Federation Commander

Just so I teach this right to new players:

Photon Loading

1st Round: 2 to Preload (mark the "P" box). At end of turn you may or may not pay 2-4 to overload.

2nd Round: 2 energy to Load (mark the "L" box). If this is not paid, the torpedo is lost and all energy put in the previous round is lost. At anytime in the round (or subsequent rounds, if held) you may pay 2-4 to overload, including at time of firing.

Holding: If the photon torpedo is armed ("L" marked), and a new turn begins, 1 energy must be paid to hold the torpedo (2 if overloaded) or it is lost. This must be done in each subsequent EA after the arming.

Special: At the beginning of a scenario, you may choose to have the "P" loaded before the scenario begins, essentially making the first turn of the game the 2nd turn of loading, with no overloads paid for. If this is the case, the scenario begins with the Battery's empty.

I did that from my head? Am I getting it right?

Looks right to me.

Yes, that is all correct.

Two very minor details:
1) When using the batteries, you don't lose more batteries than it would have cost to charge them. So, a ship with four photons and four batteries would have completely empty batteries. But, a ship with two photons and six batteries would only have four batteries empty. This is a rare case, but it can happen.

2) If you fail to pay for the Load or Holding costs, the torpedo is lost and you cannot begin arming a new one until the following turn. If you do not plan to do that at the beginning of a turn, make sure you discharge the photon at the end of the previous turn, rather than waiting for energy allocation.

Example: Your photon tube contains an overloaded photon on turn 5. If you fail to pay for the holding cost on turn 6, the photon is discharged and you cannot begin arming a new photon until turn 7. However, if you discharge the overloaded photon at the end of turn 5, you may begin charging a new photon on turn 6.

Again, this is a rare case, but still worth remembering.

Looks right to me too. An excellent, concise summary. Remember that not all the batteries have to be empty; it's 'capped' by the number of torps you loaded 'pre-game'. So if you have three batteries and you have only preloaded one torp, one of your battereis will still begin the game full.

EDIT: Oops, cross-posted with Mike. Great minds....

Wait a minute...that's not preloading..thats loading.

Preloading is turn 0, so that on turn 1 you dump 2 more points of power into your torps to have them ready for that turn, with the penalty being empty batteries. Otherwise, screw it...just start loading on turn 1 and keep your batteries.

PS: Photon torpedoes suck.

PSS: I am waiting in the deep, dark reaches of space...waiting for you and your ship. So be afraid; be very afraid. For I am the dark side of the moon. I am the thing that goes bump in the night. I am the last thing you will see as you die. Remember me, HoD K'el. Remember my ship, the Black Dagger. Remember my laugh as you die!

Hod K'el wrote:I am the last thing you will see as you die.

Then you'll have got it wrong. The ideal situation is when your opponent doesn't see you as he dies

Hod K'el wrote:Wait a minute...that's not preloading..thats loading. Preloading is turn 0, so that on turn 1 <snip>

Preloading is any turn where you put in the first turn's arming energy for a multi-turn arming weapon, especially a Hellbore or Photon because they actually have a 'P' box for the preload. Whether the preload occurs before or during the game is not the point; it's still a preload.

Hod K'el wrote:Photon torpedoes suck.

Sometimes. But you try telling that to my son whose K-F5 had just taken a double photon hit from my F-FF at range 12. Granted, this sort of thing does not happen very often, and yes I was an idiot to fire at those ranges, but when it happens he's gonna be well gutted