If there are no defending ground bases, and only ships, then those COs from the ships (assuming they have any) can be used to purchase one extra GDS per CS, right?

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Thursday, September 27, 2018 - 07:10 pm: Edit

Yep, understand the number limitations for sure.
If there aren't any ground bases, then can a player purchase them with COs from the ships in the battle force?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, September 27, 2018 - 07:53 pm: Edit

Randy Blair:

The defending side in the scenario can use his ships Commander's Option Points to add Ground Defense Systems under this rule. You can think of it as prefabricated systems carried by the ship that can be set up if there is time, but too cumbersome to set up during a scenario.

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Thursday, September 27, 2018 - 08:42 pm: Edit

Ok, thank you for the clarification.

The second sentence puts an interesting spin on it, though.
If the scenario is such that both attacking and defending ships start off on opposite sides of the map, and they have to close to a GCL, then can the defending ships, in that case, still buy GDSs under this rule?

(This is a real scenario.)

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, September 27, 2018 - 10:27 pm: Edit

Randy Blair:

Scenario background matters.

If both sides ships are only just arriving, obviously the defending ships could no more deploy ground defense systems than they could purchase the maximum allowed ground troops and pre-deploy them and their organic boarding parties (and militia) before they have in fact arrived.

Your scenario background needs to establish that the defending force has had time to ready a defense on the ground.

Obviously if you have existing ground bases, even if the defending ships have not yet arrived, you could use the Commander's Options Points of any ground bases to get GDSs.

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Thursday, September 27, 2018 - 11:25 pm: Edit

Ok, that makes sense...sorta.

Then purchasing extra GDSs is one of the only COs that is different than all the rest in the sense that certain conditions (viz. defending SHIPS already present at the location) have to be met first before they can be purchased.
(Minus the scenario where an actual ground base with BPV is present, of course.)

Another moment of clarification, please bear with me: You're also saying that the non-BPV GCL cannot, in and of itself, construct additional GDSs using the COs of the ships in the battle if those ships were not already present before the scenario starts, right?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, September 28, 2018 - 01:41 am: Edit

Randy Blair:

When a scenario is created involving ground combat it may or may not define a number of existing GDS as already present. If you have a source of Commander's Option Points the defender can within the limits of the rule and the available points add additional GDS. To use points from a ship, it must start as part of the defense, it cannot arrive. Points available from ground bases can be used, but special scenario rules in all cases might define that no additional GDS can be placed. This would reflect that there was simply not time before the attack arrived, even though the defenders are not otherwise surprised.

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Friday, September 28, 2018 - 01:44 pm: Edit

Thank you. Got it finally.

By Gregg Henry (Labyr) on Friday, October 12, 2018 - 12:09 pm: Edit

I am playing a tournament style game, an Orion Battle Raider versus a Wyn Great Black Shark. I have some questions about tractor beams. Near the end of turn 1 the Orion tractors the Wyn at range 2.

1) On impulse 30 we are both scheduled to move, how is this handled? The Orion's pseudo speed is scheduled to move first. Does the Orion declare their movement first, the Wyn declare their movement? Then if the sum of their movements would amount to two hexes moved the Wyn's is resolved on impulse 30 and the Orions on impulse 31? Or are both moves recorded in secret and revealed at the same time?

2) The two ships are still tractored at impulse 32, both are scheduled to move. The Wyn's movement is resolved on impulse 32, the Orion's movement is deferred. The Orion loses the tractor auction, the link is broken at the beginning of turn 2. The Orion had declared a turn, neither ship will be moved but does the Orion change heading?

3) Consider if instead the Orion wins the tractor auction to maintain the tractor link going into turn 2. The Orion is not able to tractor rotate the Wyn as it is a larger ship, can the Orion tractor rotate itself closer to to an adjacent hex?

By Andy Vancil (Andy) on Friday, October 12, 2018 - 11:03 pm: Edit

Gregg Henry asks:

I am playing a tournament style game, an Orion Battle Raider versus a Wyn Great Black Shark. I have some questions about tractor beams. Near the end of turn 1 the Orion tractors the Wyn at range 2.

1) On impulse 30 we are both scheduled to move, how is this handled? The Orion's pseudo speed is scheduled to move first. Does the Orion declare their movement first, the Wyn declare their movement? Then if the sum of their movements would amount to two hexes moved the Wyn's is resolved on impulse 30 and the Orions on impulse 31? Or are both moves recorded in secret and revealed at the same time?

ANSWER: Units in the tractor link announce their intended moves in the order determined by the (C1.313) Order of Precedence. If the result is that the tractored pair would move more than one hex, then the movement of the smaller unit (as determined by size class, then move cost) is deferred. So, if the Orion has a lower pseudo speed than the WYN, the Orion declares first, but would get deferred if the resulting move would be two hexes.

2) The two ships are still tractored at impulse 32, both are scheduled to move. The Wyn's movement is resolved on impulse 32, the Orion's movement is deferred. The Orion loses the tractor auction, the link is broken at the beginning of turn 2. The Orion had declared a turn, neither ship will be moved but does the Orion change heading?

ANSWER: The breaking of the tractor bream is an overriding condition. The deferred movement is simply lost. The next time the Orion moves, it is free to choose its move. See (G7.36-C3).

3) Consider if instead the Orion wins the tractor auction to maintain the tractor link going into turn 2. The Orion is not able to tractor rotate the Wyn as it is a larger ship, can the Orion tractor rotate itself closer to to an adjacent hex?

ANSWER: Per tournament rules, both ships are considered to be the "same size" for purposes of tractor rotations. The Orion could pull the WYN into range 1, or push the WYN to range 3.

By Gregg Henry (Labyr) on Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - 06:48 pm: Edit

Thanks for clearing that up!

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - 09:32 am: Edit

I don't have my books handy, and I wanted to check to see if my understanding of ECM drones is correct.

If I recall correctly, ECM drones can protect ships or drone swarms, but not shuttles (including fighters). Also, I don't recall any restriction on fighters carrying ECM drones. So according to my current understanding, a Lyran fighter (since Lyran ships don't have drone racks) could launch from a carrier and then launch an ECM drone to protect the carrier (or some other ship in the Lyran fleet).

Is that correct?

By Jon Murdock (Xenocide) on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - 10:32 am: Edit

Yes, but I am pretty sure that ECM drones are limited to "special" drone rails on fighters that can carry things like Type III drones. So the Lyrans would need some of the later Klingon fighter designs to make this work. A Z-1 or Z-2 is not going to cut it.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - 11:35 am: Edit

(FD9.35) CARRIAGE: ECM drones can be carried by ships and MRS shuttles. They can be carried by SPs, although not if mounted on a type-III frame. Fighters can carry ECM drones but only fighters with "special" (J4.233) or "heavy" (J4.234) drone rails can use type-III frames. They cannot be loaded into DefSats or Captor mines.

So a Z-1 fighter can carry, and launch, a type-I ECM drone. The drone will only provide ECM for a maximum of 96 impulses less the number of impulses needed to reach the target, and the fighter will have to provide guidance (this can be transferred to another unit). If the drone is equipped with extended range, the ECM drone can provide the full 192 impulses of ECM, again less the number of impulses needed to reach the target. If the drone is equipped with ATG, then once it attains its own lock-on the Z-1 would no longer need to provide guidance.

A Z-YB or Z-YC could do all of the above, but would also be able to carry a type-III ECM drone on its special rails.

So, yes, a Lyran fighter could carry an ECM drone and launch that drone to protect a Lyran (or allied) ship, but its ability to protect a "drone swarm" would be very limited (best case would be a remotely controlled fighter launching all of its drones at once and one of those being an ECM drone, or for the drone to be included in a scatter-pack to protect the drones of the scatter-pack).

And you are correct, the ECM modules on drones cannot provide ECM to shuttles, which includes fighters (FD9.16).

By Jon Murdock (Xenocide) on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - 11:57 am: Edit

Oops, I misremembered. Apologies.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - 04:32 pm: Edit

Minor correction to my previous reply. The type-I ECM drone could only lend ECM for 92 impulses (188 impulses for a type-III or type-I with extended range), as it cannot begin lending until four impulses after it is launched (FD9.12).

My apologies for that error.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - 09:34 pm: Edit

Thanks.

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Sunday, November 04, 2018 - 01:50 am: Edit

SH252.2 Module Y2 - The Thug is listed as a YDR, is this supposed to be a YDD?

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Sunday, November 04, 2018 - 05:38 pm: Edit

In SH266.2 (Y3) the Romulan force consists of "3xH" should these be the H-S YR4.4D Romulan Cloaked Destroyer Hawk or the H-S R4.48 Hawk-S Sublight Destroyer? Both have a YIS of 140.

By Michael Kenyon (Mikek) on Monday, November 05, 2018 - 11:21 am: Edit

Ken, the G3 annex lists them as the same ship (in the notes column).

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, November 10, 2018 - 03:35 pm: Edit

Ken Kazinski asked on Sunday, 4 Nov 18:

Scenario (SH252.2) in Module Y2 - The Thug is listed as a YDR, is this supposed to be a YDD?

ANSWER: The ship should have been listed as a WDR (YR8.3A). It is the refit of the WDD (YR8.3) found in Module Y1.

Scenario (SH266.2) in Module Y3 the Romulan force lists "3xH" should these be the H-S (YR4.4D) Romulan Cloaked Destroyer Hawk or the H-S (R4.48) Hawk-S Sublight Destroyer? Both have a YIS of 140.

ANSWER: This was correctly answered by Michael Kenyon, they are three sublight Hawk destroyers; because of the extended use of sublight ships by the Romulans the Early Years runs into the Middle Years and several Romulan ships have two rule numbers, one for each period as they can appear in both. The Scenario Background makes plain that the ships are fully cloak capable (in order to sneak up on the Jindarians), so it cannot be any earlier version.

By Charles Carroll (Carroll) on Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - 11:39 pm: Edit

Ok....question on the Conquistador It has one hanger. Can it carry a Mamba?

By Jeffrey George Anderson (Jeff) on Thursday, November 15, 2018 - 12:02 am: Edit

I wish it did, Charles, but unfortunately it's only large enough to accommodate a single medium sized Sattellite Ship.

The other options for it are a Small Sattellite Ship AND a single Small Support Unit, or four Small Support Units.

The only Andromedan Mother Ship with a single Hangar box on its SSD that can operate a Large Sattellite Ship is the Imposer variant of the Intruder (R10.27 in Module R5)

By Charles Carroll (Carroll) on Thursday, November 15, 2018 - 12:36 am: Edit

Ok was pretty sure about that. But thought I would ask. If I had two Medium hangers I could carry a large Sat ship...and say a Viper. sort of like drones...you base it on the spaces available. So 2 spaces. 1.5 and .5 would work.

By Jeffrey George Anderson (Jeff) on Thursday, November 15, 2018 - 11:42 am: Edit

I think it was in module C3A that they talked about a new system for hangar load-outs where each SSD Box represented four spaces. By this system, a standard Intruder (three boxes) has twelve spaces, a standard Dominator (six boxes) has twenty four spaces, and so on.

By this system, each Medium Sat Ship takes up four spaces, where Small take up three spaces each, but Large ones take up six spaces each.

Also, the hangars are fixed; if the Mothership has its hangars configured with two bays, each one able to hold up to a large Sat Ship, it can only carry two things; it doesn't have the option of putting even so much as two SSU (which take up one space each) into a single bay.

As an example, an Intruder that's configured to carry two large Sat Ships can only rescue TWO MWPs from a lost battle. If there are three in need of rescue, the third one is SOL...

To change out how its hangar is configured requires a major refit; something that can only be done at the Desecrator Starbase.