Federation Commander

Landing seems clear, but re-reading it what are the rules for taking off with shuttles? I was thinking it would be the same as launching a shuttle - 1 per impulse. But ships (not shuttles as written) have their own taking off procedure at turn end. Is the take off procedure meant to be for shuttles as well, except they don't pay power? Is there a section I'm not spotting for this?

For ships it says they take off at turn end 1E3e (undocking phase) by paying 1 MP of power. However, this is after the end of turn power step where excess power is lost. Does this mean that you have to have battery power to take off, and can't take off if you have no batteries, not withstanding 30 points of warp/impulse/reac which you won't receive until start of next turn?

Great questions!

For what it's worth, I've played these situations so that a ship can take off and not have to pay power for it. What else has the ship been doing during that Turn so that it wouldn't have enough power to take off? I guess if it was banged up, low on power, used power for transporters and shield reinforcement via the batteries, it might not have enough. But to require a ship to burn battery power to take off is crazy.

As to the number of ships and/or shuttles that can take off from a planet, why should there be a limit? The sky is a big place.

Shuttles take off from the planet like ships do, but without the power requirements. (Just as how they land on planets just like ships do, but without the need to be "Stopped", since they can't.) There are definitely no launch limits on ships or shuttles taking off from a planet.

As for the ship's power requirements, that should not require the use of a battery. It really is intended to represent a point of left over power and can be thought of as a special-case acceleration. That probably needs rewording.