Introduction The year is 1889 (AD.). Silly notions of a vacuum in space have been cast aside, as military and commercial craft, powered by Thomas Edisonst solar boiler, ply the Luminous Ether between the planets. They carry with them the enlightened civilising forces of the European Great Powers - each with their own fleet, spreading the White Man's Burden to the previously blissfully unburdened inhabitants of Venus, the Moon, and Mars. European self-confidence is high, international rivalries are intense, and war is imminent. The Flyers Vessels are rated in one of five classes, from the lumbering dreadnoughts of class one bristling with guns, to the yachts and patrol craft of class five, noted more for their speed than their staying power. Vessels are rated for four factors: - Hull Points (damage they can sustain before being destroyed) Gun Dice (the maximum number of d6's the ship rolls in combat, reflecting the number of guns it carries). Speed (max. speed in cm) Turn ( max. number of base hex sides the vessel may turn in one round of combat) All vessels of the same class have the same starting values. These values may however be varied to accommodate special vessels in particular scenarios. Note: All non-military, transport, or cargo vessels have their Hull Points and Gun Dice values halved (fractions rounded down). All vessels should be mounted on hexagonal bases with the vessel clearly pointing towards one edge. CLASS HULL POINTS GUN DICE MAXIMUM TURN SPEED I 32 16 8 ? II 24 12 12 ? III 16 8 16 ? IV 8 4 20 ? V 2 1 28 ? Turn Sequence The game is played in a series of turns. At the beginning of each turn, players write down the speeds of each of their vessels. Each vessel may accelerate or decelerate by the same speed as its class number, thus a class I vessel can accelerate or decelerate by l cm, and a class V can accelerate and decelerate by upto 5 cm. There are two movement phases in a turn. The vessel with the lowest speed moves first, followed by the other vessels in acceding order of speed, roll a dice to break ties. In the first phase, each vessel moves half (rounded up) its total move, then all the other vessels have half their move, before the sequence starts again in the second phase with the slowest vessel completing its movement, followed by the other vessels in speed order. Thus a vessel moving at speed 6, would move 3 cm in the first phase and another 3 cm in the second phase. The second movement phase follows on immediately after the first has ended. Vessels may fire only once per turn, they may do so at any time during either of their movement phases but at no other time during the turn. If firing during movement, the movement is stopped, with a note made of the remaining cm left to move that phase. Combat then occurs as described below, then the movement phase is resumed. Once all vessels have participated in both movement phases the turn ends, damage effects are noted, and speeds are set again for next turn. Movement The movement phases and acceleration and deceleration have been described above under turn sequence. All movement (except turning) must be directly forward in the direction of the hex base side which the vessel faces. Vessels must move their full written movement distance in a turn, and the flill half movement in each phase. Vessels may change direction by turning to a different side of their hex base. The number of hex sides a vessel may change through in a turn is determined by the vessels turn number (e.g. a class 1 vessel can turn one hex side in a turn, a class 3 vessel can change up to three hex sides in a turn). Each hex side change of direction cost the vessel 2 cm of movement. if the vessel does not have sufficient movement remaining it may not conduct the turn. Having changed facing by one hex side the vessel must move directly forward on the new side at least 1 cm before changing sides again. For example: A class 3 vessel below wishes to turn three sides to face the opposite direction, and has a current movement speed of 12 cm. In the first movement phase, the vessel has 6 cm of movement. It starts by changing one side (costing 2cm), then moves forward 1 cm, turns a another side (again costing 2 cm), and again moves forward 1 cm. The vessel now has 6cm remaining in the second phase to perform the one remaining side change which will place it facing in the opposite direction as intended. Vessels may not collide with one another, although a vessel may draw along side a stationary vessel to board and capture it. Combat All vessels are assumed to be armed with a combination of machine guns and quick-firing light artillery with explosive shell, since recoil compensation and fire control is insufficient to allow weightier pieces to be mounted on etherflyers. The Gun Dice differences merely reflect the total number of weapons rather than the greater weight of individual pieces. A vessel may fire once during either of its movement phases. A vessel may fire at any other vessel within 30cm of it. Intervening vessels do not prevent this (we are working in three dimensions here, and it is assumed that their is sufficient room to shoot under or over an intervening vessel). The firing player rolls a number of d6's equal to his vessels remaining Gun Dice score. This number of dice is halved (rounded down) if the target vessel is entirely within the firing ships front or rear arc. Each Gun Dice rolled which scores a 6 inflicts 1 Hull Point damage on the target. Additionally, each die which scored a 6 is rolled again, again inflicting 1 point of damage if a 6 is rolled. The remaining die are continually rerolled until they no longer score a 6, and continue to inflict damage for each 6 scored. It is thus possible for a vessel to inflict an unlimited amount of damage on the target in a turn - if it is very lucky. Damage A hit vessel reduces its total number of hull points when it is hit. The effect of the damage is to reduce the capabilities of the ship: % damage of Total Hull Points Reduce Gun Dice by Reduce Maximum Speed by Reduce turn by 25% 25% 25% 1 50% 50% 50% 2 75% 75% 75% No turning 100% 100% 100% No turning With loses all fractions are rounded down. All damage effects are applied at the end of the turn in which they occur. The vessel flinctions as it was at the beginning of the turn until the turn ends. If, after taking account of the damage modifications, a vessel finds itself moving at more than its new maximum speed, it must decelerate by its maximum amount each turn until it reaches its new maximum speed. Boarding A vessel whose hull points have been reduced to zero may be boarded. A vessel merely needs to place itself within 1 cm of the stricken vessel to successfiilly capture it Vessels may still be boarded even if they still have Hull Points, so long both the vessel to be boarded and the boarding vessel are within 1 cm of each other and both have a current speed of zero. In this case players roll d6 for each vessel and subtract the vessel's class rating from the score. If the attackers score exceeds the defenders, then the vessel has been captured, otherwise the combat may continue for another round. A vessel which is boarding another counts the boarding attempt as that vessels combat action for this turn (thus it may not fire this turn). If able, the boarded vessel may still attempt a firing action this turn, or may attempt to counter-board. A counter-board is conducted in exactly the same manner as a boarding action. End Note These rules have been inspired by Irregular Miniatures recent Ether-Dreadnought releases, particularly their Heirs of Manucas battle pack containing six vessels and stands for £6. As you can see this is a rather brief set of rules, players should apply common sense if they encounter anything not covered in the rules, and should feel free to write new rules and expansions as the mood takes them. Back to The Gauntlet No. 13 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Craig Martelle Publications This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com