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Post by Finarvyn on Mar 27, 2012 15:13:56 GMT -6
An idea that I had (I should probably have PM'ed Falconer directly) was that we need Martian Fleet Battles, flyer combat based on Star Fleet Battles.
I was thinking that one would start with OSFB (Microgame #4) as a basis for movement, etc. Build a critical hit chart to reflect flyers (radium guns, ballast tanks, hull, crew) and put together SSD's for main types of flyers of Barsoom.
While I like Warriors of Mars, the flyer combat system never really jumped out at me. Seems like a combat system where you could cross off boxes as your ship was damaged would be a lot more fun if a person wanted to role-play characters in battles.
What do you think? Worth my time to tinker with this?
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Post by coffee on Mar 27, 2012 16:45:24 GMT -6
I'd be interested in it. I always liked SFB.
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Post by Finarvyn on Mar 27, 2012 20:14:36 GMT -6
Actually, I imagined two layers of this: 1. A SFB style game with SSDs for small-scale battles. 2. A Federation Space style game with cardboard counters with simple combat/move numbers for use in large-scale battles.
I'm starting to scribble down notes to myself. I'll share them in a few days (I hope).
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busman
Level 6 Magician
Playing OD&D, once again. Since 2008!
Posts: 448
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Post by busman on Mar 28, 2012 0:14:28 GMT -6
I can't think of how many hours I spent on SFB, I remember sitting over our homemade lightbox creating new SSDs for new ships, new races, played out whole wars using F&E for strategic and then SFB for tactical.
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Post by Falconer on Mar 28, 2012 16:08:56 GMT -6
Interesting idea, Fin. Will it be a problem that the flyers in Barsoom are a much smaller size than the ships of Trek (with crews of ~400)?
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Post by Finarvyn on Mar 28, 2012 18:31:10 GMT -6
Interesting idea, Fin. Will it be a problem that the flyers in Barsoom are a much smaller size than the ships of Trek (with crews of ~400)? I don't see this as a problem, since the size of a crew box on the SSD is totally relative. A unit of crew could be one person or one hundred, as long as one scale is picked. Sizes I was considering: (not canon) 1-man scout 2-man scout 10-man cruiser 20-man heavy cruiser 100-man battleship Critcal systems for the hit-chart: Propellor Ballast Tank Crew Hull Guns I haven't tried to do much research on types of flyers yet. I'm not sure if WoM is canon on this or if EGG just picked some sizes that sounded neat. I assume that once one decides upon the crew sizes then the total number of boxes on a SSD will correlate somehow. For example, one of each above per 10 men. A rule like this would probably have to be created for each system since it would be odd to have as many propellors as hull boxes, for example. Totally off the top of my head... Critcal systems for the hit-chart: Propellor - one per 25 men, minimum one Ballast Tank - one per 25 men, minimum one Crew - one per 10 men, minimum one Hull - one per 10 men, minimum one Guns - one per 15 men, no minimum 1-man scout: 1 Propellor 1 Ballast Tank 1 Crew 1 Hull 0 Guns = 4 total boxes on the SSD. 100-man battleship: 4 Propellor 4 Ballast Tank 10 Crew 10 Hull 6 Guns = 34 total boxes on the SSD. What do you think?
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Post by Finarvyn on Mar 28, 2012 18:44:05 GMT -6
Some research from John Carter, Warlord of Mars, a miniatures rules set from Heritage models....
They break flyers down into 6 classes.
HEAVY SCOUT CRAFT Crew = 40-70 men Officers = 4-10 Small Gun = 1 Rapid Fire Gun = 5 Search Lights = 4 Small one-man flyers = 6
HEAVY PATROL BOAT Crew = 30-50 men Officers = 4-7 Rapid Fire Gun = 4 Search Lights = 4 Small one-man flyers = 2
PATROL BOAT Crew = 20-25 men Officers = 3-5 Rapid Fire Gun = 3-4 Search Lights = 4
SMALL FLYER Crew = 2-6 men Officers = 1 Rapid Fire Gun = 1 Search Lights = 1
ONE-MAN FLYER Crew = 1 men
I assume that they also have larger ships in the fleet, but I don't see any in a quick skim of the rules.
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Post by Finarvyn on Mar 28, 2012 18:56:07 GMT -6
More research from the Barsoomian Battle Manual (also Heritage), which has 6 classes of flyers but starts out big and never accounts for one-man craft. I have no idea if these rules are compatible with the other rules set, but they seem to have some similar terminology sometimes.
These numbers seem a little inflated to me, but it would be easy enough to scale things down in terms of boxes on a SSD. (E.g. a gun does not have to be the same as a gun box; one gun box could represent 5 guns or some such number.)
Anyway, here's what they have:
DREADNAUGHT (Flagship only) Armored Heavy Guns = 4-6 Medium Guns = 12-18 Light Guns = 18-30 Rapid Fire Guns = 12-16 Crew = 3000
BATTLESHIP Lightly Armored Heavy Guns = 4-8 Medium Guns = 8-12 Light Guns = 16-24 Rapid Fire Guns = up to 20 Crew = 2000-2500
BATTLE CRUISER Heavy Guns = 2-4 Medium Guns = up to 10 Light Guns = 24 Rapid Fire Guns = 20 Crew = 2000
ARMORED CRUISER Armored Heavy Guns = up to 2 Medium Guns = up to 10 Light Guns = 18 Rapid Fire Guns = 24 Crew = 1500
CRUISER Medium Guns = up to 10 Light Guns = 12 Rapid Fire Guns = 24 Crew = 1250
LIGHT CRUISER Medium Guns = up to 4 Light Guns = 12 Rapid Fire Guns = 20 Crew = 700
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Post by Finarvyn on Mar 28, 2012 18:58:06 GMT -6
Critcal systems for the hit-chart: Propellor Ballast Tank Crew Hull Guns To the above list we'd also want to add Armor. I wasn't thinking about airships being armored, but Heritage Models thinks they are so it's worth putting in there.
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