Re: Spoiler Alert.......Omega Class DDs in B5

Graduate of the Dr ASCII School of Heelhook wrote:
> 
> Hey, Rog,
> 
> >Potential Spoilers, Relates to  4th Season esp No Surrender, No
Retreat
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> >Have any of you guys out there who have put together B5/FT
adaptations
> >revised the stats of the Omegas based on the above episode.
> >
> >How do you class the 4 rear firing projectors which seemed to be
pulse
> >cannons yet were doing major damage to B5s Star Furies. The
projectiles
> >seemed to be of the same sort fired from the forward projectors. Do
you
> >reckon these are Pulse Cannon or PDAF/Interceptors.
> 
> Well, for one, jms kinda doesn't differentiate too much between 'pdaf'
> weapons and 'batteries' (pulse cannons). The 'interceptors' on B5 seem
> to be able to fire on ships just as well (note battle with Centauri
> warship at end of Season 2, episode "Fall Of Night"). It's not clear
> in "Severed Dreams" if the interceptors are firing soley at enemy
> fighters, incoming weapons fire, and/or enemy ships.
> 
> I tried to keep things simple, not over-complicate things, with my
> rendition of the rules. JMS *always* manages to throw a twist in
things,
> though.  ;-/	Such as using the same weapon to fire in different
modes.
> (eg, HBW projectors firing in pulse cannon mode, HBW mode, and PDAF
mode).
> 
> With the limited weapons arrays available to FT, my take would be to
> say the pulse cannons are *-batteries, and the fire poured onto the
> 'Furies was PDAF fire.
> 
> Either that or drop *DAFs altogether, allow *-Batts to engage fighters
> as *DAFs, and/or act as Interceptors.
> 
> Blah!
> 
> >Also I noted that the Omegas did not use their Lasers against the
White
> >Stars, does this indicate the big Lasers can't be used against
targets as
> >small or as manoeuverable as the White Stars.
> 
> Aaaactually, give yourself a treat and rewatch the ep. The POLLUX
fired
> a barrage of heavy beam weapons (HBWs, BREWs, whatever you wanna call
'em)
> that hit a White Star twice. Said White Star lost control and in a
burning
> fury slammed (not on purpose, I'm sure) into the forward structure of
the
> POLLUX, ultimately destroying the POLLUX.
> 
> >In 'Face of the Enemy' we see the lasers being used, but only I think
> >against other Earth Ships.
> >
> >After watching any Omega episodes I have seen the following armament:
> >4 X heavy Lasers (2xfwd, 2xAft)
> 
> If you look closely, there *seem* to be 4 aft lasers. In each corner
> there appears to be a similar tube projector which we have seen once
> in a while fire a laser.
> 
> And only 2 forward.  *shrug*	 No one said JMS was a tactician or
> efficient ship builder.  ;-)	We do what we can with what we got.
> My take is that if I can't represent individual weapons, then I can
> use the FT weapons to represent groups of weapons. After all, there
> is only so much room aboard an FT ship of a given mass, and weapons
> all mass so much (if I had my way all *my* A-batts would be 1-mass,
> and my opponents' would be 5, but since I don't...  ;-)
> 
> >6 x Pulse cannons (2xfwd, 4xaft) fwd weapons intercepting incoming
fire in
> >'Severed Dreams'
> >4 x Turret mounted weapons (prob defence grid or Interceptors)
> >1(maybe more)x laser type weapons apparently amidships (used to shoot
at
> >the White Star in 'Messages from Earth'
> 
> And it could have been one of those many pulse/pdaf projectors mounted
> all over the ship that suddenly was able to fire a laser.  ;-)
> 
> Three things we can do, though. Book #7 has a fairly detailed
description
> of the primary weapons systems of the Omegas as part of its B-story.
JMS
> has said that Book 7 is ~80% canon, so it should be safe to assume the
> details given are fairly accurate. It's been a while since I read it,
but
> I *think* it only mentioned forward and aft laser cannons.
> 
> The second thing is to get ahold of the official copy of Babylon 4
Wars
> game. They are more SFB in nature, but are supposed to be fairly
accurate
> in the weapons arrays on the ships (the AOG guys have been in contact
with
> jms on this matter, among other things).
> 
> Third is to drop either JMS or George Johnsen a line. My experience
has
> shown George is more prone to answer.  ;-)
> 
> >Any comments?
> >Looking forward to see the 'official' rules by Jon in Earthforce
Sourcebook
> >but wonder if we've seen anything recently in the show which might
change
> >things.
> 
> I haven't altered things terribly much in my version of the rules
(partly
> pending Jon's rules which are due out "any day now" as I understand
it,
> and partly due to lack of time).
> 
> >PS Just come back from the Wolf 359 Con, when Jerry Doyle turned up
on
> >Monday, we had every B5 main Cast member from Season One onwards
except for
> >Andrea Thompson.
> >Awesome.
> 
> One of these days I'm gonna see 'em all, too...<sigh>
> 
> Mk
>
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> "Yyyes ! Haha!! Tremble before the twin-headed, four-legged eleven
foot
> tall Engine of Justice that *is* Manuever 14B!"

*DAF can't fire at ships?  (I know this...I got the rules...)  It
allways seemed to me that a weapon is a weapon is a weapon.  B5's
intercepters are probably just fast firing quad mounted pulse
cannons...something that can track anything...as shown in the episodes
memtioned.

DOnald Hosford