Federation Commander

I wonder if they are really useful in classic situations (two enemy fleet clashing for space superiority).
According to my (low) experience, ships have a big enough firepower to kill each other before having the chance to try using marines.
Also, you need a lot of them in order to overcome a ship, sometimes using 3 to 4 ships to send them en masse, enough to win a boarding.
And you can't expect them to be lost via ship fire.
And every marine you send is lost to the defense of the ship, making it more vulnerable to similar enemy actions.
So I would say that marines are not reallu useful, but maybe someone has a different experience.

Marc

Battle reports I read (and I read them all) cite lots of hit and run raids and capture the crippled ship actions, so lots of players are using them.

I'm interested of Battle reports. Where did you find them?

Marc

Mostly on the other BBS or in Captain's Log, or on the PBEM site, the warlord site, or the FCOL/SFBOL site.

madpax wrote:I'm interested of Battle reports. Where did you find them?

Marc

Mine are here:

http://boardgamegeek.com/forum/765826/r ... a/sessions

I have not yet used shuttles, marines, or transporters in anger in Romulan Armada. Getting to range 5 or less is pretty much a game ender. With photons practically auto-hitting, phaser-1's firing three times each, and drones being nearly unavoidable... yeah... no ones thumbing through the rulebook trying to find what else they can do...!

(Maybe other people are having a different experience.)

Edit: Judging by Steve's choice of jargon, I think he's referring to SFB and FC... of which there are regular "battle reports" in Captain's Log among other places. If he was talking Starmada, he would have said something about Boarding Pods instead of Hit-And-Run Raids....

Jeffr0 wrote: With photons practically auto-hitting, phaser-1's firing three times each, and drones being nearly unavoidable... yeah... no ones thumbing through the rulebook trying to find what else they can do...!

(Maybe other people are having a different experience.)

Currently I have the same one.

Edit: Judging by Steve's choice of jargon, I think he's referring to SFB and FC... of which there are regular "battle reports" in Captain's Log among other places. If he was talking Starmada, he would have said something about Boarding Pods instead of Hit-And-Run Raids....

My demand was specific on SFA (Star Fleet Armada ).

Marc

BTW, although I like very much the way SFU is modelized via Starmada, I feel the starships are too powerful compared to their protection. They tend to die (too) quickly to try any 'special' action.
Phasers, especially the Ph-1, are real killers, much more than what they are in FC.

Marc

madpax wrote:BTW, although I like very much the way SFU is modelized via Starmada, I feel the starships are too powerful compared to their protection. They tend to die (too) quickly to try any 'special' action.
Phasers, especially the Ph-1, are real killers, much more than what they are in FC.

Marc

I agree, we dialed the phaser power down to double at close range and regular at all others. Triple, Double, is too powerful.

TWe got the marines into the fray in our game last night. Toward the end of our battle the Klingon C8 (with some damage) was left facing a damaged fed NCL and 2 undamaged war destroyers. The DW were able to remain on the dreadnoughts downed aft port shield, but in doing so had to maneuver in close and the Klingon CO was able to send Marines aboard. We used the Advanced Shipboard Combat rule. In the first attempt, about 5 squads of Marines were beamed aboard and were wiped out at the cost of 3 Marine squads on one of the destroyers. The Klingon then launced a wave of 4 boarding shuttles, 2 of which made it on board and in the next combat phase, beamed aboard an additional 5 marines. These easily overcame the defenders and seized the ship. Unfortunately for the Klingon, the C8 was destroyed in this turn (after creaming one of the war destroyers). The NCL was down to one hull, so a little more luck with his shields and the C8 boarding action could have carried the day for them.

One thing I've thought about doing is writing up some quick rules for doing the hit and run raids from FC/SFB - sending groups of Marines in to destroy specific systems. That might provide another incentive to use transporters.

Brian

Romulans continued their raiding of Kzinti rear areas with an attack on a Kzinti Battlestation after shooting up a convoy.

We played the "base assault" scenerio from the old Star Fleet Battles Commander's edition. I would say that one way to get the best out of your games is to play more of the set scenarios rather than just point it out and go. We put the base in orbit around a 3 hex planet and had another planet on the board as well. This use of terrain also improves the tactical challenges faced by ship commanders.

This was our first experience using plasma torps as seekers and they were pretty effective. My base managed to shoot down the two S's and one R from the dreadnought but the F's hit my cruiser and did some damage.

What also is worth noting was the use of boarding parties by the Kziniti to capture a Romulan ship! This was worth 7 points and was the only points actually scored by the cat player during the game. The Roms managed to knock out two police cutters and cripple the cruiser for a win on points.