Im wanting to make a large scale conflict as real as posible for my players. The setting is a major conflict during the dominion war with nearly 100 Dominion ships confronting an appropriately sized fleet in a nearly equal (at the start) combat. 2 questions:
What type of fleet would you configure to confront such a fleet (consdering the majority are oging to be AC's and a few exotice Dreadnought-sized ships (for fun).
Also, what is the best way to run the NPC battles? Im thinking of rolling quickly for TActics, tactical and conn and letting the best roll between two ships or a small formation win. Any ideas or input ?
Having been an aquarist for years (no, that's not my sign... <nyuk> but it is, ironically, Pisces!) and having worked in more petshops than I care to own up to, not to mention having developed a deep dislike of Plecostomi...
it all started one day when I was cleaning my tank and I reached under a piece of driftwood. My pleco apparently took that as an invitation to travel up my arm. (and out of the water!)
Then, in the last pet store I worked in, I used to have to stick my arm in a tank full of 'em...
and then, of course, when they contracted some exotic disease, I had to dispose of them by the netful!!!
I dunno. I can handle fish poop and dead things; but when it comes to plecos I'm squeamish...
but if I had known you back then, I could have gotten you an entire FLEET plecos...
How to make your large-scale/mass battles more real, huh? Well here's my idea:
As a GM you generally know which way the battle will go (and if the players' ship is destroyed) anyway, so why not just set up several quick individual encounters that will determine the casualties of the players' side?
Say your characters are posted to one of two or three Defiant-class ships assigned to run interferance for and defend the Galaxy-class
U.S.S. Bismarck on a "capture the station/base/planet" mission.
You decide that the Federation will win the battle, and that there are twenty capital ships on the mission, including the Bismarck. As GM you decide that there will be seven individual encounters that the players will face, and that Feds will suffer 20% casualties should the characters survive each one. In Trek style though, friendly ships will cover your players' butts, preventing their ship from getting destroyed outright. For every encounter during the battle that the players do poorly with, add 10% to the causualty count.
That way, you don't have your story's ending hanging by a thread, while simultaniously having the bulk of the battle's success directly on the players' shoulders.