Playtest Game 1

[alanwebber (OP)]

This is a trial game between two basic ships to test the rules and give Erik a chance to point out any errors in my method of play. Once combat is joined I will post one turn a day to give time for reflection.

The ships are based on the v2 playtest destroyers as follows:-

Hull type - Picket
Weapons - 6 x 25cm Near IR Laser - 3 per broadside
Primitive Fission Reactors x 30 generating 600 power
Sensor I / Channel 1 / Resolution 1 / Signature 1 giving a detection range of 10 hexes.
Prototype Inertial Compensators
Alpha Shields and Alpha Armor
Basic Nuclear Torch Engine giving 3 thrust
Class 1 FTL engine

Both ships start with active sensors and shields operational.

This gives an initial signature of 61 (1360 tons / 20) + 18 (Active Sensors) + 9 (Shields) + 38 (Engines) = 126m.

Target acquisition starts at 10 hexes based on the formula - Signature - Resolution +/- ECM + Acquisition + Crew Grade

For these ships this is 126 - 40 + 0 + 40 + 0 = 126. Thus once within 10 hexes, acquisition is automatic.

The starting positions are shown in the attached file.

[alanwebber (OP)]

Turn 1

Both ships are moving at speed 3. (NOTE - it is tempting to keep inceasing speed but, then both ships will shoot past one another and spend the next few turns trying to reduce speed to get into range).

As no-one is within detection range, both ships move towards each other 3 hexes in a straight line.

Turn 2 & 3 & 4 & 5

Ditto

Range is now 18 and both ships have detected the other's active emissions.

Turn 6

Red ship applies 1 thrust straight forward giving a 180 vector of 4.
Blue ship applies 1 thrust to turn 60 degrees clockwise (tonnage / 2500 rounded up per hex) and applies 1 thrust. It now has vectors of 0 (3) and 60 (1).

Initiative is rolled for both ships. Red 3 Blue 5. Blue moves first - rotates 60 degrees moves 3 forward and 1 at 60 degrees Red moves 4 forward.

Range is now 11 - no firing possible.

[alanwebber (OP)]

Turn 7

Pre-turn - no actions
Initiative - Red 7 Blue 6

Red moves first - 4 straight forward 1 thrust to rotate clockwise and bring broadside to bear.
Blue moves 3 forward and 1 60 deg forward. Also has broadside on target.
Range = 4. Lasers are Class VI weapons and so hit on 72 or less on D100.

Blue fires first. 3 lasers roll 46 / 10 /91. Blue then uses 1 thrust to roll the ship and fire the other broadside. 3 lasers roll 76 / 97 / 16. Therefore 2 hits from volley 1 and 1 hits from volley 2. 25 cm NIR lasers do 2 EM and 4 Thermal damage. Alpha shields protect against 0 EM, 15 Thermal, 10 Kinetic, 2 Mitigation and 25 collapse. Volley 1 does 4 EM and 8 Thermal. This is reduced to 2 EM and 6 thermal by mitigation and then to 2 EM and 0 thermal by the shields. The second volley does 2 EM and 4 thermal which is negated by the shields. This results in the collapse value of the shields reducing to 23.

Red returns fire. 3 lasers roll 18 / 65 / 37 - 3 hits. Red then rolls for 1 thrust and fires other broadside. 53 / 46 / 43 - 3 hits. Each volley does 6 EM and 12 thermal damage. This is reduced to 4 EM and 10 thermal by mitigation  and then to 4 EM and 0 thermal by the shields. This gives a total of 8 EM damage to the shields reducing the collapse value to 17.

In the bookkeeping phase, the shields regenerate (no regeneration in this scenario) and rebalance. For red this gives a new collapse value of 24.5 and for blue 23.

The next turn will await comments from Erik as to the moves so far.

[Erik L]

Turn 7

Pre-turn - no actions
Initiative - Red 7 Blue 6

Red moves first - 4 straight forward 1 thrust to rotate clockwise and bring broadside to bear.
Blue moves 3 forward and 1 60 deg forward. Also has broadside on target.
Range = 4. Lasers are Class VI weapons and so hit on 72 or less on D100.

Blue fires first. 3 lasers roll 46 / 10 /91. Blue then uses 1 thrust to roll the ship and fire the other broadside. 3 lasers roll 76 / 97 / 16. Therefore 2 hits from volley 1 and 1 hits from volley 2. 25 cm NIR lasers do 2 EM and 4 Thermal damage. Alpha shields protect against 0 EM, 15 Thermal, 10 Kinetic, 2 Mitigation and 25 collapse. Volley 1 does 4 EM and 8 Thermal. This is reduced to 2 EM and 6 thermal by mitigation and then to 2 EM and 0 thermal by the shields. The second volley does 2 EM and 4 thermal which is negated by the shields. This results in the collapse value of the shields reducing to 23.

Red returns fire. 3 lasers roll 18 / 65 / 37 - 3 hits. Red then rolls for 1 thrust and fires other broadside. 53 / 46 / 43 - 3 hits. Each volley does 6 EM and 12 thermal damage. This is reduced to 4 EM and 10 thermal by mitigation  and then to 4 EM and 0 thermal by the shields. This gives a total of 8 EM damage to the shields reducing the collapse value to 17.

In the bookkeeping phase, the shields regenerate (no regeneration in this scenario) and rebalance. For red this gives a new collapse value of 24.5 and for blue 23.

The next turn will await comments from Erik as to the moves so far.

The only issue I see is in the shield area, and I replied to your email regarding that. Otherwise, looks good so far.

[alanwebber (OP)]

Turn 7  - corrected damage

Red ship takes 2 volleys on the port shield - volley 1 = 4 EM + 8 Th - volley 2 = 2 EM + 4 Th

Mitigation reduces volley 1 to 2 EM + 6 Th. The 6 thermal reduce the thermal shield protection from 15 to 9 and the collapse value from 25 to 19. The 2 EM penetrate the shields and hit the armor reducing the armor protection value to 8 and the armor collapse value to 3. Volley 2 is reduced to 2 Thermal and reduces the shield thermal protection to 7 and the collapse value to 17. In the bookkeeping phase the shields are regenerated (I'm allowing 2 pts per turn) so the thermal protection increases to 9 and rebalancing gives a thermal protection across the 4 shields of 13/14/13/14 (Forward / Port / Aft / Starboard). I'm not sure if the collapse value also increases via regeneration.

Blue ship takes 2 volleys of 6 EM + 12 Th. Both are reduced to 4 EM + 10 Th.

Volley 1. The 10 thermal reduces the shield thermal protection to 5 and the collapse value to 15. The 4 EM penetrates the shields and hits the armor, reducing the EM protection to 6 and the collapse value to 1.

Volley 2. The 10 thermal is reduced to 5 by the protection (collapse value to 10?) which then hits the armor. This reduces the damage to 0 and collapses the armor. The 4 EM also is stopped by the armor reducing the protection to 2. The armor will provide no further protection against any type of damage.

In the bookkeeping phase, the shields have not collapsed so the thermal protection is increased by 2 and the shields are 15/15/15/2. These rebalance to 12/12/12/11. However,the shields will not take much more damage before collapsing and the armor is already gone.

I'm also allowing each ship to have 1 damage control crew each but there is nothing to repair at the moment. Damage control occurs in the pre-turn phase.

Alan

[alanwebber (OP)]

Turn 8

Pre-turn phase:-
Initiative - Red 10 / Blue 4 - Red moves first. Note this is important for Blue as he needs to keep his damaged shield away from the Red ship. If he had to go first and fire last, he would either have to move to keep away or roll the ship to bring an undamaged shield into arc. This would reduce his other options i.e. to roll in the combat phase or turn in the movement phase.

Movement
Red - rotate 2 hexsides for 2 thrust. Move 4 in direction 4 (see direction compass on map).
Blue - rotate 2 hexsides for 2 thrust. Move 3 in direction 1 and 1 in direction 2.

Combat - Range = 6

To hit die roll = 58 or less.

Blue to fire first. Any damage applied to Red's starboard shield (as ship has rolled in previous turn).

Starboard volley rolls 27 / 70 / 26 - 2 hits

Blue then rolls and fires port volley.  Die rolls - 19/39/92 - 2 hits.

Each pair of hits does 4 EM and 8 Thermal reduced to 2 EM and 6 Thermal.

The 6 thermal reduces the starboard shield protection from  14 to 8 and the collapse drops from 17 to 11. The 2 EM bypasses the shields and reduces the armor protection to 6 and the collapse to 1.

The second volley reduces the protection value to 2 and the collapse value to 5. The 2 EM bypasses the shields again and drops the protection to 4 and breaches the armor.

The armor will not protect the ship from further attacks.

Red then returns fire, rolling the ship after the first volley. Damage will hit Blue's port shield (it rolled in the combat phase).

Starboard volley die rolls - 44/73/30 - 2 hits
Port volley die rolls - 3/17/20 - 3 hits

Volley 1 does 4 EM and 8 Thermal reduced to 2 EM and 6 Thermal. The 6 thermal reduce the port shield thermal protection from 12 to 6 and the collapse value drops to 4. The 2 EM bypasses the shields and armor (already breached) and does 1 structure damage (from 680 to 679) and one internal damage point. Rolling 2d10 on the damage table, result is 13 (structure hit - reduced to 678).

Volley 2 does 6 EM and 12 Thermal reduced to 4 EM and 10 thermal. The 10 thermal reduces the protection value to 0, collapses the shield and allows 4 damage to hit the internal systems. The 4 EM bypass everything. Total internal hit points = 8. 4 hit structure (674). The other 4 roll 2d10 each - 14/9/14/12 = 4 structure (670).

Bookkeeping phase.
Blue - shields are at 12/0/12/11 Thermal but cannot regenerate or rebalance as they have collapsed. If Blue cannot repair their shields next turn, with no shields or armor, they are in deep trouble.

Red - shields are at 13/14/13/2 with a collapse value of 5. They regenerate to 13/14/13/4 and then rebalance to 11/11/11/11. Although they are still quite strong, the collapse value means they will probably collapse next turn. *EDIT* The collapse value also gains regeneration points to end at 7.

Over to Erik for comments. Question - if a DCC repairs the Blue shield, does this mean its collapse value returns to its starting value or something else?

Alan

[dalord0]

I feel I must point out that your lasers only fire once every 4 turns

Cheers
Dalord

Ignore I just read the other thread 

[Erik L]

Shields brought back online from collapse have their full collapse value, however, any reduced protection still needs to be regenerated.

[alanwebber (OP)]

Turn 9

To reiterate:-

Blue Shields thermal protection 12/0/12/11 currently collapsed. Armor breached. Thrust 3/1/0/0/0/0 Structure 670
Red Shields thermal protection 11/11/11/11 Collapse 7. Armor breached. Thrust 0/0/0/4/0/0 Structure 680

Pre turn.

Blue rolls to repair shields. Requires 7+ for damage control crew -1 drm for damaged system. d10 = 1 - no repair

Initiative

Red = 2 Blue = 9. Blue moves first and fires last.

Blue decides its time to put some distance between them and the enemy so that they have time to repair their shields.

He also puts his sensors into passive mode so that he is undetectable above range 10.

It therefore fires 3 thrust in the direction it's facing. This gives it vectors of 3/1/0/0/0/3. These consolidate to 4/0/0/0/0/2

Red realises what's happening and turns 1 hexside anticlockwise and fires 2 thrust. This gives the ship vectors or 0/2/0/4/0/0 which consolidate to 0/0/2/2/0/0.

The range is now 13 so Blue has dropped off Red's sensors and it is unlikely that he can catch the Blue ship. Blue decides discretion is the better part of valour so stops his engines and activates his FTL drive to escape.

I intend to start a new game tomorrow between 2 pirate ships (which happen to be the same as the ones used in this game) and one "modern" Terran destroyer.

[Erik L]

Just to clarify, how are you designating the thrust and vectors? 000/060/120/180/240/300? By my count, Blue should have a final speed/vector of 3/0/0/0/0/2 or 4/0/0/0/0/1. I'd be inclined to rule in the favor of the first as it is how the numbers add up. The 000-1 hex is a "phantom" 000 movement as the 3 thrust in 300 are applied after the 1 speed in 060, which negate the 060 vector and one point of the 300 vector. Blue has moved 4 hexes in 000 and 1 hex in 300, but the vectors are still 3 000 and 2 300.

Unless I completely misread the movements you gave him

On the other hand I'm looking forward to see what happens with your 2v1 pirate vs. hunter scenario. Depending on what design the hunter is, I see a couple of possible outcomes, and think you will too by the first round of actual gunfire.

[alanwebber (OP)]

Erik

Prior to thrust, it had vectors of 000 (3) and 060 (1). It now applied 3 thrust in direction 300. If you trace this through on the board, this equates to 4 in direction 000 and 2 in direction 300 (unless I'm misreading something). At least it's not in full 3D as in AV-T or SITS or we'd be here till Christmas discussing it!!!

Alan

[Erik L]

Right, so he moves 3 in 000, 1 in 060, and 3 on 300. Which looks like 4 in 000 and 1 in 300. Look at the attached file. The black line is his current turn move. The red line would have been the movement he makes the next turn (if he'd not jumped).

[alanwebber (OP)]

Erik

Should be 4 in 000 and 2 in 300 both times. The vertical line should be one longer for the second move.