RE: Capital Ships in Campeign Games

James Butler writes:

@:)	    I don't see anything wrong with writing rules that keep
@:) powergamers under control. I know there are other people who are
@:) saying just don't play with them but I for one find it hard to
@:) penalize a person for doing what's in their best interests,
@:) especially in a wargame.

  My only worry would be that the rules would become restrictive and
prevent me from using FT for my particular game setting.  Rules like
"thou shalt not fly a capital ship" are not going to help the
situation - everyone will simply ignore any overly restrictive rule.
Therefore it seems more sensible to have a rule like "Thou shalt not
fly a capital ship without an escort of smaller ships whose point
value is X% of the capital ship's point value, and where we recommend
that X be 100".  Now I get the idea that a capital ship should have an
escort of zero or more ships, and I can modify the number and size of
ships required to fit my understanding of what a fleet should look
like.  House rules would specify just what such values are and in
tournaments the standard rules would be used unless otherwise
specified.

  I think most FT rules are like this, especially the optional ones,
and even when they're not, they tend to get treated that way (an
example is the A battery which many groups modify).  So why not go
with the flow and let the players set up their systems the way they
like them?

-joachim