Federation Commander

Here is a tactical article by Jon Lawson, who is also on the forums, but he ok'd me to share it on his behalf.

Saving the Stingers
Jon Lawson, HMS Devonshire, UK

When at knife range, with your Stingers and the enemy in close, you can protect your Stingers from being death-dragged by tractoring them yourself.

As your opponent declares each tractor attempt, you simply announce a ‘me-too’ tractor attempt on the same Stinger(s). This will mean that neither of you will establish a working tractor link; in order to be able to death-drag the Stingers, your opponent would have to win the tractor auction by spending at least two points per Stinger to break your tractor beams. He will always have to spend more power than you if he wants to win the tractor auction and succeed in death-dragging the Stingers.

Also, this tactic does not prevent your Stingers from firing offensively, since no tractor link will be established; all you are doing is preventing the enemy from establishing his own tractor link.

Something seems fishy about this to me, but I can't put my finger on it just now...

I dunno. I think it looks good. It has some serious limitations, and only applies when the Stingers are within a single hex of BOTH the target ship and a friendly ship. At that point, things are already poppin' ...

It is using "me-too" for tractors, but I think that has already been discussed before in a different context.

Well, Jon did invent the trick at just that position - his Stinger was in the hex separating his ship from mine - but the thing is he'd used all his power so couldn't use the trick.

So yes, things were already poppin', but they hadn't been fully popped But the Stingers were thoroughly popped, though....

mjwest wrote:It is using "me-too" for tractors, but I think that has already been discussed before in a different context.

Yes, it was in the rules thread about Stingers and Tractors. Unless you're thinking about somewhere else, that is.

I agree with Mike... and with Mike.

At first blush, something seems fishy about it...

But it is a valid use for a tractor beam and it does require a special set of circumstances to be applicable. It also has several disadvantages:
1. If both you and your enemy are 1 hex from the Stingers, then you are at most - 2 hexes from each other. That in itself can often be a disadvantage... I'm thinking Fed CA with you in it's front arc...
2. It requires a tractor beam for each Stinger, and while your opponent is likely to have that many more tractors than you, if you use enough of them saving Stingers - they may not be available later on for use against drones or suicide shuttles.
3. It gets expensive (energy wise) rather quickly... 1 point (or more) of power for every Stinger saved.

Now, thinking about this nad thinking about the Hydran games we played this weekend gives me an idea for another Command Note...

Scoutdad wrote: 1. If both you and your enemy are 1 hex from the Stingers, then you are at most - 2 hexes from each other. That in itself can often be a disadvantage... I'm thinking Fed CA with you in it's front arc...

Well, considering these are Stingers, that likely means you are actually two hexes from an angry Hydran ship with fusion beams. While fusion beams usually don't scare people much, fusion beams at 2 hexes (or less) should.

But the tactic is about saving your Stingers which means it's written from the Hydran prospective - and they ARE the guys in the ship with fusions that's only two hexes away...

It does seem fishy, at first, but I don't think it's illegal. You'd establish a tractor link, then drop the tractor link before death dragging them. Neat idea, and inspires another idea from me...

It is not even that complex. Since the tractor attempt is a "tie", no tractor is ever established. The Stinger is not tractored and released, it is never even tractored in the first place.

mjwest wrote:...and only applies when the Stingers are within a single hex of BOTH the target ship and a friendly ship.

And remember that within one hex range from the enemy ship is the only range he can death-drag them anyway, so that's half the position already.

Added to that, sometimes people do go in with the Stingers, in which case it's an ideal trick in those circumstances.

Can't see what's fishy about it, though. It's a simple 'draw' in a tractor auction. Like all the best tricks, simple and obvious once it's pointed out to you

From a practical standpoint (if such a thing can be said about a science fiction concept), it would seem that opposing tractor beams playing across Stingers might have the same effect as one that might take hold.

to be fair if there is a ship with multiple stingers within one hex and a hydran ship within one hex, the target isnt going to have any tractors left anyway, or shouldnt.