Well, let's see if I can run the numbers for you. Let's assume a that a ship has a 4+ Stealth, and a 5+ hull.
For the sake of argument, we're going to fire a 6AD weapon with no special attributes at this ship within 10".
Now, the stealth roll means there is a 50% chance of your shots going off at all, or over the course of a 10 turn game an average of 30 AD will penetrate the stealth of the ship.
Of those 30 AD, they must then penetrate the 5+ hull of the ship. This means that 1/3 of the shots will go through, so 10AD will actually strike the ship.
Since 1 out of 6 will critical, and 1 out of 6 will hull bounce you will get on average 1 critical, 1 hull bounce, and 8 standard damage against that Stealth 4, Hull 5 ship.
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Firing a 6AD weapon at a 6 hull ship over 10 turns has the following results.
60 AD against a hull of 6 means that 1/6th of the shots hit the ship, again causing 10 hits.
Since we just looked at ten hits, over the course of a game a hull 6 ship will suffer 1 crit, 1 hull bounce, and 8 standard damage.
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With the above example, we can conclude that a stealth of 4+ makes a 5+ hull value ship the equivilant of a 6+ hull ship as long as the ships are using standard weapons, and are within 10".
We should take this example further though and look at one of the most popular long range weapons out there, the laser cannon. For the sake of this argument we will assume the laser is again 6 AD, Super AP, Double Damage, Beam. In order to make this a bit more balanced, we will also assume that for the first 3 turns, the two ships are outside 10", then after that they are trading punches at close range. We are using the same Stealth 4+, Hull 5+ Minbari ship, and the same Hull six opposing ship.
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First firing at the minbari:
For the first two turns the ship has an effective stealth of 5+, this is a bit harder to 'guage', but over the first three turn we can assume 1/3 of the shots will go through. So from 18 dice it becomes 6.
For the next 7 turns the effective stealth of the ship is 4+, so over that length of time you will get either 24 or 18 AD, (since there are an odd number of turns, one turn is in question, but we will look at both results.)
This means over 10 turns either 30, or 24 dice will have the chance to fire at the ship, (overall this is a loss of one barrage from the 3 turns of 5+ stealth.)
This is where it gets complex. Since we are using a Super AP Beam weapon the effective hull from the initial hits of the weapon is a 3+.
30 Becomes: 20
24 Becomes: 16
Then 4+
20 Becomes : 10
16 Becomes: 8
Then 5+
10 Becomes : 3
8 Become : 2
Then 6+
Both become Zero.
So either 33 or 26 will do damage to the ship. This means that in this case the beam means you're doing more damage then hits.
Again, 1 in 6 bounce off the hull (but still cause damage) and 1 out of 6 will cause a critical. Again, we're using a double damage weapon.
So: 33 Becomes 5 Bounces 5 Criticals, 1 up in the air and 22 standard damage for an overall 59 damage, 54 crew, 1 unknown, and 5 unresolved criticals.
26 Becomes 4 bounces, 4 criticals, 1 up in the air, 15 standard damage. Overall causing 42 damage 38 crew and 4 unresolved criticals.
Whew! Now that that is over, let's look at the hull 6+ Ship
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This one is easy:
60 AD over 10 turns using Super AP. There is no question of stealth, so all have the chance to strike the ship.
60 target 4+ = 30 hit
30 target 5+ = 10 hit
10 Target 6+ = 2 hit
2 Target 6+ = 0 Hits
Against a hull 6 ship, 42 double damage weapons will strike the target, this means that on average 7 will bounce, 7 will crit, and 28 will cause standard damage.
Using a double damage weapons this means the hull 6 vessel will take 77 damage, 70 crew and will have 7 unresolved criticals.
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In this case we see that the stealthed vessel has an obvious advantage over the hull 6 vessel in damage potential using the above example. This obviously doesn't encapsulate all potentials, and our first example does assume that the ships start within 10". If they did not you would again see that the stealthed vessel takes less damage then the hull 6 vessel.
The Minbari have approximately 1/3 less damage/crew then similar ships of the same priority of other races. Given our above numbers, I draw the conclusion that it means that overall the Minbari are now balanced compared to the other races. I'd like to hear other opinions on the issue as well, again given the above numbers.
Also please note that when decimal points were involved I rounded to the nearest standard number unless it was impossible to round, (ie, exactly 50/50 or 1/3 1/3 1/3.)
Besides, someone did ask for the numbers.
