Playing without Drones

[dave]

There is a simple slution for the "did I already move that drone?" issue.

Begin each impulse with all drone counters face up. As each drone is moved flip its counter over. When movement cncludes flip them back.

A second point is that even if you are flying a drone armed ship, there is no rule that you *must* launch drones.

[dave]

The Klingon blueprints weren't by Franz Joseph, but were done by Michael McMaster around the same time (1975) and almost certainly inspired by the FJS Enterprise blueprints.

Scans of them are available for viewing from HERE.

These prints reference a drone launcher in the shuttle bay and are presumably the original source for drones in the SFU.

The drone launcher in the shuttlebay of the deck plan listed above (Deck E1) is indicated as being three racks for launching "target drones". Deck E2 the maintanence deck has a target drone storage room. I do not belive these are the blueprints that led to the inclussion of combat drones on D7 in SFB.

Also worthy of notice is the"cloaking device room" on Deck 7 "Senior Officer's Quarters". Since the SFU D7 is not fitted with a cloaking device, this deck plan seems even less likely to be "canon" for SFB.

[djdood]

I'll leave it to SVC to respond to that.

[Kang]

There is a simple slution for the "did I already move that drone?" issue.

Begin each impulse with all drone counters face up. As each drone is moved flip its counter over. When movement cncludes flip them back.

Oh, I like that I will use that myself from now on. Simple but effective - thanks!

Any ideas on how you know if a drone has slipped or turned? I don't suppose it matters.....

[junior]

The Klingon blueprints weren't by Franz Joseph, but were done by Michael McMaster around the same time (1975) and almost certainly inspired by the FJS Enterprise blueprints.

Scans of them are available for viewing from HERE.

These prints reference a drone launcher in the shuttle bay and are presumably the original source for drones in the SFU.

The drone launcher in the shuttlebay of the deck plan listed above (Deck E1) is indicated as being three racks for launching "target drones". Deck E2 the maintanence deck has a target drone storage room. I do not belive these are the blueprints that led to the inclussion of combat drones on D7 in SFB.

Also worthy of notice is the"cloaking device room" on Deck 7 "Senior Officer's Quarters". Since the SFU D7 is not fitted with a cloaking device, this deck plan seems even less likely to be "canon" for SFB.

iirc, the Klingon drones come from a Star Trek miniatures game (Star Fleet Battle Manual, by Lou Zocchi) that predates even Starfleet Battles.

And incidentally, the two drone launchers are actually mounted inside a shuttle bay. On the original pre-refit version of the D7 found in Starfleet Battles, this causes the drones to be identified as 'Type-F Racks' and to have a more limited rate of fire (only one drone per turn total from the ship). The very first refit to the D7 fixed the rate of fire to a more useful one drone per rack per turn.

[Hod K'el]

Great suggestion concerning flipping counters. That's what we used to do when we played with counters, but we play with miniatures now. The solution is to open your ears and listen! Read the chart loudly if necessary and move your ships THEN move the seeking weapons! Ships/weapons. Ships/weapons!

And how about the Wyn? Basically all the western forces get screwed if you cut out drones. But if no one is playing western fleets, who cares?

Just work thru this one step at a time and everything will be okay! Trust me! The object of the game is to have fun! Not to worry over the details.

[Wolverin61]

Any ideas on how you know if a drone has slipped or turned? I don't suppose it matters.....

I don't see how it would, since their slip/turn modes are 1.

[Wolverin61]

We used to play SFB a lot without using drones. We just ignored the drone/ADD racks unless they got hit, then we'd just mark them off like hull.

junior, not sure how long a turn is in FC, but iirc in SFB it's 30 secs.

[Mike]

It sure does make a difference if you are keeping track of the slip mode of a drone! If someone forgets whether they just slipped on the last sub-pulse or not, it can make a BIG difference in what they are able to do next. This is one of the things that makes a ship moving at 24+ able to avoid just about any drone swarm.

[junior]

Any ideas on how you know if a drone has slipped or turned? I don't suppose it matters.....

I don't see how it would, since their slip/turn modes are 1.

Slip mode is ALWAYS 2, by definition. Usually it doesn't matter whether a drone has turned or slipped, but it can make a difference at high speeds.

[Kang]

Slip mode is ALWAYS 2, by definition.

D'ye mean 1, not 2?

[Hod K'el]

Nope..side slip is 2. if a drone side slipped last subpulse, it can turn because the turn mode is 1. A drone only has to keep the target in its FA arc and constantly move closer if it can.

Drones are fun, but plasma Ds are more fun!

[junior]

Slip mode is ALWAYS 2, by definition.

D'ye mean 1, not 2?

To further clarify what Hod stated -

The turn mode on a drone is 1, which means that it can turn every hex it moves (since every time it moves it's at least one hex away from where it last turned). Slip mode is always 2 for each and every thing in the game because you always need to be at least two hexes away from the last location that you slipped from (barring something that allows you to reset your slip mode).

[Kang]

Slip mode is always 2 for each and every thing in the game because you always need to be at least two hexes away from the last location that you slipped from (barring something that allows you to reset your slip mode).

Ok, I'm being pedantic, but you will only be two hexes away after you have sideslipped. You generate the ability to slip [ie reset your slip mode] once you have moved one hex directly forwards. The slip itself is performed with the next movement point, which then puts you two hexes away. Sure, you will end up two hexes away from the hex you last slipped into, but what you're saying just doesn't sound like the same thing to me.

Oh, hold on - you're saying two hexes from the last location you slipped from, not into - in that case, yes, I see what you mean, but that's not how it's normally stated. In fact the rulebook in (2C4a) states the slip mode is always one. But the way in which it has been defined here is confusing, hence my original question. We are both playing it the same way, but defining it slightly differently.

I can live with that

[Mike]

The easiest way is just to remember that a ship can never sideslip twice in a row.