ACES 2 standard rules
---------------------
Last updated: Nov 2, 1997
===== OVERVIEW:
SCHEDULE
LOGISTICS
RULES
EA & ORDERS
GAMEPLAY NOTES
TWIRLING ACES BATTLE POINTS
TIPS
PREVIOUS ISSUES IN ORDERS
===== SCHEDULE:
Select a side (Coalition or Alliance) by SUN Oct 12. In the same time,
the moderator will determine who will be the Emperor of each side via
email with the candidates (high ACES battle point scores and anyone
who expressed an interest). If you don't specify a side, you'll be
assigned at that point.
Select your ship/units by SUN Oct 26. The Emperors will coordinate,
but the officer twirling each ship/unit commands that ship/unit.
Select your Commander's Options by SUN Nov 2.
Each Emperor reports (to the moderator) the starting strategic zone of
each unit in his fleet by SUN Nov 2.
Turn 1 Segment 1 orders (which may be just strategic) are due by SUN
Nov 9. Turn 1 EA forms are due just before that, by FRI Nov 7. The
results of initial SimpTacIntel will be reported as of t1s1.
===== LOGISTICS:
All players send text-based forms to the moderator with orders on a
weekly basis. The moderator sends out results, positions, damage
summaries, etc. as soon as is feasible. The moderator is setting up a
web site for rules, results, info, which can be used to submit EA and
orders, if desired. However, this is an email-based game, and the web
site is optional for participation.
Each segment of orders covers 8 impulses.
Include any ongoing orders in EACH segment's orders. The moderator does
not reconstruct references to previous orders. The following standard orders
may be desirable to include in each segment's orders:
If my ship is tractored, use up to ____ points of reserve power to fight it.
If a shield of my ship is hit, use up to ___ reserve power as shield
reinforcement to:
[ ] Reinforce the shield before damage is applied
[ ] Save a single shield box
[ ] Prevent more than ___ internals
If drones will impact me next impulse, do these:
[ ] Tractor ___ of them
[ ] Lab as many as possible
[ ] Fire __ phasers of type __ at each 4-space drone
[ ] Fire __ phasers of type __ at each 6-space drone
[ ] Fire __ phasers of type __ at each unknown-size drone
We could use http://www.irony.com for die rolls. The results are
email'd to whomever is specified. PGP tagged for authenticity, in
case anyone is concerned. Nobody would be required to use PGP with
those web dice rolls, but it's available if anyone cared to validate
the emails. If a really important roll is about to be made, a player
can request the service be used. However, I'm not about to cheat in any
way, and waste all of our time.
Rules, races, & ships are official Captain's edition, with ADB-published
errata (see http://www.task-force-games.com/sfu/sfb/errata/erratoc.html
and http://www.task-force-games.com/sfu/sfb/errata/Errata.txt), and
using the specific changes of the scenario.
As standard gaming netiquette, please always include "SFB ACES 2:
" in your subject.
This is a combat sim game, but a little role playing flavoring can enhance
the fun, and you're welcome to go by your Captain's name, name your ship, etc.
If you disagree with an action or result, please bring the issue to the
moderator's attention promptly. It is the moderator's responsibility to be
reasonable, fair, and thorough, but also to keep the game fun and moving
along. If a dispute over an interpretation of the rules and/or of orders
arises, the moderator will make a decision as promptly and fairly as is
possible, and play will continue with that precedent applied consistently
for the remainder of the game.
Transmissions from any captain to any or all others are freely allowed.
Disinformation may or may not be present. Nobody is there to police, so
why bother trying. Feel free to send in-character communications to all
of us, especially including the moderator [hint, hint], even if in a "real"
battle, not everyone could hear it. Some of you are good writers,
role-players, etc., I'm sure.
The moderator will NOT send you disinformation, unless completely
accidental, in which case let him know ASAP for correction. The moderator
will not forward transmissions to other players, unless permission obtained
for a specific purpose.
===== RULES:
The intent is to keep the rules as open as possible, in order to enable each
of you to utilize your strengths.
Because of the varied backgrounds, it is difficult to provide everyone with the
exact set of rules they prefer. If this stretches you a little, then it's
probably helping you to be a better player.
Generally, the rules are in the Basic Rulebook, Advanced Rulebook, Modules C1,
C2, C3, J, K, and the R Modules. Rules in modules M, C4, & others are
generally excluded. No Andromedan will be in this scenario.
All sub-rules of stated rules are implied.
A Intro
B How to Play
C Movement
- excluding C1.32-C1.33 Pre-Plotted Movement
- excluding C2.3 Deceleration Due to Damage
- excluding C3.8 Directed Turn Modes
- excluding C7.1 Disengagement by Acceleration
+ including ACES 2's MegaMap
+ including ACES 2's Transwarp Speed
D Combat
- excluding D3.6 Leaky Shields
+ including D6.3 Electronic Warfare
- excluding D8.0 and D24.0 Critical Hits
- excluding D15.0 Ground Combat
- excluding D16.0 Advanced Boarding Party Combat
- excluding D17.0 Tactical Intelligence
+ including ACES 2's Simplified Tactical Intelligence
+ including D20.0 Hidden Deployment
+ including D21.0 Catastrophic Damage
- excluding D22.0 Energy Balance Due to Damage
E Direct Fire Weapons
+ including ACES 2's Offensive Phaser V (more advanced Phaser I)
+ including ACES 2's Overloaded Weapons: Phasers, Heavy DF Weapons
F Seeking Weapons
FD Drones
+ including FD2.22 Improvements (must be paid for, except as allowed
in a limited manner by scenario rules)
+ including ACES 2's Overloaded Weapons: Double Firing Option
FP Plasma
+ including ACES 2's Overloaded Weapons: EPT & SHTGN
G Ship Systems
+ including G13.6 Hidden Cloaked Units (33% BPV cost to choose this
advanced cloaking device, or the standard cloaking device may be
chosen without paying that 33% BPV cost; this is a fleet option, as
is a Romulan cloaked decoy) (official addendum is to report distance
and facing to hidden-cloaked unit each impulse #8 and #24 to each unit)
+ including G24.0 Scout Functions
+ including G27.0 Romulan Cloak Decoy (maximum one large and two
small per fleet, capturing gains double the decoy shuttle's BPV cost)
H Power
J Shuttles
+ including J4.9 Fighter EW
+ including J5.0 Warp Booster Packs
- excluding J7.0 Dogfighting (use J4.51 instead)
+ including J8.0 Multi-Role Shuttles (J8.51 availability)
+ including J9.0 SWAC Shuttles (J9.31 availability)
- excluding J11.0 Fighter Pods
- excluding J13.0 Casual Bases
K Fast Patrol Ships (PF)
+ including K6.0 PF Engine Degradation (due to likely scenario length)
- excluding K7.0 Death Riders (for the same reason as suicide freighters)
M Mines
- excluding M4.5 Sensor Mines
- excluding M5.0 Types of Mine Control Systems
- excluding M6.0 Minefields
P Terrain
+ including P3.0 Asteroids
+ including P6.0 Nebulae
- excluding other terrain types
R Races, Units (see list of modules above)
S Scenarios
X X Technology
+ Advanced Missions rulebook version, because of availability, with
the following additions/changes:
+ (XD6.3145) X-ships ignore offensive EW from non-X scouts.
+ (XD13.0) Additionally: Any ADDs on the X-ship are tied into the aegis fire
control, too.
+ (XD20.25) Additionally: An X-ship counts as a scout for detection of hidden
units.
+ (XE3.32) Size-class 3 X-ships have range-40 disruptors. Size-class 4
X-ships have range-30 disruptors.
+ (XF2.13) X-drones can make one HET each period of 16 consecutive impulses.
+ (XF3.2) X-ships armed with drones can control a number of seeking weapons
equal to double their sensor rating. Other X-ships can control a number of
seeking weapons equal to their sensor rating.
+ (XF3.5) Control of X-seeking weapons cannot be transferred to a non-X-unit.
X-units can control non-X-seeking weapons.
+ (XFD10.0) X-drones cannot be carried by fighters.
+ (XFD14.1) Spearfish modules on X-drones operate as stated against X-ships.
Against non-X-ships, the one-space spearfish module will cause 2 internals
and 1 box of shield damage, and the two-space spearfish module will cause
internals and 2 boxes of shield damage.
+ (XG4.12) X-ships add one to the result for each lab (not the die roll).
+ (XG22.0) An X-ship is not required to have a legendary officer. Any legendary
officer is allowed on an X-ship.
Commando BP's are avaiable as Commander's Options, but their only effects
are improved results on the BP tables in the Basic Rulebook.
GAS specified on ships are present as on SSD with increased damage capacity,
but function as admin shuttles except may not be used as Suicide Shuttle.
If you purchase one T-bomb, you get one Dummy T-bomb with it. T-bombs shown
on an SSD are not present unless purchased, as per the rules. Those are the
capacities for the ship to carry T-bombs.
Please use fractional accounting. If you don't want to deal with fractions,
round all costs up to the nearest whole point (except Andros would be
required to use fractional accounting, to avoid abuses).
Andromedan technology is not available.
Simulator technology is not available in this scenario. (Maybe next time!
It's being requested fairly often.)
Each ship may spend up to 20% BPV for commander's options. These points
cannot be transferred to another ship, if unspent.
There are limits to the number of special crews and legendary
officers. Here are the percentages applied to our fleets:
* 1 of each legendary officer maximum per fleet.
* 1 outstanding crew maximum per fleet.
* 2 poor crews maximum per fleet.
The Legendary Captain's bluff does not cause the entire other
side's forces to disengage in a MegaMap scenario. Instead, for
the next 2 turns, all SimpTacIntel info is acquired by the enemy
about the Legendary Captain's side's units at 2 levels worse than
it otherwise would be, and for the 2 turns following that, at 1
level worse. This reflects the disinformation/bluff, and allows
the Legendary Captain's side to scare away units from a battle
(the standard benefit) or to entrap units in an unbalanced battle.
This can only be used once per scenario, per the rules. The
effect is just different.
S2.27 defines Stalemate. We have one additional condition that
starts the 10-turn clock over: a gain in SimpTacIntel level to an
enemy ship. Note that we'll have many opportunities to play a
turn a week instead of a segment a week, whenever enemies are not
close to each other. This scenario will still take many months,
though. Don't get all twisted into a knot over ship selections
and trying to tweak out a couple extra BPV, or else it'll seem
like a waste in the long run of stress that's better left for
real-life problems.
If an obvious attempt is being made to close on an enemy that is
clear to succeed, but which will take longer than 10 turns, then
a request to continue the scenario will probably be honored if we
can play multiple turns per week to get to the battle segments.
S8.3 lists some deployment restrictions we've not listed explicitly
in ACES 2 rules, such as maximum one scout per fleet, not including
PFT's or survey ships.
For drone speeds, ref FD2.454:
(A) Ships normally have all the same drone speed. (This applies to us,
except for the one abnormal ship/flotilla/squadron per side.)
(B) The official addendum reads: Ships are *not* required to pay for the
drone speed that is general availability, and might for tactical
reasons have some slower drones on board. Extra drones purchased as
such can be of any available speed.
(C) For PF's and fighters, consider the flotilla or squadron to be a
ship in the above sections.
ADB "fixed" the mandatory drone speed upgrade costs problem with their
official addendum. Well, kinda. What it implies to have drone speed
upgrades NOT be mandatory is that drone speed upgrades are now to be
purchased as commander's options, and they're NOT included within the
scenario's BPV limit for your ship(s).
I think we should keep the option open to a player to consider drone speed
upgrades to be mandatory. Otherwise, all of the commander's options
will be spent upgrading drone speeds, and I don't think that was intended
at all.
We should go with the same standards for fighters as for carrier escorts:
-- carriers require all their escorts (or any earlier/smaller valid ones)
That is, "any earlier/smaller valid ones" are allowed, where "valid" means
that the fighter version desired is allowed for that ship in the rules (usually
the R-section rule). This applied to casual carriers as well as to carriers.
Max 2 ace fighter pilots per squadron. Ref J6.11. All fighter pilots
are good unless points spent/saved otherwise. Max 1 ace PF crew per
squadron similarly. Ref K8.11: not explicitly stated, but has same chances
as fighters. Ref K8.35. All PF crews are good unless points spent/saved
otherwise. Max 4 green fighter pilots per squadron or 2 green PF crews per
flotilla, similarly. The one "abnormal" ship/squadron/flotilla per side may
exceed these limits.
This is a scenario, not a campaign. This matters for repair, ship capture,
and a few other miscellaneous situations.
A cloak is not voided by the use of transporters between docked, cloaked
units. This is not stated explicitly in the rules, but it is implied.
The enemy will know the number of ships at the appropriate level of
SimpTacIntel. It will learn info about them at the effective range,
regardless of the use of a hidden cloak or normal cloak for docked units.
Ref D17.2212.
A hard-limit BPV idea is very attractive for all future scenarios. Silly me,
I thought it'd be nice to follow the official BPV rules once. This has
caused no end of confusion. :^{
Following are the definitions of the 5 "BPV values":
"Ship's (Combat) BPV" [SHIP BPV]
-- for scenario purchase limits & balancing-purpose victory points
"Effective Adjusted (Combat) BPV" [EFFADJ BPV]
-- for basis of Commander's Options limit (multiply basis by 20%/30%)
"Commander's Options BPV" [CMDROPT BPV]
-- for valuation of Commander's Options purchases (for a ship), enemy gets
this number of victory points
"Fleet Options BPV" [FLEETOPT BPV]
-- for valuation of Fleet Options purchases (that count towards no ship),
enemy gets this number of victory points
"Gross Adjusted Economic BPV" [ECON BPV]
-- for basis of Damage/Destruction/Capture victory points (multiply basis
by 10%/25%/50%/100%/200%)
SHIP EFFADJ CMDROPT FLTOPT ECON
item BPV BPV BPV BPV BPV
--------------------------------------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
listed base combat BPV on SSD and MSC + + *4
MSS, MLS, HTS, GAS specified for ship + + +
required refits + + +
mandatory drone speed upgrades *5 + +
included admin shuttles + + +
--------------------------------------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
fighters *7 *1 *7
PFs *7 *2 *7
--------------------------------------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
optional drone speed upgrades *5 +
t-bombs, minelayer mines, some Rom NSM +
optional refits +
extra marines +
special drones +
special fighters and other shuttles +
extra fighter, shuttle, and PF equip +
UIM + *3
--------------------------------------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
minefield mines +
MRS, SWACS +
crew quality (poor/outstanding) *6 + +
legendary officers *6 + +
asteroid, web anchor buoy +
deception equipment +
computer-controlled ship +
fighter WBP's +
ace/green pilots/PF crews +
cloaked decoy +
death rider PF +
--------------------------------------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
*1 Fighters' combat BPV added in, but Cmdr's Options purchased with the
resulting extra allowance must be equipment for the fighters
*2 PF's are ships and are treated as such for BPV purposes, except that their
crew qualiity falls into a different category than for other ships
*3 These are extra UIMs stored as cargo for use in future scenarios, as far as
I can tell... they wouldn't be present in a single-scenario situation
*4 This is the same as listed combat BPV, except for some ships, all PF's,
and all fighters
*5 Note that our rules allow drone speed upgrade costs to be declared
mandatory or optional by the owning player:
> I think we should keep the option open to a player to consider drone speed
> upgrades to be mandatory. Otherwise, all of the commander's options
> will be spent upgrading drone speeds, and I don't think that was intended
> at all [by the official addendum stating that drone speed upgrades are
> not required].
*6 Notice how (non-PF) crew quality and legendary officers count twice for
victory points if they're lost!
*7 Do not count against their carrier/tender, rather as their own units
===== EA & ORDERS:
Declare your speed plot for the turn along with EA. Default is a constant
speed for the turn.
You can make conditional orders for movement, systems, and weapons.
You'll notice that if someone wanted to get crazy, they could. As long as
it's clear, that's fine. Use pseudo-code, if you prefer. But if it's not
clear, the moderator has no choice but to try to match the orders as closely
as he can, maybe not achieving optimal results for you. This is a big
difference (can be considered good or bad, depending on what you like)
between face-to-face and PBEM. Giving concise and clear orders is a great
leadership skill. I hope we're all accidentally improving ourselves as
we play. :^)
Whenever a choice that the player would normally make is not specified in
orders, it's the moderator's responsibility to achieve favorable results within
the rules and considering information normally available to the player. For
example, if a drone rack is destroyed as an internal hit, he'll choose the one
that has fired all its drones already over the one that hasn't. Whenever there
is no obvious reason to choose one over another, he'll determine randomly.
Within a class of Phasers (PH-1, PH-2, etc.), he'll determine randomly, unless
you specify otherwise or have orders about to fire some (in which case they'll
try to be saved). "Better" firing arc all depends on what you're planning
to do. Decide your priorities on boxes for damage, and list them in orders.
You can always give deterministic orders per impulse, which would ensure you
get done what you order.
I hope you agree that to maintain complete neutrality and fairness, the
moderator has to go by what the orders are, not by what the moderator
thinks the intent behind them was. There's got to be a line, or else the
moderator would end up sitting down to play the battle out alone for all
the ships. This is a problem eventually for just about every player, so
prepare for it now.
There are normally missed opportunities and goofs, in almost every
segment. You are not alone when you have one. This is the nature of
8-impulse segments and not being present every step of every impulse, to
provide an explicit context for orders, in a game of endless potential
combinations of interdependent events and restrictions.
Be as clear and concise in orders as possible. "If someone like the Kzinti
gets within range 8," is different than, "if the Kzinti gets within range 8."
"Like the Kzinti" sounds like a guess as to who it will be, but anybody
will qualify. "Land the shuttle on impulse 6" implies that it should be
tractored and pulled aboard, if it cannot land aboard ship on its own, which
may not be what you really wanted to do. The crew and computer of your ship
will carry out your orders as precisely as you specify them.
Starting out with a description of your intent can be very helpful. If you
say, "I am doing whatever I can to kill the Fed F," then that can take care
of which ship to fire at, in case of ambiguity. "Protecting my shield #1 from
damage is more important than any offensive action," is helpful in certain
situations, as another example.
It is usually a good idea to include "safety net" clauses, such as, "Fire
any photon at X if on the next impulse, X can leave its firing arc or the
range to X will increase beyond 8."
Using an impulse-by-impulse format is not required for orders, but experience
shows that doing so makes it more difficult for you to overlook opportunities
and dangers.
You don't need to write a dissertation, listing every possible combination of
events. You'll likely miss some possibilities, if you try that approach. It's
been demonstrated several times to be true.
We're all improving by experience. If you come up with any suggestions to
improve how we play, please speak up.
If you think I misinterpreted your orders, you are welcome to point it out
and state your case as to why the orders indicate otherwise. There has to
be a limitation, though, and revisions to results can be made only for true
misinterpretations of, not for amendments to, orders. I'm doing my best,
spending the time with each of your orders, to try to avoid ever going back
and redoing segments. Let's keep cross-checking each other's info.
If someone discovers a mistake that isn't catastrophic for the scenario
that was made farther in the past than the previous segment, then we'll
let is stand. If we can't see it in a week, then it must not have been
very important. We do not want to delay overall progress for minor
glitches.
If you don't turn in an EA, you get a default EA for that turn. If you don't
turn in battle orders for a segment, you get defaults for the segment.
You can miss here & there will no ill effects, but not always. If you'll be
out of town, busy, etc., you can send in orders ahead of time, simply taking a
little more risk that conditions won't change by unanticipated events.
Because you submit orders for 8 impulses at a time, there will be many
situations in which an opportunity slides right by, you're surprised by a
Suicide Shuttle, etc. It's the same for everyone. Not only does grouping 8
impulses together speed up the game, but it also allows each of us to put
whatever amount of effort each of us enjoys into playing this game. And I'm
sure there will be at least one week for each of us where there's only time to
submit obvious orders and let all the little possibilities play themselves out.
If someone has the ability to analyze all the little possibilities, they'll be
able to utilize that skill, but lots of detailed analysis is not required at
all in order to play & enjoy these scenarios.
===== GAMEPLAY NOTES:
Instead of holding Tractor Auctions, state how much power you are willing
to spend (for positive or negative tractor in each circumstance), then
you'll actually spend the minimum required to win (or you'll spend it all
and lose). All reserve power is assumed to be available to place or to
resist a tractor beam, unless declared otherwise. For Tractor Auctions
during EA, you'll have to indicate where unused power you were willing to
spend in a Tractor Auction should go.
Please note what weapons (if any) are to be used in defense, what
threats will trigger their use, how many will be triggered in each case, and
in which order they're to be used.
Declare (to the moderator) the target of a SW (drone, plasma torpedo, seeking
shuttle) when it is launched. You may share this information with
whomever else you choose.
The default damage trigger for a Scatter Pack is 1, and the default time
delay is "minimum".
I was worried about having strangers rely on each other at all, especially
unseen over the net for a long period of time (within a fleet), all along,
and I hope these things work OK:
* The moderator will notify the commanding officer (or all Admirals if the
Emperor) whenever orders/EA are not submitted for a unit. The defaults
will not hurt tactics at all in many situations (just flying along), but
they will hurt a great deal in others (closing to range 0 with full
overloads, not firing, and flying by, getting destroyed in the process).
* After any player fails to submit EA/orders twice, the commanding officer
needs to determine whether the player is reliable or not... and has the
right to reassign the player's unit(s). This is to protect the fleet
from the inevitable ways in which life gets in the way of the game for
individual players.
* A commanding officer may submit backup EA/orders for his officers, but
they _only_ have any relevance if the EA/orders are not submitted by an
officer himself. This helps to close the loop on damage to the fleet.
* If anybody leaks information to the enemy in a fleet battle (as opposed
to a free-for-all, where anything goes), you will make enemies and nobody
will play with you in the future. The PBEM SFB community is only so big,
and it doesn't take long for word to get around. Please don't even think
of it. (I'm not referring to any communications of any kind sent in the
true best interests of your side. This is _not_ meant to prevent all
communications across the sides.) If we learn of this, you're out of our
games, for sure.
* Simplified tacintel info learned about the enemy can be posted publicly
(except for spy info, whose value is of limited duration). However,
specific damage, systems results, and movement when far from the enemy's
units are all sensitive information. The moderator sends all private
info to every player on the side immediately, so that everyone can fully
participate on their own schedules during the next week. If a player
drops out of the game for some reason, the info is not sent to him, to
prevent any retaliation silliness.
===== TWIRLING ACES BATTLE POINTS:
An individual can earn Twirling Aces battle points by damaging enemy ships
singlehandedly. Approximately crippling a destroyer or finishing one off from
the point of crippling earns 0.5 point. If the enemy unit killed is
smaller, then the awards are scaled down, and if the enemy unit killed
is larger, then the awards are scaled up. Shield damage does not count.
Every individual on a side earns battle points by the success of that
side's fleet, based on Victory Points. Even destroyed ships' players earn
these, to encourage everyone to think of the team, too.
Anyone who actually participates in turn 1 earns one point. Periodically
thereafter, every player who is continuing to participate earns 0.5 point.
Special achievements (capturing an enemy ship, defeating monsters, winning a
scenario, etc.) can earn bonus points.
The points may be awarded at the end of each turn.
Basically, Twirling Aces battle points are good for 2 things: a sense
of accomplishment, and potentially seeding players for future scenarios.
===== TIPS:
Plot speed, post guards, declare repairs, initiate deck crew actions, and
initiate reloading activities during EA.
No HET on Impulse 1 (except by seeking weapons) of any Turn.
Your maximum speed is limited by the lowest speed you traveled in the last
32 impulses... +10 (+5 or +15 for some) or x2 (x3 for some), whichever is
higher, is your maximum. No speed changes before impulse 4 or after impulse
28, or within 8 impulses of another speed change. The energy allocated for
movement during the turn must generate movement points equal to the number of
hexes moved, however many different speeds that spans. If you are new to
mid-turn speed changes, then just plot a single speed for the entire turn, then
watch what everyone else is doing.
The maximum (standard) speed of a ship at any point in a turn is determined by
its available warp engine and impulse engine energy at the start of a turn
(unless using D22.0 Energy Balance Due to Damage, but we're not). A mid-turn
speed change cannot enable a ship to exceed its maximum speed even during
part of a turn. If a ship's maximum speed is 17 because it has 8 warp and 1
impulse, it cannot move faster than 17 during any portion of the turn (such
as 19 for a while then 15 for a while). If some warp boxes are being used
for another purpose, then the maximum is reduced accordingly.
While a unit is EM'ing, it cannot launch anything and it cannot
guide seeking weapons. There are 4 ECM for the ship, but also 4 NECM
("negative" ECM) applied to systems the ship itself uses, also.
Decide whether to arm a photon torpedo with a proximity fuse during energy
allocation of the second (or any subsequent, if held) turn of arming.
Hold (with 1 point of energy) an armed SS or roll (with 1 point of energy)
a charged WW, during EA.
Erratic Maneuvering increases Turn Mode by one, unless the unit is nimble.
Shuttles and PFs are nimble.
A seeking weapon must move straight forward on its first movement
after launch, unless it is able to HET by the seeking rules.
Most weapons and systems have an 8-impulse delay before next use,
even across turn boundaries.
The ships' DAMCON rating is the number of Continuous Damage Repair
repair points generated each turn, and it is the number of boxes
total that may be repaired with the CDR procedure. Only ONE system box
may be accumulating repair points at any time.
Unused shield reinforcement, tractor, transporter, HET, etc.
energy is lost and does NOT carry over to turn 2.
Capacitors, batteries, or a weapon arming cycle of some kind
is required to carry over energy.
It is important to list all ranges (a range of ranges is ok) at
which weapons/defenses will be fired.
It is important to list all conditions under which
weapons/defenses will be fired.
It can be very useful to specify alternate targets for
weapons/defenses, in case the primary targets are for
some reason destroyed/avoided by other means.
The only way to tell a real vs. pseudo plasma torpedo is to let it
impact. Each launcher gets one pseudo plasma torpedo for the scenario.
Effects of being crippled (50% of internals destroyed):
can fire probe as weapon, can use emer life support, lose
nimble status, loss of HET bonus(es) (Ref S2.4)
Effects of being uncontrolled (no control spaces undestroyed, or out of range
of commanding officer in a fleet):
turn mode class one higher, no HET, no Quick Reverse, no
mid-turn speed changes, no EM, no Emer Decel, impulse 1-16
tacs lost, fire/launch at only one target in one impulse per
turn, half drone control ability, no tractor, no lab id, no
ECCM, no WW launch, no scout functions, no mine functions, no
Aegis, no UIM, no DERFACS, no SFG, no DisDev, no Flywheel
===== PREVIOUS ISSUES IN ORDERS:
The following are some issues with orders we've had in the past, and how
I've tried to resolve them fairly. I really want to keep everyone happy...
that's a struggle between being forgiving on orders problems, so that PBEM
doesn't ruin the game, and *not* being forgiving, so that whoever didn't
have orders problems doesn't get disadvantaged. If you have suggestions,
or enhancements to the following, I'm listening. The best thing anybody
can do is to provide clear & concise orders every week. Send them early,
if necessary.
Movement:
* maximum speed due to warp restrictions (C12.38) exceeded
-- reduce to maximum speed, then resolve energy balance as below
* incorrect calculation of speed cost for intended speed plot (C12.21)
-- increase/decrease speed at least critical time range of turn,
or resolve energy balance as below, if it's clear that the speed
plot is more important than another use of the energy
* lacking a speed plot
-- constant speed
* forgetting to pay EM energy in EA when EM announced impulse 32 of
previous turn
-- pay EM energy in EA, resolving energy balance as below
* forgetting to pay braking energy
-- attempt quick reverse
* no orders for a segment
-- move forward, even to hit terrain
Energy:
* total energy spent exceeds total available
-- take energy from items that seem to have least priority in orders
* not having EA at all for a turn
-- (results vary, depending on power curve & systems of ship)
-- life support, normal shields/panels, AFC
-- arm multi-turn arming heavy weapons that previously commenced cycle
-- move at most recent speed, retaining EM/no-EM
-- charge phaser capacitors
-- maximum reserve energy
-- faster movement, if legal
-- leftovers into general reinforcement
Weapons:
* firing with no chance to hit, due to ECM, for example
-- fire, as ordered, since it doesn't break any rule
* firing when out of firing arc
-- delay firing until legal, unless obviously not desired at the
later time by another order
* not firing when moderator thinks it would be good to fire
-- don't fire, as ordered, since it doesn't break any rule
* firing at other than optimal range
-- fire, as ordered, since it doesn't break any rule
* no orders for a segment
-- no weapons fire and move forward
* "fire when in range"
-- fire all possible weapons as soon as possible
Launches:
* launching a shuttle or seeking weapon while performing EM
-- delay launch until legal, unless obviously not desired at the
later time by another order
* not launching WW when moderator thinks it would be good to do so
-- don't launch, as ordered, since it doesn't break any rule
* no orders for a segment
-- no launches
Systems:
* 8-impulse delay before next use violated (usually on the following turn)
-- delay use of system/weapon until legal, unless obviously not
desired at the later time by another order
* no orders for a segment
-- no systems use
E-mail:
* e-mail access is down, for any of a thousand reasons
-- use alternative or friend's e-mail address to let us know
-- you can phone the moderator at 972-604-5881
-- continue with defaults, as specified above
Rules:
* player attempts to break a rule
-- if for the current segment, moderator corrects actions, achieving
desired result if possible in another obvious, standard manner
-- if for an older segment, leave it, unless devastating to scenario
* moderator attempts to break a rule
-- if for the most recent segment, correct it, re-evaluating conditional
orders
-- if for an older segment, leave it, unless devastating to scenario
