Federation Commander

[Joshc]

Sorry for the silly questions, but I just played a walk through game trying to understand the rules before I play a real opponent and I have a few questions.

1) Can you always use defensive fire when a drone "impacts" regardless of the sub pulse it impacted you?
- unless I'm completely reading the rules wrong, the sub impulses, all four, come before defensive fire, so a drone could theoretically "impact" on the 2nd, and hit on the 3rd sub impulse before you had a chance to perform defensive fire...

2) on the damage allocation chart, does one point of drone damage affect the entire rack of drones? or does one point of damage destroy one anti-drone "ammunition" box.

3) the ship blows up when you take one more point of frame damage than what you have, but the only way to take frame damage is the last line on the damage allocation chart AFTER all the warp spaces are gone. Is that right?

4 Hull damage: Table one of damage allocation chart, number 4, if you don't have an F or R hull, then the point is skipped, correct?

and lastly

5) if three +8 photon torpedoes hit causing 48 damage (lets say shields are down) what happens if you "directed fire?" What is the procedure I mean, do you roll on the damage allocation chart 5 times and not roll-over the skips?

Thanks!

[Bolo_MK_XL]

1) The rules were simplified to place all fire options after movement --
When drones hit, you place them on the shield they hit and do defensive fire in the proper order
2) Damage destroys the entire rack -- when you repair it -- you have to also reload it --
3) You can also take frame damage to protect the last box of an individual system -- i.e. photon, phaser, torpedo, etc --
4) Correct - Some designs also have Center Hull, which you can take on either --
5) Negative -- Overloaded wpns cannot be directed ---

[OGOPTIMUS]

OK. I'll take a stab at a few of these.

First, welcome.

Second, while MANY people may disagree with this, sometimes it's good to just play and figure out the rules "on the fly" or afterwards (just be wary of heated arguments). Sometimes things seem to crystallize during the game, and sometimes when looking back, you can better understand the game designers though process.

Now, on to your questions:

1. Since there are four movement sub-pulses before each defensive fire step, if a drone impacts your ship on sub-pulse #2, you finish all movement (sub-pulses #3 and #4) and then continue to the defensive fire phase where you may deal with the drone using ADDs, phasers, or tractor beams. Rules 1E2b and 1E2c

2. A drone hit on the damage allocation chart disables the whole rack, not any single ammunition box. You must first repair the rack (and then reload it by repairing it again, Rule 5G5) before you may use it again.

3. You can also voluntarily take a frame hit in two instances: 1- if the primary and secondary hits in one column of the damage allocation chart are both disabled and 2 - instead of disabling the final system of that type on your ship. For instance, if you only have one photon torpedo left, and a torpedo hit comes up, you may mark one frame box disabled instead of the torpedo. Rule 3E1 Remember that Frame hits cannot be repaired.

4. If you do not have any hull, then it is skipped or you may optionally score a frame hit. If your ship has center hull in addition to F Hull and/or R Hull, then ANY hull hits may (but do not have to) be allocated there. If your ship only has C Hull then ALL hull hits (F and R) are scored there. Rule 5J

5. Though you cannot use directed targeting with overloaded weapons(Rule 3D4b), if you manage to score 48 points of damage, damage allocation works that way. You roll 5 times (in your case for four sets of 10 and one set of 8 ) on the damage allocation chart. If any hits cannot be applied to the primary or secondary systems listed, they are simply lost and not added onto the end of the procedure. Rule 3D4b

I hope that helps clear some things up (and I hope I didn't get it all wrong).

Once again, welcome, feel free to ask more questions, and I hope you enjoy the game!
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O.G. OPTIMUS


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[Joshc]

Excellent, thanks for the information.
Seems like it would take quite awhile to blow up a ship!
(I played 1v1 by myself, and 48 points of damage did get through, I'm either really bad, or really good.
Thanks again!

[Scoutdad]

Mark and Paul pretty much covered the answers to your questions, but as for the comment:

[terryoc]

A heavy cruiser has about 100 internal boxes in squadron scale, with 48 points of damage it's half-dead, roughly. A frigate will be a floating wreck at that damage level, maybe even destroyed. At fleet scale, the heavy cruiser would be dead, and the frigate would be space dust.
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"Captain" Terry O'Carroll, fourteen papers published including six best of issue
"Man, Terry, you are like a loophole seeking missle!" - Mike West

[Joshc]

[Scoutdad]

That wasn't my map... it belonged to one of the other guys; but I have two 4 foot by 8 foot felt starmaps with 2-inch hexes that I got from Monday Knight Productions.
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Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF