Heat blaster

[Bellicose]

How does the heat blaster seem to everyone? I know that it has been discussed before, but the Kurgan have been out for a while now and was wondering if there was any agreement on how well it works in practice? For example, if I am shooting at a hull 5 ship, I have to roll a 6 (if shields are up). If I manage to do that, I only get the full advantage of the heat blaster if I roll another 6. Should heat blasters get the precise trait, or do you all feel that it works in real life? Also, I always thought the EM gun would be a good compliment to the Heat Blaster (works for the church), but oddly, the Kurgan get stuck with no way to knock down shields. Your thoughts please.

 

[locarno24]

Also, I always thought the EM gun would be a good compliment to the Heat Blaster (works for the church), but oddly, the Kurgan get stuck with no way to knock down shields.

Al-Malik don't, either. A pure Slow armament works fine. I agree that it's annoying that the Heat Blaster gets mitigated a bit by shields but it's better than having the shields stop it completely. Remember that the Heat Blasters aren't the be-all and end-all of Caliphate armament - heavier ships pack torpedo turrets, and only the heavy carrier (I think) has a pure heat blaster armament. I personally just see them as a punchier add-on to rockets (which have the same Inaccurate rule), with the added bonus that a shield critical makes them better. Plus it means you can properly incinerate the Vuldrok if you come up against them.

Precise seems a little harsh to me. Just because a weapon does more devastating criticals is no reason to make them more likely (if anything it's the reverse!). Also - as you note - any bonus to the Heat Blaster improves the Church (who can drop shields) as much or more than the Caliphate (who mostly just ignore them).

I'll admit that I'm not that knowledgeable with 'shooty' Kurgan fleets. Most of the time, I just use Grimson-laden Galliots and just fly up and punch people in the face.

 

[katadder]

also get a few shield crits and suddenly the blasters are alot more effective