Tzeentch and Group,
More comments from that opinionated Warprat guy!
Well there are some points we should kep in mind when screwing with VSGs
1) Powerfields. Already the poor redheaded stepchildren of "real"
shields they get even lamer if we bump up VSG regeneration.
Powerfields redheaded stepchildren? I don't think so. I would gladly
trade Shields on Imperial Titans for twice the amount of Gargant
Powerfields.
2) Firepower sponge: The intent of the change is to reduce "first turn
kills" or ablating the shields easily with crap shots then blasting it
with a volcano/defense laser. But making the shields recharge too ft can
mean if you're lucky the damn things just have ALL the shields pop back
up and the other player is SOL.
Yes, this is the way to kill titans. Bast the shields with +1 shots,
then finish off with the big guns. But once the shields go down, even
+0 shots can hurt titans, just aim for the less armored areas. I agree
that if shield regeneration is too fast, then the game would be
seriously unballanced. My feeling is that a 3+ regen. would not be too
much however. Consider the following information I found at:
(Thankyou, Lorenzo, for posting your Personal Page)
http://www.gol.grosseto.it/istanze/tabletoys/epic/etitstat.html
Sean Smith has a web page with some very interesting comparisons. Here
is a quick comparison of titan toughness vs. various weapons. These are
the average amount of shots needed to disable a titan.
+1 SHOTS +2 SHOTS +3 SHOTS +2 BARRAGE +3 BARRAGE
Warhound 19.0 13.3 4.7 13.3 10.5
Reaver 33.4 23.6 6.4 23.6 18.7
Warlord 14.8 11.9 8.4 11.9 10.4
Imperator 255.0 93.0 20.1 93.0 52.5
Phantom 64.4 32.4 10.8 10.8 7.6
(number needed to damage wings) 3.4 2.7
Slasher Gargant 40.5 27.0 5.4 27.0 20.3
Great Gargant 40.5 30.5 10.8 30.5 24.3
The Warlord is in serious trouble, but all the Imperial Titans don't
compare that well to the Gargants (Except for the Reaver). Phantoms
have trouble with barrages,but that is ballanced for the most part, by
thier incredable defence vs. direct fire.
Looking at this data, it's my feeling that the +1 to Warlord Reactor, +3
regen. is the best way to address the weaknesses. The Eldar titans
normally have a repair rate of 4+. Considering the Eldar weakness to
barrage weapons, a 3+ repair rate would not be unreasonable. Perhaps,
the Reaver will need to be a little more expensive, maybe.
3) Power imbalance: Increasing their abilitiy to drastically in this way
would SEVERELY affect their actual point values. If 3+ to regen shields
you almost FORCE your opponent to buy special equipment to take out the
Titan. And the poor Eldar are really screwed when facing Imperials!
I think the table, above, shows that Eldar do have a weakness vs.
barrage weapons. But the 3+ repair would help them out a bit when the
barrage weapons do actually hit.
One problem with giving shields a saving throw is that it adds even MORE
dice rolling to the game, PLUS you have the issue to allow regeneration
of VSGs on top of that (and since its canon its hard to just ditch).
I agree with this. Lets keep things as simple as possible. Besides, I
prefer regeneration vs. saving throws, because it gives Titans a more
heroic nature. It's much more exciting to see a titan recover from a
mortal wound, than simply see one avoid taking damage.
One idea (since I love to rip off AT) is a new Titan order called
"Repair". The Titan can't move or fire BUT he gets a +1 to ALL repair
rolls at the end of the turn. For VSGs we could say the repair TN starts
at 3+ if on Repair orders and 4+ if not. (Obviously they don't get the
+1 bonus for VSG repair).
Gargants and Eldar titans could have the same thing (in the case of orks
it represents everyone running around tightening bolts and pissing on
the fires and the eldar probably do some sort of spiritbone healing
thing).
This is not a bad idea. But in a two-four turn game, I would almost
never use it. Chances are, my titan has already been destroyed by the
time I would get to roll for repair in the End Phase of the Repair turn.
Well, OK, I've said a bunch of stuff. What ever solution is used,
I just want solutions to address the weaknesses in the current system
and be simple to use. I've tried to back up my opinions with real data.
Let me know what you think!
Warprat ;)
Received on Fri Feb 18 2000 - 07:11:51 UTC