Penalty to Marines: not a full Crew unit, d6 converted to d3
Penalty to Pirates: not commanded by a captain, Audacity 0, Morale -1.
Marines Test: 3+7 vs 3+2
Sorry, which part of the rules covers ground fighting? I have no idea what the dice pools and modifiers were for this...
Can our Wing help with the ground fighting? The update mentioned us moving to assist, but I am unsure as to how we can. The enemy can't catch with us for at least 1 turn.
It would be extremely helpful to have a list of available cards on hand. To know what we can choose from. The only Ace cards we can play for now are these, right?
(Ace - Tune-Up: Vanish an Ace. It appears adjacent to one of your airships with a point of damage repaired)
(Cunning - Sunstrike: Vanish an Ace. It appears in the same hex as any enemy Wing or Ace and receives +1 to any Fox Hunt or Duel against the selected enemy)
What happens if there is no card to play, can an ace just engage the target if they are in the same tile? May we perform a Foxhunt without expending cards?
Sorry, which part of the rules covers ground fighting? I have no idea what the dice pools and modifiers were for this...
Can our Wing help with the ground fighting? The update mentioned us moving to assist, but I am unsure as to how we can. The enemy can't catch with us for at least 1 turn.
It would be extremely helpful to have a list of available cards on hand. To know what we can choose from. The only Ace cards we can play for now are these, right?
What happens if there is no card to play, can an ace just engage the target if they are in the same tile? May we perform a Foxhunt without expending cards?
Ah, that's specifically marked in the Special Rules section covering Marines. Your Leadership+Morale and Crew number of d6, vs Their Audacity+Morale and Crew number of d6.
Yes, they can, though at this point you've kind of accidentally overwhelmed what's left of the ground forces they can easily strafe.
I should probably mark that...
You will always engage or Assault any other unit in the same tile as you after all units have moved in that phase (All aces move, then combat for Aces, all squads move, then combat with squads), even if you don't play a card. Playing a card typically nets you a bonus, though, except Direct.
On-Six can only negate a damage phase if it's been played. Ace cards are played completely, first. Even if aces don't play cards, they still take actions before squads play their cards.
The deck gets reshuffled, minus Cunning cards.
Also, your current hand is:
(Wing - Screen: Automatically move up to Speed hexes in order to intercept an enemy)
(Ace - Tune-Up: Vanish an Ace. It appears adjacent to one of your airships with a point of damage repaired)
(Cunning - Sunstrike: Vanish an Ace. It appears in the same hex as any enemy Wing or Ace and receives +1 to any Fox Hunt or Duel against the selected enemy)
Also, because I didn't note it originally:
VANISH: The Ace is removed from the game board immediately and placed back on the game board in the marked space at the end of Ace movement.
SCREEN (Particulars): For especially fast fighters, Screen acts as the ever popular MTG card Cancel, or the XCOM action Overwatch. As soon as an enemy enters the range of the Screening Squadron, it moves to that enemy's hex, canceling the enemy's remaining move and removing any special bonus afforded by their card for the ensuing engagement. Aces have a rough equivalent, but your Audacity isn't high enough to let you use it yet.
[X] Wing Card - none, move in to assist Victoria and strafe the remaining ground forces.
[X] Ace Card - none, engage the enemy Wing.
With their Lt. dead, forces scattered, and air support we might be able to rush the airship.
[X] We'll take a risk and rush the airship, storm it to rescue as much of the crew as possible so we can ensure they don't take hostages.
[X] Wing Card - none, move in to assist Victoria and strafe the remaining ground forces.
[X] Ace Card - none, engage the enemy Wing.
With their Lt. dead, forces scattered, and air support we might be able to rush the airship.
[X] We'll take a risk and rush the airship, storm it to rescue as much of the crew as possible so we can ensure they don't take hostages.
Yes, you can do a very basic 1 point move for no card.
Just also remember that you won't get to have a draw if you don't play, or at least manually discard, a card.
Current Airship stats useful for Assault calcs:
Armor 2 (tough to land a hit, enemy wings are Weapons 1 fighters, so it has the advantage, though ties always go to the guy a tier higher on turn order)
Redundancy 0 (Takes 2 hits to down the airship, though you can check to restore as many as 2 hits with supply points)
Threat Field 2 (Also leads in Threat Field against Speed 1 fighters, so it is also more likely to damage an attacking squadron)
Point Defense 3 (Adds +3 to all assault and damage against others checks)
Assuming you do land a hit in the assault phase, you would perform four separate checks to add battle damage, three each at weapons 2, and a final one at weapons 4 that does three damage instead of one and wins check ties, meaning it has a 100% chance to apply battle damage to a squadron. Overall, considering they also have Armor 1, you can expect to completely obliterate a wing that goes after your airship.
This is why you attack airships with Aces, whose bonuses tend to be more capable of bypassing the hilarious static defenses of an airship.
Question : Our weakened Airship means that 1 random gun won't fire. Is that solely for offense, because I've been assuming it counts for defense as well.
Question : Our weakened Airship means that 1 random gun won't fire. Is that solely for offense, because I've been assuming it counts for defense as well.
It does, but losing one gun doesn't really matter much when you have a combined check bonus of +4 minimum to their +1. Pretty much the only way to win the damage check is for them to roll a 6 and you to roll a 2 or less.
The Southern Enemy wing is more isolated than the Northern One, in addition, I'd like to keep the Sunstrike in reserve to attack the enemy Ace. Maybe discard Tune-up instead, the odds of us being damaged seem small, unless their Ace is hypercompetent and has a phenomenal craft.
We roll 1d6+9 vs 1d6a+5, meaning we have just 3% chance to loose.
@Powerofmind : Am I right in assuming that a Foxhunt can do at most 1 damage? The rules seem to imply that.
The Southern Enemy wing is more isolated than the Northern One, in addition, I'd like to keep the Sunstrike in reserve to attack the enemy Ace. Maybe discard Tune-up instead, the odds of us being damaged seem small, unless their Ace is hypercompetent and has a phenomenal craft.
We roll 1d6+9 vs 1d6a+5, meaning we have just 3% chance to loose.
@Powerofmind : Am I right in assuming that a Foxhunt can do at most 1 damage? The rules seem to imply that.
[X] Wing Card - none, move in to assist Victoria and strafe the remaining ground forces.
[X] Ace Card - Sunstrike Enemy Ace
[X] We'll take a risk and rush the airship, storm it to rescue as much of the crew as possible so we can ensure they don't take hostages.
My reasoning for this is simple. We're rapidly running out of morale. By having our Ace Sunstrike the Enemy Ace, we can not only win a duel (and our Ace is the best asset to deal with their Ace, so we will have to take this risk eventually), but also attack their encampement. Since it contains solely a little bit of rudimentary Anti Air, I expect that our Ace should be capable of attacking and winning without any damage.
The Wing action meanwhile moves our Wing both out of the range of the enemy, and into a position to support our friend. This is good, as we can not afford to risk a wing action. Sustaining wing damage would damage our morale, and lead to failure.
What happens if we run out? I mean, the combat ends, but what are the downsides?
I am thinking that freeing the crew of the downed ship is the goal, since we are unlikely to kill off everyone here in time. If we can entertaintheir pilots until everyone safely escapes, then it's mission accomplished... right?
[X] Wing Card - none, move in to assist Victoria and strafe the remaining ground forces.
[X] Ace Card - Sunstrike Enemy Ace
[X] We'll take a risk and rush the airship, storm it to rescue as much of the crew as possible so we can ensure they don't take hostages.
What happens if we run out? I mean, the combat ends, but what are the downsides?
I am thinking that freeing the crew of the downed ship is the goal, since we are unlikely to kill off everyone here in time. If we can entertain their pilots until everyone safely escapes, then it's mission accomplished... right?
Depends on how you define success. If we route the enemy, then we can salvage and repair the damaged airship, as well as perhaps loot their pirate base.
Penalty to Pirates: not commanded by a captain, Audacity 0, Morale -1.
Marines Test: 3+7 vs 3+2
From this, we know that their morale at that turn's start was 3, so currently it's 2. Winning a duel could very well put them over the edge, but so could winning a Foxhunt.
However, if we don't attack the Ace, he may do something secret.
Rudimentary encompasses the full breadth of info at my disposal.
However, if Marao attacked our own airship, at full crew, it would look like this.
Who shoots first?
- 9 +1d6 vs 2 + 3 +1d6 (Marao has 97% chance of going first)
Airship defends against Marao
2+1d6 vs 4 +3 + 4d6 (Marao has 99.73% chance of dealing damage)
Marao defends against airship
-3+4d6 vs 4 + 3 +2d6. (Marao has 70% chance of dodging this hit)
-3+4d6 vs 2 + 3 +2d6. (Marao has 90% chance of dodging this hit)
-3+4d6 vs 2 + 3 +2d6. (Marao has 90% chance of dodging this hit)
-3+4d6 vs 2 + 3 +2d6. (Marao has 90% chance of dodging this hit)
I'm pretty darn sure that our airship is better defended than their rudimentary base.
Well... alright. I sure hope the AA is ineffective, but we've kept the Ace just so he could act, and we have a 'healing' card that allows us to get out of range. Let's risk it.
[X] Wing Card - none, move in to assist Victoria and strafe the remaining ground forces.
[X] Ace Card - Sunstrike Enemy Ace
[X] We'll take a risk and rush the airship, storm it to rescue as much of the crew as possible so we can ensure they don't take hostages.
Overall there may be one gun on par with your flak and one, possibly two autocannons that can put a dent in a fighter, but given it's an isolated base that has to scavenge supplies from looting or the occasional boat raid, it really can't be expected to have much ammunition at any given time, and what with the downed airship nearby probably eating at least some of that...
You'd know more, but you haven't gone close enough to take any fire. Those are your best guesses, though; a couple of 'at worst's.
[X] Wing Card - none, move in to assist Victoria and strafe the remaining ground forces.
[X] Ace Card - Sunstrike Enemy Ace
[X] We'll take a risk and rush the airship, storm it to rescue as much of the crew as possible so we can ensure they don't take hostages.
You can ignore most structure elements for this encounter; only the southernmost tower is a real element, representing the Pirate haven and rudimentary AA (range 2).
BLUE - Your faction
GREEN - Tertiary faction
RED - Enemy faction
Green Airship (Crashed Airship)
Blue Airship (Spring Storm)
Female Silhouette (Victoria's Team)
Spade (Marao)
Plane Silhouettes (Wings)
Red Diamond (Enemy Ace!)
Cards Revealed:
Pirates played:
Ace - Moves 3 (Onto Spring Storm)
(Ace - Direct: Move up to Speed+1 hexes. If an enemy is encountered, engage)
Wing 1 - Moves 1 (Onto Spring Storm)
(Wing - No Card, Discard Screen)
Wing 2 - Screening! (Moves onto Spring Storm, intercepts Marao)
(Wing - Screen: Automatically move up to Speed hexes in order to intercept an enemy)
Rolling Thunder played:
Ace - Vanish! (Appear on Spring Storm)
Sunstrike!
Dirty Halfbreeds (No Card)
Strafe!
SPECIAL PENALTY: Spring Storm cannot fire Quad Flak!
ACTION PHASE
Ace Phase
Duel! Moto Hareki "The Scourge of Asako" VS Marao Akoreki "The Nemean"
Damage Tests: [2+5 vs 2+8], [4+5 vs 5+8], [6+5 vs 2+8], [6+5 vs 2+8], [4+5 vs 3+8]
Three Pass, Two Fail
Ace Targets Critical/Critical/Critical! Moto Hareki is dead in the seat!
Assault Test: 6+5 vs 2+3
Failure!
Damage Test: 1+1+1 vs 6+2
Resisted Damage!
Wing Phase
Foxhunting!
Zentao 3 Pirate Wings 1 and 2 vs Marao Akoreki
Foxhunt Test: [6+5 vs 1+10], [5+5 vs 1+10]
Ace Tie and Pass!
Assault Tests 1 and 2: [4+1 vs 1+3], [2+1 vs 5+3]
1 Fail, 1 Pass
Point Defense!: [3+1 vs 4+5], [6+1 vs 1+5], [4+1 vs 6+5]
Pirate Wing 2 at 3/4 Battle Damage!
Damage Tests 1 and 2: [3+1 vs 1+2], [1+1 vs 5+2]
Spring Storm takes 1/2 hits!
Damage Tests 3 and 4: [5+1 vs 6+2], [4+1 vs 4+2]
Spring Storm takes no hits!
Airship Phase
Spring Storm gains 2/10 Initiative, now 6/10 Initiative
Special Phase
Strafing Run
Weapons Test (DC4): 4+1
Pass!
Rush the Airship!
Penalty to Marines: not a full Crew unit, d6 converted to d3
Penalty to Pirates: not commanded by a captain, Audacity 0, Morale -1.
Marines Test: 2+6 vs 6+2
Heroic Tie Pass!
DRAW 1:
(Ace - Distract: Ace Loses it's next turn, double one Airship's Initiative)
Lose Turn: The target unit cannot act and does not initiate a damage phase with enemies if it wins tests.
(Cunning Ace - Distract: Ace loses it's next turn, double one Airship's Initiative)
(Ace - Tune-Up: Vanish an Ace. It appears adjacent to one of your airships with a point of damage repaired)
(Wing - Screen: Automatically move up to Speed hexes in order to intercept an enemy)
ENEMY DRAW 3:
Cunning Test: 6+1 vs 2+2 (You chose played cards after enemy)
Pirates lose 2 Morale!
Battle Fatigue Increased: You gain 1, Pirates gain 3!
Currently 2 of 3.
Pirates at 4 of 1! Groundbound - Cannot Withdraw, Groundbound wings have a penalty of 1, plus an additional 1 point per Fatigue over limit, on all checks.
You no longer gain passive battle fatigue.
Enemy cards played face-up.
Pirates Play:
Ace - Tune-Up! (Retreat and ground)
Wing 1 - Overcharge
Wing 2 - Direct
(Cunning Wing - Overcharge: Wing takes a point of Battle Damage, +2 to all tests this turn)
Play up to 1 card for each Wing and Ace you have.
[] Wing Card
[] Ace Card
Airships always act last. Even when they successfully get a damage round during an assault, the attackers still deal their damage first.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the enemy Ace pilot takes to the sky, the decals and markings on his fighter sharpen in view, revealing him to be none other than The Scourge of Asako, Moto Hareki! The infamous pirate has been attacking the shipping lanes for years, always disappearing back to his until-now unknown base before a response could be organized. He prepares to open up on The Spring Storm, until Marao Akoreki dives in, hidden by the glare of the sun, scoring a brutal hit on the corsair when a proximity rocket explodes near the cockpit!
The Scourge twists out of the way of the next volley, course diverted, as The Nemean stays hot on his tail, never letting up for a moment. The Hisso X1 shows it's superiority against the weaker Ishi 15 in the air, as time and again the pirate is unable to shake his tail, taking another shot that leaves the entire cockpit exposed, and The Scourge mortally injured from the metal shards blown into his body. Just as Marao fires off the final volley that puts the infamous Scourge down for the last time, the pirate squadrons swoop in for vengeance.
The pirate squadrons pair up to compete with Marao's aerial acrobatics, but despite their efforts, splitting their attentions between firing on the Airship at their back and the Ace at their fore leaves nearly a dozen fighters screaming down to the ground beneath the battle. Despite the trouble the pirates are in, The Spring Storm's flak cannons are down, the necessary crew rescuing Depths' Bounty and her crew, and with the opening presented, the pirate fighters score a series of devastating hits against The Storm's hull.
Still, with The Scourge dead, and their squadrons nearly destroyed, the pirates are on the ropes. They have no chance of victory, but despite their outlook, will they take Rolling Thunder's pride and joy down with them?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm waiting in the firefight for the Halfbreeds to come down when my radioman signals us to move. We push into the airship, fighting tooth and nail for every step, and just as we get inside, the sound of autocannon rounds hitting the dirt behind us turns my head. The plumes of dirt don't do much to hide the explosive ends of nearly the entire remaining force we left outside. Now we're in, and rescuing the crew as we find them. Resistance is tough, but losses are minimal and they don't have enough time to take many hostages.
The only hostage they manage to get is Ariel herself. The bridge is still with tension as the desperate pirate keeps your peer from struggling by holding a gun to her head.
[] Talk him down. Piracy comes with harsh punishments, but he can disappear on another island, maybe across from the volcano island, no strings attached. I can make sure of that; I've got an airship after all.
[] Catch Ariel's eye. If my fellow captain can give us a moment's shot with a sudden struggle, we'll take it.
[] Take the shot. My aim is true and my hand is steady. I can put this dog down with a single shot, and people with holes in their heads don't typically have the motor skills to pull a trigger.
[] MAGIC+SYLPH SPECIAL: Just hypnotize him with a splash of mesmerizing lights. There's a minuscule chance he can resist it, but Sylvan enchantments are known for their strength.
[X] MAGIC+SYLPH SPECIAL: Just hypnotize him with a splash of mesmerizing lights. There's a minuscule chance he can resist it, but Sylvan enchantments are known for their strength.
Wing Assault Calculator - [Wing Speed]+1d6 vs [Cumulative Threat Field]+1d6. Failure allows the Airship to perform a Damage Check before the Wing performs a Damage Check. Ace Assault Calculator - [Ace Pluck+Ace Alacrity]+1d6 vs [Cumulative Threat Field]+1d6. Failure allows the Airship to perform a Damage Check before the Ace performs a Damage Check
