Topic: Anyone care to talk tactics?

[Dizzy]

Fighter replenishment is covered by the number of deck crews. We use a 2/3rds rule of ftrs in SFC to SFB. Works well when using SFB ftrs with warp booster packs.

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

Last posted in over a year ago, this is too good not to be bumped!

Lately, I have realized how useful those phaser-1s can be. I have heard the tactic called the "phaser enema" - where an opponent who turns to run from your plasma reveals their rear shield to phaser fire. It seems like the phasers actually do more damage than the plasmas during the course of the battle, like when two cautious plasma ships are playing the ballet game.

Sometimes with Klingon ships, I like to turn the disruptors off right after firing, and boost that power into the rear shield and speed, so that opponents using the above phaser trick will have to get through ECM and several points of reinforcement. But it does keep the dizzies only every 1 and 1/2 turns...

[Panzergranate]

I had an interesting book for Chrismas and amongst all the WW2 naval usual ship info complete with fates, like the IJN Surya CVA was sunk by a single bomb dropped by Dive Bomber Ace, Commander Best, which penetrated the deck elevator during the battle of Midway, was some of the ships involved in the Atlantic U-boat battles.

The Flower Class Corvette was the most numerous warship of WW2 with 166 hulls built over a 2 year period (167 if you count the fictional "HMS Compass Rose from the film "The Cruel Sea").

These little comercial trawler based ships carried the most advanced electronics detection of any warship and specialised in solely hunting U-Boats and turned the tide of the Battle Of The Atlantic, sinking more U-Boats than all other vessels, aircraft and blimps conbined.

Armament was 1 x 5.5" dual purpose gun, 1 x 20mm. Oerlikon autogun and 1 x 25 barrelled SONAR targetted "computer" fired "Hedgehog" anti-submarine mortar launcher.

This device fired all 25 depth detonated bombs over a set pattern and were fired automatically by the ship's "computer" at the correct moment, ahead of the Corvette and had a 100% on target hit rate, hence the high kill rate of U-Boats.

Now picture the situation in SFB during the General War after "Eagle Day" when the Romulan Empire decides to attack the Federation.

Pretty soon after the event the Romulans would have conducted their own version of the "Battle Of The Atlantic" against Federation colonies and outposts, in order to weaken them and render them impotent or easy meat for capture.

With the Lyran and Klingon Fronts tying up so many warships, the Federation would not be able to spare enough escorts for all essential convoys and Q-Ships, as players of SFB and SFC have found, are no match for an experienced Romulan player using a cloaked ship.

I would surmise, using tactical reasoning, that the Romulans would have operated large numbers of Snipes, which were clearly obstelete against proper frigates from enemy races or even their allies, in a similar role as WW2 U-Boats operating a "Wolf Pack" system in order to prosecute a blockade and starvation system against key Federation postions too strong to immediately directly confront.

The Federation would begin to feel this campaign and would be unable to donate more than a few FFR, CLR and conventional warships to cover every convoy and counter the blockades.

With the shipyards hard pressed, the Federation would not also be able to build aditional hulls or convert over vessels.

However the commercial shipyards, being unable to build warships of any type, can churn out freighters almost as quickly as they are lost, rather like "Liberty Ships".

Then some bright spark at Star Fleet, with and interest in WW" naval history, remembers how Corvettes won the "Battle Of The Atlantic" three centuries before.

By removing the backbone spine from a small freighter, extending the engineering hull to double its length and welding the two together, the 23rd century version of the Flower Class Corvette was created.

The commercial shipyards could churn out several hulls a week.

Armament was 1 x Ph2 FX, 1 x Ph3 and 6 x Cargo Tranporters with a store of 24 Transporter Bombs. The ship carries a single Special Sensor and 6 x Btty (for the Cargo Transporters).

Shields = 5 all around.

The Corvette only has very basic special sensor functions, enough to break lock ons, aid with the detection and hunting of cloaked ships, etc. but cannot act as a proper scout.

I've created and experimented with a model of the Corvette in SFC both as hunter and the hunted in games and basically the result of an attack on a cloaked Snipe, even a Snipe C, is as follows.

1- The Corvette makes its attack run, Snipe player cloaks.

2- The Corvette chucks out 6 x Transporter Bombs onto the Snipe inflicting serious damage.

3- The Snipe is unable to maintain its cloak, due to damage, and de-cloaks.

4- An accompanying escort warship finishes it off.

As the Snipe player I found that there were some tactics that could be employed to dodge the Transporter Bombs such as dropping speed to under 4. However, the Corvette player can make feined runs to force the Snipe player to slow down and drop behind the convoy it is supposed to be attacking, which will allow it to escape, ths a result to the Federation player.

The Snipe player can lure the Corvette to lag behind any warship escorts and Q-Ship with the convoy, de-cloak and hit it with a Plasma (Corvettes were one or two hit wonders even in WW2), quickly cloak again and move onto attacking the convoy.

We've had some fun here playing around with the concept of Corvettes, developing tactics to use with and against them.

We've worked out that a typical formation for an average convoy would be 2 x Corvettes to support a Q-Ship or Escort warship.

It was quickly worked out that a lone Corvette is fair game for an uncloaked Snipe, so some sort of warship deterant to be close at hand to deter such a tactic.

A massive Transport Bomb deplyment is still the best way to nail a cloaked ship in SFB and SFC, it is just that normal ships don't carry enough Transporter Bombs or Transporters to deploy them in meaningful quantities.

I'm working on an SSD for submission to ADB.

[Nemesis]

Link to an old tactics thread

[Panzergranate]

Auxilary PF Tenders and Auxilary CV and CVAs first appeared in the 1988 Comander's Edition Ruleset, which SFC 1 and SFC 2 are most closely built around.

In the SFB campaigns and the LAN SFC 1 campaigns (we run here) Auxilary PF Tenders and Carriers are cheapo BPV fill ins that allow more flexible coverage of a larger area than ploughoing the points into a proper warship equivalent.

Being able to field more PFs or fighters in more theatres of operations is a bonus.

On the negative side, where as a proper warship based version can travel across space at Warp 7 (or Warp 8 for the Feds), Auxilaries, being freighter based, trundle at a more slower pace of Warp 3 (27c).

Swings and roundabouts.

I prefer Auxliaries as it doesn't feel so bad losing one of them against an BPV expensive proper warship version.

[Soreyes]

Sometimes in PvP the people who you are going against know your tactics. I think everyone knows my tactics since I fly nothing but a DF or a DWD. On Dyna Campaigns I do a lot of deep striking. So a lot of times I get some of the better pilots coming on over to kick me out of the area. What this leads to is a lot of one sided battles. Mostly against CA or higher Hulls.

All I can say is that I take basic Drone tactics and at times Pervert them
The new tactics I figure out work about 10% of the time, but when they do 

Scratch 1 R-PRA, H-LM, K-C7 and several D-7Ls (Have to admit the C-7 was in a Nebula)

[FPF-Paladin]

Generally if I'm in something obviously undergunned or 1+ hull sizes smaller, and I manage to get internals on them, I consider it a partial victory for me...  geez, takes a lot of balls to face a C7 in a DF 

[Panzergranate]

It's the same with SFB and other wargames in that regular opponents know the way you'll play a situation.

Other considerations are historical and technological doctorines and constraints that either hamper or assist you.

I also play WW2 1:76 Scale (25mm.) wargaming, usually the European 1940 early campaigns, where if playing as the French player one is about as handicapped as possible, or the Soviets in 1941, where despite having a well equipped and dynamic army, poor command and control restrictions (no troop or tank radios), poor ammunition quality and tactical restrcitions make winning a game very difficult.

I've never liked balanced wargames as they're not realistic in nature. Being up against it stimulates the mind into some radical tactical gambits.

[Soreyes]

Generally if I'm in something obviously undergunned or 1+ hull sizes smaller, and I manage to get internals on them, I consider it a partial victory for me...  geez, takes a lot of balls to face a C7 in a DF 

    Did not have much of a choice with the C-7. I was Deep striking and got caught   The pilot of the C-7 made a tactical Error...... Kind of. He got on my Tail and started to close the gap. When he got to range 8, I hit emergency Stop and let loose with 6 Type IV drones at range 2 into his #1 shield. All six hit and gutted him. His phasers did some major damage to my ship. But I still had 3 drone racks and could get up to a speed of 12. My next pass did him in

What I like about the DF in a Nebula is that I can turn off the Phaser Three's, crank my ECM up to six, and still fly at speed 30.... with out really loosing any Shields

[Panzergranate]

You forgot to pop a couple of mines during the farntic maneuvering.... or were you trying not to be too cruel.... 

My best victory, in a LAN skirmish, was flying an Fderation Auxilary CVA and taking out a pair of Klingon F5 somethings.

They'd never come across an Auxilary CVA so assumed that it was just a large freighter rigged to carry fighters, so adopted tactics solely for dealing with the fighters I was busy scrambling to attack them.

I concentrated all 16 x F4 fighters onto one F5, and this player cunningly led them a safe distance away, so that the other player could make a seemingly safe attack.

My drone racks opened up at point blank and he wasn't expecting a drone salvo, followed up with the Phasers and hit and run, first on the transporters and next on his beam weapons.

I then dumped out a cluster pack and sent him to Storbakol. Death in a mere matter of seconds.

I pulled back my surviving fighters and launched shuttle to supplement them, putting them on "Protect Me".

Having witnessed the true firepower of a AuxCVA, the other player decided that he'd better live to fight another day and disengaged.

My AuxCVA just wasn't even close to fast enough to give chase.

For those not in the know, even the smaller AuxCV  carries more weaponry than a large Q-Ship, plus fighters too.

Though, in SFB, AuxCV and CVA are restricted in fighter choice to older types, like F4 and F8 fighters.

[Soreyes]

If I wanted to go into battle against a carrier I would have to go with the MIRV variant of of the Kzinti HDW. Gives you two Disr, 5 PH-1, 2 PH-3, a butt load of ADD, 1 MIRV rack and 5 B racks..... and 2 fighters. Not to mention that you have enough power to arm your weapons and fly at speed 30 with 3 ECM.

 I just get the enemy fighters to follow me and take em out 1 squadron at a time. Fire a MIRV into a squadron followed closely by 5 Type IV drones and most fighter Squadrons go Poof. except for ISC Torts, HYD Sting II, and FED F-14s

[Nemesis]

They'd never come across an Auxilary CVA so assumed that it was just a large freighter rigged to carry fighters, so adopted tactics solely for dealing with the fighters I was busy scrambling to attack them.

I concentrated all 16 x F4 fighters onto one F5, and this player cunningly led them a safe distance away, so that the other player could make a seemingly safe attack.

My drone racks opened up at point blank and he wasn't expecting a drone salvo, followed up with the Phasers and hit and run, first on the transporters and next on his beam weapons.

I then dumped out a cluster pack and sent him to Storbakol. Death in a mere matter of seconds.

Which is an excellent example of why you use probes on unfamiliar ships and assume that they have abilities they haven't used yet until proven otherwise.  Having an adjacent computer where you can look up the ships specs is an advantage for those who have it (not one that I use though).

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

I have a question about Klingons: How to be more aggressive?

In a duel environment, most of the time I do the standard saber dance, and sometimes get an oblique phaser strike at range 8 or 4 -- like when the other player fires off proxies and is empty. But when the enemy chases, I usually turn off the dizzies and run at 31, putting power into the rear shield, phasers, and ECM. Then I try to fire ph1 at their front until it goes and they stop chasing.

However, I have a feeling that there is a more aggressive way to fly Klink, but I just don't know how. I would like to be a less conservative/passive pilot, with Klinks at least. Any suggestions?

[marstone]

They'd never come across an Auxilary CVA so assumed that it was just a large freighter rigged to carry fighters, so adopted tactics solely for dealing with the fighters I was busy scrambling to attack them.

I concentrated all 16 x F4 fighters onto one F5, and this player cunningly led them a safe distance away, so that the other player could make a seemingly safe attack.

My drone racks opened up at point blank and he wasn't expecting a drone salvo, followed up with the Phasers and hit and run, first on the transporters and next on his beam weapons.

I then dumped out a cluster pack and sent him to Storbakol. Death in a mere matter of seconds.

Which is an excellent example of why you use probes on unfamiliar ships and assume that they have abilities they haven't used yet until proven otherwise.  Having an adjacent computer where you can look up the ships specs is an advantage for those who have it (not one that I use though).

SFC probes are way differrent animal then SFB probes though.  SFC ones are a billion times more usefull.

[Nemesis]

SFC probes are way differrent animal then SFB probes though.  SFC ones are a billion times more usefull.

True but I assumed SFC based on his saying "My best victory, in a LAN skirmish,"

In any case SFB rule D17 has to do with intelligence. At a range of 14 the K-F5 could have read the number of heavy weapons and the number of phaser mounts (though not the type of mount) and number but not type of drone racks that are not in shuttle bays.

In SFB I used probe drones to gather such intelligence information from a longer distance. 

[marstone]

SFC probes are way differrent animal then SFB probes though.  SFC ones are a billion times more usefull.

True but I assumed SFC based on his saying "My best victory, in a LAN skirmish,"

In any case SFB rule D17 has to do with intelligence. At a range of 14 the K-F5 could have read the number of heavy weapons and the number of phaser mounts (though not the type of mount) and number but not type of drone racks that are not in shuttle bays.

In SFB I used probe drones to gather such intelligence information from a longer distance.

yes, but in SFB a probe only has a range of 6 so you only get a max of 6 hexes closer, not the SFC across the map.  So information is still hidden even after a probe is launched.  It helps, some, could change the course of an attack some.  But it doesn't give a ship break out like SFC does.

[Nemesis]

yes, but in SFB a probe only has a range of 6 so you only get a max of 6 hexes closer, not the SFC across the map.  So information is still hidden even after a probe is launched.  It helps, some, could change the course of an attack some.  But it doesn't give a ship break out like SFC does.

Probe drone.  It is a standard drone with the warhead replaced with a sensor package.  As I recall they could even relay information from one to another so you can launch them in series to gather data from longer distances. 

[marstone]

yes, but in SFB a probe only has a range of 6 so you only get a max of 6 hexes closer, not the SFC across the map.  So information is still hidden even after a probe is launched.  It helps, some, could change the course of an attack some.  But it doesn't give a ship break out like SFC does.

Probe drone.  It is a standard drone with the warhead replaced with a sensor package.  As I recall they could even relay information from one to another so you can launch them in series to gather data from longer distances.

probe drone yeah, wasn't thinking that way.  Quick check on rules, no, no relay ability on them.  But they do have a good range.  I do think that is what SFC bases their probe on (except for speed).

[Soreyes]

The thing I like about the SFC probe is, lets say that I come across a R-RKL and decide to attack in my DF. (ask Dizzy) As soon as the RKL spits out its plasma. I launch a probe at the RKL. For a few seconds I can see what tubes were launched and which ones are still holding there plasma. Gives me the chance to decide weather to continue my attack or to run like a scared little kitten

[MrBad151]

I have a question about Klingons: How to be more aggressive?

In a duel environment, most of the time I do the standard saber dance, and sometimes get an oblique phaser strike at range 8 or 4 -- like when the other player fires off proxies and is empty. But when the enemy chases, I usually turn off the dizzies and run at 31, putting power into the rear shield, phasers, and ECM. Then I try to fire ph1 at their front until it goes and they stop chasing.

However, I have a feeling that there is a more aggressive way to fly Klink, but I just don't know how. I would like to be a less conservative/passive pilot, with Klinks at least. Any suggestions?

If you want to really learn how to play a Klink, fly some of the early/mid era ships.  These ships are known as "Glass Arses" because they have almost bare min shielding on the rear half of the shields. 

About the best situation to be in, is flying in circles with another ship.  You will find that 90% of you weapons (including your heavy weapons) will hit him, while only 50-70% of you opponents weapons can hit you (and often times NOT his heavy weapons).

Feds.. Easy to learn.. easy to be good.. Almost impossible to master
Klinks.. Hard to learn.. hard to be good.. if you made it this far, there aren't many who can stand against you!