Post by loyalist on Sept 30, 2016 18:31:59 GMT
The AQotMF rule book gives stats for 4 types of coil gun:
Infantry carried: range 15", +2 power
1/2 pdr: range 30", +4 power, in Imperial tanks
2 pdr: range 60", +4 power
4 pdr: range 80", +6 power, in British Land Ironclads
The book mentions that there are other types between 3 pdr and 7 pdr but gives no stats; imo anything with more than +6 power is getting too powerful for game balance.
What if we want to scratch build and field coil guns that are 3 pdrs or less?
Stats for the 3 pdr are easy to arrive at: make them halfway between those for the 2 pdr and 4 pdr coil guns, so range 70" and +5 power.
We don't know the points cost of a 4 pdr; a 2 pdr costs 90 pts. A 3pdr with the above stats would give 16% more range than a 2 pdr and 25% more power bonus, for an average of about 20% between both. Perhaps it should cost 20% more than the 2 pdr, which would make it 108, and round that up to 110 pts. If we made it cost 25% more, just on the increased power, that would be ~112.5 so round up to 115 pts.
We can also work out a value for the 4 pdr. It has 33% more range and 50% more power than a 2 pdr coil gun. If we averaged those and made it ~42% more expensive it would cost ~128 pts or round to 130. If we made it 50% more expensive based only on the power increase it wold cost 135 pts. (I'm in favour of basing the points on the highest percentage improvement over the lower caliber gun.)
Then we have the gap between the 1/2 and 2 pdr coil guns. Looks like everything in that range should have +4 power but varying ranges between 30" and 60". Strangely there's no coil gun with +3 power though that was the original (and wrong) stat for the 1/2 pdr in the rule book, which made it less effective than the standard tank gun (due to coil gun firing risks).
I've converted some Ironclad Miniatures Faraday Electric guns to what I was going to call 1/2 pdr field coil guns, by cutting off the small tips of the Faraday gun's barrels and replacing them with shortened Imperial tank 1/2 pdr coil gun barrels. Madmorgan and I talked about giving them stats of range 40" and +4 power, and having more range than the tank gun due to bigger coils on the field gun version. With 2/3 the range of the 2 pdr coli gun they would cost 2/3 as much so 60 points each. Simple enough.
Now I think we should call the field gun conversions 1 pdr coil guns, not 1/2 pdrs. (The 1/2 pdr muzzles are actually a bit bigger than those on the 2 pdr coil gun model.)
If we do that then we have:
Infantry carried: range 15", +2 power
1/2 pdr coil gun: range 30", +4 power, tank gun only
1 pdr coil gun: range 40", +4 power
2 pdr coil gun: range 60", +4 power
3 pdr coil gun: range 70", +5 power
4 pdr coil gun: range 80", + 6 power
Looks fairly reasonable but there's a 20" difference in range between the 1 pdr and 2 pdr and a 10"-15" range between the other calibers, counting the infantry version.
I suggest we could:
a) give the 1 pdr 45" range, which is an 11% increase over the range of a 60 pt range 4", 1 pdr gun, and increase the cost of the gun by 11% to 66.7 (round down to 65 or up to 70 pts per gun). That's probably more reasonable than the alternative below because there should be a limit on the number of different small caliber coil gun fielded.
b) add a 1.5 pdr to fill the range gap with range 50", and +4 power. It would have 25% more range than the 1 pdr and therefore cost 25% more so would cost 75 points. It would have ~17% less range than the 2 pdr so should cost 17% less or ~ 74.7%, so 75 points seems right.
With alternative a) we'd have:
Infantry carried: range 15", +2 power
1/2 pdr: range 30", +4 power, tank gun only
1 pdr: range 45", +4 power
2 pdr: range 60", +4 power
3 pdr: range 70", +5 power
4 pdr: range 80", +6 power
With alternative b) we'd have:
Infantry carried: range 15", +2 power
1/2 pdr: range 30", +4 power , tank gun only
1 pdr: range 40", +4 power
1.5 pdr: range 50", +4 power
2 pdr: range 60", +4 power
3 pdr: range 70", +5 power
4 pdr: range 80", +6 power
I'm inclined toward the simpler approach, leaving out a 1.5 pdr coil gun, giving the 1 pdr 45" range and making it cost 70 points.
Opinions??
Infantry carried: range 15", +2 power
1/2 pdr: range 30", +4 power, in Imperial tanks
2 pdr: range 60", +4 power
4 pdr: range 80", +6 power, in British Land Ironclads
The book mentions that there are other types between 3 pdr and 7 pdr but gives no stats; imo anything with more than +6 power is getting too powerful for game balance.
What if we want to scratch build and field coil guns that are 3 pdrs or less?
Stats for the 3 pdr are easy to arrive at: make them halfway between those for the 2 pdr and 4 pdr coil guns, so range 70" and +5 power.
We don't know the points cost of a 4 pdr; a 2 pdr costs 90 pts. A 3pdr with the above stats would give 16% more range than a 2 pdr and 25% more power bonus, for an average of about 20% between both. Perhaps it should cost 20% more than the 2 pdr, which would make it 108, and round that up to 110 pts. If we made it cost 25% more, just on the increased power, that would be ~112.5 so round up to 115 pts.
We can also work out a value for the 4 pdr. It has 33% more range and 50% more power than a 2 pdr coil gun. If we averaged those and made it ~42% more expensive it would cost ~128 pts or round to 130. If we made it 50% more expensive based only on the power increase it wold cost 135 pts. (I'm in favour of basing the points on the highest percentage improvement over the lower caliber gun.)
Then we have the gap between the 1/2 and 2 pdr coil guns. Looks like everything in that range should have +4 power but varying ranges between 30" and 60". Strangely there's no coil gun with +3 power though that was the original (and wrong) stat for the 1/2 pdr in the rule book, which made it less effective than the standard tank gun (due to coil gun firing risks).
I've converted some Ironclad Miniatures Faraday Electric guns to what I was going to call 1/2 pdr field coil guns, by cutting off the small tips of the Faraday gun's barrels and replacing them with shortened Imperial tank 1/2 pdr coil gun barrels. Madmorgan and I talked about giving them stats of range 40" and +4 power, and having more range than the tank gun due to bigger coils on the field gun version. With 2/3 the range of the 2 pdr coli gun they would cost 2/3 as much so 60 points each. Simple enough.
Now I think we should call the field gun conversions 1 pdr coil guns, not 1/2 pdrs. (The 1/2 pdr muzzles are actually a bit bigger than those on the 2 pdr coil gun model.)
If we do that then we have:
Infantry carried: range 15", +2 power
1/2 pdr coil gun: range 30", +4 power, tank gun only
1 pdr coil gun: range 40", +4 power
2 pdr coil gun: range 60", +4 power
3 pdr coil gun: range 70", +5 power
4 pdr coil gun: range 80", + 6 power
Looks fairly reasonable but there's a 20" difference in range between the 1 pdr and 2 pdr and a 10"-15" range between the other calibers, counting the infantry version.
I suggest we could:
a) give the 1 pdr 45" range, which is an 11% increase over the range of a 60 pt range 4", 1 pdr gun, and increase the cost of the gun by 11% to 66.7 (round down to 65 or up to 70 pts per gun). That's probably more reasonable than the alternative below because there should be a limit on the number of different small caliber coil gun fielded.
b) add a 1.5 pdr to fill the range gap with range 50", and +4 power. It would have 25% more range than the 1 pdr and therefore cost 25% more so would cost 75 points. It would have ~17% less range than the 2 pdr so should cost 17% less or ~ 74.7%, so 75 points seems right.
With alternative a) we'd have:
Infantry carried: range 15", +2 power
1/2 pdr: range 30", +4 power, tank gun only
1 pdr: range 45", +4 power
2 pdr: range 60", +4 power
3 pdr: range 70", +5 power
4 pdr: range 80", +6 power
With alternative b) we'd have:
Infantry carried: range 15", +2 power
1/2 pdr: range 30", +4 power , tank gun only
1 pdr: range 40", +4 power
1.5 pdr: range 50", +4 power
2 pdr: range 60", +4 power
3 pdr: range 70", +5 power
4 pdr: range 80", +6 power
I'm inclined toward the simpler approach, leaving out a 1.5 pdr coil gun, giving the 1 pdr 45" range and making it cost 70 points.
Opinions??
