Date sent: 21-AUG-1996 09:57:03
I've just been looking at those great counter sheets (Something to
'test' our new colour printer 8-) ) and have been inspired to
rework some ideas on weaponry in B5.
Try these for size. (Shields are totaled, fractions rounded down, max 3)
PDAF. Normal rules OR 0.5 shields 360 ADAF. Normal rules OR 1 shields 360 OR 1
die vs ships within 6"
C. Normal rules OR 0.5 shields in specific arc OR anti fighter
(needs a 5 or 6 to kill 1 fighter)
B. Normal rules OR 0.5 shields in specific arc
A. Normal rules OR 0.5 shields in specific arc
Weapons may fire through any three (or fewer) adjacent arcs, with the
exception of *daf which fire through 360 (as they represent multiple smaller
guns)
Using specific arcs for shields means that angle of engagement becomes
important (especially when you start to loose multi arc weapons). I think
Marks idea of using weapons in an alternate 'shield' mode is great. However, I
am concerned that by dividing shielding into arcs, it may make things too
complex. Note also that a small ship can have great shields, but should it be
outnumbered and surrounded, it's toast.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Big beam weapon.
This is the sticky one which IMHO no one has sorted yet. Here is an idea.
Fit is mass 4 for cruisers and mass 6 for capital ships (Capitals can fit the
cruiser version but not visa versa). The weapon may fire through a 45 arc to
the front. Capitals may also fire to the rear. Only one per ship max.
The gun charges by d6 (as per a wave gun) at the start of a turn (after orders
are written) to a maximum charge of 6. In any subsequent turn, the player may
declare that he is discharging his BREW (Big red energy weapon). He must do
this BEFORE orders are written. The energy signature of a weapon discharge is
quite large, and you can bet everyone will want to a.) get out of the way and
b.) throw everything into defensive fire.
Now the fun bit. How much damage does it do? Well, 3d6 seems about right. No
not a 3 dice attack, but 3d6 totaled. The target ship, however, does get to
defend itself. It rolls 1 dice for each shield factor, plus another dice for
each 12" of range. At 6" range or less, the defender gets NO shields (can't
fire plasma into the beams path fast enough to make a difference) You subtract
this result from the firers damage. So against well defended ships, that don't
have their interceptors down, you have to get right down their throat.
A ship that fires a BREW can not fire any other weapons in the same fire arc
(Front or Rear). Note that although the weapon itself can only target in a 45
arc, the entire 90 arc is off limits, for both offensive and defensive fire
(so shield factor is ZERO)
Fighters can play with BREWs too. You can sacrifice a fighter from a group
between the firer and target to give the defender an extra dice in defence. If
the firer wants to, he can target a fighter group and destroy a single fighter
automatically.
A couple of final things. The power is provided by the jump point generator.
If the jump drive is disabled, the beams will no longer charge.
Worse, if it is carrying a charge, and the BREW itself is hit, BOOM. The ship
takes 1d6 damage for each point stored.
So wadayaallthink?
Date sent: 21-AUG-1996 12:02:52
> A couple of final things. The power is provided by the jump point
> Um, er no. In last Saturday's episode, The White Star shut down its'
I would have thought that A.) The jump drive is the most power intensive unit
on a ship, and B.) Not all units carry their own power source. In fact you can
expect a single central power source, which I interpret as being represented
on the ship diagram by the jump drive.
Besides, it didn't affect the WS's maneuverability that much when it decided
that running away might be a rather good idea.
> Worse, if it is carrying a charge, and the BREW itself is hit, BOOM.
> No evidence of this in the series, but I suppose it's logical from
No evidence for any of it, but the 'flavour' seems right. As I've said before,
if you just take the TV sereise as your source of information, you get a
skewed view ('The Hood Effect' where ALL british battleships blow up in WW2
games due to bad ammo storage. I've already noticed every man and his dog
trying to do the 'bonehead' maneuver after it becomes clear that they have
lost). It's much more important to look at the background rather than the
foreground.
The same goes for Starwars. Just because a SD is listed as having 72
turbolaser batteries does not mean you have to fit 72 FT batteries into it. 7
will do.
Flavour is more important than fact.
> On 21 Aug 96 at 11:27, Adam Delafield wrote:
> I've just been looking at those great counter sheets (Something to
You mean that new Techtronics? Git! All we've got is a DJ660.. (whoops, sorry
folks, but of Bolton Institute budget envy coming in
there..)
> A couple of final things. The power is provided by the jump point
Um, er no. In last Saturday's episode, The White Star shut down its'
jump engines and transferred the power to it's BREW - actually a
BYEW, but anyway. An option might be to boost the power of the beam but at a
cost of no high power moves for a while (i.e. only minimal speed and turn).
> Worse, if it is carrying a charge, and the BREW itself is hit, BOOM.
No evidence of this in the series, but I suppose it's logical from the
design..
> So wadayaallthink?
My First thought? I dunno, I remember when an A battery was something you ran
away from. These days, I wouldn't use one to light a camp fire..
TTFN
Jon
Adam wrote:-
--(Shields are totaled, fractions rounded down, max 3)
--PDAF. Normal rules OR 0.5 shields 360
--ADAF. Normal rules OR 1 shields 360 OR 1 die vs ships within 6"
--C. Normal rules OR 0.5 shields in specific arc OR anti fighter
(needs a 5 or 6 to kill 1 fighter)
--B. Normal rules OR 0.5 shields in specific arc
--A. Normal rules OR 0.5 shields in specific arc
You lost me here as I am not familiar with this convention - what
'Normal Rules'
are applied. What do the 0.5 - 1 shields mean?. Shields are totaled
in respect to what?
Are there examples in B5 where something manages to intercept a BREW. AFAIR
they
are pretty much un-stoppable. I think the saving rolls are too generous.
3d6 could do as little as 3 points damage at 6 m.u.- I assume that
counts as a near miss? What about more d6 damage linked to range? What is max
BREW range?
Tim
Tim
Date sent: 21-AUG-1996 13:50:17
> Adam wrote:-
> You lost me here as I am not familiar with this convention - what
you know. 1d6 for a C-bat, doing 1 point on a 4 or 5 and 2 on a 6.
I simply didn't want to have to spell out all the range bands and dice again.
> What do the 0.5 - 1 shields mean?. Shields are totaled in
Well.. 0.5 + 0.5 gives equivilant of level 1 shields in that arc. You
total all the factors defending that arc (including any 360 weapons set to
intercept) to see what equivilant screens you get. (One B and C battery
defending PORT on a ship with 2xPDAF set to intercept would have 2 screens
port, and one screen on all other sides)
> Are there examples in B5 where something manages to intercept a BREW.
No, no example, except a fighter defending the Agamemnon. Not that although we
havn't SEEN incidents where defence makes a difference, we have HEARD command
crews talking about using them. The Agamemnon destroyed the Clarkstown because
it's interceptors were out (which converts to interceptors CAN block BREWs)
and had to get to point blank on the Rowanoak to get in a shot despite the
fact that we KNOW BREWs have an absurdly long range. I presume that this was
because the Rowanoak had interceptors on line. From what I can gather, the
huge energy drain means that, if the enemy will intercept the BREW, the
attacker does not fire, so as to conserve energy for when they can punch
through.
> 3d6 could do as little as 3 points damage at 6 m.u.- I assume that
The beam is extreamly well focused, and deadly accurate. Range simply gives
the other guy a better chance of defending himself (So the defender gets more
dice)
> Tim
> --(Shields are totaled, fractions rounded down, max 3)
Adam's taken and extrapolated on some B5 rules I came up with a while back. In
'Normal rules' mode he means the system operates exactly as described in Full
Thrust/More Thrust. Said system then has the option of switching to what
is
called 'intercept' or 'anti-fire' mode. At first only *DAF systems could
do this, but Adam's extrapolated to include the possibility of
A/B/C-batteries,
too (which actually makes a little sense to me for C-batts; not so sure
about the bigger batts). Basically the '0.5 Shield' means you need 2 of a
particular system (eg, 2 PDAFs) operating in 'intercept' mode to emmulate 1
level of shielding. By 'max of 3' he means max of 3 levels of shielding are
allowed.
Adam's also extrapolated on the capabilities of the ADAF system.
Interesting...
> Are there examples in B5 where something manages to intercept a BREW.
AFAIR they
> are pretty much un-stoppable. I think the saving rolls are too
I'm not sure about BREW being interceptable, either, BUT...it may be that Adam
has seen something most of us haven't seen yet from the end of season 3 and
accidently in his enthusiasm came up with this idea. Then again maybe he was
just taking his thoughts on an extrapolated course. ;-)
> 3d6 could do as little as 3 points damage at 6 m.u.- I assume that
We have seen BREWs miss. 3d6 seems to allow them to hit pretty often.
;-)
But I haven't sat down and gone over Adam's proposed ideas in detail yet, so I
might have missed something to allow for them to miss.
Mk
> Are there examples in B5 where something manages to intercept a BREW.
And I was taking this as being one of those incidents where he was in the
wrong place at the wrong time. The 'shit happens' routine that JMS likes to
throw out there now and again.
> Not that although
While I agree with your assessment, it just doesn't...'feel' right to me that
BREWs can be intercepted like the plasma bolts (assuming those are plasma
bolts they're firing, and not rockets as I've heard one source claim jms has
said they are). This despite what we've heard from the dialogue. *shrug*
Dunno. I'd like to see how JMS would pull that off. Adam, maybe you'll get
something more in one of the upcoming eps? There is supposed to be a
big...er...uhhh...well, there's something coming up in one of the Final Five
eps that I only have basic knowledge on but
can't/won't say anything more. :-}
Mk