A Call to Arms Journal - Issue 1

[MongooseMatt]

This new e-journal is designed to support all versions of A Call to Arms, giving you access to new material, articles and rules for your games, such as Star Fleet and Noble Armada.

In this first issue, we take a look at the universes of the two current A Call to Arms games, feature a Noble Armada battle report, introduce a new campaign system for both games, start a ship comparison series, and have our first official rules addition for A Call to Arms: Star Fleet - scout ships!

The A Call to Arms Journal is essential reading for any player of this game system. You can grab a copy at;

http://www.wargamevault.com/product/103336/A-Call-to-Arms-Journal---Issue-1

 

[Da Boss]

Will the Scout ships be allowed at the forthcoming tournament?

 

[MongooseMatt]

Will the Scout ships be allowed at the forthcoming tournament?

Indeed. They are an official addition as of (looks at his watch)... now!

 

[Da Boss]

Well just downloaded and my thoughts:

The new Scout rules do change the game hugely as they are a complete re-write (I would guess to fit in with the SFU universe). I now need to re-think my fleet list as they will be mandatory inclusions!

I will be making sure I bring a print off!

Couple of rules questions:

Does a cloaked scout in a fleet still grant the Iniatitive bonus if facing a fleet without scouts?

Can you illuminate a ship more than once in a snigle turn with the same or different ships? The Jamming Ability highlights the limitations of mutiple ships but the Illumination does not?

I take all Scout abilities do not require Line of Sight - I can see terrain hidden scouts being a absolute god send to anyone who hates drones

 

[Greg Smith]

Will the scout ships be included in the ship cards, when they finally appear?

 

[Captain Jonah]

I would think that since the +1 Init is a scout function and cloaked scouts cannot use any scout function the answer would be no but wait for Matt.

Anyway. Hummmmmmmm.

Scouttttzzzzzzzzz. Tastyzzzzzzzzz

Counter Drones. So with a BDDsc I can stop two ships firing any drones at all within 36". I like that :lol:

Jamming reduces all attack rolls from 2 targets per scout by -1 and has no effect on plasmas. I like that one :lol:

+1 Initiative, useful but unlikely to ever meet anyone without a scout.

Illumination. Yes, pick on the Romulan’s. I like that one :lol:

Questions.

Counter jamming improves stealth by +1. Can I presume that max stealth is 2+ or we end up with invulnerable Romulan ships.

Can you counter jam the counter Drone or is this effect directed against the Drones and so cannot be countered?
My thinking is that its the Drone guidance that is jammed rather than the ship and so It cannot be countered but that’s just the Gorn in me being happy about having a scout handy to mess up those Evil Drone Chuckers

Drone Control and the Klingon Drone cruisers. Ouch. That’s an extra 6 Drones on top of the normal 3 ship limit. This is partly why I ask about un jamming counter drones since there are just going to be the first thing counter droned.

Anyway. Looks good, nice work Matt and everyone else.

 

[McKinstry]

Nice work although I was disappointed at not getting that photon re-roll.

As others have said, it is now hard to think of deploying a fleet without scouts. (Time to email a new order to Tennshington with some scout names).

I expect that Gorn scout 4 cruiser to become instantly a permanent feature in my Gorn fleet.

All in all, a great first issue and I look foward to the next.

 

[Da Boss]

I think the idea is that:

Counter Jamming is a bonus to the stealth score and Illumination is a penalty

The rules are not written that well and it also does not say you can't use mutiple scouts or say a Scout (4) to remove stealth completely from a cloaked ship. Only Droine Control and Jamming have limits as it is written

 

[Red-24]

Does this Journal introduce new scout ships that require new models?

Or do some existing models have a scout variant?

 

[Da Boss]

As far as I can see they are all standard ships (*) - 3 to 4 for all the main fleets and a couple of others

for example the Klingons get F5 variant, a D5 and D5W variant, the Feds get a Burke, Ortega and Kearsage variants

 

[Greg Smith]

It says counter jamming increases stealth by 1. Increasing 2+ by one is 3+ surely?

If there wasn't also an Illuminating function, I would think that you were actually counter jamming the cloak therefore making the ship easier to see.

 

[Da Boss]

hmm - As I said not well written

Illumination is a Penalty to stealth which is clear - I read Counter Jamming as a bonus but I agree it does not actually say that.

 

[Ben2]

It's the issue you get when everyone checking it knows exactly what the rules mean, and so it doesn't click.

The rule should have said something like:

Counter jamming
...Alternately the scout ship may improve the electronic counter measures provided by stealth systems like cloaking devices. The affected ship adds 1 to it's stealth rolls, and a ship without the stealth trait gains Stealth 6+.

 

[billclo]

I expect that Gorn scout 4 cruiser to become instantly a permanent feature in my Gorn fleet.

I think that's going to be a great use of an otherwise undesirable (IMHO) unit. The Gorn CL is weak on phasers, weak on shields.

 

[Da Boss]

Disussing this on the ADB forum as well

Steve Cole said:

Matthew has confirmed that my answers were right.
Cloaked scouts do give initiative.
One illumination has the stated effect and more illuminations have no further effect. Illuminate all you want but it doesn't do a thing after the first one.
The line of sight rules are as I described:

I take all Scout abilities do not require Line of Sight - I can see terrain hidden scouts being a absolute god send to anyone who hates drones
ANSWER: Funny, but that never came up in the development process. I just EMed Petrick (who is 15 feet away across the hall) and he said that in the SFU you have to have a lock-on to a ship to effect it with scout stuff. So, lending good or bad jamming to a friendly or enemy ship takes a lock on. Providing jamming protection to an friendly ship requires a lock on to the friendly ship BUT NOT to the enemy ship firing at it. Lighting up an enemy ship to make it easier to hit takes a lockon to the enemy ship AND to the friendly ship firing at it. Whatever Matthew rules has to reflect that.
.

So I asked if:

The LOS rules as I read it from your post:

Jamming - requires LOS to the enemy or friendly ship
Counter Jamming requires LOS to the friendly ship but not the enemy ship
Counter Drone requires LOS to the Enemy ship and the target ship
Drone Control requies LOS to the Enemy ship
Illumination requires LOS to the Enemy ship

 

[Ben2]

I expect that Gorn scout 4 cruiser to become instantly a permanent feature in my Gorn fleet.

I think that's going to be a great use of an otherwise undesirable (IMHO) unit. The Gorn CL is weak on phasers, weak on shields.

It's also the hull for the Gorn Survey Cruiser, so I'll be popping scout carriers into the fighter stuff now this is out.

 

[astronomypete]

Any chance of a nicely printed non-pdf version?

 

[Foxphoenix135]

Or any way to reduce the cost? 7 dollars for a magazine (in pdf form) is a bit over the top. I don't even subscribe to printed magazines for that much.

 

[Da Boss]

Its not cheap............

Back on the Scouting rules clarifcations - relevant discussion continues on the ADB forum:

SC said:

Let me see if I can puzzle this through. You can assume the lock on and line of sight are the same thing since lock on requires a line of sight (plus some other things that ACTA just assumes will happen).

LISTER: Jamming - requires LOS to the enemey or friendly ship
REPLY: It requires LOS to the ship you are jamming.

LISTER: Counter Jamming requires LOS to the friendly ship but not the enemy ship
REPLY: I don't think that is what I said.
Lighting up an enemy ship to make it easier to hit takes a lockon to the enemy ship AND to the friendly ship firing at it.

LISTER: Counter Drone requires LOS to the Enemy ship and the target ship
REPLY: Ok, I talked to Petrick. The problem is that the SFU rule attacks the DRONE not the ship. ACTA doesn't have "drone in flight over an extended period" so he says you have to have a lock-on/LOS to the launching ship, but don't really need one to the target ship.

LISTER: Drone Control requires LOS to the Enemy ship
REPLY: I think those are right.

LISTER: Illumination requires LOS to the Enemy ship
REPLY: I don't see "illumination" in the rules but this seems to be counter-jamming covered above. One ship does it, no further ships doing it to the same target have any increased effect.

I also replied:

So Jamming
Option 1 you can effect a single enemy ship
Option 2 you effect both a Friendly and any number of enemy ships - So I guess technically you need LOS to all the enemy ships that would be effected by this option.

Also On Counter Jamming (again 2 options) I can def see that removing the Jamming effect will require LOS to both ships but increasing stealth would only require that to the friendly ship unless it needs LOS to all potential enemy ships?

please note I am happy either for LOS to be ignored or for it to be specified as discussed - although it may be a good idea for MGP to look at having a table to show which abilities require LOS to what?

I know how you SFU guys like tables and such

Nerroth also asked about Scout Traits for stations: SC confirmed:

Starbase 4
battlestation 3
base station 2
mobile base 1

 

[storeylf]

Touching on cost. I haven't bought it yet, as I'm short on money and have no clue to its value.

Given I have no interest in Noble armada, how much would I get for the price? There is no hint as to how big that journal is, a 4 page pamphlet, or a 100 page book? Is it split 50/50 between the 2 games?


[edit] nvm - on scrolling across I noticed a side bar that says 46 pages. Might be nicer to have siad that somehere in the main blurb. What is the split between the 2 systems though?