Tactical

**Tactical** is one of the four bridge crew roles available to players.

The tactical officer controls scanners, shields, and weapons.

On the Aegis, arming torpedoes and raising shields greatly increases your radar signature. If you're trying to be stealthy turn these off.

## Standard operating procedures

### General

1. Typically, tactical will arm torpedoes at the start of a mission, then deactivate torpedoes once armed; next time torpedoes are activated, they will still be armed and ready to fire immediately
2. Pay attention to how much damage each phaser shot/torpedo is doing to the enemy; this will allow you to calculate the necessary number of shots in real-time and make adjustments as needed, especially as conditions change

### Communications

1. Announce contacts on scanners, especially anomalies, threats (mines, volatile objects), ships and their movements (approaching, escaping)
2. Announce status of system cycles (phasers, torpedoes, shields, system intrusion, etc.) in increments of 25% or 50% (or 5/10/15 seconds) or so, so that everyone on the bridge knows whether phasers are spent, how long until torpedoes are ready to launch, how much longer the enemy's weapons will be offline, etc.
3. Announce your target and when you are changing targets
4. Announce when you are scanning, firing, using system intrusion, raising/lowering shields or arming/disarming torpedoes, or taking any other major action

### Scanning

1. Generally speaking, always scan everything that's within scanner range; when not doing anything else, scan something; the more information you can gather about your surroundings, the better prepared the crew will be
2. Scanning individual subsystems one at a time is faster than scanning all systems together; even if you want to scan all systems, it is recommended to scan them one at a time
3. Typical scanner range is 30k; the yellow circle on the scanner display indicates current scanner range (not to be confused with the shaded yellow phaser firing arc)
4. The closer the target, the faster the scanning speed
5. Anomalies and other environmental factors may reduce scanning range and speed
6. Scanner strength will display as "OPTIMAL," "STANDARD," "REDUCED," "MINIMAL," or "OUT OF RANGE" based on distance and environmental factors
7. Anomalies commonly have an effective range of 17.5k, though some differ (e.g., 10.5km)
8. Scanning for life signs or cargo is required prior to transporting
9. Scanning a subsystem is required prior to system intrusion

### Shields

1. Once activated (by flipping the switch on the console), the shield emitters will take 10 seconds to raise the shields
2. Shields regenerate to 100% strength 75 seconds after the last time they were hit
3. If shields are deactivated after being raised, they will take 75 seconds to recharge
4. If shields are drained to 0%, they will take 75 seconds to recharge; additional hits at 0% will not reset the recharge time
5. Damage to shield emitters can extend the recharge time
6. On the Galaxy class NCC-1701-D, turning raised shields at 100% on/off cycles them in 10 seconds; turning damaged shields on/off will cycle them in about 60 seconds

(Video demonstration of shields @ YouTube)

### Phasers

1. Burst mode does more damage than beam mode; many ships can be destroyed with fewer burst shots than the number of beam shots it would take to disable a single subsystem
2. Confirm line of site before firing, either by looking at the viewscreen or external view
3. Phaser range is determined by phaser power; it is important for officers to communicate target distance in order for tactical and engineering to coordinate phaser power/range; the phaser range and firing zone (front of the ship) is indicated with a shaded yellow half-circle on the tactical scanner display; let engineering know when you need more phaser range
4. Phaser power also increases phaser damage
5. On the Aegis and Galaxy class ships, the phaser banks hold 8 shots; on the original Enterprise, four shots
6. On the Aegis, phasers take about one minute to recharge from 0% to 100%
7. As a reference point, on the Aegis, phasers at 5 pips power will do 10% damage to a D5 cruiser's shields, and 20% damage to a D5 cruiser's hull; thus, the "5-5-5 rule": to destroy a D5 cruiser, it takes 5 shots to the hull (after intruding shields) at 5 phaser power

(Video demonstration of phasers @ YouTube)

### Torpedoes

* Torpedoes take about 30 seconds to arm
* Rather than a range, torpedoes have a life span; they expire about 30 seconds after being fired; this translates to a range of about 35km (30km on the original ship) when fired at targets in front of the ship, but firing at targets behind the ship will reduce the torpedo range by about 5km due to the extra time it takes for the torpedo to reverse course
* Torpedoes fly under their own power; the speed of the ship does not appear to affect torpedo range (on the Aegis, range is about 35km when facing a target regardless of whether the Aegis is standing still or moving)
* Aegis torpedo specs
	+ Launchers: 2
	+ Rounds: 30
	+ Range: 35.2km (video demonstration @ YouTube)
* Galaxy class NCC-1701-D torpedo specs
	+ Launchers: 3 fore, 1 aft
	+ Rounds: 50
	+ Range: 35.2km (homing)
* Constitution class NCC-1701 torpedo specs
	+ Launchers: 2
	+ Rounds: unlimited (torpedoes are replicated faster than they can be armed)
	+ Range: 30.2km
* Decloaking ships sometimes decloak without their shields up, and will take a few seconds to raise shields. This is a good time to send torpedoes.
* Shield intrusion (on the Aegis) does not affect torpedoes; they will still damage the enemy's shields rather than its hull (video demonstration @ YouTube)
* As a reference point, on the Aegis, torpedoes will do 30% damage to a D5 cruiser's shields, and 60% damage to a D5 cruiser's hull; about 3x damage compared with phasers

(Video demonstration of weapons @ YouTube)

### System intrusion

1. Keep track of system intrusion range on the system intrusion console; anomalies and subsystem damage can impact system intrusion range. There's nothing worse than finding out your system intrusion is out of range just as you're about to disable the enemy's weapons.
2. Shield intrusion will harmonize phasers to the enemy's shield frequencies; they do not actually bring down the enemy's shields. Shield intrusion will allow direct phaser strikes to the enemy's hull, but you will not be able to transport through intruded shields (video demonstration), and torpedoes will still hit the enemy's shields and not the hull (video demonstration). Generally, shield intrusion should only be used when phaser fire to the enemy's hull (or to a specific subsystem) is the intended goal. For this reason, it is important to synchronize the timing of phaser recharge and shield intrusion; there is little point to intruding shields if the phasers are spent and unable to fire during the system intrusion window. Similarly, it is important to synchronize movement of the ship with shield intrusion, as the phasers can only fire forward. Shield intrusion will be useless if the ship is facing the wrong way and phasers are unable to fire during the intrusion window.
3. Engine intrusion will slow down the enemy and prevent it from impulsing or warping out of the system. Engine intrusion may be useful when either your ship is fleeing (to slow the enemy's pursuit), or when the enemy ship is fleeing (to slow it down). On the Aegis, engine intrusion can also help avoid detection when an enemy is getting too close too fast.
4. Weapon intrusion is most useful when the enemy is facing you, as it will disable their forward-facing phasers as well as their torpedoes. In a dogfight, it is generally advised to wait to initiate weapon intrusion until the enemy has begun turning towards you, so that the intrusion window lasts until you have left the enemy's firing arc.

### Enemy ship classes

1. **D5 cruisers/scouts** - Shield intrusion, followed by 4-5 phaser burst shots (which will directly damage the hull), should be sufficient to destroy the enemy vessel
2. **Birds of prey** - Shield intrusion, followed by 8-10 phaser burst shots (which will directly damage the hull), should be sufficient to destroy the enemy vessel
3. **Warbirds** - Shield intrusion and phaser fire to the hull will not be enough to destroy most warbirds in a single volley, requiring multiple intrusions and multiple volleys. Due to the time this would take, most ships prefer to employ weapon intrusion to disable the warbird's weapons while engaging with phasers and shields
4. **Borg cubes** - Each face of a cube has one phaser; your ship can be in the line of sight of up to three faces simultaneously. By placing your ship directly against one face of the cube (e.g., underneath it), the line of sight can be reduced to only one face and one phaser. Then, fire everything you have and pray to whatever god(s) you believe in.