Opinions on variable Crew Quality

[SneakyPete]

You might have a good point there billclo in giving Fed's a +1 CQ like the Rom's and Klingons get +1 initiative. Although giving each ship +1 is a huge boost, but then again an initiative boost is a big deal too.

 

[McKinstry]

You might have a good point there billclo in giving Fed's a +1 CQ like the Rom's and Klingons get +1 initiative. Although giving each ship +1 is a huge boost, but then again an initiative boost is a big deal too.

Agreed. I might extend that CQ+1 to the Gorns as well.

 

[Da Boss]

its quite possibly the worst thing to add to a one off game. totally unbalances the game before you even start.
its ok for campaigns in theory as you can level them but never use them in 1 offs or tourneys unless you want to give somebody a massive advantage for no points cost.

Agree completely - its fine for campaigns/special scenarios but CQ is arguably more important in ACTA:SF than previous versions.

Touraments allowing this is completely unbalanced and broken.

A much better alternative ( as we have done in previous) is to allow one ship to have a better CQ for each fleet........

 

[doublenot7]

Sometimes we use it sometimes we don't. I also like a house rule in which we roll for randow CQ but then the player assigns those crews to the vessel of his choice.

 

[locarno24]

Random CQ is fair enough for campaigns, as noted it helps the 'character' of the fleet. However, in one-off games it can really matter.

It was never much of an issue in the original ACTA, as a disconcerting proportion of criticals couldn't be repaired and most of the special actions you gave a damn about were automatic.

Now, however, CQ is genuinely important.
I'd go with a simple rule for tweaking ships - either assume your fleet is all military-grade (CQ4), or it's a mix. If it's a mix, you'll get newly established crews and ships just out of refit as well as grizzled veterans. As such you may increase any ship's CQ by 1 or 2, but for each ship's CQ you increase you must decrease the CQ of another ship which is no less expensive (including the cost of options such as command variants) by the same amount.

i.e. if you have a squadron of 6 D7s, you can make one two-ship division veterans, but would have to make another two CQ3.