Defensive fire question

[Nomad]

I may just have been a bit thick and not spotted this.

Does a player have to declare all defensive fire against a seeking weapon attack before rolling any dice, or can you fire more weapons if the first defensive volley misses?

Example - my Kzinti CM has not been activated in this turn so far. She is attacked by four AD of drones from a Klingon C7.

I have four phaser-1's in arc, and choose to fire them at the incoming drones. I need '2's to hit (basic 4, accurate +2) and roll three '1's and a '3' (about average for my dice). Three drones still homing.

"Oh bother" I cry, and now decide to fire my two 'T' arc phaser-3s. These need '3's (4 basic, accurate +1). I roll a '2' and a '4', shooting down one more drone, two still homing.

I could now choose to use my anti-drones, risking ammo depletion, or counter-launch two of my own drones for auto-kills.

OR, do I have to declare all my Defensive Fire against each attack before rolling to see if it is effective (only leaving tractor beams as a last-ditch defence if the phasers and anti-drones don't do the job?)

Possibly one for the clarification sheet?

(Edited for wrong ship class).

 

[Iapologisedon4chan]

I believe you have to declare how many phasers you will be using on the incoming drones.

but I think you might be able to choose which order your countermeasures are used; for instance: ADD then Phasers then Drones or Drones then Phasers then ADD. Tractor Beams however always come last is specified in their rules.

 

[Greg Smith]

Declare all your weapons together. If any get through that declare your next defense (anti-drone) and after that declare Tractors if you need them.

 

[Nomad]

So to be clear, the defender:
1) declares & rolls for all 'dual use' weapons, phasers & drones;
2)if anything survives that, uses Anti-drones;
3) and finally uses tractor beams.

So there are three 'layers' of defence.

 

[Da Boss]

If you don't have Cloak or are actively evading or are moving more than 12" and its not in your front arc - that sounds about right.

The FAQ at the back of the book says you can use and defences in any order with the exception of tractor beams.

It may be you want to establish an order that your group wants to have things occur or just use RAW......

 

[scoutdad]

So far, I have to agree with everyone else.

In SFB / FC you have distinct portions of the Defensive Fire Phase: Phasers, ADDS, Tractors.
Even though it's not as clearly defined here, I'd think the intentions were the same.
Phasers first, and all must be declared before rolling anyso overkill may occur.
Drones / Anti-drones next.
and tractors as your final line of deense.

Now something to think about for future expansions:
Both SFBand Fed Comm have a class of ships known as escorts. These have Aegis Fire Control Systems and they can fire a phaser, judge the results, and then fire again at the same or different target.
ACTA could easily add a trait called Aegis later on that allows the same ability.

 

[Da Boss]

So far, I have to agree with everyone else.

In SFB / FC you have distinct portions of the Defensive Fire Phase: Phasers, ADDS, Tractors.
Even though it's not as clearly defined here, I'd think the intentions were the same.
Phasers first, and all must be declared before rolling anyso overkill may occur.
Drones / Anti-drones next.
and tractors as your final line of deense.

Now something to think about for future expansions:
Both SFBand Fed Comm have a class of ships known as escorts. These have Aegis Fire Control Systems and they can fire a phaser, judge the results, and then fire again at the same or different target.
ACTA could easily add a trait called Aegis later on that allows the same ability.

re order of defensive fire - this was suggested in playtesting but the FAQ at the back clarifies you can do as you will as long as tractor beams are last.

ACTA: B5 did have the Escort trait which did a similar thing and could be adpated as you suggest.

 

[Nomad]

Having a foot in both camps, as it were, I think I can see where the confusion arises.

In ACTA:B5, the 'Escort' trait allowed a ship to lend some or all of her Anti-Fighter dice to another friendly ship.

In SFB/FC, there's no 'special trait' needed to do that, you just aim a phaser or heavy weapon shot at the fighter or missile that's annoying your consort. Any ship can do that.

However, in SFB/FC you must designate which weapons are firing at what targets before you roll for effect. This requires judgement, and as Scoutdad said, opens the possibility of wasting weapons overkilling - or worse, failing to kill - incoming drones.

Aegis*-equipped escorts may shoot at drones (or plasmas or fighters), observe the effect of their fire, and then shoot again in the same fire phase (upto four times), making them both efficient and lethal.

Right now, there does not seem to be a strict restriction in ACTA:SF concerning declaring and resolving defensive fire, making SFU-style Aegis largely irrelevant.

*Named for, but entirely unrelated to, the US Navy's Aegis system, which is an area defence missile system involving such delights as passive electronically scanned phased-array radars, track-via-missile and transmit-only illuminators. Thirty years ago when I was being trained it was regarded a the dog's bo77ocks... last I heard, it had been reverse-engineered by the Chinese, but I digress...

 

[Nomad]

Another thing.

Is there no limiting range to Defensive Fire? It seems odd that I can launch drones at a target 2" away and have them intercepted by drones counter-launched by a ship 30 plus inches away.

 

[Rambler]

Nomad - Weapon Arcs and ranges still apply so in your example the only intercept that can happen at range 30 is a drone. Screwy yes but it is the way the drone mechanics work. Also am I right in saying a ship can not use its Anti-drone traits in defence of another ship just it drones and phasers right.

 

[scoutdad]

Dal: Yes, you are correct. The Anti-Drone trait only apllies to seekign weapons targeted on the vessel with the trait.

Nomad: Dal has the right answer.
It's a bit 'wonky", but that's just the way it works.

 

[billclo]

deleted

 

[Nerroth]

That was streamlined out of the D5 as shown in FC, so I would imagine they aren't supposed to have them here either.