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Broadsides

 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:26 am 
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(Lion in the Stars @ Aug. 31 2006,20:58)
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Why do I keep wasting my time trying to convince y'all. ?Nobody's @#$%ing listneing anyway.

Not listening, or disagreeing?  :;):

I will admit that this is not an easy issue to decide upon, and that there are some good arguments on both sides. I wouldn't say your arguments are wasted, they just haven't tipped my balance of opinion in favour of infantry over LV so far.

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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 4:15 am 
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Those in the negative for Infantry, I know you want them to be LV because of stated opinions but could you guys try them as Infantry for a while under play conditions? I ask because it may be the only way to reach a decision.  Maybe just suspend your wants for the moment and go with infantry to prove the negative?

Could we maybe try the new ideas for them AND the old version with just the Infantry change? That way it's fair to the "Positives For Infantry" (PFI) to get some form of solid feedback as to exactly why they should be LV - not just speculative ideas and opininos.

We have debated this ad-nauseaum so far but I haven't heard anyone(including myself) say they've playtested them as infantry(with or without the new proposals).

My original reason for posting this thread has been completely sidetracked by this debate on LV/Inf and won't be answered until we can come to a decision.

Can we decide on one of the proposals put forward so far to play test with?

A/Inf 75cm AT2+, 30cm AP5+ Ignore Cover, 4+RA
200 points for 4 add upgrades 100pts

B/Inf 2x3+AT 75cm, 4+RA
200points for 4 add upgrades

C/Inf 2x 2+AT 75cm, 30cm AP5+ ignore cover 4+RA
250 points for 4 add upgrades...

D/Inf 2x 2+AT 75cm, 30cm AP4+, RA4+ 300 points

Otherwise we may as well just ditch them from the list because no one who thinks about cost vs effectiveness (myself included) will buy these.


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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 5:24 am 
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(sampy @ Aug. 30 2006,09:43)
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I don?t like the idea of increasing numbers to keep them(BS) effective after changes....not very Tau-like.

For my understanding, Tau should be like:

"less numbers and more firepower" than "more numbers and less firepower".

And please don?t compare Tau to IG, they are not IG. And should not be.

If somekind of structure in army works for guards, that not maybe work with Tau....

I should note that my current suggestion actually DOES field fewer total broadsides because broadsides would then be 1 per stand instead of 2 or 3. So a 4-strong unit would be 4 actual broadsides, not 8 or 12. And 6 strong would be 6 broadsides, not 12 or 18  broadsides as is currently the case. The total numbers go down dramatically, without seriously reducing their firepower. Feels more Tau that way doesn't it? Six guys out there with more firepower then 20 Space Marine Devastators. Or 30 Space Marine Tacticals. Yes your number of fielded stands goes up, but your number of actual people on those stands goes down.

I'm not really against the idea of them being infantry personally. But these things are MUCH larger then even Terminators are. Even accounting for the size-discrepencies for Marines. They're still as large as Dreadnoughts, I believe (Could be wrong, but I seem to recall that being about how tall they are) and nearly as wide. Stat-wise is important too. Really the biggest difference between LV and Infantry seems to be how many are mounted per stand. Sentinels for instance aren't that large, and if you were to field them in squads of 3 they'd almost certainly be infantry not LV. They're easy to kill with massed fire, and much easier to take down in groups with lots of lower-strength fire then one or two lascannon shots.


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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 7:00 am 
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A Broadside (based on the silhouettes in the back of IA3) is about 2/3rds the width of a Dreadnought, and a little shorter (the head is about the same level as the top of a dread, but the shoulders are notably lower).  Of course, a Crisis suit is just as big.  They don't look anywhere near as bulky as a Dreadnought, though.  [could someone with a scanner and IA3 please post relevant part of page 317?  I don't have access to a scanner anymore, or I'd do it myself.]

I've said it before, I don't like it, but I can live with Broadsides as LV, if they're mounted 1 (+ up to 2 drones) per base, and statted based on that (one railgun shot and either one plasma or one SMS shot).  With two Broadsides per base + drones (I assume 2 drones, as that's how I usually field them in 40k, but they could have 4 drones, making them tougher still), the Broadsides are just as tough as a stand of Terminators vs lascannon fire (or any other AT fire).  Back to the LV issue, I support Ilushia's proposed formation, if we have to keep them as LVs.

I find it interesting that the people that are campaigning for LV status don't play 40k (or at least don't admit to playing 40k during these discussions), while the people that play Tau in 40k are loudly campaigning for Infantry status.

As they stand right now, the only way I can make a Broadside formation work at all is to buy a 100 point Orca and 'combat drop' them.  Even then, I don't expect them to survive my opponent's next two activations, even with the rest of my force moving to reinforce them.  In 40k, I've grown accustomed to being able to put them in a treeline (wait, can't do that in Epic, I may kill a stand because they're LVs) or building (wait, can't do that in Epic because they're LVs), where they have good fields of fire, and they become the rock my enemy breaks himself upon (wait, can't do that in Epic because the formation is too fragile).  If we're supposed to be building an army that plays like it's 40k version, made up of units that feel like their 40k counterparts, we're failing abysmally.  

I'm NOT paying 400 points for a disposable unit, especially one that should be the cornerstone of my army's AT capabilities!

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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 7:24 am 
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(Lion in the Stars @ Sep. 01 2006,07:00)
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I've grown accustomed to being able to put them in a treeline (wait, can't do that in Epic, I may kill a stand because they're LVs) or building (wait, can't do that in Epic because they're LVs), where they have good fields of fire, and they become the rock my enemy breaks himself upon (wait, can't do that in Epic because the formation is too fragile).  If we're supposed to be building an army that plays like it's 40k version, made up of units that feel like their 40k counterparts, we're failing abysmally.  

I'm NOT paying 400 points for a disposable unit, especially one that should be the cornerstone of my army's AT capabilities!

First, Broadsides are Walkers. I regularly drop them in woods and never worry about the snake-eyes.

Second, Broadsides have excellent range. You can often find safe keyholed firing positions for them where they are safe from most return fire. Artillery will shoot back, of course, but artillery will shoot at someone, and Broadsides in cover are pretty good at withstanding incoming fire.

I've reported myself that landed Broadsides in position are a priotity target for my opponents. This doesn't mean they can be killed easily or cheaply. They generally can't. All that fire going their way would have shot at someone with a worse save. For this reason, I find Broadsides to be worth their cost. Besides, if you can pull it off with a late-in-turn drop, you can often get two turns worth of fire out of the Broadsides.

Reports about Broadsides fragility are exaggerated. In Epic, your units will die. If you field something as shooty as a Broadside, he will die first.

Third, the 100 points for the Orca is not disposable. After dropping the Broadsides, the Orca gets to do other stuff.


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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 7:25 am 
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If we're supposed to be building an army that plays like it's 40k version, made up of units that feel like their 40k counterparts, we're failing abysmally

That's just it Lion, we aren't. We are building an Epic army and it doesn't necessarily have to perform in exactly the same way as 40K - just take a few nods from the 40K direction. Too many people make that assumption and it really hampers development IMO. I'm not saying it's not a good guide for things in Epic, just that we need to stop comparing it directly.

I'm NOT paying 400 points for a disposable unit, especially one that should be the cornerstone of my army's AT capabilities!
Right there with ya brother! or 450 even....

I'm pretty sure the Tau players need to be indulged in letting us have Infantry for, in the least, testing for a while. If not, what Tau player will want to take these things? They will essentially become largely unused and unseen on the tabletop - which would be a bit disappointing IMO.


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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:48 am 
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(Lion in the Stars @ Sep. 01 2006,06:00)
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I find it interesting that the people that are campaigning for LV status don't play 40k (or at least don't admit to playing 40k during these discussions), while the people that play Tau in 40k are loudly campaigning for Infantry status.

Hey! I play 40k (more than epic recently sadly)  and I'm campaigning for LV status.  

I do agree with you that being based individually with 2 drones if they are LV's, makes sense.

Also as has been stated, 40k is only a starting point for design in epic. Remember that in an epic engage action (a 40k game) class is basically irrelevant anyway.

Its once you start talking beyond a 40k game and in the larger scale of things that class starts becoming important - with questions about target vulnerability to AT fire at longer ranges than 40k and other such issues coming to the fore.

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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:53 am 
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(Lion in the Stars @ Sep. 01 2006,07:00)
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If we're supposed to be building an army that plays like it's 40k version, made up of units that feel like their 40k counterparts, we're failing abysmally.

And in 40k you don't go along shooting broadsides with heavy bolters or something equally silly as that. That's just waste of firepower...

You shoot them with HEAVY stuff. Something that has AP2 minimum.

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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:11 am 
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OK... Here we go...

I have deliberately avoided this topic for a day or two, because it has the ability to raise my blood pressure in a way that no other topic can... and I am usually a calm individual.

There are two elements to this 'discussion':

- The original questions asked whether these guys were performing as expected, and whether they had the durability to be attractive to the tau commander on the battlefield.

- This then turned into yet another discussion on whether they should be classified as infantry.

While I agree that the LV/Inf issue is a part of the initial question, I also believe that there is a solution to the performance of the Broadsides, whether they are LV or Inf. However, I will look at the second part first, since that seems to have run away with the topic... again.

I agree with the majority opinion here, its an old issue that has sat unsettled with me a long time - there's no way in hell that a broadside should be an LV.

They should be infantry.

The only reason they are not was to satisfy people that wanted both crisis and broadsides as LV. To settle the argument, CS made the crisis infantry and the broadside LV for testing - and to calm the waters.


Incorrect.

1. I am yet to be convinced that the 'majority' are calling for Broadsides to be LV. Even if they are, and it is possible, the 'majority' of players outside the EA Tau force favour the LV classification.

2. Broadsides were not made LV to satisfy the sector of players that wanted all battlesuits to be LV.

Whether Broadsides are LV or Inf, we will have half of the community/players stating that they should be the other one. This is one of those decisions where the result is always going to cause disappointment. Therefore, I allowed myself to have the casting vote on the issue. It is my opinion that Broadsides are better represented as Light Vehicles. It is possible that I can be persuaded out of my position, and I am certainly not closed to relevant discussion on the matter.

(to be honest, I've had more Broadsides gunned down by bolters and lasguns than by AT weapons like lascannons, meltas, or missiles)  Heavy Bolters and Assault Cannons are the best way to kill Crisis or Broadsides in 40k (well, plasma/starcannon, and big 'Nids with Devourers, but...).  From my experience in 40k, based on what causes the fastest kills, that makes Broadsides 'Infantry' in Epic.

I dont understand. You say that Broadsides in 40K are often taken out by 'Heavy Bolters and Assault Cannons' and then state that they should be classified as infantry, making them effectively immune to those exact weapons in  Epic.

Even if a single Broadside is as tough as a single Terminator, and are targetted as often (both of which I am not convinced about here), they have a smaller unit size even when taken at maximum strength, and are often fielded at less than full strength.

My rational for the decisions are:

- A Broadside unit represents a single Broadside with Drone/s. This additionally serves to make it clearer on the tabletop which suit is which from a distance.

- A Broadside is likely to be targetted by any weapon in range, and these suits can find it difficult to hide from this attention on the battlefield (abstraction). Even if we accept that they are as durable as a Crisis suit, they do get more barrels aimed in their direction.

- Broadside as infantry marginally promotes a more static role for these units.

CS - if you are going to remain firm with LV for this formation, I'd like to know so I can rebase all of my broadsides to one per base as the main book requires.

As stated, I am open minded about this classification. However, I will be using mine individually. If their classification changes, I will simply mount three bases together on a larger one.

Assuming Broadsides are LVs, and therefore based singly, they should still have 4+ armor (no RA), since it takes an average of 5 Lascannon hits to kill one Broadside + 2 Shield Drones, 3 to kill a Broadside + 1 Shield Drone, and 2 to kill a Broadside with a Shield Generator.  If I really went for all-out survivability, it would take 6 lascannon hits to kill a Broadside with 2 Shield Drones and a Shied Generator.  It takes ~12 lascannon hits to kill a Land Raider (or any other AV14 vehicle), on average.  It takes 36 Missile hits to kill a Land Raider, while it takes 216 missile hits to kill a Broadside +2, 36 to kill a broadside +1, or just 6 to kill a Broadside without drones (and I will remind everyone that Drones are assumed to be present and are reflected in the armor save).  (It seems I can't do math today.  Or remember what the strength of a Lascannon is.  :blush: )

So, CS, why exactly are you saying that Broadsides are vulnerable to AT fire?

Because that LasCannon will still take out the Broadside as it does in 40K. There is a lot of emphasis on comparring a Broadside to a Land Raider. How does this all stack up when comparing a tooled-up Broadside to a Marine Dreadnought, or an Eldar Falcon?

By the way, it would be great that someone could decide soon that are those BS going to be LV?s or infantry....so many people would know how to base  figures....one or more per base....

We did... a while ago.  :(

Maybe the real problem is that you're arguing over stats when no one really knows what the unit is supposed to represent?

Absolutely correct...

Broadsides and Crisis suits are assumed 2-3 per base.  Based on the current weapons load, it appears that there are 3 Crisis suits or 2 Broadside suits per base.

Are they? You cant have 2 suits to a base, under any classification. As LV they are based individually.

OK. This is how it is going to work:

We are going to leave the Broadsides as LV.

We are going to discuss how, given their LV status and therefore their individual basing, what stats, points and role they should have.

If, in the future, this effort still does not produce Broadsides that we like, we will discuss in measured and rational terms what can be done. But, I would like to make a serious effort in getting them to work without simply saying 'infantry would solve all the problems'. It wouldnt.

I apologise if this come over as a little short. It is not targetted at anyone in particular. Can we try to move on and work at making them better. Saying 'I wont use them because they are not infantry' is not helpful. Use them, complain about them. Work out how we can make them better as LV.

There is the other part of this original question, but I am a little drained. I will return to it as soon as I can.

Thanks.

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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:59 am 
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I don't really want to derail things further, and I realise this was probably covered way back in the mists of time, but why aren't Broadsides classed as Armoured Vehicles? Infantry just makes no sense to me, having used them and fought against them in 40K, and even LV seems wrong ( LVs are supposed to be lightly armoured, relying on speed according to the rules - not really a Broadside thing! )

So can someone fill me in on the reasons AV was not used?
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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:12 pm 
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Sure. AV was seriously considered (by me, at least). But, we could not have the case that Crisis were infantry and Broadsides as AV. In the end, we had to move one way, and the feeling was that it was more important to have the Crisis as infantry, so Broadsides were pulled that way.

There are more technical reasons behind it, but that was the decider for me.

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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:48 pm 
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Thanks for the info. Again, I don't want to open a can of worms, but if Crisis suits were LV, we could have Broadsides AV.

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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:17 pm 
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(Dobbsy @ Sep. 01 2006,02:25)
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That's just it Lion, we aren't. We are building an Epic army and it doesn't necessarily have to perform in exactly the same way as 40K - just take a few nods from the 40K direction. Too many people make that assumption and it really hampers development IMO. I'm not saying it's not a good guide for things in Epic, just that we need to stop comparing it directly.

Hmm. This is a misconception I unfortunately share as well. For newcomers (like me) to the E:A Tau world, it might be nice to have some "development notes" available to allow us to learn a bit about the history of the development process and what methods and motivations are important to those making these decisions.


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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 3:17 pm 
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CS,

since your decision to make Broadsides a LV is made, I definately think they should be modelled one to a base. Not only does it strictly follows Epic basing conventions, it will also positively impact the way the formation plays in Epic.

- Added bulk should make the ground formation a bit more desirable.
- Decreased hitting power should make the air-dropped formation a bit less of a no-brainer when it's time to choose what will fit into an Orca. Certainly the choice between Broadsides and Crisis for such missions will be a bit more difficult now, as it should be.






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 Post subject: Broadsides
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 3:39 pm 
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I'd move for 3+ armor (No RA) and 1 Railgun shot at 2+ AT for them as LVs, as I've said before. I'd also suggest that they take up just 1 slot on Orcas and the like (After all that still implies that 1 Broadside and 2 drones takes up as much space as 5 fire-warriors or 3 Crisis and 2 Drones). And this would seem to fit the style of the tau. A unit of 6 individuals packing awesome weapons. Which then seems to lead to the next logical question: How big should the formation be? Thus far most people seem to like the idea of them going to 6 strong formations. Anyone not like that idea?


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