Is stealth too powerful?

[Court Jester]

A bit off topic here... but some unhappy chap mentioned the fact that the game is reliant on Initiative Sinks which makes it not very fun...

I would contest that... We played a 5 point battle on Sunday. I took Minbari witha Sharoos, 2 Tinashi and 2 Tigara against 6 Whitestars, a Whitestar Gunship, and 6 tiny Vree patrol ships as well as a Vree Raid ship... (I can never remember the names of the Vree ships...)

Anyhow... My fleet simply blasted its way through the Initiative sinks and quite happily set about the rest of the fleet so that during teh last few turns "initiative sinks" were a non-issue.

My fleet of "big ships" did indeed do well against a "horde" of mini ships.

Anyhow... back to complaining about stealth...

 

[katadder]

and btw you can get init sink problms in battletech too. people can use lots of infanrty so they get to move all their mechs after most of yours.

 

[H]

I've never seen why so many people complain about initiative sinks. some Fleets simply don't need them, others are very poor without them. you take what you need, and if you are horrendously outnumbered, at least herabouts, most people squadron up a lot of smaller ships to get the game moving faster, All I can assume is a lot of people who complain, play against people who insist on hermes be moved at a time, instead of a squadron. If You hate people out-sinking you, take more small ships!! (ok this does not work for shadows, vorlons or Minbari!, but heck they can anhialate small ships very quickly)

 

[Locutus9956]

and btw you can get init sink problms in battletech too. people can use lots of infanrty so they get to move all their mechs after most of yours.

I never said it was perfect, theres always ways of trying to gain the initiative but you must admit that battletechs system, whilst a bit more complex does generally work very well. You have to work quite hard to take build a force to 'initiative sink (and infantry die very fast so your taking quite a risk...).

As for initiative sinking in ACTA I'm sort of on the fence about this whole issue, yes you can blow through the initiative sinks usually if you want to but look at situations with races like Drazi as an example or Narn Ka'Toc swarms, it's easy to blast through initiative sinks when theyre made of paper like Vree ships (and youre playing Minbari and have neautron lasers all over the place ) but less so if your playing, say EA vs Drazi.

Now I wouldnt say this unbalances the game as pretty much all fleets except the ancients and possibly Minbari now have decent access to ships of pretty much any PL they wish but it does mean that players that plump for say an omega destroyer in a raid level game (or even a Sharlin) are potentially hamstringing themselves, and yet it is these iconic ships that really give the game the 'B5 feel' that for many of us is the number one reason we play the game!

 

[Right Hand of God]

A number of these problems are lessened in bigger games though. A 5 point raid game, whlst quick to play, and challenging to pick a fleet for, is a small game designed for tournies and games at the LGS.

Play bigger games and things like initiative sinks don't really matter as there are always targets for your BS ships. Stealth rolls? So many dice to roll if you splite fire that you are bound to make some and with the 2ed changes, some is all you need to really hurt the bone heads.

5 points of raid is a large-ish squadron in most of the games we play. Small initiative sink ships just don't last very long to make any difference and fighters are tied up with other fightersfor a few turns when there are over 150 on the board.

The game looks and plays differently in the larger games where the true "fleet action" nature comes through