Rule questions

[Lonewolf187]

Hello everyone:
I've been reading the rulebook and I have a few questions to make sure I'm reading the rules correctly:
1: In regards to multihit weapons (for example one of the Heavy Blaster Turrets on the Hawkwood Vladimir cruiser 3 AD; Burn-out, Multihit 3) if I roll two hits do I add the multihit amount to each hit (for a total of 8 hits) or just the multihit amount (for a total of 6 hits)?
2: I'm a little fuzzy on the burn-out rule. Using the above example lets say the cruiser was firing at Hazak Adonias Dreadnought (Shields 6) and lets say the Heavy Blaster got 8 hits, does that mean the shields take 6 of the damage and 2 goes in and hits the hull leaving the Dreadnought without shields for defense for the rest of the turn, so if the cruiser fired its other turret at the dreadnought and got 4 hit they go straight through and strike the hull?
3: Does the Guided weapon trait and the Scout redirect fire rule stack for re-rolling missed attack dice? (for example: a Hawkwood Griffin Destroyer fires one of its Missile Launcher turrets at a target being supported by a Wayfarer Explorer)

 

[Stormrider]

Hello everyone:
I've been reading the rulebook and I have a few questions to make sure I'm reading the rules correctly:
1: In regards to multihit weapons (for example one of the Heavy Blaster Turrets on the Hawkwood Vladimir cruiser 3 AD; Burn-out, Multihit 3) if I roll two hits do I add the multihit amount to each hit (for a total of 8 hits) or just the multihit amount (for a total of 6 hits)?

Multi-hit multiplies the number of hits, so for every successful hit, multiply it by the multi-hit value. In this example 2 successful AD rolls with Multi-hit 3 would be 6 hits.

2: I'm a little fuzzy on the burn-out rule. Using the above example lets say the cruiser was firing at Hazak Adonias Dreadnought (Shields 6) and lets say the Heavy Blaster got 8 hits, does that mean the shields take 6 of the damage and 2 goes in and hits the hull leaving the Dreadnought without shields for defense for the rest of the turn, so if the cruiser fired its other turret at the dreadnought and got 4 hit they go straight through and strike the hull?

Correct, burn-out is very powerful. It also seems to be on almost every weapon system which I'm not 100% a fan of. There is a set of house-rules being proposed currently which suggests the multi-hit value for blasters does not apply when the hit lands on a shield, only multiply for hull damage. Me and Rick will be testing those rules out soon.

3: Does the Guided weapon trait and the Scout redirect fire rule stack for re-rolling missed attack dice? (for example: a Hawkwood Griffin Destroyer fires one of its Missile Launcher turrets at a target being supported by a Wayfarer Explorer)

You can never re-roll a re-roll.

Question 3 does raise an interesting rules query though as the wording seems a little ambiguous. When a scout redirects fire the rule states that "You may re-roll all attack dice for those weapon systems that fail to hit the target.". Does this mean that you re-roll misses, or that you re-roll all the dice from that weapons system, hits included? It's the 'all attack dice' part that makes me feel it's ambiguous.[/b]

 

[Greg Smith]

You reroll the dice that missed, not all the dice.

 

[Rick]

1 - You don't add the multihit trait - each successful AD causes a number of hits equal to the multihit trait, not 1 as would be normal for weapons without the trait. So, if your Vlad rolled 2 successful AD, it would cause 6 hits.

2 - As the rules stand at the moment, the multihit trait takes effect as soon as you roll the AD, so it works against shields exactly as it would against a ships hull. If your Vlad rolled 3 successful AD, it would get 9 hits - the shields would take 6 damage and be burnt out for the rest of the turn, 3 damage would be applied to the ship itself (roll damage). Any more hits going against that ship this turn would damage the ship as all the shields were gone!

3 - No. Guided and Scout redirect do not stack. Guided trait allows you to re-roll misses, so does the scout redirect - as you can only ever get 1 re-roll on a dice, you can use one or the other on a roll, but not both.

 

[lastbesthope]

And remember, for both Guided and Scout it clearly states you may reroll dice that have missed, you can choose not to reroll the dice that miss, if for whatever reason you want to minimise the damage, like maybe you're too close to a big ship that you want to take down but not have explode in your face :shock:

LBH

 

[Rick]

Heh - had that happen! Never before have I been silently wishing for low rolls! :?

 

[Lonewolf187]

Thanks for the reply's everyone, unfortunately I have a few more questions:
4: Does a carrier's point cost include fighters?
5: Looking through the rulebook every fighter has Weak trait for its weapons, and every bomber has 1 point of shields, does this mean bombers are immune to dogfights from fighters?
6: If a bomber flight gets shot at by a gatling laser, does the laser need to score two hits on a bomber flight to destroy it with the bombers shields?

 

[Rick]

Good questions!

4 - Nope - you buy them separately, but you must have a carrier to field fighters, you can't just buy the fighters on their own.

5 - See page 25 of the rulebook - fighters ignore shields during a dogfight, any fighter that loses a dogfight is automatically destroyed, even if it has functioning shields.

6 - Yes. A gatling laser gets 3AD total no matter how many fighters are attacking, so if you send in 3, it would have to spread the AD over all 3 evenly, it can't concentrate the AD on just one. It's better to keep out of range of them, but if you can't, send in a few!

 

[Greg Smith]

6 - Yes. A gatling laser gets 3AD total no matter how many fighters are attacking, so if you send in 3, it would have to spread the AD over all 3 evenly, it can't concentrate the AD on just one. It's better to keep out of range of them, but if you can't, send in a few!

There is nothing to say they have to be split evenly.

 

[Stormrider]

6 - Yes. A gatling laser gets 3AD total no matter how many fighters are attacking, so if you send in 3, it would have to spread the AD over all 3 evenly, it can't concentrate the AD on just one. It's better to keep out of range of them, but if you can't, send in a few!

There is nothing to say they have to be split evenly.

There is in a way. A gatling laser will target as many enemy fighters as possible, meaning that if you have 3 gatling lasers and 3 enemy fighters you do have to split it evenly. As I read it you have to apply 1 AD to each targetable fighter and may then distribute any remaining as you see fit. I don't see any requirement to target those closest first so you have some choice if there's MORE fighters than gatling lasers, but you can only apply 1 to each. I see it as working similarly to the firezones in Battlefield Evolution.

The key line being "a gatling laser will target as many enemy fighters as possible".

 

[Rick]

Yeah - sorry Greg, it was my interpretation of the wording used in the gatling laser section of the rules. It doesn't give a lot of leeway though - if you have 2 fighters, you can choose which one gets a second AD, but you must target as many as possible within range.

 

[Greg Smith]

I see you are right. That makes shields on bombers very useful and gatling lasers less so.

 

[lastbesthope]

I see you are right. That makes shields on bombers very useful and gatling lasers less so.

Given that no Gatlings are turret and the relative manoeuverability you'd be hard pressed to use them anyway.

LBH

 

[Rick]

Frankly, given the stand-off range of bomber weapons, no bomber pilot should be getting hit with gatling lasers anyway. If you really have a need to look through his windows, use a cruiser or board him! :twisted:

 

[Lonewolf187]

Hey everyone, I've got another question it deals with the Scout rule:
7: In regards to the two Scout rules for painting a Stealth ship or for re-directing missed attacks; does the attacking ships being supported by the Scout need to be within 36 inches of the Scout? (For example lets say Vladimir is attacking an Grigori 30 inches away with one of its Heavy Blaster Turrets and there is a Wayfarer 40 inches away from the Vladimir but 32 inches from the Grigori. Can the Wayfarer support the Vladimir even though its not within the 36 inch range?)

 

[Stormrider]

Yes, think of it as the scout having enhanced sensors and it has a scan range of 36" but that it can relay the data to any ship in it's fleet regardless of distance.

 

[starbreaker]

Given that no Gatlings are turret and the relative manoeuverability you'd be hard pressed to use them anyway.

Depends on the bomber/heavy fighter in question - the pig-slow Al Malik and Decados ones often have trouble choosing to attack any arc but the closest, even against Lumbering targets. Hawkwood's aren't much better.

Frankly, given the stand-off range of bomber weapons, no bomber pilot should be getting hit with gatling lasers anyway. If you really have a need to look through his windows, use a cruiser or board him!

The meson tube equipped heavy fighters of Li Halan and Decados (closest thing they have to bombers) are range 2, just like gatlings. The relatively lightly-armed Hazat bombers sometimes have problems avoiding range 2 as well if there are a lot of them crowding a single target.

That said, gatlings as written are effectively useless at killing bombers - as long as there are at least three of them attacking for each gatling, the best the gats can do is drop their shields. That might set them up for slightly easier destruction from ship or (hypothetically) fighter light slug gun fire later in the turn, but given the way the initiative system works, it probably won't stop them from firing first. Of course, if they blow you up, that lost shield is also one more Dodge save for them to make - a poor consolation prize, but better than nothing.

They're hot stuff against missiles, rockets, and torps, though, and they give you two arcs you probably won't be getting boarded through. So not totally useless.