Dennis and I finally had a chance to do a Nico playtest. I took a Nico CL and he took a Klingon D5. I won't give the whole history, as it took 8 turns, and at least 3 hours to play. But here are some major points

We started off the usual way, across the map, and came at each other. He launched a scatter pack, which I managed to take out with a TB. I tried to keep my distance until his scatter packs were gone. Meanwhile, I fired as many missiles as I could at him, and he keep on hitting me with Disruptors at a distance. He launched another scatter pack, and I managed to kill all of the drones with my phasers. He then fired two more drones at me, which I tried to avoid, but came to the edge of the map. I grabbed one with the tractor beam. However, this time I made a mistake in my EAF, which allowed both drones to hit. They did only 10 points of internals, but he got lucky and knocked out an SA, a missile launcher, a phaser and 2 warp engines. The next turn we came at each other and I hit him with 3 overloaded SAs, which almost burned through his number 6 shield. If all four had been working, it probably would have had. Meanwhile he rolled really badly with his disruptors. Later on, he also had a really bad turn with disruptor rolls.

The game went on, and a couple of turns later we came at each other again. This time with 3 SAs, and 3 phaser ones, I broke through shield number 2, and caused 1 or two internals. His Disruptors cut through my number 1 shield, and cause quite a few internals. At this point I disengaged.

During the game, I fired 25 missiles at him, one of which, and that on a shield on the opposite side of the ship where I needed a hit. He used 23 drones, two of which hit, which wouldn't have had on an open map, and one of which because I made a mistake.

This doesn't mean that the missiles were useless, as they sucked up a lot of his phaser fire and some drones. But they cannot be depended upon to hit.

We used my new SA table, and the phaser Ps were phaser ones instead of twos. As it was, if I had not lost the one SA I might have caused a fair amount of internal damage. On the old table, I would have only got through half of the two shields.

Luck wise, Dennis had two bad turns with the disruptors, which sort of made up for the mistake I made with the EAF. On the other hand, as far as damage caused by the hits goes, he did quite well, taking out weapons and power first. My luck was so so.

Dennis thinks that we are there, as far as getting the Nicos to be competitive on a closed map. I am not quite sure that we are there, but if not, we are close.

If there would be any more rule changes, I would say that the 10 frame missiles cost 1/2 a point, the 20 frame ones cost one point, and let the Nico decide what he wants, and pay for it.

Another thought is letting the SAs score an internal before burning through the whole shield. E.g., say if they scored 15 damage points on a shield, the next one would be scored as an internal two points. Sort of similar to the Andros and the disruptor leak points. Just a thought.

It was an epic game, and I think that both of us were brain dead by the time it was over. It is also hard to remember all of the rules when one doesn't play very often.

We'll try again sometime in the not too distant future.

Question: if a shield is hit by both SA and phaser fire and there are internals, could the phaser fire be used first to knock down the shield, so that the SAs with their doubled (on my table) damage with internals be maximized?

By Dennis Surdu (Aegis) on Sunday, November 16, 2014 - 08:13 pm: Edit

Yes, fun game indeed. I think with the rules that have been modified by Steve the Nicos pretty much can go toe-to-toe with the alphas in ship-on-ship duels. I guess it is debatable if the flavor of the original weapons rules have been compromised, but I think the Nicos needed it since the original rules seemed to work perhaps mainly in fleet games or under special circumstances.

By Stephen Parrish (Steveparrish) on Saturday, January 31, 2015 - 06:27 pm: Edit

SPP: I have a question about the Space Augers. Suppose that a Nico ship is firing at a shield with both phasers and SAs. Neither has enough hits to go through the shield, but together they do. Can the Nico player use the phaser fire to weaken the shield and then apply the SA hits, so as to maximize the amount of damage against the now unshielded target?

Sorry if this has been answered before.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, February 02, 2015 - 01:53 pm: Edit

Stephen Parrish:

The rules for the subspace auger only provide that their damage is resolved as a separate volley. There is nothing in the rules that provides that their damage is resolved before, or after, other weapons fire, to include the Annex #2 extract in the book. This would nominally be a case where I would want to go back to the designer.

However, I am going to rule that subspace auger damage is applied after all other direct-fire damage in the direct-fire damage step. Thus you announce what weapons you are firing. You then roll for the phasers, recording any damage they score, then you roll for the subspace augers, recording any that actually hit the target and recording their damage. Then you apply the phaser damage, then you apply the subspace auger damage.

By Stephen Parrish (Steveparrish) on Monday, February 02, 2015 - 04:07 pm: Edit

SPP: Thanks.

By Dennis Surdu (Aegis) on Monday, February 02, 2015 - 08:21 pm: Edit

SPP, assuming the phaser volley is not enough to down the shield, is the SA damage still trippled, even if some of it hit the aforementioned shield?

By Stephen Parrish (Steveparrish) on Monday, February 02, 2015 - 09:11 pm: Edit

SPP: I have another question. Suppose that an anti-shield (AS) missile and an explosive missile hit a shield at the same time. Suppose the shield has a strength of 16. If the AS missile hits first, the shield is knocked down, and he explosive missile can do 8 points of internal. If, on the other hand, the explosive missile hits first, it will do 8 points of damage to the shield, the AS missile will wipe out the remaining strength points, but do no internal damage.

The question is, what order should the damage be done in?

Thanks again.

By Stephen Parrish (Steveparrish) on Tuesday, February 03, 2015 - 10:04 am: Edit

SPP: Dennis my co-conspirator has a concern. He wants to know if when both say, phasers and SAs hit a shield at the same time, and knock it down, if the SAs still get their tripling with internal damage, as opposed to getting tripling only with an already down shield--down before the SAs fire at it.

Thanks

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, February 03, 2015 - 11:59 am: Edit

Dennis Surdu asked on Monday, February 02, 2015: Assuming the phaser volley is not enough to down the shield, is the subspace auger damage still trippled, even if some of it hit the aforementioned shield?

ANSWER: See (E109.331).

Stephen Parrish asked on Monday, February 02, 2015: I have another question. Suppose that an anti-shield missile and an explosive missile hit a shield at the same time. Suppose the shield has a strength of 16. If the anti-shield missile hits first, the shield is knocked down, and the explosive missile can do eight points of internal damage. If, on the other hand, the explosive missile hits first, it will do eight points of damage to the shield, the anti-shield missile will wipe out the remaining strength points, but do no internal damage. The question is, what order should the damage be done in?

ANSWER: See (FD94.13).

Stephen Parrish asked on Tuesday, February 03, 2015: Dennis my co-conspirator has a concern. He wants to know if when both say, phasers and subspace augers hit a shield at the same time, and knock it down, if the subspace augers still get their tripling with internal damage, as opposed to getting tripling only with an already down shield--down before the subspace augers fire at it.

ANSWER: See (E109.331) once more.

By Stephen Parrish (Steveparrish) on Tuesday, February 03, 2015 - 04:32 pm: Edit

Thanks again.

By Stephen Parrish (Steveparrish) on Tuesday, February 03, 2015 - 04:38 pm: Edit

I don't know how I missed FD94.13--brain lock of some sorts.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, February 03, 2015 - 05:36 pm: Edit

Stephen Parrish:

Human, all of us, thus error happens.

"Let he who is without error cast the first rulebook,"

By Stephen Parrish (Steveparrish) on Sunday, February 08, 2015 - 02:19 pm: Edit

We played a couple more duels, with a Nico CA versus a Hydran Iroquois NCA. I won't tell the details, but the first was draw, and the second a loss, except that we made a mistake in the rules. That might well be called a draw too.

With the rule changes we made I think that the Nicos are ready,to fight the Alphas. I did make one more change, so that the Nicos can hold overloads, for 2 points. Dennis thinks that we may have gone too far, and that they are now too strong. I think they are just about right.

All the changes that I made are entirely unofficial and unapproved. All that I can say is that after playing about 15 games, the Nicos have a chance to win on a closed map with the changes, while with the official rules, they don't. At least, I couldn't make them win, or even come close.

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Friday, March 17, 2017 - 11:44 pm: Edit

Battle Group Toronto playtest match:

NICOZIAN PLAYTEST
February 16, 2017

Thanks Gregg for the detailed write up.

Gregg Henry flew a Romulan Saberhawk heavy war destroyer with no options of any type, no cloak, but sabots on both plasma-Fs. 102 BPV

Kosta Michalopoulos flew a Federation war destroyer leader, drone rack loaded with type VIs going speed 32. 101 BPV

Nick Samaras flew a Nicozian heavy cruiser, 160/140 BPV with 8 anti-shield missiles speed-10 (+4 BPV), 8, anti-shield missiles speed-20 (+8 BPV), 8 explosive missiles speed-10 (+4 BPV), 8 explosive missiles speed-20
(+8 BPV), and 4 warp field distortion mines (+16). Total combat BPV 180.
Nick declares he will only be using anti-shield and explosive missiles.

“Fixed” map with location map with bouy in 2215 to make a 2x2 map area.

Approximate beginning positions:
Romulan SBH hex 4201E
Federation DWC hex 4230F
Nicozian CA hex 0115C

For this scenario Gregg and Kosta are allied.

Turn 1 Starting speed, ECM/ECCM:
Romulan speed 28, EW 6/0.
Federation speed 16, EW 0+4/1 (+4 from Erratic Maneuvering).
Nicozian speed 15 (non-skip), EW 12/0 (6 normal + 6 from scout channel).

All ships closed towards the center for the first 16 impulses.

1.16 ROM -> 26, FED -> 17 (-> denotes declares a speed change which takes effect next impulse).
1.20 NIC launched 2 missiles from RS launchers, speed 10 skip.
1.24 NIC launched 2 missiles from LS launchers, speed 10 skip.
1.27 NIC begins skip warp.
1.28 ROM launches Plasma Red from tube A, pseudo.
1.32 ROM increases ECCM to 2 to counter NIC missile inherent +2 ECM.
1.32 ROM labs two missiles off #1 shield. They are anti-shield. Considers lowering shield to negate
effectiveness but NIC CA is barely still on #1 shield.
1.32 ROM fires on incoming drones, range 1, 1 phaer-3 and 1 phaser-1 downgraded to phaser-3 on each
drone. All destroyed.

At the end of turn 1 the Nicozian was around 8 hexes away from the Romulan and 14 from the Federation.

Turn 2 Starting speed, ECM/ECCM:
Romulan speed 30, EW 1/0
Federation speed 27, EW 0/1 (FED has ceased erratic maneuvers)
Nicozian speed 15 skip, EW 9/3 (+6 ECM sensor channel)

2.1 NIC launches 2x missiles speed 20 skip.
2.3 NIC launches 2x missiles speed 20 skip.
2.3 ROM tractors missile A, range 1, facing B.
2.8 ROM boosts ECCM by 2.
2.8 ROM uses LS phaser-3s to destroy missile, range 1.
2.10 ROM labs missile off #4 shield, is anti-shield drone.
2.10 ROM lowers its #4 shield.
2.11 ROM Plasma Red dies, not revealed if pseudo.
2.14 ROM launches Plasma Orange, rack A, real.
2.14 anti-shield missile hits facing #4, has no effect.
2.15 ROM labs second missile, fails to ID.
2.15 ROM fires Ph1s 1,2 as phaser-3 at drone off .
2.16 ROM -> 29.
2.16 NIC drops #1 shield, transports warp field distortion mine. Romulan had a shot on #1 shield but at
current range couldn't get past the armor.
2.18 Warp mine takes effect. ROM shield #4 back up.
2.19 The warp mine pulls both the NIC and Plasma Orange one hex closer, Plasma Orange impacts shield
#6, full 20 damage. NIC reinforces with 1 point, leaving 1 point of shield.
2.19 FED ups ECCM to 2, fires 2 standard photons, 1 full overload and phasers range 4. One standard
photon hits, total of 23 damage. Drops #3 shield, no internals.
2.20 ROM kills tractored missile with 2x RS phaser-3 .
2.22 ROM fires 1 Ph1 (#7), +2 ECM shift, 5 range on NIC shield #6, shield down.
(I did this so he could not reinforce it next turn).
2.32 ROM launches Plasma Green, B rack, Real.

We floated the map at the end of the turn ten down and ten left.
The Nicozian had both enemy ships on the same side, towards the center of the table.

Turn 3 Starting speed, ECM/ECCM:
ROM speed 24, EW 4/0
FED speed 14, EW 0/0 (Passive Fire Control)
NIC speed 16 skip, EW 11/0 (+5 ECM sensor channel)

3.7 ROM increases ECCM by 2 (this is so Plasma Green would have a better chance to do full damage).
3.7 NIC fires 4x forward Phaser-Ps as 1 pulse Phaser-3 at Plasma, doing 13 damage.
3.8 Plasma Green impacts ?#2? shield, doing (15-6.5) 9 damage.
3.22 FED activates Fire Control.
3.24 ROM tractors FED. Both ships are in the same hex moving in the same direction. I figured it would be
better to have all our phasers available to shoot down missiles.
3.28 NIC launches 2x missiles, speed 20 skip.
3.29 FED launches a drone (type VI, aimed at a missile)
3.30 NIC shoots down FED drone with 2x Phaser-P as Phaser-3s. This blinds his sensor channel, he is now
a 6/0.
3.31 ROM fires 4x Ph3s at 2 missiles, kills both.
3.31 FED fires 1x Phaser-1, 1x Phaser-3 on two missiles (necessary since he didn't have power for ECCM).
3.32 ROM increases ECCM by 1 to 3 points. Fires 2x Phaser-1s r2? at NIC, doing 8 damage to shields.

Turn three ends with the FED and ROM in the same hex heading C, with the NIC two hexes directly behind with the same heading.

The FED was scheduled to move on 3.32 but had its movement deferred to 4.1 due to the tractor.


Turn 4
We didn't do Energy Forms for turn 4 due to time, so we discussed what we would do. The ROM would maintain tractor for the 1st impulse to allow the FED to move, then release the tractor immediately after to allow the FED to fire. The FED would HET and alpha strike with 3x Overloaded Photons and various phasers at range 1. Fed would do 48 photon and 15 phaser damage, causing 41 internals on the NIC. The NIC would fire back with all phasers and subspace augurs, in addition to the 12 feedback the FED would take. The FED would receive 63 internals and be destroyed. The NIC declared his intention to disengage due to damage.

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Friday, March 17, 2017 - 11:46 pm: Edit

OBSERVATIONS

These are provided by Kosta with thoughts from the group.

Unintended consequences: the 12 feedback damage from my Fed’s overloaded photons translated into 18 net additional internal damage to my ship, considering the effects of the subspace auger. BAD! Had I realized this beforehand, I may have done things differently, but I don’t think it would have stopped the Nico from gutting the Fed, at the very least. Without the feedback, the Nico would still do 45 internals (instead of 63), enough to leave the Fed a hulk. Therefore, I still would have sacrificed the Fed to give Gregg’s Rom a fighting chance.

The subspace auger may appear weak at first, but it is actually very powerful. I think the effect of tripling the damage that penetrates shields is too much. Perhaps double? It’s ability to do small but steady damage at long range makes it an interesting weapon. It is relatively unhindered by any ECM shifts. It becomes highly effective in combination with the Nico’s other abilities (high speed, lots of available power, EW advantage, collapsium armour) for a patient player willing to play a long game.

Skip warp seems reasonably balanced. It has its advantages (high speed) and disadvantages (no HET, restricted maneuverability). The ability to move two hexes on one impulse is offset by not being able to move consecutive impulses. Nick missed the chance to allow a 1-point plasma in an adjacent hex to hit his ship and find out if it was real or not because next impulse he had to move twice and the plasma died.

Skip warp missiles soak up a LOT of phasers, generally needing 2 phaser-3s per missile to guarantee a kill, even without armour modules. That requires 8 shots to take out the four missiles that the Nico CA can put out each turn, which is excessive in my opinion. And you generally have to fire all 8 shots on a single impulse or risk a missile getting through. Other than a Hydran, who can do that on an ongoing basis? Drone users will be able to take out the missiles, but that would restrict the offensive ability of their drones. The skip-40 version of the missiles is impossible to outrun, and dropping mines is of limited effectiveness, as the missiles can skip right past them unless properly placed. You will also quickly run out of mines, while there are still oodles of missiles to come. They become even more of a nightmare if the Nico launches two waves close together (i.e. 4 on impulse 24 of turn 1 and another 4 on impulse 1 of turn 2). On the other hand, we discovered the tactic of using labs to identify the type of missile, and dropping a shield (not facing the Nico ship) if they are anti-shield types, letting them hit for no damage. The 8 missiles per rack (with 8 more as reloads) seems excessive. Perhaps reduce the rack size to 4 or 6?

Collapsium armour is a nightmare for any ship without huge direct-fire crunch power. Seeking weapons (unless you have plasma sabot) will struggle to catch a Nico ship. And even if they do, the combination of a seeking weapon hit that penetrates the shield, followed by phaser fire through that shields is reduced twice by the available collapsium armour. A PPD at range is next to useless: after the first pulse hits, the Nico can drop its facing shields and let the collapsium armour absorb the damage. Disruptors are disadvantaged since they do small amounts of damage every turn, as compared to a photon that does a large amount every other turn. The effectiveness of collapsium armour needs to be reduced in some way, perhaps by having it degrade with a certain level of penetrating damage. Nick adds: Perhaps a leak function similar to the Andromedan? Or reduce the number of armor boxes?

Available power: The Nico has a LOT of available power in impulse and reactors, even if using all of its warp for movement. The Nico CA can arm and fire all of its subspace augers and pay for housekeeping from impulse/reactors alone. Or it can play a very effective EW game with its special sensors on those turns it is not arming/firing the augers. An opponent will struggle to arm weapons while moving at high speed to close with a Nico, so the Nico will be able to set the pace of the battle. The impulse/reactor power needs to be reduced somewhat.

The Nicozian’s unique combination of systems makes it a frustrating opponent to fight. The long range effectiveness of the subspace auger, combined with the ability to move at skip-32, rely on an EW advantage, and launch missiles the opponents need to deal with in some way, means any opponent is swimming upstream to catch and fight them. And even if an opponent does get close, the collapsium armour absorbs a significant amount of damage from any ship not able to deliver huge crunch power, while the augers may very well do an inordinate amount of damage through a down shield.

By Stephen Parrish (Steveparrish) on Saturday, March 25, 2017 - 08:08 pm: Edit

Thanks for the report.

We haven't played the Nicos in quite a while. I'm glad to see that others are still testing them.

The missiles are the normal way for the Nicos to win. Knock down a shield on a side facing the SAs, and this opens the door to winning. There are ways to avoid them: Phasers, drones, tractors, mines, and fancy maneuvering. The more phasers an opponent has compared to missiles, the better they will do. This means that some classes of ships may do better against the Nicos than others. Cruisers may do better than smaller ships. Overall, we have not found the Nico missiles impossible to beat.

On an open map the Nicos have an advantage: The SAs have a long range, and the collapsium armor makes them almost invincible to sniping. On a closed map, things are not as favorable.

The Nicos may do better against "dancer" races, than "crunch" races. Again, on a closed map against crunch races they have a problem.

The collapsium armor has no down side. It is the Nico's biggest advantage. Perhaps it could be weakened some: I would hate to lose it entirely though, it is part of the Nicos "flavor."

Trying to the make the Nicos balanced against everyone on both open and closed maps is a challenge, especially if one does not want to lose the flavor of the race. I proposed a revised SA table that significantly lowered the SAs range. Also, the SA against non-shields was lowered from triple to double damage. To counter this, I proposed an overload function for the SA. It did about the same amount of damage at close range as the normal tripling, but took more power. This weakened the Nicos at long range, but enabled them to stand up to crunch races without necessarily their missiles having to hit.

I wonder if you would try a FED CB against the Nico CA. especially on a closed map? We found it almost impossible for the Nicos to win against the FED CB on a closed map

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Saturday, March 25, 2017 - 08:58 pm: Edit

I wouldn't them to lose the armour either (or anything else) as I like the differences they provide. I was thinking a slight reduction on the number of boxes perhaps.

By Stephen Parrish (Steveparrish) on Saturday, March 25, 2017 - 09:04 pm: Edit

Yes, a slight reduction in boxes may be in order, though I was trying to make the minimum changes to the SSD. What do you think of our other ideas?

By Stephen Parrish (Steveparrish) on Thursday, April 27, 2017 - 08:54 pm: Edit

For the CA, how about reducing the number of front armor boxes from 10 to 6, and the number of rear armor boxes from 6 to 4? In return, the number of shield boxes in 1, 2 and 6 would each be increased by 4, and the number of boxes in shields number 3, 4, and 5 would be increased by 2. This way the flavor of the Nico armor isn't lost, but just reduced. This would make sniping the Nicos plausible.

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Friday, April 28, 2017 - 09:59 pm: Edit

Stephen sorry for the late reply. That is an idea worth trying perhaps when my group will try them again.

By Kosta Michalopoulos (Kosmic) on Saturday, April 29, 2017 - 01:02 am: Edit

As Nick suggests, we'll give it a try and see how it works out. But I suspect something more will need to be done, particularly if we want to provide some balance against non-crunch power opponents, like the ISC. Because of the way PPDs work, plinking away with small amounts of damage over multiple impulses, they are effectively useless against the Nicozians. To a lesser extent, this issue also applies to disruptors.

In some ways the Nicozians remind me of the original Andromedans, before the rules were changed to introduced degradation and leaking of PA panels, and the special damage done by disruptors. Something like that may need to be considered for the Nicozians.

By Stephen Parrish (Steveparrish) on Saturday, April 29, 2017 - 06:10 pm: Edit

In the revised SA table I wrote (somewhere in this section a couple of years ago), I seriously reduced its range, besides giving it an overload function at close range. The reduced range of the SA should help the Nico's enemies. I would like to try all of this myself, but haven't had a chance to play SFB in months.

By David Schultz (Ikvavenger) on Sunday, March 24, 2019 - 10:27 am: Edit

Has anything else been planned for the Nico's? More ships? Refits? Changes or modifications?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, March 28, 2019 - 02:10 pm: Edit

There is enough at this point that I am probably going to adopt the revision on the design of Nicozian ships (reducing the armor and strengthening the shields), and take a look at modifying the heavy weapon.

By Stephen E Parrish (Steveparrish) on Thursday, May 21, 2020 - 04:27 pm: Edit

Is anyone play testing the Nicos now?