That's ok, if you have seen Serenity.... then you know what the Reavers are...... My current project is the construction of a Reaver fleet........

John

Those could work as the names of the skill trees....
Same for the mages, ect.

That would also allow you to use your favorite figs for players.

John

I am thinking a simple experience chart with a number of combat dice based on level, where each would count as a hit or miss.... hits would do one wound per successful die roll..... with a base of 3 classes.
Fighters, sneaks, and casters.....  (I need better names, but for now, these will work) Casters would be path based, with options, to include the summoning of a minion. (Dark Path mages could summon a skeleton minion, ect.)

I have the basic dice work done, and am working on the armor modifications....but I think I know how that is going to work.......

This game is going to be fast and simple, but with a lot of variety. Monsters will be worth a set experience level, and the experience points can be spent on either levels (adding more hit points and combat dice) or skills (adding mods to help elsewhere)

A skilled adventurer would know how to utilize both. Skills are going to be set up on skill trees, so that really advanced skills have lesser skill pre-requisites. Spells would be handled as skills, with the same restrictions. Casting a spell would require that you succeed in a dice roll with enough successes (some fighter skills could be set up this way, and almost count as "spell trees")

That's where I am at the moment.

John

Yes, because the issue appears to be that the fighters attack a small ship and kill it during the fighter phase. This immedietely puts an explosion on the board, which blocks line of site. If the fighters are behind it, in relation to the enemy, then they can't be fired on.... Next round, the fighters move up.

There is nothing to stop someone from stacking 6 wings of fighters in one hex, and rolling 36 dice against every target, while halving their shields......

One of the reasons that our ships only explode at the end of the turn.......

The other option would be to always run your smaller ships in groups, so that no matter where the fighters are, there is someone with LOS, or to field large numbers of fighters yourself..... at that point, all you would have is two carriers on opposite ends of the board, and swarms of fighters in the middle, with a "may the best dice win" feel to the game.....

At least in my opinion.

John

I prefer the forums over Yahoo, as I get a lot of email as it is..... coupled with the fact that even if you unsubscribe from some groups, Yahoo never forgets that you were there, so you still get the emails......LOL

John

It keeps the fighters from swarming from ship to ship, while hiding behind ships they have already killed. We haven't had a problem with it in our games, but I can see where someone who uses swarms and swarms of fighters could abuse it........

Unfortunately, there is no rule system in the world that is totally proof against abuse. It would be nice to put in anti-cheese rules, but not practical. So far, the best way I have seen is to have everyone sit down and agree with what should be there.....

Anyways, the logic that we used, was that a large starship does not explode all at once.... That once it reaches a critical level of damage (zero hull), the crew starts abandoning ship..... meanwhile, the hull starts to break up, and systems start exploding, finallizing with a catastrophic explosion a few moments later.

With the vectored movement rules, it can get interesting, as the ship could, theoretically, continue for a bit and then explode.....

Although, I could see some abuse of this as well....... sigh......

John

Also, I am currently designing ships for my Reaver Fleet..... from the movie, Serenity.

He should be happy..... they would have eaten his people, and then left....... The Kayeshi merely used their lasers and gave them cremations.........

John

We have a solution that actually came out of an idea from our first vectored thrust style game....
We decided that the ships didn't explode immediately... that instead, you saw explosions ripping up and down the hull, and that at the beginning of following turns, you rolled a dice and added 2 ( cumulative, 2 on the first turn, 4 on the second, ect) and the total was 7 or greater, the ship finally exploded and created the explosion marker. However, during that time, the ship continued on it's current vector at it's last speed....... and the die roll for the explosion was rolled after movement was plotted........

This did result in a ship drifting into a hex with 3 light destroyers, and then exploding.... but was interesting.

Anyways.... the final result is that ships do not explode on the turn they are killed in our game, but at the very beginning of the next turn.
All ships destroyed at the end of last turn are replaced with explosion counters, movement orders are plotted, and the next turn begins.

John

Actually, it is rather cute !!

I would use one or two..... maybe.......

I often use speed 8 corvettes that are Hull 2 with a single range 12 laser with arcs ABCD.  Mostly as harrassers...

Of course, if that misses, then he can't shoot anything else until next turn.

John

I haven't yet seen where the backwards movement has been a major problem......

One of the people I play actually has a Hull 2 ship that moves at 12 with a single weapon. Yes, his backup is 6, but the weapon is only a 1/1/1 for it's
rof/pen/dmg code. I have a couple of ships that carry a few drones, and also several that carry fighters.... it hasn't yet been a major problem.. and he loves to use the backup maneuver.  For most of the ships to get the high speeds that make backing up such a pain, and still fit the extra stuff.... stealth generator, long range sensors, reversed range mods, ect..... They are going to have to skimp on the weapons a bit. If they keep using this, then go ahead, and put either an ECM or Stealth Generator on your own ships. This would force him to close in order to hit you, which negates his tactic. I have also found that when someone starts using "munchkin" (I use the term lightly) tactics, then being forced to face his own tactics tends to fix the issue.
Also, if you use the evasive maneuver option, which bases the modifier on your initial movement value, plus ecm... You not only negate the reversed range modifiers, but also give him a penalty to hit you at long range.  At that point, if he wants to win, he has to close with you. Mix this with a drone carrier (ship with 20 or more drones) and you should be good. Also, remember, drones can be launched in values from 1 to 10 per round, and all of the drones launched in one round form up into a flight, with the same movement as fighters. Since we use the dogfighting rules, I use 2 small drone carriers ( I usually have 6 or so ships at about 2000 points ) and have them launch in groups of 5..... I also assume that the drones do not have to fly in straight lines, they can be programmed or have orders sent to them so I will have the first flight or two stay right near the launching ship, and add more flights each turn. Once I have 4 or more flights of 5 drones each, plus my fighters ready, I advance them all and let my fighters attempt to engage enemy fighters in dogfights, while the drones maneuver through the fight and go for their targets.

This has dealt with most of the times I have encountered the issues you mention.

John