Noble Armada News
- Thread starter MongooseMatt
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phoenixhawk
Mongoose
Matt and everyone involved,
Thanks for the work on the new NA book. The stuff looks good and I've only skimmed it quickly, but there is some cool new stuff to read and some new ships and new rules. And a neat TMNT reference for those that get it. lol. Nice stuff Mongoose! Thanks!
Chris
Thanks for the work on the new NA book. The stuff looks good and I've only skimmed it quickly, but there is some cool new stuff to read and some new ships and new rules. And a neat TMNT reference for those that get it. lol. Nice stuff Mongoose! Thanks!
Chris
Whee. Vau sure look powerfull. Though albeit with price tag to boot 
Especially destroyer with firepower boosting selection is mean. 6AD of accurate multihit 2d6 devastating? With a frigging 24" turret range? Holy smokey. These things will simply aim to run circles around enemy trying to maintain distance. Star fleet drones pale in comparison
Enemies can be thankful no burnout at least (yey. I have been cursing the all-burnout syndrome. Now there's at least fleets against whom shields are something else than reloading extra hits each turn)
This supplement renewed interest on NA for me. Let's reread the fluff and see if it would spark bit more!
For 1000 pts howabout destroyer, 2 frigates and 3 explorers. Could be fun. Or destroyer and 4 frigates. Humhum.
Especially destroyer with firepower boosting selection is mean. 6AD of accurate multihit 2d6 devastating? With a frigging 24" turret range? Holy smokey. These things will simply aim to run circles around enemy trying to maintain distance. Star fleet drones pale in comparison
Enemies can be thankful no burnout at least (yey. I have been cursing the all-burnout syndrome. Now there's at least fleets against whom shields are something else than reloading extra hits each turn)This supplement renewed interest on NA for me. Let's reread the fluff and see if it would spark bit more!
For 1000 pts howabout destroyer, 2 frigates and 3 explorers. Could be fun. Or destroyer and 4 frigates. Humhum.
LimeyDragon said:
There are many small errors in the book. References to equipment and troops not in the book (cyber troops, blur suits, etc.), golems aren't available to any of the Houses, different names of Church ships in the title line of stats and in the description of troops are all I've noticed. It is supposed to be a rushed version of the book, so I hope that such errors won't appear in the final version.
Think we ran into an interesting "problem" for vau. Shielded fighters with nasty guns can be real pain in the ass...
They have one gun that's sorta overkill to use against fighters. But gatling lasers don't have burn out right? And top of that according to rules you need to cover as many fighters as possible.
Enter the Donatello. Shield 2 hull 5 "fighter". You need 3 hits from one attack to knock one out...
And those things pack hell off a punch.
Not saying there's balance issue but something to keep in mind. I didn't realise this before hand and almost lost nearly untouched destroyer to wave off donatellos...
Thank god those buggers are so slow they aren't likely getting second shot off but virtually invincible fighters with mean punch.
Make damned sure you have extra shields if you are facing donatello attack run. If you don't have at least one shield on you're in major trouble!
Mind you Vau sure can do with weaknesses. Their guns are ridiculously powerful! It's like "point at ship, watch it be destroyed. Or at least crippled. Then point with second gun...". Dear god. accurate, 2d6 hits per hit, devastating +1(or ridiculously powerful +2 with gun boost. Holy smokey. Nothing like knocking reactors to max critical in one shot. Though not much help when ship is destroyed from the salvo anyway).
Liking the feel of these ships. Reminds me a bit of B5 Vorlons...Or maybe shadows due to the turret weapon arc.
They have one gun that's sorta overkill to use against fighters. But gatling lasers don't have burn out right? And top of that according to rules you need to cover as many fighters as possible.
Enter the Donatello. Shield 2 hull 5 "fighter". You need 3 hits from one attack to knock one out...
And those things pack hell off a punch.
Not saying there's balance issue but something to keep in mind. I didn't realise this before hand and almost lost nearly untouched destroyer to wave off donatellos...
Thank god those buggers are so slow they aren't likely getting second shot off but virtually invincible fighters with mean punch.
Make damned sure you have extra shields if you are facing donatello attack run. If you don't have at least one shield on you're in major trouble!
Mind you Vau sure can do with weaknesses. Their guns are ridiculously powerful! It's like "point at ship, watch it be destroyed. Or at least crippled. Then point with second gun...". Dear god. accurate, 2d6 hits per hit, devastating +1(or ridiculously powerful +2 with gun boost. Holy smokey. Nothing like knocking reactors to max critical in one shot. Though not much help when ship is destroyed from the salvo anyway
).Liking the feel of these ships. Reminds me a bit of B5 Vorlons...Or maybe shadows due to the turret weapon arc.
EnsignJDonavan
Mongoose
Ok in one game, vs Decados, my Vau did 150 pts of damage to his dreadnaught. This includes all additions from crits. It was spectacular and humbling to the Decados player. Oh and I never took a point of damage 
I wonder if the Vau ships ought to have their meson fire restricted from the A arc; the bulk of the ship is right there behind the quantum sphere, after all.
Plus, as it stands, it seems the Vau get to use the various sphere-tricks essentially for free. If this is a bit much as it stands, might it be better to make them require Crew Quality checks instead?
Plus, as it stands, it seems the Vau get to use the various sphere-tricks essentially for free. If this is a bit much as it stands, might it be better to make them require Crew Quality checks instead?
The Vau are certainly intended to be tough, lethal and expensive with a few tiny weaknesses - as someone said, the Vorlons of the Fading Suns universe.
Of all the new rules, the Vau were certainkly the most contentious in playtesting, and we would be very interested to hear about people's experiences with them over the next few weeks.
Of all the new rules, the Vau were certainkly the most contentious in playtesting, and we would be very interested to hear about people's experiences with them over the next few weeks.
EnsignJDonavan
Mongoose
Come to think of it. We never did play Vau vs anyone with range. So I guess I need to set up some games of Vau vs Hawkwood or Li Halan. Since their range is limited. But all I need to do is boost their shields and that SHOULD give me enough cover until I can blow them to TINY TINY TINY pieces
EnsignJDonavan said:Come to think of it. We never did play Vau vs anyone with range. So I guess I need to set up some games of Vau vs Hawkwood or Li Halan. Since their range is limited. But all I need to do is boost their shields and that SHOULD give me enough cover until I can blow them to TINY TINY TINY pieces
Vau range limited? Main guns have 20" and 24" range. That doesn't sound that limited. First turn you could reach up to 32" with the guns movement included. That doesn't sound that limited to me. Okay sentinels are bit more limited but first turn reach 31" for them too and I think frigates provide real meat in firepower with destroyer for heavy punch.
tneva82 said:
It depends how you look at it. From the game's point of view Vau may be like Shadows. But from the setting's perspective the are typical super-advanced, mysterious, "we know better, and you still got much to learn" aliens. Just like Vorlons from the series. ;-)
The stats seem OK. I'm only worried about the speed (4 for the Strider is really low). I'll need to play a game of Vau vs. al-Malik (fast and with Slow weapons). Wonder, what will happen...
Mroczny said:
Well I haven't yet looked at fluff but was merely looking at how they play. Sure reminded more of how shadows played in B5:ACTA rather than vorlons.
They need SOME weaknesses and there's the quantum sphere to make it either speed 8" or speed 6" hyper-manouverable. Since the thing has 24" range gun with turret fire arc it's not that essential to be speedy(or manouverable).
They have mostly 20" and 28" guns so if their rocket launchers are in range so are you. They can't just run away therefore since they won't be shooting that much either. Their 28" range guns are more annoying but if they move within range then you can get into range as well. Okay so might require quantum leap but even with 3AD that's pretty impressive gun and they can't forever keep you from quantum boosting your gun. And of course if they want to get within range of their AD10+ rocket batteries you are well within ability to simply quantum boost your guns and that's world of hurt! Destroyer vs their destroyer and you boost=6d6 hits with devastating +2 in average. TAKE THAT! Average 17 hits. That's almost 3 crits in average each causing 3 levels...That's some sick damage.
I wouldn't be THAT worried about the speed. It's weakness but it's not crippling due to the very long reach and turret arc negates issue about manouverability. And if burst of speed is needed there is that quantum boost.
EnsignJDonavan
Mongoose
Your forgot that they are Multihit 2d6. That would be averaging approximately 187 pts of damage and something like 31 crits. Welcome to the Vau.
"Of course humanity did go further, seeking retribution for their loss. What they found were more Vau worlds, worlds of vastly superior technology. Few returned to tell the tale, those that did were 'allowed' to return."
"Of course humanity did go further, seeking retribution for their loss. What they found were more Vau worlds, worlds of vastly superior technology. Few returned to tell the tale, those that did were 'allowed' to return."
tneva82 said:EnsignJDonavan said:
eh 6AD, 4+ to hit=3 hits. Those each are 2d6=3x2d6=6d6.
Destroyer ain't THAT good
You forgot to subtract Shields - Vau weapons haven't got the Burn-out trait.
Against Hull 5 and Shields 4 average damage drops to 0,875 (attack is a 6D6-4 roll, with 7 points of damage each)! Maximal damage is still 24 points. ;-)
tneva82 said:
True, but a 4AD Missile salvo deals average damage of 1,528 - more than a meson blast. Maybe it will be enough to keep out of range of Vau destroyers. I want to see how it would turn out in a game.
Mroczny said:
Since shield values are changing per ship and could be altered by criticals etc didn't figure to add them. Easy enough to calculate them yourself. I'm just interested in raw output pre-shield.
eeeeh....0.875? What you are calculating?
3AD, 1.5 hits=3d6=10.5. Reduce shields=6.5.
If you boost(which is more or less default after you get into range) then 6AD=3 hits=6d6=21. Reduce shields=17.
4AD, guided, slow vs hull 6. 6 to hit rerolled=about 30% chance to score. 1.2222 damage.
How on earth 6.5 or 17 points of damage is less than 1.2222?
Mroczny said:
As far as I understand you roll one attack(ie one line from the ship sheet) and then substract shields.
Would make non-multihit d6+ without burnouts utterly useless to do otherwise.
Would also make vau utterly unplayable if their best ship would cause less than 1 damage to destroyer which isn't even that tough...
Heck none of their ships could get through pretty much any ship without boosting if multi hit was AFTER substracting shields. Explorers couldn't dent any ship even WITH boost
(well except vuldrok since they don't have shields).
