Federation Commander

I do not recall ever having seen an issue like this on the forum before, but I need an answer for it.

Do docking to a base and landing on a planet both occur during the Docking Phase of Energy Allocation?

If so, is there any order of precedence for these actions? (If not, does landing on the planet occur at the start of Energy Allocation?)

If they both occur during the docking phase and there is no order of precedence, then are players supposed to write down their actions and reveal them simultaneously?


Someone is probably wondering, so here is why I ask.

We are at the end of a turn in a scenario in which one ship is stopped next to a planet. That player is considering landing on that planet on the next turn to do some cargo transfer.

The opposing player has a ship in the same hex as a nonfunctional defense satellite and is considering docking with it on the next turn in order to make it functional (special rule for this scenario).

The defense satellite will be able to fire on the landed ship, so the player defending the planet has to decide whether or not to dock with the Def. Sat. If he docks and the other player does NOT land, the other player's ship will probably blow his docked ship to smithereens. If he doesn't dock and the other player lands on the planet, he will be able to fire his pea-shooter weapons at the landed ship, but not have the Def. Sat. coming online on the next turn for additional firepower.

You see why it's kind of important to have the answers to the questions above.

Well, first note that to either dock or land, the ship will have to declare they are "Stopped" earlier in (1E1) Energy Allocation. So, that means their tactical flexibility will already be severely compromised prior to making the decisions to actually land or actually dock.

However, in the actual dock/land step, you will need to use the "secret and simultaneous" procedure, as it happens all at the same time. Since that is what happens with baseline speed selection, it makes sense to use it here in the extremely rare situations where it matters. (Like in yours.)

As always, thanks Mike!

So, there will be possibly be two "secret and simultaneous" announcements made during the Energy Allocation part of the turn. The first would be for announcing the baseline speeds (or, in this case, "stopped" or something else). The second would be whether landing/docking is taking place (if the ships are "stopped").

A sticky wicket indeed!