Federation Commander

So BBs don't get a free HET?

Do they have the normal probability of breakdown (50%)?

If so, I'd probably be willing to risk breakdown anyway. 10 points of damage on a BB isn't that much anyway, and there is a chance my BB will be pointing in the right direction even if it does break down.

Yeah, the 50% breakdown still applies. The good news is, there's enough phaser firepower in all of the BBs to do some very cool things.

It's a no brainer for the drone defense issue-- especially if you keep it close to a battlegroup. This last weekend, I played against a BB that singlehandedly ereadicated two CLOSE plasma Ss targeted on a CA in the same hex. Pretty cool to see!

The captain of the BB even risked a HET, in order to get some followup strikes in with RA photons on a down shield he just passed out of arc on. It was late in the turn, so it was a sensible gamble.

I can't remember if there is a delay beyond the turn break for a breakdown.

Yeah, the 50% breakdown still applies. The good news is, there's enough phaser firepower in all of the BBs to do some very cool things.

It's a no brainer for the drone defense issue-- especially if you keep it close to a battlegroup. This last weekend, I played against a BB that singlehandedly ereadicated two CLOSE plasma Ss targeted on a CA in the same hex. Pretty cool to see!

The captain of the BB even risked a HET, in order to get some followup strikes in with RA photons on a down shield he just passed out of arc on. It was late in the turn, so it was a sensible gamble (he only had about 30 internals on a squadron scale BB, and apparently was not concerned-- even happy-- about a random hex change).

Here's one way to play bad FedCom that came up today.

Don't ask how much energy a Tholian used on a web strand.

I created a short strand to stop some Klingons from getting to an objective, but didn't reinforce it. They never asked what strength it was, so I never said. They only found out when some drones went through it later after they had taken the time and energy to move around it and had not fired at me through it.

We used a Battle Tug today and I'm wondering if it gets the free high energy turn or not. Any experienced player care to weigh in on this one?

Mike wrote:We used a Battle Tug today and I'm wondering if it gets the free high energy turn or not. Any experienced player care to weigh in on this one?

That one is easy: No. There is no way in the world a Battle Tug (or indeed any tug + pod combo) can possibly have the free high energy turn.

Actually, letting them keep the base 50% chance is quite generous. It should be worse. (I would not want to change that, however, as it would be needless detail. Just stick it with the BB penalty.)

Actually, the tug should be allowed the free HET... but then you'd have to deal with the broken remains of the pod(s) it was carrying as they tumble through space - traveling in a straight line in the direction the tug was originally heading...

Not exactly.

I agree that a pod-less tug should get the HET bonus. But that is only when the tug is competely without a pod.

Anytime a tug is carrying one or more pods, it loses the HET bonus. I guess when tugs are formally introduced into FC we can think about adding some kind of nasty addition to breakdown results, but for now I think the breakdown rules are fine as is. Just take the HET bonus away for tugs carrying pods.

I've got some house rules for Tugs - not having free HET for a tug w/ 1+ pod is a good addition. Thanks.

Fortunately the BT in our game did not attempt to do a high energy turn.

Now I am wondering about evasive maneuvers and tugs with or without pods...

What say you?

I'd be inclined to say no EM for Tugs with pods. I can't remember whether they can do it or not in SFB, but anything that reduces the "All Battle-Tug Squadron!" syndrome, and that gives cruisers clear-cut advantages over battle tugs, is a good thing imo.

Without pods I don't think it should be an issue. A pod-less tug is a ship just like any other.

I have to disagree with junior. Evasive Maneuvers are only affected by movement class, not by anything else. I think that any tug+pod combo can use Evasive Maneuvers freely and without additional restrictions.

terryoc wrote: Run out of power.
Running out of power is a great way to play bad FC. Every time I run out of power, and my opponent has power left, I get trashed. The opponent launches drones that I can't stop or run from, or just accelerates and overruns me with phasers. It seems to happen in other peoples' games too.

The biggest temptations for wasting power seem to be shield reinforcement and overloads.

Plus there's something else as well. It's easy to run out of power, especially when you are used to the power curve of a ship as it is in SFB, for this reason: Some ships can actually have LESS power in FC than in SFB.

Ok, you get free shields, life support and fire control scanners. Granted. But there is no phaser capacitor, so every phaser shot has to be paid for at the time. So a Fed CA could be worse off in FC because although you save 4 points for housekeeping energy, you have to pay 6 points to fire all your phasers. Ok, I realise that the Fed CA's ship card is different to the Fed CA in SFB, but the general principle still holds.

Having said that, I'm still a newb at this game, so it's more than likely that I've overlooked something.

As an Orion, double your engines and have about half your power left over at the end of a turn.

This happened in a CR vs Fed DW battle I played in earlier this week. In the first game I flew the Fed and managed to knock down the CR's front sheild.

We played again, switching ships, and I used a phaser-boat CR to maneuver behind the DW, take down his rear shield, and tractor him while 3 drones impacted.

Think that you can fire at impacted drones at range 0 instead of range 1.

Recently had an opponent who made this miscalculation and only fired 1 Ph-3 at each of two drones that got past his tractors...rolled a 5 and 6 on each. They took out 23 of his forward shield boxes just in time for four overloaded disruptors to follow...

His reaction was, shall we say, unprintable.