VBAM Games Forums

Howdy!

In my campaign combat is brewing more and more. As such, I started to look at some capabilities of the races there (The Menagerie).

The Ze'U'Lok Bronze Heavy Fighter feels WAAAAAAAAAYYYYY too strong.
If it was only a ground unit, it got
Tech Year 3000
Cost 0.5
Maintenance 1/8
Attack 1
Defense 3
D Factor d2
Attrition 1
Marine

Comparing that to any other ground unit in the book (including some from Tech Year 3018) It's way too much cost effective. Any Marine unit with similar stats would cost 2 and have a maintenance of 0.5

And that's where it boosts its strength. A Ze'U'Lok carrier can fit 6 of those Bronze Marines. The cost of this attack group is 11, maintenance 2. Any other power that would like to field that many troops, would need 3 Transport Fleets and 6 Marines, with a cost of 72 and maintenance of 3

On top of that Its also a Fighter Unit. Also one of the best in the book.

I don't mind the Ze'U'Lok player having all those capabilities, just at the start of the game (Tech Year 3000), while all other players will have it never. But at least it should be more costly to have such a efficient unit. My suggestion is to increase the cost times 6, and maintenance too.

I think that's valid for other transformative fighters of the Ze'U'Lok too.

I have never heard anyone say so many nice things about the Ze'U'Lok .

As I recall though Tyrel and I did find that transforming equipment in general tends to be a little underpriced for what you get. Personally I find that these aliens in general don't get played because of their inherent trade difficulties, chemical addiction, and alien nature. It almost certainly means that diplomacy never works for them and they stand very alone while other players can easily cooperate.

We should drop them in Mike' new web system and see how they hold up!

Hmm, I don't think I thought my plan all the way through!

I think the best solution is to increase the costs (both construction and maintenenance) to try and balance them more against their normal abilities. If construction costs were increased by a "step" (1/2 to 1/1, 1/1 to 3/2, 2/1 to 3/1, etc) and the maintenance denominators halved it might be a better middle-ground with the ground units. However, that may end up making them a bit too expensive... probably not, though, considering their use as ground units.

Any other thoughts from people as to how best to balance the abilities of Tranformative flights in the fighter vs. ground unit role?

I wonder if basing might be a better place to tweak. Perhaps they count as 2 flights for that purpose. I will try a few ideas tonight.

-Jay