It's all about the Fed TCF....

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Monday, August 22, 2011 - 01:20 pm: Edit

No, it's all about the Hydran TUH...

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Monday, August 22, 2011 - 02:02 pm: Edit

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Quote:

No, it's all about the Hydran TUH...

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By james lee boyce II (Postalpanzer) on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - 01:31 pm: Edit

As an alternate ISC replace the ppd with 2fp S. Replace each pl g with a p1

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, November 21, 2011 - 05:16 pm: Edit

Ok, so there is currently a new Andro to playtest. It is on SFBOL as 2011 Official Playtest Andro. It has:

2x TRH
6x P2
3x batteries
6x C hull
2x cargo
28 power (2x apr, 2x imp)

But is otherwise pretty much the same Andro. It has a hangar on board, but it is non existent in tournament play (I'm not sure that it is necessary to have it in there just so the ship can be used outside of tournament play as the note says, but it also isn't hurting anything. Maybe it is just there to fill out the SSD...).

I'm going to suggest we playtest the heck out of this thing. I'd like to see the Andro become useful again.

Play the ship online. Write a report. E-mail it to Petrick.

By Paul Scott (The_Rock) on Monday, November 21, 2011 - 06:31 pm: Edit

That was exactly the configuration I suggested - what was it now, 10 years ago? More? When ever the Andro received its big neuter at Origins. At that time, the suggestion was that mine would be tried if the TRL incarnation wouldn't work.

Glad to see it is finally getting play.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Monday, November 21, 2011 - 06:39 pm: Edit

Paul,
And I hope that you find time to play 1 or 2 games and send a playtest report to Mr. Petrick. That would be a huge help.

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Monday, November 21, 2011 - 08:33 pm: Edit

Paul Scott,

The low number of internals, only 6x C hull and 2x Cargo means that ship will go from the first internal to crippled really quickly.

Is that going to be a problem?

By Paul Scott (The_Rock) on Monday, November 21, 2011 - 11:45 pm: Edit

Barry,
Yes. The batteries will also mean it has a hard time dumping. Both of those will be a problem. Problems are what the ship needed. The lack of problems - its ability to just overrun almost every opponent - was its biggest issue with regard to balance.

Paul F,
I most certainly will.

By Jon Taylor (Vendetta) on Thursday, November 24, 2011 - 07:32 pm: Edit

Does the new test Andro still have T-Bombs?

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, November 24, 2011 - 07:36 pm: Edit

It has a t-bomb. No PA mine.

By Jon Taylor (Vendetta) on Saturday, November 26, 2011 - 10:55 am: Edit

Fake T Bomb too?

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, November 26, 2011 - 04:07 pm: Edit

Yep.

By Troy Williams (Jungletoy) on Friday, December 02, 2011 - 07:55 pm: Edit

Any possibility of getting the Lyran TCA updated to the CWL? One of the few defining tactical characteristics of the Lyran hulls is turn mode. The current TCA is so 1980's.

By Chris Proper (Duke) on Friday, December 02, 2011 - 09:46 pm: Edit

That's just what happened with the LDR. The Lyran classic may need something, but miniaturization ain't it.

Edit: At this point all the big Lyran needs is viable Andromedan to kick around.

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Friday, December 02, 2011 - 10:53 pm: Edit

Does this Andro get 1 or 2 HET bonuses?

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, December 02, 2011 - 11:06 pm: Edit

Only one. It isn't nimble. So it generally has a lot of opportunities to die by rolling a "6". But usually doesn't.

By Paul Scott (The_Rock) on Saturday, December 10, 2011 - 01:18 pm: Edit

Played a game against Duke (Lyran).

On my only die roll of the game, I rolled a 6.
End of Playtest report.

By Chris Proper (Duke) on Saturday, December 10, 2011 - 01:19 pm: Edit

Just for the record, that's the only way I ever win this fight. But I win every time.

By Paul Scott (The_Rock) on Saturday, December 10, 2011 - 01:21 pm: Edit

By William T Wilson (Sheap) on Friday, July 27, 2012 - 11:42 pm: Edit

Firehawk needs 40 power, like it has in the regular game. My anchor attempts are always 2 power short.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, July 29, 2012 - 07:18 am: Edit

Heh. Do you always allocate 10 power to tractors? As the Gorn, I have found that I never can get the anchor to work unless I allocate at least 10 power to tractors. When I do that, I usually get the anchor (and generally don't need all 10 power). When I don't allocate at least 10 power to tractors, I inevitably fail to get the anchor, using all my batteries. And then I tend to lose. So yeah. 10+ power for an anchor. And the Gorn has 38 power. It's the only way to go.

By Bill Schoeller (Bigbadbill) on Sunday, July 29, 2012 - 07:45 am: Edit

Sheap had 7 power allocated to the trac, plus 5 batts. I had 5 batts only available for anti trac, and he never got inside range 3. He needed more speed to get around the scatterpack that I was running to hide behind. If he had allocated 3 less power to trac and 3 more to speed he may have caught me.

I actually did not have a ww charged at that point in time, so I really needed to RUN. I thought about using batteries to accelerate at the end of turn to avoid plasma, but it would not have reduced the warhead to take the plasma on imp 1 of turn 3 instead of imp 29 of turn 2.

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Wednesday, January 02, 2013 - 07:26 am: Edit

As the other tournaments are winding down, how is the new Andro playtest coming? Only 9 months until Council 2013, which may seem like a lot of time but really is not.

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Monday, January 21, 2013 - 02:16 pm: Edit

The following is a proposed package of alternate tournament rules (and a few changes to the tournament command cruisers). The goal of these alternate rules are four-fold:

i) reduce the overall length of tournament games;
ii) re-balance the tournament command cruisers;
iii) re-invigorate the tournament game by (slightly, but meaningfully) altering the dynamic between the matchups; for which the conventional wisdom of tactics and balance have otherwise become calcified and static after a decade of little or no changes;
iv) and accomplish goals i-iii) with the minimum change in SSDs and game play.


Alternate Tournament Rules Changes:
1) All ships with shuttles may only have one shuttle prepared prior to the start of the game as either a wild weasel or suicide shuttle (full strength, may not be downgraded). The Kzinti and Klingon scatter pack does not count against this limit. Additional wild weasels and/or suicide shuttles may be armed as per the rules.
2) No ship, except the Kzinti, may have more than 2 type-B drone racks (which has 4), not including ADD racks. Any drone racks in excess of 2 type-B drone racks are type-A racks (with 4 type-IM) drones. The 2 type-B racks must be the non-option mount racks (unless the ship has no intrinsic non-option mount drone racks). The type of rack associated with the SSD box is known by the opposing player. Type-IV drones may only be loaded in type-B racks.
3) The Klingon ADD rack, and all optional ADD racks, are reduced to ADD-6. The Klingon may substitute up to 2 type-VIM drones for ADD rounds for free. The Klingon may replace some of the 4 remaining ADD rounds with type-VIM and upgrade these using drone upgrade points using the previous rules.
4) Each individual plasma launchers is restricted to no more than 4 enveloping plasma torpedo launches per game. Once this limit is reached, the launcher may not arm or launch an EPT, but may launch or bolt any other eligible type of plasma torpedo. This limit is not reset if the plasma tube is destroyed and subsequently repaired. The record of EPT launches is public.
5) The Federation TCC gains a type-G drone rack holding 4 ADD and 2 type-IM drones. There are no reloads. This drone loadout may not be changed in any way.
6) PPDs must be destroyed on the second drone hit (if not destroyed on the first).
7) The Archeo-Tholian TCC loses one impulse and one APR.

Comments by rule number:
1) The easy presence of two suicide shuttles contributes to a (mutual) avoidance of closing to the knife fight (where the game is quickly definitive) because the threat of their presence ties up phasers which otherwise might be used for offense. This is especially true against two shuttle bay ships such as the Wyn Great Black Shark, although not exclusively. Players are allowed to arm a second real (or pseudo) suicide shuttle, so this by no means negates the use of multiple suicide shuttles (but this may require energy and time). The use of two wild weasels on turn 1 is extraordinarily rare, but tactics that turn out requiring this would be more dangerous.
2) The Wyn Auxillary TCC and Wyn Great Black Shark have become the most effective users of drones, by threatening either an effective phaser/heavy weapon attack at long an close ranges AND at least 6 turns where the number of drones and suicide shuttles would overwhelm a knife fight approach. This encourages both sides to fight a longer game trying to outlast the drone racks.
3) The Klingon needed an ADD-12 due to the drone advantage of the Wyn Auxillary and GBS, not so much the Kzinti (over which the Klingon ADD-12 gave a strong advantage).
4) Reducing the number of EPTs (effectively if you fire them staggered, the last one is turn 11) puts the 25 turn plasma ballet on a clock. Why no changes to the cloak rules? Well you often need the threat of an EPT or two S torpedoes to drive off an opponent while cloaking (or turtling). Using 2 S torps is much riskier over the long run than the EPT.
5) The Fed TCC is helped by the drone rack limitations and enveloping plasma torpedo limitations imposed on his opponents, but contemplating a little further help in the form of an extra phaser padding (or something to shoot into an ESG), not to mention stop him from using all his P-1s in defense, is needed as well.
6) This makes ships lose PPDs a little faster, so the ability to last out many turns and play keep away and sandpaper the opponent to death is uncertain; which may motivate the PPD player to close in faster for the knife fight.
7) The Archeo-Tholian does well in outlasting drone and plasma ships to begin with, so the power loss will make it harder to outrun and shoot from range. Furthermore, it may incentivize trying the Neo-Tholian, which has been a moribund alternative since the introduction of the ATC.