ACTA - Stations/Installations in campaigns

[dmcgee1]

I was unable to find this answer by searching. Please, forgive me if I am treading trodden turf.

My buddy and I have just started a ACTA campaign. Stations may be bought as part of your fleet, or later, by use of RR's.

If I am not mistaken, they must be placed on (around) a Strategic target, and are captured if the target is won.

My questions are:

1. After placing a station/installation, are they considered part of any battle fought for the strategic target to which they are bound?

2. If they are a part of the battle, are they in addition to any force brought to the fray by either side, or are they "paid" to be there by having to expend Fleet Allocation Points (FAP's) to be in the battle?

3. If one has to expend FAP's for them, what happens when the FAP's rolled are less than the station is worth?

 

[Harry Lonsdale]

I was unable to find this answer by searching. Please, forgive me if I am treading trodden turf.

My buddy and I have just started a ACTA campaign. Stations may be bought as part of your fleet, or later, by use of RR's.

They can't be bought at the start. You can only purchase one once you have a ST to station it at.

If I am not mistaken, they must be placed on (around) a Strategic target, and are captured if the target is won.

Correct

My questions are:

1. After placing a station/installation, are they considered part of any battle fought for the strategic target to which they are bound?

2. If they are a part of the battle, are they in addition to any force brought to the fray by either side, or are they "paid" to be there by having to expend Fleet Allocation Points (FAP's) to be in the battle?

3. If one has to expend FAP's for them, what happens when the FAP's rolled are less than the station is worth?

This is somewhere in the campaign rules; my SFOS is on loan at the moment so I can't be more specific about the location.

Basically though, it's like this:
The ST can only be lost if the defender loses a battle in which the station was used.
The station is always purchased as part of your normal FAPs (that might not actually be stated in the rules, but I'm pretty sure it's correct).
The only time the station must be used is when it's one of a few specific scenarios at Battle or higher PL; I don't remember which ones they are offhand.
If the target being fought over has a station present, neither side may modifiy the roll to determine PL for the scenario.

 

[The_Mhor]

Hi, first up sorry for performing a bit of thread resurrection, but the question I have is relevant to the subject.

The ST can only be lost if the defender loses a battle in which the station was used.
The only time the station must be used is when it's one of a few specific scenarios at Battle or higher PL; I don't remember which ones they are offhand.

Our group were looking over space stations, one of our campaign players is obsessed with getting some to defend his precious industrial world, and we've noticed that "Planetary Assault" is not a scenario where you must use your space station. Does this mean that if Planetary assault is rolled up you could win, take control of the planet with troops, but because the defender opted not to bring his Station onto the table you fail to take the Strategic Target?

 

[Iain McGhee]

Harry's on the money for all the original post's questions. As for yours, you're quite correct that if the other player doesn't choose to use his station in the battle you can't hold on to it. You will still be counted as winning the battle if you capture the planet for RR purposes. Think of it as a large-scale raid or something. You could encourage your opponent to use his station by attacking only when he has had to fight other battles this turn and hasn't enough ships to adequately protect the target, or wait until most of his fleet is destroyed or back at base being repaired.

 

[Ripple]

Related question then is do you have to field a full force if your the defender, or can you simply lose every battle at that site and never put your station in danger. Or put simply can you choose to not field any defending ships but still retain the sight.

Ripple

 

[Iain McGhee]

As with any scenario, you can always use less points than allowed or not commit anything at all. If it was one of the scenarios which doesn't compel you to use your station then you couldn't lose the target although you may well lose the battle. The only way you could capture a target protected by a station, if the owner always declined to use it, is to win one of the (three?, AFB) scenarios that force the owner to field it.