Thanks for the reply. 

The last post on the thread from someone I recognize as M12 was way back in 2011.   

Not too crazy about aircraft.  That is the main reason I have no interest in WW2 naval or moderns. 

From the cards it looks like GFIII is going to streamline out a fair bit and add post 1940.

I vote for pre-dreadnought to WW1.  1863ish forward to WW1. 

Not too interested in WW2, the coming of age of aircraft and the aircraft carrier sucked all the interest out of that period for me.

I think that qualifies as a "duh" on my part.....

I'm so used to using historical values for Belt, deck, etc, that I didn't read closely.  Both Deck and End are figured from formula vice using historical values.

That doesn't really model the effects.  I remember Andys very well.   PA failure wasn't usually gradual but catastrophic.  The PA absorbs any weaps until full, then detonates, this can be mitigated by bleeding off a percentage, transferring power to a Power Module an ejecting it, or using the power in ships systems.  In battle the Andies power would increase dramatically as they took hits.  Unlike 99% of all other races, the Andies would quickly go to firing all weapons at maximum power (including overload IIRC) as well as maximum movement and displacements.  While a battle group could take down a single Andy by concentrating enough firepower to overload the PA's with more power than the single ship could use.   Multiple Andies were very nasty with individuals being able to displace away to bleed power while the other ships maintained the pressure on the enemy.    Two Andy CA's could shred a Fed CA in short order.

In general in SFB a ship cannot maintain and fire all its weapons and shields and still be able to maneuver.   An Andy ship could operate all weapons and maneuvers at maximum within the first few hits received and maintain that maximum level of output while their opponents are struggling to balance power consumption. 

When the PA's overload, I have never seen it deal dribbles of damage.  Normally once you loss a PA, the rest chain and the ship pops like a blister. 

I don't know how you would model it, but the Andies firepower should increase as it takes hits plus it should gain MP's.  That is until that critical point when the PA's overload and it blows up.    The big thing is that in practice, in all the games I ever played, when a PA finally overloads the ship generally becomes an expanding cloud of gas and debris.

Of all the RPG's out there, the current "rules lite" system with the most active support and grates flexibility looks like Savage Worlds.   (Disclaimer: Myself I prefer Hero and can't stand the "not quite finished unless you buy yet another book" GURPs  )    That all said, I do really think adopting something similar to SW would suit most mini gamers best, I was able to GM a full session within a day of picking up the rulebook and it flows well and things can easily be altered on the fly. 

SW is at its core a genre-less system easily adaptable to many settings, with a very large range of different setting already available from Weird WW3 to Pulp Space to Cthulhu Horror.  They are close to re-releasing a Savaged edition of Space 1889 as we speak.

For MJ12 I would recommend a Savaged source-book for its world/settings.   Many source-books/settings add unique rules/options as well.  The basic rules are short and cheap, the PDF is only $9.99.

I would like to see MJ12 bring something to the gaming world that I have not see successfully done before.  A way to merge the Role-playing with controlling ships on the gameboard in a SIMPLE manner without tons of rules.  I am primarily an RPG gamers that had almost given up on mini's because most rule systems were so complicated they just sucked the fun right out of the game.  I still read and loved my history books and scifi stories, but it came to mini gaming the drudgery of assembling and painting ships/armies just wasn't worth the effort because of the overly complicated completely un-fun rules out there.   Then, I discovered MJ12.  Starmada, Grand Fleets II and so on.  The rules are crunchy without sucking the fun out of things.   Simple yet detailed.  Or in other words FUN to play.

I for one would love to see a plot point campaign for Iron Stars or Starmada.  Especially if it contained rules for integrating role-playing directly with ship combat and maneuver.

This one seems to have gotten quiet recently..........

Not Nine....

TEN 

Well, I'm probably in the minority, but I hated the FASA designs.   They always looked unbalanced and weird with no real reason for the form used except the artist thought it was 'cool'.  Especially some of the really weird designs they threw at the federation, like the Chandler and Charger classes.

The SFB were more miniature than models, but they at least look like they followed a logical progression.  And when there was a major change there was a reason, such as the Sparrowhawks. 

That is why I am so happy to see a Starmada SFB crossover rather than a Paramount Star Trek or FASA Trek one.

I have just ordered a copy of Klingon Armada and can't wait to get it.  Romulan Armada will follow as soon as it hits the street!

Your mixing terms across race lines.  The original Klingon D-7's used to be much lighter on the staying power side.  While they packed a lot of firepower they couldn't sustain a lot of hits.  In my original thin pack game from back in the late 70's a D-7 never had weaps more powerful than  Ph2 + Dist while the Fed CA had Ph1 + Photons.  The photon took longer but retained its punch and the ph1 was more powerful and had greater reach.  Disruptor were close-in weapons and Ph2's were shorter as well.  Since the D-7 had tough forward shields but tissue paper rear ones it fit the Klingon attack strategy.  The Fed CA had tough all around shields and lots of interior to suck up damage. 

At first 1 Fed CA was a match for 2 D-7's, that is why you always saw D-7's in groups of 3.  But SFB wanted something to be 1 on 1 so they adjusted the D-7 up.  They made it a bit tougher and really slowed it down to have the same move cost as a Fed CA.  Since it was a game and they really needed a 1 on 1 match-up this flew.  But I still have some of the old SDD's from way back.

Hero System is specifically designed to allow you to play in any genre.  The basic game has been around since '81.   It is not designed to play a setting out of the box.  But rather so the GM can set up the setting he wishes. 

Good system.

Are you going to turn on 'board styles' in the users CP?  Most of my favorite BBS's use the same software.  My preferred choices are 'Glacier' or 'Black Pearl'.   But there are many available to the users of phpBB.  Just a thought.

Right now the board style is really hard to pick out new posts.

Yes,  yes I am old