Ramming...

[ATN082268]

Hi,

I just had a few questions about ramming:

1. Does it matter whether the ship being rammed has moved or not in the turn it is being rammed? Incidentally, are immobile targets easier to hit?

2. When the rules mention ships "contact" each other in a ram, does that merely mean their counters touch?

Thanks.

Andrew Norris

 

[skavendan]

There is no mention of immobile targets, so my guess would be no. Lumbering / Agile affect the role.

It stats "If it contacts an enemy ship, you may try to ram it." From my view point they talk about the stem being the ship so I would say stem to stem.

 

[Rawwar]

There's only one rule on ramming: That is it's too damn hard for the Narn.

 

[The Adept]

It always seems odd that SM ships get no bonus to avoid a ram (obviously, a crippled SM isn't SM any more). How a cripped flying brick gets an even chance of hitting one of my Vree saucers (which can turn on a dime and move in any direction) I don't know...

 

[Marco Raimeous]

True, but how often do you actually see a ram attempt in game against your vree? I have only been rammed once and it was a white star ramming one of my vorlon destroyers. The WS blew up huge an took about 6-8 Nials auroras with it. It was glorious and the best part was it really didn't do that much to the destroyer

 

[Greg Smith]

There is also no penalty for immobile targets.

If it were me, I would give SM targets the same bonus as agile ones and allow immobile ones to be hit automatically.

 

[eldiablito]

There is also no penalty for immobile targets.

If it were me, I would give SM targets the same bonus as agile ones and allow immobile ones to be hit automatically.

Me too, but alas, it is not in the rules...

Perhaps I'm biased because my favorite of my fleets is my Vree.

 

[animus]

How DO Narn ram?

 

[Burger]

1. Does it matter whether the ship being rammed has moved or not in the turn it is being rammed? Incidentally, are immobile targets easier to hit?

No, it doesn't matter if the target has been moved or not yet. You can ram an enemy that has not been moved. If successful, the ramming damage is applied immediately (eg. if you get a -4 speed, then that applies this turn when the ship does decide to move). As others said, immobile doesn't have an effect, though I agree with Greg, immobile should be automatic and SM should give +1.

2. When the rules mention ships "contact" each other in a ram, does that merely mean their counters touch?

We have always played (and it has been ruled at Mongoose tourneys) that it is base/counter contact. Not stem/centre. But that was 1e, guess it could have changed (don't have 1e on PDF so can't compare the wording: if the wording didn't change then its pretty likely that the ruling stands).

 

[animus]

Let me re-phrase my question: How do Lumbering ships ram? Seems like a 2 turn maneuver - and you have to move first.

 

[Burger]

Let me re-phrase my question: How do Lumbering ships ram? Seems like a 2 turn maneuver - and you have to move first.

You would have to boresight the ship the previous turn, and either move first or the target not move off your boresight.

Or, there's always gravitic shifters