Fusion Bombs are an area effect weapon all units get hit within range

By William Gary Glattli II (Wglattli) on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - 03:01 pm: Edit

I would just like to point out that that tech was from U3 where the Galactic Powers were trying desperately to find ANY tech which could save their hides from being vaporized by the Andromedans.

I refuse to waste time or money on those U3 super techs. (My R&D lists are huge enough already without adding those things to it.)

Gary

By John D Berg (Kerg) on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - 04:53 pm: Edit

i have just gotten back into the country, I will post as i read all these..grin

By John Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - 04:58 pm: Edit

And here I was thinking that J Berg was grading papers all this time (smile). You will have to tell us where you went and what you did!

John

By William Gary Glattli II (Wglattli) on Thursday, June 17, 2010 - 12:10 am: Edit

Okay, John put on my turn results that the FES could move speed 2... which better also mean speed 4 when traveling along a Trade Route while using DTM. Note that DTM becomes general availability for all races in Y160...

Gary

By John Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Thursday, June 17, 2010 - 09:38 pm: Edit

One question down! The ISC remembered DTM!

By John D Berg (Kerg) on Friday, June 18, 2010 - 09:00 pm: Edit

Ok official ruling

FES move 2 hexes a turn MAX. No DTM...just 2 hexes a turn.

D1.10 is clear and absolute.

By John D Berg (Kerg) on Friday, June 18, 2010 - 09:04 pm: Edit

Official Ruling; The HDWX count against the CWX limit in C19.40 on a one-for-one basis.

By John D Berg (Kerg) on Friday, June 18, 2010 - 09:07 pm: Edit

Howard notations are accepted:


"On the SC3 X ship limits. It is more precise to say:
qty 4 SC3 X ships (of any sort, i.e. those based upon- CA, NCA, CW, CL, etc.)
or
qty 5 SC3 X ships (CWX, CLX, or similar non CA/NCA types, and smaller than those types)
or
qty 6 SC3 X ships if they are CLX based.

So, you can have: 4xCAX or 2xCAX + CWX + CLX (for example) under the "max of 4" version. Or you can have 5xCWX or 2xCWX + 3xCLX (for example) under the "max of 5" version, or you can have 6xCLX under the "max of 6" version.

You could not have: 4x CLX, CWX, CAX; nor would 4xCAX, CWX, CLX be legal.


There are probably some empire specific corner cases (the KEX may be an example) but for the majority of the SC3 X1 hulls the cut offs should be pretty obvious.

Allowing up to 4xCAX + 5xCWX + 6xCLX in a single squadron is not what I was assuming the rule meant when it was written. "

By William Gary Glattli II (Wglattli) on Sunday, June 20, 2010 - 01:12 am: Edit

"FES move 2 hexes a turn MAX. No DTM...just 2 hexes a turn.

D1.10 is clear and absolute."

Uhm, it may be absolute, but I would not say it is clear...

Now that we have this ruling I would recommend that the different types of units mentioned in D1.10 have an addition to their unit descriptions mentioning whether or not they are excluded from certain movement types.

Rule D1.10 makes mention of three distinct types of ships: freighters and R1 units; first generation warp units; and second generation warp units.

Freighters and R1 units - this section makes note that the "Fast" freighters can use HPM, but does not exclude all other freighters from using DTM (which is a common movement type which all empires get in Y160). Recommend that this exclusion be added to this rule, as well as other similar movement types (i.e. Trans Warp Movement) in future printings.

Are there any movement types that first generation warp units are excluded from using? Their part of D1.10 is worded eerily similar to that used by the freighters in the preceding paragraph. If any, the Romulan player might want to know about them.

Obviously, second generation warp units can pretty much use all movement types.

Anyway, I recommend D1.10 be amended to include these movement rule exclusivities as they are not mentioned in the rule as it is written now (at least in my copy of the rules).

Gary

By Bennett Eugene Snyder (Planner) on Wednesday, July 03, 2013 - 03:35 pm: Edit

In building ships of a class are we limited to what is in SFB history or are we able to build according to the number of named ships in a class, as GC is somewhat different in gameplay?
For example I believe the Federation Strike Cruiser had only one ship built but there are 3 ship names in the Master Ship List. Same for the Federation DDF.

By Howard Bampton (Bampton) on Wednesday, July 03, 2013 - 04:47 pm: Edit

The RPW/LPW/RP1/etc. notes in G3 should be taken as guidance (impossible/conjectural are a different beast) as to if one can build it. They are not hardfast rules on if one should/will build it (ex: various Old Series variants and speed upgrades).

As long as the ship was built, you may build it at the applicable time. There may be other restrictions in play (X, X2, BB, conversions, etc.) that limit your build rate or modify production costs. Things like the Fed CS or Romulan FHP/ROC while rare or unique in SFB/F&E, are not limited in that manner in GC.

Do note that I have not covered:
UNV (unbuilt variant; presumably in the same boat)
CNJ (conjectual; R&D required at a minimum)
whatever the tag is for campaign conjectural
etc.

I do have some notes somewhere to cover these exhaustively as given the nature of the beast, we should cover them as well as the tangential questions of empires with holes in their rosters (SR, fleet tug, & scouts come to mind).

John B, if you wish I can step through G3 and come up with the full list and my proposals for handling them all.

By Charles C. Coleman (Mwmiyd) on Wednesday, July 03, 2013 - 04:56 pm: Edit

You can build as many ships of a class that you want as long as their YIS is active, you have the SY's to build them, you have the EP to build them, and any R&D requirement has been met if applicable. If the YIS is not active there are ways to build "prototypes" and those rules are found in the GC rulebook. You can even build ships that are not in SFB universe (but you will have to R&D them, and they may not come out exactly the way you envisioned them) As an example, lets say you wanted a Stealth Strike Cruiser (capable of cloaking or otherwise being undetectable by normal means). You would R&D the stealth first, then the ship (I may be mistaken on the order of this, you may be able to go straight to the ship, but I think you have to do the stealth first). The finished product may be a limited stealth making you difficult to find by ships not equipped with special sensors.

By John Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Sunday, July 07, 2013 - 12:25 pm: Edit

My 2 cents.

As far a Eugene's question, no, one is not limited based on SFB history. The Federation Strike Cruiser is a conversion (unless there is a racial exception.) There is no limit on the total number that my be built. There is a limit on how fast they may be built, i.e. the conversion rate.

By Howard Bampton (Bampton) on Sunday, July 07, 2013 - 11:12 pm: Edit

John S- the CS is G3 has its own subheading, which makes it a base hull. Conversion limitations do not come into play in this case.

By Bennett Snyder (Planner) on Thursday, August 22, 2013 - 06:25 pm: Edit

When building carrier escorts are they able to be done in one turn or would it take two?
I was planning to build them as new hulls whenever I start to build carriers but I think that counts as three conversions (1xDE and 2xFFE).
As far as I know the carrier and escorts need to be in service as a group at one time.

By Howard Bampton (Bampton) on Friday, August 23, 2013 - 12:38 pm: Edit

Production limits (i.e. conversion slots) will realistically impact most empires trying to build carriers. As long as one makes a good faith attempt to have the escorts and escorted unit done about the same time and in the same place, I would claim you are not going to get into trouble. If you keep building CVA/CV/CVL/CVE hulls without building their required escorts, then Bad Things happen.

I don't have my rulebook handy, but I think you get dinged for the missing ship in terms of command limits (i.e. a heavy CV requires 3 escorts and if you only have 2, it is still treated as 3).

Note that the Romulans a similar quandary with our modular ships- no matter how much I wish to only build SpF/J/B/M/C/D hulls, at least some have to be generic A's.

Also note that while most CVs that will be built in bulk take two turns to build (DN/BCH/CA based ones), most escorts take one (CW/DW/DD/FF), so you can often just plan a turn ahead.

Or spend a lot on ICR* techs. :-)

By Bennett Snyder (Planner) on Friday, August 23, 2013 - 01:03 pm: Edit

Thanks, Howard.
That's why I decided to post it because I'm sure others have the same question.

By John Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Friday, August 23, 2013 - 10:31 pm: Edit

Carrier escorts are a good thing. Without them the FTRS take up a CAN slot (or slots depending on how many FTRS you have).

By Howard Bampton (Bampton) on Friday, August 23, 2013 - 11:01 pm: Edit

Bennett- Updated answer- C20.70 states that if you have required escorts, then fighters do not consume CAN slots. If you are short escorts, then you pay CAN slots for each set of 12 fighters (or 6 heavy).

If you are in the production/assembly of your squadron's life, this is a non-issue. As the Conquest Note I just submitted shows, this is NOT something you want to have happen on the front lines.

To expand on the Conquest Note - if your enemy comes at you with a BBV, CVA, and BCV (something I expect many of us are looking at doing), blow up an escort from each instead of two escorts from the same carrier.

Note to self- build more SKEs. :-)

By Dal Downing (Rambler) on Saturday, August 24, 2013 - 12:55 am: Edit

So because escorts are so hard to build is there any thought given to AdHoc Escorts?

By Howard Bampton (Bampton) on Saturday, August 24, 2013 - 09:36 am: Edit

Occasionally one can do so (with GM approval). The primary answer is not really- the game is supposed to be about choices. If you get CV heavy and keep them working at strength, expect to be short on scouts or minesweepers. Extended periods of warfare will run you out of various things. This is just another one that might be the wall you hit first.

Even the Romulans, with their modular ships are constrained. By the book (i.e. not looking at other player specific info that I might have access to) am am less so, but there exists a strategy one could follow that would tie me in equally large knots.

By Bennett Snyder (Planner) on Saturday, August 24, 2013 - 09:45 pm: Edit

The way I see it it would take up to 3 turns to build a CVS group, even a CVA group in the following manner:
Turn one has the CVS or CVA started. (Base hull is CA or DN) (Escorts depend on whether CVS or CVA is in production.)
ECL is started for CVA from CL hull
DE is started for CVS or CVA from DD base hull

Turn two has CVS or CVA completed.
ECL is completed for CVA
Second DE is built for CVA
One FFE is built for CVS from FF base hull

Turn three has second FFE built for CVS

This is based on owning empire only being able to convert one SC4 ship per turn.

By Howard Bampton (Bampton) on Sunday, August 25, 2013 - 12:16 am: Edit

The example has two SC4 hulls being built on turn 2. Am I missing something?

If you are limited to one SC4 conversion per turn, then your CVA/CVS production rate is going to be limited by the SC4 rate (and you'll be short on good scouts too). The DW and NCL based escorts would help a lot in this respect as you'd be able to do a NAC/DWE/(FFE or DDE) each turn and those are close enough to the historical escorts that you'd probably get GM signoff. The NAC and DWE would be somewhat less durable than one might home due to the -2 DF penalty for being a "war" class.

Investing in ICR-I (extra SC4 slot), and ICR-WAR would be a good idea in this example.

By Bennett Snyder (Planner) on Sunday, August 25, 2013 - 11:06 pm: Edit

I forgot to put in an or in between
"Second DE is built for CVA
One FFE is built for CVS from FF base hull".
Fighters would take one turn for a CVS.
Two turns for a CVA and 3 for a SCS (12xF14, 12xF-18 and 6xA-20) unless a shipyard is used during the second turn.