A squadron ramming a squardron - How do you work this out?

[ubersnug]

Hello everyone,

Had a small game of ACTA yesterday 6 Raid points with Centauri vs Brakiri vs ISA.

During one of the turns I have a squadron of 2 Liati's facing down a squadron of 4 damaged Halik's. in an unexpected turn of events, the Brakiri played decided to Ram his Halik's into my Liati's.

Having never encountered the situation before there where a few disputedsabout how we work it out. Ill describe how we worked it out and then ask my questions:

- Brakiri Player declares Ram

- Brakiri player rolls CQC for Ramming speed special action against the squadron. Passes check

- Brakiri player moves 4 ships in straight line towards Liati squadron. (formation was two lines of two. line behind the other in parallel). Declares that each Liati will be rammed by two Haliks.

- We roll opposing CQC (adding Liati's agility bonus to roll) individually. First liati rolls opposing CQC against two Halik's. Wins first roll, but loses second suffering a Ram from the second ship targetting it. Second Liati fails first opposed CQC roll but wins second, also suffering 1 ram.

- We then work out damage

Via this method, both of my relatively undamaged Liati's where destroyed and 3 of the Halik's survived the Ram. Miffed I was!

So....

1. First of all, I had won initiative but had elected to move last. When performing a ram on a ship that hasn't moved yet, will the ship have the opportunity to move out of the way before the ram occurs? I.e. can you ram a ship that has still to move?

2. Can you ram with a squardon? I don't see any rules that says you can't but the rules only cover the situation of 1 ship ramming another.

3. Assuming the squadron can, how do you correctly work out this situation? Do you roll the CQC against the squadron or individually for each ship (in this instance, one opposed roll against rolling four rolls, 2 for each ship?).

Has anyone encountered this situation before? How did they handle it?

[/list]

 

[Burger]

1) No you don't get to move out of the way; yes you can ram a ship that hasn't moved yet. Ram is declared and resolved during the movement phase, so each ship's ram is resolved as it moves.

2) You can but as above, each ram is resolved as each individual ship moves.

3) When you activate ships in a squadron, they each move individually. It's the same when they perform any other special action too. It's not like firing where you declare all of your targets before rolling. So ramming would be no different. First ship declares ramming speed, rolls its CQ, if it succeeds then it performs the ram, rolls the opposed CQ, if it succeeds then resolve damage. Then move onto the second ship, which can choose to ram the same or a different target depending on the outcome of the first, or it can choose to not ram at all.

 

[AdrianH]

Am I right in thinking that every individual ship in a squadron must make its own CQ rolls? If so:

- Brakiri player rolls CQC for Ramming speed special action against the squadron. Passes check

Unless it's crippled, every ship wishing to declare "Give Me Ramming Speed" must make this check. Unless all four Haliks passed their CQ 9 checks, some of those rams should never have happened.

 

[Da Boss]

Hello everyone,
- Brakiri player rolls CQC for Ramming speed special action against the squadron. Passes check
[/list]

never had that one tried! Nasty !

Whilst you do get to use the highest CQ in a squadron you still have to roll for each ship so it still should be unlikely they get all four to make it even with CQ 6 (3+ to attempt the SA)?

to be fair I'd be very unhappy as well - but its was a good tactic by the Brakiri player! :shock:

 

[Burger]

Don't use the highest CQ ship to ram first, if it succeeds the rest of the squadron won't be able to use its CQ because it's dead

 

[ubersnug]

Thanks for the reply's so far!

I was always under the impression that if you where performing a special action on a squadron, you made one roll based on the highest Crew Quality score...

Or am I totally wrong?

 

[Burger]

You're totally wrong :lol:

CQ is always rolled on a per-ship basis; some of the ships in the squadron may succeed and some may fail. The value you use for the CQ of each ship however, is the highest CQ in the squadron.

 

[ubersnug]

You're totally wrong :lol:

CQ is always rolled on a per-ship basis; some of the ships in the squadron may succeed and some may fail. The value you use for the CQ of each ship however, is the highest CQ in the squadron.

GAH!!! :lol:

We've been playing it wrong for ages... :lol:

 

[Democratus]

This is another place where the Dilgar really shine! With a CQ 6 somewhere in a pentacon and an Ochlavita Ki, rams are done on a 2+ and it is quite easy to win the opposing roll.

In campiagn play, I tend to use my Jashakars as massive missiles during the closing phases of a battle.

 

[Nathrak]

Would this also work for boarding actions i.e. if the enemy ship hasn't yet moved could you move into range and declare a boarding actions? Given that the ship hasn't moved it won't have moved more than halve its speed.

Personally and the way we have always played it the answer is no. But what is everyone elses opinion?

 

[Burger]

I'd say yes, you can declare it if you like. If the target ship moves more than half its speed or out of range then the boarding action would fail. It's quite a good area denial method (ie. if you don't move you're gonna get boarded!).

 

[AdrianH]

Would this also work for boarding actions i.e. if the enemy ship hasn't yet moved could you move into range and declare a boarding actions? Given that the ship hasn't moved it won't have moved more than halve its speed.

You can declare "Launch Breaching Pods and Shuttles" if you like, but the boarding only happens at the end of the Attack Phase. The enemy ship can therefore move away, either more than half speed or further than 4" away from your ship, after you move but before the boarding actually takes place. By contrast, ramming (if successful) happens at the end of your ship's move.

I don't think "Launch Breaching Pods and Shuttles" requires you to state the target, so if the ship you wanted to board moves out of reach but another wanders into within 4" of you at under half speed, you can board that instead. And I don't think it's compulsory; if you tried to board a T'Rann which then gets out of the way, then a T'Loth moves at half speed next to you and says "Go ahead, make my day", you don't have to board it instead.