2009 PBEM Trillion Credit Squadron Tournament

[BillDowns]

I think a notice posted here when a round is done, with or without detailed results would be nice.

As far as "fog of war", if the range is Close, we should be able to determine ship size, number of batteries - maybe not what they are, but the number. As the battle goes on, we should be able to note the max g we have seen. And from being fired upon, we can start determining what weapons are shooting at us.

Example, after I've been shot at, I would know that x number of PA bays have fired at me and what strength they were. Won't tell me of any that did NOT fire.

Just IMO.

 

[Jeffr0]

Status Report:

Game 2 (Ran Gianti vs BillDowns) has just completed an incredibly violent turn 2.

Every die roll counts... if I make even the slightest mistake reading/applying the rules, I can really screw this up.

I've got notes on how I've executed this one and will pass them on to Ran Gianti vs BillDowns when we finish it up.

I have orders from both players for Game 3 (Ran Gianti vs Skyth) that I need to process.

Far Trader has his orders in and is going out of town... and I still need to get a Game going for Weaver.

---

Rules clarification: Hits to Maneuver Drives reduce agility, right? So folks with M-2 hits are going to be easier to hit, right?

"A ship's agility rating may never exceed its maneuver drive rating. For each power plant hit received in combat (cumulative) the ship's agility rating is reduced by one."

 

[Jeffr0]

And... just ran through turns 3 and 4 of Game 3 (Ran Gianti vs Skyth) and sent status reports to the players.

Someone has fallen victim to some atrocious die rolls...!

 

[BillDowns]

Status Report:

Game 2 (Ran Gianti vs BillDowns) has just completed an incredibly violent turn 2.

And certain unmentionable parts of my body still hurt

Rules clarification: Hits to Maneuver Drives reduce agility, right? So folks with M-2 hits are going to be easier to hit, right?

"A ship's agility rating may never exceed its maneuver drive rating. For each power plant hit received in combat (cumulative) the ship's agility rating is reduced by one."

Right - almost every weapon has DM-target agility. It will also affect the range determination and initiative and break-off.

 

[BillDowns]

Oh, and if Weaver needs an opponent, I will be glad to use a target :rofl:

 

[skyth]

I'm not a fan of fog of war...Neutrino sensors can tell strength of engines/reactors/screens....Displacement tonnage, agility and weapons (And weapon factors of those weapons) used in the combat are all apparent, densometers can tell armor level easily, etc.

Especially considering that combat rounds are 20 minutes long.

 

[Jeffr0]

I think a notice posted here when a round is done, with or without detailed results would be nice.

As far as "fog of war", if the range is Close, we should be able to determine ship size, number of batteries - maybe not what they are, but the number. As the battle goes on, we should be able to note the max g we have seen. And from being fired upon, we can start determining what weapons are shooting at us.

Example, after I've been shot at, I would know that x number of PA bays have fired at me and what strength they were. Won't tell me of any that did NOT fire.

Just IMO.

I'm thinking about this.

If we do it the way you suggest... then you can have a single email sent to both players detailing each turn's action: number and rating of batteries used.... (Only the ones that are used, though.) Everyone knows the tonnage of all the ships. After that... make the die rolls and their results public... and all damage results public as well.

It was fun hamming up the roleplaying aspects of the test games... but by doing it consistently and having a single sit-rep for both players... the administrative side of running the games (from Gmail) should be much easier.

Thoughts?

Anything besides tonnage, battery types/ratings used, die rolls & their effects, and then the damage results?

Any objections to running things that way...? (And in spite of the games we have already started...?)

Any objections to having folks see the email addresses or do y'all prefer the standard to be that folks are BCC'd?

If only used agility is known then people will have to declare speeds before the initiative roll, right?

 

[Jeffr0]

I'm not a fan of fog of war...Neutrino sensors can tell strength of engines/reactors/screens....Displacement tonnage, agility and weapons (And weapon factors of those weapons) used in the combat are all apparent, densometers can tell armor level easily, etc.

Especially considering that combat rounds are 20 minutes long.

I'll take that as one vote for the system above...

 

[BillDowns]

I think that would be fine, except post it here, so others may watch the fun. The only thing an email would be needed for is to change orders or to allocate damage against a battery or something along those lines.

 

[Jeffr0]

Am I the only one that cares about spoiling the surprise?

Yeah... the public spectacle of it might be worth it, though....

I wish I could run all 15 battles simultaneously... but once you see the number of ships, you should find out pretty quick what you're facing.

The fog of war thing probably isn't worth all that much....

 

[skyth]

I vote for completely public...

 

[BillDowns]

Ah, let a girl keep her surprises.



Oh, wait, I'm not a girl. Eh.....

 

[Jeffr0]

Any volunteers for playing a public match against skyth's design... even though it'll give folks in later games a slight edge potentially?

The USP's are still technically private... just all the public stuff mentioned in my last post will be posted here for all to see... tonnage, battery types/ratings used, die rolls & their effects, and then the exact damage results as well?

(Hmm... your USP won't be very private after a game like that....)

 

[BillDowns]

Can I run my Arcturus?

Skyth, I'm running a different ship against Ran, though not much different

 

[Jeffr0]

What about a real Trillion Credit Squadron game run publicly...?

With a different referee...!

 

[Jeffr0]

What is the effect of a Power-Plant Disabled critical hit?

Can you fire missiles if that happens to you?

I'd say yes... because on pages 24-25 they are listed as having energy point requirements of 0.

So all weapons (except missiles and sand) can't fire after a Power-Plant Disabled critical hit, right?

 

[Ron Gianti]

Any volunteers for playing a public match against skyth's design... even though it'll give folks in later games a slight edge potentially?

The USP's are still technically private... just all the public stuff mentioned in my last post will be posted here for all to see... tonnage, battery types/ratings used, die rolls & their effects, and then the exact damage results as well?

(Hmm... your USP won't be very private after a game like that....)

Since I'm in combat against 5 people who would pretty much know my design, feel free to use it in a public battle. I do like your role playing aspects too, so feel free to use some combination of whatever fog of war or just completely transparent combat.

So you ready to referee a Trillion credit Squadron yet

 

[Bob Weaver]

What is the effect of a Power-Plant Disabled critical hit?

Can you fire missiles if that happens to you?

I'd say yes... because on pages 24-25 they are listed as having energy point requirements of 0.

So all weapons (except missiles and sand) can't fire after a Power-Plant Disabled critical hit, right?

I always took this one to be a mission-kill. Page 28 lists all the things aboard ship that require power: weapons, shields (sic) maneuver drives and computers. Also see the description of Fuel Tanks Shattered: "no ship systems requiring energy points may operate". That means no PP, no computer. If your computer is without power, you have no sensors to target enemy ships, even if you could launch missiles. IMTU, PP disabled = deep fat fried.

Cheers,

Bob W

 

[Jeffr0]

I've started 5 games now.

Every entry is up and running in one game-- except for one player who is resolving all five of his games this week.

(Having everyone play against the same person made things easier to run-- I always knew who people were shooting at....)

I'm running things relatively fast and loose-- with roleplaying type stuff instead of dry game details in some instances.

I think I'll try to finish up these 5 and see where we stand. Ron Gianti will be done after that! My competency with the rules has increased somewhat thanks to skyth. The next batch of games should be more tightly executed.

I don't think it will take long to play these out.... I'm trying to stay focused on getting this done before thinking about the next big thing....

[A round robin with 6 players is 15 games... but some designs are practically unbeatable in some situations, so there's some games that don't take a lot of effort. In the ones that are closely matched, every die roll counts!]

 

[Jeffr0]

So you ready to referee a Trillion credit Squadron yet

The way I'd run that...

would be more like the way skyth would run it-- less role playing and more raw gaming. Again, tonnage, battery types/ratings used, die rolls & their effects, and then the exact damage results would all be public.

I'd put each match in its own thread. I think there's some aspects of the double-blind worth preserving... but the players will find out a lot about each others fleet very quickly.

Die rolls will have to come from a pre-generated list, I think-- the referee will post it at the end. There should be a strict order of play so that the referee doesn't have to choose when to roll for what.

The "official" Tournament Specs for 2009 are:

TL 15
200 pilots
Jump 3
5 G
Any Refueling Method OK

A round robin would probably not be feasible.... And coordinating commitments to have a bracket system may not work either. Is there some sort of ladder system or king-of-the-hill type thing or even a chess rating thing we could set up in order to determine the COTI PBEM TCS Champion of 2009?!