Shadows

T

Talisinbear

Mongoose
A bud is wanting to start game with the Shadow fleet box

obviously limited ship expansion options, so what does he add on for larger scale battles?

Thanks Talisinbear
 
well shadow ships are now armageddon level so quite a hard fleet to start with. the shadow scout is still a raid level ship though.
 
The Shadows and Vorlons by their nature in the B5 Universe cant really be made as a boxed fleet of nice low PL to match the other fleets or it wouldnt be very true to the universe. That said they are in some ways an excellent beginner fleet from the standpoint of painting :p

Dunno how familiar with the B5 Universe you are but from watching the show you cant really expect the shadows to be playable on an even footing with the other races (except the Vorlons)!. It would be like in a star trek game having a Borg box set, your gonna get cubes cos thats what they use but dont expect to field many against most forces :p
 
From TV point of few I understand

Game play wise though, in our case which may or may not be typical, 4 of us want to get started together.

One is Centauri, one dilger

the others wanted Shadow and the 4th raiders.

The shadow (and Vorlons) are apparently over powered out of the fleet boxes to work against the Centauri/Dilger

The Raiders no box set and sort of underpowerd.

So got a couple of guys gonna have to switch up
 
Actually I do not think that the boxed sets should be a problem, they are by choice.

They could put more lower level ships in them and only one Arm ship.

And while I am a huge fan of the fluff/TV show, I do not really buy into the theory that these races have so few designs. Just like they did for all the other races which only have a few iconic designs they could make other choices for the Vorlons/Shadows.

The shadows as far as I can tell have no transports, so how exactly do they shuttle Mr Morden around? The hunter was a EA/Shadow hybrid, why did that make the shadow list, shouldn't it have been like the shadow omega? The scout has no variants?

Anyway lots they could have done with both the lists and the box sets to make them more marketable as 'starter fleets' for folks just getting into the game.

Ripple
 
Ripple said:
The shadows as far as I can tell have no transports, so how exactly do they shuttle Mr Morden around? The hunter was a EA/Shadow hybrid, why did that make the shadow list, shouldn't it have been like the shadow omega? The scout has no variants?
Click to expand...

Mr Morden got ferried about on liners. Lets face it, arriving in a shadow vessel that screams in your mind would be a little unsubtle.

A few variant hulls for the Shadows and Vorlons wouldn't go amiss though.
 
What I ment by the Mr Morden comment was how did they get him and Sheridans wife off the shadow planet (not trying to spell that this morning). Unless they used the earth alliance explorer they had to have at least one transport that could arrive at civilized worlds I would think. The show also hints at other shadow agents besides morden abroad stirring up trouble. Just wondering if they had a less conspicuos ship for that role.

Hunter infor was in the Crusade info as far as I knew. It was found in the hidden earth base.

But all that aside, I just think they could have done a better mix for the starter boxes and a deeper fleet list for the advanced races rather than just short changed them at the lower pls. Say a vorlon/shadow infiltration ship for manipulating the younger generations. Would make a great scenario as a couple of patrol ships stumble on an ancients 'getaway car' and it has to destroy them to protect the secret that they are manipulating the locals.

Ripple
 
The Shadow Hunter was explained more in the Passing of the TechnoMages books (only 1 chapter in book 2). Doesn't justify putting it on the Shadow fleet list, but their fleet is rather empty...

As for Getting Morden off of Z'ha'dum...
The Shadows had other servants, and had been gathering their forces for years. Morden could have been transported on a Drakh ship to a rim world where races come and go without much notice. (The Shadows had set up at least one such world to help with this.) From there, he could have easily booked passage anywhere he wanted. If he had to get somewhere fast, he just takes a transport to a nearby small planet, and a shadow or Drakh ship comes to pick him up (quietly). Examples of this can also be found in the Passing of the TechnoMages.
 
Actually, if you watch the episode just before Anna shows up, you see a small hard-tech shuttle leaving one of the big battle-crabs. It's probably like the White Stars using Minbari and/or EA shuttles to ferry folks back and forth. You don't need all the fancy bio-tech for a shuttle, so just use what's on hand. I'd imagine the Shadows just picked up a few second-hand ships from the younger races to use as go-betweens. The Techno-mage novels also provide info on whole planets where the Shadows younger-race minions meet up and do business, so getting their hands on something non-descript would probably be pretty easy.

Some of the older AoG source material also shows how the Shadows used the same basic design as the big cruiser for a whole range of ships. The idea was that these ships get bigger and more powerful as they age. So, there potentially could have been several classes of "battle-crab" at the battle of Coriana VI, from light cruisers up to dreadnaughts.
 
Vorlons:
Cost of minis: $127.20
5 point War? No (4 points)
5 Point Raid? Yes
5 Point Patrol? Yes
Enough fighters? Yes
Raid Options:
1- 1 Heavy Cruiser, 1 Destroyer
2- 1 Heavy Cruiser, 2 Transports
3- 2 Light Cruisers, 1 Destroyer
4- 2 Light Cruisers, 2 Transports
5- 1 Light Cruiser, 2 Destroyers, 2 Transports
6- 1 Light Cruiser, 1 Destroyer, 4 Transports


Shadows:
Cost of minis: $105.20
5 Point War? Yes
5 Point Raid? Yes
5 Point Patrol? Yes
Enough fighters? Yes
Raid Options:
1- 1 Shadow Ship, 1 Shadow Scout
2- 5 Shadow Scout

hi thought it was said can't do the smaller raid/patrol with these races???
 
Talisinbear,

I think they're talking about the new Armageddon lists. I don't know for certain, but from listening to the posts, it sounds like the Shadow Cruiser and Hunter have each gone up a PL. So, the Cruiser is Armageddon (8 Raid points) and the Hunter is War (4 Raid points). Same for the Vorlon Heavy Cruiser and Light Cruiser.
 
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