Book 2 vs. Mayday

[RobertFisher]

Book 2 space combat & Mayday are two variations on the same game. I'm wondering about the pros & cons of the differences.

Of course using counters for vectors instead of string or wire is hardly worth mentioning. As is using hexes instead of a ruler. You could easily use hexes & counters with Book 2 or string & ruler with Mayday. I think I have a good grasp on the pros & cons of those choices.

And the simplified computer rule in Mayday is tempting to use with Book 2.

The more interesting differences I noticed were the very different scales & that it seemed that missile hits were handled differently. Any comments on these or other differences?

 

[RobertFisher]

Book 2 space combat & Mayday are two variations on the same game. I'm wondering about the pros & cons of the differences.

Of course using counters for vectors instead of string or wire is hardly worth mentioning. As is using hexes instead of a ruler. You could easily use hexes & counters with Book 2 or string & ruler with Mayday. I think I have a good grasp on the pros & cons of those choices.

And the simplified computer rule in Mayday is tempting to use with Book 2.

The more interesting differences I noticed were the very different scales & that it seemed that missile hits were handled differently. Any comments on these or other differences?

 

[aramis]

Mayday, overall, is superior, aside from lacking ship design...

Actually, Bk2 has more detail on hit locations, and uses a 2d table, which puts the polar results far less common.

compare the starship resolution tables
Mayday: 1/6 chance of MDrive, 1/6 chance of JDrive, 1/6 chance of Computer, 1/6 chance of Weapon hits
Bk2: 1/36 PP, 1/18 MD, 1/12 JD (MD if nonstarship), 5/36 weapon, 1/9th chance of computer, 1/9 of fuel, 1/36 critical hits, rest NE.


So, in Mayday, Power plants are immune to damage, as are fuel tanks... and there are not critical hits; the 1d roll is much faster. Damage, however, is not stepped, but is boolean; hit a system, it's toast. 4 landed attacks in one turn, or 3 doing system hits in three trns, destroys the ship.

Bk2 is, however, more forgiving.

Neither covers larger turret weapons (like Fusion, plasma, and repulsor turrets), let alone bays.

Personally, when I run CT, I hybridized Mayday and Bk2. Bk2 damage tables, Mayday TH rules and movement.

When I run MT, I use Mayday movement, and the MT Vehicular Combat rules.

 

[aramis]

Mayday, overall, is superior, aside from lacking ship design...

Actually, Bk2 has more detail on hit locations, and uses a 2d table, which puts the polar results far less common.

compare the starship resolution tables
Mayday: 1/6 chance of MDrive, 1/6 chance of JDrive, 1/6 chance of Computer, 1/6 chance of Weapon hits
Bk2: 1/36 PP, 1/18 MD, 1/12 JD (MD if nonstarship), 5/36 weapon, 1/9th chance of computer, 1/9 of fuel, 1/36 critical hits, rest NE.


So, in Mayday, Power plants are immune to damage, as are fuel tanks... and there are not critical hits; the 1d roll is much faster. Damage, however, is not stepped, but is boolean; hit a system, it's toast. 4 landed attacks in one turn, or 3 doing system hits in three trns, destroys the ship.

Bk2 is, however, more forgiving.

Neither covers larger turret weapons (like Fusion, plasma, and repulsor turrets), let alone bays.

Personally, when I run CT, I hybridized Mayday and Bk2. Bk2 damage tables, Mayday TH rules and movement.

When I run MT, I use Mayday movement, and the MT Vehicular Combat rules.

 

[RobertFisher]

Originally posted by Aramis:
Actually, Bk2 has more detail on hit locations, and uses a 2d table, which puts the polar results far less common.

I missed that, though I did notice the 4 hits in one turn rule. (Yikes!)

Personally, when I run CT, I hybridized Mayday and Bk2. Bk2 damage tables, Mayday TH rules and movement.

That sounds good. Thanks.

It's funny looking back on my early CT games. It seems we never got into ship-to-ship combat. (Or even situations that could lead to it.) I guess the ref wasn't big on it.

 

[RobertFisher]

Originally posted by Aramis:
Actually, Bk2 has more detail on hit locations, and uses a 2d table, which puts the polar results far less common.

I missed that, though I did notice the 4 hits in one turn rule. (Yikes!)

Personally, when I run CT, I hybridized Mayday and Bk2. Bk2 damage tables, Mayday TH rules and movement.

That sounds good. Thanks.

It's funny looking back on my early CT games. It seems we never got into ship-to-ship combat. (Or even situations that could lead to it.) I guess the ref wasn't big on it.

 

[RobertFisher]

Any tips on Bk2/Mayday tactics?

 

[RobertFisher]

Any tips on Bk2/Mayday tactics?

 

[Nurd_boy]

Originally posted by RobertFisher:
Any tips on Bk2/Mayday tactics?

RACE FOR JUMP POINT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE?

 

[Nurd_boy]

Originally posted by RobertFisher:
Any tips on Bk2/Mayday tactics?

RACE FOR JUMP POINT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE?

 

[RobertFisher]

It's so weird. I've uesd Book 2 so much for building ships, but I just haven't known the combat portions at all.

Anyway, the latest quirk I noticed. It says (p. 16) that beam lasers hit more easily but pulsed lasers do more damage. & p. 27 tells you to distinguish pulse & beam on the ship card. I don't see any rules for treating them differently, though. Am I missing it?

It looks like Mayday loses the distinction between lasers completely while expanding the missile options.

It's tempting to treat each pulse laser hit as two hits & give beam lasers a +1 DM to hit. But then I'd want a 750 KCr "compomise" laser that filled the baseline.

Maybe better would be to just give beam a +1 to hit & not give pulse any extra damage. It doesn't fit the description, but I think it fits the prices better.

But I think I leaning towards not bothering with the distinction. Nobody need spend the extra credits for beam lasers because they don't provide any extra benefit.

Re missiles: I suppose the Mayday to hit roll makes sense due to the increased scale & granularity v. Book 2. Still, I'm tempted to stick with the Book 2, if-it-intercepts-than-it-hits method. I guess I'm going to have to play through some scenarios to get the feel for the system.

 

[RobertFisher]

It's so weird. I've uesd Book 2 so much for building ships, but I just haven't known the combat portions at all.

Anyway, the latest quirk I noticed. It says (p. 16) that beam lasers hit more easily but pulsed lasers do more damage. & p. 27 tells you to distinguish pulse & beam on the ship card. I don't see any rules for treating them differently, though. Am I missing it?

It looks like Mayday loses the distinction between lasers completely while expanding the missile options.

It's tempting to treat each pulse laser hit as two hits & give beam lasers a +1 DM to hit. But then I'd want a 750 KCr "compomise" laser that filled the baseline.

Maybe better would be to just give beam a +1 to hit & not give pulse any extra damage. It doesn't fit the description, but I think it fits the prices better.

But I think I leaning towards not bothering with the distinction. Nobody need spend the extra credits for beam lasers because they don't provide any extra benefit.

Re missiles: I suppose the Mayday to hit roll makes sense due to the increased scale & granularity v. Book 2. Still, I'm tempted to stick with the Book 2, if-it-intercepts-than-it-hits method. I guess I'm going to have to play through some scenarios to get the feel for the system.

 

[mike wightman]

The rules for pulse lasers finally appeared in the last version of CT - the Starter edition.
Pulse lasers are at -1 to hit. If they hit they inflict 2 damage rolls.

 

[mike wightman]

The rules for pulse lasers finally appeared in the last version of CT - the Starter edition.
Pulse lasers are at -1 to hit. If they hit they inflict 2 damage rolls.

 

[aramis]

I just checked The Big Black Book (The Traveller Book): no mention in combat of any distinctions.

One other important note: Mayday predates HG; some editions apparently have conversion notes for use with HG, where there is a big difference in larger battery sizes.

Mayday's design limits apparently were Bk2, as the largest ships are colonial cruisers at 800T; a reasonably large ship under Bk2.

I do like the to hit table for mayday, tho'...
A missile collumn, a Small Craft Collumn, and a Ship Collumn. It was easy to use, read, and apply the "Standard" mods to.
Now, if only there were an E, M, R and P entry-set for each collum (E = Energy =Plasma and Fusion, M= Meson, R = Repulsor, P = Particle beam).

I know some people cobbled together Particle beam rules for running Adv1.

 

[aramis]

I just checked The Big Black Book (The Traveller Book): no mention in combat of any distinctions.

One other important note: Mayday predates HG; some editions apparently have conversion notes for use with HG, where there is a big difference in larger battery sizes.

Mayday's design limits apparently were Bk2, as the largest ships are colonial cruisers at 800T; a reasonably large ship under Bk2.

I do like the to hit table for mayday, tho'...
A missile collumn, a Small Craft Collumn, and a Ship Collumn. It was easy to use, read, and apply the "Standard" mods to.
Now, if only there were an E, M, R and P entry-set for each collum (E = Energy =Plasma and Fusion, M= Meson, R = Repulsor, P = Particle beam).

I know some people cobbled together Particle beam rules for running Adv1.

 

[dancha]

Hey Aramis:

Any chance you have your hyridized rules written up? And _already_ posted to the web? Or at least ready to be?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[dancha]

Hey Aramis:

Any chance you have your hyridized rules written up? And _already_ posted to the web? Or at least ready to be?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[RobertFisher]

Well, I played the pirate scenario from Mayday using basically Book 2 with hexes. (Each hex = 100 scale mm) It was pretty quick. Corsair scores a hull hit. Trader misses. Corsair scores a power plant hit.

Looks like its all about superior numbers of lasers & superior computer power.

 

[RobertFisher]

Well, I played the pirate scenario from Mayday using basically Book 2 with hexes. (Each hex = 100 scale mm) It was pretty quick. Corsair scores a hull hit. Trader misses. Corsair scores a power plant hit.

Looks like its all about superior numbers of lasers & superior computer power.