Federation Commander

In every game I've played that has drones, they've always impacted (or been intercepted) on the turn of firing, or the next turn, so they topic of endurance has never come up. But if I read rule 4G6 correctly, drones can travel anywhere between 75 and 96 hexes before they run out of fuel (Turn of launch 3-24 hexes, plus three more turns of 24). Have I got that right?

Almost, they survive until the 4th end of turn after launch, so the first turn may be zero hexes (launch on impulse 8 ) or up to 21 hexes (launch impulse 1), then 3 full turns (72 hexes).

Yeah, I was a bit off in my counting. But that's still a wide variance in the ranges. Oh well, how often is it going to come up anyway? Except of course in pursuit scenarios

Quite regularly in our games. You can dodge past drones by doing speed 24+ for 1 impulse, at that point they are pursuing you for the rest of the game as long as you are speed 24, which is usually what I am wanting in more games than not anyway. Having drones drop tracking due to range, running out the turn limit, or forcing my opponent to drop tracking to launch more are all quite common in our games.

Yeah, our group is still relatively new and we're still feeling out the basics