Proposed New Cloaking Rules - A Playtest
Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 3:05 am
Mike West May 16 2012 712 pm
The first turn we both came in at speed 16. I cloaked at, I think, range 17 (MY notes have disappeared. I confess annoynance.) We kept closing, with my opponent holding fire. He intended to hold on to his S torps and give me his phaser 1s and carronandes at close range.
My plan was to pass at the beam on a reciprocal course and come back around. A BC can fire both S torps forward, but on left and right pivots, he can't throw them both off to the same side. As it turned out, on turn 2 we ended up at range one face to face with me still cloaked. He fired his phasers and carronandes, gouging a chunk out of my front sheild, but over half of it was still there, and the leaker was easily fixable.
If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. After I passed him I HETed and got on his six. He was at speed 24 now, so he was able to open the range a bit. Basically, I voided the cloak and ran speed 16+1. Under standard rules, voiding would last four impulses, but under the proposed rules, I able to bolt all three torps and fire the phaser 1s at range 5. The R and one F hit. Fool that I am, I did not call for directed damage, but given the dice rolls it would not have availed me. I got 19 internals, a bunch of hull hits, and all but one of his transporters. I did get three or four power systems anyway. He was left with no power for his single remaining transporter. I raided one of his S torps, but got failure and lost.
At speed 24, he couldn't out turn me, and he had no power to HET. I concentrated on staying out of arc for thos S torps. Turn three I selected speed 8 and recloaked. He remained at speed 24. we spent the next coule of turns circling. I was able rebuild a few points of sheild, and shifted a bit from the cheek sheilds to the front while I recharged batteries and torps. He got in a phaser shot on my number 3 sheild at one point (It was on the line, I chose to take it on three), but rolled poor dice and I soaked most of it.
On turn four we were six hexes apart. We were on each others number 5 sheild. He had just turned. I started fade in. He could bring only one S torp to bear. He launched it and turned away. At the end of fade out, the torp was one hex away from my number 2 sheld. he was seven hexes away and in my front arc. Again, I bolted everything, hitting the same number three sheild I had hit before, which now had only five points on it. The R and one F hit, and this time I remembered to call directed damage. Again, it was irrelevant. I got 32 internals, two of which were natural 1s. He was left with 23 points of power. His S Torp hit my number two sheild. I soaked 6 points of it. He got one leaker point, a phaser 3. We called it at that point.
Under standard rules I could never have pulled off that first bolt attack. A t that, I was a lot luckier than I deserved to be. I normally don't favor the bolt, but the only two decent shots I got happened to be at the stern of the enemy ship.
Note: Although this is in part a reply to the thread on cloaking, I have, since it is an after action report, posted it under tactics. If Mike West feels that it belongs elsewhere, I have no objections to its being moved.
I was recently reminded of this when ncrcalamine quoted it in the thread on proposed changes to cloaking. I asked an opponent to play a Gorn BC while I would fly a King Eagle using these proposed rules changes. I was curious as to what the results would be. this is not exactly even pointwise, the Gorns have 160 points to the Romulans 140, but if cloak were actually worth what it cose, maybe it wouldn't be as hopleless as all that.I am not implicitly (or explicitly) promising anything here. However, I am curious how a particular set of changes would work:
- Voiding doesn't affect the damage modifier. All other protections are still removed.
- Voiding only lasts for one impulse, regardless of cause. (Note that a tractored ship will still be re-voided every impulse.)
- Entering a web hex merely voids the cloak, though it is re-voided every impulse it remains in the hex.
- On the impulse the ship becomes fully cloaked, all seeking weapons targeted on the ship are removed from play, subject to its speed: Speed 0 (or Stopped) removes all seeking weapons; Speed 8 removes all seeking weapons farther than 4 hexes; Speed 16 removes all seeking weapons farther than 8 hexes.
- If a cloaked ship performs emergency deceleration, all seeking weapons still tracking it are removed.
- No other changes to the cloak rules.
The first turn we both came in at speed 16. I cloaked at, I think, range 17 (MY notes have disappeared. I confess annoynance.) We kept closing, with my opponent holding fire. He intended to hold on to his S torps and give me his phaser 1s and carronandes at close range.
My plan was to pass at the beam on a reciprocal course and come back around. A BC can fire both S torps forward, but on left and right pivots, he can't throw them both off to the same side. As it turned out, on turn 2 we ended up at range one face to face with me still cloaked. He fired his phasers and carronandes, gouging a chunk out of my front sheild, but over half of it was still there, and the leaker was easily fixable.
If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. After I passed him I HETed and got on his six. He was at speed 24 now, so he was able to open the range a bit. Basically, I voided the cloak and ran speed 16+1. Under standard rules, voiding would last four impulses, but under the proposed rules, I able to bolt all three torps and fire the phaser 1s at range 5. The R and one F hit. Fool that I am, I did not call for directed damage, but given the dice rolls it would not have availed me. I got 19 internals, a bunch of hull hits, and all but one of his transporters. I did get three or four power systems anyway. He was left with no power for his single remaining transporter. I raided one of his S torps, but got failure and lost.
At speed 24, he couldn't out turn me, and he had no power to HET. I concentrated on staying out of arc for thos S torps. Turn three I selected speed 8 and recloaked. He remained at speed 24. we spent the next coule of turns circling. I was able rebuild a few points of sheild, and shifted a bit from the cheek sheilds to the front while I recharged batteries and torps. He got in a phaser shot on my number 3 sheild at one point (It was on the line, I chose to take it on three), but rolled poor dice and I soaked most of it.
On turn four we were six hexes apart. We were on each others number 5 sheild. He had just turned. I started fade in. He could bring only one S torp to bear. He launched it and turned away. At the end of fade out, the torp was one hex away from my number 2 sheld. he was seven hexes away and in my front arc. Again, I bolted everything, hitting the same number three sheild I had hit before, which now had only five points on it. The R and one F hit, and this time I remembered to call directed damage. Again, it was irrelevant. I got 32 internals, two of which were natural 1s. He was left with 23 points of power. His S Torp hit my number two sheild. I soaked 6 points of it. He got one leaker point, a phaser 3. We called it at that point.
Under standard rules I could never have pulled off that first bolt attack. A t that, I was a lot luckier than I deserved to be. I normally don't favor the bolt, but the only two decent shots I got happened to be at the stern of the enemy ship.
Note: Although this is in part a reply to the thread on cloaking, I have, since it is an after action report, posted it under tactics. If Mike West feels that it belongs elsewhere, I have no objections to its being moved.