Why is the Vorchan so poor ?

[Martin]

I am interested to know why the Vorchan is so poor not just hull points and AD tweeking reasons. But in game philosophy terms it must have been at least as good if not better than a Narn G'Quan in the TV series terms as it was the second best ship in the fleet after the Primus Battle Cruiser and it is described as a Heavy Cruiser in the show. In the "Fall of Night" the emperor's Primus is escorted to B5 by six Vorchan so it must have been a reasonably good ship to be given such duty so what went wrong ? game wise.

Martin

Looking for a reason to includesome in my fleet

 

[Target]

They were fine pre SFOS, great fast attack in wolfpacks but fragile then for some unknown reason got downgraded. Didn't even remember a single post that they are way overpowered.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

I don't recall any distinction in the series between Vorchan and Demos, either. Nor any mention of a unique Demos variant belonging to the House of Mollari destroying the Narn cruiser that carried Sheridan and Franklin to meet the leader of the Anla'Shok. All of that is in the game, though...

 

[emperorpenguin]

and it is described as a Heavy Cruiser in the show

.

When? The only designation it ever received was "Centauri warship"

In the "Fall of Night" the emperor's Primus is escorted to B5 by six Vorchan so it must have been a reasonably good ship to be given such duty

The episode was "The Coming of Shadows". "The Fall of Night" saw B5 fight the Primus (or Secundus as others would say)

Target is right they were good attack ships pre SFOS but losing Super AP AND a reduction in damage was too much

 

[emperorpenguin]

I don't recall any distinction in the series between Vorchan and Demos, either. ...

but there was also no distinction between a pulse, command or regular Omega/Hyperion
Likewise the Primus/Secundus

 

[Lord David the Denied]

No, but the pre-laser cannon Hyperion is perfectly reasonable. Who came up with the idea that the Vorchans we see on screen are actually a different ship called a Demos?

 

[Silvereye]

The Vorchan is not too bad as it stands, their biggest weapon is their speed and manoeuvreability. However to get the best bang from them, you need to use them as a squadron and approach the enemy fleet from the flank or rear. The firepower from three of them is enough to make any battle level ship tremble. With the low damage, you just need to be very careful with them and not subject them to heavy enemy fire.

 

[emperorpenguin]

No, but the pre-laser cannon Hyperion is perfectly reasonable. Who came up with the idea that the Vorchans we see on screen are actually a different ship called a Demos?

Agents of Gaming.

They decided the season 5 version equipped with torpedoes was an upgunned version.

Who decided that we ever saw a pre-laser armed Hyperion?

 

[captainsmirk]

But there is evidence from the show to support there being two versions of the Vorchan, the one in ITB blows away a G'Quan in seconds, during the Narn-Centauri war we see it taking three Vorchans longer to kill a G'Quan. Either there are two different Vorchans or two different G'Quans...

Nick

 

[Martin]

Sorry over egging the pudding saying heavy cruiser I should have said medium cruiser thats's what comes of being in a hurry late for an appointment. Typical I now cannot find my reference source for this. I may look at using Demos stats and calling it a Vorchan II for my games.

Martin

 

[Balance]

But there is evidence from the show to support there being two versions of the Vorchan, the one in ITB blows away a G'Quan in seconds, during the Narn-Centauri war we see it taking three Vorchans longer to kill a G'Quan. Either there are two different Vorchans or two different G'Quans...

I think the more important point of this was that in ITB a single Vorchan-like-object was considered powerful enough to take on a Narn warship. Sure, it might've gotten a lucky crit, but the Centauri believed that it was a reasonable opponent for the expected Narn vessel.

It probably should've been three or so ships, but perhaps there was an angle of the Centauri feeling that the smaller the fleet, the more plausible deniability.

 

[captainsmirk]

I think that the Vorchan should usually be seen as a pack hunter, as shown in the show and favoured I'm sure by many of the players here. Whether its stats are good enough even for this is of course debatable.

But as you say the Narn ship was completely unprepared for combat, so a single ship could take it down. Lots of open blast doors and such.

Nick

 

[CheesyRobMan]

But there is evidence from the show to support there being two versions of the Vorchan, the one in ITB blows away a G'Quan in seconds, during the Narn-Centauri war we see it taking three Vorchans longer to kill a G'Quan. Either there are two different Vorchans or two different G'Quans...

Or two different requirements for dramatic battle scenes... ranging from "oh no! our ticket off this rock has suddenly been blown up!" through to "look, a pretty CGI-fest of stuff going bang to fill a few minutes of episode!"

Not that I'm cynical in any way, shape or form

 

[emperorpenguin]

Either there are two different Vorchans or two different G'Quans...

Nick

There are 5 different Vorchans in the game! :wink: Vorchan, Vorchar, Vorchat, Demos and Dusk Coutari

There are 5 different G'Quans too! G'Quan, G'Tal, G'Lan, G'Quonth and G'Koth

 

[Davesaint]

No, but the pre-laser cannon Hyperion is perfectly reasonable. Who came up with the idea that the Vorchans we see on screen are actually a different ship called a Demos?

Agents of Gaming.

They decided the season 5 version equipped with torpedoes was an upgunned version.

Who decided that we ever saw a pre-laser armed Hyperion?

In the show you see a Pulse version of the Hyperion. I don't know if this came "pre-laser" or post-laser. I would suggest it was pre-laser since the EA supposedly didn't get Battle Lasers from the Centauri until the war broke out with the Boneheads.

Dave

 

[Lord David the Denied]

The Narn, dude. EA got lasers from the Narn.

 

[emperorpenguin]

In the show you see a Pulse version of the Hyperion.
Dave

says who? :wink: We don't KNOW it isn't a "regular" hyperion which doesn't fire its lasers!

 

[Lord David the Denied]

We do know that the Hyperion class pre-dates acquisition of laser tech, though. So there's your pulse variant, nice and easy. Pulse Omega is dubious, though...

 

[Tank]

Why? Pulse technology was gained after the Dilgar War. Easily Incorporated into mainline ships.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

The Omega carries plenty of pulse weapons, but the design was created after lasers were obtained from the dirty Narn. Not much reason to build a variant with shorter-ranged pulse cannons as an exclusive armament.