A New Universe for ACTA's

[Apep]

The issue would be them getting knocked around in transit, as resin will chip a good deal easier than metal.

Actually, no. We are prepping a video of this, but we have conducted 'hammer' tests (they are what they sound like) and the resin we are using is amazingly durable...

As an Engineer, I have used “hammer tests”, compressive strength tests, percussive point impact test, bending tests, shearing tests, etc…

It does not matter if the material passes - they all amount to zilch when faced with a determined 5-year-old brat. :lol:

To be honest, there is such a varied selection of resin’s out there with various properties I have limited worries about the models durability or quality.

After seeing some recent work (by another company (Not GW)) on resin models – I have to admit the quality for the models exceeded the pewter predecessors significantly.

I know some people have issues with plastic / resin miniatures - however, the future is already here and the miniatures games industry is playing catch up.

 

[katadder]

Then after that herculean labor it will be released to us, who will naturally nit pick, complain, lament, and generally be ungrateful of the labors involved when its not done how we would have done it . You just have to love game development.

the joys of being an ACTA playtester and forum regular

 

[Greg Smith]

Then after that herculean labor it will be released to us, who will naturally nit pick, complain, lament, and generally be ungrateful of the labors involved when its not done how we would have done it . You just have to love game development.

the joys of being an ACTA playtester and forum regular

I will second that.

 

[Greg Smith]

Some questions:

Some answers, and questions back.

Plasma weapons: One shot wonders in the new version?

Why do you consider them one shot wonders?

Cloaks: any hints on how they WILL work?

That isn't finalised yet. There might be hints, when the rules are finalised.

Boom/Saucer separation: Still in the rules or no?

Is that in SFB/FC? Is it a viable tactic?

(Related) Klingon mutinies: Still possible?

Again in SFB? How does that work?

What size hexes? I never got to ACTA, so this should be an easy one for someone to help me with.

ACTA is hexless. Movement is in inches. Turns are 45 and 90 degrees.

Drones: Will we still see the Drones and Anti-Drones in-game?

Almost certainly.

 

[godsgopher]

I managed to figure out how cloaking will work in the game. Its based on the following formula.

As you can clearly see, this appeals to a basic universal probability principle, that when applied to a magnetic multi-spectrum field produces the "cloaking" effect as laymen call it.

Thus a ship "seems" to disappear. Simple any other questions?

 

[Greg Smith]

I managed to figure out how cloaking will work in the game. Its based on the following formula.

At least it is simpler than SFB. :lol:

 

[Rambler]

I managed to figure out how cloaking will work in the game. Its based on the following formula.

As you can clearly see, this appeals to a basic universal probability principle, that when applied to a magnetic multi-spectrum field produces the "cloaking" effect as laymen call it.

Thus a ship "seems" to disappear. Simple any other questions?

Ummmmmm... Why is the sky blue?

 

[godsgopher]

The Sky is blue because of light refraction.

 

[Rick]

Sorry, godsgopher, just can't take your post seriously. Your value of 'a' is flawed! 8)

 

[firekite]

saucer seperation was one of the most annoying things about the first season of TNG, every time you turned around they took the ship apart and put it back together like an everyday accurance. you can seperate a saucer/boom(klingon only, romulan kestrals can't) in SFB. putting the ship back together is something that requires a FRD (fleet repair dock) or large base if i remember correctly.

 

[Rambler]

Federation Saucer and Klingon Boom seperations in SFB is not a Tatical Option but a Emergency Operation under taken only in a situation that will result in the destruction of the ship.

Klingon F5 Frigates and larger are equipped with a small Impulse Engine which they usually run with it turned off so it can not be destroyed in combat. The primary purpose of this engine is to allow the loyal Klingon Officers to escape a mutiny. Mutinies are a rare event that can occur when all Security Stations are destroyed on a warship. The ships sold to the Romulan have these engines converted to Auxiliary Power Reactor.

As far as the Federation goes on of the notes in the Star Fleet Technical Manual was that the Saucer could be blown clear to serve as a lifeboat for their crews. This was also referenced in the series. There are atleast 2 recorded instance of this in the SFU. One was the Heavy Cruiser Hood was jumped on the opening day of the Klingon Invasion and the Saucer was blown clear at the last second before the ship was destroyed and it hid in the ocean of a near by world. The Hood made its way by Sub light speed back to the Federation 3 years later. The other was Anthony Stocker's Command Cruiser Lexington, if I recall correctly, on the first day of the Romulan Invasion.

 

[Ben2]

Boom and saucer separation is so rare in SFB (and so pointless as by the time the main hull is damaged enough to make separation something you'd like to do the boom/saucer is pretty damaged as well).

Has any SFB player reading this thread used boom/saucer separation?

Klingon crew mutinies were another ball ache. I would put money on ACTA not having them. Also was there any canon support in TOS for Klingon ship crews being mostly non-Klingons? Also it's a bit strange that the Klingons are a militaristic and expansionist society but can't find enough Klingons to crew their starships.

In SFB there were two important values -

Alpha strike - how much damage a ship could put out in a single turn.

Reload time - how much time before heavy weapons cycle back up.

Plasma armed ships tended to have very big alpha strikes but 3 turn reload times.

This could be represented in ACTA by Type R and S torpedoes being slow loading but doing a lot of damage.

 

[BFalcon]

Some questions:

Some answers, and questions back.

Right back at ya

Plasma weapons: One shot wonders in the new version?

Why do you consider them one shot wonders?

Someone mentioned the long reload times possibly meaning that they only get to fire once per game (the idea being that it'll save on recording 3 turns and not just every other turn like "Slow Loading" weapons). Apologies if this isn't the case.

Cloaks: any hints on how they WILL work?

That isn't finalised yet. There might be hints, when the rules are finalised.

Edit: (missed one) That's fair enough - not intending to hassle, just eager.

Boom/Saucer separation: Still in the rules or no?

Is that in SFB/FC? Is it a viable tactic?

Not a tactic, but Klingon mutinies could force a boom separation and both could evactuate after the ship's main hull got too damaged - they could then disengage through sublight separation (basically "going silent") and so leave the game, if I recall - it's been a few years and, like I said before, I tended to play Kzinti and Romulans, so...

(Related) Klingon mutinies: Still possible?

Again in SFB? How does that work?

If the Klingon ship lost too many security stations, the subservient crew (usually from conquered Klingon worlds, much like the Romans had), would have a chance of rising up and taking over the ship.

This is kinda hinted at in ST: TOS in that there are only ever a few Klingons seen at any one time away from the ship, despite it being cruiser-class and the fact that the Paingiver existed - mere torture of captured troops and agents wouldn't make the standard carrying of such a device worthwhile, but the need to keep a crew in line would.

ACTA is hexless. Movement is in inches. Turns are 45 and 90 degrees.

Excellent - we did experiment with the SFB miniature rules, but they were a little more involved... I look forward to playing with these...

(Drones) Almost certainly.

Excellent. Kzinti fighters (or too early to tell?)

And thanks for the answers, Mr Smith.

 

[godsgopher]

Regarding the whole booms and saucers thing. If ACTA's ever deals with it, it would be a scenario specific event and probably not a common tactic. The same could be said for Klingon Mutinies.

Regarding why the Klingon crews are made up of half non-klingon members I think thats a fluff issue. The klingons are an aggressive expansionist race, so the question quickly becomes who have they conquered? The whole concept of Empire is a united group of states or principalities under one ruler. Typically like the Romans this means conquest. So I think this is why the Klingons have those security stations because in many ways they are the mirror universe Federation.

 

[godsgopher]

Its too early to hear anything about shuttles and fighters. ACTA's is very good at dealing with fighters so I couldn't see them not being included. But when will they be released? don't know. Also I know that Federation Commander for the most part does not have them because they slow things down too much. That however that wouldn't be the case of ACTA's. So will they add them or not?

I think if we make enough noise they will and besides Mongoose is a business if we want to buy it, it will come.

 

[BFalcon]

Gopher: That's how I've seen it regarding the conquered planets - a bit like the Royal Navy in the 18th and 19th centuries, discipline is harsh, even for enlisted true klingons, with treachery and informing a normal way of life, for the old-school klingons...

As for the saucer separation, since it's not reversable and since I always tended to play squadrons of ships rather than one big target, I did occasionally end up with a ship that got a good, solid, alpha up the tailpipes, so the saucer was relatively undamaged in a few cases, leading to at least a couple of scenarios where I was able to disengage and at least one of those lead to my saving an elite crew as a result (important, since we had a campaign going and a house rule that allowed us to reclaim that crew for use in 1d6 game's time for use on another ship of the same class).

Do bear in mind that we were using the basic Commander's level box at the time, though, so unsure if there's any advanced-level rules for campaigns.

 

[Ben2]

But as a space going empire how much sense does it make to give beings of dubious loyalty access to your military technology and hardware?

As for having a paingiver booth or whatever on board, how many modern navy ships have a brig? All the Federation ships in Star Trek seem to have one, and they're a largely unified group of races working towards a common goal.

You can view the pain booths as a cat o nine tails for the 22nd century.

 

[BFalcon]

I thought the paingiver was a hand-held device (it's been too long - must go watch TOS again sometime)?

As for why? Why did the Romans use Auxilleries? Truth is, the Klingon fleet is massive - it would take all the Klingons just to keep that and their ground forces fully-staffed and probably leave their conquered worlds weakly secured... much better to get combat-worthy client races out and away from each other into an environment of mistrust and extreme competition. That way the Klingons win on two counts: the risk of rebellion on any given world decreases and the quality of crew increases as the dead-weight are either killed off or end up being the scapegoats for the other crewmembers' misdeeds. Potential miscreants are either broken or conveniently killed (possibly with the promise by one of the officers of a favour or boon to the killer). Without the "prison guards", that risk of mutiny does go up though...

Lastly, on a Klingon ship, all the sensitive systems are located in the boom, with no non-loyal-klingons allowed in there (Officer Country), so the risk to the officers that they'll take over the weapons systems and so on is minimal - add in the security lockouts on all the systems that can't be relocated or made dependant on the boom's systems and basically all the stranded crew can do is navigate, if they're lucky.

The boom separation does also make for an interesting scenario once in a while - particularly where you need to rescue one or the crew from one before the enemy fleet arrives...

 

[Rick]

Another thing to bear in mind when considering the TOS era is that it was produced at the height of the cold war and the Klingons were a pretty blatant representation of the Communist threat (as seen by the 'free' west). So the perception was that Klingon crews were kept loyal by the equivalent of Kommissars and the threat of violence or execution, that they had to have security teams watching them at all times in case they mutinied and the only ones allowed off ship would be the ones whose loyalty had been proven.

 

[Ben2]

The thing is F&E has actually layed out how many ships there are in the Klingon fleet at the start of the general war and how many can theoretically be built, and when you consider the relative size of armies in militaristic societies in today's world, it isn't that big a deal.

Take modern America. They've got about 1.4 million service personnel, 850k reservists, and an unknown number of contractors and mercenaries.

However in a time of conscription and mobilisation in WWII the US army grew to 8.3 million personnel in a population of 130 million.

SFB lays out how many personnel per crew unit and thus how many crew per ship. At the height of the general war the Klingon Navy is comparable to the US Navy in 1945. Certainly not comparable to the US army in 1945.

Unless there are a tiny number of Klingons, or their culture is dominated by pacifism, or the majority of Klingons are pretty stupid and unable to carry out technical tasks, then there is no reason to have non-Klingons aboard military ships when they could be used as ground troops, or working in munitions factories or another handy role that doesn't put them in the position where they can try and take over military ships.

I know SFU diverges from Star Trek after the end of TOS, but the multi-species Klingon crew thing seems to be an extrapolation from pain booths, which isn't clear cut. Is there any other support in TOS for this?

If it is transferred over to ACTA, the simplest way to represent it would be to say that Klingon ships reduced to 0 marines cannot fire and attempt to disengage. If they disengage then the opposing player gets full points for the ship as if it was captured (as most likely they surrender to the enemy).