The Low-Energy Turn

MikePowers · Post by **MikePowers** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:43 pm

A ship moving at Baseline Speed Zero can change facing and stay in the same hex without needing to use a High Energy Turn. (This could be done with a Tactical Maneuver, but you can only do that if you're Stopped.)

Just Accelerate, and then use Deceleration on the fourth sub-pulse. A ship at Baseline Speed Zero is always Turn Mode 1; and if you cancel a move but your Turn Mode is filled, you can still change facing.

Note that this costs two points' worth of movement; more than a Tactical Maneuver, but less than a High Energy Turn. And you can only change facing by one hexside; but if you're just trying to track a moving target, then one hexside might be all you need.

terryoc · Post by **terryoc** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:01 am

One issue with this is that any ship which is moving at a higher base speed will move after you do, and decide whether to decelerate, move, turn, or slip after you've already made your decision.

That said, it can be useful if you're stuck at low speed and need to keep a fresh shield to the enemy, or if you are forced to move at low base speed for some other reason. Defending a slow/immobile unit from seeking weapons might be one reason.

SABEL · Post by **SABEL** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 10:22 pm

Slow going then using the Acc/Deceleration to go is a costly way to go and if your doing this tactic to save energy then I would say just move 8 but it does work.
Terryoc I hope you find players down under. I am in Ohio and dont think that I could make it

but if I ever get a web cam set up I play you over the internet or someway

Sean

Post by **Steve Cole** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 9:17 pm

Noted for the file.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:35 am

Question...

With each new Turn, the turn mode is "reset" according to whatever speed the ship is supposed to move for that turn. So moving at speed 0 with a turn mode of 1 would mean you could announce acceleration, then decelerate during the 4th sub-pulse and simply change facing one hexside. After that for the rest of that Turn if you accelerate you would have to move forward 1 hex to fulfill your turn mode, correct?

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:36 am

The net effect of the low cost HET would be that you could only do it once per turn. Right?

Am I understanding this correctly?

Then on the next turn, you could do it again, right?

terryoc · Post by **terryoc** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:24 am

Mike, "decelerated" hexes still count towards turn mode. So you could accelerate and decelerate as many as 8 times per turn without leaving the hex.

Robert Knoke · Post by **Robert Knoke** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:55 am

What about snagging another ship with a tractor? It only costs one power (as long as you don't have to auction off too much power) and if you are the same size or bigger, your speed drops one category (provided you also spent more power for movement).

Your turn mode will be tighter... and an inexperienced player may freak out and try to decelerate (leaving you a four Impulse advantage in movement).

It is crucial that you stay out of the "other guys" heavy weaps arcs.

It also works best if he does'nt have a whole lot of power left.

And I don't recommend you try this with an Orion or a Kzin (and you better have some phasers in arc and some drones available for drone defense if you try it against them anyways).

But if all you are trying to do is get a better turn mode... I assume you have already taken some of this into account.

terryoc · Post by **terryoc** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:05 am

If you've tractored an enemy ship, it can (I believe) use a High Energy Turn to bring heavy weapons to bear...

Assuming you're tractoring a friendly, smaller ship, then you spend 1 point of power to lose, basically, one hex of movement, and the other ship may not fire offensively. This is only cheaper than an ordinary deceleration if your ship is a dreadnought or bigger. Not really that useful, IMO.

The original tactic assumed that you have a ship sitting and parking for some reason - perhaps it's defending a base or immobile ship. This happens a lot in SFB because of Wild Weasels and other things, it's generally pretty useless in FC.

junior · Post by **junior** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:22 pm

terryoc wrote:If you've tractored an enemy ship, it can (I believe) use a High Energy Turn to bring heavy weapons to bear...

Yes, it can. And it can also perform Tactical Maneuvers, which might be enough to bring heavy weapons to bear. I really don't recommend trying it against a Gorn ship with loaded plasmas, for instance. The LP/RP arcs of the heavy plasmas guarantee that it can bring at least one heavy torpedo to bear by rotating the ship one hexside.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:30 am

Not to beat a dead horse, but let me see if I understand this speed zero, accelerate, decelerate thing...

I understand that I can declare speed 0 and accelerate and decelerate every Impulse if I want to.

But, does this mean that I can also turn 60 degrees (1 hexside) every Impulse?

If my turn mode is 1, then don't I have to move 1 hex forward (or sideslip) to fulfill that, no matter what else I do?

I can see this both ways. The question is...what is the correct way that has been declared correct by the powers that be?

terryoc · Post by **terryoc** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:03 am

If you decelerate, you have "moved" for the purposes of turn mode, even if you don't change hexes. So yes, you can turn 60 degrees every impulse. It is legal.

Magnum357 · Post by **Magnum357** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:54 am

Wow! I would like to say that I'm glad somebody brought this up. Whenever I play a game, I've been keeping my speed up to at least Base Speed 16 because Federation Commander was designed to keep things moving and use maneuver, discouraging the use of lower speeds.

But I'm kinda glad that using Base Speed 0 or 8 is not a totally useless option (other then powering Overloads/Heavies). I hope there are more little Low Speed Combat Options like this.

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:18 pm

Mike wrote:I understand that I can declare speed 0 and accelerate and decelerate every Impulse if I want to.

But, does this mean that I can also turn 60 degrees (1 hexside) every Impulse?

Yes, that is exactly what it means.

There is one caveat, however. Once you do one of these "low energy turns", you also reset your sideslip mode. Since a decelerated "move" does NOT count for the sideslip mode (only against the turn mode), your sideslip mode remains at zero until you actually move.

So, once a ship does a turn like this you know that his first move out of the hex must be straight forward.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:29 pm

I think I've got it now. Here is an example just to be sure...

I have a Fed frigate that starts a Turn declaring speed 0. If I want, on all 8 Impulses, I can declare that I'm accelerating, but in the 4th sub-pulse of each Impulse I can declare deceleration and turn 60 degrees (1 hexside) to either port or starboard, whichever I want. Therefore, with the movement cost for a Fed frigate being 1/4 energy point for every hex of movement, if I did this maneuver on every Impulse, I would spend 4 energy points (1/4 to accelerate every time and 1/4 to decelerate every time). The net effect would be that I could spin completely around 1 and 1/3 times in that same hex for a cost of 4 energy points.

The only caveat would be that once I decide to leave that hex, it must be straight ahead in whatever direction I'm facing at that time (i.e. no sideslip on the first hex out). To quote the relevant part of 2C4c (p. 12, Revision 4 rulebook), "For purposes of satisfying the sideslip requirement, a regular 60 degree turn resets the sideslip mode to zero."