Federation Commander

mattyfoe · Ensign Joined: 21 Dec 2008 Posts: 7

When a player has the option to choose which shield takes damage from a volley due to receiving fire on a boundry, must the shield be declared before any dice are rolled?

I know that this does not make a major difference very often, but I have had it come up a couple of times lately. Namely, a D7 was taking fire to its #2 from my KRC while both a Sparrowhawk and Snipe were firing into the boundry between #1 and #2. My opponent wanted to wait and see how the hits from one ship went before choosing a shield and then waiting to see damage again to try to avoid criticals. It did not work very well since I had so much fire. However, it did not seem fair that my "simultaneous" firing became segmented.
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junior · Captain Joined: 08 May 2007 Posts: 803

I don't know whether or not the rules say for certain. However, if they don't then regular old common sense would suggest that the target would need to pick the shield before the dice are rolled. After all, fire is nearly instantaneous (we're talking faster-than-light weapons here) and the targeted ship wouldn't have the chance to say, "Only two photons are going to hit. Let's talk the damage on our #2 shield."

mjwest · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:30 pm Post subject:

Shield determination should be made prior to making any rolls.
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mattyfoe · Ensign Joined: 21 Dec 2008 Posts: 7

Thanks guys. My friend will not have a problem with this "change," which is cool. It was just a differing interpretation and as long as we both are bound by it he is fine.
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storeylf · Fleet Captain Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 1897

mjwest · Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 7:50 pm Post subject:

The reason for the two rulings is to remove order of declaration from mattering. If you declare a portion of fire, then completely resolve it, then move on to the next, you give a tremendous advantage by delaying. If all of the declarations are made first, then it matters much less who goes first.

In the case of ambiguous shield boundary, the defender already has a significant advantage in determining what shield is hit. The defender does not need an additional advantage of being able to make the decision after seeing how damage has been applied.

As for recording, such decisions are made on a volley by volley basis. Even in a large battle, that shouldn't be unmanagable. Especially the shield boundary issue, as that is a very special case that isn't all that easy to set up.
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storeylf · Fleet Captain Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 1897

... double post.

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

Mike · Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:10 pm Post subject:

It seems to me that if players are allowed to make decisions at the moment the dice are rolled as to what weapons are being fired at whom that this would give a tremendous advantage to the firing players (even if they were both opposing one another).

All fire is supposed to be simultaneous, so every volley must be declared before any dice are rolled. That is how it has always been in FC. You can "Me, too" fire after someone else announces, but once all announcements are made, firing decisions are over.

Case in point. Suppose a player fires some weapons and "almost" destroys something (ship, drone, whatever). He should not be allowed to fire any more bearing weapons at that target during that Offensive Fire Phase. And if no other ship had announced fire at that same target, neither should they be allowed after they have seen how things went.

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

Notalent · Ensign Joined: 24 Oct 2008 Posts: 9

A close reading of the rule doesnt support the rulling.
3D2
The attacking player can resolve each volley(3A4) in any order she chooses but must resolve one volley before moving on to the next. Systems (eg shields, batteries) destroyed by one volley would not be available to protect the ships against a subsequent volley...

Looking at it each volley should be delt with in total. The easiest fix would be to make the attacker do all volleys that are on boundries first. Then there is no need for declaration as it happens first. you could have some issues if you have multiple ships firing from the same sheild boundry, but that happens less frequently.
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