Faction Spotlight: Ma'Alaketh Confederation

Yes, Ob1, I understand that. But that holds true for a single ship trying to get marines on board.

Imagine that part way through a battle where both of us are playing Genari. You have already used your allocation of pods and are out of marines, whilst I still have mine left. Unfortunately, I have had my weapons taken out and nave not been able to repair them yet. I need you to take down the enemy's shields so I can launch my marines, but the enemy knows this and so ensures he has enough power in the shields that would be affected so that all you can do is take them out, but not do damage. As you will not get XP for taking down the shield facing that will allow me to get my marines on board, why will you assist me? It would be better from your point of view to attack from another facing. the enemy will need to reduce the shield strength you will have to go through as he still wants to block me from launching marines. So you attack a different facing, face lower shields, and can do some damage. Between the two of us, we force him to flee from the battle, but one way I get all the XP, the other you do. A true tactical assist like this and there is no benefit for one of the players. As assist only works if both players damage the opponent, which promotes one side 'bundling' a single ship of the opponent's side and overwhelming it by force of numbers. This is the obvious requirement for taking on larger ships. It just won't necessarily work all the time.

 

Or you simply attack on an arc that he hasn't put up shields. Nobody is going to fully charge all 6 sides' shields without having no power for anything else.

 

Isn't that what I just said? (BTW, it's "Nobody is going to fully charge all 6 sides' shields without having any power for anything else.")

Player 'A' has no weapons available, but has marines.
Player 'B' has no marines left, but has a 3 damage weapon that can be fired twice per turn.
Both players have enough energy to power shields enough to absorb damage from the enemy.

Enemy vessel has enough power to give a single shield facing a rating of 6, 2 facings a rating of 3 each, 3 facings a rating of 2 each, or every facing a rating of 1 [or, of course, different combinations of these up to a total of 6].

Why would player 'B' fire on the facing that ensures the shields drop for player 'A' to launch marines? Getting marines on board is the only way player 'A' can gain XP, so all the enemy has to do is keep a strength 2 shield on that facing to stop him from getting any on board [assuming the ability to fire 2 pods per round]. If player 'B' fires twice on the shields he drops them but causes no damage, meaning player 'B' gets nothing but the satisfaction of helping his side. Player 'A' kills crew and gains XP. If the enemy turns and runs player 'A' gets all the XP from that too.

If, on the other hand, player 'B' fires on an opposing shield facing he guarantees facing only strength 4 shields as the enemy needs to keep a strength 2 shield facing player 'A' or be boarded. so worst case scenario is that he fires twice. Shields absorb all of the damage from the first shot, but are left only at strength 1 for the second. The second shot tears through the shields and does 2 damage to the enemy vessel. IF that damage does not change the dynamic by reducing the available power the enemy vessel has, or it's drive or shield capacity, this procedure can be repeated again. Either way, the enemy vessel will eventually run or be destroyed. At which point this time player 'B' gets all the experience.

No matter which ship you are captaining in this scenario you can't take out the enemy vessel without the help of the other player, but in each scenario only one player can hope to get any XP, so why does that not qualify as an 'assist'? Player 'A' can't do anything on his own as he doesn't have weapons and launching marines through a shield is suicide for the marines. Player 'B' can't do anything on his own as the enemy can raise enough shielding to block the attacks and it once again ends in stalemate.

Vesuvius, I don't believe you can do it any other way, but it seems to me that this will push people to playing competitively with others from their own faction rather than cooperatively.

 

then theres the whole can you even get in range and chill there a few turns to pull that off without being blown to bits, i think itll be harder than it seems atm given the information thats here already, ill probably end up playing the Ma'Alaketh also, get myself one of there dreadnoughts

 

Yeah, I'd like to see more of this race. Now I think of them as the Eldar race in Warhammer 40k!

 

Actually I am thinking closer towards Vorlons of Babylon 5.........

 

That's the hive, with the bio ships.

 

Just a minor comment, I like the new visual and sound effects of the particle beam.

 

I'm thinking their weapons aren't supposed to be this powerful (those long beams can do one hit kills on even a frigate) but they're just so until they're playable? Otherwise M players would smother the other races. Because when you look at the ship cards in the shipyard page on the website, even their strong cruiser only puts out as much as most destroyers do. Its the range of the weapons that seem to be superior, not the damage.

 

Thats what Im thinking of the tech. They might be squishy inside but wonder what a bunch of marines would do to their ship if low crew etc..

 

So, from what I have seen from probing the Maal line, the only way to really beat them one on one is to just tank and take the hits. Are there any special weaknesses they have besides lower hull integrity and a weak crew? Also, with those PDC lasers, how will it even be possible to board them (This kind of negates the balance of a weaker crew in my opinion). So far, the most difficult ship to beat has been the Intrepid, because (I've been in the Liverpool) It can run circles around me, it's shields are almost impossible to take out while still doing damage (Making counterfire ineffective) and it still dishes out a similar, if not slightly superior amount of damage per turn (I wasn't using the lasers on the Liverpool, because I needed the power to keep up with the damn racecar). All that to say, I think maybe they should receive some sort of small nerf (Or maybe they're stronger than they will be in game because they haven't been implemented?) to balance them slightly

 

Ive seen the specs on the intrepid, its like a liverpool3 with more firepower and shields. But Maalaketh doesnt get fleet commander skill, so they're always going to be alone without Ai support. So their ships have to be something stronger, since you can user your AI ships to double your effectiveness. Also that PDC laser, its just one, so it means 'if' they armed it with counterfire, it will only stop one marine pod. A simple honor bound would get two pods on it and with crew levels so low (also the Maalaketh crew strength is weaker than sol) that could take out a lot of their power.

 

Alright, I didn't know about the fleet commander skill. Also, when I mentioned the PDC's I wasn't referring solely to the Intrepid, I was also talking about defense ships like the Legionnaire that has 4. I just feel that, unless you have the fleet commander skill you will have a difficult time dealing with them. I know I personally spend captain points on initiative, but that's just me.

 

Maalaketh race opened up to the public, but I'm still Genari