Federation Commander

Yes you can launch the rear firing plasma at drones, no matter who they are targetted against. And as they are small targets you can launch multiple plasma and not just 1 per turn.

Whether you want to use a counter or not is up to you, it may depend on whether you think the drone may or may not hit the target first (with the plasma maybe following in and hitting the target ship as well).

paulgenna wrote:I have another question from our battle. For the Plasma-F's can they be launched to intercept drones not targeted at the firing ship? For example, my destroyer was not targeted but the Battleship had 14 drones on it. Could the DD have fired a Plasma-F to intercept one or two of the drones? If they can do I need to run a counter of simply remove the drone as long as the Plasma will be able to do at least 4 points of damage?

The rear-firing Pl-Fs may be fired at any non-impacted drone on the board, regardless of where they are targeted. So, yes, your DD could have fired both of its rear-firing Pl-F at two of the drones targeted on the BB, as long as the drones had not yet impacted. (They may also be used in the Defensive Fire phase against drones that have impacted your ship, but that doesn't apply to your example.)

It is generally intended that if you are firing a rear-firing Pl-F at a target in flight (i.e. it has not yet impacted) that you would place the counter on the map and move it out. But, if your group is fine with abstracting some of that out for really close and unambiguous situations, I don't see the problem with that.

Can PPDs use Directed Targeting?

Also, Rule 4M3d mentions using the alternate damage when firing directly at a "boundary" - does this refer to hitting a ship right where two shields intersect (in which case the defender can usually choose which shield to take the damage)?

Thanks

Jiraiya1969 wrote:Can PPDs use Directed Targeting?

Yes. As it is not explicitly prohibited (as it is for hellbores), it is available to use.

Also, Rule 4M3d mentions using the alternate damage when firing directly at a "boundary" - does this refer to hitting a ship right where two shields intersect (in which case the defender can usually choose which shield to take the damage)?

Yes, that is the case. The rule should probably reference (3C6c), not just (3C6), but, yes, that is the case. For the 11-15 range band, where the two numbers are not equal, the target determines which takes the extra point by declaring that shield to be the "facing" shield.