cnuzzi wrote:1 - I can find no mention of a speed for Stingers, which leads me to believe that they should move at speed 4, since they are considered shuttles. However, in FC, shuttles move at speed 8 and Stingers move at speed 16, which makes me think they should move at speed 8 in Starmada. Which is correct?
So... went back and forth on this one. You are correct that Stingers "should" move 8 when compared to shuttles; however, such a speed would allow them to outrun drones and keep pace with plasma torpedoes. That didn't seem right, so I stuck with 4-- which just happens to be the same 1:4 ratio used for ships.
You could probably split the difference and allow them to move 6 and it wouldn't break the game balance enough to really notice.
2 - Since Stingers are shuttles, and shuttles are considered single-fighter flights, a Ranger CA with hull size 11 can launch 3 Stingers per turn. Can these 3 Stingers be represented by a single counter, or should they each get their own counter?
You could group them in a single counter, but you are not required to.
There was a third question asked earlier about combat values and endurance.
a) I made the decision not to require Stingers to return to their carrier to rearm/recharge because in FedCom they get four Fusion Beam shots before running out of "ammo"... and that's just too fiddly to track for individual fighters.
b) The ORAT and DRAT of each Stinger is based on that of a shuttlecraft, which have ORAT 50 and DRAT 2. Because Stingers have six (!) times the combat punch of a shuttlecraft, they should have an ORAT of 300 -- and that doesn't count the three-hex range. However, doing a literal point-cost was pricing Hydran ships well outside the range of those from other Empires in relation to their FedCom point values. So, I cut that in half because Reasons.
Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com
