Thanks for putting the idea on the table for consideration!
Regarding terminators, why would I take them on a ship that I am trying to keep away from enemy ships? And when it does get close, the Despoiler winds up crippled anway. What good are they to the Despoiler as it is now?
I'm not arguing for a relocation of the bays. I like how Horizon's stats reflect the appearance of the model. It honestly did bug me that there was a huge launch bay in the front not mentioned or reflected in the rules. So, as far as I'm concerned, Horizon's weapons stats should stay, regardless of how criticals work. My reason for mentioning them was that you were saying that it's better than the emperor and that with 5cm speed it could make it perfect for it's attack role. My response was simply to show you that there were several disadvantages to taking a Despoiler compared to an Emperor. Adding 5cm won't make it flawless.
The old Despoiler functions miserably as a support ship. It's an attack carrier through and through. However, the new stats fundamentally change how the ship works. It's not suited for headlong line-breaking charges anymore. 7 lances forward sent a clear message: Get out of my way! On approach it could get aggressive and cripple enemy ships in the front arc and leverage it's assault bays. When partnered with some Murders, Styx and Hades (and to some degree an Acheron) you could construct a very effective line breaker formation that could punch it's way through planetary defenses and start landing marines. At 400 pts the Despoiler held it's own and 20cm didn't really matter since the more turns it took you to advance the more lance shots you got and the lances ignored blast markers.
Try to do that with a Despoiler now with only 3 lances and most of it's firepower on the sides. If you try to run straight for the planet, the Despoiler becomes a load that needs to be carried, a very expensive and ponderous load. 20cm now is a detriment because it will take much longer to reach the target. Of course, you can always stick to the same strategy that an Emperor would and take the long way around the planet while trying to clear away defenses with long range fire, but as you can't CTNH you aren't going to ever get to the planet. Considering that it's the ship that you need to get to the planet to land troops, I doubt many will use it in the "support ship" role you want it in. I'm surprised you didn't catch this when you changed the proflie.
Even though the firepower and bays are equal to the Emperor, I don't think that the Despoiler fits that role well as there aren't any 6+ prows or torpedo salvoes to keep an enemy from AAFing beind the Chaos battle line and striking directly at the Despoiler. You try that against Imperials or Orks and youre getting rammed, boarded or torpedoed to death.
On that note, the Despoiler was the only attack carrier that Chaos had as the Devestations and Styx are obviously fleet support. Now Chaos doesn't have a battleship capable of line breaking either. They are all fleet support.
Whenever they added the Gaerox Perogative fluff, it doesn't really matter. Cannon says that the Despoiler is a battle barge. In the 13th Crusade list, it is actually used as a battle barge. I would agree that game mechanics are key. I wouldn't make an invincible ship just to stay in line with fulff. But I would also agree that you don't just override GW fluff because your game mechanic doesn't fit their fluff. Despoiler is a battle barge. It performed that role well with it's old configuration. I like the new configuration as it reflects the model, but the ship still needs to function as a battle barge and an attack carrier both to stay in line with the fluff and allow the rest of the Chaos fleet to function as it should.
Thing is, there is an easy change that allows us to keep Horizon's profile and let the Despoiler function as the battle barge attack carrier it was always intended. Add 5cm of movement. The speed will help compensate for it's lack of forward firepower as a line breaker and will allow it to keep up with the rest of the chaos fleet when fulfilling an attack carrier role. Yes, it will require some more strategy than before, but 5cm will suffice without drastically changing the ship.
IF you acknowledge that the Despoiler is now a disruption to the Chaos strategy, I'd rather see points stay the same and the speed raised. Even for 20pts less, the Chaos fleet still doesn't have an aggressive BB or an assault carrier. My issue isn't with the cost of the ship, its with the fact that the slower speed offers up 1/3 of your fleets points as a sacrifice in any of the Chaos fleet's strategies.
