Federation Commander

Drones can be very effective when launched at a range of 0-2 hexes ("knife-fighting" range). At this range, the drones will often impact during the movement phase of the impulse after launch. This means that the target won't be able to fly around the drone. At best, it will be able to turn a new shield to the drone before impact. It also means that the target's allies won't be able to do anything about the drone at all - once the drone impacts, only the target ship can affect it, and the Sequence Of Play gives allied ships no opportunity to do anything before the drone impacts.

Kzintis, the galaxy's premier drone users, get a double benefit from such close range. At range 2 or less, their "defensive" phaser-3s start doing 3 or 4 points of damage per shot. With four or more phaser-3s firing in any direction, that's 12-16 points of damage - as much as an overloaded photon torpedo! Their phaser-1s and disruptors also benefit.

..but don't forget that seeking weapons must move straight on theor first movement unless a High Energy Turn will cause them to impact, on their first movement..in which case they MUST HET and impact.

Lots of folks miss that "first hex of movement must be straight ahead" thing

Actually, seeking weapons haveto move straight ahead on the first impulse of movement. They can HET on any subsequent moves, but the first movement after launch must be straight ahead.

Scoutdad wrote:Actually, seeking weapons haveto move straight ahead on the first impulse of movement. They can HET on any subsequent moves, but the first movement after launch must be straight ahead.

Per 2C3b: "Seeking weapons are placed on the board at the time of launch with their target in their FA arc and facing within the launchers tracking arc (if any), and must move one hex before they can turn. They could, however, make a high energy turn (4F3e)

4F3e state that: "Seeking weapons can make a high energy turn (2Ds) only if doing so would cause them to impact on their target in the current Movement Sub-Pulse,and in such case, they MUST make the High Energy Turn."

The MUST is not optional. Therefore, if you can make a HET and impact on the first impulse, you MUST do so, otherwise, you must move forward one hex first.

oops. SFB-ism's slipping in again. I don't know how we missed that ruling. Wait til the next time we play and I'm the Kzinti...

Just to try and avoid any possible confusion, Todd's answer is absolutely correct.

Note that the reason a drone (or any unit) must move directly forward on its first move is because it's turn mode and sideslip mode are not fulfilled. This is explained earlier in (2C3b).

However, HETs are not limited by either turn or sideslip modes, so it is a possibility for the first move. But, the use of HETs by seeking weapons are limited by (4F3e), as Todd explained.

Also, the initial revision of the rules was not perfectly clear on this, so it may not have been an SFBism, but simply not having rechecked (2C3b) closely since reading it in a prior revision.

MJWest: Thanks for the clarification.

I guess I should compare updated rule versions side-by-side to more readily notice changes / revisions / clarifications... rather than just read through them and hope I catch all the changes.
But at least when a new version of FC rules comes out, its only a clarification... not an annual rewrite of the rules, like some other, money-hungry companies do...

Well, I do have an unfair advantage on keeping track of changes, since I have been helping with most of them.

Also, I remember reporting on this specific issue for one of the revisions. Even so, I still double-checked my Rev 0 rulebook to make sure.

We had an interesting situation in a game played on Tuesday of this week. A Kzinti battlecruiser was 2 hexes away from a severely damaged Klingon D-6. Basically, the D-6 was dead in space. The Kzinti wanted to launch drones to impact the D-6 shield #3, but its #2 faced the Kzinti. So, the Kzinti launched its drones so that the D-6 was in their FA firing arc, but the drones weren't facing the D-6 directly. The drones moved their mandatory 1 hex straight ahead and then were able to home in on the D-6 and end up being able to choose between moving into its #2 or its #3 shield. Guess which one they went for???

Mike wrote:We had an interesting situation in a game played on Tuesday of this week. A Kzinti battlecruiser was 2 hexes away from a severely damaged Klingon D-6. Basically, the D-6 was dead in space. The Kzinti wanted to launch drones to impact the D-6 shield #3, but its #2 faced the Kzinti. So, the Kzinti launched its drones so that the D-6 was in their FA firing arc, but the drones weren't facing the D-6 directly. The drones moved their mandatory 1 hex straight ahead and then were able to home in on the D-6 and end up being able to choose between moving into its #2 or its #3 shield. Guess which one they went for???

Good move by the Kzinti! Use those pesky rules to yur advantage whenever possible