SFB GLOSSARY
- Alpha Strike:
- Maximum single impulse blow by a ship. (Full overloads, etc)
- Anchor:
- Tractoring the enemy to prevent defensive measures.
- Zero-energy Anchor:
- Launching seeking weapons at such close ranges that the enemy
will be unable to take defensive measures in time.
- Cruiser Advantage:
- Ability of Plasma-S and Plasma-R armed ships
to hold their weapons as Plasma-Gs (for a point of power each)
and then launch as S's or R's for a point or two (of reserve
power). Note that this tends to give a very good power curve, at
the cost of stupid plasma tricks.
- Crunch power:
- Amount of damage a ship can generate in a single attack. (often
an Alpha Strike).
- Dexterity:
- Ability to bring weapons into effective use, depends
upon Power Curve (for speed in attack), Maneuverability (to
employ this speed well) and well placed weapon arcs (to make the
attack). The Orion BR and Klink D5 are rumored to be dexterous.
- Durability:
- Ability of a ship to take a lot of damage before loosing critical
internal systems. (Example: The Kzinti BC is Durable, because of
the great many hits it takes to dig into the shuttle bay).
- Excess Warp:
- Warp power beyond the requirements for speed 31 travel, usefull
for high speed HETs.
- Grenade Bait:
- Systems traditionally targeted by Hit & Run raids. Examples
include ISC PPDs, Romulan Cloaks, Gorn tractors, Tholian Web
Casters, Kzinti Scanners, Klink Shuttles, Hydran fighter bays and
Lyran ESG's. Note that all of these are so routinely guarded
that it's seldom worth the trouble to actuality raid them.
- Housekeeping:
- Power for shields, fire control and life support.
- Kaufman Retrograde:
- Moving in reverse to keep the enemy in your FA, but at range.
This is a great defensive tactic, but under most game
circumstances it is a cop-out: retrograding loses territory and
only defeats enemies stupid enough to chase it. The best thing
to do against an enemy who retrogrades is simply don't chase
him.
- Maneuverability:
- Ability to put the ship where it needs to go, suggests excess
warp, low chance of breakdown and good turn mode.
- Mizia Attack:
- A series of small attacks through a down shield to
harvest the column-A weapons hits on the DAC.
- Oblique attack:
- Approach the enemy obliquely (so that he's centered off of your
#2 or #6 shield, move forwards to the range desired, fire and
then slip or turn away (out of that range bracket). Obliques are
named after their range of closest approach: The Oblique-8 (which
clips the overload range) is the most famous, but Oblique-30
(maximum direct fire range for most weapons) and Oblique-15
(Where disruptors double in expected damage) are not unkown.
Note that the "single impulse" exposure denies the enemy a chance
to employ a Mizia attack.
- Power Curve:
- How much power a ship has for systems at various speeds and
weapon loadings.
- Redundacy:
- Resistance to Mizia attacks due to large numbers of easy to
repair weapons. (Example: The Hydran TCC is durable (as the
fighters are well protected), but lacks redundacy as it only
has 6 phaser and 2 drone hits, and none are cheap to repair).
- Stupid Plasma Tricks:
- Shotguning or Enveloping plasmas. Frowned upon because it
reduces crunch power (agaonst a single shield) and costs heavily
against power curve.
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John H. Kim <jhkim@fnal.gov>
Last modified: Wed Jun 21 14:24:16 2000