FC TACTIC OF THE MONTH Continued

TO DIRECT OR NOT DIRECT?
-Cadet James McCubbin, USS Ohio

The directed targeting rules in Federation Commander allow general targeting of weapons or power. However, there is a cost to this; "skipped" damage points are lost.

Let's take this example. Score 30 points of internal damage on a fleet-scale Klingon F5 by directed-on-weapons, directed-on-power, and standard targeting.

Directed-weapons: Ship crippled, but has some warp to leave the map. Seven missed hits due to lack of the right kind of internals.

Directed-power: Ship crippled, no power, but lives. Seven missed hits due to lack of the right kind of internals.

Standard Targeting: The frigate blows up, every time, with damage points left over.

So, use directed-weapons if you want to force a ship to leave, or directed-power if you want to capture it. To destroy a ship, use standard targeting.

I must note that the above example assumes enough damage points to destroy the ship. Scoring fewer points on a larger ship will not destroy it, or completely disarm or disable it, no matter what dice you roll. In such cases, the ship is going to survive and you'd be better off to use standard targeting and score as much damage as possible. This is especially true if the ship is undamaged and you score only a few points. After the damage is scored, see how many boxes (and kind of boxes) are left and target the second volley according to your battle plan.