Stealth. How does it work?

[IanBruntlett]

Hi,

Last night we were playing Convoy Duty (Me, Minbarri, Defending) and Earth Alliance (Richard B, Earth Alliance, attacking).

I had ships with "stealth" and here's how we ran the scenario...

When attacking a ship that has Stealth 6, the attacker has to roll a 6 to establish a weapons lock. No problem there but....

How long does that weapons lock last for? The way we played it last night, the weapons lock had to be re-established anew each turn.

Thoughts?

TIA


Ian

 

[Burger]

You did it correctly. Weapons locks to not carry over to future turns.
Lucky really, it'd be a nightmare of book-keeping if they did!

 

[H]

and of course, that target number can be reduced by various means, but again, they too only last a turn

 

[Karhedron]

Also each ship requires its own roll to break through the stealth. However the are bonuses for baeing at close range, Scouts and damage already being done that turn.

 

[Greybeard]

As an addition to this question, if a ship with stealth is attacked by fighters do they:

Have to pass the stealth roll to attack
Once they are in combat does that reduce the stealth allowing oher ships (not fighters) to attack without a stealth roll of for free?

Also EMines, every other weapon needs to roll to shoot at a ship with stealth but will EMines they just throw them at a target and anything within 3" is hit; should they not roll against the stealth, if they fail then scatter?

 

[Burger]

Fighters do not have to roll against stealth if they are in base contact. If not,t hen they roll syealth like normal (they get a +1 bonus for being within 8").

E-mines don't roll against stealth. They automatically hit everything within 3" of the designated centre point. There is no scatter, the e-mine will always land exactly on the point you choose (it can be a point in space, doesn't have to be a ship).

 

[Greybeard]

Burger,

Thanks for the quick response again

RE the EMines, I suppose in my simple mind it seems that the EMine can land on a target and make sure it is within the 3" burst circle when any other weapon has that chance to do that unless a stealth roll is made. Yes I understand that the EM is a burst but the fire still only knows there is something out there but not exactly where so a scatter, to me, makes more sense if the stealth roll is failed.

Four posts and I'm already trying to change the rules :lol:

 

[The_Mhor]

Except that E-Mines are aimed at an area of space. Stealth only affects scanners; an operator looking out of a window will see a stealthed ship quite clearly, it's shown several times in the series...

 

[Greybeard]

Hmm! Not convinced from a practical point of view but happy enough from a game mechanics point of view.

 

[Sock]

so I have come up with this thoery, that there should be two different mechanincs for stealth, on ships like minbari give them ECM and give Stealth to shadows and the like

ECM(x) - Stealth as current

Stealth(x) - mus make a crew quality check to attack it even with emines due to the people not even being able to see it

 

[The_Mhor]

so I have come up with this thoery, that there should be two different mechanincs for stealth, on ships like minbari give them ECM and give Stealth to shadows and the like

ECM(x) - Stealth as current

Stealth(x) - mus make a crew quality check to attack it even with emines due to the people not even being able to see it

Except that we see even in series 1 that you can see a stealthed vessel such as a Sharlin fine, just not lock on a targeting solution for it. See "A Sky Full of Stars".

Also, check the readout on Sinclair's screen as he's trying to engage the enemy. You'll see "negative lock" popping up. One problem in fighting the Minbari vessels is that they have a kind of stealth tech that makes it very hard for our weapons to lock on.

From the B5 Lurker's Guide

 

[Greybeard]

Ok,

I was going to leave this one alone but hey!

We agree that if a target has stealth than a roll must be made to target the weapon, if no target lock is made then the use of the weapon is lost.

We agree that if you look out of a porthole then you can see the target ( well I don't actually because we are talking large distances and relatively small object, but in the show the ships can be seen - good enough)

We are in dispute regarding the accuracy of e-mine's being able to be targeted exactly on a ship using stealth without making a roll to target it first.
Argument for a roll against stealth before targeting a ship exactly.

Some form of computer / targeting control will be used to send the mines on their way, which can be ANY area of space, but to exactly place it on a ship requires a grat deal of luck if it is not targeted.
A targeting system is designed to evaluate the distance, direction and speed of an object in order to target effectively and even then it may miss, so how is V'Kra going to manually target a ship through the porthole that could be 2k away without knowing the class, orientation and speed? Chances are V'Kra will drop the mine at 1.5k @ 5degrees port or 2.3k 15degrees starboard NOT on the ship.

I don't believe this was particularly well thought out, if you make the role against the stealth, fine drop the mine in its power intake and also effect everything within 3"; If you don't make the roll then scatter it randomly.

My 50 pence worth

Maybe change the effect so that if the centre of the template is over a ship it causes double damage but the current method seems wrong