Triggy said:
Everyman said:
We played a few games with the new rules. A Narn vs. Centauri and several Narn vs. Vree game and I do not think that the new CBD is overly powerful.
While it does add to the every other turn survivability of the Dag'kar, the ship that really seemed to refuse to die in our smaller games vs. the Vree was the Sho'Kov. Personally I feel that since it is a fairly weak Patrol ship compared to the Vree, this seemed to even out some but clearly allowing the "hope-for-a-lucky-crit" Sho'Kov ships to remain in the game longer gave the Narn movement sinks longer to live (even though they now had to be squadroned which reduced the amount of them) and eventually allowed them to score an annoying lose of weapon(s) in one arc crit that the Vree just so love.
In the larger games, it was a bit helpful on the first turn against long range bombardments on the big ships but then reduced their firepower too much to generally merit its use on them.
It's definitely the Sho'Kov that's the one broken ship with this rule. The irony being if it didn't have its piddly little weak gun then it would be fine!
True it is one of the ships that gets a disproportionate benefit from the rule. It would also bother me more if the ship had a weapon better than 1d. If it is problematic for the Sho'Kov alone perhaps a rule that it is too small (i.e. doesn't have enough blast doors) to use the rule. I don't think it is necessary, but I wouldn't object to it either since it IS awfully small.
I merely disagree with the earlier argument that it is that powerful on a dag'kar or a var'nic as those ships are coughing up noticeable firepower to use it. They are electing to trade firepower for survivability. How much firepower is surrendered varies by ship, but on those 2 the amount is noticeable. Those 2 are some of the worst arguments for the rule being broken IMHO.
Ships which lose little for using CBD and consequently will likely use it with impunity: G'Tal, G'Quan, Ka'Tan, Sho'Kov, Sho'Kar, G'karith, T'Loth, T'Rann. These ships generally have one-shot e-mines or secondaries so weak, ineffective or short range in comparison to their primaries that there is little incentive to use them.
The T'Loth/T'Rann pair are supposed to be bricks so they should be using it unless they actually need their secondaries.
The Sho'Kar merely needs to stay alive to do its job. It may as well be armed with silly-string because it shouldn't be in a position for its weapons to matter. It also doesn't bother me that this ship survives longer beause it is unlikely someone is going to lose a match because of that.
The rongoth/rothan pair can be in this group merely because they suck so much CBD can only help them survive so that they can suck a little less. Maybe someone will actually play one in 2e.
Ships which lose significant firepower on CBD: Ka'Bin'Tak, Bin'Tak, G'Vrahn, G'Quonth, G'Lan, Var'Nic, Dag'Kar, G'Stenn, Ka'Toc. With the exception of the G'Stenn, these are all of the Narn's better, more versatile ships. On CBD they lose a lot of their versatility. That doesn't mean you willl never see them do it, but they pay a noticeable price.
That is why I don't think the rule is overly powerful. The ships which gain the most benefit from it have other handicaps that prevents them from being overpowered. In many cases, the new Narn CBD rule merely makes them viable to use.
The powerful ships have versatile weapon suites and consequently must sacrifice a noticeable amount of it to use CBD. It merely gives them a choice to CBD, survive longer and try to kill you slowly, or go balls-to-the-walls and try to blow you up before you blow them up. That seems to be the Narn way.
Tzarevitch
