Regarding the relative quicknesswith which Klingons go boom.
In ACTA, much as in SFB and Federation Commander, Klingon ships are more suceptable to damage than the Federation ships. Although I agree, 4 losses to 15 losses is a little bit one sided, but that's why we playtest.
According to the current points value, the match up was off by 5 points. Now, part of the issue was some inexperienced players who don't understand tactics and finesse. If you go head to head with Federation ships while flying Klingons, you're going to lose. Most of the Klingon losses occured at ranges less than 8 inches. Why any Klingon would get within 8 inches of a Federation ship with loaded Photon Torpedoes (much less three of them) is beyond me? But it happened repeatedly. The guys playign the Klignons would charge straight in, firign Disruptors every turn, sometimes at differnet ships each turn and sometimes even at different ships during the SAME turn. Then suddenly, three damaged Federation ships would open up. Twelve Photons targeted at a D7 and even more Phaser-1s targetted at a second D7. The end result, 1 blasted D7 and 1 crippled D7. The D7C would turn tail and run, only to be caught by massed phaser fire over the next two turns. Eventually it would either escape in a damaged state or become crippled and caught before it left the map edge. Then the previously crippled D7 would be hunted down.
Either way, it's notthe greatest tactic in the world.
When the more expereinced players played, things went a little better. Those were the games that went 4 to 5 turns and saw all 4 of hte blasted Federation ships and most of the damaged ones. Of course odd things do happen.
In one of my games, I manuevered to an average of 11 inches from the Fed fleet and opened fire. Unfortunately, I had lost initiative that round, so the freindly Federation player fired first.
Twelve AD of photon torpedoes and twelve AD of Phaser-1s at the same D7. 11 of the 12 photons hit and the phasers were a bit above average, twelve of them hit. That's 44 hits from photons and 12 more from phasers. 56 hits in a single turn is more than enough to bore a big D7 sized hole from the bow to the stern. :shock:
Anyway, back to the question at hand. Klingons are a bit harder to play than the Federation, so with less skilled players - they do die quicker. As stated, they need to rely on range and manueverability to stay alive. In the games were this was accomplished, the results tended to even out somewhat - although a Photon Torpedo can still demolish a Klingon ship faster than a Disruptor can chew through a Federation ship.
We [our playtest group] still feels that the points as written are off, but which way? Are the Feds under-pointed Or are the Klinks over-pointed??
Our next session was roughly equal points of Klingons and Kzinti. That session was more more balanced, so now we think the Feds may be a bit underpointed.
To further refine that feeling, we are playing equal points of Federation versus Kzinti this coming weekend.
Continued testing will tweak the points to the point where everone has a chance at winning an even match. After that, it's all about makign sure there are no even matches!!! :wink:
Sometimes it takes me a while to find a solution.
