided once more based on some other criteria, such as crew
quality.  That could break each group into possibly three groups as your
elite units fire first (simultaneous), followed by veterans, followed by
green.

All in all, you end up with six groupings, based on nimbleness of the
various ships, and quality of the crew.  Within each grouping, the fire
is
simultaneous, because as someone aptly pointed out, each turn is like 5
to
20 minutes in length.  I personally chose thrust over crew quality
because
in my opinion, a crew, even a really good one, can only do so much with
a
ship.  I am sure this can be argues to the converse as well. 
Additionally,
other types of modifiers could be added, depending on the complexity
desired.  The interesting thing is, it could add a few other design
features
to the games and scenarios.  For example, a ship behind in maintenance
manned by an elite crew could be treated as Veteran for purposes of
initiative for the scenario in question.

The system sounds a lot more complex than it is.  For example,

NAC Vandenburg Heavy Cruiser Veteran Crew (Thrust 6)
2 NAC Furious Escort Cruisers Green/Veteran Crews (Thrust 4)
4 NAC Ticonderoga Destroyers Elite Crew (Thrust 6)

versus

FSE Roma Battleship Veteran Crew (Thrust 4)
2 FSE Milan Escort Cruisers Veteran Crews (Thrust 6)

Average of High Thrust (6) and Low Thrust (4) is 5.  So all ships with
thrust 6 are in first group, all other ships are in second group.  IN
each
group, elites, then veterans, then green fires, so initiative would go
like
this:

FIRST: NAC Ticonderoga's
SECOND: NAC Vandenburg Heavy Cruiser, both FSE Milan Escort Cruisers
(simultaneous)
THIRD:	1 NAC Furious Escort Cruiser, FSE Roma Battleship (simultaneous)
FOURTH:  remaining (green) NAC Furious Escort Cruiser.

That took me a lot longer to type up than to figure out (less than a
minute).  If playing with secret fleets, its still not a challenge to
find
out the best and worth thrust rating from each fleet, make the
calculation,
then notify the players of the breakdown.  Then during play simply call
out,
"FAST GROUP ELITE Fire!"  "FAST GROUP VETS FIRE", etc etc etc.

Just a thought.

Since I don't get near as many games in as I'd like, I'd sure appreciate
it
if someone would try it out and let me know....

George