BR Rules Fixes version 1.1 February 11, 1996 Hi, This is the lastest revision of my BR rules. I have also updated this to include the BR versions of my BL rules additions. All Additional Rules require certain fixes to be made to BR to make it mimic BL better (first are some useful terms): Term Abbreviation --------------- ------------ Active EMS AEMS Bogey Detection BD Brilliant Lances BL Battle Rider BR Difficulty Level DL, DiffLevel Difficulty Modifier DM, DiffMod Meson Gun MG Meson Screen MS Particle Accel. Weapon PAW Passive EMS PEMS Rate of Fire ROF Short Range SR Tech Level TL Task Difficulty Fix: -------------------- All sensor, jammer, screen and fire tasks are 1 Difficulty Level harder. This is a change in the _Base_Difficulty_Level_, this is not a DiffMod! This reflects the fact that all the tasks considered _Average_ in BL, mysteriously changed to _Easy_ in BR, even though the BR rules give a table for converting TNE task DiffLevels to BR, and 1=Easy, 2=Average, etc.. Overpowering DiffMod Fix (clarification): ----------------------------------------- Overpowering -DMs may only be used to counteract +DMs (same as FC rating rule). Missile Damage Clarification: ----------------------------- Det-Laser missiles do 1-6 hits of damage value 2 (or 3), just like BL. Damage (another non-BL compatible screw-up): -------------------------------------------- I've been thinking about the way damage is handled in BR, and it seems a little screwy. The fact that you add Outstanding Hits together is what bugs me. It can be argued that this is to cover for the lack of incremental damage, but it alters MG/MS interactions too much. The solution is not to add Outstanding hits together, but to treat them as separate hits. This will kill MGs unless you fix the screen task (which is broken to the extent that the same combat will never come out the same in BL and BR if MGs are involved). PAWs will be pretty weak against big ships as well, but that is the case with BL so at least it will be consistant. In a nutshell: 1. Treat all Outstanding Hits as two separate hits. 2. Do Meson Screen tasks as they are done in BL. This means that you need to do the following: a. Meson gun hits target (outstanding hit counts as 2 hits *not* added together) b. Lookup BL value of MG attack (chart at near end of BR). Lookup BL value of MS (same chart). c. Do the meson screen task, but with the following DMs: * if the BL MG value exceeds the MS value by 2+ times, DM=+1 * if the BL MG value exceeds the MS value by 4+ times, DM=+2 * if the BL MS value exceeds the MG value by 4+ times, DM=-1 d. Roll (draw card) the task. A success means the MG attack is negated, a failure means the attack succeeds and does *full* damage. Additional, Optional Rules: ========================== (note that these rules are in addition to existing rules, and do not supersede them except where noted) Automatic Tasks (AutoTasks): ---------------------------- Any Task reduced below "1" (Easy) is automatically Successful. You still have to draw a card (or roll) to determine Outstanding Success. Limited attacks by Spinal & Parallel (non-trainable) Weapons mounts: -------------------------------------------------------------------- A ship, in addition to the Multiple Firing Batteries (MFB) Rule (pg.19), may only fire a number of spinal and other non-trainable *weapons* equal to its maneuver rating in gs, minus every gturn spent on evasion and maneuver (tracking does not count for this, see below). Results less than 1, are treated as 1. The exception being that it may always fire weapons up to the number allowed in the MFB Rule at any *single* target. The maximum weapons bearing Re:MFB Rule are *always* in effect. Optional addition 1: A ship/taskforce may expend gturns on _tracking_. For each tracking gturn, add 1 to the number of weapons that may attack. Optional addition 2: Ships may fire more than the allowed number of weapons, but add +1 Diff Level (to *base* level) for each additional weapon. Advanced Sensor Rules: ====================== It is assumed that the Bogeys that are represented by Taskforce counters (real, or false) were detected before the beginning of a given scenario using long-time observations with the ships' passive sensor arrays (rules for this are more suitable for BL, than BR and are not discussed here). Bogey Detection Rules from my BL Additions may be used. All ships are assumed to enter a scenario passive (unfolded) unless otherwise noted. Variable short range: --------------------- All active sensors may operate at any short range (SR) below their maximum for various tactical reasons. eg: A CA with A:16 sensors may choose to operate them at A:2 in an attempt to lock nearby missiles without broadcasting its capabilities to the enemy. Advanced Passive Folding Arrays: -------------------------------- Because they are aperture synthesis arrays, passive sensors may be listed with 2 short ranges. The first is the SR that the ship may use _without_ suffering folding array penalties, the second, in parentheses, is the SR for the unfolded array. eg: A BB might be listed as P:6(8). This ship could use P:6 without unfolding an array, or P:8 with its array unfolded. Going Active: ------------- Going active vs. a passive sensor gives a -1DM to the sensor task of the passive player. There is an alternate method for attempting to Lock active targets. A passive sensor can detect the emissions of equipment that emit signals in its reception band. Thus, a passive EMS sensor can detect the emissions of AEMS sensors,as well as radio communicators and jammers. These signals can frequently be detected at ranges in excess of the maximum effective range of the emitters. As a result, when a target goes active*, passive sensors may roll their Lock-On attempts using special, longer range breaks. Compute the range breaks using the sum of the passive sensor's short range and the active sensor's short range. If a passive sensor is being used to detect active sensors in this way, it may only use active sensor DMs to the task. eg: A CA in its detection phase decides to attempt detection of an active taskforce 60 hexes away. Its folded passive array (P:5(8)) has a SR of 5, so it wouldn't normally be able to detect a target past 40 hexes. Since the target is active, with a SR=16 detector, the detecting ship may attempt detection with a base difficulty equal to Long range (within 84 hexes). The base difficulty would therefore be 4 (using the diff level fix above), and all other DMs would be added/subtracted from this value. Past Extreme Range Locking: ---------------------------- If as Locking Task is possible (not greater than 5) then it may be attempted, regardless of range. Advanced Surprise: ------------------ Any targets that are surprised (see BR, pg. 25) are unaware that other ships are present at all, and are therefore conserving gturns. Under combat conditions ships use microbursts from their maneuver system to slightly randomize their positions. The range DMs on the Player Aid Card assume these micro-evasions---but surprised ships (or non-evading ships with limited gturns) are *not* making these micro-evasions. As a result, the range table needs to be altered for attacks on surprised ships as follows: Surprised ships are attacked normally, but the range DM is +1 for every 10 hexes range (instead of 3). In addition, surprised targets may be engaged out to the limits that FC and overpowering allow, simply add a DiffLevel to the base level at each doubling of range (+1 for 2xExtreme, +2 for 4xExtreme, etc.), and use the +1DM/10 hexes range table. Obviously, only size will make attempts possible past a weapon's Extreme range. Designer's Notes: =================================================== First things first. The Difficulty Level fix had to be done. It *must* have been an oversight---otherwise any player character fleets would be at a DiffLevel disadvantage vs. non-player fleets according to BR's rules. The Overpowering thing is clear in BL, and unclear in BR, just thought I'd make it clear. The rationale for the limit on det-laser missile damage seems clear enough. I didn't like the fact that BR didn't duplicate BL results with MGs. In BL a ship with a small MG can do criticals if it can beat the 95% odds against actually penetrating the meson screen. This means battle riders actually have a use, since you don't need a battleship sized MG to take out a big target. It also means you get more shots, which also makes the canon existence of battleriders make even more sense. We always use this rule. The idea that a limited number of non-trainable weapons can actually engage targets seems to make a lot of sense to me. Since all such weapons must be pointed at a target by rotating the entire ship, it would greatly constrain maneuver if too many targets were fired at, or too many weapons were trained on targets. The variable SR active sensors, and advanced passive folding array rules are more of the common sense variety, I thought many people would assume them, but wanted to add them for clarity. The use of the active sensor long range, and passive locks on active targets out past Extreme is the result of the fact that the detecting ship sees more energy than it reflects back at the active source. As a result, it should see about the same energy the active ship sees at longer ranges. The advanced surprise makes sense of the range DM table as it pertains to non-evading targets, and frankly, it was also a rationale for not driving around with the AEMS lit up all the time. It would also have interesting implications if one was to assume missiles did not micro-evade (kinda closer to the BL designers notes in Challenge, huh?). I took out the KKM rules since Guy and Bertil are working on a much better version than mine. Also, we have MultiTargeting rules done for BL (mostly for anti-missile use) and they are a bit complicated for BR. I need to make a simple system that is consistant with those rules for resolving the thousands of missile attacks youUd see in BR. Once again, let me know what you think! Merrick Burkhardt