• Registered: 2006-05-07
  • Posts: 36

Topic: After session report: Lightning Guns

A snippet of conversion from Saturday night's IS game:

"Lightning guns are broken, so I will never build a ship with them."

"I know lightning guns are broken, so I will always build ships with them!"

Alright smart forum members, discuss! Are lightning guns broken? What's the best defense against lightning guns? Is dice luck a sufficient weapon equilizer? Does he cost of lightning guns actually offset their power? What's your take on my opponents' opinions?

I don't put lightning guns on my ships. I don't consider them broken because every weapon succombs to the luck of the dice.

Please advise and post your opinions.

  • Registered: 2005-03-30
  • Posts: 272

Re: After session report: Lightning Guns

I'm assuming the argument here is that Lightning Projectors are too powerful?  They certainly work well versus high-armor targets, but against VS and S hulls (and FACs, of course) that rely on speed instead of plating, they're pretty weak compared to conventional guns.  Their effectiveness may seem higher than it really is if your opponent spent heavily on capital ships and scrimped on support vessels.

That said, if you're trying to minimax, anything designed to kill battleships probably *ought* to run LPs for Primaries, but it's going to be expensive, and you'll need escorts to keep the bombers and torpedo boats off you.

Red Russian Heat Rays may actually be a better weapon overall, as they're a better compromise between armor penetration and bulk.

That's my two cents.

Rich

  • From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Re: After session report: Lightning Guns

Hmm. Depends on what is meant by "broken". There are certainly situations in which they outperform expectations (e.g., against armour-5 targets), but they can also underperform (e.g., against unarmoured targets).

The effectiveness of weapons in Iron Stars are determined by a spreadsheet I've worked up determining the chance of scoring a hit against any combination of range and armour... this is then baselined so that a d4 gun has a value of 4, d6 is 6, and so on.

As the chart on p.41 of the Iron Stars rulebook shows, the Combat Rating of lightning projectors is anywhere from doubled (on a d12 gun) to quadrupled (on a d4 gun) -- with an average increase of x2.45.

To answer the question more directly, I have not experienced a significant "breakage" of the system. Lightning projectors are powerful, yes, but not invincible. They are still knocked out by damage -- and they waste their abilities against lightly-armoured targets. So, use your destroyers to swarm the LP-armed ships and you should be just fine.

Having said that, if two dreadnoughts face off, one with LPs and one without, the LP-equipped ship will win every time. But we've known for a while that Iron Stars is about fleet actions, not ship-to-ship duels.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Re: After session report: Lightning Guns

hundvig wrote:

Red Russian Heat Rays may actually be a better weapon overall, as they're a better compromise between armor penetration and bulk.

Perhaps...

So what do you think the "original" Martian heat rays can do? smile

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • Registered: 2005-03-30
  • Posts: 272

Re: After session report: Lightning Guns

cricket wrote:
hundvig wrote:

Red Russian Heat Rays may actually be a better weapon overall, as they're a better compromise between armor penetration and bulk.

Perhaps...

So what do you think the "original" Martian heat rays can do? smile

Well, they can't cure the common cold...

Rich

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 65

Re: After session report: Lightning Guns

hundvig wrote:
cricket wrote:
hundvig wrote:

Red Russian Heat Rays may actually be a better weapon overall, as they're a better compromise between armor penetration and bulk.

Perhaps...

So what do you think the "original" Martian heat rays can do? smile

Well, they can't cure the common cold...

Rich

LMFAO

  • Registered: 2006-05-07
  • Posts: 36

Re: After session report: Lightning Guns

Thank you for your assistance. I will pass your comments along!

Michael B.

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,424

Re: After session report: Lightning Guns

cricket wrote:
hundvig wrote:

Red Russian Heat Rays may actually be a better weapon overall, as they're a better compromise between armor penetration and bulk.

Perhaps...

So what do you think the "original" Martian heat rays can do? smile

There's a lot of images here....
http://drzeus.best.vwh.net/wotw/wotw.html

There's an album cover that sorta illustrates the Beam's effects....

  • Registered: 2005-03-30
  • Posts: 272

Re: After session report: Lightning Guns

thedugan wrote:
cricket wrote:
hundvig wrote:

Red Russian Heat Rays may actually be a better weapon overall, as they're a better compromise between armor penetration and bulk.

Perhaps...

So what do you think the "original" Martian heat rays can do? smile

There's a lot of images here....
http://drzeus.best.vwh.net/wotw/wotw.html

There's an album cover that sorta illustrates the Beam's effects....

Wait...Tin Tin fought the Martians???  Who's next, Asterix and Obelix?  smile

Rich

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,286

Re: After session report: Lightning Guns

hundvig wrote:
thedugan wrote:
cricket wrote:

Perhaps...

So what do you think the "original" Martian heat rays can do? smile

There's a lot of images here....
http://drzeus.best.vwh.net/wotw/wotw.html

There's an album cover that sorta illustrates the Beam's effects....

Wait...Tin Tin fought the Martians???  Who's next, Asterix and Obelix?  smile

Rich

No of course not.  It's Bugs Bunny and Duck Dogers!  after all...all martians are named Marvin by default! *insane grin* big_smile