Armageddon: success or Failure?

[Nomad]

Yep, the Hyperion had lots of plasma cannons

I just checked, you're absolutely right.

As for Armageddon stealth; I played a 4 Battle FA game using the full Armageddon rules with a couple of novices tonight; they had two Sharlins, I had an Early Years EA force with an Avenger, a Nova, two each Hyperions, Sagittarius, Artemis and Oracles, and four Hermes.

By turn 3, only the Avenger, one Sag, the Hermes and a handful of 'Furies were left; one of the Sharlins had taken about 10 damage and 10 crew loss, the other was unscathed. Dice rolling had been pretty average on both sides.

...So not much change there, then.

 

[Iain McGhee]

The Early Years list covers from the Dilgar war to the end of the Minbari War. The standard Hyperion in this list is allowed from 2246 and is the same as the later (sometimes referred to as Midwinter Class) versions. I'd have thought that the earlier version would be Pulse-only or at best a downgraded weapons fit. Of course, there are always the versions in the EM book for this period. I was just expecting an early EA version in Armageddon as well as a possibly updated one for Crusade. Not that important either way.

 

[captainsmirk]

Well there definately should be a version for the Early Years list. By the crusade era, the only ones left are the few that survived the E-M war so not likely to be upgraded, especially when the replacement, the Marathon has arrived.

Nick

 

[Tank]

Not sure what point your going for here CapSmirk, the hyperions in crusade & 3rd age will all be newer than the EM war, the EA built them in droves after the war to shore up their borders!!!

 

[reklawyad]

Interesting reading so far. I won't vote till I read it first hand. One question, what's BFG?

Ken

 

[Celisasu]

Interesting reading so far. I won't vote till I read it first hand. One question, what's BFG?

Ken

Two definitions for BFG.


1. Battlefleet Gothic. A tabletop strategy game involving spaceships from Games Workshop. Takes place in the Warhammer 40k universe.

2. Big F'ng Gun. Generally refers to the gun in Doom but I've seen people use the term for any really huge gun with way too much firepower.

 

[Jal]

Interesting reading so far. I won't vote till I read it first hand. One question, what's BFG?

Ken

Two definitions for BFG.


1. Battlefleet Gothic. A tabletop strategy game involving spaceships from Games Workshop. Takes place in the Warhammer 40k universe.

2. Big F'ng Gun. Generally refers to the gun in Doom but I've seen people use the term for any really huge gun with way too much firepower.

3. Big Friendly Giant. a children`s book by Roald Dahl.

 

[Right Hand of God]

Having now read if I am mightily dissapointed, it feels like nothing more than a hardbacked edition of S&P

 

[meglos]

when i got my copy i was happy then i realised i had ordered two copies and was unimpressed by its size for the price mongoose could have added all the revised rules in it as well and it wouldnt have been much bigger but it would been worth the price :evil:

 

[captainsmirk]

Not sure what point your going for here CapSmirk, the hyperions in crusade & 3rd age will all be newer than the EM war, the EA built them in droves after the war to shore up their borders!!!

Not according to fluff they didn't, the Omega was the ship built to bulk out the EA fleet, which is why there are so many of them.

Actually the Hyperion is one of the few surviving heavy cruisers from the Earth/Minbari War period; after we lost a LOT of our ships, there were some new ones commissioned, which we haven't seen yet, which are far cooler than even the Hyperion (though we'll see them next season).

Comes from JMS's comments about a Voice in the Wilderness Part 2 from this page.
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/019.html

Nick

 

[Apachex]

I've got it, I've read it, I've played a game with it. Here is my summation: This is not worth $25. It is jam-packed with filler. Look at the sections:

Total length: 96 pages
Ads,credits, quote pages: 3
Full page section intros: 6
Intro: 1 page (1/2 graphics)
New Rules: 3 (2x1/2 graphics)
Earth Alliance Lists: 36 (2x 1/2 graphics)
Pictures of new ships 10 (2 pics per page)
New ships: 16 (15x 1/2 OR LESS text/stats)
The ancients: 9 pages (5 <1/2 text)
Scenarios: 5 (1/2 graphics)
FAQ: 7 (1x1/4 page)

*Subtract out the 1/2 page pictures and you are down to 81 pages
*less the ads, credits and section bumpers and you are down to 72 pages
*subtract out the double pic action shots of the new ships that add 0 content and you get 62 pages
*less the double and triple listed EA ships (24 ships repeated w/o changes): 50 pages.
*less the EA ships not modified from their original SFOS configuration: 31 pages

So thats 31 pages of new content. Even then, it is mostly a few stat line changes, or the FAQ. I really felt like there was very little meat to this book. The only think that seperates it from the Drakh and Dilgar books is the hard cover and the $15 addition to the price.

As for the content:

New rules: Mostly positive, I have no problem incorporating these into the game.

New Ships: I honestly do not see myself using most of the ships in this game. The ancients are not very fun to play against, and the Arm. PL ships are mostly not worth it based on the statlines. I like the new Vorlons and Shadows, however, they are more like their counterpart from the show. The new ISA ships are interesting, and I will find a place for the WS Carrier in my fleet.

EA: Interesting, they took the fleet with the most diversity and then eliminated that diversity my forcing it into three lists. Warlock did not need to be juiced higher. Crusade ear problems and Sag have been argued ad nauseum. Nothing new to add here.

FAQ: I hate paying for FAQs, because they are essentially erata.


So all that said, this should have been a $9.95 softback supplemental. It is definately not on par with SFOS.

 

[captainsmirk]

Well the splitting of the EA list was brought on by people complaining that they had too much diversity compared to the other fleets...

Nick

 

[Triggy]

Splitting of the EA fleet is one thing I'm fine with. The Third Age fleet is basically what you'd expect either on-screen or as a "typical" EA fleet. The other two are great options to be offered - either multiple weaker variants or a wide choice of tough, powerful, EA-style ships.