RE: Eldar tech, was (something I can't remember...)

On Thu, 24 Oct 1996, Adam Delafield wrote:

> Date sent:  24-OCT-1996 14:50:15 
> 
> >Yesterday or so, Aaron Teske wrote (something I managed to delete
before 
> >I could send this mail):
> 
> >[on the size of the Eldar holoflage tech - I'd use 5% of hull mass,
Aaron 
> >prefers 20% or so]
> 
> >No. 20% means far too much hull mass per weapon. According to Eldar 
> >doctrine, ships should be fast, have lots of firepower, and go BOOM
as 
> >soon as someone actually manages to hit them through the holoflage
<vbg>
> >If the holofields are too mass-intensive, the ships will take too
long to 
> >go BOOM... which (since I don't want to reduce _weapon_ masses on
Eldar 
> >ships) leads me to either small protective systems (the holoflage) or

> >increased available hull space per hull mass (since ether sails as I 
> >envision them are not very mass-intensive).
> 
> How about using something like 75% capacity 25% damage for the Eldar
> rather than the standard 50/50 split?

Yes, something like that. Perhaps not 25% damage; even a mass 50 
Wraithship gets very vulnerable once the sails are gone - which, 
with the +1 penalty, is bound to happen quite fast! However, with
reduced 
hull sizes (and thus reduced damage points per firepower) combined with 
more expensive shields and drives, they should balance fairly well 
against human tech - but they should be quite different in their
fighting 
style, of course.

Lessee - the crew would be smaller than on normal ships due to the
waystone spirits; on normal ships the FTL drive takes up 25% of the
mass,
but Eldar are known for their lousy on-ship FTL drives anyway - this
could
be because they're smaller, since they obviously have the tech needed
for
better FTL drives! (and no, I _don't_ want to introduce the Chaos Powers
as an explanation as to why Eldar don't like long FTL jumps...)

When I get enough time (as with the DSII Titan ideas...) I'll type a 
fuller description of (my ideas about) Eldar spaceships for all of you 
non-GW gamers. Too much of my reasoning depends on the GW background for

these posts to be readable if you don't know the background, I fear...

Oerjan Ohlson

"Father, what is wrong?"
"My shoes are too tight. But it does not matter, because
 I have forgotten how to dance."
- Londo Mollari