Re: [FT-AAR] comment NAC/NI AAR

John Leary wrote:

> Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

> > >		       also acts as a screen/level
> > 
> > Again unless Noam changed his mind, no it doesn't.
> XXX
>      His fighters with their Stealth-2 were acting as if they had 2
> levels of screening, which made it a true pain to take them down. I
got
> lucky only once (see Turn 8).
> 
>      This is Indys statement that generated my 'acts like a screen'
> comment.   (But then I probably forgot Indy was rolling the dice!
> :-)	)  

The *fighters* were acting as if they had 2 levels of screening. That's
what caused my comment about them not using the same mechanics as the
*ships*. IIRC, there was no comment about any screens reducing the
damage
inflicted on the NI ships, but there are numerous complaints about not
rolling higher than a '3'...
 
> > > Question: What is the mass/cost of this 'stealth' device.
> > 
> > Same as for screens of the same level.
> > 
> XXX
> WARNING, TWISTED LOGIC ZONE!
>      Well, I guess the primary objection to the device is partly in
the
> name (Since it will cause confusion with the concept of Stealth.)

OK, I'll bite. What would "stealth" mean for you? Obviously something
else than making the ship harder to aquire (which is what this stealth
version represents, with a very simple mechanic), but I can't figure out
what...?

> Second objection: This systems primary function is to reduce the 
> range of weapons on ALL enemy ships. This is accomplished without 
> a 'to hit' of any kind.  This is an area effect system that does not
> have any effect on friendly ships. 

Screens affects all enemy beam fire directed at the screened ship. This
is accomplished without a 'to hit' for the ship using screens. Armour
affects all enemy weapon fire except needles directed at the ship. This,
too, is accomplished without a 'to hit' for the armoured ship. 

Thus, according to your logic, screens and armour are area effect
systems; they tend not to have any effect on friendly ships since you
usually don't fire at friendly ships. 

Do you think that screens and armour also should have a 'to hit' roll of
their own and be limited to the number of targets it can affect?

The problem with this type of stealth is that it eats hull space *fast*.
In addition, unlike screens, you need powerful engines to benefit from
the stealth (because if you have lower thrust than your enemy, he'll
close the range and you don't benefit from your stealth hulls). These
two
combined mean that a stealth ship either has a low number of hull boxes
for its size, or few weapons, or both.

I don't know if this stealth variant is balanced. Unfortunately the
NAC/NI battle doesn't say very much about that - the main conclusion you
can draw from it is that if you consistently roll low to-hit dice and
high treshold dice, you'll probably lose :-/

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry