Re: Fighter CAP and Screens in FT

In response to another gent who stated that a "house rule" might be
needed, and only used for that scenario - cuz it might be abused...

Shame, shame, shame!

  Whenever possible, rules should reflect an underlying "reality" if
possible.  When the rule isn't realistic, it is usually because the
"truely realistic" rule isn't easy to implement for the game.  This is
the
"realism" vesus "playability" debate/tradeoff that many game designers
have to face that are "wargames".  Of course, some games give up any
pretense of being realistic, so those games can be whatever the designer
(and players for that matter) want.

  To address the issue, I too believe that there should be some form of
"weak" shielding rules.  Maybe the concept of formation flying
(mentioned
as squadron flying in one of the rules books) could be required in order
to get the benefit of shielding.  For example:

Shielding ships are required to be within 2 inches of the shielded ship.
Ships may not break formation, nor speed up faster than the shielded
ship
other than to interpose their ship between the shielded ship, and the
aggressor.  Clear line of sight between aggressor ships and the shielded
ship negate any "shielding bonus" (whatever that might be).
  Bear in mind - the shielding bonus should not be "absolute".	The
shielding ship should not be able to entirely cover the shielded ship. 
At
best, maybe shielding will allow for the shielded ship to have one level
of screens, but any damage that is reduced as a result of the shielding,
goes against the ship doing the screening...

Just a response to someone else's complaint...

Hal