Lifepods in ACTA

[Burger]

Personalities always survive of course! Plot immunity!


I would say each crew point survives on:
4+ if the ship is running adrift
6+ if it is a burned out hulk

The holder of the battlefield gets possession of all the survivors. His own survivors may be used to re-crew other ships. The opponent's crew may be ransomed back to their owner at a price in RR which should be negotiated between the players. Opponent's crew may not be used to re-crew the capturing player's ships, even if they are the same race.

Special action: "Get to the lifepods!"
CQ: automatic
Crew are saved on a 4+ if the ship is destroyed this turn, no matter if it is running adrift, burned out hulk or explodes. Only one weapon system may be fired. If the ship is not destroyed this turn, it will automatically be reduced to 0 damage in the end phase, as the crew scuttle it on their way out.

 

[Banichi]

I like it. But if someone declared it in a game I would probably ignore the ship for the rest of the turn, as the ship will be out of the game whether or not I shoot at it. The trick would be to get into a position where that one weapon system could do serious damage, then your opponant has to basically waste firepower on a ship that is doomed anyway.

The way I was thinking about useing the lifepods rule was in the campaign post battle phase, basically as bookkeeping, but I like the idea of a special action that increases the odds of crew surviving.

 

[Spike1382]

I like it. But if someone declared it in a game I would probably ignore the ship for the rest of the turn, as the ship will be out of the game whether or not I shoot at it. The trick would be to get into a position where that one weapon system could do serious damage, then your opponant has to basically waste firepower on a ship that is doomed anyway.

The way I was thinking about useing the lifepods rule was in the campaign post battle phase, basically as bookkeeping, but I like the idea of a special action that increases the odds of crew surviving.

Well the idea would be to blow their ship so they don't get to keep ALL their crew if they're winning the battle. Parting shot to hurt the enemy as bad as you can. I assume everyone gets out with no roll if the ship is sucessfully scuttled.

Maybe make the scuttling optional? That way it's up to your opponent to take out the ship or the crew AND ship are safe. The crew might want to get out if the ship seems to be on the edge of blowing, but no need to destroy it them selves if they will win. But in that case I guess no one would ever scuttle unless you get RRs for it or an abandoned ship counts as captured.

 

[Hash]

Personalities always survive of course! Plot immunity!


I would say each crew point survives on:
4+ if the ship is running adrift
6+ if it is a burned out hulk

The holder of the battlefield gets possession of all the survivors. His own survivors may be used to re-crew other ships. The opponent's crew may be ransomed back to their owner at a price in RR which should be negotiated between the players. Opponent's crew may not be used to re-crew the capturing player's ships, even if they are the same race.

Special action: "Get to the lifepods!"
CQ: automatic
Crew are saved on a 4+ if the ship is destroyed this turn, no matter if it is running adrift, burned out hulk or explodes. Only one weapon system may be fired. If the ship is not destroyed this turn, it will automatically be reduced to 0 damage in the end phase, as the crew scuttle it on their way out.

I like it but have 2 points:

1. Would maybe add that the ship can ONLY conduct this SA if crippled. I know it doesn't make sense to abandon a fully able ship anyway but have a feeling this may lead to a lot of dice rolls (1 per crew point may be a lot for some ships!)

2. This is a safe way to "scuttle" a ship at minimal risk to the rest of the fleet (fragile ships are often more dangerous cause they tend to blow up causing crits in this game). Unless that is deliberate, I suggest looking at this carefully...is this open to abuse? (I know some Solarhawks that will benefit from scuttling!)

Other suggestions:

How about making this a single CQ check say, CQ 9 or 10, with a success meaning that all remaining crew make it to the life pods with failure meaning 1/2 (rounded down, minimum of one) of remaining crew make it to the pods? That way you turn something potentially dice heavy into a single die roll that can be quickly calculated. Also, because it is minimum one, then that one can be the personality each time so no need for a special exception to the rule!

 

[Burger]

1. Would maybe add that the ship can ONLY conduct this SA if crippled. I know it doesn't make sense to abandon a fully able ship anyway but have a feeling this may lead to a lot of dice rolls (1 per crew point may be a lot for some ships!)

Fair enough, agreed. Ship must be crippled but this SA should be able to be performed while Skeleton Crewed. I know exceptions aren't good but it makes sense.

2. This is a safe way to "scuttle" a ship at minimal risk to the rest of the fleet (fragile ships are often more dangerous cause they tend to blow up causing crits in this game). Unless that is deliberate, I suggest looking at this carefully...is this open to abuse? (I know some Solarhawks that will benefit from scuttling!)

Yeah I did think of that... the ship is only scuttled in the end phase of the turn, so if the enemy want to blow it up, they still have their chance.

I don't like to make it a CQ check because even a green crew would know how to get to the lifepods, in fact they would probably be more prepared to eject than an elite crew! And, rolling handfuls of dice is fun as long as you can roll them all together, rather than lots of separate rolls :lol:

 

[Banichi]

I just had a thought. The lifepod rule might be a bit problematic if you are playing a mixed league fleet. Unless you can save rescued crew for later re-enforcements, and put them back on their own races ships. I can't imagine anyone being overjoyed when a bunch of pak'ma'ra gets deployed to your ship. You would have to use your troops to guard the mortuary.

 

[Burger]

LOL... true

Another problem is that one crew point does not always equate to the same number of people, on different ships. For example a Primus has 860 crew, and a Vorchan has 400. So 1 crew point on a Primus is worth 14 actual crew members, whereas 1 crew point on a Vorchan represents 20.

 

[Banichi]

LOL... true

Another problem is that one crew point does not always equate to the same number of people, on different ships. For example a Primus has 860 crew, and a Vorchan has 400. So 1 crew point on a Primus is worth 14 actual crew members, whereas 1 crew point on a Vorchan represents 20.[/quote

Hmmm, thats a good point. But I thick for the sake of my sanity (and calculator batteries) we will try it as 1 to 1 in the campaign I'm trying to get off the ground.

 

[Valen is my name]

if there are more crew on a ship the life pods will e bigger, thus your 1:1 ratio can stay entact!

 

[Burger]

if there are more crew on a ship the life pods will e bigger, thus your 1:1 ratio can stay entact!

Assuming your crew re-crew the same type of ship...
If 3 crew points from a Primus escape (42 actual crew members) and are used to re-crew a Vorchan, you should actually only get 2 crew points back (40 crew members).

But yeah, simpler to ignore this technicality and do it 1:1

 

[Commador Q]

One way this could be abused, to a small extent anyway:

White Stars:

When one WS aproaches the criticle "it's going to be klilled on the next battle pass point (usually 1 or 2 crew left) it could just head out into the black instead, haunting the edge of the board untill it's crew cucessfully abandon it. it's damage score would be reduce to 0 clasafying it as adrift, but it would self repair, and if the ISA won, they get their WS back (which will fully repair by next campaigne turn) with the remaining crew, without having sacraficed any VP or XP to get it out of the fight. it would even gain XP from the battle. it's CQ would reduce, but that's esily fixed. now i know you're thinking "but i could just shoot it down while it's hull is at 0", but to that i say would you want to? after all there are probably several other WS circling, and i know if, you chased after my disengaging WS, all it's friends would take the opertunity to line up and have a beam fest, since you're probably going all out to get in range.

basiclally i think WS just get too much benafit from being able to abandon, before they die since their crew score is usually their weekness and the ability to deny victory points to an enemy rather than disengage is troublesome.

it could esily be fixed by adding a "legend of the rangers clause" which states that the ISA can't use that special action. This might also help ofset the Rangers +1 starting CQ which some people find unfair (at least in my local group).

 

[Burger]

it's damage score would be reduce to 0 clasafying it as adrift, but it would self repair

No, when your damage reaches 0 the ship counts as destroyed, exactly as if the enemy shot it down to exactly 0 damage left. The enemy would get VP's for destroying the ship (although not XP's of course, since no ship destroyed it). Self-repair cannot bring it back from the dead.

 

[katadder]

well they can after the game as long as didnt lose SR from being crippled i guess.

 

[Commador Q]

i didn't mean to imply it would "come back from the dead" just that finishing it off for the VPs would get harder the longer it sat there drifting.

But i guess the victory point thing isn't an issue after all. My group likes multi player free-for alls so i'm more used to the somwhat haphazard way we score VPs where they work a lot like XP. so the advantages of the real "a destroied ship is a destroied ship" system sometimes escape me.

 

[Burger]

well they can after the game as long as didnt lose SR from being crippled i guess.

What? When a ship reaches 0 damage or below, it is dead. Dead dead dead. Can't come back, not even if Lorian himself breathes on it.

 

[katadder]

aah i thought he was on about a decrewed one. shi nearly dead so they abandon ship. nvm.

 

[locarno24]

Which is why I suggest it should be an inherent property, not a special action.....when the ship dies, you can try to abandon ship.

 

[Burger]

Which is why I suggest it should be an inherent property, not a special action.....when the ship dies, you can try to abandon ship.

Yep, that is in my suggestion. The SA is an additional, so you can still try to abandon if the ship explodes

 

[Commador Q]

well they can after the game as long as didnt lose SR from being crippled i guess.

What? When a ship reaches 0 damage or below, it is dead. Dead dead dead. Can't come back, not even if Lorian himself breathes on it.

not nesesarly, you role on the table and one of the levels of dead is "running adrift" and since you can salvage adrift ships under certain conditions, you could get a 0 damage WS back.

but if it doesn't deny you oponent VPs it's not worthwhile as opening a jump point or just leaving the table all together become the better option, so i no longer see this as a abuse at all.

 

[Burger]

not nesesarly, you role on the table and one of the levels of dead is "running adrift" and since you can salvage adrift ships under certain conditions, you could get a 0 damage WS back.

It is?? What conditions? De-crewed ships, sure... but ones reduced to 0 damage or below? I thought they were unsalvageable.

but if it doesn't deny you oponent VPs it's not worthwhile as opening a jump point or just leaving the table all together become the better option, so i no longer see this as a abuse at all.

Leaving the table is better of course, you get to keep the ship and all the crew. Problem is you need to be able to reach a friendly table edge. But if you can't reach an edge and your ship is on only a few damage points left and the enemy is very likely to destroy it this turn, it is worth doing. It is too late to open a jump point because you won't get to use it until next turn, by which time you'll be dead.