Technomage Pinnace What do you think

[Kosh127]

Ok so the stats on the Technomage Pinnace are interesting. The crew of one makes the sip totally worthless. One stand of fighters can ignore the stealth and decrew the ship in one go. Its really a waste. If you didn't have a crew score due to the advance tech inside it would be interesting. However its not and its worthless.

 

[JayRaider]

The Pinnace doesn't suffer crew losses. So the 1 crew doesn't play a factor.
Oh i think the rules for it look fun 8)

 

[animus]

I think they look fine. I wish I could use them in something other than one off games though, but I don't see how it could be done with the fluff.

 

[Abraxas]

I am surprised MP didn't make a scenario for them...

They'll come soon.

 

[Burger]

Fighters will bone the Pinnace totally.

 

[H]

I am surprised MP didn't make a scenario for them...

They'll come soon.

you could make one and post it to S+P?

 

[locarno24]

Hmmm.......maybe a shadow hunter and the Cerberus - what was that, an Omega?

and several pinnaces......take out the hunter and rescue Gideon before his air runs out...



The "fleets consisting of nothing but pinnaces" and the "never suffer crew damage" are supposed to be different things, right?

The dreamers and shapers rules could be fantastically amusing...
The dummy ships will help stop them become critical fodder, as will stealth 6.

And above all....

Prepare to deflect incoming attacks. If attacked by a Beam weapon, make a Crew Quality check (target 8 ). If successful,
the Beam attack is reflected back to the attacking ship – roll its Attack Dice against this new target instead. Every
subsequent Beam weapon reflected will cause the target number of the Crew Quality check to be raised by +1.

(I assume that's each subsequent one per turn? Rolled after a stealth check or before?)

Oh that's going to be funny......I have a mental image of a centauri beam team.

 

[Burger]

I wonder if you can dodge your reflected beams, or if they need to make stealth checks?

 

[Greg Smith]

I'm just wondering how the deflection works with stealth. Do you roll stealth first? Do you fire a beam and if it is not deflected, roll stealth?

 

[H]

?! interesting. I would say no, gut feel, if it's seen the beam coming, it just reflects it back along it's own line?

 

[Burger]

Also bear in mind that he CQ of Techno Mage ships is always 6, so reflecting the first few beams is going to be easy!

 

[Locutus9956]

I rather like it. Kosh, Id suggest you read the ships rules a bit more carefull before posting though, as it quite clearly says it doesnt take crew damage (not entirely sure why bother GIVING it a crew score tbh though).

As for fighters killing it, bear in mind it can move 8" then basically teleport another 10" every turn and has a decent chance that it will split into three seperates with that teleport. So chances are you could end up sending your fighters after the wrong ship (if you can catch up to it at all that is, it can move 18" a turn, at the moment only Dilgar fighters or Starfurries with their afterburners can even keep up in the first place!)

Basically I think it caould be a VERY nasty ship if used cleverly.

 

[Burger]

Creating dummy ships could be funny. There is no limit in the rules... so if you have 5 real ships, after 3 tuns you could have 35 ships!!! But they are kind of useless if they can't fire... as soon as you fire the enemy knows which is the real one.

 

[Na-Po]

I rather like it. Kosh, Id suggest you read the ships rules a bit more carefull before posting though, as it quite clearly says it doesnt take crew damage (not entirely sure why bother GIVING it a crew score tbh though).

It's because your statement is not completly true ;-)

It DOES take crew damage IF the fleet is not only composed of techno-mage.

I'd suggest ... you know the end (no offense just joking ;-) )

 

[Na-Po]

Creating dummy ships could be funny. There is no limit in the rules... so if you have 5 real ships, after 3 tuns you could have 35 ships!!! But they are kind of useless if they can't fire... as soon as you fire the enemy knows which is the real one.

Well in fact if you attack your dummies dissapear.
"and will stay on the table until the techno mage performs.... or attacks or ..."

So he will know which one is real not because it fired but because it will be the only one left on the table ;-)

 

[Burger]

It DOES take crew damage IF the fleet is not only composed of techno-mage.

Well, that isn't totally clear. It says fleets consisting of nothing but Techno Mages have a +5 initiative. Then it says their shps never suffer crew damage. It is not clear whether the "nothing but Pinnaces" applies to the crew damage or not. Although common sense says it always applies.

 

[Na-Po]

I would use a simple rule :

if a condition/statement is in the same sentence it applies.
So I'd say yes.

And say the CQ6 and shadow Hyp Mastery are independant of the fleet composition.

 

[Locutus9956]

Id say its just bad wording in all honesty as I cant imagine them being magically vulnerable to crew damage just because they have allies.

And Burger:

Each dummy ship will move and take
damage as normal, and will stay on the table until the Techno Mage performs another Special Action or attacks, or is destroyed.

So no you cant have a hundreds of dummy ships cos as soon as you create more dummy ships the old ones disapear

 

[cordas]

I would use a simple rule :

if a condition/statement is in the same sentence it applies.
So I'd say yes.

And say the CQ6 and shadow Hyp Mastery are independant of the fleet composition.

Have to agree with Na-Po here, it is mentioned in the same sentance after a coma. Whilst theis doesn't make sense it is how the rule reads. I have a sneaky feeling that some TM was has been playing jokes at MGP HQ, and trying to get a certain TM into trouble when he is flying around with that big sword.

Once that error is corrected I think the Pinacle will become a very nice one off ship, but generaly feel its probably a bit more powerful than Raid, but a bit weaker than battle.....

As for the beam deflection, I would advise reading the rule.... It makes it quite clear what happens.

Prepare to deflect incoming attacks. If attacked by a Beam weapon, make a Crew Quality check (target 8). If successful,
the Beam attack is reflected back to the attacking ship – roll its Attack Dice against this new target instead. Every subsequent Beam weapon reflected will cause the target number of the Crew Quality check to be raised by +1.

You roll AD, that means it ignores stealth as that is rolled before you roll AD, as for the Whitestar (and any other ship with beam and dodge) the rule to me says you can attempt to dodge it, as you dodge AD.

On the issue of the TMs stealth and beam, I read the rules (althought it does not specificaly say anything on this) that if the attacking ship has to roll stealth and fails, then it doesn't fire, so it can't be re-directed. If the stealth roll is successfully passed then fine deflect away, I would also assume that the TM can drop its stealth if it so wishes..... allowing beam weapons to be fired and running the risk that the ship might be shot (also any other weapons will fire).

One question I do have about deflection is I can see it being really "quite" easy to deflect a beam laser.... but a mag gun that is firing nuke projectiles..... er.... even for a techno mage I see that being very very difficult.

 

[Shadow Queen]

the RPG rules state the ship can be given orders and fly on automatic