Re: Space tactics

On Sat, 15 Aug 1998, Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

> Fight somewhere he has to defend - his shipyards, colonies etc....
> 
> This solution seems to come up in every more or less serious essay of
> space combat I've read <shrug>

Well, yes, it's realistic. I just think that from the gaming point of
view
it has a couple of problems (especially combined with
FTL-anywhere-u-like): 

a) People will optimize their fleets (or parts of their fleets) for
strikes against "fixed" targets (this is related to the obscene speeds
issue).

b) It tends to eliminate the possibility for some fun scenarios, e.g.
convoy escort -- just give the slow tubs some time to get up to
speed, and they're home free.

Adding a (very) limited amount of jump points to the mix, you can get
battles around the jump point, but other than that battles _en_route_
somewhere will be incosequential skirmishes -- and frankly, not much fun
to play (place 40 ships, write orders, shoot once, disengage, pack up
the
minis...)

(Not that this is any news: Battleships advocates spent the entire WWI
and
WWII waiting for the decisive battleship engagement, which never really
came about. In addition, I recall reading all the naval battles of WWII
took place within 400 miles of shore. Realism and playability are not
always the same thing.)

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