New scout ability

[David Anla Shok']

Gents, ladies;
Was working on an idea here. How about a scout ability that allows it to "jam" an enemy ships targeting sensors?

I'm thinking a contested crew quality check. If passed, the jammed ship has to roll a 4 or 5 plus to be able to shoot any weapon.

What say you?

 

[Banichi]

It would kind of fit the fluff for the minbari scout. Although even the sensors on a non scout minbari ship can play havoc with a less advanced ship.

It would make life hard if you were facing a swarm fleet with lots of scouts. In those circumstances every shot counts, not being able to shoot would grate a bit. Vree vs Pak would be nasty, take a few scouts and the poor old paks might not be doing much shooting.

It seems like a cool idea, but I think it would push the game more towards swarms, as then there is less chance of a big chunk of you firepower being neutralized. Redundancy again.

 

[Burger]

Too powerful, I'd say. It would make a Leshath totally uber. The enemy would need to roll to fire, then roll stealth!

 

[CaptBavo]

Our group has kicked around a similar idea, but a scout a could jam another scout. So me as Dilgar, I get a scout that gets re-rolls on a Drazi ship for example. The Drazi scout could then try to jam that with their scout. We were thinking something like this might make a scout worth taking for races that already have mostly twin-linked and beam, and not fighting a stealth fleet.

We really haven't playtested, just kickiing it around.

 

[eldiablito]

but most scouts already have stealth...

I can count the number of scouts without stealth with a shop teacher's hand.

 

[GhostRecon]

I like this idea, it adds the entire dimension of electronic and information warfare to the dynamics of the game.

And, you can throw in the EW-side with scouts, having a "broad spectrum" ECCM/ECM ability you have to use every turn where you raise your rolls in the opposed crew quality check by +1 (Per ship). Then a "targetted" ECM/ECCM ability where you disrupt a trait of an enemy ship with an opposed crew quality check of 9...

So many interesting possibilities, considering the efficacy of EW in warfare, especially warfare in space, where targetting and computer-assisted aiming becomes far more important.

 

[Hugbiel]

I don't think that this kind of ops should be given to scout ( except at close range ) but mostly to the "disturbing" weapon such as Abbaï com disruptor or AT ECM missiles or to specialized signal making system.

 

[David Anla Shok']

I don't think that this kind of ops should be given to scout ( except at close range ) but mostly to the "disturbing" weapon such as Abbaï com disruptor or AT ECM missiles or to specialized signal making system.

The scout is already a dedicated EW platform. I'm just injecting another established EW function.
As for this making the Ashinta some sort of flying war gawd, I don't see that happening.

 

[Harry Lonsdale]

Scouts would have to be completely re-balanced, and races without them would be at a severe disadvantage.

 

[David Anla Shok']

Scouts would have to be completely re-balanced, and races without them would be at a severe disadvantage.

I'd have to play that out a bit before I would believe that. Are non emine using fleets at a severe disadvantage? Belive it or not. Most often I see people overlooking their scouts, forgetting to use their scout abilities. Wierd, but true.

 

[dag'karlove]

Right now I ignore using scouts (exception Delphi, it has teeth) but with this new ability id be all over them.

 

[Harry Lonsdale]

Are non emine using fleets at a severe disadvantage?

No, but if emines were suddenly given a powerful new ability they could be.

 

[David Anla Shok']

Are non emine using fleets at a severe disadvantage?

No, but if emines were suddenly given a powerful new ability they could be.

What? They aren't nasty enough for you?

 

[Hugbiel]

The scout is already a dedicated EW platform. I'm just injecting another established EW function.
As for this making the Ashinta some sort of flying war gawd, I don't see that happening.

The scout trait is specialized in the broad spectrum of Electronic Warfare : it's a detector. All way of EW are not the same, and Jamming is definitely kind of focused emitting. But maybe this fall in the simplification caused by limit's of the traits representation.

 

[David Anla Shok']

The scout is already a dedicated EW platform. I'm just injecting another established EW function.
As for this making the Ashinta some sort of flying war gawd, I don't see that happening.

The scout trait is specialized in the broad spectrum of Electronic Warfare : it's a detector. All way of EW are not the same, and Jamming is definitely kind of focused emitting. But maybe this fall in the simplification caused by limit's of the traits representation.

Sorry. I don't quite follow you.

 

[Timestheus]

How about giving scouts the ability to jam that basically allows them to give their stealth ability to another ship for the round.

The downside would be that the scout loses the stealth trait on itself for the turn since all its jamming equipment is aimed at another ship instead of itself.

 

[David Anla Shok']

How about giving scouts the ability to jam that basically allows them to give their stealth ability to another ship for the round.

The downside would be that the scout loses the stealth trait on itself for the turn since all its jamming equipment is aimed at another ship instead of itself.

Interesting thought. EW doesn't work that way but it is an interesting thought. Actually, any stealth ship that is broadcasting enough to jam another ship would be making itself a fine target. I can see removing a ships stealth if using the "jam" function. I think that it might also balance out the concerns expressed by some here.