Tholians are difficult to deal with, the web is very effective. Just running into a few Tholians at WS 3 can be very memorable.

By Charles Carroll (Carroll) on Monday, April 23, 2018 - 07:46 pm: Edit

Steve it does say that...the problem I was having...and still sort of do...is the meaning of BE...as in cannot Be tractored...could mean you cannot now apply a tractor. Or...it could mean a tractor that has someone, since it is not being attached is still there but no other tractors can be applied.

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Monday, April 23, 2018 - 07:54 pm: Edit

I hate tractor rules, but I love Charles.
We all need to thing this through. Not all Xs and Ys can determine the Zs in our lives.

By Francois Lemay (Princeton) on Monday, April 23, 2018 - 08:21 pm: Edit

Thanks SPP.
I think I understand it now, hopefully, perhaps..... :>)
To recap,
The Thol CA declares Anchor status [ even though its a globular web which is already anchored ] and the previously attached tractor is immediately broken, die rolls are made and the Tholian crew are all happy as there were no casualties other then a minor bump on the #1 shield, CA resumes to speed 21 and Pel CC to speed 30.
Thols CA is in a web hex and Pel CC just outside of it.
As long as the CA stays in a web hex, it has Anchor status but if it moves to a hex with no web, it has to involuntarily drop the Anchor status.

Question ?
Can it declare Anchor Status again when it re-enters a web hex after leaving a web hex even if it is within 8 imps of the 1st declaration ?

Thanks so much for your time SPP !
Cheers
Frank

By Marc Michalik (Kavik_Kang) on Monday, April 23, 2018 - 10:32 pm: Edit

Charles, as SPP said, it doesn't actually specifically state that adopting anchor status breaks the tractor beam. What he is saying is that since a ship that is serving as an anchor cannot be tractored the "inevitable interation" is that the instant a ship becomes a valid anchor point all tractor links are broken. Because a ship serving as an anchor cannot be tractored.

By Charles Carroll (Carroll) on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 - 03:06 am: Edit

Frank...the rules state that he cannot change status voluntarily for 8 imp. Also the first time he moves and fails to perform one of the required exceptions he loses anchor status. So next imp he should lose status. Can he declare again if he enters or stays in a web? Yes indeed. In 8 impulses from his last change....which will occur when he moves. An involuntary change is also a change. So 8 imp after his move next imp. He could become an anchor again. Which shouldn't be an issue in your game.

By Charles Carroll (Carroll) on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 - 03:09 am: Edit

Marc one thing else I had a discussion about on this...was that the Web is part of the Tractor technology. And as such when you become an anchor the reason you cannot be tractored is you effectively have the entire strength of the web as negative tractor energy. No ship has enough power to over come that usually. Not sure it applies in all circumstances but that certainly makes sense.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 - 12:56 pm: Edit

Charles Carroll:

Does not apply because rule (G10.1163) says an anchor cannot be tractored "even in a zero strength web (G10.24)." So it is not a case of all of the energy in the web acting as negative tractor. If you adopt web anchor status (which requires your ship to be Tholian, crewed by Tholians, and not have dropped anchor status less than eight impulses ago) in a zero strength web, you still have anchor status.

By Charles Carroll (Carroll) on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 - 05:06 pm: Edit

Steve Petrick:

Yeah I also saw that. It was just an interesting conversation about Web in general. It is kind of like a number of things that only some of the normal stuff works for. Like being docked to a base. You cannot be dragged. Just certain things seem to fit. But the reason is obvious for the web anchor. If you could just grab and run off with him...the web is dead. So there needed to be a way to make sure it didn't happen. Does it make perfect sense? Maybe not. But it is good enough.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Thursday, May 10, 2018 - 05:27 pm: Edit

A tug starts the turn next to a planet and drops a pod. Then Tractors the pod (turn1). It then at start of next turn rotates the pod into the atmosphere.(turn2) At the beginning of turn 3 the Pod is now on the planet?

If there was no atmosphere would the pod be rotated down to the moon/asteroid start of turn 2?

I am reading it that way but would like it confirmed.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, May 10, 2018 - 06:30 pm: Edit

Gregory S. Flusche:

That is what (P2.442) says.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Thursday, May 10, 2018 - 06:47 pm: Edit

Gregory,

(P2.411) for units landing no atmosphere skip steps #1 and #2

(P2.442) tractor lowering, I would think with out the atmosphere the first rotation can lower the object to the planetary surface.

(P2.421) In the case of planets without an atmosphere, the turn of "climbing" or "descending" is skipped.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Thursday, May 10, 2018 - 06:52 pm: Edit

Gregory, I was writing when SPP sent in the answer.

All good

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Thursday, May 10, 2018 - 08:49 pm: Edit

Cool now to hope for a asteroid are moon

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Thursday, May 10, 2018 - 09:23 pm: Edit

No, Greg, I believe asteroids and moons are different in the game-terms.


Garth L. Getgen

By Richard Wells (Rwwells) on Friday, May 11, 2018 - 04:47 pm: Edit

A number of rules applicable to moons also apply to asteroids like (P2.421). (P2.44) is one that only applies to planets and moons not asteroids even though asteroids seem like candidates for it since I can't find any way to place a ground base on an asteroid.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Friday, May 11, 2018 - 04:59 pm: Edit

not a base just a pod and the one i am thinking of has a base already on it.. so is big enough by the scenerio to land the pod on. Mind you it could be a planet and ah well

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar2) on Friday, May 11, 2018 - 06:11 pm: Edit

Base on asteroids - see (P3.4)...

By John Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Saturday, May 26, 2018 - 10:54 pm: Edit

Drogues.

During a recent game, a question came up. One of my ships retracted a drogue (specifically a Hydran weapons drogue). However, a few impulses later the same ship wanted to re-deploy the drogue as not all of the phasers were fired. There was a need to do this.

We had different interpretations regarding if this could be done in the same turn.

One opinion was that a drogue can only be deployed once per turn.

My opinion was that it can be deployed again. My thinking was that the tractor tether has power for the entire turn, thereby allowing it.

We could not find a definitive answer in the drogue rules.

So, can a drogue be deployed more than once in a turn?

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Sunday, May 27, 2018 - 09:50 am: Edit

John Stiff:
This may help, Drogues Operation,

(G34.212)A drogue can be deployed in the shuttle launch step, counting as a shuttle launch. A drogue can be recovered (pulled back inside the ship and locked to its platform) as a shuttle landing operation.
A drogue cannot be landed back aboard earlier than the fourth impulse after it was launched, e.g., launch on impulse #4, recover no sooner than impulse #8.

Tractor-Tether,
(G34.221) In an exception to normal tractor operations, if a tractor-tether is released or destroyed, the designated point of energy could be used to operate a different tractor-tether on the same ship during later impulses of the same turn.

By Joseph Bruni (Jbruni) on Sunday, May 27, 2018 - 06:54 pm: Edit

What was the batch of changes from Rev 0 to Rev 1 of the 1983 Commander's edition? Was it mostly typos?

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Sunday, May 27, 2018 - 07:50 pm: Edit

Joseph Bruni,
I cannot answer completely, many changes were made from the original 1979 edition that became the Commanders Edition (1983,1984, and 1985).

Then doomsday (1987) became the Captains Edition (1990, 1991 and on to the fourth printing 2005 based on the Master Rulebook.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - 04:15 pm: Edit

John Stiff asked on Saturday, May 26, 2018

Drogues.

During a recent game, a question came up. One of my ships retracted a drogue (specifically a Hydran weapons drogue). However, a few impulses later the same ship wanted to re-deploy the drogue as not all of the phasers were fired. There was a need to do this.

We had different interpretations regarding if this could be done in the same turn.

One opinion was that a drogue can only be deployed once per turn.

My opinion was that it can be deployed again. My thinking was that the tractor tether has power for the entire turn, thereby allowing it.

We could not find a definitive answer in the drogue rules.

So, can a drogue be deployed more than once in a turn?


ANSWER: Drogues are deployed from shuttlebays and functionally (although tethered) themselves a form of shuttle in such a case. As per (J1.52) it can be launched ONCE per turn, and landed ONCE per turn, and within a turn it cannot be launched within a quarter turn (whether within a turn, or over a turn break) within eight impulses of having been landed.

So if the drogue was deployed during the current turn, it cannot be redeployed until the following turn.

If it was deployed in a previous turn, it can (after the eight impulse delay) be re-deployed on the current turn.

In short, if deployed during Turn #1 and landed during Turn #1 it cannot be deployed again during Turn #1.

If deployed during Turn #1 and landed during Turn #2, and eight impulses (a quarter turn) have passed, it can be redeployed.

If redeployed during a turn [and after the four impulse delay between deployment and operation has passed (G34.17)] it can fire and or launch any remaining weapons eligible to be fired that turn (not fired prior to its having been recovered), just as if a fighter landed and then took off again during the turn [note that the restrictions on fighters are longer than on drogues (J1.34)].

By Francois Lemay (Princeton) on Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - 06:25 pm: Edit

Dragon rules clarification.
Re Sm7.4653, tail defence.
Says tail can engage up to 3 targets in same hex, if there is only 1 target, can the tail attack it 3 times ?

Re SM7.468, Mother dragon moving up to 3 hexes per impulse, is this the impulse the dragon is scheduled to move or is it every impulse even if the dragon does not move ?

Also re this rule, if the ship is behind the young dragons instead of in between, would this provoke the mother dragon to move 3 hexes an imp until it attacks the ship ?

Also, does the mother dragon still move towards the ship even though the ship may actually get out from in between the young dragons and mother or does she stop and resume normal movement ?

Thanks.
Cheers
Frank

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Wednesday, May 30, 2018 - 06:21 am: Edit

Having a look at the dragon rules I think with SM7.4653 the dragon tail is a monster close in defence, in E6.31 MCIDS cannot fire at a single target more than once per impulse.

(SM7.468) Direct line is defined as being on the same hex row and between the mother and the baby or being closer to the baby than the mother at any time the ship is between the mother and the baby but not on the same hex row.

If a ship is in a direct line between a young dragon and its mother, the mother dragon will immediately move at a speed of three hexes per impulse to enter the ships hex and attack it, then resume normal operations.