Re: New Player......

Points to ponder:

1) NAC fleet ->

	Jack of all trades...... Personally I think the CE, CH, BC
suck...
	Generally you need to tweak those 3 designs and add them into a 
	reasonable fleet mix to do well.  So I'd suggest ESU as sort of 
the
	tough thugs with big sticks approach.  Also don't over look the 
joys
	of SML's.  They're hard to get used to... but once you're there 
its
	quite a bit o'fun.  Check out the FSE CH, and Roma BB.... both 
really
	good missle boats (the FSE Ch being my favorite)... although the

NSL
	Waldburg/M is a good sml/cost boat... but too slow for rapid 
strike
	missions.

2) DIY fleets ->

	Stick to FB1 weapons systems (Although feel free to throw in
needle
	beams).  The mines, wave gun, nova cannons just seem not to be 
costed
	balanced very well (Wave guns are covered in More Thrust).  But 
other
	then that a well chosen FB1 fleet should be able to give any DIY

fleet
	a run for its money if the admiral is on his toes.  Typically 
what we
	do is we allow players to design a nations ships and say that if

you use
	this nation... you have to commite to the next 3-4 battles using

only
	those ships.  That way, you have to think about more varied
battle
	situations ect...  After a nation has completed 3-4 battles,
then
	we approve of them and they go in our notebook of valid ship 
designs...
	Usually by then we've found a tactic against them ect....

3) Fleet Size ->

	I'm a fan for 1500 - 2500 pt fleets / side... You can usually
put out 
	a couple capitals and a mix of cruisers/escorts to make things 
	interesting.  When you start climbing in points with DIY then
you 
end up
	with a couple huge ships/side....  So, I'd recomend doing some 
small
	battles.... aka 500-600 pt range.  Personally 2 CL's, 3 FF's
make 
a
	pretty cool/fast battle wing (NAC baby - the huron rocks!)  then
when
	you play a couple battles like that interspereced with bigger 
point
	ones it tends to make you value escorts more then when you start

playing
	large point value games (I'd like to thank the list members who 
kept
	talking about escorts/crusiers/~1000 pts< games for that joy)

Have fun......
Chuck

-- 
The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for.
					  ~Louis L'Amour
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|Chuck Choukalos | IBM : 1000 River Road   | Phone:802-769-5787 (tie
446) 
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|PD Methodology  | Essex Junction, VT 05452| Fax  :802-769-5722 (tie
446) 
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|Department	 | Bldg. 863H Dept. G07V   | Email:chuckc@btv.ibm.com	
 
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