RE: A, AA, BREW, ...

Date sent:  16-SEP-1996 08:31:43 

>A couple of friedns and I ended up playing B5-FT with a couple of 
>Narn cruisers against a couple of Centari cruisers, with victory 
>going, naturally, to the Centauri. We had, as we put it, a "good
>hair day".

Long live Catargia. Emperor of the Stars (>8-)

>Anyway, we looked over a couple of the B5 adaptations of FT and 
>noticed the bigger than normal weaponry and the bigger than normal
>ships, and wondered at the reason to scale both, rather than leave
>the ships in a more standard FT-size realm, and the weapons likewise.

>We found it more satisfactory to use A as the absolute maximum that 
>the more primitive cultures (Narn, Human, Cantauri) could muster, 
>with perhaps the Mimbari having AA batteries. So why then the BREW,
>BGEW, Heavy Beam, etc.? If the ships were not scaled to almost double 
>the FT sizes, the weaponry would't need upgrading. 

>Is there something we're missing?

No. You are spot on. I think the main problem is the number of fighters
carried (As beams can represent multiple weapons firing together, they
are not a major factor), so if you relax the space taken by a hanger
deck, you can make more 'fragile' ships. Note however that when compared
to the fighters, most B5 ships are massive. (Although Drazi Sunhawks are
only cruisers at best.)

The capital Ship weaponry needs to be sufficiently powerful, and the
ships sufficiently large such that fighters do not compleatly dominate
the game. In practice, fighters can 'anoy' a capital ship, but don't
appear to be much of a real threat.

And boy, was Shadow Dancing good.

>BTW: I would have rathered played a Narn, but you've gotta admit that
>the pooftah Centauri can be fun - if reprehensible.

The Centauri just can't loose. (>8-)

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