I recently tried a new version of the banzai boats, and thought I`d post my
idea to see what other people think of them. Instead of using the 3 mass
suicide ships, I used a mass 10 boat, fitted with a thrust 4 drive, FTL drive,
1 hull, and a ADFC and 4 PDS. For 38 points, these do make a difference to
anti fighter and SML defences when used in numbers. A NSL SD and 6 of these
cost the same as a FSE CVA with fighters, but will shread the incoming
fighters and SML with no difficulty.
Comments on my latest attempt to kill fighters?
> Bif Smith wrote:
hmm.. sounds interesting.. have to look at it.
> Comments on my latest attempt to kill fighters?
Why not use fighters?:)
Why an FTL drive if they are riders?
You might want to produce those in two versions. One with FTL and one with the
ftl drivespace allocated to maneuver drive. That leaves you pretty well
covered in the strategic sense.
> Bif Smith wrote:
> I recently tried a new version of the banzai boats, and thought I`d
> Bif Smith wrote:
With a 12 mass unit you can get 6 PDS on it and cost 46. For 2 points more you
can have 5 instead of 6 and get an additional 6 PDS. Not sure how it balances
out in survivability with 1 less but it's more cost effective.
G'day,
> I recently tried a new version of the
So how do they cope with:
a) being the target of the fighters themselves? In my first round of
"disposable" attack I often attack the ADFC ships and put the SMs into the
main targets. The opponent has the choice of not having standing a good chance
of not having ADFC ships next turn and so will be very open to attack then or
of getting hurt capitals this time round.
b) resisting some directed fire from "anti-rider" ships. That is
dedicated beam fire coming in on them to pop them before the missiles etc
arrive. That's the advantage to carriers with fighters, the fighters can't be
picked off by beams on the run in and the carriers can take a bit of
punishment themselves.
The riders may end up working well as my ideas may not be worth much
(I'd
have to play them and see), but they're something to keep in mind.
Cheers
> Beth.Fulton@csiro.au wrote:
> So how do they cope with:
That'll depend on how much PDS is on the big capitals. I run an integrated PDS
system where each ship of cruiser up can support the fleet. With a "bonus" net
of riders I could shore up against a mass attack and still have enough left
over to soften any slit attack. I'd have to split my fire a little differently
but I'd expect the results to be roughly the same.
> b) resisting some directed fire from "anti-rider" ships. That is
At which point your ships are also in fire range. I'd never run riders as my
only PDS support so where you'd most likely kill them all you'd have to expend
at least equal points in doing it.
I think it's just another arms race. In the end they'll balance out.
> The riders may end up working well as my ideas may not be worth much
I think they'd work well as an addition to a balanced fleet.
I aslo forgot to include the fact about the way I had designed them, the cost
of the battleriders is LESS than the cost of a fighter wing and it`s hanger
bay. I`d originally thought of these as a defence against "soap bubble"
carrier fleets, as for each fighter wing, you could have one of these and if
the enemy uses several "soap bubble" carriers, the remaining
mass/cost could be used for a energy weapon equipted strike ship, that
would kill the carriers after the fighters have been killed. At 4 PDS per
fighter group (although that is probably unnessasery, maybe a bit too much
overkill?), these would blunt any fighter attack.
For a example, lets have 2 opposing groups. The first would be a "soap bubble"
carrier group, and the second would be using my battleriders.
Soap bubble carriers
2 fighter bays, minimum hull, FTL, thrust=6, 2 PDS. Cost=176, Mass=40 (anybody
want to check my maths?)
For the cost of 2 of these, you could have 4 battleriders (total cost of 152)
and a ship killer (a fast CL or such) upto a cost of 200 pts. Seams like a
pritty good way of killing fighters to me <G>.
> Bif Smith wrote:
> I recently tried a new version of the banzai boats, and thought I`d
> Richard and Emily Bell wrote:
> Bif Smith wrote:
Argh! must read more carefully, they do have FTL, but, at least, I gave a
reason