How about the Nike-Class Cruiser now?

[Rynar]

Hey everyone,

It has been a long time since i posted annything, was pretty much buisy with VAS (US Pacific Fleet) and warmachine while waiting for B5'second ed.

Now it has been lauched and I'm pritty much satisfied with the EA lists (except for the Olympus who lost 10 dammage points and gaining a hull point while no the beams cut it at 4+ annyway, what a waste...)
The Apollo has a nice variant, the Excalibur is a must and the Warlock is War -lvl once more as it schould be (tear in eyes)...

But as the topic states, what about the Nike? I'm shure manny of you rember it as beiing an awsome model sculpted by a player and bought by manny of us ( I got 2 ^^ ) But now the Warlock has returned to War level, Marathons terrorise at great speed (with missiles!!!), the Posseidon is super sexy and the Excalibur gives a very nice Armageddon lvl. What should the priority level be for a nike? and its Stats?

It's bigger than a Marathon so Batle level is least you can do (even if a new raid choise would be handy now the chronos has dropped to skirmish) but it's decisively smaler than the Excalibur (so no armageddon lvl). So I would sugest either a Battle or a War level with no Missiles but manny beams, a good B arc Tripple dammage beam (25 to 35 inch range) and mini-beams (15") without slow-loading with probably a few railgun batteries to the front and rear for old times sake

Annyone ideas?

 

[bigtop305]

I also have two and love em!

and I suppose this may be my n00biness talking here, but I kept SEVERAL of the stats from the original thread (keep em on Jump drive in case I need to fiddle with a fleet while at work!!) and to be honest I will look at whatever is suggested here, but I honestly intend to keep it basically where it is (war level) and with some iteration of the stats that were tossed about way back when.

I like the idea of the fluff and had toyed with making up some fluff campaign where they bumped heads with Psi Corps (like who hasn't in Earth Gov?) as I have kinda always seen them as the natural "in house" counter to Psi Corps (EFNI I mean) so to see them bump heads was only natural. anyway, I see them as a one off of the regular fleet (it's all unofficial anyway) so I guess the short of it is for me, I hopefully plan to keep em right where they are, at war, for now.

 

[Rynar]

What whas the lastest stats listing annyway?

 

[bigtop305]

Not sure about the latest, but here are the last ones I copied from the thread, in no particular order:

1)
War level PL
Hull: 6
Speed: 8 12
Turns: 2/45
Damage: 70/18 75/15
Crew: 65/16 70/14
Troops: 2
Craft: 4 T-bolts
Special Rules: AJP, Flight Computer, Interceptors 4, Self-repair 1D6, HEL Tracking system. SR 3D6

Two Mk VI Heavy Particles cannons.
- 30" range, SAP, DD, 6AD, Boresighted, Beam

battery of 32 heavy antiship missiles with 8 launching tubes with autoloaders.
- 30" range, SAP, Precise, 4AD, F, ignores Slow-loading until crippled

Six General Electric GAD 16-U Q-Spoiling lasers.
- 12" range, SAP, 6 AD, P, S, F, A, Mini-beam -15” range, 8 AD

Four M111 heavy pulse twin turrets and two Railgun turrets.
- heavy pulse twin turrets: 6AD, TL, F,A,P,S, 10"
- two railgun turrets: 6AD, T, AP, DD, 12"

Antifighter/interceptor light pulse systems.
- Particle Beams: 4AD, T, 5", AF

AND

War level PL
Hull: 6
Speed: 8
Turns: 2/45
Damage: 70/18
Crew: 70/18
Troops: 2
Craft: 4 T-bolts
Special Rules: AJP, Flight Computer, Interceptors 4, Self-repair 1D6, HEL Tracking system.

Heavy Particles cannons: 25" range, SAP, DD, 6AD, Boresighted, Beam

Anti ship missiles: 30" range, SAP, Precise, 4AD, T, ignores Slow-loading unless crippled

Q-lasers: 12" range, SAP, 5 AD, P, S, F, A, Mini-beam

Medium pulse twin turrets/ heavy pulse twin turrets: 10" range 6AD, TL, F,A,P,S,

Railgun turrets: 12" range 4AD, T, AP, DD,

Particle Beams: 5" range, 4AD, T, AF

AND

3)
Ship Type: Nike-class Advanced Battlecruiser
Priority Level: War

Hull: 6
Speed: 10
Turn: 2/45°
Damage: 70/18
Crew: 70/20
Max Craft: 2 T-Bolt Flights
Troops: 3
Special Rules: Advanced Jump Point, Interceptors 4, Flight Computer, Self-Repairing 2

Weapons
Heavy Particle Cannon ----------- B - 25" - 4AD - Beam, SAP, TD
Advanced Missile Rack ----------- F - 30" - 4AD - Precise, SAP, SL*
Q-Lasers ---------------------------- F - 10" - 4AD - MB, AP
Heavy Pulse Cannons ------------ F - 12" - 8AD - TL
Q-Lasers ---------------------------- P - 10" - 3AD - MB, AP
Heavy Pulse Cannons ------------ P - 12" - 6AD - TL
Q-Lasers ---------------------------- S - 10" - 3AD - MB, AP
Heavy Pulse Cannons ------------ S - 12" - 6AD - TL
Particle Beams --------------------- T - 6" --- 8AD - AF, TL
Railguns ----------------------------- T - 20" -- 6AD - AP. DD

* This weapon Ignores slow-loading trait unless crippled

AND

4)
Hull: 6
Speed: 8
Turns 2/45
Damage: 70/15
Crew 70/20
Craft: 2 Thunderbolts
Troops: 2
Traits: Interceptors 4, AJP, Flight Computer, self-repair 1d6

Heavy Particle Cannon, 25", 4AD, TD, B, SAP, Boresight

Railguns: 20", 6AD, AP DD, T

Q-Laser Array: 12", 6AD, AP, TL, P,S,F,A

Advanced Missile Rack: 30" 4AD, SAP, Precise, Slow loading unless crippled, Turret

Particle Beams: T - 6", 6AD - AF

AND

5)
Hull: 6
Speed: 8
Turn: 2/45°
Damage: 70/15
Crew: 70/20
Max Craft: 2 Thunderbolt Flights
Troops: 2
Special Rules: Advanced Jump Point, Interceptors 4, Flight Computer

Weapons
Heavy Particle Cannon ----------- B - 25" - 4AD - Beam, SAP, TD
Advanced Missile Rack ----------- F - 30" - 4AD - Precise, SAP, SL*
Q-LPA ------------------------------ F - 15" - 8AD - TL
Q-LPA ------------------------------ P - 15" - 6AD - TL
Q-LPA ------------------------------ S - 15" - 6AD - TL
Q-LPA ------------------------------ A - 15" - 4AD - TL
Particle Beams ---------------------T - 6" --- 8AD - AF, TL
Railguns ---------------------------- T - 20" -- 6AD - AP, DD
* This weapon Ignores slow-loading trait unless crippled
Q-LPAs may be fired with half attack dice at a maximum range of 12". They gain the AP and Beam traits but loose Twin-Linked.

There is an UBER version I came up with basically making it over the top, and I wanted to play it that way, I will maybe post once I have seen how obscene it is. and I apologize in advance as I am NOT the author of any of these stat lines, but I also did not note who was, so to all on the forum who uthored some of these stats I apologize for not keeping your name with your stat line.

 

[bigtop305]

Now of course many of these weapons will need to be adjusted for 2e in terms of mechanics and how they work, so I kinda misspoke, as there WILL be some tweaking to make em 2e worthy, but, you get the basic Idea. In other words I will not go trying to re-spec the unit to fit another role, I want it to still fit the big "nasty, secret, advanced, hard to kill, hard to find" ship that it is now, even though this official role has been filled (possibly twice) on the real fleet lists!

Such a nice model too!

 

[Silvereye]

I suppose it is more of would we want this model to compete with a Warlock and co for a spot in the War Level, or could we argue that this came out of the ship yards in the very late 22xx's and is worthy of an Armageddon slot?

Personaly, mine are just filling space for Marathons....

 

[angelus2000]

My votes for Arma level. The Excalibur is very nice and is fluff and canon fitting but its not generic. A Nike class at Arma level would be and its very keeping in character with the Crusade Era feel

 

[Gunnvaldr]

yh, I'm not too keen of getting the Victory, that be great if there was a dedicated Arma level warship for EA.

 

[H]

mine will remain as a Warlock proxy. I'm moving back top playing Narn now anyway, so it's not a big issue for me I guess. Still, it's a great model and desrving of some official stats

 

[Dizzy Vree]

id say armageddon, a big-warlock style arma ship rather than the excaliber wich is well.... the excaliber

 

[Rynar]

Yes, but how would you justify the big amount of hull points? ( abt 130 to 150) because last I checked Earthside R&D didn't have acces to Adaptive armour or auto-repair.
+ that would give me 3 Armageddon choises, a bit ove the top if you ask me (Yes I'm getting the Excalibur, cos I love the Fluff!!!)

 

[Da Boss]

Yes, but how would you justify the big amount of hull points? ( abt 130 to 150) because last I checked Earthside R&D didn't have acces to Adaptive armour or auto-repair.
+ that would give me 3 Armageddon choises, a bit ove the top if you ask me (Yes I'm getting the Excalibur, cos I love the Fluff!!!)

If they keep playing wtih Shadowtech long enough maybe they will come up with Shields or GEGs...............Shadow technology wants, needs to be used...........let it do what it soo wants to do.............

 

[Nomad]

I've got three (brag) and I think they're great.

However, I don't really want to see them at Arma PL as they'd probably never see the gaming table - I've also got the Excalibur, and she's too much of a bear not to use.

I'd rather see the ship as a stand-alone/special ops ship, as opposed to the Warlock, which is (rightly, IMHO) the core of a battlegroup.

So what does that mean? This is a War PL ship I'd want to be able to use alone, or with minimal support, in a Raid PL scenario. A shark amongst minnows.

She'd need to be fast and maneuverable for a large ship, and to emphasise all-around firepower and defences rather than her boresight beams and FA weapons.

To give her 'something special', because she will be the centre of attention - and not in a good way - I'll give her adaptive armour.

So...

EA Nike class battlecruiser

War PL
IS 2271
Hull 6
Speed 12
Turns 2/45
Damage 60/12
Crew 55/10
Craft 6 T-bolt flights
Troops 10
Special: Adaptive Armour, Jump Point, Interceptors 4, Shuttles 4, Anti-Fighter 6, Carrier 2, Flight Computer

Weapons
Heavy Laser Cannon___B,30",6___Beam, Double Damage
Heavy Pulse Cannon___F,15",12___Twin-Linked
Medium Pulse Cannon___F,10",8___
Medium Pulse Cannon___P,10",16___
Medium Pulse Cannon___S,10",16___
Medium Pulse Cannon___A,10",8___
Railguns_______________F,20",6___AP, Double Damage
Railguns_______________P,20",6___AP, Double Damage
Railguns_______________S,20",6___AP, Double Damage

Compared to the Warlock, less long-range firepower, no missiles (there are none on the model), no command bonus (works alone, not with a fleet), more surviveable (Ad. Armour). Lots of troops and shuttles for assault or capture missions. Lots of fighters for local support - and the ability to replace some with breaching pods. 'Carrier' to get those fighters away quickly.

I tried to go for WYSIWYG; the Lasers are either side of the hangar at the ship's bow, the Heavy Pulse Cannon are the big guns on the sponsons, the Medium Pulse guns are mounted above and below the hull on outriggers and the Railguns are the turrets on the sides of the hull. The small Olympus-style weapons are anti-fighter mounts.

EDIT: On reflection, a bit of a bump in firepower.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Adaptive armour developed from the EA portion of the Victory project, no doubt?

Why three lines of railguns all in the front arc? Also, you have two starboard arc pulse cannons and nothing to the rear...

 

[Nomad]

Cut and Paste errors

The weak aft firepower is a deliberate achilles' heel, and also because there are few aft - firing weapons on the model.

 

[Rynar]

The odity is that the pulse cannons are not twin-linked, your crew is gone before you are under half of your hull points and the boresight is only a Heavy Laser cannon. Why put inferior weapons on a superior craft? Railguns to all sides and no missiles make sense, 6 T-bolts might be a bit over the top 4 might be better.

But it looks a solid War choise for the rest

 

[Nomad]

It's not set in stone

The less powerful boresight is because, acting largely alone without many initiative sinks, she's not likely to boresight too many major targets - it's not her main armament.

Offhand, its most obvious use is blowing up freighters in a convoy scenario.

You may be right about twin-linking the Pulse Cannon.

The extra fighters and troops...apart from the reasoning given above, the Nike hull looks to me to have more internal volume the the Warlock.

I don't follow your point about the crew being gone before she's under half her hull points.

 

[Knight of ne]

It means that with adaptive armour it will take 120 damage to destroy it, where as it will only take 55 crew hits to disable the ship. It will need more crew to make the adaptive armour seem more usefull.

Knight of ne

 

[EDFDarkAngel1]

How do you aquire one of these fine ships? It doesn't appear to be an approved ship, but whatever works.

Dark Angel

 

[Nomad]

Adaptive Armour halves both damage and crew loss from attacks (2nd ed rulebook, P16)

Edited for illiteracy.