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Re: Kra'vak

From: "The point of the journey is not to arrive; the point of departure is not to return" <KOCHTE@s...>
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 12:55:23 -0400
Subject: Re: Kra'vak

>A though about railguns.
>
>Railguns fire solid particles at relativley slow velocities compared to
>beam weapons which travel at lightspeed.   This effect is ehanced at
>extended range allowing a target some time before the incoming rounds
>impact.   Why is it not possible to use rapid fire cannons to try to
'shoot
>down'	the railgun round ?   This could be simulated by allowing PDAF a
6
>on a D6 against incomming from a railgun.  Would this go some way to
>'balancing' the Kra'vak in FT ?  Of course, if a ship were busy trying
to
>shoot down railgun rounds then it would be fairly vunerable to fighters
!
>
>I havn't play-tested this yet as I've just dusted of my UN Colonial
Marine
>Starlift Arm after a lengthy period in dry dock !

I made a rules modification for the Babylon 5 universe that is very
similar to
this line of thinking. The idea is that B5 vessels have 'defense grids'
or
'interceptors' which can intercept incoming weapons fire (beam weapons),
and
reduce it somewhat. My take on this was to have *pairs* of PDAFs operate
as a
level of shielding. Thus 1 pair of PDAFs would be considered equivalent
to
Level 1 shields, 2 pairs of PDAFs would be equivalent to Level 2
shields, and 3
pairs (if you have that many!) are equivalent to Level 3 shields.

Operating in 'shield' mode is called 'interceptor' mode. While a pair of
PDAFs are in 'interceptor' mode, they cannot be used in that same turn
to
track on or defend against fighters and/or missiles.

I opted for using PDAFs in pairs to reduce potential 'abuses' from ship
designs which may have 3 or 4 PDAF systems.

Also, ADAF systems can be used in conjunction or instead of PDAF
systems.
However, in 'intercept' mode, they can only protect the ship mounting
them,
not other ships around them.

I've used this rules modification in both RL gaming and PBeM scenarios
with
reasonable success (well, no one's complained any about it being unfair
;-).

Mk
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
"Nothing like a level playing field to ruin a Psi-Cop's day."

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