Deep Space Combat is a tactical simulation of spaceship warfare. It is a contest between two or more fleets in interstellar space at sublight speeds.
FLEETS
Players design fleets before the game begins. The players must agree beforehand on the number of size levels to be used in the game. These size levels are then divided among the ships a players wishes to have in his fleet. A player with twelve size levels could design a fleet with one huge ship of size 12, two ships of size 6, three ships of size 4, twelve ships of size 1, or any other combination that totals 12.
The larger the number of size levels on each side, the longer the game will take to play. The number of size levels need not be equal; experienced players may wish to grant beginners an advantage.
SHIPS
Ships have four primary stats: size, thrust, evasion, and endurance.
Size is the first stat determined when designing a ship. A ship's size determines the amount of points that the ship has to distribute between its other stats (each level of size gives sixty ship design points) and the amount of points that a single point of thrust, evasion, or endurance will cost. Large ships must spend more points than smaller ships to move, to evade attacks, and to protect themselves.
One level of Thrust, Evason, or Endurance costs an amount of points equal to the size of the ship.
Thrust represents the maximum amount of acceleration available to the ship each round. Thrust can be used to increase speed, to brake, or to turn. Ships that have no thrust cannot move. They are fixed objects on the combat map, like satellites or space stations.
Evasion represents the ability of a ship to avoid enemy fire.
Endurance represents the ability of a ship to deflect or absorb damage.
WEAPONS
One level of Targeting or Damage for a weapon costs one point. Ships may have multiple weapons.
Targeting represents the ability of a weapon to hit an enemy target.
Damage represents the amount of punishment a weapon inflicts on an enemy.
COMBAT
Combat occurs in rounds. Each round is subdivided into five distinct phases.
Plotting Phase
The Plotting phase is first. At this time, players must decide what actions each of their ships will take on that round. Players must record how each ship will apply thrust, what weapons each ship will fire, and what enemy ships each weapon will target on an appropriate action sheet. Actions are revealed when all players are finished plotting; at this point, commanders are stuck with whatever they wrote. All actions occur simultaneously for game purposes.
Rules for moving ships and firing weapons are contained in the sections below.
Movement Phase
To understand the movement rules, you first need a basic understanding of physics. The terms of importance are velocity and acceleration.
Velocity is a measure of speed and direction. The velocity of an object represents not only how fast it is going, but also where. In the game, speed is measured in hexes per round and direction is measured as facing one of six hex sides (labelled 1 through 6, A through F, +-xyz, etc). A ship may have velocity components in as many as three directions at once. These various components are added together to move the ship.
Acceleration represents a change in velocity. This can be a change in speed, a change in direction, or both. In the game, acceleration is measured by thrust (hexes-per-round per round).
The movement of ships takes place in the vacuum of space, so the maximum speed of any ship is unlimited for game purposes.
At the beginning of each Plotting phase, each player must plot the movement of each of his ships. Changes in velocity are done with Thrust. Thrust can be used to change speed, direction, or both; the only difference is in application.
To change the speed of a ship, the pilot must allocate a number thrust points equal to the desired change in speed.
Example: if your ship is moving at a speed of 4 hexes/round and you wish to increase it to 8 hexes/round, you must expend 4 points of thrust in the direction of velocity. If you are moving at 8 hexes/round and you wish to stop, you must expend 8 points of thrust opposite the direction of velocity. If you are moving at 4 hexes/round and wish to move at the same speed in another direction, you may either rotate (see below) or expend 8 points of thrust (4 to stop and 4 to go in the other direction).
To rotate 60 degrees (one hex side), the pilot must allocate a number of thrust points equal to the current speed. To rotate 120 degrees (two hex sides), the pilot must allocate a number of thrust points equal to twice the current speed. Note that this is the same amount of thrust that it would take to stop altogether and accelerate in another direction, so rotating any amount more than one hex side costs the same as 120 degrees: twice the current speed.
Example: if your ship is moving at a speed of 4 hexes/turn in direction A (see map) and you wish to move at the same speed in direction B or F, you must expend 4 points of thrust. To move at the same speed in direction C, E, or D would cost 8 points of thrust.
A
F | B
\ /
* hexmap directional labels
/ \
E | C
D
Ship captains must take great care to decelerate properly. It is easy to turn too wide or to overshoot your destination. A good rule of thumb is to accelerate for half the distance to the destination and then decelerate for the other half.
Plotted movement works like this: first, the player notes the current velocity of his ship. This is either the final velocity of the ship on the previous turn or, if the battle has just begun, chosen by the player. Next, the player notes the level of each ship's thrust. This is the maximum amount usable during the round. Finally, the player decides how each point of thrust is to be applied. This is done by writing down the amount of thrust to be applied, the reason for the thrust (whether it is being used to speed up, slow down, or turn), and the final velocity for the ship in that round. This process is repeated for each of a player's ships.
For simplicity, alterations in speed and direction are considered instantaneous. Players simply change the velocities of their ships according to the amount of thrust that they allocated for each ship and record the new speeds and directions on their combat record sheet. The velocity possessed by a ship at the end of this phase becomes that ship's starting velocity on the next movement phase.
Weapons Phase
The weapons phase occurs after all ships have finished moving. To fire weapons, players must first understand the attack and damage rolls.
The attack roll is used to determine whether an attack hit its target. The attacker rolls 2d6, multiplies the result by the Targeting level of the weapon, and subtracts the distance (in hexes) to the target from the total. The defender then rolls 2d6 and multiplies the result by his Evasion level. If the attacker's total is greater than or equal to the defender's, then the attack hit.
The damage roll is used to determine the effects of being hit by enemy fire. The attacker rolls 2d6 and multiplies the result by the Damage level of the weapon. The defender rolls 2d6 and multiplies the result by his Endurance level. Subtracting the defender's total from the attacker's yields the number of hit points inflicted upon the victim by the attack. Hit points are subtracted from the stats of the ship during the damage phase of the round. Obviously, ships become less effective as they are damaged. When all of a ship's stats are reduced to zero, the ship is annihilated.
Example: a ship with a targeting of 5 and a damage of 4 fires at an enemy ship with an evasion of 4 and an endurance of 5 at a range of 12 hexes. The attacker rolls 2d6 and gets an 8, multiplying the result by the targeting to get 40 and subtracting the range for a total attack roll of 28. The defender rolls 2d6 and gets a 6, resulting in an evasion of 24. This is less than the attacker's roll, so the attack hit. The attacker then rolls an 8 on 2d6 and multiplies it by his damage for a total damage roll of 16. The defender rolls a 6 again, resulting in an endurance roll of 15. 16 - 15 = 1, so the defender takes one hit point of damage.
Damage Phase
All damage incurred during the weapons phase is considered to have happened simultaneously, so does not take effect until the damage phase. During the damage phase, each player must total the number of hit points received by each of his ships and decide where to apply the damage. The size of a ship is not affected by damage, so hit points must be divided between thrust, evasion, endurance, and the targeting and damage of weapons. Ship stats lose levels at a rate of one level for every number of hit points equal to the size of the ship, while weapon stats lose one level for every hit point taken.
Example: A ship of size 4, thrust 4, and targeting 5 is hit for 11 hit points of damage. The pilot applies 8 hit points to thrust, which decreases his thrust by two (8/size) levels. He applies the remaining 3 hit points to targeting, decreasing it by three levels. At the end of the round, the ship has a thrust of 2 and a targeting of 2.
Destruction Phase
Any ship that has all of its stats (except size) reduced to zero during the damage phase is removed from the map during the destruction phase.
Ships have a final option during the destruction phase: that of self destruction. A ship that declares self destruction during this phase will immediately explode, doing an amount of damage equal to the total remaining stats of the ship to everything in the same hex as the explosion. This tactic can be used to wipe out large ships with kamakaze drones.
Example: A heavily damaged cruiser with a remaining stat total of 10 decides to sacrifice itself for the cause. It dives for the nearest enemy dreadnaut, which has an endurance of 6. After maneuvering into position above the enemy during the movement phase and avoiding any damage during the weapons and damage phases, the cruiser detonates against the dreadnaut's hull, doing 2d6x10 damage. It rolls a total of 70. The dreadnaut rolls a total endurance of 42 and takes 28 hit points of damage.
MISC
The size and velocity of each ship in combat is detectable by all players at all times. No player can disguise a battleship as a sailboat or fool enemy scanners into thinking that his ship is sitting still when it is moving.
Thrust, targeting, damage, evasion, and endurance are not detectable by enemies, though they can be deduced through careful observation.
The winner of a contest between two fleets should be fairly obvious, as the loser has been destroyed. There is no reward for retreat in a one-shot situation like this.
In a contest between more than two fleets in an ongoing campaign, a simple points system is used to determine the victor: each player receives a number of victory points for equal to the amount of hit points inflicted on various enemies during the battle minus the amount of hit points received by all ships during the battle. In this light, it makes sense to withdraw any ships that have been heavily damaged, as a ship in retreat is worth more than a dead one.
Copyright 1997 Joshua Morris