Archive through February 02, 2024
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: SFB General Discussions:
Archive through February 02, 2024
Messy things, battles.
Just like a kzinti drone bombardment squadron getting itself knocked out by an energetic D-6 Battle Cruiser commander. Especially since those drone chuckers are far too useful to be put at risk before they completed the mission.
And FRDs. Very valuable themselves. But to risk one with a soon to be completed Dread Nought waiting its final procedures for activation? Gee, you would have thought no Federation flag officer would ever leave such valuable units undefended, wouldn’t you?
Or We could go on with a discussion of unlikely events that got published as scenarios that “never should have happened…”
Just because it is unlikely, does not seem to be barrier to getting published.
Like the Surprise Reversed Scenario. Should never ever occur.
But it got published.
But that misses the point.
You are proposing a tug pod mission for a troop tug pod that shouldn't be in an assault.
For precisely the same reason: it is far too valuable to risk in an assault.
Sure, if a major or minor planets PDU has been destroyed, the risk is reduced, but not entirely eliminated.
Def Sats are difficult targets, and if a commander choose to keep them alive for a golden firing opportunity…
Or if not all of the planets fighters, skiffs, PF’s etc haven’t been used ….
Or if, somehow, one or more mines somehow got overlooked (assuming the planet had a mine field…) a tug and pod combination is certainly a larger size class than fighters or size class 5 interceptors or PFs or skiffs. If the mines were programmed to ignore smaller sized units, a NSM would be a good surprise.
Worse yet, since now you want to add a proper escort force to accompany the tug and troop pod?
The klingon PDU commander would certainly be promoted and decorated if he could kill a ground assault force AND its escort.
(Klingons should be great supporters of posthumous decorations and promotions. Great for encouraging the troops!)
Besides, I ws just attempting to make a joke.
Not meant as a serious attack or to be insulting.
I do like Jeff's idea of just using heavy shuttles for the drop boats. That way, you don't need to invent a new thing, just slightly modify an existing tug pod to carry them & the Marines.
As to why drop boats at all ... you can't always rely on transporters What if the atmospherics prevent transporters??
Garth L. Getgen
Federation Tug with two pods; a Troop pod and a CVL pod. The Troop pod is standard, the CVL pod has been field modified to have most of its regular ready racks removed and is carrying a partial squadron of GAS with (perhaps) two or three HTS (or HAS?)
Given that the Troop pod already has two GAS and one HTS as standard equipment, methinks keeping four F-18s on the CVL pod will give the assault shuttles a small fighter escort, just in case.
OR given that the HTS (or HAS) would be used special for GAVs (or tanks 
); items that can't be readily moved from the Troop pod to the CVL pod (at least nowhere near as easily as Marine infantry), perhaps the Troop pod could have TWO HTS (or HAS) and NO GAS, with the CVL pod having a "Mixed Squadron" of eight GAS and four F-18s?
My feeling (I know; we're supposed to be about "Reason" here, not "Feelings." Sheesh! ) is that this is something that could easily be done as a field expedient, at most some field rework at the BatS that's the home staging ground for the assault of which this ship is part.
Anyhootch, that's just another 0.02 Quatloos on the idea.
It should be noted that the entire point of a landing capability for the troop transport pod is to be able to put a lot of troops (and whatever heavy equipment, vehicles, etc. they have in the cargo hold) on the ground quickly. If they were not being dropped for immediate use, no such capability would be necessary, as they could simply beam or shuttle down (using the HTS to land any vehicles). That's why it's impulse-capable, has shields, has a pair of point-defense phasers, and has a rather remarkable amount of power for its energy requirements.
Started trying to get my little brother into SFB, and while he's not totally into the game from the teaching match we've started, he seems really excited by the idea of flying a Branthodon space dragon, so really hoping that the Space Dragons live up to his expectations. Could really use someone I can regularly play against
Let him win the first game or two. A little endorphin hit goes a long way.
The space dragons from the monster scenario have no energy allocation. If your little brother is REAL little (i.e.: primary grades of elementary school), arithmetic may be seen as "Yucky" and could become a turn-off.
By contrast, Branthodon ships have limited energy available (power shortages, anyone?) so they may become a turn-off if not handled properly by the game mentor.
OH! One other BIIIGG advantage of the AM Space Monster Dragons; their turn mode.
Good luck, Guillaume! I hope it goes well and you and your kid brother have years of fun with all this!
What product is the Hydran Ragnar in?
The Ragnar Cruiser (RGR) is in Module J2: Advanced Fighters.
Thank you, Eric!
Question regarding the APT and FT SSDs in Advanced Missions: Both ships have a 2nd Crawford table, titled "ROM" with a much later year-in-service. I couldn't find anything in the R rules, nor the MSC. Can anyone puzzle this out?
EDIT: the year in service on the MSC for the Romulan Q ships matches the Crawford tables on the APT and FT SSDs above, but still doesn't make sense to me..
Eric: Romulans don't gain access to any of these until after obtaining tactical warp via the Treaty of Smarba.
Of course! Thanks, Jessica.
Hey what module is the Frigate Captain's Game in? I noticed U8 was missing from my scenario binder, my copy of U1 from the Basic set says it should be in advanced Missions, but the end of U7 says that it's the end of the U section for Advanced Missions. Did it get moved to one of the scenario books? I haven't been able to dig mine up to check.
Guillaume, yes, (U8.0) is in Scenario Book #1.
Thank you!
Guessing the answer is that there isn't any, but are there any specialized Energy Allocation Forms for the Omega empires? Was wondering since some of the C modules came with dedicated EAFs, like for the Andromedans, and dedicated EAFs would be useful for some of the more unusual Omega empires.
I am afraid such EAFs do not exist at this time. I am sure is a thought for the future however.
guillaume, you could MAKE one specifically for your empire of choice and submit to ADB.
If there are enough different specialized EAF ADB might publish them as a specialist module/ thingy. Or maybe filler in a Captains Log. Or just a bonus Newsletter thing.
Yeah making my own is what I figured I was going to have to do. Little bro (who is almost in college, to clarify) wants to play the Branthodon, and since they have a whole other thing going on with wing factors and vital energy I figured have a more dedicated EAF would make it easier for him to get into the game. And while I'm at it, I might as well make some other ones. Don't know if I can replicate ADB's EAF look well enough to make them good enough to be submitted, but I can give it a go. The pdf EAF in the player resources is probably what I need to try and edit if I want them to look official.
Guillaume, start with a basic spreadsheet in Excel or equivalent. And stretch the first column out for the text headings.
You can then adjust the cell borders to mimic the look and feel of ADB's EAFs.
For a better look leave a row at the top and a column on the left unedited so that you can put a border around the boxes that are filled.
This will give you a facsimile of the published EAFs with the precise headings you need and without the hassle of editing PDFs which can be hit or miss.
Guillaume, check your email.
Is there a page somewhere with all of those motivational posters that ADB posted on their Facebook a wile back? I want to put one or two on my cubicle at work, but scrolling through all the pictures posted by the Facebook to find the right one is a pain
nevermind I found it under Demotivationals in the Master Index. Guess I should have looked before asking, now I look silly.
Which Captain's Log had the original Battleforce 500 in it? (I think that's what it was called.)