Federation Commander Forum Index Federation Commander
A NEW fast paced board game of starship combat!
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Proposed New Cloaking Rules - A Playtest

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Federation Commander Forum Index -> Tactics
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Klingon of Gor
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 01 Jun 2011
Posts: 150

PostPosted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 3:05 am    Post subject: Proposed New Cloaking Rules - A Playtest Reply with quote

Mike West May 16 2012 712 pm

Quote:
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.


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.

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.
_________________
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away" - Philip K Dick
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
storeylf
Fleet Captain


Joined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 1897

PostPosted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 9:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
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.

Under standard rules I could never have pulled off that first bolt attack.


The proposed rules don't allow you to fire whilst under cloak, voided or not. You can only fire once you drop the cloak, voiding doesn't affect that. So I'm not sure what you mean by what you said.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Klingon of Gor
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 01 Jun 2011
Posts: 150

PostPosted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 9:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I fired after I was no longer voided. Also, there no power being put into cloak. I wasn't fading for that impulse.
_________________
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away" - Philip K Dick
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
storeylf
Fleet Captain


Joined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 1897

PostPosted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 10:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So I'm still not sure how the proposed rules changed anything, which is what you appear to be saying regarding the voiding lasting 4 impulses before.

You uncloak, you fade in and fire. That is no different to before. Voiding doesn't have anything to do with it that I can think of.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Klingon of Gor
Lieutenant SG


Joined: 01 Jun 2011
Posts: 150

PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 12:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Because of the shorter void penalties, I got a firing opportunity that I otherwise would not have had. I agree that a fight with a drone user might have been a better test, but I am convinced, based on what I have seen so far, that this would improve things for the cloaking device. In a fight with a drone user, the cloak should not be so favored as to unbalance the game, because Romulans, being plasma users, must get fairly close, and shedding drones at any sort of plasma chucking range is likely to involve an emergency decel.
_________________
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away" - Philip K Dick
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
storeylf
Fleet Captain


Joined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 1897

PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 2:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry to be a pain, but I'm interested in stuff to do with the proposed cloaks and how people found it has changed things. But reading your post I'm not catching on to how the void bit you mention affected anything, but you were saying it was key?

As a playtest aar it would be useful to understand that.

Quote:
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.

...

Under standard rules I could never have pulled off that first bolt attack.


The way I'm reading that you are saying that before you would have had to wait 4 impulses to bolt the torps by which time he would have been beyond range 5, but because you now only void for 1 impulse you were able to fire after 1 when he was still at range 5.

In my mind I am reading the following sequence of events.

1. Impuse X. you acclerate to 16+ and move all 3 pulses, voiding the cloak.
2. Impulse X. you declare uncloak, and start fading in.
3. Impulse X +1. you carry moving 16+.
4. Impulse X +1. you fully uncloak. void is now irrelevant.
5. Impluse X +2. you carry moving 16+.
6. Impulse X + 2. You bolt the torps.

If that is correct then I'm not sure how the previous 4 impulse void would have affected things? Certainly the old rules would not have prevented that bolt attack. So I assume you are meaning something different?

Given it a tactics/Playtest post, could you explain more precisely what happened, and your thoughts as you were going through it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Federation Commander Forum Index -> Tactics All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group