retzlaffmd
Mongoose
Do Romulan ships loose their shields while cloaked? The rules don't say, though all the tv/movie info and other game versions would imply yes...
Romulan cloaks?
- Thread starter retzlaffmd
- Start date
Charles is correct. The Romulan shields continue to function as normal while the vessel is cloaked.
And yes, it may be contary to what appears on screen, but this is after all a wargame. What's the point in taking an empire that has to completely drop its shields in order to use it best tatical feature?
And yes, it may be contary to what appears on screen, but this is after all a wargame. What's the point in taking an empire that has to completely drop its shields in order to use it best tatical feature?
retzlaffmd
Mongoose
It just seems both broken(IE, overpowered) and against all fluff background and SFB rules, which I've been assuming ACTA-SF is based on... My group is testing a "house rule" version which has no shields under full cloak, and always able to make a 45 degree turn at the end of movement if no other turns are made, even if turn distance isn't reached(to stop the "turn or move" dilemma for crippled ships & cloaked Condors)...
retzlaffmd
Mongoose
One of the owners of my local game store,"The Game Store", has been playing SFB practicly since it was introduced, and told us there is no way, in game, to keep up both shields and cloaks, as the energy requirements for the cloak is too high to allow anything else but required systems(life support, structural integrity fields, etc...), which is why I started this thread...
Taking the War Eagle as an example:
In Star Fleet Battles, the undamaged War Eagle generates 26 points of power per turn.
It takes 4 points of power for housekeeping (shields, fire control, life-support, etc.) and the cloak takes 6 more power to operate. That's 10 points from the total of 26, leaving 16 points.
Now, if you're in the final turn of reloading the Plasma-R (5 points) and powering the phaser capacitors (5) and arming a suicide shuttle and prepping a wild weasel - that doesn't leave a lot for movement.
But if you're in the first turn of reloading (2 points) and you only charge two phaser capacitors (2 points), then you still have 12 points for movement. That's 12 hexes of movement... or to put it in ACTA terms - enough to move 4.6 inches.
We've also played SFB since 1980 and we have never had a problem powering shields when cloaked.
In Star Fleet Battles, the undamaged War Eagle generates 26 points of power per turn.
It takes 4 points of power for housekeeping (shields, fire control, life-support, etc.) and the cloak takes 6 more power to operate. That's 10 points from the total of 26, leaving 16 points.
Now, if you're in the final turn of reloading the Plasma-R (5 points) and powering the phaser capacitors (5) and arming a suicide shuttle and prepping a wild weasel - that doesn't leave a lot for movement.
But if you're in the first turn of reloading (2 points) and you only charge two phaser capacitors (2 points), then you still have 12 points for movement. That's 12 hexes of movement... or to put it in ACTA terms - enough to move 4.6 inches.
We've also played SFB since 1980 and we have never had a problem powering shields when cloaked.
Captain Jonah
Mongoose
As Scoutdad says, in SFB just about everything can cloak and do other things.
As far as the movie version goes yes they had no shields when invisible. The ACTA-SF tactical cloak is not invisible, it blurs and confuses the exact location but you still know where the ship is.
Look at it this way. For strategic movement you cloak and move fast but have no shield but are invisible to sensors.
For tactical movement the ship slows down, raises its shields but enough energy bleeds through the cloak from those shields to give enemies a rough idea of where it is. Hence the 2+ cloak save rather than being completely invisible.
As far as the movie version goes yes they had no shields when invisible. The ACTA-SF tactical cloak is not invisible, it blurs and confuses the exact location but you still know where the ship is.
Look at it this way. For strategic movement you cloak and move fast but have no shield but are invisible to sensors.
For tactical movement the ship slows down, raises its shields but enough energy bleeds through the cloak from those shields to give enemies a rough idea of where it is. Hence the 2+ cloak save rather than being completely invisible.
retzlaffmd
Mongoose
Just finished test game with "shields or cloak" house rule... feels closer to what I'd expect a Romulan fleet to feel like, even though the Rom's lost... Playing another game tonite against Klingons, using regular by-the-book rules to see if it feels like Romulans are overpowered/"broken" as-is, like newer armies from a certain huge game company...
to be fair, on screen, you didn't know where a cloacked ship was, you generally couldn't fire at it for that very reason, in ACTA, you know exactly where the ship is, can maneuvre to counter it, and even fire at it, though it has a 2+save so to speak, this is clearly weaker than "on screen" cloaking, hence loosing shields as well would be harsh
Captain Jonah
Mongoose
Yep. Also consider that within the kill zone every Phaser one will do 2 Hull, a photon that hits will do 4 Hull plus crits. With no shields cloaks become a death sentence for the first generation Romulan ships, a single pass from a Klingon or Fed ship will on average hit with enough to take out 6 or 8 Hull plus a crit or two which may do more. Thats a dead small ship and a hurt WE / KE.
Combined with the no return fire and 6" move, no shields is just too harsh.
Combined with the no return fire and 6" move, no shields is just too harsh.
retzlaffmd
Mongoose
Played a "normal" by-the-book game against klingons tuesday, they're more playable as-is... in the first game, the Feddies never got close enough to Kill Zone shot my Warbirds until the cloaks dropped and he was eating plasma, and my stealth saves blew the second half of the game... Shields would have only prolonged the agony with the sheer number of 6's he rolled(and 1's in response!), the shields wouldn't have helped me much anyways... 
The second game, I turned the "wolfpack" tactics used against me in game 1 on the Klingons, and it worked quite well, though the 500 point forces based on the box sets we had(mongoose klingon box for him, ADB squadron box 2 for me-vulture, war eagle, falcon mauler, battle hawk, and 2 snipes) forced us to pick what we had for forces... the Romulans really need the shields-while-cloaked feature to be viable... And I lost anyways, with 2 crippled ships and 1 mauled War Eagle to his untouched C7...
The second game, I turned the "wolfpack" tactics used against me in game 1 on the Klingons, and it worked quite well, though the 500 point forces based on the box sets we had(mongoose klingon box for him, ADB squadron box 2 for me-vulture, war eagle, falcon mauler, battle hawk, and 2 snipes) forced us to pick what we had for forces... the Romulans really need the shields-while-cloaked feature to be viable... And I lost anyways, with 2 crippled ships and 1 mauled War Eagle to his untouched C7...retzlaffmd
Mongoose
The "no shields while cloaked" house rule idea came from our 2nd "test" game, a 3-way dreadnought slugfest... And NO, I didn't use the Romulan C8 refit, It was my Condor(proxied by a Vulture) vs. a Federation-class dreadnought vs. a Klingon C8... they tore each other apart while I crawled towards them, er, surveiled the situation before attacking... a cloaked dread is snail-slow!
Well if we're talking about the movies and cloaks, wasnt it klingon ships that had no shields while cloaked? Romulans didnt show up much as adversaries. So I don't see why the romulans, with their non-deffective cloaks (sorry klinks, better luck next time) could keep shields up while cloaked, they just cant boost energy back to the shields.
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