[FT] AAR summary - Full Thrust Asteroids

Greetings, all!

Our merry trio of intrepid Full Thrust'ers played a most enjoyable game
of
FT Asteroids tonight.  Lonnie, Ken, and myself brought 1000 pt fleets
into
a randomly moving asteroid field, and the award of "Making the Largest
Impression" goes to Lonnie, who proved without a shadow of a doubt that
ramming even a small asteroid with a Destroyer is a *BAD* idea! [hehehe]

Fleet Setup
=================================================
Fleet Book Rules
1000 pts, Cruisers and Escorts only, max 666 points in one class

I brought 2 Heavy Cruisers, 2 Heavy Destroyers, and a Missile Frigate
Lonnie brought 2 Heavy Cruisers, 2 Destroyers, and an Escort Destroyer
Ken brought a Scout Carrier, a Heavy Cruiser, and two Destroyers

[Note to Ken:  personally, I would classify a 90 Mass ship with Class 2
shields as a Capital Ship (BattleCruiser) instead of a Heavy Cruiser,
but
that's just me. :-]

Asteroids
=================================================
Large Asteroids were cut from an 8"x8" blank
Medium Asteroids were cut from a 4"x4" blank
Small Asteroids were cut from a 2"x2" or 2"x3" blank
All asteroids were cut out of heavy gray cardstock and given a randomly
placed vector pointer.

Table setup
=================================================
4' x 6' Starscape mat

1 large asteroid placed in center of map.

4 medium asteroids placed approx. 12" away from center asteroid on 4
cardinal points.

8 small asteroids placed in 12" circle around center asteroid on
remaining
clock points.

Roll randomly for each asteroid's starting vector and velocity.
  1d12 = vector (per clock, 12 o'clock = Ken's/Lonnie's edge)
  1d8 - 2 = velocity

	       12 o'clock vector
	+-----------------------------+
	|@			     #|
	|	     S M S	      |
	|	   S	   S	      | 3 o'clock
	|	  M    L    M	      | vector
	|	   S	   S	      |
	|	     S M S	      |
	|&			      |
	+-----------------------------+

	@ = Ken's start
	# = Lonnie's start
	& = Mark's start

The large asteroid in the center rolled a zero velocity.  So did the
medium
and two small asteroids at vectors 6, 7, and 8.  The medium "9" and
small
"10" moved in the "9" direction, while everything else headed in the
general direction of Lonnie's starting position.

To spice things up, we decided to add additional random asteroids using
the
following rules:

1) A new asteroid was generated immediately if an existing asteroid
exited
the table.

2) Every turn starting on turn 2 - after orders & initiative - the
initiative loser rolled to see if one or more asteroids would enter the
table.

3) Rolls were made using 1d6.  For every turn that a new asteroid
*wasn't*
generated, one die was added to the next turn's roll.

4) The number of new asteroids generated were counted just like beam
hits:
   1,2,3 = no new asteroid
     4,5 = 1 new asteroid
       6 = 2 new asteroids + reroll

5) The size of each new asteroid generated was based on 1d6:
   1,2,3 = small asteroid
     4,5 = medium asteroid
       6 = large asteroid

6) Roll 1d6 and use even/odd to determine if the asteroid entered on the
12
o'clock or 6 o'clock table edge.

7) Roll 1d6 to determine which 12" segment of the table edge the
asteroid
entered on.  Measure from left to right and place in the center of the
edge
segment.
   1 = @ 6"	 4 = @ 42"
   2 = @ 18"	 5 = @ 54"
   3 = @ 30"	 6 = @ 66"

8) Place movement vector of new asteroid so that it points directly
across
the table (facing either vector 6 or 12).  Roll 1d6 to see if the vector
veers 1 vector point left or right:
   1,2 = move vector LEFT one point
   3,4 = no veer
   5,6 = move vector RIGHT one point

9) Roll 1d4/1d8/1d12 for initial velocity, depending on asteroid size:
   Use 1d12 for small asteroids
   Use 1d8 for medium asteroids
   Use 1d4 for large asteroids

10) If a new asteroid would wipe out a ship on it's initial movement -
before a ship had a chance to react - reroll for placement and velocity.

Although this sounds like a lot, it was actually really easy and fast -
especially since Ken couldn't roll up new asteroids for the life of him
the
few turns he lost initiative. <g>

The other fun bit was to modify the "avoiding asteroid collisions" rules
as
follows:

A) Ships with completely disabled drives cannot avoid a collision.

B) If the relative vectors between the ship and the asteroid differ by 0
or
1 - i.e. if both ship and asteroid are moving in the same direction -
then
the *difference* in speeds is used to determine the "CURRENT VELOCITY"
for
avoidance purposes.

Example: If a ship moving 8 on vector 6 "catches" an asteroid moving 3
in
the same vector (5, 6, or 7), then the CURRENT VELOCITY is considered to
be
5.  The thrust rating is subtracted from this to determine the avoidance
roll per the normal rules in FT.

C) If the relative vectors between the ship and the asteroid differ by 5
or
6 ("head on"), then the *SUM* of the speeds is used to determine the
CURRENT VELOCITY.

Example: One of Lonnie's destroyers ended his move on turn six moving at
velocity 15 on vector 7.  At the start of turn seven, a small asteroid
moving 8 on vector 2 moved through his position (asteroids move first
<eg>).	The CURRENT VELOCITY for avoidance was 15 + 8 = 23!!!!!  Even
after
subtracting his thrust rating of 6, his avoidance roll was 16, which is
kind of difficult to do rolling 1d6.

  Can you say - SPLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATT!!!!?  I knew you could!

We played seven turns before we called it a 3-way draw.  Each of us had
lost about 1/2 of our ships, and it started to snow outside - yuck!. 
Ken
brought his usual fighter-heavy group, but found out that both Lonnie
and I
had loaded up on PDS and ADFCs.  Didn't help me much - 14 PDS rolls in
one
turn against his 4 fighter groups resulted in a grand total of 5 fighter
kills, without a 6 or reroll in sight.	The usual KOCHTE FIELD infested
my
Pulse Torp die rolls . . .

  INDY!!! YOU CAN TAKE THE *&%@^$^%$@#%^!! FIELD BACK NOW! PLEASE??

. . ., resulting in multiple '1' rolls when I needed a 2 or better to
hit
at point blank range, or damage rolls of '1' and '2' when I *did* hit.
Bleach!

   Looky looky!  Pretty Lights!  See the pretty lights?  I like pretty
lights . . .

===================================================================
Mark "Hauptmann" Shurtleff
  email: hauptman@sfcmd.com -or- hauptman@concentric.net
      The Gear Locker - http://www.sfcmd.com/HeavyGear
	  Full Thrust - http://www.sfcmd.com/fullthrust

 Finagle's Law:
   The perversity of the Universe tends towards the maximum.
===================================================================