Re: [GZG] FT Beam5 Question

Several years ago, pre FT-Java, I played in a vector Bring Your Own  
Fleet PBeM game with custom ships. I can't remember the NPV value,  
but it may have been on the order of 3000. I designed my ships around  
Beam-6's. If I recall correctly, I had a total of 14 B-6's in the  
fleet, with two ships loaded with PDS+ADFC. No other fleet got close  
enough to me to even fire, much less do damage. I don't think I let  
any ships get within 48 MU of me.

While I enjoyed it, it was, in hindsight, most definitely an  
exploitation of the rules, and probably an abuse of the spirit of the  
game. The only fleet that arguably could have nailed me would have  
been a soap-bubble carrier fleet with a fighter swarm that could have  
overwhelmed my PDS (certainly do-able with my weapon/defense  
distribution), in rock-paper-scissors fashion.

If the field is big enough that opponents have a chance to maneuver  
outside your weapon envelope, then you can still have balanced	
cinematic games reasonably easily - though you will likely see	
obscene speeds as opponents try to jump through the range bands in  
which they can't fire on you but you can fire on them. I would not  
play vector against a beam-5 fleet with any Fleet-book standard ships  
smaller than battlecruisers (and at that, I'd want to be sure my  
ships had at superior thrust). Or unless I had a Beam-6 fleet.

---

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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