26 Topic by themattcurtis

(7 replies, posted in Starmada)

What are folks' thoughts on point costing naval rules?  Yes, no, or do you prefer something in between (ie the priority levels used by rules like VAS)?

Dreadnoughts and few other rule sets I have (mostly AandA) try to point cost wet navy hulls.  It's interesting to see a weird design come up with a point cost that just makes no sense.

Case in point -- the Erzherzog Karl class BBs used by the Austrians.  Laid down starting in 1902 -- they were well designed and capable for their size (approx 10600 tons standard).  They had four 9.4" and twelve 7.5" guns.  So small because of budget and dockyard constraints.

One set I have has a formula for costing hulls and then a truckload of number-crunching for guns (they have values for hundreds of weapons, presumably based off damage, penetration and range which you then modify based on the type of mount/turret).  But the Erzerhzog comes up costing more than it should because it mounts all those guns, even though none are really on the same level as what's carried by other pre-dreads. 

Point costing allows for pick up games, but you still have to look a bit at the opposing ships to make sure they really DO stand a chance against each other.  And I think being able to play ahistorical games is important.  But what's the best approach?

Go to forum: Starmada

27 Reply by themattcurtis

(19 replies, posted in Starmada)

I have Dreadnoughts, and Dan's alleviated some of my concerns about Penetration.  But I think the idea that it's equipped to handle Jutland is kinda....well....loopy.

You have six firing arcs.  You have the to-hit roll.  You have the Impact roll.  Then you have the roll on the ship's damage chart.  If you're attempting attacks needing a 7+, you have perhaps TWO to-hit rolls for a single ship.  You're really going to walk that down dozens of hulls per Game Turn?

There are other rule sets better suited for big actions.

On the other hand, I think Dreadnoughts could do a good job of introducing new players to naval wargaming.  Me, I use a bunch of house rules to simulate sea conditions, squalls and smoke screens.

E.G. -- Moderate Seas mean you pay for every turn/facing change.  In Heavy Seas movement costs are plain doubled -- and torpedoes aren't an option.

Go to forum: Starmada

28 Reply by themattcurtis

(11 replies, posted in News)

We're a Silver Pick now, on RPGnow.com

I hope it keeps goin'.....cool to think people are looking at something you helped work on.

Go to forum: News

29 Reply by themattcurtis

(19 replies, posted in Starmada)

Gonna try this again.  After seeing Dan's math.....which may be a hair (and by a hair I mean, like, a metric ton) better than mine, I've decided to write up a few more scenarios and give it a big test run this weekend.   8)

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30 Reply by themattcurtis

(25 replies, posted in Starmada)

Erzherzog Karl -- the way it's typed up, has eight 9.4" guns. Four mounts with RoF 2 each.  Historically it only had two turrets -- one forward and one aft.

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31 Topic by themattcurtis

(19 replies, posted in Starmada)

My only real concern with the rule set is that armor seems to be penetrated way too much. 

Case in point -- you have a Weymouth class CL packing 6" guns with Piercing +1, versus an Austrian CL with Armor 1 and 3.9" guns with no Piercing attribute.

Both ships have a base to hit of 4+, right?  Which means in the absence of Evasive Action or environmental conditions (and I think the rules need some environmental conditions added to reflect wet navy combat), means each mount that can target the other ship at Medium range is going to it 50% of the time.  Then with Piercing +1, the Weymouth is going to Penetrate the Austrian CL with every hit unless it rolls a 2.  Likewise, the Austrian ship is going to penetrate the Weymouth with every 3.9" hit unless it rolls a 2.  And since each ship has five guns it can bring to bear through the C arc.....and two or three hull boxes each, ships are gonna drop like flies.  I mean, the Weymouth's 6" guns are gonna tear through a lot of armored cruisers, and that wasn't the case historically.  We played two scenarios.  A meeting engagement between British and Austrian ships, then Brits against the Germans, and it just seemed bloody too soon.

I think Starmada can be used to reflect wet navy battles just as easily,if not more so, than what was done with ACTA and VAS.  But it just seems combat here will resolve itself with horrifying speed unless some setting specific modifiers are put in place.

Just my two cents.  I'm hoping folks take this and run with it, as if I have a choice, I'd rather buy naval rules and supplements from MJ12games than A&A (although I do like their stuff) or Mongoose or Clash of Arms. 

Matt

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32 Reply by themattcurtis

(25 replies, posted in Starmada)

Admiral Spaun class CL had seven 3.9", not nine.

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33 Reply by themattcurtis

(28 replies, posted in Starmada)

Different strokes for different folks.

big_smile

Me, I hope Dan gets a slew of different people involved in churning out setting books.  And I'll buy all of them -- even if I understand there's only one or two new rules in each publication.  I had a blast writing up a plotline/universe/whatever for Starmada.  And my regret with systems like this and Defiance is that we haven't seen people come up with MORE applications.

I'm not a gamer who routinely likes to see what new ship design he can come up with.  I like stories.  I need a concrete setting to play in.  And the occasional ship design contest or collection of player-made offerings posted on the forum don't hold much interest to me because there's no context in which to place them.  Sure, they have RoF 3 and can shoot up to 15 hexes away.  But why are they there in the first place?  So again, I like settings.  Just like I enjoy reading AARs and fan fiction and all that stuff.

To be fair, I think there are enough options in the core rulebook to cover a TON of different potential factions.  And Dan's always been someone who will provide some mechanics input or the point cost multiplier or whatever  if you have something you want to model in your game that isn't covered by what he's already done. 

If I see a setting book, I'm going to assume I'm getting a setting and some pre-made ships and counters to try it out.  And that's what I want.  I want to see what folks can do with Starmada, other than some isolated stats.  And I'll always be willing to part with $11 bucks to download that.

But like I said, I don't assume everyone here is gonna agree with me.   smile

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34 Reply by themattcurtis

(11 replies, posted in News)

No, it's no.#1 as of Friday 6 PM EST  big_smile

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35 Reply by themattcurtis

(5 replies, posted in Grand Fleets)

We play without hexes, using a tape measure and firing arc and turning templates I've described to Kevin.  If you halve the time in a turn, then the distance the ship moves a turn is reduced, but not gun range.  If you say "this turn covers 7-8 minutes instead of 15," it doesn't mean the guns lose any range.  A nautical mile is still 4".  It simply means the ships only move 1,000 yards (2") instead of a nautical mile per MP.  It's an advantage of playing on 6x6' or larger table covered with a blue sheet.  The templates let us do that and it's been a hit with the local gamers.

If you play using hexes, then yeah, I guess you'd have to say each hex is 1,000 yards to keep things consistent.  It's just the difference beetween playing on a table versus a hex map.

Running down the scenarios:
Otranto Straits

Rome Chooses Sides (dreadnought hypothetical with Italy joining the central powers and clashing with the British)

Spee against Jerram (Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Nurnberg and Liepzig going against Jerram's China squadron -- Newcastle, Hampshire, Minotaur and Yarmouth).

Spee against the NZ Troop Convoy (same Germans against Minotaur, Ibuki, Melbourne and Sydney).  Historically those four ships HAD to escort a NZ convoy or the NZ government wasn't going to let it out of port due to fear of Spee showing up.  This is just a "what if he had turned west instead of east?"

Otranto Straits II -- if Horthy hadn't lost a Tegetthoff class BB to a MAS torpedo boat, he wanted to send his four dreadnought battleships and three Erzherzog Karl pre-dreads out to ambush any enemy response to another raid on the Otranto Barrage.  This was in 1918.  But he lost that Tegetthoff and turned back.  Paul Halpern writes that the other side would have likely known something was up....this is a "what if?"

Milne and Troubridge against Haus:  Haus sortied out of Pola with the Austrian fleet to support Souchon in 1914 in the event he ran for the Adriatic after leaving Sicily.  The Brits actually paused their pursuit of the Goeben and joined Milne's battlecruisers and Troubridge's ACs because of misleading reports that war had been declared on Austria (it hadn't).  Haus didn't come out of the Adriatic in the end because he was worried about the location of the French Med Fleet -- which was a long ways off.  But if he had shown up the Brits would have been caught between him and the Goeben and Breslau.

You can see I got a thing about the A-H fleet and the Med.  I got all the ships I need (French, Italian, Brit, German, A-H, even some Turks) to fight historic and hypothetical actions in that theater.  I also have Spee's squadron and ships to fight Coronel, the Falkands and some "could have been" battles.  I'll put them somewhere as they're finished -- right now 3 are finalized and have been played at the local shop.

Matt

Go to forum: Grand Fleets

36 Topic by themattcurtis

(5 replies, posted in Grand Fleets)

Been trying to develop some WWI solo play guidelines to test scenarios before presenting them to the local group of guys.  Naval rules are rough, but I think I got a basic framework.  Maybe folks here could review?

Should note that for our tabletop/hexless games, we play with the time-scale halved.  Each Turn is now several minutes.  Gun ranges remain unchanged (each nm is 4"), but ships only move 1000 yards (2") for evey MP listed on their profile.  We figure RoF values for guns remain unchanged since they're all relative anyway:

Before the shooting starts.

It shouldn't be assumed that just because one side has spotted the oppostion, that the same applies for the other side, as well.  Visual spotting was iffy, and there should be some allowance for surprise.  If there's room on the table, start ships outside of the maximum visual range listed in Grand Fleets and have each side chug ahead on its current course until it sees something that would allow it to react.

The base chance of spotting another ship at the listed maximum Grand Fleets Distance is 80% during the first Command Phase the two sides are within range.  Roll percentile dice for both sides before movement orders are written down.  Starting on the 2nd turn the two sides are withing spotting distance the odds increase to 90%.  After that it's automatic.

You can include weather.  This is borrowed from FGDN.

Light Precip: Visual distance is multiplied by .75
Heavy Precip: Visual distance is halved.

So say it's raining a bit in your scenario.  The AI has a line of battlecruisers and so do you.  Under the normal rules, you would start to see each other at 22nm.  But due to weather, that's reduced to 16.5 nm. Once the two lines have moved within that distance to each other, both sides get to roll to see if they see each other.  If the AI sees you and you don't see it, too bad.  It can now issue movement orders to react while you have to chug in a straight line.  During the 2nd turn you chances of seeing it are almost guaranteed.  And if you come under fire, you ARE going to spot 'em.

Tactical Movement

The "AI" fleet has its movement orders written per the standard rules (the odds are 50-50 if these are written before or after the player's orders are jotted down, toss a coin or something).  Be fair and issue orders that make sense.  But there should be a  wrinkle to keep the AI from constantly stumbling into your cunning traps.  During the current Movement Phase, move the player fleet.  Then roll a D10.  On a "1" or "10,"  the AI's movement orders are scrapped and a completely new set of orders are drafted that allow it to respond to your positioning on the board.  The AI just re-wound the clock and issued orders that anticipated what you were about to do.


Gunfire
Just issue orders that make sense.  The AI loses nothing (there are no ammo considerations in GF) by blazing away. 


Torpedoes
If an AI ship carrying torpedoes ends up within 2nm of one of your hulls, and is lugging torpedoes, then it's assumed that fish were launched the previous turn.  The target is the largest, biggest enemy hull.  No, you don't get a chance to take Evasive Action.

To see if the AI guessed the right arc.  Roll D10, and the target number is 6+ modified by the following:
-2 if the AI's expended MPs this turn exceeded yours by 3 or more
-1 if the AI's expended MPs this turn exceeded yours by 1 or more
The rationale here is that the AI ship had an MP/speed advantage in maneuvering you into  the proper arc for this turn.
+2 if your expended MPs exceeded the AI's by 3 or more.
+1 if your expended MPs exceeded the AI's by 1 or more.
Just the same logic, reversed.
-1 if the AI ship has ended up targeting you through your belt armor.
+1 if the AI ship has ended up targeting you through your end armor.

So if a destroyer that expended 6 MP ends up within 2 nm of a stricken cruiser that expended 3 MP, targeting it through its side/belt armor, the odds that it picked the right arc are almost a given (3+ rolling a D10 using the modifiers listed above).  But say the AI has a damaged cruiser that's making a desperate attempt to damage one of your ships that's healthy (it spent 3 MPs while you expended 6), then even if targeting your through your belt armor, its odds aren't all that hot (7+ on a D10).

This just figures if the proper arc was guessed, BTW.  You still have to roll to-hit.

Go to forum: Grand Fleets

37 Topic by themattcurtis

(0 replies, posted in Miniatures)

I've been buying from Panzerschiffe to build my WWI fleets.... meaning the French, German, British, Italian and Austrian ships needed to fight in the Mediterranean and Pacific (I have several Japanese ships, too).

Those theaters, what happened and what could have happened, are friggin fascinating.

Anyway, to round out my A-H roster, I needed the three Erzherzog Karl BBs that made up the 3rd Battleship squadron.  Panzerschiffe doesn't have them. So I splurged and bought them from a new line offered by Molniya.

They're expensive....along GHQ prices as each of these pre-dreadnoughts in 1/2400 scale cost $8.  But the quality is unbelievable.

Metal, no flash what-so-ever, and detailed to the point that they're better than what's offered by the WTJ site (which itself has very nice products).

I just finished painting them up, and they're easily the best looking ships I've done or seen at any of the local games.  If these guys expand to cover the Russo-Japanese War, they're going to get a ton of my money.  Right now I have nothing else I'd want from them, but I wanted to give a nod.

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38 Reply by themattcurtis

(1 replies, posted in Grand Fleets)

BTW -- We didn't include Aquila and her destroyers because historically she was immobilized by destroyers steaming ahead of Horthy's cruisers --- she didn't contribute anything.

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39 Topic by themattcurtis

(1 replies, posted in Grand Fleets)

We've played through the Battle of Otranto Straits at the local store twice now, and had a blast  each time big_smile

Actions like this one and Heligoland Bight were pre-cursors to the cruiser/destroyer battles of WW2.  And while the body count on May 15, 1917 didn't break 50 (totaling both sides), it included CLs, destroyers and floatplanes, all performing as they were intended.  I built the scenario and OObs (including the random arrival of Brandenburgs and the Italian license-built FBAs) off Halpern's book on the battle and a few web articles.

The first session saw The Austrians just get creamed.  The game is a modified stern chase, but actually starts with the Austrians and British cruisers (Dartmouth and Bristol) in gun range of Horthy's command because historically he allowed the two lines to close, mistakenly believing he was facing ships that didn't outgun him.

Dartmouth took  a 4" hit, not enough to slow her.  Bristol was undamaged....but Saida was hurt enough during the initial exchange that her performance dropped.  The British line got another lick in as they turned to port, chasing the healthy Austrian cruisers as they veered away -- using our tabletop conversion, the A-H light cruisers were able to widen the gap by an 1" each Turn -- both sides had MPs of 5, but the Austrian ships could manage 27 knots compared to Dartmouth's 25, so by playing without hexes we were able to tack an additional inch to the A-H movement each Game Turn. 

Saida now found herself targeted by the Mirabello group (a flotilla leader and three Bouclier class destroyers) that closed and polished her off with a torpedo  sad

The other Austrian ships managed to escape, and Dartmouth was bloodied further when a Brandenburg actually managed to hit her during a bombing run!  A CRIT hit resulted in a fire that didn't cause any further damage -- but was dramatic, regardless.  Still, sad day for the Kriegsmarine.

The second session saw the Austrians win the day, as we played a variant where Sankt Georg -- historically deployed to support Horthy's CL squadron -- arrived and managed to just HAMMER Bristol with a pair of lucky shots.  The Brit hull had already been wounded, so that was it for her.  The British player had a speed advantage over the old Armored Cruiser, and Dartmouth was able to pull back out of its reach, but the Austrian CLs were sheltered under its guns and so were pretty much safe for the remainder of the scenario.  The planes played no real part here, except for a FBA that got shot down big_smile ....and the Tatra class destroyers that came with Sankt Georg mauled the Mirabello flotilla.  Here the results were all based off my rolls more than my tactics.  The other guy just suffered from crappy, crappy tosses.  But I was happy to take the win.

There's another variant where Liverpool is available to the Brits.  She could have been there, in real life, if her captain had received a better heads up as to what was going on.  We might try that later.

Just had to let folks know.
Matt

Go to forum: Grand Fleets

40 Reply by themattcurtis

(19 replies, posted in News)

As of February 1, the two books are back to #2 and #3 on the overall RPGnow rankings.

Dey's coming back big_smile

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41 Reply by themattcurtis

(5 replies, posted in The Admiralty Edition)

what line of minis or playing pieces would you use to represent these guys?  I'm late in asking -- original post is 2 weeks old -- but I'd play with these big_smile

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42 Reply by themattcurtis

(10 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

I know it's not anyone's day job. big_smile

I've just been hoping for a while now -- seemingly in vain -- for some kind of word "from on high." 

Startin' to think it's not going to happen.

Go to forum: Iron Stars

43 Topic by themattcurtis

(10 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

On getting the fourth book going?

Matt

Go to forum: Iron Stars

44 Topic by themattcurtis

(9 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

There was some murmuring about progressing IS .....then it kinda faded.....but the game's 3 books are right now in RPGnow's top 10 again  big_smile

Which means some folks thing we're doing things right.  So are we ready to advance it further? 

Matt

Go to forum: Iron Stars

45 Reply by themattcurtis

(8 replies, posted in Discussion)

The three IS books are still holding strong at slots 4, 5 & 6....which makes my day. 

And I know we're all lethargic because it's summer and all that, but do we have any idea when the next pub is coming out?

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46 Reply by themattcurtis

(23 replies, posted in Iron Stars)

Conflicted a bit with ideas Dan had for China......so nope  smile

I'm just a'waitin for the next book.

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47 Topic by themattcurtis

(0 replies, posted in Miniatures)

I have all kinds of painted ww2 micro armor, but I DONT want to bother with painting a ton of infantry.  Is there somewhere you can buy painted 6mm minis?  I don't want a painting service. 

I do know of sites that sell painted 15mm infantry, but I can't find 6mm.

Thanks
Matt

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48 Reply by themattcurtis

(3 replies, posted in Wardogs)

Arty that defaults as DF only?  I dunno  smile

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49 Topic by themattcurtis

(3 replies, posted in Wardogs)

No brainer, but I want to make sure.

I don't have to buy IF capable if I'm already purchasing the artillery feature, do I?

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50 Reply by themattcurtis

(11 replies, posted in Miniatures)

Took pics of some of my minis last night.  Just gotta go to Wal-Mart and have them burn the images on to a CD so I can upload them.  I'm saving the other camera (had a pack of two disposables) to take pics so I can furnish a full AAR with text and images.

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