Reverse Movement's effect on Turn Mode requirement

[seangallagher77]

Hi all,

I just finished my third game of FC and am enjoying it very much. Something occurred in the last game that doesn't quite make sense to me so I wanted to bring it up here. During Turn #1 my opponent was moving at a Baseline Speed of 16 and ended the turn at the same speed and having satisfied his requirement to make a turn at speed 16.

The next turn, during the Energy Allocation Phase, he declares that he will be moving in Reverse at Baseline Speed 8. He pays the braking cost and double the movement cost, but he states (and the rulebook seems to state) that since his turn mode was satisfied from last turn to this turn, he can immediately make a turn in reverse without having to move one space first.

Is this correct or should he have to move at least one space since he is now moving in an entirely different direction (i.e. resetting the turn mode)?

* His ship was the Klingon D7 if it makes a difference

[terryoc]

My intuition is that he'd have to satisfy his turn mode again, but it's really one for Mike West to answer. I don't think this question has ever come up before.

[Mike]

Doesn't a ship have to be Stopped before it can do reverse movement?

If the ship in question was moving at speed 16 at the end of a turn, it would not be able to move in reverse during the next turn.

If a ship declared emergency deceleration (which stops a ship completely) at the end of a turn, then it could move in reverse in the next turn.

[pmiller13]

Doesn't a ship have to be Stopped before it can do reverse movement?

No Mike a ship does not have to be stopped first to have started a turn in reverse (in SFB I seem to remember that you had to pay Breaking energy unless you had been stopped for some number of impulses can remember exactly.

However as to the other question about having to move at least once when changing directions per rule (2C3c) Reset: Performing a High Energy Turn, reversing direction or stopping resets the Turn Mode and Sideslip Mode count to zero.

[mjwest]

... and there you go! Mr Miller got it in one.

Reversing direction does indeed reset the turn mode. In effect, the braking energy is used to completely stop the ship so it can move in reverse. Which is why braking energy is not required if the ship is already stopped.