Well, I suppose that is possible. Right after “when pigs fly”, “When it snows in H311” and “they prove the moon is made of cheese.”

Jeepers. The things you guys come up with.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, February 02, 2021 - 05:57 pm: Edit

"Manned Shuttles are immediately id'd as such, very few would bother killing one in that manner...."

Agree with Petrick

I believe that is a tac intel or labs ID thing.

We've played that until a shuttle does something a SP/ SS can't do the opponent does NOT know. Until he gets the Tac intel or Lab attempt....

So maybe this a really a thing!

Note my poor opponent was so surprised the first time I popped his SP with a narrow salvo he made me actually look up the rules!

Popping a SP with a narrow salvo is a well known thing IIRC. My pseudo SP is just a refinement on the tactic.

Heck, this might be MORE valuable in the tournament arena where the Klinks (?) only get one SP IIRC...

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, February 02, 2021 - 05:59 pm: Edit

By the way, in honor of Jean and Leanna I made the refence to "her" instead of defaulting to the masculine. Just because...

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, February 02, 2021 - 06:08 pm: Edit

Stewart. I agree. But my tactic is designed to vex my opponent and make him PAY to get an unshifted shot vs me.

They DON'T kill the drone I have a 2 shift. They have to allocate 4 EW to get to a 1 shift.

They DO kill the drone I still have a 2 shift unless they counter my EW with their own...

Basically I am making killing my ECM drone much less palatable for them.

This is ESPECIALLY amusing if you don't announce your EW until you get into the turn after EA. Get them to blow some battery power on other stuff.
So they have to burn batteries or maybe they run out of reserve power...

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Thursday, February 04, 2021 - 08:56 am: Edit

They're not the only women who play. I appreciated the gender swap, too.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Thursday, February 04, 2021 - 02:44 pm: Edit

Mike Grafton:

(D17.4) Levels of Information

The Scatter Pack Shuttle will be Identified at Level I.

In Tournament games (D17.4) is not used, however the information known in play is (I think) a modified Level H (the shuttle will be identified as an Admin), other information needs to be acquired from Lab.

(I think from memory the pseudo SP has been done before in the term paper)

edit, memory of cause is not 100% reliable.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, February 05, 2021 - 11:39 am: Edit

Wayne Douglas Power:

Forgive me, but what part of this data from level I reveals a scatter-pack:

"The presence of drones or plasmas on scatter packs is not reported under this rule, except that fighters or MRS shuttles used as SPs will be reported as carrying whatever portion of their weapon loads they are actually equipped with."

The text is from (D17.4) Level I and seems to provide cover to the Scatter-Pack at that level (on an admin shuttle, you cannot see Drones or plasma-Ds.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Friday, February 05, 2021 - 04:01 pm: Edit

Steve Petrick:

Forgive me, I have completely miss read the information in level I.

I read "The presence (on fighters) of external ordnance (drones, external ECM pods, type-D plasma torpedoes, etc.; the number but not the type is known; an ECM pod and a type-D both look like a drone) can be detected".

I some how missed the words (on fighters), and made the mistake thinking that the SP can be detected.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, February 06, 2021 - 03:55 pm: Edit

Waye Douglas Power>

Not a problem, we are all of us human and thus subject to error.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, February 06, 2021 - 04:10 pm: Edit

Mike Grafton:

Announcing EW. There are very few ways to hide EW.

Rule (D6.32) REQUIRES that energy allocated to EW be Announced. If you have power allocated to EW at the start of the turn, you must announce it in the Sensor Lock On Phase before proceeding to the Impulse Procedure. There is an exception that if you have allocated for ECCM and are on passive five control (such that you cannot benefit from it) you do not have to announce ECCM until you activate your fire control.

So if you allocate for ECM, your opponent knows this going into the turn, and either of you can play games with batteries. But you cannot wait until Impulse #1 (or #2 or #3 or etc.) to announce energy allocated to ECM, unless you are in fact using your batteries at that time (or a Scout loans you EW or your ECM drone has been out long enough to go active, or etc.).

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, February 06, 2021 - 04:12 pm: Edit

The Key point is that barring lending EW from an outside source which can occur in mid turn and spending batteries, you cannot hid ECM.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Sunday, February 07, 2021 - 03:07 pm: Edit

You have to announce ALL your allocated EW in EA? I thought you have to announce all your EW when it is brought up/ used. Just like a tractor...

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, February 08, 2021 - 01:29 pm: Edit

Mike Grafton:

Rule (D6.32) is rather clear on the point.

You can use battery power to allocate in mid turn, or you can drop points (forever forsaking them). But the only way you can allocate for ECCM and not announce the points is to have inactive/passive fire control, and there is no way to hide ECM points except that you are going to use your batteries in mid turn to raise them.

Special Sensors are a special case where you can have EW points added in mid turn that were allocated during energy allocation (the "pool" of EW that scouts can have for their special sensors).

But if you are a regular ship, see (D6.32) and note that it specifically says allocated points must be announced.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Monday, May 10, 2021 - 03:21 pm: Edit

The Snap Halt
Mike Grafton
USS Philippines

Whenever you are fighting amid an area with asteroids, keep in mind that you can always tractror one. By grabbing an asteroid you can:

1) Come to a screaming halt and cause your opponent to mis-time his engagement due to turn modes. Or better set up your own.

2) Hold on until your turn mode is reset. Effectively reducing your turning radius

3) Hold yourself in range while your seekers close in and destroy ground bases that require you to stay inside range 5 for lock on.

4) It you are really feeling bold, you can grab an enemy shipwith one tractror while another grabs an asteroid. Your opponent will lose her place in formation. Beware if your Destroyer tries this on the IKV Insatiable!

5) Hold yourself in place with the asteroid optimally positioned for the EW gain or seeking weapon defdense.

As always, this will require some planning and luck! "Use your tractors, darn it!"

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, May 10, 2021 - 04:47 pm: Edit

Mike Grafton:

You cannot tractor a large asteroid (or planet or moon) at a speed other then Zero. So it is not going to bring you to a "Screaming halt," or allow you to delay your turn mode or better your own.

Ground base have to be on large asteroids, and small asteroids that make up the bulk of asteroid hexes will not provide you anchors to pull this maneuver.

They are not going to anchor your ship for any sort of defense, you are going to have to stop moving for.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Monday, May 10, 2021 - 05:22 pm: Edit

Isn't asteroid hexes normally filled with multiple rocks....
Understand zero speed prevents you running into them...
But what about them running into you....
Is their speed so low damage is unlikely....

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, May 10, 2021 - 05:54 pm: Edit

Mark S.Hoyle:

Theoretically you could be hit by an asteroid, but the space between the rocks in real life makes it unlikely. Your ship would have to already be fairly derelict to be hit. You either had no way to see the rock coming so that you could move out of the way with the maneuvering thrusters, or your maneuvering thrusters (as well as other engine units) were inactive. So in game terms, an orbiting rock in an asteroid field is never going to hit your vessel, whether a one man space suit to a B10 battleship. If you head into the field too fast (above Speed 6) then your navigation computers might not be able to process the movements of the rocks in time to avoid a collision.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 - 07:42 am: Edit

poop. I figured that if you can tractor a station (even if you can't move it anywhere) then you could grab a darn rock.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 - 10:49 am: Edit

I have this image in my mind of a captain ordering a tractor beam to be established with a large asteroid while at Warp 2.5 or so...

...and the chief engineer watching in horror as the beam emitter is ripped entirely out of the ship, which promptly breaks down.

By Norman Dizon (Ichaborn) on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 - 12:15 pm: Edit

"Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1 !!!"

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 - 02:16 pm: Edit

Asteroid fields have been in the game for a long time (almost from the first issue). If there were such tactical effects, they would have been noted. Most asteroids are small enough that you are not instantly destroyed by hitting them. There is no movement cost for tractoring them, and there are no rules to (for example) seize a space rock and drag it (or push it) into your opponent's ship or use it as a shield other than by movement at Speed Zero and "docking" to it. These are in the rules.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 - 06:17 pm: Edit

How is tractoting a big old rock sitting there in space harder than tractoring a B10 moving at speed 31 in the opposite direction to the direction you are going?

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar3) on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 - 08:07 pm: Edit

Hmmm, Fed CA is approx 300 m x 130 m x 75 m and the DN is ~ 325 m x 150 m x 90 m (IIRC, been a bit); however grabbing a rock big enough to play shield is near 400 m diameter or more (maybe if ice instead of iron) ...

By Randy Green (Hollywood750) on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 - 08:08 pm: Edit

Only thing I can guess at Mike, is the rules allow traitoring the B-10.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 - 01:04 pm: Edit

Mike Grafton:

The rules plainly state that to tractor an asteroid you must be moving at Speed Zero (to dock to it) or one (to tow a large meteor (SH3.0). Seems they have stated as such for a couple of decades, nearly a half century actually. If you can find something in (G7.24) or (SH3.46), or that scenariio where the Tholians are hauling asteroids to use as anchors.

The rules do not allow you to do what you wish. I am sorry.