What's a Marauder?
- Thread starter McKinstry
- Start date
A Marauder or a Mauler? A Marauder is just some bodies raiders raisaing heck behind your lines. If your asking about a Mauler it is intended to be a Basebusting unit. You take a cruiser hull strip out most of its weapons pack it full of batteries turning the whole ship into one big capacitor which you discharge as a fairly tight cone attempting to atomize you target. Full Damage would make a Alpha Strike from a Gorn Dreadnought look like a minor in convenience.
Maulers were only deployed by Coalition Forces (Romulan, Klingon, and Lyran) and had a nasty habit of crippling themselves when they fired so they were not normally deployed with fleets and almost always only available in sieges.
Maulers were only deployed by Coalition Forces (Romulan, Klingon, and Lyran) and had a nasty habit of crippling themselves when they fired so they were not normally deployed with fleets and almost always only available in sieges.
It's worth noting that maulers are not a part of "vanilla" Federation Commander; they are in SFB, and have been glimpsed at in the Borders of Madness project, but they are not considered part of the "core" FC ruleset (or the published array of FC ships) which seem to be the primary source of units for ACtA:SF.
So, while I'm not the one making the decisions, for what it's woth I wouldn't expect them to be up for consideration any time soon.
(I see this kind of thing happening a lot; certain units, or unit types, which are in SFB but not in FC being treated as if they are a lock for near-future inclusion. While, once again, I'm not in a position to say "yes, we'll get that ship" or "no, we won't see it, like, ever", I should perhaps refer to the ships in FC as being more likely to be up for consideration; if only because of the stated plan to match the 2400-series array of FC Squadron Boxes in the ongoing 2500 line.)
As for Marauders, they are improved troop types available in A Call to Arms: Noble Armada; mainly used to help with capturing enemy ships.
So, while I'm not the one making the decisions, for what it's woth I wouldn't expect them to be up for consideration any time soon.
(I see this kind of thing happening a lot; certain units, or unit types, which are in SFB but not in FC being treated as if they are a lock for near-future inclusion. While, once again, I'm not in a position to say "yes, we'll get that ship" or "no, we won't see it, like, ever", I should perhaps refer to the ships in FC as being more likely to be up for consideration; if only because of the stated plan to match the 2400-series array of FC Squadron Boxes in the ongoing 2500 line.)
As for Marauders, they are improved troop types available in A Call to Arms: Noble Armada; mainly used to help with capturing enemy ships.
Greg Smith
Mongoose
If you are talking about Noble Armada, marauders are elite marines in power armour. They are equipped with jet packs to be able to board without grapple lines (although this isn't represented in ACTA NA).
If you're interested, you can see the provisional rules for maulers in Borders of Madness here, as well as sample Squadron Scale Ship Cards for the Klingon D6M and Romulan Falcon.
The main thing those playtest rules are missing from the SFB version is the issue of shock. In SFB, the inherent nature of the mauler cannon means that firing it causes a high degree of stress on its host unit, to the point that using it beyond a certain threshold risks damaging your own ship. By and large, FC tries to avoid "shock effects" if it can; for example, the SFB version of the New Jersey battlecruiser runs the risk of shock if it fires more than four of its photons in the one turn, so the FC version (and in ACtA:SF) gets around that by simply not allowing it to fire more than four per turn. Since maulers can't get around the issue of shock so easily, allowing them to fly shock-free in FC would risk creating an imbalance in their favour (since there'd be no penalty against using the mauler cannon as often as you liked).
Whather the playtest rules change much, if any, between now and the time if/when Borders of Madness becomes a formal product remains to be seen; but in any case, I"m not too sure if it's a good idea to expect them to make it over here sooner rather than later (if they come over at all).
The main thing those playtest rules are missing from the SFB version is the issue of shock. In SFB, the inherent nature of the mauler cannon means that firing it causes a high degree of stress on its host unit, to the point that using it beyond a certain threshold risks damaging your own ship. By and large, FC tries to avoid "shock effects" if it can; for example, the SFB version of the New Jersey battlecruiser runs the risk of shock if it fires more than four of its photons in the one turn, so the FC version (and in ACtA:SF) gets around that by simply not allowing it to fire more than four per turn. Since maulers can't get around the issue of shock so easily, allowing them to fly shock-free in FC would risk creating an imbalance in their favour (since there'd be no penalty against using the mauler cannon as often as you liked).
Whather the playtest rules change much, if any, between now and the time if/when Borders of Madness becomes a formal product remains to be seen; but in any case, I"m not too sure if it's a good idea to expect them to make it over here sooner rather than later (if they come over at all).
AdmiralGrafSpee
Mongoose
I wish shock had been added to ACTA instead of just saying the BCJ was not able to fire all 6 photons. It could have been a random crit or something - much in the way the Orions can ignore powerdrain to take a crit.
A lot of the SFB stuff that got left out of FC was to make the game simpler and more focused on the roots of the game. However ACTA game mechanics are much simpler and less time consuming - so really it would be appreciated to get some of the SFB stuff into it, like Maulers, Carriers, PFs etc!
-Tim
A lot of the SFB stuff that got left out of FC was to make the game simpler and more focused on the roots of the game. However ACTA game mechanics are much simpler and less time consuming - so really it would be appreciated to get some of the SFB stuff into it, like Maulers, Carriers, PFs etc!
-Tim
While we may not see Maulers, I'd already thought about how to implement it in my homestyle games if I wanted to.
D6M:
Replace the disruptors with 2 Mauler cannon. Give them a range of 10, with Accurate +2, Killzone 1, Devastating +1, Reload. Base attack is 10 points. If in Killzone 1, double the attack strength. Strength dwindles to 8 pts at 5", 5 pts at 7.5, 1 pt at 10".
If overloaded, it draws power from the engines, which damages them. So if you overloaded a Mauler Cannon, increase the attack strength by 50% rounded up, but take one each of Impulse and Dilithium Critical hits on the firing ship for EACH cannon fired. :shock:
That ought to get the attention of it's target, and draw a ton of enemy fire.
D6M:
Replace the disruptors with 2 Mauler cannon. Give them a range of 10, with Accurate +2, Killzone 1, Devastating +1, Reload. Base attack is 10 points. If in Killzone 1, double the attack strength. Strength dwindles to 8 pts at 5", 5 pts at 7.5, 1 pt at 10".
If overloaded, it draws power from the engines, which damages them. So if you overloaded a Mauler Cannon, increase the attack strength by 50% rounded up, but take one each of Impulse and Dilithium Critical hits on the firing ship for EACH cannon fired. :shock:
That ought to get the attention of it's target, and draw a ton of enemy fire.
AdmiralGrafSpee
Mongoose
McKinstry said:
To each his own I guess... but they will need to include Fighters to do Hydrans - and you can bet that will happen eventually.
-Tim
Stumonster
Mongoose
(Long Post Warning)
Billclo kind of stole my thunder while I was writing this, but after looking over my SFB rules and the 'test' rules for FC for maulers, I would stat out a D6M Mauler Cruiser as using the stats shown in the book for a normal D6 but changing these:
1) Replace the phaser-1's weapon entry with phaser-2's of the same arc and AD.
2) Replace the disruptor line with two mauler lines. The lines would be
Type: Mauler
Rng: 10
Arcs: One would be PB and the other SB (More on that later)
AD: Up to 4
Traits: Seeking, Energy Bleed, Multi-Hit D6, devastating +1, Shock
Now, let me explain what this does. (Note that the idea is to use the existing ACTA: SF rules as much as possible and keep the rules simple so large battles do not bog down and yet get the SFB flavor into the weapon. The rest of the post is long, but just because I want to explain my thinking on this so that people do not think I am nuts after reading the above stats.)
Arc PB and SB would be Port Boresight and Starboard Boresight. This is centerline out to the edge of the normal forward arc to either side of the center line. Splitting this out allows fire at more than one target, and widens the arc a but over just boresight which reflects the rules in SFB. The rules in other ADB products allow firing over multiple impulses, so I think this fits. Basic rules would allow each bank to fire only at 1 target, but advanced rules would allow the 4 AD in each bank to be fired at different targets. Maulers may NOT be used fore defensive fire.
The AD is variable as far as the player may fire up to 4 from each bank, but is not required to fire all 4 if they do not desire to. (This will effect the shock trait for the weapon.)
Now for the traits. First off, seeking means that there are no to hit rolls so the weapon is auto hit as per other ADB games. It also means no shield leaks. Lastly, unless the rules were changed to say that Maulers cannot be evaded, it would give a target like a ship a chance to evade using a SA or by going over 12" and not being in the forward arc. Bases (the targets meant for maulers) could of course not evade. If one thinks there should be no chance for evasion, then a simple "Maulers may not be evaded" is all that is needed in the weapon description.
Next, energy bleed gives the weapon limited range as it should have.
Multi-hit gives the weapons the same punch as a plasma torpedo. I know randomness for the weapon is not something in other ADB products, but it may fit better in ACTA:SF.
Devastating +1 makes it a heavy weapon.
Shock: This would have to be a new weapon trait, but it needs to be kept simple. Here goes: After all attacks (regardless of how the AD are split up) make a CQ check, however, the target number is equal to the number of AD fired from the ship (i.e. total fired from both banks) during the attach phase. If the roll is made, no shock damage is taken. If the check is missed by less than 2, then the mauler has been damaged and may not be fired again until repaired. If the roll is missed by 3 or more, then the ships systems have been overloaded. Roll for a random hit on the systems table for each bank that was fired during the turn (i.e. two rolls on the table if both were fired during the turn).
If you want to allow overloading (I am not sure I do), then max AD would go to 5 per bank, with the shock damage to systems being applied automatically and should require the Overload Weapon SA.
Whew! Looks like a lot but really we are just talking about some firing arc additions and one weapon trait.
Again, just some brainstorming . . . . and I have no idea what the point value would be . . probably about that for a Romulan D6??
Billclo kind of stole my thunder while I was writing this, but after looking over my SFB rules and the 'test' rules for FC for maulers, I would stat out a D6M Mauler Cruiser as using the stats shown in the book for a normal D6 but changing these:
1) Replace the phaser-1's weapon entry with phaser-2's of the same arc and AD.
2) Replace the disruptor line with two mauler lines. The lines would be
Type: Mauler
Rng: 10
Arcs: One would be PB and the other SB (More on that later)
AD: Up to 4
Traits: Seeking, Energy Bleed, Multi-Hit D6, devastating +1, Shock
Now, let me explain what this does. (Note that the idea is to use the existing ACTA: SF rules as much as possible and keep the rules simple so large battles do not bog down and yet get the SFB flavor into the weapon. The rest of the post is long, but just because I want to explain my thinking on this so that people do not think I am nuts after reading the above stats.)
Arc PB and SB would be Port Boresight and Starboard Boresight. This is centerline out to the edge of the normal forward arc to either side of the center line. Splitting this out allows fire at more than one target, and widens the arc a but over just boresight which reflects the rules in SFB. The rules in other ADB products allow firing over multiple impulses, so I think this fits. Basic rules would allow each bank to fire only at 1 target, but advanced rules would allow the 4 AD in each bank to be fired at different targets. Maulers may NOT be used fore defensive fire.
The AD is variable as far as the player may fire up to 4 from each bank, but is not required to fire all 4 if they do not desire to. (This will effect the shock trait for the weapon.)
Now for the traits. First off, seeking means that there are no to hit rolls so the weapon is auto hit as per other ADB games. It also means no shield leaks. Lastly, unless the rules were changed to say that Maulers cannot be evaded, it would give a target like a ship a chance to evade using a SA or by going over 12" and not being in the forward arc. Bases (the targets meant for maulers) could of course not evade. If one thinks there should be no chance for evasion, then a simple "Maulers may not be evaded" is all that is needed in the weapon description.
Next, energy bleed gives the weapon limited range as it should have.
Multi-hit gives the weapons the same punch as a plasma torpedo. I know randomness for the weapon is not something in other ADB products, but it may fit better in ACTA:SF.
Devastating +1 makes it a heavy weapon.
Shock: This would have to be a new weapon trait, but it needs to be kept simple. Here goes: After all attacks (regardless of how the AD are split up) make a CQ check, however, the target number is equal to the number of AD fired from the ship (i.e. total fired from both banks) during the attach phase. If the roll is made, no shock damage is taken. If the check is missed by less than 2, then the mauler has been damaged and may not be fired again until repaired. If the roll is missed by 3 or more, then the ships systems have been overloaded. Roll for a random hit on the systems table for each bank that was fired during the turn (i.e. two rolls on the table if both were fired during the turn).
If you want to allow overloading (I am not sure I do), then max AD would go to 5 per bank, with the shock damage to systems being applied automatically and should require the Overload Weapon SA.
Whew! Looks like a lot but really we are just talking about some firing arc additions and one weapon trait.
Again, just some brainstorming . . . . and I have no idea what the point value would be . . probably about that for a Romulan D6??
shiba-tenchi
Mongoose
From my admittedly scant knowledge, I though the Marauder was some kind of robotic juggernought that some unknown malevolent race sent into known space at a regular interval (annually?) and that wreaked havoc until eventually destroyed.
Sounded like a great basis for a solo game scenario.
Sounded like a great basis for a solo game scenario.
That would be either the Juggernaut (which has more recently been given a range of littermates for SFB via Captain's Log, ranging from frigate- to battleship-sized; the original Juggy is now referred to as the Juggernaut DN), the Death Probe, or the TV-derived Planet Killer.
(You can see Ship Cards for some of the FC versions of these units here.)
(You can see Ship Cards for some of the FC versions of these units here.)
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