Chapter 6 - Movement

Last week we talked about the Tactical Action.

The first two parts of a Tactical Action are to activate a system, and then move ships into that system.

Recap:

1. ACTIVATION: The active player must activate a system by

taking a command token from his tactic pool and placing it in

that system.

2. MOVEMENT: The active player may move ships into that

system from any number of other systems. Ships can also

transport ground forces from one system to another.

Today we will focus on these two steps.

1)  ACTIVATE A SYSTEM

Remember the Command Token pools?  The first step in activating a system is to take a command token for your Tactic pool and place it on a system of the map.

Key point:

- You cannot activate a system that already contains one of your command tokens (other players' tokens do not matter).

2)  MOVEMENT

Once you've activated a system, you can then move your units into that system.

- Your units must end movement in the system you activated.

- You can move ships from any number of systems, provided that they have the movement range to travel that distance.  

Example:  The Destroyer I below can move up to 2 spaces:

- Your units cannot pass through systems containing enemy ships (there are corner-case exceptions to this, but this is the general rule)

- Your ships cannot begin movement from a system that contains one of your command tokens

In short:  You cannot activate a system that has one of your command tokens already in it, and you cannot move ships FROM a system that has your command token in it.  This is the most basic tenant of unit movement, but it takes getting used to.

Note:  At the end of each turn (during the Status Phase), all command tokens are removed from the board.

Remember:  Don't exceed your FLEET size limitation.  If you end up with more ships in a system than you have command tokens in your fleet pool, you will have to sacrifice ships to satisfy this limitation.

OK, so you've activated a system, and moved your units there.  Klingons off the starboard bow!  

SPACE CANNON OFFENSE

Technically, this is part of the Movement step, so I'm discussing it here.  One of the units in the game is the "PDS" (Planetary Defense System).  As the final step of movement, any PDS within range of enemy ships gets to fire at them.  We'll get more into this when we discuss combat, next week.

CAPACITY

One final note.  Some ships have capacity.  

This is the ability for this ship to carry other units.  Specifically:

- Infantry (ground units that capture and defend planets)

- Fighters (the small, cannon-fodder units of the game)

We'll discuss capacity in more detail in coming posts, but for now be aware that your ships can transport ground forces and small fighters with their Capacity.

Next week, we'll start to delve into combat!