Fleets pass each other by??

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by [K126]Mephisto:
I'm not totally sure if you really need a movement point to initiate combat but definitely the fleets will not swap their places hunting each other. The player who is topmost of the playerlist will move first, players below after him in order of the list. The only way you can be screwed is when you are the topmost player IMHO because then and only then your ships will move before the other players down the list will move.

You are indeed correct Mephisto. I had not accounted for player order in my tests.

If the player lower in turn is seeking to avoid combat he should be able to assuming he is at least as fast as the enemy. In the example I gave they would in fact swap places as the second player would be moving out of the sector as soon as the first player moved into it. If the places were reversed and it was player 2 seeking after player 1 then combat would indeed occur.

This makes sense when you consider what I said before about all this stuff actually occuring in phases. Combat occurs after the movement phase. Both players will do their movement phase and then if they are in the same sector after both, then combat occurs. If player 1 moves into the same sector as player two in their part of the movement phase, and player 2 is seeking after player 1, they would not need to move anywhere and that would end the movement phase.

I am quite certain about not needing available movement to initiate combat though. If you expend your Last movement point during that "day" and at the end of that day during the combat phase you are in the same sector with your target, combat will occur.

This actually gives a bit of an advantage to the players lower in order, as opposed to the old in combat advantage that went to the player higher in order. I am not sure this is something you would want to change though. Not sure how you would change it actually.

Geoschmo