Legendary Naval Officers

[Ur Lord Tedric]

I have a question:

 

Since allied fleets can end up on the same side together and be affected by leaders, do all allied fleets on one side of the combat get bonuses to FC from ALL allied naval leaders present? There could after all be such a thing as too much FC This will soon be a pressing issue for me so any help would be appreciated

 

Cheers

 

Locklyn

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

We must admit that we thought this had been commented on already, but it wasn't in this thread...

 

We're fairly sure that ALL the Naval Leaders on one side would add together with the highest being taken for the first modifier...

 

Curiously though, why could too much FC be bad? The only time we could envisage such an occurrence is when you wanted to sacrifice a ship(s) in a delaying action and wanted to at least destroy a few ships rather than just damage several before being destroyed...

 

Chief Warmaster to Ur-Lord Tedric

[General Miles Avatar]

Too much FC could be a bad thing if your FC is so high that it divided up your globs of damage into tiny little bits causing damage to all and destroying none.

 

This is why its so important to know just how much damage each weapon does so you could balance what you expect your damage will be vs FC vs the integrity of the enemy ships.

 

Of couse some of this info will be known when you first get into a firefight but from what I have experienced and from what other on the boards have kindly posted nothing is certain.

[Krelnett_of_Kraan]

Too much FC could be a bad thing if your FC is so high that it divided up your globs of damage into tiny little bits causing damage to all and destroying none.

 

This is why its so important to know just how much damage each weapon does so you could balance what you expect your damage will be vs FC vs the integrity of the enemy ships.

 

Of couse some of this info will be known when you first get into a firefight but from what I have experienced and from what other on the boards have kindly posted nothing is certain.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Agreed. One of the basic tenets of wargaming is concentration of fire. The FC rules in this game run somewhat counter to that axiom.

[Locklyn]

Too much FC could be a bad thing if your FC is so high that it divided up your globs of damage into tiny little bits causing damage to all and destroying none.

 

This is why its so important to know just how much damage each weapon does so you could balance what you expect your damage will be vs FC vs the integrity of the enemy ships.

 

Of couse some of this info will be known when you first get into a firefight but from what I have experienced and from what other on the boards have kindly posted nothing is certain.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Agreed. One of the basic tenets of wargaming is concentration of fire. The FC rules in this game run somewhat counter to that axiom.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Precisely! What was that term we were taught in basic training on the rifle range "One Shot, One Kill"

 

/Locklyn

[Ur Lord Tedric]

Precisely! What was that term we were taught in basic training on the rifle range "One Shot, One Kill"

 

/Locklyn

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Perhaps more important goes back a little further to Sun Tzu...

 

Don't fight a battle you cannot win!

 

Unless it's that specific case, having a high FC shouldn't matter too much in most cases.

 

Taking a very simple example, let's assume you have one big ship and the opponent has 10 smaller. Your single ship's firepower is enough to destroy just one of the enemy ships.

 

So, if you have an FC of 1 then you'll destroy 1 ship in the first round, but leave the others undamaged - if, however, your FC is 10, then you'll score 10% damage to each ship.

 

Each of the enemy ships will then fight at 90% firepower the next round, so the effect of the next round's incoming fire is the same....

 

Much more likely is that the enemy will have 9 screen ships of paltry size and 1 bigger ship....

 

If so, then it may be much more important to blow away all 9 screen ships in the first round and thus a high FC is generally better....

 

That all said, the combat system is based around large fleets/squadrons/flotilla's of ships and not optimised for small actions where the likelihood of just causing damage before you are destroyed is far more...

 

FWIW

 

Chief Warmaster to Ur-Lord Tedric

[Paradigm]

Unless the smaller ships have shields, in which case you'll do no effective damage and the enemy will keep fighting at 100% until their shields are all gone. If it's a close fight, that could make the different between winning and loosing.

 

You are also assuming that as ships take damage during a battle, their firepower is reduced proportionally. Do we know that for a fact?

 

The problem I have with this system is that there are situations where additional FC and naval officers are to your detriment. IMO that should never happen. There should be no situations where someone could say "we would have won the battle except our leadership was too good", or "we lost because our computers were too good, if only we had used crummier computers on our ships".

 

Personally I think targeting should be at the ship level. Each ship should choose a target and start firing at it until it runs out of shots that round or the enemy is destroyed. Additional targeting ability should determine how many new targets can be selected as old ones are destroyed. This is basically how the Starfire system works, which is what the Weber books are based on, which in turn is what this game is loosely based on. It's a time tested system and it works well.

[Locklyn]

You are also assuming that as ships take damage during a battle, their firepower is reduced proportionally.  Do we know that for a fact? 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Precisely my point, well put Paradigm! Perhaps the forthcoming Naval Combat Document will clear that point up for us.

 

/Locklyn

[Locklyn]

Another thing I hope that the naval combat document will clear up is if naval leaders solely affect FC. When we started talking on the old boards about space combat, pete said they affected a number of things in naval combat such as damage, chance to capture other ships etc. Does this still hold true?

 

Further more, are there in effect any boarding battles in naval combat or is the CCB not that much to have?

 

Cheers

 

/Locklyn

[Octus Imperium]

You are also assuming that as ships take damage during a battle, their firepower is reduced proportionally.  Do we know that for a fact? 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Precisely my point, well put Paradigm! Perhaps the forthcoming Naval Combat Document will clear that point up for us.

 

/Locklyn

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Where have I heard the phrase 'forthcoming Naval Combat Document' before?

 

Octus

[Locklyn]

Where have I heard the phrase 'forthcoming Naval Combat Document' before? 

 

I think it is sort of the holy Grail for space combat oriented races, a mythic being for now but lots of questing knights looking for it

 

Cheers

 

/Locklyn