Re: Full Thrust

>I just organised our first Full Thrust game between my two sons.  
Quite
>good although in play the movements and weaponry give very much on the
>"aircraft" model of space combat.    As I have previously noted,
although
>not on this list (!) I feel space combat "really" would be more like
>old-sailing ship combat with gravity wells providing the effects of
"wind"
>and the game being much more positional.   Full thrust is far more
about
>speed and the ability to turn to effectively bring weapons to bear -
not to
>mention guessing the move of your opponent

Outwitting your opponent (or being outwitted by him!) is very much a
feature of the game - you know (roughly) the envelope within which he
CAN
manoeuvre, but never exactly WHAT he will do until he does it!
Using the alternative Vector movement system (either the official
version
in the Fleet Book vol.1, or one of the various variants that are around
on
the net) will give a VERY different feel to the game, utterly unlike
either
wet-navy or air games - and with that, factoring in simple gravity well
effects becomes very easy if you want to do it.
>
>The "annoying" bit was my eldest son kept moving his ships to light
speed
>whenever he started losing.   He mostly died but took swaths of his
>brother's ships with him.    Since we were playing with mostly Light
ships,
>mainly "escort" class with only one light cruiser on each side this
gave
>(for me) unsatisfying ends to the games where everyone got destroyed by
a
>FTL jump failure.

This, like almost everything in the FT rules, is optional. If you find
it
is being exploited, simply define the battle as taking place too deep
inside the FTL limit and ignore the FTL rules altogether - or else
simply
ignore the "damage to other ships" part, so an FTL-induced suicide is
just
that! Never feel afraid to tailor the game to what YOU want to get out
of
it, and that's [OFFICIAL]! <grin>
>
>Is this a problem with Full Thrust for others - people using FTL
failure as
>a weapon?

It is a "munchkinisation" option that can cause trouble with some
players -
there has been a lot of discussion about it in the past on this list.
Amendments will probably be made in future editions/supplements,
including
discussion of various other FTL rule options for the game. In the
meantime,
see above - if you don't like the way a rule works, omit or change it!
>
>Interested to hear back.
>
>A+
>--
>From: J Andrew Evans

Jon (GZG)