if that were true i'd definently build one! forget guns, all my units would be for pumps. go until my sides are gone, lol.
I would prefer not to segregate ships by class. I'd rather assign them a point value based on their general combat effectiveness, and give each team a certain number of points with which to select their team. That way it's not just cruiser vs cruiser, battleship vs battleship. I personally love seeing battleships slug it out while cruisers and destroyers strike and counterstrike in the middle. Sure you could make a team that's got all cruisers or all battleships, but each class has unique strengths and weaknesses which opponents can take advantage of. I think that is the best way to start off, with a single competition that everyone can participate in. It's a great way to go "mainstream" and gain new members. Remember, until we get a bunch of new recruits, there are only about 500 people worldwide who build and battle model ships. Once a bunch of new people join, then we can consider holding more specific competitions, like "Charge of the Light Brigade", "Big Bruisers Battle" and "seven-unit slugfest". By the way, has anyone in the MWC or IRCWCC tried holding a Last Man Standing? I'd be very interested in how such an event would turn out, and large group meetings like Nats are a great place for such events.
A point system is actually a good idea. It could even be used to balance fast/big gun ships. Now I would not begin to know how to actually devise such a system, but it should be doable. Give each team say 500 pts to build a fleet and away you go. You could even throw in Battlestations ships....just make them worth 50% more than the 1/144 version.
There have been some "Texas Death Match" battles. That is two ships go out and battle untill one sinks. The winners of a death match tend to be floating wrecks. I have never seen a death match between squardrons. You need a big set of brass ones to do a death match, and there just not they many around. If you were setting up a point system for ship selection, would you set it up so that one fleet could be all big ships? Or what would be the average size?
That is where a point system gets tricky. Say a Yamato is 300 points. Would it win in a fight with 3 100 point ships 50% of the time? If so it is balanced. If not well that would be clear.
Yeah establishing a point system is a real tricky bugger. I don't know about Fast Gun, but even just balancing Big Gun ships would be quite a challenge. You'd have to compensate for numbers and possible teamwork, as well as overall firepower and individual capability. On a pound-for-pound basis, a Big Gun battleship is probably worth three times as much as a fast torpedo-armed cruiser. But put six torpedo-cruisers up against a pair of battleships and the battleships are toast. And even more confusing is what to do once you throw in unarmed transports. Some of those suckers are so big it would take more than a thousand rounds to sink, and others are so fast or so small that you'd never catch it to sink it. Maybe it would be better to outline several possible combinations, such as: Squadron type A consists of four battleships and/or battlecruisers Squadron type B consists of two battleships and three cruisers/destroyers Squadron type C consists of five cruisers/destroyers Squadron type D consists of... and let people build their teams from that. You can adjust them and/or add new squadron types if combat experience demonstrates that five cruisers/destroyers is significantly more powerful than the other squadrons. The battles also don't HAVE to last until one team or the other is completely eliminated. I recall that many clubs have a point-scoring system in their rules, which could be used to determine the outcome of a 15-minute battle (or some other standard sortie). Scoring points (while not as fun as total annihilation) is a less destructive method of determining victory, and also enables enterprising individuals to track scores in a spreadsheet and offer performance reviews. Gascan and I have been recording scores in a spreadsheet for the past two years, and we were surprised at how good an indicator it was of overall skipper ability. Scoring points would also give unarmed transports a role to play. I think it would be incredibly awesome if a squadron made entirely of transports won the battle, not to mention the shame the other teams would face for losing to a team of slow, unarmed targets.
Why is it necessary to "balance" anything? In real war, sides are very seldom balanced. Usually, somebody starts something for the very reason that they think the balance of forces favors them. What idiot starts a war with somebody that they think has a 50-50 chance of kicking their butt? That's where scenario design comes in. Give everybody an objective that's achievable, if maybe a tad difficult. Whoever makes their goal 1st wins. Some of the best battles that I've been involved in were very lopsided, but that was part of what made them fun. JM
