Re: [Epic] Re:

From: Aaron P Teske <Mithramuse+_at_...>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 16:14:54 -0500 (EST)

Excerpts from Epic: 16-Jan-97 [Epic] Re: by Aaron P Teske_at_...
> Yo! (And I might just do some practice runs of my own, given a little
> time....)

Actually, since I don't want to work on homework right now (it's not due
'till Monday anyway), let's do a theoretical run. Take your standard
board setup, 120cm wide, and ignore the width for now. Deploy three
Reavers and two Colossi on opposite sides. For the sake of arguement,
we assume both players knew what was up here, and set themselves up
accordingly: the Colossi on their front line, the Reavers at the back of
their deployment zone, about 20cm apart.

Two Reavers have 1x Quake Cannon (1 shot, 100cm, 3+ to hit, -3 save mod)
+ 1x Volcano Cannon (1 shot, 100cm, 3+ to hit, -4 save mod) + 1x Gatling
Blaster (4 shots ea, 75 cm, 5+ to hit, -1 save mod). The third has 3x
Quake/Volcano Cannon. (If you want to arm them with one-shots, the
battle is either over very quickly or, if the Reavers are unlucky and
miss, very tight on the Reavers. Arming them all with 3x Volcano Cannon
also turns the balance more to the Reavers, but is a somewhat
"unrealistic" loadout IMO -- they have no even moderately effective
anti-infantry capability.) The Colossi, being Colossi, have 8x
battlecannon (75cm, 4+ to hit, -2 save), one Doomsday Cannon (long
range, d6+3 BPs, -3 save) and four missiles (100cm, 6 BPs (4+ to hit),
-1 save). We ignore the 50cm Thunderer and 15cm bolters.

Now then, the Squat have 25cm to cover, three turns of movement, before
their main guns -- the Battlecannon -- come into play. Before that,
they're likely to get only two hits a turn out of four shots/turn, one
missile each and one DoomsDay blast. If the Squats are quite lucky, the
receiving Titan doesn't recover any void shields and might actually die
on the third turn, but I doubt it; on the other hand, if the Squats are
*really* lucky they could hit with all four shots each turn and knock
out one Titan on the second turn and another on the third, leaving the
mopping up quite easy. However, that's ignoring the Reaver's fire....

Now then, the three Reavers have seven Quake/Volcano Cannon between
them, which is seven 3+ shots each turn. 7 * (4/6) = 4.67 hits a turn,
so in the first two turns (when all three reavers *will* get to fire)
they'll get an average of 9-10 hits. Since the odds favor one, maybe
two shields regenerating, all those will go onto one Colossus, which is
very likely to die. (5+ saves, if you fire the guns intelligently.)
Then it's one unwounded Colossus vs. three Reavers, one of which is
likely at 1-2 void shields. Then the Gatling blasters open up, possibly
dropping multiple void shields, which makes the work of the Q/V Cannons
much easier.

If the Reavers have all Quake & Volcano Cannon, one Colossus is dead at
the end of the second turn, and the other is likely down some shields --
an even worse situation. The possibilities of one-shots aren't really
worth commenting on, though if all the one-shots miss the Reavers are
down significantly in terms of firepower. (Which is why I don't like
one-shots to begin with....)

Refutations?
                    Aaron Teske
                    Mithramuse+_at_...
                    Squat Leader, Den'Len Fetch
Received on Thu Jan 16 1997 - 21:14:54 UTC