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Action Report: Attack on a Base Station

 
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Mike
Fleet Captain


Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 1675
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:45 am    Post subject: Action Report: Attack on a Base Station Reply with quote

Scenario: Attack on a Base Station

A Klingon D-7 and a Mauler (on the D-6 hull) attack a Federation base station (extremely downgraded version of the Battle Station) and a supporting frigate. The Klingon goal: to destroy the station.

Turn 1: Klingons approached and split up about 250,000 km from the station. The Fed FF maintained speed 0. Base station was set to fast rotation.

Turn 2: Klingons did a quick reverse and rejoined, then began an attack approach. Base station fired at the end of the turn doing some minor damage on the Mauler ship about 10 hexes away. The FF fired an overloaded photon (rolled a 6) and 2 Ph-1s at the D-7 8 hexes away. Just a few shield damage points. The D-7 returned fire on the FF and only scored 1 damage point on shield #6 (the rest was taken by reinforcement from batteries).

Turn 3: Klingons closed the range and concentrated fire on the station, ignoring the FF. The FF moved at speed 0 and by acceleration, moved into the hex with the station. The FF hit the D-7 with an overloaded photon, 2 Ph-1s, and a Ph-3 at close range, knocking down a front shield and doing some damage (notably some phasers and 2 disruptors damaged). The station fired 5 Ph-4s at the Mauler and two photons at the D-7. The Mauler took a lot of power damage and scattered damage throughout general ship systems. The station took massive damage from both Klingon ships and had almost all internal systems damaged plus almost all its phasers and about 3/4 of its power.

Turn 4: The D-7 veered off from the station and the FF gave chase. The D-7 moved so that it stayed with the station's downed shield. The Mauler moved off and reloaded batteries for another build-up of weapon power. The FF and D-7 passed one another and the FF performed a high energy turn to be on the D-7's rear shield at range 0. Unfortunately for the Federation, the D-7 had been able to repair a disruptor and fired 3 of them (overloaded) into the station at close range. The FF fired an overloaded photon, 3 Ph-1s, and 2 Ph-3s into the rear of the D-7 and scored massive damage, basically gutting the ship.

The base station was destroyed by the D-7's final attack, so the Klingons won the scenario according to the victory conditions we had set.
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Mike
Fleet Captain


Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 1675
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I commanded the Fed frigate and using 20-20 hindsight, figure now that I should have left the station and tried to challenge the D-7 in an attack run about 3 or 4 hexes from the station. I could have hit him with both photons overloaded and all my phasers to bring down his forward shield and score some targeted damage on weapons.
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Mike
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Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 1675
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This was the first time we had used a mauler weapon and it brought up a question, so I'll ask it here.

We assumed that the Mauler ship had to actually store energy in its batteries like batteries store energy in SFB. Was this correct?

It didn't make sense to use the Mauler's batteries just like batteries are normally used in FedCom.
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toastie
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Posts: 120

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mike wrote:
I commanded the Fed frigate and using 20-20 hindsight, figure now that I should have left the station and tried to challenge the D-7 in an attack run about 3 or 4 hexes from the station. I could have hit him with both photons overloaded and all my phasers to bring down his forward shield and score some targeted damage on weapons.


Nice report. Once question as it isn't clear to me: When the base fired the 2 photons at the D-7, was it on the shield that the FF took down? I would have expected the base to concentrate all fire on a single ship. Had the base blown away the D-7, the FF might have been able to harass the Mauler enough while it reloaded batteries to make a followup attack on the base questionable.

Also, you make no mention of drones. Even without them, I expect the Klingons to win this one. The FF can't use its superior maneuverability as it's tied down to defend the base, and the base is only going to get one shot off before it is overwhelmed.
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irbaboon
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 07 Jul 2007
Posts: 39

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mike wrote:
This was the first time we had used a mauler weapon and it brought up a question, so I'll ask it here.

We assumed that the Mauler ship had to actually store energy in its batteries like batteries store energy in SFB. Was this correct?

It didn't make sense to use the Mauler's batteries just like batteries are normally used in FedCom.


(4Z5) Mauler Power Systems: Mauler ships have huge banks
of batteries so that they can discharge the weapon with tremendous
power. Because of their nature, a mauler ship has
two power tracks, one for generated power (in the usual position
on the right side) and one for battery power (on the left
side or across the bottom, counting batteries connected to the
mauler). These batteries can be used for other purposes, but
no more than four points of battery power can be used by a
mauler ship for non-mauler purposes during any given impulse.


I believe that a mauler may draw power from it's engines to fire the mauler without any repercussions.
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Ben
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 14 Jun 2007
Posts: 30

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 12:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was playing as the mauler in this, and although our original plan didn't work, we were able to regroup and try something else. We were going to try to draw the FF away from the station but Mike was too smart for that...

We decided to stay semi-separated and end up rejoining and making a run at the station together in turn 2. That all but killed the station, but also damaged me a lot. We should have had some sort of plan at this point, but we really didn't. I had to retreat and recharge batteries while the D7 made another run. That was enough to kill the station, so we won, although at that point I think the FF could have taken us both out.
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Mike
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Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 1675
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The D-7 launched 2 drones on Turn 2. The FF launched one drone targeted on one of the Klingon drones and destroyed it later in the turn. Then when the FF moved out from the base, it fired a Ph-3 at the other one in passing (did 3 hits; the station finished it off with one of its own Ph-3s). Both drone launchers were taken out during the first attack on the D-7.

The 2 photons fired by the base were aimed at the D-7 (if my memory serves me) because it was much closer and more of a threat.

As to both the station and the FF combining all fire on the D-7 to destroy it, yes, we could have done that. However, as surprising as this may seem, there was absolutely no collusion between the station commander and me. I went for the most immediate threat to the station (the D-7). He wanted to use those Ph-4s on the Mauler ship.
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Mike
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Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 1675
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As to the mauler weapon itself, this is what happens when you try to play with a new weapon and don't understand the rules completely.

As I look at the ship diagram for the D6M, all the power systems except the Impulse and the Battery in the boom section are connected to the black arrows. This would indicate that they could all be used to power the Mauler weapon.

No mention was made in the Mauler rules (4Z) that were available in the Communique (which is where we got them) of any special consideration of the battery banks working any differently than they normally would in the FedCom game system. We concluded that they would have to work in one of two ways:

1. Just like the regular battery rules. This just didn't seem to make sense. The engines are already "wired" to the weapon. Why have batteries to channel the power?

2. As special purpose batteries functioning like they do in SFB where they store power and hold it from turn to turn until it is discharged. Once discharged, they would have to be re-energized with power from the reactors and engines.

As to the function of the Mauler, we decided that the energy it could draw on for power had to come from the batteries. To tell the truth, we didn't consider that it could also draw straight from the engines. There are 34 batteries, so according to the way we played, the Mauler would have a maximum base damage strength of 34.

However, if the batteries are fully charged and the engines and reactors also feed into the Mauler, it would have a maximum base damage strength of 70 (leaving only the 1 boom Impulse to power anything else).

I don't believe the function we chose mattered much because the D6M was doing lots of movement and other things that pretty much used up its available engine power. However, now we will begin to figure the engine/reactor power as power available to the Mauler as well as its batteries.
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Robert Knoke
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 13 Jul 2007
Posts: 49
Location: Aurora, CO

PostPosted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 5:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have'nt read all of the stuff for maulers yet... why do mauler batteries matter if all power is "reserve power" in FC? Should'nt just the warp engines be "wired" for FC?

I'll know more when I actually mess around with maulers, but I might think they are a mite unbalanced for FC. At least in SFB, you were restricted by how much power was used for movement, and the rest would be "dumped" into maulers.

With the differing interfaces (impulse procedures) between FC and SFB-- I feel that though FC can move faster than SFB, you can get on someone a little faster and fire at them (mainly because there are 1/4 the firing opportunities in FC).

I may only mess with maulers when I feel like finding broken rules. Maybe I'll even like them.... who knows till you try, right?
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Carnifex
Ensign


Joined: 19 Oct 2006
Posts: 19

PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Robert Knoke wrote:
I have'nt read all of the stuff for maulers yet... why do mauler batteries matter if all power is "reserve power" in FC? Should'nt just the warp engines be "wired" for FC?


The batteries start off 'fully charged', so as long as the mauler is careful with its power distribution, it can approach its target moving on warp engines, and leaving the batteries for the weapon. That's why they have a separate 'battery track', so you don't accidentally dip into that power that the mauler should be saving, or if you have to, just dip in shallowly.

If they only had the warp engines for the weapon and no batteries, they'd move fast and then what? Get killed because they have to move speed 0 on the next turn so they could fire? That would completely change the weapon system and its tactics.

For now (unless the rules change), it's run in fast, shoot whenever you like (because all that power is in your batteries), then run away fast to hide behind your battle line and recharge.
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defurusu
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 20 Nov 2006
Posts: 85
Location: London, UK

PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maulers are great fun, but you need to go looking elsewhere if it's broken rules you're after.

4Z5 limits their effectiveness in some of their odder uses such as fireship or tractor anchor (this is of course also rendered less effective by the shorter range of the tractor beam itself). But the mauler weapon can't be removed by enemy fire, and can fire every impulse if several smaller directed volleys are a desirable tactic.
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