Federation Commander

I see.

mjwest lays it out better. I suspect that most of the issues with regards to figuring out my example would have worked better if I'd used the 'Turn X' format that he did.

The key thing to keep in mind about my example is that I'm not referring to, say, Turn 1 or Turn 2 of the game. I'm referring to turns in the arming cycle. Nine times out of ten "Turn 1" of the game will be "Turn 2" of the arming cycle that I posted because the Fed player decided to start with his batteries empty and give his photons the pre-load energy.

aah i get ya, for some reason our fed player (and romulan) has been paying to hold at the end of the turn. lol i really should look more closely at rules involving them.

mjwest wrote:Turn X+2:
[....] During Energy Allocation, holding energy must be applied or the photon will be lost and arming can begin again next turn.

[Bold emphasis mine] Did you mean this turn? There is sometimes a case for dumping loaded torps during energy allocation, perhaps because I have changed my mind about my existing overloaded torps and want to restart the cycle with normal ones.

I always thought that if a torp was dumped during energy allocation, then rearming could begin straight away - in this example, in turn X+2. Is that right?

No, I meant next turn.

However, what exactly happens to a torpedo that is not held is quite vague (since it isn't really discharged), then I am going to change my mind on that point.

I have amended the original post to reflect this.

Cool. Thanks for that, Mike.

mjwest wrote:Yes, you may pre-load a photon the turn after it was fired. For example, if you fired a photon during turn 3, you may pre-load it during energy allocation on turn 4 (and then complete the arming during energy allocation on turn 5). Once arming is completed on turn 5, the photon may be fired on turn 5.

That's what I thought, but I just wanted to be sure that "fire every other turn" didn't really mean "you have to wait a turn before pre-loading". Thanks.

great explanation! thanks

ditto

Yes, Mike. We're all glad you cleared that up.

Holy thread resurrection, Batman!!

Anyway, I wanted to make a quick clarification:

Kang wrote:[Bold emphasis mine] Did you mean this turn? There is sometimes a case for dumping loaded torps during energy allocation, perhaps because I have changed my mind about my existing overloaded torps and want to restart the cycle with normal ones.

I always thought that if a torp was dumped during energy allocation, then rearming could begin straight away - in this example, in turn X+2. Is that right?

I need to make a correction to myself.

Yes, it is the case that I really meant "turn". After rereading (4C3d) again, it does explicitly state that a discharged torpedo cannot start reloading until the next turn. So, if you discharge a torpedo in energy allocation of turn 5, you may not start arming a new torpedo in that tube until turn 6.

The result of this is that you must decide before energy allocation if you want to discharge the torpedo. You must discharge it at the end of the prior turn. (Unless, of course, you can convince your opponent that that is what you did, you just forgot to declare it. )

Sorry about the mistake.

(Note: I updated my description post on the prior page to reflect this.)

Should we put a rule clarification on this in the next Communique, to go in the rules update file?

Indeed, (4C3d) says you can start arming the torpedo again "next turn", so you would have to discharge the torpedo towards the end of the previous turn, if this is possible. At what point in the sequence of play would a player be allowed to discharge his loaded or overloaded photons? Would this occur during an Offensive Fire Phase, during the pre-loading phase (where a player could decline paying holding energy and so lose the torpedo) or at any point during the turn, or some other time which I haven't mentioned?

I don't think there needs to be any clarification in Communique that I screwed up. Especially since the only people who ever read my example are probably reading this.

There is no particular place in the end of turn procedure where discharges must occur. However, if you want a specific point in the sequence of play, use the the Weapons Records (1E3b) phase.

Thanks for that Mike. It probably doesn't matter where in the end of turn phase you do this, but it does matter that it is (or at least you can do it at) the end of the turn rather than at some point during an impulse.

So, if you wanted to discharge torpedoes, you would discharge at the end of turn phase of one turn and then you could start arming them again in the pre-load phase of the next turn.