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I admit i'm going off more STarfleet COmmand, but you get hella nicer bonus points in a campaign mission for capturing a ship than you do just blowing it up - at least a lot more prestige. Nice way to use lower end ships to save and not have to worry on the cost points it takes to refit a brutalized heavy cruiser...
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Jun 30, 2017 10:44
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I think that mostly makes a lot of sense, since any faction wants to get their hands on foreign made weaponry. There's designs for federation ships with plasma torps even. I suppose that's less accurate in this specific battle - Romulans and Gorn have a lot of weapon overlap. Neither side is going to be hungry for Plasmas.
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Jun 30, 2017 14:27
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DatonKallandor posted:There's designs for federation ships with plasma torps even. I only played the Starfleet Command games, but IIRC those were explained as the Federation and Gorn being allies, so there were technology trades between the empires resulting in a few oddball Starfleet ships with plasma torpedoes and Gorn ships with photons.
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Jun 30, 2017 14:34
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Yes. The Gorn gave the Feds a small number of Plasma-F launchers, and received a lot of Federation fighters in exchange. There's a lot of technology trades like that in the game.
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Jun 30, 2017 22:34
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Please tell me you're setting up a new scenario or something and that this hasn't died 
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Jul 9, 2017 10:48
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It has not died! Life has just gotten in the way a bit. Let's get it rolling again. Any new captains? I'll put up a scenario vote in the VendoViper fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Jul 9, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2017 23:20
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The Gorn Destroyer moves helplessly through space, burning, out of control, its engines still set to full power. The two Romulan captains call a war council to decide their next move. Scenario Vote A (Romulan scenario): Destroy the Gorn DD, leave no opportunity for their crew to affect repairs and give warning to the Gornish fleet. Continue cruising towards Axelot II. B (Romulan scenario): Cloak and allow the Gorn to escape, trail the DD and monitor the situation hoping to ambush any ships which come to its aid. C (Federation scenario): Hunt down the pirates harassing shipping lanes around on the Klingon Border. D (Federation scenario): The lights of Gorn are lit, a Federation task force is sent to the aid of their ally. Please vote in bold, and if you are interested in being a Captain please speak up!
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Jul 9, 2017 23:50
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B Cloak and Ambush!
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Jul 10, 2017 01:27
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What self-respecting Romulan wouldn't vote B?
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Jul 10, 2017 02:31
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Voting for D as Romulans don't have any self respect. And I like Feddies vs Romulans because 'Balance of Power' and both fleets' big hitters are based upon long to charge and heavy payoff weapons. I think the combination of Romulan cloaking and plasma vs Starfleet's generally more aggressive and varied ship loadout has more fun. Klingons saber dance tends to be tense wars of quick turn-offs and dancing at long range to close range and hit and run. I think a Romulan playstyle of cloaking, playing tricks with plasmas against a Goon Captain in a Starfleet vessel will make for quite a bit of fun otherwise and be quitetense and has the potenital for fun mindgames.
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Jul 10, 2017 05:54
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C Hunt some pirates.
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Jul 10, 2017 07:55
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C for variety.
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Jul 10, 2017 11:22
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Switching vote from D over to C as that seems like it has possibilities for fun too. We're gonna meet the Orions!
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Jul 11, 2017 06:47
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The Orion pirates are neat, but I don't think the OP has the necessary rules to make them fully interesting. Not entirely sure, since I've been using the Master Rulebook exclusively for so long I'm not actually sure what is in the Basic Set.
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Jul 11, 2017 22:30
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Gnoman posted:The Orion pirates are neat, but I don't think the OP has the necessary rules to make them fully interesting. Not entirely sure, since I've been using the Master Rulebook exclusively for so long I'm not actually sure what is in the Basic Set. Just the Raider Cruiser and their faction rules.
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Jul 12, 2017 05:20
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That's what I thought. What makes the Orions really interesting is their option mounts, and those aren't currently available.
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Jul 12, 2017 05:26
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Stardate 2265.189 Federation Subspace Dispatch To all ships on patrolling in or around the Capella system -stop- Klingon raiding activity reported -stop- Execute standing order 37 -stop- Form convoys with nearest fellow Star Ship -stop- Stardate 2265.192 The USS Vienna and Oslo have joined together on patrol and are making best possible speed towards the last known location of the civilian freighter Torro. They are both older model Light Cruisers, but have recently undergone an experimental re-fitting. If they received the warning, and heeded it, the Torro should be making its way back to Starbase Four, but the Commodore onboard the Vienna can only hope it isn’t too late. USS Vienna  USS Oslo  Still need some Captains! And I also need another day or two to make some art assets, and fix some bugs in my module.
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Jul 21, 2017 01:30
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You just have "2 reloads" shown for the Drone-G racks. Barring very unusual circumstances, Type-G Drone Racks (which are the only standard drone rack that can fire Anti-Drones (E5.0) ) either have 1 reload of drones and 1 of anti-drones, or else 2 reloads of drones and one of anti-drones (if the Y175 refit is present) as per (FD3.72). Are you following this, or treating the racks as just a 4-shot rack with two reloads? Secondly, is customizing the drone loadout possible? Basic Set does not seem to include speed-16 and speed-32 upgrades, but it does include Type II/V fast drones and Type IV/V heavy drones. Third, I'd like to participate in this scenario.
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Jul 21, 2017 04:06
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"Rack had two reloads prior to Y175, three thereafter. One Reload is entirely ADDs." So I did have it a little wrong, however, i've never been clear on how to read the drone rack SSD boxes, it isn't actually explained anywhere. It has four bisected boxes, I am assuming that the left sub-box is reload 1 and the right sub-box is reload two, and then to the right of each sub box is a super narrow column of three boxes, I guess that is for the three reload variant? Anyway it seems really obnoxious to use, luckily we will be using spreadsheets! To get even further into the weeds in the rules, I have given these cruisers the plus refit almost three star years early!  Customizing drone load-outs is very much in, you have available Type I - VI. Upon actually reading the rule book instead of just the SSD it appears that Anti-Drones, and type VI (anti-fighter I guess) drones take up half space. The Type G rack has 4 available space per reload, and you can mix and match one type of Drone and AntiDrones in whatever configuration you like for the loadout and the reload. Also during a turn where you don't fire you can reload 2 space worth of drones. VendoViper fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Jul 21, 2017 |
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Jul 21, 2017 04:23
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VendoViper posted:
It isn't that difficult, conceptually. Each bisected box is one drone space. It is bisected in case you're loading half-space type-VI drones or ADDs. The three little ticks are the reloads - if you don't have the Y175 refit then you just color in one of the little boxes before play, just like you would fill in the drone and phaser-III boxes (plus the extra shields) if you're using it as a CL instead of a CL+.
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Jul 21, 2017 04:48
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The critical fact I was missing was the half size drone types! Now it is obvious, no wonder they don't have a diagram explaining how to use it in the manual /s  .But seriously thanks for laying it out.
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Jul 21, 2017 06:44
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Oooh, going to watch this. Not up for captaining, but lookf orwards to seeing how it goes and being part of the dead redshirt peanut gallery
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Jul 21, 2017 07:26
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So drones. Drones are like plasma torpedoes in that they're seeking weapons. Unlike plasma torpedoes, they don't lose damage when hit, but rather they have their own hull points and are destroyed when those are exceeded. They have a relatively low amount of hull points. They are much slower than plasma torpedoes. Plasma torpedoes move at Speed 36. The normal drone moves at Speed 24, while fast drones are speed 32 and slow drones are Speed 16. You also get a very limited number of drones. They are not fire and forget-if your ship blows up, your drones lose lock. So why use them if they have so many disadvantages compared to plasma torpedoes? A drone rack uses no energy and fires once every turn. As long as you have drones, you can fire them. This means drone-heavy warships like Klingon and Federation drone cruisers/etc can move real fast while running tons of ECM and shield reinforcement. Drones do full damage even if they hit their target with 1 hull point remaining. Drones don't lose any damage at range and do pretty hefty damage for something that fires once every turn. And drones can stay active for a surprisingly long period of time, allowing some pretty extreme-range attacks. Your two CLs only have a single drone rack each, which means you'll likely be using drones more to soak up enemy phaser fire than to deal damage, but if the other guy has fired all their phasers and a drone will reach them before they can recharge, they can put out some surprising damage. Use them to bait the enemy into mistakes or force them to make decisions about mitigating damage or dealing damage, don't think that you can just volley them off like a modern AEGIS cruiser and win.
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Jul 21, 2017 20:17
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MJ12 posted:So drones. Drones are like plasma torpedoes in that they're seeking weapons. I think you're mixing some information from Starfleet Command in here. In Star Fleet Battles, slow drones are speed 8, Medium drones are speed 20, and fast drones are speed 32. There are also the Moderate speed drones (Type II and V) that are speed 12, and Type III drones move at 12 instead of 8 in their slow modes. Plasma Torpedos are also speed 32, except with the late-timeline sabot rule that allows them to go to speed 40 (by double moving on 8 specific impulses). Warheads are either 12 (Single-space type I, II, III or double space III-XX) or 24 (Double-space type IV and V). Slow drones are very difficult to use offensively, but if you can get a decent salvo going (the only way to do so in this scenario would be to use a scatter-pack shuttle) even slow drones can do pretty good area denial and soak up phaser energy. Once you get Medium or Fast drones, they become a huge threat.
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Jul 21, 2017 21:06
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I'm curious what's up with the other Starfleet Command races who aren't present here, the Lyrans and the ISC. My only exposure to Starfleet Battles is from that game, so for all I know they were made up wholesale.
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Jul 21, 2017 21:27
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Gnoman posted:I think you're mixing some information from Starfleet Command in here. I actually didn't know that SFC used different rules for drones than SFB, given that pretty much everything else was taken straight from the boardgame. Thanks!
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Jul 21, 2017 21:47
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Cythereal posted:I'm curious what's up with the other Starfleet Command races who aren't present here, the Lyrans and the ISC. No, they're from SFB. They're just not in the rules the OP has access to.
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Jul 21, 2017 21:47
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Gnoman posted:No, they're from SFB. They're just not in the rules the OP has access to. There's a whole bunch of other races which never showed up in SFC too, right? Like the Andromedans and the Tholians and the WYN? What is up with those guys? Because I know every race in SFB has a gimmick or a specialty. The Federation build well-balanced, multirole boats. Klingons are fast and optimized for frontal assault at medium range. Romulans are sneaky fuckers with heavy alpha strikes. Gorns build everything with tons of power, shields, and hull. The Lyrans have the ESG (RAMMING SPEED). Hydrans are optimized either for close-in knife fights or medium-range hellbore sniping. The Kzinti/Mirak use missiles and missiles and more missiles. The ISC build extremely good, expensive boats and have the PPD, which has a minimum range but puts out a lot of accurate, efficient damage. Etc. MJ12 fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Jul 21, 2017 |
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Jul 21, 2017 21:54
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Drones are useful but require timing. You don't waste them at long range - you want to tiem them for effective salvos - either to thin out enemy PD, cover your maneuvers, or otherwise deny them assets. Drones are useful in salvos- just one drone gets picked off. Counters to drones - cloak (makes all seeking weapons lose lock). Tractor beams - keep drones at a distance. Wild Weasels (decoy jammer shuttles). Keeping your ships close so they can give overlapping fields of PD fire. ECM - can mess with locks. Also explosions (blow up something in the drone path, it takes the drone out - useful with things like mines). But, in general to dela with drones you keep your ships close together so they can support one another rather than a single ship being overwhelmed by them.
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Jul 22, 2017 07:26
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MJ12 posted:There's a whole bunch of other races which never showed up in SFC too, right? Like the Andromedans and the Tholians and the WYN? To summarize: The Tholians are an isolationist race, originally extragalactic, that is now unable to build any but the smallest of their ships and controls a very small area of space. They have the Tholian Web as a unique technology, which allows them to lay energy "webs" in space to trap starships. They were a bad fit for SFC because of their extreme isolationism and their unique ability being impractical in that engine. The WYN star cluster is a small region of space surrounded by a "radiation zone" that cripples ships that enter it. The WYN are a collection of various races who got stuck in the star cluster and, unable to get out, formed a civilization on the inside. They were a bad fit for SFC because they can barely leave their home system, and any ship that tried attacking them would be left completely unable to fight after passing the Zone. The Andromedans are an extragalactic race that invades this galaxy after the General War was over. They function very different from everyone else, using "Power Absorber Panels" instead of shields, and have a "displacement device" that acts as a transporter for entire starships. They were a bad fit for SFC because their technology was so different from everything else, and SFC focuses on the General War era which the Andromedans are outside of.
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Jul 22, 2017 21:55
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There's some thoughts that the original SF3 game would have featured the Andromedans (the storyline in Starfleet Command 2 had the Organians bringing in the ISC to 'prepare the galaxy for a threat which required unity' which in SFB storyline was the Andromedans) before they did a TNG game.
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Jul 23, 2017 07:53
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There was a different Starfleet Command 3 in development? Dang, that would've been neat. EDIT: http://www.starfleetgames.com/federation/wynstarcluster.shtml Sounds like the WYN were cut also because they're basically a bunch of "live free or die" type pirates instead of a real empire. Kavak fucked around with this message at 08:36 on Jul 23, 2017 |
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Jul 23, 2017 08:11
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Not sure how far along it got (if ever), but the storyline at least was setup for it.
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Jul 23, 2017 12:27
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Sorry this has been languishing, stupid real life. I haven't made any progress on new assets, but since I have something that reads as Fed and something that reads as Klingon lets just roll with it. Will put up turn 0 of the scenario tonight. Any other steely eyed spacepeople keen to be a Star Ship Captain?
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Aug 1, 2017 18:36
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On The Klingon Border - Turn 0 The USS Oslo and Vienna, responding to a Federation blast message, have joined together and plotted an intercept course for the expected position of the Torro, a heavy civilian freighter with a full load of corbomite. They are moving from the neutral zone towards Starbase Four well within Federation space. Upon reaching the expected interception point they are met with empty space, with no sign of residual energy or space debris on scanners it appears that the squadron has arrived before their quarry. The two ships have begun station keeping in the area hopeful that the Torro will arrive. Suddenly two energy spikes appear on sensors, a Klingon D6 Battlecruiser with a F5 Frigate have moved into sensors range, Klingon ships operating this deep in Federation space can only mean one thing, all out war has been declared by the Empire. Scenario The Klingon ships are after the Torro, which will arrive within the next 3 turns (randomly). The Klingon ships win the scenario if they destroy the Torro, the Federation ships win if the Torro can exit from the opposite side of the map from which it enters. The Torro is expected to enter from the "east" side of the map. SSDs USS Vienna USS Oslo IKV Bastion  IKV Talon  [b]Map  [b]Details The Federation Light Cruisers (old)+ have one load of Drones, and one load of Anti-Drones, it is up to the captains discretion how to load these, but it will need to be part of your first orders. Sorry I didn't get around to making new assets, hopefully I will be able to swap out the Klingon Frigate image for a Battlecruiser one, I just have to get around to doing the vector art. Still open for more captains, or whatever.
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Aug 2, 2017 06:24
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The D6 alone is almost a match for both Federation ships put together, and there's a time crunch. The upside is that the F5 is a fairly pathetic little ship with low firepower and no damage sinks to speak of. There are only two viable scenarios here, and the time crunch makes one of them a bad idea. The bad idea is to keep the range way open and plink away with proximity photons, which are better than disruptors at extended ranges due to fixed damage. That won't work here because we have a freighter to protect. That means that the only chance for victory in this lopsided scenario is to charge in with overloaded photons and try to smash the D6 in a sudden attack. This, however, has heavy risks - Federation CLs aren't exactly the fastest of ships, and if the Klinks can keep us at medium range they'll rip us apart.
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Aug 2, 2017 07:10
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Yeeowch, thsi is gonna be a mess. Uhm, presuming that we're allowed to set weapon conditions at scenario start? Theoretically we can have photons already loaded, if we have any shuttles load them as suicides. Reinforce frontal shields, go at max viable speed to the Klingons. Use the drones as cover/strip off defending phasers, max ECM as availble, go for alpha strike with the overloads, then the suicides. ECM hopefully means we can stay alive to get close, alpha striking with overloads and (maybe) suicide sleds is nice. A Wild Weasel's useless wen we're this outgunned, so I think our only option here is hope we can hit the Klingons hard in te first exchange and hope it's painful enough to them to give us a fighting chance.
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Aug 2, 2017 08:32
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You're right - a WW is useless. However, loading the G-racks entirely with anti-drones (for those unfamiliar, anti-drones are a short-range weapon that can only target drones and shuttles and fires once per impulse until running out of ammo) will completely neuter any drone threat, and drones won't be of any offensive use to us anyway. The real trouble is that we're limited (in practical terms) to a speed of 20, less if we want to overload torps, arm suicide shuttles, or use ECM (if that's even available, OP only has the Basic Set).
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Aug 2, 2017 08:39
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Yowwch. So basically we have one good hit in, but we can't do it at maximum speed? Honestly I.. I think that it depends as to whether we can get ECM in or not. If we have ECM it's possibly more survivable for us. To VendoViper, what do we have available in the rulesset you have that we can play wtih on things? And what Weapon State (if any) are we allowed to start at? And Gnoman, you're the expert, would you say going in at highest speed and having less weapons/defense is better or assuming the Klingons get some potshots in but having better defense/heavier alpha strike is better? Pending aailability of ECM, I'm tentatively leaning towards (presuming folks agree with the plan or otherwise) overloading photons, using the Phaser-3's for defense and the anti-drone missiles, and praying to gods that Vulcans say are illogical that we can get our hits in.. wedgekree fucked around with this message at 08:55 on Aug 2, 2017 |
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Aug 2, 2017 08:51
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Can we send out a distress call or whatever telling the freighter to change course right loving now?
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Aug 2, 2017 14:02
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