Re: DS3 features

At 3:00 PM -0500 4/4/02, Tomb wrote:
>
>Note 1: I mostly agree.
>
>Note 2: This vulnerability has nothing to do (well, not much) with
>rules. I can do that now - there is no direct relationship between mini
>and ruleset in DS2. I can say my scotia iltis is size class 5. What's
to
>stop me? Answer: Agreement between players on what constitutes a size
>class. Not the rules!

But it provides a good yardstick to measure with. You have to have 
some unit of measure to compare. If not size, then something else.

>
>Note 3: If the other player paid X (large number) points for his little
>nuclear jeep, in theory you should have a lot of stuff on your side
that
>is non-munchkin-like to fight him with.

So he's got a Davy Crockett mounted on the back of an M38. Big deal. 
You're playing with nukes or not. If so, then how he delivers a given 
yield should be in the rules. One could just as easily argue that you 
can deploy nukes with a team of power armor. But, prior arrangement 
needs to be made. Currently the only way you deliver nukes is large 
artillery, HARs and DFO. This is in keeping with modern doctrine and 
methods. The W80 backpack thingy is a very special case.

>If so, where is the unfairness? If you're both keeping your designs
>secret (mostly bunk in my opinion), then you can do just the same to
>him. But that exists now... you could come to the battlefield with a
>pile of heavily armed VTOLs and he could arrive with the GMS jeep army!
>That's the silliness of secret force battles with munchkins.

I've got a set group of vehicles that I've played with several 
people. They know what they are and as I've got the largest 
contingent of DS useful figs, we usually use what I have more often 
than not.

>In reality, you generally have some idea of enemy capabilities (their
>existing designs). True, you could be unlucky enough to be at the first
>battle for which a new technology is debuted, but if that is the case,
>you should be getting onto your intel people about their poor
>prepration!

This is true. A tank could be a dressed up command vehicle with just 
exterior camoflage, but it'd better be the same size vehicle with the 
same size power plant. Two similar figures shouldn't be size 2 and 
size 5.

>So, I would address this issue by making most designs public (Jane's
>2183) but not telling which ones I plan to bring. Also, realistically,
>you'd have some clue of typical organizational structures of your
>opponent. Either that or you've got a larger problem than a weak point
>system....

Or design several sub types such that they are very similar. Is that 
a FIST or is that a GMSH carrier? Is that a command post, an APC, a 
supply vehicle, an engineer vehicle or something else?

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