Federation Commander

edit: Never mind. You guys are using about six lines to solve a one-line problem, but it's getting solved.

Like it or not, you take the opportunities that you get. And sometimes Range 2 is the best that you can force - particularly when you consider that that there are four movement opportunities between each firing attempt. So we should change everything about the game system to make one race's ...

And I've noted earlier that I wasn't happy with the rule, and provided some numbers to demonstrate why I was unhappy with it. A 50% loss in damage at range 2 for a race that effectively lives or dies based on whether it can get a firing opportunity at range 2 is, in a word, brutal. But again, the ...

The first was the tactic of using EM as emergency cover when someone screws up. That resulted in, what I believed, was an unintended (valid, but unintended) use of EM. Who, at any point, has suggested that this was a bad thing that makes the game worse? Doesn't the idea of EM being an "oh crap ...

But speed 16 for the dreadnought is 24 power; riding the midget only costs 1. And the frigate moving speed 24+1 for the whole turn is 8 power. It's a net benefit.

Or you have the "elephant riding a midget", where a Stopped Dreadnought tows a friendly Speed-24-and-accelerating Frigate. The Dreadnought is the one using the tractor, so it can still fire weapons; since the Dreadnought hasn't put power into movement, the Frigate controls the movement of the ...

So if you're being tractored, you might want to consider an Emergency Deceleration so that you can turn.

Well, yes, it worked exactly like it was supposed to--but why wouldn't it have worked that same way under the old rules? There is no functional difference between "the Fed took a shot in the 1-3 bracket" and "the Fed closed into the 1-5 bracket, the Klingon declared EM, and the Fed took a shot at ...

The Klink announced he was going Erratic and the Feddie took the bait paid for his ticket to ride and rolled the dice. Which is about what would have happened anyway, only now it happened one Impulse earlier. I guess you could say that the Fed had more opportunity to decide whether he wanted to ...

Another noteworthy observation. Last Tuesday we had a game and used the new EM rule. What was interesting is the Klingon used the EM announcement as a way to force his Fed opponent into firing photons far too early for fear of the +2 die roll. The Fed took the bait, hit with only 1 photon, and then ...

You know, I'm beginning to come round to this point of view too. You misread my post. I'm arguing against the new rule--saying that it wasn't necessary.

This isn't an "elegant solution to a problem", this is a "total change in the way EM works in the game system". This is a big deal . I'm really ...

Hee. "aggregious". Is that something like "offtrusive"?

You know, the more I think about this change, the more I like it.

It shifts the burden of planning onto the player who wishes to truly benefit from using EM, where previously the mere threat of EM was enough to place this burden (which is a problem of anticipation really) on the opposing player ...

I mean, I kind of see where the ruling is coming from. In general, FC seems to try to avoid the idea of "inadvertent preemption"--basically, the Me-Too rule. With EM taking effect before Offensive Fire, there was no way to say "oh well if he's going to EM, then I'll fire now, because I probably won ...

Thats where we differ, if you used [plasma torpedoes] effectively then you have minimised the defenses against them - you made sure he couldn't effectively run, that he can't effectively phaser them etc. But you can say the same things about photons; if you're in a place where the enemy going EM ...