Rules and Mechanics

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Rules and Mechanics

Postby Terl Obar » Fri Dec 05, 2008 9:38 pm

This topic will be updated as need to clarify any of the rules or mechanics of the game as we go along. For those not familiar with the Second Sathar War (SWII) game rules, you can find the relevant information on pages 55-60 of the Knight Hawks(KH) Campaign Book(KHCB). The tactical combat rules for spacecraft are contained in the UPF Tactical Operation Manual (UPFTOM). Both can be found as part of this PDF file containing the complete contents of the KH boxed set. (warning it's a 21MB zip file).

The game will be played out in the following manner once all the ships are set up.
  1. The strategic game will happen in no slower than real time - i.e. one game day per real day. There will occasionally be stretches where ships are just moving along and unless someone PM's me saying they want to change direction or some such I'll move things along a bit faster. Once we get to a combat situation, things will slow down
  2. We'll try to move the tactical combat portion of the game along at a fairly good clip as well. The goal will be at least one turn per week. Combat resolution will follow the following pattern:
    1. Defender sets up
    2. Attacker sets up
    3. Attacker moves
    4. Defender declares defensive fire
    5. Attacker declares offensive fire
    6. Defender moves
    7. Attacker declares defensive fire
    8. Defender declares offensive fire
    9. Return to step 3 and repeat
    The goal is to have steps 3-8 take no more than a day each
  3. We'll have a separate thread for each battle so when multiple battles occur on the same game day we can run them simultaneously.
  4. I will be the referee for the game and will manage all the maps and die rolling. You just have to post where you want to move your ships and who you want to fire at.
Rule Clarifications
  • From the SWII rules we will be using the optional Replacements rule but not the Shatter Drone rule (unless you really want to.)
  • We will play out the tactical combat using the Advanced Rules from the UPFTOM.
  • We will be using the ship characteristics as posted in the UPFTOM for all of the ships. This means that Heavy Cruisers, Assault Carriers and Battleships will not be able to move at more than Risk Jump 2 speed and Minelayers cannot Risk Jump at all. Assault Carriers can hold up to 8 Fighters.
  • Only ships making Risk Jumps are used to determine the risk jump success chance. e.g. if your battleship doesn't actually make the jump you don't get the benefit of it's astrogation bonus.
  • Repairing after a battle - At the end of a battle, if surviving ships have any unrepaired damage, the players will submit a list of the damaged systems in the order they want to attempt to repair them. I will allocate 40 repair rolls per day per ship to attempt to repair the damage (20 hours, 1 roll every 30 minutes). For the day of the combat, I will subtract the number of repair turns the ships had during the battle from the 40 available rolls to represent the time already used up.
  • Movement and turning - Remember you have to move forward one hex before you can turn and you can only turn one hexside in any give hex.
  • When setting up on the combat map, the attacking fleet must set up within three hexes of the map edge they are entering from. The speed of the attacking ships can be whatever the controlling player wants. The ships don't all have to be at the same speed, but the range in speeds for the fleet must not be greater than 10 hexes/turn. updated 12/08/08
Rule Variations
  • Defensive Fire - We will not be using the defensive fire rule as stated in the UPFTOM. Rather instead of applying the damage immediately we will be letting the attacking ships fire before the damage is applied.
  • Small change to the UPF unattached ships list from the printed rules. The minelayer in the unattached ships should be an Assault Carrier. We will play it as such. updated 12/08/08
The Laws of Physics will be enforced.
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Re: Rules and Mechanics

Postby simplymenotu » Sat Dec 06, 2008 1:25 pm

Where/To Whom will we state Victory Conditions?
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Re: Rules and Mechanics

Postby Terl Obar » Sat Dec 06, 2008 1:42 pm

The Sathar team will PM me with their choice of Retreat Condition once they have decided on it. I'll declare a winner when we get that far.
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Re: Rules and Mechanics

Postby Terl Obar » Mon Dec 08, 2008 11:08 am

Small additions to the rules clarifications above.
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Re: Rules and Mechanics

Postby Shadow Shack » Mon Dec 22, 2008 7:11 am

One rule mechanics Q --- can masking screens be recharged anywhere (since they're merely water) or do the fleets have to dry dock/return to start circles for that?
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Re: Rules and Mechanics

Postby Terl Obar » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:24 am

Good question. I think we'll play it like this. If you control the system (i.e. no enemy ships) then you can recharge Masking Screens in that system regardless of resupply. If there are enemy ships around, you can't (assume that they would harass you to prevent it).
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Re: Rules and Mechanics

Postby Shadow Shack » Tue Dec 23, 2008 4:16 am

Sounds fair.
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Re: Rules and Mechanics

Postby Will » Wed Dec 24, 2008 11:28 am

Agreed.
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Re: Rules and Mechanics

Postby Aethelwulffe » Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:03 pm

Just a clarification request:

I always dispensed with mid-point defensive fire (and got rid of offensive/defensive fire entierly in KHV) due to an omission in the rules. That was the handling of offensive fire. In a sort of afterthought paragraph in the UPF TOM, defensive fire can be delared active at any point during the Moving Players track, but there is no provision for the moving player to do so (I.E. declare attacks at any point during his move.) This makes defensive fire very much more effective than offensive, especially for head-ons etc... It is also counter-intuitive to the sequence of play, Side A moves, everyone shoots, side B moves, everyone shoots. This means, that side A moves....now we start worrying about at what point we fire, gotta remember the track that ship took etc.. I admit I have never really liked that part of KH, and always dropped it in favor of A. initiative loser moves, initiative winner moves, initiative winner resolves fire, initiative loser resolves fire.
Wrapping up...How is offensive fire handled for this game? Must I end my movement (as the rules actually seem to indicate) at the spot where I wish to fire from? Or can I fire defensively at the end (or any point) of the other player's turn, move one hex on my turn to close range to 0, fire offensively, then finish my movement?
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Re: Rules and Mechanics

Postby simplymenotu » Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:16 pm

I assumed we were playing "Fire anywhere during your move". Of course if you choose hex 0 the Defensive player would probably choose the same. The Moving Player's advantage is MPO's.

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Re: Rules and Mechanics

Postby Terl Obar » Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:58 pm

Yes, offensive fire and defensive fire can occur anywhere along the path (which is why I draw them on the maps) and are resolved simultaneously.
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