Starfleet Command Unofficial Strategy Guide and FAQ also covers Gold Edition by Kasey Chang released June 20, 2003 0 Introduction This section is mainly about the FAQ itself and some legalese. You can read the most often asked FAQs at the end of this section, or skip right to [1] for the "stuff". If you like the FAQ, send me $1.00. :-) See 0.3 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 SFC2 and SFC2:Orion Pirates. I have a similar guide for SFC2. 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. :-) See 0.3 0.2 TERMS OF DISTRIBUTION This document is copyrighted by Kuo-Sheng "Kasey" Chang (c) 2003, 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 Unofficial Strategy Guide and FAQ" is copyrighted (c) 2003 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. 0.3 VOLUNTARY COMPENSATION Gamers who read this guide are under NO obligation to send me ANY compensation. However, a VOLUNTARY contribution of one (1) US Dollar would be very appreciated. 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. 0.4 DISTRIBUTION This USG should be available at Gamefaqs (https://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. 0.5 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 note taking on a Handspring Visor with the Targus Stowaway foldable keyboard. Some editing was done with Editpad (editpadclassic.com). 0.6 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 https://www.gamefaqs.com, the biggest FAQ site around. To contact me, see 0.4 above. 0.7 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 was created by QuickSilver Software, published by Interplay and 14 Degrees East. Starfleet Command is partially based on Star Fleet Battles. Star Fleet Battles is a registered trademark of Amarillo Design Bureau. See https://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 https://gaming.startrek.com for all you want to know about Star Trek computer and console games. Some parts of this guide were taken from my SFC2:EAW guide. Most of the tactics and such applies to both. 0.8 REVISION HISTORY 18-JUN-2003 Initial Release 0.9 THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: Can you send me SFC (or portions thereof)? A: No. Q: Can you send me the manual (or portions thereof)? A: That's a portion of the game. 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: What's the latest version of SFC2? A: V1.3 was the latest. Q: What is the difference between SFC and SFC Gold? A: SFC Gold adds 3 new Federation missions, 3 new Klingon missions, 10 new Hydran missions 7 new Gorn missions, and 3 new Romulan missions, plus various "patches". Q: What is SFC: Neutral Zone? A: It's a stripped-down introductory version of the game that allows you to command a Federation cruiser (i.e. Enterprise) against a Klingon D-7 cruiser only, and do battle against AI. It essentially is a demo, albeit sold at a very low cost. 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. Q: How many difficulty levels are there? A: The AI level can be set to 3 levels, captain, commodore, or admiral. Q: What is the difference between the different eras? A: They affect ship and weapon availability. Some ships and weapons do not become available until later. If you start early, you'll have to make do with the earlier versions of the ships, which would be somewhat weaker and without those wartime refits. Q: What is the maximum number of ships I can own? A: You can own total of three ships. Q: How do I beat those "elite" missions in single player campaign? A: See section 15 Q: What do the medals screen really mean? A: They show what special missions you've "won", in addition to your rank (which depends on your prestige). Q: What are some of the terms used in SFC/SFB mean? A: See the "glossary" at 1.10 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's the rest of the ships? A: Try SFC2:EAW. Q: Where are the X-ships? A: They are in the SFC2: Orions Pirates "standalone expansion". Q: But those are TOS/TMP ships. Where's the TNG ships? A: Try SFC3. Q: Where are the cheat codes? A: There aren't any. This is a STRATEGY game. Q: How do I get better crew? A: You "buy" them at the recruiting office. Q: But I don't see any good ones available! A: So take your "green" crew on a few missions, which will turn them into veterans after 4-5 missions. On the other hand, "Legendary" crew must be hired. Q: Can I edit/create my own scenarios? A: For SFC1, the mission API is published. However, there's no simple "editor". You must use the API and write your own C++ program to create the missions. Q: How do I play online? A: In order to play the original SFC online at Gamespy Arcade, you can download the files necessary to bring you to current version with the proper fixes to play online at the web site https://www.nightsoftware.com/effhq/sfc12.html Q: Why I don't see some of the missions you listed in my SFC? A: Two possibilities: 1) You have the regular, not the "Gold" edition, and 2) You don't have the "SFCScripts" update. You can download the latter from https://www.nightsoftware.com/effhq/sfc12.html 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. 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 in expansion packs. 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. Other expansion modules added carrier operations, PF operations, very large ships (like battleships and battlecruisers, as well as heavy dreadnoughts and light dreadnoughts), new terrain types (radiation zone, heat zone, etc.), more monsters, more auxiliary units, more conjectural units, more races, and much more. 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 and the SFB universe in general, please read the "General War Timeline" on the SFB website at https://www.starfleetgames.com/sfb/sfin/general_war.htm. (In case you wonder what about the Andromedans, here's a short explanation, in SFB, the Andromedans launched an all-out invasion of the galaxy right after the ISC Pacification War. They have an advantage in that they were able to move VERY quickly from sector to sector. They almost reduced some of the empires to only a few systems. The galaxy united and in a series of battles, threw back the Andromedans after discovering how the Andromedans were able to fly so fast from sector to sector. The pre-surveyed Andromedan satellite bases serve as special nav beacons. The galactic powers hunted down the satellite bases, and eventually, launched an all- out assault on the Andromedan base in the Lesser-Magellanic Clouds (nebula), destroying it. The galaxy was forever changed, as the Romulan Empire became a Republic. ) 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 Jindarians, etc.) and the "simulator races" (what each "empire" use as imaginary enemies in their training academies). Each have at least one or two unique features, and most have a full complement of ships, from PF's up to at least dreadnoughts. 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, alternate battles and campaigns, 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'." Recently, a new edition of Prime Directive using the popular GURPS RPG system (from Steve Jackson Games) was released. Also, ADB split from their original publisher, Task Force Games. 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" (SFC). It featured a full "career" mode where the player creates a captain for one of the major races, get a starship, go on missions, win prestige pts, then spend 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" or the "Tal'Priex", and so on. Membership in the elite organizations allows 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. They simply ran out of room for ISC. Keep in mind that SFC is a real-time game, while SFB is a turn- based pen-and-paper board game. The differences are significant. While SFC is based on SFB, it is NOT a direct translation. 1.3 SO WHAT IS SFC? SFC 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 of the globe) and BattleScape (tactical isometric view) or even Fallout Tactics. 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, which works for single-player only. Some missions are "special" missions and pre-scripted. Others are randomly generated. It is not possible to forfeit a mission. You only get one mission at a time, no choice at all. 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, to be used on future missions on the strategic level. You can spend some of those points to move to other sectors, and/or get access to better crew. Depending on how well you perform the missions, your empire can win or lose control of a particular sector. Each of the six races has its custom campaign with some randomly generated missions and some pre-scripted missions. In Multiplayer mode, SFC can be played in skirmish mode (fight a single battle online) only. If you want a bigger game, you need SFC2 or SFC2:OP 1.4 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). Shields protect all ships. 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... 1.5 WHO MAKES SFC? HOW ABOUT EXPANSION PACKS? SEQUELS? QuickSilver created SFC. It is published by Interplay's "strategy" division, "14 Degrees East". There are no expansion packs for SFC. A "Gold" edition was released with some improvements and special scenarios. Taldren made SFC2, and SFC2: Orion Pirates, as well as SFC3. 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THIS GUIDE This guide will organized in roughly THREE parts. Part 1 is a discussion of the battle simulator in SFC, 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, how to play single- player and multi-player campaign, and so on. The specific mission walkthrus for the elite 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. 1.7 HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE This guide was not designed to be general reference, but it sort of ended up that way. You will eventually 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, Fed 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. 1.8 SOME SFC/SFB TERMINOLOGIES Alpha strike -- fire EVERY weapon that is currently in arc at the designated target. Also see "peak output". Put maximum amount of firepower on the target. (NOTE: this does NOT always mean put the enemy directly in front of you. Also see "firing arcs"). Anchor -- see "Gorn Anchor". Battle pass -- move past the target off to its side, allowing your rear/side weapons to shoot at the enemy's rear/side shields. Also see "overrun". Usually used by Klingons due to their "wing" phaser arcs, but can be used by any one with more side/rear phasers. Battle run -- approach the target, shoot, then turn away to expose rear/side weapons. Also see "overrun" and "battle pass". 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. In SFC there are only 2 types: 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). In SFC, they are color coded: slow is orange, medium is blue, fast is purple. 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. However, additional reloads beyond the "slow speed" cost prestige points. 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-countermeasures, known as anti- jamming). Firing arcs -- where the weapon can shoot at. Most weapons have limited firing arcs. Thus, it is up to you, the captain, to position your ship properly so you can shoot the weapons at the enemy properly (at his weakened or downed shield, preferably). Gorn Anchor -- holding the enemy ship with a tractor beam and shoot your seeking weapons at it. This prevents the enemy from launching a wild weasel (sensor decoy), thus impossible for seeking weapons, such as plasma and drones, to miss. Of course, you need to get to point-blank to do it... 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. You'll need to drop a facing shield to do it though, and enemy must have a facing shield down as well... Hold Cost -- the amount of energy needed to "hold" the weapon, ready to fire, AFTER the weapon has been charged. Housekeeping costs -- usually refers to the minimum amount of power to keep the ship running. Costs like the 2 pts to raise shields to full level, charge transporters and tractors, and so on are considered "housekpeeing" costs. Also see "power curve". Internals -- short for "internal damage", amount of damage that penetrated the shields. Example: "That salvo did 25 internals." Klingon Saber Dance -- a tactic favored 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. Statistically the disruptors have a better to-hit percentage than other weapons at range 12-15. The superior maneuverability of the Klingon ships and extended firing arcs facilitates that. Missiles -- see "drones" above 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, a single large volley tends to kill power but leave weapons, while multiple smaller volleys kill weapons but leave power. SFC has inherited same damage allocation routine and thus the same analysis applies. Thus, the "multiple small volleys of 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. Also see "battle pass" and "battle turn". 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." Point-defense -- the final defense that deals with point-blank threats, such as drones, suicide shuttles, fighters, and so on. Usually phasers, but could also be tractor beams and so on. 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 AND pay housekeeping costs. The "higher" the power curve, the faster you can go while arming all weapons. Ships with fast- firing low-damage weapons (such as disruptor) 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 out of enemy's weapons range (or maybe sure enemy has no weapons left to shoot it). In SFC, scatter packs use SLOW missiles. 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. Those systems show yellow. You can force them back online by repairing them but that uses up one of your spare parts. 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. You can use it to 1) keep other objects away from you, or 2) hold the other object there (so it can't get away). Underrun -- overrun done by a cloaked unit. Also see "overrun". 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. 1.9 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 work 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 end of 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 heavy cruiser has 34-40 pts of power, as a basis for comparisons. 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. The term "power curve" is sometimes used to describe how much difference in power consumption the ship has between charging weapons and holding weapons. For example, a disruptor-armed ship, which fires and recharges quickly, has a relatively "smooth" power curve. Compare that to a photon-armed ship, which takes twice as long to charge, takes twice as much power overall. So the power curve would be lower during recharge phase and higher during "hold" phase, and thus this is not smooth at all. 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 heavy 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. A ship can generate maximum speed of 31, even if it has more power available. 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. 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 This chart does NOT fully agree with the "movement cost" shown in the ship gallery. This is based on SFB. 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? The term "battle speed" is sometimes used as a measure of how fast the ship can travel while charging all weapons. For a ship that needs a lot of power (like Feds with their photons, or Gorns with their plasma), they will be forced to slow significantly while charging weapons. 2.3 ELECTRONIC WARFARE (EW) One of the places you can use power is electronic warfare, namely ECM and ECCM. They are more efficient than reinforcing shields in some circumstances. Maximum power you can use in EW is 6 pts of power. That is ECM and ECCM together. At medium to long ranges, ECM 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 (usually 50% more damage) with limited range (8 max). 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 power to full strength. If you have excess power, you can use that to reinforce one or more of the shields against attacks. A downed shield cannot be reinforced. Shield damage during battle is repaired automatically, but that takes time. Shields only works at "minimum" level in a nebula, and cannot be reinforced. 2.6 OTHER SHIP SYSTEMS A ton of other systems can use power, such as tractor beams, transporters, suicide shuttles, and so on. Those uses are usually pretty small so just beware that they do use power when needed. 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? How about AFTER the torpedo is charged? Try the same with a Klingon D-7. See the difference? A Fed CA has the photons, which cost more energy to charge. Fed ship will be slower in general due to those charging periods. Thus the Feds need to make their torpedoes count. A Klingon D-7, with fast-firing disruptors, has a relatively "flat" power curve that doesn't vary by much. Thus D-7 can maintain a higher speed overall, and exploit that higher speed. Each ship has a different power curve. Find it, and use it to your advantage. You can also alter the ship's powercurve but NOT arming all of its weapons. There's no requirement that you must use all four disruptors on the cruiser... 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. It will be at least 8 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. If you launch a wild weasel from your ship, your ship automatically performs 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. You also cannot launch seeking weapons while under EM. 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, the better your chance of success. If you failed to perform 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 many seconds when you issue the command and when the HET was actually performed. That was delay for the warp field to "charge up". The period is roughly 1.5 seconds. This makes timing the HET maneuver very difficult. HET can be used both offensively and defensively. Offensively, it can be used to bring the weapons on the other side of the ship to bear. Defensively, it can be used to snap a new shield into place to counter enemy fire. 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. You can increase speed though and the computer will do its best to orbit. 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, which inevitably turns into a "lag" pursuit. If you want to intercept in least amount of time, aim the ship yourself at the intercept point yourself. Intercept can be useful to keep your front-shield to the enemy (subject to how close the enemy ship comes). Orbit is pretty useless unless you're dealing with an extremely slow or immobile target like planet, base, and so on. You can intercept the ship a lot better by plotting your own course using the tactical map. 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 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". A big ship can have quite a few spare parts (12 or more). Shields are repaired automatically as time goes by. Engine is repaired automatically as time goes by. However, you can expedite the repairs by using up one of your "spare parts". 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. 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. On the other hand, tractors are used in drone defense, so this can be significant. Drone launchers are probably not worth repairing, as the drones are usually 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. Remember to repair while outside the mission. You will need to pay a few prestige points for the repairs. Hull integrity cannot be repaired in battle. It can only be repaired outside a battle. 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. By then, you may not have enough power to arm them any way. 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. You can even tell how have they armed their weapons. This gives you hints on how to approach them. Probes can be surprisingly useful against plasma users, as it reveals their torpedo arming state. Shoot one at them right after they launch torpedoes at you. If you see some tubes have been discharged, you know those torpedoes are real. If you see full tubes, those chasing you are pseudo-torps and you can turn off the point-defense to save the phasers. 3.3.2 Deep Scan Deep scan is needed to finish some missions. You may need to scan enemy ships or planets, and/or other objects. You can "charge" the deep scan ahead of time then when you get into range the target will be scanned. The deep scan "charge" stays charged until you turn it off so you can scan multiple targets. However, deep scan uses a lot of power while it's turned on. Deep scan must be performed at less than range 30, sometimes within range 15. On the other hand, sometimes the range limit is waived in certain scenarios. 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 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. The more marines enemy ship has, the less likely your H&R will succeed. Raiding an enemy commando ship would be pretty dumb. 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. If you don't want to drop shields, don't use H&R! H&R raid is quite powerful. The AI controlled ships don't use H&R much (except at higher AI levels). 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. 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, or a ship with a LOT of transporters. 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. Stop beaming over marines when you enjoy a 5-15% superiority (say, 7 to 6 in your favor). 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. . Set your ships to other modes and pick a different target. Small units like shuttles and fighters, and so on cannot be captured. You don't need to send everybody. Just click on a SINGLE marine icon to beam that guy over, or to send the max amount, click on "all marines" button. Some ships or platforms self-destruct when boarded/captured. Monsters cannot be boarded. 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, usually front 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, ESG, 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 "disable" (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. If you need to remember certain units, consider using those "assign units to group" hotkeys so you can access them quickly. 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.) Study the enemy ships and see how many drones you will see. Set the number of tractors to defense accordingly. Each tractor you set takes up one point of power. Wild weasels are discussed in (4.5). 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 (in 45 degree increments). The contacts are also color-coded with each race a unique color. You can issue movement orders on the tactical map by left-click on the tactical map. 3.9 FLEET CONTROL See your manual for fleet control explanations, about the "postures" (extremely aggressive, aggressive, and passive) and the different orders (attack, capture, disable, go to, defend, protect me). 3.10 ENERGY MANAGEMENT See your manual for explanations. Allocation priority cannot be changed in SFC. Look at this panel to make sure your energy is being used properly. If you have "excess" energy, they should be used somewhere (like more speed!) 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. (Exception: you cannot reinforce shields in a nebula) 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. However, you cannot read the EXACT strength of any particular shield. You can read the "original" strength from the ship descriptions. You can estimate the strength from the shield colors, which are approximately as follows: 40+ = white, 30-39 = green, 20-29=yellow, 10-19=red, 0-9=dim red 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 (5 each). 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. 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. 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 5.10 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 3.4.1 Transporters can also be used to capture enemy ships or bases or planets. See 3.4.2. 4.4 TRACTORS Short for tractor beams, these are the force beam emitters that can exert both push and pull forces. Tractor beam has a very short range, at 2.49. Tractor beam can be set to either pull or repel. (There is actually a third mode "point-defense" but that's set in the defense panel.) 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, but that's in the defense panel, not tractor panel. 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 and force it into an asteroid or planet. However, DO NOT do this to human-commanded ships while online. It is VERY rude and is considered VERY BAD MANNERS. Same goes for tractoring the human-commanded ship and pushing him off the map. Tractor beam does NOT work on shuttles. (They used to, but turns out it was too powerful, so it was dropped.) You can only tractor ONE object at a time, even if you have multiple tractor beam emitters onboard (for the exact number, see your "defense" panel). The others are usually turned on for defense against enemy missiles/drones. Each tractor that is turned on for drone defense uses one pt of energy. Thus, only arm enough to defend yourself. 4.5 SHUTTLES Shuttle panel controls the shuttle bay. A ship can have several shuttles in a shuttle bay: wild weasels (sensor decoy), scatter pack, suicide shuttle, or the regular admin shuttle. The regular admin shuttle will 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. The specially configured shuttles must be "preset" before the mission starts. 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. 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 8.5.1) 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... In SFC, you need to pre-purchase the sensor decoy and have it loaded into your shuttle bay (along with other special types like admin, scatter pack, or suicide shuttle). 4.5.2 Scatter Pack A scatter pack is basically a shuttle packed with multiple missiles/drones on a delay-launch profile. Usually, that means six missiles, often SLOW speed. 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. The scatter pack also saturates the control limit of a ship. 4.5.3 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. SS can be used as a follow-up attack, after the enemy has expended their weapons (on you or other targets), or it can be launched as a part of "everything and the kitchen sink" attack. SS is often ignored or forgotten. Don't. It's firepower that can and should be used. 4.5.4 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. Still, every weapon counts. 4.5.5 Fighters Fighters in general refer to fighter-shuttles, a better-armed shuttle with more and heavier weapons. A fighter-shuttle squadron is launched like a single admin shuttle, but it is actually multiple fighters. The squadron flies together and shoots together. Each squadron has a single "fighter" icon in the shuttle bay. There are actually 4 classes of fighters: patrol, intercept, heavy, and assault, but that just affects their damage capacity (each) and their weapons load. 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. In case you want to know... Weapons that can be overloaded can be set to overload. When half-loaded, switch back to normal load, and your weapon is ready to fire in half the time. Does NOT always work. ] 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. They do a lot of damage up close. That's why base assault takes a LOT of patience (unless you're fighting an Orion base, which does NOT have ph-4's) 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. 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) there may still the suicide shuttle. Your ship will automatically perform point-defense (like mini- Aegis) once enabled (by default) so just leave some 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. This one is 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, 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. The problem is, of course, you have to get close. You can set different radius of the field, but again, the larger the radius, the weaker the field. 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. Photon causes the SAME amount of damage at any range (if it hits). This is unique among all weapons. This makes even a frigate dangerous. Photon does some of the highest damage among direct-fire weapons at point-blank range. Photons have 3 modes: regular, overload, and proximity. Photons can be overloaded, which limits its max range to 8, but doubles the damage. Photons can be used in proximity mode (often shortened to "prox photon"), which allows more hits at long distances, but halves the damage. Photon is vulnerable to ECM, esp. at long and medium ranges. 5.7 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 SFC, 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. (There are actually a full range of drones, from Type I to Type VI, and later, all the way up to Type X.) 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 bit more. 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 availability, launcher cycling time, and control limits. Most ships have single drone control, meaning it can control 6 drones. Some ships can control 12 (double drone control). VERY FEW can control 18 (triple drone control). 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. 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) * 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.) * Exploding ships (ship explosion can kill missiles too) 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. There are no "dedicated" drone users in SFC except some "all drone option mounts" Orion ships, and the special "drone cruisers" of the drone using races, such as Feds and Klingons. 5.8 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 plasma users. Feds operate some plasma- equipped ships as well as special variants 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, just a wee-bit faster than the fast drones. The plasma torpedo comes in several sizes, from small to large: F, G, S, and R. (Other types exist, but those are in SFC2 and beyond). 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. 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 pseudo-torpedoes, which are torpedo decoys that looks JUST like a torpedo when fired, but 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? Pseudos will be regenerated over time, but it takes a LONG time. The pseudo torp has tremendous deception value, and is a MAJOR part of most plasma tactics. 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 cost. For more plasma and counter-plasma tactics, please see 11.1 and 11.2. 5.9 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...) 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. 5.10 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. 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, as that just halves your firepower and cuts down on your peak output. 6 Introduction to SFC 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 SFC 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 makes you less maneuverable and cannot dodge the enemy attacks. . To succeed, you must make the MOST of the price you pay 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 and thus get little or no payback), or waited TOO LONG for that "perfect shot" (waiting for that big payback) and was pecked to death in the meanwhile. Or to use another metaphor... The "too aggressive" players are like schoolkids fighting... they just get as close as they can and keep flailing, without regards to circumstances. The "one hit" type thinks like old Japanese samurais, where one sword stroke determines the victor. They think that if they get off that "perfect strike" they'll win the game. NOT! The proper balance lies between those two extremes. We'll discuss the two types of players later and how to take advantage of their tendencies. 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 (as "battery"), but amount is small and it runs out quickly. Fortunately, in SFC AI handles energy management and there usually isn't much need for changing any thing (nor can you, really). 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. Think about this a little: 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 in what mode. 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 SFC manual or the quick reference card). 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 60/90 degrees, while FH is the entire forward hemisphere (180 degrees). 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, or seeking weapons, or fighters and so on. 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, and Romulan 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 to 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. If you shoot too late you did not catch the enemy at his down shield. If you shoot too early you don't catch the down shield either. 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". 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. 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. There is no "reverse" in SFC. 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 8.5.1), 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 on 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. Knowing that the enemy ship carries six drone launchers makes a BIG difference. You don't want to be surprised when a swarm of fast drones erupts in your face. And how many people tried the probe in weapon mode? 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. Turn away and drop the tractor and you can get away. 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. Electronic Warfare is often IGNORED by most newbies. Learn and use ALL of your ship's systems is one facet of a successful captain. 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 divert too much power from movement, 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. SFC) 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. But that's why there's a tactical map. 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 other than maneuver to bring another shield into play. 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 * Set tactical zoom level to lowest/widest (so you can see more of the space) Clearly, there are exceptions to every rule. In some missions, where speed is more critical, you may want to just go yellow alert. 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 your 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 ECM and ECCM settings if needed * Set point-defense mode for phasers and tractors beams if needed * Determine shield reinforcement if needed (usually front hemisphere shields) * Determine battle speed (slow, fast, etc?) * Determine hit-and-run targets if needed * Charge tractor beam(s) for anchor 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 "very aggressive" and "capture". * 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, 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 SFC 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. If there isn't one, assign one. 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, planets, 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. And don't fly into your yourself. If you are maneuvering in an asteroid field, set tactical map to closest zoom and keep the viewpoint AHEAD. 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. 7.7.1 Nebulas Nebulas have such a blanket effect it is worth a separate section. Nebula has a LOT of natural ECM and reduced shields for everybody. You still get nice sensor locks, so you have to reconsider your approach. This is NOT Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. :-) Ships with naturally high crunch power and direct-fire weapons, like Feds, have the advantage here. They retain most of their firepower. They merely have to move in closer to use it. Overload is required as even Klingons can't hit any one in a nebula from range 15. With no shields, speed and maneuver became much more important. Use the extra power available to even pump up the ECM and ECCM some more, remember to switch allocation during the recharge cycle. Transporter bombs cannot be used or deployed, even dropped. Lyran in nebula is even worse off. ESG don't work in nebula so you're without a lot of your firepower. On the other hand, if you don't need to charge ESG you should have plenty of power available to maintain speed. Drones are NEARLY useless in a nebula. They don't survive very long. On the other hand, if you launch them close they will still do plenty of damage. On the other hand, tractor beam don't work in nebula either. Romulans lose the cloak, which can be a problem, but plasma, with built-in +3 ECM and some pumped up ECM from the ship may be able to retain a lock on if the target don't pump in additional ECM (but if he doesn't he's playing dumb). 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 into 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), 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 [8.4.2] 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, with their "split" weapon arcs. Fire half of weapons at a time, turn, fire the other half, repeat. 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 By using HET, you can bring weapons to bear that the enemy would not expect. One such example is HET reversal [8.4.2]. 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 to sides or rear. EmerDecel can be used when the enemy is closing faster than expected. EmerDecel can save you from collisions, planets, asteroids, etc. 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 even Romulan), 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 very similar to the anchor. Basically, one ship serves as the "deadweight". The deadweight ship arms minimal weapons, gets in there, tractors the enemy ship, reinforces facing shield, and come to a FULL STOP. That enemy is now limited in its mobility. Even better... The deadweight ship absorbs the salvo from the target. 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 due to the tractor still attached. Obviously, this only works in a fleet battle, where you can afford to sacrifice a ship. 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. Remember, pseudo-torp is a limited commodity... There are only one per launcher. Don't waste them. 8.5.4 Drone Swarm The swarm can be a scary sight for races not armed with anti- drone weapons. Usually, you'll see Orions using drones on you, 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). Follow the drones in at the same speed and you can create an even bigger swarm by adding more drones. 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, tractors, 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 hit (or miss) the facing shield immediately. In general those don't hit that often unless you're very close. Some heavy weapons like hellbores and enveloping plasma torpedo 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 Gorn, and Romulan, and Orion use seeking weapons. Those in general pack a much larger punch than firect-fire weapons, but you can't hit the facing shield. The weapons can also be intercepted during flight. 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, 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/or drones which can be used to defend you, defend others ships, or to attack other ships (from long range or close assault). In SFC, only Hydrans have fighters. 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! Speed in the wrong direction can be converted to speed in the right direction by turning (or even HET). 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. Just beware you cannot fire seeking weapons while doing EM. 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. That energy goes back into "excess" pool in the energy allocation panel. 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. 10.10 WATCH THE ENERGY USAGE! Next to the speed gauge is a measure of how much power are you consuming vs. producing. If you are NOT using all the power used, you are wasting power that can be put to better use. You can view a summary of your energy usage in the energy panel. 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 34? 36?). [NOT 32 as previously reported] Plasma torpedoes are flexible: you can regular, download (if larger than F), envelope, or shotgun/defensive. 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, thus affecting the power curve 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. (though 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 8.5.3). 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. Romulans can always cloak. 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 8.5.1) 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 reducing your torpedoes except launch several torpedoes or offer them other targets than your torpedo. Using pseudo-torps can make them waste phasers as well. Phasers don't do that much to the torpedo any way, I wouldn't worry too much about this. Launch closer would help also. 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. For those ships with weak rear shields, this can even punch through, esp. if you have TWO torpedoes hitting. 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 frigates, fighters, shuttles, 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. 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, if you're playing Romulans. 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 8.5.3). 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 first 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, thus avoiding penetration of a single shield. 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 SFC you get an just 1 pseudo per launcher, thus by knowing a pseudo you know any subsequent enemy torpedoes will be real... Unless he has it from different launchers. 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 SFC, 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. Go for his weakest shield (usually to rear). 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. 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. 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. A good salvo of type IV will gut a cruiser. 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 11.3.10). Drones cost prestige pts if you want faster/fastest speed, and need to be replaced after every battle Drones, as all 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. (Though some scenarios allows a reload) 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. You can help timing by flying at the SAME speed as your drones. For mediums, that would be 24. Then any additional drones you launch will "join" the swarm. This can be used to build up some truly massive drone swarm. (Just beware of the T-bombs). 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 to 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 Do the anchor A full salvo of 6 type-IV drones will severely maul a cruiser and kill lighter ships. Thus, anchor with drones is just as deadly as anchor with plasma torps. Anchor makes even SLOW drones dangerous. As point-blank, defender has NO TIME to shoot. 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. (see above) 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. You hit EmerDecel. 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. 11.3.9 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 beams (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. 11.3.10 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. 11.3.11 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. Beware that drones being held in a tractor STILL counts against your drone control limit. A trick for the defender: 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. 11.3.12 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. 11.3.13 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 weasel. 11.3.14 ECM ECM is not an efficient way to counter drones. You can slightly reduce the damage from a drone, but minimally only. 11.3.15 ESG If you are a Lyran (or sometimes Orion), ESG is a good drone defense tool. Keep the radius to a minimum for maximum stopping power. If you're fighting a Lyran, use shuttles and other things to pop the ESG before the drones hit. This is sometimes called the "FOD maneuver" (after "Foreign Object Damage", a military term used to describe misc. trash sucked into jet engines). You can counter the ESG defense by a "reverse ESG ram", which means YOU take the hit instead of the drones. You charge in just ahead of the drones so the drones would survive and hit the enemy. 11.3.16 Another drone ONE drone can kill only ONE drone. So you have to target individual drones individually. Slow the game down may help. Note that AI don't do counter-drone launches. 11.3.17 Terrain Features Enemy can fly behind objects so the drones can fly into them. However, this requires a fairly crowded map. If you have a pretty empty map, there's nothing to hide behind. 11.4 COUNTER-DRONE TACTICS In general, if you run the drone user out of drones, you would win as they lose most of their "punch". 11.4.1 DO NOT PANIC! A typical cruiser can easily stop 6 or more drones. Tractors alone can stop 3-4 drones. Phasers, ADDs, and so on can stop 2-4 more. Don't forget your shields can stop one or two easily without taking too much damage. 11.4.2 Use ALL your anti-drone weapons If you need a reminder, read 11.3.10 for the full list. Beware of all the "counter-counters" they can use. So read that section and see what THEY can do against your anti-drone weapons. You should almost ALWAYS turn on point-defense tractors and point- defense phasers unless you're flying against races that do NOT use drones. Your point-defense phasers are tractors are your PRIMARY anti-drone weapons, other than your ADD/AMD. ESG is a great drone defense weapon if you got one. Remember to raise them BEFORE the drones arrive. Set radius 0. 11.4.3 Remember COUNTER-DRONES A drone CAN hit ANOTHER drone. So USE THEM! If you have low drone launch rates fighting a fast-drone-firing enemy, one good use of the drones is hit incoming drones. 11.4.4 Keep your speed up Slow drones aren't that dangerous unless you get anchored, and the enemy must get close to you to do that. If you keep you speed up, you can keep your distance and give you time to deal with all the drones "in the air". You can run medium drones out if you just fly around the map slightly faster than they are. If you keep the speed up you have more time to deal with fast drones. 11.4.5 Find help All friendly ship will assist in drone defense. Play against the AI and you'll see other ships fire at nearby drones using ADDs, tractors, and so on as they see drone swarms aimed at one of their own units. Your friendly units will do the same, if you are near them. 11.5 FIGHTER TACTICS Using your fighters optimally is a difficult subject, as fighters don't exactly follow your commands. 11.5.1 Understanding and exploiting fighter AI The fighter has four modes: attack, harass, defend, and defend me (return doesn't count). Attack means an all-out charge... Fire distance weapons when close enough, then close up with phasers on strafing runs. Harass means stay at mid-range if possible, constantly shooting phasers and other weapons (if available). Defend / defend me means stay close to the target / carrier and attack nearby enemy units. Attack is useful when you will be joining the attack, as the enemy must divide weapons among you and your fighters. You all go for overruns and gut the enemy in one huge alpha strike. Usually, the fighters bring down a shield and you shoot through it. You will lose many fighters, but you'll get results. Harass is useful when you just want to keep the enemy occupied while you reload. You'll lose less fighters, but they won't do as much damage. In general, it's better to let the fighters go first and you try to follow them to exploit the damage they do. You can set your ship to follow the fighters. As you can't control the fighters, only yourself, this gives you more chances to exploit any down shields. If you do the damage, the fighters may not be smart enough to shoot through the downed shield you caused. AI ships with fighters tend to just "attack" instead of harass, and thus the fighters are often lost. Replacing the fighters can be a drain on your prestige points. 11.5.2 Launch immediately, or wait until after first pass? Do you follow the fighters in, or do you go in first and the fighters follow you? Due to the lack of control over the fighters, it's probably better to follow the fighters in and take advantage of any damage they do. Which means you launch early. I'd probably make an exception for Hydran hellbore-armed fighters. For those, I'd make an initial pass to beat down an enemy shield, THEN launch them to get some damage through that down shield. On the other hand, if you take damage you may lose the shuttle bay. It's a risk you need to evaluate. 11.5.3 Load them back! One of the biggest mistakes fighter users commit is NOT recalling their fighters when they should have. After fighter exhausted their payload (heavy weapons, drones, whatever) they are left with only phasers. Their firepower is halved or less and they are more vulnerable to enemy fire as they must get close to do damage. Reload in SFC is quite fast so check if your fighters have fired their payload and recall them, then launch them again! Look at them fight. If they have expended their ordnance, then recall them For their loadout, see the last section, 30 11.5.4 Convoy Raiding Hydran ships are GREAT raiding convoys. The fighters can be killing the ships while the mothership keeps the escort(s) busy. Then you both run for it. 11.5.5 Note on Hydran fighters As Hydran ships tend to be a mix of hellbore vs. fusion beam, you should pick the fighters to complement your ship. If you are fusion beam only, pick hellbore armed fighters. If you have plenty of hellbores, pick some fusion beam-armed fighters. That way, you can exploit weaknesses made by the other. 11.5.6 Heavy-Weapon Armed Fighters Many heavy fighters are armed with heavy weapons (and can almost be called bombers). They usually have very short range (typical range is like 4). However, if they fire as a group the result can still be quite devastating. Hydrans should HOLD any Hellbore-armed fighters until AFTER the initial pass, after the shield damage has been done and perhaps down shields created. This will also give the ship a chance to attempt to knock out any ADDs and phasers with H&R and weapons. Hydran hellbore fighters should suffer minimal attrition as it is the only fighter capable of doing significant damage at range 8 (the only fighter weapon to reach that far). It should ONLY used in "harass" mode. Hydran fusion-beam armed fighters are quite deadly if they can get close to an enemy ship. Consider charging ahead, absorb the enemy phasers, and your fighters follow up with fusion beam attack. 11.6 ANTI-FIGHTER TACTICS While fighters can be a threat, fighters are much easier to kill than the ship they are based on (except when the carriers are small, like frigate or destroyer-sized carriers). Fighters CAN be killed by all sorts of weapons, from T-bombs to drones, from phasers to ADDs. Only Hydrans have fighters in SFC. Fighters fly in a group, and each group acts as a single entity. They launch together, and they shoot together. Most fighters have about 10 pts of health, which is actually not a lot. Fighters are fast, many can move as fast as ships. Fighters are vulnerable to ALL weapons, but some do better than others (have more health pts). Fighters are NOT shielded, which makes them killable from ANY direction. Fighters do NOT explode when they die (too small). A T-bomb in the middle of a fighter group can do wonders. ESGs will go through fighters like a scythe through wheat. Drones can kill fighters easily, but most fighters have phasers to protect themselves. Still, if you can fire a few they may keep the fighters busy. For the defenders, fighters on convoy raids can be a nightmare, as you have TWO targets you need to hit, both of them can kill freighters. 11.7 CLOAK TACTICS If you have a cloaking device, how would you use it to your advantage? First thing you do is consider how much power DO you have AFTER the cloak is engaged. Is it enough to power the weapons? All of them? Or just the largest one? How long would it take for you to recharge all of them? Second thing you do is to consider how will you evade to recharge. 11.7.1 Underrun One of the simplest way is approach the enemy launch torpedo(es) just out of overload range, and start cloak. Enemy may be able to shoot, but he'll do so against big penalties. And he'll fly right over you as you "submerged" into the invisibility of the cloak, screaming in frustration, while he figures out a way to deal with those torpedoes you've fired. Alternately, shoot off the pseudos instead. He'll fire and try to catch you before you cloak, but he'll miss. Then you fade-in again, and fire the REAL torpedo after he spent all his firepower. Ha! For more variety, mix the two up occasionally. 11.7.2 Hit and Fade Instead of an overrun, use fade-out on battle run or oblique pass. This way you avoid getting into point-blank range, where some of the heavy weapons can still do significant damage (like photons and fusion beams). 11.7.3 Mine field Use the NSM, and circle around it, keeping it between you and the enemy. In fact, drop some T-bombs out the rear hatch as well. Make an impromptu minefield to discourage the enemy from coming too close. 11.8 ANTI-CLOAK TACTICS There are several ways to defeat the cloak... The idea is to convince the enemy commander that the cloak's disadvantages outweighs the advantages it provides, so he won't use it. To do that, you need to cause damage to the enemy WHILE it's under cloak. 11.8.1 Flash bulb One way to find a cloaked ship is via the "flash bulb" effect. Basically, you drop a mine near the cloaked ship, right on top of it if possible. It probably won't go off, but that's all right. THEN you somehow detonate the mine, using a drone, a shuttle, or even yourself. That explosion will cause the cloak to temporarily lose its effects, allow other ships to lock-on. At that moment, do your alpha strike and launch your seeking weapons. Ka-boom! 11.8.2 Blind Overrun Overrun the ship while its cloaked, and use the phasers at point- blank range. The cloaked ship has minimal maneuverability, so you can repeat the run against the same shield, perhaps even penetrating that shield. Just make sure you exit to the REAR of the cloaker so you can escape its torpedoes should it shoots. 11.9 FLEET TACTICS 11.9.1 Concentrate fire! Concentrate your fire on ONE target. This may be obvious, but not a lot of people seem to follow it. They let their ships run wily- nily and blame the AI when their ships got whacked. Concentrate your firepower on ONE enemy ship at a time (this usually means you need to use "medium" order intensity so they all shoot at the same target). You also need to be aware of your other ships' positions so you can hit the same shield. This may be a good time to order a different formation. 11.9.2 Remember capture! With multiple ships under your command, captures should be attempted whenever feasible. It yields plenty of bonus prestige (esp. larger ships). Just make sure you HAVE enough marines, and you don't accidentally blow up the ship first (or have someone else blow it up from under you). Some freighters and most Orion ships cannot be captured, but you should still get some bonus pts. Beware that when in "capture" mode, your ships will NOT use any "heavy weapons". Therefore, it is best to DISABLE ALL enemy ships first, THEN worry about capturing them. If you try to capture during the middle of a heavy battle, the other enemy ships will pound you. 12 Historical Missions 13 Introduction to Single-Player Campaign There are six different campaigns, one for each of the playable races. Each has 5 to 13 elite missions, plus the random missions. 13.1 SIGNING ON When you start a new campaign, you choose a race and enter your name, also choose the era if you want. Then you are at that race's capital. You get a new frigate and 50 prestige, enough for the initial outfit. Remember, some empires are smaller than others. So your "interior" can be just a few moves away from the frontier. See [17.1] for a list of the abbreviations used for the ships. 13.2 LOOK AROUND AND MOVE AROUND THE MAP You see your race's menu. Not all races have all choices, so if you don't see the choice I talked about, just ignore it. [Academy] is where you can practice controlling your ship, as well as some of those "technical challenges. For more information, see page 81 of your manual. [Ranks & Medals] is where you can admire your rank insignias, as well as any special medals or campaign ribbons you collected. [Recruiting Office] is where you can view the crew of your ships, and replace any department heads by trading with some prestige points. You can also swap crew between ships. [Vessel Library] is where you can view the different types of ships in SFC. [Shipyard] is where you buy or trade-in your ships, as well as do any repairs. Depending on where you are, different ships may be come available. [Spacedock] is where you buy the optional accessories ("Commander's Options" in SFB), for things like shuttles, fighters (if applicable), marine boarding parties, mines, and spare parts. [Galactic News/Map] shows status of the galaxy, and allow you to transfer to a different sector (where you'll find more challenging stuff!) To move into a new sector, click on [set course], then click on the sector. You'll move into that sector in a moment. [New Mission] starts you on a new mission. There is no "cancel". Once you start, you start! [Starbase Tour] repeats all this advice. 13.3 GET A NEW MISSION Click on [New Mission] to start a new mission. For notes on individual missions, please see 14 When you have finished the battle, you will exit back to the "map" screen (if you survived). You then get a choice to re-fight the battle, watch the replay, or simply continue back to the campaign menu. 13.4 BUYING NEW SHIPS When you have saved up enough points, it's time to buy a new ship. Buy a new ship at the shipyard screen of a type you want, then either keep or trade in your existing ship. When you trade-in the ship, you trade-in the crew as well. If you want to keep the crew, buy a small ship, transfer the crew to it, buy your big ship, trader your crew to that, then sell the small ship. You can own only 3 ships, so keep that in mind as you pick and choose. Choose those that fit your fighting style, not only those that have high BPV (battle point value). Remember you need to pay a LOT of prestige pts for a ship, so try not to lose any. You get about 75% of the prestige pts back when you trade in your ship (and nothing for the extra supplies you bought). So consider that when you trade in. TIP: Do NOT buy DN or larger ships. Somehow the game really stacks the odds against you if you do so. 13.5 REFIT AFTER A BATTLE Remember to repair damage (if any) [in Shipyard] and buy new supplies [in Space dock] after each mission. You don't need the maximum on each one, but having them can be useful in certain situations. Also update the crew if any. Remember to replenish your missiles, mines, fighters, etc. after each battle. 14 Nine Tips for Your Campaign 14.1 START SMALL AND EASY Do NOT overextend. You may be tempted to switch to a bigger ride ASAP, which would be a DD. Think about it before you go, as large ship means tougher enemies as well. See [13.7]. On the other hand, some of the frigates are deathtraps. For example, the Klingon and Hydran frigates are very difficult to survive in. They severely lack weapons and shields. In that case, switching to a good DD may be good early on. If you use drones, you also need medium speed drones when they become available. Slow drones are just too slow. 14.2 STAY INTERIOR Stay in the interior of your empire until you have 1-2 decent large ships. The interior are usually only menaced by light enemy raiding units or pirates. You shouldn't see heavier enemy units, and having 2 CL's or CA's should be quite sufficient to defeat most threats. Only venture out to the borders when you are ready in big ships. 14.3 STAY ALIVE Stay alive by checking your enemies and determine quickly "do you have ANY chance of destroying the enemy." If you are a frigate up against a battlecruiser, it's time to run. See 7.4 for a quick way to calculate your odds of success. A ship, esp. when you get to cruiser or bigger ships, is a major investment. A good CA costs around 700. At only about 150-300 pt per mission, it takes a few missions to build up those pts, and get a good crew. Therefore, it is ALWAYS better to run away and live to fight another day. Consider ending the mission when you are losing. Basically, it means hit ESC, and select "End Mission". Then select "Play Again" to retry the mission. Your ship(s) will survive. This is better than playing it all the way through and take a huge loss when you lose your ship(s). You can only win or lose a few hundred pts in a mission, but losing a SHIP is SEVERAL mission's worth of investment depending on how big the ship is and what kind of crew you got. Just remember that it takes a few seconds for the computer to acknowledge the forfeit order. If a drone swarm is already on the way, it may be too late. 14.4 STAY SUPPLIED Remember to restock, esp. if you use missiles or fighters. It's bad when you're required to fight a battle with no missiles or no mines, or worse, no marines and no fighters. It's better to keep racks full of slow drones (which are free) than have less medium drones. 14.5 STAY POSITIVE Positive in terms of prestige pts, that is. You need to always keep a reserve of 200+ pts around, more if you use a lot of drones/missiles. If you fail a mission, you may need that reserve just to repair and buy reloads. Some missions also have a penalty if you do really badly. 14.6 TRADE UP IN BIG STEPS You lose some prestige when you trade up, so it's bad economic sense to trade up in small steps, like FF to DD to CL to CA to BC, and so on. Remember to keep your crew, as when you trade-in a ship you lose the crew. So transfer them to other ships first. 14.7 EARN THE EXTRA PTS Every ship you capture is worth extra pts. If you have a clear superiority and a lot of transporters (multiple ships in your fleet), captures can yield extra pts. Some scenario have items you can recover for extra pts. Convoy escort missions yields bonus prestige if you save all the freighters and esp. if you capture the enemy raiders. Starbase defense missions yields bonus prestige, esp. if you capture the enemy ship(s). 14.8 DO NOT GO ABOVE BCH NEVER buy DN or BB class ships. Somehow when you start owning one of those ships, the game starts generating overwhelming odds against you. For example, I had a DN-CA-CL group, and I went on a convoy raid. Care to guess what the reinforcements are? 2 DNs, 2 DNs, AND 2 BCHs. That is just ridiculous. Get BCH and no heavier, unless you enjoy getting killed. 15 Generic Missions Here are some hints and tips for the generic mission types. 15.1 GENERIC ENCOUNTER MISSIONS Your fleet encounters an enemy fleet of similar ships... Gen_AsteroidEncounter.scr -- in asteroid field, watch for dust field damage if you fly too fast, reinforce front shields, and don't crash into an asteroid! Gen_DeepSpaceEncounter.scr -- no special terrain, just destroy the other side or escape. Gen_NebulaEncounter.scr -- in a nebula, minimum shields, no mines, no shuttles, no drones (or for VERY limited distance), no tractors, no transporters. Gen_PirateEncounters.scr -- encounter pirates Gen_BlackHoleEncounter.scr -- black hole in center of map, don't get drawn in! 15.2 GENERIC FLEET ACTION Your fleet joins some more friendly ships and go after fleet of enemy ships. These are obvious I won't bother to explain them. Gen_AsteroidFleetAction.scr Gen_DeepSpaceFleetAction.scr Gen_NebulaFleetAction.scr Gen_BlackHoleFleetAction.scr 15.3 GENERIC BASE MISSIONS Gen_BaseAssault.scr -- attack the enemy base, destroy it if you can. Gen_BaseDefense.scr -- defense your base from enemy attack. 15.4 GENERIC CONVOY MISSIONS Gen_ConvoyAssault.scr -- destroy the convoy Gen_ConvoyEscort.scr -- escort the convoy Gen_ConvoyEscortPirates.scr -- protect the convoy from pirates NOTE: If you destroy one of the two attacking ships, you can tell the other one to leave, and he may just do that! Gen_ConvoyRaid.scr -- raid the convoy, capture/destroy quickly 15.5 GENERIC COURIER MISSIONS Gen_Courier.scr -- you must take item ____ to ____ Gen_InterceptCourier.scr -- i.e. "Capture the spy", you must prevent the courier from reaching the destination. NOTE: That ship will be moving across your bow. Head straight for the planet. You should be able to grab the ship as it passes by. He's going speed 24, so you have to do better than that. Easiest way is shove him into an asteroid (if there is one). Best way is capture the ship and disengage. 15.6 GENERIC SURVEY MISSIONS You need to survey this planet with a few complications Gen_SurveyMissionEnemy.scr -- enemy ship gets in your way Gen_SurveyMissionMonster.scr -- space monster gets in your way Gen_SurveyMissionPirate.scr -- pirate gets in your way 15.7 OTHER GENERIC MISSIONS Gen_Monster.scr -- generic monster scenario... destroy the monster! Gen_PirateAmbush.scr -- your ship is under attack by a superior force of pirates! Gen_PursuitAsteroids.scr -- you chase an enemy ship into the asteroids... and found an enemy base. Can you destroy the base AND the enemy ship? Gen_CrippledEnemy.scr -- enemy ship is heavily damaged. Can you destroy it before it is repaired and get away? Gen_BringEmHome.scr -- ??? 16 Unique Missions These missions are unique (i.e. not generic). Anyone can run into them though, and they are rather interesting. 16.1 UNI_ALLYMEETING.SCR No information 16.2 UNI_ASTEROID.SCR No information. 16.3 UNI_BLACKHOLEMANIA.SCR Black holes are randomly popping up all over the map while you engage the enemy! Finish this one QUICKLY, keep your speed up and HET ready... tractor the enemy ships and shove them into black hole is an option. 16.4 UNI_BULLY.SCR You are enforcing law... When two freighters started shooting at each other... Who's right and who's wrong? Talk to both of them, and deep scan both. One of them should have heavier weapons. That's the "bully". Beat down his shield and capture his ship. Download log from the ship you captured. Alternative solution: tow the offender to the starbase. 16.5 UNI_FLEETENGAGEMENT.SCR No information. 16.6 UNI_HYDRANEXPEDITION.SCR No information. 16.7 UNI_INVESTIGATIONAMBUSH.SCR No information 16.8 UNI_RUNAWAY.SCR Pirates have set one freighter to head into the sun while attacking other freighters. What do you do? Set maximum speed, yellow alert, and chase down the runaway freighter, and tow it toward the others under attack. When the freighter says it's fixed, lose the tractor and go after the pirate. You should be able to destroy it before losing too many freighters. 16.9 UNI_SABOTAGE.SCR Your ship's warp engines are acting funny so you shut down for repairs. Then a pirate ship came by... Start using your shuttles and fighters and so on to hold the pirate off. Set T-bombs and use H&R raids, or even capture. Use "repair engines" to expedite repairs until your engineer gets it all working. Then capture/kill the pirate. 16.10 UNI_STARBASEASSAULT.SCR No information 16.11 UNI_STARBASEDEFENSE.SCR No information 16.12 UNI_SURPRISEREVERSED.SCR Enemy ships plan to cross the border and destroy you in a surprise attack. You will surprise them first with an attack of your own... You will be fighting FIVE ships, probably CA, 2 CL or DD, and 2 FF. You are one CA alone. They don't even have their shields up, but point defense will be active. You will need to cripple the CA quickly. Use EVERY weapon you have, including the probe launchers, suicide shuttles, marines, even the regular shuttles (that's 1 ph-3 each!) T-bombs, EVERYTHING. Mizia the ships. Consider pushing/pulling the ships together so when you blow one up the others get damaged. If one comes active, kill that one first! Cripple the heaviest ones first. You don't need to kill each ship yet. Just cripple each and move on to the next. 17 Historical Missions The historical missions are available under "skirmish" under each race's menu. Klingons have the most, then the Feds, and finally, the Romulans. Everybody else has the "common" set. 17.1 BLACK HOLE MANIA (COMMON) As you fight your enemy, random black holes started to appear in the sector! 17.2 CLOAK OF NIGHT (ROMULAN) Federation has blockaded one of our planets, and nothing is getting through. The outpost will be forced to surrender if they run out of supplies. You must run the blockade with your destroyer squadron. At least one ship must beam down its supplies (get within range 5 of the planet and beam down something), the more the better. You will be facing 2 CA's, 1 DD, and 1 FF. You only have 3 DD and 1 FF. Thus, you should NOT fight the Feds, since you WILL lose. Instead, tell your other ships to stay put and CLOAK. Then run the blockade ONE ship at a time, with YOU personally at the helm. You should be able to get through by NOT arming weapons. 17.3 HOSTILE SKIRMISH (COMMON) This is your generic "encounter" type battle. 17.4 INTRUDER ALERT! (COMMON) A monster (space shell - large) was spotted in the system and heading toward the planet. Figure out how to defeat it or at least divert it from the planet. Space shell is very maneuverable (similar to a Klingon ship) and its disruptors can punch through a Fed's shields in ONE hit. It is also invulnerable to your weapons (at least initially). Fortunately, it only travels at speed 13. If you get close, it will come after you. You have to get close to it, and stay there. Your science officer will advise you to make science probes. Go to the COMM panel to make one, then shoot a probe at the target. Stay as close as possible to the monster, but stay to its REAR so it can't shoot at you. Reinforce facing shields and try to stay within range 10, and deep scan. You'll get a lot of useless info on the monster, and finally, you'll get a way to defeat it. However, the solution is random each time. It could be that your weapons now work, or use attack probe, or other solutions. 17.5 ASSAULT ON STATION K6 (KLINGON) You in a War Eagle, along with a Commando Eagle and a Klingon D- 7, will attack the Deep Space Station K-6 (the tribbles station). A Federation cruiser appears to be replenishing at the station though. You can either capture or destroy the station. As the CE has only 1 transporter, it's pointless to ask it to capture the enemy station or ship. Instead, just use it as a regular ship. The D-7 will go after the station, and draw most of the ph-4 fire. Follow behind it and pour fire into the station's weakened shields, and beam in capture team whenever possible, and tell the CE to do the same. You should be able to capture or destroy the station without losing the D-7. Alternatively, you can go after the Fed CA, along with the CE. The D-7 will put up a good fight, weakening the station before being destroyed. Destroy or cripple the CA, then go after the station. 17.6 KOBAYASHI MARU (FEDERATION) The infamous scenario... A freighter is disabled and drifted over the neutral zone... As you (Fed CC) approach to attempt a rescue, 3 Klingon cruisers (D-7C's) attack, and you can't rescue the ship as your tractor beam doesn't work. What will you do? This is the no-win scenario... it's how you play it. 17.7 THE MIGHTY HOOD GOES DOWN (KLINGON) Your D-7 and 2 D-6's have been ordered to destroy the USS Hood. Do NOT allow it to escape. The best way to approach this is take control of one of the D- 6's, and only go yellow alert. Set tractor beam and charge in, and "anchor" the Hood, so the other two ships can catch up, and blast the Hood. 17.8 MILITARY INTELLIGENCE (ROMULAN) Attack the convoy with your War Eagle squadron. Intelligence indicates the convoy should be lightly defended. Well, when you show up, you find a DREADNOUGHT with the convoy. Eeek! Order the other two WE's to attack the frigate, which should charge you. Shoot it and with this many R-torps at it should just blow up. Download the R to S or G and continue toward the convoy, AVOID the DN. Get in front of the freighter and use T-bombs to force it to turn and slow. You want to slow it as much as possible. Concentrate fire on one at a time to kill it fast. Stay AWAY from the DN. Consider let one WE attack the DN to "distract" it. With cloak, a DN will take a LONG time to kill a WE. You need to destroy at least one freighter, preferably three. Beware, if you take too long, reinforcements will arrive in the form of 1 DD and 2 FF, then you're completely doomed. 17.9 REPAIR RENDEZVOUS (COMMON) You are a damaged cruiser that must meet a repair freighter (with parts) and a hospital ship (to evac the wounded). Enemy ship will attack though... Charge toward the repair freighter at max speed, EmerDecel when you reach range 5 and turn toward the hospital ship. Comm the freighter to get the parts. Tell it to disengage, as you head toward the other ship. Start repairs on your damage parts. The enemy ship should appear now. Same act with the hospital ship, EmerDecel, then transfer... And tell it to leave. Turn around to engage the enemy ship. Repaired, you should be able to defeat it. 17.10 ROMAYASHI MARU (ROMULAN) This is the Romulan version of Kobayashi Maru... with a few twists. You are in a BCH (yep, nice ship, with an R-torp no less). Your objective is to prevent the freighter from falling into enemy hands. As you approach the freighter, 3 Fed CC+'s will intercept you. They fire on the freighter first, so you have time to get away. Do NOT use the tractor on the freighter as you need the tractors for drone defense, and if the tractors "burn out" you can only use phasers as point defense. Then it's a matter of killing CC+ and/or escaping to the "north"... 17.11 STARBASE ASSAULT (COMMON) Pick 3 ships (cruisers or heavier please) and take on an enemy base along with its defenders. It is best to draw the defenders out away from the base and take care of them, THEN repair and THEN take care of the base. It's not going anywhere. 17.12 SURPRISE REVERSED (COMMON) Same as 16.12 17.13 BALANCE OF TERROR (ROMULAN) You are ready to test the Neutral Zone... Take the War Eagle and take out as many of the border posts (on asteroids) as you can. Expect enemy interference. NCC-1701 Enterprise is in the area. Charge torpedoes and cloak. The asteroid outposts come in 2 types: phaser, and drone. The drone type is more dangerous since it can burst 4 drones and you only have 1 tractor beam (and remember, no tractor when you fade in! ). Arm enveloping torpedoes (asteroid has no shields, so the damage is doubled), and shoot the outpost, get to range 10 as you can if it's the phaser type. Just reinforce the facing shield. When you destroy the second one, a freighter will show up. You can get to it for item replacements (repair parts mainly). When you destroy the third outpost, Enterprise will show up. Defeating him will be difficult, but not impossible. In general, arm torpedo and move slowly, reinforce rear shields, and hope the Enterprise overtakes you. Then decloak behind him and feed him the type-R. Cloak immediately and repeat until you toast him. Defeating the drone-type asteroid base is tougher, as you must start from further away. Your phasers don't recharge fast enough to take on the second wave of drones somehow. Just keep shooting torpedoes at it from range 20, cloak, recharge, decloak, and repeat. Wipe out all the outposts, and you win really big! NOTE: This took me a WHOLE HOUR, but I destroyed Enterprise AND wiped out all the outposts. 17.14 THE DUEL (COMMON) This is your normal duel scenario, ship vs. ship. 17.15 WRATH OF KHAN (FEDERATION) Enterprise is engaging the Reliant in the Mutara Nebula. Enterprise is damaged by a previous surprise attack. Do NOT let Khan get away... As Kirk, you can insult Khan to goad him into attacking. Get behind the Reliant and blast him. Do NOT repair your 2 damaged photons. You don't need them, really. Pump power into ECM as you don't want those photons to hit. Switch to ECCM when your photons are charged, switch back to ECM as you evade. Keep phaser active as you must defend against the drone launcher (at least until it's destroyed). Lead the Reliant to the border of the sector. You should be able to disable it if you move carefully. Then either destroy the Reliant or get out of the nebula... 18 Elite Missions In general, the Elite missions should only be attempted when you have at least a light cruiser or better. You don't have to accept the initial invitation. You just have to spend prestige to join later. 18.1 FEDERATION Federation special missions deals with missing Organians, and a surprise enemy returns... They are quite hard... 18.1.1 Errand of Curiosity Find out what happened to the Organians... Check each and every of the listening posts. Just deep-scan every one of those outposts, ignore the phasers. Then deep-scan the planet. If the Klingon ship attack you (which it won't do until later), capture/destroy it, or just disengage. 18.1.2 Testing Grounds Federation is testing a new device on this freighter, make sure you protect it. Destroy the first group of Orion raiders quickly. A friendly ship (NCL?) will show up. Pull the freighter to where it needs to be and let your friendly ship keep the Orions off. Drop off the ship at where it needs to go, then watch your buddy carefully, as you help him take care of the remaining Orions. He'll come after you and try to tow the freighter away. CAPTURE that ship. 18.1.3 Bordering on Insanity You are getting reports that Federation ships are attacking everybody, driving up tensions all over the Neutral Zone. Find out what is going on. The "Fed" frigates are attacking the friendly ships (could be any of the neighboring races). You have to save both of the friendlies if you can, as well as scan the outpost before the mission ends. In general, the Romulans can best take care of themselves, as they can fire and cloak. Others have hard time avoiding the "Fed" frigates, could be FFDs and FFGs. Charge toward one, destroy the Fed frigates (or at least destroy one so the friendly ship can kill the other), pass by the outpost on the way to scan it, then save the other guy. 18.1.4 Dancing with Myself You need to capture the mirror guy's ship, and deliver it to the ____... Could be any race, usually Gorn. This one can be hard if you equip wrong... The enemy ship is a mirror-image of your most recent ship, so you need to get rid of the marines and shuttles from that ship. Buy a worthless frigate if you must... Strip it of mines, shuttles, and marines. You start near the Gorn ship. Ignore it. Head toward the Orion base station, and destroy the two ships that fly around. Those guys move really fast and are extremely annoying. Once the two are gone, your nemesis will enter the system. Capture him, and tow him to the accusing ship. Then hail the accusing ship... That's it! 18.1.5 A Nest of Spies We located the Orion base that the Imperials use. Take the place of an enemy ship, beam infiltration team onboard the "mirror" base to steal data, beam them back out, and escape. There will be two escorts to the base. Don't let both of them to be destroyed or the meeting's off. You will need to destroy some Orion ships... Let the Orions destroy one and weaken the other, THEN destroy the Orion ship(s). Then head back to base, bash the shield, beam in the team, and circle. Enemy ships will come after you, so it's best to have a second ship escorting you. When the infiltration team is ready, bust down the shield, beam them out, and run for it. If you can, destroy the base and the remaining escort for more pts. 18.1.6 Alliances Capture Decker's ship and destroy the Imperial fleet. Enough said... Capture him and get rid of the rest. You may have to take the lead. You'll get plenty of help from other races. 18.1.7 Any one know what Doomsday this is? Mirror Decker has somehow found a wormhole that leads to a Planetkiller graveyard. They seem to be trying to get one back online. Scan each and every one of those corpses, and kill any that came back to life. You may need to "borrow" one of the enemy ships to do that... Go from your left and scan each dead PK one at a time until you find a live one (should be the last one). Capture the cruiser, and force it into the PK to kill it. The frigates are easy enough to kill. 18.1.8 Rift Raft This freighter has a device that'll send the Imperial fleet back into the mirror universe... Can you protect it long enough for it to do its job? Keep one ship at the freighter while you go forward and bash. Or you can slap a tractor on the freighter and PUSH it into position even faster. Once the freighter does its job that should be it. 18.1.9 Armageddon Day Somehow, the mirror Decker has amassed his fleet of Planetkillers and he's coming after Earth. Our only chance is our experimental nova bombs... Drop one in front of every planetkiller you run into, AND take care of Decker's DN... And maybe Earth will survive... This is a VERY tough mission. Run out there and destroy Decker's DN. Then forget your weapons... Go speed 31 yellow alert and feed a bomb to each planet killer. Remember, your transporters have range 5.99. Use it. The planetkillers are slow (speed 6), but the bombs must be dropped with great precision or when it blows, it'll take the ship with you, and you only have three ships max (and limited number of bombs). NOTE: you can get more nova mines from Earth. Beam the nova mines out like T-bombs. Drop shields first to grab it. 18.1.10 Land of the Lost The Organians are gone and you've been ordered to investigate this system, which has a planet with energy signature very close to Organians. Get in there, scan anything unusual, and beware of interruptions... When you get close enough to the phenomenon, "enemy" ships appear out of nowhere and start attacking you. Deep scan the phenomenon, the ship, AND the planet, and you can leave. 18.1.11 Fed_Special2.scr / ???? The Skorr venerates A'lar, and after his death, his soul is being shipped to a planet where it will be permanently kept. If the soul was lost, the Skorr may go crazy... So don't lose it... As you may imagine, a Klingon ship attacks you quickly. You have two approaches... Turn and fight the Klingon, or shove the freighter out of the way. Or you can combine both... 18.1.12 Fed_Special3.scr / ??? That energy field you scanned was an escaped being from a black hole. He kept there by the Organians for a reason. You will need to put him back somehow. The Mandoss system onboard this freighter will do it... What you need to do is get the freighter into the energy field and activate the device, thus capturing this escapee, then shove the freighter into the blackhole. As you can imagine, this escapee is not happy at all, and he'll "make" all sorts of ships to attack you. Shove the freighter into the field, then shove the freighter into the blackhole, while you keep the enemy ships away. 18.2 ROMULANS Romulans have two elite organizations: the Tal'Priex (Praetorian Guard) or Tal'Shiar (Secret Service). Tal'Shiar usually has a second agenda in everything... 18.2.1 Four Funerals and a Wedding Oselia of House Coriann is getting married to General Aselius. Tal'Preix: you will escort the freighter to the destination. It must arrive safely. Tal'Shiar: you will convince the freighter to go to a different planet... As our other squadron do a bit of distraction... 18.2.2 Medicine Jar Traveler's Disease is sweeping through the empire. Tal'Preix: Ship experimental medicine to ____ planet, and don't let a couple rebels stop you. Tal'Shiar: Get the medicine to one of the ships that is... friendlier to the Tal'Shiar. 18.2.3 Yellow Flag A fleet of ships full of plague victims is heading toward Romulus, hoping for treatment. Tal'Preix: do NOT allow the ships to leave this sector OR to reach Romulus. Disable the ships if necessary. Tal'Shiar: convince the ships that Immelask has better treatment, do NOT allow ships to reach Romulus 18.2.4 Howdy, neighbor! Times are desperate, as we must learn more about the Traveller's Disease. You have permission to raid one of our neighbor's border station for any info you may find. You are assigned another ship... Tal'Preix: Also try to keep the other ship alive. Tal'Shiar: See if you can get the other ship killed... Without doing it yourself. Keeping the other ship alive is nearly impossible. The enemy ships won't attack you unless you attack first. So... Send the other guy in (let him get ahead of you), then let him soak up the phasers. THEN you charge in, drop the enemy shield, and beam in the marines. Cloak if you need to. Capture the station, hold it for X seconds, then RUN for it. 18.2.5 Scan and Scram Rumors points to Orions as source of the plague. You will scan a nearby Orion base. The "other" organization has asked to accompany you on your trip. Tal'Preix: Deep scan the base and leave. Tal'Shiar: Deep scan the base, AND drop a black box on the base as well. Don't ask what's in the box. 18.2.6 Orion Must be Destroyed Your taskforce has been ordered to destroy the main Orion base in the sector, as the evidence seems to be quite clear. Tal'Preix: just do it Tal'Shiar: do that, and scan Dominatus, a ship in your fleet. It has funny readings... 18.2.7 Sheriff Travelling at warp speed can slow traveler's disease. However, people, upon hearing this, are fighting for every ship that can travel at warp speed, and anarchy is the result. Our ship has received vessels to restore order and rescue any victims. You will see life pods all over the place. Beam the people onboard as fast as you can, destroy the ships that attack other ships. 18.2.8 Secret of Romulan Fury Tal'shiar: You've been tasked with a special mission... Transport a package to Vulcan. Tal'Priex: You must prevent the Tal'Shiar from dropping Traveller's Disease on Vulcan, our ancient homeworld. You'll see a Federation starbase with various Federation ships. They will shoot at both ships if in range. As the Tal'Shiar, cloak and run past everybody, keep your distance from the SB (those ph-4's can KILL you, even under cloak!), and when you get close enough, drop decoy for ECM, max ECM, and RUN for the planet! As the Tal'Priex, the Tal'Shiar will probably cloak. Get close and sit on its rear, and keep shooting phasers at its rear, while you have enveloping torps armed. When he uncloaks, nail him with your torpedoes, H&R raids on the torpedoes, follow up with suicide shuttles. 18.2.9 War of the Tals Ah, the grand finale... This one is fun. Tal'Priex: The Romulan Tal'Shiar leader said he created the Traveller's Disease, and unless he's declared Praetor he'll drop the improved version on Romulus. DESTROY HIM! He'll show up in a Condor. Let other ships take the lead, and you beat down weakened shields and beam in boarding parties to capture. Once he's captured you win. Tal'Shiar: Lead the Tal'Shiar fleet to victory and help vice consul Tuvius become praetor, and you will be remembered as a "king-maker"! You get a Condor and a few lighter ships. Tal'Priex has many different cruisers, including even some War Eagles. Stay out and nail the enemy one at a time, and they should surrender when you get close enough. 18.2.10 Rom_Special1.scr / If at First You don't Succeed... The planet needs a shipment of hitherium. Escort this freighter and defeat the Orions. As you can expect, nothing is really as it seems... 18.2.11 Rom_Special2.scr / Going, going, gone... The Orion pirates have captured a ship full of dilithium crystals. Retake the freighter and get it out of the system. 18.2.12 Rom_Special3.scr / A Dish Best Served Cold (?) ???? 18.3 KLINGONS 18.3.1 Expedition to Organia Investigate the energy phenomenon at Organia... When you get there, deep scan the energy rift, then launch a probe. You'll take damage. Talk to the Fed, and exchange data. Then destroy that 'third' ship that shows up. 18.3.2 A Hole in Time and Space, Part 1 You must capture one of the two Lyran ships for part 2 of the mission. Should be pretty simple... Just capture one of the CL's that show up, and destroy the other one. 18.3.3 A Hole in Time and Space, Part 2 Escort this suicide freighter in with the captured Lyran ship. The freighter must crash into the base, and you must escape. This mission is pretty f***ing impossible. Don't bother with weapons... Just go yellow alert, and dump all energy into speed. Drop mines to confuse enemies, but remember, your supply is very limited. Try to "draw off" the enemies so they chase after you. The freighter can survive a few ph-4 shots from the base, but it won't survive if the enemy ships also chase it. Keep your speed up and try to go for the wormhole as soon as the base blows up. 18.3.4 Paradise by Disruptor Light A destroyer squadron had vanished. Few days ago, they reappeared and raided one of our bases. You will follow them through the wormhole and determine why they mutinied and deal with them. You start in a system with a single planet. The rebel ships call it "paradise" and they beam you a message. Destroy/capture all rebel ships, then keep hitting the planet until the colony is destroyed, and you can go home. 18.3.5 Cloak of Night The Black Fleet needs you to go check our enemies testing anti- cloak technology. Destroy their prototype, and any escorts. This can be any of your neighboring races (I got Lyrans or Feds). You get a small escort ship. Just as you approach the enemy, the escort broadcast your position! Go back and capture it (don't destroy it)! The freighter must be scanned first before destroyed. Just destroy the escorts, then nail the freighter. 18.3.6 That Which Must Die Go through the wormhole, and destroy the Tribbles... This is NOT a fun mission... if you don't bring at least 2 cruisers (3 preferred), you'll have a tough time cracking the base. After you go through, ships (Orion and Fed) start coming after you, mainly DD's and CL's. You also need to locate and capture the "zoology" ship (scan each one, as usual, maybe a freighter?). Scan each and destroy them if not your special target. You head around the planet, and you see the station... It's got ph-4's. It's best to use a D-7L or D-7G and capture it, as you'll get pounded into pieces if you fight it. When all has been captured or destroyed, keep hitting the planet until your science officer said "no life remains". Then you can go home. 18.3.7 The Devil You know The "mirror" universe "Empire" has sent a representative to meet with us. See what they have to offer. When you show up, you see the Fed-CADR (ISS Apollo) in the asteroid field. In the distance is a planet killer (PK). Go through the asteroid field, stay outside once you're on the other side. Two Fed ships will approach (the real Feds). Destroy them. The ISS ship then insults you, and activates the PK. Capture that ship, then use it to destroy the PK, and you can go home. 18.3.8 Vanishing Act, part 1 You must scan the different rifts and locate the missing shipyards, and go through the rift if necessary. Scan the fractures one at a time. You can't lock onto them until you're within range 100, so just fly toward it. Two Orion CA's will stalk you. Destroy them when they approach. Scan each rift going counter-clockwise. That "last" one should be the right one. Go through onto part 2. 18.3.9 Vanishing Act, part 2 You're arrived at this system... Where Klingons have already destroyed this psionic race a long time ago... So, what's the cause?. The few ships in the system are not really worth your trouble, just swat them aside. Get close to the planet and scan it. Science officer said you'll need to get closer. When you get to range 15, you'll get a psychic message. Destroy ALL the defense platforms. (Again, easiest way is to beam one marine onboard). Save your ammo and destroy the drydocks with phasers only (it'll take a while). Phaser all the dead bodies in space as well (optional). Feel free to blast the planet a bit (you can't destroy it), but the main thing is shipyards. Once all the platforms and shipyards are gone, you can go home. 18.3.10 We are the dead You must capture Dr. Kraa, who has done psionic research and has escaped through one of the wormholes. You'll see this planet and a bunch of weak cruisers (NCT's and DWs and such), Klingon, Hydrans, and Fed, but there is this ONE Gorn ship that's good. Blast everybody else (they don't fly that fast), then capture the Gorn ship, and that's it. Scanning should tell you which one has Kraa and which one does not. 18.3.11 Praxis The grand finale... The enemy that controls the psychic powers has traveled to Praxis via wormhole and taken it over. You must first drop a psychic disruptor on Praxis to halt the weapons production, and second, destroy ALL the enemy ships in the system. This is best done with a missile ship. I did it in a D6DB, after losing both my D7D and my D7L right at the beginning. This will be tough, as right at the beginning, the bases turn on you! Just fly at maximum speed and get out of range. You may lose one or two ships immediately. Continue to Praxis, maximum speed, and drop the disruptor on the moon, and then curve out of the way of the cruisers near the moon. Kill the Hydran light cruisers that come after you. Those Hydran fighters from those CL's are DEADLY (Stinger 3's). Kill the fighters first, THEN swarm the ships with drones. The heavy cruisers around the moon will come, but they don't defend against drone swarms too well. Use scatter pack and drone swarm on them. If you run out, do a close approach on Praxis (range 3 or so) and you should get resupplied if you beam up items from it. Then proceed to wipe out all enemy ships. When the last ship die, you win! 18.3.12 Scavenger You are to reclaim the ship remains from recent battles, beware of interference. If you see them, H&R it to "tag" with a tracking device. Destroy those you can't tag. You see the hulk of three ships in the distance, and three enemy ships (frigates or destroyers). Scan the enemy ships, and your science offer will say those seem like odd hybrids of Lyran and other technologies. They mention something about Usurper. Set H&R on any and/or all of them. They don't even need to escape. Once H&R is done, you can destroy the ships. Then scan the three hulks. On two of them the science officer will tell you that it's not worth saving. The third one, tow it to the border. 18.3.13 That's not a mission, that's suicide! You are to scan the three protostars for a beacon. This is the "great burning zone", a huge radiation belt. No one has survived (that we know of), but those hybrids definitely came from here. Your special ship has no weapons... But it'll survive the radiation zone. Scan all three protostars. You can fly really close to each one. There are dust fields between the asteroids, and at least two space shells come after you. Avoid the dust fields, and just fly to each protostar and scan. See if you can get the space shell to crash into an asteroid... Once all three are scanned, you get an exit vector, so leave... 18.3.14 Yardarms You get a C-9 and 2 other ships for this special mission... Get into the WYN territory, and destroy their shipyards and escorts. Get in there, and blast the few Orion LRs and such, then wipe out the 2 drydocks. Once you done that, you can leave, or you can try to take out the Hydran cruiser coming in as reinforcement. 18.4 HYDRANS Hydrans have three "elite" organizations: the Keepership ("preserves" monsters), Beast-Hunters (kills monsters), and Sacred Beast (let no one desecrate the monsters). 18.4.1 Midwife Drive off the beast hunters and rescue the young space shells. Head toward the nearest freighter. Drop off your fighters and send them along with your wingmen, if any, to attack the NEXT nearest freighter. Destroy or capture all of the freighters as you don't want them to tow the space shells away. Then tow each of them back to the asteroid field to finish. 18.4.2 Fait Accompli You need to protect the containment field generators against attack. Just destroy all of the enemy ships that show up. There is no need to physically repair the posts, but if would be nice if you do so. 18.4.3 Eye of the Storm The Klingon listening post is in an electrical storm. Capture it, download its information, and leave! Expect reinforcements and escorts. NOTE: you'll take random damage in the electrical storm. Keep a good supply of spare parts ready, as there will be plenty of damage. The single ship protecting the outpost cannot even slow you down. Just capture the outpost as you fly by. Enemy reinforcement will be strong, so just disengage after you got the information. 18.4.4 Final Voyage An old Sunglider (monster) wants to kill himself by flying into the sun. Fulfill his wish. Do NOT let him be killed by other ships. You'll see two factions of Hydrans... The Beast Worshippers, and the Beast Hunters. The Beast Hunters want to kill the monster, while the Beast Worshippers want to kill you (and any one who threatens the monsters). You... Just kill both sides and let whatever Hydran deities sort them out. Do it quickly as the sun- glider cannot take too much damage. Alternate approach: tractor the sun-glider and SHOVE it toward the sun at top speed, and use fighters and T-bombs to keep the enemies off your tail. 18.4.5 You are IT! Transport bio-monitoring packages onto young astrominers (monsters). There are always complications... As expected, a bunch of beast hunters show up to spoil the party. Destroy them and/or capture them, while you target each astro- miner and beam the package onboard each one. The last one may speak to you... Talk to it and get some bonus points. 18.4.6 Dragon's Breath Part 1 Hydran base in _____ has came under surprise attack, and no forces will reach it in time. The only hope is to recruit one of the Star-beasts and hope it will lead its fellows into joining you in taking care of the problem. However, you must first FIND the one that will speak... 18.4.7 Dragon's Breath Part 2 Continuation of the previous mission, where you will actually beat back the attack. 18.4.8 Endangered Species The Beast-cult have seized control of the base and the planet. Take this transport, and retake the system. Do so without bloodshed if possible. Talk to the ships with NO weapons armed, and convince them to listen, that the star-beasts joined you of their own free will. They'll tell you to go to an asteroid and summon another star- beast and talk to it, and thus, you must pass this "test". If you do, 18.4.9 Beast Unknown A wormhole has opened into enemy system ______. We are raiding one of their "observatories". Get as much information from the station as possible. You will encounter a star-beast there, trapped by mines. Sweep the mines, and "rescue" the star-beast. 18.4.10 Trophies A group of space shells are gathering in a nebula, reasons unknown. As expected, beast hunters are on the move... Protect the space shells, destroy the beast hunters. Destroy the enemy ships, and deep-scan the star. Your science officer should say something about the space is "singing". Try hailing the monsters... After that, deep scan the planet too and you should win. 18.4.11 The Abyss Stares Back It's time to return the beasts to their preserves. Knock the beasts unconscious so they can be tractored back behind the forcefields. Nothing is ever THAT simple... Expect a black hole in the system, among other things... It's time to make a choice... 18.5 GORNS The Gorns have three "elite" organizations... King's Fleet, Defenders of the Egg, and Guardians Errant. Depending on which faction you belong to, some of the missions can be quite different. The early Gorn missions should probably be done in a DDL. It is MUCH more powerful than FF, yet the randomly generated enemies usually fall into the FF range. Later you can add CC's and other heavier ships. 18.5.1 Gor_1ASign.scr / A Sign of the Times Deliver medicine to Igorash I. Should be simple, but almost never is... Run to the planet at top speed, hail when in range, beam down medicine when in range. An Orion ship should have followed you in. Destroy/capture it. Two or three more Gorn ships will enter the system. Hail all of them. Do NOT attack the one that talks back. That's Commander Golash. Destroy the other ship(s).Golash will attack the planet and ignore you. Catch up to him and tractor him away from the planet. He will challenge you personally to HTH (hand to hand) combat on Igorash II. Slap a tractor on him and PULL him to the other planet as he moves slowly (speed 8) and you don't want the planet destroyed. If he challenges you again, accept again. Once there, beam down the boarding party (in the transport screen), and in a minute, you're done... VERIFIED 06/13/2003 18.5.2 Picking the Bones. We're going after that traitor's clan. Take the marine transport and capture the weapon caches on the asteroids and the base (i.e. capture the asteroid base and the base station). NOTE: Make sure you have plenty of marines yourself for all the ships. Capture/destroy the fleeing Orion ship, and the approaching Gorn ship. The quickest way to take out the defense platforms is to knock down one shield and beam a single boarding party onboard. As it's undefended, it blows up when captured. Capture the asteroids AND the base. You will probably need to take manual command of each ship as you beam down more guys. You will need plenty of marines on your ships, so protect that commando ship you got! Use "disable" fire to kill enemy boarding parties. You need to capture EVERYTHING for a good score. VERIFIED 06/13/2003 18.5.3 Bright Colony, Full of Flame Destroy the enemy colony. This mission is simple... Destroy the enemy colony. Destroy the escorting ships as well. The enemy governor may offer to trade some information. Accept his offer, and blast him any way. 18.5.4 Green Eggs and Empire Escort the VIP eggs to be blessed. When the mission starts, your ship will suddenly take damage and your escorts (2 BBs) will blow up (sabotage), and the freighter accelerates to meet some pirates! Repair tractors and transporters ASAP, chase down the freighter (it's only going speed 12) and slap a tractor on the freighter, then PULL it toward the planet, compensating for its thrust as well. Go maximum speed. The Orion ships are pretty far away. Recapture the freighter when you can, continue to tow it back to the planet. When Orions are close, start dropping T-bombs. When you get close to the planet (say, range 50), head back out and defeat the Orion ships (watch out, one of them is a missile ship). Once that's done, you can leave the map to finish the mission. 18.5.5 Gor_5HatchingAScheme.scr / Hatching a Scheme The Queen Mother is having an illicit meeting with an Orion Syndicate... Depending on which Gorn faction you're with, the mission differs quite a bit. As King's Guard, you need to take Queen Mother into protective custody, and destroy the Orions. As Defender of the Egg, you do whatever Queen Mother says, which is rescue her and escape the map. As Guardians Errant, setup listening devices to keep track of everybody. If the mission goes bust, destroy any Orion ships you see (as many as you can) and don't destroy any Gorn ships or allow any to be destroyed. 18.5.6 Wooden Starships, Iron Men Again, the objectives depend on which faction you are with, but essentially it's fight all comers. King's Men: destroy shipyards and any one who resist Defenders: destroy shipyard and King's Men Guardians: defend shipyards No further information at this time. 18.5.7 All the King's Starships Scan Orion base for stolen eggs, then call your reinforcements to destroy the base. You can't recover the eggs via transporter as you're in a nebula, so just deep scan the base, then run back to the fleet (you can't talk to them, too much interference). Bring them in and destroy everybody. Consider charging defensive (shotgun) torpedoes. 18.5.8 Muddy Waters In order to locate the missing eggs, you must... "borrow" Harry Mudd from a Federation penal colony. You need to capture the base to turn off the shields, THEN you can deep scan and locate Harry Mudd. Beam him up, and a Federation ship will try to stop you. Capture/destroy/disengage. 18.5.9 The Egg and Why Still trying to rescue those eggs. Capture the freighter heading toward the planet. They'll give you the password. Control your freighter and fly it in. Tell the other ships to stay behind. The Orions should ignore you as the freighter. Scan the planet and you'll locate the eggs. Beam down the combat team and rescue the eggs. Beam them back up, and run for your fleet. Tell your fleet to "escort" you as well, and run for map's edge. However, stop at the edge. You'll get two more messages: 1) some eggs are missing, and 2) "Great Father" said the eggs are his. Now you can run across the border. 18.5.10 The Gorn Navy vs. The Great Father You are going to take on the Great Father... giant Space shell Qezl. Guess there's something to those old myths after all. Don't destroy the smaller space shells as you'll just get MORE of them. Fly past them and scan the planet, and you'll see a forcefield. Qezl is getting energy from somewhere else... Go scan the moon and destroy the generators... Qezl should now be beatable. Destroy him, go back to planet, beam down the team, save the eggs, destroy remaining space shells, and go home. 18.6 LYRANS Lyrans have three elite organizations: Red Claw, Iron Fang, and Mountain Watchers. 18.6.1 A Cold Quiet Place We have lost communication with planet []. Go there and find out what's going on. When you get there, you see some Orion ships. Take them out, and scan the planet. You'll see it's half out of phase. Then you can go home. 18.6.2 Lifeline Clan White Edge is not exchanging the technology it is obliged to. We'll take it by force. Your "cousin" will join you as the other prong of attack. As you start your attack, your "cousin" betrays you and radios in your location. He then joins the enemies in attacking you! Deal with the traitor when you can (capture it is preferred). Scan both the platform and the planet. Then leave. 18.6.3 Scum of the Universe Enter the nebula, and make contact with the Informant. Others (Orions / Klingons) may try something. Get the information and get out. This is in a nebula. Oh, and take out that listening post on the way out. (Depends on your clan affiliation) Orions and Klingons will attack this freighter you're meeting. Hail the freighter, destroy Klingons and Orions, and the listening post (scan it first). The freighter must escape. 18.6.4 The Plot Thickens The Orions seem to be colluding with one of the Clans. We will gather that evidence. Go to system [], scan this asteroid (which has one of our sensor probes on it), download the data, and return. As you expect, this was a trap. There was no data. However, you can destroy the enemies and scan the station and the planet for the data. You must escape. 18.6.5 Challenge Your cousin has challenged you for an ancient heirloom. Take one of your ships, destroy as many of the 16 mine controllers (they look like LPs) in the system. Who gets the most kills wins the item. He shows up in a heavier ship than yours. Just approach each mine controller and beam four boarding parties onboard each one. As there's only 2 defenders, you will capture it, and thus can keep the speed up. About half way through the course, and squadron of 1 DD and 2 FF will chase you. Fly around obstacles to spread them out, and take care of them one at a time. Then capture or destroy the LP's. Do NOT attack your cousin. When all are captured or destroyed, just leave the map. 18.6.6 Reemergence The planet has reemerged from that phased ... "phase". it has refused ships from other clans, though supply ships are allowed through. Get in there, scan *ALL* the listening posts to download their information. A FLEET of ships will chase you all over. First a CA comes in, then some CL's and MP's. Just get within range 15 and activate the deep scanner. You don't even need to fully charge it. Then continue to the next one. 18.6.7 The Whole Kitten Kaboodle Engineer Zarr is offering his services to the most "fitting" Clan. Go there, represent our clan, and see what you can do to win Zarr's services without shooting someone else. When you get there, Zarr order you to fight each other... The last man standing is the winner. Then Mountain Watcher Clan shows up with a DN... Basically, kill everybody else without being killed. Last man standing is the winner. Unite and smite the DN first, let someone else take the lead. THEN kill the survivors. This one is VERY tough, and NOT recommended without several CA's or BCH's. Tractoring Zarr off the map is NOT a valid solution. While it is possible, it does NOT give you the expected outcome. 18.6.8 Strike First, Strike Hard The Mountain Watcher clan must be stopped. Its treachery has affected all of us. The three clans have joined together to take on the MW base. Destroy the base. As you can expect, nothing is as it seems. The Mountain Watcher Clan gets some SERIOUS reinforcements... and it becomes a desperate fight to survive... 18.6.9 Broken Toys The Mountain Watcher clan seems to be building a subspace phased shield around the planet, which will make them nearly impervious from attack. Fortunately, the freighters bringing parts for the project is vulnerable. Destroy the freighters and the defense platforms (depending on which clan you're with). No further information at this time. 19 SFC ships Each empire has multiple classes of ships, from freighters to frigates, from destroyers to dreadnoughts. Keep in mind that a lot of the ship names and abbreviations are derived from the ship's class name, instead of the overall classification of the ship 19.1 SHIP CLASSIFICATION OVERVIEW The civilian / auxiliary ship classifications are * Small Freighters (all freighters are F) * Large Freighters (all freighters are F) The warship classifications, from smallest to largest, are * Fighters / Attack-Shuttles [Not counted separately, but as part of a CV carrier] * Police Corvette (POL) [Counts as FF] * Frigates (FF) * War Destroyer (DW) [Counts as DD] * Destroyer (DD) * Light Cruiser (CL) * War Cruiser (CW) [Counts as CA or CL] * Heavy Cruiser (CA) * Battlecruiser (BC/BCH) [Counts as CA] * Dreadnought (DN) * Battleship (BB) [Counts as DN] * Carriers (CV) [see note below] In general, police corvette have 1 heavy weapon, frigates have 2, destroyers have 3-4, cruisers have 4, dreadnoughts have 6, and battleships have 10 (8 fore, 2 aft) Only Hydrans operate carriers in SFC, and Hydran carriers are not pure carriers... Most ships carries a few fighters as a part of its design, instead of a purpose-built fighter-carrier that most other races use. 19.2 FREIGHTERS That is discussed in the next section, in 18. 19.3 WARTIME CONSTRUCTION In wartime, the smaller ships are easier to build as their stardocks are easier to build. The larger ship hulls are needed for certain specialized variants. When the losses start to mount, shipyards must somehow increase production of larger ships. Thus, the "war destroyers" and "war cruisers" are born. A "war destroyer" is basically a frigate expanded to have the power and weapons of a destroyer. It has less overall volume than a destroyer, but can be built in a frigate shipyard. A "war cruiser", similarly, is a destroyer or light cruiser built- up to full cruiser, but can be built in destroyer/light-cruiser shipyards. Each race has its own solutions to the wartime construction problem. For example, the Federation did not have a "war cruiser". Its "new light cruiser" (NCL) design, using some of destroyer's parts, essentially served as that design. The Federation also had a competition between the FFB (battle frigate) and the DW (war destroyer) and the DW was ultimately chosen. There are many other variants to each class. Some races chose to build "leader" version of certain classes to act as 'squadron leaders' when operating in a group. For example, a squadron of Klingon F-5 frigates will be lead by a F-5L. For a list of variants, see 17.5. A battlecruiser is essentially a ship with the maximum amount of firepower one can pack onto a cruiser hull, often approaching DN's firepower, but can be built in a regular cruiser shipyard. Eventually no more dreadnoughts were made. They have been replaced by battlecruisers. 19.4 CARRIERS AND FIGHTERS Carriers are special ships that carry smaller specialized vessels into battle, usually fighters. Only Hydrans operate "carriers" in SFC, and those are hybrid carriers, not true carriers. Fighters are basically armed shuttles that carry drones and perhaps some pre-charged heavy weapons. Each 'squadron' is launched together and can be ordered to attack target or defend you. 19.5 VARIANTS All races operate multiple variants of ships. In general, the most of a specific type that race builds, the more likely different variants will be produced. For example, a destroyer can be built as normal, drone, battle (heavy), escort, commando, and more. In general, the cruiser has the most variants. Here are some common suffixes used to denote the variants A Aegis, a variant of Escort B Battle (extra heavy), EX: FFB = battle frigate, almost a destroyer C Command, has flag bridge, slightly more weapons, EX: CC = command cruiser D Drone, lots of drone launchers, EX: NCD (new drone cruiser, drone version of NCL) E Escort, phaser heavy, few/no heavy weapons, EX: DDE = destroyer escort G Commando (all except Federation), Guided/G-Rack refit (Federation) H Heavy, EX: DNH = heavy dreadnought L Light or Leader R Survey T Transport (very rare) V Carrier, carries fighter-shuttles The Feds chose to use a C PREFIX for their commando ships. NOTE: Only Hydrans use fighters in SFC, and their designation is an abbreviation of the ship class, and has nothing to do with the common ship classes explained above. 19.6 POLICE CORVETTES (POL) The police corvettes are the smallest standalone vessels operated by a fleet. Sometimes, they are just called "police ships". Klingons prefer the term "gunboats". They may lack heavy weapons altogether, though some may have a single heavy weapon. They can barely deter a light pirate vessel. Don't expect one to survive in a real battle. Think of them as SMALL frigates. Some races built police flagships (leaders). 19.7 FRIGATES (FF) In general, frigates are very weak, and tend to blow up quickly in presence of cruisers or larger ships. Cruisers with high crunch power can blow up a frigate in a single alpha strike. Frigates are in perpetual need of power because their available power is quite small and any further use of power requires a large decrease in speed. To get an extra point of power, a cruiser slow by 1 (movement cost of 1), while a frigate need to slow by 3 (movement cost of 0.33). A frigate usually has only a single heavy weapon. If there are several sizes of the weapon, a frigate would have the smallest one (with lowest effective range). With little power available, ECM, overload, and so on require very careful consideration. EM is more efficient than ECM in most cases. Fighting with frigates requires a LOT of maneuvers, as neither side can deal a "killing" blow. When you fly frigates, you want the ones with the LEAST energy usage. The drone frigates are probably the best. With a scatter- pack you have the potential to kill larger ships. For those frigates with low crunch power, use your maneuvers and keep your range open. You need to play like a Klingon to survive. 19.8 WAR DESTROYER (DW) A war destroyer is a frigate built-up to destroyer capability. It is basically a destroyer missing a few parts. It has 2 heavy weapons and movement cost of 0.5 like a destroyer. 19.9 DESTROYER (DD) Destroyer, being the next size up, has slightly less of the power problem. However, it can still be quite acute. It loses 2 in speed for every point of power (movement cost of 0.5). In general, destroyers have two heavy weapons. There are some exceptions (the Fed DD had four photons, just like the Fed CA, but no power to arm them. The DDG fixed that). Destroyers have enough power to start using EW and shield reinforcements sparingly. A large or heavy destroyer is VERY close in size and capability to a light cruiser. So much so, some navies chose not to build light cruisers. Destroyers still relies on maneuver, but a bit less than frigates. 19.10 LIGHT CRUISER (CL) In general, light cruisers have 3 or 4 heavy weapons like a CA, but have less shields, phasers, and other equipment. Some CL's have movement cost of 1 just like a CA. Most CL's have only forward facing weapons. There are one or two exceptions: the Fed Miranda-class cruiser has a rear-facing photon torpedo. (This is to fit in with the USS Reliant in the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) Cruisers have power to spare for EW, but not that much in a CL. 19.11 WAR CRUISER (CW) A war cruiser is a destroyer or light cruiser built-up to full cruiser firepower. It would have 4 heavy weapons and movement cost of 1, but slightly fewer weapons than a full cruiser. In general it should "drive" just like a cruiser. 19.12 HEAVY CRUISER (CA) A heavy cruiser usually has 4 heavy weapons, and movement cost of 1. There are some exceptions like the Klingon D-7T, which has 5 photon torpedoes (yes, photons). A heavy cruiser is your average ship and can use all the tactics discussed. Power can be a little tight in certain situations. CA/CW should have some power left over to be able to move at decent speed (24 or higher) and arm all weapons. 19.13 BATTLECRUISER (BCH) A battlecruiser has 6 heavy weapons like the dreadnought, but still has movement cost of 1. They eventually replaced the dreadnought on the production line. BCH is a bit tight on power as losing speed here doesn't yield as much power as it would on a DN, while it has all those DN-class weapons to charge. That's why the Feds build all the different variations on the BCH trying to come up with a design that doesn't suck up too much power. Consider disabling one or two of the heavy weapons after the initial pass so you get more power to maneuver. That way, the BCH should fly just like a cruiser with a few extra weapons. 19.14 DREADNOUGHT (DN) A dreadnought has 6 heavy weapons, and movement cost of 1.5. A DN usually has globs of power to spare. By reducing speed by 1, a DN can spare 1.5 pts of power. A DN should exploit this by charging those energy-intensive systems like tractors, ECM, and so on. A DN's maneuverability is pretty bad, and it can't make an HET safely, so you probably shouldn't. Instead, use your superior firepower to pound smaller ships into scrap. You can probably kill a frigate in a single pass. You have enough transporters to capture small ships in one pass also. There are also DNH (heavy dreadnought) and DNL (light dreadnought) variants. 19.15 BATTLESHIP (BB) A battleship has 10 heavy weapons (8 fore, 2 aft) and movement cost of 2. Some may carry fighters for additional firepower. Even bigger than the DN, a BB have a lot of power to spare, and extremely heavy shields. Of course, it also turns like a pig. Every point reduced in speed spares 2 pts of power, and that's a lot. Requires a LOT of crunch power to get through one of those shields. However, it CAN be killed given a bit of patience and sufficient firepower. Don't even THINK about using an HET in a BB. Instead, use your superior firepower to kill ONE enemy ship at a time, esp. those that can get past your shields (and frigates/destroyers probably can't). Battleships are vulnerable to seeking weapons such as scatter- packs and plasma torpedoes due to their high crunch power. Be ready with those defenses. 20 Freighters Every race has freighters, and some has more models than others. The freighters essentially fall into 3 sizes: small, medium, and large. They also falls into several types: civilian, military, Q- ships, and auxiliary naval. The civilian freighters are very lightly armed. Most carry one Ph- 2, maybe some Ph-3's. Some may carry ADD for drone defense. The refitted versions get an extra weapon or two, but are still very lightly armed. The military "armed" freighters have slightly heavier shielding than the civilian versions, with a few more weapons, but are still very weak. Q-Ships are basically freighters converted to warships. They look just like a freighter, until you get a closer scan. They also get slightly heavier shielding. However, they are still quite weak and have lousy acceleration just like a freighter. Historical note: The idea originated in World War I, when the German U-boats ruled the seas. At that time, it was customary for a warship to demand the surrender of a merchant vessel. An U-Boat must surface to demand the surrender of the merchant. The British introduced the Q-ship, which is a normal merchant with hidden guns on the deck. When the U-Boat surfaces and is in range, the Q- ship will engage the submarine. Q-ship has only ONE chance... It either sinks the sub right there, or it will die from torpedoes. After multiple losses to Q-ships, Germans simply sank the ships without warning. This is known as "unrestricted submarine warfare". In a scenario, most freighters will not exceed speed 10 or 15, except Q-ships. However, this is not always true. 20.1 FEDERATION The Feds have a full range of freighters. The "merchant" ships are civilian-owned. Starfleet owns others. Only the Q ships carry photon torpedoes. Others rely on phasers and drones. 20.2 OTHER FREIGHTERS Everybody else operate freighters like the Feds... Just less special variants. The only difference would be in armament. Hydrans would have Fusion- and phaser-armed freighters, Klingons would have Drone-, disruptor, or phaser-armed freighters, and so on. 21 Federation Overview In general, Federation ships have good all-around shields, good long-range firepower due to their photon torpedoes, and more "hull" than other races so their ships can take a bit more damage than other races and keep on running. However, Federation ships are just average in most areas, like maneuverability, firepower, available power, and so on. Many of the ships also lack rear phaser coverage. There were a lot of refits like the "plus" refit and the "R" refit to address some of the shortcomings. In general, the Feds have the most variants of ANY "empire". 21.1 GENERAL FED TACTICS Federation ships generally have average to lousy heavy weapons arcs. In general, the photons are FA arc only, so you have to face the enemy to shoot. Feds have relatively few weapons in the rear arc. The "R" refit helped a little, but not enough, and not all ships have that refit. Protect your front and rear shields, as you really need them. The photon torpedo is both a blessing and a curse. The long- recharge time is a big problem. To do a lot of damage you have to get in close, with overloaded photons. To do that, you're going to need power, but your power is spent overloading photon. Photons suck up a lot of power so don't expect to move very fast. If you need to move faster, deactivate 1 or more photons. On the other hand, photons are very flexible. You can stay at long range and pound the enemy with proximity photons. You can stay at medium range and engage with regular photons, or point- blank with overloaded photons. The choice is yours. Photons are susceptible to ECM. You need ECCM to counter any enemy ECM. Charge at least 1 ECCM to make sure you counter any enemy ECM. Feds usually have a secondary weapon like drones to keep the enemy busy while the photon reloads. Or you can combine the weapons for a true alpha strike. Feds have average number of transporters and boarding parties. Agai