SPP: Thank you.

By Randy Green (Hollywood750) on Thursday, May 07, 2020 - 08:07 pm: Edit

Also, as far as the large dummies are concerned (insert joke here), maybe the rules are that way because a Romulan ship has no place to store it while on the way to the battle. Unless you're seeking to trade the real NSM for the fake one you desire, with no reduction in BPV. That way, you would have a place to store it on board. I'm pretty sure a dummy would be approximately the same size as a real NSM and require corresponding storage space.

Additionally, I would say the main effect of a dummy mine is to influence movement, nothing more, nothing less.

My .02 Quatloos.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandar) on Friday, May 08, 2020 - 02:37 pm: Edit

The main reason is yes to influence movement. To get that ship to turn off that is following your cloaked Romulan ship. It is even better if he has to use a HET to avoid hitting the mine. Enabling you to uncloak and plaster Him with plasma.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, May 08, 2020 - 03:20 pm: Edit

It is one of those trade-offs.

If you use the rules as written, a NSM will cause an enemy ship to veer off.

If you are using hidden placement, the effect of forcing him to turn is lost, but you are more likely to get an opponent to hit a mine.

Conversely, the fact that the Romulan could have laid that mine at any time while moving along the map is going to make any one chasing the cloaked Romulan avoid any hexes he move through, and take longer to turn to chase the cloaked ship. Because any time he turns, you have to turn wider to avoid the Romulans point of turn.

By Marcel Trahan (Devilish6996) on Friday, May 08, 2020 - 05:46 pm: Edit

I have a question regarding Andromedan Energy Modules.

Can an Energy module be in the hangar and not activated (ie, not picking up energy) or it always need to be active?
If it can be inactive, can it be activated at any impulse or at any end/start of turn?

Marcel

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, May 08, 2020 - 06:20 pm: Edit

Marcel Trahan:

There is nothing in the rules that allows a EMO to be inactive. It will always pick up energy that hits the hangar bay, and can always have power transferred to it, whether voluntarily (you are shifting power from the panels) or involuntarily (it is picking up power released from destroyed panels).

By Douglas Saldana (Dsal) on Monday, May 11, 2020 - 08:37 pm: Edit

Can you have more than one power grid on a single hexside of a planetary surface? For example, if I had 2 power stations and 2 ground based defense phasers could I have 2 separate grids (each consisting of 1 power station connected to 1 GBDP)?

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Monday, May 11, 2020 - 08:40 pm: Edit

Why would you want to?

By Douglas Saldana (Dsal) on Monday, May 11, 2020 - 08:57 pm: Edit

My example was poor, let me try another. What if I had 2 power stations and 6 other small bases in which case I might want to set up 2 power grids, each with a single power station.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, May 11, 2020 - 10:56 pm: Edit

Alan Trevor:
I forget the exact rule wording.

If you could have two power grids on the same hex side of a planet, the enemy would have to target each separately in order to destroy them (and by that, I mean all of the ground station units in each grid. Two separate attacks means different rolls. Divided attacks. Depending on how much firepower the enemy has available, they might not be able to destroy all of the ground bases in a single turn. Note:this assumes all pertaining rules applied correctly.)

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - 12:31 am: Edit

The rule covering power grids (R1.28P) states, "Up to four small (and/or medium) ground bases which are on the same hex side of a planetary surfacee may be linked by a 'power grid' and are able, during Energy Allocation, to share and exchange power. (Larger bases, including SB, BAT, BS, SAM, and CPL, on planetary surfaces cannot be linked in this manner.) They are also able to share and exchange reserrve power during the turn. For all other purposes (e.g., WWs, shields, phaser capacitors), they are treated as separate units. Damage scored on one base is not transferable to another."

As I read the rules, a power grid cannot be targeted and is not represented as an SSD element, although a custom SSD for a planet (which I've seen on an excellent fan website, and it is SPECTACULAR) may show lines connecting small/medium ground bases that are on a power grid with each other as a reminded. It is lost when all but one base that are on a grid have been destroyed.

Doug? My interpretation is that, if you wanted to, yes indeed you could have two power grids on a single hex side, each one consisting of one GBDP and one GPS, OR you could go with (what is in my opinion a better option) all four bases on a single power grid.

The only limitation on power grids is given in the last paragraph of the rule for them; "The designation of which small bases are on a power grid is made before each scenario begins and can be changed between scenarios. This linkage is obvious from a distance and must be announed before Energy Allocation of the first turn."

Information on power grids is in Module R1.

Hope this helps.

By Douglas Saldana (Dsal) on Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - 01:21 am: Edit

What do you think of my second example though?

If there were a total of 8 bases on the same hex side could all 8 be in power grids (either 2 4-base power grids or 4 2-base power grids)?

Or am I limited to 1 power grid of 4 bases (or 2 power grids of 2 bases) with the extra 4 bases prohibited from joining a new or existing grid?

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - 10:24 am: Edit

Good question Doug. I could be wrong, but as I read the rules, the only limits for power grids are that there can be no more than four small or medium ground bases per power grid, you have to let your opponent know exactly what bases are gridded with each other BEFORE the game starts, all bases in a power grid must be on the same hex side, and the grids can't be changed in the middle of a scenario.

As to multiple power grids on a single hex side, I see no limitation, other than having TOO many small to medium ground bases on a single hex side can get a little nonsensical. As such, if you have eight small/medium ground bases on a hex side, you can have four grids of two bases each, two grids of four bases each, one grid of two bases and two grids with three bases each, one grid of two bases and six bases that are not part of a grid, or, or, OR!

(Then again, this is the understanding of one of the most poorest players in the history of the SFU... )

By Douglas Saldana (Dsal) on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 12:19 am: Edit

O.K. I'm going to go with that answer since there don't appear to be any objections.

BTW, I recall that custom planetary defense SSD from years ago. I thought it was pretty cool. Didn't realize it still lived somewhere.

By Richard Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 11:39 am: Edit

I could see the rule being argued as allowing only one power grid. It's a little vague, you should probably get an official ruling.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 12:03 pm: Edit

While I could also see the rule being argued to only allow one power grid per hex side, as a (screwball ) storyteller, I can also see it differently...

Imagine it this way; Earth has its six hex sides. One hex side East Asia, one is Europe, one is North America, one is sub-Saharan Africa, one is South America, and the last one covers Australia and Antarctica.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at North America; I suspect that at least the plurality of people on these boards consider it home.

We have a number of urban sprawls that can be analagous to islands in a "Sea" of agricultural, cattle ranch, national parks, and what-not.

Here in my home state of California, we have the mind bogglingly vast Los Angeles Urban Wasteland. It stretches over one hundred miles and includes (before you even get a break from housing tracts) the communities of Riverside, San Bernadino, Anaheim (home of Disneyland!), Santa Monica, and so on and so forth.

Back in "The Days," there were the Naval Shipyards at Terminal Island, the Douglas AND North American aircraft manufacturing plants, Fort MacArthur, and a good number of other places that would be represented by various small to medium ground bases. These are all serviced by the same power grid; PG&E.

I can imagine the same situation with the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and something very similar for the greater New York and northern New Jersey area.

I know the parallels may not be all that good, but as I see things, it is a not-too-unreasonable argument for allowing multiple power grids for a single hex side.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 01:09 pm: Edit

Maybe I'm missing something but I still don't see the advantage of this. Suppose you have 4 bases on a hex side. Even supposing it's legal, when would you ever want two separate grids with two bases on each, rather than putting all 4 on the same grid? What's the tactical advantage? In either case, each individual base has to be targeted as a separate object. And putting all four on the same grid gives you far more flexibility in sharing power.

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 01:18 pm: Edit

Make it 12 bases, with four of them power bases, four Ph-4 bases, and four Sensor bases, and I can see wanting 4 grids rather than the minimum of 3.

But yeah, with less than 5 bases, you always want everything on the same power grid, there's simply no downside.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 01:21 pm: Edit

Can you even put that many bases on a hex side? I had a recollection that the limit was lower, though a recent (admittedly brief) check of the rules couldn't find a specific number.

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 02:30 pm: Edit

IIRC a single PDU has multiple bases per hex-side, and in F&E you can put 20 PDU on a planet.

The only limit I remember is for asteroid deployment, where I think some asteroids can hold one (and only one) base.

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar3) on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 06:20 pm: Edit

(P3.4) A large asteroid (~1.5 km dia) may hold one small/medium base …

20 PDU is for capitals, a major is capped at 10 and a minor is capped at 6 …

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar3) on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 06:37 pm: Edit

Medium ground bases -
R1.28B - Medium Fighter base (holds a full squadron)
R1.28K - Planetary Control base (fighters + PFs!)
R1.46A&B - Bomber bases (full squadron)
R1.48B - Large heavy Fighter base (full squadron)
R1.48C - Heavy Fighter Control base (ACS)

By Douglas Saldana (Dsal) on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 07:13 pm: Edit

P3.4 notes that large asteroids are "up to" a mile in diameter and implies that special scenario rules might allow more than one base to be placed on a "really large asteroid". So, in theory, even an asteroid might be home to a power grid.

By Marcel Trahan (Devilish6996) on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 10:19 pm: Edit

A few questions regarding Q-Ships:

If a Q-ship still not revealled as such takes internals, once revealed, does the received internals remains.

Example: a S-Q posing as a F-S receive 10 points of damage in its #5 sheild, deciding not to reveal its Q-ship status, using 1 btty as reinforcement, causing 1 L warp, 1 R warp, 1 Ph-3 and 1 tarnsporter. Further along, it get 8 damage on its #1 and then reveal its Q-ship status. What happens to those 4 points of damage? Do they remain as they were? is the damage it the armor and any surplus is scored as per the DAC? are they rerolled? Q-Ship rule is not clear about that case.

If a Q-Ship reveal its nature after being fired on, can it still launch seeking weapons before rolling for damage even if launching seekers is way before direct fire?

If a Q-Ship reveal its nature after being fired on, when he fires, can he change it EW?

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 10:49 pm: Edit

Question on Mines explosions and shield facing,

A small mine is in hex 0820, it has a detection range of 1 (M2.35) (a detection zone of 7 hexes, the mine hex and the six surrounding hexes).

A ship is in hex 0920A and is not moving. Another ship, the one in this example that triggers the mine is in hex 0722A, and it moves forward to hex 0721A triggering the mine.

(M2.5) Resolving Explosions,
My understanding is the ship moving to hex 0721A takes explosion damage to the #1 shield (M2.501), and the ship not moving in hex 0920A takes explosion damage to shield #5.

When the rule (M2.501) is saying mine hex, does that include the mine detection hexes?
(this would seem correct, and to me is why a minesweeper ship has the large front shield #1).

Most of the time a ship moving forward will take the mine hit one the #1 shield, or the #4 shield if going in reverse (M2.501).
The ship would take the damage on the shield facing the mine hex (detection hex) if it side slipped into mine detection zone, not the #1 (or #4) shield (M2.53).