The site has not had any new material on it in a long time. Will there be anymore playtest scenarios posted anytime soon?

Thanks,

Ken

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 - 05:53 am: Edit

Petrick!

By L.LeBlanc (Lessss) on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 - 06:48 am: Edit

KK, I suspect that if more playtest reports came in on what is currently there, then more stuff would go up.

By Geoff Conn (Talonz) on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 - 08:22 pm: Edit

My guess would be that Ken would be willing to do that...

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 - 09:53 pm: Edit

Working on finding people in Syracuse NY area (which I have) and finding time from work sending me places.

Ken

By George M. Ebersole (George) on Sunday, December 21, 2003 - 02:57 pm: Edit

Is there a place to post an LMC report? I did a 700 point battle yersterday afternoon; Eneen verse a Klingon-Hydran fleet, and was pounding the Alpha opposition at range 31.

By Les LeBlanc (Lessss) on Sunday, December 21, 2003 - 03:16 pm: Edit

http://www.starfleetgames.com/sfb/playtest/playtest.htm

Email, to design@starfleetgames.com, is the fastest way to get in touch with the Bureau. Emailed responses and reports also take priority over surface mailed reports, simply because it's more efficient.

By Jonathan Snyder (Gorncaptain) on Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 06:19 pm: Edit

So, if the Playtester information is still on the site that means they would still want reports about the ships?

By Peter Thoenen (Eol) on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 10:44 pm: Edit

Not quite sure where to post this one. Noticed the Vudar has a playtest TC. Were the playtest rules listed anywhere. Mainly curious how the IPG works in tourney with EW.

By James Hallmark (Jhallmark) on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - 08:12 pm: Edit

Will playtests reports based on battles that don't use commanders level rules be considered valid?

I have a bunch of people who play that have not read the rules, they only know what I teach them. So I find it practical to only use basic and advanced rules.

By Kenny Bruce (Lt_Bruce) on Saturday, February 16, 2008 - 01:51 pm: Edit

The SSDs for some Mallarn ships appeared in the playtest section, and this puzzles me.

Who are the Mallarn? And where are the rules to use them? Is it some strange product like stellar shadow, or what?

(I've only been playing sfb for a few years...)

By Kenny Bruce (Lt_Bruce) on Saturday, February 16, 2008 - 01:59 pm: Edit

Ahh... I see. Triangulums.

By David Schultz (Ikvavenger) on Thursday, March 18, 2010 - 02:32 pm: Edit

I see this section hasn't been used in a while so I thought I'd ask a question;

I see in the tournament ships download available here there is an 'authorized' and an 'unauthorized' ISC cruiser. Is player input needed/desired on this and other unauthorized tournament cruisers? I'd be happy to play this ship several times against other tournanment cruisers in my group and send in our findings (or post them here) for consideration.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, March 19, 2010 - 01:21 pm: Edit

David Schultz:

The Authorized ISC cruiser is the one in play, and will likely remain the one in play for the foreseeable future. The Medium Cruiser was an idea, but does not seem to be needed.

What I really need reports on are the Andromedan, Vudar, and Jindarian.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, March 19, 2010 - 01:26 pm: Edit

Andromedan: Not viable as-is. At a minimum needs 2-4 more power.

Vudar: Don't know.

Jindarian: Utterly worthless. Hopelessly underpowered, no crunch deterrent, terrible firing arcs.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, March 19, 2010 - 04:07 pm: Edit

Ted Fay:

Maybe I am missing something, as I have checked. I have the E-mail where you requested the playtest forms (and have confirmed that I sent you a copy). But I do not have a single E-Mail where you submitted any reports, not on the Andromedan, not the Jindarian, and not the Vudar.

I understand opinions, and yes, yours (and Paul Scott's, and Tom Carroll's, and a list of other aces) carries more weight than non-aces. But opinions are still opinions.

There are people who have the opinion to this day that the Earth is flat, and Man has never walked on Luna.

Do you mind (I am not be sarcastic, this is an honest question) if I ask for actual data instead of just opinion?

And, no, I do not want "I am one of the top aces, and I have defeated these three (or so) people who are learning how to fly Andromedans, so the ship is balanced". That is flat nonsense. If an Ace is testing the ship, I expect to see him flying BOTH sides in the reports. People playing against the Andromedan need to have at least some experience with being the Andromedan themselves, and seeing the issues from both sides. To "see the other side of the hill" so that they can try to better understand the weaknesses and try to exploit them.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, March 19, 2010 - 04:27 pm: Edit

SPP,

My original post was my opinion, and I didn't intend for my opinion to be seen as definitive, and I did not mean to imply I expected any special treatement due to past successes I've had in tournament settings (I don't expect anything, actually). My apologies if I have somehow raised your ire.

When I get a chance I will submit official reports on the Jindarian (I have flown a few of these battles). I have flown both in and against the Jindarian TCC. As you will see in the official reports (submitted later) the Jindarian lacks the power to both reload and run. It must be able to run because it lacks any deterrent to mugging, in turn because its limited WG and phaser arcs prevent it from doing substantial damage through any given shield. It's best tactic relies on a HET to fire all 4 WRGs on a facing shield at range 10, but relying on a HET is dangerous - and then it still has the power issues.

Almost regardless of opponent, the counter tactic is to brick a side shield and advance to the center of the map. Take the Jindarian's shot on the side shield, and then turn in. Drive the Jindarian into a corner and mug it. You cannot take this tact with any other TC because all TCs have some kind of serious threat (plasma, direct fire crunch, something), but the best the Jindarian can reasonably do on a single alpha strike is some 60 damage at close range with good dice. Using the HET tactic and good timing and good dice (all three at the same time) at range 10 you could manage to do about 46 damage, but you would be empty. At range 8 or less you are outgunned.

It is my opinion that the Jindarian TC requires both substantially more power (about 4 points) to bring it in line with other war cruiser TCs and either more firepower (phasers) or better arcs. Otherwise, the RPS on this ship is about 9/1 against every other TC ship given that the other TC ships will simply take the shot and then run the Jin into a corner and mug it.


My opinion about the Andro TC is based on my observations, mostly by Peter Bakija and Bill Scholler flying. I can submit 1 report on this ship (my game with BS back in Origins 2008) and I will do so.


I have no opinion on the Vudar. I have never flown it or flown against it in the tourney setting.


I apologize that all of these reports will be coming in well after the games so memory will be fuzzy. It honestly didn't even occur to me to fill out those reports after these games - which is entirely my fault.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, March 19, 2010 - 04:35 pm: Edit

Ted Fay:

You are an ace. Your voice has weight as such, not just with me but other people. If you start voicing opinions, people tend to listen, and potentially poison the pool (why should we test this ship, Ted Fay says it is no good). For that reason, I pretty much had no choice at all but to respond. There was no anger or rancor on my part in doing so. Just a job I had to do because you "forced my hand" even though unintentionally.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, March 19, 2010 - 04:53 pm: Edit

By the way, playtest reports on ships in Captain's Log would be appreciated.

By Jacob Karpel (Psybomb) on Thursday, April 01, 2010 - 10:38 am: Edit

Having tested the Jindaran ship now, I agree with Ted Fay. It seems like the ship would be best in the 9-10 range bracket as compared to other TCs, but it's far too slow to be able to dance if it needs to reload (though only due to Warp requirements). The prospecting shuttles aren't really all that useful (and I tried, you just don't get enemies going that slow under normal circumstances), and the highly-restrictive weapon arcs make it very, very difficult to put threatening amounts of damage out.

I will say this, the ship is very tough and it has four "arcs" of high threat (L, R, directly ahead, and directly behind) which makes it hard to approach with a down/weak 1, 2, or 6. A little bit of extra power and broader arcs (plus probably a couple more phasers here and there) will do it. Might not even need the extra power if you're willing to change the APR into AWR.

I'm in the process of hashing out math with the Vudar, I should get a test or two in with it within a week.

By Jacob Karpel (Psybomb) on Friday, April 09, 2010 - 08:47 am: Edit

Got a test with the Vudar. Won, but it was luck on a series of Mizia shots stripping my Kzinti opponent of all weapons but a single Ph-1 that did it.

The ship is odd in that it is effectively immune to Alpha Strikes. At least, it is as long as you're moving smartly and have decent IPG timing. Managed to force a 4-shift by having a Weasel out and putting 4 points into it when I knew for fact he was holding overloads and wouldn't be able to bring them back to bear.

My initial impression of the thing was that it would have a ton of power to burn, but this turned out to not be true. Even at 40 power it needs every bit of it to keep up, and the first couple of power hits were quite painful throughout the game. This goes double if the IPG needs reloading, as they are extremely power-hungry beasts (and the absolute center of the ship's tactics, no question). The Ion Cannons are also harsh for their output, I ended up only loading 3 most turns.

As well, the ship is rather fragile internally if your enemy gets a good salvo off. It has very, very few "free" hits for a ship its size, but as mentioned good movement and IPG timing makes it hard to get through shields. The weapon arcs on the Phaser-1 main battery hurts things as well. I found myself taking Phaser hits there on occasion and saving the RS/LS phaser-3.

When fighting against it, patience is the key. Well, that, or a weapon that ignores the IPG (Plasma or an ISG). DnD empires will have a rough time of it, as will those heavily reliant on direct-fire (oddly enough, this thing is absurdly effective against most common Orion loadouts).

I will be posting a brief BatRep later this weekend, but this is the gist of what we found.

By Troy Latta (Saaur) on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - 01:14 pm: Edit

Not a playtest, exactly, but an editing note for Module E4:
(JR1.F) notes that all fighters are Piranhas, and no Pikes were ever built.
(JR1.F7) and (JR1.F8) then go on to detail the Guppy and Minnow fighters that were apparently built (because they were retired in Y177 and Y179, respectively), but make no reference to the aforementioned Pikes.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - 01:26 pm: Edit

Troy Latta:

Hunh. My error entirely. Somehow I missed that entire paragraph and Orsini may have thought I had deleted it. I just thought it was wrong to go straight to a first line fighter and developed the earlier fighters to have a more normal progression of fighters.

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - 02:24 pm: Edit

Page 97 of E4, The top of the header says "ANDROMEDAN" FIGHTERS.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - 03:11 pm: Edit

A. David Merritt:

Sorry, my error. Must have done that page too close to finishing Module C3A and had "Andromedan on the mind."