Re: Fifth Frontier War

Ameer Z. Sulaiman writes:

> 	Just a rough survey of the game.
> -How many people have played it.
> -How long did it run? Real time and play time
> -Results?
> -Any interesting house rules?
> -Comments.

Two people played.

I can't remember how long it took in real time; in game time, I have not seen
a game go beyond the second year.  And even before then, the Imperium was
winning; we extended the game for curiosity, to see what would happen.  If it
had gone on till 1111, like the "official" version, there would have been no
Zhodani presence in the Spinward Marches, with the exception of Riverworld and
maybe Cronor.  It is just about impossible to do any damage to the immense
number of SDB's present there.

One rule I tried was to allow scout squadrons to be attacked using the
bombardment factor, rather than the attack factor.  The assumption was that the
attack factor represents major weapons (spinal mounts, and possibly bays); the
bombardment factor represents turrets, and maybe bays.  It would be these
bombardment weapons which would be used against the small scout ships.  The
real reason was, it seemed stupid when an Imperial scout squadron met a Zhodani
scout squadron and all they could do was make rude gestures at each other.

The Sword Worlds didn't tend to live long.  On turn 6, the Imperials get their
Rimward Forces reinforcements.  The book says they can be brought in on that
turn or any later turn; I bring them all in at once, hopefully with an admiral
with plotting factor 0, and they go and flatten the Sword Worlds invaders,
followed by the Sword Worlds themselves.

There is one Imperial admiral who usually ends up winning the war.  He has
plotting factor 0, tactical factor +3.  Unfortunately for the press who might
want to make a hero of him, his name is Goolanzoon.  There is a similar Zhodani
admiral, but their names all sound weird to us Imperials anyway.  By contrast,
the two supreme commanders have plotting factor 4, tactical factor -1 - they
are a liability to any fleet saddled with them!  They usually get dumped on
some out of the way world, so no fleet has to visit them and get taken over.

 "Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  [email removed]
 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian     |  ARPA:   [email removed]

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