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Hello all, I very recently got into the new VaS game, and I'm having a lot of fun so far.

I know that I might be going against the popular opinion, but personally I love the bases - they make me think of ships-in-a-bottle, or small dioramas. And they also allow me to handle my ships without touching the most fragile parts; for a klutz like me, that's a big plus!

Got some photos of my Japanese fleet and my pre-order Altmark, but as this is my first post, I'll link to them later...

Matt, could I ask you to clarify something I saw in the beta-testing docs and which was never addressed in the documents themselves or the short rules published by Warlord?

1. Can carriers not scout for themselves? From what I can see, scouting can only be conducted by catapult-launched Observation Flights and ships (cruisers, DDs..) Can't CVs detail some of their strike planes to spotting duty, if floatplane-equipped cruisers are unavailable?

2. The topic of Green and Veteran pilots is raised but never addressed in the rules. Specifically, the beta-test document mentions that Green and Veteran crews may be purchased to improve or degrade plane performance, and it is noted that 'fleet lists will allow you to purchase...', but how such pilots may be assigned to a flight is never specified (costs).

Any comment on that? Thanks in advance, and thanks for the fun my friends and I have been having over the past few days...

It does indeed, thanks Matt!

So (yes, while fully acknowledging the unofficial nature of your response), it should be possible for the CV to assign X number of flights to scouting, assuming it's willing to sacrifice their availability in combat? And would those flights be returning (with the necessary rolls) à la scouting ships, or gone forever à la scouting Observation Flights?

Apologies for hounding you with questions, but my mates and I are running a couple of Discord-based tabletop games, where I host the game and the two players send their orders in via messages, and we are really fascinated with the air aspect of VAS, but we keep getting games where the CVs are outspotted by a couple of cruisers and it seems a bit off...

Veteran / Green crews being unavailable for purchase is a bit of a disappointment, but I can definitely see why you would choose to not include them in custom scenarios, would have definitely been a nightmare to balance.

Also, apparently I can post images now. Hooray! Have some Japships:









I've magnetized all my turrets for extra shiny, too.

Hello again, fair folks, and apologies for the semi-necro, I have some rules questions for MongooseMatt, if I may, once again?

I'm having some trouble with the interpretation of VaS rules, particularly aircraft performance, smoke, and battles that focus primarily on lots of airplanes attacking lots of ships (think Midway scenario in the beta). Would it be possible to give me an answer to the questions below? There's no rush, but I would like a definitive ruling, so feel free to take your time. It's very possible that these questions have been answered in the final edition of the rulebook, but as we don't have access to that until two months down the road...

1. First and foremost - how do Devastating criticals work? The rules state that a critical is scored on a 5 or a 6 with Dev weapons, and previous wording in the starter rules seems to imply that criticals are not 'scored' until after confirmation. Does this mean that Devastating weapons bypass the confirmation stage, or do we still need a 4+ on a confirmation die to get the crit?

2. Second - do Devastating weapons care at all about target armor? What about Dive bombers and Armored Decks? In the beta, Dive bombers HP damage used to be reduced by the ship's armor if the ship had an armored deck ; this is no longer stated in the starter rules. Has this been nixed?

3. Third - Is a 1 on a Devastating Damage Die an autobounce, like in a regular Damage Die? Or does Devastating supersede that, and the die causes the 1 damage?

4. Fourth - does the smoke cloud after 3" of movement spawn from the bridge of the ship or from the aft part of the base?

5. Fifth - If a ship's bridge is inside a smoke screen and the ship has no Radar / Advanced Radar, can the ship fire at anything, or is she safe but also blind?

6. If a ship's bridge is in smoke and an enemy plane touches the ship's base, can the plane attack the ship? Or does smoke protect the ship from air attacks as well? Can the ship fire AA at planes, if in smoke?

7. Do plane bases have to respect the same non-overlap rules as any other base?

8. Final question (and assuming that a) ships in smoke are safe from air attack and b) that planes need to respect base non-overlapping rules) - I present to you this hypothetical scenario:



Imagine this (slightly cheesy) arrangement in a Midway-style scenario. The CV's bow is touching the aft of the central DD; the central DD is Laying Smoke and covers the bridge of the CV, making the CV impossible to see. There is no LOS limitation to air operations, so the CV can continue to launch and recover planes as usual.

The central DD is flanked (at base-touching distance, or as close as possible) by two other DDs that are Evading. This only makes it possible for planes attacking from directly ahead to get a hit on the central DD. Also, any planes hitting the flanking DDs must reroll hits because of Evasion (which severely hurts their odds of scoring a final hit).

Now, imagine that there is a whole line of ships stretching behind of the CV, and that the CV is also smoking. Every ship in that line is smoking. And the CVs in that line are spamming fighters for CAP. We essentially have a line of invisible ships, launching planes, and waiting out the scenario clock. The only weak point is the first ship in the line, which is very protected (and hell, if in doubt, just add a second DD to the line, behind it, to take up point duties if it dies).

Obviously, in a scenario with enemy surface ships, said surface ships can focus heavy fire on the first ships and work their way down the line (especially since Line of Sight does not care about other ships body-blocking and allows gunships to fire directly at the center DD). But is this a formation that outright no-sells plane attacks, or are we missing something?

Note that the smoking player does not need to cause any significant damage (and if he needs to, he still has his own planes to dogfight / farm the attackers). All they need to do to win, in this instance, is limit their own losses / wait out the scenario clock (e.g. like the Midway scenario).

Apologies for the wall of text - I hope I've stated my questions in a way that's easy to understand. Looking forward to your reply, and wishing you all the best.

That is a lovely and detailed reply, Eumerin, and thanks for taking the time to answer in the VaS forums as well!

The rules read "... in contact behind the ship..." That reads as off the stern of the ship to me.

Arguably yes, but that definitely clashes with the usual rule of 'the ship exists where its bridge is'. Which is why I want a game author ruling.

"Through" typically means in one side and out the other

So, per your interpretation, a ship inside a smoke screen is not invisible? Interesting. Definitely want a ruling for that, because it definitely sounds counter-intuitive to me.

Also note that the starter rules don't contain provisions for shooting at targets using radar. That will be in the full rules that are due out next month.

Yes, I am aware. We are using beta rules, pending official release.

Planes don't use normal targeting rules

That's what's in question, now, isn't it? Do planes only need to touch the base or do they also need LOS to the ship bridge?

I really appreciate your response, it's well thought-out and matches a lot of my own opinions on the matter but we're both working by our own interpretation of the rules and what

sanity would dictate.

What I need at this point, however, is a 'rules as intended' statement by Matt. :-/

I always want to know the original rule before I start to tinker with it, I guess.

Thanks Matt, all answers are to the point and make sense!

Looking forward to the final rules, already pre-ordered!