Maneuvre to shield

[H]

Now then, does anyone know why this special action was removed? Personally I loved it, and protected a Warlock from an angry Vorlon HC with a hermes once, ok the Warlock died next turn, but still. . .

I liked the special action enough to re-instate it in Juyaie, althoguh it was specifically for a ship designed to do such a job. We see it in the Show once, though I am aware that the show is only partially representative of the game and stats.

It wasn't too easy to pull off, and often requered you put the ship in an dis advantageous position for subsequent turns, assuming it survived. (the hermes i did it with ended up on minus 30 something)

My Only assumption is that it was to prevent the use of the cheap as chips twofers doing it, in a large battle, a FAP spent on twofers could offer a moving shield to the big ships. . .

any other thoughts why it might have gone?
did you ever use it before? would you like it back? is it to powerful? should it only work against "slower" weapons eg beams in theory move too fast

 

[Burger]

Don't know where it went, it was quite a good one.

We see it in the Show once

More than once at the battle of Coriana VI, against those Shadow missiles!

 

[H]

Don't know where it went, it was quite a good one.

We see it in the Show once

More than once at the battle of Coriana VI, against those Shadow missiles!

ok, we see it in one "scene". . . mr picky ;-) although I admit, i only remember seeing a drazi ship do it, or am i making that up. . .

 

[Burger]

Drazi and Minbari do it in that scene. Also a G'Quan does it to protect some fleeting civvy transports in a different ep.

 

[H]

Drazi and Minbari do it in that scene. Also a G'Quan does it to protect some fleeting civvy transports in a different ep.

I admit i never thought of the G'Quan, I remember the episode well, plus it's shown in the credits of season 3.

 

[Greg Smith]

I don't know why it was taken out of 2e, but it is back by popular demand in P&P.

 

[H]

man, i am persuesive ;-)

 

[Silvereye]

<Mr Burns voice>Excellent.</Mr Burns voice>

 

[sidewinder]

I used it once or twice. its just hard to pull off. the nice thing about it you could use the interceptors on the shielding ship against the attack.

 

[cthol24601]

I always loved the trick with maximus frigates escorting Centauri primus warships. Indeed I think maximus almost seem designer built for that task.

 

[Atreyeux]

Hi Guys

Forgive the Noobness, but what was the shielding rule, not played previous ed.?

 

[H]

I'm sure smoeone could give it you exactly, but I'm in work so no access to the book.
Basically, a ship coould perform this special action, which essentially put it inbetween the ship it was protecting, and the ship that was targetting. The shielding ship then took all fire from the nominated ship against it's shielded ship, thus shielding the nominated ship.

 

[Greg Smith]

First edition Manuever to Shield Them! read like this:

With careful maneuvering, the Captain orders his ship to physically shield another from attack. Nominate one friendly target and one enemy target. Note that auxiliary craft such as fighter flights may not be targeted with this special Action. You ship must end up within 3” of the friendly target, your ship need only get its base or counter between the two of them . If you ship does not manage this, the maneuver automatically fails. If the Enemy target attempts to fire upon the friendly target this turn, it must make an Opposed Crew Quality check with you ship. Should your ship’s
result exceed the enemy target’s result, all attacks that were to be fired at the friendly target are instead fired at your ship. These attacks are resolved normally.

It was clarified to say Stealth and Dodge don't apply when performing it.

 

[Atreyeux]

Thanks guys,
is this official for P&P, it would be awesome (Especially for the Maxius)

 

[Greg Smith]

It is in the rules we are playtesting, with slightly different wording.

 

[nekomata fuyu]

Hmm, I know that one issue that was raised in an earlier discussion was that Patrol level ships could sacrifice themselves to pretty much block incoming fire to a (presumably much bigger) Armageddon ship.
Looking at that wording for how the SA works, it seems to me that it would be easy enough to just modify the shielding ship's CQ check depending on the number of levels difference between it and the ship that it's shielding. As an example, a Hermes would get a -5 CQ penalty to trying to shield a Victory class, but the opposite would be true for a Victory trying to hide a Hermes.

On a related note, we seem to keep running into situations where the PL gets press-ganged into acting as a size stat. Wouldn't it be an idea to just add a size stat at some point?

 

[H]

Actually, it beconmes quite tactical knowing quite when to move the right ship to make sure you get the MTS action in. usually you would move youir smaller init sinks forst wouldn't you, but to be planning an MTS, you need to hold off till the prospective target and targeter have moved, meaning you could be outmaneuvred anyway. In a game where tactics is often as relevant as a badger 9and i mean the furry critter) because of the crit system, this is actually something that does need some thought and planning.

 

[Ripple]

it also gave a good use to really big hull point ships like the explorer and T'Loth... shielding the laser turrets to give you another turn of fire.

Ripple

 

[Greg Smith]

Before it disappeared from 2e during playtesting, there was a version of the special action that depended on the size of the ship.