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mj12games.com/forum → Posts by themattcurtis
I think yer trying to apply too many constraints on warships fighting in space 
Kinda like someone who watches a space opera movie and says "yeah right."
We're talking about sail and screw driven vessels, reverse-engineered from captured Martian technology, able to grip on to the ether.....
What would be an alternative?
OK, a friend wants to play with the general IS mechanics but says he can't wait the six years or so it will take us to reach the WW2 timeline
So I thought about some house rules so that he and I could use the existing fold up counters to play games with ships as they might appear in the 1930s and 1940s.
I thought, excluding changes to FACs, this would be relatively simple:
Gunnery -- advanced Fire Control could be bought with the same construction costs as the Babbage Engine. Instead of spreading fire, it would increase the gun ranges from 5" to 6" bands. Basically a 20% increase in gun range.
Stealth -- wanna do the German u-boats? Use the Gyroscopic Stabilizer cost. Where as the Gyroscopic stabilizer gives a defensive bonus by allowing you to turn as if you were a size smaller (in terms of your hull). The stealth kit reduces your size by one step when figuring gunnery modifiers (IE -- a D8 gun firing on Small targets used to have a +1 penalty, not it has a +2).
Longer range torpedoes: D12 torpedoes have been taboo for fleets as they are AWFULLY powerful. But why not use them here at least to represent the advanced Japanese torps?
RADAR: Like searchlights, except you get one roll of 3D10 for VS to S hulls, 2 attempts for M to L and 3 attempts for VL or bigger.
Dats all I got.
http://www.wtj.com/store/gameshop/shop5/
These'd help, I'm bettin'. 
I'm seeing it as the same setting as Iron Stars.
Fledgling tech here. I'm not creating a setting, just tryin to apply the rules to the timeline
We could have armored vehicles, but no flying apparatus (or would we?)
Just running through (and causing irreparable damage to the rules....)
Movement MP costs would be unchanged.
Stability Checks: Maybe give multiple bands to weapon hits (IE differentiating between taking hits from 2 pnders or a 12 pnder).
No flight mode, and add a rough terrain penalty (as I see these things as being clumsy).
Instead of Lock On, could we have "Lay on Sights?" Make a roll against crew skill levels, modified by quality of optics, rate of movement (slower, once again), smoke and battlefield conditions (ignoring flares and hiding in water).
Instead of power plants affecting lock on, we could have them offering different results to power plant hits on the chart -- IE crew being scalded by steam, or maybe one version's more durable. The power plants themselves are fine if we're talking anything BUT Fuel Cells, reactors or cores.
I'll take the file home tonight and look at it. Offer suggestions you can shoot down
You'd have to use bore sighting as thermal locks wouldn't be an option. I'd also think stabilization would be just about absent in this timeframe.
Ne'er heard of it
Kevin and I, a while back, toyed with the idea of crude mech rules. I thought it would be easier to degrade Wardogs tech.
Neat set of rules.....fold up paper counters like the ships (until any minis came out......swish bam boom
I like the idea of crews in monstrous, but quasi-suicidal, walking machines blasting away with light artillery, rockets and machine guns.
I DL'd Wardogs, but I was wondering if there would be a way to retrograde it to cruder tech?
I'm STUCK on the Russo-Japanese War, and I would love to see ground combat in the IS universe with advanced alloy mechs powered by reverse-engineered martian kit (or steam) slugging it out on the banks of the Yalu River
Or on Falklands :wink:
What kind of kit and modifiers would anyone see? No thermal lock on. No power swords.....
I'm lovin the way the WTJ ships are painting up.
Kevin, ya gots to come to Origins some day. We'll OD on Grand Fleets.
My girlfriend has a digital camera, and I want to take some pics to send you.
The Japanese paint jobs are really clean. I have them in flat, medium grey (I think the color is Reaper "slate") with wooden decking and steel plate black for the gun barrels sticking out of the main turrets (saw some images that reinforced that idea). And teeny little white lifeboats. I have about 9 of their ships finished now. And I have to say the Yakumo BB, Mikasa BB and two of my protected cruisers look the best.
The Russians have 7 ships completed. Dark green hulls, superstructures and turrets (olive drab mixed with some leather brown gave me a good shade) wooden decking, white lifeboats and yellow smokestacks with black rings -- all the ships have their smoke stacks tipped in black, but I tried the rings I saw in actual photos on some of the Russians. I got the colors from model galleries, a couple of written accounts and the photospread in the middle of one of my books (even though it's black and white, you can make out the scheme isn't far off target). Right now, Rossia is my favorite there.
So, 30 ships in my initial package and I got 16 done in a week. But I'm gonna rest for a day or so. And by Wednesday I'll be getting my last set of cruisers and my destroyer flotillas.
My raise is gonna give me a small gaming budget....finally .......right now I have enough to do Yellow Sea, Ulsan and some Port Arthur "what ifs?" In the next month or so I'd like to either gnab some American and Spanish ships, or American and German.
I got a novel -- "1901" -- that has a hypothetical war between the US and Germany. That could make for some NICE little battles. Or Hells Bells, I could put American and Japanese pre-dreadnoughts against each other :twisted:
Named after the late Admiral lost in the Russo Japanese War -- a new take on the Spiridoff BB (using the hull variant rules spelled out in the forum).
259 points
32 Hull (VL/4)
Armor 5
Thrust 4
6D12 (X2) primaries -- forward only
4D8 (X2) secondaries
16D4 (X1) light guns
3 mine factors
keel bombard
Hull: 1-13
Armor: 14
Thrust: 15
Primary: 16
Secondary: 17
Light: 18-20
She's a cap ship killer. She leads the Russian line, using the reach of her keel bombard and six D12 primaries (all capable of firing through the forward arc) to get the first licks in at range. And even if you're packing D10s, you can't hurt her outside of point black range -- unless you have lightening projectors.
Followed the rules by modifying the base design's speed and armor by no more than 1 each. Kept the same hull size. Only modified one bit of special kit (adding the keel bombard as the forward-only turrets is a feature of the weapon itself, not a new device).
I think she could hurt ya
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C'mon.
As the cover art is sitting printed out on my desk, can we PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give folks a lil' bit of a teaser about what's comin their way with the next installment ???
I was thrilled by The Merchant War, and I think this next installment blows that book out of water.
well folks will have to let me know what day they're there. be nice to put faces to names
I mean, Hell.....I LIVE here. I gotta go sooner or later. Might as well be this year.
Just lookin to see if anyone from here is thinking of going.
There ya are
I got these things because as strapped as my hobby funds are, I got a raise (9%, not bad). And I decided I could blow most of the extra $$ I would see in my first paycheck on gaming :twisted:
I figgered the Japanese would be the easiest to paint, and your post mirrors what I've heard. I'm gonna use Reaper gun metal on their hulls, as it's a dark grey, a nice dark tan for the decking and straight black on the gun turrets and smokestack tops).
As for the Russians, thanks for that I can get a pretty dark green by mixing olive drab with a touch o' black.
Shoot me your address (my yahoo is themattcurtis). Love to see the pics.
O' 1:3000 scale Japanese and Russian ships from WTJ to play some Grand Fleets. Every ship for the Yellow Sea scenario plus the extra hypothetical cruisers for the Russians.
About $115 in little teeny ships.
Anyone point me to some painting guides for these guys?
jumping jesus. :shock:
20 secondary guns.
isn't there official art for the Spaniards inbound?
just wondering.
I'm there -- central Ohio :?
Jim's the closest. But Hell's Bells, he's still a long ways off.
I'd make the safe momentum limits linear -- but drop them uniformly 2 from the ship builder's default Thrust Rating.
IE
Safe Momentum for FACs 8
Safe Speed for VS 6
Safe Speed for Small 5
Safe Speed for Medium 4
Safe Speed for Large 3
Safe Speed for Very Large 2
That way a large ship like the Bantam wouldn't be able to use all its leg power without running the risk of taking damage. But it could still move up to 6" during any turn -- ending with a momentum of 3, and be safe. So it's not like it would be forced to stand still. And a Battleship with an armor rating of 4 could move its full Thrust Rating, and still stand a decent chance of not being damaged (being sturdy has to have its advantages).
But a Tycho CL, trying to end its turn with a momentum of 6, would stand a 50% chance of taking some damage -- and the Fragile Huszar CL would be in even worse shape.
Note that Freighters, which are medium in size and have a Thrust rating of 4, would be safe conducting normal operations.
I'm not debating
I'm under no illusions as to what I'm worth in developing game mechanics. Just bouncing the idea off you folks. I throw it out there, and let those with better minds editcutkill.
I didn't follow the construction rules straight out because I just thought the construction rules were based more off the structural limitations of a ship.
Tweak the hell out of the safe speed limits. The only thing I know]I like for sure is the damage model. Anyone can be damaged, and I decided on the D12 to try and pose as serious a threat to ships' hulls as possible.
Originally I was thinking of having more than one zone to the Cluster (like a fringe zone where the density is lessened and impacts on speed are minimal). But that just seemed to muddy things up.
I wasn't there, but two friends were playing a pickup game set in the KF cluster (using my fold up counters and a black tablecloth). And they were asking for some environmental hazard rules. Here's what I could offer for some home rules. Didn't know what people here might think. But I see it as being really crowded up there.
Floating Debris
Space is dark, and detection gear aboard your standard IS ship is understandably crude (I mean, they have wireless sets for communication, but only searchights to pick things out).
So caution is the keyword used by ethership captains while navigating the KF Cluster. Most hulls -- even unarmored ones -- are strong enough to operate for several weeks in the asteroid field before needing a stint in a dockyard. But reckless crews find themselves in trouble.
Two main factors that go against you when trying NOT to run into a chunk of floating debris -- your momentum and your size. Obviously, the faster you're going, the less time you have to react. The bigger you are, the less likely you are to be able to steer out of the way.
So.....
Before the battle roll to decide how dense this stretch of the KF Cluster really is.
My really basic approach was that the threshold/safe momentum for IS ships in a standard stretch of the KF Cluster would be:
8 for FACs
7 for VS ships.
6 for S and M ships
4 for L ships
2 for VL ships
During each turn your ship's listed momentum is greater than the limit listed above, you are targeted by number of attacks dependent on your speed.
Exceed the safe momentum by 1= 1 attack
Exceed the safe momentum by 2 = 2 attacks
Exceed the safe momentum by 3 = 3 attacks
What dice do you roll? Just a D4, but like a torpedo it halves your armor and rolls a D12 for damage. It inflicts two points of damage.
So say a very large BB with Armor 4 is moving through a standard stretch of the Cluster. Its momentum is 4. During the End Phase, it is damaged by a chunk of rock on a 4 (2+ half its armor). It has two chances of being hit, and for any attack that penetrates it rolls two D12s against its damage track.
A small CL is safe as long as its momentum is 6 or less. But with a momentum of 7 and an armor rating of 1 it would have a chance of being hit by one bit o' rock, damaged on a 3+ rolling D4. With a momentum of 8, it could possibly suffer two collisions.
FACs really see their mobility advantage disappear -- an attack craft moving with a momentum of 10 would be targeted by two attacks, and any hit is going to kill it.
I had a Bantam BB done up and the rest ready to paint when my 3 yr old and do went amok 
mj12games.com/forum → Posts by themattcurtis
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