Introduction I was inspired to think about a space game after reading John Wilson’s article, “Avast ye Spacedogs”. I wanted to do a complete game from scratch and not spend lots of money on expensive kit. My space ships are made out of various scrap materials. The core of my space fleets is a number of plastic 5 mil. medical spoons which we seemed to have collected over a period of time. Add on some wooden golf tees and bits of dowell and rawl plug and I have what look reasonably like a space craft! I am sure that you will be able to come up with all sorts of possibilities when you look at what you have lying around your house. I have converted to a hexagonal grid system on my tabletop. Consequently all the measurements are in hexes. If you don’t have the wherewithal or desire to mess about with a grid then just put in your own move distances and “convert” as appropriate. Movement Standard speed Destroyer 1D10 Cruiser 1D6 Carrier 1D4 Hyper Drive Throw equal to or less than the number of surviving engine compartments on 1D4. If you make the jump to hyper drive remove your ship from the table (you may bring it back on again in another part of the table whenever you like if you make the appropriate die score). Combat There are two offensive weapons, the Photon Torpedo and the Pulsar Beam. Pulsars can be fired through 360 degrees, torpedoes through 180 degrees to the front only. Ship Torpedo Pulsar Destroyer 1 1 Cruiser 2 2 Carrier 4 4 Fighters N/A 2 - fire to the front only Before each combat check that shields can be raised. Every warship has 10 points worth of shields, freighters 6 and fighters 4. To raise shields a warship has to throw equal to or less than the number of points on a D10; freighters use a D6 and fighters a D4. (See status table towards the end of the article). As combat goes on shields will get damaged and it will become harder to raise them. When attacking roll 1D10 and consult the following table. Range Long Medium Short Torpedo 18 12 6 Pulsar 12 8 4 1D10 score to hit 2-3 2-6 2-9 Damage to shields 1 2 3 For every hit take off the relevant number of shield points (i.e. 1,2 or 3). Shields Warships 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Freighters 1 2 3 4 5 6 . . . . Fighters 1 2 3 4 . . . . . . A score of 0 is a critical hit. Reduce shields by 1 point and check the Critical Hit Table. If the shields have not been raised every hit is a critical hit. Critical hits (1D6) 1 Photon Torpedo (reduce by one) 2 Pulsar (reduce by one) 3 Shield generator (shields cannot be raised) 4 Hyper drive (ship explodes) 5 Engines (see Movement: Hyper drive for effect) 6 Crew (see Repairs for importance of crew) Repairs At the end of a scenario ships may carry out repairs. Throw 1D10 per dock, space station or freighter for points available to repair the fleet. Use points to repair shields, critical hit damage and to replace crew. Without crew no repairs can take place. One point of damage can be repaired by one crew section. So, a crew of 4 sections can replace 4 points worth of damage each turn that they are out of combat. No crew sections means no repairs. Sample Status Table (do one for each ship) Kal Pol (Warship: Cruiser) Shields 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Engines 1 2 3 4 . . . . . . Crew 1 2 3 4 . . . . . . Torpedo 1 2 . . . . . . . . Pulsar 1 2 . . . . . . . . Hyper Drive . . . . . . . . . . Shield Generator . . . . . . . . . . Bear (Freighter) Shields 1 2 3 4 5 6 . . . . Engines 1 2 3 4 . . . . . . Crew 1 2 3 4 . . . . . . Torpedo n/a n/a . . . . . . . . Pulsar 1 2 . . . . . . . . Hyper Drive . . . . . . . . . . Shield Generator . . . . . . . . . . I don’t think that there should be any hard and fast rules about whether your freighters carry armament or not. You might want to impose some sort of penalty on freight capacity; you may want to say that a certain number of profitable trips need to be made before freighters can buy armaments. You may want to leave freighters unarmed and have military escorts for your convoys. Make it your game. John Wilson’s article offers a good framework for a campaign, but you will have ideas of your own. The only limit in this sphere of gaming is your imagination. If you really need help look at any of the Star Trek television programmes. Have fun. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #138 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Solo Wargamers Association. 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