Rules questions as I do not know what is supposed to happen inside a tractor tunnel.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, July 30, 2020 - 05:58 pm: Edit

John L Stiff:

1. Yes (F2.32).

2. No. The Seeking weapon is carried along by the movement and then moves on its own. Unless the unit is destroyed (death dragged) as a result of the ship's movement.

3. Yes (G7.9433).

By John L Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Friday, July 31, 2020 - 01:02 pm: Edit

Thank you Steve.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, July 31, 2020 - 05:53 pm: Edit

John L. Stiff:

To be clear in response to your third query, if the seeking weapons were NOT launched at Range Zero, but launched at Range 1 or greater, and the ships were not moving fast enough to destroy the shuttles (drones are not affected by death dragging), and the seeking weapons did not move on the next impulse, then yes they could be individually tractored.

A tractor tunnel of less than one hex range would be impacted by (F2.32). Seeking weapons, including seeking shuttles, are launched (6B6) after tractors (6B4), and on the next impulse movement (6A) comes before tractors.

So if the seeking weapons were launched at Range Zero, they would hit on the next impulse (F2.32) whether the ship moved (carried in the tractor tunnel) or not.

If the seeking weapons were launched at Range 1, they would hit the target if they were scheduled to move (even if the ship moved away the tractor tunnel carries them forward with it, so their movement would result in the hit) or if the target moved into them they would be carried back by the tractor tunnel and then move and hit the ship.

If the seeking weapons were not scheduled to move and the ship was, then at Range 1 they would be carried by the tractor tunnel, and could later on the turn, be individually tractored. And if the ship and the seeking weapons were not scheduled to move on the next impulse, then yes the seeking weapons (in this case shuttles) could be individually tractored.

By John L Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Friday, July 31, 2020 - 09:09 pm: Edit

Got it.

These new rules are pretty complicated.

Lets see if I understand.

Hypothetically, if both ships moved in direction A, then the NEV would be additive (12 + 9 or 21). Meaning that the shuttles would be tractor dragged.

We know that AD is "subtractive" (12 - 9 or 3). And that AC is the same as AE (or 12). Meaning that the shuttles hit the target.

That leaves AB and AF. As there is less cancelling than AC and AE, this would result in a NEV in a number between 21 and 12. (I would have to work it out on the map to get the exact number.) Meaning the shuttles would be tractor dragged.

Thanks,

John

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, August 01, 2020 - 12:06 pm: Edit

John Stiff:

As noted in the rule, you assume the two ships movement at any given moment as the whole turn. (Even if they are only going to move on Impulse #32 because the tractor link was established on Impulse #31.) So taking the two ships pseudo speed it is actually additive for A/B or A/F. Ship #1 will move (looking at the speeds) 12 times and Ship #2 will move nine times. They will not move in a straight line, but as long as they maintain these headings, no movement will be lost.

NOTE: The movement referenced above is the movement of the two ships linked by tractor for a whole turn and is (except for the Impulse #32 movement) entirely notional, but establishes the (Effective) speed at which the ships are moving across the map for purposes of death dragging.

By Jason Gray (The_Hood) on Saturday, August 01, 2020 - 12:36 pm: Edit

You have to love the arcane nature of SFB, it's almost like reading the Necronomicon!! ))

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, August 01, 2020 - 08:01 pm: Edit

New game to be published: Star Fleet Cthulu

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Sunday, August 02, 2020 - 10:27 am: Edit

SVC, I've heard of really putting ones soul into writing, but isn't that taking it a bit far?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, August 03, 2020 - 03:19 pm: Edit

There was a mistake in the last answer. Somehow when I typed "12" is only printed the "2." I have corrected it.

By Daniel Bitseff (Cadet_Stimpy) on Wednesday, August 05, 2020 - 12:23 am: Edit

A wrinkle on this rule, (credit to Majead Farsi for unraveling this during our Sapphire battle), if you launch shuttles that would be death dragged at the current vectors -- if your ship (as the tractored ship) is scheduled to move the next impulse, and you are able to turn, you would be able to change the vectors & possibly reduce the effective speed enough to prevent the shuttles from popping. For instance, in our situation we were dir A (Majead) & dir C (me). I crippled one of the SS, which would mean that our effective speed of 12 would death drag it. However, since Majead turned dir F on his movement the next impulse, it changed our effective speed to 3 -- saving the shuttle which then impacted for 18 damage.

By Jason Gray (The_Hood) on Wednesday, August 05, 2020 - 03:24 am: Edit

So is the Effective Speed for Death-dragging established before or after the move?

By Daniel Bitseff (Cadet_Stimpy) on Wednesday, August 05, 2020 - 10:48 am: Edit

Jason, I think it is -during- the move. But since the ship technically turns first (changing the vector) and then moves forward, the vector is changed prior to the actual movement. If that makes sense at all..

By Jason Gray (The_Hood) on Wednesday, August 05, 2020 - 11:06 am: Edit

It's complicated but it does make sense......and basically means the Effective Speed for Death-dragging is established _after_ an individual ship moves.

And also means the order of movement of two ships locked in tractor can be critical!!

By Richard Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Wednesday, August 05, 2020 - 12:42 pm: Edit

The effective speed is always in existence, it is not 'established' before or after a move; it is established when a unit begins to exist and continues until it doesn't.

The effective speed of a set of tractored units is calculated the moment they are all tractored together and ends when they aren't.

Effective speed does not change in a multi-unit tractor link as long as all units stay tractored, no new units are changed, and all of the units maintain their current speed. A units speed is not affected *AT ALL* by whether or not it is scheduled to move on a specific impulse, so neither is effective speed affected by the act of moving or not moving on a specific impulse.

You can ask the question 20 different ways, but the answer will not change.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, August 05, 2020 - 01:08 pm: Edit

The direction of movement affects effective speed. If the ships are moving in directions A and C, that sets an effective speed, but if a ship turns to direction B (either one) the effective speed changes.

Same thing if ships are moving in directions A and B, and one ship for its movement turns, either to direction C (the one previously moving direction B) or direction F (the one previously moving direction A), the result is the retarding of the speed.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Sunday, August 09, 2020 - 10:02 pm: Edit

Not really a tournament ship specific question but hey, close enough.

Can the Klingon ship that is already guiding 6 scatterpack drones launch a dog fight drone at a shuttle at range 2 from the ship if it wants to?

Do dog fight drones need guidance at the point of launch?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, August 10, 2020 - 11:32 am: Edit

Jack Taylor:

Only if it dropped tracking to one of the scatter-pack drones. Even type-VI drones normally have to have a target designated unless launched under passive fire control. But active and passive fire control cannot be used at the same time.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 06:58 pm: Edit

Vudar Tournament Ship question-

In the last Sapphire tournament the Vudar was allowed to participate but no one chose it for whatever reason.

I am thinking about it a little bit but am not certain what is charged to what level at the beginning of the game.

Looking at other races a little bit I would say the IPG would be fully charged to 4 points to start the game. I would also say the Ion cannons would be able to be held as standards for 1 point each to start the game and then could be overloaded for 2 points each during allocation for a total of 3 each to get the cannons overloaded.

Does that make sense and how it would be in tournament play?

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 07:40 pm: Edit

As a follow up question on the Vudar ship-

I had never looked at the ship or it's rules before this last Sapphire tournament simply because I never had to worry about blowing one up.

Do we have any existing playtest history on the ship? Looking at it but having not played it yet - it looks pretty weak to me. I am not sure it is worth trying it in the current configuration. I applaud trying to change things up but am reluctant to playtest it if I don't think it has a chance most of the time.

Main issues I see- It's drone defense isn't great. There is only 1 IPG. It is cool but my Shark is likely to blow that off before it is of any use. I am just going to put drones in my hex and shoot at range 3. Probably a dead IPG.

The issue of only having 1 IPG is amplified by how bad phasers are out of shields 3-4-5. I think it might have the worst phasers out of those shields of any tourney ship. So drone defense is pretty crappy and out of those shields the ship can't do much to knock down plasma damage either.

I would suggest as a first place to start - can the 4 FA P1's be split into 2 FA, 1 FA+R & 1 FA+L? That helps very little but some. Also, is there some way to protect the IPG? Adding a 2nd IPG might be too much. How about when a "3" internal gets rolled that at that point the player can choose an Ion cannon if they want to instead of taking the IPG. I am not thinking that the IPG is padding for the Ion Cannon. The IPG would not be hit on a roll of "11".

Maybe everyone else looks at the Vudar like it is awesome and it's just me that see it as a bottom 3rd ship? Thoughts?

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Sunday, January 10, 2021 - 02:14 pm: Edit

Question on older Module T's. I have a copy that is from 1991, 1993 and I have a set of counters that are copyright 1995.

Was there a 1995 publication?

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Sunday, January 10, 2021 - 02:20 pm: Edit

One more question the 1995 counters, the ship's look orange or is this the yellow bleeding through the red and the ship color is supposed to be red.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, January 10, 2021 - 02:27 pm: Edit

Ok, so I vaguely remember that the "expansion" tournament SSDs (TKR, TKE, ATC, GBS, LDR, SEL) were originally printed in a supplemental pack of 6SSDs, and the counters were a separate sheet, both of which were available as spare parts?

So I'm gonna suspect that there was not a 1995 Module T; there was a 1993 Module T and then in 1995, there were the "expansion" tournament ships and counters. If you are asking about the Shark counter, I'm pretty sure it is red on yellow.

By Gregg Henry (Labyr) on Thursday, February 18, 2021 - 08:22 pm: Edit

A question about the Seltorian Tournament Cruiser.

I have the Tournament rules 2012 edition. On page 7 it says for the Seltorian: "Use the revised particle cannon and shield cracker rules found on Page #9 of this product."

Unfortunately I can't find a mention of particle cannons on page #9 of my copy.

In tournament play can a particle cannon fire a standard shot then an overloaded shot in the same turn?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, February 19, 2021 - 02:12 pm: Edit

Gregg Henry:

When the T-2000 rulebook was updated we missed the reference to page #9. The rules for the Tournament were the same as the rules for the basic Seltorians and were in the 2012 Master Rulebook.

In short: rules in 2012 were not repeated because they were not the standard rules, and were deleted from the 2012 edition of the tournament rulebook.

The rules in the 2012 rulebook noted:

T-2000 Rulebook: (E16.4) SHIELD CRACKERS affect PA panels as other weapons do. They can cause degradation and will fill the panels with energy as would any other weapon. However, as Shield Crackers cannot cause internal damage, any Shield Cracker damage which penetrate or leak through the PA panels are ignored and cause no damage.

2012 Master Rulebook: (E16.41) Shield Crackers affect power absorber panels as other weapons do. They cause degradation and will fill the panels with energy as would any weapon. However, as Shield Crackers cannot cause internal damage, any Shield Cracker damage points which penetrate or leak through the power absorber panels are ignored and cause no damage.'

T-2000 Rulebook: (E17.41) PARTICLE CANNONS: Either the first or second shot may be overloaded. Consecutive shots over a turn break (at the prescribed interval) may both be overloaded or non-overloaded or one of each.

2012 Master Rulebook: (E17.41) POWER: The particle cannon can fire overloaded shots; this requires three points of power per shot fired in this manner. Only one shot per cannon per turn can be fired as an overload due to safety requirements. Either the first or second shot (E17.33) may be overloaded. Consecutive shots over a turn break [at the prescribed interval in (E17.33)] may both be overloaded or non-overloaded or one of each.

T-2000 Rulebook: (E17.13) Ful-capability repairs for particle cannons cost 8 points. Hasty repairs cost 4 points, resulting in a weapon that is limited to one shot per turn, a capacitor maximum of 3 points, and a maximum range of 10 hexes.

2012 Master Rulebook: (E17.13) COST TO REPAIR: Particle cannons cost eight points to be repaired fully (D9.7). They can be hastily repaired by (G17.5) for four points, but can fire only once per turn with a maximum range of ten hexes and still have the twelve impulse delay of (E17.33) for firing on a subsequent turn. The capacitor of a hastily repaired particle cannon has a maximum capacity of three points of power (E17.22). Particle cannons can be repaired at facili-ties of the empire owning the ship, but not at foreign facilities. Prior to the Seltorian Revolution, Tholians and Seltorians could repair each other’s particle cannons.