Ship Statistics:Defence: The ability of a ship to avoid attacks or to harmlessly absorb them with its armour. Prevents ships from being hit.
Integ: The integrity of a ship, or how much damage it can absorb before becoming disabled, or worse.
Fuel Con: The amount of fuel that a ship uses to accelerate. The smaller this number, the more efficent the ship's engine is.
Fuel Cap: How much fuel a ship can hold in its fuel tanks. The larger the better, though any fuel remaining in a ship's tanks will be lost when the ship is destroyed or enters hyperspace.
Range: How far away a weapon can fire, in number of hexes. A value of zero means that the target must be in the same hex as the shooting ship for the weapon to attack. Range for a weapon can never drop below 0.
Attack: How powerful a weapon is, in terms of hitting the enemy and penetrating armour. Larger values are more likely to get pass armour and deal damage.
Vel: (X, Y, Z): The ship's current velocity, in terms of three numbers. X is towards the north-west, Y to the north, and Z to the north-east. A negative value obviously represents movement in the opposite direction. Note that velocity will often be simplified [eg. (1,0,1) = (0,1,0)].
(X, Y): The ship's current position on the map.
Turns:The turn will be divided into four phases, shooting, launching, acceleration, movement. Weapons and combat will be resolved in the shooting phase, with destroyed vessels being removed from play immediately after. During the launching phase, any torpedoes, mines etc. will be dropped from their parent craft. For the acceleration phase all craft may spend fuel to gain a point of velocity in any direction, except for special cases, such as launched objects, which gets a free point of velocity if they want it. Effects from gravity will also be calculated during this phase. Finally ships will move based on their velocity, with any interceptions by mines and torpedoes be calculated as well.
Figure-1: Example of movement with a velocity of (2,1,0)Combat:Combat is simple. Assuming that the target is within the range of the weapon, and that nothing is blocking the shot (ie. planets and stars), then an attack will be made. The ratio of attack to defence is then calculated, and the table is consulted.
Figure-2: The Combat TableFor example, if a ship with 6 defence is being shot at by a 2 attack weapon, then the ratio of attack to defence would be 2:6, or 1:3. Therefore the leftmost table would be used. If the ratio of attack and defence does not exactly equal a ratio found on the table, then the ratio will be lowered until it finds a corresponding table. So a ratio of 3:7 would use the 2:3 table, and a ratio of 14:2 would use the 3:1 table. Ratios lower than 1:3 automatically count as failures, since the weapon is not strong enough to pierce the defence of the attacked ship.
Once the appropriate table is found, then a D6 will be rolled. The value of the D6 is found on the green side of the table, and the damage to the attacked ship's integrity is found on the red side. So on the 1:1 table, a roll of 4, 5 or 6 will deal one point of damage to the attacked ship.
Planets:Planets have three important effects on the game. The most important effect is their gravity field, which occupies the adjacent hexes and is denoted by a dashed red line. Any ships that start the acceleration phase in the gravity field of a planet gain a point of acceleration towards the planet, or lose a random point if they start on the same hex. With forethought and planning, a gravity sling-shot manoeuvre is possible, to gain speed without wasting fuel.
Figure-3: Acceleration due to a planet's gravity well.The second effect is that planets can block shots. A line drawn between the centre of the shooter's and target's hexes that crosses over a planet's hex is considered blocked and not legal. The only exception is if the shooter is occupying the same hex as the planet.
Figure-4: Example of a planet blocking attacks.Thirdly, any object that ends its turn on a planet hex with no acceleration automatically falls down the planet's gravity well and is removed from play, for better or worse.
Stars operate just like planets, with two exceptions. First, they have a stronger gravity field, affecting all objects two hexes away. Those objects two hexes away from the sun gain a point of acceleration towards it. The hexes adjacent to the star, surrounded by the thick red line, instead give two points of acceleration towards the star. The other exception is that any object that intercepts a star's hex is automatically sucked in and destroyed. However I will be a little generous here, so nicking the corners of the hex will be allowed.
Figure-5: Acceleration due to a sun's gravity well.Sensors:Ships will show up on the map as different symbols, giving a rough outline to their size. However specific information about the ship will only be revealed to the opposing side if that ship is within sensor range. Obviously each side knows full information about their own ships. The specific information given about a ship within sensor range depends on the sensors that detect them, and their distance from the detecting ship.
Basic Sensors: (Unless otherwise stated, all ships start with this)
0 hexes away: Name, Class, Defence, Integ, Acc, Range and Attack of all weapons, along with their names.
1-2 hexes away: Name, Class, Defence, Integ, Acc
3-5 hexes away: Class, Acc
Scout Sensors:0-1 hexes away: Name, Class, Defence, Integ, Acc, Range and Attack of all weapons, along with their names.
2-4 hexes away: Name, Class, Defence, Integ, Acc
5-6 hexes away: Class, Acc
Hyperspace:Unless otherwise stated, all ships come with a hyperdrive. The hyperdrive can be used to permanently remove a ship from the battle, either to fulfil an objective or to save the ship from destruction. It takes two consecutive turns for a hyperdrive to charge up. During that time the ship cannot fire any weapons or launch any objects, but can still accelerate. Some other actions may not be conducted on a ship preparing to enter hyperspace, which will be revealed later. Ships may also catch a ride into hyperspace, so long as their maximum integrity is equal to or less than half the integrity of the ship charging its hyperdrive. Therefore a ship with 4 integrity may carry any number of ships with 2 or less integrity into hyperspace, allowing them to protect the larger ship as it charges its hyperdrive.
Starting a Scenario:Before a scenario starts, the players will divide control of the different ships between themselves, and place them somewhere in their starting zone. Ships under the control of a player will always follow the orders of that player. However if the player cannot or does not give orders to a specific ship, then their fellow players may give orders to the ship, on a first come, first served basis. Players who know ahead of time that they will not be able to submit turns may elect a fellow player (or even spectator!) as a sub-commander, giving them specific command over their ships until they return.
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Topic: The Second Galactic War: Simulated Space Combat! Scenario 1 (Read 10269 times)