The big picture gaming - was RE: Carriers & Fighter Capacity

I've been playing a bit of DBM (De Bellis Multitudinus) recently and was
impressed by the degree and effect of the starting factors.

First, there is the season of the game - some seasons have a higher
chance for rain and snow which can affect certain units (bows and
arquebuses).  After deciding the season, you roll for the actual weather
(which can change through the battle).	You then choose terrain - each
side has certain choices for terrain and how much terrain which are
placed semi-randomly - the sector is random as well as whether the piece
touches the edge of the board, otherwise the orientation and position
within the sector is the players choice.  The players then decide on
whether they want the position units for ambush or off-board flank
attacks.  The players then place their armies, alternating between
commands.

The interesting parts of this set-up:

1) Each player has some say in the terrain to be used - which allows
each side to choose terrain that is favorable to it's units (i.e.
archers have a hard time hitting targets in woods, but psiloi
(skirmishers) pass easily through woods so woods and orchards are a good
defense against archers).  The assumption of DBM is that the attacker
gets to choose the season of attack, but the defender (in his homeland)
gets to choose the actual location, and is given more options in placing
terrain. If terrain such as nebula, a star's corona, asteroid fields
etc. can be placed by the "defender" you can negate or reduce the
capabilites of the attacker. 

2) Ambushes and flank attacks - if ships can use asteroids, cloaking
devices or ECM to "hide" on the board, then both sides become much more
wary.  If mines are terrain feature that a defender can choose then
attackers will be more cautious in approaching.  If there is the
possibility of a fleet of ships appearing to the side or behind you,
your battle formations are going to diffferent than if you know all the
enemy ships are in front of you. Flank attacks are rolled for each turn
- the the owning player rolls a 6, the command is on it's way and will
appear on the designated side on the next turn. This might represent
powered-down or cloaked ships that were pre-positioned or "coasting" but
under strict communication silence.

3) Commands - in DBM an army is demoralised if enough commanders are
killed.  Fleets should have Flag Ships where the Admiral or Commander is
located, and loss of said ship should cause either a morale check or
some sort of disruption as the Flag is passed to the next ship in line. 
This might require that a very powerful ship is held out of the line of
battle to keep the Admiral safe.

4) Supply - Although not covered in DBM, supply could be introduced as a
cost for ships in a fleet - a certain price or mass cost for the fleet
to maintain full supply, i.e. for every 10 mass of expendables
(missiles, fighters, mines, scatterguns) it costs 1 mass for the supply
train.	Failure to provide the required mass requires a supply roll
similar to a threshold system check, each expendable not covered would
roll to see if it were operational. So a fleet with 55 points of
expendables opts to only pay 5 mass for supply, it would have to find an
expendable system(s) (a hangar of fighters, or a 5 point SML magazine
etc.) to roll on a threshold check (a 6 means it's empty).  So a fleet
can pack up a large amount of missiles, scatter guns or fighters, but is
going to expend a portion of it's overall value to guarantee that they
are available or take the chance that they spent the mass for a hangar
or SML for nothing.

--Binhan

> 
> Really one should play with all aspects of the game - 
> sensors, ECM, supply and logistics, strategic replacement and 
> such to truly balance the game.  As is often the case, small, 
> limited-use battles will highlight a tactical advantage of a 
> particular tactic or system that may or may not be viable in 
> the larger scheme of things.
> 
> For instance, if you look at the B-2 bomber, it's a 
> remarkable piece of equuipment and highly capable of 
> penetrating into enemy airspace and delivering a payload.  If 
> you only gamed the section where the B-2 drops it's PGM, it's 
> practically unbeatable.  When you look at the overall picture 
> of procurement cost, vulnerability to the elements and basing 
> requirements, it's not such a good buy.  You have to be wary 
> of people who insist on constantly including certain systems 
> and excluding others, they may have an ulterior motive in 
> removing the best defense against their chosen weapon system.  
> 
>