Re: [?] Tournament Fleet Composition

On Wed, 22 Apr 1998, John Atkinson wrote:

> Out of curiosity, what is the general feeling of the FT community 
> towards lunatics like myself who like swarm-style fleets?  At a recent

> game I put 36 4-ton ships with one missle each as their only armament. 

That would be my "bathtub launcher" concept, from discussion some time 
back. Back then, I recall not many people took the threat seriously, 
since they thought such tactics would not be employed by "honorable" 
opponents.

Personally, I wouldn't use such a fleet. I just have a perverse interest

in finding holes in rules (perhaps because of losing one game too many
to 
such tactics).

> And what would be an acceptable counter-response?  I can't think off 
> the top of my head what would be a good counter to this strategy.

For a one-off game, there isn't. Especially if you're required to take
escorts, which are pretty worthless in a gunfight. 

Even in a campaign, there isn't much -- you just can't fight a thrust 8
ship that doesn't want to fight without gaining some sort of surprise
(for
which there are no rules, which means arbitrary GM decision, which is
just
a fancy word for "unfair"). 

You have to ask yourself, what will that lead to? Everyone starts taking

bathtub launchers, and soon no one has anything but them. The battles 
play out like this: Both sides enter table. Both launch missiles and
turn 
tail. All missiles miss. End of battle (or repeat ad nauseum with
reloads). 
Lots of fun, huh?

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