On another note, did I mention that the Dominion War expansion was going to introduce an entirely new type of disk? Here's the section from the DW rulebook;
New in the Dominion War release for Red Alert! are maneuver disks. These disks allow your ship and crew to break the rules, achieving effects seen only in the most dramatic space battles.
When You Can Play Them
Maneuvers are not bought like other disks. They have no point cost and do not take up any capacity, nor are they considered on any ship. Rather they have a command requirement representing the command necessary, from a single crew member, to play the maneuver. Maneuvers are executed by crew members, so they tend to affect the ship the crew member is on, although this is not always the case. Maneuvers are unique to each faction. Once you or another player playing the same faction as you, uses a Maneuver, that maneuver is gone for your faction. Some maneuvers are Tactics and some are Stratagems. Tactics can be played at any point during one of your phases. They cannot be played while another player is acting. Stratagems can only be played on your turn, by executing an Activate Crew/Tech order. This order only allows you to use one Stratagem, you cannot also activate a crew or tech disk at the same time.
Some maneuvers have the keyword; 'boarding.' These maneuvers occur during the crew combat segment and require you to have a crew member onboard the opposing ship to meet the command requirement.
How Maneuvers Work
Each maneuver has ability text describing its effect. Unless otherwise noted, all effects from maneuvers occur instantly, once the maneuver has been played. Some maneuvers have a keyword denoting their duration. There are three durations: phase, turn, and game. These keywords mean that a maneuver's effect lasts for the rest of the phase, turn, or game, respectively.
Example: George (The Federation) and Cindi (The Breen) are slugging it out. George has launched a torpedo at Cindi and, although it's Cindi's turn, her Attack order won't let her change heading. Normally, she'd run into the torp. Instead, before issuing the Attack Order, Cindi uses a Torpedo Reprogramming maneuver. It's got a command of 5 and she has the Breen X. O. on board, His command of 5 is exactly enough. Torpedo Reprogramming is a Tactic. Cindi 'plays' the maneuver, removing it from the game, and now controls George's torp. She still gets to move and attack this phase.
Also, you're missing the data for the Jem'Hadar carrier, which is as large as a Scenario disk (which seemed a lot cooler until we noticed that scenario disks were only microscopically larger than Large ships.)
Jem'Hadar Carrier: Movement: 1. Carrier can hold 100 points of ships. These ships are placed next to the Control Panel until launched.
Crew/Tech: Launch any number of ships. Shields must be down
when ships are launched. Ships may also board for repairs while
shields are down. Ships spending a phase onboard have their hull
strength
increased to maximum. Tech and crew may be moved between the Carrier
and any onboard ships.
Carrier may only move once per turn.
In a message dated 11/4/00 1:15:31 AM, mcolville@mindspring.com
writes:
>1) Minimum; Doesn't matter what you drop, you're guaranteed
>to do at least this much.
> 2) Penetrating. Shield status doesn't matter, you will do
at
>least this much Hull damage (if your opponent still has shields,
then
>you score crits normally, not as hull crits.)
> 3) Hardened. You're immune to Penetrating damage.
>
> 4) Yes, there was going to be an impulse crit. The Breen
were
>going to get 6 crits and pick which 5 they wanted to use in
a given
>game (not by ship.) The Impulse Crit was going to reduce the
movement
>to 0. Ship may no longer issue Change Speed orders.
>
> Yes, I know Penetrating could be abusive. That's what
>playtesting's for. :)
Message: 3
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 13:51:57 -0800
From: Matthew Colville <mcolville@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Questions,Suggestion, and New Disk Ideas
>--- In RedAlert_Diskwars@egroups.com, Joseph Dowell <joseph@a...>
>wrote:
>> Senator Kassus (Romulan crew with COM of 15--flagship
only, can't
>leave) seems a bit
>> abusive to me when combined with a type III cloak. I
don't have a
>lot of play experience
>> (the curse of small children ;-), but the one time I
faced a type
>III, I won largely
>> because I had a higher COM rating and the Romulan got
aggresive.
>With Kassus, it would
>> seem the Romulan could uncloak, fire, and recloak before
you could
>respond. Your only
>> option would be to stay out of weapon range and that
doesn't seem
>like much fun.
>
>I believe that type 2 and 3 cloaks are broken for this very
reason.
>A
>Romulan ship with a type 2 or 3 cloak and high command on
the board
>can almost always force a win via crits by taking the cowardly
>approach of uncloak, fire, and recloak on two successive moves.
>We've
>seen two games go like that, and it's not a pleasant thing
to be a
>part of.
>
>Cloaks often make the game less enjoyable when the person
with the
>cloak is not inclined to drop the cloak. (such as if they
are
>damaged,
>or have a tactical disadvantage)
>
>I'd like to see them errata'd in some way, perhaps to say
that a
>cloak
>can only be up for so long before it must be lowered, (perhaps
at the
>cost of taking a pt of hull damage), or say that after x turns
the
>cloak automatically drops and must stay down for two command
phases
>to
>recharge, or that the cloak cannot be raised the phase after
it was
>lowered. That last one seems the best way to go, it at least
gives
>the opponants one shot.
>
>Comments?
Different people have different definitions of broken. A: the
fact that I got cloaks to work at all makes me happy. B: the fact
that I got three different versions makes me happy. If I decided
they
were unbalanced, I would just make some cheaper, more common disks
for the other factions that nullified some of the cloak's advantage.
We were going to publish a strategy guide to Red Alert, that
would include Campaign Play, and allow you to advance your crew
members and buy them special abilities if they survive. I'd like
to
see something that allowed your Captains and Admirals to boost
their
"You can detect Type I cloaked ships" to type 2, then
type 3.
Here are some other ideas; add an order or two.
1) Aim. allows you to increase the number of disks you drop,
or established a minimum damage. You have to pick a target when
you
use the Aim order, and you must fire a weapon with your next action
at that ship to get this bonus.
2) Sensor Sweep. Drop 5 damage disks and pick a cloaked ship.
You detect the ship on a result of 2 for a Type 1 cloak, 3 for
a type
2, and 4 for a type 3. This lasts until the end of the current
turn.
These are just recommendations, but they were things we were
going to try in further expansions.