brigman
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 135
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Post by brigman on Mar 20, 2013 18:10:23 GMT -5
In preparation for an upcoming game with my buddy Decker, we were looking at including the Nationality Bonuses rules. But (while I love the historical flavor), one thing that comes to mind is that the bonuses can pretty heavily slant a battle, depending on what year you're playing in.
Early War, the IJN get bonuses to the Zeroes, while the USN get Magnetic Exploders.
Late War, the IJN suffers from poor Damage Control and lame pilots, while the USN gets super-radar and improved damage control.
All of these are completely historical!
They also seem to skew the game so that the points are no longer 'equal' depending on what year you're playing in.
Anyone have any thoughts? Do people often play with these rules, or only during 'historical scenarios'?
The LAST thing I want is to sour my buddy on the rules while his torpedoes THUNK off my hull and I'm sinking his ships because of the Nationality Bonuses...
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Post by regiamarina on Mar 20, 2013 22:38:16 GMT -5
If you're mate hasn't played before just stick to the basic game. The Nationality bonuses are more for flavour and you don't want to unbalance a game you're trying to get him into.
If you want all the bell's and whistles look at the optional rules first then try nationality bonuses. Plunging fire, acceleration, collisions and crossing the T are common ones my group uses. There's probably others but I haven't got the rules in front of me.
Put up an AAR when you're done.
Martin
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Post by decker on Mar 21, 2013 1:11:49 GMT -5
Well, we've both played the game exactly once - we only had a short amount of time, so we ran 1 BB, 1 CA and 1 DD just to try out the basic rules.
This time we're doing a 2000 point per side battle, set in 1942. We'll go back and play some historical scenarios later and I have no problem applying the appropriate National bonuses to those. They just seem a bit problematic for what we're doing this weekend.
We're using most of the optional rules you listed plus a few more. In the future, though, we'd like to be able to add some Nationality Bonuses for flavor, but we'd like to do so in a way that doesn't unbalance what we'd like to be a balanced (X number of points per side) pick up game.
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Post by TheDreadnought on Mar 21, 2013 8:24:35 GMT -5
If you're trying to play a balanced game I'd say stick to the basics. Nationality rules are really there for the people who want to play more historically accurate games.
However history wasn't balanced. It was often grossly unfair.
I would say focus on playing the game the way that is most fun for your group. There's a reason those rules are optional.
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Post by regiamarina on Mar 21, 2013 8:56:09 GMT -5
we'd like to be able to add some Nationality Bonuses for flavor, but we'd like to do so in a way that doesn't unbalance what we'd like to be a balanced (X number of points per side) pick up game. The Americans had an advantage in good radar late in the war, they didn't give that advantage away simply because it made for unbalanced battles. I think you're trying for the impossible there. I think you need to decide if you want to refight battles or play to a points game as national bonuses won't be balanced in a points game, and in fairness probably shouldn't be. My playing group has found the best games have come from making up our own scenarios with objectives as we see fit. Unbalanced games have been really exciting due to objectives. Martin
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Post by tricericon on Mar 21, 2013 13:17:15 GMT -5
I'd use the historical flavor rules and give the player getting the short end of the stick there some bonus points to buy ships.
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brigman
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 135
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Post by brigman on Mar 22, 2013 10:41:01 GMT -5
Thanks for the responses guys! I think we'll put the Nationality Bonuses aside for now. Harry, it would be cool if - in a future expansion or update - the Nationality Bonuses had a point cost associated (such as +10% or -15% to the cost of ships of that era, or what have you). It would let folks do Nationality Bonuses while still playing an "even match" (if they wanted). Just a thought. For scenarios, I like the Nationality Bonuses a lot. If we finish up our "point buy" match with enough time to spare, we'll tackle the Battle of Guadalcanal from NT:BR, and I think that scenario includes Nationality Bonuses.
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Post by gayrat84 on Mar 29, 2013 20:03:16 GMT -5
My uninformed opinion on nationality bonus may allow some flexibilities in the game by the players / moderators. Ie: in our upcoming mini league, we allow all ships available to be put in play and all possible nationality bonuses at end period are allowed. So far, the German faction players are complaining about the overpower that may side USN ships. With the point system, I find it easier to build a fleet and pit out.
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