Re: re:FT-Help with new weapons

Bif Smith wrote:

>was thought up as a way to defeate damage/kinetic sheilds. If you
>think the PBC`s are overpowered in respect to lighter ships, I was
>trying to game the great dammage potential of dreadnought
>battleship`s guns, and a single salvo from a 15" main gun could sink
>any destroyer ever built (a near miss would be enough. The water
>spash would normally be enough to break the back/keel of a DD,
>spliting it in half, and sinking it).

Providing the 15" main gun could hit (close enough to) the DD, which
wasn't all that likely if the DD was evading. Slow shells and small,
relatively fast targets isn't a good combination for accuracy :-/
 
>Also, you might be interested in a battle report from the play testing
of
>the HET lasers. I used identical ships, with the beam batts replaced
>with het lasers.
>Volga DDH vs het volga DDH. Normal volga won (but only just), due to
>being able to dammage the het armed ship before the greater >dammage
of the hets could be brought to bear.

>Tibet CL vs het tibet CL. Normal tibet won (walk over). The extra
>dammage defence from the sheilds mounted on the het ship was still
>not enough to counter the range advantage of normal beams. My have
>also been due to bad die rolls on my part (teske feild I beleave).

The Teske Field is when you roll copious amounts of "6"s, so if you
played the standard ship it was a Teske Field. If you played the HET
ship it was a Kochte Curse instead (rolling copious amounts of "1"s) -
except that the Kochte Curse usually only manifests itself when you use
P-torps or K-guns. I don't think we have any accepted name for Beth's
problems (ie., rolling copious amounts of "1"s regardless of what
weapon type you're using) <g>

>Manchuria BC vs het manchuria BC. HET BC won, due to greater DP
>holding off dammage/threshold checks until hets could make a
>difference. Margin of victory wasn`t that great (14 DP remaining vs
>destroyed).

A little more than the average damage one point-blank broadside from an
undamaged standard Manchuria (19 beam dice vs. lvl-1 screens give an
expected damage of 12 points). One initiative roll going the other way
or one bad threshold check could easily have reversed the outcome.

>Maria Von Burgand BB vs het maria von burgand BB (with p.torp
>replaced with another cl.3 het). Normal BB won (a slaughter actually).
>The range limit on hets was such that at long range of over 24 MU, the
>het could not hit, but the normal BB was putting out 5 die of dammage
>(and p.torp missed). Between 16-24 MU (max range of cl.3 hets), the
>maria was putting out 12 die of dammage, where as the het was >putting
out only 6 die of dammage!

Ie., the HET put out an equivalent of 9 standard beam dice. Still
outgunned though.

>On the next turn, the range dropped to 9 MU, and the het was only
>putting out 12 die of dammage vs 26 die of dammage (both totals for
>normal BB not including p.torp, which hit both times!).

Ie. the HET ship put out an equivalent of 18 standard beam dice, vs.
26.

>From this I say hets will be more useful in high thrust ships, with
>sheilds to protect them until they can close the range. 

As all short-range, high-yield weapons, yes. Thrust-2 isn't enough <g>

>This might be useful, in that I don`t think that hets are too powerful
for >their mass, and the cost is higher than normal beams, so
increasing >the NPV of your fleet/squadren.

All in all the results are about what I would've expected - the Tibets
being a possible exception, but only just. Thanks for the reports!

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."