Theories on space combat

[Christougher]

I'm working on my Master of Orion game.  It features multiple alien races and lots and lots of different weapons and technologies.

 

I want each race to have a mostly unique theory of combat, one that plays to their strengths, but doesn't rely on any specific weapons or technologies.  Those who know the source material can reference it, but I'm also not trying to do anything /too/ specific.

 

Theory 1: Use cannons/physical weapons against shields, then energy weapons against armor. [in game, these are more effective than the reverse.

 

Theory 2: Aircraft carrier style, lots of fighters that can't be shot down easily.

 

Theory 3: Close fast, grapple and board, overwhelm the crew.

[megaplayboy]

I suppose you could try to figure out rock/paper/scissors for a larger grouping of strategies.

[Manic Typist]

Stealth, á la nuclear submarines/nuclear triad of today's geopolitical landscape.

[megaplayboy]

Speed: Get to the battlefield quicker, run away before your losses are too heavy, or call in fast reinforcements

 

Quantity over Quality

 

Quality(or Power) over Quantity

 

Decisive Battle Doctrine(aka the Jutland theory)--fight the enemy in one big battle to resolve the whole conflict

 

Attrition Doctrine--chip away at the enemy bit by bit

[Christougher]

Rephrasing some of Megaplayboy's thoughts:

 

Theory 4: Swarm theory; if my ships are one quarter of yours, but I have eight...

 

Theory 5: Death Star theory.  Self explanatory.

 

The first and last are good ideas.  I don't know how to define them / play them in a combat scenario though.   Hmm.  Unless they're combined maybe?

 

Theory 6: Jousting theory, or strike and fade. Close in for a devastating broadside and then get out before retaliation, then repeat.

[Lord Liaden]

Is your battle strategy primarily defensive, or offensive? That is, do you design your ships and tactics to counter alien vessels entering your civilization's space? Or do you set yourself up to send forces sufficient to take and hold other peoples' planets?

 

Do you emphasize big, heavily armed and armored capital ships, capable of standing off and bombarding a planet, but making a bigger target? Or smaller, faster vessels with less firepower but harder to hit, and maybe able to enter atmosphere on their own?

[薔薇語]

What are the rules of war for each race? 

Do some groups announce attacks before they occur (code of honor)? 

Do some groups consider ALL citizens of the enemy as active enemies? To this extent do they ignore our concept of not targeting civilians and thus avoiding medical centers? 

Do some groups have universal medical centers for all combatants? 

Do any groups take prisoners and if so, how do they treat them? 

 

I know you talked about not concerning one's self with specific weapons but are their banned weapons? Nuclear, biological, chemical, Planetary Scale (dropping asteroids, etc)? 

 

Foreign Orchid. 

[Lawnmower Boy]

Theories of space combat:

 

i) The designer will try to balance races by making some specialise in close combat, others in long range. The long range race will end up blowing up all the close range races with massed salvoes long before they can close.

ii) The designer will include space fighters because they are cool. The space fighters will be hopelessly unbalanced, either dominating the game or being useless albatrosses.

iii) Corollary to ii) Fanboys will wank endlessly about how space fighters don't make sense.

iv) The designer will include space-stealth because who doesn't like the dramatic moment when the Romulans uncroak? The result will be endless book-keeping, punctuated by acrimonious disagreements between players with strong subtexts of accusations of cheating. 

v) Corollary to iv) Fanboys will wank about how stealth is impossible in space.

vi) The designer will include rules permitting boarding actions. They will be ridiculous, for the obvious reasons.

vii) The designer will include flotillas of light craft. They will either expend themselves uselessly, failing to meet an ablative minimum to larger ships' protections; or blow up super-mega-dreadnoughts with coordinated salvoes.

viii) The designer will include electronic warfare, guided missiles, space mines, planetary defences, asteroid bases and logistics. The rules will be so complicated that no-one will ever use any of them.

ix) The designer will include pirates and commerce raiding. The result will be fleets of pirate ships playing rugby with a single freighter as ball; because freighters are boring. Sometimes, there will be convoys of three or four ships. One of which will be a Q-ship, because freighters are etc.

x) Corollary to ix) Fanboys will wank endlessly about how implausible the interstellar economy is.

xi) The designer will get revenge by including space docks. Space dock assault scenarios will involve entire wargaming clubs in massive, long-weekend scenarios that break up wargaming clubs and marriages.

xii) At least one race will turn out to be completely broken in balance terms. All the players will favour that race, and quit the community in disgust when they are retconned. 

xiii) There's probably more to add to this, but I haven't followed the game since they nerfed the Hydrans.

[shadowcat1313]

just to pour some napalm on the fire.

1. ships with primarily broadside weapons/shields... ala Hornblower/Honor Harrington. crossing the T and Up the Kilt shots are aimed for. long range missiles are the real killer

2. Disposable Missile/Torpedo pods

3. Front and Rear Spinal Mount Weapons

4. design parameters for different hull configurations

[Christougher]

A lot of the questions being asked are in some ways the same ones I'm asking, so I have few answers to offer. Or perhaps the answer is "all of them".

 

I'm trying to identify the tactics and designs that various races would come up with, based on their advantages, or conversely, what advantages would they need to make certain tactics useful or workable for them?

[Old Man]

I'm working on my Master of Orion game.  It features multiple alien races and lots and lots of different weapons and technologies.

 

I want each race to have a mostly unique theory of combat, one that plays to their strengths, but doesn't rely on any specific weapons or technologies.  Those who know the source material can reference it, but I'm also not trying to do anything /too/ specific.

 

Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about MoO.

 

Usually if you can define a race's technological advantages and disadvantages then combat philosophies can follow from that pretty naturally.  For example:

 

Maneuver: A race whose ships are nimbler than their opponents' might emphasize this for evasion and for striking opponents' weak points.  This might result in a doctrine of working behind opponents to get at weakly defended areas.

 

Speed: A speed advantage really lends itself to hit and run tactics.

 

Weapons: High powered weapons with low ammo or rate of fire would dictate a strategy of ambush or of making each shot count.  Highly accurate weapons could enable sniping or careful targeting, or could be used as point defense.  Weapons with poor accuracy or range would require getting in close.

 

Defenses: Poorly protected ships would have to make up for that with agility, range, jamming, or numbers.  Ships with regenerative shields would want to control the tempo of combat to make sure their shields are not overwhelmed.  Heavily protected ships could use that capability to get their ships in close for a coup de grace.  Do ships have a defensive weakness that they must prevent opponents from exploiting?

 

Sensors and jamming: Cloaking devices should be pretty obvious.  Superior sensors could allow the targeting of specific enemy systems, or long range sniping.  Superior computers could increase the accuracy or effectiveness of weapons or defenses against a particular enemy.

 

Quality vs. quantity: A race with poor overall tech might elect to swarm opponents with overwhelming numbers.  A race with expensive wonderships might be forced to minimize losses at all costs. 

 

Communications: Superior communications would permit better coordination between ships.  A well protected scout ship could direct fire for heavily armed but lightly protected allies.

 

Specialization: One race might have ships that are all well-balanced, while another race might have a more fleet-oriented doctrine where ships have assigned duties like scouting, defense, or power attack.

 

Culture: Racial tendencies might color or override tactics as well.  Insectoid races could be okay with suicidal tactics.  Wolf-like races might tend to focus on damaged vessels.

 

One more comment--one thing about space combat games is the total lack of terrain features on the map.  That reduces the importance of maneuver and simplifies (in a bad way) attack choices.  I've always wanted to see a space combat game where the combatants could more easily alter the map--minefields, impenetrable stasis bubbles, clouds of chaff, and so on.  In my SFB days, the Neo-Tholians were my favorite race to play, as they had the web caster--the one weapon in the entire game that let me put stuff on the map that affected movement and weapons fire.

[Cancer]

Still using 2 dimensions, rather than 3, for the space in which combat happens?

[Old Man]

I have yet to try a 3D boardgame that was actually fun to play.  I hear Attack Vector/Saganami Island make a gallant attempt at it, but I haven't tried them.

[Cancer]

I think the last one I tried was Foxbat & Phantom back in the 1970s (which I liked), shortly before my gaming time got eaten by college and grad school, and by the time it came back, the asteroid strike of SPI going under rendered the whole medium extinct.

[megaplayboy]

It might be 4D combat...suppose a ship can "warp" to another location, but it might take a minute or two. In the meantime it is outside the physical realm in which combat is happening.

[Cancer]

As long as you're not going back in time, that's a pretty simple mechanic to incorporate. All you have to do is alter that victory condition evaluation to take into account forces that aren't attackable because they aren't technically on the "board". OTOH, you would have to avoid stupid problems like one player trickling individual low-worth ships one at a time through null space to forestall the game from ever awarding a victory in a battle where the player's side got otherwise wiped out.