Federation Commander

Does this mean, then, that satellite ships need to perform EA all the time, even when nested? And another thing is that when does a Satellite ship decide how much power its engines are producing? (5V3b) Where does the power come from to run the panels while nested?

My interpretation is "Yes, they need to perform EA while nested. They decide during EA, when everyone else does. Power comes from either batteries or engines, same as usual. Note that they can't tap batts until engine power is exhausted, so if you want to empty the batts by running the panels off battery power, you'll need to run the engines at a level lower than is needed to run the panels."

A follow up question for Mike: Can Sat Ships arm or hold multi-turn weapons while in the hangar bay, like TR beams or DisDevs (for Pythons)? It's not on the list of explicitly allowed actions. If not, then it implies that a sat ship will not have TRs ready to fire until the second turn after launch. E.g. launch turn X, pre-arm X+1, arm and fire X+2. I believe that they can do this in SFB.

Can Sat Ships arm or hold multi-turn weapons while in the hangar bay, like TR beams or DisDevs (for Pythons)?

That's the way that I've been playing it, as if they can't power their TR beams until after launch that's a full turn plus part of another of being shot up before they can use their heavy weapons (begin arming on power allocation of turn AFTER launch; finish on power allocation of turn after that).

Dave, I think they should be able to because (G19.272) in SFB specifically allows it; I think this is an oversight.

I think the rule should be rewritten to read something like:

Satellite ships in the hangar perform Energy allocation normally, except that they may not set a Baseline Speed [they must do this when launched, see (5V1b5)].

Satellite ships in the hangar may:

• Activate or deactivate power absorber panel banks
  Arm TR beams, displacement devices or other multi-turn arming weapons
  Use transporters to move objects or personnel to or from the mothership (only).
  Perform repairs
  Transfer power from one bank to another, or to the batteries

They may not:

• Dissipate power from the power absorber panel banks
  Spend power for baseline speed, acceleration, deceleration, evasive maneuvers, or any other movement purpose
  Fire any weapon
  Use a displacement device
  Use transporters to move to anywhere other than the mother ship
  Use tractors
  Use labs or probes
  Do anything else not specifically allowed

The satellite ship should do an abbreviated energy allocation when in the hangar.

Even though it cannot use the weapons, it can charge its weapons according to their rules.

Terry, I haven't played SFB in maybe twenty years, and I don't think I ever got around to playing with the Andros even then... I'm just going on what seems to me to make sense.
I agree with you that the rules should spell it out specifically.