My series is currently going through the Dominion War, the primary Ship of MY PC's is a Saber Class starship acting as the anchor vessel for an escort group full of a mixture of civilian transports, Merchant Marine Transports and some Starfleet Deneva class transports. The Escort group is safeguarding the construction teams and supplies for a new Starbase, as well as the vessels full of sanctioned and independent colonial groups going to a far flung sector.
While enroute they picked up a general distress call from another independent convoy running down the Romulan Neutral Zone comprised of a Ferrengi Pleasure Ship, Two Harelian Far Traders, and Four Tellarite Diluthium Mining vessels traveling together for added security. This is the stage in the war where the Romulans have not joined the Alliance as yet and the Dominion is attacking Federation shipping from the RNZ.
The civlian group sent them some sensor data they were getting on their long range sensors and asking any Starfleet vessel to identify and advise...
Skipping lots of "plot" stuff, I'll get to the point of why this is in Spacedock...
The U.S.S. Gettysburg (Constellation Class) also responded to above situation, it was heading back for the core to join a fleet that would be going to front, due to the clever ploys of the Vorta in charge of the Dominion group, the Gettysburg was caught alone away from nearby support while the other ships were dealing with other aspects of the threat.
Using the Spacedock battle rules the Gettysburg squared off against three Dominion Attack Fighters -- they stayed at warp until they were within weapons range and the battle started at a range of 70,000 KM...Medium range for their weapons and the phasers on the Gettysburg. The player commanding the Gettysburg opted to boost shields to maximum, which left her little power for weapons, Two phaser shots and two torpedos from one bank.
After the first round of engagement, the Gettysburg had collapsed the forward shield of one of the Attack Fighters and rattled it's cage but the Dominion attack had dropped the GB's forward shields completely as well. One of the Polaron beams struck deep and knocked out one of the Inertial Dampeners, the next shot caused the destruction of the Plasma Power Conduit -- cutting off the ship from any chance to go to Warp.
Here in lies the first question -- it explains how the Engineering crew sucks damage down there when this blows, and how the crew can't go to warp; but what else does this do? Not being sure I ruled that with the PPC down they couldn't transfer warp engine power to the rest of the ship, the engine kept running but the juice didn't go anywhere until a repair or bypass of some sort was made. My reasoning was that if the backlash did 3d6 to everyone and everything in engineering, the tranfer conduits that took power from the Warp Engine to the rest of the ship must have blown out. That was my quick assessment, but what is the *correct* story with that?
So I cut the GB's captain off from any use of Warp Power, so she lost all of her shields -- at the start of the next round she used her Command phase to order the crew to abandon ship, she figured that without shields the ship wouldn't survive much longer...she continued to go a maximum impulse and ordered tactical to fire on the Dominion vessels...
The Jemmie that had been damaged the first past was destroyed by two torpedos, the other Jemmies have "flown by" the GB during movement last round attempted to fire thier aft Polaron Beam at the GB before banking to come about. One Jemmie player rolled a botch on the attack so I rolled a d6 and said his aft beam was "jammed" for 4 rounds unles he alotted a crewmember to fix it sooner...so, no shots fired and the Jemmie made it's turn to bring the fore guns to bear next round. The the other surviving Jemmie fired twice aiming for specific systems...and missed due to the evasive action taken by the GB helmofficer.
Round three we are all amazed the Gettysburg is still intact -- the GB wins initiative..the Jemmie who missed last round botches (3 ones) his Tactics test so I decide that the Alpha is busy yelling at the gunner this round and all the ship can do is manuever and take evasive. (Maybe not the best solution but how does an entire starship *freeze* for one round?) The GB fires two torpedos at the other Jemmie, aimed for the shield weakspot on the back, rolled extremely well and both shots popped through and into the aft of the Jemmie -- the resulting damage destroyed all life support systems and left the vessel with barely 200 SUs left undestroyed-- I declared the explosion ripped down the hull as the vessel lost containment and the crew of 4 was yanked into space while the wreckage burned and tumbled without them.
This is where my second question comes in... I'm still not sure where and when to use the Structural Integrity Field as "shield/armor" to remove damage from weapons fire..could someone explain that to me?
And so Round 4, and the GB is *still* around, completely unexpected. The last Jemmie rolls an intiative contest with the GB, aware that the movement over the last rounds has put him out of his weapons range unless he banks very tight and comes about to pursue..while the GB's aft torpedos can still reach out and touch him pretty handily.
The SF captain wins initiative, and fires torpedos at the Jemmie aiming for the sweet spot again..the Jemmie doesn't evade and hit result takes out his ODN completely -- according to the book his computers can't transfer data anymore. I ruled this means no tactical systems info fed to the console, no sensor feeds for targeting or navigation, was this correct? Needless to say the Jemmie doesn't get to fire back.
The final round of the battle the SF captain won initiative again, the Jemmie had decided to try a risky micro warp jump to buy time so he could repair his systems at least enough to try to come back and do a ram on the GB -- the GB launced torpedos again and this time the Jemmie warp engine was destroyed and it went up in an big explosion from the catastrophe roll.
Victory for the Gettysburg -- but, they still have a destroyed enginnering crew section and no warp power...which brings me to final question...
With the potential replacement engineers from the construction team, and parts intended to be used on the Starbase, can the GB be repaired enough to get warp power again? I know I can just decide for the sake of drama, but, it would also be interesting Roleplay if the PC crew has to try deal with the GB if it *can't* be fixed.
Your answers will be appreciated, I'm still trying to wrap my melon around the Spacedock combat rules.
That was an incredible battle. At first glance it seems to have been run correctly... if it weren't for the JH's botch rolls it seems clear they would have won handily, yet the CO's successes with Tactics didn't hurt either.
All in all I would say that you ran the fight well.
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"I'd rather die standing than live on my knees..."
Shania Twain
I don't think there is a "correct" response, mechanics wise to your question. It would all depend on what you make the damage look like and what the convoy(s) might have available. I'd most likely have the Ferengi ship be the one who had the "vital thingie" they need to make the ship go - and make them role play buying it. Especially with a "fe-male" CAPT it could lead to a good scene or series of scenes - maybe even enough for a repeating guest spot for the Damon!
Battle of the U.S.S. Gettysburg
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