• Registered: 2011-06-11
  • Posts: 110

Topic: Ship Design Help

Hi,

I've recently created both Vorlons and Shadows for my B5 system.  I playtested a single Vorlon cruiser Vs 3 WhiteStars last night.  The game went pretty much as I expected, the WhiteStars won by destroying all my wepaons.  How do I fix this?

In my conversion the Vorlons have 2 sets of duel weapons (to represent the firing options they had in B5Wars), but they only have 4 in total. 

First set = [AB] [AB]
Second set = [ABC] [ABD]

The weapon damage is:  1:V 2: W 3:0 4:0 5:0 6:0

Because the Vorlon ship has 5 sheilds the WS's didn't get many shots through but in 3 turns all 4 weapons were gone.  The rest of the ship wasn't too bad.  About 1/2 hull, 1/2 engines and full shields.  The Whitestars lost 1 ship.  If it wasn't for the weapon loss it would have been a closer game.

My issue is that on the larger Vorlon ships this will be even worse, I'll end up with no weapons on an otherwise healthy ship.  If I increase the number of weapons the damage table increases too, so it's more likely to lose weapons.

Any ideas?

Also, regeneration seems pointless except in a campaign.  It seems more likely to lose either all weapons/engines before I lose all my hull.

  • Registered: 2011-06-11
  • Posts: 110

Re: Ship Design Help

I think I may have answered my own question.  Damage Control...

If we use damage control then I won't have to change anything.  The Vorlons/Shadows will be able to repair weapons.  Also It means I can drop a house rule for my Shadows and get them back to official rules.  8-)

  • Registered: 2011-06-11
  • Posts: 110

Re: Ship Design Help

Arrgh!

Not sure if damage control will solve the situation.  To repair a weapon you must first roll a 5,6 then roll the weapon mount on the chart!  This means that ships with less on the damage chart can't repair as easy.  On average the Vorlon cruiser will have to wait 6 turns to repair the weapon they want!

  • Registered: 2005-03-29
  • Posts: 859

Re: Ship Design Help

I'm tempted to utter the words armoured gun batteries, but I'm not sure how they'd work with AE. Tended not to use them in S:X, either...

Reason being, the Vorlon weapons in B5W had a lot of hit boxes, far more than even the heavy laser cannon/neutron cannons, IIRC. Maybe do it so every weapon that has, say 15-20 boxes or more gets AGB?

  • Registered: 2011-06-11
  • Posts: 110

Re: Ship Design Help

What are armoured gun batteries?  Not seen them in either AE or the Annex.

I think I'm going to rule that Damage Control for weapons works slightly different.  You keep re-rolling until you get a result with battery in it, ignoring the empty results. You still might not have a damaged weapon there though on larger ships.

I'm thinking of it as the repair crews are where the weapons are, but they might not be at the right weapon system at the right time etc.  I don't see why a large ship with one small weapon should be worse off when trying to repair it than a smaller ship.

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Ship Design Help

murtalianconfederacy wrote:

I'm tempted to utter the words armoured gun batteries, but I'm not sure how they'd work with AE. Tended not to use them in S:X, either...

Reason being, the Vorlon weapons in B5W had a lot of hit boxes, far more than even the heavy laser cannon/neutron cannons, IIRC. Maybe do it so every weapon that has, say 15-20 boxes or more gets AGB?

What about designing the Vorlon weapons as several "smaller" weapons with fire-linked? I don't know exactly what yours look like, but IIRC Vorlon lightning cannons kind of combined from multiple arrays to form one powerful beam. Yes, more weapons means more weapon hits, but if you use repair rules on top of that your chances of getting some back increases, no?
Cheers,
Erik

  • Registered: 2010-03-09
  • Posts: 630

Re: Ship Design Help

diddimus wrote:

What are armoured gun batteries?  Not seen them in either AE or the Annex.

If I'm not mistaken, it's the same thing as armor plating, but instead of negating all damage dice = 1, it negates if they are = 5. A good idea, except if you combine that with armor plating, making the ships almost invulnerable.

Marc

  • Registered: 2011-06-11
  • Posts: 110

Re: Ship Design Help

Here's my Vorlon Light Cruiser.  I added Fire control after a game last night.  The Div 2 in the weapon titles is to allow me to double the number of weapons instead.

Name:               
Type: LIGHT CRUISER-class VORLON  (1203)               
HULL: 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1                
ENGINES [TL0] 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1                                 
SHIELDS: [TL0] 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 1 1                                 
               
WEAPONS: [TL0] 1:[V] 2:[W] 3:[] 4:[] 5:[] 6:[]               
Battery V: Lightning Cannon (Mega Div2) , 5/10/15, 1/3+/5/2, Double Damage; Piercing +2; Slow-Firing               
Lightning Cannon (Hvy Div2), 4/8/12, 1/3+/5/1, Double Damage; Piercing +1               
[AB] [AB]                
Battery W: Lightning Cannon (Med Div2), 3/6/9, 1/3+/3/1, Double Damage               
Lightning Cannon (Lt), 2/4/6, 2/3+/1/1, Anti-Fighter               
[ABC] [ABD]                                
               
Special: [TL0] Hyperdrive; Armor Plating; Regeneration; Fire Control               
Fighters: [TL0]               

The game last night went ok.  My opponent got lucky in the first couple of turns and took out one of the main weapons and both secondaries.  I also had some smaller ships that also struggled, but mainly because of all the fighters the enemy had.  But after that the game went better.  In the end though I was flying around trying to repair the weapons but never did.  I also had really bad luck and 2 turns of missing with everything I had left!! 

It wasn't a great test but in the end we decided that Ancients needed fire control as they need to make the shots when they get them.  Also thematically it makes sense so they can mitigate countermeasures and stealth etc.

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 740

Re: Ship Design Help

When I first played Starmada, I used the Starmada Compendium rules.  All of my ships had armored hulled and armored batteries.  It did make them harder to destroy, but they costed more and were Not invincible...
If the option for Armored batteries was added to Starmada SAE, I would add them to my ships.  I just enjoy the idea of having them.  All of my ships have armored hull, firecontrol, 3+ to hit, and all the weapons have range = 18.  All ships having this in common makes it much easier for me to run my fleets.  It also makes them formitable... :ugeek: