Re: [GZG] FT: Modern Naval

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Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 7:11 PM, Thomas Pope <tpope@cs.cmu.edu> wrote:

>
> I¹ve considered it.	Does that count?  :-)
>
> There are a few problems that stopped me before I got very far:
>
> 1) Movement vs. weapon range.  Missile ranges can be anywhere from
10-300
> miles depending on launch platform, OTH detection and missile.  You
could
> model all ships with a ³thrust² value of 1, give missiles 36² range
on the
> low end and still not get very close.
>

Harpoon handles this by putting everything on the same scale more or
less.
A ship in tactical turns may be moving 0.25" while a missle moves 4+" a
turn
depending on the missle in question.  Some can just STREAK out there but
are
mostly used to knock other missiles and aircraft out of the air.  I'd
have
no problem giving surface ships a "thrust" of 1-4 depending on how fast
it
can go with the vast majority doing 2-3.  Missiles would be doing 12" at
least per turn.

It's a cinematic thing.  If I was worried about the last knot of speed
I'd
be playing Harpoon.

I agree with your #2 -- one or two penetrating hits on your average
cruiser
/ destroyer, ffg will probably smoke it.  But some missiles are airburst
types aren't they?  They hurt things by blowing up outside of the ship
and
killing radars...mounts, etc.

3) Take those two together and you get the fundamental precept of modern
> naval warfare.  If you spot the other guy first, odds are you just
won, and
> this applies to a very wide range of force balances.
>

If you spot the guy first you can get your missiles in the air quick but
then you have to make it through the ship defenses.  The "see 'em first
and
they're dead" mentality is a lot like that spoken of during Vietnam with
heatseaking missiles.  You know...not needing a gun on the aircraft
because
the missile made it obsolete?

Modern naval vessels have pretty potent anti-air defenses at least with
the
scale of actions I'm worried about gaming (6 or so ships / boats per
side).

>
> #3, and any kind of detection game without a referee is terribly hard
to
> pull off of course, and critical for modern naval warfare at almost
any
> scale.
>

Playing standard surface fleets in Harpoon it's simply a die roll after
making sure you have radar line of sight from an aircraft, helo, or
ship.
It wasn't that hard in the past.  If subs are in the picture you can
still
get away without a ref as long as the players are honest.

>
> What I¹d suggest is to look at Shipwreck.

I've heard some good and bad things about Shipwreck.  Have you played
it?  I
know it's a lighter game than Harpoon but that's it.

Damo