Topic: Auxiliary power and SFB-inspired ideas

As a recent convert to Starmada, I have to admit that I have come to the game from Star Fleet Battles (via Federation Commander).  SFB is still a great game but one I admire more than I actually play these days.  FC is much more playable (to me) and yet Starmada somehow manages to be simpler, more streamlined and more comprehensive all at the same time!  Great game design.
Anyway, all this aside, I've been toying with an optional rule that adds a bit more SFB/FC flavour to the Starmada Nova Edition SFU rules - apologies if this has already been done elsewhere and I've missed it.  The idea is to add a bit more complexity to Starmada without getting too much in the way of the standard rules (hopefully).  These rules do add a bit more work and will probably work better with smaller skirmishes rather than bigger battles.
I haven't fully playtested them yet so I'd really appreciate any comments and constructive criticism from more experienced players.
EDIT - forgot the starbase rule.

Re: Auxiliary power and SFB-inspired ideas

I like those rules, it adds some tactical flexibility.
I would have modified one thing. Your rules says shield where it should say armor (the way SFU shields are translated in Starmada).

Marc

Re: Auxiliary power and SFB-inspired ideas

Hey, thanks for the comment.
I wasn't sure whether 'armour' or 'shields' would be the right terminology but figured I'd go with shields so as to avoid confusion - as all the SFU ship stats refer to armour boxes as shields.
One area I'm still unsure on is the recharge rules.  They were originally there as the rules were initially inspired by SFB/FC batteries (I changed the name to avoid confusion with weapons batteries) but I left them in as a way of limiting the use of energy points.  After all, Starmada doesn't (and shouldn't) revolve around energy allocation the way SFB/FC does.
Recharge does add a bit of work though and I've been toying with the idea of resolving it with a dice roll.  For instance, in each Initiative Phase, the player rolls a number of dice equal to the number of spent but undamaged APR boxes they have.  Each result of 5 or 6 indicates a box that has recharged.
I think I also need to add a limit on shield reinforcement.  I don't think any shield should be reinforced by more points than the number of boxes it has left undamaged.

Re: Auxiliary power and SFB-inspired ideas

I like this rule... it even uses a square root! smile

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: Auxiliary power and SFB-inspired ideas

Glad you liked it! I figured square root was the Starmada way.

Re: Auxiliary power and SFB-inspired ideas

I really like this rule!  Do you mind if I use it in the DS9/Next Gen supplement I'm working on, with some tweaking?

Did you toy with any ways to use these points to simulate "power to weapons"?  It seems like the one thing which is missing from these otherwise very trek-feeling rules.

Re: Auxiliary power and SFB-inspired ideas

This looks very well thought out and you provided excellent examples. It seems like the kind of thing that can be used across a lot of different settings beyond Star Trek. Nice job!
Erik

Re: Auxiliary power and SFB-inspired ideas

I created some additions and modifications to your rules - what do you think?

Non-Standard Starmada Special Rule: Ship Power and Command Crew

In the Star Trek universe, managing your ship's crew, officers, systems and power has always been an important part of the lore - how often have you heard “All power to shields!” or “Power to impulse engines!  Evasive maneuvers!” or “Direct all efforts to damage control!” in an episode? 

When playing in the Call to Arms universe, each ship gets an additional basic rating - like their CRAT - derived from the ship's characteristics. This rating represents the talent pool of the ship's crew, the sophistication of their engineering and power sources, and their capacity for cinematic derring-do in the face of danger.

How Much Power Does A Ship Have?

A ship has the following amount of “Power and Command Flexibility”:

Power = Square Root of ((Hull * Hull * Thrust) * .05)

Round all decimals up or down to the nearest whole number.  Exact .5 decimals should be rounded up rather than down.  Examples:

A Federation Galaxy class battleship has Power = SqRt((17 * 17 *3)*.05), or 6.58 = 7 power.
A Cardassian Galor class standard cruiser has Power = SqRt((13*13*4)*.05) or 5.81 = 6 power.
A Romulan Griffon class light cruiser has Power = SqRt((9*9*5)*.05) or 4.5 = 5 power.
A Federation Nova class survey ship has Power = SqRt((6*6*7)*.05) or 3.57 = 4 power.
A Klingon B'Rel class attack corvette has Power = SqRt((5*5*6)*.05) or 2.73 = 3 power.

Losing and Recharging Power
Ships may use power in a variety of ways during the turn.  When they do so, they ‘mark off' a power box with a U.  Whenever a ship is activated to move, it rolls a dice for each ‘marked off' power box with a U.  On a 4+, that power box is ‘recharged' for the turn.  If a power box fails to recharge, mark it with an ‘R'.  A power box marked with an ‘R' is automatically returned to full strength when the ship is selected to move in the move phase.

Power is treated as ‘Munitions' during the damage phase.  If a ship becomes damaged, it marks off ⅓ of its power boxes with a D.  If it becomes disabled, it marks off the next ⅓ with a D.  Power boxes with a D can never be recharged when a ship is selected to move.  Ship power is not protected by Reinforced Systems and always is lost at the rate of ⅓ per damage level.

Using Power

Initiative Phase

‘Power to Sensors!' - A ship may boost its Sensor (Standard Starmada: ECM) rating by 1 for each point of Power spent.  This may then be used as normal for either ECM or EPM before the end of the initiative phase.  These additional levels of Sensors do not count for the purposes of marking off Sensor damage boxes and disappear at the end of the current turn.

‘Power to Shields!' - A ship may boost its Shield Strength (Standard Starmada: Armor) rating by 1 point for each point of power spent.  All Shield Strength boxes are added ‘in front of' the current Shield Strength boxes and are lost first if the ship takes damage.  Shield Strength cannot be added above the maximum Shield Strength of the ship, total. The temporary Shield Strength boxes provided by this use of power disappear at the end of the turn in which they are created.

Movement Phase

‘Power to impulse engines!' - A ship may boost its Thrust rating by one point for each two points of energy spent.  These temporary points do not count for the purposes of marking off Impulse damage and are marked off at the end of the current turn.  Temporary thrust points may be used to commit Evasive Maneuvers as per the Starmada rules.

‘Power to tachyon emitters!' - The only known way to pierce cloaking devices is the careful use of tachyon emitters.  A player may spend one power point to force one enemy ship to re-roll the ‘detect cloak' dice when that ship is selected, or roll an additional time if the ship was already selected to move this phase.  If a ‘1' is rolled, the opposing player must stop re-rolling.   

Combat Phase
‘Power to targeting sensors!' - A ship may spend two Power points to ignore any -1 penalty for one weapons battery.  Ex: A ship may spend four points to ignore a -2 penalty imposed on one of weapon battery, or two ignore two -1 penalties imposed on two separate weapons batteries.  A ship may NOT spend points to ignore the penalties imposed by damaged weapons batteries.

‘Power to weapons!' - While not all weapons are responsive to additional power input, most starships mount energy weapons which can take an overload charge.  For every two energy points spent, any weapon with no special qualities (other than ‘Diffuse') may move the final result of its number of attack dice up by one. .  This does not modify and is applied only after the +/- on the standard Starmada chart, but the TOTAL number of attack dice the ship may roll.  For example, if a Mk 9 Phaser Emitter (Rng 9 / Diffuse) whose final attack dice number was 1 spent four energy points, it could roll 3 attack dice.  This can be used to move a ship up from zero attack dice.

‘Power to structural integrity!' - If a ship elects to engage in Damage Control rather than firing, the ship may spend up to two points of energy on each Damage Control dice roll.  Each point of energy adds +2 to the Damage Control dice.  Thus, if one point of energy is spend, a dice roll of 3 counts as a 5.  If two are spent, it would count as a 6.  The player may choose which dice to spend energy on, but must choose before the dice are rolled.