Federation Commander

Is there anything (other than massed enemy firepower or a TR beam being used as a tractor) to prevent me from flying a ship into the same hex as an Andromedan base on impulse 8 of a turn; declaring that ship has docked to the base on the following turn; and then boarding the base?

The Temporal Elevator put a stop to such amusements in SFB, but since it has gone away in FC...?

Dan, you're basically right. And of course this also applies to Galactic Powers bases. There is a limit to the number of ships that can dock to a base at once, and you can only transfer 6 squads at a time. Other than that, go for it.

Of course, you'll be at Range 0 to the base's weapons, and nothing in FC stops it from firing...

Ah, I wasn't aware there was a limit on the number of squads that can board per turn. I see the rule also applies to ships landed on planets...

Thanks! I'd have hated to find that out the hard way in the middle of a battle.

So, then, this means that the presence or absence of shields has no bearing on docking.... Interesting....

Kang, yes I believe so. I also asked whether the base could "me-too" board you back, so docking with a unit that has a lot more BPs than you could be a bad idea.

Against the Andros, it's probably only feasable against the small SatBase, which itself has only six marine squads.

Could work a treat against standard galactic Mobile Base, though.

Ph-4's at Range 0 will make the Base commander very, VERY happy And only a great fool would try forced docking against a Hydran base unless they had hammered it and knocked out weapons beforehand.

Might make for an interesting scenario....

IIRC, Orion bases don't have Ph-IVs.

Come to think of it (starts new thread)

Krellex wrote:Ph-4's at Range 0 will make the Base commander very, VERY happy And only a great fool would try forced docking against a Hydran base unless they had hammered it and knocked out weapons beforehand.

No Ph-4s, or Ph-Gs on a mobile base.... 2xPH-1, 2xPH-3 and a WPN facing RX and FX.

Actually Ph-4s aren't any better at Range 0 than Range 3. The base's other heavy weapons and phaser-3s, however...

Could you also dock a shuttle (containing Marines) to a base like this as well?

I don't think so; ships use the docking rules, shuttles use shuttlecraft bays.

Which would be feasable against galactic bases, but...difficult...against the Andros.

Which raises the question, can you land a shuttlecraft in a bay that already has a (friendly or enemy) shuttle in it? You *can* in SFB, although there are a raft of rules covering it, but I've no idea if that's legal in FC.

I'm pretty sure there's a flat "you can't land a shuttle on an enemy ship" rule in FC.

I don't see any reason that a shuttlecraft cannot dock (2D5a) like a ship can. It is under all the same restrictions and such, so it is ridiculously vulnerable. But it can do it. It would take up one of the available "docking positions" just as if it was a full ship.

(2D5c) expressly forbids shuttles landing (or being forced to land) on enemy ships. Any exception to this would have to be done as a scenario rule.