Movement without engines?

cnuzzi · Post by **cnuzzi** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 5:37 pm

Can a ship move if all of its warp/impulse engine boxes are damaged, but it still has energy from another source? I'm specifically thinking of one of my favorite ships here, the Fed Battle Tug, with that huge bank of reactors in the pod. Perhaps the nacelles cannot generate any power but they can still create a warp bubble if power can be routed from elsewhere?

Post by **Steve Cole** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:14 pm

By Vulcan logic, a ship without engines cannot move, and thus it is in SFB, but the rules of FC were simplified so that "power is power" and that creates glitches like this. Just smile and move on, pretending that you made a mistake and marked some engine boxes when you meant to mark reactor boxes.

Would you rather deal with one or two really weird cases or have to deal with moving and non-moving power every time you play any ship in the game?

cnuzzi · Post by **cnuzzi** » Sat Jul 21, 2018 3:05 pm

Would you rather deal with one or two really weird cases or have to deal with moving and non-moving power every time you play any ship in the game?

Oh, no, I much prefer the "power is power" concept. And I agree that it would be essentially impossible for it to happen in most cases, the Fed BT being the one ship I can think of where there is a large enough number of reactors for it to be possible, maybe (I've played it many times and it has not happened yet). I just wanted to know the official stance on the matter.

Sgt.G's house rule also makes good sense, particularly with the one hex/turn or TAC addendum. One could also say that, once one is down to the last engine box, if reactors remain, any further engine hits are marked on reactor boxes until they are all marked off. But it is probably better - and certainly more in the spirit of the simplified approach taken by FC - to simply follow the advice of Mr. Cole and smile and move on.

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Sat Jul 21, 2018 5:13 pm

The rule is that any power can be used for movement, so yes, the BT with no warp or impulse left can still move.

If you want some justification, look at it this way: a ship with all warp boxes disabled means that the ship can not generate power with its warp systems. But the systems are still there. When reactor power is used for movement, what is happening behind the scenes is that the reactor power is being shunted through the damaged warp engines to move. Not something that can be done for any sustained period of time, but enough to get the ship moving in a scenario.

Sneaky Scot · Post by **Sneaky Scot** » Mon Jul 23, 2018 8:24 pm

Nice bit of PSB Mike!

Post by **Steve Cole** » Mon Jul 23, 2018 9:15 pm

As a general policy we never endorse "house rules" as FC is simple enough that we can maintain a single standard rulebook for everyone.