Re: A Call to Arms (Spoilers)

>>	OK, just a few FT/EFSB related thoughts on A Call To Arms:
>>The Victory Class Destroyer:
>>
>>	Armor:	I would say this thing would use the KV armor rules....

>You have a complication with the armor rules here. They only specified
that
>it deflected 80% of energy weapon damage. Never said anything about
direct
>physical damage (eg, missiles, et al). You can presume it gives some
protection
>to direct physical damage, but any guess you make is going to be pretty
much
>speculation.  :-/

Agreed. We'll need to wait and see. But (speculating anyway) I'd assume
that armor would be no _worse_ than Earthforce ships of comparable size.
Aside, I liked the big, metalllic  "Thunk!" sounds when the ships were
hit. Someone should digitize that for RL FT games.

>>	Maneuvering:  Pretty good for a capital ship.  Thrust 5-6
perhaps?

>Oh?? I thought it manuevered like a pig stuck in mud.	:-/  The *only*
>time we saw it MOVE was when it left the black cloud (and that was as
>faster as she could go) - and along with it were some Omegas and at
least
>one other new ship....

IMHO that's all camera POV stuff. I was given the impression it was
supposed to haul almost like a Whitestar. The apparent slow movement
could be thge result of the virtual camera moving almost as fast as the
ship at whatever speed. It certainly added to the tension of the scenes
where you _wanted_ the ship to be moving fast. I put it down to
"Dramatic Camera Placement" and would make the thrust equal to or
slightly less than a Whitestar (5 or 6).

>At least that's the impression I got from watching it a few times.
Granted,
>it *did* manage to s-l-o-w-l-y overhaul the Drahk lighter ships, but as
for
>actualy *maneuverability*, I saw nothing that gave me any impression
beyond
>the pig-stuck-in-mud bit.

Well, when the Ex was burning out of the null field, the Victory had to
shimmy sideways pretty fast. That's something you can't really simulate
in FT, but it wasn't slow, and it was a nimble maneuver.

>Remember, don't take everything you see in the show as It(tm). 

Celluloid = Canon!  Anyone who says anything else is a blaspheeemer!
<Foam> <Drool> ;-)

>>	Minbari Neutron Lasers:  This appears to be the standard
armament of
>>the Victory.:  Four cannons in front, at least two turreted fore and
>>aft.	Rear weapons were mentioned though we didn't see what kind they
>>were.  

>They appeared to be similar weapons all around. Each had basically the
>same damage potential as a White Star.

Agreed. They so much as said that the level one guns were only a little
more powerful than the White star's output.
As is often the case, seems to me that the armaments we see on an SF
show are hard to fit into the FT system. Especially if the system is
more 'advanced' than the average. It requires a Damage-Cost-Mass
equation different from the baseline 1d6-3pts-1mass standard for beam
weapons and other basic systems. Mass/damage goes down while overall
cost goes up.

>>	THE BIG HONKIN' GUN:  A nasty looking weapon.  I'd say it was a
level
>>10 (!) EFSB HBW, recharge rate is the same as a non-minbari beam
>>system.  The gun can't be fired until it  The ship can not do ANYTHING
>>(maneuver, use weapons/systems) the turn
>>after it was fired.  It's a sitting duck.

>Rules for the NovaCannon/Wavegun could be modified to fit this idea
here.

I'd keep the Wave gun as-is except for the charging rules and the caveat
for no action on the turn after firing. I'd eliminate the capacitor
damage if the gun gets a threshold, since the whole ship is basically
the capacitor.

> And mind you, we know it is a powerful weapon, but we do *not* have a
good
> gauge of it's destructive capabilities. 

True. I'd start with a base of the Wave gun and modify it from there
once we learn more.

> I seriously doubt it is on par with Vorlon weaponry because it was
'based
> loosely on Vorlon tech'....

Also looks losely based on the Death Star. Converging beams makes for
great visuals, but I was never too hot on the realism.

>>The Warlock:
>>	Where's the Warlock?  There was supposed to be a Drahk
shattering
>>Warlock?

>Dunno. Maybe EarthGov opted out of continuing the development of those
>ships since they *are* based partly on Shadow tech - and I'm *sure* the
>Alliance wouldn't be too keen on any of it's constituent members
building
>ANYthing using Shadow tech!

I thought the Shadow Omegas were specifically _not_ Warlocks? There were
a couple fast moving unidentified Earth ships. Maybe some of them were
new.

>	We got a glimpse of an unfamiliar missile firing ship and an new
ship
>racing out of the Death Cloud with the Omegas and the Excaliber....

The only things I saw firing missiles were the Earth defense platforms.
Same as what Clarke tried to turn against Earth and Sheridan had to wipe
out. The platforms also mount a nice big particle type gun - enough to
knock out a Drakh Plague Seeder ship with one blow. (SML's with big
magazines and Class 4 beams?)

Noam

Noam R. Izenberg		noam.izenberg@jhuapl.edu