[[[Playtest Focus]]] Last Chance for High Guard

[MongooseMatt]

As I type this, the latest version of the High Guard playtest is being uploaded (re-download your Beta Playtest Pack to grab it, as usual).

We think everything in High Guard is pretty solid now, hopefully with just the odd tweak here and there to straighten it out. All going well, this will be the last time you see High Guard before release and the last chance to make comments - so have at it!

Everything is up for comment, but please note the following:

1. We have started to put stats in (and, for some, deck plans) for brand new ships.
2. There is a new chapter on the use of Fighters.
3. There is a new system in for handling capital ships and fleets quickly and easily.
4. Don't skip over the Ship Design chapter - we have inserted new box texts containing some funky rules and guidelines.
5. High Technology has had some new additions in terms of equipment and the biggest laser you have ever seen (among other things)!

We'll be watching for your comments...

 

[phavoc]

How long is the next comment period?

 

[IanBruntlett]

Still reading High Guard but there are two PDF things I noted:-

1. First page “Contents section” greyed out.
2. There are no “bookmarks” for the PDF – they would be useful for faster navigation of the PDF.

Will carry on reading

INTRODUCTION
P2 - “Abusing the ship's locker”. Shouldn't this be in the CRB?

SHIP DESIGN -
Would recommend the use of a spreadsheet instead of a calculator to do ship design calculations. There is a free spreadsheet (& general office suite) for Windows/Linux/Apple at http://www.libreoffice.org .

Really liked the Design Checklist.

Brief overview…
Some pages look a little sparse… 17-21, 23-24, 49,53,57-58,61-65,67-68,75,82,92, (127, 144, 145 blank and page numbers disappear around here, 152 page numbers are back)

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Fighters:

All weapons of the same type within a squadron make a single attack roll, gaining DM+1 to the attack roll for every fighter after the first in the squadron, and DM+1 per damage dice for every fighter in the squadron.

Should probably be +1 per weapon, not per fighter. Unless you really want fighters to be 5 dT.

I REALLY do not like the +1 to hit. It will guarantee that all fighter squadrons always hit and always crits. If you double the number of fighters in the squadron, you will much more than double the damage, because of the added gunnery effect.

Dogfight: still undefined.

Firing into: Looks nice, thanks.

Recovery: Great, but no one will use recovery decks, since they are big, expensive, and slower to recover craft than the regular hangars.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Can't wait to get to read the fighter and capital combat chapters! Hoping to find the time this weekend. Looking very good so far, after a quick look I only have three things to note

1) no mention of the to-hit bonus of pulse and beam laser still (unless I've managed to miss them?) sure the main book has them, but it could be confusing not to have them in high guard too.

2) the missile barbette, when mounted on a firmpoint, carries 8 missiles but (I assume) fires up to 5 per volley. It's weird that the firmpoint version doesn't hold an even volley number. It should hold ten missiles (imho) or get its volley reduced to 4, or something.

3) the deckplans near the end of the book are a bit blurry, but they might just be placeholders?

Great work, looking forward to the final book

EDIT: launch tubes! Much better!

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Capital:
Mass Driver, aka Ortillery, is suddenly the best bay weapon for space combat. Please, no.
Shielding removes Radiation, thank you!
Fleet Defence: Point Defence is nerfed, so now it is trivial to overwhelm PD. Missiles Rule.
Black Globe, yowza, that is suddenly good.

As a squadron engages in battle and sustains losses, it gradually becomes less coherent and effective. At the referee’s option, a squadron can spend a combat round reforming. During this time, it may not move, take any actions or make any attacks but its roster can be recalculated to revise its characteristics. This will mean it will be able to sustain less damage and make weaker attacks than when it started the battle (due to the losses it has received), but any penalties to its attack rolls will be removed.

Explain.

Each weapon system on board a ship can make one attack every round, against any target within range.

How do I determine who is in range? I just added all bays together (p86), some have Short range, some have Very Long.

Meson Weapons: These weapons do not have their damage reduced by a target’s Armour.

How do I do that? I just discarded that information when I added all bays together on p86?

 

[Nerhesi]

Hmm - seems the damage per range slot got dropped. That avoided all the mass-driver craziness. I'll discuss with Matt - this is a big oversight but we will fix

How is point defense nerfed? Honest question - I think it's almost 1 to 1 translation. 4 missiles per 1D of point defence (and we lowered the hardpoint cost for the lower TL for ya ) and each turret reduces salvos by crew-skill and +1 or +2 bonus if double/triple turret? Seems like identical to normal combat. Whatd we miss?

EDIT: Actually - it's not explained but mixed weapons with MESON or FUSION or NUCLEAR should be easily identified because they're defined as "X + Y"

So for example, If you had 100 particle bays with 100 fusion bays, your damage values for S / M / L / VL should be:

350 + 1000 Fusion / 350 + 1000 Fusion / 350 / 350

Yes - Not at all what the rules say but I have escalated to Matt My fault really.

 

[PsiTraveller]

Mass Drivers:
Small Bay: Range: Short
Power 15
Damage 1DD
Cost: 40 MCr

Medium: Range Short
Power: 25
Damage 2DD
Cost: 70 MCr

Large bay Range Short
Power: 40
Damage 2DD
Cost: 120 MCr

What advantage is there to a Large Bay? the +1 to Damage and +4 to hit targets over 3000 tons?

 

[Nerhesi]

Mass Drivers:
Small Bay: Range: Short
Power 15
Damage 1DD
Cost: 40 MCr

Medium: Range Short
Power: 25
Damage 2DD
Cost: 70 MCr

Large bay Range Short
Power: 40
Damage 2DD
Cost: 120 MCr

What advantage is there to a Large Bay? the +1 to Damage and +4 to hit targets over 3000 tons?

Yes - Large bays are sniper weapons. Given how even all things can be, that provides a significant advantage in both normal combat in terms of crits, and in the Fleet Combat System in-terms of significantly more damage (From rolling a 2D+0 with all things being even, to a 2D+4)

 

[AnotherDilbert]

How is point defense nerfed? Honest question - I think it's almost 1 to 1 translation. 4 missiles per 1D of point defence (and we lowered the hardpoint cost for the lower TL for ya ) and each turret reduces salvos by crew-skill and +1 or +2 bonus if double/triple turret? Seems like identical to normal combat. Whatd we miss?

Fleet Defence: [Req: Point Defence software] The ship may add half of its Salvo Defence score to one other ship within Close range.

The fleet's PD is effectively halved.

 

[arcador]

I like where this is going. High guard is probably the most complex book in the core books, but with scrutiny we can reduce all mistakes to negligible or non-existent.

Notes:

There are still discrepancies in the launching/recovering times in the Docked Ships: here is what is present in the book atm:

Docking Space
It normally takes 1D minutes for the auxiliary ship to enter or leave the larger ship.

then, on the next paragraph:

It takes D3 rounds to release or recover a ship of less than 2,000 tons, during which time neither ship can expand any Thrust or make any attack rolls. Larger ships take 1D rounds...

So, 1D minutes OR 1D/D3 rounds?


Full Hangar

It normally takes 2D minutes for the auxiliary ship to enter or leave the larger ship.

Also, are the ships restricted from expending thrust or attack rolls?


Recovery Deck

This will allow it to recover one craft every round. ~equal to 6 mins

----------------------
Case - we need unified time unit for all three (either rounds or minutes, not both mixed), and clarification (especially for the people who don't read this forum) that recovering ships prevents thrust and attacks on the non-tubes.

 

[arcador]

Fighters:

All weapons of the same type within a squadron make a single attack roll, gaining DM+1 to the attack roll for every fighter after the first in the squadron, and DM+1 per damage dice for every fighter in the squadron.

Should probably be +1 per weapon, not per fighter. Unless you really want fighters to be 5 dT.

I REALLY do not like the +1 to hit. It will guarantee that all fighter squadrons always hit and always crits. If you double the number of fighters in the squadron, you will much more than double the damage, because of the added gunnery effect.
...

I read the text:

"All weapons of the same type within a squadron make
a single attack roll, gaining DM+1 to the attack roll for
every fighter after the first in the squadron, and DM+1 per damage dice for every fighter in the squadron."

Which I interpret as - having an attack for each same type weapon. I.e. if 10 fighters have 2 weapons, this = 2 attacks, but if the weapons are identical, it brings a confusion. Either attack per weapon or if only 1 attack per type, the bonus should be per weapon rather than per fighter.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

It's even worse. If i have a squadron of 10 fighters, 5 with a single pulse laser and 5 with a single beam laser, both the pulse laser and the beam laser attack gets +9. I suspect that is not intended...

 

[Nerhesi]

How is point defense nerfed? Honest question - I think it's almost 1 to 1 translation. 4 missiles per 1D of point defence (and we lowered the hardpoint cost for the lower TL for ya ) and each turret reduces salvos by crew-skill and +1 or +2 bonus if double/triple turret? Seems like identical to normal combat. Whatd we miss?

Fleet Defence: [Req: Point Defence software] The ship may add half of its Salvo Defence score to one other ship within Close range.

The fleet's PD is effectively halved.

Ah yes , keep in mind that you don't give it away though - so you add 50% while retaining 100% total for you.

Also, squadrons can now intercept moving missiles and provide PD.

Perhaps the simplest fix is to replace with "Allied ships within close range may lend salvo defense values (or portions thereof) to one another".

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Perhaps the simplest fix is to replace with "Allied ships within close range may lend salvo defense values (or portions thereof) to one another".

Agree.

 

[Nerhesi]

Perhaps the simplest fix is to replace with "Allied ships within close range may lend salvo defense values (or portions thereof) to one another".

Agree.

Agreed too!

Maaaaattthhheeeewww (we need him to agree lol)

 

[arcador]

1. Another relatively minor - we should make it's clear for the players that screens can be used ONCE. Currently it is clear that only the screen operator can roll once.

(for example I know this from Matts comment on this forum, not from reading the rules)


2. The bonus +1 dmg per die for Large Bays - put that bonus calculated directly in the damage table. It bill be faster. (perhaps many have thought of this already, but didn't see it suggested anywhere)