Re: [GZG] Battlereport from August 31, 2005

[Oerjan Ariander <oerjan.ariander@xxxxxxxxx>]

Claus Paludan wrote:

> > So no, it isn't the K-guns that are too powerful. It is the scenario - a 
> > single ship which can't manoeuvre and has very few weapons facing 
> > backwards is dead no matter what the enemy attacks her with :-/
>
> When I say powerfull I mean that when "on target" they tend to produce a 
> bit more damage than beams does,

They inflict more damage *per die* (obviously), but the beams fire a lot 
more dice. If you compare beams and K-guns mass for mass or cost for cost, 
the K-guns only inflict more damage than beams do IF the target is heavily 
screened (which a Komarov is) or the beam dice roll exceptionally low 
(which you seem to have done in your game).

> So too powerfull here only means that in the scenario the slow 
> moving/turning SDN doesn't stand much of a chance

But like I said in the previous post, it isn't the *K-guns* that are "too 
powerful" for the scenario.

It is the *scenario itself* that is the problem: a single ship which can 
neither manoeuvre nor point its main weapons backwards is extremely 
vulnerable to any enemy with better *manoeuvrability*. It doesn't really 
matter what *weapons* that enemy is using; you would've had essentially the 
same results if you had replaced all the K-guns with beam batteries or P-torps.

> (rather what we suspected and calculated with - either it would be too 
> powerful and blast the Kra'vak off the table or the other way around). We 
> didn't plan on an equal game. The interesting part with turning the table 
> is to see if beam weapons can remove 14-18 hull points per turn (as the 
> K-guns did).

Unless your beam dice continues their extremely low trend, removing 14-18 
hull boxes per turn shouldn't be any problem whatsoever for the beams.

14-18 hull points per turn against level-2 screens requires 30-40 beam dice 
with normal die rolls (as opposed to your unusually low ones). If you 
simply replace all the K-guns on the KV ships in the scenario with the same 
Mass of 6-arc Class-1 or 3-arc Class-2 beam batteries, you get 52 beam dice 
at close range or up to 26 at medium. While you lose a bit of range, you 
also get much wider fire arcs which dramatically improves your chances for 
avoiding the Elizaveta's main weapon arcs by making your movements less 
predictable. (You also reduce the cost of the KV squadron by 52 pts, but 
that's irrelevant in this case since this scenario isn't points-balanced 
anyway.)

> But no matter what - the large ships SHOULD have escort ships to protect 
> them - no question about that :)

Large ships with more powerful - and intact! - engines and more all-around 
armaments are *much* better able to protect themselves against Kra'Vak than 
a crippled Komarov is, though...

/Oerjan
oerjan.ariander@xxxxxxxxx

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

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