Re: colour striking

G'day guys,

 >Thus I think either the scenario or the universe in which you
 >are playing should really be fleshed out better in order to
 >implement morale rules or 'no surrender/fight to last' rules

I think that's an important point. In the general GZGverse most fighting

vessels have FTL capability and so many of us seem to fall into the
habits 
of modern naval warfare morale in a game where the ships tend to fight a

lot more like vessels from earlier naval periods. In contrast in a
GZGverse 
offshot I'm mucking around with there's an alien race who (a bit like
the 
IF) don't have FTL capability, even on their largest SDNs. Instead whole

fleets travel around attached to an FTL spine, they unlock from it
before a 
battle, leave it somewhere safe and limp back afterwards. In the history
of 
this species their own internal conflicts saw fierce fighting amongst
the 
non-FTL vessels but the spines were so precious that they struck their 
colours very quickly if threatened and were considered so prized by both

sides you didn't damage one, it just wasn't done. Mind you they got a 
mighty surprise when they ran into other species that had FTL on all
ships 
who weren't so reverential of the mammoth spine ships. So I'd agree that

under the strict name of "strike the colours" then it will depend on the

universe and circumstances you're playing.

Having said that I still enjoy using the strike the colours (treated
like a 
critical) as a fast, easy to remember proxy for morale.... you get the
odd 
nervous or inexperienced lot who high tails it rather quick, but you can

also get the ship that dies before it bows. In the campaign we played
there 
was also "a memory" built into the process. If you fired on a ship that
had 
struck then that race got a +2 to any future "strike the colours" rolls 
against you in the future (and it was incremental, so if you did it a
few 
times then they were going to get an automatic pass and fight to the
last 
hull box in every case).

Cheers

Beth

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax 03 6232 5053 International +61 3 6232 5053