planetkiller question

[Misiolak]

I was wandering how do planet-killers work with hyperspace. Can Shadow Deathcloud use hyperspace mastery? Can Vorlon planetkiller enter from hyperspace by the jumppoint created by some other vorlon ship? These options spoil any "planet-killing" scenario, unless you simply ban the use of hyperspace.

Another thing, can the planetkillers stop in space? It seems that having speed score and not being able to do special actions forces them to move with at least half speed.

 

[Democratus]

Both the Shadow and Vorlon planet killers are best used as part of a special scenario. In my neck of the woods, they must begin the scenario deployed and moving in real space. This is because they are weapons of terror as much as destruction. Enemies must see their end coming and despair.

Seeing that a single shot will destroy a planet, we simply state that once the device is within range and is used against the planet, the scenario is over.

 

[Triggy]

I'd agree with Democratus in general although to be fair, there aren't any scenarios that specify that you have to destroy a planet so using common sense with "normal" rules like VPK coming in through hyperspace shouldn't be too much of a problem either.

Generally if using the planet killers I'd use the statted ones as they are pretty close to what's seen in the show...

 

[Misiolak]

So apart from special "planet killing" scenario, you would allow deathcloud to use hiperspace mastery? Could it only use it for entering the board, as leavig needs special action?

I did some testing, and Shadow planetkiller is a lot less frightening that I thought. Even the slowest ships have no problem keeping out of Deathclouds range. Vorlons, with some initiative sinks can at least hope to shoot with their planetkiller at something. The deathcloud can be defeated with quite small force, even few wings of fighters, like firebolt or porfatis. Even if your deathcloud manages to catch something in range by enemy mistake, half the missiles can miss the target, and others can be stopped by interceptors. The resulting damage won't be very impressive.

That is why I will probably exchange the armor module for another planetkilling module, with the addition of pulse module and traffic protection module. That way shadow planetkiller can at least act as area denial weapon. Would you find it unbalanced?

 

[Triggy]

The Planet Killers aren't really designed to be brilliant space stations, just great at killing planets and surviving. If you want to modify yours for more general gaming then by all means, see how well they work with a few "refits"