Federation & Empire Q&A Continued

A QUESTION OF SUPPLY
By Nick Blank

QUESTION: There is a devastated enemy planet in a hex with one of my ships. My ship doesn't have to leave or fight since the Residual Defense Factor is no longer a "unit" under the (sloppily written) rules. There are enemy ships (friendly to the planet) in a hex adjacent to the planet. Can the planet supply ships in an adjacent hex?

ANSWER: The supply path would be opened to the adjacent ships by those same adjacent ships. See (411.32).

QUESTION: A ship is out of supply at the beginning of its phasing turn. It says in (410.31) that the movement rate is reduced by 50%. Does this mean for the entire turn, or only the phase for which it is out of supply? In other words, if a ship is out of supply, but gets itself into a battle, eligible to retrograde, and retreats to a hex that is in supply for that ship, can he retrograde his full 100% or only 50%.

ANSWER: Yes, you can retrograde the full distance. The reason is you are really just out of supply until the next supply check. As you can see (410.24), you get to check for supply in the Retrograde step, and any ship in supply at that point can retro the full amount, regardless of status prior to the retrograde phase.

QUESTION: The Kzintis are being overrun. The Marquis is cut off from the main grid. Province 1503 is unoccupied by anyone and will produce one EP for the Kzinti this turn. The question is, does the EP go to the capital grid in 1401 or to the partial grid based on the starbase in 1704? There are Kzinti ships in 1401 and Coalition ships in 1701, 1502, and 1504. It is the Kzinti preference that hex 1503 (and subsequently the province) is linked to 1401 through 1402. It is the Klingon preference that the supply path through 1503 is blocked by the Coalition ships in 1502 and 1504, forcing the EP back to the Marquis grid.

ANSWER: Rule (430.12) says one hex of the province must be linked to the supply grid to get the income. The presence of Kzinti ships in 1401 opens supply to hex 1503 so you could collect the income in the capital grid. Rule (411.1) says that the supply path does not include the hex in question, only hexes from that point and including the hex containing the supply point. So for hex 1503 the supply path is 1402-1401. This is a valid supply path, so that province can be connected to the capital grid and the Kzintis can Email the money there.