Re: Re: [GZG] [FT] Strategic Campaigns?

[David Billinghurst <davebill@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Nyrath,

> Did you use Stellar Conquest's economic system to allow the
> purchase of new warships?  Did you use the research system
> for anything but ship speed?

Yes and yes (which also explains my fuzziness over the strategic move time
duration).

Every four turns I run a build phase, as per Stellar Conquest, where I tot
up the Industrial points generated by planetary population and
industrialization (ie factory units purchased), modified by whether a colony
is on a mineral rich world or not.  This generates Industrial Points which
can be spent on Technology (Ship Speed as per SC, Weapons Research as per
SC, and Tech Research as per SC), Items (such as Colony Transports,
Factorys, Robotic Factories, Planetary Defence Units, Advanced Planetary
Defence Units, Planetary Shields - all as per SC and all dependant on having
the required tech research levels) or Ships.

With ships I was trying to strike a balance which gave players ALMOST the
ships they wanted (in numbers), without having runaway fleets.

Basically, they could either buy off the peg (FB1, the various Beta Fleets)
or design their own.  As the players were starting new into FT, they tended
to go for off the peg, though the Japanese player has developed his own
Heavy Missile Cruisers (which first saw action at 2nd Dubne) - and as a keen
student of WWII Pacific Naval Warfare, his concepts tended to merge with the
'feel' of the Japanese Beta Fleet.

Basically, I worked out that one Stellar Conquest Industrial Point equalled
63 Full Thrust points.  The reasoning behind this is now a little fuzzy,
though went something along the lines that a SC Scout cost three IP and,
given the coarseness of the SC scale, this probably actually represented
something like a flight of nine FT scouts when it came to exploring a star
system.  As 50% of the listed scouts in FB1 cost 21 points each, three of
them equal 63 points or 1 IP.

Players started with 2000 Full Thrust points of ships (plus four Scout
Troops of 9 scouts) and could buy as many ships as they had IP every four
turns (during the production phase), which could include replacement scouts.
Obviously, with the attractions of tech development and colonists, no-one to
date has gone for a complete ship build.

Also, as ship cost doesn't work out exactly in the 1 to 63 conversion, I
have allowed partial builds, though the partially built ship is not useable
until completed, but are notedon the player's turn report.

Planetary defence units are basically BDN type weapons platforms which can't
manoeuver or FTL, while Advanced Planetary Defence Units are SDN type
weapons platforms.  This makes them beatable, but expensive to shift at near
equal numbers (as I think I'm about to discover at Cephei when 2nd Fleet
goes in to take out the NSL command post.  I hadn't anticipated the NSL
player tossing a PDU into orbit so soon - darn, pre-plotted moves!).

I use the SC card system to determine basic star system composition.  As I
also use Roger West's method  for determining where in a system a battle
takes place, I tend to flesh out a star system when someone sends a scout
troop or fleet through it.  I have been using Traveller Book 6: Scouts for
the additional info but what it boils down to is basically rolling 2d6 for
the number of orbits, then rolling 9 or less on 2d6 for the presence of gas
giants, then rolling 2d6 for the nummber of gas giants - 2, 3 = 1, 4, 5 = 2,
6,7 = 3, 8-10 = 4, 11,12 = 5.  Then rolling 6 or less on 2d6 for the
presence of asteroid belts, then rolling 2d6 for the number of belts with
2-6 = 2, 7+ = 1, then comparing the total number of objects, including the
original planets generated by the card draw, with the total number of
orbits, and loosing gas giants and asteroid belts until they fit.  Any other
orbits are occupied by rocky worlds of no value.  I usually place asteroid
belts inside the orbits of gas giants if possible, though there may be no
scientific reason for this.

This is the location of a website Chris Harrod, the NSL player, has put up
about our game.  The speculation pieces are all his :), though he has
included the full text of the rules we are using (please note the
acknowlegements before you reach for your lawyer :) )

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/litesmth/fullthrust/index.html

I intend putting up the full game log once we're done.

Regards

David




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