A new Universe for "A Call To Arms"

[Da Boss]

Burger has expressed some important truths here

Whilst its important that Trek keeps a feel for Trek interms of style and substance there is no point in simply reproducing the same rules in the new game that would make ACTA into a pale imitation and remove the advantages of its ability to play large scale fleet engagements quickly.

I am quite looking forward to this - in particular:
Cool ships (well I hope they look cool!!)
new scenarios and ideas, new weapons and fleet types for ACTA
Compability with ACTA: NA (ideally ACTA 2nd ed but thats not going to happen)
Same quick and easy movement system - although probably need soemthing to allow ships to reverse as thats something that seems to be farily unique to Trek? Maybe just a SA after all stop - "Engines Full reverse" or some such"
I assume SFB has a reverse mechanic?
Same quick and easy weapons - althougb would prefer more dice than in Noble Armada - the ships feel a bit well wimpy with their AD.
Some fluff in the rules - always helps I feel.

What I don't want to see
Massively complex rules on power management etc
Having to track lots of things (Especially since crew stat was removed for this very reason)
Def don't want it to have lots of missiles to track all over the place - that way lies a very slow and annoying game. At most I'd be happy to see BFG style torpedo barrages.

 

[Burger]

I hope "power management" is done simply through special actions. "All power to engines", "all power to shields", "all power to weapons" etc. That's enough power management for me. It gives the ST flavour to the well-oiled ACTA rules.

 

[godsgopher]

I couldn't agree more. I actually heard them joking on the recent origins pod cast about the power management in SFB being called Star fleet's Tax Return.

 

[Stormrider]

Only way I could see it working more complexly than that would be to have a certain pool of power, maybe a trait 'Powergrid X' that could be used to activate multiple special actions (engines and weapons - all power to and CAF) and have that power total reduced by criticals. That would mean taming down the special actions though, and I'm not sold on it myself...

 

[godsgopher]

That's an interesting idea. However the golden rule of large scale games is expediency. Detail and record keeping slow things down as they get piled on. Too little detail and the game is very bland, to much detail (Like the Origional SFB's) and your spending six hours to fight out a battle between two heavy cruisers.

Now having said all that that I find your idea intriguing...

 

[Iron Domokun]

I will bet my bottom dollar that AcTA:SF will not have any kind of power management mechanic*. There's no requirement for an SFU game to have a power management mechanic. Starmada: Klingon Armada does not, and Star Fleet Battle Force (the card game) don't.

*(Unless Matt Sprange decides that yelling "Engineering, give me full emergency power!!", as happened in nearly every episode of TOS, makes the game more fun.)

 

[Burger]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that power management will be in the game to some degree. However no details of the implementation. I still hope it's all simply done through special actions. "All power to ... XXXXX" and you can still shout it in an outrageous Scottish accent if you like!

 

[MongooseMatt]

I still hope it's all simply done through special actions.

There is really no better way of doing it in CTA

Some ships may get special rules but they will be few and far between.

 

[godsgopher]

"Engineering, give me full emergency power!!"

I don't know... Matt this sounds like it could be useful, what do you say to a one time only rule for a ship per game?

 

[LimeyDragon]

I'm looking forward to finally stopping the old arguement of who would win in a space battle Earth Alliance or Star Fleet.

 

[godsgopher]

Seeing as the last two editions of ACTA's have been fundamentally different I'm afraid your in for a disappointment with ACTA: Star Fleet. I seriously doubt its going to help you answer that question.

 

[LimeyDragon]

Seeing as the last two editions of ACTA's have been fundamentally different I'm afraid your in for a disappointment with ACTA: Star Fleet. I seriously doubt its going to help you answer that question.

Ahh, but that the thrill of it. Making it all work.

 

[godsgopher]

Then all I can say is good luck to you, and to everyone who is dying to figure out which is better

 

[Myrm]

With 3 versions of ACtA to call on - B5 v1, B5 v2, NA plus the VaS line (which the more I look at the more I see the best line up for SFB weaponry frankl) there are a lot of possibilities off the core mechanics. WIth that flexibility you should be able to simulate FC and/or SFB easily.

 

[AdrianH]

Given that the argument has been going on for ages, it's unlikely to be stopped by a game.

Besides, the result depends on whose universe is hosting the battle. If it's SF then combat is at warp speed, so SF ships have so much greater speed and weapons range that B5 ships are little more than sitting targets. If it's the B5 universe then combat is at sublight speed, any ship going at warp speed will be off the table and out of the game, and B5 ships have beams capable of destroying each other with a few shots, never mind the smaller SF ships. Since that is more or less the basis of the eternal Trek/B5 debate, once again the game is unlikely to end the discussion.

A cross-over has already been done - Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning. I recommend that any cross-over game be played with the same level of seriousness. :lol: