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Plasma Advice
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silent bob
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 30 Apr 2008
Posts: 139

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:39 am    Post subject: Plasma Advice Reply with quote

Hey guys, one of our players likes plasma but so far cant use it effectively.
any addice on use of plasma as either gorns or romulans would be appreciated.
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pinecone
Fleet Captain


Joined: 03 May 2008
Posts: 1862
Location: Earth

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

for gorns, plot speed zero turn one and let them come to you. Then make them go away by chasing them with plasma next turn. If roms, cloak can let you chose were the firefighting will begin. Bolt if the enemy is fleeing, but only weaker plasmas. Carronade if gorns fighting roms.

Any of that helpful?
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silent bob
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 30 Apr 2008
Posts: 139

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

nope, not really. hes had plasma loaded. just doesnt seem to get it to hit anytime. occasionally uses bolts but feels let down for the amount of power he puts in.
also romulans really shouldnt cloak on the way in, thats a waste of energy, better to use EM.
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Sir Drake
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 25 Mar 2008
Posts: 84
Location: Sacramento

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My thoughts on playing a plasma race. First I play in squadron scale and don’t usually use cloak, mostly playing gorns. But here goes. First plasmas do two things in my opinion that are important. They help control the enemy ships power and movement. But they only do that while on the map or in the tube ready to fire. Power, they force the other ship to fly fast, use HETs, and sometimes use phasors to try and knock then down some. Every point of power spent avoiding the plasmas is a point they aren’t using to shoot at you. The movement of the other ship tells you a lot about the other player. I usually start a game going 8 or 16 and head toward my target like a saber dancer slightly off center line and with my #2 or #6 shield facing. My object if to end the first turn about 13 to 15 hexes from my target this should keep you out of overload range for impulse 1 fire. After impulse one movement I want to be from 9 to 12 hexes form my target . At this point I fire a G, S, or R torp from which ever torp should be out of arc when I turn away which I would be ready do right away. What happens next will tell you a lot. If he keeps coming at you turn and keep the torp between you and him as you move away. he should get hit with full strength torp and any phasor fire you can bear hopefully on the same shield! I would hold off any more torps unless you knew he couldn’t HET away of you or if lost a tube in a round due to damage.
Usually what will happen is the ship will turn away from the torp this is your chance to do some Phasor damage to him while out of his FA arc and most of his hvy weapons. You will take phasor damage back. work on flying so as to spread it around on different shields. While he is turned away try and stay around 9 hexes away and as close to his rear arc as he will let you. Once a ship has shields punched up from phasor fire the threat of a plasma hit becomes much more scary.
Usually I find with a plasma ship I am usually being chased or am chasing someone all the time once contact is made. My one rule to myself is always have at least one torp ready to go at all times even if it is only a quick loaded F torp. Never empty your tubes unless you know with out a doubt you are going to be the only ship still left after its over. If you empty your tubes in one volley the other guy will run for half a turn and then come back and kick you around for 2 turns while you reload. I like to fire no more than half my torps in one turn and prefer no to fire more than one third in a turn. This also keeps you energy curve consistent. You absolutely need to keep your speed up 16 base line min. You go base line 8 anywhere near a baddy and nothing will save you but an inexperienced opponent. One thing I find with new players is that they see the damage torps can do and they thing that a torp ship is a crunch ship. Run in and unload a alpha strike and go home. That is not at all how I fly them, I fly them like a saber dancer with a twist a very good when done right. I hope this helps and is not to muddled. This is the first I have ever tried to write out my tactics and feel that I am all over the place.

P.S. should alway play on a fixed or location map with torps

Good Hunting,
Daniel
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The Hobbybox
Ensign


Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Posts: 11
Location: Swindon

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the advice guys, and thanks Steve for starting the thread.

As the player in question (i.e the one who currently sucks!) I'm interested to get other people's opinion on whether bigger ships are better?

I'm used to playing 'Babylon 5 A Call to Arms' and in that you really need smaller ships to help protect your main warships.

The impression that Silent Bob and I are getting is that the exact opposite is true in Fed Com.

What do other people think?
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Sir Drake
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 25 Mar 2008
Posts: 84
Location: Sacramento

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Point for Point I think it is harder two small ships to take out one ship of equal value. It can be done but not easly. escorts are not nessary some times helpfull but not nessary. I am not familar with the Bab 5 game but comepaired with historical navel battle escorts where usally used for two reasons. First for scouting because for how long it took to order a battle line. The first to know the disposition of the enemy had a big advantage. that isnt a issue in Fed Com. The Second was the advent of torpedo boats. A cheap boat that had a weapon that could kill a exspenive battleship. hence the creation of torpedo boat destroyer which got shortened to destoyer after a while. the only thing close to a torpedo boat is a stinger fighter, and with there speed limet of 16 and the fact that hvy ships can kill or criple them if they want to takes away from that. So to make a long post short, I know to late! No you don't need smaller ships to escort your bigger ones. also it does to some degree depend of the ships you are using. Not all destroyers are created equal.

Sorry for the ramble, what posting late at night gets you.

Daniel
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silent bob
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 30 Apr 2008
Posts: 139

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

cool, thats just the sort of stuff we were looking for. to give him some ideas on making better use of plasma.
at the moment the klingons have been getting the serious upper hand.
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The Hobbybox
Ensign


Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Posts: 11
Location: Swindon

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmmmm, makes me think that the size limit idea I suggested to Silent Bob last night might work.

Essentially I suggested that you do the following:

1. Set the points value for the game.
2. Set a maximum points value per ship

or

1. Set the points value for the game.
2. Set a limit on the number of ships you can have over a certain value
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silent bob
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 30 Apr 2008
Posts: 139

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

you set a limit by setting a total limit. I for one would not be playing if you limited how big or small a ship I can take in my fleet.

if you want limits on ships, play more of the scenarios.
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The Hobbybox
Ensign


Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Posts: 11
Location: Swindon

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok, lets do some scenarios then.

The idea of placing the limits on number of ships is so that you end up with a game where you can use more ships.

Just seems kinda pointless to me to have three 98 point Gorn ships in my boosters and know that I'll never have them all in a game because a 300 point dreadnought is the only viable option.
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pinecone
Fleet Captain


Joined: 03 May 2008
Posts: 1862
Location: Earth

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sir Drake wrote:
Point for Point I think it is harder two small ships to take out one ship of equal value. It can be done but not easly. escorts are not nessary some times helpfull but not nessary. I am not familar with the Bab 5 game but comepaired with historical navel battle escorts where usally used for two reasons. First for scouting because for how long it took to order a battle line. The first to know the disposition of the enemy had a big advantage. that isnt a issue in Fed Com. The Second was the advent of torpedo boats. A cheap boat that had a weapon that could kill a exspenive battleship. hence the creation of torpedo boat destroyer which got shortened to destoyer after a while. the only thing close to a torpedo boat is a stinger fighter, and with there speed limet of 16 and the fact that hvy ships can kill or criple them if they want to takes away from that. So to make a long post short, I know to late! No you don't need smaller ships to escort your bigger ones. also it does to some degree depend of the ships you are using. Not all destroyers are created equal.

Sorry for the ramble, what posting late at night gets you.

Daniel


I don't agree with that. Two small ships tend to be more manuverable then one large one (except if using Feds or gorns Battlehawks). you could get behind, likely with one ship fully operational. If he blasts one of your ships before you get behind, unleash everhthing into one shield. then manuver behind before the turn ends, and attack again next turn with virtually no counter attack.
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silent bob
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 30 Apr 2008
Posts: 139

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Hobbybox wrote:
Ok, lets do some scenarios then.

The idea of placing the limits on number of ships is so that you end up with a game where you can use more ships.

Just seems kinda pointless to me to have three 98 point Gorn ships in my boosters and know that I'll never have them all in a game because a 300 point dreadnought is the only viable option.


my 55pt patrol corvette was doing ok for itself in that 500pt battle. mainly cos people ignored it Very Happy
but thats the other advantage of small ships, people go after the big fish.

and those limits work the other way, playing a game where i'm not allowed to use the ships from battleships attack or the associated dreadnoughts from the boosters.

as has been stated above, smaller ships generally are faster and more manouvrable. bigger ships just take the hits better.
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junior
Captain


Joined: 08 May 2007
Posts: 803

PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 5:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Hobbybox wrote:
Just seems kinda pointless to me to have three 98 point Gorn ships in my boosters and know that I'll never have them all in a game because a 300 point dreadnought is the only viable option.


Play smaller games occasionally, then.

Razz

On a more serious note, the larger ships don't tend to maneuver as well (particularly the Feds and the Gorn). When you've got a Battleship (or even a Dreadnought) sized vessel, it can often be useful to add a couple of Frigates (or Destroyers in the case of the Gorn) to act as escorts to catch things like drones and suicide shuttles that are coming in from odd angles since the big ship will have trouble dealing with them.

Also, for most races 300 points is two heavy cruisers, which makes for a good setup. For the plasma races, two cruisers (battlecruisers for the Gorn) is actually a little more expensive, and you might want to try boosting the points just enough to bring a couple of them on for a battle.


Any game in which you're handling multiple smaller ships requires its own set of tactics. It's a little trickier to get used to, although the rewards can be worthwhile once you figure it out.
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TJolley
Lieutenant Commander


Joined: 25 Oct 2006
Posts: 284

PostPosted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 1:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In 2-v-1 games, remember that the single ship only has one shield you have to blow through.

Also in the mix is the fact that each ship rolls seperately for volleys, so you have twice the chances to hit critical rows on the DAC.

Then there is protecting systems with Frame. With 2 ships, you can save 2 of a heavy weapon (1 per ship), while the large ship can only protect one.

Two ships also let you get to where the single ship cna't protect a down shield as you will have a numbers advantage.
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silent bob
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 30 Apr 2008
Posts: 139

PostPosted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 9:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

think the problem has been so far either the opposing ships have started up far apart or I have managed to split them up. then the lone ships gets pounced on by my whole fleet.
for example of weds nights game - 500pts of tholians pounced on a 100pt gorn vessel. with that much firepower the gorn ship was destroyed in that one impulse. admittedly it didnt leave me with alot of weapons for later in the turn but suddenly I had a 100pt advantage over the rest of my enemies.
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