SDGGGW-
Just finished the Gundam X section of Another Generation. Only the Turn-A section to go, and then on to the New Generation.
I found myself needing a bigger warship than the White Base due to getting Amuro '93 via new scout link. The most obvious choice was to get another Albion as the Albion had shown itself to be fairly dependable, but no I had to go and decide to get something different instead. Curse variety. The obvious choices were the Argama, Nahel Argama, or Ra Cailum, but... I had used the Argama for several maps in the Neo Zeon conflict and it is a horrible ship.
Warships have different locations at which units launch from. The White Base and the Albion have the assault doors on the front of the "legs", for example, which gives a nice small bonus in available area units can launch to as they can use either. The Argama meanwhile has units exit onto the external catapult from the hangar at the center of the ship and get accelerated forwards off the ship. In theory. In practice, they just use the hangar as a regular exit point, so they have to waste several squares of movement moving over the warship itself. It is headdesking.
The only vaguely tangible benefit to launching from the center of the ship rather than the front is that units can get into positions to the sides or back of the ship quicker than units that are forced to leave from the front. But I have never found myself finding this possiblity worthwhile in any of the centre-launch warships I have used. A: Generally, all worthwhile warship weaponry is forward-facing only, so if you need units to the sides or backs you are either facing in the wrong direction, or you have enemies in front as well in which case it's probably a better idea to deal with them first regardless so that you can take advantage of warship support bombardment. B: Warships move further when moving directly forward than they do moving backwards or sideways, so if you try to move towards the enemy in a suitable orientation for launching units you are semi-crippling youself. C: It takes a full turn for a warship to rotate 90/180 degrees.
So, I didn't get the Argama. I didn't get the Nahel either, although I didn't remember how it worked as it was only in one map, due to the name association. I got the Ra Cailum, which not only ended up being a central-launch warship but is also considerably longer than the Argama, so most of the time units don't even clear the end of the freaking thing and have to sit off to the side. I did use the Ra Cailum in the CCA map but I didn't remember how it worked there either, and its team there was Jeigans which probably spent most of their time on-board, Re-GZ BWS which has considerably more move than the Jeigans due being a plane, and Hi-Nu which had EN regeneration due to being a Master unit and didn't need to go back to the battleship much.
While I'm railing against lousy warships, the Freeden has ONE WEAPON which hits a range of 4-8 squares in a roughly 90 degree forward arc (which is magically usable instead as a forward three-square-wide twelve-odd-square-long column when used for support bombardment...). Atrocious. The Freeden II has its exit point on the BACK of the damned ship, and this is not made up for by it being a generally small ship.
The Atomic Bazooka MAP looks hilarious. 42000 power, and MAPs here are generally direct damage and unevadable. And I've only seen one unit from memory that had more health than 42000. Sadly NukePhysalis cannot be remodelled into anything I don't already have access to so I'm not going to be using it at any time soon.
Current Team-
Albion/Zenon (GG) et al [Quin Mantha/Amuro '79, Rig Shockew/Mark (GG) [Vighna Rona/Lanalowe (GG), AEU Helion/Eris (GG), Ground GM/Aina], Gyan Custom/Kou [Dom/Char '79, Z'Gok/Usso, Death Bat/Shirou]]
Ra Cailum/Bright '87 et al [Gundam Mk IV/Camille, Crossbone Gundam X1/Amuro '93 [Gelgoog/Billy (GG), Akuto Zaku/Luke (GG), Galbaldy Beta/Alfreda (GG)], Alex Chobham Armoured/Judou [M1 Astray/Eterna (GG), Zssa/Ivan (GG), AEU Enact/Sibbuk]]
As far as I know you can't take more than two warships into a level, so I'm probably going to have to start kicking out original pilots now when I get new scout links.
