Which one goes BOOM?

[deadshane]

Gorn have lots of shuttles and a quick launch capability that I thought was useless...until thinking about it tonight.

Go on "Lauch suicide shuttle" orders. Launch your suicide shuttle...AND another regularly manned shuttle. (you'll have to number your shuttles to be fair) Note down which shuttle is the one that goes BOOM!

Now, instead of wasting only a single phaser three to stop the shuttle, your opponent has to use two phasers to stop the threat.

Keep your formation tight and just imagine...right before the battle get's close and sloppy, you lauch two shuttles from each of your say....6 ships. (assuming a 1000pt battle) 12 shuttles now on the board with 6 of them that are dangerous to the enemy...but he doesnt know which ones.

....don't forget that if you hit on 6's they bypass sheilds!

Muahahahaha!!!! :twisted:

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

Unfortunately I don't think there is any "Hiding" information from your opponent in CTA:SF.

 

[deadshane]

Unfortunately I don't think there is any "Hiding" information from your opponent in CTA:SF.

That's what I would expect someone to say after getting hit with 2-3 Suicide Shuttles. I havent been able to find anything that states that you would have to disclose the nature of each shuttle.

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

True. That is just what I suspect the "spirit" or "intent" of the rules to be. Personally I find the idea of "guess who" clever. It'd be nice to see the suicide shuttle get some use, I've only found one possible good idea of when to use it and that idea is very situational.

Off topic a bit, I sent you a PM with some Gorn talk I'd like your opinion on.

 

[deadshane]

True. That is just what I suspect the "spirit" or "intent" of the rules to be. Personally I find the idea of "guess who" clever. It'd be nice to see the suicide shuttle get some use, I've only found one possible good idea of when to use it and that idea is very situational.

Off topic a bit, I sent you a PM with some Gorn talk I'd like your opinion on.

Problem with determining spirit or intent is that it varies from player to player and situation to situation.

personally...I see no other reason for quick launch. It has no function in the game outside of special scenarios. That leads me to the question...do the ships pay points for it?

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

In so much as the CTA:SF points costs are based on the FedCom points costs where multiple shuttle bays might have cost points, yes. However, since points costs were supposedly adjusted via play test, I doubt it really made a difference given how rarely shuttles come into play.

 

[deadshane]

hehehe...I see Gorn using it all the time with this little trick!

 

[Captain Jonah]

Sorry guys, Hide the SS was stopped some time ago, I sugested it with a number of other tactics and the result was, no suicide shuttles are not hidden. All details are known, you cannot hide suicide shuttles in a crowd of normal ones.

Star trek has ship sensors that can detect individual people on a lanet surface from orbit, detecting a big unstable anti matterplasma charge is fairly easy in comparison.

I know, its sad , I though it was a good way to use the Gorn double launch. Its not like shuttles are much use otherwise. You can put marrines on them but they are slower than even a crippled ship. Plus I think the charge AND lauch thing was ruled to prevent holding them for later when you tractor some poor sap.

 

[tneva82]

hehehe...I see Gorn using it all the time with this little trick!

Assuming it's legal.

When everything else is public why this would be secret?

 

[deadshane]

Why would you put marines on a shuttle? There are no rules for hit and run raids from a shuttlecraft...correct?

 

[Greg Smith]

There are currently no uses for normal shuttles (and so Quick Launch is a useless trait at present).

 

[Captain Jonah]

Hit and run is a special action with transporters.

A shuttle can hold 6 marines.

Probably need to be ruled by the man with the red name but if you can catch a ship with your shuttle why can you not launch hit and runs from a shuttle. Its the sort of thing that has happened in just about every ship based sci fi film ever, fly into or crash through the shuttle bay, disembark and shoot the place up :lol:

If you have someone in a tractor thats 6 hit and runs with your shields still up :twisted:

Of course the down side is if someone shoots that shuttle, that a lot of dead marines

There are currently no uses for normal shuttles (and so Quick Launch is a useless trait at present).

Hey thats the Gorn special trait you are talking about there, some people get +1 Initiative, we get to launch two shuttles. Thats a realy useful.......................... erm wait :roll:

 

[deadshane]

Shuttles only hold 1 marine after the Errata.

 

[Da Boss]

Normal shuttles are indeed presently useless as far as I can see - they removed the phasers they have in some SFU games (*) so they could not defend / attack ships .

They can't make hit and run attacks as they would need to be able to do the "Transport Marines" SA and they can't do that as Shuttles can't undertake SA (p20). Same with gaining Information points I think - they can't do it?

(*) One of a number of: "Everything has to be exactly the same - but except when it not when it does not matter at all..........."

 

[scoutdad]

Quoth Matthew in this thread (it's the final post one page one!

It is not an error. You really can only charge one such shuttle

 

[McKinstry]

Quoth Matthew in this thread (it's the final post one page one!

It is not an error. You really can only charge one such shuttle

In addition, I believe suicide shuttles count as seeking weapons and cannot miss, thus there is no bypassing of shields on a six.

 

[Greg Smith]

In addition, I believe suicide shuttles count as seeking weapons and cannot miss, thus there is no bypassing of shields on a six.

No, they aren't. They roll to hit as normal and will bypass shields on a 6.

 

[McKinstry]

In addition, I believe suicide shuttles count as seeking weapons and cannot miss, thus there is no bypassing of shields on a six.

No, they aren't. They roll to hit as normal and will bypass shields on a 6.

So not completely useless, merely almost completely useless?

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

Normal shuttles are indeed presently useless as far as I can see - they removed the phasers they have in some SFU games (*) so they could not defend / attack ships .

They can't make hit and run attacks as they would need to be able to do the "Transport Marines" SA and they can't do that as Shuttles can't undertake SA (p20). Same with gaining Information points I think - they can't do it?

(*) One of a number of: "Everything has to be exactly the same - but except when it not when it does not matter at all..........."

Actually Shuttles have no Phaser-3 in Federation Commander either. While I can't give you a link, I heard that Steve Cole (SFU head honcho) has stated in the past that giving (normal) Shuttles phasers in Star Fleet Battles was "a mistake" (probably as in poor judgement rather than factual error) and that he'd take them out if he could, but its far too established by now (I don't get that thought, why not? People can adjust/deal with it).

 

[Iron Domokun]

It was a mistake because that opened the doors for fighters and carriers, which came to dominate the game. As for removing it, there was a period where ADB issued raftloads of rules changes and "errata", which drove a lot of gamers away and those who remember it and still play are allergic to changes, even relatively minor ones, in long-established rules.