Upon reading 2D3b and the example, the last statement:
That amounts to 12 Movement Points, so the ship gains six points of power for use as Shield Reinforcement subject to the battery limits.
So if I'm using a ship with 4 batteries, the max shield reinforcement per volley is 4, correct? I would have to draw from this reserve power from the decel for 2 volleys (I'm not including any other reserve power of the ship)?
In short, I can't use the 6 points for one volley unless I happen to have 6 batteries?
And note that this is un-disabled batteries, too. So, if you are damaged and have no remaining un-disabled batteries and you perform Emergency Deceleration, and reinforcement energy will be wasted, as you have no batteries through which to use the energy.
mjwest wrote:
And note that this is un-disabled batteries, too. So, if you are damaged and have no remaining un-disabled batteries and you perform Emergency Deceleration, and reinforcement energy will be wasted, as you have no batteries through which to use the energy.
I was under the impression that a battery whose power had been used could not be used for shield reinforcement. I am wrong, and they merely need to be undamaged, regardless of power charge?
Orbital Bombardment is too a natural weather phenomenon!
Don't confuse how batteries work in SFB with how they work in Federation Commander.
In FC, batteries are basically used for two things:
1) Carry some unused power from one turn into the next.
2) Be the conduit for shield reinforcement.
In SFB, batteries were very important, as they were the only mechanism to provide for reserve, or contingent, power. In FC, all power not used in Energy Allocation is effectively reserve power. So, one way to think of it is that your power generation systems and batteries carrying power over from last turn "dump" their energy points on the table for this turn. You then use that power as you need during the turn, and the power generation systems and batteries just sit there, their job done for this turn. At the very end of the turn, if you have unused power, it can be put into batteries to be carried into the next turn.
So, the whole idea of batteries "holding" power during a turn, or "discharging" energy during a turn doesn't really apply. Effectively, batteries only hold power over the turn break, and discharge the energy at the start of every turn.
Getting back to shield reinforcement, the above means that batteries really have no power in them during the turn. Instead, shields basically work as a conduit for delivering shield reinforcement. So, as stated in the second-to-last sentence of (3C5), this reinforcement can be applied to every volley during a turn. (Subject to available power and un-disabled batteries, of course.)
