re: ground combat and bombardment

I like it, except for a  couple of things.
1) 1 mass = 1 CF doesn't distinguish having armor units.
2) Rolling beam dice per CF means lots and lots and lots of dice.  
Did I say enough 'lots'?
Maybe having 5 mass = 1 CF = 1 die would be better.

Now rolling beam dice and having some defensive units being "screened"
is a neat concept.  It uses the FT rules which we're all familiar with. 
I've 
thought about ignoring unit types, since it might be likely that
everything 
will be combined arms.	Grav tanks probably will replace supporting air
units.
Also, I'd rather have the units defending the planet having a 'screen 
level-1' 
affect.

I like the idea of PDS on the planet shooting at landings.  Fire at
regular 
landers
like firing at a missile, drop troops and hardened landers as if a
class-1 
beam.
Now what would be a "hardened" lander?	One drawback would be having 
streamlined transports just land on the planet.  Treat each 'PDS' on the

planet
as a class-1 beam when firing at landing ships?  Heck, not PDS, but 
speciallized
class-1 beams that cannot fire out of the atmosphere.  Against regular
landers
needs a 5-6, drop troops/hardened landers needs a 6, roll normally
against
landing ships.	Let's call them, um, Planetary Defense Batteries (PDB).
To avoid extra die rolling, have a ship with class-2 beams or better
suppress 
1 PDB and each Ortillery system suppress 1 PDB.  Suppressed PDBs cannot
fire at landing units.	Or is this too easy for an attacking player to
plan 
for?
Alternatively, roll each 'bombardment attack' as a PDS firing on a
missile?
4-5 suppresses 1, 6 destroys one and suppresses one with a reroll.

just ramblings off the top of my head..

Glen
(my friend who would like to use Squad Leader to do combats in a
strategic WW2 game would be appalled at this.. yes, the same guy
that hates seeing modified WW2 naval ships as space ships)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
-----------------------------
If you're only wanting abstract out ground combat, how about a variation
of
the boarding rules?
If you use 1 mass = 1 combat factor then you don't need to worry about
individual points/modifiers etc.
Charge a fixed amount (say 5 FT points) per factor to take into account
economics.  This still gives the opportunity to choose forces for either
DS
or SG from just the mass available if you want extra detail or just
allocate
a fixed rating to the planet (say about 30 for a colony planet, 100 for
an
industrial centre).

Simply add up the combat factors, roll that many die & read as for beam
die
(including re-rolls).
If you want to differentiate, then give armoured units screen-1 &
aerospace
screen-2 to represent the increased survivability.

With regard to opposed landings, give the planet an orbital defence
rating.
Each point gives 1 die of unopposed PDS fire against the landing troops.
Each kill removes 1 combat factor before the troops even hit the
surface.
This would give a good reason to apply orbital bombardment before
sending in
the troops.

With regard to orbital bombardment, you should only allow beams &
ortillery,
as everything is inaccurate or has nasty side effects (radiation for
starters).  Ships with any amount beams add one combat factor, while
each
separate ortillery system adds 1 combat factor.   This should really be
limited to taking out the orbital defences to allow surface landings, as
once ground forces engage, this sort of fire support would be rarely
used.