Jessica is, indeed, correct.

Frank:

Glad yuo figured it out.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, September 02, 2026 - 03:58 pm: Edit

My computer is driving me insane, that is the current explanation for it. Sigh.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Thursday, September 03, 2026 - 11:32 am: Edit

SPP? You have my full sympathy with your computer problems. Mine would drive me crazy as well, if I weren't already there...

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Thursday, September 03, 2026 - 01:44 pm: Edit

SPP, Jessica
Thank you both for helping me out.
I do appreciate it very much !

Thanks again.

Cheers
Frank

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Thursday, September 03, 2026 - 07:13 pm: Edit

Question re a Starfish drone.
A Starfish drone does not get a chance to unload its ADDs [launched too late in error] but does impact on the drone target it is following.
Is the targetted drone destoryed ?

Thanks.

Cheers
Frank

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, September 08, 2026 - 03:02 pm: Edit

Under the provisions of (FD1.56), no. Note this is inferred, not specifically stated in the rules. The Starfish drone is in this case treated as a "null" module and cannot destroy the drone it is tracking.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, September 08, 2026 - 03:04 pm: Edit

Under the provisions of (FD1.56) no, the starfish drone is essentially treated as a "null module".

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Tuesday, September 08, 2026 - 09:10 pm: Edit

Thank you SPP.

Cheers
Frank

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 - 04:03 pm: Edit

Question re Tholian cargo packs attached to Tholian ships.

Does this turn the Tholian ship into a Tug for all intents and purposes or is the ship still a ship but just with cargo packs attached ?

Thanks.

Cheers
Frank

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 - 05:10 pm: Edit

Frank Lemay; I am afraid you will have to be more specific. The Tholian PC with a cargo pack is a Tholian PC with a cargo pack. A Tholian CPC is a kind of tug. But other than that, I do not really understand the question. Can you be a tad more specific?

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 - 10:23 pm: Edit

SPP,
I think you answered my query !
A Tholian PC with a cargo pack is now considered as a Tug it seems

What if the D or CC or CA or C or DD had a cargo pack ?
Are these now Tugs with the cargo pack attached and based on your answer about the PC, I think they are now considered as a Tug !??

I am trying to determine [my campaign has Tug limitations] and my Tholian Admiral is also wondering if a cargo pack added to a Tholian ship converts it to a Tug ?
I see that it does turn a PC into a Tug [CPC] when a cargo pack is added.

Hoping I am clear ...............

Thanks

Cheers
Frank

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 - 10:51 pm: Edit

Frank Lemay;

Are you saying a "PC + cargo pack" is a CPC? That's absolutely not true, and I don't see what in SPP's answer would make you believe that. A PC and CPC are different ships, though based on the same hull.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 - 11:30 pm: Edit

Alan,

Frank stated his question, apparently looking for a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer.

I may be way off base here (wouldn’t be the first time…) but my guess is that since SPP did not respond with either a yes or no answer, he restated the question assuming a positive response for the second attempt.

Why Frank chose that particular statement, somewhat mystifies me, as well as, it seems, you.

Bottom line, I think Frank wanted a yes or no response, and did not anticipate SPPs request for additional information.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 - 11:53 pm: Edit

Jeff,

Fair enough, and of course I have no authority to provide "official" answers. But I did want to point out one thing which, I think, sheds light on the answer:

Captain's Module G3 Master Annex File:

Go to the Tholian Patrol Corvette and Variants section of the Tholian Master Ship Chart, (that section is on Page 64 of the Master Annex File). The CPC (Cargo Patrol Corvette), FCR (Forward Carrier Resupply Corvette), and PR (Repair Ship) all have the "TG" notation in the Notes column. None of the other PC variants have that "TG" in Notes.

Maybe I'm assuming too much, but that seems pretty conclusive to me that only the CPC, FCR, and PR among the various PC variants are actually tugs, despite the fact that they can all carry cargo packs.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, September 23, 2026 - 07:59 am: Edit

Alan, good enough, I do believe.

I also, may be assuming too much, but Frank, back in his response to Petrick’s comments, did mention the reason he asked was because he is running a campaign, and has a Tholian player looking to increase the number of tugs available to the Tholians.

If I were playing in that campaign, I would take exception to giving the Tholian player the ability to have virtually the entire Tholian fleet able to complete tug missions.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Wednesday, September 23, 2026 - 08:53 am: Edit

Jeff,

I also note that in the Tholian Master Starship Book there is a section on Tholian cargo packs and which ships can carry them ((R7.14) CARGO PACK (C-P)). In the subsection on PC-class ships, it states

---

Quote:

Only the cargo patrol corvette normally carried cargo packs.

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By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, September 23, 2026 - 10:28 am: Edit

@Frank Lemay: What I'm about to say is NOT a SFB answer; however, I think you might find it informative for your campaign purposes.

In the related (but really quite separate) game of Federation and Empire, the Tholian CPC is known as a "Theater Transport" - a small tug that operates in concert with other theater transports to perform some (but not all) strategic level functions of full size tugs.

The F&E rules on tugs, theater transports, and LTTs (CW sized tugs) are too complex for this answer and not worth getting into ATM. However, I would say for campaign purposes the following is reasonable:

A Tholian CPC is a special kind of tug known as a theater transport. Three CPCs with cargo pods operating in tandem may perform the actions of a full size tug for certain campaign functions, such as to place a mobile base, start a colony,... (fill in the allowed list for your campaign).

If you want more information about the rules for theater transports in F&E for inspiration for your campaign, then just give me a call on the phone and I'll give you the skinny.

T

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, September 23, 2026 - 02:44 pm: Edit

Frank Lemay:

Others have answered your query, and I will reinforce those answers with again noting that a CPC, which is not a PC and I never said it was, has some (limited by size) capabilities equivalent to a full tug (internal cargo in addition to the ability to haul cargo pods, which are not the same thing as cargo packs). A PC can have a cargo pack, but cannot haul a pod of any type as a tug could. In essence, CPCs are very small tugs and PCs (and other Tholian ships) just happen to be able to haul packs. But, PCs and other Tholian ships not designated as tugs are not tugs.

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Wednesday, September 23, 2026 - 04:13 pm: Edit

SPP,
Thank you, you just answered my question.

Thanks to all as well.

Cheers
Frank

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Sunday, September 27, 2026 - 10:45 am: Edit

Seeking weapon HETS

Situation: A Ship is facing B has a speed 32 ECM drone and starts the turn at 0.
It does two tac TACs to facing D.
The ships will be accelerating to speed 10 later in the turn.
Since the ship will have to go forward, he has the ECM drone HET to facing D in impulse 8 to align with the ship. The ship then accelerate to speed 10 in impulse 10 and moves a hex.

Rules
(F2.136) A seeking weapon could make an HET on an impulse when it is not scheduled to move; the weapon would then skip its next scheduled movement.

(FD9.182) HET: If the protected unit executes an HET, the ECM drone can do so as well, but this costs it the equivalent of a hex of speed, and unless the ship is moving at least one hex per turn slower than the maximum rated speed of the ECM drone, the drone will not be able to move on the next impulse the ship moves. If an ECM drone is moving less than its maximum speed, and performs an HET on an impulse it was not scheduled to move, it will not lose its next movement. The drone can only perform one HET in any 32-impulse period (F2.13), and if the target unit executes a second HET, the drone will not be able to follow it and will be forced to execute a normal turn to try to catch up.

The shipped did not technically HET; does FD9.182 still apply as the ECM drone did a HET in a prior impulse to its scheduled move and is moving to keep station with the ship in impulse 10 (its next scheduled move with the speed change).
When the ship moves on impulse 10, does the ecm drone keep station in impulse 10 per the later half of FD9.182 or does it not move as this is the first scheduled move per F2.136,

Thanks.

Cheers
Frank

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Tuesday, September 29, 2026 - 10:02 pm: Edit

Either my rules search failed me, or it has not been noted for the Vudar, how do they fit into the Orion Cartel system? I doubt they hit home status for a cartel, but which cartels are they operating zone for? Or home, if they are a home to one.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Tuesday, September 29, 2026 - 10:21 pm: Edit

Adm;

Paragraphs (E21.14) OPTION MOUNTS and (G36.16) OPTION MOUNTS, both contain the statement

---

Quote:

The Orion Pharaoh and Hamilcar Cartels treat this as an operating territory weapon but rarely use it due to the ion energy requirement.

---

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Tuesday, September 29, 2026 - 10:24 pm: Edit

Ah, my search skills failed me...

Thank you Thyrm.

By John Malis (Jmalis) on Monday, October 05, 2026 - 12:52 pm: Edit

I need some help with S3.24 please. Can one use Commander’s Options S3.2 to pay for a ship’s refits? I’ll soon be playing a pick-up game with a few D7’s.
The year will be Y175 and I would like to use the Commander’s options to pay for the B, K and Y175 refits for my Klingon ships.
I don’t understand what S3.24 means when it says “Refits which are available in the year of the scenario but which are not specified for the ship may be purchased as Commander’s options in a fixed scenario.
What does “which are not specified” mean?

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, October 05, 2026 - 01:43 pm: Edit

Essentially, that means that if a scenario calls for, say, a D7B, you could use Commander's Options to add the K-refit, but not to pay for the (scenario-specified) B-refit.