How does the tractor beam, G-8 Experimental projectors & Interdictor title card work when trying to stop a ship?
Has anyone had a successful build that stopped ships? How did the battle turn out? I would like to hear good and bad stories, lessons learned. If you have a fleet build list please post it.
Edited by Draconis80Well:
The timings are different and their order depends on the activation order.
The tractor beams trigger when the Interdictor activates. They either slow the targeted ship down by 1 (to a minimum of 1) or the ship spends a nav token because they thought ahead and nothing happens. Raid tokens do not prevent this, as it is not resolving a command.
The G-8s happen when during the target ship's determine course step. They make the ship go slower ("reduce its speed") by 1, to a minimum of 0.
You can hit 2 different ships with G-8s over the course of a round by using the title to unexhaust them between uses.
You can never hit the same ship twice with G-8s over the course of a round, due to the timing of the title.
You can refresh your tractor beams, but won't be able to use them twice in a round because you can't activate twice.
I recommend asking for lists under fleet builds or the main forum, but I must warn you speed control is famously terrible for two reasons:
Being slow is a situational problem at best, unless your dial is set to speed 0. This will never be something you can force a ship to do with this combo. (Onagers, however, will laugh at the sight of an Interdictor without DCaps trying to get in long range... when the Onager is already at 0.)
Anything that doesn't want to go 0 will be locked to 1 below its maximum speed, so long as it has Entrapment Formation, or a dial/token because they can read what upgrade cards do.
The closest semi-effective tool is the G7-X Grav Well Projector, and even it has cases where it just doesn't matter at all.
6 hours ago, Draconis80 said:How does the tractor beam, G-8 Experimental projectors & Interdictor title card work when trying to stop a ship?
Has anyone had a successful build that stopped ships? How did the battle turn out? I would like to hear good and bad stories, lessons learned. If you have a fleet build list please post it.
Jabbawookiee explained the Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams & G8 Experimental Projectors in the above post. While we’re on the subject, there are a few other factors which can affect an enemy ship’s speed...
Admiral Titus (Imperial Officer upgrade) allows you to change an enemy ship’s speed by 1 (up OR down) at the beginning of the first round.
Admiral Konstantine (Imperial Commander upgrade) allows you to increase by 1 OR decrease by 1 the speed of each enemy ship that is at distance 1-5 of at least two of your own medium or large (but not huge) based ships. This happens at the end of each turn, during the Status Phase.
The G7-X Grav Well Projectors (which Jabbawookiee touched upon) causes any ship deployed at distance 1-3 of the token they create to be set to speed zero.
Similarly, the Gravity Rift obstacle created by certain objectives (Rift Ambush, Rift Assault, Doomed Station) causes any ship deployed at distance 1-2 of the rift to be set to speed zero. The rift also temporarily reduces the speed of any ship at distance 1-2 by 1, and any ship which overlaps the rift is immediately set to speed zero.
The Surprise Attack objective also prevents enemy ships from deploying at greater than half their speed (rounded up, so speed 2 for most ships, though a few will get stuck at speed 1).
Finally, the Magnite Crystal Tractor Beam Array (Rebel Superweapon upgrade; for the Starhawk only) can set any ship at distance 1-5 to a speed matching the Starhawk’s speed (even speed zero). This action triggers at the end of the Starhawk’s movement.
Titus can be situationally useful, and he’s cheap.
Konstantine is theoretically very powerful, but in practice, he ends up being very difficult to build an effective fleet around, and his ability just really doesn’t help sometimes, even when you get it to function.
The G7-X Grav Well Projectors can close off significant portions of the deployment zone, especially if used in multiples. I’ve heard that double Interdictor fleets have used the m to great effect, and some guy was saying he won a tournament with a triple Interdictor list the other day. I think the fleet used the G7-X Grav Well Projectors, if I recall correctly.
If you put just enough focus on speed control, and you can get your opponent to pick the right kind of objective, and you place (or move, with Grav Shift Reroute... more Interdictor-only tech) obstacles well, you can do some fairly nasty things, and sometimes keep your opponent going slower (or faster!) than he’d prefer. Actually stopping a ship cold at speed zero is impossible, and the best you (as the Empire) can do is temporary speed zero (meaning the ship’s speed dial doesn’t change, just the speed at which the affected ship can make a particular maneuver). The Starhawk can, with its Magnite Crystal Array, stop an enemy and set their dial to zero, but if timed incorrectly, this can leave the Starhawk nearly as vulnerable as the ship it stopped.
Speed control fleets are really difficult to get working. It’s a lot of elements with really finicky timing and rules, and even if you get it all to go off as intended, some fleets can pretty much ignore the effects, or aren’t bothered by them.
Certain elements of speed control aren’t bad. I’m a big fan of G8 Experimental Projectors and G7-X Gravity Well Projectors, for example. But if you throw too many fleet points into a speed control theme, you’re probably gonna end up disappointed
Since we're on it, I always had a doubt with the timing of the G-8 and as yesterday came up I remembered that I actually was never sure.
Is the G-8 declared before the opponent decides to change the ship's speed or after? I'm not completely sure what "resolves the determine course step" means.
28 minutes ago, Lemmiwinks86 said:Since we're on it, I always had a doubt with the timing of the G-8 and as yesterday came up I remembered that I actually was never sure.
Is the G-8 declared before the opponent decides to change the ship's speed or after? I'm not completely sure what "resolves the determine course step" means.
The determine course step is when you are measuring with the maneuver tool and deciding how you will move.
You declare G8 before they start measuring with the maneuver tool.
30 minutes ago, Lemmiwinks86 said:Is the G-8 declared before the opponent decides to change the ship's speed or after? I'm not completely sure what "resolves the determine course step" means.
There are two steps to ship movement; 1. Determine Course, 2 Move Ship.
Resolving navigate commands to change speed happens "during the 'Determine Course' step."
G-8 Experimental Projectors work " Before an enemy ship at distance 1-5 resolves the Determine Course step..."
So G-8s happen before resolving navigate commands to change speed.
The timing is:
The timing is the same even if they are doing a non-standard maneuver (e.g. Engine Techs or Quantum Storm); as soon as they say "I'm going to do a maneuver" you immediately exhaust G-8s to reduce their speed.
Also note that they can't always change their speed to correct for this. If they were at their top speed and you slowed them down by one temporarily, they can't use a navigate command to speed up because they're already at their maximum speed.
17 minutes ago, Astrodar said:The determine course step is when you are measuring with the maneuver tool and deciding how you will move.
You declare G8 before they start measuring with the maneuver tool.
11 minutes ago, Grumbleduke said:There are two steps to ship movement; 1. Determine Course, 2 Move Ship.
Resolving navigate commands to change speed happens "during the 'Determine Course' step."
G-8 Experimental Projectors work " Before an enemy ship at distance 1-5 resolves the Determine Course step..."
So G-8s happen before resolving navigate commands to change speed.
The timing is:
- Enemy ship does its attack step of its activation,,
- Enemy ship starts the "Execute Maneuver" step of its activation,
- You exhaust a G-8 Experimental Projector to temporarily reduce their speed by 1,
- Enemy ship does its Determine Course step (including resolving navigate commands),
- Enemy ship does its Move Ship step.
The timing is the same even if they are doing a non-standard maneuver (e.g. Engine Techs or Quantum Storm); as soon as they say "I'm going to do a maneuver" you immediately exhaust G-8s to reduce their speed.
Also note that they can't always change their speed to correct for this. If they were at their top speed and you slowed them down by one temporarily, they can't use a navigate command to speed up because they're already at their maximum speed.
OK, what got me confused was that the card says "before resolves" and not just "before the determine course step". I wasn't sure that that "resolve" meant, if it was before you start resolving it or before you fully resolve it.