What are peoples ideas for toning down the SBMHAWK into something not quite so game destroying?
I think that there's a flaw in your proposition here. And that is that you should be able to engage in essentially the same WP defense tactics after SBMHAWKs show up. I think that's a very flawed way of looking at things. When fighters show up, defenders have to change their tactics. When Capital missiles show up, defenders have to change their tactics. Why shouldn't defenders have to seriously rethink what they do when SBMHAWKs show up?
I don't think that being forced to rethink and change one's WP defense tactics due to SBMHAWKs is "game destroying" at all. Indeed, I don't think that one should have the slightest expectation of being able to act as if nothing has changed and use the same old tactics here. Players *should* have to change their tactics after SBMHAWKs show up, whether that means pushing their forces back from the WP or coming up with devious tactics to deal with missile pods. (I think that I recall some players developing such devious tactics for this purpose from the old Starfire mailing list.)
I was thinking of limiting them to 6 pod datagroups that fire in sequence rather than the devastating single salvo which pretty much invalidates point defence.
The problem with this sort of limitation is that it would make it all but impossible for SBMHAWKs to have much of a chance against Asteroid Forts, for better or worse ... which would seriously go against the canonical history of the Battle of Thebes.
Having said that, I think that the "requirement" for all SBMHAWK pods to fire as a single salvo could be seen as a problem of having those SBMHAWKs firing guided missiles which are interceptable, therefore "requiring" that SBMHAWK fire be so highly coordinated so that it can swamp point defenses. If missile pods weren't based on interceptable guided missiles, but on CAM's (like a later generation of missile pods happens to be), there actually wouldn't need to be any great requirement for massive salvos. You could have could limit "CAMPODs" to groups of 10 or 6 or 3 or lower without really affecting their combat effectiveness, aside from the possibility that some might get destroyed by fighters, etc. flying CAP on the WP or active bases or ships close to the WP. Of course, such "CAMPODs" wouldn't have the range of pods carrying SBM's or even SM (if such existed). But they would alleviate some of the concerns you have about the single overwhelming SBMHAWK volley. Also, given their somewhat limited range, CAMPODs couldn't clear as great a sphere around the WP that SBMHAWKs could, for better or worse. But if someone did place AF's in close proximity to a WP, "CAMPODs" would still be very nasty even without firing in a single massive volley since its missiles aren't interceptable.
Anyways, just some food for thought at this late date....