Mixed Fleets

[godsgopher]

Given the setting of Noble Armada, and the scarcity of spaceships available to the various house fleets I would assume there is some fleet building mechanic for incorporating ships from other navies into your hour fleet?

With boarding being such a major tactic I would imagine that many fleets might have as much as a quarter of there force comprised of captured prize vessels.

 

[Greg Smith]

There are rules for incorporating captured ships into campaign fleets.

There are not any rules for starting fleets to have ships from other navies.

 

[MongooseMatt]

This is something we'll visit in the first supplement and, as Greg says, you can do it in the campaign rules.

 

[locarno24]

Something I look forward to.

Quite a few space combat games incorporate boarding actions, but this is the first one I can think (I'm not saying there haven't been any) of that let you actually steal a ship off your opponent.

I would imagine that in campaigns it could lead to quite a grudge match as an opponent tries to recover a cruiser taken as a prize.

 

[Clanger]

What is nasty as well. The ability to capture a ship and when you capture it being able to use it as part of your fleet in a game.

 

[H]

I captured a sharlin in a modified acta game, i seem to recall i also "negotiated" a minbari withdrawal in exchange for a leshath. happy days. the centaurio had also captured a sharlin and was bribing me to let his starbase survive by handing me my second sharlin, would have been ace, warlocks and sharlins going after the drakh..

 

[AdrianH]

I wonder how well it will work in practice. "Sorry, I knew I wouldn't be playing my dreadnought today so I didn't bring it, but I 'forgot' that you captured my other dreadnought last time." Maybe it's a cunning plan by Mongoose - if you want to be sure you can use ships which you captured, you'll need to buy all the fleets. :lol:

More seriously, this is another reason for counters. Use those for captured ships, then you can be sure to have something to represent whatever you capture, and you don't run the risk of damaging someone else's model.

 

[Clanger]

Captured ships in a normal game can be used after you capture them as well not just in Campaigns.

Capturing ships is a desireable tactic as you deprive your opponent of a ship and you gain one. Great for Initiative.

 

[Armydillo978]

Man, does this game get any more awesome? "Crews, prepare for boarding actions!"

 

[godsgopher]

The opportunity I see here is to right from the go, greatly expand the kinds of fleets available to players. Instead of only have 6-8 different ships to chose from, having "captured" vessels in your fleet would allow combination's of 40+ ships. Obviously the House ships should probably make up 50-75% or more of the fleet, but being able to add in those extras would make each fleet just that much more flexible.

In addition to the House Fleets, don't forget the Imperial Fleet. Which serves the Emperor or Regent (During the War for the Throne). If anyone ever had the chance to play Holistics "Emperor of the Fading Suns" PC game you may remember that Houses appointed to the office of the Imperial Fleet gained use of this powerful Warfleet.

I could easily see such a fleet being built of any combination of vessels the Imperial Bureaucracy could contract out from the various Noble Houses. So again Right from the start you have the option for a sixth faction, the Imperial Navy.

 

[Clanger]

The Imperial Fleet along with the League, Church, Vau, Symbiots, Kurgan and Vuldrok will get the love in the supplement.

I can see the Church Fleet one of the most advanced fleets technology wise as they have all the prosribed tech in their holy paws.

Also the Hawkwood Dreadnaught and Cruiser are technically Imperial ships designs on loan due to Good Ole Alexius as the Emperor.

 

[locarno24]

I can see the Church Fleet one of the most advanced fleets technology wise as they have all the prosribed tech in their holy paws.

"Witchcraft" - anyone else with psi abilities
"Miracles" church servants with psi abilities

Heh.

 

[Clanger]

Psychic abilities are known. They are only veiwed as Witchcraft by the superstious serfs. The uper echalons of Society see them for what they are. Though admittedly the Ukari Psychics are a bit tainted.

The Church "Miricles" are just that power drawn from the Pancreator and is called Theurgy. They are alright as they draw from the light of the Pancreator.

 

[Rick]

Was just looking at some of the ships from the rpg - it looks like the Al Malik Odyssey class is one of the ones that appears quite often, it seems to fill the role in Fading Suns that the class S scout does in Traveller. All the factions would probably have 'em, from the 5 great and 10 minor noble houses, Imperium, Church and League. Given the amount of time the ships have been in service, I would imagine most fleets would have a few from other factions.

 

[godsgopher]

That's an interesting point I had not previously considered. Its been quite a while since I dug through my Fading Suns RPG Books, but I suspect most of the ship's or at least there designs have been in use for decades and in some cases centuries. I do know that the technological development of Fading suns is almost at a stand still. And those who continue to develop new things often have the church drop in for a surprise blessing, which usual to anointing the lab with fire while its still occupied.

As a result of the boarding focused combat its not hard to imagine All major fleets possess many ships from other houses. However as stated in a previous post there are currently no rules for adding ships from other houses into your fleets. I believe someone did mention that in campaign games its entirely possible to do so.

None the less I have no doubt that Mongoose, who seems to actually listen to their customers unlike "some" game companies, will provide rules in future supplements to handle this situation if enough players request it and its adequately supported in the existing canon, which I believe it is.

 

[MongooseMatt]

None the less I have no doubt that Mongoose, who seems to actually listen to their customers unlike "some" game companies, will provide rules in future supplements to handle this situation if enough players request it and its adequately supported in the existing canon, which I believe it is.

We will.

We made allowances for it in the campaign to an extent, but we wanted to avoid a 'free for all' choice in the actual fleet lists, which will. get used in tournament games. We could have done a generic 'Noble House' fleet list that allowed you to build whatever you wished, but we wanted to stress the differences between the Houses (which is why, for example, not everyone gets Dreadnoughts and not everyone gets Stealthships).

We will likely have some trial rules in S&P in the near future that allows you to use combined fleets in this way, so you chaps can try them out and see how they work. Once we have something reasonable and balanced that does not destroy the individuality of the fleets, we'll make it an official rule.

 

[Rick]

Sounds great - I imagine it would be more common for destroyers and smaller ships, even to the extent of having slightly different weapons in other houses service.

 

[godsgopher]

I have been giving this one a lot of thought lately. I want to see fleets that allow for captured vessels which only makes sense given the rarity of space craft, but at the same time I don't want to see the "feel and Style" of the various Noble Houses, League, Church, Imperial Fleet, Barbarians and Aliens diluted. Which as Msprange pointed out is exactly what starts to happen when even a few ships from another fleet are added. However this is not an obstacle that can't be over come.

I think one things we might do to keep a strong theme going with in a given Faction fleet is to remember that the crew are all from one house. They were all trained the same and are commanded by officers and Nobles who studied at the same academies. When Mongoose gets around to adding Legendary Captains and Admirals to the game I propose that you only be able to use officers from your faction. Each faction's officers should have access to a unique style of abilities that are there's alone. This way when a Hazat Cruiser is under the command of a Hawkwood Admiral the crusier clearly remains a Hazat design, but the bonuses and extra abilities provided by the Admiral are uniquely Hawkwood. By doing it this way, and limiting the percentage of points that can be spent on ships from other factions, We can maintain a strong faction "feel" to a fleet without restricting the selection of ships to just one faction.

 

[Rick]

I was thinking more along the lines of a different entry for ships that might have been in service with another house since before the Emporer wars - I think most fleets would try to standardise the weaponry on all of their ships - for ease of maintenance and supply mostly. I would expect a Decados or Hazat ship in Hawkwood service, for example, to have less troops and a mixture of missile/laser weaponry. Obviously ships captured in a campaign would be used "as is".

 

[godsgopher]

From a role-play standpoint I completely agree that makes perfect sense. However its not very practical. you would have to have 5 different stats for every ship in the book, reflecting how they are refit for service with various houses. This would get horribly complex when they start adding other factions into the game. The only other option would be to publish some manor of conversion chart for how to convert each class to a house Standard.

I completely agree from a story / Roleplayer perspective, but it would be a gaming nightmare from the stats side of the game. Also it would pretty much kill any reason to have a ship from another house entirely as all you end up with is a Hawkwood Cruiser that looks like the Hazat one.