Naval Combat Rules

     Space Combat occurs whenever two or more vessels from opposing sides come into range of each other's guns and they begin to exchange fire.
 

The Planetary System

    At the heart of each planetary system is the planet itself.  On either side of it are the planetary sections, sections 1 and 2.  And in each section there are 4 ranges.  Short, Medium, Long and Extreme.  For all of these except short you must always state which planetary section you are in, but while in short range, planetary sections are ignored and it just become one large section around the planet.
 

The Opening Moves of a Space Battle

     The first move of any fleet attacking a planetary system and it's defending warships is for that fleet to exit hyperspace. From there, the attacker usually seeks to dominate space immedately around the planet by destroying all defending warships. Once this has happened, the attacker can declare a blockade has been enforced. While this has no realistic effect on the battle, the declaration usually indicates that the attacker can no longer be driven from the system by the defense forces currently located there.

The Combat Round

    Combat rounds differ a from what most players are used to from other games. No matter what, a round is the space of time in which you conduct a variety of actions and then give your current status (shields, hull,  and starfighters). This is how our particular simming community has always defined it, and it takes just a little getting used to before it makes sense. A round for a capital ship may contain one of the following:
 

1.Entering or exiting hyperspace.
2.Any or all of the following:
For fighters, any one of the following may be performed:
 


    You need not do all of these in every round, but you must provide your status which includes: damage remaining on shields and hull, your planetary section and range, and what actions you took in this round.
 

 All vessel must adhear to the order of actions. As can be seen, some actions are simply not possible because they are not in the correct order. For example, a vessel cannot exit hyperspace and then fire on opposing warships or fighters. Similarly, a vessel entering hyperspace cannot recover any fighters on the same post. Prior planning is required when committing a force to battle as you may end up depriving yourself of the ability to act later on.

Shield, Hull and Systems Ratings

     In combat, a vessel will invariably take damage and lose more and more of its ability to fight. This is measured by three ratings: shields, hull and systems ratings.
     Shields are invisible walls of energy that generators onboard warships produce to absorb the incoming fire from other warships. Unlike armor plates, shields are not physical objects and do not need to be repaired in a space dock. Instead, the generators that produce them must recharge in moments of calm. A vessel's shield rating is equal to its length. Shields are affected by the enemy's weapons before either the hull or systems ratings and all damage will deplete the shields first. Once the shields are down, all damage will be inflicted on the vessel's hull and shield ratings.
     Every warship is equipped with meters of armor plating as a protection from meteorites, laser cannon and collisions from small fighter-type craft. In combat, a vessel will remain intact as long as it has a hull rating. The total hull rating of a vessel is equal to its length. Once a vessel's hull rating has dropped to zero, the vessel will be destroyed and cannot be repaired.
     The systems rating of a vessel is a representation of the full power output of the ship. When damage is taken from enemy guns the wiring and power conduits of the vessel are damaged and it cannot operate as efficiently. A vessel's system rating is equal to its total length. As a vessel's power output falls, certain systems will be affected.

          Systems Rating       Effect
                 100%                 All systems are operaing at full efficiency
                 50%                   Half the vessel's weapons are now inoperable
                 40%                   Hangar Operations has been disabled and no fighter craft may be launched
                                           Tractor Beam Generators are now inoperable
                 30%                   Shield Generators are now inoperable and shields cannot recharge
                 25%                   All of the vessel's weapons are now inoperable
                 15%                   The vessel's hyperdrive is now inoperable
                                           Life Support Systems go to minimal operation, all onboard troops die, excluding bridge staff.
                 10%                   The vessel's sublight drive is now inoperable
                  5%                    The vessel's self-destruct and escape pod systems are now inoperable
                  0%                    All life support systems are now inoperable
 

Once a vessel's systems rating has fallen to 0% it is adift and inoperative until it can be towed to a friendly planet.

Weapon Damage Chart
 
 
Weapon Type
Damage
Damage % vs Fighters
Planetary Based Laser Cannon
75
-
Force Pulse Battery
6
5%
Turbolaser Battery
5
5%
Turbolaser Cannon
4
5%
Force Pulse Cannon
3
5%
Ion Cannon
4
5%
Quadlaser Cannon
1
50%
Concussion Missiles
0
100%
Dark Mass Cannon
0
100%
Star Fighter Laser
.5
50%
Plasma Cannon
1
25%
Dark Lightning Cannon
1
25%
Proton Torpedo
5
-
Devastation  Pulse 
3
-
Graviry Well Generator
-
-

 
 

A Note on Weapon Types and Their Effects

     There are two types of weapons used by conventional forces: laser and ionic cannon. Laser type weaponry are constructed to damage physical objects and batter an enemy craft to pieces. Ionic weapons utilize electro-magnetic pulses to short out electronic equipment and disable enemy craft. Each type is used to attain a specific type of objective.
     In combat, laser type weapons such as Turbolasers and Quad Lasers will batter apart the enemy craft's shields for the full Damage Rating. Once down, these weapons will tear apart the hull of the craft, dealing the full Damage Rating to the metal armor.
     Ionic weapons will also damage the enemy shields for their full Damage Rating. However, instead of doing damage to the enemy's hull, these guns deal their full Damage Rating to the systems rating of the enemy.
     All weapons when used against fighter craft will destroy these small vessels as they are delicate pieces of equipment and are prone to fail when heavily damaged.
    New to the galaxy are several types of non-conventional weaponry.  These weapons are used only on Sith craft, and use pure Force energy to create the mass or beam doing the actual damage.  All of these do their full damage to both shields and hull rating.
 

Fighter versus Fighter Combat

 Fighter to fighter combat begins when one player announces that his fighters are entering a dogfight with another group of fighters.
 
 
 
Fighter Type Fighter vs Fighter Combat Rating
Republic Fighters
Alpha Fighter 4
Beta Fighter 2
Z-95 Headhunter 3
Naboo Star Fighter 4
Sith Fighters
Sith Interceptor 4
Sith Bomber 1
Sith Defender 3
Mercenary Fighers
3
2

These ratings are for a squadron (12 ships) of fighters. If a squadron of Z-95's had 6/12 ships left then it's fighter rating is now 1.5 because it has lost half of its craft (always round up). If any squadron drops below a .5 rating (unrounded) then it is useless in fighter-fighter combat. Use normal rounding to one significant figure. If a squad had a rating of 2.46, then you round down to 2.

Each time someone posts, the damage for each fighter squadron is calculated. The squadron that attacked will have the advantage and thus only 75% of the opponent's fighter rating will count on the first post. This is for the first post only, any advantage after that will be lost. So you will calculate your damage to the opposing squadron and post how many ships are left and how many of yours are left on the first post. On the second post your opponent will calculate losses for each side. Here is an example:

A squadron of Alpha Fighters attacks a squadron of Sith Bombers. On the first post, 4 Bomers are lost and 1 Alpha Fighter is lost (1*.75=.75  rounded up). On the second post, 4 Bombers are lost (11/12 * 4 = 3.6  round up) and 1 more Aplhas (8/12 * 1 = .66 rounded up). At this point there are 10/12 Alpha Fighter left and 4/12 Bombers. This continues on until a squadron is destroyed or a squadron disengages.

If you have more than one squadron that are different in type attacking one squadron then the fighter rating is cumulative, meaning you add up the total fighter rating for either side.
 

Fighter versus Capital Ship Combat

     There are 2 ways for a fighter squadron to attack a capital ship.  Either strafing it, which is simply flying by firing all its non-torpedo weapons, doing the total ammount of damage to the hull or shields, and bombing a ship.
    Due to the ammount of calculations, you must prepair a bombing run the round before it happens.  Stats that your fighters are prapairing a bombing run, and on the next turn, assuming they are still alive, they may fire their torpedo weapons for the full ammount of damage to the ship.
 

Fighter Craft Deployment

    A capital ship may launch up to 4 fighter squadrons per turn.
 

Fighter Craft Recovery

     Basically the opposite maneuver of deploying fighter craft, recovering them is simply the process of bringing them back on board the capital ship. This is usually done before the capital ship enters hyperspace to retreat from a battle or to move on to another system.  It may recover up to 4 fighter squadrons per turn.