Lances were made much more expensive, and a simple fleet restriction was put in place so that lances cannot become the predominant strike cruiser armament. This allows players who want to use lances to have them available without allowing it to become overpowering or change the flavor of the fleet.
The very fact that lances are now included, even if expensive, in a fleet which virtually had none before IS changing the flavor. You're even deviating greatly from the fluff in Armada. And no matter how expensive you make it, 6+ armored ships with lances can easily result to overpowering.
We also took on board some of the fan list suggestions to create a “Devastator†(?) strike cruiser, though we did not go with the one with larger launch bays because the SM’s with their resilient ordnance is already an attack-craft heavy fleet.
Easy enough to fix:
lower the TH strength in what is essentially a Light Cruiser to Str 1.You actually think an FP9 BC firing in the front arc is good? Really? Even assuming I take 2 regular SCs to 1 with FP9 BCs, that's a total of FP15 BCs hitting and critting on 4+. Right. Somehow, I find it very strange how you can agree to this and not agree to a carrier variant.
The Seditio Opprimere was included primarily because there are more fans that want it than those that hate it, regardless of how vocal the ones that hate it wish to be, how many statistics or references one wishes to make toward the contrary, whatever. We did however tone down the profile a LOT because frankly the original profile was grotesque. A fleet can only have one, having one replaces one of the three regular battle barges allowed in the fleet, and the Seditio Opprimere isn’t even all that great a lance battleship. If one really wanted to be a lance hog, they can select an Apocalypse battleship as the venerable battlebarge for far less points and actually have a more powerful lance broadside. Once again, if you don’t like it, don’t use it.
I have never seen the situation where more fans want it than those who hate it. The SO was only one such ship if I am not mistaken and now every SM fleet can have one? Even if you did tone things down as you say. It's still as effective as a Desolator and cheaper to take in a fleet since one doesn't have the 3 cruiser:1 battleship requirement.
Again, who would take the vanilla Battlebarge instead of this ship, even toned down?
Even assuming my suggestion of limiting the VBB to non-lance heavy battleships, you actually think the Apocalypse is better? The Apoc is NOT a great lance battleship. It's a Spd 15 ship with Armor 5 in the rear. Put a BM on it and see it suffer. Then put some ships behind it and blast away accordingly. That's how problematic the Apocalypse can be compared to the SO. The Apoc is basically a 30 cm lance heavy battleship with the option to fire long but suffers if it does so. The Apoc comes out to 400 points. Just 50 points shy of the SO. Not that much different. The difference is an escort.
And much as you don't like the statistics, that's the only way we can justify not allowing this ship on the table.
Lastly, it's not a question of my not using it because I don't like it. It's a question of my opponent likes it and since you made it legal, will play with it, no matter how much I don't like it. Heck, I'd like it, much more than the Apocalypse even if it is 50 more points. Heck I get ordnance to boot.
It was the intent of the game designers to create this expansion, which is what we tried to remain faithful to without incorporating what was broken. Please keep in mind that once again not everyone is going to be happy with what is here. Also keep in mind that THIS IS A GAME INTENDED FOR FUN. We're not trying to balance the budget or affect health-care with this rule set so please keep the vitriol and "I hate everything about this, the game designers and the color purple" to a minimum. Remember that since this is a game, one does NOT need to use these rules. Thanks!
Not everyone is going to be happy with it but if you hadn't included the SO and lance armed SCs, more people will be happier. How are those inclusions being faithful? What is to stop me from making a list with the SO (450), 4 vanilla SCs (580) and 2 Str 2 lance armed SCs (330), 2 Firestorms (90) and Master of the Fleet (50) at 1500 points? I remove the SO and 1 Firestorm and I have a 1000 point 6 ship squadron and 1 Escort or 2 Re-rolls.
The DRAFT update can be seen and downloaded here:
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0Bw_dULEfC3rbYzUyNjQzZTAtMDZiMS00ZjRlLWJjNzMtYTE5YmNjZjdjODQ1&hl=en
Did I mention this is a DRAFT???
- Nate
Yeah and we hope it stays that way, a Draft.