Fire order from a squadron

[Burger]

I have a squadron for example 3 Strikehawks, all targetting one enemy ship. Of course I have to declare all firing when the squadron is activated in the firing phase. But can I choose the order to fire the weapons? Ie. fire all 3 Strikehawks beam weapons first, then go back and fire all 3 secondaries? Or do I have to choose one ship, fire all its weapons, then move onto the next? And is the firing order meant to be declared in advance as well, or can I decide on the fly?

Same applies to fighters: if I have 3 Rutarians, can I fire all of their light particle guns (eg. to deplete interceptors) then the ion bolts, or should I be firing them one flight at a time?

 

[KennyBoy]

I would say - and I think most people would agree - that if your firing all your guns at the same target, it doesn't matter in which order you roll them!
Frankly, i'm a little surprised that you'd post that Mark!

 

[Burger]

Well I know most people play it like that to save time, just wondered if that is technically correct or not.

Page 8 does state "players alternate the firing of their ships, calculating all damage and resolving its effects before moving onto another attacking ship" -- there is nothing in the squadron rules that negate this (except players alternating of course). Yeah it does state that they fire simultaneously, but we all know this not to be entirely true, if your first weapon knocks out interceptors then your secondary weapon (which is fired "simultaneously") can't be intercepted. So the "simultaneously" is really just fluff text, you have to declare an order to fire.

 

[Da Boss]

I must admit I have always fired each ship /fighter fully in sequence and assumed it followed normal firing rules?

I also found it easier to keep track of what had fired what that way.

 

[lastbesthope]

I would say - and I think most people would agree - that if your firing all your guns at the same target, it doesn't matter in which order you roll them!

It really ddoes, say you have a Beam weapon and a non Beam weapon on the firing ship. The target has interceptors.

You would probably want to fire the BEam weapon first and hope to cause a crit or enough damage to take the interceptors down before firing the Non BEam weapon.

I have always played that in a squadron all weapons fire from each ship is resolved before moving on to the firing for the next ship in the squadron. I think that is how it is RAW, or at least was in 1E, but all my rulebooks are packed away in anticipation of moving house early next year.

LBH

 

[KennyBoy]

This seems to be a time consuming exercise... far easier to roll all dice from any common weapon types - if your firing from 3 Torothas, for example - i'd fire the combined 24AD of mini-beams, followed by the combined 18AD of Molecular Disruptors... but, i would ask my opponent if that was alright beforehand. The only time I would fire them individually, would be in a campaign situation, when i'd need to know which ship(s) crippled/destroyed the target for XP's sake...

 

[KennyBoy]

Also, if your going on the more "realistic" side, Beam (light based) weapons would likely reach their target first anyway 8)

 

[Greg Smith]

There are two other reasons to roll them separately - if the target has Adaptive Armour or GEG.

 

[KennyBoy]

There are two other reasons to roll them separately - if the target has Adaptive Armour or GEG.

Yes, that's true, but in those cases, the ruling is more clear cut than the clarification that Burger was after concerning weapons fire rather than specific defensive measures...

 

[Greg Smith]

I would say that each ship fires individually.

Why? If one ship breaks stealth, the others in the squadron benefit from a +1. Secondly, in campaigns, you need to know which ship crippled or destroys a ship for experience purposes.

A single squadron is not treated as a single entity for breaking stealth. It should not be treated as a single entity for weapons fire.

----
Of course there is no reason you couldn't do it the other way around. Treat a squadron as one big ship for stealth breaking and weapon fire. And split any XP between three ships.

 

[lastbesthope]

Ditt on both of Greg's last two posts.

LBH

 

[R Arceneaux]

I agree that the order of fire on a per ship basis would be logical in that each ship operating on its own initiative would fire independantly. In a small skirmish the extra time consumed of session time would not be that much greater provided that the number of individual vessels were small in number.

However, just to play devils advocate for a moment, this may not work out very well depending on the size of the battle/number of ships. A small skirmish is one thing but any kind of major engagement with a fairly large number of ships could very quickly turn very complicated and cause the play group to engage in a prolonged battle that would consume an entire play session//depending on the number of ships/weapons used/ etc etc.

Would it not be more along the lines of common sense game play to have groups of ships making actions as a group action to reduce the time of the engagement allowing the party to achieve more in the same play session time.

Just playing devils advocate of course.