This is my unsanctioned, highly condensed version of the beta version UFP. For
the more complete version, see the link Roger posted earlier today. The tables
at the end are ugly, but hopefully they're
intelligible--it looks a lot better as an RTF document. This is beta
test only, not to be taken as official--do not forward it to
non-list-members or publish it. Copyright 2004 by Jon Tuffley. Any
errors and omissions are the fault of the black sheep which is staring at me.
Turn Sequence 1. Write orders 2. Roll for initiative
3. Move fighters/missiles (Primary). Beginning with the player who
lost initiative, alternate moving one Fighter Group/Heavy Missile at a
time for their primary move distance. Heavy Missiles pay one CEF for a primary
move; fighters do not.
· Instead of moving, fighters within 3 mu of any ship-friendly or
enemy-may declare that they are screening that ship. They move in
Phase 5 with their screened ship, rather than in Phase 3. · Instead of
moving, fighters within 3 mu of a friendly fighter group may declare that they
are escorting that group. They move when
their escorted group moves, and must remain in base-to-base contact
with it. 4. Launch. Beginning with the player who lost initiative, alternate
launching a ship's fighter groups/ordnance markers. Fighters are
placed in base-to-base contact with their carrier and may screen it.
Missiles are placed in accordance with their range and arc limits. Heavy
Missiles count this as a Primary Move and pay one CEF. 5. Move ships.
Screening fighters move with their ship and may end at any position within 3
mu of it.
6. Move fighters/heavy missiles (Secondary). Beginning with the player
who lost initiative, alternate moving any fighter groups or heavy missiles
which wish to pay one CEF for an optional secondary move.
7. Declare fighter/ordnance Attacks. Fighter groups/ordnance markers
declare evasive maneuvers and attacks against enemy ships. a. Fighters and
heavy missiles may pay any remaining CEF points
for evasive maneuvers, with a benefit of -1 DRM per CEF. Salvo
missiles, plasma bolts and AMTs automatically gain a -3 DRM.
b. Fighter groups may pay 1 CEF and declare an attack against any ship within
6 mu. c. Missiles within 6 mu of an enemy ship must declare an attack against
the closest enemy ship. d. Plasma Bolts must declare an attack against all
ships (friendly and enemy) within 6mu; AMTs must declare an attack against all
ships within 3 mu. 8. Resolve ship attacks. Beginning with the player who won
initiative, alternate firing one ship at a time, including that ship's
anti-fighter /ordnance fire. All fire from that ship must be declared
before any is evaluated. See Ship Fire.
9. Resolve fighter/ordnance attacks:
a. Fighter-vs-fighter/ordnance attacks: Beginning with the player
who won initiative, those fighter groups that did not declare attacks in phase
7 may fire at enemy fighter groups and ordnance markers. Each individual
fighter may fire at a separate target. They may not fire at ships.
b. Fighter-vs-ship attacks:
· Those fighter groups which did declare attacks in phase 7 now execute those
attacks. · If its target ship has been destroyed or if it wishes to for
any other reason, a fighter group may abort its anti-ship attack. It
does not regain the CEF it spent and it may not attack another ship
target. It may attack another fighter/ordnance target.
c. Surviving Plasma Bolts and AMTs detonate. d. Surviving missiles attack. 10.
End Turn. Carry out turn end actions: attempt ship repairs, remove markers,
etc.
Ship Fire
A weapon firing in Anti-Ship mode always requires a FCS devoted to
the target, and may not fire into the Aft arc if the ship used Main Drive
thrust this turn. If the weapon has a target within range and
arc, it may attack a ship or a fighter group/ordnance marker. The
target's Evasive Maneuver DRM applies to the initial To-Hit roll. Each
hit destroys one fighter, one missile, or one strength level of a Plasma Bolt
or AMT. Point Defense mode fire is never limited by Aft arc restriction and
does not always require a FCS. The target's Evasive Maneuver DRM does not
affect Point Defense mode fire; however, Heavy Fighters,
Plasma Bolts and AMTs have a -1 DRM. Each HIT destroys one fighter,
missile, or strength level of a Plasma Bolt or AMT. If the weapon has a target
within arc and Point Defense mode range, it may attack: · a fighter group or
ordnance marker attacking the ship, without using a FCS.
· a fighter group / ordnance which is not attacking the firing
ship. A FCS must be dedicated to attack the target; that FCS may also
direct Anti-Ship mode fire from other weapons against that target.
A weapon firing in Point Defense mode cannot damage a ship, as the
fire is too scattered and low-powered to affect a full-sized vessel.
If the firing ship has an ADFC devoted to covering a friendly ship, any weapon
with a Point Defense mode may fire against a fighter group or ordnance marker
which is attacking the covered ship. The target must be within arc but does
not need to be within its usual Point Defense mode range. Kra'Vak scatterguns
and Sa'Vasku interceptor pods may not use ADFC guidance.
Escorting
A fighter group being escorted by another fighter group may not be attacked by
enemy fighters unless one of the following applies: · either the escorting
group or the escorted group has fired; OR · the attacking fighter group
targets each escorting fighter with at least one of its own fighters, with
only the remainder able to fire on the escorted fighter group; OR · the
attacking fighter group accepts fire from the escorts immediately, out of
initiative order, before its own attacks are calculated.
Note that once either the escorting or the escorted group has fired, the
effect of the escort vanishes and the escorted group may be attacked normally
by other fighters.
Weapons
Anti-Ship Mode--apply Evasive Maneuver DRM
Weapon Range To Hit Dmg/hit
PDS 6mu Beam die-2* 1
Beam 1 12mu Beam die* 1
K1 gun 30mu K gun K gun
Scattergun 6mu Beam die 1
Pulser (varies) Beam die 1
Spicules, Interceptor pods: no anti-ship mode
Point Defense Mode--no Evasive Maneuver DRM
Weapon Range To Hit Dmg/hit
PDS 6mu Beam Die* 1
Beam 1 6mu Beam Die -1* 1
K1 gun 6mu Beam Die -1 1
Scattergun 6mu 1d3 1
Pulser 6mu Beam Die* 1
Spicules 6mu Beam Die* 1
Interceptor Pods12mu 1d6 1
Weapons not listed have no Point Defense mode, but may use Anti-Ship
mode to fire on fighters/ordnance.
> This is my unsanctioned, highly condensed version of
It does look good to me:) Without adding much complexity to the game and
keeping all current ships playable it 'll probably provide solutions against
massive use of fighters.
I've 2 question anyway:
1/ ADFC used for directing fire of say "standard
weapon" in anti ship mode, I understand priority goes to this standrd weapon
own fire arc and range band
compare to the regular 12" of the ADFC -looks logical
to me but I'm not sure reading the text-
2/ This amendment is to give players new opportunities
against fighters, to the cost for them of not beeing able to use all their
fire power against enemy capital ships, a good equilibrium. Then fighters are
attacking now AFTER capital ships fire, which sort of reduce there efficiency
(they don't have initiative compare to capital ships fire), good enough since
fighters can make several attacks. Same for plasm bolts, their attack round is
also resolved after capial ship fire, but since it can shoot several times
during a battle,
you can "re-use" it several time.
On the contrary this rule reduce the power of salvo
missile/ AMT and it's may not be the original goal
(provide solution against fighter attack). The new shoot opportunities of anti
ship fire can be directed to missiles, fairly logical as it's allowed against
fighters, it's consistent. But surviving missiles now strikes after capital
ship fire and there they loose a significant part of their tactical utility:
beeing able to strike enemy ships first. As
stated before it's not bothering me for "re-usable"
weapons as fighters and plasma bolts but a bit more for missiles, that are
single shot weapons.
Is this rule proposal intended effectivley to reduce
SML/SMR/AMT power ? is it a collateral damage for
these weapon? Could it be possible for missile to keep their attack resolution
before capital ships, it's giving a more complex turn sequence (adding a 7.5
missile attacks). Then fighters can't be used to attack missiel due to turn
sequence... but i've always found strange the fact that fighters could engage
very mobile missiles
:D.
It's of course a not yet tested point of view but I used almost every time my
missile boats in such way I can take advantage of their "initiative". Losing
this advantage would reduce, to me, greatly their efficiency.
what you think?
/morp
> Turn Sequence
=== message truncated ===
> morp wrote:
> I've 2 question anyway :
ADFC can *only* be used to direct Point Defense mode fire, not anti-ship
mode fire. That's why the section on ADFC doesn't say anything about
anti-ship mode fire, but it could be clarified:
Replace the sentence
"Kra'Vak scatterguns and Sa'Vasku interceptor pods may not use ADFC guidance."
with
"Kra'Vak scatterguns, Sa'Vasku interceptor pods and Anti-Ship mode fire
may not use ADFC guidance."
> 2/ [...] Then fighters are attacking now AFTER capital ships fire,
[...]
> The new shoot opportunities of anti ship fire can be
Missiles only lose the ability to strike the enemy first if the missile boats
launch straight ahead of themselves and then attempt to follow behind the
missiles into the enemy fleet. If the missile boats instead approach
the enemy obliquely and turn away immediately after launching, they're still
quite capable of striking first.
Anti-Ship fire doesn't really affect Salvo Missiles or AMTs much - their
-3
DRM against Anti-Ship fire makes them very difficult targets,
particularly for beams. Heavy Missiles (formerly known as "More Thrust"
missiles) are
usually easier for the anti-ship weapons to hit, but OTOH you need one
FCS per HM rather than one per full salvo.
The main - and fully intentional - reduction of missile power in the
beta-test rules comes from the defenders' improved area-defence
capability (using FCSs to direct PD fire at missile salvoes that don't attack
the ship itself) and their new ability to optimize their point defence
firepower
(each ship allocates its weapons - including point defences - when it is
chosen to fire, and can therefore observe the results of the previous ships'
fire before it picks its own targets).
The main - and equally intentional - IMPROVEMENT of missile power in the
beta-test rules comes from the attackers' ability to use direct-fire
weapons to damage or destroy some of those defending point defence weapons
which would otherwise be capable of shooting at the missiles, before those
point defence weapons get a chance to do so :-/
> Could it be possible for missile to keep their attack
Nope.
With the Fleet Book turn sequence you have to keep track of which
dual-purpose weapons (B1s, K1s, Pulsers, SV Pod Launchers, and even PDSs
if the ship is within 6mu of the enemy ships) fired in the PDS phase, since
they're not allowed to fire again in the Ship's Fire phase, and also since the
weapons can suffer threshold damage between the PDS phase and the ship's turn
to fire in the Ship's Fire phase. (Scatterguns are expended when they fire, so
for them this tracking is automatic.) For "human" ships
whose main point-defence weapon in the Fleet Book rules is the PDS this
tracking isn't too much trouble, but for Phalons and other races who use
the same weapons against both fighters/missiles and ships it slows the
game down quite considerably.
The reason for moving fighter/missile/plasma attacks to after the Ship's
Fire phase is to allow each ship to fire all of its weapons *at the same
time* and thus remove the need for this tracking (and consequently speed
the game up a bit, particularly for Phalons and similar forces).
If you resolve missile attacks *before* the Ship's Fire phase you have to put
the PDS phase right back in again (and thus get all that weapons tracking back
again).
Later,
hej!
> Replace the sentence
ok då! I misunderstood things, thinking that you could "spare" a fire con.
using an ADFC instead.
> Missiles only lose the ability to strike the enemy
I meant strike first in the same turn, the 1rst wave consisting of missile,
your ship's beam finishing the work. The main idea behind this is a kind of
space blitzkrig. The missile disabling enemy ships enough
hoping that they could less/not respond in the same
phase against your ship. After all the main thing is to destroy enemy ships.
So the uses of expendable missile is to make the first job (reducing enemy
respond capacity) and you can
selectively finish them off/attack other ships during
the ships attack phase. You suggest the improvement of selectively disabling
enemy PDS:
> The main - and equally intentional - IMPROVEMENT of
but then you have to damage enemy ships (smashing it
so to say ) -unless you utilise needle beam, which are
rare weapon - for letting the missile finishing it.
Missile doesn't play the main role anymore, helping in damaging enemy, but
auxiliary: destroying already wounded beasts:). That's not a tragic change;)
but io kind of see missile bit less usefull then.
For now missile are logically expensive for a one shot weapon. Even though
they're not much accurante (ordnance needs to be placed carefully) they can
potentially make quiet good punishment before you'll have to suffer enemy
damage (and that whatever the position you come from). I particularly like the
image of a fleet launching its ordonnance and attacking just after (specially
in a frontal opposition). After all they DO strike first in the actual turn
sequence and that's probably not by accident;)
> Anti-Ship fire doesn't really affect Salvo Missiles
that's no pb for me, it's logical with the global solution proposed!
> The main - and fully intentional - reduction of
again perfectly logical, it's after all the main point
of this β-test to improve ships "air-defense".
> >Could it be possible for missile to keep their
I agree, the main point is to facilitate game activity and then multiplying
exceptions is a probably not the best thing:)!
My final point is: the amendment is, as far as I understood, to prevent some
*abuse* in fighter use and simplify the game. I *hope* that this will not
change to much missile use as it is now because as you said (or was it roger?)
FT is one rare game provinding both interessting ordnance and direct fire! and
apart for this little missile thing, the whole rule looks neat to me!!!
/morp