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

Topic: We played Starmada Unity in Jacksonville.

We played a 2000 point Starmada Unity game here in Jacksonville, Florida tonight.
In order to get used to the new rules, I played four of these ships:

SNS Arizona (505)
-Tech: Engines +2; Weapons +2

Screens: 21-20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Hull: 13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Engines: 4-4-3-3-2-2-1
Weapons: 22-19-16-13-10-7-4
Shields: 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

14"PlasmaGuns Triple Turret (6-12-18) 1×3+/1/4 (Pr1)
GHIJK ☐| GHIJK ☐| HIJKL ☐| HIJKL ☐ // (2)

Secondary PlasmaGuns (6-12-*) 1×3+/1/1 (Crn)
HIJK ☐| HIJK ☐| HIJK ☐| HIJK ☐ // (2)

AA PlasmaGuns (2-4-6) 1×3+/1/1 (Dfn)
360° ☐| 360° ☐| 360° ☐| 360° ☐| 360° ☐| 360° ☐ // (3)

Equipment: Fire Control ☐| Hyperdrive ☐| Tractor Beam ☐☐☐☐☐☐ // (4)
Marines : 3-2-1

My friend played a 1000 point & two 500 point two ships.  The game went smoothly.  In the end, all three of my frieid's ships were destroyed and I had one BB left.  My friend's three ships had the Weapon Traits Deadly+Disruptive on them. 
Deadly as a weapon trait made the hull on my ships go away rapidly.  It almost seems like a less expensive version of Catastrophic... 
I am very rusty at playing Starmada and made many errors forgetting to pivot until near the end of the game.  We had fun  big_smile
Cheers,

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

Re: We played Starmada Unity in Jacksonville.

Hello everyone,
We have been playing Starmada here in Jacksonville twice a week.  The last two games we played involved large amounts of seekers, speed 12, 1x3+/1/5.  They are nasty.  On Wednesday we played a game with 5,000 points a side.  My opponent was able to fire  110 of these drones.  It was impossible to shoot all of these down.  His C-G has a PV=320 and fires 80 of these each turn.  On my side, two ships survived but managed to destroy the cruiser, their only loss.  Our other five ships were obliterated. We can think of no way to limit these very powerful weapons, so we are going to prohibit them unless a reasonable solution is found.  Any seekers on the book ships will still be allowed so these will be the only seekers in our games..
Does anyone have any idea on how to balance or limit these seemingly over-powerful weapons.  They are Brutal....
Cheers
PS:  Here is my design to counter my friends ship before we decided on a seeker-ban:

Volcano-class BCG (500)  -Tech: Weapons +2

Hull: 16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Engines: 4-4-3-3-2-2-1-1
Weapons: 46-41-35-29-23-18-12-6

X-ray Laser Missiles (MA 12) 2×3+/1/3 (Mdl)
CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐ // (3)

X-ray Laser Missiles (MA 12) 2×3+/1/3 (Mdl)
CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐ // (3)

X-ray Laser Missiles (MA 12) 2×3+/1/3 (Mdl)
CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐ // (3)

X-ray Laser Missiles (MA 12) 2×3+/1/3 (Mdl)
CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐ // (3)

X-ray Laser Missiles (MA 12) 2×3+/1/3 (Mdl)
CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐| CD ☐ // (3)

AA PlasmaGuns (2-4-6) 1×3+/1/1 (Dfn; Rpt)
360° ☐| 360° ☐| 360° ☐| 360° ☐| 360° ☐| 360° ☐ // (3)

Equipment: Hyperdrive ☐| Overthrusters ☐| Tractor Beam ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ // (5)
Traits: Cargo (6)
I have not used this ship yet, but imagine that it would be devastating...

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

Re: We played Starmada Unity in Jacksonville.

My friends here in Jacksonville & I have changed how we play Starmada. 
We will allow a free +1 tech for fighters and another +1 tech placed at the designer's choice.  Also, my friends want to not use the Slow weapon trait. 
We had too many almost one shot weapons that had high damage and two Slw traits. 
We still don't use any expendables or seekers.
I look forward to our next game on Saturday, and will let everyone know how this works out.  :idea:
Cheers

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

Re: We played Starmada Unity in Jacksonville.

We played a 3000 point battle on Saturday using the restriction of only one +1 tech.  I put the +1 into weapons tech.
We also do not use the Expendable or the Slow Trait.  The game went well and was more like the Starmada I enjoy. 
The game lasted eight turns.  There was maneuvering and ships lasted longer.  I like it this way better.
Cheers.

PS:  This is my new four-turret DN:

Ship name: SNS ARIZONA
(751)  DN
Tech: Weapons +1
 
[6] Shields:  3  3  3  3  2  2  2  1  1  1
    Armor: 19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
[1-3] Hull : 19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
[4] Engines:  4  4  4  3  3  2  2  2  1  1
[5] Weapons:  32  29  26  23  20  16  13  10  7  4
 
Grazers        1-6/7-12/13-18  1×3+/1/2 
(2)  ABCD4 ☐   ABCD4 ☐   CDEF4 ☐   CDEF4 ☐
CIWS           0/1/1           3×2+/1/1  Dfn
(2)  360° ☐   360° ☐   360° ☐   360° ☐
Ion Missiles   1-6/7-12/13-18  1×3+/1/3  Gid
(3)  CD ☐   CD ☐   CD ☐   CD ☐   CD ☐   CD ☐
   
(9) Hyperdrive ☐  Overthrusters ☐  Tractor Beam ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐
   
Traits: Damage Control <4>; Cargo (1); Repair (1)    8-)

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

Re: We played Starmada Unity in Jacksonville.

Hello everyone,
Four of us played a big game of Starmada yesterday here in Jacksonville. 
Each side had 6,000 points (!)  My ally played a large 2700 pt ship with level 5 shields.  I played three of my Arizona-type DNs with level three shields and two cruisers.  The two guys on the other side concentrated on my ships because they thought the level 5 shilds to difficult to penetrate.  All three of my DNs & the two cruisers were destroyed, then my ally's big ship mopped up the rest of the other side.  We had fun.  8-) 
The game took c3 hours.

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

Re: We played Starmada Unity in Jacksonville.

Hello everyone from Jacksonville,
My friends up here and I played two games of Starmada Wednesday. 
The first one was a c5,000 point battle. A fleet of mine attacked a big 4200 point starbase and its two escorting ships.  I destroyed the Starbase & two ships, but all I had left of my big fleet was one 1-hull 35 point gunboat... 
How does the song go?:  "...one tin soldier rides away..."  <LOL>

The second one was when my friend who I played against earlier & I played against another friend who uses Nova-edition ships with no shields. 
The Nova-edition fleet was defeated. 

Cheers,
Steven

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

Re: We played Starmada Unity in Jacksonville.

Hello everyone,
A friend and I played a 3200 point battle.  I took a Dreadnought, five assault cruisers and some smaller ships and was victorious.  The firepower of the assault cruisers is phenomenal. Here is the Assault Cruiser:  Thoughts or comments anyone?

Guided Missile Assault Cruiser (310)
-Tech: Weapons +1

Hull: 13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Engines: 4-4-3-3-2-2-1
Weapons: 25-22-18-15-11-8-4

Npr Antimatter Missiles (*/7-12/13-18) 1×3+/1/9 (Bls; Gid; NPr)
AB ☐   AB ☐   AB ☐   AB ☐   AB ☐ // (3)

Npr Antimatter Missiles (*/7-12/13-18) 1×3+/1/9 (Bls; Gid; NPr)
AB ☐   AB ☐   AB ☐   AB ☐   AB ☐ // (3)

Npr Antimatter Missiles (*/7-12/13-18) 1×3+/1/9 (Bls; Gid; NPr)
AB ☐   AB ☐   AB ☐   AB ☐   AB ☐ // (3)

Equipment: Hyperdrive ☐| Tractor Beam ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ // (5)
Traits: Damage Control <3>

  • Registered: 2018-07-09
  • Posts: 136

Re: We played Starmada Unity in Jacksonville.

Well, some shielding would give those missiles a much harder time

The thing is, after a brief phase where I designed ships to be almost impossible to beat, nowadays I'd much rather design ships that may be flawed but 'make sense'--for example, a few of my toyed-with settings has been introducing Ortillery batteries which are weapons designed to be absolutely useless--they're 6+ weapons with Bls/Crn, for example. Absolutely useless, but their presence shows that the ship can, as well as fight single-ship, squadron or fleet actions, also target targets from orbit to (support ground actions/teach those pesky rebels a lesson/exact retribution) [delete whichever is inappropriate].

As for the seeker ban, one thing I've been doing is creating dual-mode weapons, one as a seeker, one as a direct-fire weapon. The DF mode (with Dfs+Crn) is the 'sprint mode' of the seeker weapon, and tends to have a short range equal to the MA of the seeker (so, R-12 pairs up with MA 4). It ups the SU cost of the seekers by a respectable margin, so might make the 'powergamer' sacrifice some of the throw-weight.

On an aside note--my most recent race design in the Alliance/Empire thread--the Pyroxines--I'm not that happy with 'em. I reckon they're absolute fiends in single-ship actions where their shields and screens forward (and their twin overthrusters) might make it damn-near impossible to do any damage before they get in range of their plasma-beam cannons.

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

Re: We played Starmada Unity in Jacksonville.

I agree with you that ships that "make sense" are more fun.  The friends I game with all have ships with minimal hull, no armor & no shields, and lotsa firepower.  The only way to have a chance to win is to use some of these assault cruisers.  We tried using fighters, but they turned out to be not that powerful for their cost.  One of these cruisers costs about the same as 5 squadrons of fighters but has much more  firepower.

Here is the Dreadnought that accompanied the five cruisers:

Heavy Dreadnought  (1500)
-Tech: Weapons +1

Screens: 32-31-30-29-28-27-26-25-24-23-22-21-20-19-18-
         17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Hull: 34-33-32-31-30-29-28-27-26-25-24-23-22-21-20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Engines: 4-4-4-4-4-3-3-3-3-2-2-2-2-1-1-1-1
Weapons: 38-36-34-32-30-27-25-23-21-18-16-14-12-9-7-5-3
Shields: 10-10-9-9-8-8-7-6-6-5-5-4-3-3-2-2-1
-Fwd: 4-3-2-1
-Port: 2-1
-Stbd: 2-1
-Aft: 2-1

Fusion Cannon (1-6/7-12/13-18) 1×3+/1/6 (Pr1)
GHI3 ☐   GHI3 ☐   GHI3 ☐   GHI3 ☐ // (2)

Lasers (1-6/7-12/13-18) 1×3+/1/1
ABC2 ☐   ABC2 ☐   ABC2 ☐   ABD2 ☐   ABD2 ☐   ABD2 ☐ // (3)

Antimatter Missiles (1-6/7-12/13-18) 1×3+/1/9 (Gid)
AB2 ☐   AB2 ☐   AB2 ☐   AB2 ☐ // (2)

Antimatter Missiles (1-6/7-12/13-18) 1×3+/1/9 (Gid)
AB2 ☐   AB2 ☐   AB2 ☐ // (2)

Equipment: Hyperdrive ☐| Tractor Beam ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ // (11)
Traits: Damage Control <5>

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

Re: We played Starmada Unity in Jacksonville.

Hello everyone,
We played a 2800 point game on Wednesday.  We have decided that all weapons can only have an impact or damage of one.  The weapon can have as many traits as you want.  This keeps the firepower from being two outrageous. 
The game went well and lasted for many turns.  I think that we have found a way to make the game fun again. 
We are playing next Wednesday again.
Cheers

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

Re: We played Starmada Unity in Jacksonville.

Hello Starmada Players,
We are going to play Starmada at the FLGS here in Jacksonville on Wednesday Jan 16 @ 1:30pm.  All are welcome and I have ships & figures that visitors can use,
The Fleets will sortie! :geek:
Cheers

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

Re: We played Starmada Unity in Jacksonville.

Hello everyone,
We have been playing using the house rule that weapons can only have an impact and damage value of One, with as many traits as you want.  Also we don't use the expendable & slow traits. 
This has helped eliminate one-shot ships. 
The battles now have more maneuvering and a targeted ship will last for several turns. 
It is working for us and we are again enjoying the game.  8-)
Cheers