Gorn Fleet - Comments Welcomed

[McKinstry]

Thanks for the report, most useful. Agree about the removal of the 3 ship limit, think that was a bad idea. If drones at range have been nerf baddly, what about the following ?

Up to range 18" (half range) - Autohit
up to Maximum Range (36") - 4+ to hit
Keep the 3 ship limit for drones

This gives the 2 range bands of other weapon systems and gives a better chance of engagement with drones (as they would be limited to 3 ships firing at any one target - so with average rolls a 12 drone salvo should hit with 6. Should be easy to deal with through IDF SA, if you make the roll).

Agree with your other points - dump Lumbering and the -1 initiative modifier (though we might be pushing the -1 - if it's that or Lumbering, hello -1 Initiative :? )

I'm fine with two range bands at 18". I think it just keeps things simpler but given (per SVC) that the target hit% at range should be between 3-5% for drones, the existing 5+ yields about perfect results. Overall at range, the Kizinti's had 3 hits for 72 fired yet still kicked Gorn butt overall, although much of that was me still not appreciating how much difference there is between a Turn 4 and a Turn 6 cruiser in the euphoria of unencumbered by lumbering cruisers.

 

[McKinstry]

[Basically speaking, you'll land a through-shield shot a little over half the time; and if you land one through-shield shot with a regular photon, it'll crit a little more than half the time. Actually, that was an unfortunate understatement, I forgot to account for the very non-negligible chance you land two photons through. The figure is actually a hair over 30%.

I'm not seeing the math. On any given shot you have a 16.66%(1 in 6) of penetrating a shield. Once you've penetrated the shield you have four independent events, all at 16.66%. The actual chance of rolling a 6 followed by another 6 is I believe, around 3%. The odds are affected somewhat by the multihit 4 in that having rolled the first six, you get 4 shots at a second but each of those shots is still only at 1 in 6.

 

[storeylf]

I'm not seeing the math. On any given shot you have a 16.66%(1 in 6) of penetrating a shield. Once you've penetrated the shield you have four independent events, all at 16.66%. The actual chance of rolling a 6 followed by another 6 is I believe, around 3%. The odds are affected somewhat by the multihit 4 in that having rolled the first six, you get 4 shots at a second but each of those shots is still only at 1 in 6.

The intial point being made was for a volley of 4 photons.

The chance of getting 1 (or more) out of 4 through shields is 52%.

Any shot that goes through shields does 4 hits, which again have a 52% chance of 1 (or more) crits out of each 4 hits.

27% is about right for getting 1 (or more) crits per volley of 4 photons on standard power.

 

[AdmiralGrafSpee]

[Basically speaking, you'll land a through-shield shot a little over half the time; and if you land one through-shield shot with a regular photon, it'll crit a little more than half the time. Actually, that was an unfortunate understatement, I forgot to account for the very non-negligible chance you land two photons through. The figure is actually a hair over 30%.

I'm not seeing the math. On any given shot you have a 16.66%(1 in 6) of penetrating a shield. Once you've penetrated the shield you have four independent events, all at 16.66%. The actual chance of rolling a 6 followed by another 6 is I believe, around 3%. The odds are affected somewhat by the multihit 4 in that having rolled the first six, you get 4 shots at a second but each of those shots is still only at 1 in 6.

You have to take into account the probability of getting multiple hits and multiple crits per hit. While they are rare there are a lot of different combination and added together the significantly increase the overall probability. You can't just look at average out comes in cases like this.

-Tim

 

[McKinstry]

Probability of at least one six on xd6 is 1-(5/6)^n

So essentially the math is you have a 50% chance of a second 50% chance to get a two level crit?
Assuming a 4 photon spread with distance being irrelevant.

With a 2 photon spread the percentage of getting a shield penetration drops to roughly 31% (11/36) but the chance of a two level crit remains slightly over 50%?

 

[TJHairball]

Probability of at least one six on xd6 is 1-(5/6)^n

So essentially the math is you have a 50% chance of a second 50% chance to get a two level crit?
Assuming a 4 photon spread with distance being irrelevant.

With a 2 photon spread the percentage of getting a shield penetration drops to roughly 31% (11/36) but the chance of a two level crit remains slightly over 50%?

Yes. So a two photon spread has about a 1 in 6 chance of causing critical damage.

Photons aren't amazing for their shield damage; they are amazing for their through-shield damage. That is why you don't want to hold fire for a more accurate shot at 7.5"; it's more important to fire them now and hope you'll be able to reload them later. They have the same chance of blowing straight through shields at 15" or 7.5".

Overloaded photons are a very useful threat, but it's pretty rare you actually use photons overloaded.

 

[AdmiralGrafSpee]

Okay, all this math, gotta do it right.

I've tried to attach an excel sheet with some probabilities. I'm pretty confident its done right - except for the "average critical levels" - but they do look about right.

And yes I can confirm that the chance of getting 1 or more criticals with 4 std photons is 26.81%. The number get very scary if you overload - for example a DNG with overloads has a 51% of getting 1 or more overalls - with an average number of critical levels equal to 2.67. The scary part about that is the average is based a lot on getting 0 crits - so the at the other end you get some really big numbers.

-Tim

P.S. okay, couldn't attach the file. I will try pasting:


Standard Damage Overload Damage
Average Damage Penetration Critcal Hits Average Damage Penetration Critcal Hits
# Wpns Short Range Long Range Prob 1 or more Prob 1 or more Avg # Crit Levels Short Range Long Range Prob 1 or more Prob 1 or more Avg # Crit Levels
Photons 2 4.00 2.67 30.56% 15.82% 0.444 8.00 5.33 30.56% 23.45% 0.889
3 6.00 4.00 42.13% 21.81% 0.667 12.00 8.00 42.13% 32.33% 1.333
4 8.00 5.33 51.77% 26.81% 0.889 16.00 10.67 51.77% 39.73% 1.778
6 12.00 8.00 66.51% 34.44% 1.333 24.00 16.00 66.51% 51.04% 2.667
Disruptors 2 2.67 2.00 30.56% 9.34% 0.111 5.33 4.00 30.56% 15.82% 0.222
3 4.00 3.00 42.13% 12.87% 0.167 8.00 6.00 42.13% 21.81% 0.333
4 5.33 4.00 51.77% 15.82% 0.222 10.67 8.00 51.77% 26.81% 0.444
6 8.00 6.00 66.51% 20.32% 0.333 16.00 12.00 66.51% 34.44% 0.667

Okay, that's disastrously bad formatting. Anyone know how to displace a table from excel?

 

[Captain Jonah]

Battles using Drones as stated by Matt.

16” auto hit, 17-18” 4+, 19”+ 5+, no limit on Drone ships targeting.
Gorn non lumbering, with -1 Initiative.
Map 1-6 along top edge, A-D side edge. Asteroids in B2, moon in A4, Gas Giant in A5, moon in B5, Asteroids in B6, dust cloud in C4.


Battle one. Gorn on the number 6 side, Kzinti on number 1 side
Gorn, CC, BC, BC, HDD, DD, DD
Kzinti NCC, CM, CM, DW, DW, DW
Total Drones fire and hit.
Turn one 24 at over 18+, 7 locked on, non hit.

Turn two 8 Drones fired under 16”, all Phasered down. The whole Gorn fleet was hiding behind a dust cloud as they close and a pair of DWs had a shot round the end.

Turn three 20 Drones fire at 16” and under, 12 hit, all Gorn on IDF but only the CC and one HDD made it, HDD crippled.

Turn 4 Kzinti CM caught and destroyed by fire from both BCs and remaining DD, CC tried to tractor other CM but it got free. Kzinti ships used better turn modes to scatter. HDD goes to hide behind Asteroids. 24 Drones fired at under 16”, 16 Hit, DD destroyed, other DD lost shields and half hull. HDD taken out by some disruptors, Phasers and a few spare drones.

Turn 5. All Gorn go IDF and run for Gas Giant to hide while reloading next turn. CC and one BC make IDF. Kzinti swing round to keep Gorn in arc. Damaged DD destroyed as it ran for cover by long range Phaser fire and a few Disruptors. 20 Drones fired at CC along with Phasers and three Disruptors. 20 Drones fired at under 16”, 10 shot down, 10 Hit CC plus two Disruptors and 8 Phasers. Ship on half hull but has IMP 3 criticals from a Drone and a Phaser.

Turn 6. CC boosted and continued round the GG, both BCs went round GG and reloaded. Kzinti followed but not in orbit. 20 Drones fired at CC. Big explosion as 14 hit it.

Turn 7 I had two undamaged BCs against an NCC, CM, DW, DW, DW. Several of the Kzinti ships had damage, one of the DWs had taken 4 hull and had a crew crit but all had boosted to full shields. With 20 Drones left one BC would die as soon as the Kzinti could line up on it. Gorn Loss


Battle two.
Gorn 3 x CM, 3 x BDD.
Kzinti NCC, CM x 2, DW x 3.

Same map, Gorn on 1 edge.

Turn one. Gorn run for cover behind dust cloud and all IDF. Kzinti split either side of Dust cloud. 20 Drones fired at over 16” 5 lock and all Phasered down by Gorn fleet.

Turn 2 Gorn close on Dust cloud and all IDF. Both Kzinti groups sweep round either end and target one BDD. I made 4 IDF rolls. 24 Drones fired at under 16”, 17 of them Phasered down. Phasers plus Drones cripple BDD.

Turn 3 Entire Gorn fleet goes through Dust cloud and turns towards one Kzinti group while hiding from the other. All IDF. Kzinti group that side flees while boosting, other Kzinti group comes in behind Gorn. Crippled BDD hides in dust but is killed by Disruptor fire and Phasers from the rear group. It was 2” short of safety on the far side of the dust. 24 Drones fired. 11 destroyed BDD and last 4 were fired at a CM that had fired to defend BDD, shields at half.

Turn 4 Gorn ships now chasing Kzinti who fled round Asteroids, three Kzinti ships behind cover, 12 Drones fired. All but 2 Phasered down, more shield damage to damaged CM.

Turn 5 Gorn chasing Kzinti round Asteroids, I got long range plasma fire at 11-12” and took down the DWs shield plus did 6 internals. Return Drones 12 fired at 12” 7 stopped, damaged CM shield down and 2 crits, 1 and 2 ! trailing group could not fire.

Turn 6 continuing round the Asteroids. Damaged CM trailing and all hands on deck due to escalating crits. Others IDF. Trailing group swung up towards Gas Giant and slammed 12 Drones into the damaged CM. 7 Drone hits plus Phasers blew it up.

Battle called here with Gorn heading for another lose due to it being time to go collect the Chinese which is my job.

Result of both battles. Above 16” Drones were not a problem. Under 16” if the entire Kzinti group can fire Gorn ships die without being able to stop it. On Turn two of the second battle I had FOUR ships make IDF and between then they stopped 17 Drones. I still had a BDD reduced from intact to 5 hull despite incredible defensive fire. I was hardly able to fire any Phasers since any ship that did so towards the end of the turn simply invited four drones on its shields. Turn mode 4 Kzinti cruisers are able to keep open the range unless I can trap them but doing so spreads my fleet where as the Drones can hit me from anywhere within 16”. Removal of the three ship limit allows Gorn ships to be murdered. Several turns the Kzinti never even fired Disruptors and several Turns they fired only one or two ships worth. They simply didn’t need them and didn’t bother to get them in arc since the Drones carried both battles.

I don’t know what will solve this but something needs to be done or the Gorn are off the tournament list and Fed DWD heavy groups are back along with the Kzinti.

Drone stats 220 Fired over both battles, 188 locked or fired at 16" and under. 88 hit.

 

[Captain Jonah]

Battle three. This was today Sunday. Map was still set up from yesterday so was left as is.

Gorn CM, CM, HDE, HDD, HDD, HDD
Kzinti BC, BC, DW, DW, DW, DW

Same map, Gorn on number 6 side.

Turn 1 CMs with HDE 4” behind them went past GG heading for Kzinti, HDDs using Asteroids at B2 for cover. CMs IDF, HDE escorts. Kzinti spread out into two groups of BC + 2 DWs. 24 Drones fire at over 16”, 9 lock on. All Phasered down.

Turn 2 CMs and HDE push towards dust cloud, HDD x 3 go round Asteroids as B2 to face. Kzinti boost and keep going along table bottom to keep range open. All Gorn IDF. 24 Drones fired at 16” or less. 12 fired at CM that made IDF, HDE Phasered down 6, CM got 5. Slight shield damage on CM. One HDD made IDF and took 7 hits losing its shields and taking a few hull but no crits.

Turn 3 CMS and HDE swing towards HDDs and go through dust cloud. Kzinti group that side getting boxed in and try to break past HDDs, other Kzinti group comes in behind CM group. CMs and undamaged HDDs plus HDE IDF, damaged one boosts. Plasma fire at long range takes down a DWs shield and Phasers from both CMs do 8 hull and two crits (crew and weapon). Being able to fire Phasers at an enemy is a new thing and felt good but was entirely due to the escort behind the CMs. Kzinti fired 24 Drones at damaged HDD, 12 over 16” got 5 locks, 12 at under 16”. One other HDD make IDF roll but both ships stopped only 7 between them. Damaged HDD toast. HDE takes 10 shield damage from Disruptors and Phasers from the ships behind it.

Turn 4 Both HDDs tried to tractor Kzinti ships, damaged DW escaped, BC was tractored in place. Damaged DW runs behind Asteroids and boosts, other DW fails IDF staying with BC. CMs move to 5” from BC and tear it apart. 20 Drones fired at under 16”, HDD took 15 hits and some Phasers and fell apart. HDE took more disruptor and Phaser hits and lost shield.

Turn 5 remaining HDD rand for dust cloud and boosted, it made it to the cloud and was safe. Both CMs reloaded, the HDE moved round the Asteroids a bit so it was safe from the chasing ships but still covering the CMs. Damaged DW fires at HDE and does a few Hull plus a shield crit, fires 4 Drones at 6” which are all stopped by D-Rack. 12 Drones fired at CMs from under 16”, all stopped by HDEs Phasers and D-racks. HDE uses two ammo doing this. Remaining Kzinti all keep range open and boost.

Turn 6. CMs swing round asteroids and both go IDF, remaining HDD swings round behind dust cloud to head back to other ships but stays hidden this turn. Both CMS IDF, HDE boosts. Kzinti swing round to clear asteroids. Only 4 Drones fire and all 4 Phasered as most Kzinti out of arc due to terrain.

Turn 7 BCC and 2 DWs clear asteroids to find CMs, HDE runs round the asteroids to stay hidden from them but keeps covering CMS. HDD goes APE and runs back to other Gorn ships. One DW survivor from destroyed group fires 4 Drones at HDE which uses another ammo. Kzinti ships fire 12 Drones at CM, under 16”, CM and HDE stop 10 of them using the last ammo on the D-racks. Phasers and Disruptors take down half the CMs shield and return Gorn Phasers does some shield damage.

Turn 8 both CMs charge Kzinti, Gorn win Init so CM goes first and tractors BC, BC then breaks free and runs north towards table edge to clear Gorn. Second CM tractors a DW which cannot escape. HDD lines up onf tractored DW. HDE remains in place since only the lone DW can see it and reloads.
Tractored DW blown to plasma. Drones fired 4 at HDE which phasers them all down, HDE also loses repaired shields and takes another shield crit. Remaining Kzinti ships all fire at one CM and almost drop its shields.

Turn 9. Remaining Kzinti swing past Gorn and head round Asteroid. HDE runs the other way round the Asteroid to hide again while boosting. Gorn go round asteroid while boosting. Some Phaser and 8 Drones fired in total, 4 hits on the undamaged HDD as it was the only thing not hiding and the escort was on boost.

Turn 10. The entire Gorn fleet came round the asteroids again to find the Kzinti running past at between 11 and 15” range. 12 Drones fired. All phasered down or taken down by the HDE which was now within 4” of everyone. Long range plasmas and some Phasers drop shield on intact DW and do Impulse 4 crit.
Kzinti fleet have BC, DW, DW. One DW has shield down and is at 6” move from crits, both other ships have minor damage. Gorn have two CMs, a damaged HDD and a damaged HDE. The slow moving DW is dead next turn and the Kzinti cannot touch the Gorn due to the reloaded escort behind them. Two remaining Kzinti ships run for it.

Note HDE (heavy destroyer escort is unofficial convert from SFB. As HDD but remove all plasmas. Add D-rack 1AD PH, D-rack 1AD SH, D-rack 2AD FH, Phasers F+P and F+S 1AD, PH and SH 1AD, T 3AD all Phaser 1s and PH and SH 2AD Phaser 3. I used escort as auto IDF plus using D-racks at 4” range.

Drones this battle 144 fired in total, 122 locked. 42 hit.

First two battles 85% locked or were under 16" and 40% hit
Third battle 85% locked or fired under 16", 29% hit

 

[archon96]

nice play by play, but i wish you hadnt converted an escort it scews the results becuase we dont know if that ship will import correctly. But thanks again.

 

[Ben2]

As soon as scouts come out we need to find out if they undo the work done so far to balance drones. 5+ at range 36 means a third hit, but 5+ rerollable is 5/9, slightly more than half.

So a Kzinti fleet with say 36 drones will still score 20 hits at range 18-36" instead of 12.

It'll be very interesting to see how scouts are done, because if each scout gets Scout 1 (1 scout ability per turn) then I forsee a Kzinti scout frigate being a no brainer.

 

[OgreMkV]

nice play by play, but i wish you hadnt converted an escort it scews the results becuase we dont know if that ship will import correctly. But thanks again.

Does it really matter? If the Gorn were destroyed by drone fire, even with a dedicated anti-drone ship...

Yes, some were destroyed by disrupter fire. But it's the hit percentage that's pretty stunning. I think that anyone (and I mean modern armies and air forces) would be thrilled with an 85% hit rate. The only mitigating factor was the massive phaser volleys of the Gorn... and that wasn't enough to prevent the damage.

 

[TJHairball]

nice play by play, but i wish you hadnt converted an escort it scews the results becuase we dont know if that ship will import correctly. But thanks again.

Does it really matter? If the Gorn were destroyed by drone fire, even with a dedicated anti-drone ship...

Yes, some were destroyed by disrupter fire. But it's the hit percentage that's pretty stunning. I think that anyone (and I mean modern armies and air forces) would be thrilled with an 85% hit rate. The only mitigating factor was the massive phaser volleys of the Gorn... and that wasn't enough to prevent the damage.

Neither battle shows an 85% hit rate. There was a 29% and 40%. In both cases, that clearly reflects that most of the drone fire that happened was within 16" - i.e., at a range well within maneuver of effective plasma range.

It looks to me like the big deciding factor is that plasma is a reload weapon, drones aren't, and the Gorn simply have no ability to pull crap off while they're reloading plasma. There were, I think, some significant mistakes by the Gorn in that battle report, but the reload sequence, quantity of drones, and, significantly, quantity of Gorn phasers are critical.

I think there's not a clear understanding of just how valuable phasers are and how to use them optimally. Ships with horrible phasers and phaser arcs - i.e., the Gorn - have a major and significant weakness both offensively and defensively.

 

[McKinstry]

Neither battle shows an 85% hit rate. There was a 29% and 40%. In both cases, that clearly reflects that most of the drone fire that happened was within 16" - i.e., at a range well within maneuver of effective plasma range.

It looks to me like the big deciding factor is that plasma is a reload weapon, drones aren't, and the Gorn simply have no ability to pull crap off while they're reloading plasma. There were, I think, some significant mistakes by the Gorn in that battle report, but the reload sequence, quantity of drones, and, significantly, quantity of Gorn phasers are critical.

I think there's not a clear understanding of just how valuable phasers are and how to use them optimally. Ships with horrible phasers and phaser arcs - i.e., the Gorn - have a major and significant weakness both offensively and defensively.

I agree that the reload phase within 16" of a drone heavy opponent is currently an exercise in exploding ships for the Gorn. In all of our playtests, the Gorns simply get pounded in the reload phase with the doubly damning problem that simply fending off drones demands the use of most phasers that are in arc, giving their opponent essentially a free hack every other turn.

The numbers of Gorn phasers aren't going to change (tied to FC) and as others have said, nerfing drones too much for the plasma fleets alone (Romulans also have problems but not at the level of the Gorn) isn't an ideal answer either. If the long range rules (5+ over 18") and the three ship limit are combined with no lumbering (and bump the Gorn to +0 for initiative, there is no SFU fluff I've seen that justifies a net 2 swing) for now, it at least makes things semi-competitive. Once scouts and escorts are added, maybe the balance can be further tweaked.

 

[TJHairball]

Neither battle shows an 85% hit rate. There was a 29% and 40%. In both cases, that clearly reflects that most of the drone fire that happened was within 16" - i.e., at a range well within maneuver of effective plasma range.

It looks to me like the big deciding factor is that plasma is a reload weapon, drones aren't, and the Gorn simply have no ability to pull crap off while they're reloading plasma. There were, I think, some significant mistakes by the Gorn in that battle report, but the reload sequence, quantity of drones, and, significantly, quantity of Gorn phasers are critical.

I think there's not a clear understanding of just how valuable phasers are and how to use them optimally. Ships with horrible phasers and phaser arcs - i.e., the Gorn - have a major and significant weakness both offensively and defensively.

I agree that the reload phase within 16" of a drone heavy opponent is currently an exercise in exploding ships for the Gorn. In all of our playtests, the Gorns simply get pounded in the reload phase with the doubly damning problem that simply fending off drones demands the use of most phasers that are in arc, giving their opponent essentially a free hack every other turn.

The numbers of Gorn phasers aren't going to change (tied to FC) and as others have said, nerfing drones too much for the plasma fleets alone (Romulans also have problems but not at the level of the Gorn) isn't an ideal answer either. If the long range rules (5+ over 18") and the three ship limit are combined with no lumbering (and bump the Gorn to +0 for initiative, there is no SFU fluff I've seen that justifies a net 2 swing) for now, it at least makes things semi-competitive. Once scouts and escorts are added, maybe the balance can be further tweaked.

So fix the point values, then. Ships that don't have phasers just aren't worth as much.

It is a little tricky, since the Gorn do have some nice plasma loadouts, and plasma is very non-linear, but re-pointing the Gorn may well be necessary.

 

[WickedLance]

....WHY does Starfleet have to be so tied to FC/SFB? Is it part of the joint venture agreement?

 

[tneva82]

....WHY does Starfleet have to be so tied to FC/SFB? Is it part of the joint venture agreement?

Well it would be kinda weird to have ships vastly different in different games.

Like having white stars in one babylon 5 game nimble fast ships with fragility of an egg and slow lumbering behemoths that take forever to kill in another

So yeah changing basics of ships(weapon armaments etc) in one game is no go.

Still leaves plenty to room to balance. If by nothing else by tweaking point values.

Would have been possible to fix the lumbering issue by simply tweaking the point values...

 

[Captain Jonah]

nice play by play, but i wish you hadnt converted an escort it scews the results becuase we dont know if that ship will import correctly. But thanks again.

Then disregard the results of battle three.

I was fighting Kzinti specifically to test Drones under the changed rules and I had already suggested escorts so was trying it for real. Result was much better but I think the escort is going to be target number ONE for long range Phaser and disruptor fire next time it comes out.

The Escorts don't exist in FC or ACTA as I mentioned, I took the base SSD from SFB though the D-Racks should have been SH/PH 2AD each, I just took the arcs of the main plasmas.

It doesn't change the results though; in fact it helps to reinforce them. The Gorn cannot face Drone heavy fleets unless you are flying on a map that is 33% terrain. 6 Kzinti ships in each game and mostly they didn't bother lining up Disruptors because the Drones did most of the Killing with Phasers helping out.

With an escort the Kzinti were reduced to lining up for long range Disruptor and Phaser fire. The heaviest loses I took in battle three came when ships were out of range or behind terrain from the escort or when it boosted shields due to being hit.

Otherwise once the Kzinti were unable to simply smash Gorn ships from 12-16" they fared badly even with a better turn mode.

Matt said he would be getting back to us today though it’s a UK bank holiday so it may be later in the week.

ACTA is using a new game system which happens to include only the names of weapons rather than the actual effects of those weapons. The ships on the other hand are exactly as set in SFB/FC with the same weapons and arcs (roughly) as they have on the SSDs. This leaves us with ships designed to fight using a different set of rules and as a result they perform differently under ACTA-SF.

As I understand it the Agreement with ADB means that the ships must be the same as from SFB/FC which prevents any changes. For the Gorn you could simply replace the F refit which added the side plasma F torpedoes with the D refit which added a D-Rack instead of the F. Dropping 2AD of plasma on the Plasma ships but giving them the equivalent of an ADD if needed. This however was restricted to escorts only and is probably not allowed for any of the three plasma races.

Not to mention the shortish range of the top end Plasmas.

We have to wait for Matt to get back to us but to be honest he has his work cut out for him here. Balancing Kzinti without making them too weak to face Fed and Klingon’s without making the Gorn in particular and Plasma races in general so Vulnerable to Drones as to be all but useless.

So no pressure Matt.

 

[Da Boss]

Maybe you just say that the Gorn shields are more effective against Drones due to some made up technobable

Gorn Shields half all hits from Drones but act normally with regard to all other weapons?

 

[Captain Jonah]

nice play by play, but i wish you hadnt converted an escort it scews the results becuase we dont know if that ship will import correctly. But thanks again.

Does it really matter? If the Gorn were destroyed by drone fire, even with a dedicated anti-drone ship...

Yes, some were destroyed by disrupter fire. But it's the hit percentage that's pretty stunning. I think that anyone (and I mean modern armies and air forces) would be thrilled with an 85% hit rate. The only mitigating factor was the massive phaser volleys of the Gorn... and that wasn't enough to prevent the damage.

Sorry for any confusion. The percentages were the number that would hit (all if under 16" and those that made the lock on roll above 16" and the number that made it past defences and did damage.

So 85% was the number of Drones in the entire battle that WOULD have reached the target, 40%/29% is the number that DID reach and damage the target.

As TJHairball says, Drones are not a reload weapon. Once plasmas are fired it comes down to risking reloading or risking IDF. Drones fire regardless of the SA the Kzinti is taking and on a number of turns the Kzinti could have not bothered with an SA.
Having to run Cruisers behind cover to reload or leave them out in the open and hope the rest of the Fleet can IDF enough to protect them or just carry on with Phasers only because IDF every turn is the only thing stopping you losing your entire fleet by turn 5 is not a fun choice to make.

Separating the fleet to try to pin the Kzinti or staying together and letting them dance around me. Equally hard choices. Several times I reloaded or ran simply to see what would happen, either way ended badly for at least one ship.

I think it’s fairly well demonstrated by the Turn when four of my six ships made IDF. I was able to Phaser down 17 Drones which for the Gorn is fairly outstanding. I still had a BDD reduced to useless from fully intact. 16” seems like a short range when you can move 12” and fire another 8” but its keeping them there to be shot at. You may have noticed I lost DDs and BDDs first, this cost me Free moves and as the games progressed I was moving important ships when the Kzinti were moving DWs around the edges of the fight.

Several times I tired Tractor grabs, sometimes it worked and I killed a ship, sometimes it failed and I was left with a ship sitting there without a defensive SA. You cannot tractor an enemy with more than one of your ships so I charge an enemy declaring tractor, I can move other ships to line up but until that ship moves and we get the opposed CQ check I don’t know if it will even be there. Also on opposed CQs if the result is a draw then the winner of the initiative that turn wins meaning the Gorn with that -1 penalty are less than 50% likely to pull off a Gorn Anchor.