Simultaneous Movement

_________________
Light at the Horizon.

Warp Rift
Project Distant Darkness
Eldar MMS

GothiComp Hall of Fame
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=19176

I just wanted to toss out a bone, about these Simul. Rules.  I just played a game, a "meeting engagement" scenario, with a skilled opponent and a newbie helping him.  Chaos vs. Space Marine fleets.  We used the simul. move/combat rules, a first for everyone, and the game played just fine.  With a copy of the quick reference for both of us, it was quick and easy following the steps.  Knowing the original rules helps a lot.  The new guy got a little confused on torpedoes and extra moves, but was no real problem.  Both J. and L. put up a good fight with their Chaos force, but the Marine force was able to "come on" the board more or less as soon as expected, and could Chaos not hold on even when the battleship finally came on.  One attraction to "Meeting Engagement" is how one never gets the same result twice.  Ships come in at different spots and different turns, even with the identical forces for two games.
The most notible comment on the Simul. rules came from the new guy.  When we went to set up a regular scenario, played with alternating turns, L. said: "Why? I thought the first game was great, why change the rules?"  So we explained that the first game was played with rules changes, not the entire original rules.  Well, we went ahead and played the second game, a "Cruiser Clash", using the new Simultaneous rules.  I think these two at least won't want the 'normal' rules for future games either.  Oh yeah, almost forgot, we did not use the Optional Initiative rule, but liked the ability to change our minds and turn, or straighten out, to better meet the enemy.  At least when we made our Leadership roll.  
I wanted to reserve judgement on the new Simul. rules until we had more games under our belt (with more of our group getting an oar in too..), but the reaction of all three of us was positive enough, that when I saw this category on the board, I decided to stick a bull's-eye on my middle, and let everyone else take shots at me.  Agree or disagree, all good to me, but so far our group is looking forward to our regular full-group meeting next week, and really running those Simul. rules hard, to see where they fall down.  If anyone else wants to try those rules and post here, I'd like to compare what the other half of our group finds with these other comments.
Have a "Gothic" time!
G.F.

I like the look of those rules enough to dust off my BFG fleet and actually use BFG rules instead of Babylon 5 Wars.

_________________
Fear is for the enemy, fear and bullets.
-James O'Barr, the Crow

Hey Scarik, I was never able to get into B5.  Not from lack of desire, but had to limit where I spend my money.  Keeping up with three game systems based on mini's was taking all my money already.
I could never make a comparison with BFG and B5 rules, partly because of the distance to the nearest place where B5 was/is played (105 miles/170km).
I am curious in the extreme how the two compare.  With and without Simul. rules.  I have been told some things quite a while ago, like B5 uses Simul. rules, but I never really heard a comparison.
If you have the time to nail together a paragraph or two, thanks in advance.
G.F.

B5W is much more rules intensive than BFG.

It also has Vector-based movement and very detailed hit locations.

We use our BFG models and table space, though most people play B5W on a hex grid it makes no real difference and it actually lets you get a little more tactical about movement since its not in discrete hexes.

There are no rules for shields in B5W so you have to sort of make those up, but a straight damage reduction value does that easy enough.

There are tons of hit locations each with its own hit points, you keep track of it all on a character sheet for each ship that has a top-down view with a ton of boxes.

Generally its more suited for only a couple Capital ships, maybe 1000points in BFG for comparison. Though only time prevents epic fleet engagements.

Go here for some excellent BFG ship sheets. its a .zip file <5mb, DL it and it will give you an idea of how detailed the game is.
http://www.tesarta.com/b5wars/other.html

_________________
Fear is for the enemy, fear and bullets.
-James O'Barr, the Crow

Thanks scarik,
    I went to the link, but hit a snag.  I could not get the BFG ship info to work.  Tried a different ship adaptation, and got a ship picture/sheet just fine.  My first impression was of the old Star Fleet Battles game, looking at all the boxes all over the silhouette.  I was very impressed with all the different translations of different backgrounds for ship types available, even an early Isaac Asimov story!(I loved the whole Foundation series.)  I would have liked to find out why the BFG file would not unzip, like the others.  Did you have the same trouble?  Is there a fix?
I get the impression that BFG ends up easier in execution than B5, so larger games are possible.  Same old trade off: Highly detailed games with few mini's to worry over, or, large numbers of troops/vehicles/ships and simpler, more abstract, rules to remember.  Do you feel the same way?
Thanks ever so .......
G.F.

Second edition does have rules for shields, but they are a little basic - essentially absorbing damage from incoming shots without being destroyed as a result.

I recently picked up B5W and really like it... but I dont have any B5 ships... yet.

_________________
https://www.cybershadow.ninja - A brief look into my twisted world, including wargames and beyond.
https://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.

Galactic Fringe,

I haven't had a problem with the file. Maybe it just corrupted on download?

And yes, B5W is much more detailed and less abstract, its not as slow in play as I initially thought. Slower than BFG, but since the game is much more tactical and Lance interaction with Armor actually makes some sense since armor != stealth and/or armor like it does in BFG, its just armor.

I should pick up 2nd Ed then, thanks CS  

_________________
Fear is for the enemy, fear and bullets.
-James O'Barr, the Crow

Thank you Scarik,
    I had tried both open and save, no worky worky.  Taking your suggestion I tried again.  Third time is a charm - this time it unzipped all the info for me. Wow.  The more detailed games have a certain attraction.  But for now, the majority of the group I'm in favors big and bigger battles.  World War 2, fantasy, or BFG, all have to be big miniatures battles to keep these guys happy.  I had a universal "no thanks" when I inquired about starting up B5. Oh well.
  Bother! Interruptions.
  Later all.