tomrommel1
Mongoose
I play often against my son ( he plays the Romulans)
He always starts cloaked)
What tactic would you use as a Federation comander?
He always starts cloaked)
What tactic would you use as a Federation comander?
Tactic for Feds against Roms
- Thread starter tomrommel1
- Start date
Lincolnlog
Mongoose
When fighting any opponent that's plasma armed stay over 12" away. I know with Photon that are only range 15 and Phasers that are range 12 that might seem tough, but you allow a free shot under 12 and you'll loose a ship immediately.
Lincolnlog
Mongoose
After the plasma is fired then close in... :twisted:
LimeyDragon
Banded Mongoose
I love my Sacrificial ships, I means scouts..
I field 3 scouts each with an escort ship and spread them a part.. Make sure to tell your opponent that you are fielding them.. They will go after them as soon as they can.. So all you have to do it wait..
I field 3 scouts each with an escort ship and spread them a part.. Make sure to tell your opponent that you are fielding them.. They will go after them as soon as they can.. So all you have to do it wait..
SneakyPete
Mongoose
A BCF or DNF with plasma is good for hitting them while cloaked, just be sure they move in close to use the Plasma carronade after all the enemy ships within range have moved already or you will find them decloaking on your six.
Also pick off the Snipes/BH/Eagles first. Concentrate all your phasers on one these ones first (if used). You are bound to get a few lucky bleed throughs that hopefully get past stealth and these ships have precious few Hull Damage to spare. It may make for a slow game but if they are Cloaked you should be able to keep your distance and phaser spam them for quite a while since they are speed and turn limited and can not fire back.
Watchout for War Eagles. This is the ultimate sacrificial Romulan ship. The cost is relatively cheap and it packs the wicked Plasma R. If one of your ships is not well supported you may find your Romulan opponent using APE with Plasma R only Power Drain to zoom this ship (or two) up close and personal to one of your ships. Since it only has one Plasma weapon sys, and that being the largest, it is an efficient use of APE.
Also pick off the Snipes/BH/Eagles first. Concentrate all your phasers on one these ones first (if used). You are bound to get a few lucky bleed throughs that hopefully get past stealth and these ships have precious few Hull Damage to spare. It may make for a slow game but if they are Cloaked you should be able to keep your distance and phaser spam them for quite a while since they are speed and turn limited and can not fire back.
Watchout for War Eagles. This is the ultimate sacrificial Romulan ship. The cost is relatively cheap and it packs the wicked Plasma R. If one of your ships is not well supported you may find your Romulan opponent using APE with Plasma R only Power Drain to zoom this ship (or two) up close and personal to one of your ships. Since it only has one Plasma weapon sys, and that being the largest, it is an efficient use of APE.
tomrommel1
Mongoose
Thanks for the tips! will try to do better in the next game! Let you know!
Maybe I use fighters next time
Maybe I use fighters next time
Clanger
Mongoose
As a Romulan Player one tactic no one hs mentioned is the Suicide Shuttle Screen.
As Plasma users you want to be 8" or under for optimum firing. Have a good cloud of Suicide Shuttles 4" away from your ships. Then they can jump the Romulan De-Cloaking ship.
This tactic does work and in big games is extremely scary.
As Plasma users you want to be 8" or under for optimum firing. Have a good cloud of Suicide Shuttles 4" away from your ships. Then they can jump the Romulan De-Cloaking ship.
This tactic does work and in big games is extremely scary.
Zarathustra Suicune
Mongoose
Imagine that would need a lot of shuttles 
In the one game I have found that onceyou got past the shields, romulan ships tend to crumple, and they rely heavily on a first dtrike with plasma torpedoes, if you survive the initial plasma barrage, you should be fine just using your phasers to cut their ships up
In the one game I have found that onceyou got past the shields, romulan ships tend to crumple, and they rely heavily on a first dtrike with plasma torpedoes, if you survive the initial plasma barrage, you should be fine just using your phasers to cut their ships up Captain Jonah
Mongoose
If the Romulan fleet is uncloaked they are a slightly more expensive Plasma race with good manoeuvring.
If the Romulan fleet is cloaked they are very tough but have sacrificed all tactical control of the battle and are playing turtle.
If half the fleet is cloaked and the other half is uncloaked then you have them outnumbered two to one as long as you stay clear of the cloaked ones.
Tactics very much defend on what the Romulan is doing. An entire fleet under cloak that is spread out allows you to flank them and pick on a few while the others are out of range. Maybe an APE on turn one to run as many of your ships as possible to one end of an extended Romulan formation. As has been mentioned pick on the Olde Schoole Rom ships first as they are very squishy under the shields. If facing a modern fleet go for the escorts first, the cloak will reduce your firepower a lot so go for the ships that will be most hurt by a few hits.
Don’t focus too much on shield penetrating hits, between natural 6s and the cloak it will take ages to do anything just with natural 6s. Look at the possible targets, a ship with 16 shields and 6/2 compared to a ship with 12 shields and 10/4 is harder to take down unless you get those natural 6s. With normal damage from Phasers and Photons it is easier to criple the 12 10/4 since 18 damage will do it where as waiting for natural 6s may take longer on the 16 6/2 ship. Remember that a cloak rolls agains the number of Hits of damage not against the number of weaposn that hit. Three phasers inside of multihit range do 6 Hits, that is an average of 1 Damage after the cloak. Many fed ships have 6 Phaser ones in arc, four Photons with two hitting add another 8 or 1.3 after the cloak (overloads for more fun). Four damage isn't a lot but if two of your ships do that to one of his smaller ships and then do the same on the next turn that is a shield down.
If he stays under cloak pick on one end of his formation till he bunches up. If you can take out a few of his small ships you can Init sink him and at that point you can concentrate on one of his at a time after you have made him move his fleet.
Once you are in a position to Init sink (or before if you have agile escort sized ships) get some ships round behind him and start to play with overloaded Photons. Watch for any ships declaring an Uncloak SA and keep out of range of them but otherwise you can cruise into range and dump full overloads on the cloaked ships. With overloads you are looking for shield penetrations but also just smashing down the shields of the smaller ships.
A Photon overloaded is going to do 8 Hits, fire two or three from a small ship plus a few Phasers and even with a 2+ cloak save you can do some damage. Several ships firing at a single target and you can take down the shields of and wreck an escort sized ship in several turns. If the Rom ignores you just kill his small stuff one by one, if he uncloaks part of his fleet to attack your small ships the rest of your fleet has a target.
Remember that it takes the firepower of several Plasma ships to kill an equal sized ship in most cases. Two of your escorts will need the firepower of several Romulan ships to chase off which means unless he uncloaks his entire fleet you have just gained a few targets to hammer.
If he stays bunched up in a tight formation and wanders round under cloak get a book to read. Fire Phasers and photons from maximum range, pick one target and hit it with everything every turn then run away to keep the range open. Bring a blanket and cushion so you can sleep through the turns as this is going to be boring………
Re the advice above about 12”, the magic range is 15” if you can do it. Cloak jump is 6”, plasma short range is 8”, 14” is a cloaked ships kill zone. Remember that a ship that is uncloaking can be placed anywhere within a 6” radius of its cloaked model and can make a 45degree turn (90 degrees if agile). This means agile Rom ships can uncloak and hit a ship 14” away to the side or front. Another range to remember is 7”, if you can get behind a Romulan ship even if he jumps directly towards you he still cannot make more than a single turn, many Romulan Plasmas are F arc so you are safe from everything but his side arc Phasers.
Uncloaking is an SA so you know which ships declare it, make sure you are more than 14” from them.
Probably the most scary Romulan’s you meet are the ones who do NOT start cloaked, they go APE, rush your flanks, dump massive plasma salvos on a few targets and THEN cloak to reload. Some agile Romulan ships with decent Phasers need never cloak unless they are clearly about to be surrounded and murdered. The cloak is an excellent defence but as they say “The best Defence is a good Offence”.
The Romulan that gets in your face, smacks you in the teeth with plasma then dances off to reload and only cloaks the ships that you are picking on is the Romulan you need to worry about. Turtles are tough but as long as you stay far enough away they are unable to hurt you much and just a matter of time to wear them down
If the Romulan fleet is cloaked they are very tough but have sacrificed all tactical control of the battle and are playing turtle.
If half the fleet is cloaked and the other half is uncloaked then you have them outnumbered two to one as long as you stay clear of the cloaked ones.
Tactics very much defend on what the Romulan is doing. An entire fleet under cloak that is spread out allows you to flank them and pick on a few while the others are out of range. Maybe an APE on turn one to run as many of your ships as possible to one end of an extended Romulan formation. As has been mentioned pick on the Olde Schoole Rom ships first as they are very squishy under the shields. If facing a modern fleet go for the escorts first, the cloak will reduce your firepower a lot so go for the ships that will be most hurt by a few hits.
Don’t focus too much on shield penetrating hits, between natural 6s and the cloak it will take ages to do anything just with natural 6s. Look at the possible targets, a ship with 16 shields and 6/2 compared to a ship with 12 shields and 10/4 is harder to take down unless you get those natural 6s. With normal damage from Phasers and Photons it is easier to criple the 12 10/4 since 18 damage will do it where as waiting for natural 6s may take longer on the 16 6/2 ship. Remember that a cloak rolls agains the number of Hits of damage not against the number of weaposn that hit. Three phasers inside of multihit range do 6 Hits, that is an average of 1 Damage after the cloak. Many fed ships have 6 Phaser ones in arc, four Photons with two hitting add another 8 or 1.3 after the cloak (overloads for more fun). Four damage isn't a lot but if two of your ships do that to one of his smaller ships and then do the same on the next turn that is a shield down.
If he stays under cloak pick on one end of his formation till he bunches up. If you can take out a few of his small ships you can Init sink him and at that point you can concentrate on one of his at a time after you have made him move his fleet.
Once you are in a position to Init sink (or before if you have agile escort sized ships) get some ships round behind him and start to play with overloaded Photons. Watch for any ships declaring an Uncloak SA and keep out of range of them but otherwise you can cruise into range and dump full overloads on the cloaked ships. With overloads you are looking for shield penetrations but also just smashing down the shields of the smaller ships.
A Photon overloaded is going to do 8 Hits, fire two or three from a small ship plus a few Phasers and even with a 2+ cloak save you can do some damage. Several ships firing at a single target and you can take down the shields of and wreck an escort sized ship in several turns. If the Rom ignores you just kill his small stuff one by one, if he uncloaks part of his fleet to attack your small ships the rest of your fleet has a target.
Remember that it takes the firepower of several Plasma ships to kill an equal sized ship in most cases. Two of your escorts will need the firepower of several Romulan ships to chase off which means unless he uncloaks his entire fleet you have just gained a few targets to hammer.
If he stays bunched up in a tight formation and wanders round under cloak get a book to read. Fire Phasers and photons from maximum range, pick one target and hit it with everything every turn then run away to keep the range open. Bring a blanket and cushion so you can sleep through the turns as this is going to be boring………
Re the advice above about 12”, the magic range is 15” if you can do it. Cloak jump is 6”, plasma short range is 8”, 14” is a cloaked ships kill zone. Remember that a ship that is uncloaking can be placed anywhere within a 6” radius of its cloaked model and can make a 45degree turn (90 degrees if agile). This means agile Rom ships can uncloak and hit a ship 14” away to the side or front. Another range to remember is 7”, if you can get behind a Romulan ship even if he jumps directly towards you he still cannot make more than a single turn, many Romulan Plasmas are F arc so you are safe from everything but his side arc Phasers.
Uncloaking is an SA so you know which ships declare it, make sure you are more than 14” from them.
Probably the most scary Romulan’s you meet are the ones who do NOT start cloaked, they go APE, rush your flanks, dump massive plasma salvos on a few targets and THEN cloak to reload. Some agile Romulan ships with decent Phasers need never cloak unless they are clearly about to be surrounded and murdered. The cloak is an excellent defence but as they say “The best Defence is a good Offence”.
The Romulan that gets in your face, smacks you in the teeth with plasma then dances off to reload and only cloaks the ships that you are picking on is the Romulan you need to worry about. Turtles are tough but as long as you stay far enough away they are unable to hurt you much and just a matter of time to wear them down
SneakyPete
Mongoose
Good write-up, I would just like to add a caveat to your 14" magic number. When facing Plasma Ships with upwards of 12 Plasma total or Plasma R's (both DN's, the King and War Eagles) may elect to fire at medium range, extending the 14" distance to 18".
tomrommel1
Mongoose
very good advice !!! now looking foreward to our next game!
Captain Jonah
Mongoose
SneakyPete said:
With Phaser 1s and Photons you need to consider the range of your weapons as well.
The Klingon can play a very boring game by staying at 19" and just use Disruptors making them all but immune to fire since they are out of range of Phasers they have these in reserve for defence.
The Feds need to keep inside of Phaser range and every other turn inside of photon range. Hurting cloaked ships is a numbers game, you need to hit them with as much as you can to ensure that some gets through. Dropping Photons from that reduces the potential damage too much.
As a side note. Plasma Carronades. Wonderful things. Ignore stealth. Cruise up to 2", hit on a 4+ and no stealth save. Very heroic as well. What with you deliberately moving that close to the Plasmas. The Fed Plasma BC has a whole 2 Plasma Fs but to use them as a carronade you need to park a big expensive BC right in range of an awful lot of plasmas. To use it and survive you need to hit the end of a line with no more than a few smaller or a single larger Rom ships within range to de-cloak and fire.
Its doable but you need to time it and APE away the next turn or you will have an lot of upset Romulans firing at you.
Carronades are for the Gorn who have small, cheap and expendable escorts that are agile, can run in, mob a cloaked target and run away afterwards.
