RE: Ftl tugs, mass and psb question

Agreed.
10% mass that is freed up from not installing a FTL drive can easily be
used
for:
 - Level 2 Screens
 - +2 MD
 - Cloaking System
 - Reflex Field
 - Hull
 - Other assorted offensive/defensive systems.

The main arguement (disagreement) that I hear when someone wants to send
a battlerider (nonFTL ships brought by a tug is that the tug should
remain 
untouchable, as it has dropped its ships and is hiding/running/FTLing.
And
then they contend that either 1) The tug should not be counted for point
cost;
2) The tug should only represent 10% of the mass of the battleriders; or
3)
The tug cannot be counted for victory conditions (only the more
efficient
battleriders).

The problem with #1 is that battleriders gain 10% free mass.

The problem with #2 is that the same factors that favor large ships come

into play and favor battleriders. That is larger ships take longer to
reach
threshold checks and can bring more effective fire upon enemy ships
(concentrated fire can remove a smaller enemy ship before it can fire
than the same mass of smaller ships firing on the larger ship). In the
same
way battleriders fleets concentrate the FTL mass of all the fleet into 
a noncombatant ship. While this reduces the overall size of the fleet,
it
makes each ship within the fleet more effective. Take a Maximilian BC
for example. The FTL version is mass 100. However, without FTL, you
can fit the same hull, engines and systems into a mass 87 ship. So 
you gain 13% instead of the expected 10%. It does vary with ship 
size: the Van Tegethoff 200m ship gains 11% (178), the Huron 50m 
ship gains 14% (43m).

The problem with #3 is that the same as #2, that is the victory point
force
is more efficient than a similar FTL force.

I, too, can live with 20% for tugs. It provides a more efficient
fighting 
force and provides benifits that normal FTL does not (i.e. can move
objects
without having to fit them with FTL).

For a tournament or one-off that allows non-FTL ships, perhaps a 15%
penalty
should be applied to the non-FTL force?

-----
Brian Bell
bkb@beol.net  
http://www.ftsr.org	
-----

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Frits Kuijlman [SMTP:frits@pds.twi.tudelft.nl]
> Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2000 3:50 AM
> To:	gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
> Subject:	Re: Ftl tugs, mass and psb question
> 
[snip]

> In a campaign game this wouldn't matter. However, for a single
conflict it
> would be tempting to exploit this to make mass free for offensive
weapons,
> thus increasing the likelyhood of winning. The likelier the win is,
the
> less
> people would have to worry about the survival of the tug and possible
> hasty
> exits. This would give single conflicts a more unnatural feel.
> 
> So, I can live with this. We can justify the 20% psb by either:
> - needed to extend the ftl field to another hull(laserlight)
> - 10% for the tugged mass, and 10% for clamping/connecting facilities
> 
> Still, it's a shame that a tug only gives cost savings in long term
> campaign games, and not in short term mass/point costs.
> 
> Cheers,
>	Frits
> -- 
> Frits Kuijlman		     F.Kuijlman@{its,cs,twi}.tudelft.nl
> Delft University of Technology			The Netherlands