Imperial Cruisers

[VexedDuck]

I've been comparing IN cruisers vs. Chaos cruisers. Chaos actually have a higher average points cost, at 191.1 vs. 191 for IN. This itself is not significant, but imperial ships have many advantages over Chaos.
1) Armored Prows
2)More Torpedoes
3)More Lances
4)Nova Cannons

This seems unbalanced. Any opinions?

[Wargamer]

The main differences are speed, armour, and firepower. I will go into each of them in turn:

1) Speed.
Speed is linked with armour and firepower: the more armour and guns you have, the less you need speed. Imperial ships have better front armour, so do not need the extra speed.

2) armour.
Do not underestimate the value of 6+ front armour. Even the Ork ships (who are normally very fragile) can use their armoured prows to shrug off horrendous amounts of firepower. Chaos do not get this, for reasons above and below.

3) Firepower.
Check the ranges, Imperials are under-gunned.

Almost all of their ships, most noticably the Lunar (which makes up the bulk of most Imperial fleets) lack any form of gun with more than 30cm range. With Chaos, the average range is more around the 45cm mark...

...also, do not underestimate frontal batteries. Whilst Torpedoes are brutally efficient, they need reloading. Chaos ships, which are almost always equipped with frontal batteries, do not have this problem. The fact that Torpedoes need to fire in a straight line, but Batteries don't, it another pro for the chaos.

*activates Naval Officer mode*
However, never believe their ships superior! Imperial ships are brutally efficient, and two Lunars, working in tandem, can (and will) destroy anything short of a batteship with murderous crossfire. The Chaos ships work well alone, hunting and raiding like the cowards they are. Force a Chaos fleet to fight with honour (as if those retched scum know the meaning of the word...), our glorious vessels will pound them into hulks before they can aim their guns! Have pride in the Navy, Cadet, and trust in His fleet to win the day...

[Spiritbw]

I was going to say something about this, but I think Wargamer has pretty much hit every point that ever occured to me. While they have diffrences they still good ships. They just need a diffrent stratagy to be used effectivly.

An Imperial cruiser can barrel straight ahead, absorbing hits on it's front armour while letting off salvos of Torpedos or Nova cannon blasts. Once in range it can eath dive between it's enemies while trying to lock on and unleashing it's broadsides or swinging to the side to fire. Not the most elegant but it can be done and when a couple of cruisers travel and fight in tandem they easily outgun most other ships.

Chaos cruisers on the other hand are fast. They can manouver to get shots in on the sides where the armour is weaker and at a range where a Imperial cruiser would be often unable to respond. They also get more shots in if they make thier run at the right time, hitting you first with thier prow guns to your sides then your rear arc with thier broadside in the next move.

That's pretty much about it.

[bloodedrose]

The problem i have with the chaos ships are the hideously over priced ships such as the styx class(firepower 2 lances as a primary arment) and both of the battle ships(they just lack that certain something called firepower)