Link to FEDS post of November 27, 2014 is here

The above provided as a friend of the court.

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - 06:18 pm: Edit

Q503.63 Can an empire not at war send a reserve fleet to a neutral planet that is hosting a Diplomat of the owning empire under (540.25) if the planet is attacked by a neighboring empire subject to (503.633)?

By Jeffrey Tiel (Platoaquinas) on Friday, May 19, 2017 - 08:46 am: Edit

I'm trying to figure out how the neutral zone between the Lyrans and Kzintis affects Kzinti reaction on turn 1 of the general war. If the Lyrans enter the neutral zone hex without having entered Kzinti territory itself, are the Kzintis permitted to react into the neutral zone to engage/pin the Lyrans, or must they wait until Lyran ships actually enter their territory for their fleet to be activated and capable of reacting into the neutral zone on turn 1 of the general war? (601.13) states that available forces (such as Count) may move anywhere within their territory but doesn't specify the neutral zone if the Lyrans don't attack. But (601.2) states that if the Lyrans don't "attack," the Kzintis may. So, perhaps the first question is whether the Lyrans entering the neutral zone itself constitutes an act of war which releases Count to react into the neutral zone? And second, if the answer to the first question is no, does the (601.2) rule allowing a Kzinti attack mean that whether or not the Lyrans enter Kzinti territory, the Kzintis may "attac,k" meaning, engage any Lyran unit within their reaction range anyhow--to include the neutral zone. And third, if the Lyrans haven't even entered the neutral zone yet, could a Lyran ship moving to its neutral zone bordering hex within range two of a Kzinti BATS with Counts Fleet sitting on it enable a Kzinti reaction into the neutral zone before any Lyran units have entered that zone?

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Friday, May 19, 2017 - 11:55 am: Edit

Jeffrey:

If Lyran units upon entering the L-Z neutral zone do not immediately give themselves up for internment, then a state of war exist between the two empires and the Kzinti units under (601.2) are immediately released and available to react to the invasion of the L-Z neutral zone.

FEDS SENDS

References:

---

Quote:

(503.41) STATUS: Empires which have not yet entered the War but which are scheduled to do so in the future (or which may in a free scenario) are treated as in (503.1).

(503.42) ENTRY: When (and if) these empires enter the War, any interned allied ships are released and any interned enemy ships are considered immediately and automatically captured (305.0), but the capturing empire can use only Options 2 (305.22), 3 (305.23), 4 (305.24), or 6 (302.26). A released interned carrier could not obtain replacement fighters until the next Retrograde Phase (308.131) or the owning player’s next Production Phase.

================

(503.11) INTERNMENT: Any ship which enters (by any means) either of these areas is “interned” in the first neutral hex they enter until the scenario is over. This means that the ship cannot move or fight for the rest of the game. It is “under arrest” by the border patrol authorities of the neutral state. Neither side is willing to openly attack a neutral empire, as this would force the neutral to join the other side. Interned units have no reaction capability, do not count for blocking non-neutral hexes adjacent to their internment hex, cannot be repaired, and do not count for any other purpose. Interned ships which have not been released count as destroyed for purposes of victory conditions.

---

By Jeffrey Tiel (Platoaquinas) on Sunday, May 21, 2017 - 10:25 am: Edit

Chuck,

Thank you for the answer. One additional question: if the Lyrans are moving along their border but haven't yet entered the neutral zone, then, if the Kzintis were to react into the neutral zone first, they would have to choose internment or declare war. Correct? And they are allowed to declare war because under Turn One scenario rules, they may "attack." But is there any Federation blowback diplomatically to the Kzintis starting the war? Will the Federation still go to limited war in support of the Kzintis, etc.?

By Jeffrey Tiel (Platoaquinas) on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 07:49 am: Edit

Under (521.835) and (521.833), ships in orbit above national guard defended PDUs may "bombard" them with directed damage at a six points each. Can that bombardment collectively damage more than one national guard IGCE per round, and if so, is there a limit to how many?

By Jeffrey Tiel (Platoaquinas) on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 08:17 am: Edit

Are the original FTL units listed under (521.61) as beginning "the scenario in the capital hex" under the release limitations of the Home Fleet? Or are they like the engineer regiments which though listed with the Home Fleets for deployment purposes are according to (541.11) released on the first real "at war" turn?

In keeping with this theme, what other Home Fleet listed units are released separately from the Home Fleet's own release rules? I'm wondering about the theater transports specifically, but also curious about the other auxiliary units?

Finally, (449.2) allows the relevant races to sell one warship per year to the WYN but specifies that there is no requirement to be at war to do this. However, it also requires that the unit sold enter the WYN operationally or through blockade running. So, can the ship sold move operationally or via blockade running into the WYN independently of whether its fleet is released? I realize that in any unreleased fleet six ships are available for anti piracy patrols in their deployment area. But I'm curious whether ships from other fleet deployment zones from other inactive fleets can be sold to the WYN.

By Jeffrey Tiel (Platoaquinas) on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 08:24 am: Edit

Under (449.12) other races may send 4 EP's into the WYN cluster on any turn when they can send a ship able to carry EP's into it. Are allied ships permitted to carry those EP's into the WYN and credit the original races's account since the source of that wealth was the original race? For example, imagine on Turn 18 the Klingons have a series of bases extended all the way to the Romulan capital. A TGB sitting in the Romulan capital volunteers to strategically move four Romulan EP's all the way to the Klingon BATS next to the WYN zone and the following turn carry them into the WYN zone operationally. Will that ship be viewed by the WYN as a "Romulan" or will it seize the ship and intern it if the Klingons already used their trade rights that turn?

By Jeffrey Tiel (Platoaquinas) on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 12:01 pm: Edit

I have a question about the discretion available to a starbase commander under assault by enemy ground ships. Let's say that he has the intrinsic G on his starbase as well as two DDGs in his support echelon for a total of three G factors. I'm assuming that any other G ships in his hex cannot contribute G factors to this battle round unless they are placed in the support echelon. (I'm a bit confused about capital planets and whether all of their G factors are always available because all of their G ships and G auxiliaries are assumed to be in the support echelon, but for this question let's assume the battle is not a capital hex battle.)

Let's further assume that the enemy in this attack is fielding an FTL and other G ships sufficient to generate eight G attacks, many of which are supported by prime teams and a MMG. So, the starbase commander figures that he's likely to suffer more than three casualties and will be forced to take a single SIDS step. Is this commander forced to take casualties on his G factors supplied by the echelon ships and/or the intrinsic starbase G factor? Or can he just accept the first casualty roll as a SIDS step and sidestep the rest of the G-rolls in order to save his G factors for future rounds, since he is planning to direct on G ships and slowly degrade the enemy's capacity to field G factors?

By Jeffrey Tiel (Platoaquinas) on Thursday, May 25, 2017 - 09:05 am: Edit

Am I correctly reading (521.372b) where directing damage on escorted G ships is concerned if I were to say that whereas an escorted carrier cannot be targeted for destruction in a single directed damage attack unless enough points are brought to destroy both the carrier and all its escorts, an escorted G ship can be targeted for destruction in a single directed damage attack so long as enough points are brought only to _cripple_ the escorts and kill the ground ship? So, the idea would be that ground ship escorts need only be crippled to direct killing fire on the ground ship?

By Bill Steele (Bill83501) on Thursday, June 08, 2017 - 05:33 pm: Edit

A question on 450.1, minor shipyards. Does the creation of a Major conversion yard allow you to do the conversion without paying the 5 EP surcharge?

450.11 states that the yard allows you to produce in addition to the production schedule.

By Bill Steele (Bill83501) on Thursday, June 08, 2017 - 05:44 pm: Edit

never mind, just found it buried in 450.12

My bad

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Friday, June 16, 2017 - 07:46 am: Edit

(303.52) Should the ISC DDL be considered under the DW leader rule? The SSD for the DDL replaces the 2 FP Plasma F Torps with Plasma G torps and adds 2 APR to help arm them. See (R13.16).

By Dana Madsen (Dfm330) on Monday, June 19, 2017 - 09:24 pm: Edit

(430.62) Definition of Last Turns Income

Situation, Hydrans have 2 main grids, one is the capital and the other is the off map, they also have a partial grid based on the 2nd Fleet SB. For purposes of the example assume the income in the 3 grids is 33, 19, and 4 respectively.

For purposes of borrowing, how is last turns income calculated.

1) sum of all 3 grids? Ex: 56 points so 11.2
2) sum of 2 main grids? Ex: 52 pts so 10.4
3) capital grid only? 33 points so 10.
4) off map grid only? 19 points so 10.
5) individual borrowing at grids so capital grid borrows 10 and off map grid borrows 10.
6) largest of the two main grids but only 1 grid, so 10.

#5 seems wrong and I only included it for completeness. #6 seems reasonable, but so does #2. There isn't a big difference between the two but I'm curious which is correct. I don't think #1 is correct as partial grids can't use deficit spending so it's reasonable to assume their income isn't included.

By Dana Madsen (Dfm330) on Monday, June 19, 2017 - 10:20 pm: Edit

(447.3) Interest

Related to the above question on separated grids.

Which grid must pay any interest from Advanced Deficit Spending.

Home, Offmap, player's choice, split between the grids proportionally based on share of income?

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar2) on Tuesday, June 20, 2017 - 08:55 pm: Edit

The partial is definitely not able do to ADS. The capital definitely can though I'm not sure if that keeps the offmap from doing ADS as well (though if the OM could, it would borrow independently of the capital and would stay that way until the two grids are joined back together as one grid)...

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Tuesday, June 20, 2017 - 09:04 pm: Edit

I imagine that in such a case, if the capital grid was eliminated, any debt from it would be acquired by the offmap grid.

By Tim Losberg (Krager) on Friday, June 23, 2017 - 10:38 pm: Edit

Do Carriers receive replacement fighters if field repaired?

---

Quote:

(501.542) Carriers which are repaired receive replacement fight- ers as part of the repair step. Carriers and FCRs‡ received from Depot Level Repair‡ (424.31) receive replacement fighters at the same time the carrier is received.

---

By Mike Curtis (Fear) on Saturday, June 24, 2017 - 12:14 am: Edit

Q(501.542) Do Carriers receive replacement fighters if field repaired? Does (501.542) consider field repair as a repair step?

R(501.542) There can be two trains of thought on this, one is that Field Repair is not the “Repair” step which is step 2A of the SOP and not step 7 of the SOP. The other hand is that it is a repair phase after combat is over using dedicated repair, although twice as expensive, to bring a unit back to combat effectiveness. We, as a staff, have met and decided that baring any overruling by ADB, that Step 7 of the SOP, Field Repair does indeed give a carrier replacement fighters up to its full value once repaired as long as the carrier is in the grid that the free fighters are drawn from for that empire. Note, this does not include Combat Repair (425.30) which is during combat situations and is just a patchwork to get a ship back into the battle and there is no time to get fighters to the carrier unless other means are specified in the rules are used.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Monday, June 26, 2017 - 04:20 pm: Edit

Q(441.31) Upgrades of PGB to PDU. Rule states that an LTT can carry one planetary fighter base and a Tug can carry two. How many theater transports are required?

I think it's clear two theater transports can carry one but can could three carry two planetary fighter bases?

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Wednesday, June 28, 2017 - 12:46 pm: Edit

Q507.21 Can a ship that has been repaired by field repair (422.0) be part of a reserve fleet (507.0) provided it meets all other requirements under (507.21)? (204.311) allows a crippled ship that has been repaired in the field repair phase to use strategic movement provided that it has not moved previously and that it counts against the free strategic movement limit.

Unless overruled by ADB, it is clear that an eligible unit that has been repaired by field repair (422.0) can be part of a reserve fleet (507.0) provided it meets all other requirements under (507.2). The requirements for reserve forces under (507.2) lists movement restrictions for ONLY operational, Retrograde, and retreat; there is no prohibition for using ANY type of STRATEGIC movement including an empire's free allotment OR paid allowance for strategic movement.

---

Quote:

(507.2) REQUIREMENTS

(507.21) ELIGIBLE SHIPS: A force designated as a Reserve cannot have moved by Operational or Retrograde Movement, nor can it have retreated, during that Player Turn.

(507.22) LIMITED SIZE: It must have a flagship (302.32) capable of controlling the entire fleet as a Battle Force. Command Points, admirals, and drone ships cannot be used in establishing the size of a Reserve; scouts (308.53), carrier battle groups (502.92), and Battle Groups‡ (Advanced Operations) can be used.

---

By Jeffrey Tiel (Platoaquinas) on Wednesday, June 28, 2017 - 04:30 pm: Edit

I've been under the impression that it is never possible in F&E to field a battleforce that includes two CVA/SCS units at once. But does the Federation Third Way rule 502.93 allow this? Or does that rule apply to 502.92 which specifically disallows two CVA/SCS in a single CVBG? Finally, could one use 502.93 and the heavy SWAC fighter control role to field two CVA/SCS?

By Byron Sinor (Bsinor) on Wednesday, June 28, 2017 - 04:55 pm: Edit

Good question! The rule that indicates that the attrition unit limit is increased to 4 squadrons is in a separate rule number from the CVGBs rules and has its own title, FIGHTER LIMIT:. This does imply its is a separate rule within the Third Way, the same as (502.91) BASES: is separate from the use of CVBGs and doesn't require a CVBG to be used. My assessment would be the limit of fighters squadrons is increased (and an independent fighter squadron as the 4th squadron does not take a command slot) regardless of whether the Federation battle force is using a CVBG or not. As a result, you could, for instance, field two separate CVA groups without using a CVBG and utilize all of the fighter factors. Of course, you can do that before the Third Way, too, you just had to sacrifice the compot of 1 fighter squadron.

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Wednesday, June 28, 2017 - 07:57 pm: Edit

The rule is very clear regarding CVBGs:

---

Quote:

(502.921) These included two carriers, each with the normal number of escorts. (This could include single-ship carriers with newly assigned escorts. All ships in a CVBG must be Federation.) No more than one of these carriers could be a CVA or SCS. Once a CVBG is formed, it cannot be disbanded until the end of the Combat Phase.

---

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Wednesday, June 28, 2017 - 08:01 pm: Edit

One should also note that the Fed SCS has three fighter squadrons; see SIT.