Special Actions

Adventures and starship battles in a universe where the stars are dying.
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NukeHavoc
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Special Actions

Post by NukeHavoc »

There are some special actions that can help mitigate overwhelming short-range attacks. Close Blast Doors lets you only fire a single weapon system, but for each point of Damage or Troops lose that turn, roll one dice. On a 5 or more, the loss is ignored. The crew quality check is automatic. I think I tried this once with Bob or Damon, and my luck was not with me ... but I can see this as a useful way of bracing a ship during an attack run, particularly if you've got long range ships backing it up.

Run Silent! requires a crew quality check of 8 but if successful the ship gains a Stealth 3+ trait for that turn only. It wouldn't have helped me in my fight with Damon because I was already making crew quality checks to scan the enemy ship, but it could come in handy in blockade scenarios. Note that this check will also improve the Stealth rating of a ship that already has the trait.

Bring Battle Shields Online requires a crew quality check of 8. For that turn only, divide the ship's current Damage score by 10, rounding down. For this turn only, the ship will increase its current Shield score by this amount. However, the ship's speed is halved and it may only fire one weapon system.

Some of these options are more viable when you have experienced crews, and it's important to remember that attackers have their own special actions like Maximum Firepower, which requires you to be within 12 inches of a target and increases the attack dice by 50% (though you can't score crits this way) Bob used this to devastating effect against me in on battle.

I don't know that any of these eliminates the short-range advantage of certain ships BUT it might be enough for ships trying to force a closing action to survive their initial run up.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I'll try and be a tad more quiet as I desperately struggle to break free -- and save all creation!" -- Doctor Strange
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EvilGenius
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Re: Special Actions

Post by EvilGenius »

I agree about special actions really presenting some different options. I'm eager to actually fight some more battles and try them out in conjunction with a scenario. :)
Another daring escape for the intrepid Spaceman Spiff!
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