High Guarding again

[Spinward Flow]

The major difference between LBB2 and LBB5 is vector movement vs. completely abstracted movement.
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It's just my personal preference to not get bogged down in vector movement.

Vector movement is nice to have ... but given the ranges involved is quite often unnecessary to know with sandtable precision and accuracy.

When ranges are measured in fractions of a light-second, the only parameter that matters is the boolean question "Within weapons range? (Y/N)" to enable exchanges of fire.

North / south / east / west / up / down relative positioning ... doesn't really matter all that much in the empty vacuum of (normal) space where there's no "terrain" to get in the way of anything. What matters is "Within weapons range? (Y/N)" followed up by the question of "How many weapons can fire on target(s)?" (which in LBB5 computes to Batteries Bearing).

Any kind of "hiding behind terrain" (usually planets, moons, asteroids, etc.) is a factor often best left to imagination and roleplaying, rather than codified into a vector movement combat system that is difficult to grasp mentally by most Referees and Players (since orbital mechanics are such an "alien" conceptual framework to daily terrestrial lived experience).

 

[whartung]

The major difference between LBB2 and LBB5 is vector movement vs. completely abstracted movement.

Vector movement is nice to have ... but given the ranges involved is quite often unnecessary to know with sandtable precision and accuracy.

The detail, at least with Book 2 is that it's pretty much, in the end, "long" and "short" range like it is in HG. And ship orientation certainly impacts how that range is arrived at (i.e. chasing vs closing), but not much else. All of the rest (heading, facing, etc.) is pretty much washed out in LBB 2.

BL is different, as it doesn't take many hexes to impact range DMs. But in the end, it's still a bit of "fire. fire again. keep firing. always be firing" game as the ships dance around each other. Missiles are limited of course, but most everything else isn't.

Also, BL has weapon arcs which impact play, so facing because relevant, and maneuvering impacts facing.

This is less important on small ships with 360 degree lasers.

 

[jec10]

The major difference between LBB2 and LBB5 is vector movement vs. completely abstracted movement.
In BL vs. BR the difference is the abstraction of the ships, not the movement, IIRC.

Rupert may have views, but the movement in BL is actually a lot more complex than the (to my mind at least) relatively elegant vector movement mechanic implemented in BR.
They are both vector movement systems, but in BL you have a LOT more to keep track of than BR. In other words, the movement system in BR is more abstract, as well as the ships, and the combat (in BR you are only really tracking crits).