Toten
As for taking a planet with one ship or whatever it depends what is in the Hex, if there are no ships, bases, or planets then its easy. Think of the DV value as a unit of combat currency, we can't represent all the minutae of the hexes defences so its represented by a value. Think 19th century Gunboat diplomacy, an armoured cruiser steams into Cassablanca harbour, the city defenceless against the beast does as its told, same with Shanghai, HongKong and a dozen other places, when it move off things may revert. 200 spaniards and 15 horses versus the mighty Inca Nation who would have given odds on the Spaniards. Consider a single shuttle and 21st century earth, it has shields and a phaser , puny by 23rd century standards, but enough to take out earth in its current state of development. Now consider a warp driven Man o War entering a system or series of systems, unlees there is something comparable it is GOD.
What might be considered conceptually difficult to deal with is the sheer number of AI we blow up every campaign, literally Hundreds of ships per player, but it is accepted as it forms part of the currency of conflict and way of representing difficulties encountered in the game.
So I have no difficulty in conceptulising a starship vanishing into the vastness of space (albeit 2 dimensional in this game) and not being spotted, amongst the nebulae, stars, planets, asteroids and above all sheer scale of where it is.
I do on the other hand - ex the Star Trek 6 - Doos vogg a nu REN - who are u over? - klingon listening post to the "covert" enterprise trying to get to rhura pente. A single fed CA gets nailed as it crosses the border. So now explain months of deepstriking with a FF to subdue an entire planet???? for example
Wishful thinking on...
Our map should really have been not a hex map but a string map. What I mean is earth should have been a point on the map. to get there you had to move from point to point along a string. each point in the string is a potential combat point. combat only occurs at the foci points. empty space is well empty. no one stops there. no one fights there.
ever notice on ST SW B5 or just about anyother SF show that all ship figting occurs around some geographical location in space, a planet, a star, a nebula etc. is this for back drop effect or is it that the defenders actually want to defend something tangable and the attackers attack some thing tangleble.
wishful thinking off...
IMHO DSing only makes sense for the above reasons I mentioned, but NOT hex flipping, LOS is needed to flip a hex. Everything else just plainly doesnt make sense for several reasons...
1) the compliment of a CA cannot garrison a planet
2) the whole point of taking a planet is to secure it, not bomb it back to the stone age
3) empty hexes can be conceptualized to contain critical shippling lines for convoys Econ dependent (it was one point I suggested for IDSL to promote tunneling LOSs)
4) blowing up a base station is a single shot missions and as such it is a defeatable target, hence i support destroyable bases that can be DS killed, BUT now try to garrison/patrol the hex for your empire surrounded by enemy forces who are out for revenge
5) poorly manned races become the carcass to pick over by a strong deep strike force ( I know this one as I did it myself way back when )
6) A basic but lost premise in the game is that the point in taking hexes is to get the econ value for your empire. Clearing a shipping lane is far different than securing a shipping lane. Since you bring up other gun boat diplomacy ever hear of the USS panay? Or understand the difference between the U-Boat war vs the USN Pacific Sub war. The atlantic had convoys, the pacific did not. The atlantic was secured, the pacific was not. Brittish supplies got thru, Japanese supplies went to the bottom. To me this is DSing at its best, in both oceans subs sank ships, but in one ocean the hex was flipped with LOS on both sides, the other it was not. The flipped hex was the atlantic between the EMPIREs with the DSer being unable to secure the hex.
7) DSing should allow you to "disrupt" the econ and defence of a hex to render it almost or completely useless to the enemy, cf operation tannerbaum in ww2, but the enemy should be able to regain this control with use of forces. To be able to convert the hex to friendly control deep inside enemy defence lines is IMHO frankly stupid.
Embassys - Much to our chagrin LB5 does not allow for this right now. What I mean is that normally each race has at least one hex inside each others domain for supply. If a base is on this embassy hex it can be deep striked to death, causing severe travel and agony to the losing race. Which in game terms results in long treks for supplies. Being able to take this hex doenst make sense also.
9) Free reloads between missions is another beef for me. Some races cannot do DSing without a handy resupply point. Other races can operate indefinitely on DSing. This primarily to me has to do with how much one shot firepower is on the hull vs the AI u draft. In this line nothing beats a heavily armed droner with heavy missiles, Nothing. Be it the klink E4D/F5D/D5D/D6D etc, mirak SDF/DF/CD/MDC etc, fed NCD/CAD etc., the stand off fire power vs BPV kileed is retarded and the mission times are equally insane. At least with fighter/pf ships u eventually lose them in attrition and have to withdraw. Not so with missile boats.
10) Ok maybe no retreat maybe excessive but maybe a far longer disengagement penalty is in order, say 50 turns. Think of it as you have to make sure the coast is clear before you begin DSing again as your engines canna take da stain of high warp without some overhauling for extended periods.
In the end, IMHO, you should NOT be allowed to DS a hex to your side.
You should be allowed to DS it to neutrality but no more.
Topic: Socky's campaign guide VERY LONG (Read 35391 times)