FSE Ships cool?

At 11:46 PM 6/24/98 -0500, you wrote:
>    It occours to me that with the changes brought about by the Fleet 
>Book that there are now innumerable 'styles' of ship that one could 
>concentrate on.  We can go the NSL route and go for armor, beams, and 
>no speed, or the FSE which is dead opposite (BTW, Why, oh why did GZG 
>make the FSE models so darn cool?  It's annoying--I won't play 
>Frenchmen but I really, really like the ships).  

It's a matter of taste. Me I think the FSE aren't that great. They look
to
me more like ships that have been stepped on. Whereas the NSL ships just
look too cool. :-) And a lot of the NAC ships just look silly, excepting
of
course the heavy frigate which just looks so cute.

And back to the Missile pack problem. Something that suprised me about
most
of the fleets is the lack of Area defence for most fleets. Other then
the
NSL they seem to be a very low priority. I've only played 4 games with
the
new rules so far, but on all occasions that I took my NSL fleet up
against
the FSE I was very successful. The amount of defensive fire to stop
their
misiles, mixed with the armour to halt the threshold checks and the
supriority of the beam weaponry meant I was able to carve up their fleet
as
they approaced, cause some checks much earlier and then on meeting the
remander of the fleet up close shattered them.

Now at the same time I have seen FSE ships do very very well against the
ESU. Which while beam heavy, had little point and area defence and next
to
no armour. I think it's more a question of which fleet you take then
anything else. Over two afternoons I came up with the belief that the
SML's
just wern't worth it, while another player in the same battle thought
they
were just too powerful. It's a matter of perspective. I've had a fleet
barely unscathed by concentrated misile fire with the aid of fighter
screens and defence and armour. I'm suprised that others see the misile
packs as so dangerous.
============================================================
		 Colonel Abrahms, 22nd Oceania Regiment
		  "He dosen't know what he wants.
			  He's Insane"
=========================================================
		email J.Stephensen@fbs.gu.edu.au