BCS Discussion (Fall 2022) (<HG79)

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From the High Guard 1979 discussion to this less well-defined discussion on BCS.

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BCS DESIGN

D1. Traveller's basic assumptions of (a) layered defense (b) Tech is a force multiplier (c) armor is important.
D2. Size defines BCS (>2500t). Defenses define a Capital Ship.
D3. BCS design is formula based.
D4. HG79's more abstract attack strength by type, as opposed to the more flexible HG80.

D5. [2012 Marc] Pick a BIG weapon (or an array of BIG weapons) and then build a ship around it/them (power, crew, armor, M, J, maybe some other support like squadrons of protective fighters and interceptors, command and control to co-ordinate all the protective ships that will fly with it, and

The Kokirrak!

D6. [2012 Marc] The secondary weaponry is like the laser cannon on the Death Star… defenses against enemy attacks. Like AA guns on Battleships. The secondaries don’t project power, they prevent or reduce damaging attacks. [Rob 2022: perhaps cards assist]



BCS COMBAT

C1. [2020 Marc] I think once the foundation is laid: shoot, penetrate, damage, there is great room for lots of interesting (and wildly variable) results. strange weapons. strange interventions, weird options.
C2. [2012, 2020 Marc] The core of the game is the Battleship to Battleship slog. All other ships become cards: Cruiser Escort diversion, Destroyers interfere, Fighter Bombers attack, etc.
C3. [2020 Marc] I think cards transform the game from pure wargame to playable, interesting role-playing and narrative.
C4. HG79/80 Types of damage (surface explosion, interior explosion, radiation, special, critical and ship explodes).
C5. [2010 Marc] at the high end of the spectrum, we needs fleets or squadrons or ships that actually can deliver planetbuster bombs or scrub worlds.
C6. [2020 Marc] Only Battles can kill Battles. Except. Luke's Xwing can hit the secret vulnerable spot, or the Hero Suicide Run can get through and find the open Hangar bay door (and in the vanishing flames of the Suicide exploision, our hero emerges still alive (because even Suicide only means OOA).

C7. DAMAGE. [2016 Marc] Our choices are:

1. Several numbers, each of which can be decremented, like the UPP.
   This allows wearing away of specific capabilities, and also potentially provides a hit location table.
   
   
2. Hit Boxes associated with specific things like weapons and mobility.
   This allows customized damage effects for ships.
   
   
3. A generic value for the ship as a whole, in which hits reduce that total value, and by an algorithm reduce the capabilities of the ship as a whole. (Most naval miniatures are like this).
   This is probably fastest.

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EXAMPLES

[2020 Marc]

Imagine big ship combat. The definition of Battleship is "a ship able to take on anything, and defeat it."
If the target isn't a battleship, then one or two shots will destroy it. The problem is facing other battleships.

“[Capital Ship] Kokaari is firing, sir!” The spinal meson gun fired and [Fash Cruiser] Emesh exploded.

*** A Fast Cruiser probably doesn't carry a Meson Screen, and a Battle can just destroy it.


The Captain looked at me and I nodded. “Meson screen down. Fire.”
...
Their burst of strange particles reached us just as we fired: carefully chosen to ignore most matter; carefully timed to degrade into energetic bursts once they had passed through our armor. They rocked our interior. I felt vibrations through my feet. Visuals and audibles across the bridge signaled damage. I heard a comment that our jump drives were shredded. If we didn’t win this battle, that would be the least of our worries.

“Meson screen up!”

In a mirror image of us, our particles hit Intrepid. “Their maneuver drives are out.”

I wished it had been their main gun.

*** Battles probably can't aim enough to guarantee hitting a specific part of the target.


Imagine a Bismarck chancing a flotilla of Destroyers. The little ships have almost no chance of doing any damage with their guns, and probably not much damage with their torpedoes/missiles. The flotilla's best option is to scatter, and maybe snipe.

Imagine a Bismarck chancing upon a Rodney. As individual ships, and assuming both have missions to fight, they will shoot and shoot. A good hit will inflict some damage. A critical hit will stop the other (or severely curtail it's operations). Naval architecture is about doing the best they can with resources: armor, damage control, good weapons, redundant systems.

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BIG HULLS
[2010 May; Marc]
Suggest setting TL for Asteroid Hull low? E.G. Sky Raiders' TL? We may forget this when BCS is built...

Discuss: Volume penalty for using an Asteroid Hull?

Remember TL Stage Effects still apply… so there’s always the potential for a Prototype or Experimental Hull.

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REFUELING
[2011 May; Marc]
RDME in Big Ship refueling would be fun.

Percolator.
Rendezvous with Ice Planetoids (in the inner System or in the Cloud).
Rendezvous with a Comet.

Also local production of Anti-Matter (facilitated by a Power Plant).
Or finding an Anti-Matter asteroid.

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RANDOM THOUGHTS
[2022 April; Marc]
Are Sieges and Assault Carriers and Ortillery sitting ducks. They need to be deployed, but they can't be until one side achieves Space Superiority or Space Supremacy?

Or is it Klendathu Drop, where many Assault Carriers are smashed,. but some still get through?

An obvious strategy is to make your Dreadnought J2 rather than J4, so you have more room for weapons and such. Or can we allocate fuel as Armor?

Tractors, Fusion Guns, Plasma Guns are all just Anti-Fighter Anti Missile equipment.

I wonder if we can have Anti-Aircraft Cruisers. Cheap cruisers (Remoras) that provide that Anti-Fighter protection or Anti-Missile protection. That lets us make the Dreadnought stripped down to armor and guns. Less crew. Less upkeep.

Imagine a Deathstar without the huge population. Just a Destructo Beam and a Drive.

Remoras again. Imagine a stack of Ship Cards that share their defenses.

 

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ITEM ZERO. SPINE-MAKER

[2017 Jan; Marc]
I am working at rationalizing the weapon letters and levels of spinals.

I originally thought each letter had an associated TL.

Instead, I think.

• Spinal letters are TL independent.
• Pick a base letter which gives Hits and Volume.

Thus a Code G / Meson Gun (TL 13) can be any letter A through Z.
Bigger guns give bigger hit numbers.

G MesonGun TL 13
Letter A gives 10 hits base.
Letter Z gives 33 hits base.

Let’s assume we pick a Spinal S. Base Hits = 26. Tons = 20,000.
Apply Space range effects.
TL+2 = TL15 and Range = Deep Space DS.
TL-2 = TL 13 again and Prototype with the associate QREBS Q -2 -2 +2 -2
Bulk +2 increases Tonnage to 22,000.

Shoots with a Mod -2.

Roll Dice < Range, for less than or equal to TL + C+S+ (S-R) -2

13+10+0 -2= 21 or less on 12 dice. That's less than 1%.

[2013 Feb; Marc]

Size. "VSmall" small, medium, large, extra large, etc. Pick a range of sizes. Perhaps a series of modifiers for the sizes, giving us a strange series of Large-Vsmall, and medium medium.

Other Identifier. Double Barrel, Fore and Aft (Janus, I like that). etc.

Stage Effects.
Range Effects.
Mount.

There is a lot to think about. We need to think this through in detail. We have to be able to build a viable spine that fits onto a 2400 ton minimum BCS ship, or a weapon for the death star.

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Let's assume a Spine at a minimum requires

Its own independent power source
Some sort of an effect generator with or without an enhancer (the "tube")
Some sort of control mechanism and operational crew.
If required, a fuel source
If required, a Magazine with reloads.

Let's also assume that we can define the output of the Spine in some terms of Damage or Effect at Space Range= 7.

Define the Standard Effect of the Weapon associated with a Size and its other minimums.

That is the Standard Weapon. Make sure it all works with Range Changes and with TL Stage Effects. Ideally, a sophisticated Spine (higher TL effects) at a lower Space Range = 5 or 3 or so produces the Smallest of Spines. If you set that at 2,000 tons, you make it not installable in an ACS ship.

and you have standards to work from for the other size ranges.

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The foundation of BCS is the set of weapons/spinal mounts.

Since everything is on the table, and we want to be able to make this a table top game as well...
I ask the following questions/present the following concepts.

Every ship as built around a central weapon or set of weapons, or around a mission.

We need a set of standard sizes for Primary Weapons from A to Z, actually from 0 or 1 to Z.
We need to then assign capabilities to these primary weapons (and power requirements, if any).
I believe that Dreadnought all-big-gun style ships are probably superior, but we need to allow other building strategies.

A single ship with multiple spinal mounts, either in parallel, or pointing in many directions.
A single ship with multiple sizes of weapons, perhaps a Main Spinal and many smaller "spinals."
A million-ton planetoid hull could easily manage many 10,000 ton spinals pointing in many directions.
A single ship may need multiple spinals just to be able to bring to bear Stasis/Jump Inducer/ etc other effects as it needs them.

An efficient ortillery ship is more efficient if it has multiple guns to fire.
An efficient seigecraft benefits from having several railguns firing in tandem.
Or is it better to have each tube an individual ship?

 

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ITEM 1. SPINE PLUS PAYLOAD EQUALS CONFIGURATION

[Marc 2016]
Based on the shape rule of thumb I just created.

I think naval architects pick the shape based on the constant length of the spinal mount they are designing around. And I have arbitrarily decided that the high end, Spinal X Y Z is probably about 240 meters long. So such ships have to be 240 meters long in some dimension.

**

Ensign Dinsha was nervous standing watch on the Courageous for the first time. The responsibility, even in port, at minimal readiness, of Watch Officer for a half-million ton Dreadnaught was daunting. He resolved to enter with confidence, only to trip over a doorsill and flail his arms catching his balance. The sensop saw but glanced away.

Several hours later, the reality of watch became apparent. It was boring. Mind-numbingly boring. Sensop was reading news on an auxiliary screen. Two technicians were reviewing a training course intended to maintain proficiencies.

With nothing to do, Dinsha felt his head start to nod and was embarrassed that Chief Petty Officer Vilior noticed. And now Vilior was walking the few steps over to the primary command couch.

“Ensign, join me.” He gestured to the transpex viewport.
“Did they cover ship recognition in OTC?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Not sir, I do not hold a commission.”
“Yes, sir. Not sir. Yes.” This was not going well thought Dinsha. He was nervous.

“Look at those battles out there.” He gestured to the holding area and the half-dozen or so ship hulls hanging in orbit above Vland. “Tell me what you see?”

“Si…” Dinsha bit his tongue and restarted. “I know the white one is Resolute. That round one is a Korrikak-class; I don’t know which. That cubic with the irregular surface is a repair dock. Those two are Lionesses.”

“How big are they? Their tonnages?”

“I would have to look those up.”
“Yes. And we can later. But for now, tonnages are ways that we evaluate how big a ship is, and to a lesser extent how powerful. So…
“Conveniently, we have four distinct classes of Battle in port, all about the same—call it length—or size.” He turned to one of the console tech, “Bring visuals of the Battles in port to an equal distant projection on the transpex.” Now there were seven ships on the view port, each approximately the same length, and semi-transparent.
“That one, the white one, as you say, is Resolute. It’s roughly a cone.
“The sphere is She-Lynx.
“The slab-sided pyramid is Ikkaku.
“The rounded end cylinder is Indomitable.
“And the egg over there is the first of the new Humaniti class: Cassildan.”
Dinsha wondered about where this was leading, but was greatful there was something to stave of sleepiness in the middle of the night.

Chief Vilior continued. “There a heuristic: a good enough calculation.

If a cube is 12, a cylinder is 9, a sphere is 6, a pyramid is 4, and a cone 3. So’s an egg.
If a cube is 1, a cylinder is three-quarters, a sphere is half, a pyramid is a third, and a cone is a quarter, as is an egg.

“That cube is Mobile Repair Station Forty; it is mostly empty inside, but it’s meant to enclose and repair any of our Battles. Notice its major dimension: about 240 meters.”
Simple numbers appeared, and Dinsha noticed the Chief tapping a pad as he spoke.
“Two-forty cubed is 13.8 million cubic meters, divided by 13.5 to give tons is… ah, a million tons.
“She-Lynx is 235 meters in diameter, so half that cubed, times four-thirds pi, is 7.2 million cubic meters, converted to tons is half a million tons.
“Resolute is a cone. I know. It bulges more than a cone, and the drive bases constrict more. But it’s a cone. Base diameter is 240 meters, halved and squared, time a length of 240 meters is 3.6 million meters cubed, converted to tons is a quarter million tons. Because a cone is a quarter.
“Ikkaku is a slab sided pyramid. Powerful thinkers long ago proved with incontrovertible logic that a pyramid is one-third of a cube. If Forty is a million tons, then Ikkaku is 330 thousand tons.

“I have done these calculations. Anyone passing the entry examinations to be an able spacer knows enough geometry to calculate the numbers. But you should never have to do the calculations again.

“Our last step is to answer the question: why these many shapes and configurations? That answer comes from the naval architects, and some day when you are a commodore you’ll need to know.
“The short answer is this:
“Each of these Battles is really just a wrapper around a weapon. The important thing is that weapon: a spinal mount the most powerful our industries can produce.
“Say the mount is 25,000 tons and about 240 meters long. Add secondaries and maybe fighter squadron supplements, or ships troops or both. Pick some performance numbers for jump and maneuver and add drives and crew. If that tonnage number is a third of a million tons (and you may remember that 240 cubed converted to tons is a million tons) then make it a pyramid; if it’s half a million tons, then make it a sphere; if it is three-quarters, make it a cylinder.

By extension, etc etc

 

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ITEM 2. BCS VERSUS FCS

[2018 Marc]
I have a vision for the Fleet Combat System. Basically a dramatic re-imagining of Imperium with miniatures and intended as a tabletop. It is more concerned with play than with design of ships…


[2013 Feb; Marc]
BCS. Building BIG ships in the 2000 ton and higher range. But it's still about building ships.

FCS. Fleet Construction. Building a FLEET (probably composed of Squadrons) so we're talking about BatRon and CruRons and ScoutRons based on RU and TL and some other details. But we never actually see the ships.


[2011 May; Marc]

BCS/ FCS:
A coordinated system which defines Fleet Operations, which can be individually addressed with BCS.
In addition BCS generally allows construction of ships greater than 2000 (2400) tons.

BCS builds ships based on a specification of mission and main equipment (a 10 kton spine; a 100 kton cargo bay; a 50 kton fighter multi-squadron bay; a 100 kton siege engine). Everything else is hung onto that payload.

On the Other Hand: FCS is a strategic system played against a sector map and using RU.

 

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ITEM 3. WHAT ABOUT FIGHTERS AND MISSILES?

[Rob] I think cards could serve to make fighters and missile swarms a threat to bigger ships.

[2014 July; Marc]

I believe:

Fighters are screens: they interpose themselves between attackers and targets, and (when successful) stop/divert/frustrate the attack.

Tabletop Game 5. In the hierarchy Fighter/Escort/Frigate/Cruiser/Battleship, they are killed by TWO hits from an equivalent ship, or ONE hit by a bigger ship, FOUR hits by the next lower, and no hits (except maybe criticals?) by even smaller ships.

Missiles have to allow for autonomous brain control, and lurkers.

If a Missile can hurt a Battleship, why can’t a Fighter which launches missiles?

 

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ITEM 4. BUDGET

[2009-08-10 Marc]

Without committing myself just yet, I think that BCS is better served by cost calculations in RU than in MCr.
...
I also think RU lends itself more to determining the Planetary budgets that will build these ships.

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Worlds instead act like major naval powers and define a fleet by its major elements.

Much as the USA says it will have a fleet with

10 Carriers squadrons, each with a Carrier and three Cruisers.
20 Big Missile Subs

oh, and whatever we need to make this all work. 37 Destroyers, many Destroyer Escorts, some Patrol Boats, maintenance ships, and whatever.

But the big bux go to the Carriers, etc. The rest is (if in proportion) small change.

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[2011 May; Marc]

Think a series of hand-me-down regional militias.

The Presidential Guard gets the latest in equipment;
The regular Army gets somewhat more ordinary.
As we work our way down to State, County, City, and Backwater, we lower tech and older stuff.

Convert that to starships, and some backwater subsector gets 100-year-old Battleships that can do little more than patrol in orbit.

Perhaps we need an RU conversion factor to consider the current value of the goods being transferred. That UH-1 Helicopter originally cost $32 million, but that was bought long ago. When it is transferred to the regional militia, it only costs them $6, but it’s QREBS is now less than perfect.

 

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ITEM 5. PAYLOAD FIRST

[2009 November, Marc]

The piece below demonstrates the true value of the percentage based system.
By allocating percentages to everything but payload, we make the design system for ships oriented to payload carriage.
And isn't that what a naval architect should be doing? He starts with a payload and designs a ship to delivery it.
He does not say "Let's build a million-ton ship! Won't that be cool!"

Then we need to define the range of payloads... probably in conjunction with missions.

Spinal Mounts,
Ortillery Launchers and Projectile Makers
Cargo Holds. Bulk Material Holds.
Troop Transport Quarters
Command And Control Facilities
Carried Vessels/ Battle Riders
Repair and Vessel Maintenance Bays
Factories? The ability to actually build/rebuild vessels.

But the key, as I am currently seeing it, is that percentages allows us to specify payload first and then build out what's necessary from there.

BTW, the overclock concept and its increased fuel consumption in earlier milieux combined with percentage and payload first lets us see
how big the early Vilani Empire ships were. etc etc

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isn't it possible to create a "lump" percentage (fake percentages here shown for example)

10,000 ton payload

Jump fuel = 40%
Jump Drive = 5%
Maneuver Drive = 10%
Power Plant = 5%
Other Fuel = 5% =
Crew and Accomodations = 7%

= 72% = 25,704 t

Total ship tonnage = 10,000 x (1/ (1-0.72))
=10,000 x (1/ 0.28)
=10,000 x 3.571=

35,710 tons

Jump fuel = 40% = 14,000 t
Jump Drive = 5% = 1,785 t
Maneuver Drive = 10% = 3,571 t
Power Plant = 5% =1,785 t
Other Fuel = 5% = 1,785 t
Crew and Accomodations = 7% = 2,504 t

= 72% = 25,704 t
+10,000 = 35,704 t

QED

 

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ITEM 6. DRIVE THOUGHTS

[2010 Jan; Marc]

My vision for ACS, and later for BCS is that there is a finite size for "big" drives, and that is approximated by the Z drive. For greater performance, we need to have row upon row of Z drives joined by Nexi to harness their combined power, rather than one big monolithic 240,000 ton Jump Drive or Power Plant.

Advantages, hits on these conglomerates of component drives reduce output (Captain! they have knocked out PP's 4 though 8, but we still have 1-3 and 9 to 40 online. Power production is down 16% (= 5/40) but we're still operating!) rather than (Captain! we've taken a hit on the Power Plant; shifting to batteries).

I will grant the potential for bigger drives (just invent special letters for them, Aleph sub 1, etc) but they are not the norm.

It remains to be decided how many drives a 5-ton nexus can connect (I would vote for up to 9). So we have a drive potential for J-Drive Z2 through Z9. Tables and formulae in BCS can take care of that.

 

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ITEM 7. SHIPYARDS

[2011 April; Marc]

and when I find a break, I can see a 1-page set of details on Starport cost.

We know starport traffic.
We know how to compute RU for a world.
We know a world's Starport.

RU is relative. We can take the RU from different worlds and compare them to see how much they invest in their starport.

That indeed is going to give us an idea of the quality of each starport, comparing A to A, and E to E.

Or monte carlo calculate by spreadsheet the Starport, Importance, and RU for every world in the SM. That ought to give us an indication of costs for each type of starport.

There's probably a break in there that says these Type A starports can build ACS ships, and these can build BCS ships.

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Quality. Yes. from bad to good. litter in the terminal. I've been in one of those a long time ago.
Reliability. Liek air controllers falling asleep?
Ease of Use
Burden/Bulk.
Safety.

There's potential here

 

[whulorigan]

I do not know if this is a consideration (Mike Wightman also brought it up), but surface area (abstracted) may also be a configuration consideration. Configurations whose dimensions make "fat" volume profiles (i.e. low surface area to volume ratio) will mount fewer secondaries and sensor mounts due to more of the volume being "interior", whereas configurations whose dimensions make "slender" volume profiles (i.e. high surface area to volume ratio) can potentially mount more secondaries and sensor mounts due to a higher percentage of the volume as a whole being close to the "skin" of the hull.

Likewise, when faced with defending against a meson weapon, the "Fat" profile may potentially be more vulnerable to severe interior component damage (i.e. crew, P-Plant, etc.) than a "slender" profile.

But perhaps this is over-complicating things.

 

[whulorigan]

It remains to be decided how many drives a 5-ton nexus can connect (I would vote for up to 9). So we have a drive potential for J-Drive Z2 through Z9. Tables and formulae in BCS can take care of that.

But remember that you an also connect up to nine Z9 drives together as a 9Z9 (for a total of 81 Z-Drives), per T5.

 

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ITEM 8. EVENTS VERSUS EMPLACEMENTS

[2015 Feb; Marc]

spinals only appear in BCS.

But ultimately, if it turns out that a million ton station can mount a dozen spinals, we'll have to accept that.

But also,

million ton stations are death stars; their weapons are special constructions or events rather than the standard spinals.

 

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ITEM 9. MISSION CODES

[2015 Nov; Marc]
Look at the ACS Ship Mission Grid,
and imagine a new set of rows above Cruiser
to address the big ship missions of High Guard and Battle Class Ships.

In general, these Battleships are "Capitals" intended to be the primary battle capable ships in engagements with rival forces,
(and their support ships).

In Modern Terra, we have Battleships, Aircraft Carriers, and Submarines.

What do we add to the ACS Table to make it BCS

Battles
Carriers (for Riders)
Carriers (for Fighters)
Monitors
Siege Engines
Motherships

and auxiliaries

Tankers
Hospital
Assault Landers

---

leave aside Light, Standard, and Heavy because EVERY Battleship needs to be able to stand against EVERY OTHER Battleship, more or less.

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The primary ships of the Navy are Capitals: variously called Battleships, Battles, Ships-of-the-Line, or Primaries. Each is designed to take attack any adversary; to withstand any attack. They are marvels of armor and armament.

While Battles have universal missions, naval architects are constantly specializing them for specific purposes, allowing some vulnerability here for some benefit there. These distinctions give rise to the plethora of mission codes that identify Capitals and that tell the initiated what to expect from them.

The Ship Identifier

The first letter of the Mission Code is the Ship Identifier, conveying a basic understanding of the ship and its intended activities.

B. Battle. A Battleship, Capital Ship, or Ship of the Line. A ship with the strongest of armor and the most powerful of weapons.

V. Carrier. A naval vessel intended to transport, launch, and support other vessels which participate in a conflict. Carriers typically operate at a distance from the main battle.

S. Siege. Siege Engine. A naval vessel intended to launch ordnance against a stationary target (a world or an installation). Like Carriers, Siege Engines operate at a distance from the main battle.

A. Auxiliary. A naval vessel intended to support, refuel, repair, or re-arm other ships, especially Capitals. Auxiliaries typically have no place in an actual battle, although some may be Armored


The Mission Modifier

The second (and sometimes third) letter of the Ship Code is the Mission Modifier, conveying specific tactics, strategies, or abilities included in the ship’s design.

Rider. The ship is designed to be carried by (to ride) a Carrier. The design typically omits jump drive and associated fuel.
Fast. The ship has drives that provide acceleration greater than typical within the fleet.
Slow. The ship has drives that provide acceleration less than typical within the fleet.
Strike. The ship is designed to attack world or immobile targets.
Missile. The primary weaponry is missiles.
Beam. The primary weaponry is beam weapons.
Orbital. The ship is designed to operate from orbit. Typically applies to siege engines.
Flag. The ship is equipped for command and control of other ships. The Admiral commands from a Flag-designated ship.
Monitor. The ship, while movable, is intended to operate in a fixed location.
Armored. A ship which normally does not have Armor is provided Armor (usually applies to Auxiliaries).

 

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ITEM 10. COMBAT FACTORS

[2015 Nov; Marc]
Ships have quantifiable values: Combat factors.

Let's assume that structure includes

Beam Factor 0-9
Missile Factor 0-9
Armor 0-9
Some sort of agility factor 0-9

and a bevy of special rules, like always fires first, or doubled if not firing, or can attack TWO targets, or can retry a failed attack.

NOW, the various potential mission modifiers can be applied. we're not going have 574 of them.

 

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ITEM 11. BATTLE FORMATIONS

[2015 Nov; Marc]

Double Star envisioned "formations" derived from Lensman: Line, Wall, Globe.

So imagine what sort of formations Battleships would take.

Independent. Each ship operates independently.

Echelon. Like aircraft. A leader and WingMen.

Column. One leader, and many followers. The leader takes all hits, and screens its followers. When/If the leader is eliminated, the next up starts taking hits. It seems like here, that the followers can still launch missiles, which presents a strategy.

Line. Many ships side by side.

Wall.
Cone
Globe.

---

Rank can be a fine spectrum, but initial rankings are in the range 1-2-3-4-5
Then, we get two forces which are near equal, and we can rate one as 3.5 versus 3, (and similar).

Some of these are modifiers on others. Agility modifies Maneuver.
Morale modifies skill or experience. (for High Morale on untrained sailors produces Foolhardiness).
Bays and LBays are defensive. Main weapon or Spinal is what counts.

Battle Formation is a matrix against enemy formation.
And formation divides into two:

Ship orientation or configuration (silent running, stealth, FAST, Battle Stations, Crippled, and such)
and
Fleet Formation. Line, Globe, echelons, Sheet, Cone, Scattered.

 

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ITEM 12. TO HIT

[2022 Aug, 2021 July; Marc]
Basic Combat Mechanic. Each attack is-- Check Weapon: Roll 2D for Weapon Value [e.g. USP spine code] or less. Success Hits.

It seems like weapon values like 2 or 3 or 4 are useless. The Chance to Hit is too small.

But actually, they're a BLUFF. A value of 0 is truly useless. A low value can be made useful with a "Secret Weapon" or "Lucky Gunner" card played that gives a +DM to it.

Bcs defense is some armor value

[Ship] Size is a coarse value in the 7-8-9 range


[2016 July; Marc]

To Hit
Capital Ships: Attacking Range < Attacking Spine Factor + TL Delta – Target Agility
Other Ships: Attacking Range < Attacking Weapon Factor + TL Delta – Target Agility

Assume capital ships can only be hit with primary weapons.

What is the design difference between a capital ship and a cruiser? [or any other ship for that matter? -rob]

Battleship. Many hits will probably not affect it. Armor is important.

Aircraft Carrier. A few hits can be a problem, but it will take some before it is ineffective. There is relatively little armor, so it has layered defenses (anti-missile systems, aircraft that look for enemies and keep them away).

 

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ITEM 13. DAMAGE

[2016 July; Marc]
Our choices are:

Several numbers, each of which can be decremented, like the UPP.

Hit Boxes associated with specific things like weapons and mobility.

A generic value for the ship as a whole, in which hits reduce that total value, and by an algorithm reduce the capabilities of the ship as a whole. (Most naval miniatures are like this).

 

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ITEM 14. CARDS

Rob's Summary: Cards give us the edge cases that are too fiddly for root wargame mechanics.

[2022 September; Marc]
In a Battleship game, all other ships become cards: Cruiser Escort diversion, Destroyers interfere, Fighter Bombers attack, etc.
The core of the game is the Battleship to Battleship slog.

[2020 Marc]
I think cards transform the game from pure wargame to playable, interesting role-playing and narrative.

I think once the foundation is laid: shoot, penetrate, damage, there is great room for lots of intersting (and wildly variable) results. strange weapons. strange interventions, weird options.


Only Battles can kill Battles. Except. Luke's Xwing can hit the Vulnerable Exhaust Port, or the Hero Suicide Run can get through and find the open Hangar bay door (and in the vanishing flames of the Suicide explosion, our hero emerges still alive (because even Suicide only means OOA)).

 

[robject]

ITEM 15. CAMPAIGNS

Campaigns. Where losses from the first battle carry over. And planned reinforcements arrive.

Imagine two sides separated by several systems, and alternate paths connecting them. From a strategic board, each side needs to defend
against alternate approaches. One approach has a GG or two, another requires ice mining in the asteroid belt. etc etc

 

[mike wightman]

That's a lot to take in.

First thoughts:

I would have no roll to hit - assume that weapons hit because the ships are in battle range - formation will impact this in a bit. The fun is to be had in penetrating the layered defence. Beyond battle range is where you play cards such as missile swarm, fighter wing or escort ships.

Beam Factor 0-9 - this becomes spinal, how to differentiate between the types?
Missile Factor 0-9 - nuclear missiles that get through all defences should be ship killers
Armor 0-9 - configuration can go into this too.
Some sort of agility factor 0-9 - rather than agility we need screens, point defence, ECM, ECCM 9electronic warfare is mentioned in the battles in Marc's stories)

Battle formations - the rules in Double Star cry out for inclusion some how.

Ship design
spinal/dish/bay gives base dimension of length - surface area is easy 6xL^2 for a cube, modify by configuration coefficient (look up table if necessary)
volume is L^3 modified by configuration coefficient
surface area / something = number of (bays, sensors, point defence turrets etc)