Yet again a limit based on a totally different rules set. :roll:
Sorry to sound like a broken record but one per 6 ships if it is taken as one per full 6 six ships yet again leaves the plasma races (and oddly a few of the others) stuck. It takes a huge game or loads of very cheap ships to field a fleet of 12 ships just to get two escorts. If this were one per 6 or part then a 7 ship fleet could have two which is liveable since it would be be a couple of Cls or BDDs with the D refit rather than a huge change in fleet character but again it comes down to limiting a players choice to use HIS ships in HIS games with the tactics of HIS choice.
Unique ships one per fleet I can understand, its basically a character figure with different stats but for the rest can we not work to balance them and leave the choice of ships to the players. Yes there will be cheese fleets but being overly focused on one thing makes them vulnerable to other tactics and things should balance out or be tweaked as time reveals minor problems.
Putting in a limit based on SFB or FC makes no sense, yes I know that the “Official” fleet lists and limits from the Star Fleet verse say that the fleets super glued escorts to carriers but this is not SFB/FC where every ship on the board can fire at Drones and Plasmas.
In SFB/FC a ship can repair its shields, charge an overload and fire at passing Drones while moving slowly. In ACTA-SF those are all special actions so only one can be done.
The game I played last weekend had the Romulans launch a 38 dice plasma storm in total at my Kirov, I had deliberately moved the Kirov into the target zone to draw fire and try to kill the Novahawk before it got to orbit. With the DWE centre lined on the Kirov at 2” and the CLE the same at 3” plus support from one of the DWs that made its IDF roll I stopped 26 dice. With boost shields the Kirov wasn’t even crippled.
In return the Sparrowhawk escort just managed to protect the Novahawk from my drone fire by using its Plasma-Ds and the next turn I got two drones through while he reloaded them. That was the Novahawk AND the escort trying to stop a 12 Drone attack.
While fleets may, at the strategic level, aim to have a balanced mix of ships in reality when battles happen it is with the ships to hand. Set piece fleet attacks may allow the attacker to pick the fleet he wants but for the defender its a case of what is available. The same applies for fast raids, attacks of opportunity, attacking that convoy your spy just told you about etc.
You can just see the task force commander getting the message that an enemy force has been scrambled to hit a vital supply convoy.
“Comms I want a list of every available ship in the sector and alert the ships at this Starbase to be ready to be underway immediately”
“Aye Captain, the medium cruiser and both battle destroyers are ready but the captain of the CLE wants to know do you want him or the BDE in your force as fleet regulations prohibit a task group this small from having two escorts”
“Beep, beep, BEEEEEEEP beep” (translated from Gorn and censored) :lol: