From: "Geoffrey Long" To: babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU Subject: [B5W] Thunderbolt Mini-Playtest Date sent: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 21:46:00 PDT Send reply to: babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU Did a VERY short battle last night. We ran out of time, and it was small anyways. It mainly served to test the effectiveness of the Gatling Pulse Cannon's raking vs. ships effect. Players-5 P1(me)-6 Thunderbolts w/RIO P2(narn)-1 Rongoth Destroyer P3(league)-2 Sky Serpents, 6 class fighters P4(narn)-12 Gorith P5(centauri)-Somewhere from 6-8 Rutarian (I don't remember) Map ABC DEF Setup I set up in the bottom center of map E. P2 set up in the corner of D, P3 in mid-A, P4 in the top of B, and P5 in the corner of C. Turn 1 Rongoth(speed 5) turns toward map A. League fighters move directly in front of the Rongoth. Gorith move to center of map B. Rutarians head for the Goriths' flanks, but are too far away to fire. My T-Bolts get the best initiative(those RIOs rock!) and move into position to fire missles at the League and Rongoth. League and Rongoth slug it out, leaving the Rongoth with 3/4 of structure, its Retros, and a Hvy. Pulse hanging on by a thread. 1 Sky Serpant is destroyed, the other takes about 50% damage. Turn 2 Rongoth turns to head off the map on turn 3. Goriths and Rutarians move to mix it up at the edge of map B. League fighters(who are at spd 12) turn to head off the map, and can only jink by 2. Thunderbolts launch 4 missles at the Rongoth, 8 at the League, and move directly in front of the Rongoth. Goriths and Rutarians all miss pathetically and only 1 hit is scored, leaving a slightly damaged Rutarian. Missles roar in on the League fighters. The rule for jinking counting x2 vs. missles are in effect, and this saves 1 fighter from a grisly death. Missles miss the Sky Serpant completely, but 1 fighter takes 1 missle, and 2 others are destroyed. Rongoth can not fire on T-bolts, and it just sits there as 4 missles(due to lucky rolls) slam into the aft, taking out a thruster and a twin array. The T-Bolts have a 19 to-hit, and take shots at the Rongoth. Average rolls for pulses, except t-bolt 4 misses the Rongoth. Pulses rip of the damaged pulse cannon, a retro, and do about 1/3 to 1-2 damage to the forward structure. At this point we all had to leave, so we packed up. Analysis- Gunner- The gunner makes the T-Bolt MUCH more effective. This OB bonus is nice, but that +1 initiative bonus is what really helps. That and he can take a cockpit crit for the pilot.... Jinking vs. missles- Only used this a little. Seemed to work ok. If the League fighters had had a little more thrust to jink, they probably wouldn't have lost as many fighters to the missles. Raking-This rule works very well. If it wasn't for this, my T-bolts would have done almost negligable damage all over the place. Killing someone by paper cuts isn't very effective, and neither is 6-pt non-raking pulses. Worked pretty well. Thrust Increase w/out missles-Didn't have much practice with this either. Looks good though. Hopefully I'll be able to get in a full-scale battle soon, and see how well the Bolts do in a fleet action. Will write in as soon as I do. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com