Admirals

Fleets seldom succeed in battle without a good Admiral. In fluid situations, the actions and decisions of frontline leaders often separates victory from defeat.

Admirals cost points just like ships, but they do not have a Core Stat Sheet. Instead, they have an Admiral Stat sheet, such as the following:

Admiral	AV	Allowed	Pts
UCMF Vice Admiral	4	C/B	80

AV - (Admiral Value): Represents the abilities of an Admiral (higher numbers are better). This affects things such as the roll to determine Initiative.

Allowed: Defines what sized engagement they can be chosen to partake in. In this case, a UCMF Vice Admiral can be taken for a Clash or Battle, but not a Skirmish (an action too small to usually merit his/her presence).

Pts: How many points it costs to field this Admiral. A player may only field 1 Admiral in their fleet.

Your Admiral may be placed in any ship in your fleet with a Tonnage value of M, H or S. If placed in a ship of Tonnage H you may upgrade your Admiral 1 level for free. If placed in a ship of Tonnage S you may upgrade your Admiral 2 levels for free.

e.g.an Admiral in a Battlecruiser in a skirmish sized game can be upgraded to a maximum AV of 3.

Famous Admirals

Some Admirals have risen to legendary status, becoming household names, and are often held in fear, awe or infamy. These mighty individuals may occasionally be featured in battles. Famous Admirals may have several special abilities, and may even change the Fleet Roster to suit the unique fighting style for which they are famous.

Before a battle, all players must agree to the use of Famous Admirals before they can be chosen. Rules for these will be available as special online downloads and in future books.

Command Cards

Command Cards represent the specific actions and decisions made by the Admiral. Each card will state when it can be played and what its effects are. Command Cards add flavour and an additional tactical layer to games. Each race has a distinct Command Card deck which may not be altered in any way, unless specified in the rules. Players may play as many cards as they like during a turn until they run out. A player can draw cards up to a hand size equal to the Admiral Value (AV) of their Admiral in each Planning Phase. This value only applies here if the Admiral is on the table. If the ship your Admiral is on is destroyed or not yet on the table, you may use an AV of 1 and must immediately discard command cards of their choice down to 1.

When a card is played or discarded for any reason it should be placed face-up in a discard pile. If a player runs out of cards in their deck, this discard pile should be turned face-down and shuffled into a new deck to draw from.

A typical Command Card is set out as follows:

Espionage
Play	When an Opponent plays a Command Card.
Target	One Enemy Command Card use.
Effect	You may negate the effects of this enemy Command Card.
"Just goes to show that even Shaltari can fall into a trap, provided it's set properly."

Play: Describes when a card can be played.

Target: Describes the allowed Target(s) of the card. Each Group can only be Targeted once per turn per player, although cards which do not specifically target them or ships within them will still take effect (e.g. 'Target: all friendly Groups').

Effect: Describes the effect the card has on the target. Before the card takes effect, other players may play cards in response. Effects stack in reverse order when multiple cards are played simultaneously (the most recently played card takes effect first). You may also choose to wait until another card has taken effect before playing another.