A detailed list of house rules used by Battle Group Tampa.  A discussion is welcome. 

Federation: ASW System

The ASW (Anti Seeking Weapon) functions as per the ADD (Anti Drone Device) on the G-rack i.e. the same to-hit and damage on drones. Against a plasma torpedo (or any seeking weapon that operates like a plasma torpedo i.e. QWT) it does 6 points of 'phaser' damage which = 3 points off the plasma warhead.  It does not fire a phaser. The electrical discharge is 'phased' energy that affects the plasma warhead in the same manner as a normal phaser.  The amount of ammunition is the same as an ADD i.e. 8 rounds on the G-rack

ISC vs. Gorn

**The following is a write up from William for his game with JP**

Here's a writeup of my 1 March 2019 tournament game between myself, flying the ISC cruiser and JP and his Gorn command cruiser.

Turn one: my speed plot was a 15/28 split. JP on the upper hand, started off at speed 14 and then kicked it up to 28 after impulse 16
I started out side slipping to my right for the first eight impulses, then turned left. At range 13 I opened fire with the PPD bidding war for all four pulses; in fact I hit with every PPD pulls I fired this game. After closing the range to 10 I fired my first and Enveloping Plasma torpedo. JP responded by launching a type S at me and then turned away. We spent the rest of turn one running the torpedoes out of energy.

Turn 2: I again plotted a speed split 14/28 This time, I moved quickly at the start of the turn so that I could finish running out JP's first torpedo. Once that hit for minimal damage, I turned back again toward him, right about the time he turned back toward me and fired a second type S. One I reached range 10, I watched my second enveloping torpedo. JP turned away and ran it out for minimal damage to all six shields.

Turn 3: I close to range 13 and fired my PPD again-hitting for four pulses in doing only slight damage to his front shield because of the massive amounts of show reinforcement he put up. About range eight, I proceed to shoot five Phaser I at his front shield, doing enough damage to score 5 internals. When he rushed into attempt to even the score, I turned away and launched one of my rear firings type F torpedoes. Rather than take this on a front shield JP Decided to empty his phasers into it and taken on one of his flank shields.

Turn 4: as I was still arming torpedoes and PPD, I elected to run like a scared puppy, exchanging long-range phaser fire, turning toward him at the end of the turn recurring the fire of my soon to be reloaded PPD.

Turn 5 JP ran into the tournament barrier attempting to get away from one of my Envelopers. Using reserve warp he was able to begin Tacing toward me as the turn ended.

Turn 6: JP plotted Speed 10 as I approached him. His slow speed allowed me to approach. At range 8 I declared Emergency deceleration and hit him with all six pulses of overloaded PPD, stripping many of his weapons. He fired a Type S from a destroyed launcher and a Type from another. I launched yet another Enveloper and launched a Wild weasel the next impulse - he surrendered after the Enveloper hit.

March 2019 Spring Tournament:

William - ISC

John - Gorn

Chris - Lyran

Aaron - LDR

Nick - Peladine

Harrison - Klingon

David - Paravian

Current Standings:

William:  Win - 1/loss - 0

Chris:  Win - 1/loss - 0

David:  Win - 1/loss - 0

Nick:  Win - 0/Loss - 1

Aaron:  Win - 0/Loss - 1

John:  Win - 0/Loss - 1

This was a martial arts board originally as you can tell by the URL.  Wanted to fiddle with it for a different venue i.e. gaming.  Come in and make yourself comfortable.  It's a work in process.

Sub-space Auger - Great against an unshielded target and not so much against shields. Well, so is every other heavy weapon in the game. Breaking it down; In the last game last night I rolled average and did 33 internals thru Steves's down #4 with three SA shots at R3. Compare to 3 photons which would have done 48 if they hit. Disruptors for 24. Ion Cannon for 36. Disruptor Cannon for 36. Disruptors would be the lower value BUT are one-turn arming so average higher than the SA over two-turns. So triple damage vs. down shield 'sounds' like a lot...really is average if you roll average. Three double snake-eye rolls could have netted me 54 damage with 3 SA's at R3 BUT on the other side with suck rolls would have netted only 9 points! It is a longer ranged weapon but so is the KE and the PPD. Shielded damage is about Disruptor level damage on average. Which isn't good considering it takes a turn to cool off.

Our tactics last night in both games were more of a factor than the weapon.

My conclusion: SA is a fair to good weapon overall. Better in some areas and weaker in others. It can't overload and has a one-turn cooldown requirement offset by a 3 to arm and 1 to hold a charge.

Skipwarp missiles: Of the 8 I fired, 4 in each game...none hit. And they were heavies. They did eat up enemy resources, about 50% more than drones. But they mostly do shield-only damage with very little actual damage. Which means you can take a hit through a down shield, perhaps on purpose, and take little or no damage. Also, the ship has to pay for ALL OF THEM!!! That bumps the ship way up in BPV which means it could and probably will be fighting a ship of the next size up or a comparable ship loaded with C.O.'s.

My conclusion: I need to develop better tactics with the missiles to increase my hit %.

Warp Field Disruption Mines: Murder on seekers including plasma. However...so are WILD WEASELS. And remember the Nicos have NO shuttles so they can't have WW's. So they need to have the WFDM to compensate. Also, with no shuttles, they can't have suicide shuttles or even more importantly, no scatter packs which they could REALLY benefit from.

My conclusion: It isn't broken (and others on the boards confirm this position). It is a necessary mechanism for the Nico to allow them a measure of defense.

Nico ship: The Collapsium Armor is nice but offset by the fact that they have 1/3 less shielding than other comparable ships AND they have less internals. For example, they only have 16 warp boxes which is about 1/2 of everyone else. This means internals are going to hurt it a LOT more. It already has generally less power overall than a comparable CA. Warp engine hits are common, and I did take a L WARP hit with only 3 internals last night. This makes a HUGE difference so the armor is very necessary to give the Nico a fighting chance. Otherwise, he's a VERY easy kill.

Skipwarp looks cool but overall I can only move one more hex per turn than anyone else if I use all 16 warp. It's cool but no game-changer. A couple of situational benefits such as skipping over web/ESG or seekers but that is a timing issue. Every empire has a gimmick or gimmicks, Nico is no exception.

My conclusion: no armor, no chance of winning once internals are taken. Skipwarp is cool but the advantages are situational. It is an integral part of their design and it's nice to fly something a bit different.

Scout channels: Interesting but I'll need to read up more on them to get full value out of them. Allowed me to break lock-on to some drones. Might be more useful when lending EW but off-set by the Nico having less power than other CA's so it is limited.

My conclusion: Interesting feature to look into further. Has limits such as the powered sensor channels are blinded for 32 impulses after weapons fire for any weapon larger than a ph-3.

Pulse phasers: Definitely need the ph-1 upgrade! The option to fire as a couple of ph-3's is nice. But consider the PP is the ONLY type of phaser carried! This means NO PADDING!!! Every phaser hit will be a GOOD phaser. Phaser hits are going to drastically effect combat effectiveness in a hurry. Another reason for the armor. Most CA class vessels have 9-12 phasers with padding. Nico CA has only 8 PP's and no padding. You do the math.

And on the approach only has 4 PP's that can fire. Great firing arcs, but limits on the front 'battle pass'.

My conclusion: Ph-1 refit is necessary to be able to compete with other ships.

So overall conclusions: Good ship overall but not broken or overwhelming. Tactics play an essential part if it is going to have a chance at winning. Bad tactics and it's going to get mugged. Good tactics and average to good rolls and it competes favorably with what it has to offer.

I'm going to use this ship again so I can work on tactics for the missiles.