Re: [FT] Ship design advice

Joseph L. Poulin wrote:

>The capital ships I'm thinking about using have L2 screens, a medium
>sized beam armament, and pulse torps.	What do you folks think about
>using heavy screens with the new rules?  I just found the rule about
any
>rerolls bypassing screens, that makes them less attractive.  Are they
>worth the weight?

Screens are worthwhile against any weapon they can degrade (ie. human
or SV beams, most but not all fighters, Pulsers, and PBLs), but useless
against everything else. As a rule of thumb, if the enemy can inflict
more than 1/3 of the "raw" damage (ie., before the screens take effect)
with screen-skipping weapons, you're better off using the mass and
points for more hull/armour or weapons.
 
>	The opponents for this campaign are NAC, Romanov (using SM
>heavy
designs), and the Kemet (using mostly beam armed ships).  

The screens are of no or little use against the Romanovs, break even
(roughly) against the NAC (at least if the NAC player rolls better
to-hit rolls with his P-torps than Indy does <g>) and are very
worthwhile against the Kemet (at least if it is the Kemet designs
posted to the Ship Registry, with few beams and fewer other weapons).

>Whenever fighters have been used in the few games I have seen, they
>have always been slaughtered fairly early.  Is this normal?  Maybe
they
>weren't used correctly, as they don't seem to be worth their point
>value, let alone the astronomical cost of the fighter bays.

Massed fighters against an isolated target are lethal; few fighters
against well-defended targets die (or get too scared to dare attack
again). If you only have a few fighter squadrons it is usually better
to use them defensively - they won't hurt the enemy ships much, but
they can at least shoot some of his fighters and/or missiles and stop
*them* from hurting *your* ships :-/ If the enemy doesn't have
fighters/missiles of his own, use the fighters to finish off any
cripples.
 
>Here's one of the designs that I've come up with for an SDN -
> 
>Points: 680 Mass: 200 Thrust: 4 Hull: Average FTL: Yes
>4x 3 arc Class 3
>2x 6 arc Class 2
>2x 3 arc Pulse Torp
>4x Fire Control
>6x PD
>1x ADFC
>6x Armor
>Level 2 Screens

Should do well against the Kemet, OK-ish against the NAC, but don't
expect too much against the Romanovs unless you're better at dodging
missiles than he is at aiming them. Given the enemies you're up
against, I'd replace one screen with more armour and PDS/class-1
batteries.

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry