Dilgar

[KennyBoy]

Hi there!

Just a quick query for you guys in the know... The Dilgar's Pentacon formation special rule states that:

"The Dilgar player can select a Pentacon whenever it is his turn to move a ship but, instead of it as normal, he can force an enemy ship to move instead".

Does this mean that the opposing player moves one of his ships in the DILGAR player's turn, and then would have to move another of his ships in HIS turn, or that the Dilgar player is - to all intents and purposes - just reversing the iniative (as far as movement is concerned at least)?

Also, as it states "he can force an enemy ship..." rather than "he forces the enemy to move a ship..." does this mean the Dilgar player CHOOSES the enemy ship that gets moved?

Any comments (or straight declarations from the Mongoose boys) would be most welcome...

 

[Burger]

Hi

The pentacon skipping is basically a free initiative sink. The Dilgar player, instead of having to move one of his ships, declares a "skip" and moves nothing. It then goes to his opponent to move, as usual. So:

Dilgar player moves a ship
Opponent moves a ship
Dilgar player selects a pentacon to "skip"
Opponent moves a ship
Dilgar player moves a ship... etc.

No the Dilgar player does not choose which ship the opponent must move. Though the wording does seem a bit vague, that would be horibly overpowered!

 

[H]

hopefully vague wording will be fixed in second ed.

 

[KennyBoy]

Thanks for that matey, I thought it seemed a bit powerful!

Right, whilst i'm in a questioning frame of mind, i'll give you another one, that even the mighty Greg was unable to answer...

A Scout's redirect ability affects one weapon system of all ships in the friendly fleet firing at the unfortunate target, but can more than 1 Scout perform a redirect so that more than one weapon per ship could be affected?

 

[Burger]

can more than 1 Scout perform a redirect so that more than one weapon per ship could be affected?

Yes
Other reasons to use more than one scout, is to provide a backup... if you redirect with a scout that gets destroyed, the redirect disappears and your ships which have yet to fire don't get the benefit. But if you redirect with a second scout, your remaining ships can still have one weapon redirected.

 

[H]

and some scouts are almost viable warships too. The Narn know how to make scouts....

 

[KennyBoy]

can more than 1 Scout perform a redirect so that more than one weapon per ship could be affected?

Yes
Other reasons to use more than one scout, is to provide a backup... if you redirect with a scout that gets destroyed, the redirect disappears and your ships which have yet to fire don't get the benefit. But if you redirect with a second scout, your remaining ships can still have one weapon redirected.

Thanks again Burger - you Rule!

 

[Locutus9956]

Minbari scouts aint bad either, the Leshath is a pretty respectable raid ship imho (disgusting stealth rating + decent mid - longish range firepower + scout ability = pwn )

 

[Tankdriver]

Where as the league, outside of the vree, are pretty thin in the scout department. And the raiders... well, that is best left unsaid.

 

[Burger]

Where as the league, outside of the vree, are pretty thin in the scout department

Shakara? Eyehawk? Shyarie?
OK... the pak don't have one

 

[Locutus9956]

The ISA dont have one either at the moment..... the real scout masters are the vree and the centauri though who have disgustingly effective little patrol level versions available.

 

[Burger]

Of course ISA usually take some Vree allies for their superior scouting abilities

Vree win the best scout award... Patrol level, stealth 5+, and CQ checks get +1 bonus. Only problem is they blow up if you look at them funny!

 

[Tankdriver]

Well, two of the scouts Burger mentioned are not really official, and I have doubted the Shyarie's effectiveness. But yes, the Vree have a serious scout if you can avoid having it shot at.

 

[Chernobyl]

Vree win the best scout award... Patrol level, stealth 5+, and CQ checks get +1 bonus. Only problem is they blow up if you look at them funny!

of course, when they're that cheap, you can afford more than one...

:lol:

Chern

 

[H]

Vree win the best scout award... Patrol level, stealth 5+, and CQ checks get +1 bonus. Only problem is they blow up if you look at them funny!

of course, when they're that cheap, you can afford more than one...

:lol:

Chern

I thikn the drakh are sickeningly effective scouts too, I also had 2 of them criple a leshath which was fun.

 

[Ripple]

Eyehawk blows...to get any use out of the laser your basically flying straight into enemy guns with no defensive systems, hull 4 and what 14 damage points? Dumb ship. (if there is still any doubt any single fighter can kill you over time as you cannot ever hurt a fighter...I suppose you could ram..)

Shyarie has the same issue (though the contraversial comm disruptor kills fighters due to 'a hit' being enough makes them a tad better). It will last slightly longer but is helpless against any ship that decides to kill them. An easy kill for a beam armed ship.

The new Brakiri one I'm still not familiar enough with, but I have some hope.

All that said...now that fighters can ignore stealth, the small scouts all have issues. Primary defense for a scout was stealth (ment it was too risky to waste main weapons on them), dodge/interceptors (ment a patrol ship did not have enough guns to kill and took a number of flights) and maneuver...ie the classic run away/behind cover as no line of sight needed to scout.

League scouts generally were poor at their mission due to having poor defenses against when alone and needing line of sight to due secondary jobs (disrupts, fire main weapons)...the Vree being the exception. Look to the main races and you have better all round firepower across the board, all have at least some stealth and some even carry flights of their own. The oracle even has a missile tube for long range support, on a turret so it can still maneuver like a scout.

I just want sanity in the ships designs, racial flavour is nice...but not when it would simply cause extiction. (ie an Eyehawk should have been based on a guardhawk...not a kamikazee sunhawk laser boat.) EW is too big a part of war that any race would simply ignore having a sold assest on site for the job.

Ripple