Battle of Arcanus Beta

Introduction

I recently purchased Starfleet Command, and have been playing it almost vampirically for the past couple of days. It is a good game, with very deep strategy and tactics to it, although it suffers the usual Interplay flaws (i.e. you need to download at least 4 Mbs' worth of patches before the game becomes consistently playable).

Well, being the generous person that I am, I decided to share some good tactics I had picked up with any SFC newbies out there. Enjoy... I hope.

An Accidental Encounter

"Captain's Log, Stardate 2272.532. The war against the Romulans goes well. We have pushed them back from their border and are within striking reach of their outer colonies. The recent peace treaty with the Klingons allows us to free more ships for a large assault on Remus. The Lafayette is currently heading to a rendez-vous with a task force headed by Rear Admiral Taylor. We should be arriving shortly."

"Captain's Log, Stardate 2272.538. Our Warp Core has broken down and has forced the Lafayette to remain in orbit around Arcanus Beta. This breakdown is suspect. My Security Officer is investigating."

"Captain's Log, Stardate 2272.539. A Romulan cruiser has entered the system! They have detected us and are heading straight for the Lafayette. We can only hope that our chief engineer can repair our Warp core in time."

The cruiser is at 500,000 kilometres and closing. She hasn't even bothered to cloak. Obviously the Romulans can detect our break down. I nervously glance down at my console. Power is back up to 20%.

"Raise shields! Ready phasers and arm the photon torpedoes!" I yell.

At his point I'm thinking "Oh sheeit"

My weapons officer looks at me. He's been with me a long time, and knows my approach well. I know what he is wondering.

"We don't have the energy to overload the torpedoes, Lieutenant," I tell him.

He looks disappointed. So am I. Most Captains frown on the use of overloaded photons since they often do serious damage to a ship's launchers. They prefer to remain at a distance and snipe with proximity charges. However, I believe that the best tactic any Federation vessel can employ is to charge up to the enemy while conserving fire, then empty every single weapon on the ship at point-blank range in a single highly disruptive blast. It is a tactic which has often proved highly successful.

Again, I glance at the console. Power is back to 35% and the cruiser is 300,000 km away. I hit the comm.

"Mr Fornson, I need more power!"

"She's giving all she's got, Captain!"

The cruiser starts firing. Fortunately, at this range even our minimal shields hold from the phaser fire. More worrying are the two plasma torpedoes now heading towards us four times faster than the cruiser. Sweating, I try to calculate what damage they will do from this distance. My science officer, one step ahead as usual, says:

"Our shields will buckle unless we strengthen them, sir."

"Uhh, Mr Fornson?"

"Almost done, sir!"

"Redirect all available power to shields."

The torpedoes close fast. 150,000km. 100,000. 50,000. 20,000.

"Brace for impact!"

The crew all attempt to get into secure positions. The plasma torpedoes collide into our shields, rocking the ship and causing a couple of consoles to explode. I've always wondered why consoles were so volatile. Fearing the worse, I call out:

"Status?"

"Sir, full power came back online just before the blast. Shields are at 90% and holding."

"Excellent!" I shout, immensely releaved. "How far is the cruiser?"

"200,000 km and closing."

"Arm the tractor beam and the mines."

"Yessir."

The enemy ship was still cloaked. The only reason she could be detected was because she was going so fast. Had she been going any slower, we probably wouldn't be able to detect the energy emissions from her engines. Fortunately, the Romulans were impatient for battle. That was a big mistake.

The R-KR is a Romulan ship made from a Klingon hull. This gives it the strengths and weaknesses of both races, to a certain extent. It packs two plasma torpedoes, which are devastating at short range, a cloaking device and some minor phasors. Its hull is tough, but, very importantly, the rear shield is extremely weak, like all ships of Klingon origin. Therefore, the best counter to these cruisers is to use mines to nullify their cloak, then fire all available weapons on their rear shield. A tractor beam lock is also very useful, since they can no longer run away.

The R-KR

I watched the cruiser approach. She would decloak proir to firing her torpedoes, and that was when we could first be able to fire. An Alpha Strike (when you fire all your weapons together) would probably pierce a shield, and force her to recloak.

The cruiser was now at around 100,000km. She would probably uncloak at around 60,000km. I could only hope that our weapons fire would be effective.

"Sir, tractor beam charged."

"Excellent. Fire on my mark."

Tractor beams are very short ranged. We would only be able to fire it at around 20,000 km. However, should we get a lock, the battle would almost definitely turn in our favour.

"Sir! Enemy cruiser decloaking!"

The R-KR appeared in our forward view, decloaking slowly. She wouldn't be able to fire for a few seconds. We had the initiative.

"Fire all weapons!"

The Lafayette spewed energised death at her opponent. Unfortunately, at this range, her shields held.

"Damn! Turn us about, quick! We have to get into tractor range!"

"Sir, our computer has identified the enemy ship. She's the RIS Hawk, sir."

"Enemy ship returning fire!"

"Brace for impact!"

The Hawk fired her full arsenal at our forwards shield, giving the Lafayette quite a beating.

"Forwards shield at 25%."

"Bring us about. We have to fire that tractor!"

"Enemy ship recloaking, sir."

Too late. The Hawk had recloaked. There was only one thing to do.

"How fast is she going?"

"80,000 kph, sir."

"Teleport a mine in front of her!"

The Ensign in charge of transporters looked nervous. This was a dangerous maneouvre since it required lowering a shield. If the Hawk had any weapons left, we were done for.

"Do it now!"

"Aye aye sir!"

The mine materialised a couple of thousand kilometres in front of the Hawk. I mentally applauded the Ensign. His aim was perfect. The Hawk tried to maneouvre away from the mine, but it was going too fast and had too little time.

The mine detonated, disrupting the Hawk's cloak.

"Engage the transporter beam!"

The blue beam reached out, trapping the Hawk. Even when she recloaked, the beam held. Her captain was obviously aware of his impending defeat, and was increasing the power to his engines.

YEEHAA!

"We have her, sir."

"Before firing all weapons, transport another mine in front of her."

The next mine lowered the R-KR's cloak, and when the salvo from the Lafayette hit it, the Hawk's aft shields buckled rapidly.

"Sensors indicate that we've done some internal damage. We think we've disabled her cloak and plasma torpedoes."

A more pressing question came from my Science Officer.

"How many crew on that ship?"

A good question.

The Engsign with the readout said:

"8 Crew left sir."

My eyes met with my Security officer. He grinned slightly.

"Begin transporting aboard."

"Yessir!" replied the SO, beaming from ear to ear.

With the ship under tractor tow and with serious hull damage it was only a matter of time...

Captain's Log, Stardate 2272.548: Our capture of the R-KR Hawk should be a decisive battle on this front. Rear Admiral Taylor has informed me that High Command was very impressed with my actions, and I may be promoted shortly. Our researchers should quickly be able to find further weaknesses in the R-KR model. This advantage should allow us to push all the way to Remus! The war should be over by Christmas...

There's nothing quite like kicking your enemies' butts all over the shop.

Lessons Learnt

• Mines rock. They are a must-have against cloaked ships
• Know your enemy
• Photon torpedoes should always be overloaded for the inital strike... if you can afford it, that is.
• Klingon ships suck. Their rear shields are proportionally the lowest in the game, making them hella abusable.
• Umm... malt liquor is hard to find in space.

Shameless plug: Cocker and Warphead's Strategy and Tactics page