Search found 242 matches

by Gareth_Perkins
Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:26 pm
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Q-Ships
Replies: 25
Views: 9444

Q-Ships

Can someone explain the Q-Ship trait from the VBAM: CC for me? It is very odd as written, seemingly lowering the CC of the vessels while it is a civilian fleets escort, but not reducing the chances of raiding. Am I missing something? CC doesn't seem very relevant (as convoy escorts more often act as...
by Gareth_Perkins
Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:28 am
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Space Combat and Reserves
Replies: 4
Views: 3013

That makes a lot more sense (I must have misread the reinforcements pool rules at some point), Although with some backgrounds I can see that being able to keep squadrons safe "at will" being a fairly nasty tactic (I suppose the scout rules for "including" squadrons make a lot of ...
by Gareth_Perkins
Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:54 pm
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Space Combat and Reserves
Replies: 4
Views: 3013

Space Combat and Reserves

I've just finished playing through a combat for a (Star Trek) pbem game I'm running and something odd came up, The Federation player has recently had problems with systems rebelling after pirate raids, and was in the process of retaking one of them. He had built up a pair of fleets, one with three s...
by Gareth_Perkins
Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:39 pm
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Possible New Intel Missions
Replies: 8
Views: 3916

There's one tweak I'd like to make to the baseline Intel rules from the CG, As printed the "Sabotage: Counter Intel" mission causes the target to lose one Intel from the targeted system during the "Update Asset" phase. Since Intel can be moved around freely between systems, this ...
by Gareth_Perkins
Tue Jul 01, 2008 3:09 pm
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Possible New Intel Missions
Replies: 8
Views: 3916

I'll poke about with some rewrites and general tightening up of the rules, Another complaint I've seen a lot both with my players and here on the forums is that it's too difficult to project Intel ops outside of your Empire because of the census restriction and distance clauses. I like these clauses...
by Gareth_Perkins
Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:55 am
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Two Newbie Questions on Combat
Replies: 8
Views: 4790

1) It's assumed that the flag squadron is protected by the rest of the fleet - and perhaps some distance away from the primary action - and this is why it gets +1 formation bonus as well as the halved AS penalty. I believe an errata was that the flag squadron lost this bonus and penalty in fleets wi...
by Gareth_Perkins
Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:57 am
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Newbie Intel Question
Replies: 7
Views: 3369

Finally found a link to the FAQ on the VBAM Wiki, but the file has been replaced by a Mastercard advert,

Advertisers heh, there's a space for them along with the solicitors, lawyers and estate agents at the bottom of the ocean,
by Gareth_Perkins
Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:38 am
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Newbie Intel Question
Replies: 7
Views: 3369

That's a hard cap on spending for military Intel and Intel operations per system (so census 5, max of 5IP spent per turn in total on anything other than defence), It's covered in the FAQ (along with a thorough walk-through of the Intel rules) - the rules are as you say pretty vague (FASB edition loo...
by Gareth_Perkins
Sat Jun 28, 2008 7:54 pm
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Possible New Intel Missions
Replies: 8
Views: 3916

Possible New Intel Missions

A couple of ideas for new Intel Missions. They're the sort of thing that only help in a game with a lot of secrecy - and may never be needed if players generally get on. Espionage: Empire (Difficulty 1) Gather basic information about an Empire: The Systems (no info on the systems, just their names) ...
by Gareth_Perkins
Sat Jun 28, 2008 8:35 am
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Newbie Intel Question
Replies: 7
Views: 3369

Although only defensive Intel is assigned to systems, Offensive Intel is "launched" from systems, So a system with census 5 can launch up to 5 Intel of offensive missions per turn (in addition to having up to 5 defensive Intel). Since 5 offensive Intel may not be enough to get the job done...
by Gareth_Perkins
Thu Jun 19, 2008 7:30 am
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Population Growth
Replies: 12
Views: 6960

Hmmm, I'm not sure that I'm entirely a fan of "more colonies means more colonists", but I guess it does give the players some incentive to expand - which is a good thing. A quick-and-dirty fix might be to simply add in the total number of colonies each turn, which will give players incenti...
by Gareth_Perkins
Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:17 am
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Population Growth
Replies: 12
Views: 6960

My personal preference to deal with "lets move them around for a better growth bonus" types would be to use the average census since the last check instead of the census at the moment of the check. You are right, this will prevent my players from finessing the situation, but it won't deal...
by Gareth_Perkins
Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:29 pm
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Population Growth
Replies: 12
Views: 6960

Your system makes sense over all, Gareth, and I have run If anything it is probably geometric and not a linear representation. I try not to consider it to represent a hard 'count' of people but a general indicator of contribution from the population involved towards the capacity/productivity. Hmmm,...
by Gareth_Perkins
Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:33 pm
Forum: Officer's Lounge
Topic: Population Growth
Replies: 12
Views: 6960

True, You could flip it around easily enough and place the census on low census planets first though, My assumption was that after the initial influx of residents (represented by the colony fleet arriving and depositing what is after all a lot of colonists - one census is equivelent to one twelth of...