Re: [FT] Yet Another Fighters Suggestion

At 5:44 PM +0100 2/2/04, Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
>Hugh Fisher wrote:
>
>>The problem: increasing the number of fighters in an attack ("stack of
>>doom") has a non-linear increase in effectivess. It is especially bad
>>in large scale battles using standard Fleet Book designs.
>
>Agreed. Which is why Brian's proposal - increasing the cost of 
>fighter groups - only moves the point of (non)balance a bit, but 
>doesn't solve it.

Well, here is a question. Why is an imbalance wrong? If 45 Bear and 
Backfire bombers were to show up near a US 80's era carrier group, 
the Carrier group would likely eat a few nukes because of the 
saturation of it's air defenses. There is a break point where A<D 
will loose (where A is Attacks and D is defense) and where A>D will 
stuff the defender down the toilet.

It seems that context for the attack needs to be the case in the 
scenario setup.

What's the counter to 50 fighter groups? Plan it so you're at the 
carrier's flanks in 1 turn of movement, pound them and then leave the 
map with your force intact.  Or just refuse the engagement entirely.

>
>(If you use custom designs, your proposal is completely ineffective 
>since the players can design any size of carrier they like anyway.)

Intel on the opposing force is a good idea. Why should a totally 
custom force have all the advantage on a non-custom book fleet?

Again, that context for the battle is key.

Randy Joiner and I sat down Sunday and hashed out our ideas on 1 page 
of graph paper how a fleet action scale FT game should work. This 
should go a long way to fixing, at least on larger scales, how 
fleet's fight each other. Furhter, it differentiates between types of 
task groups and encourages specialized units doing their thing.

In a nut shell it involves a second map. Either a full 1" across hex 
type map or something smaller that you can keep track of. But a Hex 
form of some sort. Groups are charted on graph paper and are moved 
around the hexes at the rate of their thrust points (possibly a 
problem, but we'll see). When two (or more) groups meet, they are 
placed on the table with correct vectors and formations, then they 
fight. A group could be a single scout ship or an entire line of 
battle with support ships.

Sensors are taken into account with jamming affecting range and the 
data that one gathers from sensors. Groups are initially represented 
with bogey markers and are progressively revealed with more 
information based on sensor data. Active scans may be made with 
active jamming able to reduce sensor range.

We'll have to play test it a bit before we send the rules up the 
chain for further playtesting.

Get your bogey markers and hex maps ready.
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