Federation Commander

Thx Steve. FC is all about KISS and sometimes I forget that, and fall into my old SFB habits.

Hod K'el wrote:

JoMc67 wrote:I am glad the Orion Dreadnaught is conjectural as I believe small size races ( including Wyn ) should not have anything bigger then say a Heavy Cruiser at best.

Joe

Remember that the Wyn have the PBB (Pocket Battleship)! An awesome little dude IMO; and no one else has one.

And Nancy

wedge_hammersteel wrote:My friend, Hod K'el, usually plays an Orion when we get together for our gaming sessions.

My interest in doing the same is growing and I have been looking at the Orion Dreadnaught.

I would like to ask for your opinions on how you would fill the weapon option mounts for this ship.

Its my understanding that the ship is conjectural and if there was one, there would most likely be only one.

I was considering: A/B/C: Photon/Plasma G/Photon; D/E/F: Disruptor/Disruptor/Disruptor; W/X/Y/Z: All Plasma D's

I was also thinking: W/X/Y/Z: All Drones or 2 Plasma Ds/2 Drones.

Well, I like the idea, mostly. Pl-D in the Wing mounts is definetly the way to go. I would do A/B/C as HB/Pl-G/HB, then D and F ESG, and E Photon.

That is an energy consuming ship. But Orions and their engine doubling can deal with that. HBs replace DISRs as long and close range weapons. Photon is a Close-Range Smasher. ESG is too graphic to talk about on the fourm , PL- G is good as a launcher (two turn Fs) , and Pl-D is great for many things.

Or, you could do a phaser- boat dreadnaught

Hellbores and ESG's on the same ship are bad mojo in SFB. I'd have to go look and see if that held true in FedCom.

Id like to test it against the Klink B-10.

Hellbores and ESGs will work fine in FC.

ESGs take 2 spaces, not just 1. (Just as Pl-S and PPD take 2 spaces.)

So if you have an ESG and fire a hellbore, do you hit your own ship?

wedge_hammersteel wrote:Id like to test it against the Klink B-10.

Please do. Let us know how you get on And how much the Orions sell the B-10 hulk for....

DNordeen wrote:So if you have an ESG and fire a hellbore, do you hit your own ship?

In SFB, yes; in FC, - unless you choose to use the ESG in Anti-Hellbore burst mode against yourself - no.

In FC, you can also launch drones through your own ESG, so long as you don't trip the Offensive Burst mode whilst your outbound drones are at range 0 or 1.

Thx Dan. Once again, my SFB history overcame my FC Knowledge.

Well, I tried the Orion Dreadnaught vs the Klink B-10 last night and it didn’t turn out like I expected, not even close. My option mounts where 2 Photons, 1 Torp G, 3 Disruptors and 4 Drones for the wing mounts.

My usual action is to be aggressive in battle as we don’t play for hours and hours and I like the action. However, if the B-10 is the grizzly bear, my Orion Dreadnaught mountain lion is not one to go head to head and get up close and personal which I did. Did I mention that I like action? Well, Hod K’el didn’t disappoint me.

As for my weapon choices, the arming cycle of the photons and torp G hurt, plus I should have chosen torp D’s for the wing mounts in order to counter the 8 drone racks of the B-10. My 6 phaser 3s in the rear were not much help. If I were to do it again, I would choose 6 disruptors for up front and 4 torp D’s for the wings. The B-10 swatted my drones from the sky like flies at a picnic.
In the end, my Orion lit up the sky in a flourish of multicolored fireworks while I was only able to take down his front shield except for one measly box.

I would like to try the battle again though. It was enjoyable.

Interesting; thanks for that, Wedge.

I too looked at the two ship cards after having read your initial posting above, and boy was the B-10 bigger than I remembered! I'd just forgotten the sheer scale of the thing.....

Even the fearsome Orion DN is only about 2/3 as powerful on a cursory inspection. Kudos to you for trying the battle, though!

For a fairer fight, I would suggest downgrading the Klingon to a mere C10.

Without the engine doubling the Orion DN barely be a threat to the C-7 ----

My approach to arming the DN would be to decide a strategy and arm accordingly.

If you know what your opponent if flying, so much the better.

Against the B10, I'd try Plasma-Ds or ADDs in the wing mounts to fight through the drone waves and six photons for a (hopefully) point-blank killer blow. Tactic is one death-or-glory charge.

To sabre-dance at medium/long range a mix of disruptors and hellbores might work.

Against plasma users I'd be tempted to mix phasers and disruptors, which means you don't have to spend energy arming things when you're running from the torps, and can close in for a telling pass during the reload turns.

None of these are perfect, and there are many other variations, but that's the fun of the game.