One other point... With a single Implosion Bolt, it will probably need some extra padding by allowing the side light implosion torps to be hit on torp or drone.

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Friday, May 02, 2014 - 02:40 pm: Edit

Just had a discussion about Trobrin last night on talk Shoe...

Apparently, the idea of giving the Trobrin any more phasers doesn't seem to be going over well.

So, Paul and I are going to play test the following CL configuration.

1) 1 IB (FH)
2) 1 IT-H (LS)
3) 1 IT-H (RS)
4) 1 IT-L (LS)
5) 1 IT-L (RS)
6) 2 PR-1 (360)
7) 2 PR-1 (LS)
8) 2 PR-1 (RS)
9) 2 PR-3 (FX)
10) 2 PR-3 (RX)

Special rule, the light plasma can be hit on drone or torp to pad the single IB.

Everyone, please let me know what you think.

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Friday, May 02, 2014 - 02:44 pm: Edit

Note that the following is unchanged.

33+4 Power on a MC 2/3
8 Armor
6 Forward Hull
4 Center Hull
2 Aft Hull

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Friday, May 02, 2014 - 03:15 pm: Edit

Looks like something worth trying to me.

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Friday, May 02, 2014 - 05:18 pm: Edit

Barry,

What about the change to the plasma damage ratio?

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, May 03, 2014 - 12:28 pm: Edit

I'll certainly be willing to give it a go. Alunda TC crews to the ready!

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Saturday, May 10, 2014 - 10:34 pm: Edit

Had a Playtest game with Paul Franz last night. I was in Trobrin CL and Paul was in Wyn GBS.

For those of you who are wondering how you missed us on SFB Online, we played with pencil, paper, and a real map over Paul's kitchen table.

It got late and we decided to call it a draw. Although to tell the truth, my ship was in bad shape.

We both made errors, but during the after game discussion, I'm thinking about changing the online Trobrin to the CA.

The CA actually has a little less firepower than the CL I was using, but it does have more power.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - 10:01 pm: Edit

Barry and I played a game with him as the current Drex and me as the Alunda.

The Drex has 3xHCH (directions 2, 4, 6); 6xHCL (2xLF, 2xRF, 1xRR, 1xLR); 6xP1 (4xPW1, 2xPP1; 2 of the PW are LS/RS, the other P1s are all FA+); 4xPW3 (2xLS/2xRS). 38 power. 4 enveloping ammo (so a max of 2 HCH enveloper shots or 4 HCL).

Alunda is currently at 10xBB, 4xPW, 36 power (free life support, so effectively 37, and then the 3x batteries that have 5 power each).

T1, I (Alunda) corner dodges. Drex just sort of closes in.

T2: I come out at 14/31/14 something, he moves some sort of 21/28/21 plot. We close. At R6, he hits me in the #1 with 1xHCH (not enveloped), 2xHCL, 5xP1s. With the -1 to hit the Drex has on all his guns, the HCs all auto hit, and the phasers did well, for a total of 35 damage on my #1. I use a battery for 5 to block internals, but the shield is down. He turns off, I pursue. He ends up moving into the corner. I get on his #4 shield at R6 or so, see I'm not getting closer, and blast him with 4x4 point BBs and 4x1 point BBs. 3 of the 4 heavy BBs hit (on 7's or less, so I rolled up some), and hit with 3 or 4 of the 1 pointers, and do 18 internals, hitting some HCLs, some P3s, and some power. And a battery, so he can't HET. He turns up out of the corner, and we end at about R5.

T3: I figure he is going to stop here, but he doesn't. I go 28/14/9. He goes 21 most of the turn. He HETs at me early, and gets a good shot on my #2 with an HCH (not enveloped), 2xHCL, and his phasers. He rolls super hot on phasers and does 50 damage, doing 17 in after some battery reinforcement. I keep trying to get a shot on his down #4. We get close, I get him with my Attraction Field, which lets me pull his ship behind my ship, so I get a R2 shot on his down #4 with 6x1 point BB and 4xPWs. I roll ok and do, like, 34 more internals. We separate the rest of the turn.

T4: We both move 14 all turn and reload. I can't turn at him, as my #1 and #2 are down. I just kinda slip at him, and he keeps away with me off his down #4. We end at about R15.

T5: I move 14/27/14, he stops. I close in. Late in the turn, he speeds up to 10. I launch 4xWhip Torps at him. He hits me with an enveloped HCH for a dozen internals or so. I close in, he blasts my #6 with all his phasers, doing another 15 or 20 in. My 4xWT hit his #6 for 20 as he slips in to R1 (as otherwise, the torps hit a weaker shield and I still get to shoot it). I shoot him with most of my BBs. After the smoke clears, I'm pretty mangled, but he is vastly more mangled, down to about 8 total power, very few guns, and a suicide shuttle I launched is about to take down another shield. So the Drex surrenders.

I got lucky on my initial R6 shot, hitting with 3 of 4 heavy BBs on a 7 or less, which was significant. He didn't stop on T3 when he was in the corner, which probably would have kept me off his down #4, and he also didn't arm his rear HCH as an enveloper from the start of the game, which is something that should probably be standard procedure. So the Alunda did well, but I don't think it was remotely a walk over.

This current Drex seems not unreasonable. With the very limited number of enveloper shots, and the weird arcs, it seems like it should be able to do ok, but isn't likely to be overly devastating, even with the -1 to hit all the time. That -1 shift made the Particle P1s kind of nuts, but then Barry also rolled well on them every shot.

The current Alunda is pretty solid. It probably should have its healing track dropped to a 4; as it is with a 6, it can fix a BB and a couple hull every turn, and can fix 6 hull just because, and still fix 6 other important systems. Probably dropping it to a 4 (fixing 8 boxes total) is more reasonable for a tournament game.

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Thursday, May 15, 2014 - 07:07 am: Edit

Excellent post Peter. I think your right about arming that RHR HCH as an enveloper would have been a good idea.

I also made a mistake on turn one that I thought the hold cost of the HCH was 2 instead of 1. With 3 extra power, I probably would have had the power to arm an additional HCL on turn 1.

I know that your surprised that I didn't start with the envelopers, but my thinking is that while envelopers are good for sand papering all of the shields. The straight shots are much better for punching shields completely. Once one or two shields are down, the envelopers become more scary.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, May 15, 2014 - 09:14 am: Edit

Yeah, with the limit on the envelopers (two total HCH enveloper shots, as is currently the case; you could use them for 4 HCL envelopers, but that is probably a waste), opening the game with them is probably not the most optimal plan.

I suspect that the good way to go is arm the front two HCH as standard shots, and start with the rear one held as an enveloper. The ship can easily take down a shield at R6 (where the HCs auto hit) with, like, half the guns on the ship (HCH+2HCL, 5xP1) and likely do a couple of internals, while probably not getting hurt much in return. If you then do a HET (contingent allocate for some of it :-) to get the other side guns into play, if you are on the same shield, you will kill someone outright, otherwise, you'll put a hole in another shield. Then as you run away, the rear HCH will get fired eventually for an enveloper shot for some extra internals. With the good to hit numbers (you hit on a 1-5 out to R12) and movement precedence, it shouldn't be that difficult to get a shot with the rear HCH while running away. Save the second enveloper shot for later in the game after a couple shields are down.

I realize that it is weird that the current Drex doesn't have a heavy weapon that points forward (the HCHs, of which there are currently 3, point down hex rows 2, 4, and 6), meaning for the initial shot, the ship needs to approach obliquely. But that strikes me as totally fine, and makes the ship kinda interesting. Directly down the front hex row, it can't fire an HCH, but it can fir 4xHCL (which are basically unoverloaded disruptors that never miss, auto hitting for 4 damage at R6 for 2 power or .5 hold cost, every turn) and 6xP1 (4xPW1, 2xPP1 which, as noted above, are kind of crazy with the -1 shift; at R2 last night, 2 PP1s hit for 20 damage).

If anyone goes and looks at the Drex SSD on SFBOL right now, it only shows 2 front HCL (1xRF, 1xLF), but that is an error (and the EA form still shows all 4 of the front ones) that Barry will fix soon. It should have the 2xLF, 2xRF HCLs along with 2 in the rear.

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Friday, May 16, 2014 - 06:06 am: Edit

The Drex SSD on SFBOL has been fixed and now shows the missing HCLs.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, May 16, 2014 - 08:33 am: Edit

Did you drop the Alunda healing track to 4?

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Saturday, May 17, 2014 - 09:42 am: Edit

I'll drop the healing track this weekend.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, May 17, 2014 - 11:12 am: Edit

A couple of thoughts came up on the Drex ship during this week's call-in.


*Is there any parsec-age in considering a switch for the third HCH, in order to have it fire down the front hex row rather than the aft one?

That would concentrate more of the ship's firepower to the forward arcs, but make it harder for the Drex to play keep-away when turning off from the opposing ship.


*Would the currently-proposed number of enveloping (and/or implosive) rounds be fair to take against an Andromedan tournament ship, or might there need to be some sort of faction-specific adjustment in this case?

Given how enveloping rounds work against PA panel banks (and how implosives can wreak havoc once the facing panels are filled or dropped), might the Drex be in a position to cause an Andro opponent an undue amount of trouble with this bag of tricks?

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, May 17, 2014 - 01:52 pm: Edit

Gary wrote:
>>*Is there any parsec-age in considering a switch for the third HCH, in order to have it fire down the front hex row rather than the aft one? >>

I don't think that is a good plan. As those things are really powerful. And never miss (assuming they have the -1 shift all the time, which they do, currently). With them facing 2, 4, 6, yeah, you don't have any that are facing directly forward (but still have 6xP1 and 4xHCL facing directly forward), but the one facing directly back gives the ship a significant deterrent to pursuit (which it can certainly benefit from, as it probably spends a lot of time running to reload), keeps the ship nicely symmetrical, and makes it interesting to fly (i.e. it isn't just another heavy hitting DF ship; it is a heavy hitting DF ship that needs to attack obliquely, both literally and figuratively).

>>That would concentrate more of the ship's firepower to the forward arcs, but make it harder for the Drex to play keep-away when turning off from the opposing ship. >>

The 2/4/6 arcs make the ship vastly more interesting than if they were 1/2/6. And due to the ship always having movement precedence (as it is nimble) and getting to HET safely twice for 4 power each (instead of 5), getting the HCHs in arc isn't particularly difficult. Even the rear one.

As the ship currently is:

-3xHCH (2/4/6)
-6xHCL (2xLF, 2xRF, 1xRR, 1xLR)
-4xPW1 (2xFA/L, 2xFA/R, 1xLS, 1xRS)
-2xPP1 (FA/L+FA/R, IIRC)
-4xPW3 (2xLS, 2xRS)

It has a lot of firepower pointing in all directions. Which makes it interesting to fly and fly against, and does a good job of reflecting the flavor of Drex ships.

Given the want to keep the -1 shift (which seems reasonable at press time, but also something that has the potential to make the ship wildly overpowered with a minor tweak here or there), erring on the side of caution is something to keep doing. And putting the 3rd HCH on the forward arc (i.e. 1) is also likely erring on the side of *not* caution.

>>Given how enveloping rounds work against PA panel banks (and how implosives can wreak havoc once the facing panels are filled or dropped), might the Drex be in a position to cause an Andro opponent an undue amount of trouble with this bag of tricks?>>

Seems unlikely. I mean, yeah, the enveloping HCH on an Andro is gonna do a lot of damage, but if anything can limit what HCHs can shoot at it, it is the Andro. And really, even though it is perfectly historically accurate to have the Drex fight the Andro, in practice, it probably isn't going to happen much, so probably best to not worry about it currently.

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Monday, May 19, 2014 - 08:50 pm: Edit

Missed this weekend. The wife needed slave labor to clean out the garage. The wife fly's out Wed, so I'll try to get to it Thursday night.

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Saturday, May 31, 2014 - 09:29 am: Edit

Well that didn't happen... And this weekend may not either...

Someday soon...

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Sunday, June 08, 2014 - 08:23 pm: Edit

OK... Mission accomplished... Four ships modified and submitted to Paul.

1. Trobrin had the most significant changes. This is now a CA. The changes from the previous CA included.

First the stuff that got removed.

a. Removed four armor.
b. Reduced from two Implosion Bolts to one and made the remaining Implosion Bolt FH arc.
c. Removed the FH Heavy Implosion Torp.

Now for the adders.

a. Increased the LH and RH Medium Implosion Torps to Heavies.
b. Added a pair of FX PR-3s... Remember that the CA never had FX PR-3s, only the CL variant had those.

2. Probr. I just added four impulse, cause it really needed the power. This version is the one with the FH HEAT.

3. Maesron. Reduced the front shield from 32 to 30.

4. Alunda. Reduced the Healing track from six to four.

Enjoy guys.

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Monday, June 09, 2014 - 06:39 pm: Edit

Barry,

For the Maesron - is that what last decided after the CoN5 discussions?

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Monday, June 09, 2014 - 10:59 pm: Edit

Yup

By William T Wilson (Sheap) on Thursday, April 02, 2015 - 04:36 am: Edit

Playtest Report. Me, Paravian (3rd generation TCC) vs. Kingzilla, Firehawk, SFBOL. I've played this same matchup from the other side against Neonpico. I feel like the Paravian is advantaged here. I think KZ is a slightly better player than me but it's fairly close. I had top (1701).

My plan was to use the QWTs to pressure him and prevent him from getting good launch positions. Neonpico fired stacks of QWTs against me, but I spread them out so they would occupy more of the map. The idea was to make weaseling less attractive, and prevent him from being able to "turn the corner" without turning into some oncoming torpedo or another. He planned for EPT ballet. Because neither ship has much in the way of direct-fire, neither of us has any particular range to deny or try to achieve; I expect us both to use our phasers mostly defensively although it doesn't really work out that way.

Turn 1. My plot was 4 housekeeping, 10 for five standard QWTs, a SS, two WWs, and a 16/31/26 plot for 23 moves. The idea with the SS was that the Romulan might try to run me over (as I have neither big midrange crunch nor a bunch of ph-3s) and an SS would be handy if that happened. His plot was 4 HK, an EPT, a rolled S, a WW, and a 29/27 plot for 28 moves. He burned all five batteries in EA. (Unless otherwise specified, we both recycled batteries for reserve warp each turn).

We approached and I started chucking out QWTs on impulse 14, which was range 14 (2106 for me, 2518 for him). I16 he turned F to cut in front of me, shortly before I sped up. I18 he launched his EPT while slipping away. I turned to E on I21, he turned to E on I22, so we could each run away from each other's torpedoes. I kept stringing out QWTs until I22 (possible because he had turned to cut in front of me). An exchange of phaser fire did 7 damage to me (5p1) and 6 to him (4p1, Paravian has lousy firing arcs). We both ran away from torpedoes and finished the turn with me in 1204A, him in 1121E, the EPT in 1206A, and the cloud of QWTs in and around 1316. I turned A on I32, which was questionable because it meant I would get hit by the EPT in the 21-23 bracket (20 strength) due to running out of map, but it would also keep me about six hexes closer to him for turn 2 with a better angle, so maybe not so bad.

Turn 2. I plotted 4 HK, 10 for five standard QWTs, the SS, 2 WW, 4 to recharge phasers, 2 to reinforce the damaged #6 shield, and a 27/14 plot for 17 moves (just enough to run the torp into the R21 bracket before slowing to turn around). He plotted 3 HK (no AFC), 2 to rearm his A tube, 2 to roll the B tube, 5 to recharge battery, 5 to recharge phasers, and a 28/27/14 plot for 21 moves. I didn't think he'd have a ton of power this turn, but the map position was such that there wasn't much I could do about it. I wasn't sure if he'd go slow and arm all his weapons, or go fast and just arm some of them. What he decided to do was go fast and not arm the plasma, which wasn't really what I expected, but in reality he didn't get a good firing position for the plasma this turn.

I turned right and eventually got hit by the EPT for 9 (-11 from phasers) leaving me at 29/29/23/22/22/23. He spent the first half of the turn running all the way down into the bottom left corner, eventually getting hit by three QWTs for total 7 damage, leaving him at 30/29/15/22/23/30. Then we turned around and closed on each other. We ended the turn with me in 1508E, him in 0225A, at which point I launched all five QWTs. I fired 2p1+2p3 at the EPT, and of course the QWTs; he didn't fire, ending the turn with full phasers and batteries.

Turn 3. I plotted 4 HK, 3 to phasers, 10 for five standard QWTs, the SS, 2 WW, and a 15/26/15/26 plot worth 20 moves. The idea with the plot was to go slow at first, to save power (since there was nothing much happening) and to let the torps get some separation, then speed up in case I needed to go fast for a good firing position, slow down to let the next round of torps get away, and then speed up to outrun the anticipated incoming plasma. I knew I had a while before I would have to run, as the initial range this turn was 24. I was prepared to use battery to cancel the second period of speed 15 if needed. He plotted 4 for HK, 2 for turn 2 of the A tube, 4 to complete the B tube as standard, 7 to reinforce shield 6, 2 to repair a box on shield 2, a WW, and a 14/26 plot worth 18 moves. Because of the angle, I was able to spread the QWTs out into a cloud, as is sometimes done with scatterpack drones. I was super happy with the QWT situation here because I had basically two complete waves stacked up and ready to go, and he did not have enough map to even run out the first wave, much less the second. I was half expecting him to stop and weasel or even cloak the QWT stack away, but I was baffled as to his power and did not know he had no weasel ready; he still could have cloaked, but it probably wouldn't have helped all that much, except that he'd be out of the corner.

He ended up turning to C and moving along the bottom edge of the map. I approached facing D, with some slips to C to keep the range open; I didn't want to close too fast and have to deal with plasma before I was ready, and I was thinking I might even be in position to fire near EOT and still be in position to fire again early in T4. On impulse 20, with me in 1919D and him in 0828C, I started chucking out more QWTs; 2 each on 20 and 22, and I spent 2 points of battery to overload the fifth one on impulse 25. On impulse 24, the QWTs from turn 2 started hitting; he was left with shields of 30/29/15/17/13/30 (including the reinforcement on shield 6). Although he had paid for AFC, he forgot to activate it until impulse 32. We ended with me in 1522D, him in 1829B, and QWTs in 1828, 1827, and 1927 (basically right in his face). Although I didn't plan it this way, I was thrilled with the position of the QWTs, as some of them were adjacent and would hit on impulse 1 before he could weasel, but others were farther away (even R2 was too far for him to effectively shoot given his inactive fire control), so no matter what he did, some QWTs would hit. Although his fire control was inactive, he did have a firing solution for a passive plasma launch, but didn't fire. If he had, I would have had to either HET to run away, or weasel. Range was 9.

Although it may not have looked on it on the SSDs, I feel like this was the critical turn because he failed to effectively deal with my QWTs. All the turn 2 QWTs hit him, and he was not in much better of a map position at the end of turn 3. He still had me and a bunch of QWTs bearing down on him.

Turn 4. With all his plasma hot, and ten QWTs coming in on him or about to, I am expecting him to launch an EPT to chase me off and then weasel or possibly weasel and then cloak. he just doesn't have enough room to maneuver and is not going to be able to outrun the QWTs. I seriously consider OL-and-weasel, but I don't want to OL my QWTs only to find that he cloaks, so I load standards and go fast. I arrange my plot so that, if his weasel gets blown up on i2, I'll be able to launch on i6 before running away (so he'll have to use two weasels, or cloak).

I plotted 4 HK, phasers already full, 10 for yet another round of five standard QWTs, held the stinking SS, two WW, a net of 2 to recharge battery, and a 15/30/15 move plot worth 21 hexes. Thought was to take three moves at speed 15 to turn (I turned on 3.32), then speed up and run from what seriously had to be some plasma coming real soon now. Then, slow down because power. I probably should have dropped the SS at this point. He plotted 4 HK, phasers full, 4 to arm tube A standard, 2 to hold tube B, 7 tractor, and 26/25/14 speed plot worth 21 moves.

Impulse 1 the first two QWTs hit him on shield 6. Impulse 2 he turned into the QWTs, taking the second two on shield 1 and the overload on shield 2, leaving him with shields of 19/21/14/17/11/20. I fired three QWTs, I didn't fire all 5 because I wasn't sure what he was going to do and I wanted the option of overloading the last two with battery if it seemed like a good idea. But as he was coming at me and slipping in, I decided that maybe I would need those batteries and fired the standards on impulse 4. Impulse 6 I was in 1423D, he was in 1725A. The first three QWTs from 4.2 hit him in the face, leaving him with 4/18/14/17/11/17 shields, and then I did 17 points of damage with 4p1 to his #6, reducing it to 0 but no internal damage. Impulse 7 I turned to 1324E, then he HET to 1625E and then my speed change to 30 kicked in. He fires 5p1, scoring 21 damage to my #5, leaving it at one box. Impulse 8, the last two QWTs hit him in shield #3, leaving him at 4/16/4/15/11/0. He bolts torp D at me, hitting my #5 for 10 (9 internals), knocking out 2p3, a QWT, five hull, and one warp. I don't use any reinforcement though my batteries are full. Impulse 9 I must go straight, he slips right, tractors me at R3. I quickly look at the impulse chart, realizing that we're probably both using impulse, so I'll drop to speed 14 and it just so happens that at speed 14 my turn mode would be satisfied and even better, speed 14 moves on impulse 10. So I let the tractor succeed. I'm also hoping that since he's grabbed me, he'll conclude I used my batteries up somehow and go ahead and launch (only for me to break the tractor on i10 and run off). He does not launch but I'm still able to turn to F on i10, turning away my down #5 shield.

Now, I realize that on impulse 11, speed 12 (that's his new pseudo-speed) is going to move, and his turn mode is satisfied too, same as mine. I realize if he launches on 10 and then turns to D on 11, I'm going to get hit by the torpedo for full damage on impulse 17 unless I ED and weasel. Well, if I wanted to weasel I would have just plotted it at the start of the turn, so I go ahead and break the tractor on impulse 10 (he used his battery to HET, and he has 7 allocated to tractor, so it only takes me 2 battery power to break it). This has the added benefit of leaving him stuck facing direction E, which will make it that much harder for him to close the range. His plasma firing solution is ruined, so he bolts both S's at me and chips in 2p3 for good measure. One bolt hits, 2 from phasers, total of 17 damage to my #4, leaving it at 5. At this point he concedes. He has only shield damage, but his #1, #6, and #3 shields are all shot and even the 2,4,5 are just over half (and he's about to get 2P1 in his #2 for about 8). He has only one plasma loaded, and it's an F that is pointing the opposite way.

It turns out that overload-and-weasel would have been the right thing to do on turn 4: He didn't have any weasels armed and he didn't cloak! I could have done much more damage and probably not taken any more myself. Of course, I had no way of knowing what was going to happen.

Tactically, I feel the key to the QWT is that, while it loses damage over range like plasma torpedoes, phaser fire is basically useless against QWTs at R22 and up. I mean, the phasers still work, but you have to do a lot of damage to the QWT to shoot it down, and you're not really better off with phasers compared to reinforcing. So against a plasma ship, you want longer-range engagements, where your phasers are effective against the plasma but he basically has to eat the QWTs. Overall, I feel like the QWT is a really fun weapon, having some attributes of plasma, drones, and the PPD. QWTs can be held, but I would consider it a misfortune if I ever had to actually do it, except if it was because my opponent cloaked. I also hear you can overload them, maybe I'll try that sometime.

The weakness of the Paravian ship is the substandard phaser battery, and lack of crunch power. However, if you can stack two QWT launches over a turn break, you will easily make up for that lack of crunch. Both games I've played involving a Paravian have been against the Firehawk, so I'd like to try other opponents before drawing final conclusions on how strong this ship is.

KZ said if we played this matchup again, he would be more aggressive and likely try to run over the Paravian. It makes some sense. The Paravian can only concentrate 50 damage (assuming full OLs), whereas a plasma ship can concentrate 100; of course the Paravian can do that every turn instead of just every three, so the whole turn break stack is important again.

By Matthew Potter (Neonpico) on Thursday, April 02, 2015 - 04:20 pm: Edit

On paper, the technique to fly the Paravian is to make him sweat through a stack of QWTs before getting his shot. This is because your QWTs are your best weapon (not enough phasers to really consider them an offensive weapon, except if facing a down shield). An obvious way to achieve this as an opening-game move is to duck into the corner, launch the torps late in the turn, followed by another stack early in the next turn.

On paper, the way to defeat the Paravian is to fly through his first stack and then take a good shot on him. He can't concentrate fire very well but those torps will haunt you the way drone swarms do. Phasers can weaken and kill the QWTs, but it takes so much damage to accomplish that it's pretty useless to do so, regardless of the fact that the ECM component of the QWT isn't being used in the tournament.

All in all, the Paravian *wants* to do the enveloper dance for several turns. But consider that in a knife-fight, the QWTs *will* take down a shield.

By Michael Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, April 03, 2015 - 07:12 am: Edit

I think I have said this before, but QWT are better than the equivalent Ftorp.

I would talke QWT instead of Ftorps in a second. Especially if I got to keep a S torp or two as a "crunch threat."

Perfect Pirate weapon IMHO. Enough crunch to punch a freighter shiels without too much internal damage. Recycles often. Lowish power cost.

By Matthew Potter (Neonpico) on Friday, April 03, 2015 - 08:01 am: Edit

It might be worth introducing these new ModC6 weapons into the tournament option mounts now. Per (FQ1.143), (E24.143), and (E23.143). (FD20.143) provides the precedent for using Death Bolts in option mounts, but I don't think the community has come to a consensus about how to treat them yet (much the same reason why nobody is mounting Vudar weapons)

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, April 03, 2015 - 04:29 pm: Edit

I think that there should be a line drawn between those Module C6 weapons which were presumed to be adoptable by the Orions (disruptor cannons and quantum wave torpedoes) and those considered to be restricted Carnivon technologies (death bolts and heel nippers). In my view, the former pair may be less of an issue than the latter duo.

-----

On another note, while the playtest data in CL50 may be liable to change between now and any would-be formal publication of the Zosman Marauders in a future SFB Omega module, perhaps the Zosmans may one day join the Jumokians and the M81 Pirates as a new potential "pirate" candidate faction for non-Alpha tournament play.

That said, there likely needs to be a fair bit of playtesting done or the proposed historical Zosman ships before anyone starts wondering about how, if ever, to work up a viable tournament cruiser for them...