Re: Tenders, among other things

Micheal,
     
Tenders - Missiles could be carried as cargo, just buy the missile 
     and place it in an unused/nonassigned mass area of the ship.
     (However, I suspect that this is unnecessary as most of the 
     attack boats will be destroyed on the initial run.)

Reloading Missiles/submunitions - Simply consider the attack boats
     as fighters for this function.

Boarding actions - Multiple boarding parties from many ships
     is still only one attacking force.

Gunboats and Weapons - Mass  Weapons  #per ship
			2      1      18 
			3      1      12
			4      3       9
			5      4       7
			6      4       6
     If one wishes to follow the carrier rules for the gunboat
     concept, only 2 per turn can be launched.	This means that 
     mass 4, 5, and 6 are the most realistic options during
     a normal game.   (The chart above is only a suggestion and
     not necessarily what is normally used or preferred.)  

Light carrier vs Gunboats and tender - I one did something
    similar, Tender mass 36, 7 mass 5 gunboats, point cost about
    550 to 600 points, it was a one turn combat.   Tender/cruiser
    33% damaged, 6 of 7 gunboats destroyed, all in all very 
    satisfactory result for an experiment.  The Superdreadnought
    was at almost 50% and the Fleet carrier was Past 25%.
    I wound up losing one of the two battleships in my following
    force (to fighters) and finished the Superdreadnought.
    (I considered the battle a draw.)
    (My money is on the carrier if it is built at thrust 5.)
    Victory conditions - The gunboats are not FTL and cannot 
    claim a victory unless they are in a friendly system.
    (Those who wish to claim victory, please stand up!)
    
Nove/Wave guns - Never used one, never seen one, never hope to.

I am certain you will get some other interesting comments, stay 
tuned to this channel.

Bye for now,
John L.