"Played my first couple StarFleet ACTA games" Topic

I played a couple games of star fleet ACTA last night. Both games were small around 320 points or so. I haven't played any other incarnations of ACTA so it was all new to me.

I enjoyed many aspects of the game. I like the mechanics of the game very much. It was very simple to play and moved well. I enjoyed how crew and special actions were incorporated very simply. The system seems to be able to give many options and details without making things bog down or become record keeping disasters.

There were some things that stood out in the negative as well. The point values of some of the ships seems very disproportionate for the abilities of the ship. The D7 seemed far superior to the constitution cruiser and was fewer points. The reloading of photon torpedoes also seems to be way too costly for the effect given. I've only played a few games but both I and my opponent thought the D7 was over the top for the points. We were using the errata so the D7 did have the correct stats. I wasn't thrilled about the initiative system being one roll for moving and shooting. If you win the initiative you get to move last and shoot first. It might be better to split that into two rolls. Moving fleets in which one side has more ships than the other also needs a bit of tweaking.

All things considered I think the game can be very enjoyable and I will definitely play it again. If you have played it and think I missed some things please feel free to fill me in.

CC

CC,

I've only played one small game (240pts). It was a Fed BCG vs. a D6 and an F5. Things when badly for the Klingons because the Federation player kept pulling off the crew checks to do high energy turns. The F5 took a full alpha strike and things went badly from there…

Having played SFB 20ish years ago, I love this system for letting me play in the same setting but with a lighter set of rules.

We have another game tonight – Klingon vs. Fed using the squadron boxes. I'll post my comments on that one afterward.

-Tim

Apparently my opponent and I were doing the power drain effect wrong. We were applying all the effects and you only need to pick one. That would have made a big difference in reloading the photons. That takes care of one of my initial whines.

CC

CC,

Glad to hear it! You'll remember I was thinking that 'no way' could the Feds be as weak as you were saying.

And, as I wasn't gushing enough while picking up trash at the store, awesome looking ships! ;->=

Doug

Klingons look overstrong to a lot of people but they do lack crunch power, and the game only lasts 8 turns for most scenarios. If they could dance around softening you up for as long as they want, they'd be pretty unbeatable. As it is, they're forced by the clock to close in a bit sooner than is probably best for them.

Mind you, whether putting an artificial turn limit in your rules to balance saber-dance tactics is really a good thing is debatable, but you could ask the same question about fixed maps and nerfed reverse movement to prevent Kaufman retrogrades from working.

I've only played one game but from what we experienced and from reading the Mongoose forum, ACTASF is very much a fleet game with 500 points a side being kind of a minimum.

I remember one play tester saying that with one on one, the winner was whoever won the most initiative rolls and three on three could still be mediocre but it was really at 5+ ships per side that the game really shines.

In our one game at 500 per side, Klingon v Fed, the game was very balanced with two very different style fleets.

I've yet to play this game (I have it and am waiting on some replacement ships) but I have played Victory at Sea which is another ACTA game and it definitely feels better with more models on the table than with fewer ones.

Played a game of this last week with the two squadron box sets, minus the dreadnoughts for each side. once we got the hang of the rules-do not like the fact of thumbing through the book for everything. It was fun, but the drones seem to be extra-ordinarily overpowered, most of the ship kills were caused by them.
Question on drones, do you still roll the AD dice value or do they automatically hit then roll for damage? The rules are a bit vague on this.

Otherwise it was quite well received by my game group.

Only downside i have is the amount of flash & poor molding of the ship figures.

Use the Fed drones in ADD mode and the Klingons already have dedicated ADD's that along with Phaser 3's reserved for defense and tractors, neither the Klingons or the Feds should have enough drones to do any real damage. Romulans are immune to drones under cloak.

Drones auto hit (if not shot down) but cannot penetrate shields on a '6' so all hits are shield hits until the shields are down.

Drones auto hit (if not shot down) but cannot penetrate shields on a '6' so all hits are shield hits until the shields are down.

Same goes for plasmas unless you're bolting them or firing in carronade. Seeking weapons never roll to hit, which has its ups and downs in a "leaky shields" game.

And don't forget phasers and tractor beams on defensive fire – in a game of this level, drones should be 'opportunity' weapons more than anything, with multiple warheads ploughing into a ship only if something has gone badly wrong!