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What is the right EP:CF:Risk ratio for hiring mercenaries? If fluff allows for mercenaries, then players can use mercenaries on one of two ways (that I see): (1) An instant force boost without the delays of construction (short-term). (2) Long-term contracts for garrison duties, etc. In other words, ...

I'm soliciting thoughts on a good push-your-luck rule for player controlled AIs. In this setting census would be a limiting factor for colonization/expansion. However, AI can be used by the player as "manufactured census" to drive the system EP output equation. AI would be available in cer...

Hey VBAMers, Does anyone have any successful experience to share with adapting VBAM to a Star Wars like FTL environment. In SW the hyperdrive allows for pan-galactic travel in times reduced to minutes or days at most, from any point to any point. One only needs a good nav computer or astromech droid...

VBAM Vets, I've (finally) grown my local gaming group in size and complexity that I have six players signed up to do a VBAM campaign. I had planned to use the first forum that I played VBAM on but it has since had the plug pulled. We may be local, but we're all grown ups and will still be playing by...

Hmmmm. That was helpful for me. I've been reading for a while now how people talk about how detection won't be a problem in space on scificonsim, but it didn't really click until just now. Yes, marine warfare is information warfare. The fact that in space everyone plays with their hand exposed is go...

True, but keep in mind that space combat is not just naval combat without the water- it's hard to know exactly how battles will be fought in space, and our current naval paradigm might not carry over. Agreed. I try to follow the scificonsim yahoo group (and rocketpunk and Project Rho) but I have to...

Proceedings Magazine, a publication of the USNI, recently did a pretty good write up on this. I've linked it here . The bottom line: more bluff than bite, for the time being (largely because of guidance issues). Someone made a comment about if it was a nuke, you'd only have to get close To which I s...

I think a very fun PBeM campaign could borrow a bit (okay, heavily) from the Replicators/Asgard trope. The extra-dimensional faction could be a PC but be under intens pressure in their home dimension from a voracious NPE threat. From the beginning the ED PC faction could be more powerful than the th...

I'm excited to buy and play whatever you guys put to paper (or pixel, as the case may be). Still, as a complete aside I do think that the evolution of naval arms and armament has pushed us and will continue to push us more and more in the direction of winner-take-all and "losers lose big."...

Some non-crunchy ruminations: While there are some counter examples that prove the rule (like Jutland), naval battles do tend to be more decisive than their army counterparts. Keagan's The Price of Admiralty and Hughes' Fleet Tactics and Coastal Combat are both books I'd recommend for getting into t...

I actually think that they need to be pretty, down-loadable extras. I know this isn't the case for a lot of folks, but I could only justify the extra record keeping for something like that if it had exceptional aesthetic appeal. I would actually need something like a map pack (plant backgrounds, hex...

The Vorkisagan series has some good-but-brief space combat scenes. However, some very excellent ruminations on the tactical and strategic implications of military conflict in a universe navigated by wormhole connections. The Algebraist by Ian M. Banks also features a brief but fascinating take on sp...

First, let me say that though the content below is critical, it is only meant to be objectively so. VBAM and all its published products are, in my opinion, excellent and exceedingly enjoyable. However, that does not mean that they are above reproach. Or possibly, I suppose that the answers to my que...

...and a crappy, totally working title, even if punny. This post reflects a PBeM/PBF game that is coming together. I’ve got about half my players recruited and some ideas, and that’s about it. I wanted to post a bit of background that will give context to some rules questions/ideas I plan to put int...