Drawing Fire/Screening/Initiative

As has been mentioned before, a problem creeps up in FT when the
scenario 
calls for protecting a convoy or screening a battle-group. The problem
is 
that the attackers can ignore the ships firing on them and go for higher

victory points by attacking convoy. Following are some rules to mediate 
the problem.

Initiative:
Each side rolls 1 dice (or 1 dice per "flight" of ships). The side with 
the higher score wins and has the CHOICE of moving Fighters/Missiles 1st

or 2nd, and the CHOICE of firing 1st or 2nd. Fire is broken into 4 
rounds. The number of ships that fire in a round is the total number of 
ships on a side/4 (round down) with any extra ship firing in the last 
round. If there are more than 1 side, each side rolls a die. The side 
with the higher score determines if moving Fighters/Missiles are in 
ascending or descending order (highest first/lowest last or lowest 
first/highest last), and ascending/descending order for fire.

Drawing Fire:
If a ship if hit (damaged or would have been damaged except for 
screens/armor), it must direct a MINIMUM of 1 fire control to return
fire 
on the ship that hit it. This is even if the ship is out of range or not

in a valid firing arc (this simulates loss of concentration due to being

hit). ALL DAMAGE IS SIMULTANEOUS, except *DAF fire which occurs first 
(All ships get to fire even if destroyed on a previous round (same 
turn)). Threshold rolls are made after the last round of fire. Firing 
order is just to determine Drawing Fire effects.

Comments/Suggestions wanted. This was done off the top of my head and
has 
not been tested.

Brian Bell
pdga6560@compuserve.com
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pdga6560/fthome.html
Includes the Full Thrust Ship Registry.
161 Designs now listed!  Is your ship design here?