Hi y'all, I thought I'd better follow up my previous post to let you all know what the crack is. The Kroozers have indeed had a number of mis-packs thus far. However as has been pointed out this is not neccessarily a bad thing, Ork kroozers do benefit from having a wider base, so I thought about how to 'codify' this as a rule with fluff and came up with the following:
Traktor Fields:
Any Ork cruiser can be upgraded to have traktor fields for free. The traktor field increases chances of an Ork vessel being able to strike an enemy with a boarding or ramming attack. However the field cannot be deactivated during the course of the game (it takes a very long time to power up or power back down again) and it makes the ship an easy target for ordnance and nova cannon as they ride the carrier beams to the target. Asteroid fields get a bit scary too... The traktor field is represented by mounting the Ork cruiser ship on a battleship sized base instead of the normal cruiser/escort-sized base.
Sound cool to everybody? If so I'll try to get it into WD at some point (although that involves a 3 month delay so don't hold your breath)
Ramming:
On the ramming subject I should clarify that the ramming ship completes its full move whether it hits its target or not. The wording is confusing because it ony mentions this in relation to missed rams and doesn't specify it in the case of a hit, but the ship continues to move in either case. This avoids the whole 'battleship being brought to a halt by a escort thing' and, for the velocities and momentums invlolved, prevents anything too outrageous happening - most rams are goih to be pretty much 'glancing' hits which do a few points of damage.
As to viable targets, AAF means you must move in a straight line, and you have to make base contact to ram, so effectively you have a ramming 'corridor' of your base width out as far as you speed +AAF roll, ships with their bases in the corridor may be rammed.
Incidentally, a few players came up with rules for sticking a power ram on the the front of their ship (basically so that it makes a difference whether you stick one on or not), heres my go at the same.
Power Ram/+5 pts:
If a ship with a power ram successfuly rams another vessel it automatically causes one point of damage, roll dice as normal to see if any other damage is inflicted.
And Finally
Thanks to everyone who responded about Necrons and oher races, the general consensus seems to be 'Nids first, then Necrons and finally other races. No-one seemed too interested in other Imp/Chaos ship designs (I guess you guys are quite capable of coming up with your own). A big thanks too to those people who also said such nice things about me keeping tabs on the list, Gothic has been such a fun project that I just want to help supporting it as best I can, I only wish I had more time to devote to posting on the list.
All the best
Andy