Over the last few weeks I got the idea to make a board game on my own, and for whatever insanity I decided to carry through, a hex based (Decided it would work better after some deliberation) game of tactical fighter oriented combat.
First out of three rulesets, this is the first one tenativly titled "The early days" focusing on the raiding of the pre-ANH era. I plan to make a Battles"set for more stand up fights for the era after that when they started getting enough resources due to the soaring in support post ANH to pick a few fights, to finally Fleet Action at the ROTJ era where the Rebels take on the heavy capital ships (And no it won't be fighter wank. I can guarantee that)
Well without further ado: The game, very bare bone, but pretty much all the vitals.
Characteristics.
Crew:
Military Grade: Gunnery 3, Piloting 0 Will 3.
Gunnery is of course how good they are at shooting, Piloting is how much bonus to piloting. Every point here gives +1 to evasion, but also to all piloting rolls. Will is resistance against mind affecting force powers and fear.
Craft:
Most common type of craft are fighters
X-wing: Movement: 4 Weaponry: Quad lasers 1 damage +2 to hit OR 4 damage. Evasion: 1 Shield: 5+ Cost: 10 points
Movement is how many hexes it can move but also how many turns it has in total per turn. It can usually only spend one turn per movement, but there are special maneuvers that allow sharper turns. Weaponry lists the default weapons, a lot of craft have more than one fire mode like this X-wing that can either fire the lasers as rapid fire to increases chances of a hit or link them to do more damage when hitting larger targets.
We also have starships.
Corellian Corvette: Movement 2, Weaponry: Two Laser turrets 2damage +2 to hit, Raking special effect. Hull: 10 Shield 30 (10) Cost: 30 points
Ships are noticeable different. First unlike fighters moving isn't mandatory for them. And they can turn without moving, they still got the same cap on it though. Unlike Fighter shields these shields can actually survive a few direct hits. The number behind it is regeneration, how much shield is regenerated per turn. Ships unlike fighters do not get any benefit from piloting and gunnery and will is what matters.
Initiative: Rolled at the start of every turn. He who rolls highest chooses who goes first then they alternate moving units until everyone has moved. Shooting usually follows the same pattern, but it's not as important because firing effects unless specified otherwise in description don't take effect until the end phase.
Turn phases: Initiative, Movement, Shooting, End
Movement:
Fighters in space never stop. They also manouver unlike any space ship a person from the 20th century would expect. Infact they handle more like real fighters.
Regular movement is that if you turn you have to immediately move a hex forward, if you can't move forward you can't turn.
There are however a few maneuvers to get around that.
Perhaps most useful is the immelman maneuver. All fighters with atleast 3 movement can do this. To do it simply move forward 3 hexes without turning at all, and at the third hex you simply turn your ship 180 degrees.
Another key maneuver is simply sharper turn. It's a way to turn more than one facing per turn. To use it state the intent and roll for it. You need a result of 4 or more to succeed for 2 facings and you add +1 to all extra facings after that. Piloting bonus is added. The number of facings turned in a full turn can still not exceed your movement though. If you fail the additional turn is lost, G-forces have overcome your pilot and forced him to drop it, you turn one facing and move one forward as normal.
You can also do a complete stop using your entire turn's movement, however that drops all arcs firing on you to 0 and the turn you stop you can't turn at all although you can turn freely standing still the next turn.
Finally you can do a double movement a turn in return for well... Any other action, You can't change direction or use special abilities, but you move twice ahead. The only action you can take is firing at +1 difficulty.
There is a minimum movement of 3 or half, whichever is the highest.
Shooting: All guns got 60 degree forward arc. It is assumed that the pilot somehow manages to nudge his craft enough to fire even a bit off axis from his current course, however, unless the craft has vectored guns it get a 2+ shot difficulty penalty if shooting through other hex than the front one.
Shooting is shot difficulty VS targetting.
For instance X-wing flight Red fires on TIE flight Omega. TIE flight omega is front to front which gives 0 affect on angle, is within short range, but it has 2 evasion. Which means shot difficulty 2. The X-wing has military grade crew with 3 Gunnery skill. That means it needs 4 baseline, +2 for Evasion. 6, however it's rapid firing which gives it +2 to gunnery skill pushing it back down to 4. It needs 4s to hit.
A basic unit is a flight with 4 fighters and hence start out with 4 shots per turn, as they take casualities that goes down.
For shot difficulty if it exceeds a roll of six the unit gets reduced to one dice that hits on a six irregardless, it represents the odds being so bad that only a really lucky hit can do anything.
For shooting angle means a lot. A craft is easier to hit at certain angles when moving than others. Static targets (Such as outposts) always have difficulty 0, but moving fighters get the following table to use there:
Front: 0
Front-Left: +2 Front-Right: +2
Rear Left: +1 Rear Right: +1
Rear: -1
Turrets shooting out from fighters must abide this also.
Damage is irrelevant when shooting at fighters since all of them have only one hit, but it matters a lot against ships which have quite a bit more.
Fire modes: A lot of weapons have more than one firing mode, usually it's linking and rapid fire. Linking is combining all of the guns in one salvo for maximum punch, while rapid fire makes use of the guns rate of fire to increase odds of a hit. As a simple rule for every doubling of the guns you get +1 to hit. So an X-wing with 4 guns get +2 while a Y-wing with 2 guns only get +1. A B-wing with 3 guns only get +1 too.
Ranges: Ranges are 3 hex long each, Short range is up to and including 3 hexes away from the firer, medium up to and including 6 and long 9. Beyond that it's lucky shots only. For short range it's no modifier for range, at everything beyond that it's +1 for each range set
1-3Short: 0
4-6Medium: +1
7-9Long +2
10+ Extreme 1 dice with 6+ to hit only
Missile weapons: Missile weapons are in general torpedoes and they come in two kinds, anti fighter and anti capship.
Anti fighter are the means which fighters can fight at long range, the act of locking and firing takes a full turn which you have to travel in a straight line, once it's locked on it's an opposing roll between the firing unit and the target unit, however the target unit adds total evasion score to his, they do however have infinite range so they are a good weapon while closing at long range, though the opponent gets full benefits no matter what speed he's traveling at except if standing still.
Anti Capship are a bit more complex. They are intended to be locked, but it's not a must, they can be snapfired.
However you must be within long range. To use either snap shot or do an attack run.
When taking a snap shot you maneuver normally, but in the firing phase fire torpedoes instead of lasers, they do however get -1 to hit using gunnery skill.
Attack run is less healthy, you can make no more than 1 turn of 1 facing and have to head towards the target using your turn to lock on. For fighters equipped with Proton torpedoes (Like X-wings with the Proton Torp upgrade), it merely means no penalty, for dedicated bombers (Like the Y-wing and TIE bomber) they get +1 to hit due to optimized targeting equipment for the job.
Anti-cap Proton Torpedoes do 10 damage per fighter/Bomber firing unless specified otherwise.
Turrets: Fighter turrets are self defense weapons only, they get no targetting bonus and they use the table for angle for firing out, so beyond short range they won't hit much, but they act as discouragement to get too close and that is valuable in it's own right
Starship laser turrets are meaner though, they got "Raking" special ability, it basically means it rolls one dice for every fighter in the enemy unit.
Turbolasers: Powerful antiship guns that count their range increments in 5 instead of 3 and do a lot more damage, they do however get a -1 to hit against fighters, no penalty against capships. Light turbolasers get no penalty up to medium range either meaning they can strike up to 10 with no penalty. Medium Turbolasers got no range penalties at all and strike to full effect up to 15 range.
Starship mounted weapons do in general not get affected by firing angle of the shooting ships.
In ships straddling the line (Like the Millennium Falcon) it's specified in the rules what turret rules they use.
Ion cannons: Ion cannons are specific capture weapons. They are usually not used against fighters. When firing against capships they do double damage against shield, so a Y-wing with double barrel Ion cannon does 4. Once shields are down it starts disrupting systems so roll on the ion table. While they don't do damage for every five full hits the ship has taken from ion cannons (Rounding down) they add +1 to the Ion table roll. Please note they roll per attack and not per barrel firing. So a full Y-wing flight does 4 rolls, not 8, if all hit.
Fighters hit count as killed even if that isn't usually the case.
Ion table:
1: No effect, it has failed to hit any important systems.
2: Targetting disrupted: For the following turn all gunnery checks get a -1 (Doesn't stack with another two result, but it does stack with any other result)
3: Control systems scrambled All rolls the ship has to make the following turn has a -1 to succeed to a max of 6, this stacks with other results.
4: Engine damaged: The ships speed is reduced by 1 to a minimum of 0
5: Weapon neutralized: 1 weapon (Picked by attacker) on the ship is taken out of action
6: Ship disabled: The ship can't move or fight.
Ships with all weapons and movement neutralized count as disabled. Disabled results do not stack so it only needs to be fixed once.
Repair rolls: At the end of the turn after the effect was applied you can roll to repair permament results. Roll one dice, on a 4+ or more you can null the effects of one permament hit, yes this includes total disabled though the ship counts as under control systems scrambled for the next turn. This roll happens before shots take effect so if it takes more ion hits those results are applied following. Disabled ships get a +1 to all rolls on the Ion table.
Ion cannons do not get attack bonus for doubling numbers of guns.
End phase: All effects of weapons take effect in this turn unless specified otherwise in unit special rules meaning that no fighters or ships actually die until this phase no matter how many hits it's taken.
Miscellaneous:
There are currently 4 types of pilots:
Civilian: Gunnery Skill: 2 Piloting 0 Will: 2
Pirates, private civilians and poorly funded planetary militias tend not to have the best pilots, nor do they tend to be that willing to stick around against overwhelming odds
Military grade: Gunnery Skill 3, Piloting 0, Will: 3
Most proper planetary defense forces got atleast reasonably good pilots. The rebel alliance also tend to make sure those who take their precious few fighters into action are trained to this level.
Imperial grade: Gunnery Skill: 4, Piloting 0, Will: 3
The Empire has vastly more resources than anyone in the galaxy and it shows. They can afford to train their pilots better than just about everyone.
Elite: Gunnery skill 4, Piloting +1, Will: 4
Training isn't everything; the elite pilot is a highly experienced individual with a natural aptitude for combat flying. No rookie, no matter how good his training regime is quite on their level.
Unit organization.
Fighters are bought in squadrons of 1-3 flights. (To be expanded upon)
Ship List:
Rebel Alliance:
Fighters:
X-wing: Movement: 4, Evasion: 1, Weapon: Quad lasers, Shield 5+ Cost: 10 points
Crew: Military.
firing modes:
Rapid fire +2 to attack rolls
Linked fire: 4 damage per shot.
Upgrades:
Anti-fighter torpedoes at 2 points.
Anti-Capship torpedoes at 4 points.
The X-wing is the best the rebels currently field. A solid multi-role fighter and hyperspace capable.
Editors note: Yes Anti capships are probably overpriced, but I'm more worried about it being underpriced and deliberatly set it high.
Y-Wing: Movement 3: Evasion 0, Weaponry: Dual Lasers & Anticap torpedoes, Shield 4+ Points: 10 points.
Crew: Military
Firing modes:
Rapid fire +1 to attack
Linked fire: 2 damage
Torpedo: 10 damage (Torpedo rules)
Upgrades.
Turret, Manned 1 extra attack with 1 laser cannon in any direction using fighter turret rules 3 points
Turret, Pilot controlled: May make a single attack backwards instead of firing the other guns or torpedoes. 1 point extra.
Turret locked forward: Adds +1 to attack roll in rapid fire mode and 2+ damage in linked mode. 2 points
Anti-fighter torpedoes: It can exhange it's torpedoes for anti fighter at no extra cost
Dual Ion cannon: 1 point
Dual Ion cannon manned Turret: 4 points.
Special: Dedicated bomber.
The Y-wing is the Workhorse of the rebel fleet, not very fast, not very high tech, but it can take a few hits. They aren't without their issues though. The Ion cannon in particular has been a problem and hence unless the mission specifically calls for it they have just not bothered to keep it working.
Ships:
Corellian Corvette: Movement 2, Weaponry: Two Laser turrets 2damage +2 to hit, Raking special effect. Hull: 10 Shield 30 (10) Cost: 30 points
Crew: Military
Upgrade: May replace either/both of the turrets with light turbolasers that do 8 damage per shot, retain raking, but as all turbolasers got -1 to hit, at a cost of 2 points per turret.
Upgrade: May add one turret to each side laser turrets each with two attacks and stats 1 Damage +1 to hit, they are limited to hitting targets on their side of the ship, but both can fire directly forward, neither can fire directly backward. Costs: 2 points
The Corellian Corvette is one of the most popular light ships in existence, able to pull of nearly any mission from freight to diplomatic to warship it's probably the most versatile ship in existence and hence sees use by both the rebel alliance and the imperials.
Imperial Ships:
Fighters:
TIE Fighter: Movement 5 Evasion: 2 Weaponry: Twin Imperial lasers (1+ attack 2 damage) Cost: 10 points
Crew: Imperial
The TIE fighter is perhaps the most well known symbol of the empire in existence, it's designed to have minimal mass and very powerful lightweight engines allowing it with a good pilot to outmaneuver any non-imperial fighter. The fact that this in the final analysis is a simple and cheap design has however been seen by people not closely familiar with this craft to signify that it's an inferior craft. Few pilots who make that assumption tend to live long enough to realize their mistake.
TIE Bomber: Movement: 4, Evasion 1, Weaponry Twin Imperial lasers (1+ attack 2 damage) & Anticap torpedoes Cost: 11 points
Crew: Imperial
Special: Dedicated Bomber
Options
Ships:
Corellian Corvette: Movement 2, Weaponry: Two Laser turrets 2damage +2 to hit, Raking special effect. Hull: 10 Shield 30 (10) Cost: 38 points
Crew: Imperial
Upgrades: May replace either/both of the turrets with light turbolasers that do 8 damage per shot, retain raking, but as all turbolasers got -1 to hit against fighters, at a cost of 2 points per turret.
Upgrade: May add one turret to each side laser turrets each with two attacks and stats 1 Damage +1 to hit, they are limited to hitting targets on their side of the ship, but both can fire directly forward, neither can fire directly backward. Costs: 2 points
The Corellian Corvette is one of the most popular light ships in existence, able to pull of nearly any mission from freight to diplomatic to warship it's probably the most versatile ship in existence and hence sees use by both the rebel alliance and the imperials.
Non military:
Light freighter: Movement 2, Weaponry: none, Hull 6: Shield 10(5) Cost: Special
Crew: Civilian
A standard small freighter used in most parts of the galaxy, while a lot are modified to have some defensive weapons most that tend to prowl safer trade routes aren't
Heavy freighter: Movement 1, Weaponry: none, Hull 20: Shield 20(5) Cost: Special
Crew: Civilian
A standard large freighter used in most parts of the galaxy, while a lot are modified to have some defensive weapons most that tend to prowl safer trade routes aren't
Outpost: Movement: Stationary, Weaponry: 1 Starship laser 2+ to hit 2 damage raking, 2 Laser turrets, Hull: 20, Shield 40(10), Cost: 25
Crew: Civilian
Other: These stations may have up to 3 squadrons as local garrison paid for seperatly
A common outpost found along trade routes, in orbit of relativly unimportant planets and too many other places to list. It is the imperial government's responsibility to see to their defense under normal circumstancess
Scenarios:
Notes on scenarios: This package is focused on the early days of the civil war pre-ANH, hence the rebels have a lot less resources and have to fight very dirty.
Convoy raid:
Attacker: Rebel
Description: In the early days of the rebellion the primary means of hurting the empire was to hit the logistics, it was a cheap and relatively safe way of hurting the empire, however over time the imperials started to reinforce these convoys with more defenders, in some cases the rebels ability to succeed was very much in doubt, some of the commanding officers then broke off the raid and tried again at a later time. However many more aggressive officers pressed on and risking precious ships and personnel to strike. This was without a doubt a stupid move. After all, the imperials can replace freighters a lot easier than the rebels can replace fighters.
Mission objectives:
Rebel: Take out as much of the convoy as you can without losing too many ships to do it
Imperial: Defend the Convoy and bleed the rebels dry.
Victory conditions: The rebels win if they can take out atleast 75% of the convoy without losing more than at most half their ships.
The Imperials win if they can either prevent the loss of 75% of the convoy or take down atleast 50% of the rebel attack force (In number of units, not specific fighters)
Forces: Rebels can take no more than a single light ship, but as many fighters and bombers as they can afford. The imperials have no restrictions.
Convoy: For every 20 points, 2 light freighters and 1 heavy.
Outpost assault:
Description: There were numerous cases of rebels attacking smaller outposts. In some cases the imperial forces based there were becoming too much of a problem for their raids to ignore, in others it was just the best target to cause maximum disruption on trade routes and similar.
Mission objectives:
Rebels: Take down the space station. Preserve forces.
Imperials: Protect space station: Rack up kills.
Victory conditions: The Rebels win if they take out the Outpost and lose less than 75% (in points) of their forces.
The Imperials win if they protect the outpost.
It is a draw if the Rebels take down the outpost and lose 75% of their forces in the process.
Forces: The Rebels can field a force equal in cost to the Imperial force, no restrictions on composition.
The Imperials can field at most 1 ship, 1 outpost and 3 squadrons.
Hostage situation
Description: Rebels have for whatever reason balked on a direct attack and through subversion taken the station and now hold it and all civilians onboard hostage. Other imperial forces in the system are scrambling to respond to do whatever they can to save the station and its crew. They have to hurry because when the rebels are finished with whatever they are trying to achieve they will blow up the station.
Mission Objectives:
Rebels: Protect transport carrying specialists for D6 turns at which point it can dock with the station to retrieve them.
Imperials: Destroy atleast 50% of the point value of Rebel forces including the transport in before it can stay docked for a full turn.
Forces: The rebel force must include atleast one light ship declared transport that must end the game adjacent to the station, while they start out in control of the station it can't fight. It's assumed that the stations crew managed to sabotage the guns before the rebels took control. They do not pay for the station.
Imperials can field whatever forces they can muster that matches the Rebel point value.
Fighter clash:
A rebel strike force has been detected enroute/leaving the target, an imperial response force is being launched to take care of them.
Mission objectives
Both sides: Take down more of the other guy than he takes of yours.
Forces: Whatever the hell you'd like.
Steal Starship by Evil Imperial
A Symapthizer has made contacted her local rebel cell tipping them about a incoming CR-90 that is schedueled for refit.
The local rebel commander decided its time to stage a raid and another ship to fight for the freedom of the galaxy or add to the piracy of its local cell.
The commander has allocated there Y-Wing Unit, and a cell of Rebel SpecOps Marines to capture it using a stolen transport
Rebel Primary Objective:
-Capture the Patrol Ship
Secondary Objectives:
-Destroy local Imperial Garrison (75% of Imperial Forces)
-Disable or Destroy the Shipyard
Imperial Objective:
-Drive off the Rebel Scum (Destroy at least 50% of the Rebel Raiders and the Transport)
Rebel Units:
At least 1 Y-Wing Section and Light Ship +whatever else they can afford to get equal to the imperials <Commando Transport>
Imperial Units:
3 TIE Fighter Sections, 1 Shipyard <Generic Station>, 1 Corvette <Inactive> (They do not pay for the corvette but it can't do anything)
Heroes:
Heroes may or may not be restricted in specific missions.
Rebel:
Red Squadron. Craft: X-wings, Cost: 15 points per flight to a max of three.
Crew: Imperial
Use: Red Squadron may be used in any rebel force.
Red squadron are the rebels elite, it incorporates a far higher percentage of defectors than other units and also the most talented pilots they can scrounge up piloting the best equipment the rebels can offer.
Imperial:
Darth Vaders Personal squadron: Craft: TIE fighters, cost: 16 point per flight to a max of three
Crew: Elite
May replace one fighter in one flight with Vader in his advanced prototype fighter for an additional cost of 20 points:
Darth Vader: Gunnery Skill: 5, Piloting +2, Will: 5
Terrifying: Any unit attacked by Vader must make an immediate will save or they will panic, paniced units get -1 on all rolls and must make a piloting roll to make any maneuver beyond 3 moves straight ahead requires a pilot check to symbolize how they can't keep flight cohesion anymore.
TIE Advanced X1 Prototype: Movement 5, Evasion 2 Weaponry: Dual lasers: 2 damage +1 to hit Vectored, 5+ shield
Shooting at the unit containing Vader you have to first clear out his wingmen and only then can you kill him.
Use: Vader's personal squadron can be used in games of at least 100 points
Vaders personal squadron are some of the most lethal TIE pilots ever trained and when he himself comes to battle even the most experienced pilots start sweating
Civilian:
Millennium Falcon: Movement 3 Evasion 0 Weaponry: 1 Starship grade laser turret 2+ to hit 2 damage & Raking (Technically 2 but currently the MF is under crewed with only Han and Chewie so only one can be used), Shield 3+ Hits 8* Cost: 30 points
*The falcon straddles the line between light ship and fighter and hence uses some rule for both. For being shot at it counts as a fighter except it has multiple hits, for shooting out it counts as a starship with no penalty for wide area shooting.
Crew: Han Solo & Chewie
GS: 4, Piloting +1, Will: 3/4
Optional: At 2 points extra you get 4 will to reflect that they are at heart mercenaries and freelancers and hence if paid extra are better motivated
Use: In any game with civilian transports the defender may elect to replace one of them with the falcon for the cost listed, the falcon will fight to stay alive at any means possible.
The Falcon is renowned through the smugglers world for being one of the best smuggling ships there are and with Han Solo in command it is a fiercely capable ship and a handful for any pirate dumb enough to attack it.
Comments or suggestions please? (Especially name suggestions get accepted with thanks)
Star Wars Fighter Oriented Hex game
Moderator: Thanas