So played an Epic game last night and ran into a question right out of the gate. Does a huge ship begin with full or empty energy? Triple checked the rules and nothing is mentioned in either the gaining energy phase nor in initial setup. For obvious reasons this would drastically change Player tactics if the ship starts empty versus full.

Lacking a rule to the contrary, I would have to say they start empty. I do think that is kinda stupid though.

Sensor operator: Sir! 2 seconds to firing range.

Captain: Oh, well then, I guess maybe we should start charging our weapons.

Also doesn't make sense mechanically since then the only reasonable course of action for the first turn or two is to go as slow as possible in order to charge everything.

Personally, I agree. It makes little sense to have such a vessel start empty. From a fluff perspective I could see something like: "The GR-75 had been devoting all power/energy to thrust so coming into the battle the crew would have to reallocate power away from the engines for defense." But it does detract a bit from a tactics perspective since the vessel will be relatively predictable for Turn 1 and maybe 2 moves.

It would make more sense for it to start full. But without something in a FAQ or other source I'd have to assume it starts with none.

House rule. Huge ships start with full energy. Does not seem right to start empty and have to go slow forward to start charging up.

Modified house rule: The transport starts with 0 + title modifier bonus for energy.

So a Bright Hope CR75 would start with 2 energy.

Just a question, why are we assuming 0 rather than 4, I agree with 0, but what is our assumption?

The rules insert does not state to have any energy tokens to start. It is assumed to be 0 unless told to have any tokens to start.

Ok, I saw that, my thought was why receive energy on the first turn we could not store. If I move 1 get 4 energy I could not use it since it exceeded what I could hold if I started full.

Ok, I saw that, my thought was why receive energy on the first turn we could not store. If I move 1 get 4 energy I could not use it since it exceeded what I could hold if I started full.

Exactly. You'd basically be wasting the energy you generate with your first maneuver.

Fluff for starting with no energy:

How about the first turn of the game is when you detect the enemies, and you must go to battle stations at that time. Maybe while flying the rest of the time the energy is needed for something else, life support etc. But during battle all of those are turned down to a minimum and power is redirected to shields and movement.

Just an idea.

Energy rods for the reactor aren't cheap, lads. Do NOT turn the lasers on unless those TIEs are at kiss range. We have to reach end-month.... BTW... You don't need lights on the space-WC.... OMFG!!!, guys... Who left the lights in the cargo bay turned-on again?

Your movement dial gives you energy. I do not think its a good idea to start with energy.

If ships start with full shields that have them, the transport which has a printed Energy for 4, should also start full with its energy too.

So far every time we play on turn one we always say, "Enemies detected, Switch all power to shields and defense" Some of my player yell battle stations . You get the idea.

If ships start with full shields that have them, the transport which has a printed Energy for 4, should also start full with its energy too.

Except instructions for set up specifically mention placing shields. No such instructions exist for energy.

The exact wording in the first line of the energy section of the transport rule book is "can gain energy." It seems that "gain" is the key word here, so you've got to build it up using maneuvers. Odds are you'll have two turns to build up energy in most cases.

It starts at 0. Would you want the blockade runner to start at full energy before the first move with a range 5 attack?

Do you want EVERY...SINGLE...GAME involving a huge ship to start with them moving as slow as possible for 3-4 turns because they are worthless without energy?

Do you want EVERY...SINGLE...GAME involving a huge ship to start with them moving as slow as possible for 3-4 turns because they are worthless without energy?

The transport gains 3 energy on on straight 1, and pretty much 1 or more energy on everything else. You'll be at max energy by turn two, with most engagements beginning on turn two or three.

Do you want EVERY...SINGLE...GAME involving a huge ship to start with them moving as slow as possible for 3-4 turns because they are worthless without energy?

Or do you want to start EVERY...SINGLE...GAME with a ship that - already fully charged and unable to gain more energy - will simply move forward 4 the first turn and THEN spend the next 3-4 turns moving as slow as possible because they are worthless without energy?

By fully charging a huge ship during setup, you are making the first turn just as predictable as starting with 0.

I think starting with 0 energy is perfectly understandable for the Transport. We do not know for certain if the Corvette has different rules for setup, or abilities/upgrades that allow for energy allocation during setup or before first activation. So let's not assume that the way the Transport works is the way all huge ships will work.

Of course I could be totally wrong...

By fully charging a huge ship during setup, you are making the first turn just as predictable as starting with 0.

No it isn't, not remotely. A fully charged ship has the option to drive forward quickly and engage the enemy on their side of the board or to slow play and draw the enemy to it or to maneuver for position. All depending on what the rest of the squad is like and what his overall battle plan is. A huge ship that starts empty has no option other than to move as slow as possible and hope to get a decent energy reserve built up before the enemy gets within striking range, even if the rest of the squad would rather advance quickly. Starting full allows for options, starting empty limits them. And as for the argument that a full ship is wasting the energy it generates first turn, that is the same as saying an x-wing is wasting r2 because it starts with full shields. If you are at maximum capacity it doesn't hurt you generate resources you can't use because you are already the best you can be.

By fully charging a huge ship during setup, you are making the first turn just as predictable as starting with 0.

No it isn't, not remotely. A fully charged ship has the option to drive forward quickly and engage the enemy on their side of the board or to slow play and draw the enemy to it or to maneuver for position. All depending on what the rest of the squad is like and what his overall battle plan is. A huge ship that starts empty has no option other than to move as slow as possible and hope to get a decent energy reserve built up before the enemy gets within striking range, even if the rest of the squad would rather advance quickly. Starting full allows for options, starting empty limits them. And as for the argument that a full ship is wasting the energy it generates first turn, that is the same as saying an x-wing is wasting r2 because it starts with full shields. If you are at maximum capacity it doesn't hurt you generate resources you can't use because you are already the best you can be.

A huge ship still has options without energy, they have a full complement of actions, sans recover I suppose but you are never going to need that until at least one turn after contact anyway, the corvette has its primary. You say starting with no energy limits choices and having full opens them, I say having full energy at start makes choices easy, and no energy makes them more difficult.

Easy is boring.

By fully charging a huge ship during setup, you are making the first turn just as predictable as starting with 0.

No it isn't, not remotely. A fully charged ship has the option to drive forward quickly and engage the enemy on their side of the board or to slow play and draw the enemy to it or to maneuver for position.

As does a ship with 0 energy. My assumption about what would happen EVERY...SINGLE...GAME is just as valid as yours is... which means neither are.

While there are no rules about starting energy the rules do mention excess energy specifically. If anything I would argue that the excess rules make an implied case for starting at full energy rather than 0.

At 0 starting energy a Transport cannot do the following on turn 1 : Engine boost. After the Gain Energy phase if the Transport has done any movement dial option besides 4 straight, the Transport has the ability to use All other energy consuming options or hold that energy over for an Engine Boost.

The reason why I personally feel that starting with 0 energy versus full energy is restrictive relates more to how limiting the options for movement are early in the game. Restricting movement to 1 straight for the first turn or any turn in the opening moves very challenging especially when the opponents fighters can be attacking the Transport Turn 1 (with proper placement). Putting the Transport player on the defensive and trying to either burn the 40-60 point model on the board or frantic moves to put it 'out of harms way' to let it heal up some. If instead the Transport were to start at full health then the player feel more comfortable about a more aggressive strategy and could fly casual ly on a more direct approach into their opponents fleet knowing that it could take 1 round of moderate pounding and recover enough to respond with out making it a suicide run for the Transport.