ACTA: Movement SAs while 'Adrift'

[LaranosTZ]

A question came up in the forums, can a ship that is adrift perform an all stop, or an all stop and pivot command? Running Adrift states that

'the ship is moved at half its current speed in the end phase, until it runs off the table.'

later, it states

'If you still have an active crew on a ship that is Running Adrift, you may select it in the Movement Phase to perform a special action.'

There does not seem to be a restriction on what form of special action you may take.

This is being debated in the forums by official mods, so I would appreciate it Matt if you could put your 2 cents in on the topic.

Thanks.

 

[LaranosTZ]

Bumpity ^_^

 

[Burger]

PM Matt and link the thread is better than bumping

 

[MongooseMatt]

Hi there,

A ship Adrift cannot All Stop or Pivot. The crew have no control over where they are heading!

Hope that helps!

 

[E-Mines Hurt]

Can an adrift ship perform any special actions? Since they are declared when the ship is nominated to move and the adrift ship is never nominated to move? If yes, when are they declared?

 

[Burger]

Yes, an adrift ship can still be nominated during the movement phase. It can ether perform a special action (such as Scramble Scramble, Concentrate all firepower, or run slent), or do nothing (ie. act as an initiative sink).Same applies to pinned Shadow ships.

 

[R Arceneaux]

Would that not depend on the what is damaged on the ship and the extent of the damage.

For example, a ship having lost is main thrusters for whatever reason with the ship surviving may have manuvering thrusters that enable the orientation of the facing of the ship even if it cannot push the ship in that direction via its main thruster.

 

[Burger]

Maybe but ACTA doesn't go into that level of detail. Adrift is adrift, no turning.

 

[AdrianH]

In ACTA a ship always moves in the direction in which it is pointing. So it can't turn while running adrift or it would be able to control the direction of drift - it would be able to steer while drifting!

The rule on page 6 is:

A ship may only be nominated to move once in every turn and every ship must be nominated.

(Emphasis added by me.)

This seems self-contradictory for a ship which unable to move (adrift, speed reduced to 0, or pinned) - it can't be nominated to move but it must be nominated! So, as Burger says, it can be nominated to perform a special action, or even nominated to do nothing at all. A ship which is adrift and under the effect of a "No Special Actions" critical, or a pinned Shadow ship, can only be nominated to do nothing at all.

 

[Burger]

A ship which is adrift and under the effect of a "No Special Actions" critical, or a pinned Shadow ship, can only be nominated to do nothing at all.

Or launch/recover fighters

 

[Greg Smith]

Actually fighter launch/recovery is done in the end phase. However most players I know simply do it in the movement phase so they remember which ships can do it, or have done scrambe, scramble sa.

 

[Burger]

Oh I thought fighter launches were declared in the movement phase but carried out in the end phase. Maybe its just because thats how everyone plays it, so they don't forget to launch them

 

[Greg Smith]

1st edition had them launched in movement phase. 2nd ed changed it to the end phase to avoid confusion between which fights could act and which couldn't, and whether newly launched fighters could be dogfought etc. However in terms of tracking ship actions, it is easier to place launched fighters during the movement phase, so you don't have to remember whther a ship did CA or tried and failed scramble etc.

 

[Iain McGhee]

I usually just mark the ship's record sheet after it has moved with a number of Ls to remind me how many flights it can launch in the end phase(if I'm not using my SA markers).

 

[R Arceneaux]

Disclaimer....
Not being a designer of an atomic bomb or an expert in physics please let me know if I am in error...

As best as I understand physics an object on motion such as a space vehicle in the vacume of spance traveling in a given direction will continue to travel in that same direction and at that same speed when the forward thrusters are cut unless acted upon by external forces.

Now apply this principle to a ship that loses thrusters to push the ship and smaller orientation thrusters to direct the push of the ship the ship will continue to travel at the same speed it attained up to the time the forward thrusters are lost. And it will maintain direction/orientation unless someone activates direction aka navagational thrusters to change that direction.

Could the fire comming from something say such as a plasma weapon alter direction or Orientation when said weapon is attached to the ship? I would have to say to some minor degree, absolutely. Obviously some random direction/orientation roll to alter target impact may be needed.

In addition the location of the navagation thruster could also make a difference and possibly change the direction of the ship. A thruster on the nose or the tail turns the ship on its axis but a thruster in the center or fairly close to the center of the mass of the ship could very well 'Push' the ship to the side and in doing so change the direction of the ship.


So even a ship after it loses its main thrusters could possibly change the direction IF there were enough force remaining to alter the direction provided that those same thrusters had some kind of adjustments for angle of fire

 

[Burger]

As best I understand it...
Its a game, not an accurate physics simulation!
Them's the rules, that's what this forum is for - if you want to discuss realism then may I suggest the regular forum

 

[R Arceneaux]

Re Burger guy...

The object is not to create a physics simulation but rather to inject into the game some ever so small degree of the real world to prevent knee jerk without thinking that tired old Capt Kirk phrase 'Mr Sulu fire all phasers" without first thinking should I or even more importantly can I given the present physical circumstances.

The injection of a few real world laws of physics kind of forces one to first think am I in the position/situationw that even allows me to fire with any degree of accuracy.

Perhaps this will induce a degree of less pure hack and slash and more actual thought and planning.

 

[R Arceneaux]

I reference your posting....

"Oh I thought fighter launches were declared in the movement phase but carried out in the end phase. Maybe its just because thats how everyone plays it, so they don't forget to launch them "

What you say makes much sense in so far that the player(s) themselves as a battle tactic may wish to deliberately delay launching as a part of the plan of attack/surprise tactic of too many targets for not enough guns. For example a capital ship captain may wish as their plan of attack to first fire the big guns providing cover for the fighters as the enemies capital ships engage those said big guns and then afterward launch fighters to attack using the heavy weapons giving the fighters a better chance of gettting close.

OF COURSE the enemy should have this same option of delay of launch to be completly fair to both sides.

 

[AdrianH]

The injection of a few real world laws of physics kind of forces one to first think am I in the position/situationw that even allows me to fire with any degree of accuracy.

Perhaps this will induce a degree of less pure hack and slash and more actual thought and planning.

ACTA is a wargame, not a role-playing game. The whole point is hack and slash.

Introduction of real world physics would require rewriting the rules for ship movement, which is represented in the game by measuring distance and moving small models (or cardboard counters) around a table, typically 6 feet by 4 feet. Provided the ship always moves in the direction in which it is facing, this is easy. If it can move one way and face another, you need some way to mark its direction of movement and speed last turn. (I've seen this done in a different game, it involves at least one extra counter per ship to show where it was last turn).

The game proceeds according to a fixed schedule per turn - everyone moves, everyone fires, everyone launches fighters. It may simply be convenient for some people to place their fighters earlier, while they remember which ships can launch fighters and how many. The fighters still don't actually come into play until the end phase.

 

[Greg Smith]

The injection of a few real world laws of physics kind of forces one to first think am I in the position/situationw that even allows me to fire with any degree of accuracy.

Perhaps this will induce a degree of less pure hack and slash and more actual thought and planning.

ACTA is a fleet game, the injection of real-world physics make it that much more complicated to worry about individual ships, rather than concentrate on fleet tactics.