Fleet Combat

These rules are still undergoing adaption and development.

Fleet Combat implies a battle between multiple numbers of starships is being resolved. However, while these rules are aimed at just such a conflict, they may also be used to depict one-on-one combat, albeit with a considerable level of simplicity. However, post-combat does allow for the determination of damage to each ship of interest.

Wings

Fleet combat involves two or more ships per side (typically dozens or more). The commander of a fleet divides it into one or more wings. Each wing consists of two or more ships and acts as a single unit for purposes of fleet combat. For example, a fleet of 100 starships could be divided into two wings of 50 ships each; four of 25 ships; or five wings of 30, 40, 20, five, and five ships respectively.

Wings can consist of ships of multiple types or a single type—how a fleet divides into wings depends entirely on the preferences and tactics of its commander. For example, fighters are often organized into all-fighter wings; larger wings often consist of a large “flagship” (such as an Explorer or Cruiser) and multiple smaller ships. In game terms, the composition of a wing does not matter, though the attributes of each individual ship (discussed below) will directly influence the wing's combat characteristics.

Players may decide, for ease of game play, to use as small a number of wings as possible (perhaps even just one containing all ships in the fleet), or to make all wings identical.

To conduct fleet combat, you need to know a little bit of information about each wing involved. Wings have seven characteristics: Size, Movement, Maneuverability, Offense, Defense, Fleet and Tactical skills.

To determine most of a wing’s characteristics, you need to determine the average of their component ships’ capabilities (for example, their average Maximum impulse speed). If all the ships in a wing are identical, determining their standard performance is easy. The characteristics are described below:

Size

To determine the Size of a wing, add the Sizes of all of its ships together. Thus, a wing of five Galaxy-class ships (Size 8 each) has a Size of 40 (8+8+8+8+8=40).

Movement

The average Maximum impulse speed of the ships in the wing. For example, if the five ships in a wing have Maximum impulse speeds of .95c, .72c, .72c, .75c, and .75c, the wing’s Movement is .78c ((.95+.72+.72+.75+.75)/5=0.778, rounded to 0.78). Additionally, as part of Movement, the skills of the various personnel holding the Conn positions in the wing come into play; this will be represented by the Fleet skill.

Maneuverability

The average Size of the ships in the wing. For example, if a wing has ships of Size 2, 2, 5, 6, and 8, its Maneuverability is 5 ((2+2+5+6+8)/5=4.6, rounded to 5). Maneuverability affects a wing’s ability to dodge and maneuver, much like Size does for individual ships.

Offense

The amount of damage a wing does with its attacks. To determine it, calculate the average damage done by the most common single weapon on each ship in the wing, divided by 20 (minimum of 1; round up fractions of .5 or higher). (Do not include Multifire damage as part of the Offense calculation.) The most powerful weapon on a D’Deridex-class warbird is the plasma torpedo, but the Romulans don’t use it in fleet combat; they more often rely on their disruptors, so the disruptor should form the basis of Offense for most Romulan wings. (Narrators can even come up with two or more Offense numbers, representing reliance on different weapons at different times, if they wish.) For example, if a wing’s average damage is 250, its base Offense equals 13.

Weapon ranges and relative distances do not factor in to fleet combat, as it is presumed the scope of the battlespace will involve ranges that allow for the full use of the ships' weaponry.

Defense

The average Threshold possessed by the shields of the wing’s ships, divided by 50 (minimum of 1; round up fractions of .5 or higher). For example, four ships with Thresholds of 200, 300, 350, and 500 would have a defense of 7 ((200+300+350+500)/4 = 338, 338/50 = 6.76, which rounds up to 7).

Fleet skill

The Fleet skill is the average of all of the Crew skills of the individual ships in the wing.

Tactical skill

The Tactical skill is the wing commander's Command skill, now employed to lead a whole wing or, if there is no designated commander, the average of the wing's Command skills.

Command Ships

Fleet commanders may decide, when they divide their formation into wings (or not) to assign a particular ship in each wing as the command ship, usually led either by a senior captain or the captain with the most tactically superior vessel. If a command ship is designated, all Initiative values for that wing receive a +5 bonus (to the Tactical skill), as do all attack rolls. However, if the command ship is destroyed, the disruption caused by that loss not only results in the loss of that bonus, but also a -5 penalty for both Initiative and attack rolls, for at least 6 rounds, until a second ship takes on wing command duties. (This second ship only cancels the penalty; it may not provide a bonus.)

Whether or not a fleet commander breaks up his forces into wings, he himself is situated on the fleet flagship. If the forces are broken up into wings, his flagship becomes the command ship for his wing. If, in the course of the battle, the flagship is destroyed, all fleet vessels (in all wings) suffer the -5 penalty for both Initiative and attack rolls. This can be cumulative, if a wing's command ship is lost also.

Rounds & Initiative

Fleet combat is fought in rounds. In the original Spacedock rules, each round had a length of 5 seconds. However, as all combat is presumed to take place within 1 day, the actual unit of time is not important; instead it is just considered to be a turn, wherein a dramatic period of time (possibly as short as 30 seconds to maybe something as long as 5 minutes) passes, with enough time for all actions of the turn to be completed. There is, though, a rule (for story purposes) on how to determine how long the battle was fought, based upon the number of participants (see: Length of the Battle).

Initiative determines which side (or wings, if utilized) goes in what order. Initiative is dependent upon the commander's Tactical skill. As each commander rolls against his skill level, successful rolls are counted by the value of the success (as a positive number, the margin of success or MOS), while failed rolls are counted by the value of the failure (as a negative number, the margin of failure or MOF). Each commander is then placed in numerical order of the Initiative value of their MOS/MOF.

The commander with the highest value chooses his target first; that target is now locked in combat with the attacker and does not get a choice of target; it must engage with its attacker. In determining initiative when two units (regardless of side) have the same MOS/MOF, each rolls 1d10 to determine which one goes before the other.

Pairing of attackers and targets continues until all combatant units on one side are accounted for. The remaining wings of the more numerous side each choose a target that has already been paired. In that case, each remaining wing is responding to the developing tactical picture by attacking one enemy wing as its first sub-round is concluding; the enemy wing is now the target, regardless of where it placed on the original initiative rank for the round. Due to the rapid timing of each round, a wing targeted in the next sub-round may be attacked by more than one low-initiative opponent, resulting in additional sub-rounds, until all wings have engaged at least once in the (overall) round.

Ex: A Star Fleet task force is engaging a Cardassian force. The Star Fleet force divides up into 3 wings (labeled U1, U2 and U3), while the Cardassian force only breaks up into 2 wings (C1 and C2). The Tactical skills for each wing, respectively, are 90, 79 and 89 for Star Fleet and 65 and 71 for the Cardassians. Each wing commander rolls against his Tactical skill, rolling 60, 91 and 16 (Star Fleet) and 27 and 28 (Cardassians). The values of success, for each are 30 (90-60=30), -12 (79-91=-12) and 73 (89-16=73) for Star Fleet and 38 (65-27=38) and 43 (71-28=43). That means, the results of the Initiative roll for this round are U3, C2, C1, U1, U2 (in order). U3 decides to target C1, while C2 chooses to target U2. U1 decides to assist U2 and targets C2.

A Note About Bonuses

Remove this section when no longer relevant.

This campaign is based on—and heavily modified from—Last Unicorn Games’ Star Trek RPG. The original LUG system uses d6-based Tests to resolve chance, whereas this game primarily uses 1d100 rolls and specialty rolls. Any referenced bonuses of +1, +2, +3, and so on have not yet been converted to the system used here. For conversion purposes, see "Special Note: ICON to d100 Skill Conversion".

Movement and Maneuvering

Unlike as described in Spacedock, relative distances between wings are not accounted for in this RPG, as it is assumed the vessels of each wing will maneuver sufficiently within each round so that combat does occur. However, if a particular wing decides to break off from combat, it may only disengage if its Movement is greater than that of its attacker (at the beginning of the round). If not, the only other way for it to break away is if it is not targeted by an enemy wing in the next round. That gives the fleeing wing the opportunity to go to warp, departing the battlespace.

Two notes: one, it is understood that Movement is simply an average of all ships within the wing; individually, some could possibly escape an attacker with a higher wing Movement, while others could be left behind by their faster wing mates. However, for the purposes of mass combat, this is simplified and left to wing Movement values. Second, while warp speed is not a factor in the fleet combat rules, if the players wish to pursue a fleeing target, they may, but this will only be another battle in a different location. Other participants in the original battle will not be involved (unless they too take chase).

Fleets (and wings) have the option to attempt special fleet attack patterns and fleet evasive patterns that can provide combat advantages (or penalties to the opponent). The below tables name and describe each of the available patterns, but the important data is the complexity of the chosen maneuver and the bonus advantage (or target penalty) when successfully accomplished.

Complexity works in a similar fashion as it does for Events; the level of complexity directly impacts the value of the Fleet skill when attempting to accomplish the maneuver:

• A Moderate maneuver is relatively familiar, though there does exist a sizable potential for failure. The percentile is rolled versus the unmodified Fleet skill.

Ex: The Fleet skill of 62 is higher than the test roll of 54, indicating a success. If the roll had been 63 or higher, the maneuver attempt would have been a failure.

• A Challenging maneuver requires a 25% reduction in the Fleet skill, before the roll is made. If the percentile roll is higher than the modified Fleet skill, the maneuver attempt is a failure.

Ex: The Fleet skill of 62 is modified as 46 (62 - 15.5 (averaged up to 16) = 46). A roll of 46 or less is required for success.

• A Difficult maneuver requires a 50% reduction in the Fleet skill, before the roll is made. If the percentile roll is higher than the modified Fleet skill, the maneuver attempt is a failure.

Ex: The Fleet skill of 62 is modified as 31 (62 - 31 = 31). A roll of 31 or less is required for success.

• An Extreme maneuver requires a 75% reduction in the Fleet skill, before the roll is made. If the percentile roll is higher than the modified Fleet skill, the maneuver attempt is a failure.

Ex: The Fleet skill of 62 is modified as 15 (62 - 46.5 (averaged up to 47) = 15). A roll of 15 or less is required for success.

Note: instead of rolling a d100 die for the Test percentile roll, instead roll two d10s, with the first representing the 'tens' digit and the second as the 'ones' digit. If both rolls are the same (ex: 6 and 6), then roll a third one and subtract that from the percentile. If the third roll also equals the original 'twin' rolls, roll and subtract again (and again and again, as long as each roll is the same as the original two). The effect is to lower the percentile roll in opposition to the Ship skill.

If a maneuver fails by less than 30 points, then there is no advantage gained (or penalty applied to the target) and if it was failed attack maneuver, the chosen evasive pattern is not attempted (as the wing is trying to regain formation). If the maneuver did fail by 30 points or more, the failure was dramatic and the wing not only is unable to complete any patterns this round, but the advantage/penalty is reversed: an attack advantage becomes an attack penalty and a target's attack penalty becomes an attack advantage.

The pattern tables below are broken into two categories: fleet attack patterns & fleet evasive patterns.

A wing can choose both an attack and an evasive pattern each round (unless otherwise indicated). Wings of Size 5 or smaller can only earn (total) benefits of 30 points or less per round; Wings Size 6 and above can only earn 20 points or less.

Individual ships (those fighting battles outside of a fleet or wing formation) have additional maneuvers from which to choose. For the present, all maneuvers can be found in Spacedock, pp. 102-107.

Fleet Attack Patterns

#	Maneuver	Complexity	Benefit	Notes
1	Alpha	Moderate	+5	Star Fleet’s most basic offensive maneuver, attack pattern Alpha involves a mostly straight-on approach to the target, with some slight vectoring to the side based on the wing’s weapons complement and the target’s movement.
2	Beta-3	Challenging	+10	The wing makes a broad arc turn around the target, attacking them as it goes (no other maneuvers may be used this round).
3	Delta-2	Challenging	+15	The wing swoops over the target from starboard to port, then back again from port to starboard (sometimes diving underneath in the process), firing as it goes.
4	Kappa 0-2-0	Challenging	+10	The wing flies on a carefully-calculated arc through the battlespace, combining firing at multiple target vessels.
5	Omega-2	Challenging	+10	The wing rolls from one side to the other, giving its weapons maximum exposure so the ships can use multiple weapon emplacements to attack several targets.
6	Sierra-4	Challenging	+10	The wing comes up from beneath the target and loops up and over it.
7	Theta	Challenging	+15	A longstanding favorite of many of Star Fleet’s more daring admirals, the Theta attack pattern works best when the wing is outnumbered by at least 3-to-1. The wing flies amidst its enemies, jinking (and even rolling) so that it can use as many of its weapons on as many targets as possible. Fighters, Escorts, and other small ships (Size 5 or smaller) gain a +15 point advantage to the target number.
8	Circumvential attitude attack posture	Special	Special	One or more wings surround a single target on as many sides as possible, attacking it from every angle and cutting off any attempts to escape. The Difficulty is determined by the number of wings participating in the maneuver: 1 (Difficult), 2-3 (Challenging), 4 or more (Moderate), tested by each participating wing. The benefit is +5 in the attack test roll to each wing for each wing that succeeds in the maneuver; each participating wing is penalized -2 for each wing that fails it by 30 or more points.
9	Talluvian Maneuver	Challenging	+10	This maneuver is a flexible one designed to maneuver a wing so that its most powerful weapons are brought to bear on the target for as long as possible. The wing flies above or below its target in a diagonal pattern, which allows it to fire its weapon and keep it locked on the target in continuous fire mode.
10	Triangular envelopment	Special	Special	This maneuver is similar to circumvential attitude attack posture, but is more limited. It requires three wings, which surround the target on the same plane at bearings 0, 120, and 240. The Complexity is Moderate; every wing which makes its Fleet skill test gains a +19 bonus to the attack test; eliminate the bonus for one wing if one other wing fails by 30 or more.
11	Wolfpack	7	Special	This maneuver requires three or more wings (typically ones which are significantly smaller than their target). The wings surround the target and make Moderate attack tests. The wings which succeed can join together, coordinate their attacks (each takes just one shot), and have them combined, counting with +50% additional damage against the target. If any wing in the pack has a negative modifier to hit the target (for example, due to Size or an evasive maneuver the target performed), all of the wings suffer that modifier. Each wing rolls its attack Test separately; all the shots which hit are combined to calculate the total, enhanced damage.
12	Close Maneuvering	Moderate	Special	Large wings are usually much less maneuverable than small ones. To take advantage of this fact, smaller wings often close in on a larger wing, running rings around its vessels while they tries to bring their weapons to bear on the “gadfly” tormenting it. In game terms, when there are five or more points of difference between two wings’ Size, the smaller wing obtains two benefits when it close maneuvers next to the enemy wing. First, all of the larger wing’s attempts to hit it are at -15; second, the smaller wing receives a +10 bonus on its attempts to hit the larger wing (in addition to Size modifiers). No other maneuvers while close maneuvering are allowed. This can be either a Fleet Attack or Evasive Pattern by the (significantly) smaller wing.

Fleet Evasive Patterns

#	Maneuver	Complexity	Benefit	Notes
1	Alpha	Moderate	-5	The wing jinks to one side and dives.
2	Beta-2	Moderate	-5	The wing climbs slightly, then jinks hard to port or starboard.
3	Beta-3	Challenging	-15	The wing dives slightly, then jinks slightly to port or starboard and lunges forward.
4	Beta 9-3	Challenging	-20	A short, rapid dive followed by a quick series of jinks and turns designed to throw off the aim of any opponent.
5	Delta	Challenging	-10	As it flies along a relatively straight vector, the wing jinks slightly from one side to the other.
6	Delta-3	Challenging	-15	The wing jinks hard to port or starboard and then drops back.
7	Gamma-3	Challenging	-10	The wing jinks upward in a slight climb to port or starboard, then dives steeply.
8	Gamma-4	Challenging	-15	The wing turns on its side, then falls away in a steep drop to port or starboard.
9	Lambda-1	Challenging	-10	A full starboard or port roll.
10	Omega	Challenging	-20	The wing engages in a complex, stomach-turning series of rapid turns which make it difficult to track or follow.
11	Omega-4	Moderate	-5	The wing peels off to port or starboard, then executes a sort of turn designed to bring it up underneath an enemy wing.
12	Omega-6	Challenging	-10	The wing arcs upward to port, then peels swiftly down to the side from the apex of the arc.
13	Theta	Challenging	-10	The wing jinks to the side and dives slightly, back to the other side and dives steeply, then climbs back to the base point.
14	Evasive Action	Moderate	-5	The wing makes it more difficult to hit through clever maneuvering.
15	Close Maneuvering	Moderate	Special	Large wings are usually much less maneuverable than small ones. To take advantage of this fact, smaller wings often close in on a larger wing, running rings around its vessels while they tries to bring their weapons to bear on the “gadfly” tormenting it. In game terms, when there are five or more points of difference between two wings’ Size, the smaller wing obtains two benefits when it close maneuvers next to the enemy wing. First, all of the larger wing’s attempts to hit it are at -15; second, the smaller wing receives a +10 bonus on its attempts to hit the larger wing (in addition to Size modifiers). No other maneuvers while close maneuvering are allowed. This can be either a Fleet Attack or Evasive Pattern by the (significantly) smaller wing.
16	Kavis Teke Elusive	Moderate	-15	Developed thousands of years ago by the Menthars during their war with the Promellians, the Kavis Teke Elusive Maneuver involves a quick, slightly climbing jink to starboard. Then, equally as quickly, the wing executes an arcing climb to port and slightly back, which not only helps it avoid enemy fire, but in a pursuit situation can put it above and behind the pursuer.

Attacker and Target Sizes

To reflect the greater maneuverability of smaller wings, any wing of Size 5 or lower attempts the maneuvers with -5 taken from their Fleet skill roll.

Combat Rules

A wing’s numbers (i.e., quantity of vessels) must be factored into its base Offense. That way, larger wings (by vessel numbers) do more damage than smaller ones. Compare the total number of ships in the attacking wing to the number in the targeted wing. If the attacker has more ships, divide the difference by 20 (round up fractions of .5 or higher) and add it to the wing’s base Offense from weaponry. This allows a significantly larger wing to demolish a smaller one in short order with its superior firepower. If the attacking wing is smaller than the targeted wing, just use the Offense calculated from its weapons.

Attacks & Damage

Following determination of initiative and once all wings are sub-divided into pairs (or greater) and designated "attacker" and "target", the attacking wing adds any bonus from a successful fleet attack pattern and subtracts the modifier from the target's fleet evasive pattern (if any) from its own Fleet skill. The attacker then rolls against this modified Fleet skill; if it fails by 30 or less, divide its Offense by two (2) and subtract from the Target's Defense. If it fails by greater than 30, divide the attacker's Offense by three (3) and subtract from the Target's Defense. A successful roll indicates the full Offense is rolled. Any result greater than zero (0) indicates a successful volley.

If the targeted wing took evasive maneuvers (i.e., with a fleet evasive pattern), it cannot strike back with a counter-volley until the damage from the attacking wing is registered against the targeted wing. This means the targeted wing may be firing back with a reduced Offense value. If the targeted wing did not take evasive maneuvers, then its counter-volley takes place before any attacking damage is registered. In any case, the targeted wing never gets to choose an attack pattern while it is the designated target.

If a volley succeeds, the receiving wing (attacker or target) takes damage. Subtract the recipient’s Defense from the striker’s Offense, and apply the remainder (if any) to the recipient’s Size as damage. The Narrator applies the damage as per the accompanying table.

Wing Damage Application Table

1d100	Application of Damage
01 - 17	Apply all of the damage done to one random ship until it is destroyed, then the remainder to a second random ship until it’s destroyed, and so on until the damage done is exhausted.
18 - 33	Divide the damage done between two random ships, applying any overage to further random ships as with (1). Ex: 27 points of damage are received: 13 go to one random ship; 13 go to a different random ship; the overage (1 point) goes to a third random ship.
34 - 50	Divide the damage done between three random ships, applying any overage to further random ships as with (1).
51 - 67	Divide the damage done between four random ships, applying any overage to further random ships as with (1).
68 - 83	Divide the damage done between five random ships, applying any overage to further random ships as with (1).
84 - 00	Divide the damage done between 1d6 + 5 random ships, applying any overage to further random ships as with (1).

If a wing is the attacker in an attacker-target pair, it is possible that a third wing, with a lower initiative, targets it. In that case, the attacker may take an evasive maneuver, but at the next significantly harder Complexity level in that same turn. It may not, however, fire a counter-valley, as it has already targeted and fired at the original target.

Example: A Star Fleet wing wins initiative against 2 Romulan wings. The Star Fleet wing attacks the targeted Romulan wing with an attack pattern, while the target wing uses an evasion pattern. The second Romulan wing then attacks the Star Fleet wing, which can only take evasive maneuvers, but cannot return fire this round.

When a wing reaches Size 0, it has been completely destroyed. Prior to that, it decreases in Size as individual ships are destroyed or so badly damaged that they have to be removed from the battle. The Narrator may wish to describe the Size damage graphically to help enliven the battle. He may also want to periodically recalculate a wing’s Movement, Maneuverability, Offense, and Defense to reflect its diminishing ability to maneuver and fight. Even if, by strict application of the averaging method, a wing’s attributes should improve as it gets damaged, do not increase them; either keep the attributes the same or decrease them, never raise them (unless the rules of dramatic storytelling require it).

Example: A Star Fleet wing and a wing of Cardassian ships meet in fleet combat. The Star Fleet wing is Size 55, the Cardassian wing Size 32. During the course of the battle, the Cardassians inflict 8 points of damage on the Star Fleet wing. The Narrator describes this as several Cardassian vessels ganging up on a Galaxy-class ship to overwhelm its defenses and destroy it. However, despite such tactics and a valiant defense, the Cardassian wing is outnumbered, and is brought to Size 0 while the Star Fleet wing has Size 23 remaining. The Narrator rules that all Cardassian ships are destroyed or incapacitated, while only a little more than half of the Star Fleet vessels are destroyed or too badly damaged to fight.

Fates of Individual Ships

Fleet combat rules are useful for determining what happened to an entire group of ships, but often players are most interested in knowing what happened to their specific ship, or a specific ship flown by favored NPCs. Narrators are free to embroider upon the results of the fleet combat on their own, but if they prefer, they may use the accompanying table to determine what happens to any given ship which participates in a battle. Note that before you can determine an individual ship’s fate, you must know whether its wing won or lost the encounter (if the Narrator deems the encounter a “draw,” roll using the “Victory” column).

Individual Ships In Fleet Combat

Defeat Roll 1d100	Victory Roll 1d100	Result
01 - 17	01 - 03	Disaster: The ship fared badly in the battle. It was either completely destroyed or lost 75-90% of its SUs in damage.
18 - 42	04 - 08	Grievous Defeat: While still intact, the ship suffered the brunt of some powerful attacks and did not acquit itself as well as it might have. It lost 50-75% of its SUs in damage.
43 - 72	09 - 28	Defeat: The ship managed to survive the battle reasonably intact, but scored few if any kills or significant attacks. It lost 25-50% of its SUs in damage.
73 - 92	29 - 58	Marginal Success: Although its contribution to its wing's overall conduct was minimal, the ship did its part and came through with only a little damage. It lost 10-30% of its SUs in damage.
93 - 97	59 - 92	Success: The ship played a significant role in its wing's conduct during the battle, destroying or crippling several enemy vessels. It lost 5-20% of its SUs in damage.
98 - 00	93 - 00	Astounding Success: The ship played a pivotal role in its wing's conduct of the battle. It destroyed the enemy flagship, crippled a dozen or more enemy vessels, or otherwise contributed far more than its share. It lost, at most, 10% of its SUs in damage.

Optional Rule: Key Ships

Instead of using the “Fate of Individual Ship” rules, the Narrator may wish to give the Crew’s ship, and possibly some other ships, a more important role in fleet combat by considering them key ships. A key ship has a greater effect on the combat than a typical ship, thus providing the player characters with a chance to shine even if their side loses the battle.

The presence of a key ship in a wing affects the wing’s Offense (and, at the Narrator’s option, its Maneuverability as well). The Narrator should add 1-3 points to the wing’s Offense (and Maneuverability, if desired) to reflect the greater effect the key ship has on the battle and the inspiration it provides to the other ships. If the key ship is not also the command ship, loss of the command ship results in no penalties unless the key ship is also destroyed.

A wing can only have one key ship during a battle. If that ship is destroyed, another ship cannot take its place in that battle.

Length of the Battle

Narrators who want to determine randomly how long a fleet engagement lasts can use the following method:

1. Determine which side has the largest number of ships in the battle.
2. Multiply that number by .66.
3. Divide the result of Step 2 by 100.
4. If the result of Step 3 is 1 or more, multiply it by 1 hour to determine the length of the battle in hours. If the result is less than one, multiply it by 60 minutes to determine the length of the battle (in minutes).
5. If either side outnumbers the other by two to one, subtract 1d3 hours (or 1d6 minutes for battles lasting less than one hour). However, the minimum time for any battle is one hour (or five minutes).
6. For every additional tactical advantage roughly equivalent to a two to one numerical superiority (such as the element of surprise, or each additional factor of numerical superiority [3:1, 4:1, and so forth]), subtract another 1d3 hours.
7. The Narrator should adjust the final time if, in his judgment, it seems unreasonable or illogical.

Example: 1,250 Dominion and Cardassian ships go into battle against 612 Federation alliance ships. 1250 x .66 = 825. 825/100 = 8.25 (which rounds down to eight). Since the Dominion outnumbers the Federation alliance by about two to one, the Narrator rolls 1d3, gets a 2, and subtracts 2 from the final total. Thus, the battle lasts about six hours.