A few questions...

[Belshazzar]

Hey guys,

I'm playing BFG for quite a while now, but my friends and I still have some questions:

1)
Can spaceships shoot at fighters on CAP?

2)
If a spaceship with a fighter on CAP gets a blastmarker placed in base contact by enemy fire, does the owning player have to roll a D6 for the fighter to see if it is destroyed on a 6+ after the enemy fire (because the fighter is now in contact with a blastmarker) as well as during the own spaceship's movement (because the fighter is moving through a blastmarker)?

3)
A squadron of escorts (1 shield each) on brace for impact is shot at. Enemey fire scores 3 armour penetration results. The first hit is absorbed by the shield of the nearest escort to the enemy. 2 hits are remainig. Does the escort have to roll both D6 (brace for impact) together or one at a time? Imagine the two dice show a 3 and a 4. If the escort rolls one at a time and the first result is the 3, it is destroyed and the second hit creats a blastmarker in base contact to the second escort as hits absorbed by shields cannot be saved by brace for impact. Otherwise if both dice were rolled together it only detroyed the first escort and the second escort did not get a blastmarker in base contact as the hit is saved by brace for impact. Which one is right?

4)
Did the rule for splitting torpedoes (compendium 2010 page 7) also apply to escortships? For example: A squadron of 3 cobras is splitting their torpedoes in two salvos (strength 2 and strength 4) or rather fire them not in a single salvo. Are these two salvos allowed to be fired at the same target?

5)
A (drifting/ blazing) hulk is moving two times per full turn (one time in every players turn). If it is moving in both movement phases through a blastmarker or gas/ dust cloud does it have to check in each of the two movenment phases if it gets a hit or just once per full turn?

6)
Fighting in low orbit: It says in the rulebook page 48 that all firepower shooting in low orbit suffers one column shift to the right, lances and nova cannons require a 4+ roll to fire and torpedoes may not be fired by ships at all. Does this rule also apply to ground unit planetary defences?

Hope you can help me!

[fracas]

imo,

1. no
2. yes
3. we roll one at a time
4. yes. default for squadroned ships is individual torpedo launches with combined waves only when launching when in base to base.
5. once per turn, in the owning player phase.
6. no

[Vaaish]

3) Strictly by the rules you have to roll to brace against each hit in turn. This is because the hits roll over if they aren't saved. So if you roll one d6 and fail the brace roll, the escort is destroyed and the remaining hit is absorbed by the shields of the next escort. In practice it doesn't usually make a whole lot of difference in a game if you roll both at the same time.

Everything else is as Fracas says.

[Sigoroth]

1) Yes, of course.
2) No, you only test for destruction when the AC moves through ordnance (either in the ordnance phase when you move off or in the movement phase when the AC on CAP is moved with the protected ship).
3) Saves are rolled 1 at a time for the exact reason you mention.
4) No ship with less than torpedo strength 6 can split its torpedo salvo. Since Cobras have only strength 2 they may not split their torpedo salvoes. However, they are not obligated to combine their torpedoes into one large wave and you may fire them in any combination you choose. One Cobra firing a salvo of strength 2 while the other two combine to fire a salvo of strength 4 is perfectly legal and they may target the same ship freely (unlike larger ships splitting their salvo).
5) A drifting or blazing hulk will move in the owning players movement phase only, not in each movement phase. So your hulked ships move in your movement and your opponent's hulked vessels move in his movement phase.
6) Ground based planetary defences are designed to operate in the low orbit zone, they are unaffected.

[Belshazzar]

OK thanks!

As for #1 I think I stick to fracas. As I understand CAP the fighters are whirring around the spaceship. So it's hard to shoot at them without harming the spaceship (no blast marker for destroying ordnance!).

[Admiral_d_Artagnan]

Nothing in the rules prevents you from shooting at CAP. You need 6s anyway to hit them so if the player wants to shoot at them rather than the ship, well, I wouldn't stop him.

[RCgothic]

Yeah, I don't know where Fracas came up with his objection to shooting at AC on CAP from. There's nothing to stop you.

[Belshazzar]

hmm... it still feels wrong^^. But your're right, there's nothing about in the rules.


Oh and an other question was coming to my attention:
Does a ship, that is reduced to zero hit points during a boarding action, still has the chance to suffer a critical hit? Particularly with regard to any critical hit that inflicts extra damage to get a roll on the catastrophic damage table.

I don't think so because the ship would get the extra damage from the critical hit before it's becomming a hulk, so it's still zero hit points for the ship and no roll on the catastrophic table. It's not the hulk that gets the critical hit.
Am I right about this?

[fracas]

I thought there was something in the stacking rule about smaller bases within larger bases
Besides why would you want to shoot at cap? Any blast marker placed will kill cap in a 6, no?

Let me look both up again

[Sigoroth]

hmm... it still feels wrong^^. But your're right, there's nothing about in the rules.


Oh and an other question was coming to my attention:
Does a ship, that is reduced to zero hit points during a boarding action, still has the chance to suffer a critical hit? Particularly with regard to any critical hit that inflicts extra damage to get a roll on the catastrophic damage table.

I don't think so because the ship would get the extra damage from the critical hit before it's becomming a hulk, so it's still zero hit points for the ship and no roll on the catastrophic table. It's not the hulk that gets the critical hit.
Am I right about this?

The crit still applies. If the crit causes damage and the ship has 0 hits left afterwards then you roll on the catastrophic damage table.

[Belshazzar]

Besides why would you want to shoot at cap? Any blast marker placed will kill cap in a 6, no?

Hm, may be useful someday. So it's best to clarify it now

The crit still applies. If the crit causes damage and the ship has 0 hits left afterwards then you roll on the catastrophic damage table.

Yeah I agree, if the ship is reduced to zero hits by damage taken from a crit you have to roll on the catastrophic table. That's exactly in the rules.

The question was another: If the ship is reduced to zero hits by the basic boarding action (comparative D6), it becomes a drifting hulk. You do not roll on the catastrophic damage table. But there is by the rules still the chance that the destroyed ship gets a crit. Assume it takes a crit and it inflicts damage. Does the ship get this damage before it becomes a hulk, so that it's not the crit that reduces the ship to zero hits (you can't go below zero hits, so it's still zero hits left, it becomes a hulk and no roll on the catastrophic table) or does it get the damage after becoming a hulk? Then it is a hulk getting one or more hits and so you have to roll on the catastrophic table.

[Sigoroth]

Besides why would you want to shoot at cap? Any blast marker placed will kill cap in a 6, no?

No.

Yeah I agree, if the ship is reduced to zero hits by damage taken from a crit you have to roll on the catastrophic table. That's exactly in the rules.

The question was another: If the ship is reduced to zero hits by the basic boarding action (comparative D6), it becomes a drifting hulk. You do not roll on the catastrophic damage table. But there is by the rules still the chance that the destroyed ship gets a crit. Assume it takes a crit and it inflicts damage. Does the ship get this damage before it becomes a hulk, so that it's not the crit that reduces the ship to zero hits (you can't go below zero hits, so it's still zero hits left, it becomes a hulk and no roll on the catastrophic table) or does it get the damage after becoming a hulk? Then it is a hulk getting one or more hits and so you have to roll on the catastrophic table.

This was the question I was answering. If the ship takes a crit which causes damage and after it is resolved the ship has 0 hits left then roll on the catastrophic damage table. So an 8 hit cruiser with 3 hits left loses a boarding action by 4 taking it down to zero hits. Normally this would result in it being a drifting hulk but it also takes a crit which happens to be an engine room damage result, causing another hit. Roll on the catastrophic damage table.

[fracas]

2010 FAQ
P6 2nd column 2nd paragraph: "any ordnance marker that either are orcome in base contact with a ship with blast markers in contact must roll as if traveling through blast marker."

So either cap rolls when blast marker is applied, or roll when the ship explodes (2010 FAQ p9), or when the ship moves the next turn (2010 FAQ p4) as even though it is moving away since it started with blast marker on the base it counts as moving through blast marker (and each cap also counts as moving)

Btw the absence of rules prohibiting firing at cap is not in itself permissive of firing at cap.

[Admiral_d_Artagnan]

Still not a valid reason to not allow shooting of CAP.

[Sigoroth]

2010 FAQ
P6 2nd column 2nd paragraph: "any ordnance marker that either are orcome in base contact with a ship with blast markers in contact must roll as if traveling through blast marker."

So either cap rolls when blast marker is applied, or roll when the ship explodes (2010 FAQ p9), or when the ship moves the next turn (2010 FAQ p4) as even though it is moving away since it started with blast marker on the base it counts as moving through blast marker (and each cap also counts as moving)

Right, so you don't test each time a BM is placed, you test once per turn. Oh, and if you play v1.0 of the BM rules then you would not test at all if you move into contact with a ship that has a BM touching if you do not actually touch a blast marker. So a bomber going around a shield-dropping BM to attack a ship would not have to test.

Btw the absence of rules prohibiting firing at cap is not in itself permissive of firing at cap.

True, but the presence of rules stating that you can fire at ordnance is.