The Military Intel Pool and Offensive Intel limits

[virtutis.umbra]

Having found the FAQ doc on the Yahoo group has moved my understanding of offensive Intel from "totally confused" to "mostly figured this out" but I'd like to get all the way to "smacking my players down with authoritative rules certainty"

Facts known from rules:

1. IP available for an Offensive Intel mission gets spent from the Military Intel Pool, but is limited by the Census of the "attacking" system.

2. If multiple systems contribute to a single mission, player must pay a 1-IP 'surcharge' per additional system for coordinating.

3. A mission target more than 1 jump away from the "attacking" system costs 1 extra IP per additional jump.

Questions:

Code: Select all

A. Does each system have to pay to "project" its IP all the way to the target system as well, or only a point to pass their IP bandwidth along to the "attacking" system? 

B. Does the 1-point "coordination" surcharge count against the contributing system's Census-based bandwidth?

C. Does the 1-point-per-jump "distance" surcharge count against the contributing system's Census-based bandwidth?

For example,

The Terrans have 20 IP in their Military Intel Pool. Terran player declares a Tech Espionage mission from Beta Cancri ('attacker' - Census 10) and Delta Pavonis ('contributor' - Census 5) against a naively unprotected enemy colony at Epsilon Eridani('defender' - Census 5 - Defensive Intel 0), which is 2 jumps from Beta and 3 jumps from Delta.

Code: Select all

i. Does Beta get to allocate 10 points on Tech Espionage, with the 1 point of range mitigation coming independently out of the Military Intel pool, or does Beta pay the cost against is own cap and thus only have 9 'mission effective' Intel Points left?

ii. Does Delta contribute all 5 of its points to Beta's effort, with the additional 1 point coop surcharge coming independently out of the Military Intel pool, or does Delta pay the cost against its own cap and thus only have 4 'mission effective' Intel Points left?

iii. Does Delta also have to pay range separately, and if so also against its own cap?

As you can see, the way these rules get interpreted can swing the viability of this operation by a lot - either the Terrans can end up spending

• 19 points to get a 15-point Tech Espionage mission (10:B +5:D +4:Mil -1:BRange -2:DRange -1:DCoop)
• 17 points to get a 15-point Tech Espionage mission (10:B +5:D +4:Mil -1:BRange -1:DCoop)
• 15 points to get a 13-point mission (as 19pt above, no Mil)
• 15 points to get an 11-point mission (as 17pt above, no Mil)

That's a pretty substantial swing in likely outcome already; but, if you double the range and the number of planets involved, and cut the Census down a bit... it obviously makes a big difference in how much we'll see Intel used at the table, how far it'll get projected, how much multi-planet coop takes place, etc.

[Tyrel Lohr]

I am going to have to defer to Jay on this question, as he wrote the original Intel rules and I am not sure which answer he really intended. Hopefully he'll answer the question tomorrow morning.

[mwaschak]

Hey, I am back and let's talk about Intel!

>A. Does each system have to pay to "project" its IP all the way to the target system as well, or only a point to >pass their IP bandwidth along to the "attacking" system?

They just need to connect to the "attacking" system. Basically they are paying the range to get involved in the launching mission. This is something I am glad we cleaned up for FA and 2E.

>B. Does the 1-point "coordination" surcharge count against the contributing system's Census-based bandwidth?

Nope!

>C. Does the 1-point-per-jump "distance" surcharge count against the contributing system's Census-based >bandwidth?

No as well. Basically, it is just an extra cost to be considered.

-Jay