Drones - What are they (no rulebook yet)
- Thread starter Soulmage
- Start date
Greg Smith
Mongoose
They are essentially nuclear missiles.
starbreaker
Mongoose
Greg Smith said:
With warp drives of varying efficiency, improving in speed and endurance and versatility over time. Steve Cole included them in the original SFB on the basis of a reference to Klingon battlecruisers carrying a "drone launcher" as part of their equipment. They're easy to shoot down and rarely actually hit anything unless you're launching a huge number of them (which is a Kzinti schtick) but they do enough damage that they (often) force enemies to devote offensive phasers to stopping them rather than shooting the enemy.
Expect them to be much nastier when Fed/Kling/Kzinti carrier groups show up in the game.
When Star Fleet Battles was being designed back in the 70's, the source materiel used (Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual amongst other things) indicated that the Klingons had more than just shuttles in their shuttle bays.
Specifically, they had launchers for 'nuclear warheaded drone missiles' for planetary bombardment and as secondary anti ship weapons.
But...the plans also showed lots of phasers on the Klingon ships. Phasers that were never fired in the battles in the show.
So this was rationalised as short-range phasers for anti-drone (missile) defence. Thus, the shorter ranged phaser-2. Since the Federation didn't use missiles, who was firing missiles at the Klingons?
Enter the Kzinti...
In the early years of the game, the Feds didn't have any drones, the Klingons only had phaser-2s and since drones moved more slowly than ships, the Kzinti had a hard time. Anti-drones were initially unknown, and were invented to give Klingon transport ships 'something different'. They were so good they then spread like acne.
Over time, and due to player demand, the various empires' ships and weapons evolved into what you see in the game today.
Specifically, they had launchers for 'nuclear warheaded drone missiles' for planetary bombardment and as secondary anti ship weapons.
But...the plans also showed lots of phasers on the Klingon ships. Phasers that were never fired in the battles in the show.
So this was rationalised as short-range phasers for anti-drone (missile) defence. Thus, the shorter ranged phaser-2. Since the Federation didn't use missiles, who was firing missiles at the Klingons?
Enter the Kzinti...
In the early years of the game, the Feds didn't have any drones, the Klingons only had phaser-2s and since drones moved more slowly than ships, the Kzinti had a hard time. Anti-drones were initially unknown, and were invented to give Klingon transport ships 'something different'. They were so good they then spread like acne.
Over time, and due to player demand, the various empires' ships and weapons evolved into what you see in the game today.
Not really, since drones are quite easy to shoot down, and it will take several drone hits to take down a cruiser's shields.
Their main uses are to soak up enemy phaser firepower, and possibly enemy drones - counter-launching a drone against an incoming drone is an auto-kill - and forcing some enemy ships to dedicate themselves to providing covering fire (use the 'Intensify Defensive Fire!' Special Action).
If they do that, they can't use other Special Actions to overload weapons, run at high speed, re-enforce their shields et.c as each ship may only use one Special Action at a time.
AdmiralGrafSpee
Mongoose
Not that I have my book yet or anything... but a lot of what has been said is very true. I played a lot of SFB back in the day, and you knew things were going badly when you did get hit by drones
One thing I've been thinking of for this game, is how effective drones are going to be when used by a whole fleet (something that you didn't get to do a whole lot in SFB). Since drones are both 360 and have fantastic range, one could endevour to get certain enemy ships in range of most of their drone firing ships. Once that ship has used its phasers up, the rest of your ships are free to pile on their drones against it. This will of course be more useful if your ships are outside the killzone of enemy phasers. At the very least the threat of this tactic will force your opponent to play more conservatively and keep escorts on "defensive fire" near his larger ships.
And this is one reason I'll be starting my Romulans off cloaked whenever I'm fighting Kzinti!
-Tim
One thing I've been thinking of for this game, is how effective drones are going to be when used by a whole fleet (something that you didn't get to do a whole lot in SFB). Since drones are both 360 and have fantastic range, one could endevour to get certain enemy ships in range of most of their drone firing ships. Once that ship has used its phasers up, the rest of your ships are free to pile on their drones against it. This will of course be more useful if your ships are outside the killzone of enemy phasers. At the very least the threat of this tactic will force your opponent to play more conservatively and keep escorts on "defensive fire" near his larger ships.
And this is one reason I'll be starting my Romulans off cloaked whenever I'm fighting Kzinti!
-Tim
Asguard101
Mongoose
AdmiralGrafSpee said:
Not a good idea. You'll never catch them only going 6" and they can fire every turn. You will not be able to use any defensive phasers. So each Drone that gets past your 2+ cloak will just whittle down your shields.
AdmiralGrafSpee
Mongoose
Nomad said:
Exactly, and I'm not saying I'm going to stay cloaked for ever, but it will mitigate the ranged weapon advantage they have in the first turn at least!
GalagaGalaxian
Mongoose
Asguard101 said:
No "floating" maps in CTA:SF make "keep away" a bit more difficult for a race like the Kzintis.
Stellar Terrain will also be much more frequent than in other SFU games, potentially providing some LoS blockers while advancing on the Kzintis.
Captain Jonah
Mongoose
With fixed maps (and lots of time) you can slowly pin the furballs into a corner before uncloaking, however the furball will most likely have his small fast stuff all over you using phasers in kill zone.
That stealth save is all well and good but a few turns of a frigate firing at you is going to get some hits in and if you uncloak just one or two ships to fire back its drones on toast time.
Romulan stealth isn't the be all and end all of warfare, not tried a Rom fleet yet but my thinking is it is going to work for parts of your fleet to cloak while the rest fires and keep cycling ships inh and out as they become able to fire. Keeping everything under cloak makes you slow and helpless and you can be hunted down one by one with an awake enemy using his small fast stuff to get close and wear one target down. If you all uncloak they should be fast enough to run away (well aside from one or two if the Rom suprises you by uncloaking).
Getting a few seriously damaged ships under cloak in a corner also acts as an INIT sink and denies the enemy kill points :twisted:
That stealth save is all well and good but a few turns of a frigate firing at you is going to get some hits in and if you uncloak just one or two ships to fire back its drones on toast time.
Romulan stealth isn't the be all and end all of warfare, not tried a Rom fleet yet but my thinking is it is going to work for parts of your fleet to cloak while the rest fires and keep cycling ships inh and out as they become able to fire. Keeping everything under cloak makes you slow and helpless and you can be hunted down one by one with an awake enemy using his small fast stuff to get close and wear one target down. If you all uncloak they should be fast enough to run away (well aside from one or two if the Rom suprises you by uncloaking).
Getting a few seriously damaged ships under cloak in a corner also acts as an INIT sink and denies the enemy kill points :twisted:
Greg Smith
Mongoose
Captain Jonah said:
We found that tactic is ineffective. In order to get plasma torps through enemy defensive fire, you need to mass as many of them together as you can, firing at just one or two targets.
Greg Smith said:
We've been using a development of the tactic - 2-3 ships uncloaking at a time to hit one target, then fading away as another 2-3 uncloak (hopefully to hit another target).
Done right, it can keep an enemy off balance and stops him targeting ships trying to cloak, while maintaining the advantages of cloaks.
