Federation Commander

[Kang]

Yeah, fair enough. I suppose also that the drone will be on the ship card by then anyway.....
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[Kang]

[Mike]

That's how it seems to me, too.

Tractored ships can't be rotated, but the tractoring ship can rotate either by turning or high energy turn.

[Scoutdad]

That is correct and has been used to good advantage by our players several times.

Fire everything that bears... the target burns all power to reinforce (since nothing else bears)
Grab him in a tractor... nothing else bears, so "oh well. At least I'll have power to reinforce before his weapons recycle next turn..."
Tractoring ship turns... tractored ship in now in a different arc...
New weapons bear... no power to reinforce... Oh, darn!!!
hehehe.
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Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF

[Kang]

[Kang]

Now for another tractor question. Is this allowed: to establish a tractor beam, then drop it again, all in the same Other Functions Phase?

This might happen if I had a 'victim' ship in an enemy tractor, I then tractor either my own ship with more power than the enemy ship thus breaking the tractor, or I tractor the enemy ship with more power than his tractor - and (5D5c) [Briefing #1] says in essence that a tractored ship cannot itself tractor another ship.

Basically, whether I tractor my ship or the enemy ship, if I apply sufficient power, the enemy beam onto my victim ship will be broken - but I may not want to keep that new tractor link either to my ship or to the enemy one.

So, once the enemy beam is broken, can I then drop my beam immediately in the same Other Functions Phase?
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[mjwest]

Yes, you may apply a tractor beam and then subsequently drop it all in the same Other Functions Phase.

Using a tractor to engage in a tractor auction with the specific intent of breaking another tractor beam is a valid use.

Do note that this counts as the use of that tractor for that turn. So, if that was your only tractor, you have to wait until next turn to use it again.
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Federation Commander Answer Guy

[Kang]

This leads me to another question, this time about tractor auctions.

The rules for tractor auctions state that if the tractored player pays his single token for negative tractor, the tractoring player 'must match this' or lose the tractor link.

If, then, I tractor a ship and pay one energy point for the tractor beam, and the tractored ship pays one energy point to break it, is the beam broken?

It appears, then, that if the negative tractor equals the beam strength, the beam is broken.

In other words, therefore, the beam strength has to be more than, not simply equal to, the negative tractor energy, in order to remain a functioning tractor link.

Is that right?
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[Davec_24]

The ambiguity is in the part where it says "...match this...". It seems tome to be unclear what you have to "match". Do you have to match or exceed the negative tractor in total energy used (i.e. including the one point you paid to establish the tractor), in which case one point of negative tractor would not break a beam? Or do you have to match the negative tractor bid for bid, excluding the first point of energy you paid to establish the beam as this was done before the "bidding process" bagan, in which case one point of negative tractor would not break the beam?

The way the rule is phrased seems to me like the tractoring player must match the "bid" of the negative tractor. The question is if the energy point used to start tractoring counts as a "bid" for these purposes. I would have said it makes sense to say the tractoring ship has to end up paying more energy overall than the tractored ship, i.e. including that first energy point into the total, he must *exceed* the amount paid for negative tractor (and so he would "match" the amout used for negative tractor in terms of his energy "bid"). That would be my take on the idea, anyway.

[OGREAI]

I also read it that way.

The Tractoring ship must MATCH the negative tractoring bids (so they would cancel each other out) so that the ONE point of power to start the tractor would win out

example

Player A tractors Player B (1-0) (Player A - Player B power)
Player B bids 1 point Negative Tractor (1-1)
Player A "matches" Player B's bid (2-1)
Player B bids 1 more negative tractor (2-2)
Player A "matches" again (3-2)

etc...

as long as Player A keeps "matching" player B, then he will have paid more power, and thus keeps the tractor... without having an advantage, the beam fails.


OGRE AI

[Mike]

That's how we play it and how we read it, too.

[Davec_24]

It seems to make sense, in that you would have to have energy left to form the tractor beam after the tractor and negative tractor have cancelled each other out. Continuing from OGREAI's example, if Player A failed to "match" the bid of Player B:

Player A tractors Player B (1-0) (Player A power - Player B power)
Player B bids 1 point of Negative Tractor (1-1)
Player A "matches" Player B's bid (2-1)
Player B bids 1 more negative tractor (2-2)
Player A doesn't "match" the bid, and the link is broken. The overall energy is equal between Players A and B, but Player A's "bid" is less than Player B's "bid" and so the link is broken.

Assuming we're right about this, it might be more clear to think of it as "Player A must spend more energy on creating the tractor than Player B puts into negative tractor".

[Scoutdad]

You guys are correct.

1 point of negative tractor will cancel 1 point of tractor. If it is canceled, then there is no tractor beam connection.

In order to establish a tractor beam to a ship, you must have a 1-point advantage in applied energy.
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Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF

[mjwest]

There are three types of tractor auctions:
1) Ship A tractors Ship B. The tractor auction consists of tractor energy from Ship A and negative tractor energy from Ship B. This is covered by (5D6a). In this case the energy expended by Ship A must exceed the energy expended by Ship B. So, for example, if Ship B has 5 points of energy in negative tractor, Ship A must have 6 points of energy in tractor to retain the tractor link.

2) Ship A and Ship B both try to tractor the same object. The tractor auction consists of tractor energy from both Ships A and B. This is covered by (5D5b). The ship with the higher energy total maintains (or gets) the tractor link. The other ship does not get (or loses) their tractor link. If the energy total is the same, *both* tractor links fail.

3) Ship A tractors Ship B, which is already tractoring Ship C. The tractor auction consists of tractor energy from Ship A, and either tractor or negative tractor energy by Ship B. This is covered by rule (5D5c). If ship A expends more energy than Ship B, then Ship B's tractor is broken, and Ship A has Ship B in a tractor. If Ship B expends as much energy (or more energy) than Ship A, then Ship B's tractor is sustained, and Ship A's tractor attempt fails.

In all cases, any winning tractor maintains all expended energy, for the duration of the turn. So, if a ship has five points of energy in it, and other ship wishes to break it with its own tractor, it has to start a five points of energy, not just one.

In all cases, any negative tractor energy remains for the duration of the turn. For example, a ship uses five points of negative tractor energy, but loses the tractor auction because the tractoring ship uses six points of energy. If the tractoring ship drops the tractor later in the turn, any further attempt to tractor the first ship must start with six points of energy because the ship's negative tractor energy still stands at five points.
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Federation Commander Answer Guy

[Kang]