A bad day for the Minbari.

[Stonehorse]

Yesterday I gave a new convert to the system their first game.

They had a small Narn fleet:

Dag'Kar Missile Frigate

Narn Ka'Toc Battle Destroyer

Var'Nic Long Range Destroyer

4 Sho'Kos Police Cutter

I took a Sharlin War cruiser. I thought I'd be safe with such a beast of a Warship... I was soo wrong.

The game started off well with 2 Sho'Kos Police Cutters dying to my forward beam... that'll teach them to group together. The Narn return fire power did roughly 5 points of damage, nothing to be worried about.

Then it all went down hill, I targeted his Var'Nic with my forward 8AD Beam weapon and rolled an amazing 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3... not a sausage. This I feel lost me the game as the Varnic shot back and got some very lucky crits... namely I needed a 4+ to be able to fire each gun, and -1 to repair damage rolls. The Sharlin then took a pounding from the Narn fleet and was left with 30 points of damage left. The next turn out of 5 rolls to see if I can use any of my guns... I only manage 1, which destroys the Dag'Kar, seems the Aft Beam is better at hitting the target then the Forward one.

Then the Narn returned fire and the Sharlin was space dust.

Think my opponenty only failed 3 Stealth rolls, which is the norm at my club, Stealth seems to offer me very little protection. Think I may start playing the sit back and shoot Minbari fleet as engaging to get my secondary weapons in range is getting my ships destroyed.

Not a good day for the Minbari at all.

 

[Captain Kremmen]

I have always had the impression that a single large ship in this game will pretty much always lose to a balanced fleet of smaller ships, whether minbari or anything else......

of course i may be wrong

Cpt K

 

[Burger]

You are not wrong cap'n.

But the crit table on 2e is not so bad as the 1e one (yeah right!!!)

 

[Stonehorse]

I have always had the impression that a single large ship in this game will pretty much always lose to a balanced fleet of smaller ships, whether minbari or anything else......

of course i may be wrong

Cpt K

Which I personally feel is against the idea of space combat seen in Babylon 5. Big ships are meant to be hard and capable of taking on a whole fleet of little ships.

You are not wrong cap'n.

But the crit table on 2e is not so bad as the 1e one (yeah right!!!)

I'd like to play test a game with out the Crit table, seems a bit over the top that a Fighter can near enough cripple a war level ship with some lucky dice rolls.

 

[Chernobyl]

Which I personally feel is against the idea of space combat seen in Babylon 5. Big ships are meant to be hard and capable of taking on a whole fleet of little ships.

really? which battle sequence in teh TV show leads you to that conclusion? I don't recall seeing a lot of "one big ship vs. a lot of other smaller ships" fights in B5. Heck, even the Shadow Omegas lost to the white stars.

Chern

 

[Burger]

The Excalibur frequently took on large packs of Drakh Raiders in Crusade.
And the Shadow Omega vs WS battle was supposed to be evenly-numbered on both sides! (Don't know how one got to be Raid, the other War...)

 

[Greg Smith]

And the Shadow Omega vs WS battle was supposed to be evenly-numbered on both sides! (Don't know how one got to be Raid, the other War...)

Was it? We see 21 White Stars on screen but only 6 Shadow Omegas jump in.

 

[Burger]

And the Shadow Omega vs WS battle was supposed to be evenly-numbered on both sides! (Don't know how one got to be Raid, the other War...)

Was it? We see 21 White Stars on screen but only 6 Shadow Omegas jump in.

Well thats what they said, when they were deciding how to deal with the SO's.

 

[jimmor]

I am pretty sure Excalibur can still take on a large pack of Drakh Raiders... probably more then is his value.

 

[Da Boss]

Which I personally feel is against the idea of space combat seen in Babylon 5. Big ships are meant to be hard and capable of taking on a whole fleet of little ships.

really? which battle sequence in teh TV show leads you to that conclusion? I don't recall seeing a lot of "one big ship vs. a lot of other smaller ships" fights in B5. Heck, even the Shadow Omegas lost to the white stars.

Chern

Didn't the White Stars beat everything in the show :lol:

Big ships did tend to die quite quickly - everything did - usually one good hit from a ship and the ship was crippled or destroyed. In the Lost Tales recently - the new class of Vorchans were blasting Warlocks left and right - even as a Vorchan was sliced up.

 

[Burger]

Didn't the White Stars beat everything in the show :lol:

White Star beats Vorchan!
White Star beats Shadow Scout!
White Star beats EVERYTHING!

(Sorry, Halo 3 joke...)

 

[animus]

Ivanova said the WS's were outnumbered against the Shadow Omegas on her deathbed.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

The Black Star carves a swath through several EarthForce ships when she jump point bombs them. No other Minbari vessels are visible anywhere in the sequence, even though Sheridan refers to "a couple of their heavy cruisers" being there. He also says the battle takes place in the Sol system, but the Minbari only entered the system at the Line, never before then, so his account of the battle is somewhat dubious...

 

[Burger]

Are you saying that he found the black star adrift, and made up a story about how he defeated it? :lol:

 

[Lord David the Denied]

I'm saying the script in season 2 was stupid and they changed it for In the Beginning...

 

[Triggy]

Ivanova said the WS's were outnumbered against the Shadow Omegas on her deathbed.

The White Stars were outnumbered...but this included the enemy fighters too! (yes this is what she meant too)

There are six Shadow Omegas and by my counting 24 White Stars. Even if these numbers aren't exact, there are certainly more White Stars than Shadow Omegas.

 

[Burger]

Maybe it was an FX goof? There should've been 24 SO's? :lol:

 

[Taran]

The Black Star carves a swath through several EarthForce ships when she jump point bombs them. No other Minbari vessels are visible anywhere in the sequence, even though Sheridan refers to "a couple of their heavy cruisers" being there. He also says the battle takes place in the Sol system, but the Minbari only entered the system at the Line, never before then, so his account of the battle is somewhat dubious...

Except that they DID enter the Sol System before The Line.
Remember, they hit Io and then Skipped Mars to go straight for Earth.
Based on something said by Garibaldi later in the series, the Minbari hit Every, single, solitary Earth force, colony, or outpost until they killed Io and then they skipped Mars to go for the final objective.

And Sheridan's ship was on "...the old [What?] patrol..."?

 

[Banichi]

White Star beats Vorchan!
White Star beats Shadow Scout!
White Star beats EVERYTHING!

You forgot Vorchan beats White Star, in season 5 :wink:

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Except that they DID enter the Sol System before The Line.
Remember, they hit Io and then Skipped Mars to go straight for Earth.
Based on something said by Garibaldi later in the series, the Minbari hit Every, single, solitary Earth force, colony, or outpost until they killed Io and then they skipped Mars to go for the final objective.

And Sheridan's ship was on "...the old [What?] patrol..."?

That was the Line, though, or the same operation at least.