Obsidian said:
We have 3 weeks of getting mauled before you put out some anti0minbari rules?
No. There aren't going to be any rule changes. This is what Matt actually said
the next issue of S&P will have some anti-Bonehead tactics, including a few that have not been mentioned here yet.
So there is obviously a few things that we as a group can already do, but simply aren't seeing. Off the top of my head I can think of 3 ways of dealing with Stealth.
1. Scouts
2. "Scanners to full!" (probably backed up by a fleet carrier for fighter recovery)
3. Closing the range to less than 10"
Can anyone come up afew other possibilities?
Sorry about that I meant to type tactics not rules. Made the correction.
1. Scouts are easily killed so other players are required to relatively fragile ships while the Minbari player gets to pick nothing but warships.
2. Works great with Nials running around and Minbari packing nothing but Mini-beams. Also the fleet carrier rules requires the carrier to be within 30". Also if the fighter was within 4" (required for your scanner action) then it gets a -1 to the roll to recover which means on average only 1 fighter in 6 will recover.
3. Requires you to focus on fleets dedicated to close in action. Ships with missile launchers or focused on long range weapons like heavy beams often dont want to close. Missle ships in particular since EA missle ships are the just about the only ships that can actually outrange Minbari weapons.
Here try this for fun. Compare a Warlock to a Sharlin.
Hull - Warlock has 6. Sharlin has 5. Advantage Warlock
Damage - Sharlin 60/8 vs Warlock 70/18. So Warlock will last longer but both get crippled at same total.
Crew - Sharlin 66/9 vs Warlock80/20. More crew for Warlock but Sharlin has Flight Computer so advantage is more limited. Sharlin only slows down at 66 crew loss while Warlock loses abilities at 52 crew loss.
Speed - Both are equal speed and agility.
Special Abilities - Sharlin has advanced jump, Flight comp, and stealth. Warlock has Jump, command, and Interceptor. Advantage Sharlin since Interceptors are useless since all Sharlin weapons are beam or mini-beam.
Crafts - 4 starfury vs 4 Nial and 1 Flyer. Major advantage Minbari. More ships, all have stealth, and mini-beams will eat up EA fighters for lunch.
Now the weapons. This could take a long time so I am going to be a bit general and break them down by throw weight at range assuming both are going head to head with each other.
30" - Warlock has 6AD of missiles with all the good and bad of those. Sharlin has 6AD of beam. Advantage Sharlin. Missiles are slow loading and will miss alot from stealth.
20" - Warlock adds 4AD forward and 4AD boresight. Sharlin adds 8AD but at 18" so at 20" Warlock has throw weight advantage. This si a small range that the Warlock has to stay in and its outside the 10" where the Sharlins stealth is at normal.
10" - Warlock adds 10AD of pulse lasers. Now the Warlock can throw a total of either as much as 24 atack dice when boresighted and missiles loaded or as little as 16 AD when missiles are loading and target is only forward arc. In responce the Sharlin can always reply with 14AD.
So look at the battle as the ships close the Sharlin constantly fires its neutron laser which is Super AP and will hit each round on average with 2 AD of damage that is double damage and precise.
The Warlock will scramble to close and reply with its missiles and bore sight. But since the Minari will have initiative more often then not the boresight will probably only line up 1 out of every 3 rounds. To even fire though both weapons will require a 6 to even lock on and then in that 1 round in 6 will then connect on a 3 or better. So about once ever 6 rounds at range the Warlock will AT BEST hit with 5 AD I am assuming of course that the whole fight allows for boresight firing and that the stealth lock on and missles are firing not reloading . In those 6 rounds the Sharlin will have hit for an accumulated 12 AD and odds are before the Warlock even gets a single hit it will have to deal with 1 or more possible crits.
How can anyone consider this a fair fight? Two warships should be a coin flip. But there is no flip here. It is all the way Sharlin. With just one or two bad rolls and some decent flying by the Sharlin to stay out of arc she could destroy the Warlock and not take a single point of damage in the process. Just by staying out of boresight means a Sharlin will only be hit by a Warlock 1 round in 12 since the missiles are slow loading.