So having done some playtesting with the new ork changes and I have some revised feedback based off of it.
1. I can say that giving the Slaughter class Gunship's Zzapp Guns Str 2 is REALLY powerful. As in TOO powerful. The previous version with only a Firepower 1 Zzapp gun was too weak, but now its damage output is REALLY high compared with that of the Lance escorts of other races. I again recommend that we change it to have Str 1 Zzapp Gunz and Firepower 2 Gunz, that brings it into line with the equivalent vessels of other races. Especially with the points cost decrease to escorts each opponent I've played has been floored by the damage they can put out now.
As far as Zzapp Gunz on capital ships I again have been finding that they are a bit too potent now, so I'd recommend that we go back to the previous lower firepower value (Though the Slamblasta should still be higher.).
2. The free ship from Mob Rule is redundant and should be eliminated. By decreasing the points cost for escorts in general it essentially is a double dip benefit, and the issue it was intended to address is addressed by the other aspect of the change. The previous version of the rule (Gain one free ship in an escort squadron with leadership 5 or 6) was designed to recognize that low leadership escorts aren't very good. The new version of the rule (Escorts can always test to go on special orders even after failing an order using the number of ships in the squadron instead of their leadership value.) already addresses this downside, just take more ships in the squadron and you're crappy leadership doesn't matter.
So yeah, we should eliminate the old free ship rule. It had a clunky interaction with Victory Points anyways. (Ie: Was it the first ship destroyed that was free or the last? If you have only one ship left and the squadron disengages does it count as entirely destroyed or does your opponent only receive 25% victory points for it.) The new rule and overall points decrease addresses the same issues more effectively.
Otherwise the new changes are working quite well overall. I did have a thought on a rules redesign concept that could help streamline Orks a bit regarding Heavy Gunz.
So each time I use a ship with Heavy Gunz I have to consult the gunnery table multiple times using different metrics for what are after all very similar attacks. Then my opponent has to just accept that some of my shots will deal 2 points of damage while other seemingly identical ones only do 1.
Ork Capital ships also tend to have very low overall firepower rates out their sides, resulting in most cases with very few shots being rolled by an individual ship relative to their Imperial/Chaos equivalents.
So my recommendation is that we redesign Heavy Gunz such that they are fired together with Gunz and are simply much more effective at short range (15 cm) than long range.
First off lets look at how Heavy Gunz work currently:
Currently Heavy Gunz work as weapons batteries which always suffer a rightward shift on the gunnery table and do 2 points of damage per hit inflicted.
Lets take a Kill Kroozer as an example. Currently its flank weaponry is:
Weapon..........................Range.......Firepower........Fire Arc
Port Gunz........................30cm............6..............Left
Port Heavy Gunz................30cm............4..............Left
The number of attack dice vs an enemy cruiser/escort are:
Weapon.......................Defenses.......Closing.......Moving Away.......Abeam
Gunz at 30cm....................5..............4/3...............3/2................2/1
Heavy Gunz at 30cm............3..............2/1...............1/1................1/1
Gunz at 15cm....................5..............5/4...............4/3................3/2
Heavy Gunz at 15cm............4..............3/2...............2/1................1/1
So against most targets you aren't rolling many dice, and you REALLY aren't rolling many Heavy Gunz dice. At 30cm in nearly all cases Heavy Gunz give you just a single extra dice over your regular Gunz. Sure those extra dice are devastating if they hit, but its ANOTHER roll step and slows things down a bit.
Here's my recommended change. Instead of the rightward shift and them doing 2 points of damage why don't have them work EXACTLY the same as regular weapons batteries but give them two firepower rates, one for short range and one for long range.
Lets use that same a Kill Kroozer as an example of the change:
- Weapon..........................Range.......Firepower........Fire Arc
- Port Gunz........................30cm............6..............Left
- Port Heavy Gunz................30cm............4(6)..........Left
So with this change the Kill Kroozer has Firepower 10 Weapons Batteries beyond 15cm and Firepower 12 Weapons Batteries within 15cm. Here's the breakdown in terms of how many attack dice you get with this change.
The number of attack dice vs an enemy cruiser/escort are:
- Weapon.......................Defenses.......Closing.......Moving Away.......Abeam
- Firepower at 30cm.............9...............9/7................7/5................4/2
- Firepower at 15cm.............11.............11/8...............8/6................6/4
Here is the comparison in terms of max damage output for the two methods against Cruisers/Escorts:
.....................Max Damage at Range:....Defenses.......Closing.......Moving Away.......Abeam
- Current Method:............. 30cm................11.............8/5...............5/4................4/3
- Current Method:..............15cm................13............11/8...............8/5................5/4
- Suggested Method:..........30cm.................9..............9/7................7/5...............4/2
- Suggested Method:..........15cm................11.............11/8...............8/6...............6/4
The new method I'm suggesting is simpler to use as you only need to consult the Gunnery Table once, and the damage done by all the attack dice is consistent. You also don't have the same frustrating effect of escorts with shields up being one shoted with single hits. The other effect of it though is that it helps to keep the damage output a bit more consistent against the different orientations of the target ship. This is easier to understand with a picture, so I've included graphs comparing the two approaches.
As you can see the method I'm suggesting we move to provides a more gradual decrease in damage output compared with the orientation changes of the target ship. It also helps provide Orks with SLIGHTLY more reliable gunnery at long range.
This change is really simple to implement as well. Just replace the Heavy Gunz firepower values with the following:
- Heavy Gunz 4 becomes 4(6)
- Heavy Gunz 6 becomes 6(10)
Overall this would make the experience of playing with/against orks a bit faster and less clunky, and the "sudden death" nature of Heavy Gunz would be replaced with a "buckets of dice" approach to dishing out damage, which is more consistent with the rest of this game in general.
The only ships which this would potentially really effect would be the Savage Gunship and the Onslaught Attack Ship as having a base Firepower of 4 on the "Heavy Gunz" from the Onslaught is realiably better than the Firepower D6+1 on the Onslaught. While the Onslaught's 270 arc of fire is a big plus in its favor I would recommend giving the Slaughter Firepower 2(6) Heavy Gunz, so that its long range damage output is equal to the minimum damage output of the Onslaught. That also would give the Zzapp Gunz and Heavy Gunz variants of the Slaughter the same firepower beyond 15cm range, which could be enterpreted that you are trading 4 firepower worth of Gunz at short range for a single Lance shot, which sounds quite balanced to my ear.
