(D202) SELECTIVE TARGETTING (Optional Rule)

One of the immediate (and fortunate) consequences of using hard hits is that the concept of ``Selective Targetting'' is much easier to implement. The idea is that the attacking vessel wishes to select certain areas of the opposing ship in order to disable certain systems or to capture his ship.

(D202.1) PROCEDURE: When the attacking vessel declares an attack, he may declare some of his weapons to be using ``Selective Targetting''. He writes down for each such weapon a target and number from 2 to 12 that corresponds to a row on the DAC. If (D203) Super-Aegis is being used, these written notes will not be necessary (which saves time). Selective targetting may only be used on direct-fire weapons, with the possible exception of an ``intelligent'' Swordfish drone (+1/2 payload space, +4 BPV ? This is a guess).

(D202.11) The entire SHIP receives 2 points of natural ECM for each target and row combination he has written down. The number of weapons using this combination is irrelevant, and using that SPECIFIC target and row combination later in the turn does not add any more ECM. If a new target and row combination is used, 2 more ECM is applied. This ECM applies to all weapons on the ship (using selective targetting or not) that fire at Size Class 5 or larger targets. This ECM may be countered with ECCM up to the ship's EW limit.

Example: A Klingon B10 is firing at two Federation CAs. He selects 4 disruptors to use selective targeting on CA #1 row ``2''; 4 disruptors on CA #1 row ``12''; and 2 disruptors on CA #2 row ``3''. Because he has selected a total of 3 target and row combinations, he receives 6 ECM with all of his weapons except those that fire at shuttles or seeking weapons. He may use any of those combinations later in the turn with other weapons and he will not be further penalized (i.e. the ``Gunner'' is looking at CA #1's ``Bridge'' and ``Auxiliary Control'' area, and keeping an eye on CA #2's drone rack launcher).

(D202.12) Internal damage from that weapon does not roll on the DAC, instead it automatically is applied to that row of the DAC. If hard hits are NOT being used but this rule IS (which could lead to some oddities), only the first internal from that weapon is resolved using the DAC, the others are determined randomly (I don't recommend using this rule without also using hard hits).

(D202.13) If the Excess Damage level is reached, the ``lock'' on that target and row is lost, but the 2 ECM is not countered. Any further damage from that weapon (after the 1 ExcDam hit) is rolled randomly. Further weapons using that target and row combination the same impulse are now rolled randomly, as the lock has been lost. The lock cannot be bought again until next impulse. The purpose of this rule is to prevent players from using selective targetting for the sole purpose of generating ExcDam hits and destroying the enemy ship quickly. PPDs have an exception to this rule, see (D202.22).

(D202.2) Some systems require some adjustments to use this rule:
(D202.21) Because of their nature, hellbores fired in the normal enveloping mode cannot use selective targetting. Direct-fire hellbores could use it.
(D202.22) PPD pulses never lose their ``lock'' on a target and row combination as long as the PPD wave lock is in place. Exception: see (D202.24).
(D202.23) Web fist cannot use selective targetting.
(D202.24) If using Tactical Intelligence, Level F (Coarse Weapons Discrimination) must be reached before using selective targetting. If not using Tactical Intelligence, the target must be within a number of hexes equal to the firing ship's sensor rating times three. The ability to use selective targetting is lost if the target goes beyond this range.

(D202.25) Super-intelligent computers and legendary weapons officers would have only 1 ECM per combination instead of 2.

Author's Notes: Selective Targetting is wonderful for the Orions rampaging freighters, as they can avoid the valuable cargo being hit. This system does lead to more uncontrolled ships (and mutinying Klingons), which is annoying. I believe the problem lies with using the standard DAC with this system. The DAC could be changed so it takes ``areas'' of the ship into effect. If this were done correctly (after ExcDam the table would tell you a range of nearby connected rows to go to next), we could eliminate (D202.13). This seems very plausible considering that most Galactic races keep their systems in the same relative positions to each other (every race except Lyrans has a phaser near the bridge, for example). These ``areas'' on the revised DAC could also replace those awful ship diagrams in the Marines module. I'll work on it a little and if it does indeed work, I'll post it. One thing is certain: I'm moving control spaces further down so they're not so easy to hit.

John H. Kim <jhkim@fnal.gov>

Last modified: Mon Dec 18 15:52:56 CST 1995