Balancing

Örjan:
> Since I was talking about ways to defeat the dreadstar, including

The point is: IMHO, you should be able to defeat *any* legal design with at
least some of the published official FB designs. The more choice the better.
(Assuming average luck with dice and equal, fair setup)

If not, IMHO, we're down the kustom killa road...

> Mikko Kurki-Suonio wrote:

> Örjan:

Once the figthers have been taken care of, the Komarov - or any other
ship with a B4+ - will destroy or drive off the dreadstar *without
taking one single point of damage from the dreadstar's own weapons*. The
*only* thing to worry about in this case are the fighters.

What you are effectively saying when you object to my suggestion to use B4
batteries against the dreadstar is that you want all the FB1 fleets
to have a 751-point or so ship which is capable of destroying or
driving off a 4262-point ship without taking one single damage point
from the 4262-point ship's own weapons. Since I very much hope that
this is not what you meant to say, I still don't see the point of your
objection.

If the MT fighter morale rules are in use, I can pick a 5000-point
fleet from *any* of the four published FB1 navies which can beat the
dreadstar, including the FSE. The outcome won't be assured in any of these
battles; both sides have a reasonably equal chance of winning (the unmodified
FSE will have difficulties due to their lack of ADFCs,
but even so they aren't a walk-over) and both sides are going to take
rather heavy losses. This seems to fit with your above definition of
"balance" - but I'm usually mistaken about you and your defintions, so
no doubt you'll explain that this isn't balanced at all and that you meant
something else entirely <sigh>

If the MT morale rules are *not* in use however, the only published FB1 fleet
with even a prayer to beat this monster is the ESU: 20
Beijing/BEs, a Tibet and a Komarov... and the Komarov will have to be
very, very lucky to survive the fighter strike. If it survives, the ESU wins;
if it doesn't, the ESU loses. I do not find this well balanced at all, and
this is exactly why I say that the FBx rules were written with the assumption
that the fighter morale rules are used.

Regards,