I posted this to the GDW-Beta list yesterday, so I thought I'd try it out here.
I would be ESPECIALLY interested in a comment from Frank, Dave or Loren on this
as I am running an "Old Era" game with the new rules and this would be a BIG
help. And helping customers makes them want to buy more GDW stuff :) (Shameless
I know; appealing to greed like that...)
Here is an idea on how to make crew complements of ships smaller, more like
the good old days of integrated computer systems. (DO NOT try this in the New
Era!) The Control Multipliers given for computers control how many crew are
needed for certain positions such as Engineering. We found, via experimentation
with High Guard, Brilliant Lances and a goat (OK, forget the goat) that of you
SQUARE the CM, you get crew numbers much closer to the CT versions. We were
actually trying to build a version of the Aurora Class Clipper for High Guard
(we were bored) when we discovered that the TNE version required 26 Engineers,
the High Guard version required 9, and if you squared the CM for a Tl 12
computer and plugged into into the formula for figuring required engineers, it
came out as 9. We tried this with the Azhanti High Lightning design that was
posted here (the one that requires over 2,000 crew!) and it seemed to work well
EXCEPT for gunners. So...
RULES QUESTION:
Can you put more than one weapon through an MFD, automate the turret rather
than have a physical gunner there, and call it a BATTERY? (This might be
something to consider for BATTLE RIDER...) If so, you could easily reduce the
gunners on the AHL back to the level given in ARRIVAL VENGEANCE, thus meaning
you don't have to conscript entire small worlds just to crew your ship.
Some of you amatueur ship engineers here should try this out and see how it
works. If it DOES works it will be a help to those who wish to use the new
rules in the old setting. If it DOESN'T...well, I'm not a mathemetician.