RE: Vector Movement and SML's

On Thu, 12 Aug 1999, Izenberg, Noam wrote:

> Here's what I'm drawing up for New Israel - (Joint design with
AI-heavy
> Japan, I think)
> 
> 'AI scout' (Have to find an appropriate name for the function)
> Mass 6, Cost 18
> Thrust 8 
> FTL
> Fragile hull
> 2 Armor

i call these 'granaatscherven', (meaning 'shrapnel'); a friend of mine
uses this term to refer to tiny-valued coins, in reference to what
happens
if you buy a 20p item with a pound coin and the shopkeeper is feeling
vicious - you get a load of tiny bits of metal thrown at you. the sense
of
small size, large numbers and low value exactly capture the intent of
this
kind of ship!

my first granaatscherven design was even more cheesy:

Granaatscherven I
Mass 3
Cost 9
Thrust 6 (same as the ships they escort)
FTL
Hull 1 (average)

Noam's have four hull points, mine have one - given that soaking up an
SM
salvo is going to kill both of these designs, i'd opt for the cheapest
one.

my current, low milk fat, design is mass 7, cost 24 and has 3 PDS. under
the mooted PDS-can-shoot-any-nearby-targets rule, these become handy
little air defence escorts.

i then have variants filling other offline roles such as scout, ECM,
lancers (with subpacs), gunboat (for customs work and such), courier and
stealth courier. only the escort and lancer would be much use on-table,
although the scout would be useful if sensor rules were in use. i would
really also need an interdictor - a fast, armed ship for intercepting
the
enemy's scouts before they can get in sensor range ...

my fleet is then basically battleships and the odd heavy cruiser (like a
mini battleship) wrappped in granaatscherven and backed up by an escort
cruiser (8 PDS, 2 ADFC) here and there. in theory, it's invincible. in
theory :).

> My personal PSB/house rule says the scout can only use thrust 6 if
crewed
> solely by AI. Who would volunteer for suicide duty on one of these
things?

i too claim AI for these ships - after all, they don't exactly have a
difficult job in battle. for jumps and complicated maneuevers, shuttle
some crew over, but when banzai jamming, take the crew onto the
battleship
and leave george to run things.

tom