Re: coupla Full Thrust questions

Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
>On Mon, 28 Oct 1996, Andy Skinner wrote:
>> * If a ship passes two thresholds in one shot, do you do
>> the system checks twice?  I assume so, since they'd be getting
>> off easier if not.
>
>Yes, you do.

>> * I need to mark a spot on each ship for measurement purposes.
>> A couple of times we weren't exactly sure whether a ship was
>> in range or not, or it made a difference between 3 dice and 6.
>> Does anyone grant something in between (4 or 5) if it is really
>> close?
>
>All my ships are mounted on 'flying bases'; which makes measurements 
>fairly easy - measure from the 'stem' of the base. If so close as to be

>disputable, I rule that it is out of range.

Base stems work best for determining ranges, but if you do not have the
minis mounted on bases just use the center of the ship from eyeballing
it.
I'd refrain from marking the minis for just doing this when visual
determination is not that difficult.

>> * Do you measure before declaring fire?  I agree with not measuring
>> for many miniatures games, but you'd think that the distances
>> here are measured pretty accurately.  So I'm inclined to allow
>> measuring.  What about checking the fire arc of your ship before
>> declaring targets?  What about checking the enemy's fire arc (to
>> know whether it can shoot at you)?
>
>Well... your Weapons Officer should devote his entire attention to
which 
>enemy ships are in range and arc of your weapons! Of course you may 
>measure beforehand - otherwise the WO should be court-martialled <g>

We never measure in advance.  Only after declaring fire and only if the
said
ship is currently firing.  We consider measuring in advance cheating and
if
someone is caught doing this, it is considered a misfire.  One of the
reasons for not using hex grids for this gaming environment was the
unknown
factors when targeting.  

>> * How much do you know about your enemy's ships?  How big they
>> are, what they carry, current condition of systems and how many
>> boxes filled in?

In basic games we do not share information between sides regarding what
systems are damaged, but you can usually guess if they took damage
simply by
watching a player mark their ship forms during threshold rolls and
noting
what actions the particular ship takes in future turns.

Some actions to watch for:
*Ship moves out of the main line of battle or retreats.
*Ship is not firing as many weapons as in previous turns when targets
exist.
*Ship does not change course when it is obvious it needs to, such as to
prevent flying off table edge or align itself with a target.
*When firing beam weapons, opposing player no longer has shields
available
or the shield number has been reduced since last hit for a screened
ship.
*Player does not have a good Poker face and frowns or shouts expletives
when
rolling for thresholds.

As Oerjan Ohlson noted it is helpful to use ships in scale with each
other
for quick visual cues regarding their function and capability.	If using
the
advanced sensor rules you can determine more(or less) data about a ship
status.

Mike Miserendino