Tuesday 25 September 2007
first of a million revisions
Supply will have to include provision for stockpiling resources. I'll work out the mechanism when I see what else may need to be changed in the overall design.
Monday 24 September 2007
Philosophy of the Second Edition Campaign Rules;
Rule 1 Space and Time
this comes out of the need to give more space for expansion with other players and to deal with the dispersion/concentration issue. It also moves away from the previously simplistic approach to unassigned worlds in favour of a model where people will think a bit about whether they're going to attack rather than co-exist; when you can get the income benefit of the world without invading it, players will be less likely to launch strike forces at neutral and more likely to skirmish, which is what we've been trying to get to.
Rule 2 Economics + Rule 10 Trade
Between them these two rules are intended to create a more realistic income model which will give direct incentives to operate patrols and escorts instead of vast strike forces. Since on average you need 1.7 credits to run 100 points of fleet, the model is built to give roughly 80 credits worth of income per week from your starting allocation of worlds, or about 13.3 on average per world. Because we've moved to a weekly budget, the base numbers are lower. They're also affected by the fact that trade is needed to make the most of the income; if you don't trade among your worlds and with other players, you won't have enough money to cover costs.
You're restricted to one trading partner per world for a couple of reasons. The first is that although there probably won't be that many worlds which could readily trade with more than one partner, it would be messy figuring out the links if it was made possible. The second is that it gives more incentives for trade warfare if only one person can have the benefit of trading with any given world.
Rule 3 Logistics
These rules are intended to give a more realistic supply model without creating too much of a burden on players and and the referee. Players will have to work out the weekly operations cost of each design, but this is a pretty simple calculation. Under the old system, average cost per week of a ship was 5 credits (this being roughly a heavy cruiser). Under the new system, cost per week is the same. The supply tonnage is 1 credit per ton. A standard 100 ton fleet auxiliary costing 193 points can carry 56 tons, or enough for eleven heavy cruisers for one weeks, or for the same number of frigates for five weeks, or five capital ships for a week or one capital ship for five weeks. It looks initially as if weaponry supply requirements are lax (in that you don't have to pay weapon maintenance if you don't fight), but they amount to half of the supply requirements for the average force; the resupply requirements for weaponry after a fight are the same as the resupply for two weeks of non combat operations. Weaponry costs is a flat rate, regardless of actual consumption of power and/or ordnance. Essentially it assumes that the cost of delivering X amount of hurt is pretty much invariant; what beam weapons save on materials cost, they waste on fuel and constant adjustments, and so on. It also means that weapons which cost more to install cost more to run. Generally, the more weapon heavy a ship is, the greater the cost burden of running it
Rule 6 Interdiction and Commerce raiding
These rules are intended to make commerce raiding worthwhile mostly as a way of annoying the other player, but tempting when you're short of resources and can't trade for them. The actual income from commerce raiding isn't likely to pay for the trouble involved, but the nuisance effect for the other player may be enough to make him commit resources once there's more than one commerce raider in a system. Note that pirates are commerce raiders controlled by the umpire. I am open to arguments to increase the take from commerce raiding so that it really hurts, but a significant increase would make it indistinguishable from interdiction.
Rule 7 Offensive operations
These rules were written with two objectives in mind. Firstly, they meet some of the criticisms about the old abstract system for attacking worlds that belonged to players. Secondly they ought to force players to start making serious investments in dedicated assault ships. In both scenarios the intention is to make it labour intensive to attack a planet. Ground assault will take weeks to succeed unless overwhelming force is used, and attacking to destroy will use up prodigious volumes of supply, with each individual attack using the same amount of materiel as five normal combat turns.
Rule 8 System defences.
The numbers had to be changed to meet the new income levels, but the outcomes should be broadly similar.
Rule 9 Reconstruction
If you've got destruction, you have to have reconstruction. I considered, but decided against, a discount scheme for reinstating orbital defences.
Rule 15
Note the significant decrease in dummy markers. Essentially, we had so many of them that they made for clutter above and beyond any game utility. Now most counters will not be dummies, although they might just be weasel boats.
Rule 17 Attacking fleets
Basically, this just strips out a lot of crap in an effort to avoid stupid battles of disengagement where one side is completely overmatched by the other. Now players simply decide whether they're in or out, and once they're in, they're committed. I thought about pursuit battles, but the reality is that by the time the attacking force could close to the withdrawing force, they'd have FTL'd out.
this comes out of the need to give more space for expansion with other players and to deal with the dispersion/concentration issue. It also moves away from the previously simplistic approach to unassigned worlds in favour of a model where people will think a bit about whether they're going to attack rather than co-exist; when you can get the income benefit of the world without invading it, players will be less likely to launch strike forces at neutral and more likely to skirmish, which is what we've been trying to get to.
Rule 2 Economics + Rule 10 Trade
Between them these two rules are intended to create a more realistic income model which will give direct incentives to operate patrols and escorts instead of vast strike forces. Since on average you need 1.7 credits to run 100 points of fleet, the model is built to give roughly 80 credits worth of income per week from your starting allocation of worlds, or about 13.3 on average per world. Because we've moved to a weekly budget, the base numbers are lower. They're also affected by the fact that trade is needed to make the most of the income; if you don't trade among your worlds and with other players, you won't have enough money to cover costs.
You're restricted to one trading partner per world for a couple of reasons. The first is that although there probably won't be that many worlds which could readily trade with more than one partner, it would be messy figuring out the links if it was made possible. The second is that it gives more incentives for trade warfare if only one person can have the benefit of trading with any given world.
Rule 3 Logistics
These rules are intended to give a more realistic supply model without creating too much of a burden on players and and the referee. Players will have to work out the weekly operations cost of each design, but this is a pretty simple calculation. Under the old system, average cost per week of a ship was 5 credits (this being roughly a heavy cruiser). Under the new system, cost per week is the same. The supply tonnage is 1 credit per ton. A standard 100 ton fleet auxiliary costing 193 points can carry 56 tons, or enough for eleven heavy cruisers for one weeks, or for the same number of frigates for five weeks, or five capital ships for a week or one capital ship for five weeks. It looks initially as if weaponry supply requirements are lax (in that you don't have to pay weapon maintenance if you don't fight), but they amount to half of the supply requirements for the average force; the resupply requirements for weaponry after a fight are the same as the resupply for two weeks of non combat operations. Weaponry costs is a flat rate, regardless of actual consumption of power and/or ordnance. Essentially it assumes that the cost of delivering X amount of hurt is pretty much invariant; what beam weapons save on materials cost, they waste on fuel and constant adjustments, and so on. It also means that weapons which cost more to install cost more to run. Generally, the more weapon heavy a ship is, the greater the cost burden of running it
Rule 6 Interdiction and Commerce raiding
These rules are intended to make commerce raiding worthwhile mostly as a way of annoying the other player, but tempting when you're short of resources and can't trade for them. The actual income from commerce raiding isn't likely to pay for the trouble involved, but the nuisance effect for the other player may be enough to make him commit resources once there's more than one commerce raider in a system. Note that pirates are commerce raiders controlled by the umpire. I am open to arguments to increase the take from commerce raiding so that it really hurts, but a significant increase would make it indistinguishable from interdiction.
Rule 7 Offensive operations
These rules were written with two objectives in mind. Firstly, they meet some of the criticisms about the old abstract system for attacking worlds that belonged to players. Secondly they ought to force players to start making serious investments in dedicated assault ships. In both scenarios the intention is to make it labour intensive to attack a planet. Ground assault will take weeks to succeed unless overwhelming force is used, and attacking to destroy will use up prodigious volumes of supply, with each individual attack using the same amount of materiel as five normal combat turns.
Rule 8 System defences.
The numbers had to be changed to meet the new income levels, but the outcomes should be broadly similar.
Rule 9 Reconstruction
If you've got destruction, you have to have reconstruction. I considered, but decided against, a discount scheme for reinstating orbital defences.
Rule 15
Note the significant decrease in dummy markers. Essentially, we had so many of them that they made for clutter above and beyond any game utility. Now most counters will not be dummies, although they might just be weasel boats.
Rule 17 Attacking fleets
Basically, this just strips out a lot of crap in an effort to avoid stupid battles of disengagement where one side is completely overmatched by the other. Now players simply decide whether they're in or out, and once they're in, they're committed. I thought about pursuit battles, but the reality is that by the time the attacking force could close to the withdrawing force, they'd have FTL'd out.
Campaign Rules; 2nd edition; first draft for comments
1. Time and Space
1.1 The edges of the campaign area are soft; players are free to explore beyond them, and new players may be added on the edges of known space at any time.
1.2 The initial playing area will contain about 80 systems in a grid of 169 hexes (13 by 13). All systems will have been randomly assigned economic stats ahead of time. Players will be aware of the economic value of all worlds.
1.3 Players will select their planets semi-randomly with playing cards. Red cards will give vertical co-ordinates, black cards will give horizontal. Each player will be dealt twelve cards. These can be secretly paired up however players choose. Players will then take it turns to play a pair of cards to claim a system. The first two pairs played must exactly match the coordinates of a system. After this, players may claim any system adjacent to the coordinates of their pair. Cards which can't be paired up are put to one side face down. When all pairs have been played out, the paired cards are reshuffled and each face down card has a second card dealt on to it. Any pairs which result from this process are then allocated to the players in turn. Where a pair gives a world which has already been claimed, the second player may claim any system within two hexes of his first system or within one hex of the system which he just lost out on.
1.4 This system is intended to give players more control over whether their domains are compact or dispersed without needing any rules to govern dispersion levels. It should result in players having between 5 and 8 worlds each, with players who have not been able to pick worlds of their choice being compensated with a slightly greater number of worlds.
1.5 The standard turn is a week. Any use of the FTL drive takes a week.
1.6 Unassigned worlds will have a randomly determined allegiance, discovered only when someone visits;
(1) Fully independent unified world government - will trade with all neighbors, but insist on keeping half of the player's trading profit
(2) Friendly to nearest player power - will trade with that power without insisting on extra profits. Can be used as a resupply base for 20% extra cost
(3) Hostile to nearest player power - will not trade with that power under any circumstances; may trade with others as if (1)
(4) Allied to the UN/Savasku/The Random Empire of Scary Things - as (1) but very dangerous to attack
(5) Balkanised stable as (1) but keeps two thirds of the player's trading profit
(6) Balkanised war-zone (6) No trade possible, peacekeeping mission required to stabilise it to (5), (4), (2) or (1) depending on outcome of the mission
1.7 Hexes are populated as follows; roll 1 d6. 1-3 a world is present. Roll again. On a 1, it's a resource world. Roll 1 d6. 1=Mining 2=Food 3=Fuel 4=Manufactured Goods 5=Luxuries 6=Major Trading Hub
1.8 A space lane automatically exists between each Major Trading Hub. Once these space lanes are drawn, dice for each system within three hexes of the hub. On a 1 or 2, a space lane exists between that system and the Hub in question. For each system which has a link to a hub, dice for each neighboring system within two hexes. On a 1 or 2, a space lane exists between those worlds.
2. Economics
2.1 Worlds will be allocated an income level and in some cases a resource base.
2.2 Income levels have been set to make it challenging at the outset to maintain a fleet of 4000 points.
2.3 Where uninterrupted trade is maintained between two worlds, the owners of both worlds get the combined income value. If there is no trade, the owner gets only the base income value. Where the trade route exists on a space-lane, benefits are doubled.
2.4 Fleet maintenance also requires access to resources. If you do not have and are not trading with a world which has a required resource, that aspect of fleet maintenance will cost double. Resources are: Fuel: Food: Manufactured Goods: Mining/Ore; Luxuries
2.5 Costs and income accumulate weekly; there are no separate economic turns
2.6 Initial income of a world is 2d5 credits. Resource worlds roll an additional d5, except for luxuries, which will roll 1 d10 every turn.
2.7 Major Trading Hub base income is increased by one credit for each world connected only to that Hub and no other Hub.
3. Logistics
3.1 Maintenance costs accumulate under three headings; fuel, crew and weaponry. These will rough out at 1%-1.6% of construction cost per week depending on ship types and mix.
3.2 Maintenance costs for fuel are based on the purchase cost of the drives for each vessel (yes, this means that it costs more to keep a Kravak drive running than a standard drive). Cost = 3% of the purchase cost of the FTL and Manoeuvre drives.
3.3 Crew costs are based on the number of crew boxes per ship at 0.2 credit per crew box.
3.4 Weaponry costs are based on the installed cost of weapons systems on the ship, including fighters and missiles. Cost = 3% of the build cost of the systems.
3.5 Fuel costs double if you have no access to a Fuel resource. Crew costs double if you have no access to a food resource. Weaponry maintenance and repair costs double if you have no access to a Manufactured goods resource. Hull construction and repair costs double if you have no access to Mining/Ore resources.
3.6 All ships are rated for operational endurance in weeks. This is the number of weeks which the ship can spend away from friendly bases without running out of supply. Fuel and crew supply requirements accrue each week. Weaponry supply requirements only accrue after combat. Ships are resupplied by returning to friendly bases or by rendezvousing with Supply Ships. Resupply requirements apply to entire task forces based on the requirement of the neediest ship present. Adding a heavy cruiser to a frigate task force puts all ships on the shorter supply cycle.
3.7 Each five turns of combat will reduce all endurance by one week and trigger a requirement for weaponry resupply. Ships which do not meet weaponry supply requirements will roll all future weapons system checks at the next worst level.
3.8 Each player may construct up to 500 points worth of supply ships at the same time as his main fleet. Supply ships have maintenance costs on exactly the same basis as warships. Supply Ships can also be leased from the private sector at four times standard maintenance cost. Supply ships must have their cargo holds allocated to a specific type of supply before the supply mission departs. One tonne of cargo capacity translates to 1 credit worth of supply.
3.9 Endurance limits;
Weekly maintenance cost= 0-2:6 weeks
Weekly maintenance cost = 2-5 4 weeks
Weekly maintenace cost = 5-8 3 weeks
Weekly maintenance cost 8-12 2 weeks
Weekly maintenance cost 12+ 1 week
4. Construction
4.1 Starting fleet is up to 4000 points.
4.2 Starting capital is 50 times initial planetary income.
4.3 Starting capital not spent on the starting fleet can be spent on supply ships, on spare parts (4.4), on system defences (8.2), or just kept for dealing with future problems.
4.4 Prepositioned spares cost 75% of normal price and have to be assigned to specific worlds in your empire or to cargo space on supply ships.
5. Movement
5.1 It takes one FTL 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).
5.2 Travel along a space lane takes one week between any two points on the route unless interdicted (5.4).
5.3 Travel in FTL is in a parallel universe and ships in FTL mode cannot be interfered with by other forces, either from normal space or on the same FTL route.
5.4 Space lanes require maintenance and support infrastructure which can be interdicted by hostile action or turned off by the owner. Where space lanes have been blocked, travel along the space lane ends at the last system before the block.
6. Attacking systems I; interdiction and commerce raiding
6.1 Interdiction of a system occurs when there is a hostile force within the system which is sufficient to deter commercial traffic through the system. Deterrence is deemed to be in place when the points value of hostile ships working in concert in the system is 50 times the trade value of the system. Trade benefits for that system are lost. The owning player continues to draw the base income.
6.2 Commerce raiding occurs when any armed hostile vessel is in the system. For each commerce raider in the system, the system owner loses one point of trade. The commerce raider's owner rolls 1d6; on 1-3, he gains the trade point the system owner lost (but see 6.3). On 4-5 he gets no benefit. On a 6, the raider is driven off and damaged, taking hits equivalent to the trade value of the system.
6.3 To benefit from the gained trade points, the commerce raiders must have 10 tons of cargo capacity available for each point, either on their own ships or an accompanying auxiliary. Successful commerce raiding against resource worlds will count as having access to that resource
7. Attacking systems II; Offensive operations
7.1 Offensive operations are divided into two phases, system control and planetary attack.
7.2 System control is achieved when any other fleet in the system has been driven off and the system defences have been defeated. (8. System defences). Once system control is in place, the owning player loses all benefit from the system.
7.3 Planetary attack is either intended to destroy the planetary infrastructure, denying all players benefit, or to take it intact by ground assault.
7.4 Planetary attack of either kind requires dedicated assault ships.
7.5 Destructive attacks can be carried out by warships either with dedicated orbital bombardment weaponry or with standard weaponry of class 4 and above. It takes five such weapons to knock out one point of infrastructure/income. Each strike consumes one week's worth on endurance for the vessel delivering it. For each strike, roll one d6. On 1-2 the infrastructure point is destroyed; 3-4 no effect; on 5-6 attacking ship takes damage equivalent to 5 x the remaining planetary income points.
7.6 Ground assault will require dedicated assault landing ships. This requires an minimum of 10 tons of assault dropships per planetary income point. For each 10 tons of dropship, roll 1 d6; 1-2 successful attack, 3 infrastructure destroyed rather than taken intact, 4-5 no effect, 6 dropship destroyed. This process continues each full turn until the planet is subdued or the supply of dropships runs out.
8. System defences
8.1 Players may construct system defence vessels and installations equal to 100 points per income point of the system. System defence vessels need not have FTL drives.
8.2 Players may elect to spend starting capital on strengthening system defences. System defences bought with starting capital get a 50% discount on normal costs, but can never be moved out of the system and are replaced and repaired at full original cost.
8.3 Non-player worlds have abstracted system defences equal to 150 points per income point of the system.
8.4 Player attacks on non-player worlds are handled abstractly; roll 1 d6. On a natural or modified 6, the non-player system surrenders. On a natural or modified 1, the player is driven off and takes damage equivalent to 20 times the planetary income. On 2-5 the outcome is inconclusive, the system is interdicted and a fresh attempt can be made to attack next turn.
8.5 The dice roll is modified based on the difference between the attacking force and the strength of the system defences. No attack is possible when the attacker has less than 50% of the system defence force. There is a -1 to the dice roll when the attacking force is between 50% and 100% of the system defences. +1 if more than twice the size, + 2 if more than three times the size and so on.
8.6 After surrender, roll 1 d6 to check the effects of fighting. On 1, the system has been devastated; defences and income have been wiped out. On 2-3 two-thirds of economic and defence capacity have been destroyed. On 4-5 one-third of economic and defence capacity have been destroyed. On 6, the conquest was peaceful and all systems have been captured intact.
8.6 Players may elect to use the abstract system in attacks on their own systems.
9. Reconstruction
9.1 Economic capacity of planets is restored only with time. It takes four weeks to restore each point of income lost. This can be reduced to two weeks per point if a neighboring planet with a higher base income than the original base income of the damaged planet foregoes all income to assist with reconstruction.
9.2 System defences can only be restored by replacing the lost equipment at cost.
10. Trade
10.1 All worlds within one FTL jump of each other can opt to trade. (Thus worlds on a space lane can trade with any other world on that space lane). To avoid insanity breaking out, every world trades with just one other world. A pair of worlds trading with each other each get income equal to the combined incomes of the pair of worlds. Players may make side deals sharing out the benefits differently. Non-player worlds tend to be greedy.
10.2 Once any world in a player empire is trading with a resource world, all worlds within the empire benefit from the resource.
11. Repairs
11.1. Damage can only be repaired in a friendly system or with the assistance of supply ships which have been pre-loaded with spare parts.
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. 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.
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. Repair costs of core systems are 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.
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 task group with at least one capital unit (BB, BDN, SDN, CVA, CVH, CVL) generates one dummy counter. All other counters used for strategic movement must represent at least one ship.
15.3. The composition of a task group will not be known to opponents until after it is contacted. Composition of all groups is to be notified to the umpire.
15.4. Movement each turn is pre-plotted and simultaneous. Where possible, moves should be notified to the umpire by email.
16. Non-standard designs and refitting
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.
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.
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.
16.4 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.
16.5 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. Loading existing missile tubes with new and improved missiles counts as a refit, not just as a reload from existing stocks, and you will have to pay for it over and above maintenance costs - which will also be increased to reflect the change.
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.
16.6 Refitting of supply ships
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 other player's fleets
17.1 When two or more fleets move into the same system, the owning players will advise the umpire of the fleet composition.
17.2 The umpire will inform each player whether the other force(s) are significantly larger than their own, significantly smaller or roughly equal, and if there is a glaring discrepancy in the size of vessels involved.
17.3 Players will immediately decide whether to withdraw or attack.
17.4 If one attacks and all others withdraw, the attacking fleet has undisputed occupation of the system and remains there for the turn. The withdrawing fleets immediately select a destination and this is their move for the next turn.
17.5 If all decide to withdraw, each immediately selects their destination for next turn's move, and that's it.
17.6 If two or more players decide to attack, combat takes place. 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 dice for initiative. Highest initiative is assumed to have the drop on the others. Players who entered via a space lane get +1 on their initiative rolls. Players who were actually present at the beginning of the turn get +2
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. Forces already in the system can pick any side for entry, but must make a note of it before dicing for initiative.
17.9 Players with higher initiative will be able to make changes in their dispositions, getting one change for every two points by which they beat the opponents initiative roll. These can be used to change the point of entry on the table (one point per edge segment) the distance between forces (either to move your point of entry in by one foot, or the opponent's point of entry back) or to split your formation.
17.10 No matter how that goes, all fleets 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.
1.1 The edges of the campaign area are soft; players are free to explore beyond them, and new players may be added on the edges of known space at any time.
1.2 The initial playing area will contain about 80 systems in a grid of 169 hexes (13 by 13). All systems will have been randomly assigned economic stats ahead of time. Players will be aware of the economic value of all worlds.
1.3 Players will select their planets semi-randomly with playing cards. Red cards will give vertical co-ordinates, black cards will give horizontal. Each player will be dealt twelve cards. These can be secretly paired up however players choose. Players will then take it turns to play a pair of cards to claim a system. The first two pairs played must exactly match the coordinates of a system. After this, players may claim any system adjacent to the coordinates of their pair. Cards which can't be paired up are put to one side face down. When all pairs have been played out, the paired cards are reshuffled and each face down card has a second card dealt on to it. Any pairs which result from this process are then allocated to the players in turn. Where a pair gives a world which has already been claimed, the second player may claim any system within two hexes of his first system or within one hex of the system which he just lost out on.
1.4 This system is intended to give players more control over whether their domains are compact or dispersed without needing any rules to govern dispersion levels. It should result in players having between 5 and 8 worlds each, with players who have not been able to pick worlds of their choice being compensated with a slightly greater number of worlds.
1.5 The standard turn is a week. Any use of the FTL drive takes a week.
1.6 Unassigned worlds will have a randomly determined allegiance, discovered only when someone visits;
(1) Fully independent unified world government - will trade with all neighbors, but insist on keeping half of the player's trading profit
(2) Friendly to nearest player power - will trade with that power without insisting on extra profits. Can be used as a resupply base for 20% extra cost
(3) Hostile to nearest player power - will not trade with that power under any circumstances; may trade with others as if (1)
(4) Allied to the UN/Savasku/The Random Empire of Scary Things - as (1) but very dangerous to attack
(5) Balkanised stable as (1) but keeps two thirds of the player's trading profit
(6) Balkanised war-zone (6) No trade possible, peacekeeping mission required to stabilise it to (5), (4), (2) or (1) depending on outcome of the mission
1.7 Hexes are populated as follows; roll 1 d6. 1-3 a world is present. Roll again. On a 1, it's a resource world. Roll 1 d6. 1=Mining 2=Food 3=Fuel 4=Manufactured Goods 5=Luxuries 6=Major Trading Hub
1.8 A space lane automatically exists between each Major Trading Hub. Once these space lanes are drawn, dice for each system within three hexes of the hub. On a 1 or 2, a space lane exists between that system and the Hub in question. For each system which has a link to a hub, dice for each neighboring system within two hexes. On a 1 or 2, a space lane exists between those worlds.
2. Economics
2.1 Worlds will be allocated an income level and in some cases a resource base.
2.2 Income levels have been set to make it challenging at the outset to maintain a fleet of 4000 points.
2.3 Where uninterrupted trade is maintained between two worlds, the owners of both worlds get the combined income value. If there is no trade, the owner gets only the base income value. Where the trade route exists on a space-lane, benefits are doubled.
2.4 Fleet maintenance also requires access to resources. If you do not have and are not trading with a world which has a required resource, that aspect of fleet maintenance will cost double. Resources are: Fuel: Food: Manufactured Goods: Mining/Ore; Luxuries
2.5 Costs and income accumulate weekly; there are no separate economic turns
2.6 Initial income of a world is 2d5 credits. Resource worlds roll an additional d5, except for luxuries, which will roll 1 d10 every turn.
2.7 Major Trading Hub base income is increased by one credit for each world connected only to that Hub and no other Hub.
3. Logistics
3.1 Maintenance costs accumulate under three headings; fuel, crew and weaponry. These will rough out at 1%-1.6% of construction cost per week depending on ship types and mix.
3.2 Maintenance costs for fuel are based on the purchase cost of the drives for each vessel (yes, this means that it costs more to keep a Kravak drive running than a standard drive). Cost = 3% of the purchase cost of the FTL and Manoeuvre drives.
3.3 Crew costs are based on the number of crew boxes per ship at 0.2 credit per crew box.
3.4 Weaponry costs are based on the installed cost of weapons systems on the ship, including fighters and missiles. Cost = 3% of the build cost of the systems.
3.5 Fuel costs double if you have no access to a Fuel resource. Crew costs double if you have no access to a food resource. Weaponry maintenance and repair costs double if you have no access to a Manufactured goods resource. Hull construction and repair costs double if you have no access to Mining/Ore resources.
3.6 All ships are rated for operational endurance in weeks. This is the number of weeks which the ship can spend away from friendly bases without running out of supply. Fuel and crew supply requirements accrue each week. Weaponry supply requirements only accrue after combat. Ships are resupplied by returning to friendly bases or by rendezvousing with Supply Ships. Resupply requirements apply to entire task forces based on the requirement of the neediest ship present. Adding a heavy cruiser to a frigate task force puts all ships on the shorter supply cycle.
3.7 Each five turns of combat will reduce all endurance by one week and trigger a requirement for weaponry resupply. Ships which do not meet weaponry supply requirements will roll all future weapons system checks at the next worst level.
3.8 Each player may construct up to 500 points worth of supply ships at the same time as his main fleet. Supply ships have maintenance costs on exactly the same basis as warships. Supply Ships can also be leased from the private sector at four times standard maintenance cost. Supply ships must have their cargo holds allocated to a specific type of supply before the supply mission departs. One tonne of cargo capacity translates to 1 credit worth of supply.
3.9 Endurance limits;
Weekly maintenance cost= 0-2:6 weeks
Weekly maintenance cost = 2-5 4 weeks
Weekly maintenace cost = 5-8 3 weeks
Weekly maintenance cost 8-12 2 weeks
Weekly maintenance cost 12+ 1 week
4. Construction
4.1 Starting fleet is up to 4000 points.
4.2 Starting capital is 50 times initial planetary income.
4.3 Starting capital not spent on the starting fleet can be spent on supply ships, on spare parts (4.4), on system defences (8.2), or just kept for dealing with future problems.
4.4 Prepositioned spares cost 75% of normal price and have to be assigned to specific worlds in your empire or to cargo space on supply ships.
5. Movement
5.1 It takes one FTL 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).
5.2 Travel along a space lane takes one week between any two points on the route unless interdicted (5.4).
5.3 Travel in FTL is in a parallel universe and ships in FTL mode cannot be interfered with by other forces, either from normal space or on the same FTL route.
5.4 Space lanes require maintenance and support infrastructure which can be interdicted by hostile action or turned off by the owner. Where space lanes have been blocked, travel along the space lane ends at the last system before the block.
6. Attacking systems I; interdiction and commerce raiding
6.1 Interdiction of a system occurs when there is a hostile force within the system which is sufficient to deter commercial traffic through the system. Deterrence is deemed to be in place when the points value of hostile ships working in concert in the system is 50 times the trade value of the system. Trade benefits for that system are lost. The owning player continues to draw the base income.
6.2 Commerce raiding occurs when any armed hostile vessel is in the system. For each commerce raider in the system, the system owner loses one point of trade. The commerce raider's owner rolls 1d6; on 1-3, he gains the trade point the system owner lost (but see 6.3). On 4-5 he gets no benefit. On a 6, the raider is driven off and damaged, taking hits equivalent to the trade value of the system.
6.3 To benefit from the gained trade points, the commerce raiders must have 10 tons of cargo capacity available for each point, either on their own ships or an accompanying auxiliary. Successful commerce raiding against resource worlds will count as having access to that resource
7. Attacking systems II; Offensive operations
7.1 Offensive operations are divided into two phases, system control and planetary attack.
7.2 System control is achieved when any other fleet in the system has been driven off and the system defences have been defeated. (8. System defences). Once system control is in place, the owning player loses all benefit from the system.
7.3 Planetary attack is either intended to destroy the planetary infrastructure, denying all players benefit, or to take it intact by ground assault.
7.4 Planetary attack of either kind requires dedicated assault ships.
7.5 Destructive attacks can be carried out by warships either with dedicated orbital bombardment weaponry or with standard weaponry of class 4 and above. It takes five such weapons to knock out one point of infrastructure/income. Each strike consumes one week's worth on endurance for the vessel delivering it. For each strike, roll one d6. On 1-2 the infrastructure point is destroyed; 3-4 no effect; on 5-6 attacking ship takes damage equivalent to 5 x the remaining planetary income points.
7.6 Ground assault will require dedicated assault landing ships. This requires an minimum of 10 tons of assault dropships per planetary income point. For each 10 tons of dropship, roll 1 d6; 1-2 successful attack, 3 infrastructure destroyed rather than taken intact, 4-5 no effect, 6 dropship destroyed. This process continues each full turn until the planet is subdued or the supply of dropships runs out.
8. System defences
8.1 Players may construct system defence vessels and installations equal to 100 points per income point of the system. System defence vessels need not have FTL drives.
8.2 Players may elect to spend starting capital on strengthening system defences. System defences bought with starting capital get a 50% discount on normal costs, but can never be moved out of the system and are replaced and repaired at full original cost.
8.3 Non-player worlds have abstracted system defences equal to 150 points per income point of the system.
8.4 Player attacks on non-player worlds are handled abstractly; roll 1 d6. On a natural or modified 6, the non-player system surrenders. On a natural or modified 1, the player is driven off and takes damage equivalent to 20 times the planetary income. On 2-5 the outcome is inconclusive, the system is interdicted and a fresh attempt can be made to attack next turn.
8.5 The dice roll is modified based on the difference between the attacking force and the strength of the system defences. No attack is possible when the attacker has less than 50% of the system defence force. There is a -1 to the dice roll when the attacking force is between 50% and 100% of the system defences. +1 if more than twice the size, + 2 if more than three times the size and so on.
8.6 After surrender, roll 1 d6 to check the effects of fighting. On 1, the system has been devastated; defences and income have been wiped out. On 2-3 two-thirds of economic and defence capacity have been destroyed. On 4-5 one-third of economic and defence capacity have been destroyed. On 6, the conquest was peaceful and all systems have been captured intact.
8.6 Players may elect to use the abstract system in attacks on their own systems.
9. Reconstruction
9.1 Economic capacity of planets is restored only with time. It takes four weeks to restore each point of income lost. This can be reduced to two weeks per point if a neighboring planet with a higher base income than the original base income of the damaged planet foregoes all income to assist with reconstruction.
9.2 System defences can only be restored by replacing the lost equipment at cost.
10. Trade
10.1 All worlds within one FTL jump of each other can opt to trade. (Thus worlds on a space lane can trade with any other world on that space lane). To avoid insanity breaking out, every world trades with just one other world. A pair of worlds trading with each other each get income equal to the combined incomes of the pair of worlds. Players may make side deals sharing out the benefits differently. Non-player worlds tend to be greedy.
10.2 Once any world in a player empire is trading with a resource world, all worlds within the empire benefit from the resource.
11. Repairs
11.1. Damage can only be repaired in a friendly system or with the assistance of supply ships which have been pre-loaded with spare parts.
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. 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.
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. Repair costs of core systems are 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.
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 task group with at least one capital unit (BB, BDN, SDN, CVA, CVH, CVL) generates one dummy counter. All other counters used for strategic movement must represent at least one ship.
15.3. The composition of a task group will not be known to opponents until after it is contacted. Composition of all groups is to be notified to the umpire.
15.4. Movement each turn is pre-plotted and simultaneous. Where possible, moves should be notified to the umpire by email.
16. Non-standard designs and refitting
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.
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.
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.
16.4 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.
16.5 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. Loading existing missile tubes with new and improved missiles counts as a refit, not just as a reload from existing stocks, and you will have to pay for it over and above maintenance costs - which will also be increased to reflect the change.
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.
16.6 Refitting of supply ships
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 other player's fleets
17.1 When two or more fleets move into the same system, the owning players will advise the umpire of the fleet composition.
17.2 The umpire will inform each player whether the other force(s) are significantly larger than their own, significantly smaller or roughly equal, and if there is a glaring discrepancy in the size of vessels involved.
17.3 Players will immediately decide whether to withdraw or attack.
17.4 If one attacks and all others withdraw, the attacking fleet has undisputed occupation of the system and remains there for the turn. The withdrawing fleets immediately select a destination and this is their move for the next turn.
17.5 If all decide to withdraw, each immediately selects their destination for next turn's move, and that's it.
17.6 If two or more players decide to attack, combat takes place. 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 dice for initiative. Highest initiative is assumed to have the drop on the others. Players who entered via a space lane get +1 on their initiative rolls. Players who were actually present at the beginning of the turn get +2
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. Forces already in the system can pick any side for entry, but must make a note of it before dicing for initiative.
17.9 Players with higher initiative will be able to make changes in their dispositions, getting one change for every two points by which they beat the opponents initiative roll. These can be used to change the point of entry on the table (one point per edge segment) the distance between forces (either to move your point of entry in by one foot, or the opponent's point of entry back) or to split your formation.
17.10 No matter how that goes, all fleets 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.
Friday 21 September 2007
One brief thought about campaign revival
The question of restarting the campaign is still lumbering along. There's a lot of work I need to do on putting together a draft of the revised rules for logistics and so on. I'd hope to get this done in the coming days.
However, there is one thing which I need to get out of the way before we move on towards that. For the moment at least, there's a growing consensus to rule out the Savasku as players. This doesn't seem likely to spoil the day for anyone just at the moment; there's only one putative player tied to the SV and he's pretty much out of play for the foreseeable future due to other commitments. The rest of us have no particular investment in them, and won't miss out on anything by not being able to use them.
This is not to say that they're ruled out for all time. But there are things to sort out before we can add them in.
The first problem is that it's genuinely pretty hard to come up with a way of beating them on the table. All arguments about energy allocation and so on to one side, the real problem is that the only way to do serious damage to an opponent is to get in close, and the damage that SV can do effectively doubles every time you close by a range band. No-one else has firepower which ramps up the same way. You can't get anything in close to an SV heavy and expect to see it live. Now, in a one-off game, you could cook up various designs of ship and fleet configuration which might deal with this problem. And that could be an entertaining game in its own right. But from a campaign point of view it would mean building weird fleets which weren't much use for any other purpose.
The second problem is that SV don't have the same logistic challenges that everyone else has. Essentially, they just grow everything, and this involves less outlay than the other players have to face. So they have ships which are more effective than the competition and which are cheaper to run.
These two problems can be solved in harmony - we're going to need to cook up some logistical rules for the SV which balance out their on-table advantages a bit. Doing this fairly will take some thought.
I don't want to do that thinking until I've got a logistical system for everyone else which is fair and balanced and satisfactory. Once that's in place, I can cook up a distorted version for the SV which will impose similar costs on them for similar outcomes, and perhaps raise the ante slightly on some of the outcomes. My logic for doing this is that I want to raise the sense of jeopardy for SV in battle; since they're less likely to lose their ships outright in a fight than humans or Kravak or Phalons, I'd like to rig it so that significant damage will be almost as worrying as outright loss of the vessel. That ought to make SV sort of like Dragons in Hordes of the Things; a dragon is a scary thing in HOTT, but the first adverse result they get, they leave the table immediately.
However, there is one thing which I need to get out of the way before we move on towards that. For the moment at least, there's a growing consensus to rule out the Savasku as players. This doesn't seem likely to spoil the day for anyone just at the moment; there's only one putative player tied to the SV and he's pretty much out of play for the foreseeable future due to other commitments. The rest of us have no particular investment in them, and won't miss out on anything by not being able to use them.
This is not to say that they're ruled out for all time. But there are things to sort out before we can add them in.
The first problem is that it's genuinely pretty hard to come up with a way of beating them on the table. All arguments about energy allocation and so on to one side, the real problem is that the only way to do serious damage to an opponent is to get in close, and the damage that SV can do effectively doubles every time you close by a range band. No-one else has firepower which ramps up the same way. You can't get anything in close to an SV heavy and expect to see it live. Now, in a one-off game, you could cook up various designs of ship and fleet configuration which might deal with this problem. And that could be an entertaining game in its own right. But from a campaign point of view it would mean building weird fleets which weren't much use for any other purpose.
The second problem is that SV don't have the same logistic challenges that everyone else has. Essentially, they just grow everything, and this involves less outlay than the other players have to face. So they have ships which are more effective than the competition and which are cheaper to run.
These two problems can be solved in harmony - we're going to need to cook up some logistical rules for the SV which balance out their on-table advantages a bit. Doing this fairly will take some thought.
I don't want to do that thinking until I've got a logistical system for everyone else which is fair and balanced and satisfactory. Once that's in place, I can cook up a distorted version for the SV which will impose similar costs on them for similar outcomes, and perhaps raise the ante slightly on some of the outcomes. My logic for doing this is that I want to raise the sense of jeopardy for SV in battle; since they're less likely to lose their ships outright in a fight than humans or Kravak or Phalons, I'd like to rig it so that significant damage will be almost as worrying as outright loss of the vessel. That ought to make SV sort of like Dragons in Hordes of the Things; a dragon is a scary thing in HOTT, but the first adverse result they get, they leave the table immediately.
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