who acts first

[computerarif]

Hello, new player with a few questions.

1. in movement if all the speeds are the same i.e. 16 then who acts first?

2. when firing direct or seeking weapons who shoots first?

[Scoutdad]

Hello, new player with a few questions.

1. in movement if all the speeds are the same i.e. 16 then who acts first?

2. when firing direct or seeking weapons who shoots first?

!: If all speeds are the same, then movement is determined by Turn mode order:
(2A5) ...Within these groups, the slower unit moves first. If
the speeds are equal, the unit with a better Turn Mode
category moves last. If speed and Turn Mode category
is the same, both players write down their movement
for that sub-pulse only and expose these written
orders simultaneously, then execute them simultaneously...

2: All fire is simultaneous. It doesn't matter who declares fire first - but ALL fire must be declared before any dice are rolled. Once fire is declared, then you may resolve.
Again - fire is simultaneous, so even though you rolled your fire first and managed to destroy all four of your opponents heavy weapons... in reality, they fired at the same time you did - so you will still receive thier incoming fire.

[computerarif]

thx

[wedge_hammersteel]

You could also do a house rule that if all things are tied then the bigger class of ship moves first. If the class of ship is the same then the ship with the larger BPV moves first.

[Mike]

I wonder why ADB did not put that extra addition into the sequence?

[USS Enterprise]

Just curious, but how many people actually even care who moves first? Like, how seriously do you take your games?

I could imagine it matters in a tournament or key-situation maybe, but otherwise... why not just move? I have never known the rule about who moves first, and I don't think its ever come up. My last game was several months ago however...

[mjwest]

I wonder why ADB did not put that extra addition into the sequence?

Because, really, what is there works fine enough. No reason to throw point value into the mix. I suppose size could have been added, but no one thought of it. Besides, you can always still get a tie, so the way it is now works quite nicely.

[wedge_hammersteel]

Who moves when is important in our group's battles. Its never an inconvenience or game hinderer to include that component. Movement issues usually dont come into play until ships are with 10 hexes. I can understand USSE's point. In our group if a player wants to follow the move first rules to the letter, he just says so and we do it.

[Blammo]

The rules do pretty much say if everything else is equal, write down your movement. Why go into never ending levels of ship comparison? If you go through speed, turn mode, etc, just write it down, reveal and move on.

Quite frankly, if ships are moving at the same speed and have the same turn mode, what would size or BPV have to do with anything as far as determining who moves first? I wouldn't like that. I'd rather totally randomize it at that point and just role a die or FOLLOW THE RULES and just write down our movements.

[JimDauphinais]

The rules do pretty much say if everything else is equal, write down your movement. Why go into never ending levels of ship comparison? If you go through speed, turn mode, etc, just write it down, reveal and move on.

Quite frankly, if ships are moving at the same speed and have the same turn mode, what would size or BPV have to do with anything as far as determining who moves first? I wouldn't like that. I'd rather totally randomize it at that point and just role a die or FOLLOW THE RULES and just write down our movements.

There is no need to write anything down. You can just make up a set of movement cards (such as those that come in Orion Attack) for each ship to handle when movement precedence is tied.

[wedge_hammersteel]

what would size or BPV have to do with anything as far as determining who moves first?

Bigger ship moves first. NCL vs NCA, if all were equal, the NCA would move first as its class is bigger. Higher BPVs are usually assigned to larger ships.

I know everyone saw that I wrote "House Rule", right?

[Hod K'el]

Bigger ship moves first. NCL vs NCA, if all were equal, the NCA would move first as its class is bigger. Higher BPVs are usually assigned to larger ships.

I know everyone saw that I wrote "House Rule", right?

You assume too much, Grasshopper. Who said they could read? Who said they could understand what they read?

A disturbance in the force, coming I feel.

Now you see why I play Orion...NO Rules can hold me! HoD...that's Captain to you, mate!

Remember...to err is human...to arr is pirate!

[Scoutdad]

Just curious, but how many people actually even care who moves first? ...

Actually, in our group - it's an important issue. Many of our decision re: baseline speeds are made based on movement priority.
We have a very competitive group of very good players. Things like turn mode, power curve versus baseline speed, etc often quite strongly into our ship selections. It has never held a game up though as all our players know which ship moves first when...

Although to be fair; in the opening stages of 99% of our games we just move the ships their total movement for each impulse and be done with it... at least until they hit 10 hexes range or someone says, "Stop! Let's go sub-pulse by sub-pulse from here on out."

[wedge_hammersteel]

Scoutdad does that. I was relatively new to fedcom and scoutdad and I were in a six person battle. His ship was going speed 8. When the turn started he move 8 times and said those were his moves and the rest of us could play ours out. It took me a little bit to catch on to this. I was taken by surprise by this. Also of surprise is that he and Patrick Doyle had the phaser damage tables memorized.

[Mike]

No real surprise there!