Scenario questions

[unclejoe]

Ok, so having another 'meeting engagement' style game under the belt (I didnt really keep notes so no AAR this time), I think next time we'll branch out into the randomized scenarios.

A few quick questions:

Armageddon:

Any chance for a modfied version of this scenario for Low-tech? Rail and Heavy Rail guns are pretty much non-existent in low-tech games and even Mag Cannons arent all that common.

What could we use for substitute 'heavy weapons' in the low tech realm? I'm thinking missiles, but that seems a bit too easy. Maybe some sort of 'Equipment' or something for bomb racks? dunno....

Convoy

Do you think it inadvisable to allow Scout class units to attack? It seems like they would be almost custom-built to raid commerce. I'm assuming it was tried and they were a bit too powerful? Was there some other reason for their exclusion from raiding?

Also, the 'cruiser protection' rule functions exactly to the letter as it says If I have a raiding ship adjacent to a merchie, I can slag it without issue regardless if I'm adjacent to an escorting CA/CL as well, correct?

What about AE weapons (SD Torp). They dont target a 'ship' per se so are hexes with merchies in them fair game?

Exiting via Warp points:
I want to make sure I understand this one since it seems extremely hard to do from the rules.

In order to exit via warp point, you have to be pointed at it's front, at speed 5, and with the drive spun up to 12 points. You lose a Delta when spinning up the drive.

Ok, given that, with a Delta 1 ship you have to (on average) line up with the exit 15 spaces ahead and then more or less 'coast' into it and hope you roll at least close to average on the d10 to avoid going *splat* on impact. Is that correct?

Is it intended to be that difficult?

[TheDreadnought]

Armageddon -

I would probably just substitute ships orbiting the planet for complete turns and assign VPs based on the tonnage of functional weapons the ship has. Probably won't be releasing an "official" low tech version in the near future since we're buried under work right now, but if you want to come up with variant rules we'll host them.

Convoy -

The assumption was that raiding forces would need to be able to respond quickly to intel of convoys in an exposed system. Hence the RDF roles for everybody. You could try allowing scouts, but I suspect it would be too much of an advantage. Maybe no more than 1 scout perhaps to reflect the fact that fleets are spread pretty thin covering the frontier?

Yep, that's the way its written. So organizing high-speed firing passes is sometimes an effective solution. Falling into lock-step with the convoy is harder if you fail to win initiative.

AE weapons - a technicality. You can't target a merchie's hex with an AE weapon while he is subject to the cruiser protection rule. It is ok to "splash" damage onto a merchie hex if targeting an escorting cruiser with an AE weapon.

Warp Points -

Exiting via warp points is a tricky maneuver not to be taken lightly. Yes, it's very difficult to get lined up. However, note that you only go "splat" if you END your move on a warp point. So it's usually a good idea to plot your movement to overshoot by a hex or two if you're doing a cold spin-up timed to coincide with your entry into the warp point. Otherwise, you can just get spun up, then coast in.

[kashre]

here's a question I just thought of regarding convoy:

The special rules say that the freighters have a size of 5 and 25 hull points... do they have an AV of 5 because of their size, or an AV of 0?

Cause if they have an AV of 5 I think I have to forfeit my strategy point from the first game we played

[RiflemanIII]

Jun 29, 2010 0:33:57 GMT -5 kashre said:

here's a question I just thought of regarding convoy:

The special rules say that the freighters have a size of 5 and 25 hull points... do they have an AV of 5 because of their size, or an AV of 0?

From the scenario rules: "Any hit on a civilian vessel automatically inflicts full damage plus a critical."

[theoz]

Hey, Dreadnought!

Did you ever think of adding a "Freighter" role for ships? It would require no armor (or shields?) and fill the hardpoints with "Cargo Hold" or "Passenger Quarters" as weapons.

The special advantage could be cheaper maintenance (for a campaign, assuming you have maintenance costs) or just their value in a scenario (as targets).

[warchariot]

I will be looking at building three or four different civilian ships to represent the rag-tag fleet from BSG. The cargo/passenger quarters is a great idea for the hard points.

[unclejoe]

Yes, and I would envision 'troop quarters' or something to for invasion ships. All the fun stuff that is necessary for fighting campaigns.

As far as variant rules for low-tech, yeah, I'll work on some sort of conversion. At first brush I'm thinking that any ship in orbit can score total potential Hull Damage divided by 20 in VPs each turn (round up).

So a ship with 4 Heavy ACs, 4 AP Torps, 6 Heavy Turbo lasers, and 8 Gatling Lasers would score:

4x6= 24 +
4x8= 32 +
6x5= 30 +
8x1 = 8 =
94/20 = 5 vps per round in orbit.

That way even small ships could do it, but they'd have to be in orbit.

Now add some defensive missile launcher on the planet and things could really get messy

[kashre]

Jun 29, 2010 6:17:49 GMT -5 RiflemanIII said:

Jun 29, 2010 0:33:57 GMT -5 kashre said:

here's a question I just thought of regarding convoy:

The special rules say that the freighters have a size of 5 and 25 hull points... do they have an AV of 5 because of their size, or an AV of 0?

From the scenario rules: "Any hit on a civilian vessel automatically inflicts full damage plus a critical."

Doh! I don't believe I missed that.