Federation Commander Forum Index Federation Commander
A NEW fast paced board game of starship combat!
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Battery questions

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Federation Commander Forum Index -> Rules Questions
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Spacecowboy87
Lieutenant Commander


Joined: 03 Jan 2012
Posts: 209
Location: Colorado

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 2:40 am    Post subject: Battery questions Reply with quote

Woe and Lament. Despite the best efforts of our group leader, I just can't get my head around the battery rules.
A) you use them to reinforce the shields, but the power to do so can come from other sources against multiple volleys?
B) You can use them to preload your weapons before the game even if doing so requires more power than your batteries can generate?
C) A ship with no warp power, 4 impulse points and 4 batteries could move at a baseline speed of 8?
D) According to 1D4, unused power carries over to the next turn up to the number of un-disabled batteries --even if the batteries were not discharged?
How wrong am I? Or worse, how right am I?
_________________
Damn, these dice are cold!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Krellex
Lieutenant Commander


Joined: 30 Sep 2009
Posts: 261
Location: RIS Phoenix

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A) Yes, any source up to the number of undisabled batteries for each volley, as long as you have unspent energy tokens.
B) Yes.
C) Depending on the movement cost, yes. A ship with a move cost of one could move 8 for one turn only, and then would have to move only 4, or spend a turn recharging the batteries.
D) Power carries over only if the batteries have been emptied during the turn, and only up to the number of empty, undisabled batteries you have. i.e. you can never carry over more power than the number of working batteries you have.
_________________
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Scoutdad
Commodore


Joined: 09 Oct 2006
Posts: 4754
Location: Middle Tennessee

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You're almost right.
A) Since energy allocation is pay as you go, if you have unspent power you can use it to reinforce shields against incoming damge, but only up to the number of undamaged battery boxes per volley and only if you have shield boxes remaining in that arc.
Assume the vernerable Fed CA (36 power, 4 batteries and 30 boxes on the #1 shield).
You spend 24 energy for base speed 24 and you've preloaded your photons, leaving you with 12 power.
A D7 fires disruptors at you at range 14 and throws in 3 phaser 1s for good measure. Perfect rolls menas that 21 points hit you. You spend 4 power [leaving 8] to reinforce against the volley so you now have 1 points of damage to deal with.
1 burns through the shields and 16 boxes are disabled, leaving 14 boxes.
Next impulse, his 2 drones strike the #1 shield (you should have turned!) for a combined total of 24 more points. You again reinforce for 4 (leaving 4) and reduce the volley to 20 points. 16 take out the shield and you score 4 internals...and the DAC roll is a four. [the third result is a battery, leaving 3].
Now, along comes a D6 and his drone impacts on teh next impulse.
If it hits the #1 shield, you're SOL. You have no shield boxes, so you can't reinforce. If you could turn to take it on teh #2 shield (which still has 24 boxes) you could reinforce, but only for 3 points as you only have 3 batteries remaining.

B) Yes. Again, assume the vernerable CA. By sacrificing your 4 points of battery power on Turn 1, you can start with 8 points of pre-load power in four Photons.
But this isn't always a good thing... see Commodore Patrick Doyle extensive tactics notes on the subject.

C) Only if you have movement cost one ship, and only if the batteries were charged at the beginning of the turn. In Federaiton Commander, power is power. Generating source does not matter.

D) Remember, power is power. You start the turn with fully charged batteries in your CA (That's 40 points of power - 36 generated and 4 battery). Throughout the turn, you use 32 points, leaving you 8 points during end of turn. It doesn't matter where it came from... you can put 4 of it into the batteries for the next turn.
If you spend 38 points during Turn 2, then you can transfer 2 points into the batteries for turn 3 and begin that turn with 38 total power (36 generated plus 2 batteries charged atthe end of turn 2)

Hope this helps.

[EDIT] Hmmm. Cross posted with Krellex.
_________________
Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Yahoo Messenger
mjwest
Commodore


Joined: 08 Oct 2006
Posts: 4066
Location: Dallas, Texas

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Your primary problem is that you are thinking of batteries in terms of how SFB uses them. In Federation Commander, they work totally different.

At the start of the turn, you figure out how much power you have available that turn. You count all of your non-battery power boxes together, and add in the batteries if they have carried power over from last turn. If this is the first turn, batteries are assumed to have carried power over from "Turn 0". (Subject to the (4C2c) first turn overloads.) Once the power available is determined, it is just "power", regardless of where it came from or how it was stored/generated.

During the turn, your available power is just "power". It doesn't matter where the power "came from". When doing shield reinforcement, you are not using "battery power" (like you would in SFB). Rather, batteries simply serve as the determinant of how much power can be used to reinforce a shield for any given volley. The reinforcement does "come from batteries"; batteries are just the limit for how much reinforcement can be done.

At the end of the turn, batteries allow you to "carry over" power to the next turn. So, if you have four undisabled batteries, you may "carry over" up to four remaining points of power to the next turn. Since batteries cannot generate power, the power has to be present at the end of the turn to carry it over to the next turn. Again, this is a very different mindset from what was done in SFB.

As to the specific questions, ...
Krellex does perfect on A-C. (On B, part of the point is that you are getting "free" energy in the deal.) For D, keep the above in mind on how batteries work.
_________________

Federation Commander Answer Guy
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Spacecowboy87
Lieutenant Commander


Joined: 03 Jan 2012
Posts: 209
Location: Colorado

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 2:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks all. Yes, I figured there was a bit of SFB un-learning to do. It's just one of those things I thought I knew, so I just skimmed over it when I read the rules Rolling Eyes Live and learn. Or in my case die and learn Smile
_________________
Damn, these dice are cold!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Federation Commander Forum Index -> Rules Questions All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group