Geeze, this is Star Wars, not 'combat simulator v 1.12', the Force is ever-present and mysticism infuses everything! Just because your guys have sterelized themselves of the great mysteries of spirituality doesn't mean we have to as well.

Since the Shield of Faith is an approved R&D like a ship is, or a shield, or some new piece of technology, I admit my deployment of it is somewhat assumative. Just like pretty much ALL fleeting is. You assume you have star destroyers, and loyal crews to man them, just like I assume Tynna has it's own fleet defending it, and since the Shield of Faith is a valid, approved technology, I don't see why it would necessarily need any more elaboration then a regular technology. It's development saw some RP action when Regrad went to see it tested, but since no one attacked a Coalition world since it's inception, I've never declared one being there.

I specified in the R&D that those who use it are mostly the force mystics and adepts (note: Certified Mystic) that still exist but aren't being recruited for Jedi Orders any more. However, the R&D also says that anyone who properly 'activates' the crystal will alert the other stations to activate as well, starting the chain reaction. Since Ion had the whole of the defences at his fingertips, not to mention the leader of Tynna himself would want the shields raised, not to mention the mystics are force-sensitive and could possibly detect the danger themselves, not to mention passing through the field carrying the dark side (which, frankly, the Empire attracts wether they want to or not) can be felt by the adepts, I figured it wouldn't be unreasonable that one adept somewhere would start the field.

Oh, and re: boarding - beyond a single, offhand reference to some unnamend NPC 'handling' it, you have made no effort to stop my boarders, instead assuming your NPC forces to be adequete. In other words, your men might have fought, but without you as a writer coordinating them then all they were doing was forming a perimeter. Once I breached that (which you didn't react to, and thus, your men didn't react to) it was simply a matter of hurling a grenade.

Anyways, not be a 'hardass', but you can't withdraw now. You've committed forces to an attack, and you can't just stop the roleplay because you're losing or I'm not fighting in a way you want me to fight. The Coalition gets it's strength where it can find it, and if it finds it in ways you think are mumbo-jumbo or mysticism or dishonourable or whatever, that isn't enough to make me back down.

I renounce the position of your shields - the Astrus is not a VSD and does not enter atmospheres. Your shield - if it exists when the ruling is made - would only deflect bombardment not gnaw off the bow of my ship.

I did not think I had to directly deal with your boarders - I said my npcs handled it - that should be enough given the fact that you are severly outnumbered and are attacking troops in a defensive posture - giving my men two distinct advantages.

I ask for a ruling on the shields. I will reply accordingly. Until the Staff rules on your shields, I will refrain from doing so.

Simply put - if you had shields, would not sense dictate them when an enemy fleet appears immediately???

Akso - the Coalition formation is as stated half to my left flank, half behind, and currently pummelling the rear-most cruiser.

Well, there were two cruisers in the rear, so I assumed we'd be pummeling both of them, and since in my post your formation breaks, I thought at the time we'd have reunited the whole formation.

There's a good reason not to raise the shields immeadietly - namely, we wait until you're so close that you run right into them! The Astrus might be modern technology and all that, but even it must have to at least be in orbit or something to fire and expect to hit a planet. At the least, I'd imagine he'd be close enough to where a regular planetary shield would reach to, which I said this one more or less resembled in shape and size in my R&D, and since I used a grenade (which I still support happened) to cut your engines, I'd assume you'd be unable to maneauver in time to avoid a collision.

As for the NPCs, since this is a writing environment, the point of it is to write about things - so to just assume your soldiers are crushing mine goes against the whole point of writing. Besides, to blow up the reactor, I didn't NEED to fight you that much - I breached your lines, you didn't react, so my men just moseyed on over and lobbed an explosive. You're not allowed to just assume they must have set up a second line of defence!

First off, with regards to the "shield".

Waiting until the Astrus is "about to hit where the shields would be" may sound like a great way to score a victory, but it goes against the very nature of the shield itself. The shield relies on a "mystic sitting on a hill" - who obviously lacks the sophisticated sensors required to know when said ship is "about to hit".

So, in essense, you're saying "we raised our magic shield and it happened to be at just the right moment in time!!!"

Possible? Sure. Plausible? Not really.

Also, the range of the shield is questionable. The SoF is basically your take on the regular shields. As such, and lacking any other statement I saw in the R&D, its range would be similar. This range does not extend into orbit, iirc - it does not protect shipyards, for example. I find it unlikely that a capital cruiser incapable of atmospheric flight would be able to crash into the shield at all, unless it was already out of control and falling into the planet.

Second off, with regards to the boarders:

EVERY TNO vessel is equipped with the Anti-Intrusion System, as described HERE. I believe you know this as you made some mention of cirmunventing its various defences. And from then on pretending it does not evene exist.

Simply put, no matter how heavily armed, moving a team of men safely from one point in an enemy ship to another requires time - more time than you've given, I believe. They have to bypass, in addition to the NAIS, regular defences, soldiers, and blast doors. Unless your method of locating various blaster turrets and ambush points in losing 2-3 troops each, you've got to be moving very, very slowly towards your goal. That, and the grav traps are a part of the ship's floors - that means using your method of a grenade you'd have to destroy every piece of flooring between yourself and the reactor.

Realistically, your soldiers would probably have been caught off guard by the very first grav trap and be on the floor in that section of the vessel still.

Finally, with regards to both the shield and the boarders: not only does the magic shield manage to raise itself at just the right moment, but the boarders conviently make it to the reactor and attack it at the same moment, despite no coordination between the two units, to create the worst case scenario for the Relentless.

That's awfully lucky, I tell you what.

Not to mention that, given the nature of a Star Destroyer reactor core, it is no doubt defended very, very heavily against an accidental explosion anywhere near it. Chucking a thermal detonator in its general vicinity? Please...

Yeah, went too far there Dolash.

You can't sear his ship with your shields... and you haven't had time to make it to the reactor core considering the strength of his defenses. You'll need to edit that down.

Thank you

The point of line ahead is if you are directly fore or aft you can only hit one target thus giving time to the rest. I am a tactician you know. You would hit one cruiser then another, but would have to destroy on to score hits on the other. IF you were in a location at an angle from the aft you would then register hits from the aft and broadside guns on all ships since our batteries have a wide fire-arc.

I will post then accordingly, the first barrage being successful and destroying a city, the second hitting the shields - and the Astrus suffering no damage. I will PR the defense aboard if neccessary.

I don't believe that's completely the case, Telan. I still believe the shield would raise in time to defend the city - that was kind of my point. It rose symbolically to defend the people, their willpower did. If it was that big a deal then I would have risen it sooner - I simply waited until you fired. It wasn't like we couldn't raise it until now, or we forgot it, I was specifically waiting until you fired - think of it as a trigger event. If you don't want to run into it, then sure, go ahead and dodge. If you think your static, unroleplayed defences are enough to stop me, then sure, I'll delay another turn. If you meant that the two at the rear are one after the other, then okay, I'll just blow up one of them at the back. The shield thing though, that I still think you're just trying to get around unfairly. Once that is agreed upon, I'll edit out the crashing thing and tone down my ass-kicking on Telan's ship.

Also, Demo, go away. Jan interruppted and I asked him to go. Now I ask you to go. If Staff want to arbitrate, they can, and if Telan - the other roleplayer in this thread - wants to debate with me, he can, but your arguments are unecessary.

This shield is manned by a man in a cave who would not be able to come until or know the range of the Imperial ships until he would see the shots raining down on a city. So by the time the shield was raised, said city would have registered several hits.

And yes - line ahead means LINE AHEAD. One ship after other unless a different pattern is commanded. That is the point of it - it forces an enemy either dirtectly aft or directly fore to target only one ship.

Staff?

Several hits would be reasonable. Total destruction excessive.

And Telan, your line is not flawless... you don't dart past his fleet as it reforms around and behind in perfect co-ordination. It doesn't happen. Both formations were broken slightly in the shuffle.