Do others think that Wave Guns are too expensively balanced? Their limited arc
and no other weapons fire makes them a very chancy thing. Yes, they may hit
multiple targets, but how often
does that really happen? I played a non-cloaking "Romulan" fleet
the other night, 3 ships had 2 WGs each (so can fire one while the other
recharges), and 2 ships had 1 WG each. All the ships were speed 6 and most got
to fire at least one WG at a target. No 2 targets were close enough for both
to be hit. But the damage inflicted was minimal compared to the massive beam
barage that was returned by the enemy. It also doesn't help that on a 4D6 WG
hit I rolled 4 1s (is that Ones position still being voted upon?). But even an
above average roll wouldn't come close to the enemy's fire. I'd rather take
pulse torpedoes in place of the mass of a WG. Maybe it was the battle against
"6s are me" Steve and his uber MD2 ships (yes, I got to his rear arc with 1
surviving ship but it was no match to what he had left, which was plenty) and
others had better success with WGs?
Glen
> Do others think that Wave Guns are too expensively balanced?
No, I played a SDN game at the last GenCon (or was it the one before?) and had
very little trouble lining up shots.
> Do others think that Wave Guns are too expensively balanced?
and
> had very little trouble lining up shots.
Were those shots on multiple targets? Mine weren't since they split up a
little but I was able to target at least one ship with the WGs on 4 of the 5
game turns. But, that had a little to do with a planet being in their way,
their ships' MD were 2 and mine were 6. But several of the ships did not have
a target on most of the turns so that massive weapon was useless. Their
secondary weapons were minor (1 class 2, except the SDN with 7). I guess I'd
like to use the WG as a plasma torpedo ala SFB and wonder how the rules can be
modified for balance to be able to use the WG, other weapons, and retain the
shields. One arc, one target, roll to hit like a pulse torpedo (maybe extend
each range band a little to reach 36"), and keep its charge and damage to own
ship if hit?
Also, were you using vector or cinematic? We were using cinematic.
Glen
It depends on what you are trying to do with a wave gun or nova cannon. I use
them to make my opponent maneuver in a way I have some control of. If I can
break a ship off from its escorts it becomes missile bait or a target to
overwhelm while keeping away from the enemies main fire power. Wave guns in
are group also tend to draw fire out of proportion to the damage they do a few
of my wave gun ship designs are little more then beam sponges that
divert weapons away from my main attack. Anything that cuts down an
opponents options helps, even if you only do a few points damage. Only in very
limited cases would I take a fleet of nothing but these weapons. They
work best combined with missles and/or fighters.
[quoted original message omitted]
> Were those shots on multiple targets?
No, but mostly because there were very few ships to begin with each player had
one SDN.
> Also, were you using vector or cinematic? We were using cinematic.
Cinematic.
G'day Glen,
This a topic that comes up here now and again and there was a fairly thorough
discussion of it about 6 months ago (maybe a little longer) so it
may pay to have a dig in the archives to see what was said - including
widening the arc of fire but only hitting ships with their centrepost in
that arc (at least I think that was one option discussed, sorry damn poor
memory).
Hope that helps
Beth - yes I'm one of those who doesn't think wave guns deserve their
fearful reputation (bit of a hangover from the past I'm guessing)