Federation Commander

Not to raise a dead thread, but ...

First, in the case outlines by Kang, the ship will have line of sight, and the target can choose the shield that is facing. You get line of sight along a hex side; the imaginary line from hex center to hex center must enter the planet hex to block it.

Second, on the point of the to-hit modifier, Steve has provided this clarification:
(6B3) If there are four or more hexes of asteroids, add two to the die roll.

And, while I am on the subject, there is this one, too, which is a change from what I have said before:
(6) Asteroid damaged is halved in fleet scale. Round fractions up.

Is fleet scale drone damage the same, or fourthed?

pinecone wrote:Is fleet scale drone damage the same, or fourthed?

Neither. Drones are the same in Fleet Scale as they are in Sqdn scale, just there's less of 'em. Therefore they still have 12-point warheads and take four points to kill. I think that's what you were asking, anyway

In terms of asteroid damage on drones, use the rules Mike has just given us - i.e. it's halved.

I should have been specific and said asteriod damage to fleet scale drones. thanks.

No. Since, technically, all drones (and fighters) are squadron scale, they take damage like the would at squadron scale.

Re-reviving the thread, but that's because it will keep the terrain questions more together.

Last night we played a game where we had the big gas-giant 'Jupiter' planet from Hydran Attack on the board [we were using large hexes].

Although the planet picture is circular, is it the case that the planet is actually hexagonal for game purposes?

To put it another way, is the line of sight blocked by any hex containing a part of the circular planet graphic, or is it the planet graphic itself that blocks the LOS?

Also, Mike, should we put the asteroid-web-anchor clarification that you gave earlier in this thread in the CRUL?

I don't mean to speak for Mike West, but I always thought that for medium to large planets, any hex occupied by the planet would block a LOS.

I have a couple new terrain questions about asteroids.

First question: drones have impacted a ship and were stopped by a tractors. The ship then enters a asteroid hex. Do the impacted and tractored drones also take asteroid damage? Do all units roll once and take that damage? Or does each unit roll its own damge. I would presume if they did that it would be done under the ships baseline speed.

After some searching i figured out the offensive ESG and asteroid interaction. But is there any interaction when the ESG is used in defensive mode in an asteroid hex? would the asteroid hex still count as another target and absorb defensive fire damge from the ESG?

Thanks

Kang wrote:Although the planet picture is circular, is it the case that the planet is actually hexagonal for game purposes?

Technically speaking, the planet is actually hexagonal for game purposes. (That is what happens when you try to force a large "circle" into a hex grid.) The picture is purely there to look good.

That said, there is nothing wrong with playing it such that any hex with a piece of the planet picture in it is planet hex. You just have to make sure everyone knows what the rules are before you start playing.

To put it another way, is the line of sight blocked by any hex containing a part of the circular planet graphic, or is it the planet graphic itself that blocks the LOS?

Depends on how you do it above.

m1a1dat wrote:First question: drones have impacted a ship and were stopped by a tractors. The ship then enters a asteroid hex. Do the impacted and tractored drones also take asteroid damage? Do all units roll once and take that damage? Or does each unit roll its own damge. I would presume if they did that it would be done under the ships baseline speed.

If it is a non-impacted drone, then it would take damage just like any other tractored unit.

However, the case of an impacted drone is undefined. I can't imagine why they would be immune. So, I suppose they should be damaged. Since each unit is rolled for separately in any other case, I don't see why that should be different here.

So, impacted drones have to roll for asteroid damage, too, when the target ship moves through an asteroid hex.

After some searching i figured out the offensive ESG and asteroid interaction. But is there any interaction when the ESG is used in defensive mode in an asteroid hex? would the asteroid hex still count as another target and absorb defensive fire damge from the ESG?

No. When used in defensive mode, the ESG burst never gets much past impacted seeking weapons.

A couple more asteroid questions that came up in our last game.

1)My opponent has tractored me and has more energy in movement than me so is also controlling the movement. He push/pulls/drags/shoves me into an asteroid hex. Which shield do i take the damage on? The rules say #1 if i am moving forward etc, but as i am tractored and sort of considered not moving, we wondered if that would make a difference. Would the #1 or #4 shield, based on my original movement direction, still take the damage even if i was moved in the opposite direction, or would the shield facing that was moved into the asteroid take the damage?

2) Will asteroid or any other terrain damage,if in sufficient amount, cause leak damage? My opponent thought no, i thought yes, but looking in the rules say leak damage is done by the volley and a volley was defined as damage caused by direct fire and seeking weapons.

The way we interpret the rules:

1) Yes, even if moved intothe asteroids involuntarily... damage is applied to the #1 / #4 shield.

2) Yes, if damage equals or exceeds 10 points, then one point of burn-through is applied.

Do you still apply the damage to #1/#4, when dragging an opponent's ship through asteroids, if he's got a different facing from you?

Say I am tractoring an opponent off my #2 shield; I'm facing A and he's facing B. The asteroids occupy the row of hexes to the right of my ship, i.e. off my #2/#3 shields, I have control of movement and am moving forwards. Surely, then, his #6 shield is the one that's going to take damage from the asteroids?

Tony:
It seems as if that's the way it would work (does that in SFB, at least); but...

When Plasmaboy pulled that stunt at during the big Battlegroup Murfreesboro game when SVC stopped by for a visit, we asked him for a clrification.

According to Steve, the #1/#4 shield only was part of the Fed Comm simplification process. It the front part of the ship enters first (#6/#1/#2 shield) - then the damage goes to the #1... vis versa for the other end.

It seems counter intuitive and a bit harder to remember than facing shield takes damage - but it does lead to ships blowing up faster and that's what FC is all about.