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Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [New ship]

 Post subject: Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [New ship]
PostPosted: Wed Jul 30, 2003 11:15 pm 
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Imperial Rapier Class Frigate: 45pts

Type/Hits: Escort/1
Speed: 25cm
Turns: 90
Shields: 1
Armour: 5+
Turrets: 4

Arnament: RFAOS*
Range/Speed: 15cm
Firepower: Special/1
Fire Arc: Front

* The Rapier utilises the Rapid Fire Anti-Ordnance System to help protect vulnerable capital ships from enemy ordnance. Each RFAOS gives the Rapier 4 attack to use against any enemy ordnance with 15cm. On a roll of 3+ the ordnance wave or counter is destroyed. Alternatively the RFAOS can be used against larger targets (escorts/cruisers/ battleships/defences/etc), although it is not very well suited for the task and gives the Rapier an equivalent of a weapons battery with firepower 1 and a range of 15cm. It may not perform in more than one role per turn. The RFAOS will not function if the ship uses any special orders as it needs the full attention of ship's machine spirit to function correctly. The only exception to this is that it will benefit from locking on if used as a weapons battery.

The Rapier is a new addition to the ranks of the Imperial Navy and is based upon a modification of the ubiquitous Sword Class Frigate. It is designed for anti-ordnance role in a larger battlegroup, protecting capital ships from marauding bombers, assault boats and torpedoe strikes as well as performing essential convoy based duties where it is ideally suited for fending off the ranks of the Wolf Packs. The creation of the Rapier class was made possible by a discovery of a partial STC recovered from an abandoned Forgeworld that had been lost to the Emperor's light for over three centuries [location classified] at a great cost to the survey team involved. The Adeptus Mechnicus have been able to extract enough data to produce a very potent new ship design, but they mourn for the knowledge has been lost to them and the chance for the RFAOS to have unleashed its full potential. With the coming of the 13th Crusade the Rapier class was rushed into full active service after a number of Imperial battle groups fell victim to the numerous carrier ships still active in the ranks of the Arch Traitor. This was much to the dismay of more conservative elements within the Adeptus Mechnicus who harbour doubts over a possible heretical taint in the Rapier design.

Famous Squadrons of the 13th Crusade

With the Rapier class still very much in its infancy, few squadron have yet had the chance to make their mark on the unfolding war. One exception to this was the Cia Orion Squadron, who helped annihilate the Swiftdeath fighters and Doomfire bombers of the Despoiler Class Battleship Red Maul?s Revenge, leaving it and its entourage open to a devastating Imperial counter attack. As yet Abaddon?s many fleets have yet to adapt to the Rapier?s appearence and there are many opportunities for fame waiting to be seized amongst the stars.

===================================================

Would do you think?

Jackhammer


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 Post subject: Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [New ship]
PostPosted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:19 pm 
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My memory is going as a result of old age... what are the differences here with fleet defence turrets?

Do these vessels have to be squadroned as normal?

They seem a little powerful for just 45 points. At this price, and adding the turrets of astandard cruisers, very few attack craft are going to get through at all.

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 Post subject: Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [New ship]
PostPosted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 3:45 pm 
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It looks good, but I'm thinking that its' play value is much more than its' points value.

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 Post subject: Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [New ship]
PostPosted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 6:25 pm 
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This reply is a bit shorter than the original, which my computer ate :L

I was a bit worried regarding the issue of pts cost. That why I toned down the RFAOS from its original incarnation where it had a left/front/right fire arc. I don't want to increase the points cost too much as the Rapier is still just a souped up Sword Frigate and therefore is pretty vulnerable to enemy fire.  Also bear in mind it's very one dimensional, something of a one trick pony. In some situations it would be next to useless, e,g against a Necron fleet. I also hoped it would help to curb some of the ordnance excesses that still can be seen in some BFG games, so it should be a *little* bit nasty. However, there are some options I was thinking of using to tone it down a bit more.

* Limit its numbers to reflect its scarcity and the ingrained conservatism of the Imperium when it comes to new ship designs. Maybe 1 per for every 1000 points fleet, e.g 1 in 0-999pts game, 2 in a 1000-1999 points game, etc?

* Reduce its turret complement to three.

* Reduce the RFAOS range to 10cm, although this might make the Rapier still a threat, it would severly limit its effectiveness versus a canny opponent. Does reflect the RFAOS design flaws though.

* Up the value of the Rapier to 50 pts, although I would be reluctant to do this due to the points outlined above.

More feedback on the proposed changes or the original idea still more than welcomed. What do you think of the background? It didn't take very long (5 mins in fact!), so is probably very cliche ridden. If anyone has the time and inclination to give the Rapier a go on the battlefield (starfield?) I'd be grateful. As a very occasional BFG player, I'm still grappling with the basic rules, let alone up to some serious playtesting, when I get a game.

Jackhammer


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 Post subject: Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [New ship]
PostPosted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:59 pm 
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I would be inclined to either limit its availability or/and downgrade the turrets. If you limit the availablility, it is still an escort, and by the rules has to be in squadrons of 2-6. So, it would need to be stationed with other vessels, and therefore hold them back in support as well. You might want to say that you can add a maximum of one to each escort squadron. I would definately reduce the number of turrets to three. Four plus the cruisers two makes this way to tough. I am guessing that the extended turrets can only shoot down attack craft in flight, and dont behave as real turrets at all. Does this mean that the escort has four turrets of its own, and a 'flak battery' of four in addition?

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 Post subject: Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [New ship]
PostPosted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 9:02 pm 
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Quote (CyberShadow @ 31 2003 July,19:59)
You might want to say that you can add a maximum of one to each escort squadron. I would definately reduce the number of turrets to three. Four plus the cruisers two makes this way to tough. I am guessing that the extended turrets can only shoot down attack craft in flight, and dont behave as real turrets at all. Does this mean that the escort has four turrets of its own, and a 'flak battery' of four in addition?

Basically yes, although from now the Rapier has three turrets. I went with four originally as the four turrents represented the (four shot) RFAOS firing at extreme close range, even if in the rules they were two distinct weapon systems. Your idea of one per squadron sounds good, so I'm going to blatently nick it!


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 Post subject: Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [New ship]
PostPosted: Fri Aug 01, 2003 11:58 pm 
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Added a bit of fluff for the RFAOS...

The RFAOS is akin to the flak batteries of ancient Terra, utilising a series of linked hyper-velocity cannons firing fragmentation shells to create a deadly kill zone that can far outreach that of a standard turret configuration. It features two key technological breakthroughs that make its success feasible. Its banks of cannons are directly controlled by the Rapier's sophisticated and little understood machine spirit, ensuring maximum efficiency and optimum dispersal on target. It also takes advantage of an unique sabot firing system to allow the frag rounds to reach their intended target area undamaged.


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 Post subject: Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [New ship]
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2003 12:07 am 
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The colour background sounds nice, but, if I'm not mistaken, sabots are usally solid rounds and therefore couldn't be fragmentation rounds.

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 Post subject: Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [New ship]
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2003 1:03 am 
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Quote (MaksimSmelchak @ 02 2003 Aug.,00:07)
If I'm not mistaken, sabots are usally solid rounds and therefore couldn't be fragmentation rounds.


I thought they were a kind of discardable shell casing, although I freely admit I'm a little fuzzy over them. I remember from Harry Turtledove's World War series the Germans used discarding sabot casings on their shells to increase the muzzle velocity and therefore armour penetration of their anti-tank shells. I thought I could use the terminolgy to describe a shell casing that disengages when the round is in close proximity to its target. Maybe not.  I did try a check of various dictionaries to confirm/deny this, but couldn't find anything either way. I can also rework it if someone gives me a definate answer.


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 Post subject: Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [New ship]
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2003 12:27 pm 
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Update:
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [v1.4]: 50pts

Type/Hits: Escort/1
Speed: 25cm
Turns: 90
Shields: 1
Armour: 5+
Turrets: 3
Arnament: RFAOS*
Range/Speed: 20cm
Firepower: Special/1
Fire Arc: Front only

* The Rapier utilises the Rapid Fire Anti-Ordnance System to help protect vulnerable capital ships from enemy ordnance. Each RFAOS gives the Rapier 4 attack to use against any enemy ordnance with 20cm. On a roll of 4+ the ordnance wave or counter is destroyed. Alternatively the RFAOS can be used against larger targets (escorts/cruisers/battleships/
defences/etc), although it is not very well suited for the task and gives the Rapier an equivalent of a weapons battery with a firepower 1 and range of 20cm. It may not perform in more than one role per turn. The RFAOS will not function if the ship uses any special orders as it needs the full attention of ship's machine spirit to function correctly. The only exception to this is that it will benefit from locking on used in either mode. If four 1s are rolled for any RFAOS attack it has spectacularly malfunctioned and the Rapier is destroyed. Remove the model and replace it with D3 blast markers.

As the Rapier is always to be found in mixed squadron (see later) the following targetting rules should be followed. When firing against ordnance the RFAOS may shoot at a different target to the rest of the squadron and ignore all non-ordnance targets when determining which is closer (no leadership required). If the RFAOS wants to target ordnance that is not the closest to the ship, it has to take a leadership as normal. All other standard squadron rules apply.
========================================================

The RFAOS is akin to the flak batteries of ancient Terra, utilising a series of linked hyper-velocity cannons firing fragmentation shells to create a deadly kill zone that can far outreach that of a standard turret configuration. It features two key technological breakthroughs that make its success feasible. Its banks of cannons are directly controlled by the Rapier's sophisticated and little understood machine spirit, ensuring maximum efficiency and optimum dispersal on target. It also takes advantage of an unique system of self discarding casings that allow the frag rounds to reach their intended target area undamaged and reap heavy damage amongst the Emperor's foes.

It's not without flaws however. The RFAOS targetting matrix has major problems distinguishing targets that are in close proximity to it. This led to the infamous incident where a protype system targetted its own ship, leading to the tragic loss of all hands aboard. Failsafes have been added to the design in an effort to stop such a reoccurrence, but with so little understood about the RFAOS, it is anyone's guess to how effective they will prove to be or what other design flaws remain undetected. Its range is also?severly curtailed by an inability to synthesise the carbon bonded polymers of the original design's shell casings, an art sadly lost to the Imperium in the intervening time.

The Rapier is a new addition to the ranks of the Imperial Navy and is based upon a modification of the ubiquitous Sword Class Frigate. It is designed for anti-ordnance role in a larger battlegroup, protecting capital ships from marauding bombers, assault boats and torpedoe strikes as well as performing essential convoy based duties where it is ideally suited for fending off the ranks of the Wolf Packs. The creation of the Rapier class was made possible by a discovery of a partial STC recovered from an abandoned Forgeworld that had been lost to the Emperor's light for over three centuries [location classified] at a great cost to the survey team involved. The Adeptus Mechnicus have been able to extract enough data to produce a very potent new ship design, but they mourn for the knowledge has been lost to them and the chance for the RFAOS to have unleashed its full potential. With the coming of the 13th Crusade the Rapier class was rushed into full active service after a number of Imperial battle groups fell victim to the numerous carrier ships still active in the ranks of the Arch Traitor. This was much to the dismay of more conservative elements within the Adeptus Mechnicus who still harbour doubts over a possible heretical taint in the Rapier design.

Famous Squadrons of the 13th Crusade

With the Rapier class still very much in its infancy, few squadron have yet had the chance to make their mark on the unfolding war. One exception to this was the Cia Orion Squadron, who helped annihilate the Swiftdeath fighters and Doomfire bombers of the Despoiler Class Battleship Red Maul?s Revenge, leaving it and its entourage open to a devastating Imperial counter attack. As yet Abaddon?s many fleets have yet to adapt to the Rapier?s appearence and there are many opportunities for fame waiting to be seized amongst the stars.

Fleet limitations:

You may add a single Rapier to any pre-existing squadron of escorts. Therefore a Rapier will feature in a squadron of between three and six ships. The other ships may any mixture of Cobras, Swords, Falcions or other Imperial escort. This reflects its scarcity; need for support in the face of anything bigger than a bomber or corvette and the ingrained conservatism of some elements within the Imperium's Navy when it comes to adopting new ship designs.

*** Slight edit up to v1.4. The RFAOS is now slightly longer ranged, but less powerful ***


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 Post subject: Imperial Rapier Class Frigate [New ship]
PostPosted: Sat Sep 06, 2003 1:47 pm 
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Has anyone had a chance to try the Rapier out in battle yet?


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