Topic: S:NE and unreachable buckets o' dice

Zowie!  I've a S'ssk Maglev turret with 30 dice at modifier 0 --- but wait a minute, the turret is PH7, which nominally means only 3 dice.

I can see +1 for short, and +1 for getting the kilt side of directional shields.  Then there is a +1 for fire control... I don't see how I can get more than +3 on attack mods even in a most extreme situation.

Why bother showing me the dice count for a range of modifiers I can't get to?

Jerome.

Re: S:NE and unreachable buckets o' dice

The idea is that the number of dice in the first column indicates the total firepower of all the weapons in the battery, even if you'll never be able to use them all against a single target.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: S:NE and unreachable buckets o' dice

Then let me poisit a "buckets o' dice" ship and tell me if I've abused the design rules.

Let's use the ship demo'd in the ship construction, substituting my weapon for its main banks.  The ship ought to have the same rating as before, which seems to be 170 CRAT for this 8-hull ship.

Page 47 gives me the Weapon Bank SUs, and comes up with 270 SUs for a 7-weapon battery in three banks.  Its strongest battery is [FF2], which gives it 7 dice at medium range.  Its max range is 15.

I propose to reduce this to one giant planet thrower, BAS = 18 on a FR arc (front 60).  That comes up to (18 * 15 * .98 * 1 smile 265 SUs.  The battery is [FR] (no negatives here on its arc) with 18 dice at medium range.

Those 8 hull points are roughly DD sized, and the points (170) are large DD.  If I can poke my nose in your direction you'll get quite a welcome.

Although an extreme ship, does this break the ship designer?

Jerome.

Re: S:NE and unreachable buckets o' dice

The "Arizona"Class DN that I have posted on the B-Basin will roll 48 dice from its two types of turbo-Laserrs at range one with Accuracy and Repeating. (!)
Statistically speaking these Turbo Lasers will do 24 (Acr) +8 (Rpt) = 32 points of damage.  That wil shoot down 16 fighter squads. or ravage another ship.  I admit, it is fun rolling 48 dice, then rerolling those that hit.  For the target of this strafing, it is often damaging/devestating... 8-)
Cheers

Re: S:NE and unreachable buckets o' dice

javaguy wrote:

Although an extreme ship, does this break the ship designer?

Short answer: No, it does not break the designer.

Longer answer: depending upon the enemy fleet, this design could either dominate all comers, or fizzle. There is a certain unavoidable rock-paper-scissors aspect to a game like Starmada. There are always discussions (arguments?) over whether this piece of equipment or that weapons trait combo is "unbeatable", but there are also ways of countering just about anything someone can throw at you.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: S:NE and unreachable buckets o' dice

When I design my biger ships, the large DNs, I try to to make them good all around.  The DDs, etc are the ones that have the Tls, Slw, or other unusual changes.  This seems to work well for me.  Recently, I have added Overthrusters to all my ships and to keep costs down I have deleted Firecontrol.  Overthrusters makes it difficult to out manuever my naval-style ships.  8-)

Re: S:NE and unreachable buckets o' dice

BeowulfJB wrote:

When I design my biger ships, the large DNs, I try to to make them good all around.  The DDs, etc are the ones that have the Tls, Slw, or other unusual changes.  This seems to work well for me.  Recently, I have added Overthrusters to all my ships and to keep costs down I have deleted Firecontrol.  Overthrusters makes it difficult to out manuever my naval-style ships.  8-)

I can not remember having seen a picture of your ships. When are you going to share?

Paul

Re: S:NE and unreachable buckets o' dice

Here is the lastest version of my DNs, replacing Firecontrol with Overthrusters:

FOUR-LARGE-TURRET-class Dreadnoughts  (482)
46ARMOR  ( = 31 AblativeArmor)
46HULL (I think of it as 23 Reinforced Hull from the Starmada Compendium)
THRUST [5][4][3][2][1]    WEAPONS [_][1][2][3][4]
ECM [_][_][_][_][_] SHIELDS [_][_][_][_][_]
Fragile Systems; Overthrusters
WEAPONS ARCS RANGE ATTACK DICE -4   -6   -8 -10
7× Heavy Plasma Guns (Acr/Dfs/Dx3) [FX6][FX6][CD6][CD6][CD6][AX6][AX6] 6-12-18;   7 5 4 2 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
14× Chain Guns (Acr/Rpt) [TT] 1-2-3;    14 10 7 5 4 2 2 1 1 1 0 0

I use this ship design for all of the US DNs from Pennsylvania class thru the Colorado class.  Also I use this for all British DNs of Q.E. & R Class. :geek: