Hello: Although I still want to keep the 30% MASS for DP on my B5 Rules, I'm
reconsidering my "no armored hulls" rule. I decided that even though B5 ships
can blow up very easily, they should get a little more protection. However I'm
stuck on how I can keep this sort of thing fair and playable. I am worried
about how armor will work with my "pluse cannons as interceptor rules." Here's
an example of my problem:
"An Narn CA (with 4 batts and and 4 C batts, armor 2.) is defening against an
Centauri Vorchan Warship (1 A, 2 C's, armor 1) which is about 9 inches away.
The Vorchan treas the Narn to a full spread and rolls 5,3,6,6,2: a potenital 5
points. Since the Narn used one of it's firecons in an earlier attack, it can
only use up to two of it's batteries to intecept (the player set all of her
pluse cannons to intercept). The player choose to us two of her B batts to
defend and rolls four dice. She fudges and rolls 5,3,4,1: two points of
interception. She must transfer 3 points to her hull. How will armor effect
the new damage?
Any ideas on how I can handle this. Later
> "An Narn CA (with 4 batts and and 4 C batts, armor 2.) is
when they buy a level of armor give then an extra 5 or so boxes before taking
the first threshold check. Instead of having to do 5 points of damage to get
the first check, you have to do 10 points. Doesn't prevent damage just makes
them tougher, to start.
> On Thu, 6 Mar 1997, Marshall Grover wrote:
<snip>
> >intercept). The player choose to us two of her B batts to defend and
I'm inclined to agree with this method of using armor, especially for B5, as
it not only makes game play easier and faster, but it also reflects damage to
armor as the game progresses. I am currently using a base 30% hull for B5
ships (Marks suggestion I think) and increasing this to 35 or 40% depending on
the level of armor. The 'extra' goes on the first row
however - reflecting critical systems being better armored and so
reducing
the likleyhood of threshold hits. WARNING - this can lead to EXTREEMLY
short games if someone is lucky with a HBW or similar heavy weapon shot, as
they have a tendancy to vaporise anything short of a cruiser...., but then
that's the bit I like...
-Michael
> On Thu, 6 Mar 1997, M Hodgson wrote:
> I'm inclined to agree with this method of using armor, especially for
This sounds like a good idea. Here are a couple of others. How about using the
armor rating an overall damage reducer? If a ship with armor 2 is hit with 4
points of damage, the damage is reduced to just two. Another idea is changing
my interception rules. Instead of my orginal idea, how about using each p
cannon as a single screen (regardless of the A, B, or C rating) that will
protect from incoming
p-cannon attacks?
Later,
> This sounds like a good idea. Here are a couple of others.
I think that you will find armoured ships just a little bit to long lived
if you go for a system like this - especially if they are large. This
BTW
is a fault with many armour systems - large ships benefit far more than
small ships from them. That's why I go for a% increase as thanks to
rounding small ships can be remarkable value - as are key masses of
larger ships (At the point when 35 or 40 gets you another hull box thanks to
rounding). I find this makes people unsure as to what is the best value of
ship which I like. No doubt with a bit more playtesting it will become
apparent - but for now it works good.
> Another idea is changing my interception rules. Instead of my
Again I think your ships will be a little hard to damage - though of
course it does face the players with the dilema of whether to fire or
defend. I would ask for a firecon each for defensive firing p cannon -
which will encourage players to not over do the defence, or if they do they
sacrifice firepower to do so.
Another idea I had but didn't follow up - largely do to the popularity
of
the screens idea on this list was to allow C-batts/interceptors to fire
individually at each hitting shot. So if you are hit with 3 dice
(5,5,6)
You could fire interceptors at those shots and if you too rolled > 4 damage
then you take no damage. Shots are allocated to intercept a shot before
roling. One disadvantage is that it does involve a lot more dice rolling and
slows the game down (hense the reason I ditched the idea).
-Michael
> I'm inclined to agree with this method of using armor, especially for
I generally use a 50% base and add an extra row of row 1 boxes per armor
level, it doesn't mass anything, but it costs 1/2 the hull cost per
level. armor only lasts a couple of turns anyways, esp. against the shadows!
After careful reconsideration, I've decided to drop the
armor/interceptors combo idea. I want to keep this as simple as
possible, and I don't want to complicate things.
Later,
> I think that you will find armoured ships just a little bit to long
That's only logical though, Look at the Battleship Iowa and a Light cruiser of
the same period. They might have the same percentage of mass as armor, but the
Iowa's armor is much thicker and makes the ship more survivable. But the Iowa
is also much more expensive and would probably not be used for convoy escort
duty.
> I think that you will find armoured ships just a little bit to long
I agree on your point about bigger ships benefitting more from armour, but I'd
just like to point out that convoy escort was one of the commonest battleship
duties (USN as well as RN) of WW2 in the Atlantic, where there was a serious
threat from powerful surface raiders, and the Med., with a powerful, if badly
handled, surface fleet threatening bases such as Malta.
Cheers,
> At 11:18 AM 3/7/97 +0000, you wrote:
This BTW
> is a fault with many armour systems - large ships benefit far more
I kinda like the extra damage boxes idea myself. I played around with the idea
last night and this is what I came up with:
Armor
Mass 0 Cost 50% hull cost/Level
Every level of armor adds additional damage points to the ship's first row of
damage boxes, equal to 15% of the total number of damage points for that ship
(rounded down, but never less than 1 box per level). These extra damage points
should be shaded to distinguish them as armor, as they do not count towards
determining crew as regular damage points do. Cost is 50% of the hull cost per
level, with a maximum of 2 levels. Every level of armor reduces the maximum
thrust of that ship by 1, but does not subtract from the ship's actual thrust
rating (e.g. A ship with two levels of armor may have a maximum thrust of 6).
(Note: these rules completely replace the Kra'vak Armor rules on MT p. 25;
armor no longer gives bonuses to manuvering, nor does it convey any special
resistance to any particular weapon).
Yes, I realize that the "minimum of one extra point" part can be munchkinized
into allowing very small ships to get one or two pts of armor on the cheap,
but I justify this as an effect of the 2 square law: if you increase the size
of a ship, you increase surface area by 4, (or something like that; it's been
a while since Mrs.Billy's High School Geometry). Comments?
Take care,