RE: [FT] UNSC design

Our group uses the super guns during the direct fire phase. It is hard
to
hit
with the super guns and they are not that effective against large ships.
I have used them effectively to cause my opponent to maneuver, split off
ships from escorts,
cause my opponent to maneuver were I wish him to go, and to draw fire
and
attention.
Plasmas are easier to use.  I find the best ship to place them on is a
sort
of armored bomb catch or a carrier. The fighters can support a ship that
is
otherwise weaponless.  I have done some silly things with them that
worked
quite well. Like lining cheap Nova cannon ships up in a row and turning
the
entire table top into a killing zone. In all they work best as a
surprise or
against a slow moving well packed target.

Andy A

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
[mailto:owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU]On Behalf Of stiltman@teleport.com
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2000 3:40 PM
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: [FT] UNSC design

> In message <002701c02408$a1abc0e0$037ba8c0@paulradford.innotts.co.uk>
>	    "Paul Radford" <paulradford@innotts.co.uk> wrote:
> Hmm.. question to list - has anyone out there done any playtesting on
> Wave Guns and Nova Cannon? I know some think they are too powerful,
> while others think they are too weak!

Well, there's a lot of tradeoffs between superguns and plasma bolts.

In favor of superguns:

  - They're not weakened by screens.
  - You can't shoot them down.
  - They're longer ranged.

In favor of plasma:

  - You can actually aim the things in more arcs than the nose of your
ship.
  - Although the absolute area that superguns cover is indeed larger
than
for
     plasma, plasma still gives a better cushion for guessing wrong
against
     a single target due to the larger radius.	(Subject to house rules
on
     whether superguns fire during the "placed weapons" phase or the
"direct
     fire" phase... this isn't clearly defined anywhere in the rules.)
  - You can use any normal screens you have while you fire it.	(The
fact
that
     Phalons can't use their vapor shrouds at the same time is a facet
of
the
     shrouds, not the plasma.  If you allow any other ships to use
plasma,
     there's nothing saying they can't use their regular screens.)
  - You can use your other weapons while you fire it.
  - You can scale up plasma.  (Again, subject to house rules on whether
you
can
     mount multiple superguns or whether there are "classes" of
superguns as
     there are with plasma launchers.)

Huge tradeoffs.  My personal opinion is that, in most cases, the ideal
ship
to mount a nova cannon is a simple armored, self-propelled gun with
assorted
PDS.  There are arguments for putting backup weapons on such a ship, but
those
arguments generally work better for giving the ship escorts to carry
those
weapons.  For wave guns, it's a little bit less extreme (since you can't
fire
the wave gun every turn anyway) but putting too many weapons on a ship
armed
with a wave gun isn't all that sound of a plan either.

I personally think that they're not overpowered, and the limitations
they
give
you for them (especially if you can't scale them up or allow multiple
superguns
on a single ship to fire all at once) are pretty big.  Plus, if you
think
_plasma_ is hard to get on a bunch of Kra'Vak flying at fraction-C
speeds
cutting four- to six-point turns, imagine trying to get superguns on
them.
(Especially if your house rules treat superguns as "placed weapons".)
--
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