Targeting critical systems

[Banichi]

Someone bought this up a while back. What about some sort of special action, that if sucessfully rolled would let you pick which part of the crit table to roll on.

egTarget critical systems 9+

If you roll for a crit while attacking an enemy ship this turn you can chose which part of the crit table to roll on.

I realise it would be broken in regular play, but would open the door for scenarios were capturing, not destroying, an enemy ship is the goal. Say there is an important general/scientist/spiritual leader/vital computer file, that you want to get your hands on alive, or in one piece. You could target engines to try and cripple their fleeing vessal so it could be boarded. Or take down someones weapons to stop them fighting back.

Off the top of my head, you could have a variant of the ambush scenario were the goal of the defenders would be to get the ship containing the VIP off the table, and the attackers need to capture him/her alive. The fleet allocation values for the fleets would probably have to be swapped, as this isn't a suprize attack on a numerically superior force, but a planned ambush/kidnapping attempt.

Da bosses scenario 'Into the Lions Den' would be a good place for a houserule such as this. As it is the only capturing scenario I've come across.

 

[[Omicron]Urobach]

i like the idea...how you sayed. opens the door for many tactical options.

and you can only aim with special weapons...for example,like abbai comm disruptors or an new weapon treat would be good. or only the accurat weapons can do this.

 

[Banichi]

Single damage precise weapons, like the demos light balistic torps, would also be good. Kind of fitting with what the fluff says about the demos being used as a commerse raider as well. Double, and triple precise beam weapons might not be so good at this. Especially given the tendancy of beam dice to give run away rolls to hit.

 

[EDFDarkAngel1]

I never have problem hitting the engines. Every time. I finally manage to hit a crit! Table: Engines. Location: -1 SPD.

There are ships out there with 15 crits, all -1 SPD. Untouched, otherwise. Stupid White Stars.

Dark Angel

 

[katadder]

if you can choose area to hit everyone will choose vitals. you know this to be true.

 

[stryve]

As a possibility:

Only precise weapons can use the SA; CQ check of 9+; effects of precise, double damage, triple damage, quad damage lost for turn regardless of CQC result.

Basically, you give up the extra chance to crit and any damage modifiers in exchange for targeting a specific section of the critical table. Alternately, damage modifiers could be steped back one. IE: quad becomes triple, triple becomes double, double becomes single.

 

[eldiablito]

I really like the idea, but I'm worried about the danger for abuse.

Perhaps the difficulty could be much harder; 10+ perhaps?
Also, vitals are TOO tasty of a target. Weapons and engines could be good as they are easily exposed and visible targets. Even if you do make the check, I still think that you would need to roll the 6 (5+ for precise) when rolling the "punch" roll.


Even better still, it would be interesting to change the critical system to be more like V@S, where you roll a 6, followed by a 4+ before rolling on the critical location. That way, the targeting systems special order could remove the 4+ roll before rolling on the critical effect.

IOW, my preferred system would be; All attack rolls would need the normal 6, followed by a 4+ before making a critical hit, now just follow the normal rules.
The new special order would be; Make the skill check to either "Target Weapons" or "Target Engines". Now, to make the critical hit, you only need our regular 6+. The bonus is that IF you make it, you automatically skip the location roll and jump to the effect.


I don't know if this would make games more fun... But it would certainly resemble the show, IMO.

 

[armbarred]

Perhaps this: CQ: 9 Weapon must have Precise. If failed loose all damage modifiers from DD, TD, QD. When rolling on the Critical Table, you may elect to choose any Area below the one rolled.

IE: Attack yields 3 crits, areas rolled are Weapons, Engines, Crew. Since my Narn opponent hasn't fired his ship yet I elect to leave the Weapons crit, the Engines I can't move any lower, and the Crew which is usually useless on a Narn vessel I'll step it down to a Weapons as well. With any luck, he'll only fire on a 4+ and loose 1AD to his emines which are going to eat my Whitestar up.

 

[EDFDarkAngel1]

I think it gives the already-overpowered ISA and Minbari an unfair edge.

Dark Angel

 

[nekomata fuyu]

From the house rules thread...

I've been playing around lately with ideas for specific targeting of ship systems. This is the current idea I have for the SA.

Target Their Engines/Reactor/Weapons/Crew
Crew Quality Check:8
Whenever this ship rolls a critical hit, if the result on the systems table is not the chosen system you must reroll the result. Note that you may not target their vital systems.

This SA would make it more likely that you would hit your chosen system with any criticals, but at the same time would make vital system hits much less likely.

 

[Banichi]

Cheers dude, I have a bad memory for when it comes to remembering which thread I've seen things in.

I agree that limiting an action like this to precise weapons would benifit some fleet (minbos,ISA) way above others, and leave some fleets totally out in the cold. I'm sure the dilgar liked taking captives.

Also DD,TD traits being left on weapons would make for some interesting decisions in game. Eg: damn, the ships nearly getting away. I can get a boresight, but I run the risk of losing the scenario by splattering it.

The more I think about it, the more I want to try and round someone up to try a "Get him to safety" scenario. It looks like it would present some interesting choices, both in tactics, and what ships each side would use.

 

[Banichi]

Just as an afterthought. Using the 'manouver to shield them' special action in a scenario like this could make life easier for the defenders.

 

[katadder]

except i think that SA has gone IIRC.

 

[Banichi]

except i think that SA has gone IIRC.

I suppose you could bring it back for a scenario like this one. Just to represent how keen the defenders are to keep that one ship safe.

 

[Joe_Dracos]

well in the show they have had ships attack other ships and had the order "aquire external targets only" when Captain Sheridan was kidnapped by the Stribe. Perhaps you can use this special action, but only target weapons and engines.

 

[Shadow Queen]

shame that the ships dont have hit locations like engines have xx, hull has xx, and so on so ... on second thought that would be complaceated

 

[daishi]

we have a house rule for this which is
declare special action target engines or target weapon systems CQ9+
if you make the CQ & your weapons score a critical then you roll only on that particular critical table
You cannot target vital systems as they are not visible - we toyed with the idea if you came from same fleet eg EA vs EA you could, but decided it was too hard
Also if target weapons then the side being hit is the affected weapons system eg target gets hit in port side then only port weapons will be affected. So you couldnt weaken a Drazi by hitting it in the side. This addition to the rule meant if you wanted a chance to weaken an opponents main weapons you had to risk being hit by them making this SA more dangerous to use.
We also limited target engines to sides & rear attacks - front attacks cant target engines

 

[Triggy]

I liked the rule somebody suggested that targetting a system is allowed on a CQ check of 8/9, and you pick a table (not including vital systems) to target with that ship. You then make your attacks as normal including rolls on the attack table. Then you roll for your crit locations as normal, rerolling the result if it isn't the system you targetted. The result of the reroll stands regardless.

This has the effect of reducing the number of critical system hits you get but increasing the chances of getting any other table.

Of course, this would still be a big problem against fleets with ships mainly having only a single arc of fire such as ISA, Vree and Drazi. It's still a fun idea though.

 

[Shadow Queen]

I liked the rule somebody suggested that targetting a system is allowed on a CQ check of 8/9, and you pick a table (not including vital systems) to target with that ship. You then make your attacks as normal including rolls on the attack table. Then you roll for your crit locations as normal, rerolling the result if it isn't the system you targetted. The result of the reroll stands regardless.

This has the effect of reducing the number of critical system hits you get but increasing the chances of getting any other table.

Of course, this would still be a big problem against fleets with ships mainly having only a single arc of fire such as ISA, Vree and Drazi. It's still a fun idea though.

Target Weapons and Engines only yes Triggy?

 

[Sulfurdown]

What about a SA to be able to assign the first rolled crit to a non-vitals system and then roll severity? You trade a chance at vitals for a more directed crit without increasing crit chances. EDIT: Or without putting all the crits into one system.