The Residual Defense Factor (RDF), previously knows as the Residual Defense Unit (RDU) has been an annoying little rule for a very long time. The fact that it needed to have it's name changed from RDU to RDF I believe just confirms that point. And at the end of the day, the RDF really does not serve any purpose, it simply exists.

What I am proposing is to remove the RDF altogether and instead have Liberated Planets "heal" so many Devastation point per Player turn. I was thinking they would heal 3 points per owing Player Turn, but only if they were part of the Supply Grid at the start of the turn. If they were in a Partial Grid, they would still heal, as long as they started the turn under the original owners control.

This would still take 4 complete turns for a planet to recover, so the timetable for Recovery does not change, just on the 4th turn it would only heal one point of damage instead of 3. And in order to re-devastate the planet, the total amount of damage healed would need to be inflicted on the planet again. This would start out low, but become harder over time as the planet recovered. This would also allow the defender to re-devastate the planet if they desired. Hospital Ships would instead allow the planet to heal additional points on top of the base 3. They could grant a +2, just to keep the numbers in line for halving the recovery time. And of course Annexed planets would be considered owned by the annexing player in these instances.

By Nick Blank (Nickgb) on Friday, February 14, 2020 - 03:52 pm: Edit

I don't want yet another thing to track turn by turn. I think the RDF is fine and easy to understand. All it means is that you must send something with at least a compot of 1 to capture a planet with an RDF.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, February 14, 2020 - 06:49 pm: Edit

No