Re: Sa'vasku

At 09:41 AM 9/27/97 +1000, you wrote:
>Enough of Kra'vak talk - they are far approaching the most over exposed
>aliens in the Universe!
>Has anybody tried some serious games using Sa'vasku fleets?  I saw the
>pirate game on the UFTWS which looked like fun [I haven't tried it out
>yet], however I've found Sa'vasku really hard [dare I say boring] to
play.

	My problem with the Sa'vasku is that playing a large fleet of
them
is slooooow.  And since the Sa'vasku are my largest fleet (lots of
Tyrannid
ships...), and consists mostly of pretty small ships....  Well, things
bog
down.  Expecially when playing with folks unfamiliar with the rules. 
Plus,
I thought that the Sa'vasu neede to be more...well, alien.  As is, they
seems to be a mere imitation of the Human ships.  A race as old as
theirs
should have some more effective tech, in my opinion.  Inferior in a lot
of
ways, in fact.	I've been considering the following ideas, although I am
nowhere near the point of actually writing them up....

	First, build the Sa'vasku like any other ships.  They have
access to
beam weapons, of all three classes (although with inferior range), and
have
firecons and drive systems just like Humans.  However...instead of
shields,
the Sa'vasku can absorb incoming fire.	I'm not sure of the exact
mechanism
yet, but it would be a table similar to the reflex field, and will cause
the
ship to absorb some, all, or none of a beam attack.  This will be an
intrinsic quality of the ship, not an actual system.  Each point that
the
ship absorbs will give them one die to play with, which may be spent as
follows: 

	1) Adding one die to any one beam attack.
	2) To give one free repair roll to any system, or to the Hull
Points
themselves.
	3) To add one point of thrust, for that turn only, to the ship'
capabilities.
	4) To grow drone pods.	This will be like using a Nova
Cannon--roll
dice until you have the neccessary score.

	The player will be physically given the dice, and must roll them
when he wishes to use them.  Once rolled, it's gone. All ships will have
limits on what they can absorb--once they have absorbed their full
capacity,
they recieve no protection.  Smaller ships, obviously, will be more
limited
than the larger ships.

	As for other systems....

	Something similar to the sandcaster already discussed on this
list--a one shot device that blocks all fire (in and out-going) through
one arc.

	A short range EMP attack, that functions like the missile of the
same name.

	A missile that does damage each turn after it hits (Roll 1d6,
and
subtract the number of turns since impact.  If the result is less than
one,
no further dmage.  Otherwise, lose that many hull points).

	A pod that would release a boarding party onto the target
ship--no
chance of taking it over, but something to upset and occupy the crew for
a
while.

	A weapon that does damage according to the mass of the
ship--maybe
one die for every ten points of mass, or something.  The Sa'vasku
equivalent
of the Nove Cannon.....

	Just some ideas.  Workable?  Who knows?  Sooner or later, I'll
get
around to writing up the rules.  Not tonight, though....

John Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com