Federation Commander

You can't "run away" moving in reverse in FedCom due to the rules that are involved. iirc, the FedCom rule for reverse movement is that it costs double. So you don't have any power to rearm weapons, and an opponent who wants to can easily keep up with you or even close the distance.

I am still confused about part of this topic so sorry about bringing it back to life. During my gaming session tonight, I played an ISC Command Cruiser.

I understand this: Against a ship, three boxes on an ISC Command Cruiser equals one bank so one plasma F launch per turn from one bank. Each box has to be re-armed after firing.

The defensive mode is confusing. I dont see in rulebook 5 rules that you have unlimited firing. My understanding is that you can fire a plasma F from each box during the defensive fire phase of a given impulse so you can take out three drones at once. Then you have to re-arm each box.

It seemed that a previous post alluded to not having to re-arm a defensively fired plasma F. If you dont have to re-arm then is three the max fire rate at one time due to the three boxes in the bank?

Three things:

1) The rule (4J6) in the RRB specifically states that "a ship can only launch one torpedo per turn at a 'ship'." This is once per turn for the whole ISC ship, not once per turn per bank on the ISC ship. For example, an ISC CA has six rear-firing Pl-F torpedoes. It may fire ONE Pl-F per turn at a "ship". The other five must be launched defensively, or wait for the next turn.

2) The very next sentence in (4J6) says "any armed torpedo can be fired at shuttles, gunboats, and drones above this limit." For example, that ISC CA above could fire all six rear-firing Pl-F torpedoes at drones or shuttles in the same turn, if it so desired. Also, if it fired five of them at drones in a single turn, it could still fire the sixth at a "ship" if it so desired.

Note that the term "defensive" is used with two different meanings in (4J6). When used with a lower case "d", it means the weapon's mode. The Pl-F may be fired "defensively" during either the Offensive Fire phase, or the Defensive Fire phase. The word "defensive" merely means that it is being fired at drones, shuttles, or gunboats, and not "ships". When used with an upper case "D", it is referring directly to the Defensive Fire phase.

3) Aside from the restrictions given in (4J6), they are normal Pl-F boxes. That means they are armed like Pl-F boxes, they fire normal Pl-F torpedoes, they have a statis box and hold armed Pl-F for free, they start the scenario fully armed, and they are damaged like Pl-F boxes. All because they are Pl-F boxes.

Therefore, once fired, the Pl-F box/tube is empty and must be rearmed. And empty box cannot fire anything.

Why is this not noted on the ISC Star Cruiser and Destroyer cards in commique?

And does this apply to all ISC Plasma F or just some?

USS Enterprise wrote:Why is this not noted on the ISC Star Cruiser and Destroyer cards in commique?

It's in the special rules section for ISC rear-riring plasma-F's; the thing is that unless you have Booster Zero or FCRRB[5] then you will not have the ISC rules at all. Think of it as a special rule for ISC rear-firing plasma

USS Enterprise wrote:And does this apply to all ISC Plasma F or just some?

Hopefully answered in the passage above. It only applies to rear-firing F's. But unless you have the whole ISC special rules set, it's only part of the story; there are other rules on the subject too, so this topic can't really be fully understood unless you have those rules.

Rear Firing? Meaning RA, RH, or RX?

L+LR and R+RR

USS Enterprise wrote:Why is this not noted on the ISC Star Cruiser and Destroyer cards in commique?

And does this apply to all ISC Plasma F or just some?

It is not noted on the cards because it is a rule, not a card notation. The Federation Heavy Cruiser ship card does not give the rules for the operation of the photon. Why would the ISC Star Cruiser give the rules for the operation of the rear-firing Pl-F (or PPD, for that matter).

The rules for rear-firing Pl-F exist in Booster Zero, were updated in Communique (17, I think) where you can infer the whole rule, and in the Reference Rulebook. To use the ISC properly, you really need the rules.

USS Enterprise wrote:Rear Firing? Meaning RA, RH, or RX?

"Rear-firing" meaning "pointing to the rear". The arcs for the rear-firing Pl-F are given directly on the ISC ship cards. (Namely, they are either LR+L or RR+R.) So, for example, on the ISC Destroyer, the Pl-F with FP firing arcs are normal Pl-F, whereas the Pl-F with LR+L or RR+R arcs are "rear-firing".