RE: FT - No initiative simultaneous fire

In the Operation Avalanche game we seperated the ship-to-ship fire into
"Fire Phases". In a normal game, a fire phase would be 1 ship firing. In
OA,
a Fire Phase allowed a Fire Group to fire in a Fire Phase. A Fire Group
would consist of 1 capital (Battlecruiser and above), 2 Cruisers (Light
to
Heavy Cruiser), or 3 Escorts (Hvy Destroyer and under).  You could also
fire
1 escort in place of a cruiser if you desired. Fire Groups were fluid,
and
could change each round. Inititive was rolled for each side. The winning
side got the 1st Fire Phase and then the Fire Phases alternated.

This helped bring the balance between the large ships and the small
ships
closer (not equal, but closer). This was a set scenario, so the numbers
of
large and small ships on each side was about equal. 

If doing a 1-off, I would suggest giving a +1 on the inititive roll to
the
side with more ships. If the groupings are 2:1, then allow the side with
more ships to fire 2 groups to the other sides 1 group. If 3:1, then 3
groups to 1 group, etc. This does not necessarily fix a mixed group
fighting
an Uberdreadnought, but helps in most situations.

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

> -----Original Message-----
> From: stranger [SMTP:stranger@cvn.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2001 8:26 PM
> To:	gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
> Subject:	FT - No initiative simultaneous fire
> 
> 
> > So, now we have unbalanced firing in favor of a lot of 'little'
> > starships?	<grin>
> > >We have played FT this way, with large battle as well. It work very
> > >well,
> > >as that lovely SDN you have does die before it can fire anything.
> 
> I've been thinking about the different fire options, including
> simultaneous,
> thrust based, mass based and just plain old random.  All the arguments
> I've
> heard so far have been very good and quite convincing, which leads me
to
> think that perhaps a combined system might be best.  I was thinking
that
> initiative could be divided up into groups, and each groups fire would
be
> simultaneous within that group.  The groups could first be formed
based on
> thrust, so as to give the more nimble ships a first shot, by taking
the
> thrust of the "fastest" ship and averaging it with the thrust of the
> "slowest" ship.  All ships with thrust ratings greater than that
average
> are
> in group one, all other ships are in group two.  Then, maybe the
groups
> could be divided once more based on some other criteria, such as crew
> quality.  That could break each group into possibly three groups as
your
> elite units fire first (simultaneous), followed by veterans, followed
by
> green.
> 
> All in all, you end up with six groupings, based on nimbleness of the
> various ships, and quality of the crew.  Within each grouping, the
fire is
> simultaneous, because as someone aptly pointed out, each turn is like
5 to
> 20 minutes in length.  I personally chose thrust over crew quality
because
> in my opinion, a crew, even a really good one, can only do so much
with a
> ship.  I am sure this can be argues to the converse as well.
> Additionally,
> other types of modifiers could be added, depending on the complexity
> desired.  The interesting thing is, it could add a few other design
> features
> to the games and scenarios.  For example, a ship behind in maintenance
> manned by an elite crew could be treated as Veteran for purposes of
> initiative for the scenario in question.
> 
> The system sounds a lot more complex than it is.  For example,
> 
> NAC Vandenburg Heavy Cruiser Veteran Crew (Thrust 6)
> 2 NAC Furious Escort Cruisers Green/Veteran Crews (Thrust 4)
> 4 NAC Ticonderoga Destroyers Elite Crew (Thrust 6)
> 
> versus
> 
> FSE Roma Battleship Veteran Crew (Thrust 4)
> 2 FSE Milan Escort Cruisers Veteran Crews (Thrust 6)
> 
> Average of High Thrust (6) and Low Thrust (4) is 5.  So all ships with
> thrust 6 are in first group, all other ships are in second group.  IN
each
> group, elites, then veterans, then green fires, so initiative would go
> like
> this:
> 
> FIRST: NAC Ticonderoga's
> SECOND: NAC Vandenburg Heavy Cruiser, both FSE Milan Escort Cruisers
> (simultaneous)
> THIRD:  1 NAC Furious Escort Cruiser, FSE Roma Battleship
(simultaneous)
> FOURTH:  remaining (green) NAC Furious Escort Cruiser.
> 
> That took me a lot longer to type up than to figure out (less than a
> minute).  If playing with secret fleets, its still not a challenge to
find
> out the best and worth thrust rating from each fleet, make the
> calculation,
> then notify the players of the breakdown.  Then during play simply
call
> out,
> "FAST GROUP ELITE Fire!"  "FAST GROUP VETS FIRE", etc etc etc.
> 
> Just a thought.
> 
> Since I don't get near as many games in as I'd like, I'd sure
appreciate
> it
> if someone would try it out and let me know....
> 
> George