You can download the tournament ships for free from here: http://www.starfleetgames.com/sfb/tournament/tourn_down.shtml#SSD

By Mike Kenyon (Mikek) on Friday, July 02, 2010 - 03:58 pm: Edit

I'm not a Romulan player, but from the general chatter on the boards there's reasonable concensus (IMHO) that the the TKE is the best of the ships if you like the long, chuck-and-duck game where you toss plasma out on the board and hide under cloak while reloading.

As has been mentioned, the tournament rules put a clock on this tactic. It has the worst phaser suite of the three, but the most singularly impressive plasma (though not the largest amount of overall plasma).

Generally, I hear that you just don't cloak in the KR from a straight power-curve perspective I could see why. Given the Klingon firing arcs, it would appear well-suited to the ballet.

I generally hear from most that the TFH is the best overall Rom ship, but there are definate adherants to all of them.

In evaluating which bests suites you, keep in mind the phaser suites (with the arcs), plasma setup and the cloaking costs. There are definate pluses and minuses between them.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Friday, July 02, 2010 - 04:48 pm: Edit

The phaser suite of the TKE is identical to the Orion.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Friday, July 02, 2010 - 05:12 pm: Edit

The Orion has option mounts if it wants more phasers.

I'd recommend starting with the TFH. It's the original Romulan TC and generally the most balanced. If Antoine develops a liking for First-gen Roms or Ketrels, he can branch out to the TKE or TKR.

The only reason to go for the TKE is because it's the closest ship to the Rom from "Balance of Terror". Putting it up against a Fed TC would be the closest you'd get to replaying that episode in a tournament environment.

By antoine sauliere (Brazouck) on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - 02:15 am: Edit

I will try the TFH for the current tournament, and I will see.

Thanks !

By Robert Lillquist (Chauvesouris) on Wednesday, July 14, 2010 - 04:32 pm: Edit

Let us know how the game goes and good luck!

By antoine sauliere (Brazouck) on Tuesday, August 03, 2010 - 06:24 am: Edit

Yesterday, Devil and I have started the round 2 of the RAT 35.

My TFH stand against his Gorn Command Cruiser (GCC).

We start going at each other, me at speed 30 and him at 17. Im at the bottom.
At the 13th impulse, he launch 3 torps at me, one F and two S. He continue on straight line, I think he wants to engage with his larger phaser suite. I launch my torps at imp 16, one pseudo-S and one real F, to make him think.

He turns to his left (my right) to avoid incomings, I do the same at the opposite (my right). He change speed to 31, my torps stand far away behind him.

I’m chased by his torps, at the end of turn, the two S are 2 hex behind me, the F has vanished.

I start turn 2 by drop to speed 4, plotting a speed 14 for imp 4, launching a WW in first imp. The torps hits, one is fake, the other destroy the WW and give me 4 collateral damage.

He was just out of reach of my S torp, but, in the last imp before the torp disappear, he turn to be hit, and so, discover this is a fake! Cunning Gorn …

We turn and go at each other for another try. Around imp 20 (always 2nd turn) he launch me an S type and turn to the north, that’s the situation at end of turn 2.

I have several options now. Try to bolt him and get away for another pass later, I will be hit by his S, she’s real I’m sure. Or launch all my torps and cloak to reload, I wonder if I can cloak quickly enough …

Or I can go 31, try to anchor him to pound him with 2 S and 1 F, eating his torpedo, I like this one, and you?

By Jonathan Biggar (Jonb) on Tuesday, August 03, 2010 - 12:24 pm: Edit

Probably not best to ask for coaching for a RAT game in progress. But one small hint: you can't go 31 next turn--you are limited to 14 until 4 and 28 after that.

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 12:08 am: Edit

Tactical excercise:

Y158

With their brand-new tactical-warp starships, the Romulans began hunting down the last of the major Orion pirate bases.

You have been given command of one of the 'new' Klingon D4 conversions,and have as support 2 of the 'new' War Eagles. Intelligence says you can expect at least 2 CR-class pirate cruisers, a minimum of 3 LR-class frigates, and a 50% chance of a support cruiser (SAL) being in the area. There is also between 2-4 armed small freighters in the vicinity. Your objective is a Base Station dug into a large asteroid located somewhere in a fairly dense asteroid field.

The Orions may have deployed mines in the asteroid field, but not in large numbers (ie, its not a detectable minefield).

What is your plan to approach and destroy the base?

Discuss.

By antoine sauliere (Brazouck) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 07:35 am: Edit

Continued

I have shot all torp (he avoid all of them getting 31) and cloak, it has worked, I have escaped his two attacks, get to the right of the map to reload and now i'm uncloaked, I need 1 more turn to be able to fire again, I hope I will stay alive this turn.

By Jim Davies (Mudfoot) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 04:35 pm: Edit

Mike -

take the D4 over there somewhere and broadcast a fake distress signal from a convoy full of dilithium. Cloak the WEs, hope enough of the Orions take the bait, take them round the back of the asteroid and pound it to scrap. If the D4 can get to the base without attracting ships, well and good.

Seriously, if those ships are around, you have no hope.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 05:25 pm: Edit

Agreed. The defense force outguns the attackers by about 2:1 when you toss in the base.

I'd want to talk my opponent into hidden mine deployment, which will help, but not enough.

lacking P-4s, the base isn't that big a deal by itself except as an EW platform. Its mines are useless since driving in to engage at 2:1 odds against is silly. The roms aren't going to do it.

I'd toss R-torps at the base from range-20, preferably along a hex grain so the plasmas can choose their shield to impact, run, and hope the Rom force can defeat the incoming orion ships. As long as the WEs survive, their R-torps should eventually kill the base's last weasel and beat it into submission. That will bring the orion ships out to play away from the EW support of the base. if they cluster around the base, I'd pound it repeatedly with R-torps and see if it has enough phasers and reisnforcement to handle it. Envelopers would help this out a lot but IIRC they don't exist yet.

The D4 would be there to screen the empty WEs with its plasma and generally force the Orions to engage it first. Because it lacks a R-torp, the D4 is the most expendible unit on the romulan side. After the initial strike, Ron strategy will revolve around trying to split the Orion force up and defeat it in pieces.

After the original attack, they'll want to run like hades to try to get torps rearmed before the orions catch up.

Roms want to use TBs and NSMs to cover their own maneuvers. All Rom units are SC3, so they can set some mines to SC4 only so they can get back through their own minefield. they could consider setting them all for SC4 just to screen out or damage the LRs, but the roms only have a max of 12 TBs plus 2-3 NSMs.

The orion armament will be mostly G and F torps plus phasers. Nothing any rom wants to face on the surface when their best speed is 20. the game will eventually devolve ibnto a sub-hunt.

In the end, there's only so much tapdancing the roms can do before they're in the position of decloaking with armed and angry Orions right on top of them.

It goes south fast for the roms at that point.

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 06:04 pm: Edit

Reminder: as the base is ON the asteroid, destroying the asteroid will also result in the destruction of the base.

Clarifications:

No Orions have cloak.
Use Hidden Cloak, as well as Hidden Mines.

As the Orions are trying Not To Be Seen, all Orion units are WS-0.

Yes, you are outgunned and outnumbered. Welcome to the Romulan Imperial Navy...;)

As you get closer under cloak, passive sensors reveal 2 small armed freighters, 2 LR's, 2 CR's, and what appears to be a SAL docked to an asteroid. All are speed zero.

The Orions haven't noticed you, it seems.

What do you do?

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 06:28 pm: Edit

What's the previous-turn speed for the Orions?

The Roms have one "golden" shot because phasers take one turn to energize.

How close can the roms get to the base without being detected? Can they decloak at range 0 and put phasers and torps into it at point blank?

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 06:31 pm: Edit

Moderate-to-high sublight speeds.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 06:41 pm: Edit

This has potential only if the roms can't destroy the base with their first attack.

The roms have a smorgasbord of targets. Nobody can weasel. Nobody can even phaser down the plasma. They can only raise shields and wince. what's more, the Orions won't be able to move on anything but battery power.

The big question will be which of two options to follow:

1) Quick and bloody - plasma the base and hope the roms can finish with phasers and book before the Orions dogpile them.

2) Long Game: plasma some ships and book out of base EW range of the base, and run a base seige.

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 07:38 pm: Edit

Using the TacIntel and Hidden Cloak/Mine rules, describe how close you think you can get to the base (yes, its the one the SAL is docked to) without being detected.

The Orions are using Silent Running to keep from being picked up on long-range sensors; this will help you.

The asteroid field is dense enough that until you get within about 80,000 km of the base, you won't have a clear plasma shot.

The Orion ships are all within 15,000 km of the base.

Sensors show all Orion option mounts have phaser-1's.

By Jim Davies (Mudfoot) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 07:57 pm: Edit

The Orions aren't surprised, so if they have plasma-F, drones or T-bombs they can land some significant hurt on the Roms. Likewise, they can go speed 10 which allows some control of the situation. If a CR or SAL can get to short range and slap a tractor on a WE, the Rom is toast. Not that they're likely to be that close.

If the worst comes to the worst, the Orions can launch shuttles and have them phaser the plasma, though they'd obviously be better as weasels.

It depends heavily on the exact start position of the Roms. The Roms were sublight on Turn 0, so they're speed 10. To hurt the base they need to land a pair of R20 plasma-R on it by i32, so need to get to R20 by i12, assuming a clean shot free of rocks. At speed 10, they must start no more than 23 hexes away. Using speed changes and Stupid Tractor Tricks that's probably 25 hexes. That yields 50 damage less 21 shields, some reinforcement, EW, asteroids and shuttle phasers. This will strip the armour, about 3 phasers and lots of fluff off the base but not be hugely significant, especially if it has modules. Most importantly, it won't get anywhere near the shuttle bay.

The D4R can't usefully contribute here, so fends off the Orion ships.

It's an asteroid field, so the turn mode A and AA Orions can easily zip around the rocks and use them to soak plasma, which the slow turn mode D Roms can't. The D4R is better, of course, but still slow.

On T2, the Orions are speed 20 (depending on weapon arming costs), and the Roms are probably about speed 15 and cloaking. Nobody gets close enough to do anything much, unless someone eats a hidden NSM. The base sets to repairing itself and lands any spare shuttles it launched as phaser platforms.

T3, the Orions start subhunting. Someone may eat a mine. As the Orions have 7 ships, the hidden cloak isn't such a huge problem as it might otherwise be.

T4+, the Roms may pop up again and launch plasma, which will get weaselled. Any emerging Rom will get hammered before it dives, though it's unlikely to be all that significant. Rinse and repeat. This will take a while...

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 08:20 pm: Edit

The WEs come with NSMs as standard IIRC. If they can lay nuclear eggs close enough, they may be able to significantly damage several targets. Setting the NSMs for two different size classes may help them both go off at once (the SAL/CR and LRs are different size classes I believe, don't know what the freighter's size class is). Does the D4 have a cloak installed? What about Commander's Options, are they available? If so, the D4 can buy a NSM as well. If you get a perfect detonation, that would be 70 (105 if the D4 has one) damage against the whole lot.

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 08:27 pm: Edit

The D4 is a recent addition to the Romulan fleet, but has plasma's and cloak (as per the SSD).

And yes, it has an NSM.

All Romulan ships also have a full loadout of T-bombs.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 08:34 pm: Edit

This would make an interesting scenario I think.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 08:54 pm: Edit

Thinking some more... well... since destroying the asteroid the base is on is an option, if you go that route then any seeking weapons launched at the asteroid will not be distracted or affected by weasels or EW in any way. It takes 400 points of damage to destroy the asteroid, which will be difficult to achieve quickly. Don't have the SFB rules, but IIRC the asteroid itself should block some of the base's firing arcs. If the defending ships can be dealt with, I can sit in a blind arc of the base and pound the asteroid with plasma until it disintegrates.

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - 09:29 pm: Edit

Terry gets a cookie.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 01:29 am: Edit

Personally, I'd just put out that, per the intro paragraph of P3.4, "Only one small or medium ground base can be placed on any given large asteroid..." and that this conflicts with P2.7, which states that "Large ground bases include starbases, battle stations, base stations..." etc.

Then, *poof*, the obviously holographic projection of an Orion base would disappear in a cloud of logic!

(Now, of course, if it had been a "Really Large" asteroid, then I would be worried!)

By Andrew Harding (Warlock) on Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 03:15 am: Edit

My solution is the same as Terry's. Find a spot within 50 hexes of the base with no more than nine (with EW) or three (without EW) hexes of asteroids in the way. Melt the asteroid with Phasers. Expect a hard fight against the Orion ships when they come out to play and/or arguments over stalemate rules, whether asteroids and planets should be vulnerable to this type of attack and whether it's worth gaming out siege situations.
Also comment on how silly the Orions were to build a major base on an asteroid, since building it as a standalone base costs the same and avoids this vulnerability.