Federation Commander

[Savedfromwhat]

Adding some kind of "flight" rule would be too game changing I do not like it. Direct fire drones are too powerful compared to other heavy weapons no one would take anything else.

[duxvolantis]

[Targ]

[Steve Cole]

"So, does everyone agree...."

I haven't laughed so hard in years. You're never going to get anybody to agree to anything.

There is no inconsistency. The consistency is "this complex and no more complex". That's the consistent rule on which SFB rules get kept, dropped, or changed. It's really pretty consistent once you figure that out.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[Targ]

[Dan Ibekwe]

I'll speak up in favour of the direct-fire drone approach, with one reservation.

DF drones are potentially more lethal than the seeking variety since they give the target less chance to evade, and also a squadron of fighters can potentially deliver a lot of them at once.

To prevent them becoming too big a sledgehammer, I'd reduce the warhead of DF fighter drones to 6 points. (Actually an idea ripped off from SFC).

Also, I'd want to see non-Stinger fighter launch rates restricted to one or two per ship per impulse. Hydran ships have launch tubes, most others don't.
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We are Hydrans! NO ONE LIKES US!

[ericphillips]

Direct Fire Drone = New Rule
New Rule = Bad (most of the time)

Fix = Make sure empires have fighters with only direct fire weapons, so player can choose which they want in their own games.

Exception: The Kzinti, who are all about drones.

[jeffery smith]

Happy to have given you something to laugh about Svc.
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fun fun fun in the sun sun sun

[Dan Ibekwe]

If (and at this stage it is an *if*) the other empires are going to get a choice of drone and torpedo armed fighters, I'd want the Hydrans to get Stinger-Hs as well.
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We are Hydrans! NO ONE LIKES US!

[storeylf]

[Monty]

If having drones on the map is a must then there are few options to make the battle more manageable, but there are ways.

Along with incentivised grouping of fighters mentioned earlier, in order to make drones on the map a bit more manageable the targets of all drones could be limited to ships. Drones become a pure anti-ship weapon and fighters, shuttles and other drones would be excluded from the targeting list of drones. The more flexible ADD's, along with direct fire weapons and tractors should be able to cover drone/fighter defenses sufficiently.

ADD's become the anti-drone/anti-fighter missile like the sidewinders and sparrowhawk missiles of today. Drones would be the harpoon and tomahawks. Now you have some flavor, retaining distinct roles for your squadrons.

How does this help? It doesn't help that much until the drone fighters get rebalanced, though, it would reduce the overall number of decision points a player has to deal with for his flights. Too many decisions slow any game to a crawl. Still, there's a potential for several drones on the map but not quite as many if the layout of the drone fighters get tweaked a bit. Since the drone-fighter layout on the ship cards hasn't been set in stone there's an opportunity to do some balancing. The F-18's for instance could be changed to have one fewer drones and add an ADD to make up the difference. The drone fighters could be restricted to one drone launch per turn, or one guided drone at a time.

Ya get fewer overall drones on the map, but you still get them. Existing Hydrans don't have to change. Most fighters are flying around in groups because it's smart to. When someone launches drones they wouldn't be selecting on nearly every enemy unit on the board to determine the best opportunity, a much smaller subset.

[Sir Drake]

I have question , stingers in FC have had the number of fusions they can fire in one turn cut in half from SFB. So will in BoM fighters have their hvy weapons cut down also, or will stingers have their rules changed back, or will stingers stay the same and other fighters play by diferant rules. It seams to me that it should be one or the other and I need to know that before I can help add my 2 cents in to BoM fighter rules.
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Colour Sergeant Bourne: It's a miracle.
Lieutenant John Chard: If it's a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it's a short chamber Boxer Henry point 45 caliber miracle.
Colour Sergeant Bourne: And a bayonet, sir, with some guts behind.
From the Movie ZULU

[terryoc]

Re: changing drone rules not to target drones:

Three objections:
1. Major rules change affecting not just BoM games with fighters but base game.

2. Inconsistent with background database. Drones can take out other drones. It may not be the most efficient way of doing it, but that's how it works.

3. Some Empires and ships have drones, and face drone-armed enemies historically, but have no anti-drones, e.g. pre-War Kzintis (the "war" classes like the Medium Cruiser, War Destroyer and New Heavy Cruiser do have them, but they are in the minority), Frax, any Orion who does not want to waste an option mount on a purely defensive weapon, and most WYNs. Take away their drone-vs-drone defense, and they're stuck using phasers to take out the drones, tipping the balance point in favour of ADD-armed ships with drones (because they are not using power in drone defense while the other ship is).
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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

[dharras]

[Bolo_MK_XL]