Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Fleet Captain: the card deck

In Fleet Captain the deck of playing cards is used as a sort of initiative mechanic, based upon Crew Inefficiency and the captain's Incompetence.  At the beginning of each turn d6's are thrown to see who gets to go first each card flip.  If Bob rolls a 4 and Susan rolls a 5 that means that Susan must act first after every flip until the turn is over.  You can think of the cards as sort of an impulse/phase time management mechanic, with better crews and smarter captains making better use of their time.  Let's look at Bob's fleets.

Bob is playing a contingent of Middle-Aged Uplifted Spacefaring Tortoises, a.k.a. the Maust.  He has 5 ships in his fleet:

  • The MDF (Maust Defense Force) Warhol, a cutting art, state-of-the-edge Heavy Cruiser and his Fleet Captain's ship.  As Bob's personal vessel, it is not rated for inefficiency or incompetence.  It can act on any phase of Bob's choosing.
  • The MDF Kinkade, a leaky old battleship that should have been sold for scrap seven centuries ago.  The Captain's Incompetence is rated Jack-Queen or JQ, which is not too bad.  That means he can attempt a Captain's Maneuver any time either of those cards come up.  The crew has an appalling Inefficiency of 234, which means the ship can only move or fire when those cards come up.  Picking which vessels to activate when a low card comes up is one of the tough command decisions the Maust hope Bob is capable of making.
  • The MDF Pollock, a decent light cruiser design with only a slight tendency to explode.  The captain of the Pollock graduated from command school with top honors, but hasn't gotten along with the Fleet Captain since that embarrassing incident at the Admiralty Christmas Party, so his Incompetence is only JQ while the fleet is under Bob's command.  The crew is astonishingly well-trained, with an Inefficiency of 23456789.
  • The MDF Bob Ross and Alex Ross, a pair of destroyers of the same mediocre class.  The commander of the Bob Ross is a young go-getter with everything to prove.  Her Incompetence is JQK, meaning she can attempt a Captain's Maneuver on any face card.  This kid just might have it in her to be Fleet Captain some day.  She's managed to whip her sad-sack crew into an Inefficiency of 234567, which is pretty decent for this fleet.  The Alex Ross, on the other hand, is commanded by a wily old fool near retirement.  No way in hell is he sticking his neck out any more than he has to.  His Incompetence is J and his lack luster crew is 2345.  Note that these two vessels have the exact same engines and guns and hullpoints and nearly the same name, but one of them is going to get a lot more done on any given turn. 
So let's look at some of Bob's options when various cards are drawn.
  • A black (black means move) 5 would indicate that Bob could opt to move the Warhol, the Pollock or either Ross.
  • A red 3 means that any vessel in the Fleet could opt to shoot.  Red=shoot.  This would be a good time to actually use those giant zap guns on the Kinkade.
  • A black Queen would mean that the Warhol, Kinkade, Pollock or Bob Ross could attempt some sort of special movement-based Captain's Maneuver, like flying through an asteroid hex unharmed or doing a 180-degree turn.  Note that NPC Captains only succeed in some maneuvers on a d6 roll where they beat their vessel's Slowness, so the sluggish Kinkade probably shouldn't try anything too dangerous.
  • An ace always indicates that the only vessel you can activate is your flagship.
  • In this fleet, any ten card would mean only the flagship can move/shoot.
Note that the Crew Inefficiency is written out long form 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, rather than just Inefficiency 5 because it also serves as the damage track for crew casualties.  Crew losses are marked off starting with the 2 and working up.  Similarly, the critical result Captain Bumps Head On Console can eliminate the Jack from his or her Incompetence rating.

Note that all vessels only get to Move or Shoot each turn and at the beginning of the turn there's no good way to tell if you should move now or hold out for an opportunity to fire.  You MUST move/fire if you can.

You can tell whether or not you've moved or shot by the markers mentioned in the Equipment Needed list.  Before all this card malarkey you place a marker face down next to each vessel.  Pick it up when ever you move or shoot.  Also, shooting actually involves a one hex forward Drift before you resolve fire, so every vessel moves every turn.

16 comments:

  1. I really like how the ships have their quirks, but it's the commander who makes or breaks it. And the card mechanic keeps things both simple and unpredictable, a tough combination to achieve.

    I gotta say, though, when you start talking about drift, I get worried. I love playing Battletech, but little sister Aerotech is just too fiddly for me, knowhatimean?

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's super-simple. Before you shoot, Drift one hex forward. If you run out of cards for the round and someone still has a movement marker down, indicating they have neither moved nor shot, they Drift one hex forward at the end of the turn.

    It's a nod in the direction of the neighborhood of the actual physics of outer space and a way to screw up perfectly lined up shots.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is sounding more and more fun.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Legion10:15 AM

    In my dream world alternate universe Bob and Alex Ross are brothers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like it so far.

    And I have never been interested in tactical ship games before.

    I think maybe the element of randomness here helps: with other games like this I always feel like winning is just a matter of knowing the system really well (I'm sure veteran players will disagree, but when you're a newby playing against veterans--which is the only way to learn--it's pretty true). The inefficiency mechanics and unreliability seem like they might cut tactical decisions down to a manageable number per round.

    Verification word:
    mutinese

    Is there a mutiny mechanic?

    ReplyDelete
  6. "Is there a mutiny mechanic?"

    This is from the draft Design Flaws list:

    Psychosis-inducingly Bad Decor - If the Captain is eliminated from play the crew mutinies; ship takes no action but Full Drift for rest of game unless Boarded and Captured by a friendly vessel.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kudos I love how being mediocre or crappy is a feature not a bug in this game.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous9:12 PM

    Ok. have followed you for a long time, must chime in on this topic.

    You have devised the most accurate simulation of naval warfare that I have ever seen.

    I am smiling as I type this, but I am completely serious. Seven years submarine service serious ... somehow through the miracle of parody you have spawned what looks like a playable, yet realistic, set of rules for fleet combat.

    olling: the feeling that I need to review all of your posts on this topic.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I like it. Though the naming of the inefficiency ratings seem a bit counter-intuitive to me. The more cards you have in your inefficiency rating, the less inefficient you are. It seems like it should be the other way around.

    A solution (if it is something that needs to be "solved") might be to rename the mechanic to efficiency rating. But I like the fact that ship's are rated by inefficiency rather than efficiency. That just doesn't seem to be the truth of the mechanic at the moment.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Rubberduck, you make a good point. My initial thought was that Inefficiency and Incompetence ratings listed which cards you were NOT allowed to go on, but that was a stupid and clumsy idea. Maybe I'll change the terms in the next draft.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I like this a lot; I really dig the initiative mechanic, especially the part where you mark them off starting at 2 and go up. One week left until I return to my game table from my business trip. I'm definitely going to playtest this.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous12:05 PM

    I would really like to play-test this. Is there a summation of rules somewhere?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous9:25 PM

    I am hopeful that some kind of draft might be available for me to compel others in my group to test, perhaps over the holidays...?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous9:27 PM

    I know you have a lot going on, but Fleet Captain has been missing for a while, and I really look forward to a summary to try it out. What do you think?

    ReplyDelete
  15. I have kept an eye out for more Fleet Captain updates. What do you think? Is there an upcoming update?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I should work on that some more.

      Delete