Damage allocation

[larsterkhan]

I was having some trouble with damage allocation on the sides of a ship. But I think I have it figured out now. A ship really only has 2 "facings" for damage allocation, front and rear. There are no port and starboard in terms of taking damage. Is that right? If so, what about damage coming down the spine? Does the defender or attacker determine where the ship is hit or is there another mechanism?

[hawkfire]

larsterkhan Wrote:I was having some trouble with damage allocation on the sides of a ship. But I think I have it figured out now. A ship really only has 2 "facings" for damage allocation, front and rear. There are no port and starboard in terms of taking damage. Is that right? If so, what about damage coming down the spine? Does the defender or attacker determine where the ship is hit or is there another mechanism?

Correct this ship only has front and aft facing. All ship take damage from the front or aft sections on the ship record sheet. Remember the sheet is only a logical representation of the ship. The front hexes cover the front, front left and front right. The rear hexes cover the rear center, rear right and rear left. So for game play there are only two facings. A ship shot from the side would have damage logically flow through the front or aft. So side damage (starboard or port) in technically part of the where you target the ship. Like shot from the rear side it will flow through the aft facing.

[larsterkhan]

Still with hexes it's possible for a shot to come down a hex spine bisecting the fore and aft. For example in the attached graphic is ship beta is firing on ship alpha where does the shot land? I'd say defender chooses to make it simple, but that's just my 2 cents.

[hawkfire]

Correct this is true, would like feedback on these types of game flaws. Err I mean undocumented features. I will have a rule update and explanation covering this aspect.

Note ship has to be facing hex side, not corner. Figure you know, but just in case. However back to the problem you still can shoot the spine when firing from front weapon with forward firing arc. Ships need to be running parallel to one another.

Spine shots go in favor of the defender. They chose which side is hit.

Good catch...

[The_Beast]

Tis an old problem with SFB; whatever you decide, DON'T SPLIT DAMAGE.

Had a bad experience with this once; got my lack of knowledge taken advantage, as SFB pretty much says DO anything, including flipping a coin, rather than splitting.

As you have to face a hex side, that should probably determine the damage, i.e. for the e.g., turn Beta to port, it's aft, turn Beta to starboard, it's fore.

Course, as I'm not a playtester and haven't seen the rules, I'm probably talking out of my hat.

Doug