Re: FB2 Status???

Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
> >I had done considerable playtesting with the new Kra'Vak and Sa'Vasku

> >rules and wanted to post the details, but wonder if it's valid 
> >anymore.  
> 
> Depends on which version of the new KV and SV rules you used <g>

Apparently I'm a bit behind, so I guess I'll be busy when I get the 
new book.
 
> >We liked the way the 
> >Kra'Vak played a lot better, but still found the best defense with 
> >human ships was using vector movement and plenty of missiles.  
> 
> That's interesting, since it is the direct opposite of my experience -
> the KV aren't particularly afraid of the first few SM salvoes thanks
to
> their scatterguns, and Vector movement makes it much easier for them
to
> aim their (F)-arc weapons than Cinematic does (unless the targets have
> thrust-2 human engines, in which case they have no chance whatever to
> dodge no matter which movement system you use :-/ ).

I guess it's partly based on who you play and their play style.  I 
tried to get a variety so I tested with two groups.  One group 
consisted on regular FT players who knew the game well and the other 
group consisted of nearly entirely new players (like the WH40K folks) 
and some with one or two games of experience.  This gave a good 
cross section of what gamers you might encounter.  

The results were consistent with both groups after several weekends 
of playtesting.  Both gave me the same response in how they found the 
best way to deal with Kra'Vak.	This included a variety of play 
styles.  Some played their ships as gun slingers from afar while 
others did the kamakaze runs fast into the fray.  We covered quite a 
few styles so I feel good about the results.

> Then your ships are too slow ;-) Ships that are effective against
other
> human designs aren't necessarily good against the KV and vice versa;

That's right.  That's why I said you said you need to design your 
ships for the threat.  This works well and fits the premise of early 
contact.

> IME the NAC is the FB1 fleet which is best suited for anti-KV
> operations (being fast enough to dodge and not wasting a lot of mass
on
> SMs :-/ ). (My opinions on the efficiency of the NAC units against
> human-tech fleets has been expressed often enough in the past, so I
> won't repeat them...)

Weird.	We found the NAC to be OK, but not great.  The NSL were 
the least effective and got hurt big time with limited damage 
potential from beam only ships.  The FSE faired the best with swarms 
of missile salvos devastating the Kra'Vaks ships.

> >The game can be balanced with equal point fleets as long 
> >as you design the non-Kra'Vak fleet to meet the threat.
> 
> Yep. There are a bunch of OK anti-KV designs in FB1, though (at least
> for Cinematic).

For the majority of games we used designs from FB1 to see how they 
compared with the new aliens.  Again, we found the game balanced and 
fun.  The strengthened support now for alien ships is a real boost 
for the game and gave old players some new toys to tinker with.

Mike