Any new Special Actions planned in the future?

[SneakyPete]

I was wondering if there were any plans for future expansions that might include new Special Actions. Working with campaigns in mind if there was an SA like this it would be an interesting option IMO.

Abandon Ship! (campaign mode): Seeing the inevitable destruction of their ship and unable to escape, the crew abandons ship and makes for the rescue pods. The ship is dead and removed from play at the end of the current movement phase, but the crew, and their current CQ, is not lost and may be re-assigned to a new ship of the same class range in a subsequent campaign battle with no XP or Prestige earned for the current battle. (DN, CL, DD, FF)

Of course no civilized race would attempt to destroy the fleeing survivors........ :roll:

Or perhaps another SA that might be interesting could be something like: "Detach Saucer", where the crew and ship can be removed from play when crippled or adrift to be salvaged for extra available points or reassignment.

Just an idea.

 

[billclo]

Well the seperate saucer/boom option might be interesting. Certainly it would encourage one to actually keep surplus large ships to use their saucers/booms...

Though stats and point values for the saucer/boom would have to be calculated.

 

[MarkDawg]

I would rather see a ship that can do two or a ship that can ignore power drain on a CC check.

 

[The Big D]

I would rather see a ship that can do two or a ship that can ignore power drain on a CC check.

The 2 action thing is actually an ability that can be gained in a campaign, but only on the roll of a double 6 on the skills and refits chart, and can only be done once per game! We are still not sure how to cope with 2 power drain effects similtaneously!

I doubt very much the power drain aspect will be mitigated by anything. The core license for ACTA SF - Federation commander and Starfleet battles, are as much resource management as they are tactical battles. It seems many of the concepts from those games were a stipulation of the design of ACTA SF and power effects were one of those that doesn't exist in noble armada or, if I remember, B5. The simple fact of the ships of this universe is there is simply not enough power to do everything! You cannae change the laws of physics! (but can create new ones apparently )

I can see some new Special actions required for things like maulers and andromedans, or at least some new ways of using the existing ones. Andromedans may even get to ignore power drains on the turn after their power absorbers activate, but then thats what they do. The more you hit them the more they hit back!

Geoff

 

[Myrm]

There's various disengage options other than the high tactical warp version in ActA that an be found in SFB at least....landing on a planet (which I've worked out a rule for a scenario I'm putting together) and sublight disengagement leap to mind. Both would work as Special Orders.

I can see one working for Tactical Warp Manouevres being handy too.

 

[JohnDW]

Technically, as the rules appear in my rulebook, you can gain the skilled captain more than once on a single ship if you're lucky enough, so you can fly around with a cappin who can do two actions per turn, multiple turns, just once per game per times the ship has earned it.


As for two power drain effects, maybe special ships that could do two actions could potentially have an extra engine to draw power from? Ignore the first power drain for their first special action, but apply the second power drain for their second action.

As for the normal ships we currently have, your special actions, if taking two, should probably be 'engage tractor beam' and 'boost energy to shields' while your other ships 'overload weapons' into the christmas goose your sacrificial ship has latched onto

In other words, just try to avoid two power drain effects in the first place.

 

[Zarash]

I have played Bab5, but not this game yet. I know the basic rules for the game without reading the book. I am going to get the Star Fleet book soon.

Here is one maybe for later?
Advanced Tactics: CQ 9 If this Crew Quality check is passed when this ship is nominated to move you may skip it, and have an oponent nominate one of his ships to move. This ship must be moved after the oponent moves one of his ships.

 

[Captain Jonah]

I was wondering if there were any plans for future expansions that might include new Special Actions. Working with campaigns in mind if there was an SA like this it would be an interesting option IMO.

Abandon Ship! (campaign mode): Seeing the inevitable destruction of their ship and unable to escape, the crew abandons ship and makes for the rescue pods. The ship is dead and removed from play at the end of the current movement phase, but the crew, and their current CQ, is not lost and may be re-assigned to a new ship of the same class range in a subsequent campaign battle with no XP or Prestige earned for the current battle. (DN, CL, DD, FF)

Of course no civilized race would attempt to destroy the fleeing survivors........ :roll:

Or perhaps another SA that might be interesting could be something like: "Detach Saucer", where the crew and ship can be removed from play when crippled or adrift to be salvaged for extra available points or reassignment.

Just an idea.

Using this as a special action is a bit odd. For example you declare IDF then take a lot of hits. Sorry your crew are not allowed to abandon ship because they are strapped into their IDF seats or some such.

For campaigns I would prefer to see there being a cost or other limit on retaining the crew skills because many of the crew took to the life pods, were recovered (perhaps later as the result of another mission) and were assigned to a new ship (Same class) where they were able to pass on those hard won skills to the replacements.

Otherwise in campaigns no one ever gets elite crews unless it’s on a DN or BB since the other ships just don’t survive. Which may be down to some of the people I used to game with where as soon as you revealed a ship had earned a special ability it was nuked by everyone.

Still there have been more than enough examples of (non license) Star fleet ships going bang and the crews getting out in the life pods and coming back later with a new ship. A certain early captain did it several times in the movies and along with a bald captain made something of a habit of it. :roll:
The gruff voiced base captain did it once (and renamed his new ship back to the old one). None of them lost the skills and abilities that made them legendary in the process. :wink:

 

[SneakyPete]

Using this as a special action is a bit odd. For example you declare IDF then take a lot of hits. Sorry your crew are not allowed to abandon ship because they are strapped into their IDF seats or some such.

Well that could not happen as this is a Special Action that would go into effect that same movement phase the way I described it. You are forfeiting the ship to save the crew, and as you mentioned iwith current rules it is rare for a small ship's crew to see an XP upgrade unless they are a capital ship as they get vaporized quite often. With this SA it would be more likely that the XP of the crew of smaller ships survive.

 

[JohnDW]

"Overload Plasma Torpedoes" , PD, energy bleed is reduced to no AD reduction over half range, and only 1AD reduction at over 3/4 range.

 

[Finlos]

Instead of 'overload plasma torpedoes!' you could have 'enveloping plasma torpedoes!' (under the same restrictions as overloaded photons) which doubles the AD of each plasma. Phasers reduce the doubled AD as per normal. :shock: :twisted:

Or you could have 'Shotgun plasma torpedo!" which allows a larger launcher (G or bigger) to instead fire a given number of Plasma Fs. Granted each of those torpedoes would have to be at different ships but that's a good way to overwhelm those popular fleet-wide IDFs.

Other special actions will doubtless be introduced alongside other fleets when they get added to the game.

 

[billclo]

Instead of 'overload plasma torpedoes!' you could have 'enveloping plasma torpedoes!' (under the same restrictions as overloaded photons) which doubles the AD of each plasma. Phasers reduce the doubled AD as per normal. :shock: :twisted:

Or you could have 'Shotgun plasma torpedo!" which allows a larger launcher (G or bigger) to instead fire a given number of Plasma Fs. Granted each of those torpedoes would have to be at different ships but that's a good way to overwhelm those popular fleet-wide IDFs.

I suggested both enveloping and shotgun plasmas awhile ago, and got a chilly reception to such ideas. I would suggest both being a power drain. Increase the range bands for an enveloping to 12/18/24. Good idea for a house-rule though.

 

[tomrommel1]

There have to be special actions concerning carriers and fighters something like in nobel armada!

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

Fighters are a while off and will hopefully (IMO) be limited to only the Hydrans.


A Special action for full on boarding and capture attempts would be nice. I keep looking through old Star Fleet Battles scenarios with an eye to convert some and a good number involve boarding and capture an enemy vessel or vessels. Freighters and Traders aren't just for blowing up, sometimes you want whats in em.

A modified version of the Noble Armada rules should suffice. Still, this is hardly a necessity.

 

[Myrm]

While fighters are a way off, I hope they are not limited to Hydrans (despite being a Hydran player by preference). ACtA is too good a system for fleet actions and has a proven track record of having been able to handle a lot of fighter types on table at once in both ACtA B5 and VaS to my experience for the opportunity to be missed - the major problems with fighters in SFB - sheer time to deal with and sheer numbers of units on table to count can quickly be dealt with by abstractions that have been proven to work already.

At that point I would expect there to be some form of Reload Fighter Special Action - but there doesn't need to be much more, though Im sure some can be named.

Overloaded plasmas would be a departure from established SFU canon - though the shotgun would be useful. Enveloping is a side point for me, Im sure it could be done, but I don't consider it high priority and would want to wait to see how hellbores are done as that definitely leads how to do Envelopers.

 

[tomrommel1]

hope for fighters too not just for the Hydrans!

 

[Clanger]

One for Noble Armada.

Barrel Roll CQ 9

Skilled Captains can use their skill to roll their ship to get in both Port and Starboard weapons onto a target.

Agile ships gain + 1 to CQ check, Lumbering - 1 to CQ Check

On a success / fail roll. The ship can only move half speed and cannot make a turn.

On a successful roll - The ship gains a - 1 to hit due to the Think Machines / Gunners having a limited window of opportunity. They can fire all weapons onto the target.

On a failed roll - The ship has not lined up properly and cannot fire its Port / Starboard weapons. Front and Turreted can be fired as normal.

Also a ship which performs this SA is grappled at any time when this SA is in play will lose the SA. Also due to the odd way the ship has moved gets a - 1 to hit.

 

[Rambler]

Set Photon Proximity Fuses, Special Action by muniplulating the loading of a Photon Torpedo it is possible to make the weapon more accurate at longer ranges by trading off damage ability. Proximity Fused Photons, delete all old weapon traits and replace them with a new Set

Proximity Fused Photon: Range 24, Accurate +1, MultiHit 1, Devastating.

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Reposting from another topic just so these are all in one place.

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PLASMA SABOT, Special Action By using your Special Action you can increase the Range of you F,G, and S Torpedoes to 24" and maybe stretching the Type R to a range of 36". (Will have to play with that one to see how it works. It may be too powerful at that range.) Then recalculate Energy Bleed off the new max ranges. Type F, G, & S would be 8/16/24 and a Type R would then be 18/24/36.

Of course Plasma Ds due to their defenceive natures do not gain any benift from saboting.

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Possible new Firing Mode, or could be made a Special Action, for Larger Plasma Torpedoes.

A Fast Load Plasma Torpedo can be fired out of a Plasma G, S, or R Launcher. This Special Torpedoe would be identical to a Type F Torpedoe (meaning it can be bolted) but would not requires the reload Specail Action to be prepared to fire. Anytime you fire a fast load Type F Torpedo out of a launcher you must spend a Reload Special Action Turn in order to fire the Launcher as it original heavier type or, you can continue to fire Type Fs every Turn with no penalty.

 

[JohnDW]

I like high energy turn, but I'd like to see a lower-risk lower-reward version of it.

Medium energy turn. CQ 8. PD:no
If the CQ check is passed, your ship may make one normal turn before moving.

 

[Myrm]

Normally in SFB at least the first HET was often rather simple and low risk. While it would require more bookkeeping it would be relatively easy to add a house rule to make the first one Automatic.

Thus far however, unlike many SFB games, in the games we have played no ship has yet done a HET, most rely in the higher ship numbers on table to manoeuvre fleet mates into a firing position rather than have to rely on solo manoeuvres like HETs (and from some comments from playtesters and designers that indicated to me that the immediate difficulty was a deliberate choice).

For turning Ive already mentioned my personal favorite 'want to see' new Manoeuvre action to see - Tactical Warp Manoeuvres.