• Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 359

Topic: Battle Satellites

Ok, here's the next system I am playing with......

My questions are as follows....

Is there a maximum range they can go from their host ship?
Do they take damage like fighters (it implies that they are similar to fighters) or are they an equipment hit...... (or maybe equipment, until they launch)  (also, I am at work, and don't have my copy of the rules, so if these questions are in the rules.... ignore it..... I'm just playing with the spreadsheet at the moment.)

I am just wondering if anyone else has considered using these.......

John

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 359

Re: Battle Satellites

Ok, got home and looked into it.....

Hmmmmmm....... can move 5 hexes each turn, take damage as fighters, and have a range 12 weapon that is 3+ to hit with a 360 degree fire arc....... yeah it's only 1/1/1 but you can have an unlimited number of them, as long as you only launch 3 per turn......., and as long as their carrier is up and running......  Finally, they cost only 12 points each at 0 tech level......

a range 12 weapon with a 360 arc at 3+ costs 56 when put on a ship......

The downside, they can be hit as Q hits, and also shot down as a fighter. They don't have shields, although the rules state that they are hit as fighters, so get the -1 to hit them bonus.  It doesn't state that they halve shields, so I am going to assume that they don't.....

But I am looking at the fact that you can put a batch of them on a ship, and sort of have them spreading out all over the battlefield.....albeit somewhat slow at movement 5.

I can see them being extremely vulnerable to fighter swarms.....

Any ideas from other players?

John

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 287

Re: Battle Satellites

I have used them, and placed them in the ONESS Brigade designs from that fun.

You can clump them (10+) and pore the lasers into a single ship target, which will ruin his day. Or they provide excellent anti-fighter fire to free your ships to work over the opponent's hulls.

But even better, they have a nice morale effect on the table. Inevitably your opponent sees them poping out and his plans go out the window and he tries to figure out how to deal with them.

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

Re: Battle Satellites

Some of my designs were based along a similar idea to the ONESS ships--primarily because I wanted defence from fighter swarms. Essentially, any ship that could had 5 battle sats on board. Although single-ship combat was not changed much, if you had a fleet...the number of battlesats placed on the board in one turn would hopefully scare any fleet away...:D