RE: Capital Ships in Campeign Games

   IMHO the reason that these issues regarding the use of over-optimized

warships arrize is that the players have no reason to build all of the
other 
ships.	
   Unless you give a reason such as supply lines etc to build auxillary
ships 
you will never see them on the table.  I've played in a campeign where I
used 
lots of missiles, therefore, in order to reload my task forces after
battle I 
had to employ AOEs (Auxillary Amunitions Oilers).  The Campeign also
required 
merchant ships to bring raw materials from places like asteroid belts to

production facilities, again creating a need for them.
   There is a general trend in all of the worlds navies to build
multi-role 
frigates, all of the same class to save on tooling costs, etc. 
Meanwhile,
 nations like South Africa build nothing but corvettes and diesel
submarines.
Why?  Because their geo-political situation allows them to do so.  China
has
a mostly frigate and corvette fleet for the same reason and India the
same.
Both of those nations are now investing in Fleet support craft such as
oilers and tenders to enable their ships to operate at a distance from
their
homelands.  Indonesia instead maitains multiple shore facitilies around
their islands to enable their naval patrol craft to constantly travel
and
resupply at these posts.
  So my suggestion to Jon and others is not to impose certain artifial 
limitations of vessels size etc on players but to create campeign rules
that 
force the player to decide what he wants to do and outfit from there. 
Half the 
fun of this game is seeing different philosophies of ship designing
clash on the
 table top.  It would be a grave mistake to straitjacket players into
certain 
designs...  Reminds me of another game with volumes of ship designs and
rules...
   Campeing rules should include:
     Commerce requirements for merchants.
     Endurance rules that are proportional to ship size and/or points.
     Repair and resupply rules for Tenders, Bases and Auxillary ships.
     Amphibious rules for troop ships.
   
   Phil P.