1 minute ago, Bertie Wooster said:

Also, I have to admit I got     some REALLY lucky rolls against you, Forty. You fought well

Thanks man. Those two "12" rolls in three turns were devastating. I had grand ambitions of setting your Empire aflame under the guns of my ISDs - till they exploded magnificently.

Interested in your thoughts on fleet combat updates. One thought I had after my entire 300 point fleet vanished in an instant was the possibility of switching to a more traditional hit/damage system.

Hear me out here - I'm thinking something like "roll one dice per every 50 points of units in your fleet (minimum of 1). Add the result and multiply by 10. That's how much damage you do to your opponent in terms of fleet points of units destroyed". It requires more dice, but then again, what DM worth their salt doesn't have a whole tray of dice? Thoughts?

Also @Matt3412 I forgot initially but too bad for your bad luck in letting the swarm out at A. It made things fun for the rest of us though haha

1 hour ago, FortyInRed said:

Interested in your thoughts on fleet combat updates. One thought I had after my entire 300 point fleet vanished in an instant was the possibility of switching to a more traditional hit/damage system.

Hear me out here - I'm thinking something like "roll one dice per every 50 points of units in your fleet (minimum of 1). Add the result and multiply by 10. That's how much damage you do to your opponent in terms of fleet points of units destroyed". It requires more dice, but then again, what DM worth their salt doesn't have a whole tray of dice? Thoughts?

Sounds pretty fair. What do you do when someone brings a lone ISD to battle, and the opponent destroys 50 points?

My idea was to give each ship individual statistics. I haven't thought out/tested the details, but here's a broad picture. Each ship or squadron is killed after receiving one hit. Roll two D6 for each attacking ship or squadron. The squadrons will receive hits before ships (then small ships, then medium, then large). If a TIE Defender or YT-2400 is attacking, it makes a hit on a roll of 11 or 12. If an ISD or MC80 is attacking, it makes a hit on a roll of 3 or above. If a Raider-I or Pelta Assault is present in the battle, it will flak all squadrons before they have a chance to fire. Pelta Commands/Quasar-Is/flotillas are good at carrying squadrons/GF but terrible at attacking. Large ships can gain modifications to improve them (e.g. a modification that allows them to "Sustain Damage" in battle, taking a hit but not immediately destroyed in battle). Ten units (ships and squadrons) max in one location.

59 minutes ago, Bertie Wooster said:

Sounds pretty fair. What do you do when someone brings a lone ISD to battle, and the opponent destroys 50 points?

My idea was to give each ship individual statistics. I haven't thought out/tested the details, but here's a broad picture. Each ship or squadron is killed after receiving one hit. Roll two D6 for each attacking ship or squadron. The squadrons will receive hits before ships (then small ships, then medium, then large). If a TIE Defender or YT-2400 is attacking, it makes a hit on a roll of 11 or 12. If an ISD or MC80 is attacking, it makes a hit on a roll of 3 or above. If a Raider-I or Pelta Assault is present in the battle, it will flak all squadrons before they have a chance to fire. Pelta Commands/Quasar-Is/flotillas are good at carrying squadrons/GF but terrible at attacking. Large ships can gain modifications to improve them (e.g. a modification that allows them to "Sustain Damage" in battle, taking a hit but not immediately destroyed in battle). Ten units (ships and squadrons) max in one location.

What do you do if you cause less than half damage? Same thing you do now, nothing.

Though I expect with the fleet battles we've seen in these last two games, that rolling only one dice will be pretty rare. I don't know about you, but I usually try to package my fleets in intervals of 100 so I get the bombardment dice.

I like the idea of individual ship traits a lot. Can you explain your idea about hits a little more?

Playing this game has actually inspired me to pick up both Rebellion and Rise of the Empire so that I have a game board and a bunch of plastic minis.

I'm rewriting the core combat rules right now to add a "battle board" which functions like a tiny game of Armada, shields, and ship-specific social actions.

The problem I'm running into is that it's very easy to make stats for the existing units, but adding things like TIE/Defenders and B-Wings complicates it fast (there are three possible attack dice; fighters roll with only one and have only one health). Do they have two attack dice now (eg same as a CR-90?) Do they have two health (as much as a GR-75?) Etc.

The solution I'm toying with is just doubling all the base stats. That then causes other challenges (such as running out of damage counters) but I'm having fun with it.

1 hour ago, FortyInRed said:

What do you do if you cause less than half damage? Same thing you do now, nothing.

Though I expect with the fleet battles we've seen in these last two games, that rolling only one dice will be pretty rare. I don't know about you, but I usually try to package my fleets in intervals of 100 so I get the bombardment dice.

I like the idea of individual ship traits a lot. Can you explain your idea about hits a little more?

Playing this game has actually inspired me to pick up both Rebellion and Rise of the Empire so that I have a game board and a bunch of plastic minis.

I'm rewriting the core combat rules right now to add a "battle board" which functions like a tiny game of Armada, shields, and ship-specific social actions.

The problem I'm running into is that it's very easy to make stats for the existing units, but adding things like TIE/Defenders and B-Wings complicates it fast (there are three possible attack dice; fighters roll with only one and have only one health). Do they have two attack dice now (eg same as a CR-90?) Do they have two health (as much as a GR-75?) Etc.

The solution I'm toying with is just doubling all the base stats. That then causes other challenges (such as running out of damage counters) but I'm having fun with it.

I'm really liking where these suggestions are going. What about using Legion dice? A single TIE fighter squadron contributes one of the crappy "1/8 sides is a hit" white dice, the TIE Bomber gets to use the white surge icon to double those odds, etc. And then ships also contribute defense dice to cancel those hits. At the top of the spectrum you have the ISD, rolling 4-5 reds and throwing in around 4 defense dice to boot.

Each hit that goes through kills 10 points of stuff.

Edit: maybe some ships like Interdictors and MC80s focus on defense dice?

20 minutes ago, The Jabbawookie said:

Edit: maybe  some  ships  l  ike Interdictors  and MC80s focus on defense dice?

In the custom rules I'm making for Rebellion, this is what I'm doing.

Prototype special rules:

X-Wing - when attacking a fighter, may count "lightsaber" as one black hit.

Y-Wing - when attacking a ship, may count "lightsaber" as one red hit.

Transport - may roll one red dice. On non-blank result, remove one damage from a nearby ship.

Corvette - this unit can surge forward, moving through up to one empty space, before the normal attack move.

MC-80 - You may roll one extra shield dice.

---------------

TIE Fighter - if there are more imperial units than rebel in this hex, treat "lightsaber" as "direct hit"

Assault Carrier - you may deploy one TIE fighter in the same hex as the Assault Carrier if none are there. Odd turns only.

ISD - When attacking a ship, you may add one red dice to your pool. If you do this, remove one dice after rolling.

SSD - you may attack ships in adjacent hexes with your red dice only.

---------------------

Now you're probably wonder what the heck I mean by hex, normal move, etc. I'm adding a little more tactical depth to the game. One of these days I'll post my prototype rules I've been working on.

Complexity in combat calculation kills these games in my experience - it overwhelms the GM.

And adding multiple dice only makes results revert to the mean - things can get dull, fast.

5 minutes ago, LTD said:

Complexity in combat calculation kills these games in my experience - it overwhelms the GM.

And adding multiple dice only makes results revert to the mean - things can get dull, fast.

Seeing as you were the player most screwed over by the dice, that has weight. And it would be arduous.

Next game I advocate for a team battle, with a pair of particularly zealous Grand Admirals (team captains) who are ultimately responsible for turning in two sets of orders to the GM. The hard part in modding this wasn’t the volume of data, it was translating 8 different formats into 1.

I like the team battle idea. Having a teammate help in combat is a lot of fun--It wasn't very advantageous in this game, so I picked my own battles, but if it was a requirement to be on a team that could be really fun.

@LTD @GhostofNobodyInParticular I missed it earlier, but details for the final battle of Hyena:

A 472 point Proprietary Limited fleet engages a 344 point GNIPian fleet for a -1 attack's advantage. An 8 is rolled and converted into a 7; Proprietary Limited loses a Pelta C, 3 Y-wing Squadrons and a B-wing squadron. The GNIPians lose a Pelta C and a Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette, and another Hammerhead is scarred. The GNIPians must retreat.

H2 is blockaded by Proprietary Limited, but according to LTD's sheet the GNIPians outnumber the orbiting PL ground forces 10 to 7.

@LTD

I did totally blow up A1 (as was obviously so), in order to reduce it to a 2 Planet System so I could defend with progressive 500pt waves rather than being outfleeted all at once. My offer of the stuff was genuine - it was going to build ships purely to defend, and at the end of the day, roll them over to you - I just wanted the A system for 3 turns...

Also, I found it interesting that you started to write the "We have no Weapons" line, because we'd just spent, y'know, a whole bunch of negotiating time finding out you indeed had Ground Forces on planet

@Drasnighta if you can live with the hypothetical deaths of billions of fictional sentients, that's fine with me...

That said, it was a class act move to destroy the third planet and allow you to defend properly. I had plans of taking A, but the whole "hold it for three turns" thing was going to be quite a hurdle - and I had already committed to my northern front strategy.

@The Jabbawookie INVADE!

Also, I have a whole heap of GF ready to arrive at H2 next turn, so it WILL BE MINE! (assuming GNIPs has no other worlds so his fleet can counter attack?)

GG folks. I enjoyed it immensely.

On 7/27/2019 at 12:12 PM, The Jabbawookie said:

My sheet (some of the latest production is missing): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LrE_z6SADlklotD17tAnwwvbKdhSw-cQI9DOSJIRPas/edit#gid=0

You must have put a lot of work in to keep this updated each turn - I usually just compare the list of hyperpings, see if any match, and then look up each spreadsheet...

For those interested, this is my sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AG9I3VwVOt7rNsEt4E2VE3sAMB2xwRxzNvTZL3A0zbU/edit#gid=0

I think these games have a lot of potential, and I liked this version of not having credits and IC.

I think it would be good if a planet could spend maybe twice its normal credit value, with the shortfall coming from other (non blockaded) planets.

So A1 is worth 10, A2 is worth 15, A3 is worth 5. You can build 30 points worth of stuff at A2 as long as A1 and A3 spend nothing. Something like that.

I think we need the objectives from the start, so we know what we are aiming for beyond "kill everything" which is quite difficult - it took me 17 turns to wipe out Matt, and effectively another 10 to finish GNIPs even while outproducing him 3 to 1.

Again, much praise and glory unto the name of The Jabbawookie - 33 turns of a forum game like this is PHENOMENAL. And he was picking up errors and pointing out mistakes the whole time - you must have a truly remarkable brain. Well done that man.

49 minutes ago, LTD said:

@The Jabbawookie INVADE    !      

3 Proprietary Limited GF fall, along with the GNIPians. The northern campaign is concluded.

And thanks.

HUZZAH!

FOUR VP! WOOT! etc.

On 7/28/2019 at 10:35 PM, Drasnighta said:

I did totally blow up A1 (as was obviously so), in order to reduce it to a 2 Planet System so I could defend with progressive 500pt waves rather than being

I was wondering what happened here. How did you do it?

On 7/29/2019 at 2:15 AM, LTD said:

I think it would be good if a planet could spend maybe twice its normal credit value, with the shortfall     coming from other (non blockaded) planets.

I like this idea.

@GhostofNobodyInParticular thoughts on adding this to our current game before it starts in earnest?

Sorry I've been quiet on the feedback front (RL and all) but I had meant to suggest something like this earlier.

1 minute ago, FortyInRed said:

I was wondering what happened here. How did you do it?

I like this idea.

@GhostofNobodyInParticular thoughts on adding this to our current game before it starts in earnest?

Sorry I've been quiet on the feedback front (RL and all) but I had meant to suggest something like this earlier.

I was building Warlances... Pocket One-Shot Deathstars for 175 creds a piece. Instead of Invading or Bombarding, it could Destroy itself and a target planet Utterly.

Used one on A1.

I had one with a Cloaking Device (No Hyperspace ping) that was about to head towards someone's home system, too.

On 8/4/2019 at 8:49 PM, Drasnighta said:

I was building Warlances... Pocket One-Shot Deathstars for 175 creds a piece. Instead of Invading or Bombarding, it could Destroy itself and a target planet Utterly.

Used one on A1.

I had one with a Cloaking Device (No Hyperspace ping) that was about to head towards someone's home system, too.

Got it. Oh the terror I would have unleashed with the ability to actually destroy a planet. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have bothered with GF and invasions at that point. Just show up in orbit and blow up the planet. Move on. Rinse, repeat.

21 minutes ago, FortyInRed said:

Got it. Oh the terror I would have unleashed with the ability to actually destroy a planet. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have bothered with GF and invasions at that point. Just show up in orbit and blow up the planet. Move on. Rinse, repeat.

It was mostly a measure of Material basically. If I could take a planet with 18 GF or less, then it was more Economical to Invade.

175 to not care anymore? Not a bad trade.

2 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

It was mostly a measure of Material basically. If I could take a planet with 18 GF or less, then it was more Economical to Invade.

175  to not care anym  ore? Not a bad tra  de. 

When making the surprise mechanics, scarcity was a key theme; I wanted there to eventually not be enough for the players. Thus the bombardment-related achievements to strip down little worlds, the artifacts and Warlance to wreck big ones, and the bug invasion to do both.