Potential Spoilers, Relates to 4th Season esp No Surrender, No Retreat
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Have any of you guys out there who have put together B5/FT adaptations
revised the stats of the Omegas based on the above episode.
How do you class the 4 rear firing projectors which seemed to be pulse cannons
yet were doing major damage to B5s Star Furies. The projectiles seemed to be
of the same sort fired from the forward projectors. Do you
reckon these are Pulse Cannon or PDAF/Interceptors.
Also I noted that the Omegas did not use their Lasers against the White Stars,
does this indicate the big Lasers can't be used against targets as small or as
manoeuverable as the White Stars.
In 'Face of the Enemy' we see the lasers being used, but only I think against
other Earth Ships.
After watching any Omega episodes I have seen the following armament: 4 X
heavy Lasers (2xfwd, 2xAft) 6 x Pulse cannons (2xfwd, 4xaft) fwd weapons
intercepting incoming fire in 'Severed Dreams' 4 x Turret mounted weapons
(prob defence grid or Interceptors) 1(maybe more)x laser type weapons
apparently amidships (used to shoot at the White Star in 'Messages from Earth'
Any comments? Looking forward to see the 'official' rules by Jon in Earthforce
Sourcebook but wonder if we've seen anything recently in the show which might
change things.
Hey, Rog,
> Potential Spoilers, Relates to 4th Season esp No Surrender, No Retreat
Well, for one, jms kinda doesn't differentiate too much between 'pdaf' weapons
and 'batteries' (pulse cannons). The 'interceptors' on B5 seem to be able to
fire on ships just as well (note battle with Centauri warship at end of Season
2, episode "Fall Of Night"). It's not clear in "Severed Dreams" if the
interceptors are firing soley at enemy
fighters, incoming weapons fire, and/or enemy ships.
I tried to keep things simple, not over-complicate things, with my
rendition of the rules. JMS *always* manages to throw a twist in things,
though. ;-/ Such as using the same weapon to fire in different modes.
(eg, HBW projectors firing in pulse cannon mode, HBW mode, and PDAF mode).
With the limited weapons arrays available to FT, my take would be to
say the pulse cannons are *-batteries, and the fire poured onto the
'Furies was PDAF fire.
Either that or drop *DAFs altogether, allow *-Batts to engage fighters
as *DAFs, and/or act as Interceptors.
Blah!
> Also I noted that the Omegas did not use their Lasers against the White
Aaaactually, give yourself a treat and rewatch the ep. The POLLUX fired a
barrage of heavy beam weapons (HBWs, BREWs, whatever you wanna call
'em)
that hit a White Star twice. Said White Star lost control and in a burning
fury slammed (not on purpose, I'm sure) into the forward structure of the
POLLUX, ultimately destroying the POLLUX.
> In 'Face of the Enemy' we see the lasers being used, but only I think
If you look closely, there *seem* to be 4 aft lasers. In each corner there
appears to be a similar tube projector which we have seen once in a while fire
a laser.
And only 2 forward. *shrug* No one said JMS was a tactician or
efficient ship builder. ;-) We do what we can with what we got.
My take is that if I can't represent individual weapons, then I can use the FT
weapons to represent groups of weapons. After all, there is only so much room
aboard an FT ship of a given mass, and weapons
all mass so much (if I had my way all *my* A-batts would be 1-mass,
and my opponents' would be 5, but since I don't... ;-)
> 6 x Pulse cannons (2xfwd, 4xaft) fwd weapons intercepting incoming fire
And it could have been one of those many pulse/pdaf projectors mounted
all over the ship that suddenly was able to fire a laser. ;-)
Three things we can do, though. Book #7 has a fairly detailed description
of the primary weapons systems of the Omegas as part of its B-story. JMS
has said that Book 7 is ~80% canon, so it should be safe to assume the details
given are fairly accurate. It's been a while since I read it, but I *think* it
only mentioned forward and aft laser cannons.
The second thing is to get ahold of the official copy of Babylon 4 Wars game.
They are more SFB in nature, but are supposed to be fairly accurate in the
weapons arrays on the ships (the AOG guys have been in contact with jms on
this matter, among other things).
Third is to drop either JMS or George Johnsen a line. My experience has
shown George is more prone to answer. ;-)
> Any comments?
I haven't altered things terribly much in my version of the rules (partly
pending Jon's rules which are due out "any day now" as I understand it, and
partly due to lack of time).
> PS Just come back from the Wolf 359 Con, when Jerry Doyle turned up on
One of these days I'm gonna see 'em all, too...<sigh>
Mk
> Graduate of the Dr ASCII School of Heelhook wrote:
JMS
> has said that Book 7 is ~80% canon, so it should be safe to assume the
----------
> Hey, Mark
Thanks for the response
> >Also noted that the Omegas did not use their Lasers against the White
You are absolutely right, I blame my fuzzy PAL video copy.
> If you look closely, there *seem* to be 4 aft lasers. In each corner
Yep, Laser in Severed Dreams, Pulse Cannon/*DAF in No Retreat No
Surrender
> And it could have been one of those many pulse/pdaf projectors mounted
Pretty useful these EA weapons.
Perhaps the Lasers are a shorter ranged but more destructive application of
the Pulse Cannon. The 'Alexander' seemed to need to get pretty close to the
'Agrippa/Roanoke'
before she was 'in range' (I know cinematic licence, but!!)
> The second thing is to get ahold of the official copy of Babylon 4
Some chance, no licence in the UK, any chance anyone across the pond could
help me out? May be able to help you with wants in the UK. (However don't want
to get anyone in trouble with the FBI)
> Third is to drop either JMS or George Johnsen a line. My experience
Will try.