2009 PBEM Trillion Credit Squadron Tournament

[Jeffr0]

I have three "fleets" reporting in-- OIT, Billy Downs, and far-trader.

Any body else out there, feel free to jump in. Old-timers and newcomers are all welcome. We won't let loose the Vargr of War until after the holidays, so you still have time to design your ship(s).

-- Jeff

 

[Jeffr0]

Three games simultaneously - does that mean we need to have three fleets ready to go, or would we use the same one against all three opponents? That could get confusing.

Nah, you use the exact same fleet against all of your opponents. The winner is the one that wins the most games. A fleet might win decisively against one opponent, but lose miserably against a different design approach. The neat thing about this is we get to see fleets in varying situations instead of just one....

 

[Jeffr0]

Maybe we could all take turns being the GM for someone else's match?

In order to preserve the general sense of a level playing field for an almost-serious "tournament", I figure keeping it to one referee per round would be good... unless we get flooded by a large number of unexpected new players.

We'll see how bad the paperwork is for the round-robin... maybe I'll change my mind in a few weeks!

 

[Ron Gianti]

In order to preserve the general sense of a level playing field for an almost-serious "tournament", I figure keeping it to one referee per round would be good... unless we get flooded by a large number of unexpected new players.

We'll see how bad the paperwork is for the round-robin... maybe I'll change my mind in a few weeks!

Sounds good! If you get swamped just shout out.

I have three "fleets" reporting in-- OIT, Billy Downs, and far-trader.

Just sent you my BCS fleet! I'll spend some time off building my TCS fleet...

 

[Jeffr0]

4 fleets means 6 games to run. (AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, and CD)

That's not too bad.

Woo-hoo! Looking forward to this....

 

[far-trader]

Dan,
check out page 26 of Adventure 5 (TCS), step 8 of the small craft design checklist. Seems fairly explicit to me.

Thanks I hadn't got around to cracking TCS again to see what it had to say, not sure I would have thought to look on the design checklist.

Of course that could be a mistake too

I note that while the design worksheet for ships has a line for armour, the design worksheet for small craft does not. Some blank lines, so maybe you're supposed to pencil it in, or...

 

[BillDowns]

What does line 26 say?

And, I am looking forward to my first new battle in years !!

 

[far-trader]

What does line 26 say?

You mean OIT's remark of TCS page 26 step 8?

It says (under Small Craft Design Checklist) "8. Select hull armor."

 

[Bob Weaver]

I have three "fleets" reporting in-- OIT, Billy Downs, and far-trader.

Any body else out there, feel free to jump in. Old-timers and newcomers are all welcome. We won't let loose the Vargr of War until after the holidays, so you still have time to design your ship(s).

-- Jeff

Jeffr0,
I've got my fleet all written up, how do I send it to you, through the board or by private e-mail?

Bob W.

 

[Jeffr0]

autoduelist AT gmail DOT com will work fine.

 

[Bob Weaver]

OK, my fleet is in! The Navy of the Thrainian Confederation is on alert and prepared to defend T-Con space from any and all invaders. Bring it on! :smirk:

 

[dccarles]

Arrgh! I'd like to join in, but I've searched the thread and can't find the squadron specifications. What are they?

[Edit]
Whoops, I found them. Never mind.

--Devin (designing ships since, uhm, about 1985 - ph34r my Serendip Belt 'Guns and Gravel' fleet!)

 

[Bob Weaver]

A suggestion for a non-house-rule addtion

For those who are playing in the BCS round, I'd like to make a suggestion. I suggest we have Jeffr0 assign to each player an (equal) number of skill points that can be applied to specific crew members aboard our squadron(s), with the outcome that we have a few higher-skilled crew around the fleet who can give the occasional edge. See the Skills section of HG2, p 44. This way everyone can have at least one hot-shot fighter pilot :smirk: or a Horatio Hornblower as ship captain. Of course we don't want to use that rule too heavily, such that every pilot has Pilot (or Ship's Boat)-7. But it would add a bit of flavor, is very customizable, and is part of the "by the book" approach we seem to agree on taking.
Thoughts, comments, quibbles, objections?

Cheers,

Bob W.

And Happy New Year to All!!

 

[skyth]

Is it my imagination or does the pilot limit severely punish Carriers? (Or do fighters carried by a Carrier not count towards the pilot limit?)

 

[Bob Weaver]

Is it my imagination or does the pilot limit severely punish Carriers? (Or do fighters carried by a Carrier not count towards the pilot limit?)

I've always taken that rule in TCS as limiting the pilots for all craft, not just starships, effectively limiting the number of ships a squadron can contain.
So for our BCS tourney, the limit of 30 pilots means you can have at most 29 small craft and one carrier ship. However, because of the 100% gas giant refueling requirement, you cannot have a dispersed structure hull for the carrier. As such, standard launch facilities also limit the useful number of fighter craft that can be included in the squadron. Care to jump in Skyth?

Cheers,

Bob W.

 

[skyth]

Actually, I ran a TCS...Didn't bump into the 200 pilot limit even though I had a couple ships carrying fighters and several carrying battleriders.

Can the gas giant refueling be taken care of by tanker craft? (And I assume the gas giant refueling requires purification equipment also?)

I do have a BCS squadron I designed to the TL 12 specs unless it's too late to jump in.

Edit - Granted, I don't have the TCS rules, but I'd like to get my hands on them...Have they been reprinted?

 

[far-trader]

Can the gas giant refueling be taken care of by tanker craft? (And I assume the gas giant refueling requires purification equipment also?)

Yep, and you don't need 100% capacity either, just 10%. So if your fleet requires 100tons of fuel total, all you need is one carried craft capable of carrying 10tons of fuel and meeting the refueling parameters.

As purification wasn't specified I don't think it's a requirement. Nice to have but you can take your chances if you want.

I do have a BCS squadron I designed to the TL 12 specs unless it's too late to jump in.

Shouldn't be too late, I think we're all still decompressing a bit from the holidays before we jump

 

[skyth]

Maybe I'm confused (Or remembering the wrong rules) but I thought you could only jump with refined fuel...

So the ship wouldn't feel right without the purification equipment.

 

[aramis]

Edit - Granted, I don't have the TCS rules, but I'd like to get my hands on them...Have they been reprinted?

Either get the Adventures Reprint (it's Adv 5) or get the CD.

 

[skyth]

I emailed in my entry for the BCS

It was definitely weird designing TL 12 ships...I'm used to only dealing with TL 15 ships.