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How to play bad Federation Commander
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texastwister
Ensign


Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 17
Location: Austin, TX

PostPosted: Tue May 13, 2008 8:40 pm    Post subject: Reloading drone racks Reply with quote

mahatmamanic wrote:
Forgetting to reload drone racks

It sucks to be on turn four, firing a wave of drones from your undamaged ship, and realize that your racks are now empty. If you fire drones at all in a turn and don't have high priority repairs to do, reload a drone rack.


But... just to clarify (and I'd like to be wrong here) if you fired drones from all your drone bays, doesn't that mean you have to wait a turn before reloading? Since the repair phase is at the end of the turn and the rules say you can't reload a drone rack on a turn in which it has been fired, my understanding it that I'd have to wait one more turn without firing at least one one rack before a reload is allowed. Correct?

I'd like to be wrong because otherwise a cycle of fire four drones, reload one rack could be repeated turn after turn for a long time without running out of drones (until, of course, the damage control points became needed for other repairs).
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Scoutdad
Commodore


Joined: 09 Oct 2006
Posts: 4754
Location: Middle Tennessee

PostPosted: Tue May 13, 2008 9:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Texastwister: You are correct. You can only reload a drone rack (racks) on a turn in which they have not fired. Additionally, it costs the same amount (4-points) to reload an empty rack as it does to reload a rack missing only one drone - thare are no rules for partial reloads.

This has led some in our local group to adopt the following strategy when flying Kzin ships...
Turn 1, Impulse 8 launch 4 drones
Turn 2, Impulse 1 launch 3 drones (assuming you can control all those drones)
Turn 2, End of turn... reload the rack which did not fire
Turn 3 Impulse 8 launch 3 drones
Turn 3, End of turn... reload the rack which didn't fire
Turn 4, Impulse 1 launch 3 drones
Turn 4, End of...
Lather - Rinse - Repeat

It lacks a bit of the crush power of 4 drones, 4 drones, 4 drones, 4 drones... but you can keep it going for far longer. YMMV.
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texastwister
Ensign


Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 17
Location: Austin, TX

PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2008 3:14 pm    Post subject: Drones Reply with quote

Scoutdad wrote:
This has led some in our local group to adopt the following strategy when flying Kzin ships...


I had settled on the same strategy for the next time a fly a big kzinti ship. I've been playing Hydrans my last couple of games.
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junior
Captain


Joined: 08 May 2007
Posts: 803

PostPosted: Tue May 20, 2008 5:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So last night I played a duel with one of my fellow players - my fleet scale Fed Strike Cruiser against his fleet scale Kzinti Battle Cruiser.

I spent the first turn moving slowly and dumping all of my energy into my photon torpedoes, while he moved across the map at speed 16.

On turn 2, early in the turn he realized that we were about to perform a head-on pass. So he performed a High Energy Turn to avoid my ship. I moved after him, and during impulse 7, I got close enough to go ahead and fire the torpedoes and phasers. One torpedo hit, and I did a decent amount of internal damage. Since I'd unloaded all of my weapons on him, during Impulse 8 he performed a second High Energy Turn to put me into his forward arc.

Now before I go any further, I have to make a small aside comment here. This player is addicted to High Energy Turns. It's quite common to see him make 3-4 turns per game with the same ship - and successfully make every last roll.

And thus to my great shock and surprise (and glee!), he failed his HET roll.

Damage was allocated, his ship was stopped, and I realized that when he finally got the opportunity to move again at the start of the next turn (which was actually the next impulse...), he would be forced to move directly in front of me, where I'd have a great firing opportunity at his downed flank shield.

Next turn, he set his speed to 0. I set mine to 16.

He accelerated during the first sub-pulse, as did I. During sub-pulses 2 and 3, I moved in on the hex that he would be required to move to, as explained in the rules for coming out of a complete stop (you're forced to move directly forward on your first move).

And on sub-pulse 4, he performed another HET!

This time he made the roll, and moved into a position which would basically force my ship to end up in a bad firing position if I moved forward, at one hex away. So I sighed heavily, turned my ship, and charged straight into his hex.

He hit my #1 shield with both of his overloaded disruptors, and his surviving phasers. I hit him back with my phaser volley. He did more damage, obviously. Then we both launched a drone at each other (I'd killed one of his racks earlier on), and I also launched a 15-point suicide shuttle (he'd plotted speed 0 - he wasn't going to outrun it...). I took my drone hit on my intact rear shield, he took his on his downed forward shield, and the suicide shuttle hit his intact #3 shield (iirc). Advantage me on that exchange.

After that, and after realizing that he only had one disruptor left (and maybe a phaser 3), and that while I had no phasers left both photons would be rearmed next turn, he conceded.
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DNordeen
Commander


Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 564

PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 12:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

<Sigh> I think I'm going to have to find time to write a tactics article on the Kzintis. I keep reading the battle reports of Kzinti players finding themselves at knife-fighting range against a Fed or Hydran. Getting hit by a Fed drone is just embarrassing for a Kzinti, and I'm not even going to get into not realizing he was too close to the photon torpedo! Rolling Eyes
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junior
Captain


Joined: 08 May 2007
Posts: 803

PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2008 6:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The problem (and this applies to the Klingons as well, imo) is that it's quite easy to give in to your aggressive tendencies and charge right on in. Those big damage numbers look tempting. But the thing that disruptor players need to remember is that everyone else has BIGGER damage numbers. And most other races will be quite willing to exchange fire with you at point blank range. They'll maybe lose a shield and take some internals. You'll be busy sealing off half the ship to prevent the atmosphere from escaping.

Hydrans are both short range and long range depending on the heavy weapons on the ship. Fusion beams are short range weapons (extremely short range weapons) while Hellbores are best suited for long range bombardment.
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DNordeen
Commander


Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 564

PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2008 8:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You're absolutely right Junior, and the battle reports read the same. If you charge in with a disruptor ship, you get hurt bad while your opponent turns a new shield and hits you again. Folks need to pick races that fit their play style or change their style to fit the race they want to play. Basically, if a player can't resist charging into overload range they shouldn't play the Kzintis or Klinks. Similarly, if a player is timid about charging into overload range, they shouldn't play Feds or Hydrans (Fusion-type).
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pinecone
Fleet Captain


Joined: 03 May 2008
Posts: 1862
Location: Earth

PostPosted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 8:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Letting the opponent slip behind you, fire everything, catch you in a tractor beam, fire drones, fire everything next turn, and launch a surcide shuttle

Fleet scale Raid on Ruyverk scenario, me being the feds, slip behind the D6 and clobber it in the order above. Then I manuvered around to the E4 and destroyed that with my newly loaded photon. I won a 2 to 1 match with only minor damage to my ship.

Very Happy (wait, this was even better than that....) Mr. Green
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