Fed Tactics
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From my very limited experience:
* Get in to the phaser Kill Zone range ASAP
* Don't blow your photons until you have a chance to punch through your target's shields with them.
* If you can afford to lose the movement (that is, you'll be in the KZone either way), then overload your photons.
* Save your drone rack and Phaser-3 for shooting down enemy drones unless you are within your Phaser-3's Kill Zone.
* Don't forget that you can board enemy ships with no shields. Tractor beams can help keep ships from getting away before your board them.
* You generally have a robust shield system - keep them charged up if possible.
* Remember that your destroyers have just as powerful weapons as your heavy cruisers, just fewer of them.
* Get in to the phaser Kill Zone range ASAP
* Don't blow your photons until you have a chance to punch through your target's shields with them.
* If you can afford to lose the movement (that is, you'll be in the KZone either way), then overload your photons.
* Save your drone rack and Phaser-3 for shooting down enemy drones unless you are within your Phaser-3's Kill Zone.
* Don't forget that you can board enemy ships with no shields. Tractor beams can help keep ships from getting away before your board them.
* You generally have a robust shield system - keep them charged up if possible.
* Remember that your destroyers have just as powerful weapons as your heavy cruisers, just fewer of them.
Iron Domokun
Mongoose
Gorn Anchor might work, holding the target in place while your other ships overload/reload.
Lincolnlog
Mongoose
hdan said:
Allow me to add to the above list, attempt to fire your Photons at under half range, gives you a 5o% to hit with each versus 33%.
The Federation seem to be quite badly off in ACtA.
If you overload photons you only move 6", and the weapons themselves only benefit at ranges under 6", making them difficult to use against an alert enemy.
The photon never gets better than 50/50 chance of a hit - contrast with the SFU where at point-blank range it hits automatically, and it gets 1-5 to hit upto two hexes away.
Then add the poor-to-awful manoeuvring ability of their larger ships, without even the wide heavy-weapon firing arcs the Gorns possess to make up for it.
Then there's the limitation of your drone launcher doubling as your ADD, and potentially going off-line during power-drain actions.
I was considering buying a Fed fleet, but, on reflection, perhaps not.
If you overload photons you only move 6", and the weapons themselves only benefit at ranges under 6", making them difficult to use against an alert enemy.
The photon never gets better than 50/50 chance of a hit - contrast with the SFU where at point-blank range it hits automatically, and it gets 1-5 to hit upto two hexes away.
Then add the poor-to-awful manoeuvring ability of their larger ships, without even the wide heavy-weapon firing arcs the Gorns possess to make up for it.
Then there's the limitation of your drone launcher doubling as your ADD, and potentially going off-line during power-drain actions.
I was considering buying a Fed fleet, but, on reflection, perhaps not.
You guys are "phaser capacitor half empty" guy's while I'm a "phaser capacitor half full" type I suppose.
On photons, I think they're really REALLY powerful weapons. I'm playtesting it tonight, but it occurs to me that a fed fleet can be horrendously scary at range 15.
Think about it, when you're up against a klingon, those reinforced sheilds are going to soak up LOTS of damage anyway, possibly ALL the damage even at the 50% effectiveness you get at short range. Lastly, only a pakled would allow you to get a sweet overload shot on a cruiser with the maneuverability of the klingons. Fed arcs do not help in this.
Let's think about this a second. Are you going to hang onto your photons until you can get an overload shot? Or are you goint to simply wait till short range. I say let those suckers ALL loose at long range.
What do you lose? 17% of a chance to hit? Even at close ranges you pray for 6's so you can bypass sheilds....and long/short/point black...you've got the same chance of rolling a 6. Plus you hardly care at all about your opponents reinforced sheilds, b/c you just bypassed them by rolling a six.
It's also FAR easier to keep your enemy in your sights at these ranges. That means more if not ALL of your fleet's photons possibly firing at the same target. Klingons WANT to be in close where they can avoid all but a select few of your photon arcs. At range 15...you can likely have ALL of the sweetest targets within your photon arcs.
How many photons bypassing sheilds does it take to cripple a D7? Two photons with one scoring only a single critical (of which you get 8 chances to get that critical) brings a D7 down to around 10 damage (give or take depending on bulkhead hits). That's two damage away from being crippled....I suppose we'll be firing lots of phasers at this target as well. It's also in the best arc for phasers....straight ahead.
How many photons will a typical federation fleet kick out at 1000pts? Around what....20-24? At that range they can gang up. Thats averaging 3-4 photons penetrating the sheilds on 6's. Thats ALSO 12-16 chances for Devestating +1 critical hits. Get some crazy dice rolling and you're looking at a scragged klingon ship b4 he's able to properly engage. Oh, and he didnt dodge out of your forward arc while you were jockeying for an overload shot like a noob agains superior mobility!
How are your klingon reinforced sheilds workin' for ya?
Keep one of your ships back with it's photon's loaded to keep the Klingon honest for a turn while you reload. This tactic is also a fine reason to use the New Jersey class Varient at three photons a turn.
Photons are a direct fire weapon. They are devestating multi-hitters. Direct fire weapons bypass sheilds. Use that knowledge and keep the quadrant safe for democracy.
We come in peace, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, shoot to kill..........
Besides all this, I recommend....."PRAYER Mr. Saavik, the Klingons do not take prisoners."
On photons, I think they're really REALLY powerful weapons. I'm playtesting it tonight, but it occurs to me that a fed fleet can be horrendously scary at range 15.
Think about it, when you're up against a klingon, those reinforced sheilds are going to soak up LOTS of damage anyway, possibly ALL the damage even at the 50% effectiveness you get at short range. Lastly, only a pakled would allow you to get a sweet overload shot on a cruiser with the maneuverability of the klingons. Fed arcs do not help in this.
Let's think about this a second. Are you going to hang onto your photons until you can get an overload shot? Or are you goint to simply wait till short range. I say let those suckers ALL loose at long range.
What do you lose? 17% of a chance to hit? Even at close ranges you pray for 6's so you can bypass sheilds....and long/short/point black...you've got the same chance of rolling a 6. Plus you hardly care at all about your opponents reinforced sheilds, b/c you just bypassed them by rolling a six.
It's also FAR easier to keep your enemy in your sights at these ranges. That means more if not ALL of your fleet's photons possibly firing at the same target. Klingons WANT to be in close where they can avoid all but a select few of your photon arcs. At range 15...you can likely have ALL of the sweetest targets within your photon arcs.
How many photons bypassing sheilds does it take to cripple a D7? Two photons with one scoring only a single critical (of which you get 8 chances to get that critical) brings a D7 down to around 10 damage (give or take depending on bulkhead hits). That's two damage away from being crippled....I suppose we'll be firing lots of phasers at this target as well. It's also in the best arc for phasers....straight ahead.
How many photons will a typical federation fleet kick out at 1000pts? Around what....20-24? At that range they can gang up. Thats averaging 3-4 photons penetrating the sheilds on 6's. Thats ALSO 12-16 chances for Devestating +1 critical hits. Get some crazy dice rolling and you're looking at a scragged klingon ship b4 he's able to properly engage. Oh, and he didnt dodge out of your forward arc while you were jockeying for an overload shot like a noob agains superior mobility!
How are your klingon reinforced sheilds workin' for ya?Keep one of your ships back with it's photon's loaded to keep the Klingon honest for a turn while you reload. This tactic is also a fine reason to use the New Jersey class Varient at three photons a turn.
Photons are a direct fire weapon. They are devestating multi-hitters. Direct fire weapons bypass sheilds. Use that knowledge and keep the quadrant safe for democracy.
We come in peace, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, shoot to kill..........
Besides all this, I recommend....."PRAYER Mr. Saavik, the Klingons do not take prisoners."
Deadshane, that's actually a very good way to look at it. You just got me thinking. Consider the following Federation fleet at 1000 pts:
5x NCL = 800
2x FF = 190
For 990 points, you can have a respectable seven Fed ships, all of which are Turn: 4 (and two are agile for that extra bonus!) with a total of 24 photons firing every other turn. Sure, you can only expect 8 successful AD at maximum range but 4 of those should be 6s and bypass the shields entirely. Theoretically, you can cripple anything up to a D7 and kill anything up to an F5 in one turn, assuming average results on the Attack Table. We don't even care which way those Klingons are facing. AND that's not even counting phasers.
Should you be able to arrange to be closer two turns from then, so much the better. :lol:
The United Federation of Planets: velvet glove, iron fist.
"We may not start wars, but we sure can END them!" --elsewhere in the SFU
5x NCL = 800
2x FF = 190
For 990 points, you can have a respectable seven Fed ships, all of which are Turn: 4 (and two are agile for that extra bonus!) with a total of 24 photons firing every other turn. Sure, you can only expect 8 successful AD at maximum range but 4 of those should be 6s and bypass the shields entirely. Theoretically, you can cripple anything up to a D7 and kill anything up to an F5 in one turn, assuming average results on the Attack Table. We don't even care which way those Klingons are facing. AND that's not even counting phasers.
Should you be able to arrange to be closer two turns from then, so much the better. :lol:
The United Federation of Planets: velvet glove, iron fist.
"We may not start wars, but we sure can END them!" --elsewhere in the SFU
Going by averages, let's say this fleet fires on a Klingon Dreadnought at range 15....
Constitution Heavy Cruiser
Kearsage NCL
6xRamius FFB
We're moving in on the Klingon dread and he's in the forward arc of all the ships...not hard to do. We'll assume a boresight shot for just the two cruisers since this is a large initiative sink. Assuming we're in range with photons, firing on the forward arc.
Thats say....26 photons, and 30 phaser-1's
Ignoring the sheild hits...b/c who cares, they don't penetrate.
But the direct weapons that bypass sheilds...on average...
4 Photons bypass sheilds.
13 internal damage (three bulkhead hits)
16 attempts to roll criticals averages to three criticals at Devestating +1
25 internal damage
30 phaser's fired with 5 bypassing sheilds.
We'll say two more criticals One hitting a fresh location
27 internal damage
One hits one of the three already at level 2, making it a level 3.
33 internal damage total
The Klingon Dreadnought, with sheilds reinforced or not, is reduced to 31/22 damage and has 6 levels of internal damage. It is in a SERIOUSLY bad way right now. Possible escalation, weapons malfunctions, sheild reductions...what have you.
This is barring bad rolling of coarse, but it's also barring some FANTASTIC rolling. Fantastic rolling probably takes out the dread...or at least cripples it.
Any other ship in the klingon armada would be DEAD...with room to spare.
Feds are not weak. This damage was inflicted at long range. Photons can be useful at long ranges.
Constitution Heavy Cruiser
Kearsage NCL
6xRamius FFB
We're moving in on the Klingon dread and he's in the forward arc of all the ships...not hard to do. We'll assume a boresight shot for just the two cruisers since this is a large initiative sink. Assuming we're in range with photons, firing on the forward arc.
Thats say....26 photons, and 30 phaser-1's
Ignoring the sheild hits...b/c who cares, they don't penetrate.
But the direct weapons that bypass sheilds...on average...
4 Photons bypass sheilds.
13 internal damage (three bulkhead hits)
16 attempts to roll criticals averages to three criticals at Devestating +1
25 internal damage
30 phaser's fired with 5 bypassing sheilds.
We'll say two more criticals One hitting a fresh location
27 internal damage
One hits one of the three already at level 2, making it a level 3.
33 internal damage total
The Klingon Dreadnought, with sheilds reinforced or not, is reduced to 31/22 damage and has 6 levels of internal damage. It is in a SERIOUSLY bad way right now. Possible escalation, weapons malfunctions, sheild reductions...what have you.
This is barring bad rolling of coarse, but it's also barring some FANTASTIC rolling. Fantastic rolling probably takes out the dread...or at least cripples it.
Any other ship in the klingon armada would be DEAD...with room to spare.
Feds are not weak. This damage was inflicted at long range. Photons can be useful at long ranges.
If you move within 24 inches to use your disruptors...I think I can get you into photon range..with everything..just by moving normally. Say goodbye to one ship. Good luck getting out of my 90 degree foward arc.
Klingons sitting back and pelting with drones is a joke to federation ships. Either you move into range...or I cautiously move up (towards your least maneuverable ship, C7/C8) and wax said ship on turn 1 or 2.
You cannot even escape the forward arc of by lumbering dreadnought using this tactic...not with ALL of your ships, and the board is only so big for you to run away from me on.
What's the high command going to think of you when I leak a transmission on an old code frequency saying how you were afraid to engage me within 24". If I don't get you, Lord Gowron will.
Klingons sitting back and pelting with drones is a joke to federation ships. Either you move into range...or I cautiously move up (towards your least maneuverable ship, C7/C8) and wax said ship on turn 1 or 2.
You cannot even escape the forward arc of by lumbering dreadnought using this tactic...not with ALL of your ships, and the board is only so big for you to run away from me on.
What's the high command going to think of you when I leak a transmission on an old code frequency saying how you were afraid to engage me within 24". If I don't get you, Lord Gowron will.
Totenkopf said:deadshane said:
Good luck getting me in your 90 degree forward arcmanuevering is our game, and I guess we'll see deadshane; by the way - you stateside so we can do this properly mano-e-mano
It's not a 90 degree forward arc. More like a 270 possible arc of danger for you to maneuver out of.
It's a lot harder than you're thinking...you're not thinking it thru.
Note the new sig.
btw...I'm sure a Vassal version is otw.
Captain Jonah
Mongoose
Post a battle report here, sure to be a good read :lol:
After playtesting once again last night I'm thoroughly convinced that the federation can be every bit as effective in combat as the Klingons.
Problem I'm coming up within most of my playtesting remains the problem of lumbering ships and restricted heavy weapon arcs. As nice as the Federation Dreadnought looks on paper, it's simply not really much of a viable choice....especially when pitted against a Klingon fleet.
The Kirov/New Jersey classes do so much better as they are NOT lumbering and have really good phaser coverage.
BTW...long range photons...they work. DNG fired first on the federation side in this fight. A boresite shot of full phasers and 6 Photons got me 2 phaser internals (resulting in a critical), and 2 photon internals (the only two that hit) resulting in 2 more criticals...one on top of the phaser hit.
Before the D6 had her sheilds dropped she took 15 internal damage. Lucky shot? Maybe, but it happened. I'm sure it will happen lots more in the future.
Klingons fly circles around other fleets. Feds blow up ships. High energy turns and photons are a beautiful thing when combo'd.
Problem I'm coming up within most of my playtesting remains the problem of lumbering ships and restricted heavy weapon arcs. As nice as the Federation Dreadnought looks on paper, it's simply not really much of a viable choice....especially when pitted against a Klingon fleet.
The Kirov/New Jersey classes do so much better as they are NOT lumbering and have really good phaser coverage.
BTW...long range photons...they work. DNG fired first on the federation side in this fight. A boresite shot of full phasers and 6 Photons got me 2 phaser internals (resulting in a critical), and 2 photon internals (the only two that hit) resulting in 2 more criticals...one on top of the phaser hit.
Before the D6 had her sheilds dropped she took 15 internal damage. Lucky shot? Maybe, but it happened. I'm sure it will happen lots more in the future.
Klingons fly circles around other fleets. Feds blow up ships. High energy turns and photons are a beautiful thing when combo'd.
