Web anchor question

[paulgenna]

Can a ship without a web generator launch a web anchor for a ship that does have a web generator?

Inquisitive Tholians would like to know

[Dal Downing]

5M2 does not give an expiration time for how long a Web Anchor Buoy remains active. And no where does it say you cannot use an existing Wen Anchor Buoy as a Web Anchor.

So yes, you could use an Web Anchor Buoy laid by another ship as an Anchor Point.

[paulgenna]

Thanks Dal

[mjwest]

For the record, I looked at the rules and concur.

I think the intention was that you need a web generator to do the conversion, but since that isn't said, there is no restriction. Honestly, it likely isn't a big enough deal to worry about.

[paulgenna]

So is it possible to launch a shuttle with the purpose of it being an anchor even though an anchor already exists? Sort of a back-up anchor? Would 5M2 allow it?

[mjwest]

To be clear, a shuttle must be converted to an anchor buoy as it is launched. This requires six points of power to be applied when launched. When launched as an anchor buoy, it is forever an anchor buoy until it is retrieved. There appears to be no time limit on how long an anchor buoy lasts. Even if it expires at some point, it will not expire during a scenario.

Yes, you could dump it into an existing web to serve as an additional anchor. It could be in the same hex as another anchor buoy to make it harder to kill. It could be in the same hex as a ship so that the ship could leave and do their things. (And it could be dropped by that ship or another ship.) It could be in a different hex in the web, effectively creating a new anchor point. Or, you could just dump it into an empty hex with the intention to eventually use it as an anchor. All of that is fine.

[Steve Cole]

They last the length of a scenario but not into the next scenario.

[paulgenna]

Thanks everyone. My Tholian friend thanks you as well.