Starfleet Command Volume II: Empires at War Unofficial Strategy Guide and FAQ by Kasey Chang released July 1, 2002 0 Introduction 0.1 A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR This is a FAQ, NOT a manual. You won't learn how to play the game with this document, and I'm NOT about to add it to ease the life of software pirates, no matter how old the game is. Most of the tactical combat tips and discussions will also apply to SFC1 and SFC2:Orion Pirates. This version is NOT complete yet. I mainly play as the Federation and Mirak (Kzinti) so those sections are done. As of this guide I've also finished as the Klingons and Hydrans. When I find the time to play other races those sections will be added. Some of you may recognize my name as the editor for the XCOM and XCOM2: TFTD FAQ's, among others. If you don't care about all these verbiage (it's mainly for people who want to redistribute the guide) you can jump right to the end of this section and read some of the FAQs. If you like the FAQ, send me $1.00. :-) 0.2 TERMS OF DISTRIBUTION This document is copyrighted by Kuo-Sheng "Kasey" Chang (c) 2002, all rights reserved excepted as noted above in the disclaimer section. This document is available FREE of charge subjected to the following conditions: 1) This notice and author's name must accompany all copies of this document: " Starfleet Command Volume II: Empires at War Unofficial Strategy Guide and FAQ" is copyrighted (c) 2002 by Kasey K.S. Chang, all rights reserved except as noted in the disclaimer." 2) This document must NOT be modified in any form or manner without prior permission of the author with the following exception: if you wish to convert this document to a different file format or archive format, with no change to the content, then no permission is needed. 2a) In case you can't read, that means TXT only. No banners, no HTML borders, no cutting up into multiple pages to get you more banner hits, and esp. no adding your site name to the site list. 3) No charge other than "reasonable" compensation should charged for its distribution. (Free is preferred) Sale of this information is expressly prohibited. If you see any one selling this guide, drop me a line. 4) If you used material from this, PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE the source, else it is plagiarism. 5) The author hereby grants all games-related web sites the right to archive and link to this document to share among the game fandom, provided that all above restrictions are followed. Sidenote: The above conditions are known as a statutory contract. If you meet them, then you are entitled to the rights I give you in 5), i.e. archive and display this document on your website. If you don't follow them, you did not meet the statutory contract conditions, thus you have no right to display this document. If you still do so, then you are infringing upon my copyright. This section was added for any websites who don't seem to understand this. For the gamers: You are under NO obligation to send me ANY compensation. However, I do ask for a VOLUNTARY contribution of one (1) US Dollar if you live in the United States, and if you believe this guide helped your game. If you choose to do so, please make your US$1.00 check or $1.00 worth of stamps to "Kuo- Sheng Chang", and send it to "2220 Turk Blvd. #6, San Francisco, CA 94118 USA". If you don't live in the US, please send me some local stamps. I collect stamps too. 0.3 DISTRIBUTION This USG should be available at Gamefaqs (http://www.gamefaqs.com) and other major PC game websites (such as gamesdomain.com, gamespot.com, etc.). I only release it to Gamefaqs, so they would always have the latest. If you get it from anywhere else, beware that it may NOT be the latest and greatest version. To webmasters who wish to archive this FAQ on their website, please read the terms of distribution in section 0.2. It is quite clear. 0.4 OTHER NOTES There is no warranty for this unofficial strategy guide. After all, it depends on YOU the player. All I can do is offer some advice. Some bits of information here are condensed, summarized and adapted from the SFB Tactics Manual (original edition). PLEASE let me know if there's a confusing or missing remark... If you find a question about this game that is not covered in the USG, e-mail it to me at the address specified later. I'll try to answer it and include it in the next update. The address below is spelled out phonetically so spammers can't use spambots on it: Kilo-Sierra-Charlie-Hotel-Alpha-November-Golf-Seven-Seven AT Yankee-Alpha-Hotel-Oscar-Oscar DOT Charlie-Oscar-Mike To decipher this, simply read the first letter off each word except for the numbers and the punctuation. This is "military phonetics" or "aeronautical phonetics" in case you're wondering. This document was produced on Microsoft Word 97, with some notetaking on a Handspring Visor with the Targus foldable keyboard. Some editing done with Editpad (editpadclassic.com). 0.5 THE AUTHOR I am just a game player who decided to write my own FAQs when the ones I find don't cover what I want to see. Lots of people like what I did, so I kept doing it. Previously, I've written Unofficial Strategy Guides (USGs) for XCOM, XCOM2:TFTD, Wing Commander, Wing Commander 2, Wing Commander 3, Wing Commander 4, Privateer, Spycraft, 688(I) Hunter/Killer. Mechwarrior 3, MW3 Expansion Pack, Mechwarrior 4, Mechwarrior 4: Black Knight, Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, The Sting!, Terranova, Fallout Tactics, and a few more. Most of them should be on http://www.gamefaqs.com, the biggest FAQ site around. To contact me, see 0.4 above. 0.6 DISCLAIMER/ COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Starfleet Command, Starfleet Command Volume II: Empires at War, Starfleet Command Volume II: Orion Pirates are trademarks of Interplay and its strategy division, "14 Degrees East" respectively. Starfleet Command Volume II: Empires at War was created by Taldren. http://www.taldren.com Star Fleet Battles is a registered trademark of Amarillo Design Bureau. Starfleet Command is partially based on Star Fleet Battles. See http://www.starfleetgames.com for more details. Starfleet Command and Star Fleet Battles are both based on/inspired by Star Trek, which is a trademark by Paramount Pictures. See http://gaming.startrek.com for all you want to know on Star Trek computer and console games. Some material in this guide is taken from the master ship list and master fighter list included with the game. This guide was written withOUT having read the official strategy guide published by BradyGames. That is a good reference to have, if a bit pricey. 0.7 REVISION HISTORY 01-JUN-2002 Initial Release, only has Fed and Mirak information, no info on the special missions. About 50 pages. 12-JUN-2002 Second release, mistakes fixed (like calling Dynaverse "Metaverse", blame my spellchecker!) major reorganization into 3 parts (tactics, Dynaverse, and ships), added Klingons discussion, more detailed maneuver tips, more info on special missions, some Dynaverse play tips. Double in size, about 100 page. 01-JUL-2002 Added Hydran and ISC discussions, fighter tactics, fleet tactics, cloak tactics, drone tactics, and more. Added LOTS of notes from ISC campaign. All ship info is now included. Also included Mirak mission info provided by 3dot14. Right now it's at about 165 pages. 0.8 THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: Can you send me SFC2 (or portions thereof)? A: No. Q: Can you send me the install code? A: That's a portion of the game. Q: Can you send me the manual (or portions thereof)? A: That's a portion of the game too. Q: Can you tell me how to play the game? A: Read the manual. Q: What are the keyboard shortcuts? A: Read the manual or look in the game options Q: Which race should I start first? A: Probably the Feds. They are "average" in all areas and their ships are a bit more survivable. Another good start is Mirak. Q: What is the maximum number of ships I can own? A: Three ships. You may temporarily command more if you capture enemy ship(s) during the battle. Those ships go away at the end of the battle. Q: What's the latest version of SFC2? A: 2.0.1.3, released December 2001. You can find patches at http://www.khoromag.com. They have taken over "maintenance" of SFC2 from Taldren (for the most part). Other patches are "coming soon". Q: How do I beat those special missions in single player Dynaverse? A: See section 15 Q: Where are the cheat codes? A: There aren't any. This is a STRATEGY game. Q: What are some of the terms used in SFC/SFB mean? A: See the "glossary" at 1.8 Q: I'm an SFB veteran. Why can't I make sense of SFC? A: SFC is based on SFB, but it's NOT a direct computer adaptation. It has its own quirks and tactics, though a lot of the basic tactics such as Mizia, anchor, and so on still applies. Q: But aspect ___________ of SFC does not fit rule ___________ of SFB... A: Being "based on" does NOT mean it's a direct translation. Q: Where are the X-ships? A: They are in the Orions Pirates "standalone expansion". 1 Game Information: What is SFC? SFC, or Starfleet Command, is a starship combat simulation set in the Star Trek universe. It is an officially licensed Star Trek product. SFC2 is the sequel to SFC, with a more extensive "campaign generator" called Dynaverse II where you can actually affect the outcome of the war by winning sectors, building bases, and so on. 1.1 BEFORE SFC, THERE WAS SFB Star Fleet Battles was a board game that was inspired by Star Trek. Amarillo Design Bureau (ADB) based Star Fleet Battles (SFB) on the Franz Joseph "Star Fleet Technical Manual" (to Trekkers, the TOS Tech Manual) where ships such as destroyers and dreadnoughts were proposed as part of Federation Star Fleet. SFB was VERY careful not to ever mention Star Trek or use ANY of the Star Trek elements in its materials, as Paramount never licensed SFB. The original SFB was published in a small "booklet" format sealed in ziplock bags. It was first published in 1979 though it was designed as far back as 1975. It only had the Feds, Klingons, and Romulans. Some races were added later. Then came the "Commander's Edition" in 1990. Commander's Edition had Federation, Klingon, Tholians, Romulans, Orions, Gorns, and Kzintis (from the animated Star Trek episode, "The Slaver Weapon", which used the Kzintis from Larry Niven's stories). You can find more about the Kzintis by reading the "Man-Kzin Wars" collection in your local library or bookstore. The final (often called "Doomsday") "Captain's edition" rules was in 1994. All the rules are now revised properly and swore never to be changed except for VERY good reasons. Other races such as Lyrans and Hydrans were added, and later the ISC. There are also a lot of minor races like Lyran Democratic Republic (LDR), the WYN, and so on in later expansion modules. In time, the SFB universe diverged significantly from the Star Trek universe. In SFB, the empires continue to fight minor wars on and off until the General War, where everybody started fighting. The Organians are missing, off dealing with some other threats. The General war lasted 18 years. Organians later came back with the ISC and tried to let ISC enforce peace on everybody, and initially the ISC were successful, until a new invader came, the Andromedans. To learn more about the General War, please read the "General War Timeline" on the SFB website at http://www.starfleetgames.com/sfb/sfin/general_war.htm. There was even a company or two that creates "unofficial expansion" for SFB that adds new races in a different galaxy with completely different combat rules. ADB themselves also published several "alternate universe" products, including "Omega Sector" (space beyond ISC) and "Stellar Shadows". They also published some "minor races" (Lyran Democratic Republic, the WYN cluster, the Jindarins, etc.) and the "simulator races" (what each "empire" use as imaginary enemies in their training academies). SFB also has a strategic component called "Federation and Empire", which is a board game that simulates the General War complete with strategic movement, supplies, shipbuilding, fleet battle, bases, and more. You can even generate battles to be fought with SFB. It has its own set of expansion modules which adds rules to deal with marine action, carrier battles, detailed combat resolution with new special devices, more races, and so on. SFB inspired a pen-and-paper role-playing game called "Prime Directive", where you command "prime teams", basically special agents that can handle ANYTHING for your empire. The game features a "tiered" resolution system where it is possible to completely BOTCH an operation. Otherwise it's a pretty standard RPG in a sci-fi setting. Later, Paramount granted ADB a conditional license that basically says, "as long as you continue what you do now you are okay with us." ADB has NO permission to use ANYTHING beyond what they do now... To quote from ADB website, "We have Vulcans, but no one named 'Spock'." 1.2 THEN COMES INTERPLAY When Interplay obtained the license to make computer games based on the "original Star Trek" license, one of the ideas thrown around was to computerize Star Fleet Battles, and make it into an official Star Trek product. Alan Emrich (noted strategy game designer, contributor to Sid Meier's Civilization) claim to be the first to submit the idea to Interplay. The result is "Starfleet Command". It featured a full "career" mode where the player creates a captain, gets a starship, goes on missions, win prestige pts, then spends the points on better crew, bigger ships, and so on. You can also join one of several "elite" organizations within each "empire". As a Fed, you can join "Starfleet Special Task Force". As a Romulan, you can join the "Tal'Shiar", and so on. You will need to use your prestige pts, but they will allow you access to even more lucrative missions. The Lyrans, Kzinti, and ISC never made it into SFC1 though. The term 'Kzinti' was copyrighted (by Larry Niven's books) and Interplay couldn't get a release without paying another license fee. Tholians didn't make it in due to the complexity of their "web" rules. Orion ships are in SFC, but you can't command one. They are only there for you to fight against. 1.3 NOW THE SEQUEL Starfleet Command Volume II features several new races: Mirak, ISC, and Lyrans. It also features expanded ship list for all of the races, plus a whole slew of neutral ships, planets, and so on. Mirak were the SFB Kzintis. Fighters and Fast Patrol ships (gunboats), and carriers/tenders that carry them have been added as well. However, the individual crew for each station (captain, science officer, tactical officer, etc.) have been eliminated in favor of a vastly expanded "campaign engine" dubbed "Dynaverse II". The different races have campaigns set in the SFB "ISC Pacification" period. Basically, the ISC jumped in near the end of the General and shot at everybody, and was universally hated as meddlers. They prompted the end of the General War. Essentially the galactic powers, through separate efforts, pushed back the ISC on all fronts, and you will discover the fate of the Organians, and that threat they were talking about... You can also play as the ISC and fight against everybody. If you don't like the scripted campaigns, you can play a "pure conquest" game by doing some unsupported modifications in your game install directory. Look for two .BAT files in the game directory and read the file before running it. It is NOT supported, so don't blame anyone if that didn't work! A stand-alone expansion pack: SFC2: Orion Pirates was later released featuring advanced weapons and X-ships, Orion campaigns, and final bug fixes. You can now finally play as one of the pirates by joining one of the cartels. However, the individual race campaigns have been eliminated. You can still play as one of the galactic races, but you can only play "conquest". OP does NOT require SFC2 to play and can be installed side-by-side with SFC2. It has its own set of patches. 1.4 SO WHAT IS SFC2? SFC2 has two parts: a campaign engine and a starship battle simulator. In that way, it is similar to XCOM, with the separation of GeoScape (world view) and BattleScape (tactical combat view). In the starship battle simulator, all of the systems on a starship are at your command, from the sensors to the engine room (power distribution), from the weapons to the transporters (to beam out T-bombs or marines), from tractor beams to shuttles, and more. The battle is on a 2D plane though the ships and other units are fully 3D. Surrounding the battle simulator is the campaign engine dubbed "Dynaverse II", which can work both in single-player and multiplayer modes. Dynaverse 2 tracks each and every hex on the map, location of enemy planets and bases (which are visible on the map), location of enemy and friendly ships (which may or may not be visible), special terrain features (asteroids, nebula, black hole, etc.). Then based on your movement, it will generate missions for you. In single-player, some missions are "special" missions and pre-scripted. Others are randomly generated. Some missions will have a forfeit penalty. As you win missions, you earn prestige points. You can then used those points to buy supplies, repair and upgrade your ships, purchase more ships, and so on, on the strategic map level. Depending on how well you perform the missions, your empire can win or lose control of a particular sector. Each of the races has its custom campaign. Some have more than one. If you prefer a raw "conquest" campaign, that can be arranged by running some special setup .BAT files in the SFC2 directory. Look for it and read carefully what it does before you run it. In Multiplayer mode, SFC2 can be played in skirmish mode (fight a single battle online), or on Dynaverse II server, where you can contribute to your empire's war effort by winning battles. 1.5 WHAT IS SFC'S STARSHIP COMBAT LIKE? SFC combat is VERY different from other types of combat, like land combat and naval combat. Land combat speed is quite slow with long range weapons. Same with naval combat. Weapons are very powerful and protection is nearly nil. If you're hit, you're toast. A typical weapon in SFC has effective range of 8 (80,000 kilometers), while a ship can travel 200,000 kms or more during that weapon recharge period (speed 20). Ships are all protected by shields. It will take several salvoes to defeat the shields on a ship and actually damage the ship. Firing arcs and maneuvers are very important. Think of it as aerial dogfights between helicopters and you wouldn't be far off... Except these helicopters have energy shields... 1.6 WHO MAKES SFC2? Talden created SFC2. It is published by Interplay's "strategy" division, "14 Degrees East". KhoroMag has taken over the ongoing support of SFC2. See http://www.Khoromag.com 1.7 IS THERE GOING BE A SFC3? Taldren has signed on to make SFC3 for Activision. SFC3 will feature "Next Generation ships", including Galaxy, Sovereign, Akira, and other classes. You'll be fighting the Borg, Romulans, and more. It will be set AFTER Voyager returned home. Supposedly, the plot is about a new super starbase the Feds built in collaboration with the Klingons, and Romulans didn't like that at all. Then the Borg somehow got involved... The game will also be redesigned from the ground up, thus removing the dependence on SFB inspired rules. For example, shields will be reduced from 6 to 4 per ship. You will be able to outfit your ship with specific enhancements, such as better shields, weapons, and so on. Supposedly this game will also make each race a lot more dependent on that race's unique weapons. Feds will feature phasers, Klingons will feature disruptors, and so on. 1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THIS GUIDE This guide will organized in roughly THREE parts. Part 1 is a discussion of the battle simulator in SFC2, and the various "general" tactics that would applies to several races, not just a specific race or weapon. Things like plasma tactics, fleet tactics, fighter tactics and so on would be here, as will maneuvers, HET usage, and so on. That would be from 2 to 11. Part 2 is a discussion of the campaign engine, Dynaverse II, how to play single-player and multi-player campaign, how to pick the best missions, and so on. The specific mission walkthrus for the special missions would also be here. That includes sections from 12 to 16 Part 3 is a race specific discussion on the ships, tactics, and so on, for each race, a list of their ships, which ships are good, and so on. That includes sections from 17 to 30. 1.9 HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE This guide was not designed to be general reference, but it sort of ended up that way. You may want to read over EVERY section in this guide, as we discuss tactics, systems, ships, races, special equipment, weapons, and so on. This guide covers EVERYTHING. Read the sections that apply to you first. For example, if you are playing the Feds, read the Fed tactics, ships, read the section on photons, drone defense, then read about the general tactics, the discussion about your enemies. Eventually you'll read the whole thing. I don't cover stuff that's already in the manual. If you can't figure out which buttons are which, you need the manual, not this guide. 1.10 SOME SFC/SFB TERMINOLOGIES Alpha strike -- fire EVERY weapon that is currently in arc at the designated target. Also see "peak output" Anchor -- see "Gorn Anchor". Battle pass -- move past the target, allowing your rear/side weapons to shoot at the enemy's rear/side shields Battle run -- approach the target, shoot, then turn away to expose rear weapons. Crunch Power -- see "peak output" below Drones -- i.e. missiles, self-seeking weapons with anti-matter warhead and small warp drives. They were called drones in SFB, missiles in SFC. They come in various types, but in SFC there are only 2: Type I, and Type IV (which are twice as big as Type I). Each comes in 3 separate speeds: slow (16), medium (24), and fast (32). Drone control limit -- a ship can only control a certain number of drones. If you launch more than that, the first ones were "lost" due to the limit. Most ships can control 6 drones. The special drone ships can control 12 ("double drone control"). Some very large ships can have "triple drone control" (18 drones). Drone reloads -- each ship that has drone launchers need to determine how many reloads to carry. By default, they carry only one set of reloads. For example, if your launcher carries 6, you have 6 more in storage, and that's it. It is best to upgrade to 4 set of reloads ASAP. Erratic Maneuvers (EM) -- sudden random movements, makes your ship harder to hit but move a bit slower and makes your weapons less accurate as well. EW / ECM / ECCM -- EW is electronic warfare, which is comprised of ECM (electronic counter-measures, better known as "jamming") and ECCM (electronic counter-countermeasure, known as counter- jamming). Gorn Anchor -- holding the enemy ship with a tractor beam. This prevents the enemy from launching a wild weasel (sensor decoy), thus impossible for seeking weapons, such as plasma, to miss Hit-and-Run Raid (H&R) -- raid on specific enemy systems conducted by your marines/boarding parties. If they succeed, the system they attack is destroyed. Internals -- short for "internal damage", amount of damage that penetrated the shields. Example: "That salvo caused some internals." Klingon Saber Dance -- a maneuver started by Klingons. Basically, it maneuvers staying just out of overload range to "wear down" the opponent, who lacks the speed to get into overload range. Mizia Concept -- introduced by Walter Mizia, it is an SFB concept that a multiple smaller volleys is preferred to a single large volley of damage. Statistically, in SFB, single large volley tend to kill power but leave weapons, while smaller volleys kill weapons but leave power. SFC has inherited same damage allocation routine and thus the same analysis applies. Thus, the "multiple small volley attack" is also known as "Mizia Attack". Overrun -- pass right OVER the enemy ship, thus giving you the opportunity to do point-blank shots, rear weapon shots, mines, H&R raids, and so on. Peak output -- better known as "crunch power", the theoretical maximum damage that can be done in one alpha strike from a ship in a single salvo. A Federation ship, for example, would have higher peak output due to photon torpedoes doing twice the damage as the disruptors. Seeking weapon shooters have even higher peak output. Usually used like "a Federation ship has higher crunch power than a Klingon ship." Power Curve -- a measure of how much power a ship has vs. how much power it needs to arm all weapons at regular and/or overload levels. The "higher" the power curve, the faster you can go while arming all weapons. Ships with fast-firing low-damage weapons have a "flat" curve, while plasma-torpedo ships have a pretty uneven power curve. Scatter-pack -- a shuttle packed full of missiles (just 6) so you can get a lot of missiles in flight all at once instead of relying on the launcher to pump them out one at a time. There is a delay between scatter-pack launch and the scatter-pack "pop", so you have to protect it or drop it just before the enemy is in weapons range. Sensor Decoy -- see Wild Weasel Shock -- when internal damage is received, one or more systems may be 'shocked' into being temporarily disabled. A "shocked" system will come back online after a period of time without being repaired, but in the meanwhile you have to do without the system. Sicilian Knife Fight -- a low-speed short-range battle with a lot of overloaded weapons and reinforced shields. T-Bomb -- short for transporter bomb, a small mine you can place via transporter in the path of the enemy. You need to drop a shield to transport a mine. You can also "drop mine" out of the rear hatch of the shuttle bay. That does not require dropping a shield. Tractor beam -- a force beam that can push or pull other objects as needed. Underrun -- overrun done by a cloaked unit Wild Weasel -- i.e. sensor decoy, a shuttle packed with electronic gear that simulates your ship. It can deceive seeking weapons such as drones and plasma torpedoes. However, it can be "voided" if you go too fast, fired weapons, or so on. If you launched a weasel and then voided it, the seeking weapons turn back and come after you again. Weasel also generates 3 pts of ECM, which can help you dodge things. 1.11 RANGE TERMS Point-blank -- range zero or one, hit probability is 100%... You can't miss. Knife-fighting range -- range two or so, very slow maneuvering battles Drone-defense range -- roughly range two or three, where your ADD/AMD and point-defense phasers/tractors works best Overload range -- range 8 or less, where overloads can be used Medium range -- range 8 to roughly range 15-20, reduced probability of hit Long range -- starts from end of medium to about range 30, or the maximum range of the weapon. Extreme range -- starts from when sensor contact is possible (about 100) to long range. 2 Power, and what it affects Before we explain the tactics, weapons, etc., we need to explain HOW the ships actually produce the energy and move around, and where all the energy would go. 2.1 POWER SOURCES A ship has several sources of power: the warp engines, the impulse engines, the auxiliary power reactors, and the auxiliary warp reactors. Some ships also have "batteries" which can store energy for later use, giving you a short-burst of extra power. You don't really need to know all this though. Just remember that a ship needs a LOT of power to move at "full speed", which is "31". In fact, few ships would have much power in surplus while moving at speed 31. A typical cruiser has 34-40 pts of power. The power is used in movement, EW, weapons, shields, and other ship systems. There is never enough, so consider how are you going to use it. 2.2 MOVEMENT COST A ship has "mass", and power must be applied to move it. The "movement cost" is a ratio of how much power does a ship need to move at a certain speed. A typical cruiser has movement cost of 1. To move at speed 30, a cruiser would need 30 pts of power. Smaller ships have lower movement costs; larger ships have higher movement costs. Here's the movement cost list: FF (frigate) -- 0.33 DD (destroyer) -- 0.5 CL (light cruiser) -- 0.66 or 0.75 CA (cruiser) -- 1 DN (dreadnought) -- 1.5 BB (battleship) -- 2.0 Special movements like HET and Erratic Maneuvers (EM) use some movement energy. You can have full energy applied to movement and still not get full speed if you are using either an HET or EM. HET and EM are explained in 3.1. As mentioned before, a typical cruiser has 34-40 pts of power. 31 of that are needed to move the ship at top speed, which leaves very few left for the rest. If you need power to arm weapons, tractors, shields, and so on, you need to take it away from speed. Gives a totally new meaning to "speed is life", doesn't it? 2.3 ELECTRONIC WARFARE (EW) One of the places you can use power is electronic warfare, namely ECM and ECCM. They are technically more efficient than reinforcing shields in some circumstances. Maximum power you can use in EW is 6 pts of power. At medium ranges, they can be more efficient in reducing damage than shield reinforcement. EW is explained more in 4.2 2.4 WEAPONS There are basically three classes of weapons: phasers, direct- fire heavy weapon, and seeking heavy weapon. Phasers are simple enough to charge with energy... Each Ph-1 takes 1 pt, Ph-2 takes 1 pt, Ph-3 takes 0.5 pt, and Ph-G takes 1 pt. Heavy weapons can be normal load or overload. Overload cost double the power but produced a more powerful shot with limited range. Some weapons can have other special modes. Please see individual weapon explanations in 5 for full discussions. Once loaded, the weapon needs to pay a "hold" energy charge per weapon until fired. When you shoot, then the weapons are charged again. Seeking heavy weapon need charging also, (except drones) with a longer charging period in general. Once charged, seeking weapon also pay a "hold" cost. 2.5 SHIELDS Shields need 2 pts to power up to full strength. If you have excess power, you can use that to reinforce one or more of the shields against attacks. Shield damage during battle is repaired automatically, but that takes time. 2.6 OTHER SHIP SYSTEMS A ton of other systems can use power, such as electronic warfare, tractor beams, transporters, suicide shuttles, and so on. 2.7 LEARN YOUR POWER CURVE There are many demands for power, but the source is limited. The proper management of your available power is the key to success in SFC2. Learn your power curve, which refers to how fast can your ship move after all the "housekeeping" is done (raise shields, and such) and arm all weapons, and perhaps overload. As an experiment, take a Fed CA. Go to Red Alert and try to set maximum speed, regular photons. How fast CAN you go? Now change to OVERLOAD. How fast can you go? Try the same with a Klingon D- 7. See the difference? 3 Ship Controls This will serve as a quick review of all the systems in SFC2. You should run through all the tutorial missions AND read through the manual before you start reading this section. This is an overview, not a full explanation. A good captain uses ALL tools at his/her disposal. Those captains that can use ALL of his/her tools most efficiently will defeat the captains that do NOT use tools as efficiently or only use some of the tools. I'll go down the list of the commands given in the "officer strip". 3.1 HELM This is a quick overview of all the helm commands and what is it used for. 3.1.1 Emergency Deceleration Or in plain terms, "emergency brakes". It is usually shortened to EmerDecel. EmerDecel immediately slams your ship to speed 0 (well, it takes a second). It will be at least 10 seconds (at default speed 7) before you can move again. EmerDecel also has the effect of increasing your forward shields by a few points, depending on your speed before you come to be a full stop. The higher your speed was, the most shield bonus you get. EmerDecel have several tactical uses. In general it is to stop approaching something. For example, if you suddenly realized you're heading directly at a planet and you're moving too fast to turn away, you can do EmerDecel, which would give you a chance to turn away. If you combine EmerDecel with a tractor beam, you can slow down an enemy ship so other ships (or missiles, or torpedoes) can catch up to it. Slap the tractor beam on the enemy, then hit emergency stop. The other ship will then "drag" you along, thus slowing it down (how much depends on your size and his size). EmerDecel, combined with a wild weasel (sensor decoy), becomes a defensive maneuver against seeking weapons. As wild weasel cannot be launched at speeds greater than 4, the quickest way to slow down is with EmerDecel. 3.1.2 Erratic Maneuvers Erratic maneuvers, usually shortened to EM, is basically small random changes in course that makes you harder to hit. EM reduces your overall speed, but generates several pts of ECM in addition to what you can produce internally. However, it also makes your weapons less accurate as well. So you will need to stop EM before you attack. EM is basically a defensive maneuver. Smaller units or slower units can use it to avoid taking hits at long-range, then unleash weapons when the range is closer and they can be sure of doing some damage before being destroyed. Races that use plasma torpedoes can use EM to help them avoid enemy counter-fire when they have fired off their torpedoes and are in the process of recharging. Or you can turn on EM to confuse the enemy, to make them think you're recharging when you really are not. 3.1.3 High-Energy Turn Better known as HET, this allows your ship to ignore the "turn mode" for a split second and make a turn in any direction. Thus it is sometimes called a "snap turn". It is also sometimes called "warp turn" as it basically generates a small warp field, thus reducing the mass and allows the ship to freely rotate. On the helm panel, some preset angles have been created for you (left, right, hard left, hard right, 180) or use the free-angle control. The problem with HET is you are NOT guaranteed to always succeed. . You can see your "HET success chance" as a percentage on the helm panel. In general, the smaller the ship, and slower you're going, the better your chance of success. If you failed in performing an HET, you'll suffer random damage and you will temporarily lose control of your ship in the "HET breakdown". The crew will pull themselves off the floor in a while, but your ship is vulnerable in the meanwhile. There is a delay of second seconds when you issue the command and when the HET was actually performed. That was delay for the warp field to "charge up". This makes timing the HET maneuver very difficult. HET can be used both offensively and defensively. Defensively, it can be used to snap a new shield into place. Offensively, it can be used to bring the weapons on the other side of the ship to bear. See maneuvers section 8 for more discussions on HET maneuvers. 3.1.4 Intercept / Orbit Target Intercept basically means you're pointing the ship directly at the target, right down the centerline. It is sometimes referred to as "follow target". Orbit target means you're pointing slightly off to the left of the target. When you get close to the target you'll go into a clockwise orbit around the target at speed 10. You can increase speed though and the computer will do its best to orbit. However, every time you select "orbit" you'll slow down to 10 again. Giving any other helm order (like click on the map to indicate a turn) will cancel any existing follow or orbit command. While intercept is good to keep the enemy in your sights, it does not do "lead" or "lag" pursuit (i.e. no aiming at where the enemy would go or try to fall behind). It only does "pure" pursuit. Orbit is pretty useless unless you're dealing with an extremely slow or immobile target like planet, base, and so on. It also slows you to speed 10. You can increase speed though. Both can work on a "non-target". Just target the ship you wish to follow or orbit, select the command, then target another ship. Your ship will still follow the first ship while you can target the second ship for more shots. If you want to follow other friendlies into battle, target one of them for intercept, match their speed, and you can start targeting enemy ships. 3.2 REPAIR There are two things you can repair: engine power, and ship systems. Each repair attempt uses one of your "spare parts". You only have 8 maximum, provided you purchased extra ones. You start with only 4. Shields are repaired automatically as time goes by. Engine power can and should be repaired if your ship's power falls below the normal/undamaged levels. As for how much that is, you should check your power graph (at the bottom of the screen) when the scenario starts. If the number falls lower after damage, engine repair should be done. If you still get "repair engine", it's probably non-essential system like batteries and that can wait. Individual ship systems can be repaired as well. Usually, that means weapons systems, though shuttle, transporter, tractor, and sensors can also be hit. Tractors and transporters are generally not worth repairing in battle as you usually have several of those so losing one is not a big deal. If you have only one, then you may want to think about repairing it, and then only if you plan to use it later. Drone launchers are probably not worth repairing, as the drones are destroyed with the launcher. If you have reloads, then repairs may be worth it. If you have virtually no reloads left, spent your spare parts on something more productive. Other heavy weapons should be repaired immediately, as they can be put back to use immediately. Phasers should be repaired ASAP as they have multiple uses. Though if you have a lot of Ph-3's damaged you may want to hold off on those and repair more important weapons first. If you reach a friendly planet or base you can repair there as well. Hull integrity cannot be repaired in battle. It can only be repaired at a friendly planet or base. 3.3 SCIENCE Not too many commands here, except probe, deep scan, and self- destruct. 3.3.1 Probe The probes have two modes: normal, and weapon. The probes don't do much damage if you arm them as weapons. Only use in desperate situations. If you fire them normally at a ship or planet or whatever, you can pick up details about them earlier. This can be useful as you can tell how they are armed, what class they are, and such info long before they actually come into sensor range. 3.3.2 Deep Scan Deep scan is needed to finish some missions. You may need to scan enemy ships or planets. You can "charge" the deep scan ahead of time then when you get into range the target will be scanned. That is, if you don't switch targets. If you switch targets you'll lose the deep scan "charge". Deep scan must be performed at less than range 10. 3.3.3 Self-Destruct Self-destruct is obvious. There's a count down before the ship actually goes up, so it's best to anticipate the enemy's final approach, and make sure you don't blow up before then. Slap a tractor beam on the enemy can be good as well. 3.4 SECURITY There are two modes in security: hit-and-run, or capture. 3.4.1 Hit and Run raids Hit-and-run raids (usually abbreviated H&R) are basically marine boarding parties with demolition charges. They will try to damage the enemy ship system you target. It is a one-way trip though for them. When you get close enough to the enemy ship (range 15 or less) you can see detailed display of the enemy ship's systems. Click on the systems you want to hit and they will be attacked in sequence subject to available transporters and boarding parties. To remove an item from the attack queue, click on it. As a shield must be dropped to transport, you should immediately start a turn to avoid the enemy pounding your down shield. Remember that H&R raids are "automatic". You can't control when will the shield be dropped. As soon as the enemy is in range, you have available transporter and targets are in the queue, and you have marines, your shield goes down and the raid is gone. H&R raid is quite powerful and way too easy. It is devastating against the AI and can turn the tide of a battle. The AI controlled ships don't use H&R. Don't be surprised that some human players request that BOTH of you do NOT use H&R raids against each other during battle. In general, it is better to target systems like phasers, shuttles, tractors, etc. instead of heavy-weapons and such. Those have more impact later in the scenario as most people tend to repair heavy-weapons. Phasers are good choices also. Monsters cannot be boarded. 3.4.2 Capture In capture mode, you basically beam over a bunch of marines in hopes of taking over the enemy ship. To best accomplish this, you need multiple ships, all set to "capture" order, and at "medium" autonomy so they all target the same ship, and set to "trail" formation, with you in lead. You beat down the enemy-facing shield, then beam over your marines. Your other ships will also hit the enemy ship and beam over their marines. You need two or three ships each with at least 4 transporters to best capture enemy ships. You need to beam over at least what the enemy ship has in "one pass" to be able to hold the ship. For example, let's say the enemy ship has 10 boarding parties defending. You beam over 4 (that's all the transporters you have). By the time your transporters cycle back, that 4 would be down to 1, and they may or may not have caused even 1 casualty. So now, you're left with 9 vs. 1. If you have like 20+ boarding parties, you can eventually beam over enough, but you end up wasting a lot of boarding parties if you beam them over piece- meal. That's why you need multiple ships to do captures... A lot transporters and marines to beam over. While assault shuttles (see 3.5) can help get more marines over at once (4-6? per shuttle), the shuttles are quite slow and can be shot down. Using assault shuttles on armed targets moving at speed is a waste of resources. They may work against planets. Stop beaming over marines when you enjoy a 15-25% or higher superiority (say, 8 to 6 in your favor). You can do that by changing other ships' modes to "tractor" or "defend". Any boarding parties you use must be replaced (which costs prestige pts), and there's no reason to beam over more when you know you'll win. You'll just win faster, and those extras you beamed over must be replaced. . Small units like shuttles and fighters, PFs, and so on cannot be captured. Monsters cannot be boarded. Boarding may not work in Dynaverse against a ship controlled by a real human player. Against AI ships it seem to work fine. 3.5 WEAPONS The weapons panel is used to assign weapon groups, but you can also assign weapon groups directly by using the ship system display with hotkeys, so this panel is not that useful. This can be good for quick adjustments of weapons groups though. With 4 weapons groups to use, and a "choose all" ("red alert" command), I suggest organizing your weapon groups this way: 1) Attack phaser group, 50-75% of your ph-1s or ph-2s, probably frontal arcs. Used in attacks. 2) Defense phaser group, all your ph-3s or ph-Gs, maybe some of your ph-1s with 360 arcs, mostly rear arcs. Used in point- defense. 3) Heavy weapons group 4) Any auxiliary weapons (drones, etc.) Assign the groups as YOU see fit. You can change group settings here or use the hotkeys directly, so change them when you need to. You can also use weapons panel to switch between regular and non- violent combat (i.e. minimize enemy casualties). However, no one uses non-violent combat any way, so you can safely ignore that. 3.6 COMMUNICATIONS This panel is virtually useless tactically except in special missions. Some special missions may allow you to control certain other units by issuing commands here. You need to target the specific ship and select the proper commands. You may also be able to hail other ships from here in certain special missions. 3.7 DEFENSE You can use this panel to hit EmerDecel, turn on/off point- defense mode, turn on/off point-defense tractors, and get status of sensor decoy (wild weasel) shuttles (and launch if you got any). EmerDecel is discussed in the Helm section. Point-defense allows the ship to automatically fire bearing phaser(s) on approaching plasma torpedo or drones. In general, you would want to leave point-defense on. Defense tractors setting allows you to set the number of tractors beams you got to point-defense (i.e. hold the drones from hitting you.) Set defense tractors to 1 less than max, or max if you don't plan to do anchors (6.3). Wild weasels are discussed in (3.5). 3.8 TACTICAL MAP In general, it's best to set lowest zoom (widest view), and zoom in when needed. You can see the heading of the individual ships. The contacts are also color-coded with each race a unique color. 3.9 FLEET CONTROL See your manual for fleet control explanations, about the different formations, "postures" (attack, capture, defend, tractor), order intensity settings (loose, medium, tight), and weapon control settings (off, regular, overload, special, stealth). In general, I set order intensity to medium to make sure all ships are targeting the ship I want except in free-for-alls, and weapon control is set to default. 3.10 ENERGY MANAGEMENT Usually I don't adjust this. See your manual for explanations. 3.11 PREFERENCES See your manual for preferences panel explanations. 4 Ship Systems These systems are a part of the ship that can be used in various ways that does not directly affect combat, but are important in other ways. 4.1 SHIELDS Shields protect your ship from being actually hit (duh!). There are six of them, covering the "hex" around the ship. The "front" shield is #1, go clockwise. So rear shield is #4. You can raise shields in multiple stages: down, minimal, and up. You can reinforce any or all of the shields with any excess energy you got. Each pt you use in reinforcement on a specific shield will cancel one pt of damage applied to that shield. For example, let's say you have a 35 pt front shield. You have 2 pts of reinforcement. Enemy fires phaser and scores 8 pts of damage. Actual damage to your front shield is 6, as 2 were covered by the reinforcement. Your front shield is now at 29. A facing shield will be automatically dropped for special transporter activity such as T-Bomb, Hit-and-Run raids, beam- in/out, and so on. If you are in a nebula, your shields only operate at "minimal" level. 4.2 SENSORS (ECM/ECCM) You can jam enemy sensors by sending some power to ECM (electronic countermeasures). You can counteract enemy jamming by sending power to ECCM (electronic counter-countermeasures). This together is known as EW (electronic warfare). Maximum amount of power you can dedicate to EW is 6 pts total. You can distribute this between ECM and ECCM as you see fit. ECM creates a "defensive shift". The number is the "square" of the power you put in. So if you put in 1 pt, defensive shift is 1. If you put in 4 pts, defensive shift is 2. An active wild weasel (sensor decoy) produces ECM as well (until it is destroyed). ECCM creates "offensive shift" the same way. Enemy can use ECCM to counter your ECM, just as you can use ECCM to counter his ECM. The "net" shift (defensive-offensive) is then used to calculate reduced damage from weapon hits. Some natural terrain like nebula and so on can produce natural ECM or ECCM that affects everybody. 4.3 TRANSPORTERS Transporters send things out or bring things in. Transporters have short range (5.99) so you need to be very close. Transporter bombs are small mines that you can "beam" out into space, hopefully right into the path of enemy ships. (You can also drop such bombs out the rear hatch, but that's a different use altogether). See your command reference on how to designate T- bomb targets. Also see 4.10 for more information on mines in general. In general, the AI ships under your control seem to be very good at placing T-bombs. Usually they place it so the enemy ship runs right over it with no chance to dodge, and they can do this several bombs in a row. Transporters can also be used to conduct hit-and-run raids. See 2.4.1 Transporters can also be used to capture enemy ships or bases or planets. See 2.4.2. In more peaceful uses, transporters can bring up certain items from planets and ships, or even empty space. It can also send certain items to planets and ships. In a lot of the special scenarios, this is the only way you can solve the problem: get to the place, beam up things, beam down things, and get away. 4.4 TRACTORS Short for tractor beams, these are the force beam emitters that can exert both push and pull forces. Tractor beams have an even shorter range, at 2.49. Tractor beam can be set to either pull or repel. Tractor beams can be charged to six different force levels. The higher the level, the longer it takes to "charge", but the more likely it'll hold an enemy ship for a longer period (until he charges his own tractor to repel, see below). Tractor beams can keep annoying things from you (things like drones) in point-defense mode. Tractors can keep stuff close to you (like enemy ships) in "pull" mode. Tractors can also keep other ships from tractoring you when set to "repel" mode. While in repel mode, the tractor will repel all attempts to tractor up to the force strength it is set to. For example, if you have your tractor set to repel at strength 3, enemy tractors set to strength 2 will not be able to tractor you, but enemy tractors set to strength 4 can. One of the most satisfying ways to kill another ship is to tractor it, then rotate it (using the tractor rotation buttons) so you crash it into an asteroid or planet. However, DO NOT do this to human-commanded ships while online. It is VERY annoying and is considered VERY BAD MANNERS. Same goes for tractoring the human-commanded ship and pushing him off the map. Against AI, then "who cares". Tractor beam do NOT work on shuttles. 4.5 SHUTTLES Shuttle panel controls the shuttle bay. A ship can have several shuttles in a shuttle bay. The normal "admin" shuttles can be reconfigured as wild weasels (sensor decoy), assault shuttle, scatter pack, or suicide shuttle. Or you can just launch it as is and it'll shoot its ph-3 like a fighter while trying to follow you around. You can launch fighters the same way. The difference is the entire squadron (2-6 fighters) is launched together as if it's a single ship. Each squadron also behaves like a single ship (they fly together and shoot together). Most ships have only a limited amount of shuttles (1-5) and with this many uses, you'll have to decide carefully how to use each one. 4.5.1 Wild Weasel (Sensor Decoy) Wild weasel is a decoy that attracts seeking weapons such as drones and plasma torpedoes. It is created from a shuttle (must be one of yours) and it only distracts seeking weapons that are targeting you. It costs 1 pt of energy to hold per "turn". A functioning weasel can be "voided" if you do any of the following: * Exceeding a speed of 4. * Activating fire control (firing weapons). * Operating transporters. * Launching a probe. * The launching ship exceeds range of 35 from the WW. You can only launch a weasel from speed or 4 or less. If you are moving faster and try to launch a wild weasel, you will automatically EmerDecel (to speed 0). You cannot launch a weasel if you are being tractored. (This is the foundation of the "anchor" tactic, see 6.3) In general, it is NOT a good idea to use a weasel unless you have NO hope of survival otherwise. Using a weasel slows you down and the enemy can do all sorts of things to you before you can shoot again. After all, you don't know if that enemy torpedo coming at you is a real one or a pseudo, and if you launch a weasel, you'll never know. He may still have that torpedo charged and ready to shoot... 4.5.2 Assault Shuttle An assault shuttle carries a team of marines to board enemy ship. However, assault shuttle is slow and vulnerable to enemy weapons. It is not that useful. Assault shuttle may be useful against undefended planets. 4.5.3 Scatter Pack A scatter pack is basically a shuttle packed with multiple missiles/drones on a delay-launch profile. When launched, the shuttle points at the enemy and when the sensor stabilizes, it dumps its payload into space. This temporarily increases the launch rate of any drone-using ship at the expense of a shuttle. As a con, the scatter pack itself can be shot down if done early enough. Then you've wasted all that time used to arm it, the shuttle, AND the drones. 4.5.4 Suicide Shuttle A very slow seeking weapon with a powerful punch, a suicide shuttle is just that... a shuttle with autopilot and an antimatter warhead onboard. It can only be used on VERY slow (or nearly dead) enemies. It can be easily shot down by the puniest of weapons. In general, SS is not that useful. If you are out of other weapons, SS may be considered as a last resort. 4.5.5 Regular (admin) A regular admin shuttle can be launched and be kept nearby for defense. You can give it orders just like a fighter, except it is very slow and has just a single ph-3. 4.5.6 Fighters While fighters in general refer to fighter-shuttles, in SFC2 it can also refer to PFs (fast patrol ships, a.k.a. gunboats, a.k.a. pseudo-fighters) and INTs (interceptors, basically a half-sized PF). A fighter squadron is launched like a single admin shuttle, but it is actually multiple fighters. The squadron flies together and shoots together. Each squadron a single "fighter" icon in the shuttle bay. There are actually 3 classes of fighters: light, medium, and heavy, but that just affects their damage capacity (each) and their weapons load. PFs and INTs are gunboats. PFs are twice is large as INTs. PFs are roughly half the size of a police corvette. They are carried externally on "PF tenders", though some heavy ships carry PFs externally as well. The PF tenders are considered carriers in SFC2. SFC2 TIP: If you kill the carrier, the fighters (and PFs) blow up as well. So if you are fighting a small carrier like a FFV, DDV, or CLV, blow up the carrier first so you don't have to deal with the individual fighters and PFs. 5 Weapons While these are the primary ways you do damage from a starship, they are NOT the only way. (Don't forget the probe in weapon mode, hit-and-run raid, and so on.) In general, the weapons that can be overloaded cost 100% more energy to load, cause 50% more damage, and have a max range of 8. Knowing how a weapon affects your power curve can be very useful. [Previously reported tip about FASTLOAD was a bug that has been since fixed.] 5.1 PHASER Phaser, the directed energy weapon, is the most popular weapon. Everybody use phasers, including some monsters. There are five types of phasers: ph-1, ph-2, ph-3, ph-4, and ph-G (gatling). Ph-1 is the most energy-efficient direct-fire weapon. It causes the MOST damage per pt of energy allocated. Effective range is about 5. Ph-2 is considered the poor cousin of ph-1, as it has same energy use, but less range and damage. Effective range is about 4. Ph-3 is a defensive weapon only, with effective range of 1. However, a pair of these (same power use as ph-1) do more damage than ph-1 at point-blank range. Ph-4's can only be mounted on a base, though some monsters may have equivalent weapons. Effective range is 10-15, which is quite far. Only Hydrans and Federation use ph-Gs. Hydrans have it on every ship while Feds have it on certain special escort ships. Ph-G takes same energy as ph-1, but fires FOUR TIMES with beam strength similar to ph-3. This means it delivers a lot more damage in point-blank. Phasers cannot be overloaded. You should split your phasers in 2 groups and do NOT fire all phasers at alpha strike. Keeping some unfired phasers is a very good idea to deal with any emergencies, like a scatter-pack you didn't notice, and so on. Scan his ship (use a probe if necessary) and calculate how many phasers should you reserve for point-defense. If they don't use seeking weapons (Lyrans, for example), don't allocate any. Your ship will automatically perform point-defense (like mini- Aegis) so just leave the phasers (preferably 360 or rear arc) and the computer will shoot them for you. 5.2 HELLBORE Hellbore is a Hydran heavy weapon for long-range engagements. Some monsters may use a similar weapon. Hellbore is a direct-fire weapon that acts in an indirect way. When a hellbore hits, it envelops all six shields of the target and damages the weakest shield. If one of shields on the target is down, the hellbore will cause "internals". If hellbore's flight path intersects an ESG, it ALWAYS hits the ESG. Hellbore can be overloaded. 5.3 FUSION BEAM Fusion beam is the "other" Hydran heavy weapon designed for close- range combat. It is a "normal" direct-fire heavy weapon. Fusion beam can be regular loaded, overloaded, or suicide overloaded. Overloaded fusion beam cause 50% more damage than regular and cost twice the energy to load. Suicide overloaded fusion beam cause 100% more damage than regular, cost 3 times the energy to load, AND burns out the firing weapon (it can be repaired, of course). Fusion beam should ALWAYS be overloaded as it doesn't do that much damage beyond overload range any way. Charge in, reinforce forward shield, then blast the enemy to pieces. Suicide overload should be used if you need to bring a QUICK end to the battle. If you are at point-blank range, slow (i.e. plenty of power), then by all means go for it. 5.4 ESG Expanding Sphere Generator is a Lyran heavy weapon, which can be used as ramming and drone defense. Basically, it generates a "solid" forcefield around the projecting ship at a variable radius. The smaller the radius, the more powerful the field, but the less area it covers. If the projecting ship can maneuver so the field hits another ship, that ship's facing shields will be damaged. If you overlap multiple fields, you can beat down the facing shield completely. Then the rest of your weapons will find down shield to exploit. The field is also murderous on fighters, PFs, shuttles, and drones that come close to the ship. However, the field has a very limited range. More maneuverable units can avoid the field completely. The field also does not affect energy-based weapons such as plasma torpedoes. ESG cannot be overloaded. ESG is very useful against cloaked ships, as ESG just "sweeps" a section of space. 5.5 DISRUPTOR Disruptor is a very standard direct-fire heavy weapon used by Klingons, Lyrans, and Mirak. Some monsters also use disruptor equivalents. Disruptor takes half the time of photons to load, takes half the energy overall, causes half the damage. It has low "crunch power", so you'll need to fire more shots at the same shield to do the same amount of damage, making it a "finesse" weapon. Disruptors generally have better weapon arcs than other weapons. Look at your ship carefully and note your firing arcs, and exploit them. Most disruptor-using races have secondary weapons. Klingons and Miraks have drones, while Lyrans have ESG. Use them. Disruptors generally have good range unless you're in one of those small disruptor-armed units with those weak disruptor-1's. If you can shoot enemy at long range, do so. By the time you close range you've already recharged. As overload disruptors still don't do much damage, you must be careful on when to employ it. Consider using oblique pass to reach JUST inside range 8 to shoot, then get out of range again. If he withholds his shots, you won't be damaged. If he fires any way, he'll hit a non-critical rear-side shield. Maneuver with disruptors means looking one turn ahead. You want to be in position to deliver your NEXT attack when your weapons can fire again. This is more difficult than you think as the longer-cycle-weapons give you more time to move away then move back in. Look at his speed and plot accordingly. If you go too fast, you'll cruise into overload range or out of arc. If you go too slow, you gave up the initiative to the enemy ship and your weapons will invariably be out of arc. 5.6 PHOTON TORPEDO Photon torpedo is the probably best known heavy weapon of all. It's a reddish blob that pulsates as it traverses the distance. It takes twice the time to load than a disruptor, but causes twice the damage. It also causes the SAME amount of damage at any range (if it hits). Photon does some of the highest damage among direct-fire weapons at point-blank range. Photons have 3 modes: regular, overload, and proximity. Photon can be overloaded, which limits its max range to 8, but doubles the damage. Photon also has a proximity mode, which allows more hits at long distances. Photon is vulnerable to ECM, esp at long and medium ranges. 5.7 PPD The Plasmatic Pulsar Device (PPD) is an ISC heavy weapon. It is quite weird in that it is more like a "chain-fired" direct-fire weapon. When you charge it, and the enemy is in range, you get a "wavelock" on the ship. When the wavelock has established, the PPD will send "pulses" of plasma down wave lock. It takes a few seconds to send all the pulses. The PPD damages the facing shield and the 2 shields beside it. You can overload the PPD, which makes it send more pulses. This also has the range 8 limitation, so this can be very tricky to get all 6 pulses off before you get into the myopic zone. One possibility is to arrange a different ship to tractor the target in the "deadweight" maneuver. Another is to slow or use EmerDecel. You can also underload the PPD, which makes it send LESS pulses (with less power). The PPD has several limitations. It has both a maximum range AND a minimum range. Inside the minimum range, the PPD cannot establish the wavelock. This zone is called the "myopic zone". The PPD takes a while to load, and firing the pulses also takes time. (Keep in mind that ISC ships also carry plasma torpedoes.) 5.8 MISSILE/DRONE Missiles, also known as drones, are seeking weapons with small warp drives and anti-matter warhead. Many races operate drones, including Feds, Klingons, Mirak, and more. There are two types of drones in SFC2, Type I, and Type IV (which is twice as large as a Type I and does twice the damage). You cannot mix types on a ship. A ship must carry one or the other type. For example, let's say you have one drone launcher of capacity 6. With one set in the magazine and four sets of reloads, that's 30 Type I drones. If you choose Type IV drones, you only get 15. Each type of drone comes in 3 "speeds", slow (16), medium (24), and fast (32). Slow drones are free. Medium cost some, fast cost a LOT. You can only have one speed of drones in your ship, no mixing and matching allowed. When you have several launchers and a LOT of missiles to upgrade, the cost of upgrading the speed can be significant. Drones cost no energy to launch, but are subject to reload limits. If you're out, you're out. Each launcher can have one to four sets of reloads, and those will cost money (except the slow drones, which are free). You control the number of reloads in the supplies menu. There are several types of drone launchers. Some reload faster, some have larger capacity, and so on. You can see the manual for their explanations. You can temporarily increase the launch rate by using a scatter- pack. Drones are subject to launching ship's control limit. Most ships have single drone control, meaning it can control 6 drones. Some ships can control 12 (double drone control) or 18 (triple drone control). Those will be noted specifically on the ship list. You can launch a drone at another drone. Target a seeking weapon chasing you, then launch a single drone at it. You can use the "target nearest seeking weapon" command to help you. Drones don't always hit where you want them. It can also be stopped by many different means * phaser (in point-defense mode) * tractor beam (in point-defense mode) * anti-drone launchers (ADDs) (in point-defense mode) * Transporter bombs (beam them or drop them) * Wild weasel (takes care of ALL seeking weapons targeting you) * ECM (which can reduce the damage) * ESG (absorbs all physical hits, including drones) * Another drone (yes, you can launch a drone at another drone) * Terrain features (planets, asteroids, dust field, etc.) The tricks to use drones are mass, and timing. Mass means create a swarm... Have so many drones launched they saturate and overwhelm the target's defenses. However, having a swarm means they are vulnerable to wild weasel (sensor decoy) and T-bombs. Timing means get all the drones to arrive almost simultaneously so the target have the minimum amount of time to defend itself. The best compromise is to launch them one at a time with a small gap in between so they are NOT all vulnerable to the same T-bomb. Can't do anything about sensor decoys, but more on that later. For more drone and counter-drone tactics, see 11.3 and 11.4. 5.9 PLASMA TORPEDO Plasma torpedoes are seeking weapons. It is basically a blob of plasma enveloped in a force field inside a warp field. The Romulans and Gorns are the primary plasma users, as well as ISC. Feds operate some plasma-equipped ships as well. The plasma torpedoes "dissipate" as it travels. They are very powerful up-close, but become less powerful as they travel. The plasma torpedo can also be further dissipated by phaser fire. Plasma torpedo moves at speed 34, like "fast" drones. The plasma torpedo comes in several sizes, from small to large: F, G, S, and R. There's actually also a plasma-D, which is a "pre- packaged" torpedo for the Romulan and Gorn fighters and defense turrets. The ISC rear F-type torpedoes are called type-I. The plasma torpedo takes a VERY long time to charge (3 times the recharge period of a disruptor). Plasma torpedo has three modes: regular, enveloping, shotgun. Enveloping torpedo cost twice the energy, and produces a torpedo that is twice as large, but this spreads itself evenly against all six shields when it hits (at the slightly reduced strength). When you "overload" a plasma torpedo, it goes into enveloping mode. Shotgun torpedo subdivides into multiple type-F torpedoes, each of which must engage a different target randomly. Obviously, a type-F cannot be fired as shotgun. Each plasma torpedo launcher also has one to two pseudo- torpedoes, which are torpedo decoys that looks JUST like a torpedo when fired, but does not require charging and does no damage. This primarily used to confuse the enemy as to your torpedo charging cycle. Is that torpedo you fired a real torpedo, or a fake? You can "download" a plasma torpedo by charging a size that is smaller than the launcher can hold. For example, if you have an S- type launcher, you can charge G- or F- type torpedoes at a reduced energy rate. For more plasma and counter-plasma tactics, please see 11.1 and 11.2. 5.10 MINES Mines are stationary explosive weapons you plant either via the rear hatch or via transporter. There are two sizes of mines: a T-bomb, and a NSM (nuclear space mine). T-bomb does 10 pts damage, while NSM does 25 pts. In SFC2, only Romulans carry a NSM, and that's "built-in". You can't buy extras, nor can any one else. You can drop a shield and beam out a T-bomb, which will activate if you beam it far out enough. If you drop the mine out the rear hatch, it will activate when you get at least 1 unit away. Mines just "stay" there for 5 minutes after being laid and blows up near anything that comes by (drones, shuttles, ships, PFs...) Mines are also good to rid yourself a bunch of drones chasing you. The AI uses mines pretty effectively, but you seem to need to "take the lead". Sometimes they use it, at other times they don't. Drop mine just before overrun is a good start. Beam bombs into enemy ship's path is also good idea but has greater risk. T-bombs is a trade-off between risk (dropping one of your shields) and profit (damage enemy AFTER all your weapons have fired). If you can minimize the risk (i.e. you know dropping the shield won't do you much damage as enemies have spent most of his weapons) and maximize profit (i.e. do damage to the enemy) by all means take it. T-bombs are devastating against fighters. One nicely place t-bomb will damage a whole group of fighters. On the other hand, most fighters move a bit fast for T-bomb targeting. You obviously need available transporters to use the T-bomb. If you have a lot of H&R raids in the queue you may not have enough transporters to use the t-bomb. Best time to use the T-bomb is when you already HAVE a downed shield, courtesy of the enemy. Do it right after the overload exchange. T-bombs are the foundation of the "flash-bulb" anti-cloak tactic (see 11.8.1). Best part, the receiver can't do anything about it. Use mines and T-bombs to encourage the enemy to turn a certain way that is more advantageous to you. The enemy's instinct to avoid the T-bomb may cause them to reveal a down shield to your weapons. Klingons LOVE T-bombs as they have plenty of transporters to use them. 5.11 NOTE ON OVERLOADS Overload is the ability to push a weapon to do more damage than it's designed to do. The price you pay for 50% more damage is 100% more energy use, and range limit of 8. Some weapons also have point-blank "feedback" damage. Why overload? When you need to do MORE damage than what you normally do. You always want to do as much damage to the enemy as possible, subject to tactical situations. If you are going to fire close any way, there's no reason why you would not want to overload. Overload's primary drawback is the limited range. If you cannot get into overload weapon range, then the energy you used for overload would have been for nothing. If you have to turn the overload back into a normal load, that time spent recharging the weapons will leave you without weapons except phasers. The large power requirement for overload will severely reduce your speed. Phasers, as noted before, are far more efficient. If you are short on power to start with, you may want to stick with regular loads. While you CAN overload SOME weapons and not others, it's a poor compromise. 6 Introduction to SFC2 tactics Every action you do in SFC has a "price". It can be energy, availability, and so on. The decision you need to make is how to get the most benefit out of that price you pay. The old adage "apply your strengths to his weaknesses" is the heart of SFC2 tactics. Or as American Civil War General Nathaniel Bedford Forest was reputed to have said, "Get there fastest with the mostest." (Which is a misquote, by the way.) To do that, you need to know energy management, maneuver, and timing. We will also discuss the difference between passive vs. aggressive play styles, and how to counter each type in general terms. 6.1 THE PRICE VS. THE PAYBACK Everything you do in SFC has a price. If you fire a weapon, you can't use it until the weapon has been charged again. If you don't fire, you won't do any damage. If you overload the weapons, you may not have the speed to get into overload range. If you don't, you may not penetrate the enemy shields. If you fire a drone or use a shuttle, it's taken out of your inventory and thus is not available any more. If you don't use them, you don't get their benefits. Increasing speed decreases power available to other systems. Decreasing speed gives up initiative to the enemy and may worsen your "turn mode". The trick is to make the MOST of them by knowing what are the prices vs. the benefits, and use proper timing and circumstances to get maximum effectiveness out of them. The new players seem to fall into 2 camps... Either they are TOO aggressive (they pay the price at the wrong time for little or no payback), or waited TOO LONG for that "perfect shot" (waiting for that big payback). The proper balance lies between those two extremes. 6.2 ENERGY MANAGEMENT A starship never has enough energy to run everything it needs. If you want speed, you have to give up energy from elsewhere, such as shields, weapons, and so on. There is SOME reserve power available, but amount is small and it runs out quickly. Fortunately, in SFC/SFC2 AI handles energy management and there usually isn't much need for changing any thing. You just need to remember your energy expenditure and how they affect your energy allocation, and remember to change it when you need to. Basically, energy management is having enough energy WHEN you need it so you don't have to wait to do something else. If you overload all heavy weapons, you HAVE to sacrifice speed. However, will the lower speed allow you to enter overloaded weapons range (8) at all? Can you afford to arm AND "hold" all the heavy weapons while you chase the enemy ship down? Do you have enough energy for tractor beams and transporters? Are you moving fast enough so you can turn in time? If not, do you have enough energy for an HET? Knowing your power curve would help a lot here, as you need to estimate your speed, the enemy speed, and plan your engagement range and which weapons to arm and fire. You have to make decisions on these and more during battle in split seconds. Make the right ones and you'll likely succeed. Make the wrong ones and you will likely fail. 6.3 MANEUVER Two things affect maneuver: your turn rate, and your weapon arcs. Your ship's size, speed, and design affect your turn rate. A Gorn ship is relatively slow to turn while a Klingon or Lyran ship of the same size would turn faster. The larger the ship is, the slower it turns, so a frigate would outturn a dreadnought any day. Finally, the faster you go, the slower you turn (and bigger your turn radius). Yet when you go very slow, you also turn very slow. Each ship has a "corner speed", where it turns the fastest. Find it, and exploit it. Your weapon arcs are very important when fighting, as you want to put most of your firepower on the enemy while avoiding his firepower. Most ships have most of their firepower concentrated on their forward centerline (i.e. when it is facing you directly). If you are off to one side (the 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock positions) of the enemy the firepower facing you is vastly reduced, as most heavy weapons are FA arc only. (For explanation of the various firing arc terms, please see your SFC2 manual). For example, let's say you are flying a Klingon ship that have FH firing arcs for your disruptors instead of the regular FA arcs. FA is only the front 60 degrees, while FH is the entire forward hemisphere. So instead of having to point your nose more-or-less at the enemy, you can put the enemy on your 3-9 line (off to a side) and still hit the enemy with your heavy weapons. That makes your maneuvering much easier. Therefore, your maneuvers will be very different from a Federation ship that only has FA firing arcs for the photon torpedoes. Maneuvering in battle basically means you are trying to point most of your weapons at his weakest shield while keeping YOUR weakest shield away from most of his weapons. This can get tricky when there are multiple enemies involved. 6.4 WEAPON ARCS (Summarized and adapted from article by Felix Hack, originally appeared in SFB Tactics Manual) Maneuver and firing arcs are closely related. Maneuver is used to get the weapons into range with the enemy in the arc. The arc then dictates what maneuvers are needed and can be expected. Most ships can be divided into two categories: forward-centerline firepower, and FA arc firepower. The ships with forward-centerline firepower must point the ship directly at the enemy ship to bring maximum amount of firepower to bear. For example, Gorn ships and Hydran ships with split "left/right" arcs are forward-centerline ships as you need to fly them center-line to enemy to get all heavy weapons to bear. I'll abbreviate these as FC ships. The FA firepower ships can deliver all the firepower roughly through the entire FA arc. Most Fed, Klingon, Romulan, and ISC ships are FA ships. The FC ships need to face the enemy to get maximum firepower to bear, so the best way to fight such ships is to go to the sides or even to the rear. If you do that you instantly halved their firepower. On the other hand, the FC ships can choose to fire half of their weapons, then turn and fire the other half. The FA ships can use the "oblique pass" (see 8.1.2), which gives them more options to maneuver. Plasma torpedo users often have pretty wide weapon arcs, and thus should be exploited. Remember that an HET can be used as a surprise to suddenly bypass any maneuver and firing arc restrictions. 6.5 TIMING Timing is basically tactical sense on knowing WHEN to do something, not too early and not too late. For example, if you make a turn too late, you may not hit the enemy's downed shield with your phasers, or worse, exposed your own downed shield to his weapons. If you activate an ESG too late that weapon may not activate soon enough to block the enemy missiles. In general, you want your weapons pointed at the enemy when the weapon is ready to fire, with no idle moments. Of course, this is not always possible. You may be waiting for a down shield to come around so you can do more damage. Just beware of all these considerations. This mainly comes from situation awareness and preparation. It requires a bit of tactical finesse and experience, so keep playing and keep learning. 6.6 PASSIVE VS. AGGRESIVE PLAY STYLE To paint broad strokes, there are two types of play styles: aggressive, and passive. Aggressive players come after you, while passive players wait for you to go after them and will try to keep their distance. A player can be both depending on their "phase". Most players are aggressive when they have their weapons charged and "passive" when their weapons are charging. Direct-weapon users tend to be aggressive, esp. those with close- range weapons, like Hydrans (fusion beam) and Lyrans (ESG). They have to as they need to get close to you. Those with heavy weapons in FA arc need to be aggressive, as they need to point the weapons at you to do damage. This is esp. true for those forward-centerline firepower ships. Ships with low crunch power tend to be passive, esp. fighting high crunch power ships. Drone-users tend to be passive, as they need time to build-up a "swarm" of drones. Drones are 360 free-fire so they can be launched as pursuers. Drone users prefer to be chased as they hold the "positional advantage". They shoot drones "downstream" while your seeking weapons have to travel "upstream". However, some drone users, using plasma-style tactics, can be aggressive. Plasma users can be both passive and aggressive. Gorn, with their "anchor" tactic (see 8.3.1), can be aggressive in their charge, but passive during their recharge cycle. It's same with Romulans. To fight aggressive style players, you need to take out their FRONT shields. This will force them to expose their down shields in order to hit you. To fight passive style players, you need to take out their REAR shield. This will force them to turn their shield 3 or 5 (rear side) shields toward you, thus allowing you to get closer. 6.7 "USE YOUR TRACTORS, DAMMIT!" In SFB lore, this slogan was in a plague right above the door to the starship combat simulator in the Federation Starfleet Academy. What it REALLY means is you should use ALL your ship's systems. A captain who is aware of ALL his ship's capabilities and can use them at the right time has advantage over the captain who is not. For example, how many people use the probe at all? Yet using it can mean the difference between knowing what you are fighting ahead of time vs. when you get close enough to do H&R raids. Tractors can be used to hold the ship AWAY from point-blank range. Many weapons do the most damage at range 0, and a tractor will ensure they stay at range 2.5. You can then rotate the tractor to the rear and then release the enemy in your wake. Tractors are also excellent drone defense, and foundation of the "anchor" maneuver. Transporters can be used to beam up or down items, transport marines for raids or captures, even beam out t-bombs to damage enemy ships. Learn and use ALL of your ship's systems. 6.8 "SPEED IS LIFE" This is actually the motto of the Israeli Air Force, but borrowed for the SFB. In order to power non-movement systems, you need to divert power from the movement systems. But if you do it too much, you can't maneuver. Victory is a careful balancing act. Use your speed (or lack of) for a purpose. Again, knowing your power curve would be really useful here. 6.9 SITUATIONAL AWARENESS Situational awareness basically means being aware of everything around you. Someone with good situational awareness doesn't need to take attention off the primary task to double-check. While situational awareness is not as crucial in starship combat (i.e. SFC2) as in more fast-paced games like space fighter combat or aerial combat, it is still important. For example, it wouldn't do for you to line up a perfect pass at the enemy's down shield if your facing weapons haven't recharged yet, or trying to get away from an enemy ship only to smack right into a planet. The control panel indicators are there to help you. All the indicators have a meaning, and it's up to you to learn them all. The two ship displays have relative facing indicators, but that only works on the ship being targeted. If you are fighting multiple ships you may end up dodging one ship and exposing your down shield to another. Or worse... fly right into a planet or asteroid. Having good situational awareness also helps in the other three aspects of tactics: timing, maneuver, and energy management. You would know when to time your burst of speed (based on your ship's acceleration) to maneuver so your weapons are pointing at the enemy's down shield with enough power to shoot. 6.10 MIZIA CONCEPT Mizia Concept was very simple: instead of firing a single massive volley of all weapons, beat down that shield, then fire several smaller volleys. Why is this better? Because multiple smaller hits damage more weapons, whereas single overwhelming volley damages power and hull. What's better... There really is no "defense" against this attack. It is a bit difficult to execute, but quite useful. Trivia: Mizia Concept was named after Walter Mizia, veteran SFB player, who observed this trend in the damage allocation rules and came up with a way to exploit them. 7 Combat Checklists and some more tips 7.1 BATTLE START CHECKLIST Here's a list of items you should immediately perform upon starting a mission * Red Alert (which arms and selects all weapons) * Check number of friendlies, note classes and numbers * Arm scatter-pack and/or decoy shuttle depending on mission * Set tactical zoom level to lowest/widest (so you can see more of the space) 7.2 ENEMY DETECTED CHECKLIST Here is a list of items you should immediately perform upon detecting enemies on sensors * Determine enemy numbers and type (use a probe if necessary) * Determine which enemies friendlies (if any) appear to be engaging * Determine which enemy ship to engage first or to disengage * Determine whether to capture or destroy the target if engaging * Determine initial tactic: overrun, oblique pass, etc? * Determine shield reinforcement if needed (usually front hemisphere shields) * Determine battle speed (slow, fast, etc?) * Determine hit-and-run targets if needed * Determine ECM and ECCM settings if needed * Charge tractor beam(s) for anchor if needed * Set point-defense mode for phasers and tractors beams if needed 7.3 CAPTURE CHECKLIST Here is a list of items you should check before attempting to capture an enemy unit * Check all available marines on YOUR ships (AI friendly ships do NOT assist in captures. They often RUIN your captures by blowing up that ship with your marines onboard) * Count total number of transporters available on YOUR ships * Check enemy marines on target in the "capture" panel. * Calculate approximate marines usage. Marine usage is dependent on the number of transporters you have available and how fast can you send over reinforcements. The rule of thumb is Usage = 1.5 * (enemy_marines ) * (enemy_marines / your_transporters ) For example, if the enemy has 10 marines, you have only 5 transporters available, expect to use about 30 marines to capture the enemy ship. (1.5 * 10 * 10 / 5) = 30 However, if the enemy has 10 marines, and you have 10 transporters available, then you can expect to use only 15 marines to capture the enemy ship. (1.5 * 10 * 1 = 15) * If you have enough marines to do it, then continue. Otherwise, destroy the enemy ship and don't bother. * Confirm all your ships set to medium order intensity and capture mode. Also set all ships to "inline" formation with you in the lead. (This is to make sure they try to capture the same ship instead of wandering the map with "no target" and they would go through the same shield you do in a single "burst") * Make your pass, use just enough weapons to beat down a shield, and beam on your marines. Fire weapons in single shots. As the other ships see the down shield they should beam their marines also. Then repeat sending in marines if necessary. 7.4 CALCULATING YOUR ODDS You can read enemy ship classes at distance of over 100 kk. You should be able to figure out how far are you outmatched, if you are at all. Here's a rule of thumb to use Use 9 for BB, 7 for DN, 5 for BCH, 4 for CA, 3 for CL, 2 for DD, 1 for FF. Zero for all else. If the any are carriers or PF tenders, add 1 per carrier. If the enemy uses plasma torpedoes or drones, add 1. (To account for crunch power) Total up the "force number" for both sides and compare the number. That should give you a quick idea on how the two forces match up. If the ratio is within 10% of 1 to 1, you should be able to win if you don't make any mistakes, and not lose any ships. However, it's a very even fight and there wouldn't be much 'profit' in it. If the ratio favors the enemy a bit, see if you can even up the odds a little by using tricks like scatter-pack and anchor to quickly kill one ship. Otherwise, stay back and kill the smaller ship(s) that gets close first. You can think about disengaging later. If the ratio favors the enemy a lot, run away and pick something easier. If the ratio favors your side, blast them. If the ratio REALLY favors your side, try going for captures to enhance your prestige. For example, say you have 2 BCH's against 1 enemy BB. The ratio is 10 to 9 in your favor (roughly). You should win in the end, but there's probably no "profit" in this battle. This will be a tough fight. If you can find easier battles, do so. 7.5 LEARN THOSE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS! Almost EVERY command in SFC2 has a keyboard shortcut. You should learn them by heart, or at least copy the quick reference card. They allow you to give orders much faster than going through the mouse-clicks alone. 7.6 PLAY AT A SLOWER GAME SPEED IF YOU WANT If you play alone, you can go as low as game speed 1. However, such a game would be really slow. Default speed of 7 is actually quite fast. You may want to consider 4 or 5 first, then increase speed when you understand the battle a bit more, then speed up or slow down as needed. 7.7 A NOTE ON TERRAIN There aren't that many terrains in SFC, just empty space, asteroids, dust field, pulsar, black hole, and nebula (and some planets). Asteroids are navigational hazards. If you have a heavy ship and have plenty of tractor power, consider pushing enemy ships into asteroids. Lyrans hate asteroids and dust fields as it wears down their ESGs. Dust fields forces you to slow down and apply reinforcement to front shields, reducing available power. Pulsar and black hole only rarely appear in a scenario, and never in the regular ones. Nebula makes everybody have equal shields, and seeking weapons nearly useless. Still, if you fire them close enough some may still survive long enough to hit. The reduced shield strengths mean there will be a lot of internal damage scored. Smaller ships may have the advantage here as they mount more weapons. Minefield can be considered "artificial terrain", but that's a separate topic altogether. 7.8 A QUOTE TO DWELL ON "The only valid test is combat; the only valid result is victory" -- Adm. Steven V. Cole, designer of Star Fleet Battles In other words, no matter how fancy of a tactic we can explain to you, it is up to you to put it into action. You can dream up fancy tactics on paper, but until you test them in combat, you would never know if they work or not. Trivia: this quote was originally attributed to Ardak Kumerian, a Klingon Admiral, who's S.V. Cole's alter ego in SFB. 8 Offensive Maneuvers You need to know some of the common maneuvers that are performed... 8.1 SIMPLE MANEUVERS These maneuvers don't require any special devices or any specific setup, and does not involve HETs. 8.1.1 Overrun Overrun is simple: point the nose at the enemy, shoot at point- blank, and fly right over the other ship. Overrun is best done by ships with maximum point-blank firepower, esp. those with forward centerline firepower. Hydrans are good candidates. To exploit the downed shield, overrun should be followed up by several attacks, such as hit-and-run raids, drop mine, scatter- pack, fighters, drones, or better... another ship. You can combine overrun with anchor (see below) for a really devastating blow. The overrun is very simple but it usually results in your front- shield being blown, and that can be bad. In a cloak-able ship, you can approach until enemy is range, fire weapons, then cloak as you fly over him. This is called an "under- run". The Hydrans specialize in the "fusion charge" with their fusion- armed ships. Basically, they overload the fusion beams, then hold the weapons, go maximum available speed, and charge right down the middle with forward shields reinforced, erratic maneuvers, max ECM. Enemy fire would be ineffective. Then at point blank, stop the EM and deliver a devastating alpha strike at point-blank range. The Feds can do the same with a photon salvo at point-blank range. Plasma using races can do the same by firing plasma so close the enemy has no chance to launch a weasel. The "charge" doesn't work against people who know how to maneuver and avoid the charge. Those who use "saber dance" maneuvers can avoid the charge easily. The "charge" also usually causes severe damage on the front shield, leaving you vulnerable to later attacks. Higher speed and maneuverability can counter overrun. Then it turns into a battle pass or pursuit. 8.1.2 Oblique pass Oblique pass is nearly as simple as overrun. Instead of point directly at the enemy, you point slightly off to one side, so when you are in weapons range of each other, you hit the right- front or left-front shields instead of front shield. Then you can decide if you want to turn away, or turn in to attack. Ships with FA firepower are best candidates to use oblique pass. They can deliver the same firepower throughout their FA arc. This is sometimes called a "battle pass", and it can be quickly converted to overrun or battle run, or even pursuit. The oblique pass can quickly turn into an overrun if both sides turn in to each other. If one side turns in and the other side turns out, it becomes a tail-chase situation. The chasee can launch drones, drop T-bombs, etc. to attack, but cannot use primary weapons. The chaser has primary weapons in arc but can't really use seeking weapons as he's a positional disadvantage. If the Klingon turns in, this maneuver is called "the Klingon Hook" as the superior maneuverability of Klingon ships makes this easier. If both sides turn out, it's time to disengage. Oblique pass may not be good if your ship has firing arcs that emphasize firepower to the sides. Oblique pass can halve your firepower, though you can always maneuver after you fire half of your weapons. Beware of the HET following a battle pass or battle run. 8.1.3 Battle run You approach the enemy pointing just off to one side of him. After you fire at the range of your choice, you turn away to expose your rear weapons at the same shields you had hit before. If you have significant number of side or rear firing weapons (like Klingon's wing phasers on the D-7's or the ISC's rear I- torps), you are good candidate for battle run. 8.1.4 The Feint A feint is basically a maneuver to get your opponent out of balance. In SFC, it's a maneuver of deception to get your enemy to commit to countering one of your moves when you really intend something else. For example, the HET reversal below [8.2.3] is a feint. He countered your battle run with pursuit, so you suddenly turn it into an overrun instead. There are many ways to do "feints". For enemies who seem to have an answer for everything, a feint can do wonders. 8.1.5 The Saber dance The Klingons invented the "saber dance" maneuver. Basically, the enemy ship stays at range 15, where the disruptors have a better chance to hit than other weapons. The enemy ship then repeats the maneuver, keeping the range open, while it wears down your shields. The Hydrans can use the saber dance with their Hellbores the same way, but their weapon arcs aren't as nicely designed as the Klingons and require a bit more maneuvering to stay away. Saber dance requires patience and very good weapon arcs. One mistake and the enemy may get close enough to do you real damage. 8.1.6 The Starcastle This tactic can be effective against races that have low "peak output" and prefer to nibble you at medium range, like Klingons. This is a counter against the "saber dance" maneuver. Basically, it means go at speed 4, maximum ECM, erratic maneuver (EM), max shield reinforcements on facing shield, and wait for the enemy. At maximum jamming and EM, it's doubtful attack at range 15 will do any damage. The enemy must close in to do any damage. You can then switch to an overrun or oblique pass. This turns a maneuver battle into a knife-fight. 8.2 HIGH-ENERGY TURN, WHY AND WHEN High-energy turn gives you a sudden change in direction (payoff) in exchange for some disadvantages (power expenditure) and risk (possibility of breakdown). HET uses a significant amount of power (5 movement pts) so you have to be sure you don't need it for anything else. Ships that cannot make an HET safely ever (i.e. breakdown chance of less than 100%) should probably NOT make one, ever. A breakdown will almost kill that ship for sure. There are basically three reasons to use an HET: sudden problem, defensive turn, surprise attack 8.2.1 Sudden problem An HET can be used to get away from a sudden problem to buy some time to deal with it. Say, a scatter pack was launched in front of you and you can't turn away in time and you're out of weapons, or a plas-R coming at you. Turn away and you may get some time to deal with them. 8.2.2 Defensive HET A defensive HET is using an HET to bring a fresh shield into play, so enemy won't be able to pound a weakened or down shield. HET takes time to charge, so you have to plan this ahead of time. If you suddenly decide you need one, it would have been too late. 8.2.3 Surprise attack Generally, you want to ship to follow you, slow enough not to catch you yet too fast to weasel (except with EmerDecel). Use a feint to get the enemy to commit to a counter. Then use an HET reversal [8.3.2]. 8.3 EMERGENCY DECELERATION EmerDecel is most often used to slow the ship down so you can launch a wild weasel. This also reinforces the front shields slightly. EmerDecel does NOT conserve power. EmerDecel DOES slow you down, which may prevent you from revealing one of your down shields. EmerDecel can be used when the enemy is closing faster than expected. EmerDecel can save you from collisions. ISC ships may use EmerDecel to reduce closure rate with the target so it can get more PPD pulses off. The price of EmerDecel is speed 0, which gives the enemy the initiative. He can take the time to recharge weapons, even disengage. He can go to your rear shields and pound it. He can wait and do a Gorn anchor on you when the weasel expires. You can't do anything about it. Consider how WILL you get back to battle speed BEFORE you use EmerDecel. How do you dodge drones or plasma torps now that you've stopped? How long will it take for you to get back up to speed? Can you survive till then? 8.4 ADVANCED MANEUVERS The advanced maneuvers involve using HETs in combination of simple maneuvers. 8.4.1 The Flanking Snap Turn This is a continuation of the oblique pass if both sides simply keep going. Basically you pass down the side of the enemy so your 3 o'clock is at his 9 o'clock, or vice versa. THEN you use an HET so you can bring your weapons to bear on his side/rear shields, which are probably weaker than his front shields. To counter the flanking snap turn, keep your distance in the oblique pass. A T-bomb or two and a turn-away would help also. Then you can use an HET reversal after you've damaged his front shields. 8.4.2 The HET Reversal At the oblique approach, you turn out, the enemy turns in, and he's now chasing you, hoping to hit your weaker rear shields. You then suddenly use an HET to bring your front-weapons to bear and turn it into an overrun. To counter this, you just have to be careful. If the enemy looks like he's overloading, don't chase too close! 8.4.3 Anti-anchor If you have plenty of point-blank firepower (like Hydrans) fighting plasma or drone user who's likely to anchor (like Gorn or Mirak), consider the anti-anchor. Maneuver so the enemy is about to catch you on the side, HET ready to go, all weapons overloaded. When the enemy tractor you, HET into him and blast him. He's probably expecting you to fight his tractor and would have put a lot of power into it. You instead put the energy into shield reinforcements. Net result... Instead of losing, both ships are heavily damaged. At least you salvage a draw. You MAY even win it if you have good damage control and other sources of firepower (like fighters and so on). 8.5 SPECIAL MANEUVERS Special maneuvers use specific devices (such as tractors), weapons, and so on to exploit a specific characteristic. 8.5.1 Anchor The "anchor" maneuver was "invented" by the Gorn, as it makes their plasma torpedoes very effective and makes maneuvering minimal. The concept is very simple: slap a tractor beam on the enemy ship, THEN shoot the torpedoes. Why do it this way? A ship being tractored cannot launch a decoy shuttle (i.e. wild weasel), so they will have to shoot the torpedoes or let them hit. At point-blank range, they can't rotate a new shield into play quickly. Any race using seeking weapons can use the anchor. A frigate can kill a cruiser if the anchor was deployed properly. Scatter-pack is very useful here as it suddenly pops 6 or more missiles at a target that can't launch decoys. An anchor can be enhanced by NOT firing all your weapons in a single salvo. Instead, fire in several small salvoes to gain maximum damage from the Mizia attack [see 6.10]. An anchor combined with HET can be devastating. You shoot, you score, and you turn away in an instant without giving enemy much chance to shoot back. This requires very good timing though. Some ships should NEVER be anchored. Fusion-beam armed Hydrans can be deadly (to you) to anchor. A smaller ship should NOT attempt to tractor a larger ship unless it is going for the deadweight maneuver, and even then Anchor can be defeated by NEVER coming into tractor range. You can keep the enemy away by using some mines to "encourage" him to go somewhere else. You may even want to use an HET to turn away ASAP. Another way to defeat the anchor is to pre-charge the tractor beam to REPEL. Choose the strength you want to repel, up to 6. You can then repel all tractors charged up to that strength. Hydrans have a similar maneuver discussed in their race specific section. 8.5.2 Deadweight The "deadweight" maneuver is a maneuver used by the Mirak. The maneuver is very similar to the anchor. Basically, one lighter ship serves as the "deadweight". The lighter ship arms minimal weapons, gets in there, tractors the enemy ship, reinforces facing shield, and come to a FULL STOP. That enemy is now severely limited in its mobility. Even SLOW drones now will catch up to the enemy ship. Even better... The lighter ship fires its drones and weapons, and takes the return salvo on the reinforced shield for minimum or no damage. Now the target has no more weapons to defend itself, and are vulnerable to weapons from other ships. It can't even dump a weasel to protect itself. 8.5.3 Plasma String Sometimes called a "plasma bid", this is used by the plasma using races, mainly the Romulans. Basically, you start randomly mixing the real and the pseudo plasma torpedoes one at a time at a certain interval. The enemy can't tell which one is real or not. Even if you shot 3 torpedoes when you have only 2 launchers, he still wouldn't know which one is the fake. He will have to dump a weasel at some point if he's slow enough. It is called a "bid" because you keep raising the ante with more torpedoes until he "blinks" and launches a weasel. Then you wipe out the weasel, anchor him, and feed him the rest of your torpedoes. He should run out of shuttles before you run out of torpedoes. Plasma string can be countered by speed and distance, like the general anti-plasma tactics. 8.5.4 Drone Swarm The swarm can be a scary sight for races not armed with anti- drone weapons. Mirak is the primary drone swarm user, though any race with drones (Feds, Klingons) can do a swarm also with the right ship(s). Basically, you have a LOT of drones (more than 6) all targeting one ship and travel in close proximity. You can help create a swarm by using a scatter-pack if your internal launchers can't create a swarm. Remember that each ship has a drone control limit. If you exceed it, the earliest drones you fired are lost. Most ships can control 6 drones (single drone control), some ships can control 12 (double drone control) or 18 (triple drone control). Obviously, faster the drones, the more dangerous they are. Fast drones can chase down fast ships, are less vulnerable to anti- drone fire, and so on. The swarm can be beaten with a nicely placed T-bomb. It is also not that useful on ships equipped with ADDs, ESGs, and other anti- drone weapons. 9 Offense There are a lot of ways to do damage to the enemy 9.1 PHASERS Phasers are the most energy-efficient weapons in the game. A ph-1 can do up to 10 pts of damage with 1 pt of energy. Heavy weapons don't come close. However, ph-1 is the largest phaser a starship can mount. Everybody uses phasers in one form or another. They are all treated as "phasers" in terms of SFC even though their innards may be somewhat different. 9.2 DIRECT-FIRE HEAVY WEAPONS Direct-fire heavy weapons hits (or misses) facing shield immediately. In general those don't hit that often unless you're very close. Some heavy weapons like hellbores and PPDs can damage non-facing shields. If you are very close, you can usually overload, but that will reduce your speed significantly by making less power available. Overloaded weapons also have limited range. 9.3 SEEKING HEAVY WEAPONS Mirak, Gorn, and Romulan use seeking weapons. Those in general pack a much larger punch than firect-fire weapons, but you can't hit the facing shield. There are also ways to reduce the impact of the weapons. Plasma torpedoes can be reduced by phaser fire. Drones can be killed by phasers or ADDs, kept away by tractors, or blasted by T-bombs. Drone users also have to watch out for the drone control limit of their ship(s). Drones don't cost any energy to launch, but you can exhaust your reloads in a long battle. Drones also in general travel at a lower speed. Plasma torpedo never "run out" (unlike drones), but it takes a LONG time to charge (3 times as long as disruptor) and takes energy. They also dissipate over distance traveled. Plasma users can use a pseudo-torpedo to scare the enemy. It looks JUST like a regular torpedo, but causes no damage. You can use the pseudo-torpedo to hide the fact that you're still recharging. Enveloping plasma torpedo can be used to "sandpaper" the shields and perhaps hit a down shield. This can wear down the enemy ship for later attacks. If there are multiple targets, a plasma torpedo can be used in "shotgun" mode which shoots several smaller torpedoes against multiple targets. Drone users can use scatter-pack to increase the number of missiles in a salvo, at the cost of using a shuttle and the possibility of having that shuttle shot down before it can "pop". 9.4 OTHER HEAVY WEAPONS ESG can be used for ramming, which can be a very effective weapon that can beat down enemy's facing shield(s). ESG is also a good defensive weapon, as it kills fighters, shuttles, and drones. 9.5 HIT-AND RUN RAIDS Hit-and-run raids can kill specific ship systems on an enemy ship, subject to transporter, boarding party, and energy availability. 9.6 MINES AND T-BOMBS Mines and T-bombs, when placed properly, can cause significant damage to enemy ships, fighters, shuttles, PFs, etc. 9.7 TRACTOR/TERRAIN One of the most satisfying ways to kill enemy ship is by pushing the enemy ship into an asteroid or a planet. This can be hard to arrange though, and is considered "bad manners" if done in a Dynaverse battle against human opponent. Terrain such as dust fields can cause damage to shields, and if shields are down, cause damage to the ship directly. Therefore, when fighting in a dust field, you may want to target the front- shield of the enemy ship(s). 9.8 SHUTTLES/FIGHTERS Shuttles and fighters have phasers, heavy weapons, and drones which can be used to defend you, defend others ships, or to attack other ships (from long range or close assault). Suicide shuttle is just another seeking weapon (albeit a very slow one). 10 Defense How to prevent your ship from being damaged while dealing damage to the enemy ships is very important. After all, this quote said it best. "You don't serve your country by dying for your country. You serve your country by making the OTHER poor bastard die for HIS country." --- General George S. Patton, US Army 10.1 "SPEED IS LIFE" Speed, when your ship is heading in the proper direction, gives you more time to deal with the incoming threats. You can run until the plasma torp run out of juice. You can run until the drones run out of juice. You can run to keep enemy out of overload range so he can't hit you if his weapons are overloaded. NONE of this can happen if you do NOT have speed! 10.2 USE EW! Electronic warfare, at long to medium range, is more efficient in reducing damage than shield reinforcements. With max ECM and EM, you should rarely if ever take damage at medium range. 10.3 REINFORCE FACING SHIELD(S) You can use any excess energy for shield reinforcements. This would prevent "premature" wear on your shields when the enemy is just firing some long-range shots. Only shields that are still "up" can be reinforced. So if a shield has been busted, there's no point in reinforcing it. 10.4 TURN A NEW SHIELD AROUND If the enemy beats down one of your shields, maneuver and present a different shield. Use HET if you have to! 10.5 "USE YOUR TRACTORS! DAMMIT!" Seeking weapons such as missiles, suicide shuttles, and so on, can be kept away by tractor beams. You can set the number of tractors to use for defense in your "defense" control panel. 10.6 LEAVE SOME PHASERS FOR POINT-DEFENSE! Are your phasers armed and ready for your own ship's defense? If you have point-defense set your phasers will automatically engage nearby seeking weapons such as plasma torpedoes and drones. Of course, that also means that you will not have those phasers to shoot at enemies. 10.7 AVOID THE ENEMY'S WEAPON ARCS If you know the enemy's weapon arcs you know which sides of the enemy ship to avoid. Few enemy ships can fire into the hex directly behind the ship. 10.8 WATCH THE ENEMY SHIP DISPLAY That tells you a LOT about weapons under repair, being recharged, and so on. Best time to attack is when the enemy cannot fire back! You need to be close, or use a probe. 10.9 WATCH THE RANGE! If the enemy is going fast, he is probably not overloading, so close assault should not be a problem. If the enemy is going slow, he may be overloading, so you should stay out of overload range. Of course, these two are not rules, but general observations. You can "trick" the enemy into you're overloading when you're not by moving slower than you can, and so on. Stay away from plasma users as they need to be close to do significant damage. 11 Tactics and Counter-Tactics Here, we discuss some common questions on how to use plasma weapons, and drones, and how to counter each. 11.1 PLASMA TACTICS First, let us discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a plasma torpedo. Remember, deception and confusion are primary tactics for plasma torpedoes. 11.1.1 Plasma Strengths Plasma torpedoes deliver a LOT of damage in a compact package. Plasma torpedo has some of the highest crunch power available. Plasma weapons are seeking. As long as the launcher is in arc you can shoot and maneuver away. Plasma torpedoes are fast (speed 36). [NOT 32 as previously reported] Plasma torpedoes are flexible: you can regular, download, envelope, or shotgun. Plasma torpedo can be fired (for a limited time) AFTER the weapon has been destroyed Enveloping plasma torp is essentially the ONLY overloaded weapon without the 8-hex limit. 11.1.2 Plasma Weaknesses Plasma takes a LONG time to charge (3 times the period needed by disruptors). Plasma takes a lot of energy to charge. Plasma, as a seeking weapon, give the target a choice on which shield to expose. Plasma dissipates as it travels, losing its punch. Plasma can be further dissipated by phaser fire Plasma can be distracted by a wild weasel (i.e. sensor decoy) Plasma launchers are NOT 360 degrees. (Some Gorn launchers have wider arcs) 11.1.3 Dealing with recharge period To counter the long recharge period, do NOT fire ALL of the your torpedoes at once. Fire them one at a time. (This is the foundation of the "plasma string" tactic, see 8.3.2). By staggering the reload cycle you also minimize the energy problem. On the other hand, that also means you're spreading out your firepower. By spreading your firepower, enemy can choose which shield he would want to take the hit on. You risk the chance of not hitting the same shield. Downloading, by generating type-F plasmas in two turns in larger tubes, also helps with the long recharge period, as the expense of some crunch power. 11.1.4 Dealing with dissipation To solve the dissipation problem, you need to launch the torpedo as close to the target as possible. Launch close also prevent the enemy ship from turning a new shield. However, launching close exposes you to his counter-fire. It also reveals your charging cycle to his sensors. The foundation of the "anchor" (see 8.3.1) is on getting as close as possible. Torpedoes are great against stationary targets like bases, which can't dodge. If the enemy ship will not expose a down shield, an enveloping torpedo may be the answer. While that takes more energy, it can go through down shields, as well as damage all the other shields for later penetration. 11.1.5 Dealing with phasers You can't really do much about enemy phasers except launch several torpedoes or offer them other targets than your torpedo. Using pseudo-torps can make them waste phasers as well. 11.1.6 Dealing with weasel The "cure" for weasel is the anchor. If you tractor a target, the enemy cannot launch weasel. Of course, the trick is getting close enough to do it. On the other hand, taking a weasel isn't that bad. Most ships have very limited number of shuttles and it takes a long time to charge a weasel. Once he's out, he's toast. You can always just charge another torpedo. The ship that launches a weasel also loses the initiative and thus is quite vulnerable to anything you do. Just be prepared to take advantage of it. 11.1.7 Be unpredictable Plasma users need to be unpredictable. With so many options and combinations, you need to confuse your enemy as to your actual operating pattern. Your opponent will try to guess your reload cycle and attack while your torpedoes are recharging. How do you minimize your vulnerability during that time is critical to your survival, you do that by being unpredictable. To completely confuse enemy regarding your reload cycle, you can download to a smaller torpedo, or use a pseudo torpedo. Download charges a torpedo faster, thus taking only 2 turns or even 1 turn for a torpedo. Pseudo disguises your shots. 11.1.8 When to use Enveloping An opening salvo of enveloping torpedoes can surprise a lot of opponents. As you run away, the enveloping torpedo "sandpaper" all of your opponent's shields. Subsequent torpedoes would have much better chance to break through. In fleet action, when there's more weapons going around, some can go enveloping to confuse the enemy. 11.1.9 When to use shotgun Shotgun, with the restriction on targeting, means it's mainly a defensive weapon used when there are a LOT of targets, like PFs, frigates, fighters, and so on. 11.1.10 When to Underload Personally, I underload after the first salvo is shot. I don't like to run away (as I need the power to arm the weapons), so I prefer to underload and get the weapons up faster. 11.1.11 Keeping the enemy away during recharge period You are vulnerable during the recharge period. So keeping the enemy away during the recharge period is the key. One of the best ways to keep the enemy away is with a pseudo- torp, and that's discussed in the next section. Another possibility is a mini minefield from either T-bombs or Nuclear Space Mine (if you're a Romulan). You hide behind the mines while you reload. However, this can be very difficult to arrange, and is more of a theoretical exercise. It is difficult to put into practice. For a more practical method, try leaving T- bomb or two and hide behind them while you reload. T-bombs are also excellent drone defense when you're fighting a drone user. Your plasma torps are not vulnerable to t-bombs. Another way to keep the enemy away is with the cloaking device. Actually, it doesn't keep the enemy away, it just make you harder to hit when the enemy does get close. The problem then is getting AWAY from the enemy when you're ready to decloak. When you decloak, you're at the MOST vulnerable stage. If you have speed, you can just stay away from the enemy that way. But if you have speed, you may not have enough to recharge. 11.1.12 Deploying Pseudo-Torps In general, Pseudo-torp is used when you want to make the enemy think it's a REAL torpedo when it is not. There are three situations: you want to keep the enemy AWAY, you want the enemy to waste phasers, or you want the enemy to pop a weasel. If you want the enemy to stay away while you recharge, a pseudo can do that. However, if the enemy is careful in timing your recharge, or pays careful attention to his sensors (or use a probe), he can guess pretty well if that torpedo is real or not. A pseudo torpedo will cause the enemy to use up their phasers, hopefully on the pseudo instead of the real torpedo. As most people leave point-defense on auto, firing a pseudo first can soak up the phasers. You can force the enemy to pop a weasel if you have enough torpedoes in the air, and he doesn't know which ones are real or fake. As fighter pilots say, "honor the threat!" Your enemy must treat each torpedo as a real one if he is not sure. That is the foundation of the "plasma string" tactic (see 8.3.2). 11.2 COUNTER PLASMA TACTICS A lot of new players (newbies) have problem fighting the plasma races. The AI fires off all three plasmas... The newbie tried to maneuver. The three plasmas hit the same shield, wrecking his ship. Then the AI ship fires phasers... And the newbie blew up. Well, this section is for the newbie. Welcome to plasma avoidance 101. Please read 11.1.1 and 11.1.2 to review strengths and weaknesses of the plasma torpedo. 11.2.1 Use your speed and distance To counter plasma races, you need to keep your speed up and keep your distance from the enemy ships. By keeping the range open, you give time for the plasma to dissipate. If he waste his plasma, he will have to get away from you to recharge. You can then pound him during his recharge cycle. Of course, that's assuming you're NOT dealing with a pseudo. Changing speed can help here. Start slow, switch to fast when the enemy is likely to launch, take the hit, turn back to slow to get your weapons recharged and fired. 11.2.2 Use your sensors! If you scan the enemy ship, you can see if his torpedoes are recharging of not (if you are close enough). If you know when his torpedoes are recharging, then the torpedo in flight must be a pseudo. If you know when his torpedoes are charging, then you know when to attack! If you are NOT close enough, you can use a probe. 11.2.3 Use all your shields! You can virtually choose which shield you want to let the seeking weapon hit. While most people assume that would be the rear shields, you COULD let the torpedo hit a front shield. If the enemy ship fire torpedoes one at a time, you can take them on all different shields. If he fires all of the plasma torpedoes, he just spat away most of his firepower. After dealing with the torpedo, you can pound him during his reload cycle. (Assuming no pseudos, of course) There is also of course, the wild weasel. After those torpedoes hit, you can accelerate away and hopefully still catch the guy before he recharges. 11.2.4 Counter the pseudo You may want to allow the dissipated torpedo to hit a shield of your choice, so you can tell whether it is a pseudo or not. In SFC2 you get an infinite number of pseudos (albeit there's a long "recharge" time). So counting the pseudo doesn't help that much. Still, knowing that you got hit by a pseudo vs. a real torpedo helps if you can keep a clear count. 11.2.5 Counter the anchor To counter the anchor, don't get close to a plasma ship, and always charge repel tractors. Anchor prevents the 'weasel' defense. Speed and distance again are the critical factors here. I personally consider the weasel as a last resort, which is why I am usually NOT afraid of the anchor. 11.2.6 Against cloaking plasma users Cloak guys may actually be EASIER to kill than you think. In SFC2, the cloakers CAN be found. In fact, you can designate a cloaked ship, you just can't lock-on to it. That simply means that 1) you can only use direct-fire weapons to shoot at him and 2) you may not do much damage to him unless you're point-blank. Plasma takes energy to charge, and so does cloak. So a cloaker need to be QUITE slow to do both. That means you have PLENTY of time to fry a cloaker if you keep your speed up. While I DID say it's dangerous to get close to a plasma ship, keep in mind that a cloaker takes time to decloak. During that time, he's NOT under the protection of cloak AND he's vulnerable to weapons. If you can catch him while he's reloading under cloak, even better! You can make two to three different passes and he'll still be recharging. A point-blank alpha strike CAN still work. It may not do as much damage, but it will still damage a shield. And he can't stay "under" forever. Catch the cloaker with a drone swarm or alpha strike right as he decloak on his rear shield, and turn away to disengage. He'll have to build up speed to catch you again, if he survives the swarm. 11.2.7 Worst-case scenario: the wild weasel In general, I don't like weasels. You only have a certain number of weasels (none if you don't charge any). Using a weasel also gives up the initiative to the plasma user. However, if you are sure you can take whatever else he's got left, then wild weasel can be a good choice. Launch a weasel and let the torpedoes hit the weasel. Then accelerate away and catch the plasma user in an alpha strike. 11.3 DRONE TACTICS I prefer the term "drones" to "missiles". I started playing SFB in the 1990's and I tend to use the SFB terms. Any way, let's see what are the advantage and disadvantages of drones. [Some tips summarized from "Drone Tractics" by Alan M. Gopin from the SFB Tactics Manual] 11.3.1 Drone advantages Drones deliver a LOT of damage in a compact package. Type IV drones cause a LOT of damage, esp. if you can get a salvo to hit the same shield. Drones are seeking weapons. They are "fire-and-forget". Drones are 360-degree weapons: no firing arc restrictions Drones cost NO energy to launch Drones CAN be fast (though that cost a LOT of prestige pts) 11.3.2 Drone disadvantages There are a TON of ways to kill drones (see 11.3.7). Drones cost a lot of prestige pts if you want faster/fastest speed, and need to be replaced after every battle Drones, as seeking weapons, give the target a choice on which shield to expose. Drones can be distracted by a wild weasel Drones are subject to control channel limits Once you're out of drones, you're out, period. 11.3.3 Mass and Timing Mass means create a swarm of drones, so the target's defenses are completely overwhelmed. However, this is subject to control limits and launch rate limits. Mass also means the swarm is vulnerable to a single t-bomb, and to a lesser extent, the wild weasel (sensor decoy). Timing means you need to get all the drones to the target as simultaneously as possible to help with "mass". You need to minimize the time the target has to defend itself against the drones, and try to time the arrival so as many of the drones will hit the same shield. 11.3.4 Picking the target A slow ship can't outrun the drones, so should be an excellent drone target. Slow, of course, depends on how fast YOUR drones are. A slow ship also can't turn fast enough to present another shield, thus even MORE vulnerable. A ship that has just fired most of its phasers is a good target, as it won't be able to defend itself against more drones unless it has a LOT of tractors and AMD/ADD. You can tell that by your scanners (or a probe). A ship that is away from the rest of its fleet's defense zones is also a good target. A closer target is better than a far away target as it takes less time for the drones to hit it. A ship coming closer is better than a ship moving away. The higher closing speed means he'll have less time to defend against it. 11.3.5 Drones as defense If enemy chases you, firing back to them. Drone has 360 degree fire and thus can cover your escape. His "tail chase" also decreases his reaction time to defend against the drones fired "downstream". Drones is also a good way to defend yourself against ESG ram. Throw out enough drones out there and you can take minimal damage against ESG ram on your shields. The Lyrans under AI control don't seem to defend themselves with ESG if you're out to long range. 11.3.6 Scatter-pack Pros: dramatically increases the launch rate from 1-2 to 6 drones Cons: Uses a shuttle, pack itself is vulnerable before it "pops", can overwhelm control limit Scatter-pack can be useful if you are sure the enemy cannot kill it before it pops. If you drop one before an overrun (say, range 15) it should pop right when you meet the enemy ship. This requires good timing. Make SURE you have control channels available or you'll be wasting previously launched drones. You can launch it close to the enemy if you are SURE enemy has no weapons left to kill it. To defend against scatter-packs, try to kill one before it "pops". Else, it's standard drone defense. 11.3.7 Spread them out if you can A swarm is a concentrated target. You should spread the drones out so one t-bomb or one counter would not get all of them. You need to set the launch racks to "one missile" instead of "all missiles". Then you just need t launch multiple times with a slight gap in between. Leaving the gap in between would give the enemy a bit of a breathing room, but also makes your swarm multiple smaller targets. You need to determine what IS the optimum gap... So the salvo is still concentrated enough to be a swarm, yet separate enough so one T-bomb won't get them all. Obviously you can't control a scatter pack... 11.3.8 Mediums are the best compromise The medium speed drones are the best compromise between capability and prestige cost. The "fast" drones just cost too much, esp. if you need a LOT of reloads. You probably want Type-IV drones instead of Type-I. While get half as much Type-IV's as Type-I's, the Type-IV's, if hit, do TWICE the damage. 11.3.9 Do the anchor A Mirak anchor is just as dangerous as a Gorn anchor if you perform it correctly. A full salvo of 6 type-IV drones will severely maul a cruiser and kill lighter ships. Anchor also makes SLOW drones dangerous. You can even anchor another ship to slow it down so slow drones launched by other ships can catch up to it. This is sometimes called the "deadweight" maneuver. Combine an anchor with a scatter-pack can be completely overwhelming. Imagine this scenario... You dropped a scatter-pack before you enter weapons range. You snagged the enemy just as the scatter-pack popped, before he can pop a weasel. He shot down 1-2 and stopped another 3 via tractors. THEN you feed him a salvo from your internal launchers AND your alpha strike from your other weapons. 11.3.10 Counter-counter tactics A swarm sure look scary, but there are a LOT of ways to stop drones. To recap, here's the list: * phaser (in point-defense mode) * tractor beam (in point-defense mode) * anti-drone launchers (ADDs) (in point-defense mode) * Transporter bombs (beam them or drop them) * Wild weasel (takes care of ALL seeking weapons targeting you) * ECM (which can reduce the damage) * ESG (absorbs all physical hits, including drones) * Another drone (yes, you can launch a drone at another drone) * Terrain features (planets, asteroids, dust field, etc.) Let us discuss each of the counter and discuss how to counter that. 11.3.11 Phaser You can make the enemy use up the phaser so it is not available shoot your drones. Basically, you need to offer the enemy ship something else to shoot at, and usually, that would be yourself. Shuttles are usually too valuable to be 'spent' like this, but they are a possibility. On the other hand, you can shoot the drones to let the enemy spend the phasers on the drones instead of you. That's usually what Klingons do. 11.3.12 Tractor Beam and ADD/AMD You can't do much about tractor beams and AMDs, except with hit- and-run raids. To do that, you need to expose yourself to counter- fire. However, AMDs have a fixed number of "shots" and need to reload. If you can make the AMDs expend themselves, the firing ship will be vulnerable for a period of time while the AMD reloads. If you are slightly faster than the incoming drones, turn so the tractored drones are behind you, then turn off the tractors to leave the drones behind. Now your tractors can be used to intercept MORE incoming drones. 11.3.13 T-Bombs T-Bomb can kill a large group of drones at once. To beat that, spread your drones out by firing at slight intervals instead of one single swarm. So one T-bomb will kill only a few. 11.3.14 Wild Weasel You can't do much about the wild weasel except to note that a WW user surrenders the initiative and speed completely. The WW user also used up one of the shuttles, which is always in short supply. Once you got the initiative, don't ever give it back. You can always do the anchor, which negates the weas