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Post by mpc2163 on Oct 12, 2015 20:34:17 GMT -5
I was reading the rules for linked turrets in Stars Reach and I had a question about turrets. I'm not sure the right way to stat them up based on reading the main rules and the Stars Reach rules for Linked Turrets. Let's say I am building a cruiser that will have 4 armor.
In hardpoint one I want to mount three autocannons that each are three mass and I want them to fire into three arcs (F/P/S). According to the main rules the turret would weigh 1.5x4 armor = 6.
Based one how I read the rules for linked turret I'd expect a non-linked turret battery to be 6 mass turret + 3 mass gun = 9 mass * three guns = 27 mass total for the battery.
A linked turret battery would be 6 mass turret + 9 mass guns = 15 mass battery but with only one to-hit roll.
I think I'm missing something because the Excel sheet for the main rules works just like the second example. And if that's the case what's the point of a linked turret? Thanks!
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Post by mpc2163 on Oct 27, 2013 19:50:41 GMT -5
Once again I made the drive out to Rockford to run a game at Rock-Con. It's a nice little gaming convention that I've been going to for a few years now. The past few times I've gone I've decided to run a WWII naval combat game, but this time I decided to break out part of my massive spaceship collection. The gaming system I chose to use was Colonial Battlefleet by Steel Dreadnought Games. It's a great system that has just enough flexibility to come up with some great ship designs, but not so much that it can easily be broken. I'll get to that in another post. For now though, here's the recap of the game I ran. The scenario was one I came up with myself. A team of archaeologists in a backwater system found a really old and powerful device. They brought it back to a research station to study and of course, word leaked out. This brings all of our players and their small flotillas onto the gaming board to fight for the artifact. Because I have so many different fleets, I picked my Fleet Action scale ships from the Babylon 5, Star Trek, Star Wars, and StarGate SG-1 universes. The whole collection painted and ready to go I spent a great deal of time designing the fleets and attempting to balance them somewhat. After all, some fleets used fighters while others didn't, some had shields, some had massive armor, some had missiles, etc. And that's probably a whole other blog post, so I won't get into it here. With all the fleets assembled, let's get to the game! I had three players signed up and despite an amazing looking setup, no one else jumped in. But I had three really excited players, so it worked out just fine. It took about 15 minutes to go over the basic rules and then the game started. The first couple turned didn’t' involve much excitement. No one was really in range of each other or the small research station in the middle of the board. It took everyone a little while to get used to the movement system and I think the Klingon player never really got it, but everything still ran quite smoothly. On turn three the action really started. The Empire launched a salvo of cluster missiles from the star destroyer, the Klingons tried to shoot the space station and missed, and Starfleet knocked down the shields so they could beam aboard the seven toughest squads of redshirts every before collected in one place. Those marines knocked out almost all of the station security forces and looked ready to grab the artifact. Turn four saw the Empire launch TIE fighters and bombers which charged off to swarm the Klingon Birds of Prey. Starfleet destroyed one of two Birds of Prey and annihilated the stormtroopers who made it onto the station. By turn five the Imperial missiles began hitting targets and took out the last Bird of Prey and a Starfleet light cruiser. The Klingons damaged two Imperial cruisers, boarded the station, and were slaughtered by those utterly fearless Starfleet Marines. They managed to take out a total of five Klingon squads, three more station security squads, and two more stormtrooper squads. Turn six proved to be the decisive turn of the game. The swarms of Imperial fighters kept doing damage to the Federation and Klingon ships. But the Klingons blew up one Imperial ship in retaliation and managed to kill the fresh squads of stormtroopers who had just wiped out the toughest redshirts in the galaxy. With the artifact in their hands, the victorious Klingons beamed back onto a D-7 warbird. Turn seven was the final turn and the most tense of the game. Everyone knew which ship had the artifact and they were gunning for it. Starfleet moved to cut off the likely escape routes while the Empire tried to ram the warbird, but missed. The D-7 then proceeded to speed off in the opposite direction everyone expected while the other Klingon ships provided a screen. Imperial fighters swarmed around the Klingons but couldn't destroy any of them. In their rage, the Imperial star destroyer fired a full salvo of turbolasers at the research station and destroyed it as the Klingons warped away for home. All the players seemed to enjoy themselves a great deal. They quickly got the hang of the system and I found myself providing assistance less and less as the game went on. The Klingon player did feel he had too many ships to watch out for and he did have the largest fleet with six ships. Fighters proved to be a nuisance to the two Star Trek fleets which fielded none, but they weren't an overwhelming advantage. The big star destroyer seemed almost invulnerable but it didn't have enough weapons to capitalize on this. I have a few changes to make for the next time I run it, but not many. All the work I put into the designs before the game paid off on the table.
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nav con
Sept 24, 2013 14:53:05 GMT -5
Post by mpc2163 on Sept 24, 2013 14:53:05 GMT -5
It's going to be a big mishmash of stuff. Right now I've got ships from Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, Stargate, and BSG all thrown in. Each player will have about 750 points or so plus a few options for reinforcements. They will all have at least one primary mission and one or two secondary missions that I'll still writing up.
And I still have to make sure everything is balanced since a lot of ships will have no shields at all while others will be dealing with swarms of fighters. If I can pull it off it should be quite interesting...
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nav con
Sept 19, 2013 5:00:27 GMT -5
Post by mpc2163 on Sept 19, 2013 5:00:27 GMT -5
I'll be there running a cold war scenario using the Surface Battle Group system. And then I'll be at Rockcon a few weeks later running a game using the Colonial Battlefleet system. So I can talk about the second one here then I guess... ;D
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Post by mpc2163 on Aug 6, 2013 15:18:06 GMT -5
Thanks for all the replies. I'm already planning on piling all sorts of special rules to limit the horror it can produce and I'm going to use both ideas brought up here. The FC 9 was just a way to let it fire all it's weapons a turn, but for the to-hit roll I'll only let it add 4 or so to the dice. I have to run a few test games with just the regular ships first then I'll bring this monster in so expect a few pictures in the next two weeks. I also still have a lot of painting and basing to do...
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Post by mpc2163 on Aug 4, 2013 11:55:27 GMT -5
I'm planning out a game to run at Rockcon and I have a question about armor penetration rolls. If a heavy turbo laser (D6 pen) hits an unshielded ship with armor 6 or higher, does it automatically get a non-pen hit at 1/2 damage? That's what I'm assuming since there's nothing else written about it. I've got the Naval Thunder penetration stuff running through my head right now too so I may have gotten them both mixed up a bit...
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Post by mpc2163 on Aug 3, 2013 20:07:44 GMT -5
First let me say that this monster doesn't just stretch the rules or even break them, it utter and completely destroys them. It is for a specific scenario I have in mind to torment a handful of gamers and leave them with nightmares of the occasion for years to come. And I have a couple even bigger monsters in the works that will eat this one for breakfast. Hull: 270 HP, 2430 Mass Hull Size: 15 Delta: 1 Shields: 10 Armor: 8 FC: 9 PD: 6 Weapons: 1F Disruptor - 3 - F/P/S 2F H Turbo -10 - F/P 3F H Turbo - 10 - F/S 4P Disruptor - 3 - P 5P H Turbo - 10 - P 6P Anti-Neutron Torp - 5 - F/P 7P Interceptor - 4 8S Disruptor - 3 - S 9S H Turbo - 10 - S 10S Anti-Neutron Torp - 5 - F/S 11S Strike - 4 Equipment: Flak Battery: 6 Marines (T): 18 It's based on the Aquan Battleship Mk II from Firestorm Armada and will be on the same table as tiny fleet action sized ships which are all scaled against each other. That's why it has to be so darned big. Basically, it's about 6 inches long while what I'm already calling a battleship might be only 3 inches long. Since it's just so much bigger than anything else I wanted to make it really scary, so I sized up a 90 hull point ship in the excel shipyard with lvl 30 tech and tripled the numbers. I took a guess on the expanded firecon while everything else fit in nicely. But it will have 150 shield points in the forward 3 arcs which will be quite hard to break through, especially as it's sending up to 30 heavy turbo laser shots back you. I think it will be quite fun on the table...
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Post by mpc2163 on Oct 29, 2012 23:24:47 GMT -5
It sounds like you all had fun. I've found that using crew ratings is a very powerful way of balancing (or unbalancing) a scenario. You should try that and see what affect it has on Savo Island. I'd also get rid of the American Radar entirely. It wasn't until later in the war that ships could see where their shells were going with radar and more importantly, it took a while for captains to trust the system. My Raid of Rabaul scenario stripped the Americans of their radar and it probably balanced things out a bit.
And ships can die quickly, but usually because they aren't fighting the way they are designed to. Destroyers shouldn't attack until the enemy fleet is a little disorganized and hopefully some of the secondary guns should also be taken out. And Japanese ships were generally designed to fight at range, at night, and with torpedoes. American ships have better armor and can fight better at close range.
Keep experimenting with house rules. I've played the Savo Island a couple times at conventions and it has gone both ways.
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Post by mpc2163 on Oct 10, 2012 16:36:28 GMT -5
The miniatures are all 1/3000 scale and come from M.Y. Miniatures, Navwar, and Skytrex/Davco. All of those are English companies but I have been steadily buying every one I can find in the Midwest. As for the time, it was over in 5 turns with the first two turns taking about an hour each. Turn three took maybe a half hour or forty five minutes and turn five took just a few minutes since the Japanese had a few destroyers with no torpedoes and one cruiser with torpedoes ready to fire left. So I guess that comes to a little over three hours.
I didn't have to explain the rules since all my players were familiar with it. The only confusion came with the different house rules in use. I just used house rules for dealing with Lady Lex and prefer to use my GMing skills to keep the game interesting.
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Post by mpc2163 on Oct 6, 2012 23:32:44 GMT -5
Since I ran a game with a carrier today, a few aircraft questions popped into my head while I was doing the writeup. First, how many aircraft does each flight represent? I tried to figure it out by comparing the Lexington card to the wiki article but it didn't mesh. According to the card, Lexington had an even number of fighters and dive bombers, but in actuality she had twice as many dive bombers as fighters. I guess that would be the case in late war scenarios with Saratoga, so that might be the answer to my confusion. But I am still curious as to how many aircraft each flight represents.
I'm trying to add aircraft to the game and this is the major stumbling block I have right now. I'm sure others will come up with playtesting, but this is the main one right now.
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Post by mpc2163 on Oct 6, 2012 22:20:21 GMT -5
Here's the writeup of the NT:BR game I just ran a few hours ago at Nav-Con. It went pretty well, especially since all the players had some experience with Naval Thunder. Enjoy! The basic premise was a real attempt the American Pacific Fleet made to raid the newly captured Japanese port of Rabaul, which became their most important possession in the Southeast Pacific region. But at this point in the war it has just been captured and has yet to be properly fortified. Because of that, Allied command sent Task Force 11, centered on the old carrier USS Lexington, to bomb the base and any warships anchored there. Historically, the Japanese spotted the Americans using a flying boat and the Americans saw the flying boat. An air raid on the US fleet was launched but failed to achieve anything and TF 11 ran for safer waters. In my scenario, the Japanese spotted the Americans while remaining undetected and have sprung a clever trap. Attacking at three different points, the Japanese ships are individually less powerful but have better trained crews and have caught the Americans napping. The main Japanese force consisted of their four oldest cruisers, Aoba, Kinugasa, Furutaka, and Kako in Cruiser Division 6. Two light cruisers, Kuma and Tama, attacked from the opposite side. Attacking with Aoba's group was the real-life Destroyer Squadron 6 with six old destroyers, led by the light cruiser Yubari. On the American side, the carrier USS Lexington was at the center. She was the oldest US fleet carrier to fight in the war and still had her 8" guns installed, which proved to be quite powerful in this scenario. In close protection were three heavy cruisers, USS Indianapolis, USS Minneapolis, and USS San Francisco. Along with them were 8 destroyers, most of which were of the WWI era. A small force had pulled ahead of the main group containing one heavy cruiser, USS Pensacola, and two destroyers. For this game there was effectively only one objective. The Japanese had to sink the Lexington while the Americans would sacrifice every other ship to save her. To make the American's lives even harder, the Japanese crews were experienced which made it easier for them to hit things while the Americans were stripped of their powerful RADAR directed fire control. Also, USS Lexington was effectively a floating bomb and any time she was hit in the first two turns there was a decent chance a fire would start. On Turn 1 the Americans turned around while breaking off Indianapolis with two destroyers to assist Pensacola's group in sinking Kuma and Tama. They succeeded the following turn with heavy losses but basically removed themselves from the game as a result. Japanese CruDiv 6 turned to cut off the Americans in a line abreast formation while DesRon 6 began assembling itself into battle formation. USS Lexington hit Kima with her 8" guns making her captain grin wildly at the thought of his carrier engaging in a gun-fight. The cruisers exchanged fire, started a few fires, and Kinugasa blew the old US destroyer USS Litchfield apart with surprisingly accurate fire. USS Pensacola began to flood and poor damage control teams made the problem worse. Turn 2 proved to be quite bloody for both sides. USS Lexington and her escorts continued running despite the Japanese ships in front of them. CruDiv 6 turned to starboard to clear all their guns for action while DesRon 6 just kept racing forward. Lexington was hit several times and a fire which would last the who game was started. USS San Francisco took an engine hit but caused a magazine explosion on Aoba which blew the Japanese cruiser apart. Furutaka burst into flames thanks to accurate fire from USS Minneapolis but remained afloat and fighting. USS Lexington continued her destructive streak by sinking Yubari. On the other side of the board Kuma was sunk by USS Indianapolis but managed to sink USS Porter and USS Pensacola with torpedoes. Tama hit USS Winslow with gunfire but didn't sink the plucky destroyer and then fled the board with a mangled hull and raging fires that were barely extinguished. With both Japanese light cruisers gone, USS Indianapolis and the surviving destroyers tried to catch up to USS Lexington but didn't make it by the end of the game. Turn 3 proved to be the decisive turn for the Japanese. DesDiv 6 split in half with three destroyers quickly turning their broadside to USS Lexington while the other three crossed the T of the beleaguered carrier. Continuing her hot streak, USS Lexington sunk Furutaka with accurate gunfire. Kako hit USS Minneapolis and started a flood. USS Minneapolis hit back and started a fire. Then USS San Francisco raked Kako with 5" shells and sent her to the bottom while the destroyer USS Zane blasted Mochizuki apart. But it was too late, three torpedoes slammed into USS Lexington and shattered the proud ship, taking her from 113 hull points to 41 and then quickly to 37 from flooding damage. Fortunately the other three Japanese destroyers all missed. On turn 4 Kinugasa launched her carefully husbanded torpedo salvo on USS Lexington, hoping desperately to sink the tough ship. But the salvo missed completely while her gunfire was slightly more successful. Kinugasa was finished off by San Francisco and almost all of the remaining Japanese destroyers joined her beneath the waves. It looked bleak for the Japanese but inept damage control teams finished the work of the Imperial Japanese Navy and USS Lexington capsized. The ripples from this battle will surely echo through the history of the Pacific War. Without USS Lexington the US fleet would never have opposed the Port Moresby invasion and they might not have sent USS Enterprise and USS Hornet off the launch the Doolittle Raid. In addition the loss of CruDiv 6 would create problems for the Japanese. Those four heavy cruisers were vitally important to the Guadalcanal operation. Needless to say, history shifted drastically from this what-if battle. - Mike, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member
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Post by mpc2163 on Sept 20, 2012 12:29:58 GMT -5
I don't think I'll house rule ships shooting at missiles because we only had one missile survive to attack a ship, and it got shot down by the point defense. But I think for my convention game the missiles and almost all of the fighters will be coming out. They just seem to complicate things and slow everything down a bit too much.
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Post by mpc2163 on Sept 19, 2012 22:40:05 GMT -5
I ran a practice session for the game I plan to run at Rock-Con and ended up with a few questions. They might be in the rules, but I've been flipping through them all night and couldn't figure it out.
1st - How do fighters shoot at ACGMs? I couldn't figure out a way to work that out.
2nd - Can Gatling lasers and autocannons shoot at ACGMs as well? If so, how do they do that? The players tried that quite a few times.
I think those were the major questions I came up with. I think for the convention most of the fighters and missiles will be coming up, but it would be nice to know.
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Post by mpc2163 on Sept 17, 2012 20:29:07 GMT -5
Oh, a quick question. Would the ships in Rise of the Battleship I and II fit with these ships? They are basically the same rule but the point values doesn't seem to mesh. The actual stats seem to work though which is why I'm asking.
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Post by mpc2163 on Sept 17, 2012 20:14:36 GMT -5
This is a pretty awesome upgrade. Now all my never-were ships can come out to play on the table. Although I guess I'll have to do the N3/G3 ships myself. But now a far greater percentage of my 1/3000 scale collection can actually be used.
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Post by mpc2163 on Aug 8, 2012 23:49:49 GMT -5
It's held in Southern Wisconsin near Milwaukee. I'm probably running a game of Naval Thunder, and there usually are a couple of other people running NT too. And it is basically a small convention for any game set on the water.
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Post by mpc2163 on Aug 7, 2012 22:27:21 GMT -5
First off, welcome aboard. First, Panzerschiffe Miniatures are 1/2400, not 1/3000. If you actually want 1/3000, you basically have to go to England for your ships. That's what I did, and I managed to do it cheaply by finding people in the US selling them. If you want to stick with a budget, pick a battle or two that are small and buy all the ships that were there.
As for painting, I prefer to just stick with basic colors. The deck is wood colored and the rest is some form of grey. I've gone through at least four different shades so far. I'm sure someone has camo painting schemes but then you have to buy lots of different shades of paint, which can start getting pricy too.
I hope some of that helps!
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Post by mpc2163 on Aug 2, 2012 9:36:24 GMT -5
That makes more sense. I'll have to see what I can find.
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Post by mpc2163 on Aug 1, 2012 21:26:21 GMT -5
I spent the weekend at craft stores looking for 1mm cardboard and got very confused looks. What exactly are they sold as because my descriptions got me absolutely no where. And I have a list of ships to make a mile long, so I really want to get started.
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Post by mpc2163 on Jul 28, 2012 16:54:37 GMT -5
Those look amazing and I think I'm going to have to do something similar. Where did you get the cardboard. I've tried looking online but didn't really seem to come up with much of anything.
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