Experimental idea for fleet construction

[phoenixhawk]

I had developed a scenario a few weeks ago involving a Clark loyalist EA fleet meeting up with a mixed Sheridan-aligned fleet using a few White Stars, a G'Quan, a couple Brakiri, an EA ship, and some Drazi. I think it ended up being a 7-point Battle level game. I really enjoyed the mixed feel of the Sheridan fleet as well as being able to use some of the bigger ships since they add more firepower and many of them look nice as models on the table too.

As a take-off of that scenario, I was thinking that instead of running battles at a straight PL/point combo, what if there were scenarios that called for a variety of PLs in one game.

Example: A task force of 3 pts Raid, 1 pt Battle, and 1 pt War intercepts a force of similar composition but the scenario rules do not allow you to split the points unless it is Raid or lower. This forces you to play a couple of the bigger ships as well as mixing in the smaller ones. The scenario might stipulate that each side designate their War level ship as a "command" ship (not a command variant, but just the ship that the group's CO is aboard) and that it must survive the battle or that one side must take a big carrier and have it survive the battle.

Part of my thinking is that most games at 5 pt Raid, which can lead to a lot of the same ships being used quite often because it is suicide to take a War level ship at Raid scenario level and it often seems "smaller is better" in the game. So the big ships sit around and collect dust while the same old Raid and under ships see the table.

That, and I always imagined that any proper task force in any universe would have a variety of ships working together and this would force the players to choose from a variety of ships because they know that they can't break down the point. Obviously, if a race has no option at that level, then the point could be split once, but that would be it as I think most races have options at most levels, even if those options aren't a "first choice" type of thing.

Anyway, it sounded like a fun idea to me to try it out but I wanted to see what others thought as well or if anyone else has tried this and how well it worked. Once I can clear the table at home again, I intend to try out a couple of the scenarios I've been working on.

Chris

 

[Burger]

Forcing people to do things is not usually good.

Instead, try using lower numbers of larger points. For example your battle was pretty close to 2 points Armageddon. 1 point Armageddon makes an excellent replacement for the normal 5 point Raid. You don't force people to take big ships, but bigger ships certainly get a boost because of the way the points split, if you want to go for a swarm of small ships then you won't get as many.

We did this at Q-Con tournament, and got a very varied selection of fleet splits. Minbari and Drakh both took 1 War, 1 Battle and 2 Raid. ISA took 5 Raid and 3 Patrol. Vorlon took 1 War and 2 Battle. Shadows took 1 Armageddon ship cos Hash is a nutter. Vree took 12 Skirmish ships.

 

[phoenixhawk]

OK, maybe saying force something different was a poor choice of words. Encourage variety might be a better thing. Maybe it is all in how an Arm point is split. But anything that encourages variety is good.

I was thinking of scenarios that use a mix of smaller and larger ships designed for people who are working out of fleet boxes with some extras and not necessarily the player who has it all in quantity, as a way to use some of the larger (and more "iconic") ships without suffering a lot of penalty since both sides would be evenly matched in terms of points and levels and it would come down to individual choices. It's a work in progress but I appreciate all input.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[Burger]

Using Armageddon points achieves exactly what you suggest
It encourages players to select one ship of each level since this is the most efficient split.

If you split like this:
1 War, 1 Battle, 1 Raid, 2 Skirmish = 8 Raid points.

But if you split into a "swarm" fleet:
12 Skirmish = 6 Raid points.

So whilst you still have the option of taking whichever split you like, the player who takes large ships will have an advantage over the one who takes a swarm.

 

[thePirv]

I'm gonna have to agree with Burger on this one. The 1 Armageddon split definitely encourages use of larger ships.

I was at the Q-con tournament and playing Drakh. I took a Mothership, something I'd never have considered using in a 5 point Raid

That said, for specific scenarios, your suggestion of having a set number of Battle and War ships could make for a very interesting game.

 

[JayRaider]

1 Arma point.
Hmm i like it, thats a damn good idea!
I'm not a fan of Swarm tactics and the 1 Arma pt helps discourage this.
Nice! 8)

 

[H]

well hopefully, the new fleet breakdown in 2nd ed (assumed new breakdown anyway) won't be encouraging swarm fleets.

 

[Romu]

I like the arma point idea, gives you the chance to play your big ships without being punished for it.

Hope big ships are more appealing in 2nd edition, not that i don't enjoy swarming but still, the two options should be viable.

 

[Burger]

Just need to add, the Armageddon point idea was Hash's originally. Credit where credit's due

 

[Nightmares about Minbari]

Most of my games have been at the higher end of the priority range, and we've found that between two and four points at battle or war priority generally give a good mix of fleets.

Assuming you've the time for a big battle, then I would recommend three points at war will produce an interesting game. it's big enough to allow top end fleets to field their main ships (Minbari sharlin and Vorlon cruisers for example) but not so huge as to be unplayable.