Section F Errata

F4.60e (Fleet Formation bonus). Allows a ship to be in reserve (F4.60a), but use its full AF (vs. a 50% reduction if it were in reserve). Special attacks that can't be done from reserve (which is most of them) can't be done while in Fleet Formation, either.

Consorts

F4.65 Escorts and Consorts
a) Ships which are acting as escorts (typically carrier escorts, but your GM may designate other units as ineligible) are busy doing escort duty and may not be used for the ships required as consorts for (F4.65b). Ships which are being escorted (again, typically carriers) do count for this purpose.
b) Some ships (by default, maulers and troop ships), in order to perform their special attacks (F4.60), require consorts (i.e., other ships in the squadron). While escorts are ships specifically configured for their role, consorts are not, and most ships may perform this role.
c) Consort requirements are evaluated at the beginning of each turn. As long as there are sufficient ships available to act as consorts, which ones are doing so and which ship they are consorting isn't tracked.
d) Ship types that require consorts to use their special attacks cannot themselves be used as consorts. Players may not add a ship requiring a consort to a squadron that lacks ships that can fulfill the consort role. If combat losses result in such a squadron, the player must assign ships on their next turn to address this, or remove such ships from the squadron until it is legal (i.e., has enough consorts). A single ship, even if it requires consorts, may always be in its own squadron (it just can't use its special attack). The homeworld defense rule (D17.50) can't be used to sidestep consort requirements.

Example: At the end of the turn, the Romulans want to start the assembly of an Elite X Squadron (D70.40). They have a squadron with a FHFX and a SNX. They cannot add an additional FHFX to the SQ without adding another ship (and the squadron with the FHFX and SNX is only legal as long as they don't use EFO in the squadron [which is moot in this example]).

F4.66 Consort calculations. Compute the number of command rating slots that are in use in a squadron (note that EFO (D17.25), REFO (D17.26), CEFO (D17.27), among other rules reduce the number of command rating slots a given ship may require). Subtract from this any slots escorts are using. Ships being escorted, and ships in fleet formation slots (F10.0) may be consorts. This is the number of command rating slots of ships available for a ship and its required consort(s). Half of those slots (round down) may be used for ships requiring consorts (this assumes one consort per such ship; if a campaign rule requires more consorts per ship, adjust this limit accordingly). The flagship of a squadron may be used as a consort (hint: consider it a "spare") if it is eligible. A flagship that requires a consort may be assigned to a squadron above the limits, but would be unable to use its special attack (i.e., a DN mauler, two cruiser maulers, and two cruisers as consorts would be a legal squadron, but the DN would not be allowed to maul).

Example: A squadron with a BB flagship squadron could have 5 consorts and 5 consorted ships. If the BB was itself a mauler, the squadron would still be legal with that 5 plus 5 mix, but the BB mauler would be unable to maul.

Example: A CVA (command rating 10) is in a squadron. The empire has none of the EFO techs, so all three escorts use a command rating slot. That would leave 7 slots (assuming Normal Command Rating (B1.105) is in use) at most available for consorts/consorted ships, and only 3 (7, divided by 2, rounded down) troop ships or maulers if the squadron was at full command rating usage. Strategic hint: Empires planning to use troop ships, maulers, and carriers in the same squadron should probably invest in CEFO tech (D17.27).

F4.67 Consort assignment. Players need not specify which ships are acting as consorts vs. not doing so, nor which ship they are consorting. The requirement is simply to require sufficient consorts. If consort eligible ships are lost during a battle to the point that a squadron lacks sufficient ships to be consorts, the largest ship (by hull type- i.e., BB then DN then BCH; use DF in the event of a tie... is the one that is no longer consorted). Ships that lack consorts may not use their special attack for the remainder of the turn.

Example: A squadron consisting of a Condor, 4 FireHawks, and 4 Falcon maulers enters a battle. Each of the FireHawks is assigned consort duty to a Falcon. For unknown reasons the Tholians target and destroy a FireHawk instead of one of the Falcons. If the battle ended this forces the Condor into consort duty for the remainder of the turn.

Example: The Tholians pick off another FireHawk, leaving the squadron with 3 consorts and 4 Falcons. One Falcon would be no longer eligible to maul for the remainder of the turn. The one with the largest DF (presumably an undamaged one with outstanding crew) would be impacted by this.

F4.68 When using EFO, REFO, or similar methods to reduce the command slots used by a ship, use the command slots required for the ship in the F4.66 calculations, not the number of ships (note that this applies to the consort and the consorted ship).

Example: If REFO were in use, one CW could act as the consort to one CW hulled mauler.

Example: If an empire had REFO and was using it in the squadron, then one CW couldn't act as a consort for a CA based mauler (if the squadron had available command slots, the CW could cease using REFO during the turn and thus be allowed to consort however).

Reword F4.70:

F4.70 Troop Ships and Maulers. Troop ships and maulers are unique in that they are unescorted ships, yet need the support of and defense by other ships to get into position. Each troop ship and mauler requires one consort (see F4.65b and F4.66 for details). In campaigns where some other type of ship requires consorts, use this process (if the campaign requires more than one consort per ship, see (F4.66)).

Typically this is displayed on your status sheet as (For this example EFO is in force):

L02A> DN,CA-M,DD-M,3xFF(consort) at X28:

Strategic hint: While you can get a squadron with a 50/50 mix of consorts and consorted ship types, all the enemy has to do is pick off a consort to nullify your best consorted ship's special attack (i.e., BB, DN-mauler, CA-mauler, ..., 3xFF; maxed out- picking off a FF will be easier than the DN and will keep that DN from mauling until the squadron is reorganized).