Dashadauknoz
Mongoose
There are some illogical situations that exist within the B5 rules relating to the Shadows (and the Vorlons). Being an ancient race with “superior” technology, it is illogical that any of their vessels should be twice as expensive as those of the younger races, while at the same time they are generally less combat capable. Their capital ships are appropriately superior in strength in proportion to their cost, but their fighters are woefully inferior to just about any fighter in the game.
I did some tables summarizing fighter capabilities, but the system wouldn't let tables come through in a readable manner, and to save space I'm only posting the summary:
In the dogfight category, 25 of the fighters in the system are superior to those of the Shadows and only 5 are their equal or inferior.
In speed, 15 are faster and 15 are the same speed or slower than Shadow fighters.
In Hull, the Shadows have no other race whose fighter has a stronger hull rating. There are, however, a large number of fighters that are the equal of those of the Shadows.
In dodge, 18 fighters have superior dodge ratings and only 15 are the same or worse.
In shields, no other races have shields, but the PSI Corps psychic fighters essentially have shields.
In stealth, the Minbari have two fighters with stealth. Nobody else does.
In weapons range, only 7 have a superior weapons range to the Shadows, while 23 are the same (note, none seem to have a 1” range, so this is an “equal.”)
Attack Die – 8 fighters throw more dice than the Shadows, while 22 have the same or fewer dice.
Then there is the all important fighter-on-fighter die roll modifiers. In this category only 2 fighters are inferior to the Shadows, while 28 are superior.
In summary, the Shadows are equal or better in only two categories than all other races' fighters, in the top third of two further categories, below 50% in two categories, and woefully inferior in the most important of all, anti-fighter combat capabilties.
In this last, all important, fighter-on-fighter battle, all but two fighters have a positive modifier when fighting Shadow fighters. This was developed by assuming a patrol’s worth of one race’s fighters would engage a patrol’s worth of Shadow fighters. It was assumed that the two shadow fighters would be evenly engaged by the other race, so that if a race could buy 4 flights for a patrol point each shadow fighter would be engaged by two other fighters. That would automatically produce a +1 modifier, and if the other race received 6 flights for a patrol point, then three ships were placed against every Shadow fighter, producing a +2 modifier. To this was then added dogfight modifier. Five fighters have a +3 modifier and two have a +4 modifier over the Shadow fighters before numbers of fighters are considered.
When the effects of the shields are calculated into this, the Shadows will not die in the first engagement, but with the second round of dog fighting, they will be destroyed in 4 of 6 engagements (66% of the time). Shadow fighters are slower than 15 (50%) of the fighters, so they cannot escape most dogfights, a fighter with equal speed (7 other fighters) being able to maintain contact. In sum, in fighter-on-fighter combat, the Shadows will die in 66% of initial engagements and can only escape 28% of fighter-on-fighter engagements if they survive the first round.
In addition, as no Shadow ship has the Fleet Carrier trait, not only can they not recover their lost fighters, but they may suffer yet another +1 die roll bonus to their opposing fighters. This could push the death rate from a probability of 66% to an 83%.
In fighting capital ships, the Shadows are inferior in dodge capability to 60% of the other races’ fighters. Again, being an ancient race, this is illogical. In addition, the nature of Shadow technology would suggest that they should not suffer form G-forces (aren't these disembodied brains wired into the machine?), while every other race should be subject to G-forces resulting from sudden, violent moves to dodge attacks, so physiology should allow the Shadows to be able to have a dodge value of at least as great as any of the “embodied” races and possibly even higher?
Weapons ranges and capabilities – The entire concept of weapons and their capabilities, with the Shadows being an “ancient” race, begs to ask why they would not have weapons systems that are the equal of any of the younger races in all charactoristics. Their anti-capital ship capability has the best hitting power in the game, but as for range, there are seven non-Shadow fighters with superior range, with the question of the Vorlon fighters having beam weapons, which might be debated as being superior in light of the new beam rules.
Stealth – Shadows have stealth in their scouts and stalkers, but not in their capital ships. One could argue that if everything from a Mimbari Neroon Heavy War Cruiser (Armageddon) to a fighter can have a Stealth 5+ rating. then every Shadow ship should have it, but since we are only considering fighters, if the Minbari have the technological skill to conceal fighters, the Shadows should surely be able to adapt their stealth technology to cover their fighters.
In summary, it appears to me that Shadow fighters are not reasonably outfitted (weapons, speed, & traits) if they are supposed to represent the technology of a technologically superior ancient race. Indeed, if you add to this the fact that Shadow anti-fighter capabilities are extremely limited, there is an illogical situation that exists that should be corrected either by upgrading the fighters to give them better dogfighting abilities or their costs should be reduced. Another alternative is to create a Shadow fighter that replaces/suppliments the existing fighter that is more aligned to dogfighting and less focused on ship killing.
Thoughts?
I did some tables summarizing fighter capabilities, but the system wouldn't let tables come through in a readable manner, and to save space I'm only posting the summary:
In the dogfight category, 25 of the fighters in the system are superior to those of the Shadows and only 5 are their equal or inferior.
In speed, 15 are faster and 15 are the same speed or slower than Shadow fighters.
In Hull, the Shadows have no other race whose fighter has a stronger hull rating. There are, however, a large number of fighters that are the equal of those of the Shadows.
In dodge, 18 fighters have superior dodge ratings and only 15 are the same or worse.
In shields, no other races have shields, but the PSI Corps psychic fighters essentially have shields.
In stealth, the Minbari have two fighters with stealth. Nobody else does.
In weapons range, only 7 have a superior weapons range to the Shadows, while 23 are the same (note, none seem to have a 1” range, so this is an “equal.”)
Attack Die – 8 fighters throw more dice than the Shadows, while 22 have the same or fewer dice.
Then there is the all important fighter-on-fighter die roll modifiers. In this category only 2 fighters are inferior to the Shadows, while 28 are superior.
In summary, the Shadows are equal or better in only two categories than all other races' fighters, in the top third of two further categories, below 50% in two categories, and woefully inferior in the most important of all, anti-fighter combat capabilties.
In this last, all important, fighter-on-fighter battle, all but two fighters have a positive modifier when fighting Shadow fighters. This was developed by assuming a patrol’s worth of one race’s fighters would engage a patrol’s worth of Shadow fighters. It was assumed that the two shadow fighters would be evenly engaged by the other race, so that if a race could buy 4 flights for a patrol point each shadow fighter would be engaged by two other fighters. That would automatically produce a +1 modifier, and if the other race received 6 flights for a patrol point, then three ships were placed against every Shadow fighter, producing a +2 modifier. To this was then added dogfight modifier. Five fighters have a +3 modifier and two have a +4 modifier over the Shadow fighters before numbers of fighters are considered.
When the effects of the shields are calculated into this, the Shadows will not die in the first engagement, but with the second round of dog fighting, they will be destroyed in 4 of 6 engagements (66% of the time). Shadow fighters are slower than 15 (50%) of the fighters, so they cannot escape most dogfights, a fighter with equal speed (7 other fighters) being able to maintain contact. In sum, in fighter-on-fighter combat, the Shadows will die in 66% of initial engagements and can only escape 28% of fighter-on-fighter engagements if they survive the first round.
In addition, as no Shadow ship has the Fleet Carrier trait, not only can they not recover their lost fighters, but they may suffer yet another +1 die roll bonus to their opposing fighters. This could push the death rate from a probability of 66% to an 83%.
In fighting capital ships, the Shadows are inferior in dodge capability to 60% of the other races’ fighters. Again, being an ancient race, this is illogical. In addition, the nature of Shadow technology would suggest that they should not suffer form G-forces (aren't these disembodied brains wired into the machine?), while every other race should be subject to G-forces resulting from sudden, violent moves to dodge attacks, so physiology should allow the Shadows to be able to have a dodge value of at least as great as any of the “embodied” races and possibly even higher?
Weapons ranges and capabilities – The entire concept of weapons and their capabilities, with the Shadows being an “ancient” race, begs to ask why they would not have weapons systems that are the equal of any of the younger races in all charactoristics. Their anti-capital ship capability has the best hitting power in the game, but as for range, there are seven non-Shadow fighters with superior range, with the question of the Vorlon fighters having beam weapons, which might be debated as being superior in light of the new beam rules.
Stealth – Shadows have stealth in their scouts and stalkers, but not in their capital ships. One could argue that if everything from a Mimbari Neroon Heavy War Cruiser (Armageddon) to a fighter can have a Stealth 5+ rating. then every Shadow ship should have it, but since we are only considering fighters, if the Minbari have the technological skill to conceal fighters, the Shadows should surely be able to adapt their stealth technology to cover their fighters.
In summary, it appears to me that Shadow fighters are not reasonably outfitted (weapons, speed, & traits) if they are supposed to represent the technology of a technologically superior ancient race. Indeed, if you add to this the fact that Shadow anti-fighter capabilities are extremely limited, there is an illogical situation that exists that should be corrected either by upgrading the fighters to give them better dogfighting abilities or their costs should be reduced. Another alternative is to create a Shadow fighter that replaces/suppliments the existing fighter that is more aligned to dogfighting and less focused on ship killing.
Thoughts?
or make up new ones - versions and post them up here 
