VBAM Games Forums

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the VBAM system and after reading the rules, I do have some actual play questions.

- when CMing a campaign, what are the tools you are using to ease your data manegement ?
I wish to start with friends of mine and wonder how to organize the data collection and bookkeeping.

- how do you manage orders ?
Are you preparing and sending a sort of spreadsheet to every players to fill with orders ? Or do you rely rather on some more... freeform... procedure ?
The space combat system will certainly be more enjoyable with an almost round-to-round decision process from players involved.
But it won't be very practical for us.

- after reading the ground combat rules, I had the feeling outnumbering the enemy was actually a quite efficient tactic (leaving aside the logistics and problem to bring enough troops to combat).
Which left me pondering if my players wouldn't just rely on swarming ground defenses.
I imagine ground combat might not be the focus of many campaigns but it still bugs me.
One solution I see would be to make numerous units less incentive by upping the maintenance cost.
Still, if you could share your gameplay experience and tell me what happened in your campaigns...

Thanks a lot for reading.

Pierre
Proud (and legally !) owner of VBAM, CM companion and Menagerie

kridenow wrote: I'm new to the VBAM system and after reading the rules, I do have some actual play questions.

Welcome!

- when CMing a campaign, what are the tools you are using to ease your data manegement ?
I wish to start with friends of mine and wonder how to organize the data collection and bookkeeping.

Spreadsheets are my friend.

- how do you manage orders ?
Are you preparing and sending a sort of spreadsheet to every players to fill with orders ? Or do you rely rather on some more... freeform... procedure ?
The space combat system will certainly be more enjoyable with an almost round-to-round decision process from players involved.
But it won't be very practical for us.

When I CM, I use a spreadsheet and have players fill out the relevant information and send it to me. I increment the information (results from random events, combat results, etc., etc.) and return again at the start of a new turn. I keep track of other data and calculations I need in a sheet just for me.

- after reading the ground combat rules, I had the feeling outnumbering the enemy was actually a quite efficient tactic (leaving aside the logistics and problem to bring enough troops to combat).

It is. Space combat too.

Which left me pondering if my players wouldn't just rely on swarming ground defenses.
I imagine ground combat might not be the focus of many campaigns but it still bugs me.
One solution I see would be to make numerous units less incentive by upping the maintenance cost.

I'd try it some before tweaking.

I suggest this because for an attacker to outnumber a defender unit-to-unit is actually rather hard. The logistics of forces (transport, escort, etc.) to make an opposed landing is rather costly.

The biggest bang for the buck (I've found) is actually to "nuke them from orbit" until they run home to mommy. Admittedly, they rarely do, but after a short siege and bombardment the forces tend to equalize (assuming an enemy counter attack doesn't drive you from the system first).

And that is the key really, if you can firmly grab control of a system ultimately you will win on the ground. Space superiority is king.

Still, if you could share your gameplay experience and tell me what happened in your campaigns...

There are several good campaign diaries out there, some here in the forums and some in the Yahoo Group. I know the Stars Divided material out there includes a campaing that included some ground combat (the most significant of which was guerilla resistance to an invasion if I remember properly).

Proud (and legally !) owner of VBAM, CM companion and Menagerie

And again, Welcome. You will enjoy yourself.
I look forward to hearing your campaign results.

- after reading the ground combat rules, I had the feeling outnumbering the enemy was actually a quite efficient tactic (leaving aside the logistics and problem to bring enough troops to combat).

It is. Space combat too.

I did guess that but it was less of a concern to me.
The reason is the probable source material is going to be the WH40k universe and players will be more attentive to ground combat results (due to familiarity with 40k and Epic Space Marines gaming) than space combat (only covered by Battlefleet Gothic as far as I know, that none of them ever played).

The old wargamer that I am is a bit reluctant to admit "swarm tactics" easily
I see that logistics and space superiority are probably (and rightly) be the determniing factor.
Yet I might tweak a bit the rules.

Speaking of combat, are you guys running encounters fully CM side or are you trying to get players input and decisions ? (which would slow the game turns).

Pierre

kridenow wrote:

Speaking of combat, are you guys running encounters fully CM side or are you trying to get players input and decisions ? (which would slow the game turns).

I tend to run them CM-side, but ask my players to include "standing orders" for their fleets so that I have some guidelines on when and/or how they will fight,

I figured it would be the best solution. I also tend to like games where you set your orders before and have the battle ran according to them (opposed to a full control over every single unit).

Another question : are you relying on system listings sent to every players or use maps ?
The later is a bit more enjoyable, being visually based, and can be paired with listings.
Still, it means having a map per player, per turn, unless system control is openly known to everyone.

Pierre

kridenow wrote: Another question : are you relying on system listings sent to every players or use maps ?
The later is a bit more enjoyable, being visually based, and can be paired with listings.
Still, it means having a map per player, per turn, unless system control is openly known to everyone.

Pierre

I use maps. And it does make maintenance a little harder, particularly in large games, but I think it is much better. Also easier to track movement routes.

Tyel uses Illustrator or some other flavor graphics program to make his extremely spiffy maps.

I (and others) have good success with yEd. It's a free graphing tool that just so happens to be good for making nodal maps like that most commonly used with VBAM.

Thanks for the pointer, I'm going to give a try at yEd.
I have an access to Illustrator at work but I thought it might be a bit overkill to use it for simple mapping

Pierre