ACTA: Battlestar Galactica - Some input please...

[Court Jester]

Yup, they fly into the path of the shots... hence why they take a point of damage every time they stop a hit.

 

[Court Jester]

How about the rest of the fleet ie: Cloud 9

When I get around to the scenarios I will be doing counters and stats for the civilian ships...

 

[Tolwyn]

Very nice work you did Jester.

When I read the rules I missed a bit the small guns with which Galactica fired in the movie to create its firing solution. Are the point defences ment to be this sort of guns?

By now I like the Valkyrie Battlestar most.

 

[Court Jester]

Very nice work you did Jester.

When I read the rules I missed a bit the small guns with which Galactica fired in the movie to create its firing solution. Are the point defences ment to be this sort of guns?

By now I like the Valkyrie Battlestar most.

Indeed they represent the point defense turrets.

 

[Poi]

Why does the Raptor gunship have a higher Dogfight? It's the same ship, just with a different equipment fit, so I would have thought it would be the same for all three versions.

 

[captainsmirk]

Perhaps its equipment has less mass than the other two, this its able to maneuver better.


Nick

 

[Court Jester]

But the gunship doesn't have a better dodge?

 

[captainsmirk]

Oh yeah...

One question though, what does the Beam on the Valkyrie's missile turrets represent...

Oh and wouldn't it make more sense for the ECM Raptor to have Stealth 5 rather than the scout, as thats what its systems are for...

Nick

 

[Court Jester]

Now that is some thing I think that got mixed up... in previous drafts they both had stealth 5+ as neither of them were interested in direct confrontation with the enemy so I think that needs changing.

The beam trait is used to represent the targeting system of the missles. Basically the idea was that it fires a salvo of missles and as those missles hit or miss their target it adjusts its firing solution based on what hit and missed and fires another slavo and so on all in rapid succession.

I may change the name of the trait and insert another entry into the "teminology" section of the special rules.

 

[Poi]

But the gunship doesn't have a better dodge?

I meant Dogfight.

 

[captainsmirk]

Probably a good idea, to avoid confusion.

Nick

 

[Court Jester]

But the gunship doesn't have a better dodge?

I meant Dogfight.

Aha...

Well, it has guns and the others do not... That in my mind makes for a better dogfighter...

 

[Poi]

Well, it has guns and the others do not... That in my mind makes for a better dogfighter...

Doh! (hangs head)

 

[captainsmirk]

Looking back at the weapons arrangements for the Pegasus and our rough 2 AD per turret calculation so far the Pegasus is going to have one enourmous amount of firepower forwards.
Somewhere around 40 AD (which it can get Twin linked and AP from Full Salvo Fire) before we even factor in its missiles and heavy boresight guns...

I should imagine that the Cylons needed their backdoor computer virus to win when faced with that much firepower! :shock:

Nick

 

[Court Jester]

Yes, both battlestars have enormous firepower they can throw in a variety if arcs.

Although the Pegasus should be able to kick arse, in series three she does take on 4 Basestars, destroying at least three of them
(admitadly she rammed one and exploded all over another). So In theory she should be able to go toe to toe with two of them in a less reckless and fatal fight.

 

[Commador Q]

I think the FTL drives should use the rules for the Shadows Jump Engins ie they spool up fo a turn and then just apear/disapear, rather than opening a vortex that other ships can travel through.

also i agree with the previously mentioned idea that a squadren should be 2 counters (ie 2 flights) of vipers.

And finaly: it would be nice if there were priority levels assigned to the ships so that they could be used more esily in conjunction with other ACtA ships. Personaly i'd like to try a campaigne based on the premis of the Cylons following the Colonial fleet to Earth in the B5 universe (The colonials want to live on Earth, but Earth-gove woun't let them, meanwhile the Cylons attack prety much everyone for no adiquately explained reason as is their custum, and the Centauri and Drack take advantage of the chaos to cause havak for the ISA).

 

[Court Jester]

I think the FTL drives should use the rules for the Shadows Jump Engins ie they spool up fo a turn and then just apear/disapear, rather than opening a vortex that other ships can travel through.

I agree completely, I guess the current rule was just a stop gap measure until i could sit down and read a copy of the rules (which I am embarrased to say I do not own... ). Although why it didn't occure to me to use the Shadow rules is beyond me. It does seem like the right mechanic to use.

also i agree with the previously mentioned idea that a squadren should be 2 counters (ie 2 flights) of vipers.

I am loath to up the number of actualy units on the table. I like the way it represents the units the Vipers actually use in battle. What could be appropriot if people feel the Vipers need more staying power or representation I could give them 2 damage.

And finaly: it would be nice if there were priority levels assigned to the ships so that they could be used more esily in conjunction with other ACtA ships. Personaly i'd like to try a campaigne based on the premis of the Cylons following the Colonial fleet to Earth in the B5 universe (The colonials want to live on Earth, but Earth-gove woun't let them, meanwhile the Cylons attack prety much everyone for no adiquately explained reason as is their custum, and the Centauri and Drack take advantage of the chaos to cause havak for the ISA).

There will be Priority levels assigned, but I'd rather build the ships and then assign levels to them afterwards. Instead of compromising the feel of the ship.

Hopefully it should be quite easy to do.

At the moment the Mercury is seriously looking like being at Armageddon level, although she lacks the big killy beam weapon of doom that most Arm. ships seem to have.

The Basestar and the Acropolis need to be tested but they are looking decidedly weaker so Battle, possible War for the Basestar.

This way a 6 point Battle could easily be...

1 Mercury
1 Acropolis

VS

3 Basestars

It would be interesting to see how these ships would do against similar B5 ships, although I suspect they would get torn to pieces by SAP, Precise, Beam Triple Damage weapons very quickly.

 

[Court Jester]

I have made up some counters for our game tomorrow...

An Acropolis class Battlestar with Viper and Raptor compliment.

I like my counters big... especially when there are only five ships on the table...

The Flat Panel Fleets await their fate...

 

[captainsmirk]

After more digging i have managed to find some views of the Galactica that i hadn't seen before. From these i can work out that she has 24 big gun turrets. 8 of these are under the lip of the nose, four at the front and two at either side. The others are in four groups of 4, two dorsal and two ventral. She is then covered in the little point defense guns hidden in the spaces between the frames which make up the hull.

No new information on the Pegasus, haven't found too many views of her yet. As far as i can tell she has 30 big gun turrets, 16 under the lip of the nose and 7 on each flight pod (2 either end, 3 down the side). However, interestingly as she has no frames like the Galactica she has nowhere to put the point defense guns, nor can i see any on her... :?

Scratch that i can see her firing some in one scene, but can't really make out where they are. Oh well, not that important as their represented by the PD anyway...

Nice counters by the way...


Nick

 

[Commador Q]

also i agree with the previously mentioned idea that a squadren should be 2 counters (ie 2 flights) of vipers.

I am loath to up the number of actualy units on the table. I like the way it represents the units the Vipers actually use in battle. What could be appropriot if people feel the Vipers need more staying power or representation I could give them 2 damage.

While keeping the number of counters to a minimum is a reasonable goal, the Moroshin carrier holds 8 nail flights and 1 flyer flight (9 counters) and the Posidon holds 16 Starfury or T-bolt flights (16 counters), so i'd say that doubling the Viper complement (but leaving the raptor complement alone or even reducing it) wouldn't overwhelm the table, especially since the Colonials are a fighter heavy fleet with no small to mid sized combat ships.

the main reason i think an Acropolise should have more that 4 counters worth of fighters is more for flexability than anything else. With 8 counters the battlestar has enough vipers to maintaine a full close support complement (the "reserve vipers") and still deploy half it's vipers as an attack force. I don't really think the mercury needs more vipers but if the Acropolise gets 8 then it should have more than 8 (at least 12).

Additionally, assuming one counter is roughly 6 vipers: in the episode where Galactica attacks the Cylon refinery they field roughly 24 vipers, 12 in the initial attack force and 12 in the civi transport (I counted once to try and see if the writers were keeping track of the rate vipers were destroied over the coarse of the series) . and since Galactica is supposed to be roughly "half strength" i figured a fully loaded Acropolis schould have around 48 vipers (8 counters).

As for the BSG ships comparing with B5 ships, it's hard to say. the battlestars are probably inferior to main line warships of what would be aproxamitly equal PL, but the Vipers are IMO even better than Whitestar Fighters, and present in as large numbers with Raptor support.