Stinger fusions

[DirkSJ]

Hello! First time poster and new to FC. I played a bit of SFB many years ago...Hopefully my questions aren't too stupid . I through the 9 pages of this sub forum and didn't see it discussed.

In my copy of Distant Kingdoms the first two sentences describing the Stinger fusions seem contradictory. The first seems to say it can only fire one of it's two fusions per turn. The second seems to say it can fire each once per turn with no cool down turn.

So...which is it? One fusion per turn? Or each fires once per turn (1 or 2 charges depending on range)?

Also it can fire all 4 pulses of it's PH-G at once along with the fusion(s) as normal?

And it can chose to not move any impulse where it could move? (free deceleration)

-----
As a complete side note we ran a sort of home brew scenario tonight and my brother (looooong time SFB player) was rather upset with how the Lyrans worked. We did 300 points:
- Paladin w/all stingers (fleet scale, 100+40)
- Mongol w/all stingers (squad scale, 100+60)
vs
- LDR Tiger (squad scale, 151)
- LDR Tiger (squad scale, 151)

We threw an unmanned and unshielded 100 pt mobile base in the middle, ~30 hexes away, and decided that controlling that base decided the winner. The LDR stormed the base and dropped a pile of marines on board. The hydrans walked up slower (fleet scale Pal has terrible energy problems), kicked out fighters impulse 6, unloaded the fighters gats on 8 for minimal damage (did 1 dmg on 1 or 2...but there were 40 shots!) and dumped a few marines on the base in impulse 8. There was some minor ship fire here at Tiger number 1 on impulse 8 as well. Nothing serious but some heavily dented shields and a few internals from the hellbores down the shield dropped for transporting.

Things looked interesting. Then a few short impulses into the next turn the fighters get to range 2. The first LDR took an alpha from the Pal and 5 fighters alpha from range 2 (in 2 separate stacks per fire limits). Tiger number 1 goes boom. The Paladin's nose was a little bloody but nothing too serious. Most of the fire was directed at the fighters, 3 dead 1 crippled, one damaged but not crippled.

An impulse later the second LDR took piddling spare change damage from the Mongol and 3 fighters at range 2 and 2 fighters at range 0 alpha. Tiger 2 goes boom. The Mongol was crippled in return fire, almost no teeth left but still a good amount of power and only down one fighter bay. 2 more fighters dead.

So...are Stingers really that powerful or are we missing something? My brother was bemoaning the lack of anti-fighter ability that ESGs now have in FC. The Lyrans were basically designed to destroy drones and fighters in SFB. They still do a good job against drones but the ESG seems woefully inadequate against fighters and the Stingers seem disgustingly powerful.

[Kang]

Hello! First time poster and new to FC. I played a bit of SFB many years ago...Hopefully my questions aren't too stupid . I through the 9 pages of this sub forum and didn't see it discussed.

Welcome to the game and to the forum! No question is too stupid (something else we have discussed recently! )

So...which is it? One fusion per turn? Or each fires once per turn (1 or 2 charges depending on range)?

A Stinger may fire only one of its fusions per turn, but that firing may be a single- or double-shotted firing (one or two charges) as required. However firing it double-shotted does not increase the damage, it just extends the range. A Stinger cannot 'do' a 'proper' overloaded fusion shot per se.

Also it can fire all 4 pulses of it's PH-G at once along with the fusion(s) as normal?

Yes. Any Gatling phaser can do this, whether on a Stinger or on a ship.

And it can chose to not move any impulse where it could move? (free deceleration)

Yes. It operates as a shuttle in this respect, and it's the same rule as for standard shuttlecraft. Also it can perform a HET once per turn without having to declare it at the start of the sub-pulse.

So...are Stingers really that powerful or are we missing something? --- the Stingers seem disgustingly powerful.

It depends on how you have interpreted the rules to some extent; certainly they can't fire both fusions together, so if you had allowed that, then that would make them look more powerful. However, yes, they are pretty powerful if you let them get in close enough....

[DirkSJ]

Thanks for the answers!

So...are Stingers really that powerful or are we missing something? --- the Stingers seem disgustingly powerful.

It depends on how you have interpreted the rules to some extent; certainly they can't fire both fusions together, so if you had allowed that, then that would make them look more powerful. However, yes, they are pretty powerful if you let them get in close enough....

We did shoot them twice which means about ~20 damage on Tiger 1 and ~30 damage on Tiger 2 wouldn't have hit. That is a little better but I think the turn would have played out a little different then and they would still have been screwed.

It still pained my brother that ESGs are basically ineffective against anything but suicidal fighters going for one big shot. He maintained that part of the original design of the ESG was to try to keep fighters out at range so their weapons are bad.

[storeylf]

It still pained my brother that ESGs are basically ineffective against anything but suicidal fighters going for one big shot. He maintained that part of the original design of the ESG was to try to keep fighters out at range so their weapons are bad.

ESGs are still effective against fighters, but not really as a means of stopping them reaching you. If you get them after they fire, or just after launch then they are still decent killers - especially as the damage is guaranteed and fixed, no having to allocate extra weapons 'just in case'.