FC Madness This is a weird sort of mashup of FedCom, some bits of SFB we like, and a bunch of experimental madness. It reintroduces some secret data to FC, because I think such a game needs _some_ secret data. For reference, things are only secret if these rules say they are. Otherwise, as in FC, they are public. Generally decisions are me-too, as in FC. The game is played in 32-impulse turns, like SFB, but only the most important things - like firing - happen every impulse. Movement is SFB-style with units travelling at any speed from 0 to 32. There _is_ an 8-impulse minimum delay between firing a given weapon on one turn and firing it on the next, as in SFB. [Note: I was trying 16-impulse turns on for size. Totally messes up turn modes, the ph-3, etc. Never mind.] A large experimental change is the use of Command and Control cards, which can be used to bend the rules in various ways. I have ripped about 2/3 of that system out because it was sheer lunacy. Otherwise it is played kind of like FC, I think. The Sequence of Play is a bit similar, anyway. Here is is, intermingled with commentary so you have no clue what is going on. 1) Calculate available power. Ships pay "housekeeping", the total of their SFB shields/fire control/life support costs. On a cruiser, this is 4 energy. * If you can't pay housekeeping, you can do very little; keep shields up, do Defensive Fire with ADDs (and other zero-power weapons?) and power already in the phaser capacitor (see below), do a zero-energy turn (er, we need a rule for that. Declare it at the very start of the turn, resolve it at the very end?). Or, drop shields altogether and use whatever power output you have for any purpose you please. You can also do repairs without energy. * Ships have a phaser capacitor. This holds energy sufficient to fire half the phasers on the ship, rounded up to the nearest whole point, and normally begins a scenario full. The energy in it may normally only be used for phaser fire; phasers may also be fired with normal discretionary power (but there is no point in doing so if energy is available in the capacitor). If phasers are destroyed, the capacitor reduces in size at the end of the turn (change from SFB), potentially wasting unused energy. * Power mostly works like in FC; if you don't spend it on your speed, it's discretionary power to be used for whatever you like during the turn. 2) Draw C&C cards. These are not shuffled; you take whichever sorts you prefer from the deck, and keep them secret until you use them. Before drawing, you may discard any number of C&C cards. Draw one card for each ship (which belongs _to_ that ship); a given ship may only have two C&C cards. A ship with no control boxes may not draw or benefit from C&C cards but retains any cards it holds. A ship captured by someone other than the original owner does not draw cards unless it has a Legendary Major of Marines aboard. A command ship with at least one undestroyed Bridge or Flag Bridge box - any ship described as "command", any ship with a Flag Bridge, the Klingon C7 BCH - may play its cards on friendly ships; any ship with a lower movement cost, any ship with the same movement cost and a lower BPV, any freighter or naval auxiliary on the same side. 3) Tractor auctions; any tractor beams in place need a point of energy to continue them, and could be fought by negative tractor by the victims. 3a) Tractor rotations. If you held your tractor, you may move whichever of the victim and yourself has the lower movement cost (the victim, if equal) one hex. You can't increase the range. Ships' absolute orientation on the map does not change as a result. If you held a tractor on an impacted seeking weapon, you may move it one shield facing in either direction. 3b) Any impacted seeking weapons released from tractor beams may be engaged with phasers (not ADDs). If they strike their targets, resolve the damage now. This counts as Impulse 1 for purposes of the 8-impulse delay. 4) Select speed and heavy weapon loading, secretly and simultaneously. Some heavy weapon loading information remains secret all turn. Ships may select any speed, not just multiples of 8; movement in reverse still costs double; there is no braking energy. A ship at speed zero may make one tactical maneuver on any impulse. There is no distinction between "speed zero" and "stopped"; there is no FC-style acceleration except through the use of C&C cards. The SFB acceleration limit applies; increase speed by 10 or by the previous turn's speed, whichever is higher. Use SFB movement costs if available. * Engine box speed limits. You can't exceed the speed that your undestroyed warp engine boxes would permit, to a maximum of 30. Add one to this number if you have at least one undestroyed impulse engine box. * Multi-turn weapons are loaded normally (for FC) - you make the decision about loading in this stage, secretly, but your opponents get to know what you decided at the same time that speeds are revealed. However; on any turn when a heavy weapon is available to be fired, you decide at this stage in what mode you will fire it. You aren't committed to firing it at all - but if you do fire it, you must fire it in the mode you selected. Most heavy weapons choose between standard loads and overloads. Photon torpedoes may also choose a proximity warhead which has +2 to hit, does 4 points of damage, cannot be fired at overload range, and does not use overload energy. ? Plasma? EPTs? Shotguns? Bolts? The plasma carronade? This needs thought about. Photon overload energy is not associated with a specific photon launcher, but cannot exceed four points for each tube on the ship which is loading or has loaded a torpedo (ie, if you fire standard loads, you lose the overload energy to no avail). It is normally added at the point of firing or, as in FC, at the end of the turn when excess energy would otherwise be lost. As in SFB, overload energy may be used in half-point increments adding 1 point to the warhead for each half point. If you are holding loaded torpedoes, overload energy imposes an additional hold cost of 1/4 the amount of overload energy, paid at this point in the SOP (as all hold costs are). You don't pay overload energy holding costs for tubes which are completing arming on this turn. If you have some tubes loaded and some completing loading, you are a nuisance, er, and only pay for overload energy in excess of four points per tube completing loading. ? Boy, could that use an example. 5) Pay for shield regeneration. As per FC. 6) Impulse procedure: 6a) Ships move in ascending order of speed, like SFB - if tied, resolve by turn mode; if tied, resolve by movement cost (highest first); if tied, the player with the smallest number of C&C cards in hand goes first; if tied, sigh, secret and simultaneous. Ships may decelerate exactly as in FC; deceleration does not affect movement precedence in any way. Use SFB turn modes by speed. Tactical maneuvers are made after all ships move; as FC, one per turn, one point of power, must be at speed zero. A ship that has accelerated when at speed zero could still make TACs, but couldn't make one on an impulse it also moved. 6b) Defensive Fire. Ships hit by seeking weapons resolve the situation as in FC. 6c) The controller asks if players have impulse activity. If no player says "yes", the next impulse is called. If a player does say "yes", they are committed to doing _something_; a player who does not say "yes" may still do something; players are asked in descending order of energy on their ship with the most energy, or something. If you say you are doing something but don't do anything, you pay a penalty of one movement cost of energy from one ship of your choice (blah nominal movement costs for bases). If no ship has sufficient energy, a ship of your opponent's choice pays the penalty during Energy Allocation next turn. If during EA you have no ships with power at all, lucky you? This is not a "making a mistake" penalty, it is explicitly permitted to deliberately make an announcement for deception purposes if you are willing to pay the penalty. 6d) Offensive Fire. Works like FC except as noted below - me-too, split shield is defender's choice. * If a unit fires phasers at a seeking weapon at range 1, it may not also fire phasers at that seeking weapon in Defensive Fire on the next impulse, which represents the same firing opportunities. Hopefully this won't mean a nightmare of bookkeeping. * No leak points. Shield reinforcement is as per FC, from discretionary power up to number of batteries. ? You can buy a second round of reinforcement at two energy per box. * Use the Star Fleet Battles Damage Allocation Chart. There's an anti-Mizia rule coming, don't worry. Funky SFB DAC rules (phaser directional damage restriction, "best weapon" hits) don't exist. * Use the FC "take a Frame/Excess Damage hit to save the last box of something". Clarification: it's the last box if there is exactly one box that could be destroyed by the hit you have taken on the DAC. * Ignore all Sensor and Scanner, and Damage Control hits; they do not absorb points of damage. Reverse the order of the Hull/Probe hits on row 12. ? Optionally, if SFB SSDs are available, use Damage Control hits. If so, reverse the Hull/Damcon hits on DAC row 2. The Repairs card may be used immediately before the Repair phase to erase a Damcon hit from a given ship, in which case it provides no other benefits. Ordinary damage control may (obviously) not repair DamCon hits. * Splash damage. When a ship takes damage, all other ships in the hex take splash damage equal to the square root of the damage done, rounded down, on the shield facing whatever did the damage. Ships in adjacent hexes take half this damage (round up) on the shield facing the target. The firing ship takes damage only at range zero. This does not apply if the damage is from a source such as dust clouds or mines that inherently affects all ships in a hex. [Rationale - anti-stacking.] * Fire control interference. It is hard to fire at a ship if another ship is busy filling space with high energy discharges. When ship A fires at ship B, this imposes a penalty on other fire at ship B for the next four impulses. For each weapon fired at effective range, a -1 penalty is imposed on a weapon fired by subsequent attackers; if there are fewer penalties than weapons, the attacker may choose which weapons are penalised. If multiple ships direct fire at one ship simultaneously, the same penalties apply, but each attacker may ignore one other attacker of their choice - hence there is no effect unless three or more ships are firing. * "effective range" is that range at which a weapon's expected damage, absent any situational penalties, is at least 1 point. Any photon or disruptor fire is "effective", and I suspect any heavy weapons fire is. ph-1 are effective at range 15, ph-2 at range 8, ph-3 at range 3. * You may not fire at a friendly ship to induce this penalty on enemy fire. It might make sense, but computer interlocks are designed to avoid accidental friendly fire. Exception: a Legendary Weapons Officer could do so. ? This could use an example too. [Rationale - squadron actions aren't just about picking a target and everyone killing it. It also provides an anti-Mizia rule] 6e) Shields, Transporters, Tractors. Tractors work as in Star Fleet Battles in that range 2 or 3 pays 2 or 3 points of energy per point of effective tractor, and that each ship divides its movement energy by the total movement cost to find out when it moves. ? and there's some rule that stops tractored blobs moving two hexes then none but I forget what it is... ? cloaks. Less dismal than FedCom? ? erratic maneuvers - how? 6f) Launch seeking weapons (and shuttles only on impulses divisible by four, with the FC launch/land rates applying). 6g) Emergency decelerate (as per FC) on impulses divisible by four. The end of the turn is much the same as in FC except that you might dump unused energy into the phaser capacitor. Repairs work as in FC, and you may shift shield boxes as in FC. Don't discard unused energy until the very end of the turn, there are probably some things to spend it on. * Drones and the ADD. Drones move speed-20 not speed-24. The ADD can never fire at a drone which has impacted and been tractored then released. (I think this is a clarification). In Defensive Fire, friendly ships within three hexes may use their ADDs to assist you. [Rationale: I think the ADD was weakened too much; FC BPVs are a bit random anyway, but ships with multiple ADDs suffer badly; and part of the idea is to reintroduce a few SFBisms.] [Treknobabble: you can't fire at a drone three hexes away which has *not* just hit a friendly ship because drones are compelled to slow for terminal attack maneuvers and it is then that an ADD can destroy them.] Federation drone racks may accommodate any mix of drones and ADD ammo. The loadout is public, and may change each time the rack is reloaded. * C&C cards. You are encouraged to comment on the relative strength of the cards in this list. Unless otherwise noted, they are always played on the friendly ship which owns them. 1) DRAIN WEAPONS Play when the ship is to use energy for any purpose or when about to fire heavy weapons. a) Drain the phaser capacitor. Empty your phaser capacitor and add the energy to the ship's discretionary power; you must then use at least some discretionary power for some purpose. b) Drain weapons. Remove any amount of energy from heavy weapons that store it (such as photons). You may spend it on holding costs (if applicable); add one half of the remainder to your discretionary power. You must then spend some energy for some purpose (including paying holding costs with the freed energy) or fire some heavy weapons that store power (which need not be of the type that were drained). You cannot revert a heavy weapon to a previous loading turn (eg, if you had a photon torpedo ready to fire, you could not extract 1 point of discretionary power and turn it into a preloaded torpedo. You could only extract 2 points and unload the tube). Rolling delay and holding costs do not increase the total energy available; a weapon contains only the minimum energy needed to load it normally to the current state. 2) DAMAGE CONTROL a) Repairs. Play immediately after the ship is damaged, or during the normal Repair Phase. The ship may repair internal systems with twice its normal Damage Control rating. A weapon destroyed and immediately repaired with this card does not lose any ability to fire later in the turn, charges, ammunition, energy, etc; multiply redundant systems saved it from being disabled at all. You can only reload drone racks if played after the Repair Phase; you may, using this card (and only by means of this card) reload a drone rack on a turn it was fired or destroyed. OR Play when the ship would be destroyed by Excess Damage. For each point of Damage Control rating you may ignore one Excess Damage hit. OR Play when firing plasma torpedoes from destroyed launchers. You may use those torpedoes (eg, upgrade warhead) as if the launchers were undestroyed. b) Shield Shift. Play when the ship has taken damage which is about to be resolved, or during the Repair Phase, or when a hostile transporter action is announced against the ship. You may shift five shield boxes exactly as permitted during the Repair Phase (in addition to the normal shift during that Phase). You may also repair any number of shield boxes for two points of energy per box; you may use energy "for reinforcement only" such as that from Emergency Deceleration for shield repairs. If you were taking damage, you could repair boxes on a down shield and then reinforce it normally within the rules, saving energy. If this blocked a hostile transporter action, the enemy ship is not considered to have used its transporters or the energy for same. 3) HELM a) Sharp turn. Play when the ship is about to move. Consider its speed to be halved (round down) for purposes of determining its turn mode, reducing the turn mode by at least one point (yes, this can reduce it to zero, enabling ships starting from an emergency deceleration to turn before moving). OR you may sideslip it regardless of its sideslip mode. b) HET bonus. When you have broken down as the result of a HET, play this card to avoid the breakdown. If SFB SSDs are available, use SFB breakdown ratings. This card instead provides a retroactive +3 bonus to the roll. c) Tactical maneuver. Play when tactical maneuvers are declared, when the ship has already made one this turn. It may make another. You can never make two TACs at the same time. 4) ENGINES a) Acceleration. Play at the start of any impulse. For the remainder of the turn, the ship gains the right to accelerate when it is not due to move. You announce acceleration at the start of any impulse, pay one movement-cost of energy, and move normally. The turn is divided into blocks of impulses 1-4, 5-8, 9-12 etc; after accelerating, you cannot accelerate again in this or the next block. Regardless of how often you accelerated, your speed this turn counts as four points higher for acceleration limits next turn. You CAN accelerate on impulse 1. OR Play when revealing selected speeds. Ignore the acceleration limit. b) Reduce speed. Play at stage 6g on impulses divisible by four. Reduce the ship's speed by 4 or 8 points. Count the difference in actual hexes of movement received in the remainder of the turn, and receive the appropriate amount of energy, which must be non-zero. If the change would bring your next movement forwards, you do not take it, but you do not receive discount energy for it. OR Play when Emergency Decelerating. The power freed for reinforcement is not halved. c) Move priority. Play when the ship is due to move. It moves after all other ships which have not used this card. If multiple ships have used this card, the normal movement priority determines the order they take their moves in. This card does cause you to move after ships making TACs. 5) FIRE CONTROL Play when declaring fire. a) You may adjust the count of hexes on the board by up to two. You cannot do this more than once for any given ship's fire on any given impulse. This card cannot let a weapon fire at a range that would be impossible otherwise - eg, an overload from outside overload range. It also can never shift a weapon by more than one range bracket on its firing chart. b) Play when you are declaring fire; you may ignore your secret orders for the ship's heavy weapons. 6) LEADERSHIP a) Play a C&C card from any ship on any other ship, ignoring all restrictions on command vessels, undestroyed command boxes, etc. The owner of the target ship must consent (eg, you cannot use FIRE CONTROL in a hostile fashion unless the opponent allows it); if they do not, the cards are wasted. b) Marines. Play before Marine Combat is resolved. Friendly Marines on the nominated ship count as 50% more in number (round up) when inflicting casualties. If played from a ship's C&C cards, the ship can nominate only itself or a ship (friendly or enemy) that has been boarded by its Marines this turn. OR Play when transporting Marines to or from the ship (the other end of the operation can be hostile). You may transport 50% more Marine squads (round up). Summary of SOP 1) Calculate available power. Pay no-action penalties. Pay housekeeping costs. 2) Draw C&C cards. 3) Tractor phase: tractor auctions. 3a) Tractor rotations. 3b) Engage released seeking weapons. 4) Select speed and heavy weapon loading. 5) Shield regeneration. 6) Impulse procedure. 6a) Movement. 6b) Defensive Fire. 6c) Controller calls for impulse activity. 6c1) Offensive Fire. 6c2) Shields. Transporters. Tractors. 6c3) Launch seeking weapons. Launch shuttles on impulses divisible by four. 6c4) Emergency decelerate on impulses divisible by four. 7) End of turn procedure: 7a) Count leftover energy and batteries. 7b) Overload multiturn weapons, charge phaser capacitor. 7c) Erase weapons used. Labs. Boarding actions. 7d) Discard surplus energy. Repair phase.