So this might need to be taken offline into an email. If so, by all means, let's do that.
Few questions:
1. Reinforcements:
a. Can I just keep requesting a Battleship over and over? That seems excessive.
b. In requesting a capital ship or a squadron of smaller ships, this might need clarification. 1 battleship and 1 cruiser are very different request. I was thinking that one should be able to request a squadron of ships, regardless of size. Thoughts?
2. Spread the Net Scenario:
Really cool concept, I think maybe poorly implemented. In this case, the attacker / ambusher is at a significant disadvantage as they can only have 2/3rds the point value. Meaning that it is 500 (440 after 10% for defending and -10 point for owning more systems) vs. 330 (2/3rds of 500). Even adding the carrier on, doesn't make up for the missing 170 points. The starting position isn't that great of an advantage to overcome that deficit.
Maybe it was just a weird game, but I thought Jay set up pretty well but he was easily handled as my forces wheeled on him. He actually played the tactics really well by hiding his ships in an asteroid field, otherwise it would have been curtains for his whole force.
It might be worth considering switching the point values around and putting the attacker at the disadvantage to force them to run, rather than feeling like they can wheel and fight. Thoughts?
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1 - Yes, you can keep requesting battleships over and over. But it's your entire reinforcement request to get a single battleship. If you're sitting pretty with four or five battleships, those reinforcements might be better spent on other ships.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, Cruisers are supposed to be purchased in full squadron sizes. So 3-4 Cruisers, depending on your race. You can also purchase full squadrons of Frigates, but those are usually more efficiently purchased at the repair phase if you can afford to send your damaged ships off the line.
2. Hmm... that could be an issue. What do you guys say to waiving the 10% fewer points if you're not present in the system? That way the games will basically be a regular match based on the scenario. Would that be better?
Like I said, this whole thing is a work in progress. I'm sure not everything is balanced - I've never playtested these myself.
Another point about... well... points. Brian suggested that fleets be allowed to take ships at whatever point value the game is supposed to be played at, regardless of how many points your fleet takes. So, for example, if a game is 500 points, but a fleet can only take 450 points, set up your fleet with allowances as though it were 500 points. So Aquans, whose battleship is 200 points and can only be taken in 40% of their army would still be allowed to field a battleship even though 200 is more than 40% of 450 points. Make sense?
ReplyDeleteJust to reiterate - I haven't done any playtesting on these (mostly because I've played about a half dozen games total, let alone with these scenarios in mind). If something's broken, just let us know and we'll work on fixing it. I'd rather have scenarios that are pretty even than ones that are a foregone conclusion one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteWith you. I was just trying to bring up issues with the game in order to correct mid-course. I think Jay and I were pretty set on modifying the Spread the Net scenario, but as you said last night, I don't want to make uni-lateral decision any more than you do. At the very least, I need to get the input of the game designer to ensure I understand the spirit of the rule :)
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. Here's the intent: the person springing the trap would get a Carrier for free, so if I made the battle equal points, the person who was defending would have a free 100+ points on top of their fleet. I figured having a reduction of 1/3 points would counteract that a bit. The Terrians would have 465 points (335 for the 2/3 plus 130 for the Carrier) while the Sorylians would have 440 points (10% discounted - 10 for having more systems). A Terrian Carrier is still tossing around 8 AD on its best weapon. Not as good as a battleship, though.
ReplyDeleteWhat if we strip the Interdector Cruiser of all its weaponry and leave it as is, and deduct 50 points from the attacker then (since the defender's still going to have to divert firepower to the Interdector Cruiser)? Would that work?
Also, does the Interdector effect both sides or just enemy ships? Not being able to shunt make this mission really deadly.
ReplyDeleteThe intention is that the interdector effects both sides, but that the side that controls it can turn it off at will and shunt out that way. If it's turned off, though, it's turned off for both sides. Good thought - I hadn't considered that. Does that work?
ReplyDelete