Power ships are designed to provide an additional power source for ships, bases or other items which are power hungry. Whilst not useful in every situation, additional power does have its uses sometimes. These uses include:
It is for these reasons that the power ships were developed.
A power ship is, essentially, just a large power generator, which creates a huge amount of excess power. This energy can be beamed to target ships via the use of large microwave transmitters mounted on the power ship. Provided the two ships have a clear line of sight, and maintain the same course and heading as each other, the power can be beamed directly to the recieving ship. These transmitters make a power ship obvious and because the transmitters themselves need to move around a bit, hiding or disguising such a ship is difficult.
Range does have an impact on the power broadcasted. At long ranges, the power degrades. A target ships own power generators also have an effect on the power being sent. Because the power must flow through a ships generators to be able to flow into target ship, the generators do get overworked a lot. If too much power is received, these generators can burn out through over use. Similarly, if a ship does not have any power generators, it cannot receive any beamed power.
Note: These rules are strictly optional, and it should be pointed out that in playtesting some people expressed their opinion that power ships as written are not what they should be. Power ships are mentioned in the novels, but their use is not actually specified. A power ship produces power. But what uses their power, and how? I speculated a use and that is what you find here, but just get approval from all players before you use them.
Power ships beaming power across space use some special rules, and these rules operate over two consecutive turns. On the first turn, the power is broadcast, and on the second the receiving ship may attempt to make use of it.
Power sent by a power ship is APR only, never warp power and thus cannot be used to move a ship. Nor can it be used to power life support, active fire control or basic shields (reinforcement is fine) of the recieving ship. These have to be supplied by power generated by the ship itself.
There is a limit to the amount of ships that a power ship may beam power to, and that is specified by the highest undamaged sensor box on the power ships SSD.
Beamed power can never be used as a weapon.
A power ship is a ship with special APR. On an SSD this is termed BEAMED APR or sometimes just B-APR. Only ships with B-APR may function as a power ship, and only B-APR may be beamed to other ships, not normal APR. B-APR may be used as normal APR for the power ship itself on any turn that it is not being used for other ships.
B-APR is hit on APR hits.
A power ship is easily spotted as to what it is, and thus a power ship is identified as such at Level C intelligence.
All of these events happen in the Energy Allocation Phase of the turn, but before players actually allocate their energy.
ENERGY ALLOCATION
To be able to receive power, a ship must meet the following conditions:
The safe limit for receiving power is an amount of energy equalling the ships current APR. Thus, a ship with 4 APR may receive 4 points of energy safely. Any more, and the ship risks a chance of burnout.
When sending power, the following conditions must be met:
If at any time, a ship moves out of formation, accelerates, decelerates or otherwise breaks speed and heading, then the power to that ship is dropped at that impulse. The impulse should be recorded as it will have a bearing on the actual amount of power received by the target ship.
Power is sent in one turn, and actually used on the next. This means that on Turn 1, if ten points of power are sent to a ship, and if all goes correctly, on Turn 2, the receiving ship has ten extra points of power to spend in the Energy Allocation Phase.
However, in combat, things rarely work out as planned. If a ship is sending power, and during the turn, something happens which means that the power is interrupted, then power is stopped at the point in the turn. You then have to determine just how much power was transmitted during that part of the turn. The formula for this is as follows:
(impulses transmitted) / 32 * amount of power allocated.
Round down to the nearest quarter or third of a fraction, depending on the ship needing the power.
For example, if a power ship has allocated 10 points of power to be sent to a Colonial Cruiser, and on impulse 8, the cruiser suddenly moves away from the power ship, then only a fraction of that power will have been sent to the cruiser. In fact, only 2.5 points of power. ( (8/32)*10 = 2.5). This will then be adjusted by range.
While power can be broadcast over a long distance, it does degrade over distance. Use the following table to determine the power sent:power received ratio:
| Range to target | APR sent:APR received |
|---|---|
| 01-10 | 1:1 |
| 11-25 | 2:1 |
| 26-40 | 3:1 |
Thus at a range of 14 hexes, the power ship must send out 2 points of APR for the receiving ship to receive 1.
All power reductions due to range are handled after any calculations are made due to power being interrupted during a turn. So, in the above example, if the Colonial Cruiser received 2.5 points of power at a range of 14 hexes, it would in fact only get 1.25 points of power.
Another thing that can happen to a ship to make it lose power, is if the power ship itself gets damaged. If the APR on the ship get destroyed, then power will not be available to be beamed to other ships. When this happens, when it is time to record the amount of power that a ship has had beamed to it, simply subtract the amount of damage that the power ship has sustained. If the power ship is beaming power to multiple ships, then the owner of the power ship may decide where the lost power goes.
The safe limit that ships can receive power is equal to their current APR rating. However, sometimes a ship needs more power than that, and can request additional power to be sent. Sometimes due to the battle damage, a ship may find itself with less APR than when it requested the extra energy.
This extra energy may cause a power surge through the ships generators, and the result is burnout, when the generators die.
For each additional point of power over the safe limit that a ship receives, roll 1d6 and consult the following table:
| Die roll | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1-3 | Generator burnout, lose 1 APR |
| 4 | Generator burnout, lose 2 APR |
| 5-6 | No burnout occurs |
APR which is lost this way is lost immediately, and thus is not available for Energy Allocation. APR lost like this does not effect the current safe APR limit. In addition, a burnout results in the loss of the energy point that caused the burnout.
For example, a ship which has 4 APR remaining receives 7 points of power. 4 points of that power is safe, while 3 points have the potential to cause burnout. Three die rolls are made - 2, 4 and 5. This means that 3 APR have burnt out and are no longer usable, and 2 points of the energy have also been lost.
Thus at Energy Allocation, the ship now has 1 APR, but also 5 additional points of power for a total of 6 APR this turn. In the future, the ship may no longer accept beamed power as it now only has 1 APR.
Terrain can play a role in the beaming of power to other ships. The following notes apply when, and only when, the power ship and/or the receiving ship are in the particular terrain types. Note that movement caused by terrain does not break beamed power if all ships are move equally and end up in the same facing and with the same heading. Terrain not listed either has no effect on beamed power, or else uses rules from other terrain types which should be applied instead.
(P2.0) Planets: Power cannot be beamed into or through an atmospheric hex.
(P4.0) Black Holes: (P4.23) Direct-fire weapon rule applies to beamed power.
(P5.0) Variable Pulsars: (P5.32) Direct-fire weapon rule applies to beamed power.
(P6.0) Nebulae: Power cannot be beamed into or through a nebulae.
(P11.0) Sunspot Activity: Power cannot be beamed in sunspot activity.
(P15.0) Radiation: (P15.6) Other Effects is in effect for the maximum range of beamed power.
Magnetic Voids: (P15.6) Other Effects is in effect for the maximum range of beamed power, which is dropped to 15 as normal.
Space Storms and Astral Winds: (P15.6) Other Effects is in effect for the maximum range of beamed power, which is 35 hexes.
A Colonial power ship is currently beaming power to two ships - a Colonial CLE (with 3 APR) and a Colonial Tiger Class Destroyer (with 14 APR). The power ship has 25 APR to spare, and currently no ship has been attacked. The CLE is at range 5, while the Tiger is at range 20.
Turn 1:
In the Energy Allocation Phase, the power ship allocates 3 points of power to the CLE, and the remaining 22 to the Tiger.
The rest of the turn happens, all ships remain in the same heading and speed as the power ship. The turn proceeds as normal.
Turn 2:
The CLE receives 3 points of power from the Power ship (giving it 6 APR to spend this turn), while the Tiger only gets 11 (giving it 25 APR to spend this turn).
The power ship again allocates 3 APR to the CLE, while the Tiger gets the other 22.
During this turn, Cylon Raiders pounce and attack the CLE, inflicting heavy damage and destroying 1 APR. The Tiger is undamaged, but breaks away in Impulse 13 to engage a Cylon vessel, and the Power ship itself comes under attack and loses 3 APR.
Turn 3:
Because the Power ship lost 3 APR during the last turn, three points of power have to be lost. The owning player may determine which and chooses to lose 3 points of APR heading to the Tiger, figuring that the CLE will need the power to help fend off the Cylon Raiders.
This means that the CLE gains 3 points of power. Unfortunately, the CLE has just lost 1 APR, meaning that 1 point of beamed power is excess and may cause burnout. A die roll is made and a 2 is scored. One additional APR is lost due to burnout, and the excess point of energy is lost. This leaves the CLE with a total of 3 points of APR this turn, and no ability to gain any more.
The Tiger had 22 points of power beamed to it, but due to battle damage, the Power ship only actually broadcast 19. The Tiger also broke away in Impulse 13, meaning that it actually would only be able to get 7.66, and because of range, this actually means that the Tiger only gets 3.75 points of power this turn (for a grand total of 17.75 APR).
Now the Power ship can decide to allocate power to ships. The CLE cannot receive anymore, and the Tiger is engaging the enemy, and thus likely not going to stand still for a turn to be able to receive much - if any due to the range. The Power Ship decides not to allocate any power to other ships, and indeed decides to move away.