Federation Commander

I like the new terrain rules in Communique #40, and especially the Pulsar rules because I have been awaiting them for a scenario I am designing.

Anyway, I have a question about Pulsar operations.

We see in Rule (6E2d) that the distortion caused by the Pulsar gives a +1 shift for weapons whose line of sight passes within 10 hexes of the Pulsar object.

Is that +1 shift subject to the previously published maximum of +3 in Rule (4A4)? I would assume it is; after all, the asteroid shift does not increase it beyond +3 in the example given [although the same could be said for the stealth bonus and EM in that example].

I specifically referred to (4A4) to show that this modifier was treated just like any other potential modifier. So, yes, it is subject to the same +3 limit.

The only time the +3 limit won't apply is if the rule providing the modifier specifically exempts it from the limit. And, considering I didn't even exempt nebulas from the limit, I don't expect to see an example of that any time soon.

Cool. Thanks Mike.

Comments on the Pulsar rules: there should be a note that pulsar damage is halved in Fleet scale.

Also, since pulsar damage is resolved in the DF phase, who gets to decide when the pulsar damage is resolved if there are other volleys hitting the same ship in that impulse? My intuition is to treat it the same as enemy fire, i.e. the player can choose when to resolve the pulsar damage.

terryoc wrote:My intuition is to treat it the same as enemy fire, i.e. the player can choose when to resolve the pulsar damage.

But he can't, though; the 'shooting' player gets to choose the order in which he fires his weapons.

But you're right, we do need to know if 'natural phenomenon' damage hits before or after weapon fire. I'd say before; that's what happens with asteroids [ok, it's in the movement phase, but hey] and whatever is adopted for Pulsars will probably need to be adopted for other 'direct-fire' damage-causing terrain too, to keep things simple.

Eh, I don't see why the attacker can't decide whether he fired before or after the pulsar burst. So, while the attacker can't decide when, exactly, the burst happens, he can decide whether *his* attack is before or after the pulsar.

And, yes, the damage should be half for fleet scale. (Crap! Missed that!)