• Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Topic: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

MadSeason and I played through an enjoyable campaign using a slightly modified version of the Simplest Campaign System, but being the greedy punks we are, we wanted more! The System from the books is designed, it seems, to maintain parity between the opponents and simply provide a generator for scenarios. For us, it was just a bit too abstract, and lacked the mechanics to make for a real "campaign". So, because we are motivated geeks, we created our own campaign system  smile  We tried to keep the simplicity and form follows function mentality of Starmada in mind when creating it. It is a lot more complicated than the Simplest Campaign System, but it runs 6 typed pages...just slightly shorter than say, VBAM. It is not a complete, in depth system with exploration, intel, espionage, and all that good stuff. In the end, it boils down to being pretty much a scenario generator for Starmada, but hopefully one that will provide some strategic decision points as well, and it does remove the "balancing" mechanic and makes it possible to build larger forces, making the likelyhood of larger battles greater (we found that in our last campaign it was tough to field forces up to the allowed points in the scenario after the first few battles). I'm pretty sure we clipped a few ideas from the forums, so if anybody sees something they threw out at one time, please don't think we are stealing your idea, we are just borrowing it. MadSeason also worked out a nifty Vassal Mod to act as a campaign tracker/strategic map to go along with the rules. He and I are getting ready to start a campaign to playtest and we will post up any changes we make. The rules have been through about 5 drafts at this point, and there is no doubt something(s) will crop up that needs fixing. I figured I would post up the rules because they were at the point that I felt we could share them and get some feedback, but they might not be as close to "done" as we think!
Anyway, enough babbling, here's the rules.

Pre-Campaign Considerations
     
     Prior to the initial Campaign set-up there are several basic decisions the players must make. Both players should decide on what optional rules, if any, will be allowed in the Campaign. In addition the players should determine whether or not they will set any restrictions which must be followed during the course of the campaign. These restrictions can anything the players choose, such as limits on weapon range, Shields or Screens, inclusion of fighters, Tech Levels, whatever they can agree on. All of the options and rules “in-play” should be written down and saved in the Campaign Log so that both players can refer back to them at any time.

     Players also need to decide whether the campaign will be played (at least started) with pre-generated ship designs or with the option of creating and deploying new designs at any time in the game. If it is decided to play through the Campaign with pre-designed ships, a player may only purchase replacement ships from that list of designs until after the third turn of the Campaign. After the third turn has been completed players may choose to add one new design to their list each turn during the Repair, Refit and Purchase Phase. If a player chooses not to add a design to his Empire at that time, the opportunity to add a design is lost; a player may only add one design each turn.

Map Set Up:

      The campaign strategic map consists of 25 hexes, each one representing a star system. The opposing forces begin the game in possession of one system each, located in opposing sides of the map. These starting systems each consist of 1 Colony and 1 Starbase, and are the place that each side must deploy their initial fleet. The Starting System is considered an Empire's “Prime” system. An Empire's “Prime” Colony begins the game as a Class-5 Colony (see the section on Colonies for details). The Empire's first Starbase is built to the minimum standards outlined later, and may have a combat rating no greater than 250 (although it may be refit as per the rules). These facilities are considered “free” and do not require any expenditure of Economic Points.

Initial Fleet Set-Up:

     At the beginning of the game each Empire has 2000 Economic Points available for the purchase of its initial Fleet. This initial force begins the game in the Empire's Prime System, and may be later organized into any number of Task Forces. An Empire may not “bank” any more than 100 EPs of these funds for future use. If more than 100 EPs remain following the purchase of its Fleet, the Empire's bank will be set at 100 Economic Points.

     While the initial Task Force of the campaign is limited to 2000 EPs in “size”, there is no limit on how many Combat Points an Empire may place into a single task Force. An Empire may decide that it wants one massive fleet rolling across space or many smaller formations. Scenarios generated at the beginning of a Tactical Combat Phase will limit the amount of points an Empire may employ from that Task Force however, so a huge fleet may have more options when engaging in combat, but it might not be able to bring its full power to bear all at once.

Acquiring New Systems:

     Each time a fleet enters an unoccupied system hex, it becomes the possession of the fleet's Empire. There is no benefit from merely possessing a star system, but once it is control an Empire may invest in improvements that  provide several advantages. Systems already occupied by an opponent must be conquered before they become part of the invading Empire. Conquering systems is covered later.

Benefits of Controlling Systems:

     There are several reasons to control a star system. First, colonies provide the raw materials that maintain the fighting strength of an Empire's fleets. For each colony that an Empire controls, that Empire receives 1 six-sided die when rolling for Economic Points. EPs are covered in greater details in the “Income” and “Repair, Refit, Purchase” sections. The second benefit of controlling a star system is they are required to repair damaged warships. To complete repairs of a warship between battles, that ship must be in a star system with an Outpost or Starbase. Fleet support bases are fully covered later. Finally, the only place that new ships may be placed when they are purchased/built is in a system with a Starbase.

     Oh, and the Empire that controls a star system gets to name it!

Star System Improvements:

     As already mentioned there are several facilities that can be placed in a single star system. As you might have guessed, there is a cost associated with these facilities. The least expensive facility that may be placed into a star system is an Outpost. There is no set cost for an Outpost, but the controlling Empire pays for it from its available EPs. Whether each Outpost is a unique design, or a standard model used in every system an Empire controls doesn't matter, but each has minimum criteria that must be met. An Outpost must have at least 500 SUs dedicated to Cargo, and 500 SUs for Repair. Any other capabilities of an Outpost beyond these Auxiliary Services (such as defenses or weaponry) are up to the designer's whims, but keep in mind that they will increase the cost to purchase. Yes I know that this means that it is possible to place an Outpost in a system at no cost, but it would also mean that they would be vulnerable, as will be discussed later.

     In addition to Outposts, an Empire may elect to construct a Starbase within a system. Starbases must have a Minimum of 1000 SUs of Cargo space, 500 SUs of Repair, and 100 SUs of Hospital. In addition, Starbases are always considered important facilities and must have at least Level 3 Shields. Starbases are much more expensive than an Outpost with the cost in EPs being the Starbase's Combat Rating plus Ten-times its Hull Rating (Cost=CR+(Hull*10)).  Starbases and Outposts may only participate in tactical scenarios if there are no other vessels to defend the system (this will always be considered a Fleet Action Scenario), or if a planet is randomly selected for scenario terrain.

     The final and most expensive, and probably the most important, permanent facility is the Colony. Colonies are treated very differently from Outposts and Starbases in that they have no Starmada statistics. Instead, Colonies have just one stat of importance: Class. Class is an abstraction used to represent the size and/or toughness of a Colony, and the higher the class number, the more resilient the colony is to damage or invasion (covered later). Class has no effect on the amount EPs a Colony grants its controlling Empire, but a colony that is tougher can survive to provide the EPs. To place a colony in a system that is under an Empire's control, that Empire must spend a number of EPs equal to 100-times the intended Colonies Class. Thus, a Class-3 Colony would require 300 EPs to place. To improve a Colony's class after it has been placed the owning Empire must spend 25-Times the new Class plus 50-times the difference in Class. For example, to increase the Class-3 Colony to Class-4 would require 150 EPs ((4*25)+(1*50)), while taking a colony from Class-3 to Class-5 would cost 225 EPs ((5*25)+(2*50)). A Colony may be reduced in Class by invasion or bombardment, which are covered later, and if it is reduced to Class-0 it is considered destroyed. If an Empire destroys an opponent's Colony and gains control of a star system, that Empire still uses the same procedure to purchase its own colony in the system if it wishes to have one.

Planets in the Campaign
    When an Empire decides to place a facility in a star system, that Empire must also determine the size of the Planet that the facility will orbit (or reside on in the case of Colonies). The player purchasing the facility rolls 1D6, re-rolling a result of 6, with the final result becoming the Size of the Planet for the remainder of the Campaign. The controlling Empire may name the Planet and the name and size are recorded on the campaign map. The size of the Planet does not affect the maximum Class of a Colony, but does limit the amount of orbital structures that may be placed around it. Any scenario that includes the facility placed around or on the Planet automatically uses the Planet as the default terrain.

Conquering Star Systems:

     When an Empire attacks a star system controlled by another Empire, it may just try to do as much damage as possible, or it may try to gain control of the system. If the system contains no colony, the attacker must simply destroy or chase away all of the defending forces to gain control of the system. This would include any Outposts or Starbases present. If the system does have a colony located in it, things get a bit more interesting. As we have already discussed, a Colony has a Class Rating that is an estimation of the toughness or size of the Colony. If an attacker faces no defending fleet, it may attempt to reduce a Colony's Class by engaging in a Bombardment Scenario. The procedure for a Bombardment Scenario is as follows: The Attacking Commander chooses the ships that will participate in the Bombardment mission (these ships must be chosen from the vessels already in the system), and also determines the order in which the ships will fire. Each ship then takes its turn firing at the Colony. The ship attacks the Colony with each of its weapons that have a minimum RNG of 6 and a minimum DMG of 2, rolling to hit with each weapon as if at Long Range. IMP is ignored for any hits scored, but each hit is considered to do damage equal to the weapon's DMG rating. When the Colony has taken a number of Damage Points equal to its current Class rating, its Class is reduced by 1 point.

     The Colony also gets to shoot back at the bombarding vessel, rolling a number of dice equal to its Class (before any reduction from the bombardment) with any rolls of 5 or 6 being hits. These hits have an IMP of 1 and a DMG of 1. Following this, the next ship begins its firing pass as the first, with the Colony's Class reduced as appropriate from whatever damage was taken prior. The Bombardment Continues until all of the ships designated by the attacking commander have attacked once, at which point the scenario ends.

     However, Colony may only be reduced to Class-1 by bombardment. To completely capture or destroy a Colony, an attacker must land troops on the planet's surface. This may be done following a Bombardment Scenario, but it may not be done during one. As with the Bombardment Scenario, the attacking commander chooses the ships that will be used to conduct the Assault Scenario, and the order in which they will make their landing attempts. If the assault ships are attempting to land troops by Teleporters, they make the attempt as if boarding a target 3 hexes away. Each Teleporter may land 1 Troop or Marine from the ship per success. The Colony gets to shoot at the assaulting ships just as in the Bombardment Scenario, but cannot stop Teleported troops/marines. When the number of Troops and or Marines that successfully reach the Colony total 10 times the Colony's Class, the Colony is reduced by 1 Class. When the Colony's Class number is reduced, the Troops/Marines that were required to lower the number are removed from the game (consider them battle casualties).

     If using assault shuttles to land the troops the defending player may choose to turn the Colony's defenses against them instead of firing on the transporting starships. The Colony may roll a number of dice equaling its current Class against each shuttle attempting to land from a single starship, hitting on a 5 or 6, and having an IMP and DMG of 1. Given that each shuttle can carry a large number of Troops, it is possible that they can land decisive numbers despite the possible attrition.

     It is also possible that a starship equipped with Atmospheric Capability may land to deposit its Troops or Marines directly. If this is the case, the Colony may roll a number of dice equal to its current Class to attack the assault vessel, hitting on a 3 or better, with each hit having an IMP and DMG of 1.

     No matter the method to land the Troops, the Colony's Class is updated after each Starship has made its attempt to put boots on the ground. The Assault Scenario ends when all of the available Troops/Marines that can do so have attempted to land, or the Colony is reduced to Class-0, at which point it is considered destroyed. Troops and Marines that have successfully landed on a Colony, but do not have the strength to reduce the Colony to Class-0 remain on the Colony unless they are removed by their controlling Empire. The Empire that controls the besieged Colony may also land its own Troops or Marines (treated as an Assault Scenario, but landing attempts are automatically successful), treating the ensuing combat as a boarding action.

Initiative:

     At the beginning of each Strategic Turn, both Empires roll 1D6 for Initiative. The high roll has gained Initiative for the Turn and is designated the “Active” player. Re-roll all ties. The Active Player moves one Task Force (see Strategic Movement Phase below for options), and any resulting scenarios are played out. The Player that lost the Initiative roll then gets to make one Strategic Move. The two Empires alternate moving task Forces until there are no more possible moves. An Empire is not compelled to move any of its Task Forces, and may choose to leave any or all of them where they are. If an Empire chooses not to move any Task Forces when it is its turn, that Empire simply declares that it is “Passing”, and the opposing Empire may then move a Task Force. If both Empires “pass” on the moves consecutively, the Strategic Movement Phase is considered concluded. If one Empire has moved all of its available task Forces and the other still has more than one that has not moved, the Empire with the remaining Task Forces moves them one at a time until they are all moved, or passes to end the Phase.

Strategic Movement Phase:

     After determining initiative for the current turn, Empires have several actions they may choose from. The Empire that gained the initiative for turn may move one of its Task Forces one Strategic Hex. Only one Task Force may reside in a star system at a time. If an Empire moves a Task Force into a hex that already contains another one of its Task Forces, the two are combined into a single new Task Force. If an Empire combines two Task Forces in such a way, the newly resulting Task Force is considered to have used its Strategic Move for the current Turn.

If a Task Force moves into a Strategic Hex already occupied by a Task Force (or an Outpost or Starbase) from the opposing Empire, a Tactical Combat Phase is initiated. A Tactical Combat Phase is a single Starmada Scenario (determining the scenario is covered in a later section).  If a Task Force enters a Star System containing another Empire's Colony but no ships or stations, it may choose to engage in a Bombardment or Assault Scenario. If an attacking Task Force is defeated, the surviving/escaping ships are returned to the Star System that they originated the attack from. This includes all of the ships of the Task Force, and not just those that may have been selected to participate in the scenario.

    An Empire may also choose to split one Task Force into two new Forces. One of the resulting Task Forces must move to an adjacent hex (this hex may be controlled by the Opposing Empire, which triggers a Tactical Combat Phase) while the other remains in the hex that the original Task Force was located in. The Task Force that remains is not considered to have moved during the Turn.

Tactical Combat Phase:

     When the Task Forces of opposing Empires meet in a Star System they enter a Tactical Combat Phase. A Tactical Combat Phase begins with the Active Player rolling 1D6; on a roll of “6” the Active Player selects a scenario, otherwise the player rolls another 1D6 and consults the following table:
1 Breakout
2 Fleet Action
3 Hit & Run
4 The Patrol
5 To the Rescue
6 The Trap
See the Core Rulebook for the details of each scenario.

     The default map size for most scenarios will be Medium. The exception is the Fleet Action scenario, which will use the Large map.

     The Defending Player next rolls to determine the Terrain (if any) present for the scenario by rolling 1d6; on a result of 1-4 there is no terrain, and on a 5 or 6 roll another 1D6 and consult the following table:

1 None
2 Asteroids (1D6x1D6)
3 Black Hole (Roll 1D6 for size, 6=No Terrain)
4 Dust Cloud
5 Nebula
6 Planet (Roll 1D6 for Size, 6=No Terrain)

     Following the terrain roll, but prior to the placement of terrain (if any), the Defending Player may choose to decline the battle. If the Defending Player chooses to do so, all of its ships present in the contested Strategic Hex must be moved to an adjacent hex that is not under the control of the attacking Empire. This is considered the Strategic Move for the Task Force(s) doing so for the current turn.

     For placing single objects such as planets and black holes, the defending player chooses the placement on the board prior to placement of ships. For multiple objects such as asteroids, divide the total number by 2, with each player then taking turns to place the objects on the board. In cases where there are an odd number of objects the defending player gets to place the extra one. Terrain cannot be placed in such a way that the terrain (or any part of it) is inside the other forces deployment zone. If this cannot be avoided, the center of the terrain feature must be placed at least 3 hexes from the opponent's deployment zone.

See the Core Rules for the effects of terrain.

     Terrain generated for a scenario does not become the “default” terrain for that star system. Strategic Hexes are considered large enough to encompass numerous types of terrain.

     Assuming the Defending Player has accepted the scenario, the battle is played with victory conditions as determined by the scenario. If the Attacking Player wins the scenario, that Empire may chose to keep its forces in the system, or they may move to an adjacent hex not controlled by the enemy. Whichever Empire loses the scenario must remove any remaining/surviving ships to an adjacent hex not controlled by the enemy. This includes all of the ships that were part of the Task Force present in the system and not just those deployed for the Tactical Scenario. A Task Force from the Attacking Empire is considered to have moved for the Turn while the Task Force of the Defending Empire may still be moved if the controlling Empire chooses to do so. If an Empire cannot move its ships to a hex not controlled by the enemy, they are considered destroyed at the conclusion of the scenario.

Outposts and Starbases do not leave the star systems in which they are placed. If an attacking Empire has defeated a defending Task Force and the system contains an Outpost, Starbase or Colony, the Attacking Empire may choose to immediately engage the facility. If the attack is launched against an Outpost or Starbase, the scenario is automatically considered a “Fleet Action”. If an attack is made on a Colony, a Bombardment or Assault Scenario may be chosen. An Attacking Empire that has successfully defeated a defending Task Force my also choose to remain in a star system containing one or more enemy facilities without attacking, but an Empire cannot claim any star system with an enemy Starbase, Outpost, or Colony still present.  If a Defending Player only has a Starbase or an Outpost in a system that is attacked, that Empire must employ the facility against the attack, even if the facility's cost exceeds the limitations of the scenario. If the Defender has only an Outpost or Starbase to defend a system the scenario is automatically considered a “Fleet Action”.

Outposts and Starbases in Tactical Combat Scenarios

    As mentioned in the Strategic Movement section there are times when facilities will be part of a tactical scenario. For the sake of simplicity Outposts, Starbases, and any other “Space Station” or “Satellite” units may only be selected by the Defending Empire if there is a planet in the scenario set-up. In the event that an attacking Task Force defeats the defending Task Force and then continues to attack the facility(ies) present, a planet is automatically placed as the terrain for the scenario. If a planet is randomly selected as the scenario terrain, defensive satellites/stations and other facilities may be selected. As long as the defender still has other assets to put in play it is not mandatory to use an Outpost or Starbase as a star system may have several planets that actions could occur around. Only when there are no other forces available must the facility be “put in play”.

    If a facility or space station of any type is selected to participate in a scenario it must be placed “in orbit” around the planet. To be “in orbit” the facility or station must be placed in a hex immediately adjacent to the planet, and the station moves one hex per turn around the planet, in a counter-clockwise fashion. A player may place more than one facility or station in orbit around a given planet, but is limited in placement to the hexes immediately adjacent to the planet.

Income Phase:

     Once both Empires have moved all of their Task Forces, and concluded the combat activities that might have occurred, the Turn is moved to the Income Phase. The base income of an Empire comes from its Colonies. For each Colony controlled an Empire rolls 1D6 (so an Empire with 3 Colonies would roll 3D6). The total of the rolls is multiplied by 50, with the final number becoming the Empire's base Economic Points for the Turn. To this is added 1 EP for every Victory Point gained by the Empire during the Turn. For example, an Empire with 3 colonies gets a total of 9 on its die rolls for a base income of 450 EPs, and to this adds 854 for the victory points it gained during the Turn's Combat for a total of 1304 Economic Points added to its Bank.

Repair, Refit, & Purchase Phase:

     Following the Income phase is the Repair, Refit, & Purchase Phase. This phase can be considered like the Strategic End-Phase in many ways, and it is the time when the Empires spend their Economic Points. Any ships that have been damaged and are located in a system with a friendly Outpost or Starbase automatically have all of their Engine, Shield and Weapon Damage repaired. In addition, carriers regain their full compliment of Fighters, Strikers, Seekers or shuttlecraft.  Repairing each point of Hull Damage requires a number of Economic Points equal to the damaged ship's Combat Rating divided by its Hull size, rounded up.

     Empires may also use their Economic Points to alter or upgrade any ship in a star system containing a friendly Outpost or Starbase. To refit a ship into a new variant, change weapons, or change Shield or Engine ratings the player creates a new ship card representing the refit vessel. The Hull must remain the same, and any Hull damage to the original vessel must be repaired as normal. The Empire then pays a number of EPs equal to the difference between the old and new Combat Ratings rather than paying the full cost of the vessel. If the refit vessel has a lower CR, the Empire does not receive additional EPs for its bank.  Outposts and Starbases are refit exactly like ships.

     Empires also purchase new vessels, and/or facilities during this phase. Purchasing a new ship requires a number or EPs equal to the ship's Combat Rating. Newly purchased ships must be placed in a star system with a friendly Starbase, and can be assigned to a Task Force at this time, or left independent. See the “System Improvements” section for the details on the cost of Outposts and Starbases.  Finally, an Empire may choose to place a Colony in any system it controls, or upgrade the Class of an existing Colony. See the “System Improvements” Section for the costs to place and upgrade a Colony. A single star system can only have one Colony placed in it.  An Empire gains no benefit (other than redundancy) from having multiple Outposts or Starbases in a system.

     Empires may choose to purchase “defensive platforms”, “orbital fortresses”, “DefSats” or whatever they want to call Bases. These units must be deployed like ships, in a system containing a Starbase. Unlike starships, these facilities cannot be moved to another star system, though they may be used in a scenario that takes place within the system they are deployed in. While they may be formidable, they do not give an empire any Strategic benefit if they do not meet the basic requirements of either an Outpost or Starbase.

     If playing the Campaign with “fixed” lists of ship designs, players may add designs to their list during this Phase. Empires may not add designs until after the completion of the third turn of the Campaign. Empires may not save up designs until later turns to introduce several at once; only one design may be added each turn. It does not cost anything for an Empire to add designs to their list, and ships may be purchased (as normal) the same turn that they are introduced.

     An Empire does not need to spend all (or any for that matter) of its EPs during any one Turn and instead can “Bank” them for future use.  After both Empires have completed this phase, they move to the next turn and roll for initiative…</r>

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Here is a screen shot of the Vassal Mod that goes with the campaign rules...

  • Registered: 2009-08-03
  • Posts: 245

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Ummm...  wow.  I'm extremely surprised that nobody else has replied to this yet.  Thus, without further ado:

Blacklancer99 wrote:

Players also need to decide whether the campaign will be played (at least started) with pre-generated ship designs or with the option of creating and deploying new designs at any time in the game. If it is decided to play through the Campaign with pre-designed ships, a player may only purchase replacement ships from that list of designs until after the third turn of the Campaign. After the third turn has been completed players may choose to add one new design to their list each turn during the Repair, Refit and Purchase Phase. If a player chooses not to add a design to his Empire at that time, the opportunity to add a design is lost; a player may only add one design each turn.

Any thoughts on creating Fighter and Weapon design rules along similar lines?  For example, most of the prepublished fleets only use a few kinds of weapon with the same stats across all ship designs, but we find that (during the process of building a ship for a particular task), designing weapons specifically for the set of circumstances the ship is to operate under yields superior results at the cost of verisimilitude.  Likewise, pre-published fleets usually only have two types of fighters (an interceptor and a bomber), which seems fairly reasonable when trying to build a supply and logistics chain for a fleet, but is not enforced/supported by the rules.  I guess what I'm looking at implementation-wise is that you start with the fighters and weapons present in your prebuilt fleet, and then phase out a weapon or fighter to add a new one at a rate of one fighter or weapon per turn.  Thoughts?
Also, do starbase and outpost designs count against your ship design totals?

The campaign strategic map consists of 25 hexes, each one representing a star system.

Hmm...  I might have to use Battlefleet Gothic-style sector maps (just linked nodes rather than hexes).  Makes some systems much more valuable strategically as chokepoints (or just because they have links to lots of places).  Other than that, setup looks good.

Acquisition, Control, and Upgrades look pretty solid.

Only question about Conquering section is the location/rules for Atmospheric Capable.  Looks quick and painless other than that (though I think I'd rather see/build/use rules for MoO3-style planetary defense systems that vary statistically; ie, Beam Bases fire direct fire weapons, Missile Bases launch strikers/seekers, and Fighter Bases launch fighter flights.  I suppose this would be easily enough done by building such bases as speed 0 orbital defenses at a discount and ignoring the defensive fire rules).

Strategic movement and such look decent, but I'd rather use a variant of your task force rules where a task force is a group of ships designated by the player which move together.  Finer degree of control in exchange for more paperwork.

Tactical Combat:  Here I had some issues...  I'm not a big fan of randomly rolled scenarios in campaigns.  I'd rather the attacking player secretly choose a plan of attack, the defender secretly choose a plan of defense, look up the intersection of attack and defense strategy columns on a table (or not), and have that dictate the disposition of forces.  Also not a fan of the point limits imposed by the scenarios...  if I want to bring out the Big Hammer and I get stuck fighting the enemy reconnaissance picket, so be it.

I do like that you fixed terrain frequency from your previous version, though.  You could change the wording to account for the specific case of a single terrain pieces (planet, black hole, etc) under the general case of "given an odd number of terrain pieces of a certain type, the defender chooses placement," but that's just my program-sense trying to get rid of an extra 'if' statement tongue.

Also, what happens if a ship hyperspaces out of combat under the four possible outcomes (attacking and won, attacking and lost, defending and won, defending and lost)?

Is it possible to build mobile economic centers (starbases and outposts, I guess) to model Homeworld-style 'harvest and run' nomads?  I'll probably end up adapting this anyways (shortly), but I'm curious what your thoughts on the notion are.

Income: A couple of thoughts here...
1) Points for victory instead of defeat?  That runs counter to the methods of the SCS and makes the game more 'swingy'; a decisive tactical victory by either side not only destroys a good part of the enemy fleet, but lets you beat them economically, too, so you win twice per victory and lose twice per defeat (rather than winning 1/2 times per victory and losing 1/2 times per defeat in the SCS).  Any particular reason you went with this?  I'm thinking about trying 'victory has no effect on income other than letting you gain more systems.'
2) Do higher-grade colonies produce more resources for your greater investment, or are they just harder to crack?
3) Personal modding opinion: In my long quest for a Homeworld-style 'Mobile Nomads vs. Static Empire' campaign system, I've come to the conclusion that I'll probably use limited natural resources per system, with ships having Mining auxiliary capacity to harvest/refine/build from it (or maybe just make Repair or Cargo multi-purpose...  maybe Cargo for mining and Repair for shipbuilding).  So mining lets you extract a number of EPs from the system the ship is currently in equal to its mining capacity per income phase, until the system is out of 'minerals'.  For a nomad fleet, build mobile ships with Repair and Cargo capacities and you're set.  For a static/colonial civilization, build high-hull 0-engine 'colony' ships and leave them in system.

Repair and Refit:
I like your refit rules; I hadn't seen any for Starmada yet, but those should do the trick nicely.
I also like the 'everything but hull gets repaired' rule - minimized bookkeeping.  One minor query, though - do other expendables (ammo, mines, and marines, mainly - can't think of any others) get restored as well?
Where are the rules for Bases from?  Is there anything special about them, or are they just engines-0 ships?
Are there any limits to the number of EPs that can be banked after the first turn?

Finally, are there any victory conditions, or is it just play-to-surrender?

Awesome work, though.  I may have some fun with this (tweaked a little) once my brother gets out of school.

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Any thoughts on creating Fighter and Weapon design rules along similar lines? For example, most of the prepublished fleets only use a few kinds of weapon with the same stats across all ship designs, but we find that (during the process of building a ship for a particular task), designing weapons specifically for the set of circumstances the ship is to operate under yields superior results at the cost of verisimilitude. Likewise, pre-published fleets usually only have two types of fighters (an interceptor and a bomber), which seems fairly reasonable when trying to build a supply and logistics chain for a fleet, but is not enforced/supported by the rules. I guess what I'm looking at implementation-wise is that you start with the fighters and weapons present in your prebuilt fleet, and then phase out a weapon or fighter to add a new one at a rate of one fighter or weapon per turn. Thoughts?
Also, do starbase and outpost designs count against your ship design totals?

I can't think of any reason not to treat fighters and weapons like that, in fact I think it is a good idea.  smile  In the campaign we are getting ready to start we are planning to use fleets from published material, and to keep things from getting out of hand we stipulated that we could only use weapons and special equipment that appears on the ships already available. I think that a rule like you mention is actually more important in campaigns with player-designed ships as it keeps players from constantly redesigning their fleets. Starbases and Outposts have an economic cost to build, but are considered like unique structures, not really part of the fleet, if that's what you mean.

Hmm... I might have to use Battlefleet Gothic-style sector maps (just linked nodes rather than hexes). Makes some systems much more valuable strategically as chokepoints (or just because they have links to lots of places). Other than that, setup looks good.

Thanks. I can't imagine that there is any limit on the kinds of maps that could be used. The one designed was intended to be a "generic" campaign map, but I have every intention of using the near star map from 2300AD sto play a campaign someday!

Only question about Conquering section is the location/rules for Atmospheric Capable.

The shipyard that Oldngrey has been maintaining has an option for Atmospheric Capability listed as special equipment. Consider it like a piece of campaign specific kit. I for one like having it there as it helps define ships that are capable of landing troops and so forth and takes away a bit of combat ability.

I suppose this would be easily enough done by building such bases as speed 0 orbital defenses at a discount and ignoring the defensive fire rules

Yup. The "colonial defense" rules are intentionally simplistic...it's supposed to be a compliment to starmada, not a ground battle game  wink

Strategic movement and such look decent, but I'd rather use a variant of your task force rules where a task force is a group of ships designated by the player which move together.

Hmmmm. Not sure what you're getting at. A "Task Force" is a group of ships which are grouped together by the player and moved together. The rules are written so that a player can designated a sub-group of one force, send it in to a hex ahead of another force, then rejoin the greater force if it then moves into that hex, or keep it a separate organization.

Tactical Combat: Here I had some issues... I'm not a big fan of randomly rolled scenarios in campaigns. I'd rather the attacking player secretly choose a plan of attack, the defender secretly choose a plan of defense, look up the intersection of attack and defense strategy columns on a table (or not), and have that dictate the disposition of forces. Also not a fan of the point limits imposed by the scenarios... if I want to bring out the Big Hammer and I get stuck fighting the enemy reconnaissance picket, so be it.

Understood. The scenario generator was included to create a bit of "randomness" to the strategic warfare element. Sure you sent a huge fleet against the enemy, but your lead elements get bushwacked, and you are forced to withdraw...just the kind of thing that happens all the time in the history books. There is also the possibility that on the roll the attacking player gets to dictate the scenario.

Also, what happens if a ship hyperspaces out of combat under the four possible outcomes (attacking and won, attacking and lost, defending and won, defending and lost)?

That's something that I had actually thought of but forgot to include in the rules. It actually goes in hand with ships that leave the map. There will probably be a blanket statement to say something like they have to conform to the victory/defeat conditions. ie, they will either be victorious and remain in the system, or if they player was defeated they will have to retreat to a neighboring hex with the remainder (if any) of the defensing players forces.

Is it possible to build mobile economic centers (starbases and outposts, I guess) to model Homeworld-style 'harvest and run' nomads? I'll probably end up adapting this anyways (shortly), but I'm curious what your thoughts on the notion are.

I don't see any reason to not create a unit or units that are hyper/strategic movement capable that conform to the basic idea of the outpost or starbase concept. I would think that mobile "outposts" in particular would be extremely useful "command" ships while a mobile starbase could fit the classic sci-fi super-mothership (Galantis anyone?)

Income: A couple of thoughts here...
1) Points for victory instead of defeat? That runs counter to the methods of the SCS and makes the game more 'swingy'; a decisive tactical victory by either side not only destroys a good part of the enemy fleet, but lets you beat them economically, too, so you win twice per victory and lose twice per defeat (rather than winning 1/2 times per victory and losing 1/2 times per defeat in the SCS). Any particular reason you went with this? I'm thinking about trying 'victory has no effect on income other than letting you gain more systems.'

This came from the direct experience of the campaign we played with the modified-SCS. We found that the mechanic had a "levelling" effect out of proportion to the battle fought, and made losing a battle but doing a lot of damage to your opponent almost better than a decisive victory at times. I guess we will see how it works out.

Do higher-grade colonies produce more resources for your greater investment, or are they just harder to crack?

They're just tougher nuts, but the theory is that also means that they have a better chance of contributing income rather than being destroyed. I know this is a HUGE oversimplification, but I thought it was better than spending a lot of time thinking about colonial assets, I want to be an Admiral, or at worst a Captain, not a Colonial Affairs Administrator  big_smile

3) Personal modding opinion: In my long quest for a Homeworld-style 'Mobile Nomads vs. Static Empire' campaign system, I've come to the conclusion that I'll probably use limited natural resources per system, with ships having Mining auxiliary capacity to harvest/refine/build from it (or maybe just make Repair or Cargo multi-purpose... maybe Cargo for mining and Repair for shipbuilding). So mining lets you extract a number of EPs from the system the ship is currently in equal to its mining capacity per income phase, until the system is out of 'minerals'. For a nomad fleet, build mobile ships with Repair and Cargo capacities and you're set. For a static/colonial civilization, build high-hull 0-engine 'colony' ships and leave them in system.

You could use a die roll, the first time a side enters a strategic hex, to determine the total EPs that can be "extracted" from a system without building a Colony as in the rules. That way you could simulate the Intergalactic Locust Nomad Horde. A System that has been exhausted would become a dead system that could no longer support a Colony...just a thought.

Repair and Refit:
I like your refit rules; I hadn't seen any for Starmada yet, but those should do the trick nicely.
I also like the 'everything but hull gets repaired' rule - minimized bookkeeping.

Thanks, they worked quite well in our previous campaign so we didn't tinker.

One minor query, though - do other expendables (ammo, mines, and marines, mainly - can't think of any others) get restored as well?

Yup. The repair rules in this camapign are designed in such a way as (I hope at least) they represent not only repair, but supply status. A fleet can go rampaging across the map, but without building up a logistics infrastructure (starbases, and outposts) it won't be able to repair damage, or re-arm its expendables. I will, in future drafts, I think I'll include optional rules for auxiliary services like Cargo and Repair, so that a fleet could do limited repair and supply at "at the front", but I haven't worked out the finer details yet.

Where are the rules for Bases from?

Page 27 Klingon Armada

Finally, are there any victory conditions, or is it just play-to-surrender?

Only total defeat of the enemy is an acceptable end to any campaign! Well, ok, player apathy and real life intrusions end most campaigns, but TOTAL DEFEAT is the only HONORABLE end!  lol

Awesome work, though. I may have some fun with this (tweaked a little) once my brother gets out of school.

Thanks, and thanks for the comments. I posted the rules up her to get some input, and your post was exactly what I was hoping for. Sometimes when you stare at rules (or anything for that matter) you tend to see what you meant to do, not what you actually did! Fresh eyes are always helpful to pick out the grey areas and the stuff that's just plain wonky  wink

Cheers!
Erik</r>

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

By the way, MadSeason and I will hopefully giving the system its first spin around the block soon. We are going to do a Gorn VS Kzinti campaign. In fact, the good-natured taunting has already begun  (complete with visual aides!)  smile
Erik

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,424

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

If you're doing a campaign version of SFB, that map is WAY small (and NO, I didn't read all that - yet).

smile

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

thedugan wrote:

If you're doing a campaign version of SFB, that map is WAY small

The map may be too small for SFB, but it should be ok for S:AE  smile  In fact, I was worried it might be a tad too big for a 2 player campaign.

(and NO, I didn't read all that - yet).

Well, whatayawaitinfor?
Erik

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

I may have some fun with this (tweaked a little) once my brother gets out of school.

If you do play through a campaign using the system as a basis, please let us know how it goes, and what modifications you make. It's always good to get more input and playtesting!
Cheers,
Erik

  • Registered: 2010-02-16
  • Posts: 42

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Finished read this, it seems cool.

Too bad it need KA that I dont have, but I want to give it a try.
Does someone wants to make a test ? I'm ok for playing by VASSAL.

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Brazouck wrote:

Finished read this, it seems cool.

Too bad it need KA that I dont have, but I want to give it a try.
Does someone wants to make a test ? I'm ok for playing by VASSAL.

It doesn't really need KA to play. KA just happens to be where the specific rules are for bases, but you can build bases using the shipyard. beyond the construction rules there are just a few little things that are base specific, but you could just play them without the specific rules without too much trouble. In fact, there is no reason why you couldn't just "invent" your own rules for space stations and so forth  wink 
Erik

  • Registered: 2010-02-16
  • Posts: 42

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Thanks blacklancer.

Anyone wants to play ?

  • Registered: 2009-08-03
  • Posts: 245

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

A quick point-by-point:

Weapon and fighter designs: cool.  That was one thing I liked about the older versions of the Shipyard that you don't really get with the more recent versions - it only had 20 or so rows for weapons on the Nation table, so it basically had a software implementation of the limited weapon design rule.  And yeah, I agree that it's a lot more important with player-designed fleets.  I've been trying to work out a pricing system for special abilities so that, when designing fleets, you buy special abilities with Tech Points and can't use those you haven't purchased, but it hasn't seen the light of testing yet.

Mapping: I concur that the current map might be a bit large...  that's a lot of systems to fight over.

Atmospheric: Ah, OK.  I had seen it in the shipyard and was basically wondering if there were any further details / special rules text or if it was a largely 'flavor' ability.

Task forces: Hmm...  I see what you're saying, and how it was implemented in the rules, but I think MoO3 task forces are going to be my weapon of choice.  I'll have to work on some rules for them and post them later.

Tactical: true.  We'll see if I can come up with anything satisfactory, or we might end up handwaving it; most of the battles we (my brother, father, and I) fight are straight-up slugfests without scenario rules, VPs, or victory conditions other than death and surrender.  In narrative terms, scenarios put the battle on the center stage of a short story, while a campaign puts the battle in the broader context of a novel or other, larger story.  We've also considered playing the Battlefleet Gothic's sub-plots to spice things up, but haven't tried them yet.

Hyperdrive: OK, that's pretty much what I expected.  One thing that would be kind of cool would be to allow hyperdrive-capable ships to remain in reserve and port into an already-begun battle.  Might change the pricing on it, though.

Income for victory: ah, OK.  When I first read the SCS, I was skeptical of points for defeat for reasons like the one you mentioned, but I gradually warmed up to it (but haven't actually played under it, either).

Colonies: OK.  I was thinking something simple like +1 to the die roll per level of colony above 1 or something like that - not horribly complicated, but makes bigger colonies stronger industrially.  Might be broken, though.

Nomads: Yeah, I was thinking that randomly-generated systems were probably the way to go, perhaps with a modifier so that systems in the galactic core are, on average, richer, with average yields dropping off as you approach the fringes.

Refits: Actually, I realized later that there was one part of the refit wording that was kind of a sticking point.  The clause "any Hull damage to the original vessel must be repaired as normal" can be taken to mean that "any hull damage must be repaired during a refit, per the normal costs for repairing hull damage".  I don't think this was your intention (it seems possible to, say, replace a damaged ship's guns but leave the hull damaged due to lack of funds), but when I first read it, I did a double-take.

Resupply: Awesome.

Bases: Oh well...  if I can't muster the funds for the book, I guess I'll just have to make stuff up.  The horror!  lol.

Victory conditions: truly, a sentiment after my anti-scenario heart!

And yep, if we get to play a Starmada campaign, we'll probably use a variant of this system and will certainly post the results.  Sadly (kind of), we have a lot of gaming lined up for the summer (some Dark Heresy, some D&D 3.0/3.5/pi/Trailblazer/Pathfinder with two disjoint groups, and hopefully some 'mada) and only so much time to game in...  fortunately, of said games, Starmada is the only one really built to run on two players, so that makes it reasonably likely to actually get played.

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Refits: Actually, I realized later that there was one part of the refit wording that was kind of a sticking point. The clause "any Hull damage to the original vessel must be repaired as normal" can be taken to mean that "any hull damage must be repaired during a refit, per the normal costs for repairing hull damage". I don't think this was your intention (it seems possible to, say, replace a damaged ship's guns but leave the hull damaged due to lack of funds), but when I first read it, I did a double-take.

Thanks for pointing this out. The intent IS that you can refit without repairing, so I will fix this in the next draft to clarify.
erik

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Mapping: I concur that the current map might be a bit large... that's a lot of systems to fight over.

The reason I did make the map as large as I did was the thought that I wanted to leave enough room for strategic maneuver, ie flaking with fleets, rather than have the two opponents be forced to just go nose to nose. Since there is a limiting mechanism (Economic Points) to adding a colony or other improvements to a system, I think it far more likely that the majority of the hexes will be there for elbow room rather than direct exploitation/colonization.
Fact is, even though I was directly involved with writing the rules, I have no clue how they will balance out in the end. Will it be better to build lots of Level 1 Colonies and risk losing them to attacks, or build a stout infrastructure of more "rugged" colonies? My hope is that as with the design trade-offs of Starmada, the same thing will apply to the strategic scale. Truth is I'm a worse strategist than a tactician, so either way it will probably end in tears for me!  lol
Cheers,
Erik

  • Registered: 2007-12-17
  • Posts: 331

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

For the record -- I only helped edit the rules. Blacklancer deserves all the credit! As editor, though, I share any blame.  lol

I love nodal space strategy games, so I may take a shot at creating a nodal map to be used with the vassal mod.  :!:

As for victory -- as the man says, the only really victory is total victory. However, I can see a campaign like this reaching a point where surrender can be honorable. A string of victories would lead to an avalanche of economic points for the victor and leave the loser sitting around while his systems are picked off... Not really fun for either side.

Cheers!

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

MadSeason wrote:

For the record -- I only helped edit the rules. Blacklancer deserves all the credit! As editor, though, I share any blame.  lol

I love nodal space strategy games, so I may take a shot at creating a nodal map to be used with the vassal mod.  :!:

As for victory -- as the man says, the only really victory is total victory. However, I can see a campaign like this reaching a point where surrender can be honorable. A string of victories would lead to an avalanche of economic points for the victor and leave the loser sitting around while his systems are picked off... Not really fun for either side.

Cheers!

Bah! MadSeason was very important to me as he kept pointing out potential problems by way of asking lots and lots of questions (Socratic Editing!  smile ) and I doubt I would have been able to do anything remotely coherent without his input.
Now that we've got that out of the way, below is version 0.6 of the campaign rules. I went back and worked on the adjustments suggested here, and I cleared up a couple of areas of ambiguity. I tried to work out ways that Auxiliary services could be worked more fully into the campaign, but I couldn't come up with a Starmada-Simple approach to doing it (for a variety of reasons), and the whole point of this system is to try to avoid complications, so I just dropped the idea altogether. Enjoy.


Pre-Campaign Considerations
     
     Prior to the initial Campaign set-up there are several basic decisions the players must make. Both players should decide on what optional rules, if any, will be allowed in the Campaign. In addition the players should determine whether or not they will set any restrictions which must be followed during the course of the campaign. These restrictions can anything the players choose, such as limits on weapon range, Shields or Screens, inclusion of fighters, Tech Levels, whatever they can agree on. All of the options and rules “in-play” should be written down and saved in the Campaign Log so that both players can refer back to them at any time.

     Players also need to decide whether the campaign will be played (at least started) with pre-generated ship designs or with the option of creating and deploying new designs at any time in the game. If it is decided to play through the Campaign with pre-designed ships, a player may only purchase replacement ships from that list of designs until after the third turn of the Campaign. After the third turn has been completed players may choose to add one new design to their list each turn during the Repair, Refit and Purchase Phase. If a player chooses not to add a design to his Empire at that time, the opportunity to add a design is lost; a player may only add one design each turn.

Map Set Up:

      The campaign strategic map consists of 25 hexes, each one representing a star system. The opposing forces begin the game in possession of one system each, located in opposing sides of the map. These starting systems each consist of 1 Colony and 1 Starbase, and are the place that each side must deploy their initial fleet. The Starting System is considered an Empire's “Prime” system. An Empire's “Prime” Colony begins the game as a Class-5 Colony (see the section on Colonies for details). The Empire's first Starbase is built to the minimum standards outlined later, and may have a combat rating no greater than 250 (although it may be refit as per the rules). These facilities are considered “free” and do not require any expenditure of Economic Points.

Initial Fleet Set-Up:

     At the beginning of the game each Empire has 2000 Economic Points available for the purchase of its initial Fleet. This initial force begins the game in the Empire's Prime System, and may be later organized into any number of Task Forces. An Empire may not “bank” any more than 100 EPs of these funds for future use. If more than 100 EPs remain following the purchase of its Fleet, the Empire's bank will be set at 100 Economic Points.

     While the initial Task Force of the campaign is limited to 2000 EPs in “size”, there is no limit on how many Combat Points an Empire may place into a single task Force. An Empire may decide that it wants one massive fleet rolling across space or many smaller formations. Scenarios generated at the beginning of a Tactical Combat Phase will limit the amount of points an Empire may employ from that Task Force however, so a huge fleet may have more options when engaging in combat, but it might not be able to bring its full power to bear all at once.

Acquiring New Systems:

     Each time a fleet enters an unoccupied system hex, it becomes the possession of the fleet's Empire. There is no benefit from merely possessing a star system, but once it is control an Empire may invest in improvements that provide several advantages. Systems already occupied by an opponent must be conquered before they become part of the invading Empire. Conquering systems is covered later.

Benefits of Controlling Systems:

     There are several reasons to control a star system. First, colonies provide the raw materials that maintain the fighting strength of an Empire's fleets. For each colony that an Empire controls, that Empire receives 1 six-sided die when rolling for Economic Points. EPs are covered in greater details in the “Income” and “Repair, Refit, Purchase” sections. The second benefit of controlling a star system is they are required to repair damaged warships. To complete repairs of a warship between battles, that ship must be in a star system with an Outpost or Starbase. Fleet support bases are fully covered later. Finally, the only place that new ships may be placed when they are purchased/built is in a system with a Starbase.

     Oh, and the Empire that controls a star system gets to name it!

Star System Improvements:

     As already mentioned there are several facilities that can be placed in a single star system. As you might have guessed, there is a cost associated with these facilities. The least expensive facility that may be placed into a star system is an Outpost. There is no set cost for an Outpost, but the controlling Empire pays for it from its available EPs. Whether each Outpost is a unique design, or a standard model used in every system an Empire controls doesn't matter, but each has minimum criteria that must be met. An Outpost must have at least 500 SUs dedicated to Cargo, and 500 SUs for Repair. Any other capabilities of an Outpost beyond these Auxiliary Services (such as defenses or weaponry) are up to the designer's whims, but keep in mind that they will increase the cost to purchase. Yes I know that this means that it is possible to place an Outpost in a system at no cost, but it would also mean that they would be vulnerable, as will be discussed later.

     In addition to Outposts, an Empire may elect to construct a Starbase within a system. Starbases must have a Minimum of 1000 SUs of Cargo space, 500 SUs of Repair, and 100 SUs of Hospital. In addition, Starbases are always considered important facilities and must have at least Level 3 Shields. Starbases are much more expensive than an Outpost with the cost in EPs being the Starbase's Combat Rating plus Ten-times its Hull Rating (Cost=CR+(Hull*10)).  Starbases and Outposts may only participate in tactical scenarios if there are no other vessels to defend the system (this will always be considered a Fleet Action Scenario), or if a planet is randomly selected for scenario terrain.

     The final and most expensive, and probably the most important, permanent facility is the Colony. Colonies are treated very differently from Outposts and Starbases in that they have no Starmada statistics. Instead, Colonies have just one stat of importance: Class. Class is an abstraction used to represent the size and/or toughness of a Colony, and the higher the class number, the more resilient the colony is to damage or invasion (covered later). Class has no effect on the amount EPs a Colony grants its controlling Empire, but a colony that is tougher can survive to provide the EPs. To place a colony in a system that is under an Empire's control, that Empire must spend a number of EPs equal to 100-times the intended Colonies Class. Thus, a Class-3 Colony would require 300 EPs to place. To improve a Colony's class after it has been placed the owning Empire must spend 25-Times the new Class plus 50-times the difference in Class. For example, to increase the Class-3 Colony to Class-4 would require 150 EPs ((4*25)+(1*50)), while taking a colony from Class-3 to Class-5 would cost 225 EPs ((5*25)+(2*50)). A Colony may be reduced in Class by invasion or bombardment, which are covered later, and if it is reduced to Class-0 it is considered destroyed. If an Empire destroys an opponent's Colony and gains control of a star system, that Empire still uses the same procedure to purchase its own colony in the system if it wishes to have one.

    Star System facilities are placed by an Empire during Repair, Refit, and Purchase Phase.

Planets in the Campaign
    When an Empire decides to place a facility in a star system, that Empire must also determine the size of the Planet that the facility will orbit (or reside on in the case of Colonies). The player purchasing the facility rolls 1D6, re-rolling a result of 6, with the final result becoming the Size of the Planet for the remainder of the Campaign. The controlling Empire may name the Planet and the name and size are recorded on the campaign map. The size of the Planet does not affect the maximum Class of a Colony, but does limit the amount of orbital structures that may be placed around it. Any scenario that includes the facility placed around or on the Planet automatically uses the Planet as the default terrain.

Conquering Star Systems:

     When an Empire attacks a star system controlled by another Empire, it may just try to do as much damage as possible, or it may try to gain control of the system. If the system contains no colony, the attacker must simply destroy or chase away all of the defending forces to gain control of the system. This would include any Outposts or Starbases present. If the system does have a colony located in it, things get a bit more interesting. As we have already discussed, a Colony has a Class Rating that is an estimation of the toughness or size of the Colony. If an attacker faces no defending fleet, it may attempt to reduce a Colony's Class by engaging in a Bombardment Scenario. The procedure for a Bombardment Scenario is as follows: The Attacking Commander chooses the ships that will participate in the Bombardment mission (these ships must be chosen from the vessels already in the system), and also determines the order in which the ships will fire. Each ship then takes its turn firing at the Colony. The ship attacks the Colony with each of its weapons that have a minimum RNG of 6 and a minimum DMG of 2, rolling to hit with each weapon as if at Long Range. IMP is ignored for any hits scored, but each hit is considered to do damage equal to the weapon's DMG rating. When the Colony has taken a number of Damage Points equal to its current Class rating, its Class is reduced by 1 point.

     The Colony also gets to shoot back at the bombarding vessel, rolling a number of dice equal to its Class (before any reduction from the bombardment) with any rolls of 5 or 6 being hits. These hits have an IMP of 1 and a DMG of 1. Following this, the next ship begins its firing pass as the first, with the Colony's Class reduced as appropriate from whatever damage was taken prior. The Bombardment Continues until all of the ships designated by the attacking commander have attacked once, at which point the scenario ends.

     However, Colony may only be reduced to Class-1 by bombardment. To completely capture or destroy a Colony, an attacker must land troops on the planet's surface. This may be done following a Bombardment Scenario, but it may not be done during one. As with the Bombardment Scenario, the attacking commander chooses the ships that will be used to conduct the Assault Scenario, and the order in which they will make their landing attempts. If the assault ships are attempting to land troops by Teleporters, they make the attempt as if boarding a target 3 hexes away. Each Teleporter may land 1 Troop or Marine from the ship per success. The Colony gets to shoot at the assaulting ships just as in the Bombardment Scenario, but cannot stop Teleported troops/marines. When the number of Troops and or Marines that successfully reach the Colony total 10 times the Colony's Class, the Colony is reduced by 1 Class. When the Colony's Class number is reduced, the Troops/Marines that were required to lower the number are removed from the game (consider them battle casualties).

     If using assault shuttles to land the troops the defending player may choose to turn the Colony's defenses against them instead of firing on the transporting starships. The Colony may roll a number of dice equaling its current Class against each shuttle attempting to land from a single starship, hitting on a 5 or 6, and having an IMP and DMG of 1. Given that each shuttle can carry a large number of Troops, it is possible that they can land decisive numbers despite the possible attrition.

     It is also possible that a starship equipped with Atmospheric Capability may land to deposit its Troops or Marines directly. If this is the case, the Colony may roll a number of dice equal to its current Class to attack the assault vessel, hitting on a 3 or better, with each hit having an IMP and DMG of 1.

     No matter the method to land the Troops, the Colony's Class is updated after each Starship has made its attempt to put boots on the ground. The Assault Scenario ends when all of the available Troops/Marines that can do so have attempted to land, or the Colony is reduced to Class-0, at which point it is considered destroyed. Troops and Marines that have successfully landed on a Colony, but do not have the strength to reduce the Colony to Class-0 remain on the Colony unless they are removed by their controlling Empire. The Empire that controls the besieged Colony may also land its own Troops or Marines (treated as an Assault Scenario, but landing attempts are automatically successful), treating the ensuing combat as a boarding action.

Initiative:

     At the beginning of each Strategic Turn, both Empires roll 1D6 for Initiative. The high roll has gained Initiative for the Turn and is designated the “Active” player. Re-roll all ties. The Active Player moves one Task Force (see Strategic Movement Phase below for options), and any resulting scenarios are played out. The Player that lost the Initiative roll then gets to make one Strategic Move. The two Empires alternate moving task Forces until there are no more possible moves. An Empire is not compelled to move any of its Task Forces, and may choose to leave any or all of them where they are. If an Empire chooses not to move any Task Forces when it is its turn, that Empire simply declares that it is “Passing”, and the opposing Empire may then move a Task Force. If both Empires “pass” on the moves consecutively, the Strategic Movement Phase is considered concluded. If one Empire has moved all of its available task Forces and the other still has more than one that has not moved, the Empire with the remaining Task Forces moves them one at a time until they are all moved, or passes to end the Phase.

Strategic Movement Phase:

     After determining initiative for the current turn, Empires have several actions they may choose from. The Empire that gained the initiative for turn may move one of its Task Forces one Strategic Hex. Only one Task Force may reside in a star system at a time. If an Empire moves a Task Force into a hex that already contains another one of its Task Forces, the two are combined into a single new Task Force. If an Empire combines two Task Forces in such a way, the newly resulting Task Force is considered to have used its Strategic Move for the current Turn.

If a Task Force moves into a Strategic Hex already occupied by a Task Force (or an Outpost or Starbase) from the opposing Empire, a Tactical Combat Phase is initiated. A Tactical Combat Phase is a single Starmada Scenario (determining the scenario is covered in a later section).  If a Task Force enters a Star System containing another Empire's Colony but no ships or stations, it may choose to engage in a Bombardment or Assault Scenario. If an attacking Task Force is defeated, the surviving/escaping ships are returned to the Star System that they originated the attack from. This includes all of the ships of the Task Force, and not just those that may have been selected to participate in the scenario.

    An Empire may also choose to split one Task Force into two new Forces. One of the resulting Task Forces must move to an adjacent hex (this hex may be controlled by the Opposing Empire, which triggers a Tactical Combat Phase) while the other remains in the hex that the original Task Force was located in. The Task Force that remains is not considered to have moved during the Turn.

Tactical Combat Phase:

     When the Task Forces of opposing Empires meet in a Star System they enter a Tactical Combat Phase. A Tactical Combat Phase begins with the Active Player rolling 1D6; on a roll of “6” the Active Player selects a scenario, otherwise the player rolls another 1D6 and consults the following table:
1 Breakout
2 Fleet Action
3 Hit &amp; Run
4 The Patrol
5 To the Rescue
6 The Trap
See the Core Rulebook for the details of each scenario.

     The default map size for most scenarios will be Medium. The exception is the Fleet Action scenario, which will use the Large map.

     The Defending Player next rolls to determine the Terrain (if any) present for the scenario by rolling 1d6; on a result of 1-4 there is no terrain, and on a 5 or 6 roll another 1D6 and consult the following table:

1 None
2 Asteroids (1D6x1D6)
3 Black Hole (Roll 1D6 for size, 6=No Terrain)
4 Dust Cloud
5 Nebula
6 Planet (Roll 1D6 for Size, 6=No Terrain)

     Following the terrain roll, but prior to the placement of terrain (if any), the Defending Player may choose to decline the battle. If the Defending Player chooses to do so, all of its ships present in the contested Strategic Hex must be moved to an adjacent hex that is not under the control of the attacking Empire. This is considered the Strategic Move for the Task Force(s) doing so for the current turn.

     For placing single objects such as planets and black holes, the defending player chooses the placement on the board prior to placement of ships. For multiple objects such as asteroids, divide the total number by 2, with each player then taking turns to place the objects on the board. In cases where there are an odd number of objects the defending player gets to place the extra one. Terrain cannot be placed in such a way that the terrain (or any part of it) is inside the other forces deployment zone. If this cannot be avoided, the center of the terrain feature must be placed at least 3 hexes from the opponent's deployment zone.

See the Core Rules for the effects of terrain.

     Terrain generated for a scenario does not become the “default” terrain for that star system. Strategic Hexes are considered large enough to encompass numerous types of terrain.

     Assuming the Defending Player has accepted the scenario, the battle is played with victory conditions as determined by the scenario. If the Attacking Player wins the scenario, that Empire may chose to keep its forces in the system, or they may move to an adjacent hex not controlled by the enemy. Whichever Empire loses the scenario must remove any remaining/surviving ships to an adjacent hex not controlled by the enemy. This includes all of the ships that were part of the Task Force present in the system and not just those deployed for the Tactical Scenario. A Task Force from the Attacking Empire is considered to have moved for the Turn while the Task Force of the Defending Empire may still be moved if the controlling Empire chooses to do so. If an Empire cannot move its ships to a hex not controlled by the enemy, they are considered destroyed at the conclusion of the scenario.

Outposts and Starbases do not leave the star systems in which they are placed. If an attacking Empire has defeated a defending Task Force and the system contains an Outpost, Starbase or Colony, the Attacking Empire may choose to immediately engage the facility. If the attack is launched against an Outpost or Starbase, the scenario is automatically considered a “Fleet Action”. If an attack is made on a Colony, a Bombardment or Assault Scenario may be chosen. An Attacking Empire that has successfully defeated a defending Task Force my also choose to remain in a star system containing one or more enemy facilities without attacking, but an Empire cannot claim any star system with an enemy Starbase, Outpost, or Colony still present.  If a Defending Player only has a Starbase or an Outpost in a system that is attacked, that Empire must employ the facility against the attack, even if the facility's cost exceeds the limitations of the scenario. If the Defender has only an Outpost or Starbase to defend a system the scenario is automatically considered a “Fleet Action”.

Outposts and Starbases in Tactical Combat Scenarios

    As mentioned in the Strategic Movement section there are times when facilities will be part of a tactical scenario. For the sake of simplicity Outposts, Starbases, and any other “Space Station” or “Satellite” units may only be selected by the Defending Empire if there is a planet in the scenario set-up. In the event that an attacking Task Force defeats the defending Task Force and then continues to attack the facility(ies) present, a planet is automatically placed as the terrain for the scenario. If a planet is randomly selected as the scenario terrain, defensive satellites/stations and other facilities may be selected. As long as the defender still has other assets to put in play it is not mandatory to use an Outpost or Starbase as a star system may have several planets that actions could occur around. Only when there are no other forces available must the facility be “put in play”.

    If a facility or space station of any type is selected to participate in a scenario it must be placed “in orbit” around the planet. To be “in orbit” the facility or station must be placed in a hex immediately adjacent to the planet, and the station moves one hex per turn around the planet, in a counter-clockwise fashion. A player may place more than one facility or station in orbit around a given planet, but is limited in placement to the hexes immediately adjacent to the planet.

Income Phase:

     Once both Empires have moved all of their Task Forces, and concluded the combat activities that might have occurred, the Turn is moved to the Income Phase. The base income of an Empire comes from its Colonies. For each Colony controlled an Empire rolls 1D6 (so an Empire with 3 Colonies would roll 3D6). The total of the rolls is multiplied by 50, with the final number becoming the Empire's base Economic Points for the Turn. To this is added 1 EP for every Victory Point gained by the Empire during the Turn. For example, an Empire with 3 colonies gets a total of 9 on its die rolls for a base income of 450 EPs, and to this adds 854 for the victory points it gained during the Turn's Combat for a total of 1304 Economic Points added to its Bank.

Repair, Refit, &amp; Purchase Phase:

     Following the Income phase is the Repair, Refit, &amp; Purchase Phase. This phase can be considered like the Strategic End-Phase in many ways, and it is the time when the Empires spend their Economic Points. Any ships that have been damaged and are located in a system with a friendly Outpost or Starbase automatically have all of their Engine, Shield and Weapon Damage repaired. In addition, carriers regain their full compliment of Fighters, Strikers, Seekers or shuttlecraft.  Repairing each point of Hull Damage requires a number of Economic Points equal to the damaged ship's Combat Rating divided by its Hull size, rounded up. Star system facilities that are purchased during this phase cannot repair (or refit, or build) any ships that may be in the same system. The ships and facilities must be in the same system at the beginning of the Repair, Refit, and Purchase Phase for them to have an effect.

     Empires may also use their Economic Points to alter or upgrade any ship in a star system containing a friendly Outpost or Starbase. To refit a ship into a new variant, change weapons, or change Shield or Engine ratings the player creates a new ship card representing the refit vessel. The Hull of the resulting variant must remain the same. The Empire then pays a number of EPs equal to the difference between the old and new Combat Ratings rather than paying the full cost of the vessel. If the refit vessel has a lower CR, the Empire does not receive additional EPs for its bank. Hull damage that the original vessel had may be repaired prior to completing a refit at this time. In this case the repair cost being figured out using the vessel's pre-refit combat rating. Any damage that remains following the vessel's refit will have to be repaired during a later turn, using the vessel's new Combat Rating to determine the cost. Outposts and Starbases are refit exactly like ships.

     As part of the refit process an Empire may only introduce one new Weapon System or “Special Equipment” per Refit Phase, and only after the opposing Empires have fought at least one battle. For the purposes of the campaign, a weapon system will be defined as both fixed weapons for starships or bases as well as small craft (Fighters, Strikers, and Seekers and all of their various variants). Individual small craft abilities are not considered separate systems, but rather part of the overall new design or variant. An Empire may choose to reveal the development of a new Weapon System or Special Equipment without placing it on a starship by refit or new construction. In this way an Empire may place several new systems at once on new or refit ships without piecemeal refits over several turns.

     Empires also purchase new vessels, and/or facilities during this phase. Purchasing a new ship requires a number or EPs equal to the ship's Combat Rating. Newly purchased ships must be placed in a star system with a friendly Starbase, and can be assigned to a Task Force at this time, or left independent. See the “System Improvements” section for the details on the cost of Outposts and Starbases.  Finally, an Empire may choose to place a Colony in any system it controls, or upgrade the Class of an existing Colony. See the “System Improvements” Section for the costs to place and upgrade a Colony. A single star system can only have one Colony placed in it.  An Empire gains no benefit (other than redundancy) from having multiple Outposts or Starbases in a single system.

     Empires may choose to purchase “defensive platforms”, “orbital fortresses”, “DefSats” or whatever they want to call Bases. These units must be deployed like ships, in a system containing a Starbase. Unlike starships, these facilities cannot be moved to another star system, though they may be used in a scenario that takes place within the system they are deployed in. While they may be formidable, they do not give an empire any Strategic benefit if they do not meet the basic requirements of either an Outpost or Starbase.

     If playing the Campaign with “fixed” lists of ship designs, players may add designs to their list during this Phase. Empires may not add designs until after the completion of the third turn of the Campaign. Empires may not save up designs until later turns to introduce several at once; only one design may be added each turn. It does not cost anything for an Empire to add designs to their list, and ships may be purchased (as normal) the same turn that they are introduced.

     An Empire does not need to spend all (or any for that matter) of its EPs during any one Turn and instead can “Bank” them for future use.  After both Empires have completed this phase, they move to the next turn and roll for initiative…</r>

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Ok, so I have been thinking a lot about Auxiliary systems lately, and one of the things that has been vexing me is how to make them useful enough to take, and also make them "cost" something. The escort rule was an idea to make Auxiliary systems have a price tag, since for ships the only cost is CR. However, since Economic Points are distinct and separate from Combat Points as the rules are currently written, what if there was an EP cost for Aux systems? I'm thinking 1 EP per 10 SUs of Auxiliary systems, therefore a  ship with Cargo(100) would cost 10 EPs in addition to whatever the CR "cost" might be.
Any thoughts?
Erik

  • From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

The exact cost of auxiliaries would depend upon the overall economic system in your campaign... however, I do like the theory here. It's certainly better than attaching an arbitrary Combat Rating to them.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • Registered: 2010-06-17
  • Posts: 12

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Like what I'm reading here. But I have a question about the economic system. Why do you get income for victory points in battle? Does damage to the enemy convert to cash? Are you salvaging wrecked ships?

An economic system with points for VPs blocks one of the more interesting strategies a smaller player can use against a larger player - that of loosing battles while inflicting economic damage on key units (trading space for ships, as it is known). Under the system above, simply an empire with an edge could easily become a runaway economy.

Not a criticism, just curious on what kind of economic game you are encouraging. smile

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Democratus wrote:

Like what I'm reading here. But I have a question about the economic system. Why do you get income for victory points in battle? Does damage to the enemy convert to cash? Are you salvaging wrecked ships?

An economic system with points for VPs blocks one of the more interesting strategies a smaller player can use against a larger player - that of loosing battles while inflicting economic damage on key units (trading space for ships, as it is known). Under the system above, simply an empire with an edge could easily become a runaway economy.

Not a criticism, just curious on what kind of economic game you are encouraging. smile

I'm not an economist, nor do I play one on TV  wink  The idea of adding VPs 1:1 with EPs came from the campaign that MadSeason and I played. It seemed to us that as the game progressed, granting VPs to the loser had the effect of creating a situation of parity between the sides, and more than once led to the victor of the previous battle being forced to back off and avoid battle, or at best play for a loss while inflicting some damage, just so he could recoup points. Also we found that as the campaign went on, the points system did not allow us to produce enough ships. Indeed, in the game that decided the campaign, I couldn't meet the CR limit, and he wasn't much better off. I felt that this truncated the designs down to just a few, limited the strategic and tactical flexibility of the commanders, and overall made the game more of a "grind" than purely fun. Now this may just because MadSeason and I tend to grind each others fleets to a fine pulp whenever they meet, but I wanted a system that provided more "income". The way it is set up, you can "lose" a battle, still get points from the VP, and have your income from your colonies, while the winner can gain more VPs by winning (I have played darn few "blowout" games against anyone), but may actually have fewer colonies and therefore less economic might/purchasing power. It could be that this system does create "runaway" economies with a couple of lopsided battles, and it is also possible that it creates too much income from the combination of colonies and VPs. We have just started a test campaign (MadSeason=Gorn, Me=Kzinti) to see how it and everything else works.
There is no intention of creating a "real" economy or even one that has any basis in sanity...just my desire to build more ships to crush my enemy!!!!!  big_smile
Erik

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

cricket wrote:

The exact cost of auxiliaries would depend upon the overall economic system in your campaign... however, I do like the theory here. It's certainly better than attaching an arbitrary Combat Rating to them.

At a 1EP:10SU ratio, a "Repair Ship" With Repair(500) and Cargo(500) would have a base sticker price of 100 EPs without defenses or weapons, and that means it would at least cost the same as putting a Class 1 Colony (the weakest possible) in a system. Too much? Maybe 1 EP:25SU? Is it painfully obvious to everyone yet that I am not really a numbers person?  :oops:
Erik

  • Registered: 2010-06-17
  • Posts: 12

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Blacklancer99 wrote:

Also we found that as the campaign went on, the points system did not allow us to produce enough ships. Indeed, in the game that decided the campaign, I couldn't meet the CR limit, and he wasn't much better off. I felt that this truncated the designs down to just a few, limited the strategic and tactical flexibility of the commanders, and overall made the game more of a "grind" than purely fun.

Okay. I see where you're going. It's just a matter of what you consider fun. We always really like the times when things get desperate and you can barely scratch together a fleet to fight the enemy. That's when you have to get creative and tactical (or when the dark, grim phase of the war begins)! But I'm coming from the old world of Federation & Empire where economic exhaustion is an accepted point in a campaign.

If you want to continue having massive fleets to throw at each other then you have a good system there. smile

Let us know how the experement plays out. Battle reports and campaign turn summaries are fun to read!

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

economic exhaustion is an accepted point in a campaign.

well, I think you can safely place me in the "gee, that doesn't sound like fun to me" category  smile

If you want to continue having massive fleets to throw at each other then you have a good system there. smile

Perhaps we will have to consider our campaign system as the economic bailout plan for overextended admirals!  big_smile

Let us know how the experement plays out. Battle reports and campaign turn summaries are fun to read!

Once anything happens I'm sure I can post up something. So far Turn one included both of us moving a task force one hex...and that's pretty much it. Of course, speaking of economics, I rolled a 1 for income and MadSeason rolled a 6...it appears the lizards have a much better economy and I am the Greece of space!
Erik

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 654

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Ok, after 2 Turns of our new campaign, here is the situation. So far the Gorn have had a distinct economic advantage, but the Kzinti are undaunted for they know that if they take away the lizard's warm rock, they will become sluggish and easily defeated!  wink

  • Registered: 2010-06-17
  • Posts: 12

Re: Somewhat Simple Campaign System

Looks promising!

Are the triangles task forces?