Re: strike the colors rule

[agoodall@xxxxxxxxxx]

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

> No, no, a thousand times no. I hate this rule. This is not the 
> wooden ships and iron men era. How many ships "struck their colors" in WW1 & 
> WW2?

The flip side of the question is how many times in World War II did two fleets meet where both sides lost all of their escort craft and all but one or two capital ships? This is pretty common in FT pick-up games.

The problem with any naval wargame is that players will play to the last ship. Losing a ship is less important than losing a scenario. If there is the slightest chance that a ship will do major damage to the enemy, even though it means certain destruction for the ship, the player takes it. There is no reason not to. Losing the scenario with 10 ships destroyed is no different -- in players' minds -- to losing a scenario with 100 ships destroyed... they still lost. The tactical game doesn't take into account the importance, and rarity, of the ships as strategic assets.

This is true of naval games and sci fi starship games. I've seen it argued that the only way to properly play naval games is as part of a strategic campaign. That's the only time you see players try to protect ships during a losing battle. It's the only time you see both players willingly disengage after having dealt and received what many in FT would consider minor damage.

The "strike the colours" rule tries to bring this sort of situation into play by not letting players waste their ships. It's essentially a morale rule. It's the same reason Stargrunt players aren't allowed to waste their squads to the last man (though the morale rules are too forgiving IMO).

I've used the rules in one shot games and I don't mind them. It helps simulate "the big picture". Perhaps more of a SG2 type of rule is needed, though, with differing motivation rules. 

Certainly ships shouldn't surrender during a "last ditch attempt to save Earth" scenario. On the other hand, a squadron commander should be shot if he loses all of his destroyers to a chance encounter with a battlecruiser on a simple patrol mission. In the FT tournaments I've helped run, a ship loses after half of the fleet is destroyed -- points wise -- which essentially mimics a "we've lost too many ships, time to bolt!" situation. Still, in "real life" most of those fleets should have left MUCH sooner than before half the fleet is destroyed.

Allan Goodall - agoodall@canada.com
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