Re: "Custom" fleets

stiltman@teleport.com wrote:
[...]
> Incidentally, we play cinematic on a fixed edge... which makes this
tactic
> pretty unsound right there.  I honestly don't understand why anyone
would
> _want_ to play on a floating-edge table... it's basically _asking_ for
people
> to bore you to death with keepaway.

Well, honestly, if I were playing up against some of the ships/fleets
you've described, I would really insist on floating edges just to keep
ranges open and allow for maneuverability. Otherwise you are forcing
tactics which would benefit your fleets, such as the dreadplanet, and
disallowing any other tactic which would have a chance of defeating
it. I'm not talking about boring keepaway games, though thinking about
it more maybe your definition of 'keepaway games' is different than
mine.
Correct me, please, if I'm wrong: does your definition mean staying out
of range of the enemy's fleet/ships, so as to not take damage from them
but still inflict damage back? Or is it this 'retrograde' like maneuver
in which your enemy keeps running away from you, forcing you to pursue
them? If the latter, that's my definition. If you're just going to run
away, fine. I will sit and declare victory. However, if you are 
*maneuvering* and keeping the range open, but *not* running away (eg,
going up against something that is exclusively Class-1/Class-2 heavy
in beam weapons, and you have a greater number of Class-3s), then it's
a fight. A difficult one, to be sure (one game that comes to mind that
was like this was going up against Noam's NI fleet with their stealthed
hulls - remember that battle, Noam? :-P - frustrating has hell to fight,
but the fleet I had to go against him was *not* designed or optimized to
take on that fleet of his; ultimately iirc he won, but I badly damaged
his force in the process).

If we would have been using a fixed table, the NAC fleet (vanilla FB1
stuff with less than 10% Mass in modifications, if any) I was flying
against Noma's fleet would have ultimately pinned his NI ships against
a wall/corner and would have dealt a LOT harsher with them than they
did.

However, the 'keepaway' tactic you fear is not used that often, at least
in the untold number of games I've played, with people all across this
country, both in RL and PBeM. Most people I've played with (okay, all
people *I* have played with) favor the floating map, yet do their
damndest
to keep ships *engaged* with each other, not to go running off into the
nether voids to dodge retaliation. 

I could be wrong, but I think if you and your group decided to open
up the table to a floating map (and this would take some work, actually,
because *saying* the table floats doesn't mean people won't in their own
minds do their level best to not fly off of it; we've taken to using the
floor more often than not to help lift this artificial mental barrier),
you will discover tactics of manuevering will come into play, rather
than
a choice between being pinned against a corner/wall or heading down a
'dead man's guantlet' (or whatever it was you described your wife's
final
tactics the other night with the K'V). Maneuvering requires there be
space to move about in. Fixed fields of play strongly over-favor things
like the dreadplanet by crippling maneuverability.

Now, granted, I don't typically fly at OVs (Oerjan Velocities), nor do
we play with behemoths such as your dreadplanet (preferring smaller,
faster ships; my favorite battles are those with clusters of cruiser to
battleship sized ships, ranging from masses of 50 - 130 or so). Things
to be taken into account from this side of things.

Mk