Each month, AOG will continue the Ship of the Month concept with a control sheet for Fleet Action use. This will usually be a preview of a unit appearing in a forthcoming product, and will almost always be a playtest design. If this is the case, the point cost and ship stats shown will not necessarily be correct, and their systems and armament are subject to change without notice. If you have any comments regarding a Fleet Action Ship of the Month, send email to Agent One, the NEW Fleet Action designer!
This month, to prove to you that we're still supporting the Fleet Action product line, we're providing the six original Pak'ma'ra ships from League-1 plus a special bonus, the ever-popular Thar'not'ak Plasma Cruiser.
One problem the Pak'ma'ra face (on the racial level) is a lack of effective command and control. Their largest and most capable ship, the Pshul'shi Dreadnought, has a command rating of 10, and it is an uncommon unit. Other Pak'ma'ra vessels have a difficult time fielding significant numbers in their squadrons. This, combined with their difficulty scoring damage at range, is a serious disadvantage.
The various Pak'ma'ra plasma weapons require no special rules other than what will be intuitively obvious from the weapon statistics on the control sheets. The Dual Plasma Stream operates just like a standard Plasma Stream except for the heightened range and damage. The Pak'ma'ra have only two systems that actually require their own rules (below).
This is a specialized defensive weapon similar in many ways to interceptors. It is designed mainly to target fighters, however. The defense rating of the ship is increased by the level of Plasma Webs against fighters, or half the level of webs against ships (drop any fraction). For example, a Pak'ma'ra ship wth a defense rating of 14 and a Plasma Web level of 3 would treat this as a defense of 11 against fighters and 13 against ships.
Loss of a "W" in the ship's Structure track destroys one level of Plasma Web defense (before halving), so if the above ship lost one web level, its defense rating would be 12 against fighters and 13 against ships.
Pak'ma'ra ships include special batteries that store unused plasma energy. During any turn, a ship can utilize one or more battery points for additional maneuvers. The effect is to make the ship act as though it temporarily had more boxes on one maneuver track. Adding a box to the turn, course correct, max accel, or max decel tracks costs one plasma battery point, while adding a box to the hard turn track costs two points, and a box on the come about track costs three points. The effect lasts the entire turn whether their increased capabilities are used or not. Note that the ship does not actually have the boxes for purposes of damage, only for maneuvering! They do not add extra "hit points" on the tracks.
Plasma batteries are slowly restored over the course of a battle. If a ship does not use any batteries on a given turn, one point is restored at the end of that turn. Use the "Notes" area to keep track of battery status. Battery levels can never be restored over their original values.
Trouble reading the details on the files below? You can download PDF versions of these ships (in a single ZIP file). Note: You need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to read a PDF file. Click here for a free download!
