Federation Commander

Cadmus02 · Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 2:46 pm Post subject: Hydran and Lyran questions

Hello,

I an SFB player who is new(ish) to FedCom. Going from one system to another is a tad confusing, as it's easy to bring rules from one system to the other by accident. I will be playing some Hydran vs Lyran games in the near future and I need a little help to wrap my head around things.

Question 1) Hellbore Volleys - All hellbore volleys happen at the same time as other direct fire weapons. In this example I am facing shield #1 on a Lyran cruiser, and its shield #4 is weakest. All my phasers and fusions resolve on his #1 shield, but all the majority of my Hellbore damage goes against his #4 shield. Is this correct, and is there any way to have Hellbores resolve later in the same impulse so that they would resolve on the same shield as my phasers?

Question 2) ESGs and Asteroids Field - If a Lyran ship is in an asteroid field hex (ie the gray hexes on the boards) can it use its ESGs to damage anything outside of that hex? There is rules for asteroids but not asteroid fields. What about a dust cloud? What if a Lyran is in open space and my Hydran is in an asteroid field hex, will it take any damage from an ESG?

Question 3) Fighters - In SFB fighters get +2 ECM and +2 ECCM and can erratically maneuver. Fighters in FedCom don't seem to get any bonuses on attack on defense. Can Fighters erratically maneuver?

Question 4) Towing Shuttles - If I tow a friendly shuttle in my hex, will it stay in my hex or will it follow one hex behind like a starship?
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Spacecowboy87 · Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 6:46 pm Post subject:

As far as I know, (Q1) yes the majority of the hellbore damage goes against shield 4. If you want your hellbore to go through shield 1, you must weaken it on a previous impulse. (Q3) yes, fighters can fly on EM. (Q4) a tractored shuttle in your hex should stay in your hex, but a tractored ship should too.
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Cadmus02 · Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 9:04 pm Post subject:

mjwest · Last edited by mjwest on Tue Sep 29, 2015 4:56 pm; edited 2 times in total

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

mjwest · Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2015 11:44 pm Post subject: Re: Hydran and Lyran questions

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

I suppose I am confused, asteroids are all covered under 6B as just 'asteroids'. Why would you think the ESG rule just covers asteroids under part of that section, and if so why the part you are thinking? If anything I would have said it covered asteroid fields not individual ones, as individual ones have hit points where as the ESG rule seems to be covering objects that were not given hit points (like asteroids in fields) and therefore are to be treat as infinite hit points .

We only had it affect offensive bursts, as that is where the esg/asteroid rule is.

Certainly LDR in asteroids was interesting when we had a campaign with them in. Asteroids helped neuter their power somewhat. But whilst I had dust areas I don't remember whether we did dust/esg.

Cadmus02 · Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 2:04 am Post subject:

One potential difference between asteroids and asteroid fields is the number of objects. Say my Hydran ship is in a hex with an asteroid and gets ESG'ed. I believe that half the ESG damage would go onto the ship and half the asteroid. With an asteroid field there could be one object (the whole field) or many, many objects. A ship in an asteroid field could take 0, 1 or 1/2 the full damage from an ESG.
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Cadmus02 · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2016 3:15 am Post subject: ESGs and Asteroid Fields

It happened again tonight, we tried to use ESGs beside an asteroid field. I don't know if it's a common occurrence or if our group is zany. An asteroid is considered one target for an ESG (the biggest), but we where unable to adjudicate how to deal with a field.
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mjwest · Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2016 1:26 am Post subject:

The answer to the asteroid hex / ESG interaction was published in Communique 119. The answer is:
Q: What happens when an ESG encounters an asteroid or dust hex? The rules don't say!
A: Deduct two points for each asteroid hex and one point for each dust hex the ESG strikes. Ships and other units struck by the ESG come after these deductions. A ship or other unit in an asteroid or dust hex is a separate target from the asteroids or dust.
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mjwest · Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2016 3:57 am Post subject:

At the risk of contradicting the game designer, no, an asteroid will NOT negate an ESG field.

The specific wording:

Steve Cole · Site Admin Joined: 11 Oct 2006 Posts: 3828

Reviewing the situation it appears that Mike was right.
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