Is this card useful?

[Moderator Sinister]

Can somone tell me what the benefit of the circut breaker is? Don't you get to power down when you want anyway? I'm missing something I know.

[zooooma]

Don't you get to power down when you want anyway?

Yes, but you have to decide at the beginning of the (previous) turn. Circut breaker lets you chose to power down at the end of the (previous) turn. The events of that turn may affect your decision. You may be damaged beyond your predictions, for instance.

I think the only other usefulness of this card is subterfuge. As the manul indictaes, sometimes your decision to power down depends on wether another player is powering down. With this card, you can always choose last.

Happy gaming.
-Luke

[Moderator Sinister]

Ok

So I have to decided before turn 4 begins if I'm going to power down on turn 5?

[zooooma]

Normally, yes. See section three of the rules. This is soemtimes a close call at the start of the previous turn.

-Luke

[Moderator Sinister]

was that part of the old rules? We never did that. Guess we should have.

[zooooma]

I do not own, nor have ever played the original WotC release. I cannot help here, sorry. I'm sure someone else can.

-Luke

[Docfrost]

My first time posting here so I thought this might be a good spot.

In the old rules after you placed your 5 registers and before the first register is revealed was the time a player decided if they were going to power down. Since they have received cards the power down does not come into effect until next turn. The new rules are the same.

The wording on circuit breaker (both new and old) say that your robot will be powered down if it has 3 or more damage on it at the end of a turn. Not really the best thing to have happen if you are on a conveyor belt of doom. Just remember that you can always give up an option card instead of taking a point of damage.

Hope that helps some
Docfrost

[puggimer]

I thought that the powerdown from circuit breaker was NOT optional - as Docfrost stated - if you have 3 or more damage counters then you WILL be powered down on the next turn, like it or not. The only way to avoid this is to discard this option to avoid a point before the end of the turn.

[iiiHuman]

Ok, the instantaenous power-down from the Circuit Breaker Option is mandatory. It is not optional. The new version currently reads as follows:


CIRCUIT BREAKER:
If you have 3 or more Damage tokens on your Program Sheet at the end of your turn, your robot will begin the next turn powered down.


So, once again, it is mandatory and not optional.

However, one of the nice things about the Circuit Breaker Option is that you do not have to execute another turn's worth of program cards before you can be fully powered down. As stated previously by others, normally you would have to program your next turn (along with any locked registers you may have) and announce that you are powering down (before those programs are executed) so that you will be fully powered down at the beginning of the next turn (after you execute the current turn's program chips, including those that are locked). The Circuit Breaker Option allows you to automatically and instantly be fully powered down on the next turn without having to complete another turn's worth of program cards in the process of powering down. Granted, as Docfrost stated, this might be a problem depending on where you will be powered down. However, also like Docfrost stated, you can always choose to discard the option to prevent a point of damage so that you do not have to be automatically and instantly powered down on the next turn.

Also, one other nice benefit of not having to wait a full turn in the process of powering down is that you do not have to worry about how much damage you already have. Let's say you have seven damage. Without the Circuit Breaker, you will not only have to execute several locked registers before being fully powered down (assuming you annouce powering down at the beginning of the next turn), you run the risk of easily getting three more damage and being destroyed. With the Circuit Breaker, you get to clear all of the damage right away without having to wait a turn. Sure, you may also take damage while powered-down, but you have that possibility in either situation (whether you power down immediately, or after having to execute one more turn).

There is also one more thing to remember. As long as your play group accepts it, you can always make a "house rule" that the Circuit Breaker is "optional." However, this might be kind of hard to explain. You could, however, say that all of the robots also have a sort of Circuit Breaker "override" function built-in. But, again, this would be a "house rule" and your group would have to agree on it.


The following might also be helpful:

TURN PROCEDURE FOR ROBORALLY:

Each Turn:
* Deal Program Cards.
* Program Registers.
- Announce usage of Options that need to be tied to a certain phase.
- If using Timer, second-to-last player done programming starts it.
* Announce any power-downs for next turn.
* Complete each register phase:
- Reveal Program Cards.
- Robots move based on priority.
- Board elements move:
1. Express conveyor-belts move 1 space.
2. Express conveyor-belts and normal conveyor-belts move 1 space.
3. Pushers push if active.
4. Gears rotate 90 degrees in the direction of arrows.
- Board lasers and Robot lasers fire.
- Robots "touch" flags and repair sites:
1. Archive positions get updated.
2. Flags are tagged.
* Cleanup:
- Robots can get repairs and upgrades.
- Wipe the registers that are not locked.


Keep in mind that repairs and upgrades do not happen until after all of the movement phases, at the end of the turn during the Cleanup section. However, you can update your archive position and tag flags at the end of any movement phase.


While I'm here, I should probably also include a useful little note I received from Customer Service on when Options can be used:

GENERAL RULES ON OPTION USAGE:
A robot can use an option card whenever it's ability applies. If it requires firing your laser, then of course you can't use it while powered down. If it requires moving, then again, you can't use it while powered down. If it is an ability that requires no action on your part, such as with the Ablative Coating and Mechanical Arm, then it will still function while powered down. You don't receive program cards while powered down, so Extra Memory would do you no good while powered down either. Anything that requires moving or firing cannot be used while powered down.



iiiHuman

[PhilFleischmann]

Circuit Breaker is the same in the new version as it was in the old.

BTW, I've read that when Garfield & Co. were originally playtesting the game, prior to release, this ability was an inherent part of the rules for all robots. IOW, there reall was no "declaring shut down." If you ended a turn with 3 or more points of damage, you spent the next turn powered down.

This turned out to be a problem. Can you spot the flaw? (scroll down for the answer)





















Answer: What if you end your turn with 3 or more points of damage, and you're in the path of a board-mounted laser? Then you are manditorily powered down in the laser, you take 5 hits, and are manditorily powered down for the next turn, and since you're still in the laser, you power down again, and so forth. You sleep in the laser beam forever. The only way you can ever wake up again is if another robot pushes you out of the laser path, which they are generally not inclined to do if they want to win the game.