Rough idea for Q-Ships in the game. No counters would be needed, but quite a few little "Q-Ship" markers would be needed to mark provinces with such ships.


Q-Ships can be purchased in each captured or owned province. These Q-Ships cost 1 EP each, and last until they are destroyed. Additional Q-Ships can be purchased, and there is no limit to the amount of Q-Ships a particular province can have.

Whenever a province with Q-Ships is in a disrupted state, the Q-Ships can be used to engage the enemy forces, one at a time. There is no reaction to this, and the enemy can choose any or all units in the hex to fight the Q-Ships with.

The Q-Ships can be used against every hex that is being disrupted within their province, and for each additional battle they fight in a turn the enemy gets a cumulative +1 to their ESSC roll.

Q-Ships have an attack, for ESSC purposes, of 4, and a defense of 8. Only a single battle round is fought in each hex. As long as the Q-Ship isn't destroyed, it can continue to fight in each hex of its province. Q-Ships don't have to fight in any given turn.

If the Q-Ships are destroyed in ESSC, the province can no longer use them, and any subsequent battles in that turn with Q-Ships will no longer be required. If multiple Q-Ships were purchased, 1 point of them is lost if destroyed, thogh additional Q-Ships can continue to attack that turn until the Q-Ship count is completed. Q-Ships can attack each hex a single time, regardless of the number of total Q-Ships in the province.

Q-Ships are only lost through ESSC, or when the province is annexed. Otherwise the Q-Ships have no effect until the original player recaptures the province.


My goal in creating these was because of all the horrible ships disrupting provinces without any chance of being opposed. If an FFT engaged a convoy, there is a darned good chance it'll be outgunned, and if that convoy had a Q-Ship it'd probably be destroyed. If you put 3 FFs into a province, they can probably survive the Q-Ships, if you have more they will probably kill it.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Saturday, February 16, 2013 - 10:17 am: Edit

Eric

For 1 Ep - this would make them far too powerful

Although - technically both sides could use it - it also is massively pro-Alliance - as the Coalition does the bulk of capturing provinces for most of the game!

Lastly - not sure what it would really add to the game - and would add alot more time to the game!

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Saturday, February 16, 2013 - 10:17 am: Edit

Eric

For 1 Ep - this would make them far too powerful

Although - technically both sides could use it - it also is massively pro-Alliance - as the Coalition does the bulk of capturing provinces for most of the game!

Lastly - not sure what it would really add to the game - and would add alot more time to the game!

By Eric Smith (Badsyntax) on Saturday, February 16, 2013 - 10:36 am: Edit

If the Coalition just used 3 E4s to raid a province, instead of 1, the Alliance would probably never use it, or if they did, they'd be out 2 EP instead of 1. This also would prevent raids from sole E4As or E4Ts that is, well, kinda silly as a single light Q-Ship would easily blow those kinda ships away.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Saturday, February 16, 2013 - 01:00 pm: Edit

I think this rule is really badly designed and does not at all reflect what Q-ships actually do.


Basically, you are creating a garrison unit, in the province, that can be anywhere in the province, for 1EP, saving a conquering player the FF or whatever needed. Not only is this unit super cheap, it also is a 4-8 instead!

Not only that, it can fight in EVERY hex of the province, for one round each province.

This proposal is also terrible in that it does not address non ESSC combat at all, which can certainly happen.

An additional point is that Q-ships are based on small and large freighters. Existing auxiliary variants of those freighters have a defense rating of 2 and 4 respectively. This pretty much means that in my opinion, a Q-ship could not have a defense factor of 8. Also, auxiliary base hull costs are more than 1 EP, regardless of size.

I recommend when you propose rules that you make them fit into F&E as best you can by modelling them on existing rules and units. For example, there base the factors and cost of your proposal on that of auxiliaries, instead of (apparently) pulling them out of thin air.

By Eric Smith (Badsyntax) on Saturday, February 16, 2013 - 07:15 pm: Edit

No, 1 q-ship could only fight in 1 hex of a province. If 6 were purchased, they could fight in all 6.

They are higher attack/defense as they don't represent a single armed small/large freighter, but those within a small convoy. Perhaps an armed freighter or two as well.

Q-Ships are there to protect against pirates and raiders, so this would basically say "if you disrupt a hex with a frigate, you engage the convoys there, it just so happens money was paid to ARM those convoys, so you can't disrupt it without any chance of repercussions).

It would use ESSC, just as any other small level combat. If you had 5 ships though, and the Q-Ships engaged, well, they'd die without any friendly casualties. Send a trio of CWs to raid a province, no amount of Q-Ships will stop them. Send 1 FFT, and it may be in trouble.

Ugh, I thought these did fit, and still do, and I didn't pull them out of thin air. At first I thought smaller units, but a single FF can easily take out a 2-4 or 3-4 armed heavy freighter. Plus, the Q-Ships are a *surprise*, so chance are any frigate trying to take out a convoy will get hurt a lot more badly than it expected.

The whole goal is to prevent a single FFT, armed with 4 weak phasers, from disrupting an entire province. That is just crazy, 6 freighters in a small convoy would chew up the FFT and spit it out. Add a Q-Ship, and the FFT is toast. This also represents the occasional armed freighter.

Q-ships would have no meaning if you disrupt all provinces with 3 frigates, or a couple DW/CWs, as they would be easily destroyed.

1 E4T has 4*Ph2s, thats it, and half of them are to the rear. A convoy with 2 large, and 4 small freighters, has 2*Ph2 and 6*Ph3, far more shields, far more hits. 2 small phaser armed freighters have just as much firepower. An E4T should simply not be able to so easily disrupt operations for an entire province.

And 1 EP is kinda cheap, but many companies would help fit the bill. Plus, again, go in with 3 frigates in a single hex, and even if the enemy spent 6 EP to fully load up the province with Q-Ships, the 3 frigates can still easily disrupt it and the enemy is out 6 EP.

Instead of spending money though, IMO, this should just be an automatic thing. Every province should have a "q-ship" ability. I can't imagine anybody wanting to track individual armed freighters and Q-Ships, but they really should be preventing crappy frigates from taking out convoys by themselves.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 12:43 am: Edit

Not the way to do it.