BFG FAQ 2010 Ordnance Questions

[horizon]

Wot Wat Wit

RcG: Torpedoes:
A ship can decide to fire a torpedo salvo.

The Lunar with strength 6 can decide to launch:
a salvo of strength 6  or 5 or 4 or 3 or 2 or 1
It cannot launch 6 markers of str1.

No matter how much torps it launched it always needs to reload to fire new torpedoes.


Mazilla,
what's the difference? the fighter wave only offers 1 marker to intercept the torp marker. the remaining markers remain in place.

[Mazila]

Thats if fighters are intercepting because you are splitting a wave and sending 1 in, but if torpedoes are hitting  a wave of fighters in front of them they are all removed. Or did i get it terribly wrong? At least this is the way it seams by the bluebook

[horizon]

No wai.

Yes, you send 1 torp in to remove 1 marker.
But you need to have more str1 markers to remove all fighters.
But you cannot launch 6 str1 markers from a Lunar.

[Sigoroth]

The issue of firing up to your maximum weaponry was settled soon long long long ago. If I remember correctly, and it has been a loooong time, it was settled in the original forums, before the SG forums, before the black backed BFG forums. In essence, you don't have to fire all your weapons. If you have 12 WBs you could decide to fire only 6 if you wanted to. If you want to split your fire amongst multiple ships then you need to take a test to do so.

Similarly the HA ruled that you could fire less than your maximum torpedoes. This was to allow people to sneak them through holes in their line so they didn't shoot their own ships, though there are other reasons why someone might want to do so. At the same time the HA said that any unfired torpedoes were lost.

It comes down to how the game treats ordnance. A single salvo of torpedoes is treated as a single marker, regardless of strength. Whereas a wave of AC is made up of individual markers. Therefore once your torpedoes have fired, at whatever strength, they must be reloaded before firing again.

[Vaaish]

Each marker is considered its own entity as far as being launchable is concerned. If you have a Dictator you can launch 4 AC markers, each of strength 1, and 1 torpedo marker with a strength of up to 6. Whatever you decide to fire is expended. Whatever you don't fire is still loaded. So if you fire 2 torpedoes, say, to fit the salvo through a narrow gap in your lines, then your torpedo marker has been expended and it requires a reload order to be able to fire your torpedoes again.

Both these issues (the holding over of AC and the inability to hold over torpedoes) have been ruled upon by the HA a long time ago, not that I could be bothered looking for the rulings.


However, there are some common sense considerations that confirm this ruling to a degree. Firstly, a Dictator that fires its torpedoes in one turn could not possibly have to RO in order to launch its AC. This would be ridiculous. By extension a carrier that launches from its port bays only should certainly not need to reload again before launching from its starboard bays.

As for the rule which says that when a ship has launched its ordnance it must RO before launching again, this strongly implies having launched all its ordnance. For example, the ordnance complement of an Emperor BB is 8 AC. So once it has launched its ordnance (8 AC) then it must reload before launching again. While it still has AC then it hasn't yet launched its ordnance complement.

Again, torpedoes are launched as a single marker, of variable strength. A single fighter can take out a single torpedo marker, whether it is a strength 1 or 27.

Thanks, perhaps this should be added back to the FAQ?

[Gron]

(This may already been adressed)
Boarding Torpedoes
Just had a discussion about this and the question came up as of why b-torps require to hit vs armour? They are more agile than regular torps and I can't really see as why one would want to use b-torps vs normal torps (when this option is available). Sure it can be useful to remove a broadside but those are often repaired immediately vs a permanent hitpoint of damage.
Would make more sense that they hit like a-boats? In this case I see their use.

[Zelnik]

Now that all torpedo strengths are determined by a single counter, here are some questions.

Is the counter supposed to be on a 2x2cm square like the rest of the ordnance markers? (the wording is a little vague in the pdf)

When a slavo reaches greater then 6, should you add a second torpedo square next to it and use a separate dice for the rest of the salvo?

[lastspartacus]

Think boarding torps should be noted as preloaded if you want to shoot them as the first game salvo, like other specialty torps, and state what you are reloading when you go on RO.

[Mazila]

Boarding torps are so broken atm so noone apart from the Tyranids really uses them anyway. So this further nerf is not needed really.

With regards to Fighters on Cap - for some reason i think it was intended to keep al fighters as a wave on the cap so that they pass only 1 check for being in contact with BM when ship is under fire.

A clarification about torpedoes hitting a wave of fighters is needed in that case or clarification that 1 torpedo salvo, no matter what strength counts as only 1 ordanance marker.

[Sigoroth]

Boarding torps are so broken atm so noone apart from the Tyranids really uses them anyway. So this further nerf is not needed really.

With regards to Fighters on Cap - for some reason i think it was intended to keep al fighters as a wave on the cap so that they pass only 1 check for being in contact with BM when ship is under fire.

A clarification about torpedoes hitting a wave of fighters is needed in that case or clarification that 1 torpedo salvo, no matter what strength counts as only 1 ordanance marker.

The higher the strength, the more torpedoes there are in a salvo and the larger the marker placed to represent the salvo (BBB pg 28 Torpedo Rules section, first paragraph - emphasis mine).

[horizon]

Boarding torps are so broken atm so noone apart from the Tyranids really uses them anyway. So this further nerf is not needed really.

With regards to Fighters on Cap - for some reason i think it was intended to keep al fighters as a wave on the cap so that they pass only 1 check for being in contact with BM when ship is under fire.

A clarification about torpedoes hitting a wave of fighters is needed in that case or clarification that 1 torpedo salvo, no matter what strength counts as only 1 ordanance marker.

The higher the strength, the more torpedoes there are in a salvo and the larger the marker placed to represent the salvo (BBB pg 28 Torpedo Rules section, first paragraph - emphasis mine).

Per FAQ2010 torpedo markers are no longer used. Place a marker of str3 or a 2cm x 2cm base with a dice on top to represent the strength.

[Sigoroth]

Per FAQ2010 torpedo markers are no longer used. Place a marker of str3 or a 2cm x 2cm base with a dice on top to represent the strength.

I know the rules have been changed. I was merely pointing out that there was no need to clarify that torpedoes count as a single marker regardless of strength, as they always have been.

[Zelnik]

My question has not been resolved, do you put down a second marker side by side for the next six torps?

[horizon]

I gave my opinion/idea. HA should chip in.

[Mazila]

For TAU torpedoes - Do they act as normal torpedoes on the 1 turn and fly only in 90 degree arc, or can I turn them straight away and launch between 45 and 135 degree?