Federation Commander

wneeley · Ensign Joined: 17 Oct 2010 Posts: 11

What are some good tactics for tholians to use when attacking a base with suicide freighters with or without a aegis escort.
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Wil neeley

mjwest · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 1:28 am Post subject:

You are Tholians. The answer is web casters. Basically, just use the web casters to protect their approach. The final web should be at range 1 to the base. That means the base gets one (and only one) shot at the freighters.

Obviously, mobile units will complicate things, but that is the base idea. The more web casters you have, the more options you have on how to get this all done.
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Federation Commander Answer Guy

DNordeen · Commander Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 564

Use your web casters to cast web in front of your freighter and ships. This will prevent direct fire weapons from being fired at you.

You'll still be able to fire phasers through the web.

Be sure to put the web far enough out that you are still behind it at the end of the impulse.
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Speed is life; Patience is victory

wneeley · Ensign Joined: 17 Oct 2010 Posts: 11

Thanks I will try that.
The tholians probably make the base assault scenario because they can easily limit the damage to the freighter.
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Wil neeley

storeylf · Fleet Captain Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 1897

Is a generic suicide freighter a 'tholian' ship for purposes of moving through web?

mjwest · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 9:25 pm Post subject:

Well, there really aren't any unaligned freighters. Even though the same ship card is used for a freighter, the freighter is still "Klingon", "Romulan", or whatever. So, any suicide freighters used by the Tholians would be "Tholian". I don't see anything in the rules other than "Tholian ships", so they should be good to go (through the web).

I will double-check to see what SFB says about the different ship types. (At this point I am curious.)

If they can't pass through, the same idea still works, but it has to be timed way better, and you can't prevent the range-1 tractor defense.
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Kang · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 11:32 am Post subject:

m1a1dat · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 7:21 pm Post subject:

Suicide Freighters can not use accels or decels because it falls under the seeking weapon rules for that. I don't have the rule book handy so can't cite any rule numbers. So just be sure when you are setting up the map that the suicide freighter is just the right distance so it doesn't end up at range one at the end of an impulse. But, as Kang points out, that can be messed with by the ships defending the base.

Kang · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 8:16 pm Post subject:

I have to respectfully differ on that. Yes, the rule (4H2) says they move as seeking weapons, but they also move as regular freighters do, they use energy allocation, pay for movement etc.

However I can see both sides! We'd better get a ruling on this, whaddayathink! Wink

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mjwest · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 8:59 pm Post subject:

Suicide Freighter cannot accelerate or decelerate. When a unit (either shuttles or freighters) operate under the seeking weapon rules, they have to obey the restrictions of BOTH classes. So, freighters have to operate under the base restrictions of a freighter (with slower movement, energy required for movement, no HET) and the base restrictions of a seeking weapon (no acceleration or deceleration).

In fact, (4F3a) is pretty direct in this, and it explicitly lists suicide freighters as operating under that movement restriction.
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Federation Commander Answer Guy

Kang · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 6:33 am Post subject:

Thanks for the clarification, Mike Smile

m1a1dat, I stand corrected! Very Happy

It would appear, then, that once the freighter is pulled off its carefully planned speed/distance route as suggested in m1a1dat's post, that its course can't be 'corrected', or at least not by units friendly to the freighter.
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