26 Topic by dave-the-lost

(3 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

I come to Iron Stars from a background of ACW ironclads gaming. I have a few thoughts on ramming I would like to toss into the mix.

1. Ramming in the Aether seems very unlikely due to the potential fatal side effects for the ramming vessel. Ramming is going to put a pretty severe structural stress on both vessels, and if your hull cracks, all the air leaks out...

2. Space is big. I think it would be difficult to manuver a vessel to strike another vessel cleanly given the amount of space available for evaisive manuvering. A glancing hit is not going to be effective.

3. Battleships don't ram. If IS was "Galleys in space" ramming might be an appropriate tactic. As has been pointed out ramming was not used as a tactic by the wet navies IS is based on.

4. Ironclad rams were most effective against wooden vessels and there are not many of those prowling the aether.

5. Spar torpedoes. I would like to see these as an option for FAC.  Similar in concept to the Confederacy's Davids. I don't see them being used much on anything bigger. The risks of collision are too great.

Counter arguments are welcome. Of course the main reason for no ramming is that the game designer has said it doesn't fit the game. But I like to see a reason that doesn't break kayfabe.

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27 Reply by dave-the-lost

(42 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

Dan's rules seem to work about right. I don't see BPs as being able to wrest control of a ship within the timeframe of a tactical battle game. Destroying/taking out of action ships equipment and systems, tying up the crew in reppelling boarders and generally making a nuisance of themselves is about right.

In a campaign setting prize crews and the like would become viable.

I like the idea of a race that uses boarding parties more effectively, capturing enemy ships. I don't think this should be a human ability though.  Keeps the aliens a bit more alien.

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28 Reply by dave-the-lost

(41 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

Go0gleplex wrote:

A bit behind the times...and going back to the Martian Ship portion of this subject.

Martians being tri-limbed and such, it would seem reasonable to assume their space craft would be as well.  Kind of like a three limbed starfish looking thing. (this visualizes rather elegantly) Stack 10 or more of them into a cylinder formation for launch...and with 10 launches you have a 100 ship armada heading for earth, each armed with heavy heat beams and magnetic fields rather than armor and projectiles.  The British LPs would be least effected by the shields.

Consider each tripod walker a lander type craft, two or three carried under each arm of the ship as a blister pod, dropped from orbit to earth...and it creates a rather respectable global sized invasion force.

Err, I don't recall Wells describing the Martians as tri-limbed, or tri-radial in symetry. They had clusters of tentacles.  The tripods were threee legged, but the handling machines may not have been.  I do wonder how many tripods were packed in each cylinder... certainly it was 1 Martian to a tripod, and they were presumably shipped in pieces and then assembled. We also have Martian mining and materials processing described for us.

For those who are interested in a slightly different take check out "War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches" an anthology of short stories inspired by WotW. Some are quite a hoot.  It is also possible that all 10 of the cylinders described by Wells fell on England, we know that more than one did. This also gives a reason for the war to have had a less than shattering effect on the Earth.

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