Message-ID: <19980915014003.8196.qmail@hotmail.com>
From: "Mr. Morden" <m0rden@hotmail.com>
To: agentone@agentsofgaming.com
Cc: babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: [B5W] *** SUCCESSFUL PLAYTEST of new combat / damage rules ***
Content-Type: text/plain
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 18:39:57 PDT
Sender: owner-babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
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Reply-To: babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU

I just got finished with a pair of test battles concerning AoG's 
proposed new system.  I'll give you my exact thoughts after the reports, 
but... all in all, I'd say with the listed modifications, it works 
GREAT.  It was very fun to play and felt much more like the show than 
any other battle I've done (despite the fact that I was using WoR ships, 
which weren't seen on the show... ;p).  

First, I'm going to spout off some questions about your suggestion ( I 
know you probably typed it up pretty quick, so...)

     The weapon range changes ... were they supposed to be in there?  If 
so, I like most of them... I'll get to that later, but checking to see 
if it wasn't mistyped.

     The Medium Laser has been made a weaker weapon than the Battle 
Laser.  As its lower range means that it normally does less damage 
anyhow, that severely weakens the weapon.  Though this change is 
acceptable, I suggest if implemented the Nova's price would go 
considerably down... and then the EA would be left with no effective 
dreadnought.  Honestly, though, a suggestion for the nova that seems to 
fit the show quite a bit better, plus implements a rule that's been on 
'standby' for a while... Give the Nova Heavy Laser / Pulse Arrays 
instead of Medium, but give it a considerable power loss : I'd say Power 
Shortage : 24 or 30.

     The energy mine is listed as 'Flash Damage' but armour's effect 
against it is nebulous considering there is no X.  Is it intended to 
follow armour as before?

     With energy mines causing that much flash damage, I can see three 
possible results when a flight of fighters is impacted.  
     1. All fighters take listed damage
     2. One fighter takes enough damage to kill it, then the next,         
and so on until you run out of damage.  This seems rational and 
     is in accordance with new Flash Damage rules.  
     3. One fighter takes the listed damage, the others take half of      
it, as per WoR-style flash damage.

I'd prefer 3, as it means any fighters in the same hex as the emine are 
obliterated, and of those on the surrounding hex there will likely be 
one casualty each flight and 10 damage all around... suitable amounts.  

How does Mag Gun Flash Damage affect other things in the same hex as the 
target?

NOTE --- I've heard something about Dropouts ... what are they and how 
do they work?


Ok, here's the summary of the playtests.  I won't bore you with the 
exact techinicalities of the battles, but you'll quickly see the point.

Both of their main intent was to test weapon damages ... thus, the 
tactics used in the battle were somewhat limited and repetative, but not 
just straight-line-and-strike.  

The battle was a pseudo-scenario entitle "Slay the Dragon."  The "Real" 
ships placed in the battle would probably have been a Centurion, a 
Darkner, and fighters... but to test out weapons, especially Twin 
Arrays, I sent in 2 Maximi and 1 darkner.  They were attacking a Bin'Tak 
The IDEA was that the Bin'Tak SHOULD be able to destroy those mostly 
defensive ships fairly easily.

"Slay The Dragon" 
Narn vs. Centauri

A lone Bin'Tak has been stranded from its assault fleet when it was 
forced to drop out of hyperspace.  Awaiting repair of its long-range 
communicator and jump drive, it is almost immediately jumped by a 
centauri attack group.  The centauri had attacked the Narn battle fleet 
in the best way the knew how : Sabotage and ambush!

Forces : 
Narn : 1 Bin'Tak Dreadnought.
Centauri : "Real version" above.  This version : 1 Darkner Fast Attack 
Frigate, 2 Maximus Defense frigates

Deploy : This battle, to keep things simpler, is fought with two 
mapsheets end-to-end.... though easily more could be added.  Bin'Tak is 
speed 0, Centauri ships enter at speed 1.  They jumped in last turn .

The Centauri objective is to destroy the Bin'Tak, the Narn objective is 
to survive.  The Narn can power up its jump engines in 30 turns, if it 
can survive that long.

First turn : The Centauri ships duck their heads in their shells and 
floor it forward, trying to get into range.  The bin'tak opens up with 
emines and ion torps... with 8 TA shots and 3 guardians, though, the ion 
torps have no effect and the emines do a bit to one maximus.  Three 
heavy laser shots are fired, but to no effect (bad range and rolls of 
16, 18, 17.  15 was the hit number)  Final range : 22

Second turn : Centauri ships close to 8.  Bin'tak fires 3 light pulses, 
4 TA shots.  Little real effect, a bit of superficial damage.

Turn Three : Centauri ships close to pointblank range and open up.  The 
bin'tak obliterates the partially damaged maximus with a Mag Gun shot 
and 2 heavy lasers and many Twin's and light pulses cripple the Darkner.  
Note that the Bin'Tak is not defending itself here... this is more a 
test.  The bin'tak has no DEW, no defensive weapons.

I didn't even have to roll for most of the shots against the Bin'Tak, 
however, as the first maximus's TA shots VAPORISED the dreadnought 
utterly.  oops.

***ANALYSIS : Twin arrays are FAR too powerful.  They should be reduced. 
Tacticall, the Bin'Tak acted as if it had just gotten out of bed.  I 
think I should have done more with it and been a little less itchy on 
the trigger finger.***

I tried this again, this time keeping the Twin Arrays to -2 per hex, X+4 
damage.  This seemed to work extremely well... the battle was perfect.  
First turn, Ion Torps and emines damage the Maximi a little ... second 
turn, the three HL's fire at the Darkner and cripple it, removing its 
front section and taking half its primary structure off, forcing it to 
disengage.  Third turn, again the ships close to point-blank ranges 
(remember, this IS to test to see if the rush-to-pointblank TA tactics 
work).  The 18 twin array shots, not defended against, tear into the 
Bin'Tak and remove its forward side, doing about half damage to the 
primary structure.  In response, the Bin'Tak's mag gun and a heavy laser 
destroy a Maxiumus, reducing it to a ball of hot gas, and assorted 
lighter guns do some damage to the forward strucutre of the other.  
Then, it became a fun running battle as the Maximus screamed past the 
dreanought, burning its side thruster to a crisp as it struggles to 
about-face.  Meanwhile, the lumbering dreadnought lit thrusters and 
began to lumber away as the maximus screeched to a halt.  Attempting to 
fly up past the Bin'Tak to make another pass on its cripples front, the 
Maximus had to fly through heavy fire.  The Bin'Tak accelerated too 
fast, however, and the maximus, only gaining 2 hexes per turn, was 
destroyed.

So you see, this worked much more like it 'should' have.  TA's still 
hurt, if well-placed, but they're not godly.  Heavy Lasers and Battle 
Lasers along with other heavy weapons can do more damage.

Final Conclusions / Suggestions / Notes

>From Testing

1 - Twin Arrays would work great at -2 / hex, X + 4 damage

2 - Emines work much better now, but please clarify

3 - Heavy Lasers et. al. now do appropriate damage

4 - Surgeon General's Warning : Getting hit by a Mag Gun at point blank 
range is severely hazardous to your health.  It is unlawful to advertise 
Mag Guns on public television or on radio.

5 - Intercept abilities should probably be increased : as seen in the 
show, one Pulse Gun should be able to intercept one Pulse Gun, etc.  It 
should not, for instance, take 6 shots to assure taking down a single 
torpedo.  This would be more b5 realistic and make defensive fire an 
actual part of the game.

6 - New armour rules very good for lasers, but for simplicity and logic, 
keep it away from other weapons.  TA's and Burst Beams having to 
overcome structural armour to ping off an interceptor or SPB's does not 
work well.  I suggest, with particle weapons, rolling for location 
before computing damage and using THAT armour value.

Other :
1 - AoG's rule for Jammers seems fairly acceptable, though I've never 
formally playtested it.  Point increases should not be flat; much more 
valuable for smaller ships as they are harder to hit.  Nial jammers 
should probably count as one point of static; that seems much more 
logical.

2 - Fighters' point cost should across the board be reduced by about 1/5 
to 1/3.  Fighters are now easier to damage.  Make clearer flight level 
rules, and make THEM the standard.  Eliminate that one-roll to-hit 
thing, it doesn't work very well -- you end up either all hitting or all 
missing much more than you should.  There's no bell curve.  As all races 
would gain this point reduction, nobody would get anything more out of 
it.


Well, that's all, folks.  Hope this helps the jury's decision.  
All in all, though... nice system.

P.S.:  Bruce, this is a different email address, but you may remember me 
as Eb0nFlame@hotmail.com, we've emailed back and forth a few times 
now...

Tyler Stetson
EbonFlame

Evolve or Die.  The shadows still reign.

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