Re: Ship groups

 Flynn,
       Here's how we do it. We play only canon races/nations, and pretty
much limit things to the FB1 and FB2 ships and some variants, with a few
new
designs to fill in gaps as we perceive them. Players are never permitted
to
design their own ships. All the ships are organized into
squadrons/groups/flotillas. Certain organizations are indicated as
available
for a given operation (i.e. a scenario). The players can then pick their
task forces from those organizations. We generally follow the WWII
paradigm
that "squadrons" are administrative and support organizations, not
combat
organizations, but that they effectively define the force pool for a
given
operation (scenario, campaign, whatever). Task Forces are the actual
combat
organization. There is of course some overlap, and each of the major
powers
has a distinctive organizational structure. If you're interested, let me
know, and I'll post them.

		    Bob Eldridge