Tractor Beam question

[deadshane]

Strangely enough, the section on "Multiple Tractor Beams" doesnt answer this question.

What happens if:

Two Ships from the same fleet Engage Tractors on a single enemy ship. How does that ship break away?

-Does the ship breaking away roll two opposed crew check with each of the tractoring ships rolling once?
-Does the ship breaking away roll one opposed crew check vs both ships at the same time rolling one?
-Do you add the hull points of the two tractoring ships rolling one dice and the ship breaking away again rolling only a single dice, but vs the total mass hp's of the opposing ships?

 

[deadshane]

I guess I stumped you guys with this one. 36 veiws and no answer. :shock:

 

[Captain Jonah]

I guess I stumped you guys with this one. 36 veiws and no answer. :shock:

Pah be off with you sir, some of us have been eating a leisurely morning breakfast :wink:

The two ships would (IMHO anyway) roll separately. Even if from the same fleet they would not have exactly the same vector, power levels, angle etc to combine the tractor strength.

The victim pulls one way against one but this may have less effect against the other.

I think its crew checks against each ship, it gives you more chance to fail a roll when those two Gorn DD/BDDs run up behind you and try to tractor you so the big stuff can catch up later (much later as its the Gorn).

So two BDDS try to tractor a D7C which has been dancing round a BCH and being generaly annoying (its Klingon’s, you expect them to be annoying :lol: ). The D7C gets +2 on its crew checks since it has 20+ damage, the BDDs get plus one for 10+ damage. If one or both opposed crew checks beat the Klink he is tractored. If the Klink wins both rolls he is free.

I cannot see adding the ships together, a horde of FFs can tractor a DN but its going to be hard work not a single roll with a bonus because 5 FFS have more damage than the DN, they are individual and much smaller ships.

As it is a Pol that makes a tractor check can lock a DN in place (till it gets noticed and turned into a cloud of expanding plasma :lol: ). Its just going to be a difficult crew check.

 

[Rambler]

The answer is actually spelled out in the sceneto objectives section. Only one tractor beam can be used on a object in this case a ship. When the second ship applies a tractor beam one of the beams is broken or has to be dropped. However if ship a initiates a tractor that is broken later in the same turn ship b can attempt to tractor the same ship.

 

[Ben2]

That assumes two hostile ships trying to tractor something they both want to capture.

There's no logical reason why 2 ships on the same side trying to co-operatively tractor an enemy ship would have to do that.

Also the mechanic for opposed tractoring of objectives circumvents the normal tractor rules and resolution for ships with equal numbers of tractor beams takes place in the End Phase instead of the Attack phase.

I think this probably needs to go in the FAQ, as the rules don't cover this eventuality.

 

[doublenot7]

Only one tractor beam can be used on a object in this case a ship.

2 questions here:

1. Can you engage a tractor against a vessel that has shields up?
2. Does the above statement mean that you can only attempt to use 1 tractor beam against an incoming drone?

 

[Captain Jonah]

Only one tractor beam can be used on a object in this case a ship.

2 questions here:

1. Can you engage a tractor against a vessel that has shields up?
2. Does the above statement mean that you can only attempt to use 1 tractor beam against an incoming drone?

1 Yes.
2 No.

Only one tractor can be in effect. You can try with more but its done ship by ship so one can try, if it fails another ship can try when it activates. If it works then the second ship can tractor someone else. Defensive fire wise if you want to allocate two tractors to a drone, roll your 4+. If the first one works the second is wasted (and used), if the first fails you have the second to try in the seconds before impact.

If both fail hang on since SFB ships don't use seat belts :lol:

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

If both fail hang on since SFB ships don't use seat belts :lol:

At least bridge consoles don't explode at the slightest nudge the ship receives in the SFU, so they've got some safety regulations at least! :lol:


Oh, and a tractor beam question. Just to make sure, you have to state how many tractor beams you're attempting to use to stop a single drone wave before you roll (all at once), yes? And they miss you can't just add in more tractors, yes?

Just making sure.

 

[Captain Jonah]

When used for defensive fire they are like phasers, you say how many you are firing, then roll them. If you miss any incoming, well it’s about then you start to wonder why you don't have a seat belt as you go flying across the room.

Still never mind the contusions, broken bones or even death. Just remember how good you look flying past while back lit by those exploding consoles :lol:

Plus seat belts would rob the doctors and medics of their 30 seconds as bit part actors in the background cleaning up the dead while the Captain and his key team look Heroic amid the exploding consoles and falling roof beams :roll: :lol:

 

[plutonyum]

I would think you would role to break free of each ship, failing either means you would be stuck, though if you broke one, that ship would need to use the special action a second time if it wanted to hold you in place.

new question:
preface, a crippled ship cannot warp out using the 'Maximum Warp NOW!' action.
can my dreadnought tractor my crippled heavy cruiser, and then warp out with it?

this would clearly count as both ships fleeing, and give victory points accordingly, but other then that i have found nothing to say that you cant do this. in campaigns it might be a nice way to save that elite crew with defensive gunners e.c.t.

after convincing myself that the answer is yes, it occurred to me to ask "can i tractor an enemy ship, and then warp out pulling it with me?" the answer here should be no to my mind, but i cant think of a good reason other then saying no to warping out while tractoring a friendly ship.

any ideas?


sorry to ask a new question about tractor beams, but i coudnt see myself to making a new thread with nearly the same name

 

[Captain Jonah]

new question:
preface, a crippled ship cannot warp out using the 'Maximum Warp NOW!' action.
can my dreadnought tractor my crippled heavy cruiser, and then warp out with it?

this would clearly count as both ships fleeing, and give victory points accordingly, but other then that I have found nothing to say that you cant do this. in campaigns it might be a nice way to save that elite crew with defensive gunners etc.

after convincing myself that the answer is yes, it occurred to me to ask "can I tractor an enemy ship, and then warp out pulling it with me?" the answer here should be no to my mind, but I cant think of a good reason other then saying no to warping out while tractoring a friendly ship.

any ideas?

Good question.

Looking at the background and SFB/FC I would say that Maximum warp is an escape to freedom because it is a flat out run and in the time it takes to respond the fleeting ship is far our of range.

Not something you can do while towing a crippled wreck which slows you down and throws out your warp field.

This however leaves a significant campaign question since every crippled ship is lost if you lose the battle and no ship ever gains enough Exp to be any good since it doesn’t last long enough (Or maybe I just play against people who kill any ship that just got a nice ability as first target :roll: ).

Fixed maps are needed to give non Drone races a chance against the Drone Chuckers but they also condemn every ship on the losing side to death. Cripples cannot escape and the winners can hunt down any survivors. Victory conditions can help if one side achieves the victory and withdraws Sheparding its cripples leaving the losing side to gather up its escape pods and cripples. After all despite the bloody mindedness of players no fleet can afford to sacrifice ships to finish off that last enemy cruiser after victory has been achieved. Let the beaten wretch recover the escape pods and flee home with tales of the terrible defeat they met at the hands of your fleet

Now for options. In the SFU ships can disengage by going sub light and hiding, Fed saucers and Klingon booms separate and go hide, other ships drop to minimum power and make like holes in space.

I would say as a house or campaign rule this would be a crew check, select a special action of Disengage, do the 6” in a straight line bit with no firing and at the end of the turn make a crew check. Make it and you are gone but the enemy gets say half the points for destroying you but the fleet gets you back after a turn as its far cheaper to repair a ship than build a new one. Fail the crew check and you are still there but can try again if you survive. The sort of thing to do if you can get behind some terrain :wink:

If you win the battle then you can tow any cripples at low warp speed to the closest base, or your fleet sends a tug. Ships wrecked but not exploded can also be recovered. Though having his DN towed home by a couple of FFs or DDs is not going to be good for the promotion prospects of an Admiral :twisted:

As regards crews. Ships have escape pods, the loss of a ship doesn’t mean the loss of the crew since even the nasty races don’t go round shooting up those tiny and hard to hit escape pods. If you lose a ship with EXP then after a turn you can buy the ship again but with a negative EXP factor to represent replacement crew. Say your Elite cruiser crew had 12 EXP and were destroyed, they form the core of a new crew with 9EXP and can quickly catch up again as they train the replacements and those replacements get some battle experience.