Sunday, April 1, 2012

Starmada Sunday: Battleships of the Imperium

Well, Nova's been out almost two weeks now, and I still have yet to play a game.  Cricket has a web interface for shipbuilding up called the Drydock.  Unfortunately, it has save / load / view-other-peoples'-stuff functionality, so it's replacing the Bourbaki Basin subforum.  I'm not a terrible fan of its input procedures, nor do I like having to be tethered to the web for my shipbuilding, so I rolled my own.  As a result of the lack of a Nova Basin subforum and my dislike for the Drydock, my BFG to Nova conversions are going to be posted here (all ships intellectual property of Games Workshop).  There is some debate over formatting for text-only outputs, since ship cards are one of the things Nova set out to accomplish, so I'm going to be using a variant of AE's Drake Notation.  Should be pretty straightforward if you're familiar with either Nova or AE.

At this time, I have a strict conversion system for Imperials and Chaos.  I tried the same on the Eldar, and, well...  they looked like they needed some help (not that the Imperial preponderance of Range 6 weapons is great, mind you, but they needed some extra help).  Not sure how to handle them yet; might want to play a few games first.

Anyway, conversions!  Without further ado, battleships of the Imperium:

Emperor-Class Battleship (572)
Armor: 6 5 * 4 3 * 2 1
Hull: 18 17 16 15 14 13 * 12 11 10 9 8 7 * 6 5 4 3 2 1
Thrust: 3 2 2 1 1
Weapons: 0 1 2 3 4
ECM: 0
Shields: 3 4 5 6 6
[X] Batteries, 4 / 8 / 12.  [PP4] [SS4] [FX2]
33 23 17 12 | 8 6 | 4 3 | 2 1 | 1 1 | 1 0
[Y] Turrets, 1 / 2 / 3, Acc.  [TT0]
8 5 4 3 | 2 1 | 1 1 | 0
Special: Fighters (Slow; 8 flights), Marines (6)

Retribution-Class Battleship (440), TL1
Armor: 6 5 * 4 3 * 2 1
Hull: 18 17 16 15 14 13 * 12 11 10 9 8 7 * 6 5 4 3 2 1
Thrust: 4 3 2 1 1
Weapons: 0 1 2 3 4
ECM: 1 1 1 0 0
Shields: 3 4 5 6 6
[W] Batteries, 4 / 8 / 12.  [PP2] [SS2]
36 25 18 13 | 9 6 | 5 3 | 2 2 | 1 1 | 1 0
[X] Lances, 4 / 8 / 12, Acc, Prc, Gid.  [FX0]
5 3 2 2 | 1 1 | 1 0
[Y] Torpedoes, 6 / 12 / 18, Dfs, Skr, Slo, Prc.  [FR0]
14 10 7 5 | 3 2 | 2 1 | 1 1 | 0
[Z] Turrets, 1 / 2 / 3, Acc.  [TT0]
6 4 3 2 | 1 1 | 1 0
Specials: Directional Defenses (Forward), Marines (6)

Apocalypse-Class Battleship (440), TL1
Armor: 6 5 * 4 3 * 2 1
Hull: 18 17 16 15 14 13 * 12 11 10 9 8 7 * 6 5 4 3 2 1
Thrust: 3 2 2 1 1
Weapons: 0 1 2 3 4
ECM: 1 1 1 0 0
Shields: 3 4 5 6 6
[W] Batteries, 4 / 8 / 12.  [FX0]
9 6 5 3 | 2 2 | 1 1 | 1 0
[X] Lances, 2 / 4 / 6, Acc, Prc, Gid.  [PP2] [SS2]
18 13 9 6 | 5 3 | 2 2 | 1 1 | 1 0
[Y] Nova Cannon, 5 / 10 / 15, Acc, Bls, Gid, Prx, Prc, Cat.  [FR0]
3 2 2 1 | 1 1 | 0
[Z] Turrets, 1 / 2 / 3, Acc.  [TT0]
6 4 3 2 | 1 1 | 1 0
Specials: Directional Defenses (Forward), Marines (6)


Oberon-Class Battleship (463)
Armor: 6 5 * 4 3 * 2 1
Hull: 18 17 16 15 14 13 * 12 11 10 9 8 7 * 6 5 4 3 2 1
Thrust: 3 2 2 1 1
Weapons: 0 1 2 3 4
ECM: 0
Shields: 3 4 5 6 6
[W] Long Batteries, 4 / 8 / 12.  [PP2] [SS2]
18 13 9 6 | 5 3 | 2 2 | 1 1 | 1 0
[X] Lances, 4 / 8 / 12, Acc, Prc, Gid.  [PP2] [SS2]
6 4 3 2 | 2 1 | 1 1 | 0
[Y] Batteries, 3 / 6 / 9.  [FX0]
15 11 8 5 | 4 3 | 2 1 | 1 1 | 0
[Y] Turrets, 1 / 2 / 3, Acc.  [TT0]
8 5 4 3 | 2 1 | 1 1 | 0
Special: Fighters (Slow; 4 flights), Marines (6)


Here's what I've been doing:
Hull equals BFG hull times 1.5.  Escorts have hulls down in the 4-6ish range; hull 1 just doesn't work.
Armor is equal to 1.5 times BFG shield rating.
Shields are equal to 8 minus the BFG shield rating (this maintains the same probability of damage).  For the Imperial armored prow, I used Directional Defenses (Forward), which grants a -1 to incoming fire from the front and +1 to fire from other sides, and ECM 1, which inflicts a -1 to fire from all sides.  This combines to produce a -2 to frontal fire, which is half effectiveness, and -0 to fire from other sides (until ECM degrades, at least).  The difference between 5+ to damage and 6+ to damage is half effectiveness, so this models that nicely.  If you feel like it, swap out the ECM 1 for Stealth 1, which does the same thing but doesn't degrade.
Thrust and ranges are converted at 5 cm to 1 hex.  BFG's fighters are too slow to work in Nova on this scale, so I've given them the Slow trait; best I can do.  I've also considered doing a "Fighters and Bombers as Slow-Firing Guided Seeking weapons with broad arcs" conversion; that might be in the future (possibly after I add Dual-Modes to my spreadsheet).  One problem, though, is that since seeking weapons can't be fired at other seeking weapons, you'd be unable to use fighters to attack bombers.  And that just seems wrong...  More research is required.
Weapons have BAS of 1.5 (since we multiplied hull by 1.5), and a number of weapons equal to their firepower in BFG.  Lances are Accurate, Piercing, and Guided (no range mods), since they ignore armor and range in BFG for 'always hits on 4+'.  Torps are Slow-Firing, Diffuse (double range mods), Piercing Seeker weapons; this should model their variation in effectiveness over range nicely.  The Nova Cannon is Piercing, Accurate, Ballistic (minimum range), Guided, Proximity (Area effect), and Catastrophic, with a BAS of 3.  Be afraid.  Very afraid.  Turrets are range 3 and Accurate; not much to see there.

So that about covers everything needed for an Imperial or Chaos conversion...  Orks should be pretty easy (Direction Defenses + ECM for defense, Volatile weapons), Tau and Tyranids will enjoy the new Seeker rules (but Tyranids are going to need longer-range weapons than the 3-6 they tend to use), Necrons should work OK but will be very expensive (Hyperdrive + Regeneration + Reinforced Hull + best shields...  ouch), and Eldar still don't quite work when strictly converted.  So it goes.

2 comments:

  1. I must call into question the veracity of this post. It is April Fools!

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    Replies
    1. Hm, I suppose it is. I had not realized. Post content was not intended as foolery (and nova cannons are definitely srs bsns).

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