ACTA campaign, can you forfeit a battle?

[Greg Smith]

If you roll a unfavourable battle in an ACTA campaign, say blockade run, when you only have slow ships, can you opt to simply not fight the battle?

 

[Locutus9956]

I would say no. You would have to field at least something and TRY to either withdraw or actually win. Otherwise its theoretically impossible to get knocked out and you can just avoid all combat till your opponents have weakened each other etc.

 

[Silvereye]

You could though throw a fight by fielding a fighter wing in those scenarios that end when 'there are no ships on the table'.

 

[Burger]

You can just deploy your ships backwads and withdraw in turn 1, assuming you have a friendly table edge.

 

[TenaciousB]

If you roll a unfavourable battle in an ACTA campaign, say blockade run, when you only have slow ships, can you opt to simply not fight the battle?

This is from Wikipedia - Forfeiting is the act of voluntarily admitting defeat in a competition or contest, thereby surrendering victory to the opposition. Usually it is only done in the most extreme circumstances, in which the forfeiting party believes there is simply no way to continue under the present circumstances.

If you forfeit, you lose, simple as. I don't know how campaigns work, but I suppose you would lose some sort of campaign points or something.

 

[Burger]

If you forfeit, you lose, simple as. I don't know how campaigns work, but I suppose you would lose some sort of campaign points or something.

You would lose the strategic target (if defender) or simply fail to gain it (if attacker). But, you'd not lose any ships which I guess is Greg's intention... don't risk your ship in a hopeless battle.

 

[Greg Smith]

If you face an enemy in a battle you are likely to lose - shadows in assasination for example, do you have the option of saying, "nope, I'm not fighting that one"?

And if you do, does the enemy still gain xp (probably not) and 5RR points for winning a battle (probably will).

 

[Burger]

If you face an enemy in a battle you are likely to lose - shadows in assasination for example, do you have the option of saying, "nope, I'm not fighting that one"?

And if you do, does the enemy still gain xp (probably not) and 5RR points for winning a battle (probably will).

You can take less FAP's than the allowed amount; simply take 0. The opponent would get XP (not fair to deny them just cos you are a wuss) and 5 RR for winning.

 

[Ripple]

Our group specifically denied xps and battle RRs for fights you do not have to fight, but we did allow folks nor defend site at a potential penalty to CQ of their fleet. (Gungho elite crews do not like to surrender without trying, green crew are kinda comfy with idea. No penalty if you stay on the table for at least three turns.)

We had three main discussions that were linked to that decision.

First one was that aggressors generally lose more than they gain if the opponent is competent, the 15+site value gain for a battle rarely covers loses of a Raid or higher fight. But several people came up with the idea of 'faking battles'/'trading sites as an economy booster, we felt this went against the spirit of the game.

Second was exp dice...we generally do not like them all that much on the table top and wanted there to be a cost to getting them, ie a ship had to be in harms way. No exp dice if nothing shorts back.

(Side note on that topic is we still having an issue with folks deliberately walking through several smaller ships firing one after another near the end of high pl ships life to get the maximium xp on the macimium number of hulls. I managed to get a threhold award and a kill award for three sepereate Vree skirmish saucers off a War hull in one fight without trying and it started a trend.)

Third was an issue of fairness. Generally you pick you fleet at the time of the fight from what you have available. If your opponent backs off you can now pick expensive/sensitive ships and send them knowing you have no threat and can get some valuable exp free. This is partly due to the the way we do turns...we have a drop box and turns are resolved by the GM with initiatives and a list of targets you would like...with the battles fought during the next two weeks as folks schedules can be matched up.

That last point is a big one for us. Don't want to be arranging a fight driving forty odd minutes only to find no fight waiting.

Ripple

 

[katadder]

something to overcome no xp is th fleet flagship could get 1 or 2 dice xp for the fact his fleet scared away the enemy, or just out manouvered them or whatever.

 

[Iain McGhee]

I'd allow the attacking fleet to avoid fighting the scenario as they have the initiative, but the defenders would not be allowed to forfeit (unless they didn't have any available ships that turn due to other commitments or damage etc.) as they wouldn't want to give up a strategic point willingly (or were surprised or somesuch). Of course they could still withdraw on turn one. Which would generally make it pointless setting up the game unless you had ships with extremely long range weapons or enough speed to get at least a few shots off. If the attackers didn't commit anything the defenders should at least get RRs for "winning" the battle but no VPs since no actual battle took place.

 

[Burger]

Of course they could still withdraw on turn one. Which would generally make it pointless setting up the game unless you had ships with extremely long range weapons or enough speed to get at least a few shots off.

Except if you withdraw in the movement phase of turn 1, there is no attack phase to use those long-range weapons in....

 

[Iain McGhee]

There's some scenarios (Ambush comes to mind) where the defender doesn't start close enough to the edges for most ships to retreat in turn one. Otherwise point taken.