In the rules it states that to 'study' a tech card you place a token on it. To complete it you turn it over and if your tokens are equal to or higher than the tech card number, you complete the tech. So my question is: Do you get to keep adding tokens to the tech card per turn? OR- do you have certain times only you can add them. If you get to look and decide between two tech cards, why would you ever have more than the required number of tokens? If you have a tech card of eight, why wouldn't you just put eight on there knowing that's all you need to complete it. Where would the reasoning behind putting a ninth one on there? Awaiting answers. Did I miss something in the rules?

From what I understand, before the offense gets a ship form the Warp, all players have the choice on whether to put a single ship onto one of their Tech cards (sicne you can get more than one by giving up second encounters). The player with the Tech card knows how many ships he needs to commit, so unless he forgets (which probably will happen when you have a bunch), he will put the right number of ships on and then activate it the next turn.

So, there would be no point to putting 5 ships on a research-4 Tech card, unless you forget how many ships you need and want to give up the ship for some insurance.

so a player retrieves a token from a warp and decides whether to add it to his offense OR add it to the tech card? Am I right in this? AND THEN, once you successfully complete a tech card you have the option of choosing another one optioning out of your second offense? I think I get it, it's just new in CE and I'm hashing it out first before I have to stumble through the rules for noobs. lol

Timing issue. "At the start of any player's Regroup phase, before the offense retrieves a ship from the warp, each player may research their tech card, complete their tech card, or do nothing."

Before each encounter, all players have the option of putting a ship on their tech. They can also complete their tech.

The ship coming from the warp can't be put on the tech because you have to decide to put a ship on the tech *before* the ship comes from the warp.

Extra ships on a tech could well be used as a form of bluff. "Only two more... where am I going to get two more?" when you've already finished the tech.

It's worth noting that if a player has two encounters, you can advance your tech twice on their turn, as they'll have two regroup phases.

I fully intend to place 8 tokens on the first tech card I get no matter what it is just to make everyone think I have something that will absolutely destroy them.

Other than bluffing, I'm not sure why. As you can tell in the rules for the Morph card, the rules were written with the intention of catching any and all possibilities that might arise from unexpected uses of powers or from expansions. While my example of bluffing may have been the reason they noted being able to place more ships on a card, I think it's probably just an example of forward thinking in case there is an expansion with weird tech cards or tech-related aliens.

Saizo said:

Thanks to all who replied. Hopefully the arrival of the game is sooner than not later than the projected date by Amazon. (fingers crossed and wishful thinking)

Toomai said:

This is how we playtested it. With Kevin sitting at the table. So I believe this is correct.

As for the number of ships? The speculations that it can be a useful bluff are good. Some techs cost as little as 2 "ships" worth of research, others go as high as 8. And I can think of at least two that get better the more ships you have on them. So when you see someone with 7 ships on a tech, you never know if he has a two ship tech and is just messing with you, if he is one ship away from the Genesis Planet, or if he has a "research this tech and get x bonus for every ship you have researching it"