barcah2001 | 25 Sep 2014 5:55 a.m. PST |
Has anyone purchased this new book? I play Star Trek with massed fleets using Starmada or A Call to Arms. Is the Tactics Book relevant to these types of games? Mark |
Spudeus | 25 Sep 2014 8:19 a.m. PST |
I have a copy, only skimmed it so far. I'm afraid its 100% Federation Commander, so no specific advice on those games that I saw. |
Micman | 25 Sep 2014 10:08 a.m. PST |
Spudeus is correct, it is only for FC. ADB is working on the 1.2 version of A Call to Arms now. So any tactics manual for that system would be outdated. They are supposed to release it before the end of the year. |
barcah2001 | 25 Sep 2014 12:36 p.m. PST |
Thank you--that's what I was afraid of. I was also hoping for a quicker publication of the Call to Arms book. |
Lion in the Stars | 25 Sep 2014 3:32 p.m. PST |
The bad news about ADB is that they don't publish a book until it's ready. The good news is that they publish a book as soon as it's ready. |
Dave Crowell | 26 Sep 2014 4:21 a.m. PST |
A very little on general tactics. The importance of speed, firing arcs, weapon hit and damage probabilities at various ranges. But, all of these are discussed as they relate to FC rules. The book is much like the earlier SFB tactics book. Very dry reading, but extremely useful if you play FC. |
1905Adventure | 26 Sep 2014 9:59 a.m. PST |
I read through the preview pages and some of the pre-publication discussion on the FC forum. This book is very, very Federation Commander specific. |
barcah2001 | 26 Sep 2014 2:26 p.m. PST |
Since I like to use fleet actions with 30+ ships per side, I wish there was a fleet tactics compendium of experienced gamers somewhere. Use your light ships for a forward screen? Flank cover? Flank attack? Mass the heavies and plow through? |
Dan Wideman II | 26 Sep 2014 3:43 p.m. PST |
In the SFB and FC games light ships have little to no role. They are no faster than cruisers (arguably slower in fact) they are barely more maneuverable (usually only 1 hex better turn rate) and they do not give you much more damage potential. If anything all they do is spread damage over multiple shields of the target. In ACTA however with the little ships give you more units to move. Due to the alternating movement system, this is important. In addition it never hurts to keep some lights with their off side weapons covering your cruisers for drone defense. That's one of the major improvements I've seen in ACTA vs SFB or FC. |
barcah2001 | 27 Sep 2014 5:35 a.m. PST |
Thanks Dan for your tactical insight. I look forward to the new ACTA and using lots of lights |
Dan Wideman II | 28 Sep 2014 3:49 p.m. PST |
Just be careful not to go too overboard. THe lights are still squishy, and usually have less than half the weapons of a capital ship for 2/3 the point cost. We've found a reasonable balance works best. |
barcah2001 | 28 Sep 2014 6:18 p.m. PST |
Dan, do you fight with/\/against Gorns? I know in one of the books it was mentioned that Gorns tend to fight paired (a wingman concept) or a heavy/light pair? |