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My questions for GFIII are roughly the same as for GFII:
1.) will there be ways for us to add our own 'fantasy' ships or historic 'never-were's'... or will the formula be secret?
2.) will there be one or two books, which get dropped for another game soon after?
3.) will there be projects planned, posted, then dropped (like the GFII Ruso-Japanese war book)?
I invested my money in GFII when there wasn't a lot of it (the price of the book was 10% of a week's check!) and then, suddenly, it was left unsupported. If I go out on a limb and invest the money in GFIII- which looks pretty, and seems to have a lot of 'ease of play' potential- will it die off just as soon?
While I'm much impressed with the joint venture with ADB for Starmada, I'm disappointed that a naval combat system that beats out GWaS by leaps and bounds was, unfortunately, left in the dust of flashier projects.
prader wrote:So for purposes of Starmada- without option mounts- you could say the Orions use photons/phaser 1's and the WYN use Disruptors/ph 2's.
Actually, the WYN's would have Ph-1's before the Orions- the WYN's had a LOT more money to throw around on each individual ship. Most of the Orion Pirates are relatively poor independents- much like long-haul truckers here in the US... only a few who are doing really well have top of the line stuff, most get by on far less or even lease themselves out to pay the bills.
The 'Far Empires' would be my first choice, as I am actually only three feet tall and am constantly surrounded by a green fog. 
Option Mounts do indeed exist in FedComm- they have been nerfed slightly (and necessarily) but it didn't subtract anything from the experience. You still have a MASSIVE amount of available customization for any Orion ship, but you can no longer have 3 Ph-G's on an Orion LR or something similarly idiotic and unbalanced. The WYN, IIRC, got nerfed a bit harder- but since the only easily available weapons to load into their Option Mounts are Phaser 1's, Drone Racks, Disruptors and ADD's... well, it just kinda makes sense.
Wow... ask and ye shall receive!
Preferred 'Expansions'
1.) Spanish-American War - the last great hurrah of black powder* on the high seas.
2.) Russo-Japanese War - the birth of 'modern' naval warfare: fleet actions at (relatively) long ranges.
3.) War Between the States/Schleswig War 'Combo Pack' - Two small wars that had a really big impact on naval warfare.
I'd guess that these would be able to be added without too many new rules- but I could be dead wrong.
I would eventually like to see aircraft integrated into both GF and GA, but that can wait.
*OK, so not exactly black powder, but cocoa powder sure isn't smokeless.
Ask an we shall receive!
I just found the conversion document to get Grand Fleet ships into Grand Admiral. That was some mighty quick work. 
I can see the SFB/FedComm relation between the games, perhaps (as with the ADB games) the two communities will feed off each other rather than one feeding on the other.
I noticed that the Tsar & Emperor book disappeared from the Grand Fleets page, and that's what made it look like the game had stopped being worked on. Is that particular book still in the works?
How disappointing.
I just got into Grand Fleet, and then all forward progress gets killed for a new game.
Worse still, there is no way to use this new game to play out the 'what-if' scenarios that my opponents and I are involved in.
When a ship generation system gets integrated, I'll likely give it a try.
Till then, I'll read the reviews and hang onto that $15.00 (and keep my wife off my back for overspending on gaming materials this month ).
What happened to the Tsar & Emperor book that was to have all this info in it?
Don't say that it got canceled!
Ahhh... the 'battleship with her great-aunt's teeth!' Vanguard was a beauty; she might not have been the most powerful battleship, but she sure was one of the most attractive... and I generally go for more 'round, firm, fully-packed' designs like the South Dakota.
If H.M.'s Royal Navy had built the Vanguard when the Japanese fell out of the London Treaty talks, she would have made a potent addition to Allied operations in the Pacific.
I, for one, would be VERY grateful.
I'm constructing an alternate history Confederate States Navy for some games with a friend. As I have over 40 ships ranging from the pre-dreadnoughts of the Spanish-Confederate War to the 1920's, it would make it MUCH easier for me to create my Ship Data Cards (as an SFB player, I can't call these 'SSD's' with a clear conscience ).
elsyr wrote:Christopher wrote:I was just reading about coal bunkers in Robert Massie's "Castles Of Steel" last week.
The book mentions that it was the German navy's practice in the years leading up to and during WW1 for coal bunkers to always be kept at the very least half full. It does not, however, go into great detail as to why. Protection may have been a factor, but more likely it was to have a large enough coal reserve for sudden bursts of speed.
Reading the same book myself - I got the impression that it was more the latter than the former - like making sure your car's gas tank never gets below 1/2 full, just in case.
Doug
Given the Emden's SOP while at sea (long ago read CoS), I'd say it was indeed the latter... after all, German cruisers were seemingly intended to be raiders more than anything else. In their unique state, coaling at every opportunity only made sense.
As a 'computer generation' SFB/Fed Com/Starmada player, I find myself in SHOCK! :shock:
Those are the 'Hawk' series ships- they are the new build Romulan ships form the latter parts of the General War in the SFU (think of it as WWI, WWII and several small civil wars all rolled into one conflict). Their shape is indicative of their design premise- the blocky, bulky aft parts are occupied by interchangeable 'mission modules', allowing a very few ships to fulfill a lot of roles with minimum effort. The round/sweeping forward sections are built to resemble the heads/beaks of birds, as the Romulans tended towards avian-inspired designs.
Like a Glock, or the South Dakota class battleships the 'Hawk' ships are have a 'beauty of design' that does not exactly equate to a 'beauty of form.' After you get the chance to play one of them, you'll see what I mean.
ericrrrm wrote:The armor formula changed in the 2nd edition? I suppose I might have to break down and buy the pdf just to see the changes.
I checked out Diadem, Edgar, and Powerful, and they do, indeed, have belts and ends of 5, and decks of 7 and 8 (1st edition).
One might wonder if the belts should be better because of the protection offered by the coal bunkers, but I think that protection was more theoretical than practical.
THANK YOU!!!
I think the coal bunker protection was only a factor if the ship was on a short-duration mission. The full bunkers would afford a measure of protection to the ship... but empty ones- intentionally placed in the most likely areas for a shell to impact- with a lot of coal dust floating around in them might pose a greater hazard!
I'm dealing with 2nd Edition. Thanks for the help.
What happened to this game? Seemed like a good one when i played through it, and it's completely dead in here.
I am planning on using Grand Fleets to simulate battles between two fictional fleets that my friend and I are creating using Springsharp http://www.springsharp.com/. These fictional fleets are going to start off in the late 19th century, and as a result, there will be a large number of protected cruisers included in the fleets.
What would some of the more experienced players recommend as the best way to simulate a protected cruiser's armor scheme?
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