• Registered: 2010-10-21
  • Posts: 55

Topic: Legendary Officers

These rules are adapted from the same rules present in Star Fleet Battles.  We are using these in our New Romulan Armada Campaign that we kicked off tonight.  They are based on the same rules from the Star Fleet Battles Commander's Edition.


Legendary Officers in Klingon Armada

(See SFB Rule G22.0) For each ship in the fleet roll 2d6.
2     Captain plus roll again.  If second ‘2', ship has one of each officer type.
3    Weapons Officer
4    Navigator
5    Ship's Doctor
6,7,8    None
9    Science Officer
10    Marine Major
11    Chief Engineer
12     Captain

Captain
Bluff
1.    Once per scenario, a LC may attempt to bluff one enemy ship.  There is a 50% chance  The ship disengages, but no points are scored.  The chance of success is increased or decreased by 1% for every BPV point that the captain's forces outnumber their opponents.  The chance of success can never be higher than 75% or lower than 35%.
2.    A Legendary Captain has a chance of 1 on a 1d6 of ending up in control of a ship within transporter range if his ship is destroyed.  The target ship must be of the same size class or smaller.  All boarding parties and officers go with him as well.
3.    A Legendary Captain can perform any one Legendary function except Doctor.

Weapons Officer
Adds +1 to the die roll of one weapons systems type.  For example, he could add +1 to the fire of the X Batteries.

Navigator
1.    Ship may use evasive maneuvers without movement penalty.
2.    Ship may ignore firing penalty for using evasive maneuvers.
3.    Ship may make one two hex side turn for free during turn.

Ship's Doctor
May cure one crew or one boarding party each turn.  May cure legendary officer for free.

Science Officer
The Science Officer can perform any one job function each turn.
1.    Operate as 30 extra Lab spaces.
2.    Perform an extra Damage Control roll.
3.    Add -1 to attempts to locate cloaked or silent ships.

Chief Engineer
The Chief Engineer can perform any one job function each turn.
1.    Perform an extra Damage Control roll.
2.    Provides a +1 when rolling for Damage Control (not cumulative with 1).
3.    Can add 1 to the speed of the ship without risk of damage.
4.    Can break out an extra shuttle for use in the same game.
Note:  Tholians can never have a Chief Engineer

Major of Marines
The Major can modify boarding combat or weapons fire but not both.
1.    Can transport free with any boarding party
2.    Shifts combat rolls by 1 in the favor of his side.  Affects dice rolled by his side and dice rolled against his side.
3.    Can add +1 the fire of one ships weapon.

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

Re: Legendary Officers

csragamaster wrote:

These rules are adapted from the same rules present in Star Fleet Battles.  We are using these in our New Romulan Armada Campaign that we kicked off tonight.  They are based on the same rules from the Star Fleet Battles Commander's Edition.


Legendary Officers in Klingon Armada

(See SFB Rule G22.0) For each ship in the fleet roll 2d6.
2     Captain plus roll again.  If second ‘2', ship has one of each officer type.
3    Weapons Officer
4    Navigator
5    Ship's Doctor
6,7,8    None
9    Science Officer
10    Marine Major
11    Chief Engineer
12     Captain

Captain
Bluff
1.    Once per scenario, a LC may attempt to bluff one enemy ship.  There is a 50% chance  The ship disengages, but no points are scored.  The chance of success is increased or decreased by 1% for every BPV point that the captain's forces outnumber their opponents.  The chance of success can never be higher than 75% or lower than 35%.
2.    A Legendary Captain has a chance of 1 on a 1d6 of ending up in control of a ship within transporter range if his ship is destroyed.  The target ship must be of the same size class or smaller.  All boarding parties and officers go with him as well.
3.    A Legendary Captain can perform any one Legendary function except Doctor.

Weapons Officer
Adds +1 to the die roll of one weapons systems type.  For example, he could add +1 to the fire of the X Batteries.

Navigator
1.    Ship may use evasive maneuvers without movement penalty.
2.    Ship may ignore firing penalty for using evasive maneuvers.
3.    Ship may make one two hex side turn for free during turn.

Ship's Doctor
May cure one crew or one boarding party each turn.  May cure legendary officer for free.

Science Officer
The Science Officer can perform any one job function each turn.
1.    Operate as 30 extra Lab spaces.
2.    Perform an extra Damage Control roll.
3.    Add -1 to attempts to locate cloaked or silent ships.

Chief Engineer
The Chief Engineer can perform any one job function each turn.
1.    Perform an extra Damage Control roll.
2.    Provides a +1 when rolling for Damage Control (not cumulative with 1).
3.    Can add 1 to the speed of the ship without risk of damage.
4.    Can break out an extra shuttle for use in the same game.
Note:  Tholians can never have a Chief Engineer

Major of Marines
The Major can modify boarding combat or weapons fire but not both.
1.    Can transport free with any boarding party
2.    Shifts combat rolls by 1 in the favor of his side.  Affects dice rolled by his side and dice rolled against his side.
3.    Can add +1 the fire of one ships weapon.

I think these are pretty good, but I feel like the chances of having "Legends" in your fleet should be a bit lower. Since large numbers of ships that can participate in  battle in Starmada, you have the potential for a fleet chuck full of elite officers, and a whole lot of modifications to standard play. Also, since you are using this as a campaign rule, I'm assuming that the officer stays with the ship which he was "created" on (?) If that is the case, you wouldn't roll that ship in the next battle would you? Lastly, do the legendary officers modify combat points in any way? I had been looking at adding veteran-elite-legendary officers to the campaign system I have been working on and I was looking at a system similar to what Babylon 5 Wars had where you paid a points surcharge for special officers, reflecting the impact they can have on the game.
Anyway, I like the game effects and I'm interested to hear some AARs to see how these rules played out in game.
Cheers,
Erik

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

Re: Legendary Officers

This got me thinking, has anyone tried to port over the Stars Divided experience/officers system to S:AE? Seems like it would be fairly simple, and if nobody else has I might give it a crack.
Cheers,
Erik

  • Registered: 2010-10-21
  • Posts: 55

Re: Legendary Officers

I would be interested in seeing another system.

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 740

Re: Legendary Officers

Instead of rolling for these, give them a BPV cost, expressed as a percent increase of the combat value of the ship they are assigned to.  Rolling randomly is not good, IMHO, because if one side rolls well and gets a LC, etc and but other side rolls nothing, it makes for an unfair battle...

  • Registered: 2010-10-21
  • Posts: 55

Re: Legendary Officers

Yes, but that is part of the "point".  History is full of unfair battles and they are the most dramatic.  Actually, I think that the SFB book has some point values that can be pointed over.  At the least, the points would impact the "win point" of a battle.

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

Re: Legendary Officers

csragamaster wrote:

Yes, but that is part of the "point".  History is full of unfair battles and they are the most dramatic.  Actually, I think that the SFB book has some point values that can be pointed over.  At the least, the points would impact the "win point" of a battle.

I'll agree that many historical battles are "unfair", and personally it is one of the reasons that I don't like pick up games and prefer a campaign format. Also in most sci-fi settings, which to me is the stage for all Starmada games, a single individual or group of exceptional crew members are often the deciding factor in any battle. Therefore I am actually very much in favor of Elite/Legendary officers and that type of thing. I would just personally prefer that they are the exception not the rule, and I think a points surcharge is one way to keep the whole thing from feeling less random as well. That way you can populate a Federation heavy cruiser with all of the special officers you can afford, and viola! a legend is born  wink
Also, a points based system gives you an opportunity to use some of those small amounts of points that might be left over when buying/building a force, like the odd pennies left over in my itunes account that I can't buy anything with once the gift card is sucked dry!
Erik