Can you get some EM going? Do you have bettery power to go full-ECM?

By Kerry E Mullan (Nomad17) on Monday, October 19, 2009 - 03:26 pm: Edit

Right for the imposer get some distance(disdev or just use spd) then with declared Erratic Manuevers and a scout lending to it start doing the panel drop.

Again this is best over a turn break. During EA do not charge phasers and empty batts through use of max EW, spd, normal reloads and stuff.

Once under erratics(ie running at 16 ECM so +2 shift min) and at R16+ to his ships drop all panels to standard and fill batts with energy from panels. Then recharge phasers from the just acquired energy.

Then turn off fronts or whichever panel bank allows for energy to goto batts. Repeat with other bank if possible if not possible then jsust wait til the follow turn.

By Kevin Humar-Barrett (Cheethorne) on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 09:58 am: Edit

I think I might not know all of the silly PA Panel tricks that I can use. Here are the ones that I know of:

1) At the end of the turn, each bank can transfer 10% of its current energy into batteries, with a minimum of 1 energy per bank.

2) At the end of the turn, each PA Panel box can dissipate 1 energy to space (but not a satellite ship held in a hanger).

3) Go from reinforced level to standard level on any impulse. This transfers any energy in that reinforced level to first the back panels and once they are full, it is transferred to an energy module and then to batteries. All banks are at the same standard / reinforced level. If you drop to standard level though, you can't go back to reinforced level for 8 impulses.

4) Drop an entire bank on any impulse. This is similar to above, except it takes all of the energy out of that bank and shuffles it around (first to another bank, then to an energy module, then to batteries). If you do this though, you can't raise that bank for 8 impulses.

5) On any impulse you can transfer a ton of energy from any number of PA Panel boxes to an energy module as long as the energy module has room for the energy. The energy module could then be put into space to allow it to dissipate its energy at a rate specified in the rules.

I know all of those (and I'm pretty sure I have them correct), but are there tricks involving doing things at the end of the turn or by not powering things (like not powering reinforced PA Panels) at the end of the turn that I didn't specifically mention that work faster than the 8 impulse delay?

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 12:58 pm: Edit

You can power panels only to standard at EA. You can toggle them to reinforced at will, IIRC.

If you're really gutsy you can unpower your panels at EA and then repower them to standard from reserve power on IMP 2, but there's that one impulse when you're vulnerable...

By Kevin Humar-Barrett (Cheethorne) on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 02:16 pm: Edit

Why would you have to wait till Impulse 2 to activate your panels from reserve power? Why couldn't you do this on impulse 1?

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 02:39 pm: Edit

You might be able to. It depends on when the change of panel levels is resolved on on IMP 1. I'm just assuming that the rules wouldn't allow a free panel dump.

By Tim Longacre (Timl) on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 03:14 pm: Edit

You must wait 8 impulses from the time you drop panels to a "lower state" (reinforced to standard or standard to off) before you may raise them back up again. This includes not powering them during EA.
In a way, it's similar to shields and shield reinforcement.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 05:51 pm: Edit

I thought EA was different. I'd want to see a rule # on that.

By Tim Longacre (Timl) on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 05:58 pm: Edit

I will have to find and post it when I get home from work.

By Nick G. Blank (Nickgb) on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 06:14 pm: Edit

Rule (D10.25) specifies that dropping pa panels is under the same rules as shields (D3.5). This includes (D3.52) that specifies an 8 impulse delay for dropping because you didn't power them in EA. Unless you dropped them earlier than EA during the previous turn, then the delay into the new turn would be less.

By Tim Longacre (Timl) on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 06:21 pm: Edit

Thanks Nick.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 07:30 pm: Edit

Cool. I knew there wouldn't be a free ride.

By Kevin Humar-Barrett (Cheethorne) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 09:47 am: Edit

Part two of the battle of Andro fleet vs. Hydran fleet completed.

Current Forces:
My Fleet / Andro: IMP, INT, MAM, COB, ASP, COU
His Fleet / Hydran: Paladin, Battle Tug, 1x Knight DD, 1x Earl Destroyer Leader, 1x Lancer Scout, 15x Fighters

Due to positioning of his forces, my ASP was having a hard time closing with any ship other than the Paladin. I was hoping to use the ASP against one of his destroyers to leave him with two moderately damaged ships (the battle tug and the scout), but I hit two dropped TB's and his ships were not cooperating in their positions so I fired a full shot at range 5 against the battle tug and turned away. This moved the battle tug to a moderate / heavy damage, but it was still fully capable of being in the fight (I had to shoot through another full shield).

He fired quite a few phasers at the ASP as it was moving away, gutting the ship's warp drives, but miraculously not hitting any PA Panels and only doing limited damage against the batteries. I had just enough battery space to drop both banks and move all of that energy into the batteries (filling them up with like 1 space to spare)

On turn 2, I picked up the ASP in my Intruder and I planned to use it later on effectively as an immobile weapons platform. I also moved an energy module from the Intruder to the Imposer (beamed it out, waited a bit, then picked it up again). The rest of turn 2 mostly had me swinging around and him changing his speed from 10 in reverse to 10 forward (he stopped moving near the end of turn 1). He also recovered his fighters early in the turn and reloaded them.

On turn 3, I turned back towards him, but with TB placement, I was able to break his fleet apart so that the battle tug and the Earl DDL were pointing away from my ships and at range 6 or so, and my ships closed with the paladin dreadnought and the remaining knight DD. Far behind his fleet was the lancer scout.

I transported the ASP back onto the field pointing at his Knight (it would get a shot off before he could get out of its arc) and at range 3 I unloaded as much as I could against the Paladin (obviously not from the ASP). His knight and paladin fired on the same turn and split their fire between the Imposer and the just appeared ASP.

With the wonderful panel tricks I did, and with good ECM on my side, the Imposer survived the attack with nearly full panels (no internals, but the back panel has 3 boxes left and the front panel has only a little bit more). The ASP wasn't so lucky as it got blown up completely. From my fire, I did just enough damage to destroy the Paladin and the fighters it was carrying.

We are still on turn 3 and I've got my LS weapons that couldn't fire against him, but his battle tug and earl DDL haven't fired yet (pointing the wrong direction), he's got eight fighters on the board near those two ships and I expect them to be fully charged, and his knight DD has fired all of its weapons. In front of my fleet is his scout and I should be able to swing in and hit it with my LS weapons, hopefully crippling or destroying it without getting closer to his two other ships.

I am down the ASP and the Imposer is, once again, flying around with full panels (and a lot more degradation this time), but otherwise my fleet is in great shape.

Round 2 to the Andros.

By John Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 11:10 am: Edit

Oops, he recovered fighters? I think that was a bad move. The Hydran lost the phaser G "deterent". It takes a long time to rearm fighters. If memory serves, 32 impules to land, 32 more impulses to fully rearm fusion beams (assumming double deck crews).

That was a good move on the T-bomb placement. It broke up the Hydran fleet.

In hind sight, I wonder if the Hydran player should have destroyed the Imposer rather than splitting the fire and destoying the ASP. It would be a better kill.

Anyway, I would say that the battle is over. Without the Paladin and fighters, the Andros have the advantage. The imposer can recover while the Intruder and remaining satellite ships attack.

John

By Jonathan Jordan (Arcturusv) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 12:20 pm: Edit

Ouch, sounds like some bad luck on the damage for the Hydran player. Can't see any point where he even got average rolls much less good ones. Does not bode well for me. Gonna be facing serious andromedan threats in a campaign we're starting in a few weeks. Was hoping I might glean some good ideas there. Not to mention some Hydran battle tactics as it seems most that I see consist of "Get to range two and blast".

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 01:26 pm: Edit

The moment the Imposer dumps its panels, you can start singing "turn out the lights..."

How much energy is in the e-mod? Is it full or empty?

And the batteries?

By Kevin Humar-Barrett (Cheethorne) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 01:27 pm: Edit

To John:
After landing a fighter, can't deck crews start working to re-arm the fighter at the beginning of the next turn? I agree that it takes 32 impulses to fully re-arm the 4 fusion charges, but why the additional 32 impulse wait?

To Jonathan:
I think the biggest mistake he made was not pressing against the Imposer on turn 2. On turn 2, he didn't fire any weapons at me while I circled, recharged, and removed all of the energy from the Imposer's PA Panels (obviously aside from the degradation).

He had 13x Ph-1's and 8x Ph-2's that could have been used against my Imposer with nearly full rear panels on turn 1 and then again on turn 2, but instead he chose to heavily damage the closer ASP on turn 1 and not fire them on turn 2.

A lot of the guys in my play group are similar in fleet-type engagements, they just don't see the advantage to shooting large numbers of phasers even at crappy ranges for crappy individual damage. But that damage can add up over time, especially on an Andro that has plenty of energy to drain away already. Sure, shooting a few at an undamaged Andro is a waste of time, but he had a good target, the Imposer, that was just waiting to be shot at.

By Kevin Humar-Barrett (Cheethorne) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 01:39 pm: Edit

To John T:
The e-mod was an SSU module, so I dumped 20 energy into it and transported it off the ship. I was hoping it would sit there, drain its energy, and I could circle back and pick it up, but he decided to run over it and he blew it up.

The batteries on the Imposer are currently about 3/4 empty, but I still have some energy I can drain from them (more EW, tractor to nothing, etc.), so I'm pretty sure I can dump the energy in the reinforced part of the PA Panels back into the batteries after I finish my combat pass (after shooting the scout with the LS weapons).

Actually for a timing question, which happens first: the draining energy to space and transfer of energy to batteries or the decision to drop PA Panels to standard levels from reinforced level? I think this might be the EA / turn trick that I'm not sure of.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 01:56 pm: Edit

I don't remember the order, but...

1) I know there IS an order that must be followed

2) I seem to remember the order as being disappointing from an adro's perspective. I THINK it's dissipate first, then suck 10% into batteries.

Power only standard panels at EA, I'm not sure when the energy accounting occurs. The answer should be in the panel rules along with the definitive order of power transfer events.

By Kerry E Mullan (Nomad17) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 05:02 pm: Edit

Right so on 32 you can put panels to std levesl and "suck up all excess energy"(this is in 6B8 I think either way in the 6B part of IA). Then you have to take the fire from imp 32(6D2). Then at EOT(like 6H) you MAY draw energy into the batts from panels and dissipate afterr that remaining energy equal to 1 per panel.

Then degradation rpr occurs(ie the energy you have been putting towards Dam CON similar to shield repair, but rprs degradation for andros).

Next turn just wait til the 8 imp delay is up and drop the front panels(this sends all energy to the rears which are still at std so after filling to std levels the rest goes to batts). Any fire that imp can be handled by going to rein at the time of fire. Of course if he has hells around that could be an unacceptable risk(as the front panel damage will be 100% internals).

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 11:33 pm: Edit

If memory serves, if power usage on an Andro exceeds its generating output and part of that allocation is used on a system (such as tractors) that the Andro does not use by EOT, that unused power gets returned to the batteries.

By Kerry E Mullan (Nomad17) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 10:46 am: Edit

Glen that is a true statement. But by the same factor if you believe you can use the power in the interim by panel dumping then that may not be a bad thing.

The interesting things with Andros is how they can use their phaser caps for drain or not. ie you can hold the caps if needed, or fire them(like at one of his ships from R30) and then refill them on the same turn. This is a good way to clear space for a dump.

And obviously if the IMP is beat up just going max degradation repair and normal recharge while running for a corner to get some distance can easily allow for clearing of panels. By the same token the IMP can run to clear and recharge while the INT comes in to destroy another ship. The IMP during this time can usually skip on TRs if hte power is needed or charge em if it's high on the power cycle.

As well if needed EW shifts can provide for up twelve EW used during the turn.

By Kevin Humar-Barrett (Cheethorne) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 12:50 pm: Edit

The phaser capacitor thing was something I was going to ask. So I can put energy back into the capacitor on the same turn I fire the weapons. Good to know.

Flying away for a bit is going to be my tactic for the IMP. Given the current situation and ship positioning, I like the odds of my INT, MAM, and COB vs. his moderately damaged Battle Tug (with a down 1 and 6 shield) and the two remaining destroyers.

This of course assumes that I cripple his scout with my remaining weapons, which I very much assume I will (3x TR's and a mess of phaser-2's all from the LS arc).

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 02:35 pm: Edit

The big thing is to get it out. It's glowing like a star right now. The hydrans can gut it if they can hit it hard enough, which would get them back in the game.

You're fortunate your batteries are mostly empty. Full batteries + full panels, even an intact IMP could die by cascading panel destruction.

By John Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 09:40 pm: Edit

I am going on memory regarding landing and rearming fighters. (I do not have access to the rule book. Petric would know for sure.) I remember playing this way, the fighters need the full 32 impulses to land, be moved to the rearming section of the fighter bay, etc. This carries over the end of the turn. Record keeping is extensive.

Intuitively, it would be wrong to land on 32, rearm with double deck crews next turn and then launch on impulse 1 of the following turn (34 total impulses). The minimum of 64 impulses is what I recall.

Radiation to space and power to batteries occurs during energy allocation. (I think this has been answered.) This is optional of course. Controlled shifting of power (reinforced / standard / no power) from panels happens in 8 impulse segments.

I admit that I am rusty on the Energy Module. But, I think that any excess power (as a result of shifting) goes there. The alternative is damage. I would need to reread the latest andro rules (it has been a while). Things have been modified slightly since the original Andro rules.

John