Interceptor grids

[Rynar]

Hi,

I still find it that Interceptors work without anny logic behind it. I mean a Warlock has 6 interceptor dices, and when puny little fighters fire at him he will use them to intercept their fire, why? So the paint doesn't get scrached for two more seconds?

I would propose more of a 2x2x2 interceptor grid. This depicts three Interceptor logic computers on board who can identify threats seperatly and combine or dive their interceptor fire.

For ex:

4 Sentri flights shoot, 2 shots hit. Interceptors dismiss the treat as minor and do not engage, 2dammage/2crew are lost.

A Tertius (8" away) shoots its beam 7 hits, cannot be intercepted 14d/14c are lost.

The tertius fires its Plamsa accelerators 5 hits. Interceptors see this as a major treat and two engage 4 hits are intercepted before they go ofline. 2d/2c are lost.

The tertius also fires its twin particle array, 2 hits. The of line interceptors still identify fire comming from the Tertius as a treat and engage needing 6's. Luckily 1 is intercepted and only one dammage and crew is lost.

Now a Lurking Demos sees a chance (10" away), it fires Plasma accelerator scoring 2 hits. The interceptors calculate that the oncomming ballistic torpedoes are fare more dangerous and negate them, 4/4 is lost.

Finally the balistic torpedoes both hit, the one left over Interceptor computer engages them firering it's two interceptors, they both Intercept the incomming fire leaving them needing 4's to hit.

An Elutarian (29" away) sees a chance to still inflict some more dammage on the Warlock and fires it's Ballistic torpoedoes 3 hit. The Interceptor grid witch need 4's to intercept intervenes and catches two of the torpedoes, one hits scoring 3d/3c.

In this scenario the warlock has los 26dammage and 26crew, If it had to fire all of its incerceptors starting with the fire from the sentris it would have suffered about 34dammage/34crew, losing almost a third of it's crew and dammage in one turn to a battle and two raid choises (and two fighter flights)

I think this makes interceptors far more valuable and a bigger gamble (how and when to use them...)

Greetz Rynar 8)

 

[H]

The point is, the computer doesn't stop to think, hang on, nah, thats not a big gun, THATS a big gun, it just automatically stops things. also your point about fighters seems a little odd. a Wing of frazi can really mess up a ship, as can thunderbolts. Interceptoprs work fine, all that is acheived by splitting them is making them like space stations defence grids, and adding more power to the interceptor heavy fleets.
you don't play EA or abbai by any chance do you?

 

[Alexb83]

Okay, let's consider: a great many of the ships we see get blowed up in the series are either blowed up spectacularly by Minbari death rays, or nibbled to death by fighters.

In 'The Fall of Night' you see starfuries making a proper mess of the Primus using strafing runs along its hull.

JMS always stated that fighters in the B5 universe served multiple roles: to spot for capital ships and direct their fire (a role which seems to have been subbed out to scouts in ACTA) and to put shots in to overload the interceptors, giving more punch to the big guns from the capital ships.

And, obviously, to shoot down other fighters.

I haven't had much chance to use interceptor toting ships, but hopefully fighters should be able to fill point 2. above - overloading interceptors. Do interceptors work per weapon system of incoming fire (so, you get 6 dice and all the rerolls against one twin array, and then start fresh for the next)? Or do you get 6 dice at the start of the turn, and they gradually dwindle to zero as more and more ships (and more and more weapons) fire at you? That makes sense to me, and it makes sense to use fighters to soak em up.

 

[Wulf Corbett]

I haven't had much chance to use interceptor toting ships, but hopefully fighters should be able to fill point 2. above - overloading interceptors. Do interceptors work per weapon system of incoming fire (so, you get 6 dice and all the rerolls against one twin array, and then start fresh for the next)? Or do you get 6 dice at the start of the turn, and they gradually dwindle to zero as more and more ships (and more and more weapons) fire at you?

Per Turn, but you never roll less than 1 die succeeding on a 6 while the system is active (ie until Crippled).

Wulf

 

[Alexb83]

Neat, I suppose there is a bit of a bonus to not having minibeam on nials, then. But not really, since the only minbari ships that have to worry about interceptors are Torothas and Tigaras, anyways :S

 

[Locutus9956]

Sounds alot more complicated than the current interceptor rules tbh, which I personally really like, as for allowing you to selectively use them, that frankly would make them WAY too powerful in their current format, in fact that is probably the thing I like most about fighters firing first, namely that you CAN use them to try and deplete interceptors before firing.

And somones point about the computer not working is indeed a very very good one. Intercpetors automatically work and try to intercept ALL incoming shots, the big ones often seem to be intercepted last only BECAUSE a sensible captain will hold his big guns in reserve UNTIL the targets interceptors are 'down' ("Forward interceptors on the Clarkstown are down! We can punch throught the hull!" )

I am (as most of you probably know already) primarily an EA player, so Im not exactly short on interceptor experience and quite frankly theyre good enough as it is without being TOO good. Defensive rolling systems like intercpetors, stealth and dodges etc are all well and good but as soon as they become TOO effective the entire game starts to revolve around whether or not you are lucky with the relavent dice rolls and that for me is a VERY bad idea. Stealth, whilst still far from perfect is still BIG improvement on how it used to be and interceptors and dodge have always been fine to me (well ok maybe the SFoS Whitestar was a tad too much but thats been fixed too )

 

[Ripple]

Current interceptor rules are a bit hard to explain to new players but they work. The only aspect I do not like is the interaction with larger numbers of dice. The Lakara has eight dice but rarely blocks more than the Bimith at three dice. I wish there was a way to make the larger dice more useful.

But then it is really only an issue on Abbai derived hulls, and I think they should have had a shield system instead. I do not play them often but I loved the old fluff.

Ripple

 

[Morpheus1975]

There is.

Only drop dice that roll a 1 or a 2 and not just all that fail.

 

[Karhedron]

If anything, I would be in favour of simplifying interceptors rather than adding more complexity to them.

If I could rewrite Interceptors, I would make it so that they only blocked shots on a 6 but that you didn't exhaust you interceptor dice. This an Omega would always roll 3 dice and the hit would be blocked if any of them came up with a 6.

This would be much simpler although it would not reflect the concept of burning through interceptors as depicted in the show.

 

[Slightly Norse John]

That would be indistinguishable, procedurally, from Dodge 6+. Apart from not working against beams. There's already a mechanic that works that way.

 

[Kadorak]

Uh, interceptors already work the '6+ dodge save' way. Once a ship has been reduced to 1 interceptor die, "a roll of 6 on this Interceptor die will always negate an attack, no matter how many times the Interceptors have been used." Now, this could mean that it keeps rolling on a 6 (like beams) but then stops when it fails a roll. BUT the example says that the hypothetical Warlock may continue to still roll 1 interceptor die AFTER all interceptors have been exhausted, negating a shot on a 6.

That's the real power of interceptors really, and the reason high interceptor value ships aren't that great but having at least 1 die is very useful. It's like a 6+ ward/invulnerable/dodge save against any non-beam attack.

 

[Rynar]

Ok, not the comments I hoped for but honest nonetheless.

As for my proposal complicating the existing system that is not true, I yust propose that Interceptors on ships work more like interceptors on space stations, so thats yust not true.

Why do I want this change, because computer that sofisticaded can make a difference in treat an incomming volley represents.
I mean if ten missiles are incomming and one is a nuke, you want your intercetors to take out the nuke wouldn't you?
Still this way it still is a guess how to use them. I mean one small ship can use small guns, the Other player needs to decide if he uses them while a lagerer more dangerous ship luks nearby, but will it fire at them or other ships? So it's all down to guessing and takticks.

Greetz