Any tips on playtesting and usefullness of the crusade EA

[katadder]

if it lasts longer than said vorchan then overall it can have the same output. remember a vorchan is vunerable to fighters too and any ship that gets behind it, the chronos doesnt have this problem. also vorchans tend to be on the flanks unsupported except by other vorchans. chronos are scattered through the centre of a fleet.
its all about roles. the chronos has a differant role to the vorchan.

 

[Davesaint]

if it lasts longer than said vorchan then overall it can have the same output. remember a vorchan is vunerable to fighters too and any ship that gets behind it, the chronos doesnt have this problem. also vorchans tend to be on the flanks unsupported except by other vorchans. chronos are scattered through the centre of a fleet.
its all about roles. the chronos has a differant role to the vorchan.

Sigh.....Is the Chronos more survivable than the Vorchan and Demos, yes. Does this mean that the firepower will balance out over time, no.

The Chronos in it's best arc(sides) has 4 AD of AP/DD and 4 AD of TL.
The Vorchan has 4 AD of SAP/DD and 8 AD of DD/TL

Of course you likely wont be seeing a Vorchan, you will be Seeing a Demos which has 6AD of SAP/Precise/SL and 10 AD of DD/TL.

As far as interceptors go, the Chronos has 2, the Vorchan has 0, and the Demos has 1.

The Vorchan/Demos are both Hull 5, but are speed 14 and are Agile with 2/45's. The Chronos is speed 8 with 2/45's and hull 6. The big deal here is the agile trait which allows the Vorchan and Demos to better exploit the weaker arcs of the Chronos - the foreward and aft arcs.


Now, as stated by Matt, races are "balanced" by having weaker ships at different PL's. This is done to keep the game from being SFB'd. The problem is the Chronos is an average ship at best for the Skirmish PL level, where you are comparing it to likely one of the strongest in the Demos. ON top of this, the Centauri tend as a race to be strong at War, Raid, and Skirmish levels, with the Battle level hulls only being average, and the patrol level hulls a little on the weak side.

Of course the strange thing I noticed about the EA is that they have no hull with the Escort trait outside of Early EA. Kind of strange, but tolerable.

Now some people wont agree with my ship assessements, but eh, they are entitiled to their opinion.

Dave

 

[WereRogue]

True enough. I probably wouldn't field a Raid level scout in anything less than a Battle level engagement (well, I might against the Minbari but they are a special case ). My current Minbari campaign fleet has a Leshath (Raid level scout) but I will probaby save it for special scenarios rather than regular engagements.

If there's any scout worth fielding at Raid level, it's the Leshath!

-Ken

 

[Triggy]

if it lasts longer than said vorchan then overall it can have the same output. remember a vorchan is vunerable to fighters too and any ship that gets behind it, the chronos doesnt have this problem. also vorchans tend to be on the flanks unsupported except by other vorchans. chronos are scattered through the centre of a fleet.
its all about roles. the chronos has a differant role to the vorchan.

Sigh.....Is the Chronos more survivable than the Vorchan and Demos, yes. Does this mean that the firepower will balance out over time, no.

The Chronos in it's best arc(sides) has 4 AD of AP/DD and 4 AD of TL.
The Vorchan has 4 AD of SAP/DD and 8 AD of DD/TL

Of course you likely wont be seeing a Vorchan, you will be Seeing a Demos which has 6AD of SAP/Precise/SL and 10 AD of DD/TL.

As far as interceptors go, the Chronos has 2, the Vorchan has 0, and the Demos has 1.

The Vorchan/Demos are both Hull 5, but are speed 14 and are Agile with 2/45's. The Chronos is speed 8 with 2/45's and hull 6. The big deal here is the agile trait which allows the Vorchan and Demos to better exploit the weaker arcs of the Chronos - the foreward and aft arcs.


Now, as stated by Matt, races are "balanced" by having weaker ships at different PL's.

Dave

That's why I didn't compare it to a Demos

I don't think any ship in the game has been made deliberately weaker or stronger to make a race's PL stronger than another's. There are some gaps but this is a fleet selection issue not a power of ship issue.

The Chronos has almost full firepower no matter what arc an enemy gets into, whereas the Vorchan can be outflanked if you have more initiative sinks. At the end of the day, the Chronos really isn't a highly offensive fleet selection like the Vorchan (still an excellent ship) but it does have its role in the fleet and is close enough to balance that I don't see any issue.

 

[Taran]

I would stick Chronos on my flanks to intercept the Vorchans/Demos short of my main fleet...
They may not win, but they'll hold them up a Long time and Hurt them.

 

[Tolwyn]

If a Demos won't be able to shot a Cronos down. The Interceptors of a Demos make the Railgun and Pulse Cannons less effektiv, while the Demos can fire a full salvo from it's Ion Cannon and then the Ballistic Torpedo.

I'll try the Cronos at my LGS this weekend and post the results here.

 

[stryve]

A Demos would be able to take a Cronos, baring seriously skewed dice. But it would take a turn or two, during which the Demos wouldn't be concentrating on other things.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Hull 6 is a massive help against ion cannons, and the interceptors could easily negate a lot of the hits the Demos did generate. The torpedoes would be the threat, but they're only single damage. They could crit the Cronos off the table, but otherwise they're not going to kill the ship before it can shoot back.

 

[Tolwyn]

But the little bit of damage the Cronos could dish out is not threat to a Demos with it's Interceptor. I'll see this weekend how well the Cronos will work against Narn, but I expect nothing from it.

 

[Triggy]

But the little bit of damage the Cronos could dish out is not threat to a Demos with it's Interceptor. I'll see this weekend how well the Cronos will work against Narn, but I expect nothing from it.

The Demos's interceptor makes all of the difference, both here and in every other game. If it didn't have it then there would be a fair old battle going on.

However, this is a discussion of the Chronos so for better comparison to a fair ship it would be much better to use the Vorchan.

 

[Taran]

Meh, I'd use the Chronos the same regardless which of them I was facing.
Hull 6 and 2 Int means that if you don't have beams, I'm not going away any time soon.
And I'd probably back them up with a couple flights of fighters...

 

[Tolwyn]

I'll see tomorrow if it is of any use. If it perform as I expect it I will start to look for a replacement for my Crusade fleet

 

[Triggy]

I'll see tomorrow if it is of any use. If it perform as I expect it I will start to look for a replacement for my Crusade fleet

What fleet selections are you each choosing?

 

[nekomata fuyu]

Strangely enough, my Narn opponent hates my Chronoses with a passion...

 

[Tolwyn]

I'm going for:

1 Omega
1 Hyperion
2 Cronos
4 Myrmidons

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Looks like a decent fleet. Best of British luck. 8)

 

[GhostRecon]

Personally, I've found that to get the most out of Chronii, you need to take them in larger numbers, and fight them as groups.

Typically, I fight my Chronos in groupings of four, in a rough line, so that I can approach an enemy line, hit it, then circle around it and "Cross their T". The advantages of this is that my Railguns are constantly firing, and I can get the most out of the broadsides as well.

While this generally is very hard on the front Chronos, CBD and some decent manuvering means you get there intact, and your gunline can then circle and pound your chosen target.

Normally, I put them on my flanks, then have them circle in on the enemy, but the important thing, as far as I see it, is maintaining that gunline formation. Thats where the Chronos really shines, utilizing even its "puny" 4AD broadsides and 2AD front guns... while they're fairly pathetic on their own, when you have four Chronii pounding a forward target with up to 8 AD and a side target with 16 AD of fire... and that's even before the Railguns!

Sure, that's not "SuperZOMGZ-Impressive" but considering how, generally, survivable a Chronos is against anything short of a AP/SAP or Beam weapon, I'm not exactly going to complain...

The only thing I wish was that, like many have said, its Heavy Pulse Cannons had a bit more oomph... it strikes me as odd it gets "Heavy" Pulse Cannons, yet has a rather pathetic level of fire to ships with "Medium" pulse cannons...

Personally, I find the shortfall in Crusade EA its complete lack of a lower PL Carrier hull. One of EA's primary strengths is supposed to be its fighter craft, yet the Crusade EA has an almost non-existent level of fighter support at lower levels without using Patrol points to buy fighter wings. Third Age gets both the Poseidon and the Avenger, both of which are Fleet Carriers, yet Crusade EA, which is supposed to be technologically superior and extremely expansionist (What with the whole "We need to find the Drakh/Plague Cure" Deal) it makes rather little sense not to have lower level carriers to form smaller, exploration-centric task forces.

A Poseidon strikes me as a massive task-force carrier much like modern carriers today. Force projection, not exploration and discovery. In this, the Poseidon excels.

Considering in the series, Starfuries are often used as exploration vessels, it makes a enormous amount of sense to form smaller exploration forces based around a Delphi or Explorer Survey Ship, with a small-hulled Carrier to provide Starfury protection, and use those Starfuries to augment the sensors of the Scout ships, sending them to check out detected anomalies and the like.

This makes even more sense with the Thunderbolt, which can conduct planetary exploration and surface scanning in conjunction and support of the Delphi or Explorer's sensors.

 

[Tolwyn]

The game yesterday went surprisingly well. The opening salvo from the Dag'Kar my opponent used scored only minor damage to my larger ships. The Myrmidons suffered more. Both Cronos had plenty of time to use their turrets as they enganged my friends Ka'Tok from their flanks while the Myrmidons made a run for his Dag'Kar. His G'Quan and my Omega started to pound up on each other with as much as they could get out of their gun ports. The game ended with a lucky critical from my mate a he scored a reactor critical stripping my ship from the rest of it's crew.

Looking back I have to say Railguns are adequate, but the Pulse Cannons definitly need a small push up.