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Hi!
Thanks for the feedback, now on to the questions/comments:
*Attack Rating: Well, if 2 is high enough for the Kor'vattra from Armada (let alone the better-diving craft of the CPF) then it should do fine for the Swarmhood - dive tech is sufficient for the task at hand!
*Raiders/Full fleet: Well, I've been thinking of letting them operate as a full battlefleet (they have to fight the odd Waaagh, Crusade or do some old-fashioned conquest) or as a raiding force - perhaps the choice of one or another restricts access to the heaviest ship class or to the use of captured Navigators and salvaged Warp drives... though I'm still trying to work out how best to represent that aspect of the fleet.
*So few in the chain? Well, originally each module had 2 hit points (the Support module is meant to have 2 in 1.0, oops!) so 4 from a Homeworld-class Core module and 4 Segment modules took you up to 12.
However, I hit on the idea that the support module should perhaps allow one to try and balance the durability of a Chainship and its firepower. (Well, I remembered the way Andromedan capital ships in SFB use either true satellite ships or can fill up a space in its satship hangar with a punch-bag module...) So, only the Support Module ups the Core modules' turrets and shields, plus gives +2 hits instead of +1, but makes you sacrifice a portion of your firepower options to get it. A similar balance one needs to work out for Armada Tau Orbitals...
*Balanced options: I wanted to start off by establishing which kinds of modules I wanted the Chainships to be able to take. So, I plumped for the WB, Lance, LB and Support modules (I want to leave out torps for now - I am keen to see how well the fleet can do without them...) and the 2 Lances was to make up for having no torp option.
I was thinking of maybe upping the WB to 6 and making each Segment module 40 points - so a Homeworld and 4 modules comes to 260, a Hivestation+3 to 195 and a Swarmhood+2 to 130.
Or I can just make the lance and lb modules 40 and leave the WB and support modules at 30...
Or go with your suggestion...
I'll have to think it over!
*Critical hits/hits in general: Well, hmm. I was thinking that a Chainship and the modules attached are treated as a single target, but any hits scored on the vessel are allocated randomly (so the Core is hit on 1-4, a Segment 5-6. The segment is determined randomly in turn)
Regarding crits, it could be either one chart for the Chainship as a whole, whether there are attached Segments or not (so a result of, say, Mag Clamps Disabled results in the other Segments de-coupling if there are other Segments still attached, otherwise choose the next highest crit instead) or the location of the crit would be determined randomly - if it lands on a Segment, that module is destroyed and de-coupled by the Core module (and adds a BM to the ship's base) while Core crits are rolled for on the table normally.
In either case, I'll probably need to work out a specific critical hit table...
Leadership, boarding etc: Aside from the lack of torps issue, I'm not sure the Chainships need any special rules in these areas, for the time being working out the Chainship modular system seems like enough to worry about! Well, that and working out what, if any, difference the Warp drive/Navigator thing can make.
AoE weapons: While a Chainship is together, it counts as the dot in the middle of the flying stand, so it would be treated as one target for AoE weapons, and the hits would be allocated randomly (as discussed above). Detached modules would work under normal rules for AoE weaponry, of course.
FTL travel: Both Core and Segment modules would have dive engines, but ships with salvaged Warp drives can only mount them on their Core modules - which would likely be relevant for Warp rift navigation.
There's a point: Should Tau ships (not Kroot or Demiurg - well maybe Demiurg, if it could be said that they use highly-advanced dive engines) be able to navigate a Warp rift at all, or does the rift include enough of the 'ocean' between warpspace and realspace to allow Tau dive engines to get through it? If the former, then Q'orl ships need those Navigators if a rift shows up, while if the latter, they would not be too worse for wear without one...
Support modules together: Only the Core modules are designed to take the Segment modules - you can't just clamp two Segment modules together by themselves. Otherwise, you wouldn't have to take the Core modules!
Support module: As referred to before, the support module is somehing I want to persevere with for the time being (maybe it can either increase planetary assault points, or act as cargo capacity, or some such) and while it is a bullet shield, it is also one less weapon system your Chainship can take. (I'm thinking of limiting it to 0-1 or 0-2 per Chainship, to keep things from getting out of hand...)
Targeting: Perhaps we could either make the opposing player target the nearest ship type or make a Command check to target another class of ship, or make the player decide before rolling to hit whether the targets will be the escorts or cap ships (a loose approximation of shooting at mixed AP/AT formations in Epic - you concentrate on one or the other... while Lances, like Macro-Weapons in Epic, are less fussy about their targets, so are allocated normally)
The squadron would roll once for the lot when navigating a field, yet allowing a detached Segment to re-roll individually (they are still Escorts, after all)
[VPs:] Based on the cost of the Chainship as a whole, plus its starting hit points (as even fully decoupled groups are not true squadrons in the traditional sense)
Can those Demiurg Spyglass things see a Hrud Warren? They're the Wise-Gifted Ones, they can do anything!
Gary
_________________  Gue'senshi: The 1st Kleistian Grenadiers v7.3 pdfHuman armed forces for the greater good.
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