These drones were the first step to the speed-20, -M drones used throughout the General War. They weren't used for very long, and not very extensively, so they are often overlooked as a "footnote" in drone development.

FDx.1 CHARACTERISTICS: These were faster, and longer ranged, Type II/V drones, and share all characteristics of them (including 0.5 BPV tradeout cost, and two-turn endurance), except that they go speed 16 instead of 12.

FDx.2 DEPLOYMENT: Records are unclear as to who used these drones first, and how extensively they appeared in the arsenals of various drone-using empires (one thought is that they were developed by the Federation for use in the new FFG). However, assuming all empires did use them, they would be available five years before regular type -M drones (that is, limited in Y160, restricted in Y161, and general availability in Y162).

[Years ago, there was discussion of drones with speeds in between the known 8/12/20/30 sequence on the forum. It always stuck with me, and I thought the speed 16 idea especially attractive. The timing given is because drone defense seems to get a bit more serious around Y160 (starting with the Fed CAR) before fighters become prominent, and well before the much more dangerous Type I-M becomes available. Making it based off the Type-II 2-turn drone was a much more recent thought to give it a bit more character and reason as to why it's not so well known. But it still extends the reach of those early drones from 24 to 32 hexes.]

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandar) on Thursday, July 14, 2022 - 05:50 pm: Edit

Well, they could have been used in early drone bombardment. Range 32 is better than 24 from a target. Also, the higher speed would be helpful in that roll.

So might have been only available for Drone ships like the D6D and such.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Thursday, July 14, 2022 - 07:48 pm: Edit

For comparison's sake, Speed 16 is the default for Middle Years drones over in Federation Commander.

So far as SFB is concerned, if these were to be of limited deployment in any event, I would agree with the suggestion in the previous post about limiting them to drone bombardment variants only.

As a side note: in "lost empire" Carnivon timelines from SFB Module C6, might there be an equivalent "interim" Speed 16 death bolt? Or rather, if these Speed 16 drones were to be limited to drone variants as proposed just above, then perhaps only Carnivon death bolt variants might be given access to an equivalent interim type?

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Thursday, July 14, 2022 - 10:48 pm: Edit

Drone bombardment is purely the province of the Type-III-XX, which has a much longer range, even in the speed-12 version. The extra range here is useful in normal ship-to-ship combat (and frankly, the speed moreso), but meaningless for long-range bombardment.

No, this is supposed to be the stepping stone to the Type-I-M the Kzintis know and love. "Limited deployment" reflects that it wasn't around long enough to achieve true overwhelming mass production, and that there's been 40+ years of games played in the 160-166 era without a hint of speed 16 drones. ;) Or maybe it just means that no one bothered to come up with a speed-16 Type III before the appearance of the I-M on the drawing board?

As for the Carnivons, I don't have C6, so I don't know what is done with their death bolts in the General War era. If they just get equivalent speed upgrades, then a speed-16 death bolt would make sense. Or maybe not, if they don't get speed-12 ones either.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Friday, July 15, 2022 - 04:31 pm: Edit

Some years ago, I flew a D6D in support of an attack on a planet and flew the ship in close to it (five hexes) so I could locate the GBDP and bombard them with Type-IV drones.

Big mistake.

I thought the power of a full fledged cruiser, with both Special Sensors used to loan myself ECM, would keep me safe from the phasers I was bombarding.

Sure, I had a +3 shift (if I remember things right), but with some good dice rolls, it was either my #2 or #6 shield was GONE with enough damage getting through that I was lucky to get that D6D out of there!

I did get enough Type-IV out to weaken two of the GBDP enough for another ship on my team to take them out, but my foolishness still put my team at a disadvantage.

On the other hand, if that planet had defensive Phaser-1s instead of the heavier -4s, it would have been quite different.

My point to this is that there are a couple different ways of bombarding a target with drones.