FC: War And Peace - Andromedan vs Federation play test repor

[Bolo_MK_XL]

Been awhile since I played SFB with Andros, recall though they didn't have Tractors per se --- had to use TRs to perform that function --

Can't see a mothership taking a TRH out of service to do that while in combat ---

[Scoutdad]

Not gonna happen often... but in the right tactical situation, you might do something like that.

[mjwest]

The motherships have a tractor beam box. The satellite ships do not.

Do note that if you use a TR beam as a tractor, you get all of the power in it for that purpose. Also, you do not need a tractor box to use negative tractor.

[terryoc]

Bolo, the larger motherships (Intruder, Dominator) each have one tractor beam.

I wonder if grabbing an enemy ship and dragging it away to mug it in a corner is a viable tactic for the Andromedans?

[Steve Cole]

(5V3b) ENGINES: Andromedan ships can operate their engines at lower output in order to use battery power and clear battery space for power absorber panel transfers. During the Energy Allocation Phase, simply announce that you are not using all of the power your engines could normally produce. This non-produced power is marked “used� on the power track for that turn, cannot be recovered later, and is simply lost, but does not permanently reduce the capacity of the engines to produce power on future turns. (Any ship can do this, but only Andromedans have any reason to do so.)

(5V3c) EXPENDITURES: The Andromedan player cannot expend power needlessly in order to clear battery space. He can fire weapons into empty space, but he cannot use more power than the weapons need. He can tractor a space rock, but he cannot spend more than one point of power doing so. He cannot have a tractor auction between two Andromedan ships. Any unused HETs cost no power.

(5V3d) MOVEMENT: Andromedan ships do not pay double to move in reverse (2B1c).

[Steve Cole]

As for energy modules

1. they're in the book right now

2. the staff is discussing dumping them as needless clutter and too confusing for FC players.

[Steve Cole]

(3G) POWER ABSORBERS

Andromedan ships do not use shields; instead, they use power absorbers. These absorb the power of enemy weapons (up to a point) and allow the ship to recycle this power into the batteries and use it against the enemy! (A ship cannot have both shields and power absorbers; the two systems are mutually exclusive.) Only the Andromedans use power absorber panels; they cannot be used in optional boxes by Orions or others.

(3G1) BANKS

Each Andromedan ship has two power absorber banks, one covering the front half (shields #1, #2, and #6) and the other covering the rear half (shields #3, #4, and #5).

(3G1a) PANELS: Each “bank� consists of a number of “panels� and can absorb ten points of power for each panel in the bank (and has ten boxes on the bank array). As with other ships, the strength of the banks (the number of power absorbers) varies from ship to ship; generally speaking, larger ships have stronger banks (i.e., more power absorber panels).

(3G1b) BASES: Andromedan battle stations and starbases have six power absorber banks, one replacing each shield. In this case, divide hellbore damage (3G2a) by six and allow the Andromedan player to distribute any odd points (one per bank) to any banks he selects.

(3G2) FUNCTION

Any damage points which would strike any of the three forward shields on a non-Andromedan ship is absorbed by the forward bank. Any damage points which would strike any of the three rear shields on a non-Andromedan ship is absorbed by the rear bank. Any damage that the bank cannot absorb is treated as internal damage; it cannot be transferred via (3G4b) or (3G4c). Damage points absorbed by the banks become, in effect, a point of energy.

(3G2a) HELLBORE: If a hellbore torpedo strikes a ship with power absorber banks, simply divide the total damage scored in half, with half going to each bank. If there is an odd number of damage points, the Andromedan player can pick which bank to score the leftover point on. See (3G1b) for bases.

(3G2b) BURN THROUGH: As with shields, if a given volley scores ten or more points of damage, one of these points is not absorbed by the power absorber bank but is instead distributed by the Damage Allocation Chart as internal damage. If the volley includes damage caused by disruptors, then every tenth damage point “burns through� the panels.

[Steve Cole]

(3G3) COST

(3G3a) POWER COST: Unlike shields, there is a power cost to operate power absorbers of one-half of an energy point per panel box in each bank, e.g., seven points for an Intruder. See (3G5).

(3G3b) REPAIR COST: Repairing a disabled power absorber panel costs four repair points (per panel, not per bank).

(3G4) PURGING POWER

At the end of each turn, during the Repair Phase, each Andromedan ship can remove a certain amount of power from the panels, allowing them to absorb more damage on the next turn. There are three ways to do this.

(3G4a) DISSIPATION: Each panel bank can (but does not have to) “dissipate� some power into space. This power is just erased from the panels (just like a point of shield damage being repaired would cause one damage point to be erased).
(3G4a1) Each bank can dissipate one point of power for every undisabled panel (i.e., for every ten boxes of the strength of the bank). Thus, a bank of three panels (30 boxes) would be able to dissipate up to three points of power, one per panel.
(3G4a2) Power cannot be dissipated if the ship is in a zone which does not allow such dissipation, such as the WYN Radiation Zone (6D). Heat Zones and Radiation Zones (in a future product) also prevent dissipation. Power can be dissipated in a Nebula (6F).

(3G4b) TRANSFER TO BATTERY: An Andromedan ship may transfer power from the panel banks to the ship’s batteries. This is limited to one point of power per undisabled panel (i.e., for every ten boxes of bank strength). Thus, a panel bank of 30 boxes would be able to send up to three points of power to the batteries. Note that Andromedan batteries (5V3a) hold more power than galactic batteries.

(3G4c) TRANSFER TO BANKS: An Andromedan ship may transfer power from one bank to the other, but no more than one point of power for every undisabled panel (i.e., for ten boxes of bank capacity). Power could also be sent to the power absorbers of an energy module in the hangar (5V2) but not to a satellite ship (5V1c3).

(3G4d) POWER DUMP: The Andromedan ship could also deal with this power by dropping a panel during the turn, see (3G5).

(3G4e) LIMITATION: Power cannot be drawn directly from the panels to be used by the ship’s weapons or systems. (Exception: a mauler weapon, used only on the Borders of Madness, can do so, making Andro-medan mauler ships particularly nasty.)

[Steve Cole]

(3G5) DEACTIVATING BANKS

(3G5a) FUNCTION: The Andromedan player might deactivate one bank of his power absorbers (perhaps to allow non-Andromedan transporters to work, or perhaps to use a “tactical power dump� as described in (3G5c).
(3G5a1) The Andromedan player can also (in effect) deactivate a bank by simply not allocating power to run it (3G3a).
(3G5a2) Deactivation cannot be done if doing so would result in internal damage to the ship. This includes failing to allocate power, unless all of the power in the ship has already been used to keep the panels active and is not enough.

(3G5b) SEQUENCE: This could be done during any impulse during the Other Functions Phase (at the same point where shields are dropped or raised), but the bank must remain inactive for the next two impulses (until the Other Functions Phase of the second subsequent impulse). All panels of a given bank are deactivated or reactivated at the same time. A given bank can be deactivated and reactivated more than once per turn.

(3G5c) TRANSFER: If a bank is deactivated, any damage/power in that bank has to go somewhere. [This procedure is also used if a panel box is destroyed by combat damage, reducing the capacity of the bank below what it currently holds.] See (3G6b2), which notes that all power in any panels of a bank is a function of the bank, not of individual panels (as it is in SFB rules). This must be, in strict order of priority:
1. An energy module (5V2) in the hangar (until it is full).
2. The ship’s other power absorber panel bank (or any of a starbase’s other banks) until it is full.
3. The batteries of the ship (until they are full).
4. The power absorber banks of any satellite ship (5V1c3) in the hangar (until all the banks of all such satellite ships are full).
Any power which cannot be sent to one of these places is resolved immediately as internal damage.

(3G6) SHIP CARD

(3G6a) PANELS: Each Andromedan ship has a number of “panel boxes� as part of the ship itself. These can be disabled by internal damage points scored on “drones�.

[Steve Cole]

(3G6b) CAPACITY: If one of these panel boxes is disabled, then the capacity of the corresponding bank is reduced by ten points. This may result in the involuntary release of power if the bank was holding more points than its newly reduced capacity. Such an involuntary release is resolved immediately as per (3G5c) above, and might result in more internal damage (and a catastrophic explosion).
(3G6b1) Any internal damage constitutes a new volley, and there is no opportunity to select “directed damage� (3D4) so it is treated as undirected damage. That internal damage might disable another “bank box� releasing more power, and any power with nowhere to go becomes yet another new volley of undirected internal damage. Yes, this could cascade and end up destroying the ship. (Andromedan ships tend to absorb a lot of “damage� without noticeable effect, then explode. Hey, they’re from another galaxy, and you didn’t think they’d work like our ships do, now did you?)
(3G6b2) The bank is considered as a unified set of panels, and the amount of power in the bank is not assigned to any specific panel. The number of points that can be transferred is based on the number of panels in the bank, not which panel they are in. Thus, a bank of three panels holding three points of power could dissipate all three (3G4a1) even if the player had marked all three points as one row of the bank array.

(3G7) OTHER POWER ABSORBER RULES

(3G7a) WEBS: Power absorbers do not absorb power from webs. They will absorb damage points caused by terrain (or anything else).

(3G7b) TRANSPORTERS: Transporters cannot penetrate power absorber panels, at least not on the way in. Andromedan ships can use their transporters to send boarding parties and satellite ships out, and can recover them without dropping panels.

(3G8) COMBAT EXAMPLE

An Andromedan Cobra destroyer has a forward bank of four panels (40 points) and a rear bank of three panels (30 points). During Turn #1, the Federation player scores 27 points of damage on the three forward shield arcs of the Cobra. This is absorbed by the forward bank (except for one “burn through� point which hits a phaser), and the Andromedan player marks 26 of the 40 panel boxes. (On a non-Andromedan ship, this would indicate shield boxes which have been knocked down. On an Andromedan ship, this indicates power absorber capacity that is full.) At the end of the turn, the Andromedan player dissipates four of the 26 points of power in his forward bank, and transfers four more points to his batteries (his four batteries can hold a total of twenty points of power), leaving eighteen points of damage/power in the forward power absorber bank. He then transfers four of these points to the rear bank, which can hold up to 30 points.

[Steve Cole]

You impressed us, Stormy Elf. If you want your name in the "BBS gang" section of the rulebook for a campaign ribbon, email me your real name.

[Steve Cole]

Dan Ibekwe, if that's NOTyour real name, email me what it, so you can get your campaign ribbon.

[Nerroth]

Where on the Ship Cards do you mark the power you're allocating to run your panels?

[Kang]

Any unused HETs cost no power.

Could this be like the Stingers catch, where they could have declared HET at the start of every sub-pulse, where eventually we got the ruling that Stingers didn't have to declare the HET. Could this happen with the Andromedans too?

Storeylf and Dan, great catches - well done

[Kang]

(3G7b) TRANSPORTERS: Transporters cannot penetrate power absorber panels, at least not on the way in. Andromedan ships can use their transporters to send boarding parties and satellite ships out, and can recover them without dropping panels.

Can hit/run raids be used to disable PA panels? And, if so, is there a rule to prevent hit/run raids from disabling a forward PA panel from the direction of the rear arc, assuming destroyed/deactivated panels covering that arc? (And vice versa)