Sorry if the 'Sir' sounded formal, I'm British you see; brought up to think a sense of etiquette can sometimes be a good thing!
In any event, I have continued playtesting and working for the main systems in the game. Looking good, but some pretty major alterations are needed, and some big additions too. I do hope you won't mind me taking some time over this, the game has great potential and I really want to see it work!
I break down these into things to add, things to remove and some bigger issues (x3).
Things to add:
Dorkathi – Kilrathi have no ‘sports, and this really limits the games, especially in a campaign.
Rigakh – Kilrathi need something heavier than the Fralthra, and would add an extra dimension in a campaign.
Bengal OR Concordia – Confed could do with a mid-range carrier.
Confed have 5 fighters and Confed 4. Fine as it is, but would you consider adding a Gothri, or perhaps a Hriss? Maybe find a way to put a Strakha in?
The ability to fire AMGs at fighters. Sounds silly, but otherwise no-one is going to take destroyers given what a couple of torpedo-armed fighters will do to them. Make them highly inaccurate, obviously. See more below for Cap Ship armament questions!
Asteroid Marker (1 hex) :
Blocks Fire of guns and missiles, stops capital ships. Fighters may traverse, but on a dice roll of <4, take 20 damage. Modify the roll by Pilot Skill Target Roll characteristic. ie, Green pilots will take a hit on a roll of 3, Legendary Pilots never take a hit (Blair would never have died hitting a rock!)
Minefield Marker (1 hex) :
Blocks movement, ie no ship can traverse the hex, but guns and missiles may pass through normally.
Things to Remove:
Torpedo-carrying ability from Epee. Unnecessary, and open to abuse by spamming players!
Substantive Issue 1:
Fighter complement. This is going to be an absolutely critical part of the game. Infact, most battles at scenario or campaign level will depend on this somehow.
I know you wanted to keep the game as true to the original stats as possible, but leaving capacity as it is will make the game almost unplayable in terms of the sheer numbers of fighters involved. The Capacity of all Ships will therefore have to be changed, maybe to something like the following (see included my proposals for the ‘new’ ships)
Gilgamesh: 0
Waterloo: 12 / 2
Bengal or Concordia: 24 / 4
Confederation: 36 / 6
Supply Depot: 6 / 2
Star Base: 18 / 6
Sector Base: 30 / 6
Could call ‘squadrons’ as being 6 fighters maybe and then have 2 for a Waterloo, 4 for a Bengal etc.
Ralatha: 8 / 2
Fralthra: 16 / 4
Rigakh: 32 / 6
Supply Depot: 8 / 2
Sector Base: 40 / 6
Of course, Kilrathi would have 8 fighters per squadron – they use base 8 right?
I’d then have each carrying vessel, both Confed and Imperial, launch fighters in pairs, obviously the ‘wings’ that give the game the name (could do a tie in like this in the manual).
So each vessel could launch x-fighters, at any point in its movement phase. The number after the stroke would be this figure.
This would similarly apply to the recovery of fighters, ie. Recovery would count towards the second total. Recovered fighters would then be instantly repaired (if using the unseen component damage rules) and re-armed with missiles and torps. Then they must wait in the ‘queue’ to be launched again.
Thus, when buying a ‘fleet’, players are to purchase ships and fighters seperately. This will become relevant in the ‘crew and experience’ section below. No more fighters can be purchased than you have spaces in the fleet.
The EXCEPTION is the Confed Broadsword, which is jump-capable over short distances and so may be taken ‘deadfall’, ie. Without a carrier.
In a simple single battle, this costs an additional 1 point per ship.
In a campaign, this extra cost is not incurred as the ship is restricted to ‘2 jumps’. If the Broadsword is ‘left behind’ by capships while it has no jumps remaining, it will be "Endlessly drifting" along with any jump incapable fighters left behind.
Substantive Issue 2:
Pilot skills kill ratio. I'd change this to;
Green: 0
Regular: 2
Veteran: 6
Ace: 12
Legendary: 20
Much more suited to the type of medium-scale engagements that this game will turn towards.
However, this is still problematic. Unless playing a campaign, upgrades to skill ‘by kills’ are not really likely to matter. I suggest using the squadron system above, and tying in to points cost.
Skill level can be purchased per squadron on board. Default is ‘Green’. Pilots cannot be upgraded to ‘legendary’, and kills will start at 0 for the squadron if experience is ‘bought’, as better training is never truly equal to combat experience (Besides, better trained pilots should accumulate kills at a higher rate anyway). Ships can have a mixture of experiences within their squadrons.
Confed:
Upgrade to Regular Squadron: 3 pts
Upgrade to Veteran Squadron: 6 pts
Upgrade to Ace Squadron: 12 pts
Kilrathi:
Upgrade to Regular Squadron: 4 pts
Upgrade to Veteran Squadron: 8 pts
Upgrade to Ace Squadron: 16 pts
Crews can be shifted from one fighter to another in mid battle, but both crews must be onboard the same carrier at the same time, ie. both 'waiting' or just landed. This is done in the end phase.
You may want to remind players to keep a note of all the fighters they have, by squadron and by individual fighter. Otherwise no-one will ever kill their way to glory, even if they are gifted in combat. It might be quite fun to do anyway, give a squadron name and number or callsign to each pilot/crew!
Substantive Issue 3:
Turret positioning on Capship armament. If you’re allowing fire vs. fighters, this would make it much more interesting!:
B: Bow Arc, P: Port Arc, S: Stbd Arc, A: Aft Arc
Gilgamesh: 1x B/P, 1x B/S
Waterloo: 1x B; 1x B/P/A; 1x B/S/A; 1x All Round
Concordia: 2x B; 1x B/S; 1x B/P; 1x P; 1x S; 2x A (P-TC = straight line ahead only)
Ralatha: 1x B/P; 1x B/S
Fralthra: 1x B/P; 1x B/S; 1x All Round
And that's it. A lot, I know. But this game is brilliant and deserves time and effort being spent upon it.
Best wishes;
KvK
In any event, I have continued playtesting and working for the main systems in the game. Looking good, but some pretty major alterations are needed, and some big additions too. I do hope you won't mind me taking some time over this, the game has great potential and I really want to see it work!
I break down these into things to add, things to remove and some bigger issues (x3).
Things to add:
Dorkathi – Kilrathi have no ‘sports, and this really limits the games, especially in a campaign.
Rigakh – Kilrathi need something heavier than the Fralthra, and would add an extra dimension in a campaign.
Bengal OR Concordia – Confed could do with a mid-range carrier.
Confed have 5 fighters and Confed 4. Fine as it is, but would you consider adding a Gothri, or perhaps a Hriss? Maybe find a way to put a Strakha in?
The ability to fire AMGs at fighters. Sounds silly, but otherwise no-one is going to take destroyers given what a couple of torpedo-armed fighters will do to them. Make them highly inaccurate, obviously. See more below for Cap Ship armament questions!
Asteroid Marker (1 hex) :
Blocks Fire of guns and missiles, stops capital ships. Fighters may traverse, but on a dice roll of <4, take 20 damage. Modify the roll by Pilot Skill Target Roll characteristic. ie, Green pilots will take a hit on a roll of 3, Legendary Pilots never take a hit (Blair would never have died hitting a rock!)
Minefield Marker (1 hex) :
Blocks movement, ie no ship can traverse the hex, but guns and missiles may pass through normally.
Things to Remove:
Torpedo-carrying ability from Epee. Unnecessary, and open to abuse by spamming players!
Substantive Issue 1:
Fighter complement. This is going to be an absolutely critical part of the game. Infact, most battles at scenario or campaign level will depend on this somehow.
I know you wanted to keep the game as true to the original stats as possible, but leaving capacity as it is will make the game almost unplayable in terms of the sheer numbers of fighters involved. The Capacity of all Ships will therefore have to be changed, maybe to something like the following (see included my proposals for the ‘new’ ships)
Gilgamesh: 0
Waterloo: 12 / 2
Bengal or Concordia: 24 / 4
Confederation: 36 / 6
Supply Depot: 6 / 2
Star Base: 18 / 6
Sector Base: 30 / 6
Could call ‘squadrons’ as being 6 fighters maybe and then have 2 for a Waterloo, 4 for a Bengal etc.
Ralatha: 8 / 2
Fralthra: 16 / 4
Rigakh: 32 / 6
Supply Depot: 8 / 2
Sector Base: 40 / 6
Of course, Kilrathi would have 8 fighters per squadron – they use base 8 right?
I’d then have each carrying vessel, both Confed and Imperial, launch fighters in pairs, obviously the ‘wings’ that give the game the name (could do a tie in like this in the manual).
So each vessel could launch x-fighters, at any point in its movement phase. The number after the stroke would be this figure.
This would similarly apply to the recovery of fighters, ie. Recovery would count towards the second total. Recovered fighters would then be instantly repaired (if using the unseen component damage rules) and re-armed with missiles and torps. Then they must wait in the ‘queue’ to be launched again.
Thus, when buying a ‘fleet’, players are to purchase ships and fighters seperately. This will become relevant in the ‘crew and experience’ section below. No more fighters can be purchased than you have spaces in the fleet.
The EXCEPTION is the Confed Broadsword, which is jump-capable over short distances and so may be taken ‘deadfall’, ie. Without a carrier.
In a simple single battle, this costs an additional 1 point per ship.
In a campaign, this extra cost is not incurred as the ship is restricted to ‘2 jumps’. If the Broadsword is ‘left behind’ by capships while it has no jumps remaining, it will be "Endlessly drifting" along with any jump incapable fighters left behind.
Substantive Issue 2:
Pilot skills kill ratio. I'd change this to;
Green: 0
Regular: 2
Veteran: 6
Ace: 12
Legendary: 20
Much more suited to the type of medium-scale engagements that this game will turn towards.
However, this is still problematic. Unless playing a campaign, upgrades to skill ‘by kills’ are not really likely to matter. I suggest using the squadron system above, and tying in to points cost.
Skill level can be purchased per squadron on board. Default is ‘Green’. Pilots cannot be upgraded to ‘legendary’, and kills will start at 0 for the squadron if experience is ‘bought’, as better training is never truly equal to combat experience (Besides, better trained pilots should accumulate kills at a higher rate anyway). Ships can have a mixture of experiences within their squadrons.
Confed:
Upgrade to Regular Squadron: 3 pts
Upgrade to Veteran Squadron: 6 pts
Upgrade to Ace Squadron: 12 pts
Kilrathi:
Upgrade to Regular Squadron: 4 pts
Upgrade to Veteran Squadron: 8 pts
Upgrade to Ace Squadron: 16 pts
Crews can be shifted from one fighter to another in mid battle, but both crews must be onboard the same carrier at the same time, ie. both 'waiting' or just landed. This is done in the end phase.
You may want to remind players to keep a note of all the fighters they have, by squadron and by individual fighter. Otherwise no-one will ever kill their way to glory, even if they are gifted in combat. It might be quite fun to do anyway, give a squadron name and number or callsign to each pilot/crew!
Substantive Issue 3:
Turret positioning on Capship armament. If you’re allowing fire vs. fighters, this would make it much more interesting!:
B: Bow Arc, P: Port Arc, S: Stbd Arc, A: Aft Arc
Gilgamesh: 1x B/P, 1x B/S
Waterloo: 1x B; 1x B/P/A; 1x B/S/A; 1x All Round
Concordia: 2x B; 1x B/S; 1x B/P; 1x P; 1x S; 2x A (P-TC = straight line ahead only)
Ralatha: 1x B/P; 1x B/S
Fralthra: 1x B/P; 1x B/S; 1x All Round
And that's it. A lot, I know. But this game is brilliant and deserves time and effort being spent upon it.
Best wishes;
KvK
I'm afraid I currently don't have the time to enhance the current version of the manual, but a great portion of the advanced rules are already jotted down, waiting to be rewritten for use in the game manual.
