Riker: Lasers?
Worf: Yes, sir.
Picard: Lasers can't even penetrate our navigation shields. Don't they know that?
Riker: Regulations do call for a yellow alert.
Picard: Mmm, a very old regulation. Well, make it so, Number One. And reduce speed, drop main shields as well.
Riker: May I ask why, sir?
Picard: In case we decide to surrender to them, Number One!
I love that sequence.
Most vessels in Fleet Captain have three kinds of weaponry. You can call these Primary, Secondary and Tertiary weapons if you'd like, but I tend to think of them as Torpedoes, Phasers and Lasers. Rename them as better suits your own sci-fi universe. If I was running a Traveller-themed game I'd call them Spinal Mount, Batteries and Turrets, for a Star Wars game I'd trade out Phasers for Blasters, etc.
These weapons are differentiated very simply.
Torpedoes are Forward Firing Only. Check out this figure.
The colored hexes represent where the red ship can target a foe with Torpedoes. Targets in the blue centerline are attacked at ONE DIE BETTER than you normally get when rolling an attack. So if you have a big battleship with d12 powered to weapons, break out that that d20! For targets in the purple regions, slightly off the centerline, you get to add a flat +1 to your attack roll. Plus you get the added benefit of being able to make an extra attack.
The other two weapons systems have 360 degree fields of fire.
Phasers use whatever die you've allocated to weapons. You get one, two or three vollies of Phaser fire per turn, depending on the size of your ship. If you have multiple targets in range each volley must each target a different ship, starting with the nearest enemy vessel, unless your captain executes an Alpha Strike special maneuver.
The range of Torpedoes and Lasers is equal to their die type. E.g. a Phaser powered to a d10 has a range of 10 hexes.
(If you like lots of fire across large boards, here's an optional rule: Each weapon's range band is based upon its die size. Die size drops after each band. That d10 Phaser attacks as a d10 at range 0 to 10, as a d8 at 11 to 20, as a d6 at 21-30 and as a d4 at 31 to 40.)
Lasers are primarily designed to shoot down enemy fighters and missiles, blast away debris, etc. Most ships get one laser attack per turn. Swarming fighters and similar targets are attacked at a d6, even if the ship has powered weapons only to a d4. Using a Laser for anti-ship purposes is allowed, but at d4-1 to a max range of 3.
So if you have a typical big ship with a single foe directly ahead at range 3 or less, you can make up to five attack rolls against the foe. This is why big ships try to keep escorts handy, to draw at least some of that fire.
Carriers, minelayers, missile ships and other specialty attack craft usually do not mount any Torpedoes.
The more I read, the more I'm loving this. Your movement post dispelled any doubt I had, and the weapons rules are plenty simple while still allowing for tactics.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of pushing for tactical advantage in a game where everyone is deliberately dumbassed appeals to me way more than the usual micromanagement of other tactical wargames. I can already imagine the adrenaline rush of almost accidentally getting a perfect round off. :D
I just started getting into the Honor Harrington books (yay, legal free downloads!), and while I don't think your system is a perfect match for them (mainly, because, let's face it -- if I want to wargame Honor Harrington, I'll just find some well-done Age of Sail hex-and-counter game and use counters from Star Fleet Battles instead of sailing ships and not need to actually change any of the mechanics at all), there's some ideas I think could work well, at least as optional rules. One is technological edge... it might be fun to have a concept of "the larger fleet with older weapons and systems vs. the smaller fleet with cutting-edge tech" as a scenario. The other is the "arbitrary and random stupid bureaucratic action table", where each side rolls at the beginning of a scenario to determine what kind of moronic handicap they're under due to the meddling interference of those idiots in the government, such as "New weapons contract", which requires you to use a specific weapon even if it's not remotely the best choice, or "We can't be identified", requiring you to try to keep your ships at an ineffective range. (Also, "Powerful person's idiot cousin", which means some of your ships are captained by someone not merely incompetent, but downright dangerous to his own side.) (building on this concept, you might also have an "improbable beneficial coincidence" table, with things like "double agent in their fleet" that gives you a tactical or attack bonus, maybe modeled as forcing someone to reroll an attack or the like.)
ReplyDeleteThis seems buggy: if his target was two hexes 'north' and two hexes east of him, he wouldn't be able to arrange for a straight (blue line) shot by turning alone - he'd actually have to move a hex.
ReplyDeleteGiven that there's no intervening objects, and in theory all the separates the two ships is empty space, that means that the only thing actually blocking the shot is the corner of an abstract het. So it seems kind of bizarre that physically moving the ship would be necessary - logically, I should be able to point myself at the target and take a straight shot at it, but due to an artifact of the game design (not an in world situation) this is impossible.
@Lizard: All wargames that claim to be realistic should have an arbitrary stupid bureaucratic action table.
ReplyDeleteThe only time the torpedo facing would matter is with a ship of the largest type with its largest die assigned to weapons fire. Under all other circumstances, a blue hex shot isn't any better than a purple hex shot, statistically speaking. There are some cases when you'd want the bigger die - rolling a d8 against a ship with exactly 8 damage left, for example - but equally, if you're firing against a ship with exactly 2 damage left you'd want them to be in the purple hex, and blue hex would actually be worse. That seems like a flaw.
bombshelter13, I think I follow your complaint. Isn't that endemic to all hex-based games with limited fields of fire?
ReplyDelete"The only time the torpedo facing would matter is with a ship of the largest type with its largest die assigned to weapons fire."
ReplyDeleteI disagree. Torpedo launch is in addition to phaser fire. Since normally phaser fire is at the nearest targets, pointing your vessel at a desirable but more distant target is an useful move.
"There are some cases when you'd want the bigger die - rolling a d8 against a ship with exactly 8 damage left, for example - but equally, if you're firing against a ship with exactly 2 damage left you'd want them to be in the purple hex, and blue hex would actually be worse."
I'm not sure I understand this criticism. I have powered weapons to a d10. Are you saying that saying I should prefer the 2-11 (d10+1) in purple to the d12 in blue? I see the flaw in that I can roll a 1 on the centerline but not off center, but I also get the additional range and a better chance of overcoming a high shields roll.
I'll think about it some more.
Other variations off the top of my head:
Centerline: up one die size, plus one to roll
Centerline: better of two rolls
re:Hex lines and aiming.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this is going to be an artifact of almost any system that uses a hex or grid of any sort. Personally, I find putting up with this -- whether in wargames or RPGs like D&D or GURPS -- to be better than doing things like laying down string or measuring inches or trying to place a "template" over some figures and arguing about how if your Chaos Lord Demon Bloodgutter Of Zuul's Trident Of Eviscerating Bloody Pain sticks out 1/8th of an inch too far he's subject to the fireball spell, yadda yadda. Lots of different systems exist because no system can satisfy all possible individual's tastes in simulation, playability, verisimilitude, etc. If, in playtest, this ends up evolving into very cheesy tactics and exploits, then I think Jeff might want to rethink it, but, as of now, the "unrealism" of it seems trivial compared to the complexities of fixing it (using a cross-hex 'line' method, going to a cone shaped firing arc)
(Speaking of firing arcs, by all means keep them as you note for the standard game, but I think some optional rules for side and rear facings would be fun, because I'm a big fan of "Starboard batteries! Fire!" kind of stuff, but at the same time, I recognize it's an overcomplicated fiddly bit in a game designed to avoid same.)
PS:I designed a starship combat system for Mongoose's WARS RPG, which they've since used and adapted to B5 and Traveller, that involved Orders which could be issued by captains to perform all sorts of cool manuevers and counter-manuevers, all with very dramatic-sounding names to evoke a grand space opera feel... things like "Get those engines back on line!" or "I just need one more shot!" or "Target their primary reactor!" (Exclamation points not optional!). If you're interested, I probably have my original draft here somewhere... the raw mechanics would be useless to you, I suspect, but you might find ideas there worth stealing, or not. :)
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ReplyDelete@Jeff: What I mean is, the d12 and the d10+1 both average the same result. If you rolled a d12 and I rolled a d10+1, it would be even money who rolled higher. Neither is better overall. I would think you'd want the blue-hex die to be better than the purple - as it is, it's only better when it's the d20, which only happens on a large ship with d12 powered to weapons.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, the different rolls are better in different circumstances. Say for example I need to roll a 6 or higher to penetrate my target's shields. My chance of rolling a 6 or higher on a d10+1 is 0.6, but on a d12 it's only 0.583. If I needed to roll a 9 or higher, I'm better off with the d12, with a 0.25 chance, as opposed to only 0.2 on the d10+1. So in some circumstances the blue die is better, but in other circumstances the purple die is actually better, which seems like a bug.
I haven't read your latest post about the attack chart yet, so there might be some reason I don't know about that greater variability is always the better choice.
Looking at my first comment, I misspoke. I was trying to point out this statistical bug, and crazy words came out. The second comment is what I was trying to get at.
ReplyDeleteOff topic perhaps but I remember that episode of TNG every time I hear the ol' Star Wars Vs. Star Trek arguments.
ReplyDelete"A Star Destroyer has hundreds and hundreds of laser and turbo laser cannons to fire at the Enterprise."
"My god! Hundreds of straws with spitballs of wadded up notebook paper are firing on my Abrams tank. However shall we survive?"
Sorry, just a bit of nerdage there. Carry on. ;)
I think the laser vs. phaser thing is just flavor. After all, what matters is power output. If the Enterprise were fired upon by a laser with power output of a thousand times an Enterprise phaser, I wonder if the distinction matters.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I suppose you could just say that the Enterprise shield technology was just really good at disrupting lasers, and phasers were developed to counter that shield tech. The STar Destroyer clearly has some kind of shield technology, but they never developed laser-dispersing shields or phaser tech.
After all, the Star Destroyer was built a long time ago ...