FMA Full Thrust - Playtest Notes (long)

I just played the first playtest of my new FMA combat rules for Full
Thrust
and I thought I'd drop a few notes in here.

For those that missed the first message, the system briefly works like
this.
 All ships have a quality rating of green, regular, or veteran.  To
resolve
an attack, an opposed die roll is made with the attacker rolling a die
for
crew quality plus one or more dice based on the weapons being fired. 
The
defender rolls a die based on the size of his hull plus a possible
secondary
die for ECM.  The score of the attacker's crew quality die is paired
with
each of the weapons dice and these pairs of scores compared to the
defender's
score.	If both of the attacker's dice score higher than the defender a
major
hit is scored.	A minor hit is scored if one of the attacker's dice
beats the
defender, and if neither is greater that weapons die misses.  The size
and
number of weapons dice and the effects of major and minor hits is
dependent
on the weapon used.  For instance an A battery has 3d8 weapons dice at
close
range each of which may cause a hit.  The minor hits cause one damage
and
major hits cause two.  The attacker's quality die may be shifted up by
commiting extra firecon to an attack and the defender's die may be
shifted up
or down if the ship uses no thrust or is attacked from the rear.  Screen
protect the ship by adding their level to the defender's primary defense
die.
 I've extended this system to cover fighter/missile intercepts, ECM etc.

Observations from the playtest

1)  "Exec.  Make a note of commendation to fire con section A.	That was
an
awesome shot!"
Since the quality die is paired with each weapon die and compared to the
defender's die, a great roll hear can result in serious carnage since if
this
die exceeds the target's die you are guaranteed at least a minor hit
with
each weapon die.  I had a light cruiser fire 2 B's, 2 C's, and 3
submunitions
at range 10" and score 15 damage.  Ouch!  By the same token, a great
defense
roll can negate even the best gunnery.	The damage overall jackpots a
lot
more but seems pretty close to the original.  Probably a little deadlier
provided the opponent does not have good defense, but less overall if
the
opponent is well screened and using ECM.
2)  "Decisions, Decisions"
If you would like to have to play guessing games a little more during
the
fire phase, this is for you.  Committing extra firecons to a salvo will
shift
the crew quality die up a size, increasing the probability for big
damage.
 On the other hand, the ECM die shifts down with each subsequent attack,
so
using multiple firecon may get you past the countermeasures.  Firing
order
becomes a real game now as well.  Do you go ahead and fire the big guy
first
in the traditional manner, or do you peck away with some smaller ships
hoping
to get him to use up his ECM before the big guns blaze.  A perfect
example
from the game came up with a task group of heavy and light crusiers
escorted
by a DD providing wide area ECM coverage.  The ships were facing a
dreadnought and had two pulse torp DD's approaching from the side.  I
decided
that since the pulse torps ignored the screens, I'd commit the ECM
against
them.  This allowed the dreadnought and a crusier to fire their beam
weapons
without ECM hindrance resulting in a threshold check (which was
disasterous)
for one of the heavy cruisers.	The gamble paid off though since both of
the
pulse torps missed completely.
3)  "Big Ships, Little Ships"
The sized based defender roll seems to offer a balancing point for the
three
ship classes.  Escorts are harder to hit but not able to pack in the
defensive systems and still pack a punch.  Capital ships are easy to
hit, but
have the space to carry screens and ECM.  The larger number of
firecontrols
on capitals allows them to bump their dice up to hit the little guys,
but
then they can only slam one of them each turn.
4)  "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades"
The system of minor and major hits offers possibilities for intermediate
damage which really helps for some of the all or nothing type weapons. 
For
instance, needles may score an intermediate effect on a minor hit where
they
damage the system in question, but not beyond repair.  Damage control
may
bring it back as normal.  A major hit whipes out the system completely
5)  "Ready in 5 minutes or it's Free"
The system didn't seem to take much more time than normal.  Most of the
extra
time seemed to be taken up by picking out the right dice size.	I plan
to get
a set of dice colored in the standard FMA colors, which shouls help.

Overall, I was very pleased.  Seems to capture the feel of the original
weapons nicely.  I consider the movement and threshold check systems to
be
the heart of Full Thrust and this systems touches neither of these.  The
biggest adjustment is the jackpot effect where weapons do nothing for a
few
turns then the defender gets a low roll, the crew gets a high roll, and
lots
of debris appears.

If you are interested in these rules drop me a line and I'll mail you a
copy
with the latest changes.  I'd appreciate any feedback, comments, bugs,
corrections, etc.

Later

Brian