• Registered: 2010-06-07
  • Posts: 3

Topic: Nasty weapon designs

So, my local gaming club has been really starting to get into Starmada.    Yesterday I had a chance to really play test some of the nastier designs players are going to be using in the campaign at the local store.    The design that really impressed me, was one of the players came up with seeker flights that were 8 strong, speed 15, rof 3, repeating, starship exclusive.    On one ship he scored 62 hits from one flight, on another 54.    He and I already figured the main counter to these are going to be fighters that can intercept them, but I'm looking for other options on how to handle seekers.  He also had repeating on the guns on his starships, but those were less of a problem as he had limited shots and they only fired every other turn.

Thoughts?

  • Registered: 2010-05-09
  • Posts: 20

Re: Nasty weapon designs

That is definately a game-changer.  My group and I are still fairly new with this game but we recently instituted a new limitation.  We all noticed that each session was becoming a "who can design the most insidious weapons" contest, games were getting shorter and shorter and really most were decidied by who got to use their doomsday weapon first.  So we all decided that we would put an arbitrary limit of 1 positive weapon or fighter trait and one negative trait.  We were all making 800su weapons that ignored shields and did 20-30 damage each hit.  SO no matter how much protectiona  ship had, if it got hit, it was dead.  I am anxious to try it out with the new limit just to see how much it changes, hopefully there will be more room for tactics and manuevering.

  • Registered: 2010-06-17
  • Posts: 12

Re: Nasty weapon designs

Isn't the counter for massive powerful weapons simply taking a huge number of tiny ships? Seems that you may otherwise start having to build a huge list of forbidden combinations of traits. That could get very complicated very quickly.

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

Re: Nasty weapon designs

Indeed. Before legislating against "doomsday" weapons, I would suggest exploring all possible counters.

Honestly, I think the biggest issue with Starmada over the years has been the players' inclination towards larger and larger ships, which then allow for super-duper-weapons. Instead of messing with weapon design rules, how about setting a limit on hull size (12?) or putting a surcharge on larger hulls?

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • Registered: 2010-06-07
  • Posts: 3

Re: Nasty weapon designs

I think since we're going to be doing a campaign and there are maintenance costs associated with ships it's going to be a self correcting problem.   I was thinking of trying minefields, but in order for them to work they'll need to be deployed in depth, and ship's will have to be set up for "sniping" at long ranges.    We'll see how it goes.