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Fighting cloaked ships

 
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drwibble
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 06 Sep 2008
Posts: 79

PostPosted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:19 pm    Post subject: Fighting cloaked ships Reply with quote

As anyone reading the Battlegroup London posting in General Discussion will have noticed, I played against a Romulan fleet recently.

Wondering if anyone has any advice on best practice in fighting cloaked ships... and particularly about fighting groups of cloaked vessels.

Seems to me that by having to keep speed up against a plasma-armed foe, this already forces Federation ships to commit a large amount of their available power to movement just on the chance that a massive torpedo launch may occur. Given that it might also be necessary to pay for acceleration or a HET, this means there are even more limitations on energy. The ability to force energy expenditure on your adversary appears to be quite crucial in FC, and means that a Romulan fleet is off to a strong start.

And then while the Roms stay cloaked, it's really pretty hard to actually hit/damage them anyway.

How have people dealt with this?


Last edited by drwibble on Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
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rockyr
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 12 Jan 2009
Posts: 55

PostPosted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:40 pm    Post subject: cloaked targets Reply with quote

I am no expert by far, but already I have learnd a few things to remember:

A cloaked ship cannot move fast, nor shoot.

You can outmanuevre them very easily. Stay out of launch arcs as much as possible.

Get on its "six" and stay there, but beware of their HET when they uncloak.

They have to phase in, an impulse during which you have to pound them with everything you can.

Drones can still track a uncloaked ship that later cloaks - reduced damage, yes, but a still-cloaked ship cannot do anything about the drone, other than take it on the shields. [In your game, they started cloaked so this is not but so helpful, but it is useful in other situations.]

Be ready to run (fast) when they are uncloaked. A slight angle, plus sideslips, plus normal turning is often enough to evade a plasma torpedo for long enough for it to me managable if it hits when you come back into fight. You do not need your HET if you are not heading straight into them.

Shooting plasma torpedos does not seem to have much chance of success, unless done en masse with several ships.

Just some thoughts... I hope others with more experience pitch in.

R
________
Medical Marijuana Grow


Last edited by rockyr on Wed Mar 16, 2011 7:41 am; edited 1 time in total
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drwibble
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 06 Sep 2008
Posts: 79

PostPosted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I must admit that I could have maneouvred better and perhaps managed to get into their six.

I was rather dimayed that I attacked a King Eagle from range 1 and 2 hexes with a battlecruiser, a command cruiser and two heavy cruisers whilst it was fading in... unfortunately with range adjustments that meant I was firing at 5 and 6 hexes and only half damage was applied. With a normal target it would have been vaporised, this thing survived and soaked up a significant percentage of my firepower.

I suppose the lesson learned here is don't waste too much on a fading ship! It was a disappointment - I'd brought my ships to a range of 1 hex while the Roms couldn't fire and at a time when I could easily zoom straight through the Rom line without taking any fire. I was expecting to vape one ship and be gone before the Roms had finished fading in.

Admittedly one photon volley missed completely, but it seems really hard to damage Rom ships even while in fade in/out.
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storeylf
Fleet Captain


Joined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 1897

PostPosted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

drwibble wrote:

I was rather dimayed that I attacked a King Eagle from range 1 and 2 hexes with a battlecruiser, a command cruiser and two heavy cruisers whilst it was fading in... unfortunately with range adjustments that meant I was firing at 5 and 6 hexes and only half damage was applied.


Sounds like you were beaten by a rules misunderstanding, a fading in ship adds 4 to range BUT does not halve the damage (5P3b).
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junior
Captain


Joined: 08 May 2007
Posts: 803

PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you're playing Feds, use ships with plasma torpedoes (such as the BCF) when you can. Remember that you're allowed to use them as carronades, which do NOT suffer a range adjustment when firing at cloaked ships.
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Savedfromwhat
Commander


Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Posts: 657

PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 1:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Cloaking device is more of a novelty then anything else. It will really only work on any opponent one time and then it is pretty much useless. Just get behind the cloaked vessels and wait till impulse 8 to fire all your phasers and single turn arming weapons. Even in they de-cloak on 8 you will still be able to either overrun them or stay out of their plasma arc.
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