From: Chad Taylor <ct454792@o...>
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 10:43:04 -0500
Subject: Sa'Vasku stuff
Some friends and I have been experimenting with the Sa'Vasku rules. Based on
our observations we have come up with some house rules I thought I would share
with all of you for your critique. Those of you who might remember me from the
Epic list know that I can't leave anything alone.
The first thing we noticed about the Sa'Vasku was that they were rather
boaring "shall I fire the battery type weapon, the battery type weapon, or
maybe I shall use the battery type weapon instead" was the problem. The second
was that by mass they were a good deal less powerful than the human ships,
based on average rolls, and we wanted something a little more scary. Based on
these ideas here are the changes and additions we made.
Changes:
FTL DRIVES: Engaging FTL drive with a Sa'Vasku ship requires a power point
expenditure equal to THREE TIMES the PF of the ship.
This changed was based on the observation that on an average turn a Sa'Vasku
ship could not engage its FTL drives, would make a fleet assault rather
difficult for the Sa'Vasku we thought.
SCREENS:
Putting out a level-1 screen uses power points equal to 1/2 the
ship's Power Factor, then double this for a level-2 and triple for a
level-3 screen.
With the cost equal to the PF we felt that a Sa'Vasku ship was far to
ineffective if it put up screens. We wanted the average Sa'Vasku ship, on an
average turn, with average dice rolls, to be a little closer in capability to
the average human cruiser.
COST:
"ESCORT": 5pts per mass "CRUISER": 6pts per mass "CAPITAL": 7pts per mass
We felt that larger ships were more capable than small ships and thus should
cost a little more to encourage the small ships.
ADDITIONS:
WAVE PULSE: The Wave Pulse is the equivalent of a Sa'Vasku spinal mount
weapon. The Wave Pulse fires only along the main axis of the firing ship (as
with the Nova Cannon and Wave Gun). On the turn the Wave Pulse is fired the
firing ship is counted as unshielded in its forward arc, if it put up shields
that turn.
On the turn of firing the Sa'Vasku ship generates a form of
Gravitic/Magnetic/PSB disturbance that is then released. The wave
travels in a straight line colliding with anything in its path until it
finally dies out. Each turn (including the firing turn) move a 2" wide Wave
Marker 4d6 inches. Anything that comes into contact with the wave is
considered to have been hit. Anything hit by the wave suffers 1d6 damage. In
addition ships often find themselves to have been thrown about (slightly) by
the wave itself. For each ship struck by the wave roll a
d6, on a 1-2 the ship is moved on point to port, on a 3-4 the ship
manages
to maintain its heading, on a 5-6 this ship is turned on point to
starboard. Each turn the wave is moved 4d6 inches until it runs out of energy,
on a turn the firing ship rolls two or more 6's the wave is considered to have
expanded all of its energy, finish its movement for that turn and remove it at
the end of the turn.
BEM PULSE:
Sa'Vasku ships are able to generate a Pulse of energy
Bio-ElectroMagnetic
Energy capable of disrupting the systems on a targeted ship. The Pulse may be
directed only along the forward arc of Capital ships, but may be directed
along any of the three forward arcs of smaller ships. The weapon has a range
of 12 inches and costs 10pts to generate the pulse. The
weapon will strike its target on a 5-6 (if the firing ship is of Capital
class) or on a 4,5,6 (if the firing ship is of Cruiser or Escort class). The
effect of being struck by the Pulse is to force an immediate thresh hold check
at whatever level the target ship is currently on (6 for the
first line, 5-6 for the second, etc.)
NEEDLE BEAM: Escort class Sa'Vasku ships are small and nibble enough to use
there Energy Pulse weapons as a type of Needle Beam. The Beam may be fired
only from the front arc and costs 5pts to generate. The effect is the same as
a human needle beam.
MINESWEEPING: All Sa'Vasku Escorts are capable of acting as Minesweeepers.
Close:
Flame away:) While many of the above weapons may seem very powerful remember
that the human ships have access to much the same technology or to weapons
that are simply more powerful. Also, remember the AVERAGE amount of power a
Sa'Vasku ship can generate when looking at the above weapons. Too often it
seems that the Sa'Vasku are evaluated on what they could do IF you roll ten 6s
for your Capital ship, when was the last time that happened and would you base
tactics on it happening again? For the same reasons we lowered the cost of
shields. As it stood a Sa'Vasku could put up decent amount of: shields,
maneuver, or fire. This made the Sa'Vasku very predictable and easily defeated
in fleet actions. If the Sa'Vasku maneuver so that they can do decent amount
of damage then they didn't have enough energy to do the damage. On a turn that
they didn't maneuver they could do the damage but the enemy fleet moved away.
Human ships could do everything (shields, maneuver, fire) and the Sa'Vasku
were just slaughtered by them.