From: frank@hippocrates.ss.uci.edu (Frank Gilson)
Subject: Re: SFB: Romulans & Torps and the Rom G-I fighter
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 17 Apr 92 00:47:11 GMT

Several people have written various amounts about the cloaking
device as well as the rom G-I class fighter.
shawni@.tis.llnl.gov (Shawn Instenes):
> There's a problem with this tactic.  All your opponent has to do is get
> something to blow up near you (a ship, a shuttle, a t-bomb...), and your
> ship lights up like a Christmas tree during the impulse of the explosion.
> Instant lock-on.  Instant death of cloaked ship.  You could even be exposed
> by one of your own fighters blowing up, if it were close enough to you.

Tom   tjz20735@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>The best tactic I've found for fighting a Romulan is a Lyran.  Set your ESGs
>to 3 hex radius, and cruise around waiting for the aforementioned 'flash-cube'
>effect.  Then hit him with everything you've got.  I usually put minimum
>energy to the ESG, as that is only intended to fix his position - a 3 hex ESG
>is very wasteful on energy.


Someone already corrected what needs to blow up near you to reveal your
cloaked ship, but there appears to be a misconception at work. An explosion
does REVEAL the cloaked ship, but only for an instant. All ships must then
attempt to RETAIN (as per the rules) a lock on BEFORE any tractor beaming,
seeking weapon launch, or direct fire. Even IF you maintain the lock on
(you were close enough or the cloaked ship was moving fast enough or both)
the cloak effect of damage reduction still works. All you get is a removal
of the range doubling. I believe the +5 range is still in effect. If you
manage to TRACTOR the cloaked ship, you ignore the range doubling and the
+5 range, but the damage reduction effect STILL works.
The ESG ram (of a cloaked ship) certainly reveals position (should you be
using hidden cloak), but does not guarantee lock on. If a cloaker does
allow the ESG ram, he's probably dead (if the ram was of sufficient
power, an argument in favor of maxing out an ESG).

911414p@ace.acadiau.ca (PIOTR CEZARY  PROSZYNSKI) writes:
>Oh no....Please tell me I'm wrong...
>You guys actually take cloaked Roms off the board?
>As in: secret? as in INVISIBLE ?
>Brrrrrrrr...... Scary; we play the on-the-board-hard-to-fire-at-yet-clearly
>-visible Romulans and they *still* fry my Kzinti cheeks. How do you ever 
>manage to maintain play balance? - or do your Romulans have the Universe at 
>their mercy?
Hidden cloak is not exactly necessary or advisable, in my opinion. Yes,
even the game designers recommend somewhere between a 33% and 50% BPV
penalty for using it. And it isn't really all that great. It does slow
the game down in a major way.
The cloaking device is very useful tactically in certain ways. You use it
either to double effective distance (to disengage by distance at range 23
instead of 51) or to hide from direct-fire while reloading torps. Improper
use is most often suicide. You're trapped under cloak at low speed with
several enemy ships nearby. Fighters are the most effective cloak hunters.
With their maneuverability, they can stay right on top of the cloaker,
thus avoiding all mines.

dunger@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Dallace Unger) writes
>In article <1992Apr13.125241.16351@corax.udac.uu.se> aha@meryl.csd.uu.se (Anders Hallberg) writes:
>>In article <eJHXiB2w165w@angus.mi.org>, thx1138@angus.mi.org (Scott Abfalter) writes:
>>> I tell you, for 4 BPV a fighter carrying a Type-F Plas is a _scary_
>>> thing.  Consider that you can buy three times the cost of F-14's in 
>>> Romulan fighters.  
>>
>>4 BPV for a plasma-F fighter!?  As far as I can recall there are no
>>fighters that cheap, at least not in Captains Edition.  Or do you mean that
>>a plasma-F fighter cost 4 BPV more than a plasma-D fighter?
>>
>>	/Anders Hallberg
>
>The G-I cost 4 BPV!  (It does not have a phaser-III.)
>
>Dallace

The G-I fighter does only cost 4 BPV, but remember, it takes a seeking
weapon armed fighter 16 impulses after launch to use that weapon. The G-I
doesn't even have any phasers or anti-drones. Carrying a couple to scare
an opposing ship away or to attack a base is one thing, trying to use
them in a carrier duel is suicide.

-- 
...adrift in a sea of indecision...
......sapped of all will and motivation......
.........without hate, without love, just frustration.........

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