Sa'Vasku stuff

Some friends and I have been experimenting with the Sa'Vasku rules. 
Based
on our observations we have come up with some house rules I thought I
would share with all of you for your critique.	Those of you who might
remember me from the Epic list know that I can't leave anything alone.

The first thing we noticed about the Sa'Vasku was that they were rather
boaring "shall I fire the battery type weapon, the battery type weapon,
or
maybe I shall use the battery type weapon instead" was the problem.  The
second was that by mass they were a good deal less powerful than the
human
ships, based on average rolls, and we wanted something a little more
scary.	Based on these ideas here are the changes and additions we made.

Changes:

FTL DRIVES:
	Engaging FTL drive with a Sa'Vasku ship requires a power point
expenditure equal to THREE TIMES the PF of the ship.

	This changed was based on the observation that on an average
turn
a Sa'Vasku ship could not engage its FTL drives, would make a fleet
assault rather difficult for the Sa'Vasku we thought.

SCREENS:
	Putting out a level-1 screen uses power points equal to 1/2 the
ship's Power Factor, then double this for a level-2 and triple for a
level-3 screen.
	
	With the cost equal to the PF we felt that a Sa'Vasku ship was
far
to ineffective if it put up screens.  We wanted the average Sa'Vasku
ship,
on an average turn, with average dice rolls, to be a little closer in
capability to the average human cruiser.

COST:

	"ESCORT": 5pts per mass
	"CRUISER": 6pts per mass
	"CAPITAL": 7pts per mass

	We felt that larger ships were more capable than small ships and
thus should cost a little more to encourage the small ships.  

ADDITIONS:

WAVE PULSE:
	The Wave Pulse is the equivalent of a Sa'Vasku spinal mount
weapon.  The Wave Pulse fires only along the main axis of the firing
ship
(as with the Nova Cannon and Wave Gun).  On the turn the Wave Pulse is
fired the firing ship is counted as unshielded in its forward arc, if it
put up shields that turn.

	On the turn of firing the Sa'Vasku ship generates a form of
Gravitic/Magnetic/PSB disturbance that is then released.  The wave
travels
in a straight line colliding with anything in its path until it finally
dies out.  Each turn (including the firing turn) move a 2" wide Wave
Marker 4d6 inches.  Anything that comes into contact with the wave is
considered to have been hit.  Anything hit by the wave suffers 1d6
damage.
In addition ships often find themselves to have been thrown about
(slightly) by the wave itself.	For each ship struck by the wave roll a
d6, on a 1-2 the ship is moved on point to port, on a 3-4 the ship
manages
to maintain its heading, on a 5-6 this ship is turned on point to
starboard.  Each turn the wave is moved 4d6 inches until it runs out of
energy, on a turn the firing ship rolls two or more 6's the wave is
considered to have expanded all of its energy, finish its movement for
that turn and remove it at the end of the turn.

BEM PULSE:

Sa'Vasku ships are able to generate a Pulse of energy
Bio-ElectroMagnetic
Energy capable of disrupting the systems on a targeted ship.  The Pulse
may be directed only along the forward arc of Capital ships, but may be
directed along any of the three forward arcs of smaller ships.	The
weapon
has a range of 12 inches and costs 10pts to generate the pulse.  The
weapon will strike its target on a 5-6 (if the firing ship is of Capital
class) or on a 4,5,6 (if the firing ship is of Cruiser or Escort class).
The effect of being struck by the Pulse is to force an immediate thresh
hold check at whatever level the target ship is currently on (6 for the
first line, 5-6 for the second, etc.)

NEEDLE BEAM:
	Escort class Sa'Vasku ships are small and nibble enough to use
there Energy Pulse weapons as a type of Needle Beam.  The Beam may be
fired only from the front arc and costs 5pts to generate.  The effect is
the same as a human needle beam.

MINESWEEPING:
	All Sa'Vasku Escorts are capable of acting as Minesweeepers.

Close:

Flame away :)	While many of the above weapons may seem very powerful
remember that the human ships have access to much the same technology or
to weapons that are simply more powerful.  Also, remember the AVERAGE
amount of power a Sa'Vasku ship can generate when looking at the above
weapons.  Too often it seems that the Sa'Vasku are evaluated on what
they
could do IF you roll ten 6s for your Capital ship, when was the last
time
that happened and would you base tactics on it happening again?  For the
same reasons we lowered the cost of shields.  As it stood a Sa'Vasku
could
put up decent amount of: shields, maneuver, or fire.  This made the
Sa'Vasku very predictable and easily defeated in fleet actions.  If the
Sa'Vasku maneuver so that they can do decent amount of damage then they
didn't have enough energy to do the damage.  On a turn that they didn't
maneuver they could do the damage but the enemy fleet moved away.  Human
ships could do everything (shields, maneuver, fire) and the Sa'Vasku
were
just slaughtered by them.

							Chad Taylor