noob questions and design intent

[aaminoff]

I recently picked up the VBAM Campaign Guide. My copy is @2005, I think that is the latest. I'm poring through it avidly. I have a few questions, I want to make sure I understand the intent.


I was trying to figure out all the possible ways you can get formation bonus. I could not find them all listed in one place.

* One ship in each squadron (presumably the squadron leader most of the time) get +1 form bonus. This is only mentioned (that I could find) in the italicized notes next to the form. bonus table on page 54.

* The flag squadron of the whole TF gets +1 form bonus (unless it is doing dedicated anti-fighter). I presume this applies to all the ships in the squadron.

* Scouts can fiddle form bonus.

* Fighters always use directed damage and fire at ships as though form bonus was 1 less.

Does anything else affect formation bonus?


About dedicated anti-fighters squadrons, it says that flights choose targets after squadron assignments are declared. Does squadron assignments include declaring which squadrons the dedicated anti-fighter squadron is supporting? Or is there a subsequent step when the dedicated AF squadron chooses which squadron to support?


What is the design intent behind (d3+mod/2) / 5 vs (d6 + mod) / 10? It seems like those give very similar results, just less granularity with the d3. Or is there some aspect of this that I'm missing?
[/list]

[Rainer]

I recently picked up the VBAM Campaign Guide. My copy is @2005, I think that is the latest. I'm poring through it avidly. I have a few questions, I want to make sure I understand the intent.


I was trying to figure out all the possible ways you can get formation bonus. I could not find them all listed in one place.

* One ship in each squadron (presumably the squadron leader most of the time) get +1 form bonus. This is only mentioned (that I could find) in the italicized notes next to the form. bonus table on page 54.

Yes.

* The flag squadron of the whole TF gets +1 form bonus (unless it is doing dedicated anti-fighter). I presume this applies to all the ships in the squadron.

Exactly. That also means that the task force flagship has a formation bonus of 2.

* Scouts can fiddle form bonus.

* Fighters always use directed damage and fire at ships as though form bonus was 1 less.

Does anything else affect formation bonus?

Mines can also increase it as can the cloak and guardian special abilities.

About dedicated anti-fighters squadrons, it says that flights choose targets after squadron assignments are declared. Does squadron assignments include declaring which squadrons the dedicated anti-fighter squadron is supporting? Or is there a subsequent step when the dedicated AF squadron chooses which squadron to support?

You can assign the target of the dedicated AF squadrons after fighter assignments have been declared.

What is the design intent behind (d3+mod/2) / 5 vs (d6 + mod) / 10? It seems like those give very similar results, just less granularity with the d3. Or is there some aspect of this that I'm missing?

Either Jay or Tyrel will have to answer this one.

[mwaschak]

What is the design intent behind (d3+mod/2) / 5 vs (d6 + mod) / 10? It seems like those give very similar results, just less granularity with the d3. Or is there some aspect of this that I'm missing?

Either Jay or Tyrel will have to answer this one.

The original intention was to add weight of the surprise and readiness to fighter rolls. Let's assume a fleet with a surprise bonus of 1, and one with a bonus of 0, and the same for a large group of fighters on ship busting attacks.

((D6+1) * AS) / 10

((D6+0) * AS) / 10

VS

((D3+1) * AS) / 5

((D3+0) * AS) / 5

Plugging in some numbers:

((2+1) * 25) / 10 = 7.5

((2+0) * 25) / 10 = 5

VS

((2+1) * 25) / 5 = 15

((2+0) * 25) / 5 = 10

At least, that is what my original notes say .

-Jay

[Gareth_Perkins]

The original intention was to add weight of the surprise and readiness to fighter rolls. Let's assume a fleet with a surprise bonus of 1, and one with a bonus of 0, and the same for a large group of fighters on ship busting attacks.

Except that as I recall, the surprise/readiness modifier also gets halved for fighters,

Mostly what it does is eliminate some of the randomness from fighters - the range of possible results shrinks slightly (while remaining pinned to the top of the range of results),

i.e.:
15 AS

15 / 10 = 1.5, multiply by 1D6, results range from 1 to 9 after rounding,

15 / 5 = 3, multiply by 1D3, results range from 3 to 9,

This makes fighter attacks nastier than they appear for their offensive 'weight', and likewise for defensive fire!

However, as the range of die results is halved, so are the surprise modifiers - so they only have an equivalent effect,

[Rainer]

However, as the range of die results is halved, so
are the surprise modifiers - so they only have an equivalent effect,

The surprise modifiers do get rounded up though IIRC which makes their influence slightly bigger compared to ship's fire.

[aaminoff]

Thank you for the clarifications. I guess in the next version of CSCR the fighter d3/5 vs d6/10 may change.

I am looking at the races in the back of the base rulebook, and the base scenario maps.

Is it correct that the only things you can buy are the items specifically listed for your race + the items in the glossary that have default build and maintenance costs?

If so, I can't help but notice that none of the races in the back of the book seem to have any Military Supply ships. This makes it impossible for them to trace supply across a restricted jump lane. Is this intended?

Also, it seems that the Kili, the Lorans before 3007, and the Senorians before 3005 have neither Assault ships nor Marines available. Does this mean that they are unable to invade planets? Is this intended?

Thanks,
- Alex

Edit: found Senorians too

[Gareth_Perkins]

Thank you for the clarifications. I guess in the next
Is it correct that the only things you can buy are the items specifically listed for your race + the items in the glossary that have default build and maintenance costs?

Generally correct - the listed stuff plus trade, transport and colony fleets (the Menagerie also adds a bunch of generic ships to every fleet),

If so, I can't help but notice that none of the races in the back of the book seem to have any Military Supply ships. This makes it impossible for them to trace supply across a restricted jump lane. Is this intended?

It's correct - I'm not sure if it's intentional or not - perhaps it isn't relevent for the "background", you can always add appropriate vessels as you see fit,

Also, it seems that the Kili, the Lorans before 3007, and the Senorians before 3005 have neither Assault ships nor Marines available. Does this mean that they are unable to invade planets? Is this intended?

This is also correct - however, note that you can bombard the census until it all dies, and then re-colonise,

[Rainer]

Thank you for the clarifications. I guess in the next version of CSCR the fighter d3/5 vs d6/10 may change.

Perhaps. There are some bigger fish to fry though.

I am looking at the races in the back of the base rulebook, and the base scenario maps.

Is it correct that the only things you can buy are the items specifically listed for your race + the items in the glossary that have default build and maintenance costs?

Yes (although you may not have access to your complete force list yet because of tech considerations).

If so, I can't help but notice that none of the races in the back of the book seem to have any Military Supply ships. This makes it impossible for them to trace supply across a restricted jump lane. Is this intended?

Also, it seems that the Kili, the Lorans before 3007, and the Senorians before 3005 have neither Assault ships nor Marines available. Does this mean that they are unable to invade planets? Is this intended?

Thanks,
- Alex

Edit: found Senorians too

IIRC these are Tyrel's creations so he will have to answer this.

[Charles Lewis]

I think there are some updated lists on the Yahoo group that plug some of the holes for the default races.

[dream4]

I found this oversight as well as I'm starting a playtest campaign and running some solo scenarios to familiarize myself with the system.

The VBAM FAQ only helps a little; the Kili and Senorians still get screwed out of the ability to invade until 3003 or 3005, since they have neither Assault ships nor Marines until then. In one obvious case, if the Brindaki conquer a Senorian planet before 3005, the only way for the Senorian to re-take it is to bomb his own populace into extinction and re-colonize.

I can fix this by arbitrarily adding the Assault and Marines abilities to some of the earlier Kili and Senorian units, but it seems like a terrible oversight.

[Chyll]

...but it seems like a terrible oversight.

Agreed. Let's tar and feather Jay








More seriously, I must not have played that scenario. Or if I did, it was when I had such little idea of what I was doing that I missed it. Your approach makes sense, and I would expect this to be something cleaned up in future updates.

[dream4]

Agreed. Let's tar and feather Jay.
More seriously, I must not have played that scenario. Or if I did, it was when I had such little idea of what I was doing that I missed it. Your approach makes sense, and I would expect this to be something cleaned up in future updates.

Oh, heavens, it's not that bad. For a one-man indie game product, VBAM is marvelous. This one looks more like a playtesting problem than anything else. One thing I keep coming across as I run these little prep sessions is that it doesn't feel like anyone ran the sample campaigns with the sample races using the vanilla rules exactly as written. That would have pointed up a number of these little fit and polish issues. It's one thing if the sample races don't work properly with the optional rules, but when most of the sample races simply can't do one of the major parts of the basic game (planetary assaults) for the first thirty turns or so - that should have been caught. I'm assuming that most of the work was going into the Boltians and Kuissians background instead.

[Chyll]

Yeah, but I always vote to tar and feather Jay. Its the principle of the thing.

[MarkG88]

Yeah, but I always vote to tar and feather Jay. Its the principle of the thing.

Indeed!

But on a serious note, are the generic races going to show up in 2.0? I've grown rather found of them these past few years.

[mwaschak]

Yeah, but I always vote to tar and feather Jay. Its the principle of the thing.

But on a serious note, are the generic races going to show up in 2.0? I've grown rather found of them these past few years.

I don't think we had any idea anyone actually used the generic empires! I am sure we can keep them around, fill in those gaps in the OOB, and make them a little more unique in 2E.

-Jay