[ATCA-SF] ADD Defensive Fire

[Lincolnlog]

Okay, my ship has 2 ADD. My assumption is I can fire at two incoming drone waves per turn in defensive fire. Rolling 1 D6 for each drone, on a 1 I lose 1 ADD. Or do I have this wrong, and no matter how many ADD I have this weapon can only be fired once per turn?

Same question with Fed Combined racks. If I have Drone 4, I can fire at 4 incoming drone waves, any ones per incoming wave reduces me by 1 drone rack? Or can I only fire at one wave per turn defensively per turn, and that means all 4 fired that turn?

I get regular drones firing defensively, 1 drone equals 1 AD on incoming drones are destroyed.

 

[Stu--]

Whenever you have an AD or more of drones incoming chuck a dice.
It doesn't hit you regardless, but if you roll a '1' lose a point of ADD.
When you're down to 0 you're out and there are no reloads.
That's it.


If you want to use drones vs drones one AD of your drones kills one incoming AD of drones, and the AD you fired is then used for the turn.

 

[Lincolnlog]

Stu--

I think you have to roll 1D6 for each incoming AD of drones, and a roll of 1 means you are reduced by 1 ADD. 8)

But having said that, can the Fed racks be split between defensive and offensive fire, and if they can, then why not two defensive shots if you have ADD 2.

 

[scoutdad]

Okay, my ship has 2 ADD. My assumption is I can fire at two incoming drone waves per turn in defensive fire. Rolling 1 D6 for each drone, on a 1 I lose 1 ADD. Or do I have this wrong, and no matter how many ADD I have this weapon can only be fired once per turn?

No, you got it wrong.
As long as you have ADD left, you can fire at dornes.
For example: Your ship has ADD 2 and you have 6AD of drones coming in from a Kzinti DN. You roll 6 die. All drones in this wave are stopped, but if you roll any "1's" then you are reduced to Anti-Drone 1... no "1's", you're still at ADD2. Next Kzinti ship activates and fires 4 AD of drones at you. You roll 4d6 and all four incoming drones are stopped. Again, if you roll any "1's" then your anti-drone trait is reduced by 1. When it hits zero - it's gone. Unitlthen, you can continue to use it to defend against incoming drone waves. If you're lucky, it can stave off the entire Kzinti fleets drone launches in a single turn.
But remember, it was built by the lowest bidder, so you may lose it on the first defense opportunity as well. 8)

Same question with Fed Combined racks. If I have Drone 4, I can fire at 4 incoming drone waves, any ones per incoming wave reduces me by 1 drone rack? Or can I only fire at one wave per turn defensively per turn, and that means all 4 fired that turn?

If you have 4AD of drones, you have the equivalent of anti-drone 4. You cna fire at as mnay incoming drone waves as your ADD launchers will last. As above, for each wave you roll a D6 for each incoming AD of drones. As long as you still have anti-drones, all incoming drones in that wave are stopped, but if roll any "1s" the anti-drone trait is reduced by 1. At 0, the drone rack has run dry and can not be used for the rest of the game.
Here's the magic of the Federation G-Rack of Never Ending Drones though. You never lose your offensive AD of drones and your anti-drone trait is based on the offensive AD at the start of the turn. That means that as long as your Kirov is not reduced to anti-drone 0 during the previous turn, you start the next turn with anti-drone 4 all over again.
Weird, huh?
So the new tactic with the Kirovs and the Fed DWD is to use the drone racks defensively until you're at anti-drone 1. Then use phasers and tractors (if possible) to save the anti-drones. Next turn, you've got the equivalent of anti-drone 4 again and it's lather, rinse, repeat.

I get regular drones firing defensively, 1 drone equals 1 AD on incoming drones are destroyed.

Correct, but you can not use the drone launcher in both modes on the same turn.

 

[Lincolnlog]

Same question with Fed Combined racks. If I have Drone 4, I can fire at 4 incoming drone waves, any ones per incoming wave reduces me by 1 drone rack? Or can I only fire at one wave per turn defensively per turn, and that means all 4 fired that turn?

Scoutdad Wrote:
If you have 4AD of drones, you have the equivalent of anti-drone 4. You cna fire at as mnay incoming drone waves as your ADD launchers will last. As above, for each wave you roll a D6 for each incoming AD of drones. As long as you still have anti-drones, all incoming drones in that wave are stopped, but if roll any "1s" the anti-drone trait is reduced by 1. At 0, the drone rack has run dry and can not be used for the rest of the game.
Here's the magic of the Federation G-Rack of Never Ending Drones though. You never lose your offensive AD of drones and your anti-drone trait is based on the offensive AD at the start of the turn. That means that as long as your Kirov is not reduced to anti-drone 0 during the previous turn, you start the next turn with anti-drone 4 all over again.
Weird, huh?
So the new tactic with the Kirovs and the Fed DWD is to use the drone racks defensively until you're at anti-drone 1. Then use phasers and tractors (if possible) to save the anti-drones. Next turn, you've got the equivalent of anti-drone 4 again and it's lather, rinse, repeat.

Follow up:
So the Kirov can fire 4 drones offensively, and still use the racks as ADD until they are done? Or the Kirov can fire 3 drones Offensively, and fire at unlimited drones with the remaining 1 AD, until a 1 is rolled?

 

[scoutdad]

Follow up:
So the Kirov can fire 4 drones offensively, and still use the racks as ADD until they are done? Or the Kirov can fire 3 drones Offensively, and fire at unlimited drones with the remaining 1 AD, until a 1 is rolled?

The advanced rules for ACTA: SF allow for splitting the AD of a sibgle weapon system among multiple targets... but IIRC, Matthew has ruled that you can not split them between both offensive and defensive fire. It's one or the other.

 

[Lincolnlog]

Scoutdad,

Thanks, you cleared up my confusion on the FedComm forum thanks. That probably needs to be added to the Errata.

Bob

 

[Sgt_G]

Follow-up question, and I would really like to get an official answer and not guesses from other players. That got us into a state of confusion of the Fed drone racks, so let's not go there again.


If a ship such as the D5 has the trait Anti-Drone 2 and rolls a "1" once during defensive action, the rating dropes from 2 to 1. Now, is that the new permanet rating for the rest of the game, or does it reset back to a rating of 2 at the start of the next turn???


P.S> I was told that "ADD" is a FecCmdr / SFB term and "Anti-Drone" is the proper term for ACTA:SF. I would have thought by now people would know the tems as interchangable ...... :roll:

 

[scoutdad]

Garth: seethe rulebook, special traits. anti drone:

Anti-Drone X: Protected by dedicated anti-drone missiles, this
ship is all but immune to drone fire. Roll a die for every Attack
Die of drones attacking a ship with the Anti-Drone trait. Each
roll of a 2 or more will destroy one Attack Die of drones. If
any die rolls a 1, an Attack Dice of drones will be destroyed as
normal but the system will then run out of ammunition, reducing
the Anti-Drone score by 1. Ships reduced to an Anti-Drone score
of 0 will no longer benefit from this trait.

This applies to any ship with the anti-drone trait (i.e., anything without the Federation G-rack). The anti-drone trait is reduced by 1 for every 1 rolled until it's exhausted.
Nowhere does it say anything about it being reloaded.

 

[Captain Jonah]

Plasma D racks is where the reload bit comes from I think. They are ADD1 but if they run out they can then be reloaded using the reload action.

 

[Sgt_G]

ScoutDad, I'm not disagreeing with you, but during the Fed Drone discussion, someone stated the rule was done that way to eleminate records keeping as ACTA keeps that to the bare minimum. It seems odd that you should have to track and adjust the traits rating but not the rating of Fed G-racks. I've read the rule you quoted many times and can still see how players could parse the meaning out in either direction. Ergo, I'd kinda like to see a Matthew-answer on this one.

 

[Captain Jonah]

He did, it was him that used the phase ADD of never ending.

If your ADD reaches zero, you can no longer use any drones.
That is the _only_ thing the rule says. Anything else you are making up!
Put it this way...
ADD >0, you can use drones.
ADD =0, you can't.
_Nothing_ about reducing AD on drones.

This makes the Kirov, DNG and DWD almost immune to drones (barring incredibly bad luck). Since each turn if you decided to go the Anti-drone route the anti-drone rating is based on your drones AD.

Oh, I have had plenty of Kirov's pop their ADD and lose their drones - it is rolling all those dice at once that does it, as you have to do that with every attack. Perfectly easy to lose all ADD with just 4-6 attacks and, against a target like a battlecruiser, that kind of attention is not beyond the realms of possibility!

 

[MongooseMatt]

ScoutDad, I'm not disagreeing with you, but during the Fed Drone discussion, soemone satated the rule was done that way to eleminate records keeping as ACTA keeps that to the bare minimum. It seems odd that you should have to track and adjust the traits rating but not the rating of Fed G-racks. I've read the rule you quoted many times and can still see how players could parse the meaning out in either direction. Ergo, I'd kinda like to see a Matthew-answer on this one.

If you lose a point of ADD, it stays lost!

 

[DaemonBorn]

ScoutDad, I'm not disagreeing with you, but during the Fed Drone discussion, soemone satated the rule was done that way to eleminate records keeping as ACTA keeps that to the bare minimum. It seems odd that you should have to track and adjust the traits rating but not the rating of Fed G-racks. I've read the rule you quoted many times and can still see how players could parse the meaning out in either direction. Ergo, I'd kinda like to see a Matthew-answer on this one.

If you lose a point of ADD, it stays lost!

So am I right in thinking that any lost point of anti-drone on fed combined ranks permanently reduces the AD rating if the drone system?

 

[Sgt_G]

Matthew: Thank you. We thought that's how it works, but it's nice to have it straight from the horse's mouth.

Captain Jonah: My question this time had nothing to do with Fed drones; it was specifically about Klingon/Kzinti Anti-Drone trait. Apples and oranges.

DaemonBorn: No, that question has already been settled: Fed drone racks do not lose AD if it rolls a "1" in ADD-mode (unless brought down to zero, in which case it loses all AD), and the anti-drone rating resets back to full strength each turn, rating equal to AD of drones. See the pull-quote that Captain Jonah posted. That was Matthew's answer to the Fed drone question.

 

[DaemonBorn]

oops missed that.

 

[Captain Jonah]

Captain Jonah: My question this time had nothing to do with Fed drones; it was specifically about Klingon/Kzinti Anti-Drone trait. Apples and oranges.

Ah apologies, I missed the switch to normal ADDs from Fed ADDs.