Silent Death Campaign Rules, v1.4 --------------------------------- FORCE SELECTION --------------- A list of available Houses and the ships available to each House are in the file http://web.mit.edu/starflt/Silent/sdhouse.txt. Each House will start with 500 TPV to buy ships. All Houses have three production categories of starcraft: A) Public (all Houses can produce unlimited numbers of these ships) B) House Unlimited (House can produce unlimited numbers of these ships) C) House Limited (House can produce limited numbers of these ships). These ships are indicated with a (L) after the ship name. Under House Limited are specific ships, as well a special subcategory: Allied/Mercenary (A/M). A/M ships are all House ships from the listed House. They are under no limitations or restrictions save the build limits. For both initial forces and replacement purchases (running records should be kept), separate ships into categories: Fighters, Gunboats, Escorts. For every 5 ships in that category purchased, 1 may be House Limited. 1) Houses are then chosen, randomly diced for, or otherwise given out. 2) People use available points to buy ships and crew (each crew skill point = 1 cost point). You must fill all ships with crew (even if they are 1 pt skill). You cannot buy extra crew without ships. All starting crew can be purchased at levels 1 to 6, but no higher. SESSION ORGANIZATION -------------------- For each battle/session: 1) Form up random alliances among the players at that session. 2) Each participant chooses one of three operations to perform: offensive, sweep, defensive. The players may collaborate on decisions in this phase. A) Offensive: Player takes any number of ships that are <= 70% of his total remaining TPV (Total Point Value); remember to include crew costs. B) Sweep: Player takes any number of ships that are <=50% of his total remaining TPV. C) Defensive: Player takes at least one ship (if players have >= 1500 TPV in their overall forces, they must use at least two ships) that is >=15% and <=30% of his total remaining TPV. You may never take two Defensive ops in a row and never two Offensive ops in a row. Multiple players on a side combine their forces, but set up according to their respective restrictions. The numerically larger side then decreases their available forces by a factor of (Smaller # side / Larger # side). In a 2 on 1, the factor is 0.5; in a 3 on 2, the factor is 0.66. This factor is multiplied by the base percentage of all operation choices to determine final limits. Example: 3 vs 2: ------- Side A: Sweep = 50% * 0.66 = 33% Defense = 30% * 0.66 = 20% Defense = 30% * 0.66 = 20% Side B: Offense = 70% Sweep = 50% Special Rule: If all players are present at a session (currently 3-on-3), the base percentages used for each operation will be: Defensive: 20% Sweep: 33% Offensive: 50% (This rule is only in place to keep battle sizes down and allow battles to be finished in one session.) After operations are chosen, each player secretly and independently choose the particular ships they want to use in that battle. (Note that winning is calculated by totaling damage inflicted on the two sides as a whole, but disengagement and battlefield control restrictions apply separately.) The two opposing sides enter on opposite short edges of the map. Defensive ships may set up anywhere on the third of the map closest to the team's starting edge. If both sides are defensive, both set up anywhere in opposite thirds. INITIATIVE ---------- Initiative is determined for each player individually. The modified initiative system as presented in More Than Valor will be used. See chart below. Highest Pilot Die Used for Initiative ------------- ----------------------- 9,10 d10 7,8 d8 5,6 d6 1,2,3,4 d4 No player is required to move more than 2 ships in any particular round of movement. If that would be required, the round is broken up by omitting the player(s) required to move only one ship and ships are resequenced into smaller groups. LENGTH OF BATTLE ---------------- If at least one side has chosen Offensive, the combat lasts 10 turns, unless one side is completely destroyed before then. Otherwise, the combat lasts 6 turns. The following disengagement rules apply: A) Offensive ships MAY disengage off their map side, but may NOT leave until turn 8. Offensive ships must leave the map by turn 10 or else they are considered destroyed (or possibly captured), unless that side controls the battlefield (see below). B) Sweep ships can never leave the map. At the end of the scenario, all ships with a surviving pilot and a drive > 1 automatically disengage. Those failing to qualify are considered destroyed (or possibly captured) if that side fails to control the battlefield. C) Defensive ships MAY exit the edge opposite the offensive/sweep player (or their appropriate edge if both sides are defensive) starting on turn 4. They are never required to leave the map. CONTROL OF BATTLEFIELD ---------------------- Whichever side is the last one with ships remaining (either the other side was completely destroyed or disengaged) controls the battlefield (This is NOT the same as winning the battle, however; see below). If both sides have ships remaining on the board at the end of turn 10 (or 6), a Defensive player wins control over a Sweep player (an Offensive player may never have ships left after turn 10). If both sides are equal priority, neither side controls the field. The side which controls the battlefield may do the following: A) If a Defensive player controls the battlefield, any Offensive/Sweep ships which have no drive or no pilot may be captured or destroyed. The reverse is NOT true: an Offensive/Sweep side may never capture ships. Two allied players who are both defensive, must agree on who captures what ship; otherwise, the ship is destroyed. B) The side which controls the battlefield may recover life pods for pilots/gunners/crew that ejected from destroyed/cripped ships. Enemy life pods are considered captured and exit the game permanently (unless people want to work out rules for prisoner exchange). See life pod rules for details on how they work. If neither side controls the field, both sides can recover life pods. If one partner is Defensive, but the other is not and EITHER partner controls the battlefield, both partners may recover life pods. WINNING THE BATTLE ------------------ After the battle is over, total up the TPV of destroyed/captured ships. Points for victory accrue as follows: A) If you inflict more TPV of casualties than you taken, you get 30 points. B) If you inflict >= twice as many TPV of casualties as you take, you get 80 points. C) If you totally destroy all ships on the other side, you get a bonus 10 points. In addition, each participant gets bonus points based on their battle operation: Offensive: 0 points Sweep: 40 points Defensive: 100 points SPECIAL RULE: For the first N sessions (where N is by mutual agreement), all participating players will receive 125 points in addition to any points gained above. This will allow an increase in fleet sizes to a larger level before attrition sets in. POST BATTLE OPS --------------- After the battle, people use points to purchase reloads of expendable weapons (torps, missiles, protobolts, etc), new pilots/crew/gunners to replaced killed ones, and new ships. Ammo can be moved/shifted between ships as long as the types are identical. Replacement and all new crew must be purchased in order using the Rules of Warfare II sequence: 7,4,8,3,9,2,6,5,10,1 and then repeats; the number is the crew skill that you must buy next; it can be either a pilot or gunner or crew, but must be that value. Escort EW technicians and engineering crew are replaced for free. Crew moved from EW or engineering during battle must move back after the battle is over. If you have recovered crew from destroyed ships, you may move them around to fill empty slots (and thus not have to buy a new crew member) except that pilots moved to a different frame (i.e. Nighthawk to Nighthawk II is the same frame) lose one point of skill. Gunners have no restrictions. Extra crew can be saved for the future (but note where pilots came from). Crew members who participate in a battle (as long as they survive) may be eligible to increase in quality. For each crew member the player wishes to improve, roll a d10. If the roll is greater than the current quality, the player may spend 1 point to improve the crew quality by 1 point. Maximum crew quality is 10. Ships which took part in a battle (non-participating ships cannot get repaired, but can be cannibalized) can be repaired by the following methods: 1) All critical effects are automatically repaired for free (but the boxes on the damage track must be repaired as normal). 2) Each ship gets 3x its maximum damage control rating in boxes back for free. All effects are repaired, including replacement of DR rating, except that killed crew must be purchased anew. (This occurs before cannibalization begins.) 3) One ship may be cannibalized for parts for another identical ship. The ship being cannibalized takes two points of damage for each point repaired on the same class ship. Once you start cannibalizing a ship, it can never be repaired again by any means, but it can be repeatedly harvested for parts at different times and in different amounts until it is completely destroyed. 4) Finally, one damage point on a ship can be repaired for 1 victory point (but again never on a ship that is being cannibalized). Note that in scenario damage control is non-permanent. Such repaired boxes, if they survive the scenario, are considered destroyed. If they are blown up again in scenario, no penalty is assessed. A side loses when it can no longer field a theoretical defensive force (even if it does not choose Defense that turn). In case it isn't obvious, this would result when you have three equal ships left (any one ship is > 30% of the total), or two relatively equal ships or one huge ship. Replacement costs: ------------------ Type Cost/unit ---- --------- Torpedo 1 per 10 marks per torpedo Missile 1 per 5 missiles Decoys 0.5 per decoy Minigun ammo Free Twin minigun 0.5 per round Triple minigun 1 per round Quad minigun 1 per round Autocannon 0.5 per round Twin autocannon 1 per round Quad Autocannon 2 per round Railrepeator 2 per round Protobolt 1 per round Parasite torp 3 per torp C-torp See below Entropic Acceler 0.5 per round C-torp cost chart ----------------- # torps Cost ------- ---- 1 2 2 3 3 5 4 8 6 10 10 12 Plasma missile 2 per 5 missiles Plas Shell Cannon 1 per round Twin Plas Shell 1.5 per round Triple Plas Shell 2 per round Quad Plas Shell 2.5 per round Plas Defense Syst See below Cost Chart for PDS rounds ------------------------- PDS Rating 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 +-------------------- 1 | 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 2 | 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 3 | 6 8 9 11 12 14 15 # 4 | 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 5 |10 13 15 18 20 23 25 6 |12 15 18 21 24 27 30