Ask Admiral Growler Continued
by Mike filsinger

Follow-up Question: As a secondary question, the restriction of "These would always be "home territory" . . ." would seem to prevent Orions from using phaser-Gs on escorts as no Orion Cartel has a Home Territory of Hydran space?

ANSWER: You are correct that it appears that Orion escorts could never use phaser-Gs, since no cartel has Hydran space as a home territory. Note that in some cases phaser-Gs have appeared on Orion escorts in Battle Force articles, and this was an oversight, i.e., Steve Petrick missed the line about the restriction to "Home Territories in (R8.R7), and apologizes saying it will never happen again. It is further noted that ADB, inc., can in perusing the historical record determine that some Orion ship operating as an escort did in fact have phaser-Gs.

Follow-up Question: Annex #7G: Under "Store" column, some of the units just say "rule". What does this refer to?

ANSWER: It is referring to you to the ship description (or rule) for that unit where-in specific information is found that did not allow for simply listing the number of seeking weapons in storage. The storage for an HDW is going to vary depending on the number of fighters it will operate for example.

Shawn Perry asks: Do non-true carriers have to follow (S8.312)? As an example, could you field a Hydran Lancer without any fighters and be (S8.0) legal?

ANSWER: Hydran hybrid carriers are considered true carriers for this (and most other) purpose [(R9.R4) and (J4.623)]. Casual carriers (mostly carrier escorts) are another story.

Robert Gamble asks: Rule (J.4831) (last sentence): At WS-III, a fusion capacitor would still be holding one charge, the other being on the fighter. Should the word 'charge' be replaced by 'reload'? I.e., each fusion fighter box holds eight fusion charges, constituting two reloads. It has been fully loaded with fusion charges (four, not the one the rule as written states) and there is one reload left (four charges, not the one that the rule states).

ANSWER: Your interpretation is correct. Since "charge" has a specific meaning (different from the obvious intent of the rule), it should state "reload" instead of "charge".

Follow-up Question: Each Fusion charge reload is half a deck crew operation. This means that one deck crew can load one fusion charge in 16 impulses, two fusion charges in 32 impulses. It also means that the two deck crews that can work on a fighter can rearm the fighter completely in 32 impulses. Two deck crews could also supply a fighter with two fusion charges in 16 impulses, no problems there.

How about loading the hellbores? It takes one deck crew operation to reload a hellbore. Is it specifically possible for two deck crews to work on reloading one individual weapon, thus halving the time, i.e., have a hellbore equipped fighter turned around in 16 impulses? Rule (J.4823)'s example (loading a type-I drone) indicates this is possible in general terms but since it only appears under drones it might be a specific case. Nowhere in the Deck Crew rules is it stated that a deck crew operation can be converted to a half operation if two deck crews work on the same operation.

ANSWER: (J4.817) says: "Deck crew activities are expressed in terms of "deck crew actions" (also known as "deck crew activities" or "deck crew operations"), each being the equivalent of the work done by one deck crew for one entire turn." Rule (J4.8172) allows no more than two deck crews to work on one fighter [this is modified in the (J10.0) and (J14.0) rules]. Rule (J4.8173) says: "The relationship between an "action" and a particular type of ordnance is defined within the various rules below." A hellbore requires one deck crew action (J4.834), whether that action is one deck crew over 32 consecutive impulses, or two deck crews over 16 consecutive impulses is irrelevant.

Tos Crawford asks: An A-10M with one photon charge is sitting in a bay with an empty A-10 ready rack (not mega) on Impulse #N.

Impulse #N+1 the Captain diverts two power to charge the photon in the ready rack.

Impulse #N+2 the Captain completes the charging of the photon in the ready rack.

Can the A-10M start loading the photon on Impulse #N+2 or must it wait for Impulse #N+3?

ANSWER: Photon torpedoes are loaded in fighter ready racks by the same procedure as normal photons, i.e., they require two turns of arming (J4.852). Your scenario is simply not possible with photon torpedoes, as they require that the second turn of arming be energy allocated during energy allocation. There is no procedure to load two "partial" photon charges onto a fighter and combine them into one photon torpedo.

Assuming that it was a disruptor (or fusion) charge, rule (H7.133) says that the power to do this is sent during the Shuttle Launch Step, which precedes the Deck Crew Actions Step, so a disruptor (or fusion) charge could begin loading on the same impulse the reserve power was allocated.

Follow-up Question: Is loading the reload photon on an A-10M from an A-10 rack considered a double action (J4.892) taking two deck crew actions or would this still be considered a single action? Is it correct that loading a ready rack with an energy weapon takes zero deck crew actions?

ANSWER: It would depend on which torpedo is being loaded. The normal A-10 tube, or the extra holding bay provided by the pack. If the normal tube, there is no difference between an A-10 and an A-10M. If the extra holding bay, then the A-10 ready rack is not configured for that and the actions to accomplish the task are doubled under (J4.892). This is no different than the example in (J16.111) where loading the standard rails of an F-18M from an F-18 rack is not impacted, but loading the added rails of the F-18M is. If the case was a Z-DM being rearmed at a Z-D ready rack, if the charge was to be loaded into the normal disruptor (or fusion) facility of the fighter, there would be no increase in the number of deck crew actions. If the charge was to be loaded into the additional facility added by the mega pack, the number of deck crew actions required is increased as per (J16.111).