quote:
Originally posted by Sultan:
Well the game is based on starfire. In starfire the engines also protect the ship by giving off a field of some sort (been a while). This is the reason that a missle with a nuke on it doesnt just totally destroy a ship with a direct hit (in starfire that is) if it has an engine and why mothballed ships go up with one nuke. Rammings the same way. Just an artifact from the board game 
I've played Starfire (dunno why I ever stopped, come to think of it) but I'd forgotten that tidbit. It's an interesting idea and it certainly does make reconciling this part of the SEIV game rules with a bit of realism a lot either.