FC reference rulebook question

[mike_espo]

Reading the rulebook. Some questions.

Regarding directed damage: is it correct that if targeting weapons, that a dr of 1-2-6 then the 6 chart is used? if calling out Engines, then a 1-5-6 uses the 1 chart?

Regarding shield reinforement: Not clear on this at all. It sounds like one can use batteries only to absorb damage on a non-destroyed shield. It also sounds like this can be done as long as the batteries are undamaged: meaning that a ship with 4 batteries can absorb 4 points of damage 8 times during an 8 impulse turn...Am I correct?

thanks

[Bolo_MK_XL]

Re Shields/Batteries:

yes, the shield has to have at least 1 box when it is hit to reinforce with batteries ---
yes, you can reinforce every volley (up to the number of batteries), as long as you have power available --

[Scoutdad]

Regarding shield reinforement: Not clear on this at all. It sounds like one can use batteries only to absorb damage on a non-destroyed shield.

That is correct. a shield must have at least one undestroyed box in order to be reinforced.

It also sounds like this can be done as long as the batteries are undamaged: meaning that a ship with 4 batteries can absorb 4 points of damage 8 times during an 8 impulse turn...Am I correct?
thanks

Actually, it's quite a bit worse than this.
As long as you have the power, you can reinforce against every volley.
So theoretically, if facing 4 enemy ships and each ship fired at you on all 8 impulses... and you had seeking weapons impact every one of those 8 impulses, you could reinforce against each of them. That's reinforcing against 40! volleys in a single turn.
Now, where the 160 or so points to do this would come from is anyone's guess... cause my Fed CA doesn't have anywhere near that much descretionary power. But we were talking hypothetical situations here, weren't we??

[mike_espo]

Oh! So, you have to pay each time you reinforce the shields. The rulebook made it sound like as long as there was undamaged batteries, that you keep reinforcing the shield.

Does this reinforcement only come from the batteries, or can any energy be used?

Say I have a Fed CA with 34 points of energy initially with 4 bttys charged up. If I allocate speed of 16, then gets walloped on the 1st impulse by a Klingon C8 that does 25 points of damage to the front shield, say I don't have any photons charged or held, Can I use more than 4 pts; or up to 22; (38-16) for shield reinforcement for that volley? Assuming I don't do any firing or anything else?

thanks

[Scoutdad]

In Fed Comm... there is no difference between energy types. Power tokens is power tokens.
To take your example:

Say I have a Fed CA with 34 points of energy initially with 4 bttys charged up.

What you actually have would be 38 energy tokens ready to spend. There is no difference between power stored in the BTTY and the power generated by the CA. It is all combined into one pool and spent as needed.

If I allocate speed of 16, then gets walloped on the 1st impulse by a Klingon C8 that does 25 points of damage to the front shield, say I don't have any photons charged or held, Can I use more than 4 pts; or up to 22; (38-16) for shield reinforcement for that volley? Assuming I don't do any firing or anything else?

No. During your EA... you would have paid / spend / discarded (whatever terminology you choose to use) 16 of those energy tokens to pay for your baseline speed of 16.
This leaves you with 22 energy tokens.
[38 total energy - 16 energy for speed 16 = 22 energy remaining]
The Klingon hit you for 25 points to the number shield [Bad Klingon!]
You can spend 4 of those energy tokens (the number of currently undamaged BTTY available) to reduce that damage to 21 points.
You now have 18 energy tokens, plus 20 disabled shield boxes (1 point of burn-through damage is scored from the volley as it exceeded 10 points)
Now, if during the next impulse the drone launched earlier was to impact your CA... you could once again spend 4 additioanl energy tokens to reduce that 12 points of damage to 8 points... assuming you still had 4 undamaged BTTY.

[mike_espo]

Thanks Scoutdad! Subtle rule differences between FC and SFB. Overall, I think the system will be awesome. Can't wait to play for real!!

[Scoutdad]

Thanks Scoutdad! Subtle rule differences between FC and SFB. Overall, I think the system will be awesome. Can't wait to play for real!!

Yeah... nothing really big - just different.
When we were playtesting FC during the development stage, we kept forgetting the subtle differences. Then, three turns into the game - someone would read throug hthe rulebook and say, "Hy! We did that wrong in Turn #2."
So we'd have to go back to Turn #2 and reboot... kinda like Trek 2009. The only difference is that our reboot ended up with a great product.

[gar1138]

(3C5) Shield Reinforcement is a good reference for this in the rev6 rule book.

Garrett

[Blammo]

Wow...glad this topic came up. I totally misunderstood how the reinforcement worked. I thought it was a one time per turn power-to-undamaged-batteries, not per volley. Excellent!!!

[Ravenhull]

Don't feel bad, Blammo, the first couple times I played, I thought the same thing.

[mjwest]

Just to confirm, all of the answerers got it right.

[Kang]

I thought it was a one time per turn power-to-undamaged-batteries, not per volley. Excellent!!!

Wait 'til you get on to weapons that hit multiple shields, then. Like PPDs and Hellbores. These count as separate volleys too, so you can simultaneously reinforce each shield hit, given enough power of course.

[Steve Cole]

I am astounded that anyone could confuse that.

Active shields can be reinforced. Whenever a volley

WHENEVER A VOLLEY, doesn't sound like "the whole turn".

of damage strikes an active shield, the player who controls that ship has the option to use a number of his remaining Energy Points (up to the number of working batteries) to absorb some of the damage. Each Energy Point blocks one point of damage. See the rules below on Damage Allocation (3D). Note that while batteries limit the amount of power used on any given volley

THE POWER USED ON ANY GIVEN VOLLEY, doesn't sound like "pay once for the whole turn".

, you can use that much power against every volley, even if you used it on a previous volley of the same or a different impulse. A shield that is down or which was dropped cannot be reinforced by batteries.

[mike_espo]

Wording is a tricky thing: people interpret words differently.

Another one: Regarding Scout special sensors and drones: It is unclear from the wording of the rules if you pay 1 token to operate all special sensors; or if you pay 1 point for each sensor per drone.

[Blammo]

I am astounded that anyone could confuse that.

Fortunately, I am apparently not the only one that was confused by the wording or missed it when reading the rules. People in my FC group also misunderstood/missed it as well.

Not sure about anyone else, but for me it was the focus on the number of batteries and the amount of power. I read it that if I had 4 batteries and 4 available points of energy, I could reinforce against a maximum of 4 points of damage, whether in one volley or several. So, from my previous understanding, if I took 4 different attacks over 4 impulses for 1 point each I could have reinforced against all 4 points (as long as the shield had at least 1 box).

Now, I understand the difference and have a whole new appreciation for shield reinforcement in FC

But, at least I am not the only one that missed that initially. I have already covered it with the people in my FC group who misunderstood it as well. Fortunately, it has never been an issue to date.

Thanks again.