Home Rules For Small Craft Battles

[madhopper50]

Some of the games come with nice ship counters, but you really don't use the counters.  I've been trying some home rules for small craft battles using Star Fleet Battles as a basis.  I use the DCG ship counters on the 1" hex map from Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator game.  The following LTS ship builds are converted to SFB SSD boxes per the following:
Operations Section: 1 x Bridge, 1 x Sensor/Scanner & 1 x Battery; Engineering Section: 5 x Engine Power boxes; Living Section: 3 x Hull & 1 x APR
Cargo Section: 4 x Cargo or 3 x Cargo & 1 x shuttle; Lab/Brig/Other: These are done on a one for one basis.  One Lab Build equals one Lab box on the SSD

The following are my ideas on maximum ship build points for various classes of ships:
Fighters/Shuttles F/S): 20 points (This allows for 1 x ops, 1 x eng, 2 x weap, & upto 6 builds left for shields/more eng or another weapons build)
Gunboats (GB): 30 points
Frigates (FF): 80 points
Destroyers (DD): 120 points
Light Cruisers (CL): 150 points
Cruisers (CA): 200 points
Battleships/Carriers (BB)/(CV): 400 points.

Any thoughts/comments?

[aceofspades]

Hey madhopper,

I had similar thoughts to you about the low level of detail for space combat in LTS. I had made up some house rules for space combat loosely based upon SPI's Universe Delta V, which is a very old rule set, but one that I had experience with. So I created some rules that allowed the players' skills to effect certain things like maneuvers per turn, shooting, detection, repairs, etc. So things like Tactician, Navigator, Gunner, Systems Tech, Electrician and Mechanic had an effect upon combat resolution.

What I found was that it sort of ended up over complicating space combat so it wasn't streamlined enough. I didn't hate it, but it would sort of take you out of the feel of the adventure due to how long it takes to resolve. It did add that strategy bit into the mix and gave the PC's the ability to really effect the outcome with different skill sets.

I'd be interested in seeing a play through write up of your rules as I am not familiar with SFB.

-ace

[taeblewalker]

Here are my ship rules, based on Star Frontiers. I wasn't sure how to upload it here so I put it up on the Heroscape site.

www.heroscapers.com/community/downloads.php?do=file&id=5202

[aceofspades]

Thanks taeblewalker. Those look pretty cool. I'll have to mess with them. At first blush they look like they might be a little simpler than what I proposed, which I think I like.

Here's mine. Still a bit of a work in progress, but mostly complete. I think the attachment worked. There's an "Add Attachments" button on the upper right.

LTS Advanced Space Combat.docx (47.19 KB)

-ace

[madhopper50]

Jun 14, 2021 19:38:55 GMT -5 aceofspades said:

Hey madhopper,

I had similar thoughts to you about the low level of detail for space combat in LTS. I had made up some house rules for space combat loosely based upon SPI's Universe Delta V, which is a very old rule set, but one that I had experience with. So I created some rules that allowed the players' skills to effect certain things like maneuvers per turn, shooting, detection, repairs, etc. So things like Tactician, Navigator, Gunner, Systems Tech, Electrician and Mechanic had an effect upon combat resolution.

What I found was that it sort of ended up over complicating space combat so it wasn't streamlined enough. I didn't hate it, but it would sort of take you out of the feel of the adventure due to how long it takes to resolve. It did add that strategy bit into the mix and gave the PC's the ability to really effect the outcome with different skill sets.

I'd be interested in seeing a play through write up of your rules as I am not familiar with SFB.

-ace
After I touch-up the rules, I'll post them here.

[taeblewalker]

Thanks! I'm adding the attachment directly here.

Attachments:

Time and Space ship combat rules.docx (28.49 KB)

[madhopper50]

I decided that Capital Ships have no place in LTS for Crewmembers. Downsizing ships/rules to reflect only Fighters, Shuttles, Gunboats, Corvettes, Frigates and Freighters. Crew size of 1 -20 members.

[madhopper50]

Draft Copy of my Home Rules and a possible version of the Kit-Kat Gunboat SSD.

LTS Small Craft Variant - Draft.rtf (4.98 KB)