LightYear - Draft Rules

Device	Cost	Min TL	Description
Fighters	20 per squadron	4	Small attack craft, offering bonuses in combat.
Bombers	20 per squadron	5	Larger attack craft, offering bonuses in combat.
Assault Scout, Pursuit (ASP)	40 per squadron	6	Equivalent to WWII PT Boats, offering bonuses in combat. Largest small attack craft in the game.
Anti-Big Ship (ABS)	10 per rating	3	The Anti-Big Ship weapon, representing torpedoes or other weapons that small ships can use to thwack big ones.
Assault Transport	20 to move a size 5 Grunt Unit	1	The ability to move Grunts from system to system.
Construction	2 per rating	1	The ability to build/upgrade colonies and bases.
Tenders	2 per rating	2	The ability to repair other ships away from bases.
Sensors	20	4	Provide combat bonuses, and determine ship types without combat
Stealth	2 * Endurance^2	7	Prevents detection by long-range sensors, provides combat bonuses
Flag Bridge	15	3	Command and Control facilities for squadrons/task forces
Advanced Flag Bridge	30	6	An advanced version of the above
Fire Support	20	2	Equipment to provide orbital fire support for Grunts
Anti-fighter Support (AFS)	2 * E ^ (7/4)	5	Anti-fighter defences. Can engage E/2 enemy squadrons, round up

Attack^(7/4) + 1.5 * Defence^(7/4) + Endurance ^ 2 + Range * Endurance * Mvt / 16 + E ^ 2 / 10 * M

If this ship is the first of its design class, also pay a 15% design fee. This applies ONLY to the first ship of the class.

3.2.2 Base Design

Device	Cost	Min TL	Description
Fighters	20 per squadron	4	Small attack craft, offering bonuses in combat.
Bombers	20 per squadron	5	Larger attack craft, offering bonuses in combat.
Assault Scout, Pursuit (ASP)	40 per squadron	6	Equivalent to WWII PT Boats, offering bonuses in combat. Largest small attack craft in the game.
Sensors	50 per rating	5	Range of TL*2. Determine the size of ships up to TL*2 ly away, by their hyperspace bloom as ships enter/leave normal space.
Stargate	50 for every 1 capacity	1	Creates a wormhole between this base and another friendly base with a stargate. Travel between the two bases is instantaneous.
Sector Capital	200	1	A base becomes a sector capital. Command range of TL*2. Sensors included.
Imperial Capital	400	2	A base becomes an imperial capital. Range of TL*3. Sensors included. You can only have one.
Stealth	2 * Endurance^2	7	Prevents detection by long-range sensors, provides combat bonuses
Flag Bridge	15	3	Command and Control facilities
Advanced Flag Bridge	30	6	An advanced version of the above
Fire Support	20	2	Equipment to provide orbital fire support for Grunts
Anti-fighter Support (AFS)	2 * E ^ (3/2)	5	Anti-fighter defences. Can engage E/2 enemy squadrons

2 * Attack ^(7/4) + 3 * Defence ^(7/4) + 1.5 * Endurance ^ 2 + Consruction / 5

3.2.3 Grunt Design

Grunts have a special rating known as size. Size is important for transport aboard starships. A Grunts size is equal to ( Attack * Defence / Tech Level ) + Endurance

Device	Cost	Min TL	Description
Fighters	20 per squadron	4	Small attack craft, offering bonuses in combat.
Bombers	20 per squadron	5	Larger attack craft, offering bonuses in combat.
Assault Scout, Pursuit (ASP)	40 per squadron	6	Equivalent to WWII PT Boats, offering bonuses in combat. Largest small attack craft in the game.

Small attack craft can only be used by Grunts defending systems, or Grunts attacking. Grunts defending bases cannot use them. (It's assumed that Grunt attack craft are launched from special racks on the outside of the transports, where as base grunts will depend on the bases craft.)

0.75 * Attack^(7/4) + Defence^(7/4) + 0.75 * Endurance ^ 2 + Endurance * Mvt

3.3 Crew Quality

All units in the game have a crew quality. There are six levels of crew quality: Green, Trained, Veteran, Crack, Elite.

All units, when first created, are Green. After four weeks of training, or one battle, they become Trained. After four weeks of further training, or after one battle, they become Veteran. After another five battles they become Crack, and after another ten battles, they become Elite.

Starships undergoing training must perform no actions during the training turn, and must stay within the same system. Bases may continue construction work on ships being built in the system. (However, training to Trained may occur in a different system then the training to Veteran.)

When units are refitted, their crew quality becomes Green, regardless of their previous crew quality. After two weeks of training (as detailed above), the crew returns to its original crew quality.

If a ship loses 50% of its endurance in battle, then the battle does not count toward advancement. If a ship loses 75% of its endurance in battle, then the crew quality drops one level, to a minimum of Trained for Starships and Bases, and Raw for Grunts. Raw units can become Green by surviving one battle, or by being trained for two weeks.

4 Turn Order

4.1 Overview of the Turn Sequence

Monthly Phase (every four turns)
• Political Results
  - Determine the Political status of your Empire
  
• Allocate Budgets
  - Determine your Income, and Allocate Money (Construction, Maintenance, etc.)
  
• Scrap/Mothball Ships
  - Scrap old ships, or place them into storage so you don't pay maintenance on them.
  
• Espionage
  - Determine espionage targets (results next turn)
• Raiders
  - Determine damage (if any) from raiding and piracy
  

Weekly Phase


• Order New Construction
  - New ships are launched, new ground units and bases go on-line, start construction on bases and ships
  
• Build Construction
  - Make payments on construction in progress.
• Allocate Repair Resources
  - Repair ships damaged in combat.
  
• Conduct Fleet Movement
  - Ships move
  
• Conduct Fleet Actions
  - Ships perform their actions
  

4.2 The Monthly Phase

A monthly phase occur every four turns. (Example: The game starts turn 1 with a Monthly phase. Monthly phases then occur on turn 5, turn 9, etc.) These monthly phases cover tasks that a High Commander may have to deal with, but not on every turn.

4.2.1 Political Results

Even Warlords don't operate in a vacuum. These represent internal results that the Warlord has no control over; anywhere from nonsense type things, to the outbreak of civil war. This involves a simple roll on a 2d6, and follow the results on the political table. (At the end of this document.)

At various times, a political event will require you to take a political modifier. The first modifier takes affect immediately, and then at the time period specified within the description.

It is also at this stage you declare items such as Mobilize for War, The Big Squeeze, among other things. You can only declare one of Mobilize for War, The Big Squeeze and Bread and Circuses.

4.2.2 Allocate Budgets

The budget is something that most warlords don't want to deal with, but it has to be considered. Here is where you examine the income you have gained, and decide where to spend it. Most of your income will probably go into new construction, and maintenance of that construction, though there are other things you should probably spend your money on. You can save money from turn to turn, and you can save repair resources from turn to turn. You can only allocate money during monthly phases; plan carefully!

During normal times, you receive a -1 to your political modifier every six months until your political modifier reaches zero.

4.2.2.1 INCOME

Income is gathered from all your colonies, depending on their size. The formula is (size*10), for each colony you control. It is then affected by several multipliers:


Mobilize for War, The Big Squeeze, Bread and Circuses, Tech Level

Note: Political modifiers take affect immediately.
• Mobilize for War
  

  An empire is not always at war. Even Warlords realize that running their empires at a full wartime economy for a long period of time can be bad. If your empire is at a peacetime economy, then this multiplier is one.

  If an empire mobilizes for war, then this multiplier becomes 2, i.e. your entire output is multiplied by two. However there are some drawbacks...

  1) When your empire is at peace, unit maintenance is halved. When mobilized for war, unit maintenance is full cost. Note, if a squadron is involved in combat during a turn, maintenance is full cost for that unit.

  2) War Exhaustion. After being mobilized for war long enough, your economy gives up the ghost, as it can't take anymore. This is really only a factor in long games. When war exhaustion is reached, this multiplier becomes 0.5. If ever you roll a modified 16 for the political roll, AFTER a political result has placed you into recession, then, instead of going into depression, your economy crashes, from exhaustion. This effect continues until your political modifier is reduced to zero, and you roll less than a 10 on 2d6.

  3) For every 4 monthly turns spent at war, you receive a +1 modifier on the political table.

  It takes one monthly turn before your empire is fully mobilized; i.e. a declaration of war on turn one won't show results until turn five.

  In order to declare War, you must declare a target Empire. Then you must pay 10% of your current peacetime production to represent Administration costs. While at war, you must experience combat at least once per month (every four turns), or take a +1 political modifier. (People are willing to suffer as long as there is some excitement going on...)

  If you are at War with an Empire, you cannot have any other diplomatic relationship with that Empire. (You're at war with them, after all...

• The Big Squeeze
  

  It is assumed that the civilian sectors of the economy are also being funded, and these funds are being allocated automatically. You can decide (after all, you're a Warlord), to squeeze the civilian sectors of the economy to get more stuff for your war projects. This is known as "The Big Squeeze."

  The Big Squeeze can only be done in peacetime; a wartime mobilization is simply getting the entire civilian economy behind you, as opposed to just squeezing it. Every two months while "The Squeeze" is maintained increases the chances that a political result will go bad. (+1 on the Political Modifiers table, and -1 to your Fleet Morale.) On the other hand, you don't have to worry about economic exhaustion, you're not at war with anybody, and the civilian economy is still paying for half of your unit maintenance. When squeezing, multiply your total production by 1.5.

  You must pay a 10% fee to start squeezing, and it takes one month before you see any results. (10% of the pre-squeeze economy.)

• Bread and Circuses
  

  This is where you divert income from your military projects to the civilian sector, trying to convince people you're a nice guy. Your overall income is multiplied by 0.8, but this reduces modifiers incurred after many months of Squeezing or War. Note, you must be at peace to declare Bread and Circuses, and you must not be Squeezing your population. Reduce your modifier on the political table by -1 for every two months of the Dog and Pony show.

• Tech Level
  

  The more advanced your empire, the better your production. Multiply your total production by 1 + ( (TL^6/5) / 10 )

4.2.2.2 EXPENSES

Now that you have all this money, you get to spend it.

• Continue Construction/Stockpile Construction Resources
  

  Contribute resources to units under construction. If you pay enough to finish a unit, then the unit becomes available in Week three of the month (i.e. two turns from the current one.)

  You can also stockpile construction resources to be used to build colonies, bases and build/upgrade ships during the course of the turn. Everything done during weekly turns involving new construction or upgrades must come from this stockpile.

  Resources contributed to base construction are limited by the construction capacity of the ship(s) building the base. You cannot exceed this capacity e.g. if a ship with a capacity of 100 was building a base, you could only contribute 100 resources per month. (More than one ship can help build a base.)

  Ship construction takes a minimum of two weeks.

  Ships may be launched uncompleted. Their endurance is set to the percentage of the ship paid for, round down. They are treated as damaged ships, having green crews. Bases can also be activated this way. Grunts CANNOT be activated incomplete; they must be completed before they see action.

  There is a minimum payment of 10% of a cost of a ship per month. If this minimum payment is not matched, then you LOSE 10% of the accumulated total placed into the ship. This does not apply to bases or Grunts. Example: Cost 300 ship - must spend 30 a month in construction, or lose 30 from the accumulated total i.e. if a ship had 240 accumulated, and a month was skipped, then the accumulated total becomes 210.

• Pay Maintenance
  

  This is where you pay maintenance on all your units (ships, bases, and garrisons.). A unit's maintenance cost is equal to its build cost divided by ten, round up. If you cannot afford to pay maintenance on a unit, it takes damage, losing one unit of endurance each week until it reaches the halfway point.

  For FTL Engine replenishment (when a squadron's range is exhausted), there is no cost, but the squadron must spend one turn in a system with a friendly base or colony, and not be involved in combat.

• Stockpile Repair Credits
  

  You can stockpile repair resources to repair damaged units. Since units can be damaged during turn, and you only allocate resources every four turns, you must remember to allocate enough to last at least four turns, or risk having damaged ships hanging around.

• Research
  

  The technology game is important as well. Here, you perform research in an attempt to upgrade your technical level. The cost is the wanted tech level * 25, and that gets you one roll with a d6. Roll the d6, and keep track of the total; if this total exceeds 40, you have gained a new tech level. If you wish to roll an additional die, you can pay an additional wanted tech level * 50 cost. For example, two rolls to go from TL2 to TL3 would cost 75+150 = 225. Not cheap. You do not have to attempt research every turn; the culmulative total stays from month to month.

  If a new level is reached through research, all new construction currently being built is immediately upgraded for free. Everything else must be upgraded.

  New tech levels can also be reached by a gift from another empire, or by capturing a base or ship with a higher tech level. Tech levels attained this way do not effect new construction, and all units must be upgraded. In addition, you must pay a one-time fee of new tech level * 150. This can be paid in installments, but, until it is paid, you cannot take advantage of your new knowledge.

  If doing "Joint Research", the first player's rolls are normal, the second player's rolls are halved, the third player's rolls are quartered, etc, and are all added together. (Round up.) Then this number is added to the culmulative total of all the players.

• Espionage
  

  You can spy on opposing empires. You can spy on as many empires as you want. Pay 25 for each d20 you wish to "buy" against an empire, and roll them, adding them together. The cumulative total of all these die rolls is your chance of success on a percentile roll, with a maximum success of 75%. You must do this for every turn you wish to spy on your enemies. You can choose either espionage or sabotage. Sabotage has a -10 modifier. Sabotage requires you to nominate a base or a squadron as a target.

  An espionage success means a random roll to see what type of information you get; either a copy of the Warlord's budget from last turn, the specifications on one class of ship, or the specifications of a base in a system, including troop counts. A sabotage success either means destruction of that units special device, or reduction of its endurance by 1d6 (maximum of one half of its total endurance.) (You pick.) If there are several special devices on that unit, one is randomly picked. See the table at the end of this document.

  A failed roll within 15% means the opposing emprie doesn't know you tried anything. A failed roll greater than this means the opposing empire does know what happened. Note: a roll of 0-5% is an automatic failure, and the opposing empire knows what happened.

4.2.3 Scrap Old Ships / Mothball ships

Here, you can mothball or scrap units. Ships can only be scrapped at bases, bases can only be scrapped with the assistance of a construction ship, and grunts can be scrapped at colonies or bases. When scrapped, a unit returns half its construction cost. For bases, you get the construction capacity of the scrapping ship per turn * four, and double that capacity is taken away from the base. (For example: cost 800 base, ship has 50 capacity. At the end of one month, you would get 200 credits, and the base would be reduced to half all its values. (400 of 800.) After the second month, you would get the other 200 credits, and the base would be gone.)

Squadrons can also be mothballed. Pay the usual full maintenance cost. When you wish to reactivate a squadron, pay the full maintenance cost for the month you wish to reactivate it, and treat it as new construction. In the interim, the ship requires no maintenance. You can only mothball ships at Bases. Bases and grunts cannot be mothballed.

4.2.4 Raiding and Piracy

Raiders exist, and they prey on your shipping. In this phase, you calculate the damage done to your budget by raiders. You can also allocate squadrons to engage in raiding against enemy colonies. Raiding and escort ships must come from ships already on the board. Raiding ships must have a minimum crew quality of Trained.

Raiders can survive because, while sensors can determine whether or not ships are in system by their hyperspace bloom, they cannot determine where the ships are in the system. And a system is a pretty big place...

4.2.4.1 Allocating Raiders

Ships in an enemy system can be ordered to "Raid." Ships with these orders will act as if on an "Evade" posture, at a -2 to their evasion die roll. The usual evade modifiers apply.

4.2.4.2 Defending against Raiders

All ships in a system without other orders (i.e. move to a different system) are assumed to be patrolling the area, escorting the occasional merchant ship or convoy ship, etc. Ships must not be undergoing repairs or upgrades in order to patrol. Ships on patrol are considered inactive for the purposes of training i.e. the ships are still treated as being trained up.

4.2.4.3 Damage from Raiders

Regardless of whether or not there is a combat between the defenders and raiders, calcualte raider damage and apply it immediately. If the empire being attacked doesn't have the surplus funds to pay the raider damage, it takes this damage times 1.1 next turn.

Raider damage is calculated as follows: roll 3d6, modified by crew quality, admiral qualtiy, special devices, and adding one for every point of average movement above two. Multiply this number times the total attack factors of the raiding ships, and divide by 14. This is the percentage of the enemy colony's production lost to raiding. (Round fractions at the very end, and round normally.)

(Design Note: Production lost this way is due to ALL causes; the inefficiencies of Convoy system, ships lost to attack, ships afraid to move, that type of thing.)

4.3 Weekly Phase

Weekly turns are the usual turn in LightYear.

4.3.1 Build/Launch New Construction and Upgrade

When a unit is fully completed, place it on the mapboard. This unit is considered to have a crew quality of green, as per the Crew Quality rules described in Units.

This is also when new ships are ordered, and the inital payment is made. A squadron can be constructed at any base that has a construction factor large enough to accommodate the cost of the squadron. A base can be constructed in any system that has a base construction ship in the system. A Grunt Unit can be built in any system that has a colony present.

If you wish your unit to be equipped with cutting edge technology, multiply the final cost by 1.5. This affects construction time. However, in combat, the unitis treated as having a tech level one point higher than the empire tech level.

If a ship is the first in a class (i.e no ships of that design have ever been built before), pay a 15% design fee, based on the unit cost of the ship. This does not apply to Bases and Grunts.

Units can be upgraded. Design a new unit, with the same endurance as the old one. (Endurance cannot be upgraded.), or use a design that you already have. (If you design a new class for ships, pay the 15% design fee, as usual.)

Ships are upgraded at shipyards that have capacity available for them. Bases require the presence of a construction ship. As per construction, more than one construction ship can help. Grunts can be upgraded wherever they are. While being upgraded, ships and grunts are not active. Bases are active at their old values. (This represents the fact that bases can be upgraded one small piece at a time.)

The cost of an upgrade is the difference plus 10% of the new design. Note, if you are downgrading, you get the difference in cash, minus the 10%. Time to complete the upgrade is treated as per new construction.

In emergency situations, squadrons can be launched before they are completed. This can only happen after half their construction period has passed. Take the ratio of credits spent over credits required, and apply this to their endurance. In combat and movement, they are treated as damaged ships.

Industrial colonies, when first established, are economic size one and cost 50. For a cost of 50* desired level, you can advance on level i.e. you would pay one hundred for level two, one fifty for level three, etc. You must go through each level (can't jump from one to four), and ten is the absolute limit. In order to estalbish/upgrade a colony, you must have a construction ship in the system, and can pay a maximum of construction ship capacity per month. A base present in the system can also apply unused construction capacity to help in the establish/upgrade.

4.3.2 Allocate Repair Resources

Damaged units can be repaired in this phase by allocating stockpiled repair resources. Ships require a base or a tender to be repaired. Bases require a construction ship. Grunts require a friendly colony or base.

In the case of ships and bases, capacity must be available. In addition, tenders can only repair ships that are less than half damaged. More than half, and repairs must occur at a base.

The cost of repairs is 1/2(percentage of endurance lost * unit cost). For a base, you can only spend a construction ship's capacity each turn.

4.3.2 Movement

Ships can be moved from star system to star system as required, until its movement factor is used up. Bases cannot move. This movement factor can be affected by damage, among other things. A ship can be moved as long as it has range left. For each ly moved, one unit of range is lost. When range has been reduced to zero, a ship can no longer move FTL until its range has been replenished at a friendly base. This takes one week, and costs nothing.

Opponents cannot see ships move FTL. They can only see the hyperspace bloom as ships enter/leave hyperspace, through the use of Base sensors (Which means that if a ship never travels FTL, your opponents will never see it), or through the presence of a scout in the system. (Which will reveal numbers, but not capabilities. Only a scout with sensors can reveal capabilities without engaging opposing ships in combat.)

Ships may be grouped into Battlegroups, which are then grouped into Task Forces. A Graded Officer may command a Battlegroup, or a Task Force. See Graded Officers for more information.

Ships may use Stargates, if the technology level is high enough. A Stargate is rated in terms of a capacity; that is, the total endurance of ships that can travel through it to any other friendly Stargate, instantly.

Ships may have postures. Modified stats due to posture cannot be modified below 1.

• Standard
  No bonues to attack or defence.

• Attack
  An all-out attack: Attack factors*1.5, defence factors * 0.75

• Defence
  An all-out defence: Attack factors*0.75, defence factors *1.5

• Escort
  A special posture: To escort, name a target ship in the same Task Force as the current ship. All damage allocated to the target ship must be taken by the current ship. The target ship can have any posture except escort or target.

• Evade
  Avoid all combat. Attack factors*0.5, Defence Factors*2. If all opposing sides have evade postures, there is no combat possible. If one side wishes to engage in combat, and the other has an evade, each side rolls 3d6, adding all modifiers for crew quality, admiral quality, special devices, and average movement, subtracting one for each ship present. Highest roll chooses what happens. Note, a roll of 3 by the evading side is an automatic win for the attcking side, no matter what the modifiers are.

  For every ship on an evading side that does NOT have an evade order, the evading ships receive a +1.

• Target
  Only ships equipped with ABS can do this. The ship(s) equipped with ABS must win a battle against the targetted enemy ship, plus escorts. The targetted enemy ship MUST have a movement less than the ship equipped with ABS. A battle is fought between the ship(s) equipped with ABS and the target enemy ship plus escorts, with the attacking ships taking a -2 modifier. If the ABS ships win, then the target ship immediately loses the ABS rating of the attacking ship(s) from its endurance, times each ship attacking. If the battle is lost, resolve it as a normal combat. Ships using Target have Attack factor * 0.75 and Defence factor * 0.5.

  ABS works on bases as well, but with half effects. (Bases are much more dispersed targets.)

  This battle occurs simultaneous with the regular battle for the system, and all damage takes effect at the end of the battle.

• Raid
  As described above, this is similar to an Evade profile, with a modifier of -2 in the 3d6 roll. Even if raiding ships are forced into combat with defending ships, raiding damage is still done for that turn. Note, for this profile, Attack, Defence are unmodified.

4.3.3 Actions

A ship can do several things;

1. Colonize a planet
   

   The ship can colonize a system during a turn. They must spend the entire week in the system i.e. not have moved during the turn. At the start of next turn, a size one colony exists in the system. Note, these are not colonies in the sense of sending down a whole bunch of people; these are industrial colonies, sent to exploit the resources of the planet for the purposes of the game. Because of the scale involved, the establishment of a new "proper" colony would take on the order of two to three monthly turns, with another twenty to thirty before it was anything more than a size one colony in terms of economic strength.

   Colonizing a system costs 50, and requires a ship with a construction device.

2. Combat
   

   Fight an enemy fleet. See combat for more details.

3. Bombard a planet
   

   Attack a planet with the aim of destroying the colony on the planet. See combat for more details.

4. Scout a system
   

   While present in the system, the scout will report the numbers and types of ships present in the system, bases, and troop counts. Note, you will not have the exact classifications of a ship until you meet it in battle, and survive to tell about it. (8-) You will know the size (which is defined by the endurance of the ship.) The scout squadron must have an evade posture. (See combat for more information about how to keep your scouts alive.) If the scout has the Sensors option, then intelligence on enemy ships will be revealed.

5. Undergo repairs
   

   A damaged squadron can take refuge at a base or with a tender with sufficient construction resources (equal to the cost of the squadron)

5 Combat

Combat is how all things are decided, and occurs when two fleets from opposing sides appear in the same system, (or two opposing ground units on the the same planet), and both those fleets of orders to attack (or at least, have orders that do not preclude a combat.)

5.1 Setup

Each fleet consists of several task forces. Most combats will involve one task force, some will involve two or more. Each ship has its appropriate posture as well. All combat is considered simultaneous across the map.

Before combat, Task Forces can be broken up into Battlegroups. Battlegroups combine their Attack and Defence values.

5.2 Combat Resolution (Ships)

5.2.1 Step One: Battle Roll

Each battlegroup rolls 3d6, and adds the appropriate modifiers. Highest roll wins the battle. Ties means nobody wins. Modifiers are given for Movement rates, crew quality, tech level, special devices, and other things.

If a side rolls an unmodified 18, that side gets to choose an enemy ship as being 'captured.' This ship becomes the property of the side that captured it, and is treated as having a Green crew after combat. This unit can then move and fight normally.

If a side rolls an unmodified 3, it has lost a ship to the enemy. The enemy gets to chose a ship, as if the enemy had rolled the unmodified 18.

Modifiers to Battle Roll:

• Movement Rates: Compare average speeds; side with highest avg speed gets a modifier equal to the difference of the averages.

• Tech Level: The side with the higher tech level gets a +2 bonus for every tech level difference.

• Special Devices:
  
  • Sensors gives +2 (once per side)
  • Stealth gives a +1 per 25% of ships that have stealth
  • Fleet Flag +2, Advanced Flag +4. This only applies once to the commanding flag ship.
  • The presence of fighters adds a d6/3 for fighters, and a d6/2 for bombers and ASPs, for each squadron present.
  • Anti-fighter nullifies fighter bonuses as per rating.
  • Fleet Morale: Fleet morale divided by ten is added to the roll.

• Crew Quality: -4 for Raw, -2 for Green, +2 for Veteran, +3 for Crack, +4 for Elite (Most common crew quality in fleet is used for this modifier)

• Graded Admirals: -2 for Mediocre, +2 for Veteran, +4 for Crack, +6 for Elite

5.2.2 Step Two: Calculate Damage

Call the side that won A, and the side that lost B. (If the above die roll was a tie, then nobody gets the bonuses for winning in this section.) Side A rolls a number of d6 equal to the total Attack Factors on its side. Side A adds a d6 for every 2 pts of victory over Side B. (From the die roll above.) Then calculate the difference between the highest attack rating that side A has, and the average defence that side B has. Add this difference, times two, to the die roll. (If Side B's average defence is higher than Side A's, subtract this difference.)

Then this process is repeated, Side B attacking Side A, except Side A adds a d6 to its defence roll for every 4 pts of victory over Side B. Also repeat the difference between ratings calculation. This damage is the damage Side A takes.

If fighters, bombers, or ASPs are present, they add 1d6, 2d6,3d6 to Attack factors for every squadron present, and add 2d6,1d6,1d6 to Defence factors for every squadron present.

If multiple battlegroups are involved in the combat, rotate among all of them, calculating win/loss as per their individual battle rolls.

• Example One of Damage Calculation:
  Battleship A (A:7 D:7) takes on another Battleship B (A:7 D:7). Assume nobody won the battle. BB-A rolls 7d6 for attack factors, BB-B rolls 7d6 for defence factors. Total B is subtraced from total A, and divided by two. This is the damage done to Side B. Then, BB-B rolls 7d6 for attack factors, and BB-A rolls 7d6 for attack factors. Total A is subtracted from Total B, and then divided by two. This is the damage done to Side A.

• Example Two of Damage Calculation:
  Battleship A (A:7 D:7) takes on seven Scouts (A:1 D:1). Once again, nobody won the battle. BB-A rolls 7d6 for attack factors, the scouts roll 7d6 for defence factors. There is a six point difference between the Scouts average defence and the Battleship's attack. Therefore, the battleship adds 12 to its die roll. Likewise, there is a six point difference between the Scouts highest attack (1), and the average of the Battleship's defence (7). Thus, the Scouts subtract 12 from their roll. The Scouts are in trouble.

5.2.3 Step Three: Allocating Damage

Damage is allocated first to the heaviest squadron type available to both sides, and then follow down in class. All squadrons must take at least half damage before any squadron can be allocate enough damage for destruction. For example, two cruisers and a destroyer (TF A) take on a battleship, cruiser, and destroyer. (TF B). TF A allocates damage to the cruiser first, then the destroyer, and then the battleship, damaging all of them by half before destroying any of them. TF B must first allocate damage to the cruisers before any damage gets to the destroyer.

5.3 Effects of Damage

Damage is applied to the endurance of a squadron. For every point of endurance lost, that ship loses that percentage of its attack and defence factors. If a ship drops below half endurance, special devices no longer have any effect, and movement and range is affected as if the ships total endurance started from the half way point. (i.e. an endurance four ship, with one point left, would have 25% of its attack factors, 25% of its defence factors, 50% of its movement, and 50% of its range left.)

5.4 Planetary Combat

Planetary combat is handled in the same way as starship combat, except that ground units can only fight other ground units. Results are still handled the same.

In order for friendly ships to participate in a ground combat, either through invasion, fire support, or planetary bombardment, they must win a battle against any defences in the system, (Note, this is win, not destroy) or face no opposition.

Fire Support: Squadrons in orbit with the Fire Support device add 1.5 times their attack factor to the combat, and take a 0.75 modifier in battle with bases/squadrons in the battle before offering support in ground combat. A ship must either a) face no opposition in the system (no enemy, or enemy evading) or b) must have just won a battle against an enemy in order to win local control of the system.

Fighter Support : Small craft still available after all the ship damage results are calculate may be used to support Grunts attacking/ defending a colony. Small craft integral to a Grunt unit may be used to support Grunts attacking/defending a colony, and may be used to attack starships. In this case, all damage is applied to the Grunt unit.

Invasion: Ground troops can invade a system at any time, even if there are enemy ships and bases still active. In order to invade, the invasion fleet must win a battle against the defending forces. All damage taken to transports is taken by the ground forces on them i.e. if a squadron loses 25% of its endurance, than the forces aboard lose 25% of their endurance. Obviously, if there are no defending enemy forces, then the invasion is an automatic success. This happens rarely, however. Then, the invading forces must win a battle against defending ground troops. If they cannot win, then they do not invade i.e. they not have successfuly secured their beachhead.

Retreat: Ground forces can be removed from a system. If the system has enemy forces present, a battle must be fought and won by both the defending ground forces and space forces.

Abandon: Ground forces can be abandoned on a planet if the fleet around the planet has to flee quickly. These ground forces will continue to fight, but will surrender if/when their endurance drops below 25%. Ground forces abandoned, but with a graded General will fight till the bitter end.

Capturing Bases: Troops can be ordered to assault and take-over enemy bases. A base can hold ground troops with a capacity equal to its own endurance. In addition to any ground troops located with the base, a base will defend with a garrison unit with Attack, Defence and Endurance factors equal to its own divided by 2. (3 for endurance.)

Capturing Colonies: A coloy is captured when all defending Grunts are eliminated or have surrendered.

Damage to Colonies from Combat: During planetary combat, there is a chance that the colony being fought over may take damage. Total the attack factors from both sides in the battle. Plug into the formula: (total attack / 50 * 6 ) + size of colony. This is the number on a 2d6 that you must roll higher than.

Planetary Bombardment: A fleet can choose to bombard a colony. This does not require the Fire Support special device; you're just picking an area of the planet and flattening it. Take the size of the colony, subtract the total attack factors of the bombarding fleet, and that is the new size of the colony.

5.5 Fleet Morale

Fleet Morale is modified as follows:

• For the destruction/loss of every 500 credits worth of unit: +/- 1
• For the killing/loss of every graded officer: +/- list Mediocre, Trained: 1
  Veteran, Crack: 2
  Elite: 3
  
• For the capture/loss of colonies: +/- (size of colony)

6 Graded Admirals/Generals

Admirals and Generals command your forces in battle. A General may be assigned to any group of Grunt units guarding a colony, a base, or part of an assault force. An Admiral may be assigned to a Task Force or a Battlegroup.

For the purposes of modifiers, Battlegroup Admiral modifers apply for the Battlegroup. Task Force Admiral modifiers apply to Battlegroups that do not have commanding Admirals. However, the senior Admiral MUST be the Task Force Commander. Below that, you may assign Admirals at will within a Task Force command structure.

Officers are assigned to units in the same system as they are. If the officer is not in the same system, either the unit or the officer must be transported there. The officer can be carried aboard any FTL ship.

6.1 Getting New Ones

Your Imperial Capital lets you have four senior officers; every sector capital you have allows you two more. These officers may be shuffled about as required. Upon creation of a sector capital, and at the start of the game, create officers as if the entire previous staff had been killed. (8-) (In the case of a sector capital, only do two more.) You may chose whether they are admirals or generals. If your allotment should shrink (due to loss of a Capital), you do not get replacement officers until the number you presently have drops below your allotment level. (To a minimum of one; you always get one.)

Officers gain experience by surviving battles. Mediocre become Trained after three battles. Trained officers become Veteran officers after surviving five battles. Veterans become Crack after ten more. Crack becomes Elite after another fifteen. (Here we assume that mediocre officers can be taught, something that isn't true in the real world. Ah, well.)

6.2 Death of an Officer

Whenever a flag unit is damaged, roll a d6. You must roll the squadron's current endurance or below to have the officer survive. A officer always survives on a roll of one.

If the CO has been killed, a new CO is appointed and appears at that point. This replacement has a quality level of one less than the crew quality of your flag unit. (For added flavour, roll 1d6; on a one, the replacement is TWO levels lower, on a three, the replacement is the same crew quality, and on a six, the replacement is on level higher.)

6.3 Precedence

General officers have precedence. As they are created, they receive a number. If every two or more admirals/generals are present, the lowest number has precedence. Thus, in a combat, if two Admirals are present, the "senior" Admiral's bonuses are used for combat.

6.4 "Honor Harrington" Rule (Legendary Officers)

In every naval type book, when the chips are down, and the enemy is upon us, a commanding officer rise above and beyond the call of duty, and becomes the supreme officer of the war. Once a game, an Empire may declare the "Honor Harrington" rule upon death of an Admiral or General. The replacement Admiral/General is automatically an Elite officer, and can only be killed when the flag unit is destroyed i.e. do not roll every time the squadron takes damage. However, in order to use this rule, the crew quality of the flag unit must be Veteran or better, and the flag unit was destroyed while either a) losing a population colony of size 15 or more or b) losing units with a value of 30% of your fleet or more, or c) losing a capital, or d) losing a base worth 500 or more.

6.5 Know Thyself

As an optional rule; you don't know the quality of your General Officers until they first see battle.

7 Fog of War

This game is optimized for play by e-mail, so the Fog of War is a major component of the game. Here is a brief list of what you know (or, how you can find out information about your opponents.)

Diplomatic states of other Empires: All the time

Location of enemy colonies and bases: All the time

Location of enemy squadrons and garrisons: Through Bases Sensors (If they have gone FTL to/from the system)

Classes of enemy squadrons: Through the presence of ships in the system, or by Base Sensors

Actual capabilities of the enemy: Through Combat, Ship sensors or Spying (Note, once you fight a "class" in battle, you will always recognize it again. Of course, the class might change...)

Budget, Research Level of the Enemy, etc: Through Spying

Destination of Enemy Squadrons: Talk to the opposing warlord and hope he/she lets it slip out... (8-)

8 Tables

Political Table: (Roll 2d6 and add modifiers)

Economic Surge 2-3

Contribution/Breakthrough 4-5

No Results 6-10

Pirates 11

Recession/Depression 12-16

Separation 17-21

Coup 22+

Economic Surge: The economy grows under your benevolent hand. Multiply total economic output by 1.1

Contribution/Breakthrough: Either a) get a one time windfall of 10% of your current economic output or b) you advance one tech level. Advancing resets your research counter to zero. You can only make a tech level jump once a game. (You shouldn't depend on serendipity as a research tool! (8-) ) This result is randomly picked.

Pirates: Four destroyer class ships are raiding your shipping lines. (A: 3, D:2, M:6, E:3) This result can only take affect once, until the ships are destroyed. The colony being affected is randomly determined.

Recession/Depression: Your economy loses 10%; multiply total economic output by 0.9. If you get this result again, while in recession, you enter depression; multiply total economic output by 0.7. Depression is as worse as it can get i.e. this is treated as 'no result' if you are already in a depression.

Separation: One of your colony worlds (randomly picked) has decided to separate. It's base, and all units in the area become neutral. (A graded admiral's task force in the area will stay loyal.) The colony no longer supports you, and must be reconquered. This rule only applies if an empire has two or more colony worlds. If this isn't true, treat as a recession/depression result.

Coup: A graded admiral rebels! If any of your colonies have separated, then this colony becomes the home base for the rebelling graded admiral. Eventually, the admiral will attack your homeworld, and attempt to board and take your Imperial Capital.

Espionage Table: (Roll 1d6)

1 Current Tech Level, and how far from next level. (If above yours, get one special device from this level.)

2 The Budget from Last Month

3 Details on a ship design not yet seen by your Navy. (Randomly picked.)

4 Details of enemy ship strength from a world on a shared border (Randomly picked)

5 Current Alliances and/or other Diplomatic Information (Randomly determined)

6 Random choice.

Ship Size Table (For Reference)

1 Scout

2 Frigate

3 Destroyer

4 Light Cruiser

5 Heavy Cruiser

6 Battlecruiser

7 Battleship

8 Dreadnaught

9 Superdreadnaught

10+ Players get to pick their own names...

9 Integration with Full Thrust and Dirtside II

Using the one FT point equals sixty DSII points....

Ignore the combat section of the rules, and the construction rules. Build everything out of points, using the formula above. Multiply all economic outputs by 10 (so a size 20 colony produces 2000 FT points, as opposed to the 200 it would produce now, before any modifiers.) All percentages are the same.

Everything else should work, off the top of my head. Use More Thrust rules for invading planets and boarding combats can be fought either with FT rules or actually using floor plan mockups and DSII combat.

That's the rough idea of how it should integrate... I want to see if the economic system will stand up before I do any more work on this section.

10 Designer Notes

I suspect this section will be much fuller AFTER playtest. (8-) This game was designed to fill in that "middle" level between ship to ship combat, and the grand "spaceploitation" games where you can build colonies with billions of people in them over forty years of game time. It was also designed to be optimally played by e-mail; which is why the combat system is not very interactive, and why many of the rules seem setup for a referee to step in and keep everything fair. (E.g. diplomacy, fog of war, etc.) I'm certain that many of these rules would work in a head-to-head game with some rules tightening, and some common sense on the part of all the players.

One note about colony building; in this game, you're not building the standard "people" colonies, you're building industrial, exploit the resources as quick as you can because we're at war, colonies. The time scale is all wrong for people colonies. It would take almost thirty to forty MONTHLY turns before a people colony became established enough to achieve economic size one or two. This is also why there is such a limit on exploitation; beyond a certain point, you need people for a full economy; that's why colonies established during the game are limited to size five, while colonies before the game are size fifteen, twenty or even more.

The combat system seems rather unwieldy; large battles can involve a hell of a lot of dice. The original system had a simple comparison between total attack and defence; not much chance there, and the battles were too even. Because this is optimally played by e-mail, with a referee, and because die roller programs are rather easy to find, I didn't think it was too much of a penalty. (You can try it with the original combat system, and let me know what you think.)