Federation Commander

Given ships A and B are firing on enemy ship X and ship Y and ship X is close to being destroyed, then:

1/ Must both ships A and B declare which weapons are target on ship X before rolling dice (and risk the possibility of overkill) or

2/ Can ship A fire on ship X to see if it is destroyed before ship B declares its target?

Gotta love tournaments!

I can't find anything that is very specific, but...

4A1 states that all weapons fired in the Offensive Fire Phase are simultaneous. It then says that it's possible for two weapons on opposing ships to destroy each other during the same phase.

With that in mind I would say that #1 applies. Everything is happening simultaneously, and you cannot wait for the results to make a decision.

So overkill is the risk you take when you decide to both fire at Ship X simultaneously.

Am I mistaken about this? I thought all fire had to be declared before any dice were rolled...

The way we read it is:
You can continue to add "me too" fire until you're out of weapons... but every weapon must have a target before any dice are rolled.
Overkill is a distinct possibility.

SFB has the "Aegis" fire control system that'll let you resolve some fire then allocate remaining shots as needed, but that system does not exist in Fed Comm.

Given all this, I'll say that "Yes" all weapon fire must be declared before resolving anything.

Scoutdad:

That's exactly how we have been playing.

I even made up some weapons cards to help with this.

Suppose a ship has 6 Ph1s, 2 Ph3s, and 4 Photons. That player would receive a card showing each of those weapons. Whenever he fires, he places the appropriate card(s) down. [The cards can be pushed/pointed toward the player whose ship he is shooting at or they can simply be put down.]

Everyone sees what is being fired and can "me, too" respond if they want.

This way, no one has to recall what was being fired at whom.

Of course, you have to design and print the cards. And, it is redundant to the Weapons Used tracks on the ship card diagrams.

You know, if almost seems as if a "product" could be made of these Playing Aid ideas that have come up here on the forum...

SFB has the "Aegis" fire control system that'll let you resolve some fire then allocate remaining shots as needed, but that system does not exist in Fed Comm.

Haven't played SFB in years, but when I did, AEGIS was limited to firing at drones/fighters --- can't see that having changed --

Defensive Fire phase --- allowing ADD, then Phasers, and finally Tractors does real well replacing it ---

I look up the reference later, but yes, you everyone has to declare their fire before any dice are thrown. Once all of the "bidding" is done you get to roll dice and see what happens.