From: "Rob Schultz" To: babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU Subject: [B5W] Playtesting the Battlewagon Date sent: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 00:03:51 PDT Send reply to: babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU Our scenario: The Centauri learn that two Raider Sloops will be located near jump gate X. Two Altarian Destroyers are in the area and dispatched to deal with them. When the Altarians jump into the system they discover not only the two sloops but the battlewagon as well. Forces: Centauri - 2xAltarian, 12xSentri Raider - 2xSloop, 1xBattlewagon, 24xRaider Light Fighter Setup: Raider secretly deploys anywhere on map with up two 12 fighters on patrol. Centauri forces jump in anywhere on map, fighters may be deployed and follow through jump point. The two Centauri groups are attempting to catch the raiders between them and so cannot jump in closer than 30 hexes to each other. Special Rules: Tourney fighter rules, jinking declared during movement, secret EW. Battlewagon cannot jump until after turn 5. Vicory conditions: Beats us. Kind of figured the Altarians would have to disengage if one got too beat up. Turns out a good one would be the Altarians preventing the escape of the battlewagon. Our results - in a nutshell it was a slaughter. Despite jumping in widely seperated with the one of the Altarians 4 hexes(!) in front of the raiders and heading away from them the Altarians cleaned up the map. The raider fighters are mostly useless against Altarians while the Sentris can do good damage vs. the sloops. After 2 turns one Sloop was headed off the map with its aft thrusters gone. After 4 turns the other sloop had lost its pulse cannons and twin arrays and decided to break off. After 5 turns the Raiders were down to about 12 fighters. After 6 turns the Battlewagon jumped out leaving behind the fighters. The Centauri took moderate damage to one Altarian, light damage to the other and lost a three fighters. Final thoughts before bed... The Battlewagon is waste of 600 points. A good fight might be 1 Vorchan vs. the Battlewagon but I would rather be the Vorchan. I would estimate its value at maybe 300 points only because of the heavy laser. As it stands Ivanova and her star furies would not have needed the Whitestars help to wax the Battlewagon. I'd scrap the scenario above. Maybe a Battlewagon, two sloops, and 24 fighters vs. ONE Altarian and 6 Sentri... or maybe vs. the Emporer's transport in a kidnapping attempt... or maybe against a Hyperion and 6 Starfury... Rob "Running With Scissors" Schultz ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com