Federation Commander

Are the options in 3G4a/b/c a strict order? Are they an order per bank or an order per ship?

I assume a set order and I assume per ship. Otherwise, with 7 points of power in a 4 panel front/3 rear ship one could:
Dissipate 4 from front
Transfer 3 from front to rear
Dissipate 3 from rear

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Also 3G7b says:
"H&R attacks through a down bank can attack a bank (not a panel) but only one raid (per opposing side) can attack each panel during any given impulse."
I assume this is meant to be only one raid per side can attack each bank per impulse.

Also I assume two opposing sides that each sent one marine to the front bank and one to the rear bank could destroy a total of 4 panels, 2 each, if they rolled amazingly well?

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Finally I assume 5V3c includes a prohibition on spending all your battery on negative tractor when you aren't being tractored or spending 20 on negative tractor to break a 1 point tractor that is holding you. It does specifically allow burning one extra power per TRAC/TRL/TRH on a space rock which surprised me.

It appears in the 5E transporters procedure that you cannot spend energy on your transporters unless you are actually in the process of using them? Is this correct?

Also I assume two opposing sides that each sent one marine to the front bank and one to the rear bank could destroy a total of 4 panels, 2 each, if they rolled amazingly well?

This is covered by the last line of the first paragraph of (3G7b) (beginning with "As with other..."). In effect, only one panel per bank is at risk per impulse of transporter activity but two non-allied parties can conspire to put both of the panels into double jeopardy.

DirkSJ wrote:Are the options in 3G4a/b/c a strict order? Are they an order per bank or an order per ship?

I assume a set order and I assume per ship. Otherwise, with 7 points of power in a 4 panel front/3 rear ship one could:
Dissipate 4 from front
Transfer 3 from front to rear
Dissipate 3 from rear

This is in a strict order...
Once you move past dissipate, you can not go back.
You could dissiapte 4 from the front and 3 from the back (if power was already stored), but once you've transferred... it's there and can not be dissipated that impulse.

Finally I assume 5V3c includes a prohibition on spending all your battery on negative tractor when you aren't being tractored or spending 20 on negative tractor to break a 1 point tractor that is holding you. It does specifically allow burning one extra power per TRAC/TRL/TRH on a space rock which surprised me.

That is correct... no excessive spending on negative tractor.
The reason that one can tractor a rock it that doing so will require the us of a TR (since Andros don't have plain old vanilla tractors) and the loss of the ability to arm / fire a 2 turn TR Beam is penalty enough. If you're in dire enough straits to do this... you've probably got other issues going on!

It appears in the 5E transporters procedure that you cannot spend energy on your transporters unless you are actually in the process of using them? Is this correct?

While i do not recall seeing it spelled out as such, since Fed Comm uses a "pay as you go" energy allocation system - this would make sense.
You do not allocate power to the transporters until you actually use them...

DirkSJ wrote:Are the options in 3G4a/b/c a strict order? Are they an order per bank or an order per ship?

I assume a set order and I assume per ship. Otherwise, with 7 points of power in a 4 panel front/3 rear ship one could:
Dissipate 4 from front
Transfer 3 from front to rear
Dissipate 3 from rear

It is more than a strict order. The steps only apply to the situation before the steps are started.

So, if a Cobra (with four forward panels and three rear panels) has 30 points of power in the forward panels and none in the rear, it could do the following:
- Dissipate 4 points from the forward panels, dropping it to 26.
- Transfer another 4 points to batteries (assuming there is availability), dropping it to 22.
- Transfer another 4 points to the rear panels, ending up with 18 forward and 4 rear.

Note that the four points in the rear panels don't show up until after the whole (3G4) process is completed.

Also 3G7b says:
"H&R attacks through a down bank can attack a bank (not a panel) but only one raid (per opposing side) can attack each panel during any given impulse."
I assume this is meant to be only one raid per side can attack each bank per impulse.

Also I assume two opposing sides that each sent one marine to the front bank and one to the rear bank could destroy a total of 4 panels, 2 each, if they rolled amazingly well?

Yes, (3G7b) should have said "bank" in both cases.

In effect, each bank is a single box for the purposes of hit and run raids. A recent ruling (shown in the latest Communique) says that if two opposing forces send a hit and run raid against a single box, both sides make the attempt and could potentially each lose their marine unit. But the box may only be disabled once. In this case, only one box per bank can be disabled in a single impulse regardless of the number of opposing forces raiding it.

Finally I assume 5V3c includes a prohibition on spending all your battery on negative tractor when you aren't being tractored or spending 20 on negative tractor to break a 1 point tractor that is holding you. It does specifically allow burning one extra power per TRAC/TRL/TRH on a space rock which surprised me.

Actually, it only allows the burning of one point of power per tractor. It does not allow this with TRL/TRH, as they have to use the power already allocated in them for a tractor attempt. As such, there is already more than one point of power, so you cannot add anything to that.

So, in effect, this will never be used with a TRL/TRH. Since you can't add power to what is there for a tractor attempt, and the power there has already been spent, there is no point in wasting the weapon's use to tractor a space rock.

(And, yes, the larger Andromedan ships do actually have a normal tractor on them.)

It appears in the 5E transporters procedure that you cannot spend energy on your transporters unless you are actually in the process of using them? Is this correct?

That is correct.

mjwest wrote:Actually, it only allows the burning of one point of power per tractor. It does not allow this with TRL/TRH, as they have to use the power already allocated in them for a tractor attempt. As such, there is already more than one point of power, so you cannot add anything to that.

So, in effect, this will never be used with a TRL/TRH. Since you can't add power to what is there for a tractor attempt, and the power there has already been spent, there is no point in wasting the weapon's use to tractor a space rock.

Thank you for the answers; they are awesome. This one I have a small note on.

I suggest 4S4b be reworded slightly. It says any energy in a TR is available for use but does not explicitly require you to use that power. You explicitly lose any not used, yes, but it does not say you must use it before simply "using it like a tractor" and spending one point from your on hand energy.

One could argue this falls into 5V3c I suppose. But in future editions it may as well say you MUST use any available power in the TR for tractoring before supplying more.