MBS Monthly Poll #21

[Ruckdog]

This month's poll is all about stealth mechanics! This could be cloaking devices in space games, or the way submarines are handled in a historical game. There are lots of ways to handle this aspect of game design; for example, the fact that submerged submarines in Dystopian Wars are harder to hit and can only be targeted by certain weapons at close range are an example of stealth/submarine mechanics for the purpose of this discussion.

[Ryjak]

Since I am not familiar with all the systems, I cannot say which is best.  For example, Dropfleet Commander is built around their sensor-detection system, which is a great concept, but I can’t say how well it is implemented.

[Covertwalrus]

 I voted that I liked the DW approach and I do, though it's more a case of obscuration of target than hidden movement in some ways.

 The written movement orders in Full Thrust now have an inbuilt "stealth" component; For those unfamiliar, FT uses a system of pre-written orders for movement of ships on a record sheet. Simulating a 'cloaked' vessel is very straightforward- the player using such a ship marks their starting point and writes orders as per usual. When they decloak, the position of the ship can be worked out by moving the miniature from the starting point using the written orders already recorded, then the 'uncloaked' miniature is placed on the table. If the Advanced Sensors rules option is used, then it becomes a touch more complex; A ship performing a sensor sweep must check it's distance form the projected path and work out the position of the  ship, which may then be forced to uncloak if the scan is successful.

[Dakkar]

I don't know all the systems listed, but few get it "right" except the Full Thrust rule already mentioned. The hardest part there is the cloaked ship's player keeping track of where he actually is.

X-Wing has Stealth better than STAW, in that the decloaking ship gets a FREE maneuver/roll to represent where the ship actually is. But that still allows firing on ships, just MUCH less effective in X-Wing due to the low attack dice.
In STAW, I stopped playing Romulans, because my cloak dice would always fail me and make NO difference.

Firestorm current Cloak/Stealth rules are just dumb and annoying. FAR more elegant would be the simple rule from Planetfall, that makes all attack dice into heavy dice.

The best hidden movement I've seen in a while is CAPTAIN SONAR  - but there its basically the whole game. :-)

[Covertwalrus]

I stopped playing Romulans, because my cloak dice would always fail me and make NO difference.

 I certainly sympathize with you there

 Though considering how often that happens to Romulan and Klingon vessels int he later movies and shows, it does seem to lend an air of credibility to the game as an accurate simulation of conditions in that universe you could argue. 

[voidstarsinger]

Dropfleet is the only game that I have played which has stealth as a core option so I voted for it .works fine until you get up close then I surpose that’s the point

[Stephan]

I like the stealth mechanic in X-Wing the most.  It's always difficult to hide something from your opponent on the tabletop and the X-wing solution seems to fit the need without being overly complex or breaking the game.

[Landlubber]

I voted for "Other", as I'd like to throw in Halo: Fleet Battles.

Essentially, it makes smaller ships harder to kill at long range, and makes larger ships more survivable at long range. Only Covenant ships carry the Cloak loadout (both small-class ships and one large-class ship), so it helps protect them from those infamous long-range UNSC MAC salvos.The Firepower Rating is reduced by one against any element with the "Cloak" system loadout in H:FB when firing at long range. This can have the effect of changing your dice from "exploding" to "heavy" (to use a DW/FA analogy), but it also stacks with other Firepower Rating modifiers and could make the shot impossible.

For instance: Covenant SDV heavy corvettes have both the Cloak and Hard Target system loadouts (Hard Target is analogous to the "Small Target" MAR in DW), which means capital-class elements are reduced by two Firepower Ratings against SDV elements at long range. UNSC MACs start at Firepower 4 at long range, meaning you can re-roll one Miss result for each "2" result on the attack dice. With Cloak and Hard Target, the MACs are reduced to Firepower 2, meaning all numbered attack dice results count as one hit, and there are no re-rolls. If a capital element targets an SDV that is at long range and behind an asteroid field, it drops to Firepower 1--no possible firing solution.