Well, to be honest I DO feel the 2nd Ed Chronos has been 'defanged' a bit too much, however its a LONG way from 'the crappiest escort in the game'.
It is, I feel JUST as tough as it ever was (though still rather vulnerable to beams, even more so now they dont care about the hull 6), if anything its tougher than the old version having hardly lost any hit points and gone down from 3 to 2 interceptors but you bascialyl get 2 of them for the same price....
The trouble is, the old Chronos had enough firepower that opponents couldn't afford to just ignore it, they HAD to fire on it to get that firepower out of the game and its touhgness allowed it to soak up alot of that firepower, thats baiscally how it did its job, it used up opponents firepower or if they ignored it it got in behind them and used its all round firepower to hammer them.
Now its gone down in firepower to the point where opponents seeing a tough little ship with not alot of firepower can afford to ignore it to an extent and that to me renders it rather less useful. It IS however still packing more than you might thin and the turreted naturre of its rail gun means it can still be just as much of a pain in the behind once it gets in behind its target.
I DO feel that it could perhaps use a bit of a boost to its pulse cannons (maybe +1 or +2 AD all round as has been suggested (or at least + 1 or 2 on the front and sides) but Im afraid that the proposed one above is WAY over the top. For a Skirmish ship its got as much firepower as a Demos in the front, AND a large chunk of that is turreted, AND its got guns in other arcs, AND its got more interceptors AND its got hull 6 AND its got anti fighter guns (and lots of them to boot). Oh and basically swapping its dmg and crew around doesnt really make much difference to its actual toughness....
As a raid level ship, well, I could sort of see it working but might be a tad fragile.
One last thing though. Speed 8 with 2/45 turns is NOT sluggish, it may not be particularly fast but thats a rather tight turning circle when you think about it which allows it to get behind its target and STAY there all the while returning fire with its main gun thanks to the turreted nature, and that is and always has been the beauty of the Chronos, its just not quite as well armed as it used to be (but as noted you do get TWO of them).
On paper it may look weak stacked up against the likes of the Vorchan but seriously, I think it could probably actually take one on in a one on one fight and have a good chance of winning:
Consider:
1) The two ships close, the Chronos has the edge range (slightly) but the Vorchan has by far the edge in speed and chances are in initiative too, so odds are the first shots will be when both ships are within 12". The chronos closes blast doors since it can fire its railgun at full effectiveness and its 2 AD of cannons are... ahem... well it just closes blast doors ok
The Vorchan attempts to CAF, but we'll assume it fails (as its more likely to do so than pass)
2) The vorchan fires first. It scores a total of 3 hits with its Ion cannons on average rolling. On average interceptors rolls the Chronos stops all 3 but is left with 1 dice needing 5s. The Vorchan then fires its plasma accelerator, averageing 2 more hits which statistically the Chronos will most likely failt to stop. On average rolling these will be standard hits doing 4 points of damage and crew, blast door saves would on average stop 1 of each of these, so assuming pretty average rolling a full Volley from a Vorchan against an operational Chronos will do 3 points of hull and crew.
3) the Chronos returns fire with its Railguns, averaging 2 hits that again will average 4 points of damage and crew
Now asuming both players are sensible, the Vorchan should be able to use its speed and maneuverability to fly past the Chronos weapons range and then come back in for another strike ensuring the Chronos only gets to fire when the Vorchan can. A chronos can take 13 points of damage before being crippled or skeleton crewed. A vorchan can take 14 points before being crippled (its got way more crew so we can pretty much discount that.
The thing that should be clear here, is that, if that after the 4th Volley the Vorchan will be crippled, the Chronos will NOT. At that point the Chronos will quite frankly win hands down. On average rolling the Vorchan cannot overwhelm the Chronos interceptors without firing BOTH its weapons systems (and the Chronos CAN instead of doing Close Blast doors, go to 'intensify defensive fire' which thinking about it might actually be more effective (the Vorchan averages 5 hits per turn, 2 interceptors stop an average of 3 per turn, 4 interceptors on the other hand.... actually thinking about it still stop an average of 3 hits per turn I believe but obviously have a slightly better chance of doing so consistently)
Basically though I personally would have to conclude that the Chronos as it stands may seem rather, ahem, naff but if you use CBD well its actually very nasty little flying railgun turret
