You are not logged in. Please login or register.
Play nice. (This means you.)
Logins from the previous forum have been carried over; if you have difficulty logging in, please try resetting your password before contacting us. Attachments did not survive the migration--many apologies, but we're lucky we kept what we could!
mj12games.com/forum → Posts by MadSeason
MadSeason wrote:1) Commonwealth Frigate: Shields or Screens? Every other Commonwealth ship has Screens.
Screens.
Thanks! But the question becomes... how many screens? Right now it has 3-rating shields.
Ahhhh, okay. So does this mean that the cost has changed and those ships are now incorrectly costed? Or they were correctly costed for the time and so are good to go as is?
Regardless, thanks for all the responses! It's nice to see developers so active on a forum. 
About to start a H&C game and some questions have popped up about Boer and Commonwealth ships.
(I am using Shipyard v. 36 for all calculations)
1) Commonwealth Frigate: Shields or Screens? Every other Commonwealth ship has Screens.
2) Boer Aardgees Scout -- at only prices out correctly at 94 with no Countermeasures... does it have Countermeasures or not? (With Countermeasures, it is overpriced at 115 and uses 19 SU too many)
3) Boer Leeu Cruiser -- equipped as listed in book, it prices out at 285 instead of 277 and also requires 22 more SU than allowed
4) Boer Luiperd Cruiser -- equipped as listed in book, it prices out at 207 instead of 187 and uses 69 SU too many. If I reduce the engines from 7 to 5, it prices out at 192...
5) Boer Roofdier battleship -- again, it prices out as 476 instead of 472 and uses 16 SU too many (It has 16 carrier space... should it not have that? If I eliminate that the SUs are correct but he price drops to 459)
The Renoster Cruiser prices correctly (except that it has 1 point of extra Carrier space for no reason and therefore costs 303 instead of 302...).
Should we be calling this the "Madseason maneuver"?
Consider me pleased!
By the way, where all good ships go when they die... the Ship Graveyard!
Turn 6 -
The Imperial Terrans turn on the last remaining Arcturan vessel. The damaged Dominant holds back to stay out of reach of the short range fire of the Umikaze. The Adamant drives forward with the opposite goal in mind.
The captain of the Umikaze gazes at the screens before him. His ship is heavily damaged -- hull is barely intact (1 hull remaining), shields are down, engine is damaged. His chief engineer informs him the ship is nearly ready to engage the hyperdrive. The captain shakes his head ever so slightly, well aware the long-range weapons of the Imperials will finish his command before the jump is made. He turns to the helmsman. "Turn about. Bring all weapons to bear on the approaching Imperial cruiser. Let's make them remember us."
[attachment=2]Turn 6 after move phase.jpg[/attachment]
The Terran fire is shattering.
[attachment=1]Turn 6 after imperial fire.jpg[/attachment]
The dying Umikaze concentrates its firing on the closer Adamant and causes moderate damage before dying in a blaze of glory. (She deserved it, having dished out the most damage for the Arcturans... and Erik just really wanted to see one of his ships explode. 
)
[attachment=0]Turn 6 after all fire.jpg[/attachment]
The results look pretty lopsided but both the remaining Imperial Belligerent class cruisers were damaged. The Dominant only had 2 hull left -- although I think most of it was from a single hit. Mostly, though, it was some low die rolls at critical moments -- compounded by the Imperial Countermeasures.
On another note, I think this game has illustrated well how the points system balances a game. With two forces designed around 2 very different philosophies of defenses and weapons, I feel like had I not rolled woefully in the point blank engagement the Imperials would have still won, but they would have been air-streaming hulks held together with duct tape
I have now played four complete games with real opponents and I have to say I am extremely impressed with how balanced the system seems to be (at least with ships from the supplements). Every engagement has been close. And we both agree this one would have been closer with some luckier die rolls on just one turn.
I can't wait to play the next game and include more of the features available in the Vassal mod, and hopefully the things that we have done throughout the playtesting will make this a mod everybody will enjoy. Speaking for myself I have to say Kevin has done one helluva job putting it together.
There has been a lot of programming but I am largely happy with how it stands now. And the Dugan has done an AWESOME job with the art. I just hate that I had to shrink all the ships down to a smaller size. 
And if anyone has a problem with the art... I'll meet them at the bike racks at 3:30. :twisted:
Turn 5:
The Terrans hold their ground, hoping to keep the Arcturan vessels in their sights. The Arcturan destroyer Takasago does a quick U-turn to bring its weapons to bear. The Umikaze has begun prepping its hyperdrive for an escape.
Close-range brawling ensues between the Terran light cruisers and the Takasago. In the end, the Takasago has missed every shot and her hull is riddled. She succumbs to her wounds and dies.
The Umikaze is hard hit by long-range lightning battery fire but still survives.
She has not escaped yet, however.
(Results of fire phase depicted -- before Takasago is removed from the board.)
Well, there is an explosion marker in the mix, for those who use the rules for exploding ships. You could always throw it on there for a second... 
Turn 4 Fire Phase
All guns blazing!
The Arcturans open fire at point-blank range with all weapons they can bring to bear... and every single one of them misses. Doom seems upon them. The more distant Umikaze misses at extreme range with its tertiary batteries. But one shot from its Particle Guns nearly sinks the Dominant... (double damage trait and three out of four damage dice were hull hits).
The Imperial Fire is solid from all batteries, riddling the damaged Murakamo with shots from all batteries. It is enough and she falls out of formation before exploding (still visible on the image below, she has taken 4 hull hits which are all she had left). The Takasago, too, is hit hard and often but still stands and still has some teeth.
For the record, I moved the Screens numbers (and faceted shielding) inside the Hex-sides, which will be far less confusing when ships with those traits are in adjacent hexes.
Yeah, my boys didn't move at all last turn, so they were able to conduct this radical maneuver... I used it once before in a game when enemy ships were bearing down on me and my destroyer raced forward and did a U to end up behind the enemy where they had no weapon coverage. Fun! When it works...
Turn 4:
The move orders have been revealed. The Arcturan ships split formation and move in for the kill. The Terrans? They pull an Immelmann, charging the Arcturans and doing a flip. :shock:
Both sides prepare to open fire at close range.
Turn 3 Movement:
The Arcturans continue to close but the Terrans choose to hold back and hope that long-range fire can further weaken the opposition. After movement, only the Corvette Fireball (about to live up to its name) is close enough for both sides to engage their secondary batteries.
[attachment=2]Turn 3 post move Phase.jpg[/attachment]
The Arcturans open up mainly with their light weapons against the Fireball, doing very little to damage it. But then the Cruiser Murakamo fires its last remaining gun of the main battery and Fireball twinkles in the heavens and is gone forever. (It only had 3 hull and shields of 1, so that's why I named it Fireball.)
Return fire from the Terrans causes light damage to the DD Takasago and a lightning turret from the Dominant severely damages the engines on the DD Umikaze.
[attachment=1]Turn 3 post fire phase.jpg[/attachment]
The two Terran light cruisers scan the debris left from the destruction of Imperial Escort Fireball (in hex 2414).
[attachment=0]Turn 3 death of Fireball.jpg[/attachment]
I have engaged with another playtester to make sure the vassal mod is workable/playable as it stands.
Blacklancer99 stepped forward to play the the Arcturan Federation (from the Imperial Starmada Sourcebook) while I assumed command of a Terran Empire squadron.
The Arcturans ships are: a Kyouwa-class Cruiser and two Hayabusa-class Destroyers.
The Terran ships are: two Belligerent-class Light Cruisers and a Valiant-class Escort.
Turn 1: Both squadrons move at high speed to engage each other, the Terrans moving in a V-formation, the Arcturans in line-ahead. Neither side is in range at the end of the Move Phase.
Turn 2: Both squadrons again close the distance. After the Move Phase, both sides open fire with their long-range batteries. The defensive philosophies of each fleet turn out to be important in the results.
The Terrans open fire with their main weapons at long range. As it turns out, they get more hits than they deserve, largely due to Fire Control on their ships, which eliminates the range penalty and turns those 5s into hits. More helpful even was that needing 5s to hit, I rolled 6 hits on 10 shots.
The two hits that did almost all the damage, were rolls that would have missed without Fire Control. Two lightning turrets hit and then get enough shield penetration against the Arcturan Cruiser Murakamo to score 9 damage dice! The rolls: Dice = 1,1,1,1,3,3,4,5,5. That looks like 8 Hull damage not to mention serious Engine damage... alas, the Arcturan Cruiser has Armor Plating and those four 1s result in NO DAMAGE! A later hit scores an additional hull hit for a total of 5 hull hits. Without Armor Plating, those 1s would have been enough to sink the Murakamo in one round of combat!
Still, enough hits are scored to also cause serious damage to the Murakamo's main batteries.
The Arcturans open fire with their long-range batteries, as well. Although they have a better accuracy than the Terrans, they lack Fire Control and so suffer the -1 penalty for long range fire. In addition, the Terran cruisers are equipped with Countermeasures, which means that long-range fire will hit only on a roll of 6. All shots go wide and the Arcturans (so Blacklancer99 tells me) begin to get a sinking feeling...
Below is an image of the ships at the end of the fire phase. Notice the Hit Markers next to ships damaged during Fire Phase. These markers are used to record damage to be applied in the End Phase.
[attachment=1]Turn 2 post Fire Phase.jpg[/attachment]
Here is a closeup of damage being assigned on the in-game data sheet to the Murakamo. The little x's bracketing ship systems indicate damage (see Engines and Shields). Alternatively, they could be replaced with X's. So a ship beginning with shields of SHIELDS: 1 1 1 1 that took two damage to shields would look like SHIELDS: X X 1 1
[attachment=0]Assigning damage to Murakamo.jpg[/attachment]
Turn 3 will be forthcoming...
65% off is a good deal for most things.
Quick update: the Cowardly DaiKen chose to hold their positions. For those without the Hammer & Claw supplement, the Umi-class battelship of the DaiKen has a Japanime killer gun (very long range, very destructive). Actually, the entire DaiKen fleet has an advantage in weapon range. He also has a fair number of Striker-flights waiting to be launched. Turn 2 move orders are in, so look for something more soon.
Thanks for the clarification, Dan!
Armor Plating "negates" any damage die that comes up 1; thus, not only is the "normal" damage canceled, but the extra hull damage is also negated.
Actually, what caught my attention is that the rule says: "If using Option B1: Armor Plating, note that this extra damage takes place even on a roll of 1."
So, against Armor Plating, it would be, according to the rules as written: no hull + no engine + hull. Or is it a mistake in the rulebook?
Oh, no reason, vile Arcturan scumdog. :evil:
Actually, for our game, let's say it does not double damage on rolls of 1,3,5. And I do think that is true anyway but I am curious what the official answer is.
Does this score double damage on rolls of 1, 3, 5? The text of the rule, I think, does not say that it does. But because of its effect on ships with Armor Plating, I am wondering.
Here come the Grumm! Laurence sent me his secretly recorded move orders, so I made my moves and have sent the file back to him to reveal his orders and move his ships. (Although they appear to be hunkered down in the lower-right corner of the board.)
First image is my fleet after moving. Notice the P indicating passive sensors and the numbers on the hexsides showing Screens. (I see something that needs to be fixed! Do you? Yes, I will move the screens numbering inside the hex to avoid confusion with neighboring ships. It's currently very confusing.)
[attachment=2]Grumm Move Turn 1.jpg[/attachment]
Second image is a closeup of one group and you can see the enlargement of the ship that occurs when you do a mouse rollover on a hex at less than 100% map size. Notice the sensors and screens are also visible in this image.
[attachment=1]Screens need fixing.jpg[/attachment]
Final image is just to give you the relative starting positions of the two sides (well, after the Grumm move).
[attachment=0]Grumm1 copy.jpg[/attachment]
Shouldn't facebook be under Cheese?
LSutehall and I are embarking on another test-drive of the Vassal Mod I have nearly completed.* We are using fleets from the Hammer & Claw supplement for Starmada: AE. Well, technically, this not an AAR, as it will be an ongoing review of the action as it happens.
I have assembled my Grumm fleet (see below) and they await the human Dai-Ken fleet. My fleet consists of:
1 Viktor-class Fleet Carrier (with 4 size 8 flights) (not enough carrying capacity but has a couple big guns)
1 Casar-class Battlecruiser (not nearly as tough as the Grumm battleship but with lots of heavy weapons)
3 Arger-class Cruisers (workman-like heavy cruisers)
4 Dora II-class Destroyer Escorts (Escorts and not much more)
The Grumm use Screens, which I have not powered up but will show up in future images from the battle. I am using the Empire faction ships from the vassal mod.
* <Update on Vassal Mod? I think it's basically done. I am writing up a help guide to be attached for those who like instructions on how to use something and where to find things. Once I have completed that, I will release a version 0.9 beta on Vassalengine.org, and then await further feedback before posting a 'final' version.>
Bizarre. Mine, too, says speed 14 and capacity 28. It also says DMG 3.
I fiddled a bit and in Shipyard, I get capacity 28 with the following:
Size 4, Speed 12, Attack 4, Defense 1, DMG 2
It also says they are guided missiles and therefore, I think should be strikers, as it says.
Sorry, Dan. Not until someone is squatting on marjestic12games.com have you truly made it. :roll:
mj12games.com/forum → Posts by MadSeason
Powered by PunBB, supported by Informer Technologies, Inc.