Chapter 1: Basic Combat

Science fiction movies, books, and games are filled with thrilling combat scenes between space-going dreadnoughts and star fighters. A big space battle might include dozens or hundreds of ships on a side, but for now we’ll concentrate on the classic duels between a handful of ships on each side. In this chapter, we’ll present a starship combat system adaptable to a variety of technologies, tactics, and situations.

Setting Up

So, you’re playing in your weekly ALTERNITY game, and all of a sudden a Thuldan battlecruiser shows up and starts shooting at the characters’ ship. Where do you start?

The Ships First of all, who’s on each side? If you’re in the middle of a roleplaying scenario for your ALTERNITY game, you probably have a good idea of what ship the characters are flying, and who’s likely to be on the other end of the characters’ guns. If you’re setting up a starship combat scenario just to play out a battle, create a couple of ships and set them up on each side. Try to keep the number of ships on each side to five or less, unless you’ve got a lot of time on your hands and you don’t mind slugging out an epic battle. If you’re trying to referee the outcome of a Jutland-like engagement in which the characters’ ship is involved, it might be better to set up two to four sequential engagements with a small number of enemy ships representing hard-fought encounters within the grand scope of the epic battle.

The Map Several companies manufacture cardboard or felt maps printed in starfields. You can play the game without a map (see Chapter 3: Narrative Combat) but you’ll find that the subtleties of movement and position may be difficult to keep track of without some kind of physical representation of where each ship is in relation to the others. If you can find the space, set up several map sheets to create a large battlefield so that you don’t have to keep shifting ships that would otherwise “go off the edge” during their movement.

The Crew You may have your own ALTERNITY characters manning critical stations, but for the basic combat rules, we’re going to assume that all crewmen on a ship are equal. Crew quality determines the skill score (or target number) of attack rolls, pilot checks, repair checks, and similar die rolls.

Table 1–1: Crew Quality Quality Marginal Ordinary Good Amazing

Description Green Trained Veteran Crack

Score

For example, all attack rolls made by a ship with a green crew hit on a roll of 10 or less, while a veteran crew scores hits on a roll of 14 or less. Crew quality is often decisive in encounters between fleets with roughly equal numbers and technology. For more information on how your ALTERNITY character can affect the course of a major battle, refer to Chapter 2: Ad vanced Combat and Chapter 3: Narrative Combat.

Game Scale

In the basic rules, we’re going to concentrate on battles between ships of Progress Level 7 (the Gravity Age) or 8 (the Energy Age). The best scale for an encounter between ships of this technology is about 1,000 kilometers per hex. One thousand kilometers equals 1 megameter, so weapon ranges are given in hexes or megameters. Each game round represents about 30 seconds of real time. A ship moving at a speed of 4 hexes per round actually travels at a rate of 8,000 kilometers per minute, or 480,000 kilometers per hour. By comparison, the speed of light is 300,000 kilometers per second. A ship moving at a speed of 15 hexes per round is flying at the speed of 30,000 kilometers per minute, or roughly 1/600th the speed of light. Space battles take place at a small fraction of light speed.

Sequence Of Play

In the basic game, play proceeds in a number of rounds. Each round follows the sequence of play outlined below: Edge Phase Movement Phase a. Capital Ships b. Medium and Light Ships c. Small Craft d. Missiles Fire Phase a. Beams and Projectiles b. Torpedoes and Special c. Missile Attacks d. Bomb Attacks Launch Phase Repair Phase

Edge

The edge represents a tactical or situational advantage held by one side or the other. The commander with the edge can discern enemy movements and respond to them more effectively than his foes. In a close-fought battle, the edge may shift a number of times from one side to the other. The side currently holding the edge is called the edge player or edge fleet; the side without the edge is called the opposing player or opposing fleet.

Determining Edge At the beginning of each round of combat, the commander of each fleet should roll a crew check against the crew skill of the flagship. Any medium, heavy, or super-heavy ship can be designated as the flagship of a fleet. If the fleet contains no ships large enough to qualify, any light ship present can become the flagship. Finally, if no light ships are present, any small craft can be designated the flagship. The captain with the best success in the crew check wins the edge. If both sides achieve the same level of success, the commander with the fewest ships wins the edge. If both sides have the same number of ships, then reroll to break the tie.

Effects of Edge The chief effect of edge is simple: During each step of the movement phase, the edge player may move his ships after the opposing player moves hers. In other words, the edge player gets to see where his opponent is moving to before he commits to moving his own forces. This is a serious advantage, since it means that the edge fleet can choose the range for each round of fire, and it may “cross the T” or pull off similar tactical coups with some careful positioning.

Edge Check Modifiers Several circumstances may modify the edge check for one side or the other. These include the following:

• +1, +2, or +3 step penalty if the flagship is shaken,

disabled, or crippled (see “Damage”).

• +4 step penalty if the flagship is destroyed (this applies to the new flagship’s first edge check).

• –1 step bonus per enemy ship destroyed in the previous round (excluding small craft).

• –2 step bonus if the commander received reinforcements in the previous round.

Movement

Positioning is key in any battle. While space usually lacks any terrain features worth exploiting for tactical advan-

tage, the decision of how close to get to the enemy and which side of the ship to expose to enemy fire can be just as important. Many battle doctrines are founded on the idea of exploiting a range at which your weapons are superior to the enemy’s.

Movement Steps The movement phase is broken up into several steps: capital ship movement, medium and light ship movement, small craft movement, and missile movement. This doesn’t mean that heavy ships move faster than small ones; it means that heavy ships must commit to their maneuvers and positioning before smaller vessels, so small ships have the advantage of seeing where the big ships are going before they perform their own movement. Movement Steps a. Heavy and Super-heavy Ships b. Medium and Light Ships c. Small Craft d. Antiship Missiles e. Counter-missile Missiles During each step, ships of the opposing fleet move first, followed by ships of the edge fleet. If one player doesn’t

have any ships of the appropriate size, she simply skips steps until she reaches a step matching the ships under her command.

Movement Basics In space, an object in motion remains in motion. Even if a ship makes no maneuvers or puts no power into its engines at all, it will continue on its last course and speed forever (or until it’s captured in a celestial body’s gravity well). Simply move a coasting ship the same number of hexes on the same heading it used last round.

Speed A ship’s speed is the number of hexes it will move in the current round. Speed is retained from round to round, regardless of whether or not a ship actually maneuvers or even provides power to its engines. For example, if a cruiser enters a battle traveling at a speed of 4, it will move 4 hexes per round in each subsequent round until it maneuvers, accelerates, or is destroyed. If the cruiser accelerates in the third round of the battle to a speed of 6, it will move 6 hexes each round until it does something to change its speed again. Unless the scenario states otherwise, assume that all ships begin the first round of the battle with a speed of 0. They must accelerate to move across the map sheet. There is no upper limit to a ship’s speed. It just depends on what the ship’s acceleration rating is and how many rounds the ship spends accelerating. However, the faster a ship is traveling, the harder it is to perform maneuvers or change heading. In general, most battles will take place at speed ranges of 0 to 10 hexes per round. Relativity effects begin to kick in around a speed of 2,000 or so, but ships moving this fast are so hard to engage and have so little ability to engage their targets that there’s no point in describing the exact details. (See Chapter 4: The Cold Hard Facts for more information.) Ships moving at very high speeds may be harder to hit than slow-moving targets. A speed of 1 is roughly equal to 120,000 kilometers per hour.

Heading A ship’s heading is the course it is currently traveling. Like speed, it remains the same from round to round until the ship takes some action to change its heading. To change heading, a ship must perform a maneuver during the course of its movement.

Acceleration Every ship has an acceleration rating that measures how much it can change its speed in one round. For instance, a cruiser might have an acceleration of 3. If its current speed is 5, the cruiser can set any speed from 2 to 8 in its current move. Acceleration or deceleration takes place at the end of the ship’s movement. In other words, a ship that begins the round at speed 3 and then accelerates to speed 5 is moving at a speed of 3 until it moves three hexes—and then it moves two more hexes, traveling at a speed of 5. Most of the time this doesn’t matter, but it may be important for maneuvering purposes. Ships need not change facing to decelerate. The engines used by ships in the basic combat rules are not reaction drives, and they don’t have to maneuver like real rocket-propelled spacecraft do. An acceleration of 1 is roughly equal to 3,300 G—ships of PL 7 and higher require powerful inertial dampers or compensation to survive maneuvers this violent.

Maneuvers For the basic combat game, we’re assuming that starships are equipped with engines that permit cinematic maneuvers— banks, loops, turns, and rolls. In effect, the gravity induction engine engages a medium against which it can exert force— the omnipresent gravitational energy of the universe. We’ll examine other methods for moving and maneuvering ships in Chapter 2: Advanced Combat. Ships may perform a number of maneuvers in one round equal to their Maneuverability Class. A speed of 5-8 reduces a ship’s MC by 1 point; a speed of 9-12 reduces MC by 2 points; a speed of 13 to 16 reduces MC by 3 points. (Every 4 points of speed reduces maneuverability class by an additional point.) A ship at MC 0 can only make maneuvers once every other round. A ship at MC –1 can maneuver once per three rounds; MC –2, once per four rounds; and so on. There are four basic maneuvers available to a ship: Straight: The ship simply moves forward one hex per point of speed. This isn’t really a maneuver. A ship doesn’t have to use its engines or perform any maneuvers to keep moving straight ahead. Roll: The ship moves into any one of the four hexes on either side instead of moving into the hex directly ahead of it and maintains its current heading. Executing a roll does not cost any speed points.

Turn: The ship moves forward one hex and then changes its heading by one hexside. Changing heading counts as one point of speed, so a ship with a speed of 5 could move 5 hexes in a straight line, or 4 hexes and turn. Loop and Turn: The ship moves straight ahead one hex and then selects any new heading desired. This costs two extra points of speed, so a ship with a speed of 5 could move 3 hexes and execute a loop and turn maneuver.

Missile Movement Missiles are placed on the map during the launch phase. In the movement phase of the following round, they can begin to maneuver toward their target. For purposes of the basic game, all missiles have an acceleration of 6 and a Maneuverability Class of 5. Missiles move last in the movement phase, since their targeting systems predict ship movement with uncanny accuracy. Missiles that don’t reach their target with 6 rounds run out of power and coast. Note that missiles don’t automatically detonate the instant they reach their target. In fact, missile detonations are the last step in the fire phase. This reflects the fact that antimissile fire may knock down the missile before it delivers its warhead. To make an attack in the fire phase, the missile must move into or through the same hex as its intended target. (The missile’s movement stops when it enters its target’s hex.) If the missile can’t get into the target’s hex in the current round, it can’t make an attack roll.

Counter-Missiles Missiles assigned to attack other missiles have a special advantage; they move after all antiship missiles have moved, regardless of which side has the tactical edge. For the sake of sanity, you can assume that it’s possible for a missile to target an enemy antiship missile, but not an enemy countermissile missile. In other words, there are two valid targets for a missile: an enemy ship (in which case it’s an ASM, or antiship missile) or an enemy antiship missile (in which case it’s a SAM, or ship-to-air missile).

Launch and Recovery Missiles, fighters, and other embarked craft don’t begin play on the map. They must be launched before they can begin to move. The launch phase takes place after the fire phase, so just-launched missiles and fighters can’t be attacked until after they’ve had a chance to move at least one time. During the launch phase, the opposing player must declare her launches first, followed by the edge player. New missile markers or ship miniatures are simply placed in the same hex as the launching vessel. They assume the launching vessel’s speed and heading upon launch, but they don’t get to maneuver independently until the movement phase of the following round. Carriers may recover fighters and other small craft (or fighters can dock with other ships) by ending their movement

phase in the same hex as the carrier, with the same heading and a speed equal to or not more than 1 point higher than the recovering ship. A determined commander could probably recover missiles that run out of power after a battle’s over, but most prefer to self-destruct the weapons.

Fire

Targeting

Players conduct their attacks in the fire phase. Like movement, the fire phase is broken up into a hierarchy of attacks: beams and projectiles, then torpedoes and special weapons, and finally missile and bomb attacks. A ship destroyed by beam fire in the first step can’t fire its torpedoes in the second step; the beam fire knocked it out before it could use its own weapons. The exact order of fire looks like this:

• Opposing fleet beam fire

• Edge fleet beam fire

• Beam damage takes effect

• Opposing fleet torpedo fire

• Edge fleet torpedo fire

• Torpedo damage takes effect

• Opposing fleet antimissile fire

• Edge fleet antimissile fire

• Anti-missile hits take effect

• Opposing fleet antiship missile fire

• Edge fleet antiship missile fire

• Antiship missile damage takes effect

• Opposing fleet bomb attacks

• Edge fleet bomb attacks

• Bomb damage takes effect

In each step of the fire phase, the opposing player announces her targets and conducts her attacks first. Damage is simultaneous, so there’s no advantage in attacking first. In fact, the edge player has the advantage, since he can wait and see how his opponent’s attacks go before he decides how his ships will respond.

Obviously, not every step is necessary in every battle. Just skip steps that aren’t needed in the current game round or scenario.

Arcs of Fire Most shipboard weapons can’t fire in all directions at once. For purposes of the basic game, there are six arcs of fire: forward, aft, port, starboard, and zero-port and zero-starboard. Usually, ships are built so that their best weapons bear in a couple of arcs so that they can create an overwhelming amount of fire in a particular sector. Many large ships include a number of small weapons that can fire into the zero arc, so that fighters and missiles in the same hex as the ship itself can be attacked. Zero-port and zero-starboard are simply the same hex as the firing ship. Not every weapon can hit extremely close targets due to masking by the ship’s structure, inability to train quickly enough on rapidly changing target angles, and so on. When a ship moves into the same hex as another vessel, the moving ship can declare whether it’s in the zero-port or zero-starboard firing arc of the nonmoving ship. The moving ship can declare that any one of its firing arcs faces the stationary ship.

Example: A destroyer moves into the same hex that an enemy battleship occupies (the battleship moved earlier in the round). The commander of the destroyer declares that his ship is located in the battleship’s zero-port arc. He also declares that the battleship is in the destroyer’s forward arc of fire, since he intends to torpedo it in just a moment.

Decoys

Range Over the great distances of a typical space battle, energy weapons slowly disperse and the smallest inaccuracy in a projectile creates a miss of thousands of kilometers. Range is counted in hexes from the firing ship to the target, not counting the hex the firing ship is in (that would be a range of 0). If you’re playing with miniatures, you’ll find that some miniatures actually take up two or three hexes on a map sheet. The ship itself would be microscopic if the miniature was scaled correctly to the map, so use the highest mast or tower on the miniature as the hex the ship is actually located in.

Attack Rolls An attack roll is a normal crew check. Like other checks, it begins at a bonus of +d0. An attack roll is modified by the following conditions:

• Weapon base accuracy

• Target size modifier

• Range modifier

• Fire control modifier

• Target defenses

• Fixed mount penalty (+3 steps if not on direct line)

Weapon accuracy is a property of the weapon itself. Record it on your ship record sheet under the weapon description. Target size modifier is a characteristic of the ship, noted on your ship record sheet. Small ships are harder to hit than big ships. Missiles have a +4 step target size modifier. Range modifier depends on the weapon’s range characteristics. A weapon may have a range of 2/4/8 hexes, indicating that a shot of 0−2 hexes is Short range, 3−4 hexes is Medium range, and 5−8 hexes is Long range. Medium range attacks suffer a +1 step penalty. Long range attacks suffer a +2 step penalty. Fire control reflects the power of the attacking ship’s computers and fire control systems. Mark it on your ship record sheet. Target defenses account for defensive systems that make the ship harder to hit—jammers, deflection inducers, chaff, and so on These should be described on the ship record sheet of the target vessel. The fixed mount penalty means that a weapon housed in a fixed mount suffers a +3 step penalty to any attacks that are not along a direct line of hexes. A weapon in a fixed mount forward can fire into the forward arc, but suffers a

+3 step penalty to the attack roll unless the target is directly ahead.

Successful Attacks An attack roll results in one of four possible results: a failure, or a hit of Ordinary, Good, or Amazing quality. Each weapon has a listed damage range for each type of hit. For example, a laser cannon inflicts d4 stun points on an Ordinary hit, d4 wound points on a Good hit, and d4+2 wound points on an Amazing hit. Defensive screens may absorb damage or the target’s armor can block it. In addition to causing some amount of damage points, successful hits may knock out key systems on the target or reduce its capabilities. See “Damage” for more information.

Launched Weapons Missiles and bombs attack much like other weapons, with one extra step: getting there. Missiles move during the movement phase, acting like small and maneuverable ships (see the movement rules for details). If a missile ends its movement in the same hex as its target, it may roll an attack in the fire phase. However, missile attacks are the last step in the fire phase, so it’s possible for the target to shoot down an attacking missile with a lastsecond round of defensive fire. Bombs must be carried to the hex in which they will be employed. In other words, the bomber must end its movement in the same hex as the target to make an attack roll in the fire phase. Bombs can’t be hit by defensive fire, but defensive fire can shoot down the bomber before it executes its bombing attack. Any ship can drop bombs on a stationary target such as a planet or base, but only ships of Maneuverability Class IV or better can drop bombs on enemy ships, and even then the target must have a Maneuverability Class lower than the bomber.

Damage

All ships possess a damage track, which is composed of four different components: stun (s), wound (c), mortal (m), and critical (e) damage. (This parallels the damage track for AL-

Damage Procedure

of energy screens. These affect the actual damage inflicted by a successful attack. Defenses of the second type include ECM, chaff, or deflection inducers—gravitic shields that deflect incoming fire. These defenses affect the success or failure of the attack by adding step modifiers to the firing ship’s attack roll.

Armor

TERNITY characters and vehicles.) If it bothers you to think of

the damage track this way, just consider them to be superficial, moderate, major, and extreme damage instead. If a ship fires successfully on a target, it inflicts a range of damage based on the weapon used and the degree of success. For example, a plasma missile inflicts d6+3 wound points on an Ordinary success, d8+3 wound points on a Good success, and d6+2 mortal points on an Amazing success. Refer to your ship record sheet for damage figures. Each track of damage is sometimes referred to as a grade. For instance, the plasma missile inflicts d8+3 points of damage on a Good hit, and the grade of the damage is wound damage.

Secondary Damage When a weapon strikes a ship, it inflicts some amount of stun, wound, mortal, or critical damage points. This is referred to as the weapon’s primary damage. For example, an Amazing hit with a boson gun inflicts 5d6 points of mortal damage (an average of about 18 points). In addition, all hits automatically inflict secondary damage in each lesser grade equal to half the amount of primary damage (round down). In the case of the boson gun that inflicts 17 points of mortal damage, the target also sustains secondary damage of 8 wound points and 8 stun points. Secondary damage is not blocked by the target’s armor, so a heavily armored ship might stop all of the primary damage of a big attack, but still sustain some amount of secondary damage. Even if a battleship’s armor stops the wound or mortal damage of a missile hit, some surface structures, power relays, and hull systems will be affected by the strike; secondary damage represents these collateral effects of a major weapon strike.

Armor and Screens Warships protect themselves with two basic forms of defenses: systems that absorb or negate the effects of the attack and systems that make it less likely that an attack will be on-target. Defenses of the first type include armor and some kinds

A ship protected by armor has an armor rating. This is the number of points of incoming damage the armor blocks. For example, a ship is struck for 9 points of mortal damage. If the ship is equipped with heavy cerametal armor, the armor stops d8 points of damage. On a roll of 6, the armor would stop 6 points of damage, leaving 3 points of mortal damage to be marked off on the ship’s damage track. Important: The secondary damage of the attack is based on the original damage roll, before armor reduces the primary damage. In the example above, a hit for 9 mortal points inflicts 5 wound points and 5 stun points, even though the ship’s armor reduces the mortal damage from 9 points to 3 points.

Screens Some ships may possess energy screens or shields that absorb damage. Damage is always downgraded or upgraded for attacker firepower versus defender toughness (see the following section) before the effects of screens, shields, and conventional armor are applied. Deflection inducers and displacers simply add a step penalty to the firing ship’s attack roll. They tend to make attacks miss, but don’t really attenuate the energy of the attack (other than the fact that attack penalties usually result in hits of lower quality and less damage potential). Particle screens add d4 (low impact and high impact) or d6 points (energy) to a ship’s armor rating. This is totaled with the target’s normal armor roll, so if a ship has cerametal armor (d8 versus energy) and a particle screen, its armor value is d6 + d8, or 2 to 14 points. Particle screens have no effect on secondary damage, just like normal armor. Ablative shields work differently. An ablative shield has a protective value based on the total shield point capacity of the ship’s capacitors. For example, a destroyer might have capacitors capable of absorbing 50 shield points of damage. One stun point of damage equals one shield point; more dangerous grades of damage fill the ship’s capacitors as shown below:

Table 1–2: Ablative Shields Damage Grade 1 Stun 1 Wound 1 Mortal 1 Critical

Shield Points 1 point 2 points 3 points 5 points

Note that upgrading or downgrading effects for firepower versus toughness take place before the amount of shield points taken up by an attack is calculated. If the primary damage of the attack is entirely absorbed, there is no secondary damage and no system damage. If the attack is partially absorbed by a failing shield, the “leftover” damage creates secondary damage and may cause system damage. Typically, a ship fitted with an ablative shield will be impervious to enemy fire for a couple of rounds at the beginning of the battle, but then the shield will fail as the ship’s capacitors fill.

tal hits become wounds, wounds become stuns, and stuns are negated entirely. If the weapon’s firepower falls short by two classes, damage inflicted drops by two grades: mortals to stun, and wound or stun disappear entirely.

Damage Type

Example: A destroyer fires a fusion laser (a medium weapon) at a battleship (a heavy target) and inflicts 6 wound points. Since the laser’s firepower falls one class short of the target’s toughness, the damage becomes 6 stun points. Then, the battleship may roll its armor vs. energy attacks to negate some or all of this stun damage.

In addition to the number of points and the grade of damage inflicted by an attack, weapons are characterized by what type of damage they inflict: low impact (LI), high impact (HI), or energy (En). Low impact weapons strike like physical blows, collisions, or blasts. High impact weapons penetrate the target. Energy attacks both penetrate and irradiate, heat, or vaporize the target. Damage type is important because different types of armor and defensive devices work better against some attacks than others. For example, light crystallis armor is designed to handle energy weapons, so its En value is d6+2. However, it’s not as good against high impact attacks, so its HI value is only d6.

Firepower and Toughness In addition to their damage, range, and accuracy characteristics, all weapons are rated for firepower. Firepower roughly measures how the weapon affects targets of different sizes. It incorporates penetration, destructive potential, and general potential for mayhem. Firepower ratings correspond to ship classes: small craft, light, medium, heavy, and super-heavy. Toughness measures how large, heavily compartmented ships can stand up to weapons fire. It’s not just armor—it’s mostly about size. Toughness is based on the class of the ship and whether or not the design is a military hull. Toughness grades include small craft, light, medium, heavy, and super-heavy. Whenever a weapon strikes a ship, compare the firepower of the weapon to the toughness of the target. High toughness targets may shrug off low firepower weapons, while high firepower weapons devastate low toughness targets.

• If firepower equals toughness, there is no special effect.

• If toughness exceeds firepower, the weapon’s damage

downgrades.

• If firepower exceeds toughness, the weapon’s damage

upgrades.

Downgrading If a weapon’s firepower falls short of the target’s toughness by one class, all damage inflicted drops by one grade. Mor-

Table 1–3: Downgrading Damage Grade Stun Wound Mortal Critical

Number of Grades One Two None None Stun None Wound Stun Mortal Wound

Three None None None Stun

Upgrading If a weapon’s firepower exceeds the target’s toughness, all damage increases by one grade. Stuns become wounds, wounds become mortals, mortals become compartment damage, and compartment damage dice are doubled. If the firepower is two classes over the target’s toughness, damage increases by two grades; three classes over, three grades.

Table 1–4: Upgrading Damage. Grade Stun Wound Mortal Critical

One Wound Mortal Critical 2x Crit

Excess of Firepower Two Three Mortal Critical Critical 2x Crit 2x Crit 3x Crit 3x Crit 4x Crit

Critical damage upgrades a little differently. For one step, simply double the critical damage rolled. For two, triple it, and for three, quadruple it. For example, if a zero bore (superheavy firepower) hits a battleship (heavy toughness) for 11 critical points, the damage upgrades to 22 critical points. This will prove to be lethal quite frequently. Example: The battleship returns fire with its primary battery, a heavy matter beam (heavy). It scores a hit inflicting 7 mortal points. However, since the destroyer is only a light target, these upgrade one step to criticals, and then a second time to double the number of criticals—14 in this case. Don’t mess with battleships.

Effects of Damage A ship is shaken when all the boxes in its stun track are marked off, disabled when all the boxes in its wound track are checked off, crippled when all boxes in its mortal track are checked off, and destroyed when all boxes in its critical track are checked off.

Shaken When all of a ship’s stun boxes are checked off, the ship is shaken. Minor systems failures, ionizing damage, and fluctuations in system operations generally reduce a ship’s effectiveness in battle. Shaken ships suffer the following penalties:

• All crew checks suffer a +1 step penalty.

• The ship remains shaken until it repairs at least 1 stun

point. Excess stun damage that strikes a ship with no stun boxes left is marked off the wound track at a 2-for-1 rate (two stun points become one point of wound damage).

Disabled A ship is disabled when all of its wound points have been lost to damage. Important systems are no longer working or require constant attention to compensate for damage, portions of the ship’s interior have been holed to space, and the overall integrity of the hull is failing. A disabled ship suffers the following penalties:

• All crew checks suffer a +2 step penalty.

• The ship’s Maneuverability Class drops by one point.

• Enemies firing on the disabled ship gain a –1 step bonus

to their attack rolls. The ship remains disabled until it repairs at least one point of wound damage. Excess wound damage that penetrates the ship’s armor when it has no wound boxes left rolls into mortal damage at a 2-for-1 rate.

Crippled A crippled ship has lost all boxes on its mortal damage track. Most systems can function only through heroic efforts and jury-rigging on the part of the crew. Extensive portions of the hull have been demolished, and most of the ship’s interior is open to vacuum. A crippled ship suffers the following penalties:

• All crew checks suffer a +3 step penalty.

• The ship’s Maneuverability Class drops by two points.

• Enemies firing on the crippled ship gain a –2 step bonus

to their attack rolls. In almost all cases, a ship cannot repair lost points of mortal damage during the course of a space battle. This means that a ship crippled in a battle remains crippled for the rest of the fight. However, some special damage control systems may make it possible for mortal damage to be repaired in a matter of rounds. If a crippled ship regains at least 1 box of mortal damage, it is no longer crippled. Excess mortal damage that strikes a ship with no mortal damage boxes remaining becomes critical damage, at a 2-for-1 rate.

Destroyed A ship is destroyed outright when it loses all of its critical damage boxes. If the damage is more than the ship’s critical

damage rating but less than twice that number, the ship remains more or less in one piece—a lifeless derelict hurtling through space, continuing on its last course and speed. If the damage exceeds twice the derelict’s critical damage rating, the wreck immediately breaks up or explodes. Remove the miniature from the map.

Repairs At the end of a round, any ship with damage may attempt a repair check. A repair check is a normal crew check, modified by any damage control systems the damaged ship possesses. A repair check can do the following:

• Restore 1, 2, or 3 lost stun points for an Ordinary, Good,

or Amazing success.

• Restore 1, 2, or 3 wound points for an Ordinary, Good,

or Amazing success. Only ships equipped with repair bots or a nanite repair array can attempt this type of repair check.

• Restore 1, 2, or 3 mortal points for an Ordinary, Good, or

Amazing success. Only ships equipped with a nanite repair array can attempt this repair check.

Ship Class and Repair Checks Small ships don’t carry enough crewmen to both fight and attempt repairs at the same time. Small craft cannot attempt a repair check unless they either coasted (made no maneuvers or speed changes) or did not fire any weapons in this game round. Light and medium ships may attempt one repair check per round, regardless of what other actions they take in that round. Heavy ships may attempt two repair checks per round. Super-heavy ships may attempt three repair checks per round.

Repair Check Limitations If a ship is capable of performing multiple repair checks in the same round, no type of damage can receive more than one repair attempt per round. For example, a fortress ship with three repair checks per round couldn’t use all three to correct wound damage. One check could be used for stun damage, one for wound damage, and the last one for mortal damage (if the ship possessed systems that allow it to correct mortal damage).

The Battleground

Since it’s nearly impossible to bring a fast-moving ship to battle, most space battles take place in the vicinity of planets or bases where one side or the other has an interest. Raids, blockades, and invasions are far more common than openspace encounters. While each hex on the battle mat is extremely large (1,000 kilometers across), there are still some terrain features that can affect the way a battle develops.

Planets When a scenario takes place in the vicinity of a planet, the planet is far and away the dominant feature on the map. For the sake of convenience, we’ll assume that planets come in three sizes: small, medium, and gas giant. Small planets are 5,000 kilometers in diameter (five hexes). Planets such as Mars, Mercury, or Pluto might be represented by small planets. It’s not precise, but it’s a reasonable approximation for game play. Medium planets are 9,000 kilometers in diameter (nine hexes). This is a little small for representing Earth-sized planets, but it’s good enough for game play. Gas giants may be 50,000 to 150,000 kilometers (or more!) in diameter. For the sake of convenience, you can indicate the presence of a gas giant by simply marking a “wall” (give it a slight curve if you like) across one side or corner of the map sheet. With a radius of 25 hexes, the circumference of a gas giant would be more than 150 hexes! Indicating a 20- or 30-hex long arc of the gas giant’s surface is about the best you can do for most tabletop games.

Planets and Movement Ships that move adjacent to a planet or onto the planet marker (see “Low Orbit,” below) may use the gravitational influence of planet to immediately change their heading by 60 degrees (one hex side) in the direction of the planet. This is not mandatory; even a ship with an acceleration of only 1 hex per round generates hundreds of G’s, and can easily compensate for the relatively weak gravity field of a planet. Beyond the “slingshot” move, planets have four distinct regions for movement purposes. Impact Zone: The center hex of a small planet, central three hexes of a medium planet, or any hex more than one hex “deep” in a gas giant is an impact zone. Any ship that enters an impact zone hex at a speed greater than 1 is destroyed. A ship in the impact zone at a speed of 1 or less preparing to land. Low Orbit: If a ship moves onto a planet marker but doesn’t enter the impact zone, it’s considered to be in low orbit. If the ship reduces its speed to 0, it can begin to orbit the planet or it can land in the following game round. Ships orbiting in low orbit move along the orbital path at a rate of one hex per ten rounds. (The orbital path is the ring of hexes that circles the planet at the ship’s current distance.) This is a gross simplification of orbital mechanics, but it works for game play. Ships in low orbit can fire on or be fired on by any enemy within range. Landed: A ship can land only by spending the previous round in low orbit. A landed ship can be fired upon only by (or fire on) enemy ships in low or high orbit. In the case of a gas giant, “landing” means that the ship is sinking a little deeper into the atmosphere. Under no circumstances can any ship move more than one hex deep into a gas giant.

High Orbit: A ship within three hexes of a planet marker but not actually on the planet marker is in high orbit. If the ship reduces its speed to 0, it can begin to orbit the planet, or it can drop to low orbit in the following game round. Ships orbiting in high orbit move along the orbital path at a rate of one hex per twenty rounds. You can treat them as motionless for game play. Ships in high orbit can fire on (or be fired on by) any enemy within range. Most orbital stations are located in high orbit, where their weapons can cover a broad portion of the planet’s surface.

Planets and Fire Ships can trace a line of fire “over” a planet, as long as the line of attack doesn’t have to pass more than one hex “deep” on the planet marker. In other words, every hex of a planet blocks fire, except for the outermost hexes. If necessary, use a string or a straight-edge of some kind to draw a line of sight from the “high point” of the firing ship to the “high point” of the target. If the line of sight crosses any portion of a hex that blocks fire, the target is obscured by the planet and can’t be attacked from the firing ship’s location. (Note that missiles can still be launched and maneuvered to strike at a target that can’t be hit by beams or torpedoes.) Ships that have landed can be attacked only by enemy ships that assume a high or low orbit.

Orbital Bombardment To conduct an orbital bombardment, the attacking ship must assume a low or high orbit over the specified hex of the target planet and remain there for at least one fire phase.

Asteroids and Moons Asteroids or small moons are one-hex bodies. They cannot provide a gravitational slingshot, since they’re just too small to have any appreciable gravity field. A ship that moves into the same hex as an asteroid or moon with a speed of 1 or less may choose to land on the asteroid (there’s no low orbit or high orbit for a body this small, at least in game terms). A ship that has landed on an asteroid may fire or be fired upon normally, but enemy fire suffers a +2 step penalty due to the masking effect of the target’s surroundings. An asteroid or moon blocks fire, if the line of sight from the firing ship to the target passes through any portion of the hex the asteroid is located in. Impact Zone: An asteroid or moon functions as an impact zone only if a ship moves onto the marker with a Maneuverability Class and acceleration rating of 0. Usually, this happens only after a ship has suffered severe battle damage.

Rings and Debris Fields

High-Speed Bomb Runs

The classic asteroid belt as depicted in the movies is fairly misleading—in our own asteroid belt, tumbling boulders and plummeting planetoids are thousands of kilometers apart, and a pilot would never have to weave in and out of them like a crazed taxi driver on the Long Island Expressway. However, local areas may have a much higher concentration of small debris—ice crystals, pebbles, dust, and so on— than normal interplanetary space. Rings and debris fields are found near planets. A planet or asteroid with a debris field is surrounded by a “haze” of debris one hex wide. A gas giant may be surrounded by a band of debris 1d4 hexes wide, paralleling the planet’s surface at a distance of 1d8 hexes. Debris fields and rings add a +2 step penalty to any weapon fire that passes into or through at least one hex of the field.

It takes some careful maneuvering to execute a bombing attack. It’s extremely useful to keep your fighter squadrons 10 to 15 hexes from the target you want to bomb, while keeping their speed at about the same value. Then, when you see a good opportunity, have your fighter squadrons close to attack distance in a single move. You want your fighter squadrons to be in the enemy’s zero arc or out of range of his weaponry altogether; getting caught at a range of 4 or 5 hexes is death for most fighter squadrons.

Moving Through Debris Debris fields can also be dangerous to moving ships. For each point of speed a ship currently has, it suffers 1d4–1 points of stun damage (low impact) for entering a ring or debris hex, to a maximum of 10d4–10 stun points. If the ship has no kind of deflection inducer, particle screen, or ablative shield, the damage increases to 1d4–1 wound points per point of speed. The firepower of the attack is equal to the size of the moving ship.

Tactics

There’s a lot going on in these combat rules, and the best way to fight a ship effectively isn’t always apparent. Here are some good tactics you may want to consider using in your game.

Missile Saturation If you think it’s going to take ten missile hits to cripple or destroy an enemy ship, don’t fire one or two missiles a round for several rounds. If you can, launch all ten at once. Dealing with one or two incoming missiles is a simple matter for any defensive system, but a large flight of missiles can “saturate” the enemy defenses and guarantee that some missiles will slip through and score hits.

Concentrated Fire Okay, so it’s not sporting, but consider having a number of your ships concentrate fire on a single enemy target to cripple or destroy it as quickly as possible. It’s much better to kill a couple of ships fast to reduce the firepower pointed at your own fleet than to gradually wear away at every ship in the enemy fleet.

Crossing the “T” When possible, use the edge to maneuver your ships into the least dangerous enemy firing arcs you can reach. If you know that an enemy cruiser has a great concentration of firepower forward, look at where your ships are in relation to the enemy’s forward firing arc and get out of Dodge. If you can’t escape a powerful concentration of enemy fire, you can instead deliberately group as many of your ships as possible so as to take advantage of their weapon arc. The enemy will smear one of your ships, but the others won’t be sitting in firing arcs where enemy weapons have nothing better to do but shoot at them.

The Range Game Determine if a short, medium, or long range between you and your enemy is good for you or good for her. For example, a battleship fighting several destroyers should try to stand off at long range and hope for lucky hits with its main batteries. If the destroyers can’t return fire because the range is too long, sooner or later the battleship is going to annihilate them. Similarly, if you have close-range weapons, you want to close the distance fast and get into a knife-fight with your enemy. Loitering out in open space where she can clobber you and you can’t hit her is not a good plan.