Federation Commander

I keep seeing this referenced in the rulebook, but can't find any explanation for what it is. What exactly is Negative Tractor?

Negative tractor is the power applied to couteract an opponents tractor beam.

If your opponent attempts to tractor you (by applying a oint of energy into his tracotr beams), you can counteract / prevent that by applying a point of negative tractor.
He then applies a second point of tractor...
You can apply a second point of negative tractor...
He can then up the ante by going to 3 points of tractor energy...
And so on.
Until one or the other gives up or runs out of power.

the end result is that your opponent must apply at least one point more power into his tractors than you have applied to counter-act them.

One more thing about negative tractor: It's persistent.

If you get into a tractor auction situation during Impulse 2 and end up applying, let's say 4 points of negative tractor to counteract the tractor attempt... you still have negative tractor later on.
Say you opponent manuevers a second ship adjacent to you on Impulse 8. At this point, he must apply 5 points of power into his tractor to even get a lock-on, as you are already under the effects of 4 points of negative tractor.

Of course, it all goes away at the end of the Turn. It doesn't carry from turn to turn.

Yeah, I have to admit that "negative tractor" is introduced late in (5D6a), instead of at first opportunity. That said, "negative tractor" is just what they call it when a tractored ship "expend[s] as many of its available Energy Points as the owner wishes".

The important points to keep in mind about negative tractor, are:
- It does not use a tractor.
- Any energy use persists for the rest of the turn.
- A tractoring ship must expend one more point than there is negative tractor to actually tractor the ship.

Ah, that makes things much more clear. Especially the bit about not using a Tractor Beam. That changes everything as I assumed it was required, but I guess negative tractor is really more about using the engines to resist the pull of a tractor beam than countering it with another one...

I always imagine it as coating the hull plating with margarine......

Really? I can't believe it's not butter.......

Parkay...

You guys are so wrong. It's obviously power to activate the Teflon coating

No 1 - marinade the hull....