Starship Attack Patterns

Alpha Series Maneuvers

Alpha: Star Fleets most basic offensive maneuver, attack pattern Alpha involves a mostly straight on approach to the target with some slight vectoring to the side based on the ship's weapons compliment and the target's movement.

Beta Series Maneuvers

Beta: The ship dives down between two enemy ships, firing at least once at each of them (and hoping they will miss it and hit each other.)

• Beta-2: Approaching the target closely, the ship jinks to the starboard of the target, then dives beneath it to emerge on its port ventral side, firing as it goes.
• Beta-3: The ship makes a broad arc turn around one or more ships, attacking them as it goes.
• Beta-4: The ship climbs steeply, veering to port or starboard, then quickly dives back down, firing at targets as it goes.

Delta Series Maneuvers

Delta: The ship swoops up from underneath a target to attack its vulnerable ventral side.

• Delta-2: The ship swoops over the target from starboard to port, then back again from port to starboard (sometimes diving underneath in the process) firing as it goes.
• Delta-3: The ship dives straight down at, or climbs straight up at, the target, firing forward weapons.
• Delta-4: An all-out, straightforward frontal attack.
• Delta-5: A long, relatively shallow dive to one side of the target (usually whichever way allows the ship to bring the most weapons to bear on the target, or which uses the target ship to provide cover from other ships' attacks).

Echo Series Maneuvers

Echo: The ship banks towards the enemy briefly before banking away, firing short multiple bursts as it does so. If facing multiple enemy ships, the ship can bank towards multiple targets at once or one at a time.

• Echo One-Eight: The ship banks towards one enemy ship at a time, firing three to five second phaser bursts at intervals of less than ten seconds apart. This move is usually used when trying to disable enemy ships.

Kappa Series Maneuvers

• Kappa 0-1-0: From a superior position, the ship arcs down and around its target to port, firing as it goes.
• Kappa 0-2-0: The ship flies on a carefully-calculated arc through a battlefield, firing at multiple targets.

Lambda Series Maneuvers

Lambda: A simple maneuver in which the ship banks away from the most dangerous enemy ship on the field in an effort to put distance or other objects between the ship and the enemy in order to regroup or escape.

• Lambda-2: The ship banks and dives away towards the closest celestrial object or ship in order to escape.
• Lambda-3: The ship turns towards the enemy ship and charges at its maximum sublight speed, firing all forward weapons as it closes on the enemy and passes. After passing the enemy, the ship can either jump to warp or attempt to flee at sublight speed while the enemy ship turns to en-engage.

Omega Series Maneuvers

Omega: As the ship approaches the target head-on, it jinks to one side and dives steeply from one end of it to another.

• Omega-2: The ship rolls from one side to the other, giving its weapons maximum exposure so the Tactical officer can attack several targets.
• Omega-3: The ship veers back and forth across the battlefield like a darting swallow, attacking vulnerable targets.
• Omega-4: Maneuver may only be used by ships which have four or more weapons (of any type) which they can bring to bear on a single target. The ship swoops over or past the target at reasonably close range, firing all available weapons in a multiple weapon attack.

Sierra Series Maneuvers

Sierra: The ship swoops in from an aft dorsal angle to attack the target from behind.

• Sierra-2: While seeming as if it will pass by a particular target, the ship turns to face it head-on and attacks.
• Sierra-3: The ship flies through the heart of a battle, jinking back and forth to avoid enemy attacks as it fires at choice targets.
• Sierra-4: The ship comes up from beneath the target(s) and loops up and over it/them.

Theta Series Maneuvers

Theta: A long-standing favorite of many of Star Fleet's more daring officers, the Theta attack pattern works best when the ship is outnumbered by at least three to one. The ship flies amidst its enemies, jinking (and even rolling) so that it can use as many of its weapons on as many targets as possible. It works best for Fighters, Escorts, and other small ships.

Other Maneuvers

• Approach Maximum Aspect: The ship approaches its target from an angle which gives it the most possible surface space to fire at (with Star Fleet ships, that usually means from directly above or below, but it varies from ship to ship.
• Circumvention Attitude : This maneuver requires two or more ships. To use it, the ships surround a single target on as many sides as possible, attacking it from every angle and cutting off any attempts to escape.
• Cochrane Deceleration : The ship decelerates suddenly, allowing the enemy to pass so it can fire forward weapons.
• Passive Lure Ship: "plays dead," pretending to be a derelict or too badly damaged to function. The Conn makes an Opposed Test using Shipboard Systems (Sensors) against any enemy vessel who scans it trying to find out how badly hurt it is.
• Picard Maneuver: Developed by Captain Jean-Luc Picard in 2355 when he commanded the U.S.S. Stargazer, the Picard Maneuver only works against a single target using only lateral sensors, since it relies on a starship's ability to move at faster than light velocities without the other ship realizing where it's gone. The ship must start out sufficiently far enough from its target that it takes more than five seconds for light to reach the target (since light moves at 1,500,000 km). The ship makes a micro warp burst, thus moving from its current position to one much closer to the target before the target realizes that the ship has moved (since the ship travels faster than the light from its previous position). The ship drops out of warp and fires on the target, hopefully inflicting grievous damage before it realizes what's happened.
• Riker Maneuver: Developed by Commander William Riker in battle against the Son'a in 2375, the Riker Maneuver may only be performed in regions of space filled with dangerous, combustible substances such as metreon gas. The ship passes through the gas, collecting it with its Bussard Ramscoops. It then flushes the ramscoops, projecting the gas back towards pursuers or forward toward an approaching enemy ship. The enemy's attacks, or a quick phaser blast from the ship, ignite the gas, causing an explosion which damages the enemy ship.
• Scraping: This maneuver allows a ship to temporarily knock another ship's thrusters offline. To perform it, a ship must have active shields and brush up against the target ship, which must also have active shields.
• Talluvian Maneuver: This maneuver is a flexible one designed to maneuver a ship so that its most powerful phasers are brought to bear on the target for as long as possible. It works best with ships which have large phaser arrays, like the Fearless-class Heavy Cruisers. The ship flies above or below its target (depending on whether the phaser array is ventral or dorsal) in a diagonal pattern which allows it to fire its phaser and keep it locked on the target in continuous fire mode.