[ACTA-SF] Looking ahead - Hellbore

[Iron Domokun]

Iron D. As Nomad said, the HB in FedCmdr does half damage to the weakest shield, always.

That's true. However, my comments were based on actual play experience.In practice, with the shield reinforcement, shield repair, and shield box transfer rules being what they are in FC, you pretty much have to sandpaper away most of the target's shields before scoring internal damage that actually makes any difference at all (critical hits in ACTA).

 

[Nerroth]

I might note (once again) that if you aren't familiar with how hellbores work in FC, the e23 version of the Reference Rulebook is a highly useful (and not overly expensive) resource in that regard.

(Not least since I'm seeing a lot of "this is how it works in SFB/FC" notes that aren't necessarily covering the FC side of things as much as they are the SFB side; which is understandable given how much longer the one has been around compared to the other, but may lead to a few tricks being missed given that the newer of the two games is the primary source for ACtA:SF.)

And to clarify, the Seltorians do indeed have their shield crackers to look forward to; though FC plasmas do not have an enveloping mode.

 

[Sgt_G]

.... though FC plasmas do not have an enveloping mode.

Too bad, because I had an idea for enveloping plasmas in ACTA: increase AD by 50%, auto-hit because it's seeking but roll to-hit and any "6" that AD bypasses shields, but only up to half the AD can bypass.

 

[Myrm]

Actually, you made it harder for the HB to do internals.

I was going for easier per strike to go internal (ie not having to clear the entire shield bank to get lots) and the amount of hits per shot to get internals goes lower as the shields weaken. However I also want to cover those ships where one hellbore plinking away was not going to scratch - I mean a Hydran destroyer shooting at a B10 is simply not going to get its hellbores through even if its taken some damage to them. it should take a rack like on the Paladin to worry bigger ships on the first punch.

If, on the other hand, you went by original shields, 24 taken 4 is at 20. Half of 24 is 12, so HB need to do 8 to get shields to half-strength. Next ship hits with HB, shields are already at or below 50%, so the entire second HB goes internal.

I was trying to avoid this on my idea because even when a shield is punched through in SFB, the hellbore still splashes half its damage around, so it take a very very shredded set of shields to have a hellbore effectively ignore the shields totally, even with one down, or scattered heavy damage....hence my particular half shield damage idea. Yours above is undoubtedly quicker and abstracts the idea that by the point your shields are halved in ACtA you will have holes in SFB.

 

[Myrm]

I might note (once again) that if you aren't familiar with how hellbores work in FC, the e23 version of the Reference Rulebook is a highly useful (and not overly expensive) resource in that regard.

(Not least since I'm seeing a lot of "this is how it works in SFB/FC" notes that aren't necessarily covering the FC side of things as much as they are the SFB side;

Thanks for the link,. my comments have definitely been SFB and ACtA based rather than FC, my FC experience is limited to a few games only so it does need pointing out where things differ SFB/FC (not that I don't think you couldn't use SFB as a source for ACtA if ACtA does things that in SFB more easily than you could do them in FC).

And to clarify, the Seltorians do indeed have their shield crackers to look forward to.

Excellent - now if only I could remember how they worked, I even read the damn thing in SFB last night.....I had some ideas and my mind has gone blanker than a blank thing.

 

[Nerroth]

Thanks for the link,. my comments have definitely been SFB and ACtA based rather than FC, my FC experience is limited to a few games only so it does need pointing out where things differ SFB/FC (not that I don't think you couldn't use SFB as a source for ACtA if ACtA does things that in SFB more easily than you could do them in FC).

No problem; I hope it's a useful resource, though of course you are right in that SFB should not be off-limits in terms of mining for ideas.

Excellent - now if only I could remember how they worked, I even read the damn thing in SFB last night.....I had some ideas and my mind has gone blanker than a blank thing.

If it helps, they are in the FC RRB, too; with details for both the shield cracker and web breaker functions.

And if the a certain unit from FC: Battleships Attack (which can also be found in SFB Module R12) is on the list for wave 2, there may be more than a few Seltorian players clicking their insectoid arm-equivalents together at the trouble they'll get to cause any fixed installations (particularly Tholian ones) they manage to take a run at...