Gorn Vs Federation (1st Game using Plasma)

[lincolnlog]

Played a game yesterday (Sunday 13th) Gorn Vs Federation, 1000point fleets. I had not errata'd my Gorn ship cards, so there were probably some errors on them. Also, I'm sure we did defensive fire against the plasma incorrectly.

I played Gorn. Force mix was 6 Gorn ships (1 DN, 1 CM, 1 DDB, 3 DD) versus 5 Federation ships (1 DN, 1 BCJ, 2 CA, 1 DWD). Movement and fire was by squadron.

For the first several turns, both Gorn Squadrons took the SA "Intesify Defensive Fire", so Federation drones did not have a significant impact early on.

Several lessons were learned:

1. If you are fighting plasma armed ships stay beyond 12"
2. If you are using Plasma armed ships try to get just under 8" for maximum impact.
3. When using plasma, movement by squadron works, but ship firing should alternate (firing by squadron gives the Plasma armed fleet a huge advantage.)

In the last turn I vaporized a famous Federation CA with one volley of plasma from 1 CM, the DDB and a DD.

The game was fun, and can't wait to match up the Romulan and Gorn (next game).

I do have 2 questions:

1. Can plasma be overloaded? and if it can, what are the rules governing overloaded plasma, does the 6" rule still apply?

2. When defending against plasma, ignore damage by phaser, it is 1 AD of phaser removes 1 AD of Plasma? and if that assumption is correct, what hit number do you use for the phasers in Def Fire against plasma or for that matter drones?

[storeylf]

1. No, they do not have the overload ability on the weapon line (see photon/disrupter).

2. They do indeed kill 1AD per 1 AD, and not based on damage. Work out hit rate as nomal, except that the defending ship always defends itself at short range, and IDF ships use the range to the ship they are defending. Effectively the defending ships Ph1s need a 2+ and Ph2s/3s need a 3+.


PS Plasma ships are pretty devastating, it can look tough for a turn or 2, but at some point you get to range 8 and end the game against most things.

PPS we tried squadrons on a smallish game once and it felt really 'broken'. I would definately stick to larger games as suggested for squadrons. The problem with having a small number of 'units' for initiative purposes is that the game really ends up hinging to much on the initiative roll, and not enough on what you do, and the firepower a squadron outputs really exacerbates that.

[lincolnlog]

Thanks, good explanation.