Re: coupla Full Thrust questions inspire some tactics

At 1:29 PM 10/28/96, Mike Miserendino wrote:> Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
> >On Mon, 28 Oct 1996, Andy Skinner wrote:
>
> >> * 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)?

Detecting a target by active (radar) means that you have the range by
default. You measure how long it takes for each radar pulse to return,
radar propagates at the speed of light so the math is simple. Passive
systems are less certain, but fire control will probably have to use
active sensors for energy weapons. See the Traveller games (Fire,
Fusion and Steel; Brilliant Lances, Battle Rider) for more on this.

> >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>
>
> >> * 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.

There's some rules in More Thrust about exactly this.

> 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.

The above list of warning signs points immediately to some tactics.
Most notably, withdraw lightly damaged ships from close action. This
forms a reserve in plain sight. It's a deception tactic, but Honor
Harrington used even more unlikely tactics to try and gain an edge.

> Mike Miserendino

Michael Carter Llaneza
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1991-1950
http://www.hypnotic.com/
Devolution is very real to me.