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I'll do my best...

February 27 2002 at 7:56 PM
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Response to Dask old boy...

 
First, the Minbari ship we all know best, the Sharlin...

The Sharlin mounts several 18 fusion cannons, 6 neutron lasers, and 1 Electro-Pulse Gun.

The fusion cannons are relatively short range guns that excel at killing fighters and in massed fire can seriously hurt larger ships. 10 of them fire forward and 8 of them fire aft. All have exceptional "arcs of fire" due to being able to fire off-axis, despite being in fixed mounts.

The neutron lasers are heavy anti-ship guns that are, in truth, slightly less powerful than Earth Alliance heavy lasers. This doesn't mean they're inferior! Neutron lasers have better range, better fire control, and better recharge time allowing for more volume of fire in a given time frame. 4 fire forward, 2 fire aft. As with the fusion cannons, they all have excellent arcs of fire due to being able to fire off-axis, another advantage over Earth Alliance heavy lasers.

Finally, we have the extra power, er, electro-pulse gun. This is the "prong gun" that so many people mistake for an antimatter gun. It's good for EMPing fighters and very little else. It's too weak to seriously affect the systems of anything larger than a fighter, and most players of B5Wars prefer to shut it off and reroute the power to something more useful.

The Shargoti is, in my mind, something of a disappointment. It has no more neutron lasers than a Sharlin, but instead bulks up on more fusion cannons and has a pair of gravity nets, a device I find of dubious utility. The Shargoti has a total of 23 fusion cannons, 6 neutron lasers, 2 electro-pulse guns, and two gravity nets. 13 of the fusion cannons fire forward and 10 fire aft. Neutron laser placement is identical to that on the Sharlin. The electro-pulse guns both fire forward, as do the gravity nets. Everything has wonderful arcs of fire.

Gravity nets are really just fancily named combat tractor beams. They can grab an enemy ship and move it around, disrupting enemy formations and putting dangerous weapon systems out of the line of fire. My main problem with them is that they're relatively short ranged and I just don't like them.

The Neshatan is what happened when the Minbari decided to try out the "guns out the yin/yang" approach to ship-building represented by the Nova. It mounts 10 neutron lasers and 5 fusion cannons and nothing else. 6 of the neutron lasers fire forward, four fire aft while 3 fusion cannons fire forward and 2 fire aft. The main reason this thing never went into heavy production is that it also shares the faults of the Nova. Namely, it maneuvers like a drunk pig. It also has a power shortage making it difficult to power all the weapons at once. Without shutting some stuff down to provide power to it, it can't power its 10th neutron laser.

The Morshin is armed strictly for defense. It carries six fusion cannons and five electro-pulse guns. Four fusion cannons fire forward, 2 aft and 3 electro-pulse guns fire forward, 2 aft.

The Troligan was an experiment that proved just barely successful enough to build some units of. It's meant to charge into the middle of enemy fleets and use its six gravity nets to wreak havoc on the formation. 4 fire forward and 2 fire aft. It also carries eight fusion cannons, four firing forward and four firing aft, for anti-fighter work. It gets its name "armored cruiser" because it has exceptionally heavy armor meant to allow it to survive getting into position to use its gravity nets effectively.

The Tigara is an older ship, and is the Minbari version of a Light Cruiser. It carries a pair of antimatter convertors, six molecular disruptors, and ten fusion cannons. Both antimatter convertors fire forward, 4 of the molecular disruptors fire forward with the other two firing aft, and six of the fusion cannons fire forward with the rest firing aft.

Antimatter convertors are nasty weapons that chuck balls of antimatter at enemy ships. Damage is based on how solid a strike it is, the more solid the strike, the more damaging it is. Unfortunately it's a pretty short ranged weapon and tends to spread its damage out over a wide area rather than concentrating it into a single punch. This has the effect of stripping off weapons and thrusters before it actually starts affecting the main body of the ship.

Molecular Disruptors are absolutely devastating short-ranged weapons that were in common use before the development of the neutron laser. They do more damage than the neutron lasers, but are passed over in favor of the neutron lasers due to the longer range the neutron lasers provide. In addition to doing more damage, these nasty bastards also strip off armor plating, reducing the armor value on whichever side of an enemy ship is hit. On the downsides, the ARE short ranged weapons and their fire control systems are nothing impressive. They also take longer to recharge than neutron lasers while taking up just as much power.

The Leshath variant of the Tigara goes for exclusively defensive weaponry, dropping the convertors and disruptors in favor of more fusion cannons (14 to be precise) and a pair of electro-pulse guns. The reason for this defensive mindset is due to the role of the ship. It's an ELINT vessel carrying the best sensor package the Minbari have in addition to an Electronic Warfare suite that lets it seriously improve the capabilities of other ships around it by providing Offensive Electronic Warfare (extra fire control), Defensive Electronic Warfare (in addition to the Jammers all Minbari ships carry), and Close Combat Electronic Warfare (specifically for aiding the targeting of fighters). Eight of the fusion cannons fire forward with the other six firing aft while both electro-pulse guns fire forward.

IMPORTANT NOTE: ALL Minbari ships have jammers, making hitting them a bloody nightmare. Even Nials carry jammers!

 
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