Photon Torpedoes Away!

Date sent:  12-NOV-1996 13:40:13

I use James Clay's torpedo rules. I treat each torp as using 1
capacity. I'm also looking at mini-torpedoes (For Runabouts
and other Escort sized ships) that have reduced range and damage (Say 3 dice
at 12") but can fit in less capacity (Try 3 Torps for 2 Capacity).

I havn't finalized everything yet, and probably won't be implementing the
Disruptors in the final set up of the game. (I'm currently
favoring Standard Beams for Disruptors and LR-beams for Phasors.
The difference between my original Disruptors and the LR beams was just too
great. Once in short range, the Disruptor armed ships were just too powerful).
It also helps calm down the Feds overwhelming firepower advantage. As the Fed
ships invariably have multi Arc weapons, they tend to pack far more firepower
than anyone else (except if your sat in the front arc of a Romulan Warbird).
This change will give them a longer range, but roughly equal firepower.

I'm also deciding on wither to include armour or not. It might be fun,
especially on the Klingon ships. That's directional armour (I'll be using 1
point on each face for each capacity used) not Kra'Vak.

A few other ideas I'm including;

Cloaking: This is a general Engine modification. You need Warp Drive and the
Cloaking Device to be operational to Cloak. The device itself takes no
capacity up. You place a black cardboard tube over the model that is cloaked,
and can write orders as normal, but you don't move the model. You have all
systems available when you decloak, but when you try and recloak, you don't
recloak till the end of the turn, and have all systems powered down (including
shields) until you do so. In practice, Romulans tend to make a sneak attack
from behind, cloaking just before they overtake you. Klingons tend to close to
point blank before decloaking, then fire away till one of you dies. And it
doesn't seem to matter which one of our gaming group plays which fleet.

Damage Control: I use the 'tournament' damage control (ie you get to test once
for escorts, twice for cruisers etc.). The exception are Klingons who don't
get to test, but who get 1 extra capacity for each test they would normally
take. (The Defiant will also gain two extra capacity for lack of damage
control, as it is a Cruiser in my rules)

Criticals: Anyone got James's Threshold cards? Are they worth getting? are
they a fair replacement of threshold checks? Would Damage Control still be
useful?

Jokes: Q:How many Klingons does it take to change a lightbulb? A:None.
Klingons aren't afraid of the dark.

I'll be creating the sheets in Word (Using Paint, the '95 version of
PainBrush, to create the diagrams from my own shipbits.bmp clip art).