The Campaign Rules Consolidated and revised to 20 May

The Campaign Rules Proper
Full Thrust Campaign
1. Strategic Space
1.1. Hexagon of hexes, 6 hexes on a side.
1.2. Planet present in any given hex on 1-3 on 1d6.
1.3. On a roll of 1, planet is on a “charted route”. Roll 1d6 and charted route points out of that hex side, linking to the nearest world in that direction. If there is no world within four hexes or the stub goes off the edge of the field, roll again. At end of planet generation, all charted route stubs are linked up to create the charted routes through local space.
2. Player worlds
2.1. Each player dices for starting world location in turn.
2.2. Once each player has a starting world, each rolls a d3 and adds 4. This gives the number of additional worlds. These worlds are assigned sequentially - each player in turn chooses a world which they already own, and rolls one d6. The nearest unoccupied world in that direction is added to their empire.
2.3. This process continues until all players have claimed all additional worlds. Any left over are neutral and can be squabbled over. Neutral worlds can be attacked all out, or scouted by single light elements, which will allow the scouting player to find out the local level of development/likely opposition without risk. Because this is not a game with a neutral umpire, scouting reveals the worth of a system to all players. Any other approach was either too much trouble or involved too much trust.
3. Player world income
3.1. Income is in ship construction points, because that’s all it’s going to be used for, although the decision can be justified by the “fact” that the FT rules actually equated construction points to megacredits.
3.2. Income is 3d5 x10
4. Neutral world income
4.1. On 1-2 the world is unsettled - no income; on 3-4 2d6 x 10; and on 5-6 3d6 x 10.
4.2. This roll will only be made when a player attacks the world or scouts it.
5. Turns
5.1. One strategic turn is a week. A single jump takes one strategic turn.
5.2. 6 strategic turns is an economic turn. Each economic turn, each world under your control generates the indicated income.
5.3. The campaign is envisaged to have two speeds; when it's in the foreground of attention for the club, it should move at a rate of at least one economic turn per Monday evening. At other times, it should move at a rate of one strategic turn per Monday evening.
6. Starting forces
6.1. Starting capital for military spending is 10 x total planetary income. Up to 4000 can be spent on ships (Your citizens won’t stand for reckless military capital spending). This is sufficient to buy 40 standard destroyers, 20 light cruisers, 10 battlecruisers or 6 capital ships.
6.2. Remainder can be used to
6.2.1. buy spare parts in advance. Pre-positioned spares cost 75% of the normal cost of installed systems but must be pre-positioned on a specified world at the beginning of the economic turn in which they’re acquired. It is not necessary to specify what kinds of parts are pre-positioned; in effect you have spent the money on setting up a naval base. This can be replenished from income, but only at locations specified at the start, only to the levels set at the start, and replenishments only become available in the following economic turn.
6.2.2. or spent on planetary defences (for the effect of this spending, see below, undefended worlds). Any points spent here are added to the system's Inherent Defence Points. Because this has a multiplier effect, this is a one-off expenditure which can only be done during set up.
6.2.3. or simply kept as reserve cash.
6.3 Loose cash can be spent on whatever you choose from the beginning of economic turn 2. (When it can be assumed that everyone will be able to claim to their people that they're in a just war). There is no credit, so if you don't have enough cash to do repairs, they don't happen. It's entirely up to the players to decide whether they want to use their spare money to buy more ships or to have cash on hand to make major repairs.
7. Maintenance
7.1. Fleet maintenance costs 10% of construction cost of currently deployed units per economic turn. This covers fuel, salaries and consumables. Expended ordnance (Missiles, SMPs, MKPs, Kravak scatterguns and what have you) costs over and above this at 50% of the ordnance build price. Ships obtained at a discount still incur maintenance costs based on the full list price.
7.2. Players may elect to reduce this spend.
7.3. Fleets constructed to save money can be maintained for 7.5% of their construction cost. To meet this criterion, all ships in each size class must be identical, there can be no more than five size classes in the entire navy, and all task groups must be structured on similar lines. Size classes are the standard FT2 codes like DD CL CH and so on. In essence, there can be only five kinds of ship in the entire fleet.
7.4. Players can opt to cut fleet maintenance to 5% but will make all damage checks at one level worse than normal.
8. Movement
8.1. It takes on jump to enter an empty hex from any other hex. It takes one jump to move between any two worlds not more than two hexes apart (ie, you can jump over an intervening hex between two systems). (This simulates the difference between travelling between known neighboring worlds and moving through uncharted empty space. Actually it just makes it easier to move around as long as you don't mind getting in a fight, but a handwaving explanation is always needed for seeing off quibblers)
8.2. Travel along a charted route takes one week between any two points on the route unless interdicted by hostile forces occupying an intermediate point on the route.

Charted routes work through a combination of the natural curvature of local space and infrastructure in the systems they link. So new routes are unlikely to appear and the planetary governments along the routes have the ability to cut the power to the infrastructure and stop people travelling through. Interdicting fleets also have the ability to disrupt routes by shooting up the infrastructure (any damage is superficial; handwaving explanations on request, the real reason is that I can't be bothered writing yet another set of rules for replacing things you can't afford to fix).

Fleets actually in FTL mode are inaccessible both to fleets in normal space and to other ships using FTL.

A fleet in FTL mode using a charted route which is interdicted for any reason will stop at the last friendly system before the blockage.

Fleets arriving in system using a charted route have a plus 1 on their initiative roll (finally, some point to those routes between neighboring systems!)

Interdiction happens because an attack on a system has failed to result in a decisive outcome one way or the other. It follows that in order to interdict a system, the interdicting player must have had enough strength to mount an attack in the first place. A task force smaller than that is driven off by the planetary defences. A task force smaller than that which quibbles about this rule is blown to bits. By the S'''''wat, if necessary.
9. Conquest
9.1. Defeating an opposing fleet in a planetary system will lead to immediate combat with system defences. See below
9.2. So that there can be no argument about this later, a fleet counts as defeated if it is destroyed, is driven off or elects to leave the system.
9.3. Conquering a system makes no difference to the money coming out of it; rationalise this by imagining that the conquerors are less scrupulous than the original owners when it comes to grinding the peasantry down.
10. Attacking system defences
10.1. Where there is no opposing fleet present, the incoming player must defeat the local system defences.
10.2. As a convenient abstraction, Inherent Defence Points are assumed to be identical to the planetary income. Multiply Inherent Defence Points by 10 and compare with the points value of the incoming fleet. The incoming fleet gets +1 on the combat dice roll for every multiple of the defence points value it has; so if the incoming fleet has three times as many points as planetary defences have, the invaders get +2. The invading fleet gets a further +1 if it has defeated a defending fleet prior to the attack on the system defences. The fleet gets -1 if it has fewer points than the system defences. A fleet must have at least 50% of the strength of the system defences to mount an attack at all. (Because otherwise you would all just send in one scout ship after another hoping to roll a 6 eventually. And that would be wrong.)
10.3. Roll 1 d6.
10.4. On a natural or modified 6, the planetary defences surrender.
10.5. The planetary defences are assumed to take damage as a result. Roll 1 d5; on a 2, they are completely destroyed. On a 3, Inherent Defence Points are reduced to one third. On a 4, IDPs are reduced to two thirds. On a 5, the defences are effectively intact. Replacing planetary defences is expensive and time consuming. It will cost five times the IDP to replace losses and take one economic turn per third of the defences being replaced.
10.6. On 2-5, the system is interdicted for that strategic turn, with both sides tied up in indecisive skirmishing. Any planet which is interdicted at the beginning of an economic turn provides no income. This is the only way in which a system can be interdicted; if your force is too weak to engage the planetary defences, or you choose not to engage them, then you're obviously not aggressive enough to intimidate the private sector.
10.7. On a 1, the incoming fleet is repulsed taking damage equivalent to the planetary income. This damage need not be specifically allocated unless the incoming fleet finds itself in combat with another force before the next economic turn.
10.8. If the player finds himself in combat before he repairs the damage or elects not to repair all damage in the next economic turn (in other words, if it becomes necessary to evaluate damage before it can be deemed to be repaired), damage is allocated simply by dividing the Inherent Defence Points of the repulsing system by three; this number of hull boxes is knocked off the repulsed fleet, spread evenly over the participating ships. Where this results in a complete row of hull boxes being stripped out, system checks follow. This may well result in a much bigger repair bill than expected. Serve you right for scrimping and thinking that was just a minor leak in the intercooler.
11. Repair
11.1. Damage can only be repaired in a system from which you have drawn income this economic turn and which you still hold. For avoidance of doubt, this means that if you conquer a system just before an economic turn should start and remain there, you can draw the income and carry out repairs in the first strategic turn of the new economic turn. It's unfair, but it's equally unfair to everyone and it encourages people to attack, which is usually considered to be a good thing.
11.2. The general rule is that repair to combat damaged systems is charged at the same price as the original construction of the system.
11.3. Exceptions to the general rule on costs
11.3.1. Pre-positioned parts have already been paid for and are installed for free by your engineering staff.
11.3.2. Parts can be stripped from identical ships in the same task force and installed for 10% of the normal cost.
11.3.3. Parts can be stripped from other ships (including captured enemy vessels) and installed for 20% of the normal cost; but these parts will always test for damage at one level worse than original specification parts. To forestall quibbling, organic vessels are assumed to have individual DNA type signatures and will have rejection issues with bits grafted on from other vessels. Captured parts can be used only if they are functionally identical to the part being replaced. For avoidance of doubt, this expressly bars installing alien weapon systems in human vessels (and vice versa) and installing weapon types other than those originally installed in the weapon station.
11.3.4. Combat damaged systems which were repaired during combat have been jury-rigged and at least have to be recalibrated; during refitting roll 1 d6 for any such system. On a 1-3, the part has passed inspection. On 4-6 it needs to be completely replaced.
So as to forestall arguments, combat repair attempts end when you a) FTL out of the system or b) send in the marines to mop up after your successful action. Scotty has to go and have a lie down, and the deputy engineers work to rule without his inspiring leadership.

Because otherwise you would claim that you'd spent a whole week making combat repair rolls as you travelled around. I shouldn't have to explain that I'm not remotely patient enough to put up with that.
11.4. Minor repairs take a week. Major repairs take two weeks. Major repairs involve any weapon or drive system with a number higher than 3 (Including wave guns, nova cannon and anything generally weird), all core systems, the FTL drive, simultaneous repair to more than one hangar bay and level two shielding or any system equivalent to that Doubling the speed of repair doubles the cost.
11.5. Crew replacement was an issue but was considered not to be worth the bookkeeping.
Damaged Savasku biomass costs 2 pts to replace, just like it cost to build in the first place.

Expended biomass costs 1 pt to replace, on the grounds that it's more similar to expended munitions in other people's ships.
a simple piece of news on repair costs; the repair costs of core systems were never made clear; it's one third of the cost of the keel of the ship, in the unlikely event that you ever find yourself in the position of repairing one.

12. Capture
12.1. Anything left drifting in a system after a battle is considered to be captured by the victorious fleet. Boarding is not covered well by the rules and is not worth the extra trouble to worry about.
12.2. Captured vessels can be rebuilt, stripped or sold on.
12.2.1. Rebuilding is only practical where at least two rows of hull boxes remain intact and and at least three of the five major systems (three core services, main drive and FTL drive) have not been completely knocked out. Rebuilding is done at normal costs. If the vessel is not a type already in service with your fleet, add 20% to repair costs.
12.2.2. Useful parts can be stripped out and reused subject to the repair rules above. What is left is effectively useless and has no resale value
12.2.3. The capture can be sold on as is to unscrupulous scrap dealers for 10% of construction cost per intact row of hull boxes.
13. Construction
13.1. Ships can be built in game time at a rate of 100 pts per week per keel laid down. Alternatively, they can be bought on the open market at the beginning of each economic turn, but only from the designs in the Fleet Books or on designated websites. Any one navy can be designated as an ally, and their designs are available at 20% off. No-one can be allied in this sense outside their species (you would need alien crews to operate the ships, and alien crews are not available on the open market).
13.2 When construction begins, the umpire should be told the design mass of the ship and the vessel type. As construction continues, the umpire should be notified of what's been added on. Subsequent changes to construction will be billed under Rule 16; essentially this means that if you've half built a heavy cruiser, it's probably going to cost you quite a bit more to change it at the last minute into an escort carrier.
14. Abstracted battles
14.1. To speed things up, battles between task forces can be carried out in any manner that the engaged parties decide on. It may prove convenient to run a battle on hex paper with counters in the margins of something else. Players are encouraged to be imaginative. (But see 13, below).
15. Task groups and pre-battle recce
15.1. Strategic movement is by task group. Each task group gets one counter on the strategic map. A task group can be as many or as few ships as the player wishes. When a player has two or more task groups together in the same location, he may re-organise freely. Task groups may be split up at any time. Players are required to maintain a record of what each counter represents.
15.2. Each fleet gets one dummy counter per capital unit (BB, SDN, CVA, CVH, CVL). All other counters used for strategic movement must represent at least one ship. (to forestall the inevitable complaints - fleets with a lot of capital units will have relatively few light units to use for recce and masking; fleets with few capital units will have LOTS of light units).
15.3. The composition of a task group will not be known to opponents until after it is contacted. The rules in FT2 will be used to govern scouting and spotting of the enemy. Read them, and consider the use of weasel boats and decoys at appropriate costs.
15.4. Movement each turn is pre-plotted and simultaneous. In the case of arguments over legality of movement, whichever umpire is not involved will decide the issue. Email move notifications, when necessary should be sent to whichever umpire is less likely to be affected by the move - this way the umpire's knowledge of the move is less likely to have any impact on his own plans.
16. Weird races and weirder weapons
16.1. Anything listed in the Full Thrust rule book, in either of the two fleet books, More Thrust or the GZG website (at present this covers only two UNSC weapon systems) is considered standard. Any ship designed using only these sources and utilising the technology of only one race is considered standard. Standard parts and ships can be repaired anywhere.
16.2. Everything else is considered non-standard, and can be used only with the prior approval of the umpires at game start and after notification to all other players. Players may, for the purpose of subterfuge, clear and notify technologies they do not intend to use, but should be mindful that the umpires have limited patience and will simply disallow requests of all kinds once they start to feel put upon. Approval is likely in the case of the following designs already documented on the web: UNSC, IJN, New Israel, Arab League, OUDF. On a case by case basis, some of these ship designs may be deemed standard when used by that player; this will only happen if the entire fleet is constructed in that design idiom. Non-standard weapons will never be deemed to be standard, not least because very few non-standard weapons have been fully play-tested to the stage where points values are reliable. A list of links to (probably) acceptable websites is appended to these rules.
16.3. Non-standard ships and equipment can be repaired or replaced only through pre-positioned stocks or at your capital. Anything not indigenous to the technology used in the majority of the fleet construction costs 20% more to install (and thus consequently to repair) and can only be repaired or replaced through pre-positioned stocks or at your capital. Thus, players choosing (for example) to install K-guns in otherwise human fleets will be penalised for doing so.

Oceanic Union Defence Forces and the Islamic Federation
Both fleets use modular weapons fits which can readily be swapped out. These should be costed as ship construction, not spare parts. So they count towards your 4000 pt cap on initial ship construction. They do not attract maintenance costs while not in use. They have to be placed in pre-designated locations. It takes a week to swap in a module. You can't swap two modules into a ship at the same time. Where the simplified fleet rule for maintenance is being used, the benefit is not suspended simply because module swaps have led to more than five distinct ship types, so as long as no more than five hull designs are being used at any one time.

Ships in your fleet can be refitted with other weapon systems at your option. Where the new system is of a similar type and of identical mass, this is treated as a repair and billed accordingly. Where the system is a different type or a different mass, add 20% to cost to take account of the structural changes required. Beams, grasers, pulse torpedo launchers and PDS systems are similar types of weapon to each other. Missile launchers are similar to missile racks. And so on. Hangars aren't similar to anything else, but uniquely can simply be replaced with something else (a single something else) at repair cost (not vice versa). Hull boxes are not similar to anything else, for those of you thinking about weakening your hulls to add more systems.

Refitting can never exceed the design weight of the ship. The design weight of the ship is chosen at the point when it is first constructed and cannot be exceeded for any reason subsequently.

It is open to constructors to make the design weight bigger than the actual weight at launch; but drives must be bought for the design weight of the ship, and deliver that performance. For clarity, that means that you can make a ship with a design weight of 100 and and an actual weight of 80; the FTL drive must weigh 10, and the M-drive will weigh 5 for every point of thrust you want to have. If that weight of M-drive would give the ACTUAL build weight of the ship a higher Thrust, this can optionally be used in combat, but the drive will be subjected to a system check whenever it is used at that Thrust.

Logistics ships
Players can construct freighters from any available capital in order to move pre-positioned parts or other useful things (like fighters) from one place to another. Such ships do not count against the initial 4000 pt cap on military vessel construction, as long as they are not armed with anything more than 1 PDS or class 1 beam per 10 hull boxes.

Freighters can be as stupidly big as you choose. If they're big enough, they can carry actual starships. Mind you, if someone does this, they've either won or they're about to lose.

Subsequent conversion of cargo spaces into fighter hangers or weapons racks costs 20% more than normal (because the engines cannae take it without extra strengthening brackets).

Freighters don't manoeuvre better when they're empty than when they're full. It wouldn't be economical.

17 Attacking systems which have fleets in them
17.1 Philosophy.
The GZG rules cover the tactical aspects of battle, and are written on the assumption that the forces are aware of each other and that at least one side is committed to action. They also assume that the opposing forces have completed their jump into the system and are in a combat formation. The GZG rules DO envisage players jumping straight into combat, but make it very risky. The following rules cover the operational aspects of engagement between jumping into system and moving to tactical engagement.

17.2 All strategic moves must give the destination of the task force and its posture for arrival.

17.2.1. Stand off; fleet will manoeuvre for advantage until it elects to withdraw, is attacked, or changes its orders to attack after assessing the situation
Fleets on Stand Off orders do not attack against either fleets or planetary defences, and do not count as interdicting the system if they are still present at the end of the turn.

17.2.2. Attack; fleet will attack what it finds on arrival; first attacking other fleets on attack orders (attack posture is readily distinguishable from stand off because active sensors are switched on), then other fleets on stand off orders, then planetary defences.

Attack orders give +1 to initiative rolls

17.2.3. Withdraw if contested; fleet will withdraw if any hostile mobile forces are present in the system. If only planetary defences forces are present, a fleet in "withdraw if contested" may remain, and change its orders to attack following recon of the defences. Fleets on Withdraw if Contested bug out as soon as they detect mobile opposition but may pick up some data on what's there.

17.4 If all fleets are on Standoff, each player chooses a fresh tactical posture secretly, repeating as necessary until one way or another the system has no more than one fleet in it. Alternatively, players can leave their fleets in place in standoff mode at the end of the turn. Maybe you'll get reinforcements and the other guy won't. Who knows?

17.5 Once at least one force is committed to attack orders, combat becomes likely. Other players must decide immediately whether they're sticking around or trying to disengage. Check for range; roll 1 d6 and add 6. This gives the distance between task forces in feet. If the distance is too big for both forces to be on table simultaneously, disengagement is automatic. Otherwise forces go on table and disengagement is fought out. If one force is big and slow and the other small and fast, this may be adjudicated quickly without formality.

17.6 Before ships are put on the table, force commanders should make an unambiguous note of formation and speed. Formations can be as dispersed as you like. However, if you left your last system under fire, you must use the speed and formation you had at the moment you hit the FTL button.

17.7 All fleets not disengaged under 17.5 dice for initiative. Highest initiative is assumed to have the drop on the others; note that an attack order makes you more likely to have the initiative. Player with the initiative gets half the difference (rounded down) in the dice rolls to use in making his initial dispositions more useful to him. Anyone rolling a 1 arrives from FTL and has to put up with being in formation 6 inches apart from the moment of arrival. Essentially they've shown up much later than everyone else.

17.8 Relative positions on table. Top of the table (Brian's end, if that helps), is equivalent to top of the campaign map. The bottom is equivalent to the bottom. Task forces enter the table from the side equivalent to the hex side they move through to enter the hex on the campaign map.

17.9 Players with higher initiative will be able to make between zero and two changes in their dispositions. These can be used to change the point of entry on the table (one point per edge segment) the separation between opposed forces (one point per foot in either direction) or to split the formation. No matter how that goes, all fleet begin facing in towards the centre of the table



18 Departing under fire
18.1 The standard rules in Full Thrust for FTL'ing out apply. Executive summary, six inch spacing between ships, no use of manoeuvre drive and no weapons fired during the run-up to departure. The rules say that shields can be left on during this process. The firing up of the FTL drive is apparent during the previous move, and the blink out happens half way through the normal move.

18.2 Your departure takes the place of your normal move in the next strategic turn. This is also the case with recce units sent into a system which elect to leave after looking around. Immediately write down your destination; that's where you're going to be in a week. You arrive at your destination travelling in the same formation, spacing and speed that you had when you left the last hell hole.

18.3 You can try FTL ing while under fire, or you can try to build up enough distance to do it safely. Disengagement is not automatic; there is no real edge to the table, so getting off the table does not get you out of trouble. The first step to disengagement is to get out of weapons range of the enemy. This is considered to be the distance at which the enemy can't get more than one dice on you per working gun or 36 inches, whichever is less. At that point, check relative speed and the thrust of the poorest accelerating ship in each fleet. It should be clear cut whether the separation is going to increase or shrink. If not, roll one d6 each. If the disengager gets higher, he gets away, otherwise the pursuit continues. Plus one on the dice roll to whichever side has the highest acceleration in its poorest accelerating ship.