Re: Sa'vasku

At 09:31 AM 9/29/97 +0100, you wrote:
Status: RO

>>	  My problem with the Sa'vasku is that playing a large fleet of
them
>>is slooooow.	And since the Sa'vasku are my largest fleet (lots of
Tyrannid
>>ships...), and consists mostly of pretty small ships....  Well, things
bog
>>down.  Expecially when playing with folks unfamiliar with the rules. 
Plus,
>>I thought that the Sa'vasu neede to be more...well, alien.  As is,
they

>Errrm.. at the mo they handle totally differently from any other ship
in
>the game. How alien do you want?:)

	What bugs me (no pun intended....) is that their weapons are
just
like human weapons.  Their defenses are...just like human defenses. 
Even
their fighters are just like...wait for it...human fighters.  Sure, they
grow 'em, but  they are treated just like everyone elses.  As they stand
right now, there is no variety in the Sa'vasku ships.  I like being able
to
build different ships for different purposes for different games.  And,
seeing as how they are aliens, I want them to *feel* alien.  And not
take
forever to use.  Trust me, when you are rolling dice for fifty seperate
ships, play slows to a crawl.  Sure, I could just use less ships...but I
*like* big fleets!  And since none of my Sa-vasku are larger than a
light
cruiser (and most are much smaller), I need a lot for most scenarios.

>>firecons and drive systems just like Humans.	However...instead of
shields,
>>the Sa'vasku can absorb incoming fire.  I'm not sure of the exact
mechanism
>>yet, but it would be a table similar to the reflex field, and will
cause the
>>ship to absorb some, all, or none of a beam attack.  This will be an
>>intrinsic quality of the ship, not an actual system.	Each point that
the
>>ship absorbs will give them one die to play with, which may be spent
as
>>follows:

>So the more you hit them, the stronger they get? Don't like that I'm
>afraid. It would make for very dull batlles..

>Naaah, still don't like it. What you will get is other players hanging
>around waiting for the Sa'VAsku to get into close range them blasting
them
>with everything they have in an attempt to overload them. Then running
away
>for a while.  I think the system there is now - where you know vaguely
what
>a Sa'Vasku ship can do but not with any certainty - is a much better
way.

	It won't be that bad.  Most ships won't be able to absorb more
than
one or two attacks per turn.  And that's assuming that they can roll
well....  Remember, most of my ships are quite small.  The bigger ones
might
be able to absorb four or five seperate attacks, but I don't think that
this
will unbalance things unduly.  I only have three ships of that size....

>>	  Something similar to the sandcaster already discussed on this
>>list--a one shot device that blocks all fire (in and out-going)
through
>one arc.
>No (background) reason why any Sa'Vasku weapon should be one shot..

	I'm thinking of this item as being basically a blister on the
skin
of the ship, that releases a dense cloud of organic matter.  I suppose
that
dice from abosrbed attacks could be used to grow new ones, though....

	In any case, I'm using the Sa'vasku name ('cause I like it), but
nothing else.  In my admittedly sketchy background, the Sa'vasku are the
senior members of the Hegemony, an alliance of races united by their
belief
that biotechnology is a good thing, while inorganic tech is foul,
blasphemous mockery of life, and not to be tolerated.  The Sa'vasku
provide
FTL travel and communications to the other members of the Hegemony, who
are
capable of actually walking and fighting on planetary surfaces.  At this
point, I have the GW Tyrannids, the Fantasy Forge/Stone
Mountain/Genadier/Simtac Kryomeks, two additional races for the Kryomek
line
(the names of which I do not know, although Simtac is producing them in
the
U.S.), and the Kyromeks produced by Zap (Essentially humans with organic
weapons and armor, and now also available from Simtac).  From what I
understand, there are some GZG figs available in England that I could
also
use, as soon as Geo-Hex produces them over here.  Obviously, I have
digressed, but if anybody knows of other figures that I could use, or of
some 1/300 scale bio-tech forces, please let me know.	

John Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com