<\/p>\n
THE MITRAX GALAXY<\/strong><\/p>\n HELGARDIAN SHIPS<\/strong> The Helgardian Heavy Cruiser was a swift and maneuverable starship in the Mitrax Galaxy known for its powerful Particle Shotguns, regenerating Rotary Shields, and rapid firing Graviton Beams. While not as structurally sound as other Mitrax Heavy Cruisers, the Helgardian Heavy Cruiser made up for this with Four Direct-Fire Particle Shotguns, Two Rotary Shields, and Eight Graviton Beams which were spread throughout the starship. The vessel was noted to be low on Shuttles and Laboratories, weaknesses its adversaries often exploited in battle. The flexibility of its Graviton Beams to fire in four different modes provided the Helgardian Heavy Cruiser with a tactical breadth rarely seen in the Mitrax Galaxy.<\/p>\n DESIGNER NOTES:<\/strong><\/p>\n The Helgardian Heavy Cruiser was not easy to bring into balance with the Alpha Sector. But overall, I am pleased with this new design.<\/p>\n I knew that redesigning the Graviton Beam was the most important task in the effort to bring the Helgardian Heavy Cruiser into balance with the Alpha Sector. When I playtested the Helgardian Heavy Cruiser for Francois over a decade ago, the Graviton Beams were the higest concern, with Rotary Shields being the second.<\/p>\n The primary issue with the original Graviton Beams were their total damage output. Consider that the weapon, as originally designed, could fire up to four times per turn, once every eighth impuse. If the weapon scored six points of damage (maximum damage), that is a total of twenty four points of damage per Graviton Beam per turn. Remember, this is for a Phaser Type of weapon. Compare that to a PH-1 in the Alpha Sector which can score at most nine points of damage per turn. Also note that Burst Mode for a Graviton Beam allowed it to fire every second impulse, not every eighth impulse. The original Graviton Beam had four modes: standard, burst, focus, and overload.<\/p>\n My initial thought to correct this damage imbalance was to turn the Graviton Beam into something like a PH-1, which could fire only once per turn. Problem solved. But I realized that Francois wanted those four modes present not just to give the Helgardians a unique flavor when played, but also to give the Helgardian Captain more options to use in combat.<\/p>\n So I started to think of ways to balance the Graviton Beam while retaining the four modes. There were two primary solutions. The first is the damage output needed to be scaled back. With a lower damage output, it would much more acceptable (and balanced against the Alpha Sector) if the weapon fired frequently every turn. The second is that the rate of fire per turn needed to be reduced. Other minor adjustments were also necessary to the various modes and how they worked during gameplay. For example, instead of saying the Graviton Beam used the next highest Table during overload, it saved space on the SSD and was more balanced in terms of damage output to simply say the damage result was double when overloaded. Ultimately, no matter what mode the Graviton Beam utilizes, the total damage output is now comparable with a PH-1.<\/p>\n While each Graviton Beam mode provides an advantage, it also has a trade-off, which is essential for game balance (such as not being able to fire again for 32 impulses). I saw no need to allow Graviton Beams to double their damage against small targets, so that advantage was deleted.<\/p>\n Since the three original Graviton Beam Tables (Light, Medium, Heavy) had been eliminated, there was no need to have separate designations on the ship itself. So Light, Medium, and Heavy Graviton Beams were renamed and are now simply Graviton Beams. In the future, as the Helgardians develop better technology, they might develop an Advanced Graviton Beam or an X-Graviton Beam which has a higher damage output (more than a PH-1) per turn.<\/p>\n Making the Particle Shotgun balanced against the Alpha Sector proved to be more challenging than I initially anticipated. I thought changing the damage output of the direct fire weapon was all that was needed. It turns out, much more work was required.<\/p>\n Because Francois designed the original Helgardian with only three Heavy Weapons, he allowed the Particle Shotgun to score four damage points per hit (six possible hits when overloaded). This allowed for the possibility of each Particle Shotgun scoring twenty-four points of damage (when overloaded). Compared to the Photon Torpedo, this was obviously too high. There are other problems with having only three really powerful Heavy Weapons, which I have addressed in previous Mitrax commentary.<\/p>\n To bring the Particle Shotgun into balance with the Alpha Sector, the amount of damage scored per hit needed to be brought down from four to three. This would mean the maximum damage (when overloaded) per Particle Shotgun would be eighteen. This is much more in line with a Photon Torpedo. With this newly reduced damage, I was able to fit four Particle Shotguns on the Heavy Cruiser, which is a much better match with other Alpha Sector Heavy Cruisers.<\/p>\n Redesigning the Particle Shotgun Table required the most work. I didn’t like the requirement of having to multiply the number of hits by the damage per hit. This slowed down gameplay and destroyed game immersion. The Table should just show the total damage result, saving the player the time and effort of having to make an unnecessary calculation. But when I examined the Particle Shotgun Table (as presented in Triangulum), I found it very convoluted. Not only were the total damage points not shown, but the to-hit chances were inverted and the overload table was combined with the standard table.<\/p>\n My new Particle Shotgun Tables resolve all of this. The two tables have been separated into Standard and Overload for easy of use. The total damage has been indicated, eliminating the need to make damage multiplications on the fly during a game. And the to-hit inversion has been corrected so that they now show lowest roll (and highest damage) at the top rather than at the bottom.<\/p>\n When I originally playtested the Helgardian for Francois over a decade ago, I found problems with the Rotary Shields. Its ability to regenerate every turn at full capacity was deemed unbalancing. However, after rereading the rules for the Rotary Shields, and particularly noting their “porous” nature, I believe they are fine as written. This is only because they can ultimately be destroyed by hits on the DAC, taking away their protective advantage. Other Mitrax ships have Neutronium Armor, which the Helgardians do not have, so possessing a unique defense like Rotary Shields provides lateral balance between Mitrax empires.<\/p>\n Some examples I ran for Rotary Shields were: Over a decade ago, while playtesting the original Helgardian CA for Francois, I developed the Rotary Shield Tracking Table, which make it easier to track each Rotary Shield as it shifted around the ship during each turn in combat. However, the Rotary Shield Tracking Table is no longer necessary, firstly to save space on the SSD and secondly because writing on the SSD itself or a piece of note paper is just as easy and effective.<\/p>\n On the Triangulum Helgardian SSD, the Rotary Shields are noted as Rotating Shields. But the Triangulum Rules reference the device as Rotary Shields. Therefore, I eliminated the term Rotating Shields (which only caused confusion) and used Rotary Shields as the final designation.<\/p>\n In the end, the Helgardian Heavy Cruiser possesses a Heavy Weapon which scores more than an Overloaded Photon Torpedo, a Defensive System that Regenerates, and a versatile, rapid-firing “Phaser” that scores a lot of attrition damage (as well as Mizia Hits), but lacks crunch power. The Helgardian Heavy Cruiser is low on Internals and a single instant Alpha Strike, but possesses high Total Power. It is quite different from other Mitrax Heavy Cruisers, resulting in the need for different tactics to be victorious. It is these differences which make it a welcome addition to the Mitrax Galaxy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PARTICLE SHOTGUN (PS): ROTARY SHIELD (RSH): GRAVITON BEAM (GB): THE MITRAX GALAXY HELGARDIAN SHIPS (MXR6.1) HELGARDIAN HEAVY CRUISER (CA): The Helgardian Heavy Cruiser was a swift and maneuverable starship in the Mitrax Galaxy known for its powerful Particle Shotguns, regenerating Rotary Shields, and rapid firing Graviton Beams. While not as structurally sound as other Mitrax Heavy Cruisers, the Helgardian Heavy Cruiser made up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,3,5,4],"tags":[10,25,7,11,8],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-helgardian","category-mitrax-galaxy","category-ssd","category-star-fleet-battles","tag-heavy-cruiser","tag-helgardian","tag-mitrax-galaxy","tag-ssd","tag-star-fleet-battles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/operationgenesisgalaxies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MXR6.1-HELGARDIAN-CA-FINAL.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/operationgenesisgalaxies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/operationgenesisgalaxies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/operationgenesisgalaxies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/operationgenesisgalaxies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/operationgenesisgalaxies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/operationgenesisgalaxies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85,"href":"https:\/\/operationgenesisgalaxies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/85"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/operationgenesisgalaxies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/operationgenesisgalaxies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/operationgenesisgalaxies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/operationgenesisgalaxies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n(MXR6.1) HELGARDIAN HEAVY CRUISER (CA):<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n* A PL-F hits one Rotary Shield scoring 20 points of damage. 10 points would elimate the Rotary Shield (even at Reinforced Levels) and 10 points would leak through to hit the ship’s normal Shield or score Internals.
\n* A PL-S hits one Rotary Shield scoring 30 points of damage. 15 points would elimate the Rotary Shield (even at Reinforced Levels) and 15 points would leak through to hit the ship’s normal Shield or score Internals.
\n* A PL-R hits one Rotary Shield scoring 50 points of damage. 25 points would elimate the Rotary Shield (even at Reinforced Levels) and 25 points would leak through to hit the ship’s normal Shield or score Internals.
\n* An Overloaded Photon Torpedo hits one Rotary Shield scoring 16 points of damage. 8 points would nearly elimate the Rotary Shield (at Reinforced Levels) and 8 points would leak through to hit the ship’s normal Shield or score Internals.
\n* A Standard Photon Torpedo hits one Rotary Shield scoring 8 points of damage. 4 points would damage a standard Rotary Shield (and be negligable at Reinforced Levels) and 4 points would leak through to hit the ship’s normal Shield or score Internals.
\n* An Overloaded Disruptor hits one Rotary Shield scoring 10 points of damage. 5 points would nearly elimate a Standard Rotary Shield (and be negligable at Reinforced Levels) and 5 points would leak through to hit the ship’s normal Shield or score Internals.
\n* A volley of Phaser-1’s hits one Rotary Shield scoring 40 points of damage. 20 points would elimate the Rotary Shield (even at Reinforced Levels) and 20 points would leak through to hit the ship’s normal Shield or score Internals.<\/p>\n
\n* Particle Shotguns are armed over two turns.
\n* Particle Shotguns may be armed as Standard, Overload, or Underload.
\n* Standard Particle Shotguns require three points of energy on the first turn and one point of energy on the second turn.
\n* Overloaded Particle Shotguns require three points of energy on the first turn and four points of energy on the second turn.
\n* Underloaded Particle Shotguns require two points of energy on the first turn and one point of energy on the second turn.
\n* Underloaded Particle Shotguns use the Standard Particle Shotgun Table but substitute any damage result of 9 with a 6.
\n* Standard Particle Shotguns may be held for two points of energy per turn.
\n* Overloaded Particle Shotguns cannot be held.
\n* Underloaded Particle Shotguns can be held for one point of energy per turn.
\n* Particle Shotguns can score no more than three points of damage (regardless of the result rolled on the Particle Shotgun Table) when firing at Small Targets. See (EN106.47)
\n* Particle Shotguns are destroyed on TORP Hits on the DAC.
\nTreat Particle Shotguns as Photon Torpedoes in all other respects not noted above.<\/p>\n
\n* Use the Rotary Shield Rules as written under (GN100.0). There are no changes to those rules.<\/p>\n
\n* Costs 0.50 points of energy to fire once.
\n* Gravoton Beams use a Capacitor which functions just like a Phaser Capacitor. When fully charged, the Graviton Beam Capacitor has energy equal to all the Graviton Beams on the starship firing three times.
\n* Graviton Beams have four modes of firing: Standard, Burst, Focus, and Overload.
\n* Standard Graviton Beams fire three times per turn, with a mandatory eight impulse delay between firings.
\n* Burst Graviton Beams fire three times per turn, once every second impulse.
\n* Focus Graviton Beams reduce the range by 9 hexes to range 3 at best.
\n* Overload Graviton Beams double the amount of damage scored (as determined by the Graviton Beam Table).
\n* When fired in Burst, Focus, or Overload mode, the Graviton Beam cannot be fired again for 32 impulses.
\n* Graviton Beams have no particular advantage against small targets (Do not use EN101.34).
\n* There are no Light, Medium, or Heavy Graviton Beams, just Graviton Beams.
\nTreat as Phasers in all other respects not noted above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"