more Graser observations

Oerjan, your statistics are lying to you.

How often do you USE the weapons at any given range?
I bet a lot more at ranges of 13-18 then 1-6.  What is 
the most common range of "knife fights?"  Of "zoom &
boom" tactics?	Ranges when weapons are actually fired 
should be considered, HEAVILY CONSIDERED, 
for statistical analysis.

The Graser-1 has a larger margin of maneuvering error 
than 4x Beam-1s.  It really should be compared to a
Beam-2 + Beam-1. (all having 6 arcs)

I started keeping a record of our battles today.  Have
I mentioned I hate taking notes?  I stopped after the
3rd round of weapon firing.  This is what happened.
My Kra'Vak-style ship fired its K-guns and hit with
every one (I got lucky): 1x class-4 (doubled) + 2x class-3
(1 doubled) + 2x class-1 for a total of 19 damage, got
a double threshold.  (take that you graser-laden enemy
ship! :) ).  Then 3x class-1 Grasers fired from another 
ship: 26 damage (a few rerolls).  I did not need to keep 
any more notes to know an overpowered weapon for 
its mass  (the Graser-1, more specifically, the 6-arc 
Graser-1).

Second battle, after double rerolls from a Graser-1
(6 dice total), we immediately made a house rule:
Grasers do not get rerolls.  The weapon became
tolerable after that, but still any chance someone
could modify a ship it was for a 6-arc Graser-1 
and every many-Graser-armed ship was a priority 
target (although Kra'Vak-styled ships that were 
actually pointing big K-guns at a target were up 
there in priority if it hadn't fired yet).

Now, the Grasers didn't always hit, just like every
other weapon in the game (don't talk to me about
Kguns at point blank range: twice I fired 2x class-5 
Kguns at targets within 6" and each time one of
the rolls was a one *grrrr* ).	A point: A Steve
ship at 4x class-1 Beams.  When they did get
a chance to fire they missed 90% of the time
and were pretty much a non-factor.  
But not the 3x Graser-1s that
were also aboard.  They did badly at times,
there were more of them, but in the battle they 
also got to fire more often
(that 13-18 range band is very important).
Yes, it is a matter of die rolls, but the Graser-1 was
the most feared weapon in the game.

Now the Graser-1 is not the be-all of weapon
choices.  I have a ship design with 1x Graser-2 (F,FP,FS),
2x Graser-1 (F,FP,AP), 2x Graser-1 (F,FS,AS), and
1x Graser-1 (all).  It had to pull out of the battle due
to damage (it was the priority target of the enemy) and
when it could return it had a problem with range, mostly
due to the overabundance of Graser-1s.	But as a
secondary weapon the Graser-1 is a superior choice
over many others (IMO).

I still stand by my previous recommendation that the
mass of the Graser-1 needs to increase.

Sorry I didn't take notes.  Did I mentioned I hate
taking notes?

Glen