FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT B5W

This page lists a number of questions we've received about game play, all arranged into the categories listed below. Simply click on one of these items to jump to the appropriate topic.

Damage

Weapon Firing Modes

Ship Critical Hits

DAMAGE

When a system exists at the beginning of the combat phase and is destroyed by one weapon which strikes the target (say a thruster) do all subsequent rolls which would hit that in the same combat turn become direct hits to the structure on that side, or overkill hits (counting armor in both places) ?

They hit the destroyed system which now only has half armour and then hit the structure underneath which has no armour..

On subsequent turns if the system did not exist at the start of the turn are rolls which would hit it just applied to the structure instead?

No, the same as above.

When you start taking damage, and you mark damage off a type of system/weapon, etc., and do not destroy it, do you continue take damage off that system until it is destroyed (assuming it's still in arc from later shots), or can you spread damage around?

You may spread the damage to other like systems from later shots, thereby keeping the damaged system operational. This is an advantage for larger ships and those with more weapons attached to a particular structure block.

Suppose a G'Quan has had its port side structure blown off. If any shots come in from the port side, how is damage location resolved?

If the structure has been destroyed in a previous turn, this would be resolved as a Primary hit with half armour from the mangled mess still attached. During the turn it is destroyed, however, you roll on the side chart first.

Is armor accounted for if it was another hit against structure on the same rake?

No, the armor has already been hit for this rake so the damage would go straight in.

WEAPON FIRING MODES

How do you resolve damage from multiple raking weapons at the same target??

Each weapon is done separately.

Is a weapon designed for a specific mode of fire able to be used in 'standard' mode? E.g., the heavy laser on the Omega. It is 'a raking weapon that can be fired in sustained mode'. Does this mean that it can ONLY fire in raking and sustained or can it also do standard?

It can only be fired in raking or sustained.

Can you start a scenario with a weapon in sustained mode?

Yes

When a sustained mode weapon is finished firing, it has to cool off for at turn. Now, my dumb question: Can you use it's power elsewhere in the cool down turn or is it lost?

The weapon is cooling off, but no power is being applied to it (since it isn't turned on), so that power is available for use elsewhere.

Can you use sustained and piercing modes at the same time?

Yes

Must weapon mode (piercing or sustained), other than defensive vs. offensive, be decided during declaration or when actually firing?

Standard, raking, and piercing mode don't have to be announced during fire declaration, but you must announce them when you are rolling to hit (especially piercing mode, since your chance to hit is different). Sustained mode doesn't have to be announced at all until the weapons fire step of the sequence of play is completed (at which time it will be bloody obvious that the weapon is still firing at the target, and hasn't turned off).

Is there any way to detect the arming mode of a ship's weapon? Can you detect whether an EA ship has its interceptors in anti-fighter rather than normal defensive mode short of waiting for it to shoot or intercept?

You can detect that a weapon is powered but not if it is ready to fire, nor can you detect special arming (sustained, etc.) or firing modes (such as those used by the interceptor).

In sustained mode fire, during the second turn's resolution, what's the effect of armor if you hit the same system you hit during the first turn?

The answer, which is sure to raise the stock of sustained mode significantly, is this: Armor doesn't protect on the second turn if that system was hit on the first turn! This is because what we are talking about is a CONTINUATION of a single shot, not a whole new shot. For example, a neutron cannon hits an Omega's front for 30 damage and rakes 10 points across a heavy laser and the forward structure (marking 6 off the lasers and 14 off the structure after subtracting armor). On the second turn the conditions for sustained mode are taken care of, and the "second half" of the sustained fire automatically hits. This time, 32 damage is scored and the hit locations turn out to be heavy laser, pulse cannon, retro thruster, and structure, in that order. The first 10 points destroy one laser cannon (armor doesn't protect it since it was hit by the first half of the sustained shot, and the rest would overkill to structure, which also doesn't get armor protection for the same reason), destroy a pulse cannon (which takes 10 damage to kill, including armor), score 7 damage (after armor) on one thruster, and score 2 damage on the structure, which isn't protected by armor since it too was hit in the first half of the attack.

If a weapon takes four turns to charge and the extra power is applied in the first turn, but not available for the second turn, does normal recharge start over at that point or does the first turn of super-charging count as double?

Count the total number of effective turns charging, thus the weapon has had 3 turns worth of power bythe end of the second turn.

DEFENSIVE FIRE

Can EA Interceptors fire defensively against laser weapons?

No

Do multiple-barrel weapons like Twin Arrays get multiple interception rolls?

No, this is calculated into the interception rating, both are assumed to fire at the same target.

It is written nowhere, but is the powerful Neutron Cannon considered a "Laser" weapon in the sense that it can't be defended against by anything.

Yes.

What about the Fusion Beam?

No, it is not considered a laser weapon.

If I set my weapons for defensive fire, but then don't use them during the turn, do they still discharge?

No.

CALLED SHOTS

Can you make a called shot at a destroyed system? In other words can you target the twisted wreckage or the space where the system used to be?

No. If it ain't there, you can't shoot it.

What happens if I call a shot with a raking weapon (or a large number of other weapons) and the first volley destroys that system? Do the remaining volleys hit structure automatically?

Raking weapons cannot make called shots

POWER

If a ship takes a reactor critical (using the errata critical chart) but also loses weapons sufficient to cover that loss, doesn't this make the critical pointless?

No. The energy lost must be made up in "live" systems. Think of the reactor as a huge grid spread throughout the ship with nodes at each system. These nodes provide the power that system needs, and are destroyed with that system. If the reactor takes a critical, the overall power to the entire grid is reduced, necessitating the shutdown of systems to cover it. The jump engine is a special case, as its power requirement is tied into the entire overall production level of the grid.

SEQUENCE OF PLAY

When exactly does ramming take place?? This question came up last week during a game where a flight of Starfuries were whittled down to2 fighters with a total of 7 structure boxes left and wanted to ram a Primus. Of course the Primus player wanted to shoot the fighters down before the ram and the Starfury player wanted to complete the ram. Another question, do fighters attempting to ram get to shoot as well??

Ramming occurs at the end of the turn after firing.

In what order is weapons fire resolved? This can be very important depending on the type of weapon and the state of the target.

Resolve them in the order you fired them in. A commander should be able to fire his weapons in the most effective manner. Of course, since you can select the order in which weapons fire, this means you basically get to decide the order yourself. There's no "weapons sequence of play."

Regarding the preceding item, must you decide on the order during fire declaration? Or may you wait till actually rolling?

You can wait until you are rolling. Otherwise that weapons fire declaration step gets too bogged down.

FIGHTERS & SHUTTLES

If a raking weapon fires at a flight of fighters what damage does it do?

Full damage to one fighter
A10 point rake to one fighter (assuming at least 10 points damage done)
Hit several fighters randomly with raking fire ?

Option 1, as the weapon does not traverse quickly enough to engage multiple fighters.

If a pulsar mine can damage up to 18 fighters, can it fire at one fighter 18 times?

No, that's not what the rule means. It fires a burst of small mines into an area, so it only gets one attack on any given fighter.

ENERGY MINES

How do you determine the direction of damage from energy mines?

If the mine explodes to starboard, take damage to starboard. If it hits your hex, take damage from a random direction

Question on energy mines...they effect everything in the hex, correct? So a flight of fighters would all suffer the same amount of damage?

Yes.

POINT COSTS

For capital ships, does the point cost include the fighters or are the fighters sold separately?

Armed fighters and shuttles (e.g., the Flyer) are sold seperately. Unarmed shuttles, unless otherwise stated, come with the ship. Of course, there isn't much use for them in battle except as a scenario target.

JUMP GATES

The rules for fixed jump gates, pg. 37, also gave us an indistinct rule. If multiple ships are in range of a jump gate, and send different orders, whose take precedence?

If multiple players are competing to see who gets to command a jump gate, the player who "owns" the gate gets first call. "Ownership" is usually obvious or specified by the scenario. If no owner is clearly stated (or it is noted as a totally neutral gate) then each competing player rolls off, highest roller getting to make the call. Do NOT use initiative. For one thing, capital ships would always lose out to HCVs or medium ships, which isn't realistic.
Also, once an order is given, the gate can not be given a new order until it completes the previous order. So you can't order it to close (or change its commands at all - not even the player who gave the order can do this).

BASES

There are no armor ratings on bases. Is this an error?

No. The armor is built into the boxes' ability to absorb less than 5 points of damage without actually being affected.

How is damage from a Mag Gun allocated to a Base?

When the mag gun hits a base, determine which section is hit, then consider that section the "side" which is being affected. Thus, if a mag gun hits a Kraken section #4 for 52 damage, half of it (26 points) would hid the structure, destroying 5 boxes, and the remaining 26 points would be divided evenly among 13 systems, doing nothing.

Bases have reactors for each section. How do these work?

Each section is self-contained for reactor power purposes. Thus, any critical to a reactor will affect only that section, and a destroyed reactor will only de-power that one section. The flip side to this is that, because each section has its own power grid, power may not be transferred between sections.

Bases also seem to have multiple C&C systems. Does this mean I can choose to use whichever one I wish (the one with the fewest critical hits, obviously)?

Yes.

SPECIFICS ON SHIPS

Does anyone know what the capital letter on the Omegas' front section is for?

No one really knows. Lots of people have theories, but they are all different and there's no official answer.

Does the Dargan reveal itself as such if it uses its ELINT abilities?

Only if the ship it is emulating does not itself possess such abilities, or has fewer sensor points than the Dargan is using for ELINT purposes.

Since the Dargan can "emulate" any other ship class, what happens if it disguises itself as an HCV or medium ship? Does it get to roll initiative at the faster rate, or is it automatically revealed as a fake? Can it voluntarily move during the Commercial Ships step if it is emulating a freighter?

It cannot move faster than a capital ship, so if it tried to disguise itself as a heavy combat vessel, for example, its first maneuvers (as soon as play started, but not during scenario setup) may reveal it as a Dargan. It may, however, voluntarily move slower (i.e., with commercial vessels) if disguised as a freighter.

What happens if the Dargan emulates a ship with different defense ratings?

Use the ones listed for the Dargan, although this will require deception on the part of the Centauri player. If any to-hit roll would hit the Dargan but not the simulated ship (or hits the simulated ship but would not hit a Dargan), he must reveal his vessel to be a Dargan at that point, and resolve the weapon's chance to hit against the Dargan's ratings at and after that point. This makes long-range sniping a good way to pick out a Dargan if the player has selected a simulacrum with radically different defense ratings.

Are the Narn and Centauri cargo ships from Narn-Centauri War considered "civilian ships" for purposes of initiative?

No, these are military ships, and are considered capital ships for movement purposes.

I have heard the Black Omega Starfuries have a "stealth design."

Black Omegas don't have stealth. they are ordinary Furies with cooler paint jobs and telepaths for pilots...nothing more.

In War of Retribution, there are Endurance values listed for each ship. What are those values for the Core Rules ships and the Ships of the Month found on the web site?

Omega: 6 months: Hyperion: 3 months
Nova: 2 months: Olympus: 1 month
Starfury: 10 hours: Thunderbolt: 12 hours
Sharlin: 8 months: Tinashi: 6 months
Nial: 36 hours: Luxury Liner: 3 months
Freighter: 2 months: Battlewagon: 3 months
Delta-V: 6 hours