Energy Allocation Phase: Each player looks through the cards drawn for each ship and chooses one to represent how each starship captain intends to allocate his vessel’s energy. Place the selected card on top of the other drawn cards and then place the entire stack face down on the SDS, moving on to the next ship. When all players have selected a single Energy Allocation Card for each ship, they simultaneously reveal all selected cards. If any player reveals a Joker, he must declare how it will be used (see below).
After all cards are revealed, players then roll dice and allocate energy according to the rules below. Place energy counters of the appropriate color and amount for weapons fire, defense, and tight turn bonuses around each ship. Since Energy Allocation is done via orders, players may roll dice and assign markers in any order and simultaneously. Players roll three dice per ship to determine the actual energy generated and allocate the Energy Points, according to their cards, to perform the three basic ship action types: Movement, Attack, and Defense. Additionally, ships may also allocate energy to a special Damage Control action. Each die rolled corresponds to one of the ship systems listed on the SDS. The number of currently unmarked boxes in a system’s column determines the die type, as shown in Table 2 below. Battle damage reduces a ship’s energy output and utilization. The player controlling the undamaged starship whose SDS is shown in Figure 1 would roll a d10, another d10 and a d8 when generating energy for actions. The dice are allocated according to the card just revealed. Energy Points are always allocated in whole die increments, i.e. although different dice may be allocated to different actions, Energy Points indicated on a single die may not be spilt.
Ship design plays an important factor in how the energy dice are allocated. If the Energy Allocation Card is an Ace through 10, then the highest die score is allocated to the Primary Action Type, the next highest score to the Secondary Action Type, and the last die score to the remaining action type. The SDS lists which Action types are Primary and Secondary, based on the suit of the Energy Allocation Card played. For example, if the ship in Figure 1 played a 9 of diamonds during Energy Allocation, the highest die rolled would be dedicated to Attack actions, the next highest die would be used for Defense actions, and the remaining die would be spent on movement.
If a face card is played, then the captain decides to sacrifice an action in order to divert energy to another area (“Divert engine power to the forward shields, NOW!”). In this case, the sum of the highest two dice scores is used for the Primary Action Type and the remaining die score is used for the Secondary Action Type. The remaining Action Type receives no energy. Jokers can be used one of two ways, announced when revealed. First, a Joker may be used to allow a ship to seize initiative when revealing Energy Allocation cards. If a Joker is revealed and the card’s player declares “initiative”, that player may analyze all the other cards revealed and then choose another from that ship’s drawn cards in response. The second way to utilize a Joker is to announce Movement, Attack or Defense when the Joker is revealed. The sum of all three dice is allocated to the declared action; the other two actions receive 0 Energy Points.
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