Fleet Combat

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.

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. 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), while failed rolls are counted by the value of the failure (as a negative number). Each commander is then placed in numerical order of the Initiative value of success/failure. The commander with the highest value chooses his target first; that target is now locked in combat with the attacker. Each pair of attacker and target are assigned, until all combatant units are accounted for. Sometimes, when an uneven number of units exist, the last attacker will choose to attack a target that has already been selected. If two units (regardless of side) have the same success/failure value, each rolls 1d10 to determine which one goes before the other.

Ex: A Starfleet task force is engaging a Cardassian force. The Starfleet 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 Starfleet and 65 and 71 for the Cardassians. Each wing commander rolls against his Tactical skill, rolling 60, 91 and 16 (Starfleet) 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 Starfleet 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.

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 +6 bonus (to the final number), 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 -6 penalty for both Initiative and attack rolls.

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.

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. 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

Offense

Defense

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 simply the wing commander's Command skill, now employed to lead a whole wing.

A Note About Bonuses

Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek RPG, on which this campaign is built (and heavily modified), uses a different Test system (d6) to resolve chance, while most rolls in this game use 1d100 or specialty rolls. If bonuses reference +1, +2, +3 (et al), they have not yet been translated into the system in use here. In each case of a LUG bonus point, it is valued at +6 here.