B5: ACTA - Admirals

[Anbar]

I am not sure that I understand the 'points' system on using Admirals.

I Understand the restrictions to certain ships, but I cant quite understand the value of an Admiral if it raises the level of a ship by one.

e.g. i'm playing a 5 war-point scenario in a campign.
I have one War level ship, the rest are battle, raid etc.
To use an admiral it must attach to the War level ship, raising it to Armageddon in the process... which effectively means that i have used 2 WAR points for 1 ship, leaving 3 war points.

I cannot see how the admiral bonuses can compensate for the *lost* war point in ships that using the admiral has *cost*.

i.e. 5 WAR level ships ar surely better than 4 WAR level ships and an Admiral.

Or have I gotten the entire system wrong?

 

[Burger]

You have got it right. Yes admirals are extremely bad value for FAPs especially on higher PL Ships. This goes backwards at the very top because an Armageddon ship only costs a extra Battle to have an admiral on. It's a bit of a crappy system to be honest.

 

[Mean Mutton]

We house rule Admirals -- A regular "Admiral" costs a Battle point and an "Elite Captain" costs a Raid point and gives only one Admiral trait.

 

[Anbar]

that's a shame... I was hoping I had missunderstood the system.

My brain had wrapped itself around the idea that it was only the VP/XP value of the ship that had gone up, not its actual game cost i.e. killing that ship would give Armageddon XP/VP, even though it was a WAR level ship.

I wonder if that would work as an alternative?

 

[Burger]

You could always house rule it. Although some of the admiral traits are quite nifty, none of them are particularly brilliant, and definitely not worth a war point for 3 of them. Maybe change it so that an admiral costs 1 PL below the ship he is on? So a Raid ship with an admiral would cost 1 Raid + 1 Skirmish, a Battle would cost 1 Battle + 1 Raid, etc?

Some of the named admirals are quite good. Sheridan's White Star is a beast (until he meets e-mines). G'Sten is pretty good although has a limited range of ships. Jha'Dur is excellent for really annoying your opponent.

 

[Anbar]

Or, all things being equal, why do they cost anything at all when both sides can have one?

 

[Burger]

If you're giving one to both sides then yeah, doesn't matter what they cost. It only matters when one side wants one but the other would rather spend the FAPs on more ships

 

[Greg Smith]

That is the way we have played them in the past - giving them to both sides.

 

[Da Boss]

We house rule Admirals -- A regular "Admiral" costs a Battle point and an "Elite Captain" costs a Raid point and gives only one Admiral trait.

Sounds pretty good to me 8)

@ Anbar - there are some ideas about using Admirals in my Supplements if you fancy a look

 

[AdrianH]

As I understand it, an admiral must be placed on the highest priority level ship available.

Some named admirals are only allowed on certain ships.

What happens if your fleet includes a higher priority level ship than the ones the admiral is allowed to be on? For example, from P&P, Ivanova is allowed to be on various Earth ships or the ISA's White Star or Victory. So what happens if you field a 5 Battle ISA fleet containing some White Stars and one White Star Gunship? Is Ivanova allowed onto one of the White Stars? Under normal rules, if she is allowed onto a White Star, does she then raise it to Battle level (+1 level to the White Star's normal) or War level (because there's a Battle level ship in the fleet, even though Ivanova isn't on it)?

 

[Anbar]

We house rule Admirals -- A regular "Admiral" costs a Battle point and an "Elite Captain" costs a Raid point and gives only one Admiral trait.

Sounds pretty good to me 8)

@ Anbar - there are some ideas about using Admirals in my Supplements if you fancy a look

sure, URL?

 

[Da Boss]

In my sig

 

[Burger]

So what happens if you field a 5 Battle ISA fleet containing some White Stars and one White Star Gunship? Is Ivanova allowed onto one of the White Stars?

No. When there are 2 rules you have to stick to both. You can't choose to ignore one when it suits.

If your fleet contains White Stars and White Star Gunships then you cannot field Ivanova. If you're given a free admiral as a house rule then you'd have to take a generic one on the Gunship.