RE: MechaZone 556 Campaign report #1

On Sat, 3 May 1997 ericjw@cyberhighway.net wrote:

> How about posting some of these killer designs?
 
Well, I could, but the recipe is really simple for the cruisers and
capitals:

Maximum Mass
Minimal Thrust
Screen-2 for cruisers, 3 for Capitals
Max A-batts if gunship
Maybe a AA megabatt
Max Bays and all interceptors if carrier

Their biggest weaknesses are 

* slow speed -- they can't catch a faster foe 
if he doesn't want to fight. Thus "let them bring the fight to us" 
attitude. 

* Lousy maneuverability -- the need each others' interlocking fields of 
fire for protection. One caught alone is a dead duck. The trick is to 
have enough ships not to get caught alone, ever.

* Reliance on fighter screen -- if caught without the carriers, a 
determined carrier force can pick them apart. Note that it will still 
take a looooooooooooooong time. A normal fighter group can only deliver 
an average of 3 points of damage during their entire combat endurance 
against a screen-3 ship. A M100 giganaught can eat quite a few of those 
without even risking a threshold roll.

Now, these are actually really stupid designs. They are all maxed out on
one aspect and that's it. But it remains to be seen whether a more
balanced fleet can meet the challange. One taker already got a bloodied
nose -- his mistake was to think the vanilla ships were worth something.

The other two takers may have more of a fight in them.

--
maxxon@swob.dna.fi (Mikko Kurki-Suonio) 	  | A pig who doesn't
fly
+358 50 5596411 GSM +358 9 80926 78/FAX 81/Voice  | is just an ordinary
pig.
Maininkitie 8A8 02320 ESPOO FINLAND | Hate me?	  |	     - Porco
Rosso
http://www.swob.dna.fi/~maxxon/     | hateme.html |