[SFS/Shifty] #2-24: Cornered Rat (Inactive)

Game Master Nik B.

Fire heavy laser net at red drone or next closest target if destroyed hit: 1d20 + 14 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 14 + 3 = 33 dmg: 5d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 4, 1, 4) = 16

Drones:
Firing at Aft
Persistent Particle Beams
R - Attack 1d20 + 13 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 13 + 5 = 27 Damage 10d6 ⇒ (3, 3, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 5, 5) = 26
Y - Attack 1d20 + 13 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 13 + 5 = 33 Damage 10d6 ⇒ (6, 6, 2, 3, 5, 3, 1, 6, 6, 6) = 44 - Hit

Turrets:
Firing at Port
Particle Beams
1 - Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14 Damage 8d6 ⇒ (5, 4, 4, 4, 6, 3, 6, 3) = 35
2 - Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28 Damage 8d6 ⇒ (5, 3, 3, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3) = 26 - Hit
3 - Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29 Damage 8d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 1, 1, 1, 6, 6, 2) = 25 - Hit

Damage - Aft 44, Port 51

The Drake gets smashed with enemy fire, however the red drone implodes once the net hits...

The Drakes shields have been downed - and some significant hull damage has occured.
Crit Threshold 1d100 ⇒ 70
Engines - Glitching - -2 to all PILOT actions.

R6
Starting positions:
Engineer: Benoit
Captain: VACANT
Pilot: Rawksim
Science Officer: VACANT
Gunners: Jackojare, Gremvest, Naylor

Engineering Phase
(Captain & Engineer)

With red lights flashing all around him and warning klaxons blaring, Benoit fights to restore power to the Drake's damaged systems.

"Where's my hydrospanner when I really need it."

Engineering (Overpower) DC 30: 1d20 + 19 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 19 + 3 = 39

Benoit, will spend 1 resolve point to do the Overpower action and reroute power to the shields (restoring 15 points to the aft quadrant), guns (all 1's that get rolled for damage become 2's, and engines (+2 bonus to the ship's speed this round).

If no one fills the science officer role Benoit will attempt a visual ID again. This time to find out weapon information about one weapon, including its firing arc and the damage it deals selected at random.

Benoit then checks the ship's visual sensors in an attempt to find out more information about the drones.

Computers (Visual Identification) DC 25: 1d20 + 20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 20 + 2 = 39

@Rawksim, you've got speed 13 again. Don't forget you can use the Overpower action if you need it.

If we want to fix the glitching engines we can have Naylor switch to engineering. They would have a reasonably good chance to pull it off.

However, my advice would be to delay fixing the engines, have Rawksim take his +3 bonus, and use it for the initiative roll off if he thinks he needs it. Then do whatever it takes to keep the enemy on our starboard or bow side and shield our port and aft. Our three gunners fire our best three weapons: antimatter missile, persistent particle beam, and plasma torpedo, each with a +3 bonus at yellow. We will need to keep the Drake within 8 hexes of yellow for us to be in range with the antimatter missile.

Shields: Bow/50, Starboard/50, Aft/15, Port/0. Hull Points: 65/100. Antimatter Missiles/2, Plasma Torpedoes/1.

Benoit does what he can, and tries a fast scan of the drones.

Attack (Forward) plasma cannon (5d12; 10 hexes), high
explosive missile launcher (4d8; 20 hexes)
Attack (Turret) persistent particle beam (10d6; 20 hexes)

R6
Starting positions:
Engineer: Benoit
Captain: VACANT
Pilot: Rawksim
Science Officer: VACANT
Gunners: Jackojare, Gremvest, Naylor

Engineering Phase
(Captain & Engineer)
Benoit - Overpower

Helm Phase
(Captain, Pilot, Science Officer)
Pilot actions at -2 (Glitch engines)
Enemy Initiative 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (17) + 18 = 35
Let's see what Rawksim has!

"Yes, of course, you're correct, Gremvest. Tell you what - if we live through the next minute, I'll buy you - or your therapist! - a space-coke." Rawksim is focused on the piloting console, determined to pull us into an advantageous position.
Gonna take a +3 since our foes rolled high! C'mon dice bot, I believe in you!
piloting initiative: 1d20 + 24 + 3 - 2 ⇒ (15) + 24 + 3 - 2 = 40

"That's the way to fly this bucket of bolts laddie!"

Now we know. If we can we have to stay out of the drone's front arc also.

It's getting exciting!

The enemy drone weaves between the asteroids, popping out with a hope of intercepting your ship!

R6
Starting positions:
Engineer: Benoit
Captain: VACANT
Pilot: Rawksim
Science Officer: VACANT
Gunners: Jackojare, Gremvest, Naylor

Engineering Phase
(Captain & Engineer)
Benoit - Overpower

Helm Phase
(Captain, Pilot, Science Officer)
Pilot actions at -2 (Glitch engines)
Enemy Initiative 1d20 + 18
Enemy - Defensive 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (17) + 18 = 35
Pilot move then Gunnery

Well, let's take out those turrets first, they about destroyed us.

I would propose trying to finish off Yellow, actually - those turrets only got lucky last turn when they gave us the squeeze.
Honestly, as long as we're dealing damage, I'm happy though!
Rawksim swings the ship around to give gunners the choice of hitting turrets or Yellow in our front arc, maintaining defensive weaving to minimize our silhouette.
Evade, DC 25: 1d20 + 24 - 2 ⇒ (7) + 24 - 2 = 29

Gunners go wild!

"Concentrate your fire on the drone!"

I vote we concentrate our fire on Yellow. The turrets to hit bonus is only +10, they have to roll natural 20's to hit us this round. Every time Rawksim successfully Evades they have to roll natural 20's. That's a 95% chance they miss. Even if he doesn't Evade it's still an 85% chance they miss. I'll take those odds. The drone only needs a 12 or higher.

The Vesk gunner keeps shooting with the turreted laser cannon.

light particle beam at the last Drone: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (2) + 15 = 173d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 3) = 12

Player unsure which weapon to use, change as needed.

Naylor shares the turret controls with Gremvest, also focusing on the moving target of the drone.

heavy antimatter missile launcher: 1d20 + 6 + 9 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 6 + 9 + 3 = 31 damage: 10d10 ⇒ (10, 3, 8, 1, 5, 10, 3, 4, 7, 1) = 52 damage 54 after 1s to 2s

"Ha! Let's see how well you do with that."

The beam goes wide, but the HAML slams home...

Nice shot Naylor! If Jack can connect with the particle beam and do at least 41 points of damage we'll be able to shoot down this drone.

Jack will fire at the drone with the particle beam hit: 1d20 + 14 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 14 + 3 = 20 dmg: 10d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 5, 6, 6) = 32

Posting piloting initiative for Round 7 since I intend to be asleep for the next 12 hours :D Taking one of the +3s since we need to stay ahead of these drones.

I intend to have Benoit fix the engines this coming round so there will be no more penalties to Rawksim's pilot rolls. Now that I've looked at the numbers more carefully it is extremely important that we win initiative every round and succeed at the Evade action when we need to. Every time we Evade we pretty much negate the turrets. Our port will still be open, but the drone's starboard is also. We just gotta get in the right position and then it's only a matter of time as long as the dice roller cooperates.

Drone:
Firing at Fore
Persistent Particle Beams
Y - Attack 1d20 + 13 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 13 + 5 = 31 Damage 10d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 2, 4, 4, 1, 4, 2, 4, 6) = 35 - Hit

Turrets:
Firing at Fore
Particle Beams
1 - Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29 Damage 8d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 3, 2, 1, 6, 1, 4) = 21
2 - Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12 Damage 8d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 1, 2) = 16
3 - Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14 Damage 8d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 2) = 22

A spray of fire is aimed at the front of your ship - the drone hits, but one of the turrets NARROWLY misses due to your fancy flying.

The front of the enemy drone shows damage as their shields get crumpled.

R7
Starting positions:
Engineer: Benoit
Captain: VACANT
Pilot: Rawksim
Science Officer: VACANT
Gunners: Jackojare, Gremvest, Naylor

Engineering Phase
(Captain & Engineer)

Benoit takes his hydrospanner and jams it into the alluvial dampers interface on the Drake's engines. "That'll fix it!"

Engineering (Patch engines) DC 25: 1d20 + 19 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 19 + 3 = 24

This time though the engines don't seem to respond to Benoit's dwarven engineering techniques.

Shields: Bow/15, Starboard/50, Aft/15, Port/0. Hull Points: 65/100. Antimatter Missiles/1, Plasma Torpedoes/1.

Might be a good idea to have Naylor go science officer this round and rebalance our shields so the bow quadrant can get restored. Whatever side of the drone we hit it's shields are down so we might be able to take it down if we fire just our last antimatter missile and our particle beam.

What quadrant did we hit on the drone Shifty; so we know where to aim this round?

You hit the front

Benoit has no luck with the engines, which stubbornly refuse to be repaired.

The enemy ship tries repositioning.

R7
Starting positions:
Engineer: Benoit
Captain: VACANT
Pilot: Rawksim
Science Officer: VACANT
Gunners: Jackojare, Gremvest, Naylor

Engineering Phase
(Captain & Engineer)
Benoit - Patch Fail

Helm Phase
(Captain, Pilot, Science Officer)
Pilot actions at -2 (Glitch engines)
Enemy Initiative 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (6) + 18 = 24
Enemy - Defensive 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (11) + 18 = 29
Pilot move, then gunnery

Come on pilot, you can do it, get us away from those turrets, otherwise I will have to start taking them out. They don't have much a chance to hit us, but they do hit us hard.

Posting piloting thoughts in Discussion thread, for the crew's consideration.

Rawksim brings us around and hopes our luck holds as we present our battered Front arc to the enemy. "Fireteam, take them out before they realize we don't have much shielding in this quadrant - and put in a good word with whatever God you pray to!"
Evade DC 25: 1d20 + 24 - 2 ⇒ (16) + 24 - 2 = 38

Rawk pulls in behind the enemy drone...

R7
Starting positions:
Engineer: Benoit
Captain: VACANT
Pilot: Rawksim
Science Officer: VACANT
Gunners: Jackojare, Gremvest, Naylor

Engineering Phase
(Captain & Engineer)
Benoit - Patch Fail

Helm Phase
(Captain, Pilot, Science Officer)
Pilot actions at -2 (Glitch engines)
Enemy Initiative 1d20 + 18
Enemy - Defensive 1d20+18

Gunnery Phase
Gunners unleash!

Naylor hears a request for assistance with the shields and moves to the science station. There they look at the sad state of the forward shields and attempts to balance the power flow better.

Science officer (balancing shields DC 25)
Computers: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (7) + 13 = 20
Using my reroll
Computers: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 13 + 1 = 27

"I know I trained in Engineering and Computers to help where I could but this is the first time I've had to use those skills in combat. It's harder than it looked." Naylor mutters to themself while they work, initially struggling to make the system do what is intended they finally work it out.

"Hopefully that will keep us alive long enough to remove the main threat."

h'okay so after rebalancing we need to keep 10% in each quadrant, so we currently have *busts out calculator* 80 SP total, so can't go below 8 in any quad...highest is Starboard with 50, so....
Ok, if we move 42 from Starboard to Fore, new shield totals look like this?
Fore: 57 Port: 0 Aft: 15 Starboard: 8

Rawksim sees the transfer of power route through on his pilot's console. "Tip top, Naylor! This'll give us a fighting chance."
Two gunners and four guns left; if Jackojare or Gremvest are feeling lucky, this would be a great time to burn a Starship resolve and Broadside! Pew pew!

Gremvest burns 1 Resolve Point to Broadside the Drone with the turret!
light particle beam: 1d20 + 15 - 2 ⇒ (12) + 15 - 2 = 253d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 2) = 11
heavy antimatter missile launcher: 1d20 + 15 - 2 ⇒ (17) + 15 - 2 = 3010d10 ⇒ (2, 1, 5, 6, 9, 7, 10, 3, 4, 9) = 56

Our max shield level in the bow quadrant is 50. Are we allowed to go over that number when we rebalance?

I've always played it that way, but it's open to interpretation, I guess? No where in the rules on Shields or Balancing does it say any quadrant has a "maximum" value - only the minimum value (10% when Balancing) is ever specified. As far as I can tell it's perfectly legal to start combat with, for example, 10% in Port/Starboard/Aft, and 70% in Fore.

EDIT: Yup, confirmed :D

I like that interpretation. It reminds me of the old X-Wing PC game where you could switch your shield strength around. Switch your deflectors shields on double front!

It's up to Jack now to Broadside with the particle beam and our last plasma torpedo. If he can do at least 39 points of damage that last drone is toast!

It looks like that drone is toast, so Jackojare will fire at the middle turret with particle beam. hit: 1d20 + 14 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 14 + 3 = 24 dmg: 10d6 ⇒ (5, 5, 6, 5, 3, 1, 5, 6, 1, 3) = 40

Drone:
Firing at Fore
Persistent Particle Beams
Y - Attack 1d20 + 13 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 13 + 5 = 35 Damage 10d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 4, 1, 6, 5, 5, 1, 2, 3) = 35 - Hit

Turrets:
Firing at Fore
Particle Beams
1 - Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23 Damage 8d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 6, 3, 3, 1, 4, 2) = 24
2 - Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13 Damage 8d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 1, 2, 6, 6, 3, 1) = 26
3 - Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29 Damage 8d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 3, 3, 3) = 16

More shots are fired into the front of the Drake - but although one of the turrets barely misses due to your pilots fancy flying, the Drone is right on target once more - smashing a shot into your front shields.

The rear of the enemy drone shows minor damage as their shields get crumpled. A nearby turret bears the brunt of some crossfire.

"{static}***Prime Leader, this is Prime 2, Prime 3, Prime 4 - Call your targets for supporting fires!***{static}"

You may identify 3 targets per round to be targeted by supporting fires

R8
Starting positions:
Engineer: Benoit
Captain: VACANT
Pilot: Rawksim
Science Officer: Naylor
Gunners: Jackojare, Gremvest

Engineering Phase
(Captain & Engineer)

I'm going to post now, but then I'm going to bed. I suggest we let the rest of our squadron take out a turret and we finish the drone. Its bow and aft shields are down. We have 1 plasma torpedo left and no more antimatter missiles. I'm going to divert energy to our shields and put them in the bow quadrant.

"Come on ya bucket of bolts hold it together."

Engineering (Divert Shields) DC 25: 1d20 + 19 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 19 + 3 = 41

Shields: Bow/37, Aft/15, Starboard/8, Port/0. Hull Points: 65/100. Plasma Torpedos/1, Antimatter Missiles/0.

The drone should have 35 hull points left and its bow and aft shields are down. It's port and starboard shields are at 50.

The dwarf gets some power going into the shields!
R7
Starting positions:
Engineer: Benoit
Captain: VACANT
Pilot: Rawksim
Science Officer: VACANT
Gunners: Jackojare, Gremvest, Naylor

Engineering Phase
(Captain & Engineer)
Benoit - divert pass

Helm Phase
(Captain, Pilot, Science Officer)
Pilot actions at -2 (Glitch engines)
Enemy Initiative 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (12) + 18 = 30
Pilot up - initiative!

Rawksim furiously yanks on the joystick. "Why didn't I party with those yetis...
Piloting Initiative: 1d20 + 24 - 2 ⇒ (16) + 24 - 2 = 38

Also: do we know what getting supporting fire from rest of Prime Squad means? Are they making their own attacks, or is this like an "aid another" type deal where they'd grant a bonus to our attacks?
If they're making their own attacks, yeah, as Benoit says, let's get the three support ships to each take a shot at a different turret.
If they're helping us make attacks, though: everyone pile on Yellow imo :D

I agree with Rawksim, we have the advantage. This round lets just get in good position to take out the drone and use an Evade stunt to keep the threat from the turrets minimized.

The supporting fires have their own mechanics and won't impact on your rolls etc

The enemy shift moves a small distance...

R7
Starting positions:
Engineer: Benoit
Captain: VACANT
Pilot: Rawksim
Science Officer: VACANT
Gunners: Jackojare, Gremvest, Naylor

Engineering Phase
(Captain & Engineer)
Benoit - divert pass

Helm Phase
(Captain, Pilot, Science Officer)
Pilot actions at -2 (Glitch engines)
Enemy Initiative 1d20 + 18

Your move, then gunnery phase

I like where we're at: everyone's in our Fore, and only one turret can hit our weak Port or Starboard. I'm going to try and Evade without moving squares.
Rawksim swings our Drake into some interesting loop-de-loops and curlicues.
Evade DC 25: 1d20 + 24 - 2 ⇒ (14) + 24 - 2 = 36

Turret's Light Particle Beam: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (13) + 15 = 28
Damage: 3d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 1) = 8

Finest Weapons: re-rolling that 1 damage die: 1d6 ⇒ 6

1d20 ⇒ 20

Grem fires and strikes the rear of the drone.

13 damage

I forgot about that Finest Weapons boon. We gotta take advantage of that every time. Every point of damage counts.

Back at the gunners' station with their new teammates, Naylor once again concentrates on the drone target. Unsure which weapon to fire this at this time they select the forward particle beam and hope they are not stealing someone's thunder.

persistant particle beam: 1d20 + 6 + 9 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 6 + 9 + 3 = 30 damage: 10d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 1, 2, 5, 6, 6, 1, 4, 6) = 37 damage 39 after 1s for 2s

"Woot! Less than you deserve but the best I can do right now." Naylor admonishes their foe.

That's 52 - looking good!

@Naylor, 1's can be rerolled since we have Defender of the Fleet: Finest Weaspons and Benoit didn't do an Overpower action this round.

Sorry, I must be misremembering the boon and don't have easy access to it right now. That means there were likely others I should have rerolled instead of converting to 2s.

reroll 1s: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 2) = 8

So that is an additional 6 damage this time for a total of 45 damage from the forward particle beam.

58 - Jack up

We all forgot, so it doesn't matter at this point. I don't really think it affected anything.