ACTA:SF battle report

[Iain McGhee]

I'd go with 4) All Power To Engines ! If you let a Fed with overloaded torpedoes get that close you're doing it wrong, as you'll know from SFB
Since overloaded weapons have range 6", and the required SA limits your speed to 6", it's not that hard to keep out of reach unless you're crippled or adrift.

Take Evasive Action is CQC 8, so it's only worth taking in this situation if you've a high CQ or are feeling lucky (or if you don't want a Power Drain penalty, as this SA only limits your move to 6").

If your shields are in decent shape it's perhaps best to boost them to absorb hits (particularly if your Klingon's reinforced forward shields are most likely to take the hit).

If they're not, or you're not in a D5, C7 or C8, it's perhaps better to use Close Blast Doors which blocks a third of the damage on average (it's also effective against shots which bypass your shields, so it might be the best option of the three in most circumstances).

 

[Captain Jonah]

I have to wonder, when you have a Klingon ship in overload range of a Fed and it is the likely target, are the odds of survival better if the Klingon does one of the following?

1) use the all power to shields to boost your shields, and only fire standard disruptors
or
2) Use the evasive action special action and hope he misses (reduces odds of hitting from 4-6 to 5-6, right?). Again, you only fire standard disruptors back at him.
or
3) Accept the 50-50 hit odds and fire your overloaded disruptors at him, hoping to cripple him while he cripples you as well.

Well you need to do the numbers based on the ship. Assume the Flat top is a CA, 6 AD of phasers against you and 4 Photons overloaded at 8".

The phasers are on 83% chance to hit so 4.98 hits doing 9.96 damage. Call it 10 hits
4 photons on 50% so two impact doing 8 hits each, 16 total.

That gives you 26 damage incoming. Ignoring Phasers 3s or drones as they are probably fending of your drones (if not why not :lol: )

If you evade the chances to hit drops to 5-6 for photons and 3+ for phasers or 11 damage from photons and 8 from phasers. Total (rounded) of 19 damage.

So look at your ships shields. Do you get more than 7 points of shield reinforcement. (I presume here that Klingon shields boost base shields then double the boosted shield rating for the front).

If you get less than 7 extra front shield boxes then evade is better as you take less damage due to the reduced chance to hit. If you get more than 7 shields from the boosting then you will take less damage that way.

With a Klingon Cruiser you will take half damage from the hit to your front shield so will survive the pass dragging the tattered remains of your front shield with you.

Of course I must ask why you are going Head to head with a flat top anyway, unless this is a forced pass and you plan to sweep round behind him and stay glued to his 6 while you sabre him to death.

In terms of firing back. with a D7 you will have 6 P2s and 3 P1s plus 4 disruptors.
83% chance to hit times 3 P1s gives 5 damage (presuming 8" range again).
83% chance to hit times 6 P2s gives 5 damage.
66% chance to hit times 4 overloaded disruptors gives 11 damage.

So if you overload and do not evade or shield boost you will take 26 damage to your front shield leaving you with a few boxes left, you will do 21 damage in return which will reduce the Flat top to a few shield boxes (you may be able to sneak in a drone hit if he misses with his P3s).

If you use the action defensively you will do 16 damage leaving the flat top on below half shields.

Consider that even if forced to make a head to head pass in order to get behind him you will still be taking 4 or 6 AD of phasers every turn from the CA due to his arcs. You could well find that he blows down your shields with his aft arc phasers next turn if you stay too close.

Also I have used purely average numbers here. Even evading if the Flat top hits with 3 of those photons that is your front shield gone and you can miss with 2 or three disruptors and barely scratch the CA.

This also doesn't consider the shield leaking.

Basicly unless you have no choice with a Klingon don't go head to head with a Flat top who has overloaded photons :lol:

Extra note. If you are about to take a Flat tops full overloads and its not your Klingon front shield go with Option 5. RUn to the nearest transport or shuttle bay and flee before your ship explodes :lol:

 

[billclo]

Well in regard to the "you're doing it wrong" thing, I'm assuming worst case. Say the Klingon is 18" away from the Fed. The Fed gets lucky and activates after the Klingon, moves 12" and ends up 6" from the Klingon, uses only his phaser/drones this turn and wants to fire overloaded torps at the Klingon first thing next turn. Assume the Fed does roll better initiative than the Klingon (which with my bad luck will actually happen).

Fed activate first and uses the overload torps special action...whammo.

While I'm worried about total shield damage taken to the Klingon, I'm more focused on reducing critical hits as those Photons seem to be good at dealing them out. Assuming a 50-50 chance of a given photon hit, that means 2 torps will hit, with a decent chance of a torp bypassing shields. 8 chances of a crit, with 1-2 chances being an actual critical hit.

As for boosting shields, that D7 only gets 1d6 to it's base shield, so unless you roll 4-6 it may not be worth it.

Interesting analysis though; it gives me something to look at.

 

[Da Boss]

Don't forget if you roll a 6 on any non seeking weapon hit - it ignores your shields (at whatever level) and slams straight into your hull. This can hurt - ALOT !

it also makes working out the numbers much more difficult as that lucky 6 rolled could destroy a ship................

Also don't forget the Close the blast doors SA - a mainstay in B5

 

[Iain McGhee]

Well in regard to the "you're doing it wrong" thing, I'm assuming worst case. Say the Klingon is 18" away from the Fed. The Fed gets lucky and activates after the Klingon, moves 12" and ends up 6" from the Klingon, uses only his phaser/drones this turn and wants to fire overloaded torps at the Klingon first thing next turn. Assume the Fed does roll better initiative than the Klingon (which with my bad luck will actually happen).

Fed activate first and uses the overload torps special action...whammo.

You don't move and fire like that, all ships move then all ships fire in separate phases alternating between players. Your opponent would have to move a ship within 12" of one of yours which had yet to move for you to get into overload range of it, or start that close and be damaged badly enough it can't get away (being crippled or having engine or power critical scores of 4+ are enough, although there's little point in overloading weapons if your going after a crippled ship unless it has boosted it's shields to a decent level or you're particularly fond of explosions ).

 

[billclo]

Well in regard to the "you're doing it wrong" thing, I'm assuming worst case. Say the Klingon is 18" away from the Fed. The Fed gets lucky and activates after the Klingon, moves 12" and ends up 6" from the Klingon, uses only his phaser/drones this turn and wants to fire overloaded torps at the Klingon first thing next turn. Assume the Fed does roll better initiative than the Klingon (which with my bad luck will actually happen).

Fed activate first and uses the overload torps special action...whammo.

You don't move and fire like that, all ships move then all ships fire in separate phases alternating between players. Your opponent would have to move a ship within 12" of one of yours which had yet to move for you to get into overload range of it, or start that close and be damaged badly enough it can't get away (being crippled or having engine or power critical scores of 4+ are enough, although there's little point in overloading weapons if your going after a crippled ship unless it has boosted it's shields to a decent level or you're particularly fond of explosions ).

I feel like a tard. For some reason it was sticking in my brain that one activated a ship, moved it, and fired it. Not each side moves one til they're all moved, then each side fires one until all done.

Nevermind.

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

The phasers are on 83% chance to hit so 4.98 hits doing 9.96 damage. Call it 10 hits 4 photons on 50% so two impact doing 8 hits each, 16 total.

. . .

In terms of firing back. with a D7 you will have 6 P2s and 3 P1s plus 4 disruptors.
83% chance to hit times 3 P1s gives 5 damage (presuming 8" range again).
83% chance to hit times 6 P2s gives 5 damage.
66% chance to hit times 4 overloaded disruptors gives 11 damage.

[Doctor]"Vulcan tacticians... Damnit you pointy-eared devil, these are people's lives you're talking about here, not calculations in some game!"[/Doctor]

I generally agree with this man. The numbers, and the logic, stand for themselves. :lol: