Re: FT - Large scale fleet engagements

Reen-Shuler Adrian wrote:

>I'm new to the list and was wondering if anyone had found a good way
>to play large (10+ SD's per side) fleet battles.

Is that 10+ SDs *and escorts* per side, or 10+ SDs on their own? 

10+ SDs without escorts isn't much more work than 10+ smaller ships (I
usually field fleets of around 20 ships of varying sizes), but your
comments about problems with SMs doesn't sound as if you have any
escorts nearby.

Anyway; I don't think 20-30 ships (of all sizes) per player is any
problem. I wouldn't go above 40 ships per player though, and others
would put the limit lower. The best way to shorten the gaming time for
big battles is to have multiple players per side rather than only one.
 
>A bigger problem was that SM's have dominated the game every time >we
play (even when we have an integrated PD net: every SD has Area
>Defense fir con and 10 PDFs).

PDSs. PDF is a file format, PDSs shoot down incoming missiles...

This debate came up immediately after FB1 was published, but died down
after a couple of months when the list members had learned how to cope
with the SMs. There should be quite a few tips in the list archives
(Jerry, what's the address?) from the summer and autumn of 1998.

Anyway:

>In one particularly agregious game 2 SD effectively crippled
>(i.e. 50-75% damage) more than 10 opposing SD's in a single turn. 
>Does any one have effective tactics for defeating SM heavy SD's?

Lessee... 10 SDs with 100 PDS between them and at a guess about 600
hull boxes in all; call it 400 points to reach the damage levels you
indicate... that's just over 50 SMRs on target assuming average rolls.
(Given the number of dice involved, I'd be mildly surprised if the die
rolls were very far from average.) IOW, that's some 200-220 (or
300-330, if you used SMR-ER) Mass of single-shot weapons, so those two
SDs must either have been very big or have had nothing except minimal
hull, minimal engines and their missile payload.

Defence against SMs have two tiers:

1) Don't let them lock on to your ships

2) Shoot them down if they manage to lock on

2) is obvious - lots of PDS systems, including those on nearby
ADFC-equipped ships, and possibly some Class-1 batteries as well.

1) can be done in two ways: either you don't end your movement within 6
mu of the enemy SMs (or 3mu, or whatever, if you play Vector; there's a
very strong reason why the SM rules in FB1 suggest that the SM target
acquisition radius be reduced if you use the Vector movement rules), or
you mix in a bunch of smaller ships between your capitals - ie, the
Banzai Jammers Alan was talking about.

Elaborating on 1a): 

In Vector, dodge your ships around as much as you can. Whatever you do,
don't fly in nice predictable lines. Dodging as much as you can won't
help that much, but every salvo you can evade is one less that's able
to hurt you. Reducing the target acquisition radius makes it easier to
dodge, but it still isn't very easy.

In Cinematic you need to fly fast enough to force your enemy to spread
his salvoes out (and guarantee that some of them miss), or risk missing
with *all* of them if he misjudged your maneuvers. For a thrust-2 ship,
"fast enough" is speed 23 (which is "too fast" for my taste); for
thrust-4 ships "fast enough" is IIRC speed 7. IOW, equip your ships
with thrust-4 engines or better if you play Cinematic. If your opponent
can't predict your maneuvers far too accurately, this type of dodging
should cut the number of salvoes that manage to lock on by 30-50%.

A completely different solution is to use weapons that outrange salvo
missiles, and play with floating edges (ie, effectively unlimited
playing area) so you have space enough to retreat. Class-4 beam
batteries work well for this; if you can make him chase your ships
Class-3 batteries and even Pulse Torps work OK too. It results in a
rather drawn-out and boring battle, but it is one the missile fleet
have no chance of winning unless they're considerably faster than the
long-range fleet.

>Or should the SM point costs just be higher?

No. 

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry