I can't find it anywhere, but is the Chain Reaction rule in for tournaments? This came up during a game I was watching, though I did not say anything (not being sure myself)

By Kerry E Mullan (Nomad17) on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - 04:41 pm: Edit

Josh,
Chain Reactions are not used in tourney.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - 05:39 pm: Edit

Tnx, Andy.

By Jacob Karpel (Psybomb) on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - 05:02 am: Edit

Thank you, Kerry

... though it's Jacob, not Josh

By Tim Kinnaird (Cptcrybaby) on Saturday, February 26, 2011 - 09:50 am: Edit

Question pertains to SFBOL tournament.

In RATs c4f is required.

1. If I initiate c4f am I required to fire a weapon or can I try to goad him into firing while I hold all of mine?

2. If the answer to above is that I must fire something, would shooting an ADD at my own out-of-range shuttle qualify?

By Andy Vancil (Andy) on Saturday, February 26, 2011 - 01:35 pm: Edit

c4f and then not firing is a standard tactic. If someone calls for fire, either both or neither could fire

By Gregg Dieckhaus (Gdieck) on Saturday, February 26, 2011 - 08:11 pm: Edit

If you initiate C4F, you are not required to fire.

By Andrew J. Koch (Droid) on Saturday, February 26, 2011 - 09:16 pm: Edit

You can use the c4f to goad your opponent into firing if you like. It doesn't work as often as you might think think, as most have their minds made up. But you can do it.

By William T Wilson (Sheap) on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - 11:24 pm: Edit

Also, unless I'm out of date, it's only required if the players can't work out on their own whether to use it or not. Many players prefer not to use it, even in RATs, and that is fine.

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Saturday, May 14, 2011 - 02:44 pm: Edit

Is it legal in a tournament game to beam a pilot onto a friendly inert scatter pack?

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, May 14, 2011 - 04:39 pm: Edit

I'm pretty sure you can beam a pilot on board a inert SP/WW and fly the shuttle back to your ship. But I think the shuttle can't do anything but move (i.e. no phasers till it lands and gets reset).

By Andy Vancil (Andy) on Sunday, May 15, 2011 - 12:54 am: Edit

You can't board an enemy shuttle in the tournament, but you can recover a friendly inert shuttle by beaming a pilot aboard. This is commonly done. See (J1.865) for the procedure.

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Sunday, May 15, 2011 - 06:26 am: Edit

Another question on manned shuttles.

Ive seen players use plotted speed changes on there admins to increase the speed a bit. How do you do that in the client on SFBOL? Is it in notes or can it be set another way?

Im assuming the pilot beamed aboard could set a speed plot at the next turn break. But I was wondering, what about speed changes near the end of one turn and beginning of another.

Lets say a Kzinti SP has a pilot beamed aboard on imp 32 of turn 1, can a shuttle make a speed change that late in the turn. What if the pilot was beamed aboard say on 27, speed changes are allowed on 27, but transporter activity is after speed changes.

So it makes it possible for the admin to do something it otherwise cant, make a mid turn speed change. I do wonder about the sequence of play and if the shuttle has to announce the speed change the impulse after beaming. And I also wonder would the pilot need to get there imp 26 to make the change in speed before the mid turn speed changes end for the turn. Do shuttles not have to follow that rule of no speed changes after 27.

In our game it was early in the turn, and didnt matter but was wondering for the future.

Lets say I beam a pilot on a voided or inert friendly shuttle in a tournament game on imp 26. The pilot sits down at the controls on imp 27 and punches the gas to a max of half its maximum 3. Then at the start of the next turn the pilot can set a speed plot up to 6. Is this right or am I still not getting it.

Thanks for the rule number.

We get alot of Demo guys comeing onto SFBOL. And everyone with the time tries to help them learn the client, often a challange. Its a complex program with tons of features I still don't know how to use.

There doesn't seem to be a tutorial substitute for being talked through your first few games. What I was wondering is about energy allocation notations, Ive seen a wide variety of abbreviations used. Is there some standard that your supposed to use, I would hate to be doing my ea forms wrong and teaching those bad habits to others.

I usually have no complaints on my eaf's when I play.

Anyone have any ideas on an easy way to explain the 2 pts of overload energy per photon launcher you get on the Federation ship to a guy that barely remembers the mid 80's rules here and there.

I think its great that were getting a trickle of both returning and completly green players popping onto SFBOL, and a surprising number are signing up then of course they have to update their rules or there completly lost. The eMRB makes that easier than ever, and hopefully will stay current with a few updates when needed.

You know somebody should make a good YouTube Tutorial of SFBOL, maybe with different ones for the tricky parts. I have no camera to make one. Maybe they have them, but the SFBOL one didn't prepare me that well for playing a Demo game, and it doesn't seem to help the guys coming to me for help learning. You have to type an explanation of everything out, each and every time a new player tries it. Fortunatly ive not scared them all away.

I know I miss some things about the face to face version of SFB. It like other wargames was a fun social event, but the client is great in many ways too. I bet if more people knew about it they would play. I had no idea, hadnt really even thought about this game in years.

Well thanks to any who respond to my shuttle question and other ramblings.

And if you have somebody needing shown where the buttons are to fly there ship send em in, well get them jackpotting photons in no time.

When I learned how to play SFB I was in HighSchool, and in face to face you didn't really need to own a copy to start learning. I just wish the demo game on SFBOL could be a bit easier on the carpel tunnel. I don't mind typing to play the game, but a day spent explaing the the SFBOL tournament GUI can be exhausting.

I wish you could have a setting to let one player view the others EAF, and maybe even let you enter the EA for them the first time.

Thanks for the rules answer again.

By Ken Lin (Old_School) on Sunday, May 15, 2011 - 08:13 am: Edit

Well, here's one way to note photon energy (this is how I do it anyways):

2h
2h
5 (1h+4)
5 (1h+4)

By Jonathan Biggar (Jonb) on Monday, May 16, 2011 - 12:35 am: Edit

That's one of the nice features of the SFBOL client program. The EAF ignores anything after a valid number in a spreadsheet cell.

I use that to note whether one of my TACS is ipulse by writing 3i (3 total TACS, one is impulse).

By Andy Vancil (Andy) on Monday, May 16, 2011 - 01:44 am: Edit

Speed plots for shuttles in SFBOL are kind of screwy. The best way to record your intentions would be to put an entry in the log, although an entry in the unit notes works for the first turn it is out there, and probably no one would complain if you just wrote it down at the bottom of your EA.

You CAN do speed plots for shuttles, but the problem is you can't set them the impulse of launch or during EA. The best you can do is open up the IA window the next impulse, select the speed change phase, go to the action tab and open the speed plot. Unfortunately, when speeds get announced at the beginning of a new turn, the shuttle will always come up with the speed that was in the plot at the beginning of the previous turn.

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Saturday, June 04, 2011 - 08:28 pm: Edit

Does the Hydran start holding ship fusion beams at the start of the game?

By Mike Johnson (Akira) on Sunday, June 05, 2011 - 06:50 am: Edit

Hydrans do not start holding fusions. I don't think there are any tournament-specific rules about this- it goes back to the weapons status rules and what they say about held weapons at WS-III. Fusions are excluded from being held in those rules.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, June 05, 2011 - 08:49 am: Edit

Yeah, the basic rule is that tournament ships start at WSIII and follow all the rules in the basic rule book about WSIII, unless the tournament rules say otherwise.

By Stephen McCann (Moose) on Thursday, July 21, 2011 - 09:28 pm: Edit

Question from a game tonight:
My opponent broke down and then tumbled. He was asking if he got the 4 ecm from tumbling as provided in C6.553

I believe he does not, as that rule states the ship is considered to be using erratic maneuvers, which are not used in the tournament. He disagress, so we thought we could ask here.

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Thursday, July 21, 2011 - 10:59 pm: Edit

When tumbling in the tournament game;

"(C6.553) Ships that are tumbling are considered to be using Erratic
Maneuvering (C10.0). (If you do not have Advanced Missions, this
can be simulated by adding four ECM points to the tumbling ship.)"

In ordinary circumstances, the EM rules are not used in the tournament game. The description of EW in T2000 specifically calls out other possible sources as either allowed or not allowed; however no mention of tumbling EW is mentioned. Also, the rule seems to have some built in provision that if EM is not present in the game, then you should get 4 ECM.

I'm not arguing one way or the other, just saying it isn't entirely clear to me and it seems in need of a ruling.

It is not clear to me what being considered to using EM implies other than EW benefit - possibly that the ship cannot control seeking weapons.

However tumbling essentially prevents firing weapons or "taking any other action" which presumably means that no voluntary actions (except reasonably EA) can be made. It is not clear to me if this disallows control of seeking weapons as well. If it does not, then disallowing EM for tumbling would have the odd effect of not giving the ship 4ecm while letting it control seeking weapons.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Friday, July 22, 2011 - 12:29 am: Edit

Well, I would suggest that if it says use the EM rules and if tournament rules say you dont use EM rules, then you dont use EM if tumbling.

However, the remainder should still apply IMO; ie no firing weapons or 'taking any other action'.

As to controlling seeking weapons, I don't know of any ruling about that.

By Koen van der Pasch (Croga) on Friday, July 22, 2011 - 01:56 am: Edit

Module T states about EW:
"No ship can use power for ECM or ECCM, but ECM can result from several factors".
I'm assuming the list that follows is non-exhaustive. ECM from tumbling is "natural ECM" and should, IMHO, still be applied.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Friday, July 22, 2011 - 02:56 am: Edit

Is tumbling used in the tournament game?

By Koen van der Pasch (Croga) on Friday, July 22, 2011 - 05:27 am: Edit

Terry;
I haven't been able to find any information on that specifically.

Breakdown is explicitly mentioned as a rule that is in use. Tumbling is not under the "rules not in use". This combination would suggest to me that tumbling is indeed used.

This is, however, all from the 1993 Module T. I'm afraid I don't have a more recent version available so it could be that T2000 has more information on all of this.