Starship Combat

## Movement

Each battlefield is divided into 5-10 zones. Every turn the ship may move one zone with a successful Piloting roll and one additional zone for each raise. When you reach the edge of the zoned map you may choose to escape the encounter beyond weapons range.

Divide Top Speed and Weapon Ranges by 25, and Acceleration by 10. Climb adds to Piloting rolls when performing maneuvers. Most battles should begin with ships moving at “cruising speed,” or half their Top Speed.Ships can attack with any and all weapons if they are higher in initiative ranking.

 A character may add +2 to his roll if he or his vehicle has a higher top speed than the fastest opponent; or +4 if his top speed is twice as fast as his opponent’s.

## **Advantage**

A character with a higher card than a foe is said to have “**advantage**” over him. This is abstract so it may mean the character is ahead, behind, or even parallel to his foe. The important thing is that he has somehow maneuvered in such a way as to gain a superior position, and can bring his weapons to bear (if he has any and is inclined to use them).

The defensive system that any starship has is **drunkwalking**: when at any alert state higher than peacetime cruising, every military starship engages in a pseudo-random “drunk walk” of vector changes around its station-keeping point or base course. This ensures that the starship is almost impossible to achieve a firing solution upon from a distance, since its movement since your most current observation of the target is unknown, and further increases the difficulty of achieving a solid firing solution in close.

Of course, this depends greatly upon the quality of your drunkwalk algorithms and that they have been kept secure from the opposing force, which again underscores the importance of information warfare in the modern battlespace. A starship whose base course is identifiable and whose drunkwalk algorithms are known is a sitting duck even in the outer engagement envelope!

## Attacking

Since distance is abstract, the value of their Action Card determines any penalties to the roll due to Range and whether or not a melee attack is possible (in chases where it’s even a possibility). A character must have Advantage (an equal or higher Action Card) than his target to attack it. A character with an Action Card of 7, for example, can only attack targets with Action Cards of 7 or lower. A target with a higher card has outmaneuvered the attacker this round and cannot be targeted.

**Reaction Fire** is a new weapon special ability for use only with the Chase Rules. It reflects the quick fire, long range, speed, or other quality of the weapon that allows it to be fired even when the ship it’s mounted on isn’t in the most desirable position. The weapon may be fired even if its vessel doesn’t have Advantage. The target must have an Action Card of 10 or lower, and the gunner suffers a –2 penalty.

## Magnetic Accelerator Cannons

75mm Ferrous Round Point Defense Turret Ammunition

120mm Ferrous Core Depleted Uranium Round

140mm Ferrous Core Tungsten Shell Spinal Mount Ship-Cracker Round

## Torpedoes

Standard Multi-Stage Nuclear Fragmentation Torpedoes

Kirkland Mines (Anti-Torpedo Missiles)

EMP

Kinetic Warhead

Pumped Laser

Disassembler Cloud (Grey Paste, not Goo)

Nuclear Shaped Charge Heavy Torpedoes

Relativistic

## Lasers

100 megawatt 500nm Green Light Point Defense Laser

500 megawatt 200nm Ultraviolet Laser Turret

1 gigawatt 10nm Soft X-Ray Laser Cannon

1 terawatt 1nm Hard X-Ray Mirror Array

## Particle Accelerators

Neutral Particle Beam

Plasma Projection

Neutrino Gun

## Exotic

Nova Bomb

Cobalt Bomb

Genophage

Basilisk Pattern

## Starship Classification

### Drone

Names for this type of craft include Starfury, Viper, Hammerhead, Wasp, and so on.

### Shuttle

Names for this type of craft include Sloop, Runabout, and Schooner.

### Frigate

Multi-purpose battleship designed for use as both in-system interdiction craft and long range scouting. Often deployed as the primary offensive craft in large scale engagements as the front line ship of the fleet.

Names for this type of craft include Corvette, Cog, Pentaconter, and Gunboat.

### Cruiser

These ships consist of the engines, a small habitat module, and a large swath of torpedo bays. In battle their one purpose is to enter combat and fire their torpedoes. Depending on naval doctrine they may fire all torpedoes upon arrival or in waves as dictating by their senior officer.

Names for this type of craft include Cruiser, Caravel, Trireme, and Missillier.

### Drone Command

Names for this type of craft include Carrier, Carrack, Liburna, Battlestar, and Hive Ship.