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Quote:

(511.573) FRDs, planetary repair docks (425.16), logistical task forces (526.2), military convoys, and convoys at the planet (battle location) can be attacked by Directed Damage. Crippled ships in the same system (in the fixed, not mobile box) are assigned to the planet with the most PDUs (largest, then first listed if this is a tie) and can be attacked at 2:1 by Directed Damage if that planet is under attack, even if not part of the Battle Force. If not part of the Battle Force, they cannot cause damage to enemy forces.

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By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, November 01, 2020 - 03:20 am: Edit

I await staff comments.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, November 01, 2020 - 04:31 am: Edit

It would certainly aid in the killing of more ships.

Due to the flow of the game (Alliance generally defending bases early in the game and in theory the Coalition later in the game) - it perhaps would see more Alliance hulls die than Coalition hulls.

As an idea though - to explain 'why' you can direct on Cripples in the capital hex and not anywhere else - why not give a small repair discount (10-20%) for ships repaired in the Capital, via a Capital SB (or FRD)* - the ships crews are temporarily distributed to other ships.

They are there unable to avoid combat, which cripples at other locations are.

Both sides can benefit - Alliance probably marginally more so as their capitals are generally closer to the 'front line' - although at times the Coalition does send large numbers of cripples from one front - repairs them internally and sends them to another front, they could certainly benefit from the rule.

* - Allowing several FRDS and SB's to repaid ships on the cheap, might be unbalancing.

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Sunday, November 01, 2020 - 06:15 am: Edit

Paul, FRDS, PRDs, and Bases have the ability to repair ships in combat using rapid combat repair (423.5) at the normal field repair rate. While FRDs and PRDs tend to be the first to die in combat in some hexes, this is not always the case in capital hexes because of the desire to kill PDUs to more rapidly reduce the defender's offensive compot in a given battle round.

The flip side is that even a declined approach battle allows the defender to use rapid combat repair to repair a number of crippled ships. Those repaired ships can swing a battle in the hex from certain defeat to doubt or doubt to victory depending on the size of the raiding fleet vs the size of the defending fleet total of crippled and non-crippled ships.

Paul, I suspect that the opposite of what you say is true. The coalition would be more likely to lose more hulls early in the game, and the alliance would lose them later in the game. (511.573) has been there since F&E2K, and suspect since 89. I don't know that anyone has ever used this rule because of the nature of capital assaults. I haven't read any game reports of it being used, and certainly haven't seen it used in any game I've played.

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Sunday, November 01, 2020 - 06:21 am: Edit

Mualers (308.4), and the X-Mauler Effect (523.31) could not be used to reduce the number of damage points. One, crippled ships can still maneuver to some degree, and two the existing friendly battle fleet would be maneuvering to help prevent the destruction of the crippled units.

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar3) on Sunday, November 01, 2020 - 06:25 pm: Edit

It's an interesting side-note for capital assaults, but that's all, is it better to destroy one crippled unit or one battle-line unit?

However, if expanded out to any crippled units at any repair facility, it might be worth a look, especially for rare (or unique) units ...

At present, I don't see a need for the expansion (for now) ...

By Sam Benner (Nucaranlaeg) on Sunday, November 01, 2020 - 10:28 pm: Edit

This would significantly reduce the ability to fight long battles at a SB, especially if they're close. In my current game (Blaze of Glory), there were 5+pursuit rounds fought at the Count's SB. If directing on cripples were allowed there, the Lyrans likely would have shot down my crippled BCs after the first round, meaning roughly 4 EPs of extra damage done to the Kzinti per round. That's roughly the equivalent of 16 extra damage (not compot - damage!).

That's all of my compot advantage gone, and then some. Round 2 of that combat, I had 136/5 to the Lyran 95/2. At 27.5% (which is what he rolled), that is effectively 58 more compot, so 153 compot worth of EP loss. This makes it impossible to defend a starbase without even ships. I cannot see a situation where this is good for the game.

There's no reason not to use this every round. Look at a CA:

Kill CA: 24 damage, 8-2(salvage)=6EP loss, so 4 damage/EP.
Kill ca: 8 damage, 8-2(salvage)+2(repair)=4EP loss, so 2 damage/EP.
Self-kill CA: 12 damage, 8-2=6EP loss, so 2 damage/EP.

The reason it's not used every turn in capital assaults is that capturing the hex is vastly more important than killing units. A mitigating rule at the capital is partial retreats. It's still heavily pro-coalition if partial retreats are allowed from all bases (it means the ships aren't going to get repaired...) but less so.

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Monday, November 02, 2020 - 06:57 am: Edit

Sam I disagree. Rapid Combat Repair especially at FRD parks is the offset. One, you can use all 12 repair points of an FRD or all 16 of an FRX if you reach that point. Two, the FRDs are going to be the target to reduce the ability to repair ships closer to the front. Three, if as the defender you use all of your repair points for rapid combat repair and repair enough ships to at least put the hex in doubt then the attacker is either going to kill a couple of FRDs and leave, or just leave to keep their fleet intact.

Stew is probably correct about rare or unique units to include DNs and BCHs.

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Monday, November 02, 2020 - 06:57 am: Edit

Deleted by author, duplicate post.

By Sam Benner (Nucaranlaeg) on Monday, November 02, 2020 - 09:19 am: Edit

At FRD parks, sure. The FRDs are the target. But

> or Base with the ability to repair a ship.

This will never work at starbases. The ability to direct cripples at a starbase isn't offset by RCR, it merely makes RCR mandatory.