Centauri Balvarin: Broken?

[Balance]

Wow. I assumed that the Revised box was the same stats as SfoS minus things like the planetary assault notes...

For anyone interested, the Balvarin in my book has Carrier 2, Command +1, and Fleet Carrier at Raid level.

 

[Pauly_D]

Wow. I assumed that the Revised box was the same stats as SfoS minus things like the planetary assault notes...

For anyone interested, the Balvarin in my book has Carrier 2, Command +1, and Fleet Carrier at Raid level.

i think asking for Command would be a bit much but it does need Carrier 2

 

[Balance]

For anyone interested, the Balvarin in my book has Carrier 2, Command +1, and Fleet Carrier at Raid level.

i think asking for Command would be a bit much but it does need Carrier 2

I'm just quoting from page 23 of ACTA Revised, Book 2... I'm not sure of other differences between the two current rules distributions...

 

[lastbesthope]

Balance has a point, the SFOS stats and ACTA Revised stats for the Balvarin are way different in the Special Traits column!!!

LBH

 

[emperorpenguin]

Wow. I assumed that the Revised box was the same stats as SfoS minus things like the planetary assault notes...

For anyone interested, the Balvarin in my book has Carrier 2, Command +1, and Fleet Carrier at Raid level.

thanks for that Balance! seems the revised ACTA is using the draft SFOS traits.
I wonder why they were suddenly changed for the true version?
Or in conspiracy style was it a mistake they were left out and mongoose are covering for that mistake rather than admitting error!? :twisted: :lol:

 

[Pauly_D]

Wow. I assumed that the Revised box was the same stats as SfoS minus things like the planetary assault notes...

For anyone interested, the Balvarin in my book has Carrier 2, Command +1, and Fleet Carrier at Raid level.

thanks for that Balance! seems the revised ACTA is using the draft SFOS traits.
I wonder why they were suddenly changed for the true version?
Or in conspiracy style was it a mistake they were left out and mongoose are covering for that mistake rather than admitting error!? :twisted: :lol:

or is it a case of someone forgetting what was written in the rules

"in the rules it says that if i do this then this will happen"
M. Spranges response-"Does it"
LBH-"Well you wrote the rules!!!"

 

[Chernobyl]

Drat! here I was thinking all game authors had photographic memories!

 

[Gregor]

I won't be using the Balvarin until it gets carrier 2 back. Pity, liked the model. If you want fighters you might as well purchase wings. Incidentally, I purchased the PDF SFOS and the balvarin has fleet carrier and command.

 

[Pauly_D]

I won't be using the Balvarin until it gets carrier 2 back. Pity, liked the model. If you want fighters you might as well purchase wings. Incidentally, I purchased the PDF SFOS and the balvarin has fleet carrier and command.

i definately agree with you there, i only used the Balvarin as bait, it only worked because it could bring out a lot of fighters quickly (admittedly this was in the pre-sfos rules where fighters were v.powerful) but still its losing any point in taking it

 

[lastbesthope]

"in the rules it says that if i do this then this will happen"
M. Spranges response-"Does it"
LBH-"Well you wrote the rules!!!"

I thought it was Old Bear that said that last bit? Idon't think it was me anyway, though it could have been :lol:

It doesn't affect the humour of it though, and I was there to see the convo happen 8)

LBH

 

[emperorpenguin]

I won't be using the Balvarin until it gets carrier 2 back. Pity, liked the model. If you want fighters you might as well purchase wings. Incidentally, I purchased the PDF SFOS and the balvarin has fleet carrier and command.

i definately agree with you there, i only used the Balvarin as bait, it only worked because it could bring out a lot of fighters quickly (admittedly this was in the pre-sfos rules where fighters were v.powerful) but still its losing any point in taking it

it should also be taken into account that unlike the EA, Narn and Minbari, there are few Centauri ships which carry a fighter complement.
In order to take fighters the Centauri have to spend a fleet allocation point, allowing their capital ships to be outnumbered and having lots of weak fighters which don't hurt ships. Plus independent fighters are dead if facing a Narn fleet with energy mines. At least with the Balvarin you can keep them onboard until safe to release them, except it now takes too long :x
And not taking fighters at all is stupid because Narn fighters get some of the most AD of all fighters, plus the Centauri more than any race lack anti-fighter weaponry

 

[emperorpenguin]

Well I thought it was worth reviving this thread after my experience of using a Balvarin in competitive games over the weekend.

First of all my reasons for taking it: I feared that if I took Sentri and Rutarian wings I'd be crucified by Narn energy mines, in the end of course there were no Narn players! D'oh! :roll:

Second seeing the massive damage absorption of the Batrado I thought "I'll have some of that" and take a "bait" ship


Over the course of my games I managed to launch my fighters with a combination of scramble, scramble and luck (3 of my scenarios started with fleets 36" apart)
However the slow release rate meant that versus my first two opponents, the ISA and Minbari my lone sentri flights were being picked off by Nials

The only game which saw scramble, scramble work reliably was versus the vorlons and my sentris were able to massacre his poor fighters.

Overall the ship seemed to drip-feed fighters into battle allowing them to be picked off, in two battles jump points were opened taking some flights out
the real worth of the ship seemed to be in attracting fire which it could absorb, however this seems a waste of the ship's purpose and capability.

The ISA and Minbari fleets didn't fall for the bait and ignored the Balvarin until all my real ships were dead thus negating the damage-soaking ability (in fact only the Vorlon seemed to try and hurt the ship)

Overall I felt another Prefect or such would have been better

 

[B5freak]

I could handle giving it Carrier 1. I know it sounds odd, but it would let the Balvarin start the game with 2 flights out. Given the current odds on Scramble,Scramble, you should be able to have at least 5 of the 6 out by Turn 2. Considering that you're dealing with a pretty darned big Raid ship to begin with, I think that would be fair.

 

[Karhedron]

However the slow release rate meant that versus my first two opponents, the ISA and Minbari my lone sentri flights were being picked off by Nials

To be fair, just because you launch the fighters in small numbers doesn't mean they have to screaming off towards the enemy on their own straight away. You can always keep them in the vicinity of the mothership until you have amassed enough to commit a meaningful number to combat. Granted this would be daft against Narns with e-Mines but most other races wouldn't waste long ranged firepower against fighters with Dodge 2+.

The ISA and Minbari fleets didn't fall for the bait and ignored the Balvarin until all my real ships were dead thus negating the damage-soaking ability (in fact only the Vorlon seemed to try and hurt the ship)

You could always try using "Manouvre to shield them" once you have launched your fighters. Not a guarantee I admit but at least if you pull off the roll then you opponent won't be able to ignore it even if he wants to.

 

[emperorpenguin]

I could handle giving it Carrier 1. I know it sounds odd, but it would let the Balvarin start the game with 2 flights out. Given the current odds on Scramble,Scramble, you should be able to have at least 5 of the 6 out by Turn 2. Considering that you're dealing with a pretty darned big Raid ship to begin with, I think that would be fair.

except that only ships with "fleet carrier" can launch more than one fighter to start with so that's a non-starter I'm afraid

 

[emperorpenguin]

To be fair, just because you launch the fighters in small numbers doesn't mean they have to screaming off towards the enemy on their own straight away. You can always keep them in the vicinity of the mothership until you have amassed enough to commit a meaningful number to combat. Granted this would be daft against Narns with e-Mines but most other races wouldn't waste long ranged firepower against fighters with Dodge 2+.

I wasn't chasing off after opponents, they were racing in towards me and jumping out of hyperspace alongside capital ships. It takes too long to launch so your opponent with superior dogfight ability and superior crew also in the case of the ISA can kill your fighters piecemeal over 3 turns

You could always try using "Manouvre to shield them" once you have launched your fighters. Not a guarantee I admit but at least if you pull off the roll then you opponent won't be able to ignore it even if he wants to.

Again the problem here is that you can't shield auxiliary craft in this way, it's not allowed by the rules and even if it were you cannot perform a special action AND launch fighters, thereby defeating the purpose.