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	Archive through March 05, 2002	25		03/05 08:59pm

A friend I used to game with had a different solution, back in "the old days."

Since plotted movement was standard, each size class required its own level:
Fighters/PFs = Free movement
SC4 = 1/4 Turn plotted
SC3 = 1/2 Turn plotted
SC2 = Full Turn plotted
The flagship plotted at one level better than otherwise (DN Flagship plots at 1/2 Turn).

If the flagship was destroyed, then all ships would be on full turn plotting until the admiral reached a new command ship.

A fleet of DDs would be more maneuverable than a squadron of DNs.

By Paul Rae (Soapyfrog) on Wednesday, March 06, 2002 - 12:27 am: Edit

Mine ain't simple... but it's simpler than S.8!!!

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Saturday, March 23, 2002 - 02:53 am: Edit

I couldn't read all of the discusion above but I wanted to mention this. It takes a lot of BPV to fill out a command rating. If a race is going to Attack something that big then their going to hit it with what they can. Command limits to me are more of a historical context in with to read the SFB history with. This said I've always thought there should be a way to get more in the game. I mean, the Battle of Midway had a huge amount of ships in it. I think some optional rules like Frigit/Destroyer squadrens count as one command point if they stay together (i.e. on the map),or a way to have two fleets one the map at the same battle (i.e. an Allies rule)would be good.

By Geoff Conn (Talonz) on Saturday, March 23, 2002 - 01:34 pm: Edit

Midway had more than one battle. No single battle involved more than a quarter of all the ships in the area.

That said, you could just double the command limit and then use move costs for filling it out, so that you get more ships and more smaller ships as well. Nearly 30 ships even with DDs and FFs move costs.

But I doubt you'd find anyone willing to play that many...

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Saturday, March 23, 2002 - 05:32 pm: Edit

Teams. I think to realy enjoy a major fleet battle, you need to play in teams. Long ago a group of us played a conserted attack on StarFleet Headquarters by the Klingons and Romulans. I can't remember but the BPV was in the thousands involving more than 30 ships. We played from Sat. morning on to Tue. afternoon. No sleep. I'll never forget it. These games are rare I know, but I would be nice to have some way in the rules to guide the generation of such a senario.

By Geoff Conn (Talonz) on Sunday, March 24, 2002 - 02:37 pm: Edit

4 days straight?????

There is no way in heck the average sfb'er is going to play that!! That's insane! Beautiful, but insane.

I doubt I could convince the group to play a 8 ship fleet, let alone 15.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Sunday, March 24, 2002 - 03:27 pm: Edit

Actualy it just sort of happened. Around sunday night we were saying "We gotta wrap this up". By monday we all agreed we were nuts. Tuesday ended in major fatigue. I didn't pop out my last WW and my base popped instead. It never happened again but its fun to talk about. Anyway, some of the fun of SFB is in planning big games you might not want to really play. When you don't have an opponant you can still play the game!

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Sunday, March 24, 2002 - 07:31 pm: Edit

The scenario was a culmination of a semi-role playing campaign that used the old ship modification rules. I would like to write about it some day. It had two players and one game master(me).

By John Erwin Hacker (Godzillaking) on Saturday, April 03, 2004 - 01:58 pm: Edit

To All Concerned:
I have an alternate command system that is quite good and IT WORKS. This is how it works:
A). For every Flag box, 4 command points.
B). For every Bridge box, 3 command points.
C). For every Aux Con box, 2 command points, and
D). For every Emer box, 1 command point.
I know what some of you might say, this gives some races an ability to command more ships in combat but with all things concidered, I have playtested this system over and over again and it hasn't failed me in the last 10 years.
AND OF COURSE, YOU ALSO GET THE SHIP ITSELF.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Thursday, March 31, 2005 - 03:49 am: Edit

Anyone got any ideas as to what to do about superfleets of massive numbers of ships that can be thrown together under some campaign conditions ( such as when two fleets meet and join forces)?


I think there is a possibility to use existing rules to make this work.

What if for every ship in a fleet ( on the same side ); two ships dropped to poor ( possibly replaced by dropping an outstanding to regular to replace one of those ships or dropping a ship with an outstanding crew to poor to add the ship to the fleet )???

In this way you could have larger fleets but because they exceed the command rating the fleet becomes less effective due to a lack of cohession.

By Troy J. Latta (Saaur) on Thursday, March 31, 2005 - 07:52 am: Edit

For an upcoming campaign, we're cutting all command limits in half except for base assaults, and then most SC4 units will take up less than one command slot. This should encourage smaller fleets and faster battles.
When attacking a fixed position, though, you're allowed to have a full S8 fleet.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Thursday, March 31, 2005 - 12:31 pm: Edit

MJC: The answer is actually simpler than you might think and already within the existing rules system! It hit me one day when I told SVC that it would be cool to be able to depict a battle like the Battle of Midway. His answer was that that battle was not one huge battle but several smaller ones. The same can be said for many many huge battles in history.

SO how do you handle it in SFB?

Simple, multiple fleets. Consider a battle with say, four players. The colition side has two races with one fleet each, Klingon and Lyran. The Aliance side has two Fleets Fed and Kzinti. Technically all fleets are enemy fleets within the rules. It is the players choice to cooperate.

The same could be done by having multiple fleets of the same race. There is nothing in the rules that disallows four races fighting in a free for all.

So, if I want to play a scenario with 20 Federation ships I will need to have two command units fronting two separate fleets. The benefits of being apart of a fleet will not apply to ships from separate fleets (so you must i.d. them well). What you normally cannot do to your own ships will not apply to ships of the other fleets on your side. Things you CAN do only to your own fleets ships will also not apply.

I don't see a way to disallow this under the rules unless you limit the number of players you can have in a game or the number of sides. However, I think it would be an abuse of the rules to try an separate two small fleets that would normally be capable of combining into a single fleet (just for the few odd possible advantages of running separate fleets). So I would say you cannot begin a second fleet unless the first is as large as possible with a CR10 Command unit and the second must be at least 50% the strength of the first. That would be a house rule.

By FV (Rhialto) on Sunday, May 27, 2007 - 03:32 pm: Edit

How about...

(For pickup battles only) all ships you pick for a battle begin on the map, regardless of command limits. However, only a number of ships up to the usual command limits are actually considered "in command" (different from "in control").

A ship that is out of command cannot fire any weapons, except at seeking weapons within 3 hexes, cannot use tractors, transporters, shield reinforcement, EM, HET, or scout channels. Effectively, they are limited to running shields at full, defensive phaser fire, and basic movement. They may still disengage by any valid means. Each turn, you may change the ships under command, but this must be done in writing.

This reflects the idea that if you have so many ships in the general battle area, your enemy is better able to overwhelm your command structures and press the battle to your reserves.