MvM: Flak barrage (house rule)

[irishthump]

Following on somewhat from the epic Autocannon Discussion I was contemplating using a house rule to allow battlestars to use their main weapons in "flak mode" to help deal with the hordes of raiders the toasters seem to be able to throw at them.

The flak batteries and PD rules work great, but this does'nt seem as powerful as what we see on screen withe Colonial ships belting out a near-impenetrable flak screen.

Dread mentioned having this in the original draft of the CBF rules and I was hoping you guys could advise me on it since I'm no rules-guru!

My idea was to allow the heavier weapons (rail guns and mag cannons) to fire in flak-mode rather than targeting enemy ships normally. Each hardpoint can target 1 hex (in range and arc) and you roll a D10 for each fighter or missile in the hex as for normal flak fire and compare to the tragets armour value.

What do you guys think? Could it possibly unbalance things a little?

[hamilton]

Some other 'improved flak' ideas:

1. Allow ships to fire against any fighters within 1 hex, not just those attacking

2. Allow ships to fire during their own fighter phase at fighters within 1 hex, maybe at reduced effectiveness (-1, -2?)

3. Allow Screen ships with flak to fire at fighters that are attacking ships on their side where the friendly ship is within 2 hexes and the enemy fighters are within 1 hex of the Screen

4. Allow Screen ships with flak to add a bonus to friendly flak similar to P DEF - maybe +1 hex target capability or +1 die to each flak attack or +1 to each die roll in the flak attack

I haven't tried any of these, but we have discussed trying #3 or #4 in our MvM games

Other than play balance, the thing I dislike about #3/#4 is that it would almost make flak mandatory for a Screen role.

[warchariot]

1. Allow ships to fire against any fighters within 1 hex, not just those attacking

2. Allow ships to fire during their own fighter phase at fighters within 1 hex, maybe at reduced effectiveness (-1, -2?)

3. Allow Screen ships with flak to fire at fighters that are attacking ships on their side where the friendly ship is within 2 hexes and the enemy fighters are within 1 hex of the Screen

All of the above were tried during playtesting in one form or another. The Cyborgs have missiles and fighters, using the above, their fighters became close to useless if you didn't sent a ship's worth or more against a ship. The one rule I wish we had done more work on, and makes the Cyborgs tough is the cyber-infiltration rule.