I watch a LOT of cartoons...

Contrarily, what's wrong with more but smaller ships? Point costs come out the same, don't they?

I happen to LIKE smaller ships...

I had thought about a similar mechanic for the 'default' cloak in Admiralty.

Then I decided against it.

Can't remember why, 'cause I still think it's a good idea.

Because most penalties apply at the time of the attack, and therefore can be split between modes without crossover and still be balanced. However, "slow firing" applies across turns -- and is not a penalty at all in the turn when it is fired.

Therefore, in order to avoid abuse, we have to stipulate that slow-firing in one mode does apply to the other mode.

Does that mean I should retract the answer?

I could see expanding the dual-mode concept to deal with this, as well as differing ranges... but for now, there must be some limitations.

Okay, in the hopes of eliminating confusion, here are the boarding pod rules in their entirety, per the most recent version of the rulebook:

BOARDING PODS

This option requires the use of option F.6: Strikers.

Boarding pods are a form of striker used to transport marines to their target. A standard boarding pod flight is identical to a striker flight, except that its capacity requirement is 16. Pod flights may be customized per option F.1: Customized Fighter Flights, but may not be given any fighter traits. The initial coefficient in the capacity requirement formula is 18, not 183.

When a flight of pods is launched, immediately remove a number of marine squads from the carrier equal to the size of the flight; e.g. if a standard flight is launched, six squads are removed. These squads have been placed inside the pods, and will be used to board enemy starships.

Damage scored by a boarding pod flight does not result in a die roll; instead, each point of damage lands one boarding party on the target.

A pod that fails to score a hit, or penetrate the target's shield rating, is not necessarily destroyed—although that is a distinct possibility. But it is unable to make another attempt, and is removed from the board like any other striker once its attack has been made.

Haven't seen it yet, but from what I've heard I would have thought Jim would give at least 10.4 out of 15...

Oh... I forgot that was even a change. :oops:

Okay, I didn't want to get into the math, but since it seems important...

A flight of boarding pods is roughly the equivalent of a striker flight with DMG 2 (since it automatically causes a "hull" hit). This means its capacity requirement should be 26 ((29 x [6 + 1]^2 x 10 / 6 / 6)^.5 x 1.3 = 25.83). Therefore, you should be adding +145 to the ORAT and +5.8 to the DRAT per flight.

However, remember that you've already "paid" for some of this via the marines themselves -- +1 to the DRAT per squad, or +6 for enough squads to fill a boarding pod flight.

So, what we need is a value N that, when including the marine's DRAT addition, comes out to a final result of 26. Or:

(5N x (N/5 + 6))^.5 = 26

5N x (N/5 + 6) = 676

N^2 + 30N = 676

N^2 + 30N - 676 = 0

The solutions for N are 15.01 and -45.02 -- obviously, we won't be using the negative result. Keeping with precedent, the 15.01 is rounded up to 16.

The coefficient is 18.

Not necessarily. As long as you space them out so no more than two can be covered in any given AOE shot, you'll make your opponent waste the CR for the ability.

And if hull-1 ships are too plentiful to space them out, go with hull-2 or hull-3 versions.