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DefSats: What you should and shouldn't do

 
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Sweeper
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 26 Dec 2006
Posts: 183
Location: Sierra Vista, AZ

PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:08 pm    Post subject: DefSats: What you should and shouldn't do Reply with quote

And to further the discussion about Orions, I present the results of a scenario Sir_Krotar and I did on the Client; Raid on a Mining Planet.

I had adapted the Defsats from SFBOL's library for use with FCOL by simply opening up the definition and making sure each box is set up to be read by the FC plugin. As a result, I ended up with a definition for every Defsat described in Communique #24 and they work great with the exception of how they take damage, you have to manually mark off the damage boxes when it gets hit, (this is a minor annoyance at worst).

We played the scenario mainly to see how well the modified Defs work in the client. I was the Sat player and Sir_Krotar was playing the Orion CR.

Sir_Krotar loaded out his ships with a mix of PH1s and PHGs, as he thought he was going up against drones, (a mistake on my part as I had misread the rules and thought that each Sat had 2 heavy wpns of different types instead of being the same type.) My Satellites were PH2s and Disruptors per the rules. (Oh, the Defsats where in squad scale as I'm not a good enough deftool user to make fleet scale versions).

The rules of the scenario say that the Pirate has to move in close to the planet, scan and get 20 points of info on each side of the planet and roll to see which side the vault that contains the Dilithium Crystals that he's here to steal. As the lab rules don't specify that a ship has to be facing a particular side of the planet to scan it, the Orion can park on one hex-side and scan each side.

I had set up the sats per the rules, 3 in low orbit and 2 in high orbit directly opposite each other. Krotar doubles his engines and move's on in on the first turn.

As there is a 10 turn limit on the scenario and the CR has to use it's control boxes as labs, Krotar has to get in close and work fast. He can't shoot at my Defsats until I shoot first. so, I waited for him to get close in.

What I should have done was wait until he got into R1 or less for most of my sats. What I actually did, was that I opened up at R3 and 4, respectively, with 2 of my sats. I manged to hit with most of the weapons, but thanks to that freakin' Stealth coating, 2 of my disruptor's missed. I did, however, manage to get leak damage on 2 of his transporters.

What followed became a rather easy time for for Krotar as he found the Vault on the 3rd turn on side he was right next to. He took out the 3 sats that were near him and spent some time repairing his transporters. he had to move into LOS of my other 2 sats to knock down the vault's shield and start beaming up the crystals. In a last ditch effort, I tried to do some damage to his ship but he swooped on in, took out the remaining sats, and was lkeft with plenty of time to beam up all the crystals and get the heck out of Dodge before the end of T10.

While I lost the game, my real goal of testing out the defsats in the client proved to be a success in that they work. Smile I also learned a bit on how defsats should be used. As they are relatively destruction proof until they fire their weapons. Now, when the weapons should be fired is dependent on the conditions of the battle or scenario. In the case of the Mining Planet game, the sat player should wait until at least R0-1 before firing ans the Orion needs to get in close to make max use of limited lab ability as well as to help defeat the +1 die roll that has to be suffered.

In other games, there might be other ships that will also be in the area that can work in conjunction with the defsats that can make them more effective.

In any case, one should always maximize ones assets in battle as the above example states. What I should done was stall for time. Krotar got lucky when he found the vault early on. He deftly manuvered his ship so he didn't get hit on the same shield twice, (Hey, the Sir in his callsign ain't just for show Smile ).If he hadn't found it early, I could've plinked at him maybe causing some real damage while he was looking. He would still have take out my sats, but he would have had to waste precious time repairing and beaming up the crystals. I might have been able to force a better result than complete victory for him. Smile
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Mike
Fleet Captain


Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 1675
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

See http://www.starfleetgames.com/federation/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=933

I asked about how labs would scan hexsides of a planet when I was in the process of porting this scenario to FC. The answer Mike West gave was that line of sight should be applied to labs in this case just like it is to direct fire weapons. That makes a BIG difference in how the Orion has to play it.
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Sweeper
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 26 Dec 2006
Posts: 183
Location: Sierra Vista, AZ

PostPosted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 5:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I hope it becomes official Errata as we like to play Verbatum as this is the best way to get a hang of the rules.
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