given the recent discussion about needle beams, I though I'd chuck in my
opinion...
I'm designing my first FT fleet now, and I had an idea from an aircraft that
used to patrol the Ho Chi Mihn Trail. it was some form of cargo craft, fitted
with a whole bunch of guns firing out the left (or is it right?) side. it
would orbit any vehicles it wanted to kill, firing all its weapons as it
circled.
I'm designing some small craft, maybe 25 tons, with 8 thrust, 2 fire control,
and as many needlebeams as I can fit all firing into the same arc. since you
only need 1 firecon to fire x needlebeams at the same systems, I figure if I
can get maybe 6 beams in, I'm guaranteed a system kill each shot! face them
all out one side so I can orbit a ship, or fly behind a row of ships, and go
along knocking out weapons as you go!
just a thought... figured it would make them more effective...
> lojeck wrote:
The first of these was a conversion from the C47 (Dakota of WW2 fame), later
followed by C130s. Later designs even had a 105mm Howitzer sticking out the
side. Should start thinking about some Vietnam rules for Dirtside (now where
did I leave my Apocalypse Now soundtrack;)
> I'm designing some small craft, maybe 25 tons, with 8 thrust, 2 fire
Knock out the fire controls, there's less of them than weapons systems and
harder to do without.
> Knock out the fire controls, there's less of them than weapons systems
funny, I thought engines, typed weapons... but yeah, the fire controls would
be an even better idea!
questions: if a ship has 3 firecons, I aim 6 needlebeams at the firecon, and
hit 4 times, how many firecons does the ship have left?
> [quoted text omitted]
> Ludo Toen wrote:
I think SGII already mimics the Vietnam-flavour pretty darn well. In
fact, they handle an orbiting C130 decently if you use the stand-off
rules to have them make one good pass every other turn. Graft the same rules
onto DSII and you're onto something.:)
> On Tue, 3 Dec 1996, lojeck wrote:
> questions: if a ship has 3 firecons, I aim 6 needlebeams at the
You have to target a specific system with needles, i.e. that one particular
fire con, not just fire cons in general. So you would have to split your
needle beams between the three or just concentrate on one. Excess hits on one
system are wasted, with the exception of main drives which take two hits.
I had a friend use the massed needle beam approach on me one time. The
largest ship in his fleet (mass about 90-100) packed 14 needle beams
into the
foward arc, had 8 thrust, Level 3 Screens, and a bunch of 3-arc C's for
defense. This monster would wipe out 2-3 systems each turn. As another
poster mentioned, the Fire Con are really the best targets. Take them out and
all of the weapons are useless. Second best is engines, especially if you can
catch the ship heading toward the edge of the map. Mark took out all of the FC
on two cruisers, but luckily overshot my SDN and in the time it took him to
wheel around, I pummelled most of his supporting ships. I think the battle
ended as a draw at best. If you think that your opponent might be going to try
some of this, I suggest speed as the best defense. Make the limited arc work
for you and be sure to have some sensor power so that you can ID the offending
ship and stay away from it.. It's a pretty tough tactic to stop though,
especially if the needle ship is well shielded.
Later
Brian
> lojeck wrote:
> questions: if a ship has 3 firecons, I aim 6 needlebeams at the
You would be firing at one specific firecon only so there would be 2 left
> In message <961203203911_1617556056@emout20.mail.aol.com> Brian wrote:
> I had a friend use the massed needle beam approach on me one time.
I've been on the other side. Twenty scout ships (mass 4), each equipped with a
single needle beam. I threw most of them at a single enemy capital ship. In
the first turn, I destroyed its wave gun (yeah!!!).
That was it. After about three/four turns of fighting, with over a
dozen needle boats, I rolled one six (except when rolling thresholds, when I
lost either the firecon or needle beam every time).
In theory, it should have been effective. In practise - never again!
For the person interested in point costs of small ships - 26 pts for
this
design of ship (see www.bifrost.demon.co.uk/NeuSwabian/Fleet.html). I
probably had in the order of 5000pts worth of other ships in the battle, so
they had plenty of backup to keep the enemy escorts occupied with other
things.