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The Fleet System


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Fleet Rules

 

In Star Wars, massive fleets clash in titanic space battles that determine the fate of worlds or even the grander destiny of the galaxy. While we initially used the same open writing system that we use for duels to determine the outcomes of these battles, it failed to effectively capture the nuance and scale of them, and often left players feeling angry and resentful, breeding a fair bit of toxicity. The goal of this fleet system is to create an engaging and fair narrative for fleet battles, with players taking control of task forces of which fleets are comprised of. Task forces can be simple and straightforward in function, or delicate tools that require skilled handling, but both types are necessary for victory.

 

Running the Fleet

 

Commanders are expected to maintain lines of communication and goodwill to the opposing players. All fleet abilities are announced at the beginning of the round and resolved at the end of the round to represent simultaneous events rather than each post being slightly later in the timeline. Players that fail to meet the three day rule requirement are assumed to repeat their last action if possible. If it’s the first round, their commander is assumed to have failed to react promptly and/or the crew was caught unprepared and they make no action. Since all actions are determined at the beginning, and resolved at the end, post order of combatants is irrelevant as long as they post in the round, and the three day countdown goes into effect at the start of the round. Fleet commanders PM their actions to the staff member overseeing the battle, who will then post a summary of them once the round is up, with players optionally posting their more in depth narratives afterwards.

 

Each player participating in a fleet battle commands their own Task Force(TF). If the numbers are uneven, then the admiral with fewer task forces can either choose to take a number of “Green” task forces to create an equal conflict, or request a secret win objective from the mods if it makes narrative sense to do so. No engagement is ever considered to include any faction’s entire fleet, and players can enter subsequent battles even if their last task force suffered total destruction. Player commanders are responsible for their task force’s ship composition, names, traditions, and portrayal in the RP, not to mention their actions on the field. All ships in a task force are considered to be overhauled to function at “modern” levels to perform their duties in a task force, so if players like the look of an older ship like a Venator, they can use it without having to worry about the shield generators being outdated. This also applies in terms of comparisons between ships of the different factions, a battleline escort is equally effective as a MC-90 and an ISD-II.

 

In addition to any fleet assets they control, each fleet commander will also have three starfighter commands to use each round, depending on the size of the battle (Some task forces allow for additional commands). This system does not track squadron numbers or ship carrier capacity, so there is no optimal meta ship pick that will maximize starfighter effectiveness. For more information see the list of commands below in the mechanics sections.

 

Fleet Experience Levels

 

Task forces gain levels from participating in fleet combat, Any PC led task force starts at Green, needs two battles for Veteran, and three further battles for Elite (As in, it takes five battles in total to gain elite status). Only matched PVP battles give experience, practice battles, battles against NPCs, and narrative battles will not provide experience. Players are encouraged to plan out task forces in advance, and new task forces that are posted before the start of their first battle with named ships and a backstory are treated as having already participated in a battle in terms of progression.

 

Retreating and losses

 

Withdrawing is a full round action, but can prevent the loss of valuable experience and abilities. The fleet’s admiral can order “unowned” task forces to retreat. 

 

A task force that loses over half of its ships (or suffers 50% hull damage in the case of capitals and specialist ships with support) is considered to have suffered heavy losses and must skip the next battle to undergo repairs and train replacement crew, and a task force that is wiped out loses a rank of veterancy unless it has a bonus to prevent that or is already at Green, in which case advancement to next rank is reset.

 

Abilities

 

Throughout the rules you will see references to removal, targeted removal, and damage abilities, these all refer to Task Force abilities and starfighter actions that allow ships to do measurable damage to each other. This is not to say that other ships aren’t actively firing their weapons or otherwise engaging the enemy, just that these task forces and bombers are specifically designed to overwhelm shields and compromise hulls. Rather than cluttering the process by trying to track every single ship’s attacks, we’re focusing on the heavy hitters whose role it is to destroy other ships, while letting other ships focus on different aspects of fleet combat. Up to three task forces can focus fire on the same enemy task force, but for each attacking task force after the first there’s a cumulative minus two penalty per task force to total damage inflicted, representing too many ships getting in the way of each other. 

 

Removal abilities that overkill a target with damage have the excess distributed to another target in the task force, and if necessary however many more targets are required to account for all of the damage. If the task force is destroyed entirely, the remaining damage is lost. Artillery damage does not spill over.

 

Support Ships and Escorts

 

Some task forces in this list mention that they are supported by smaller ships, such as the Interdiction Cadre. Leaders of these task forces can choose to reallocate removal abilities such as Focus Fire from their key ship to other ships in the task force to represent other ships tanking fire to keep their key piece on the field. As mentioned before, support ship losses do not count towards determining whether the task force has suffered heavy losses. In the case of task forces where the task force ability is tied to a specific ship such as an interdictor or carrier, loss of that ship also means loss of the task force ability.

 

Another form of defensive options are escorts, task forces that can attach themselves to other task forces to allow their ships to serve as support. When a task force is escorting another task force, incoming damage must be redirected to the escort, unless the escort has rules that state otherwise. Only escort task forces can perform escort actions. After initial deployment, capital ships require a full round of traversal to reposition in defense of a new task force. Cruisers and smaller classes can redeploy in time to intercept attacks that occur at regular or delayed speed. Cruiser and capital escorts serving as support cannot intercept bomber attacks, but frigates can, and corvettes force bombers to destroy shields before they can start targeting the hull. Unless otherwise stated, only one escort can cover an allied TF at a time. Escorts can withdraw in the same turn that they are escorting, escorting is only referred to as an action to clarify that it can be shut down by TF abilities such as the Asset Denial Force's Surgical Strike ability.

 

Reserves

 

A task force can be held in reserve rather than deploying immediately to the field. If a player chooses this option they should let the presiding staff member know which task force they want to hold back. When submitting actions for the round, the player can inform the mod that they want to bring their reserves in next turn. During the end of round summary the mod will post that the enemy detects incoming ships and relay how many task forces are inbound but not the composition of the task forces. When a task force jumps in the enemy is made aware of ships exiting hyperspace and have the opportunity to assign abilities to target them. This arrival phase takes a full round, and the task force does not get to perform any other actions for the round unless otherwise noted. If enemy sensors are jammed the opposition loses the option to make an initial response during the arrival phase. If comms for the side that is bringing in reserves are not jammed, the new arrival can perform an action as normal for the round. Some task forces (Interdiction cadre and Command Group at the time of writing this)can allow reserve forces to do precision jumps into the battle. Provided that comms are not jammed, the reserve task force can ignore support ships and escorts for the round that they jump in. If the task force is a carrier group and chooses Bombers Inbound, the starfighter action ignores support ships as well, representing the ships jumping in already in attack formation. Ships that use precision deployment have damaged their hyperdrives and cannot withdraw early (If both sides have ships stranded this way and no longer wish to fight they can agree to mutually disengage until repairs are completed).

 

Stealth

 

Stealth Rating: Stealth is a fight between the stealth ship itself and the awareness of the vessels it is stalking. High vs Low, with detectors working to raise awareness, and stealth units trying to act without revealing their position. Stealth TFs start with a high stealth rating, and detectors start with a low combat awareness rating. Capital ships have lowest awareness rate and corvettes have highest awareness rate, and each TF determines base awareness by highest rated ship in TF or attached escort. (Capital = 1, Cruiser = 1, Frigate = 2, Corvette = 3)
 
Stealth cruisers start at stealth rating of 10, while large capitals start at 8, and lose stealth rating when performing actions. There are actions that they can do to raise their stealth rating back up to a maximum of 10 (Or 8 for capitals), but staying at ten while contributing to the battle should be difficult if not impossible. An engaged stealth ship is discovered when the targeted TF’s awareness rating matches or exceeds the stealth rating of the engaged ship. For support stealth ships and stealth ships that are not engaged, discovery occurs when any enemy ship has awareness equal to or exceeding double their stealth rating. Each time that the stealth ship is discovered, its stealth cap is reduced by one. Task Forces can temporarily double their awareness by sacrificing a turn to focus on sensor sweeps, escorts automatically do this on turns that they aren’t fired upon by other TFs (starfighter actions and stealth attacks do not prevent this passive ability), and their awareness can be used in place of the TF they are escorting if it is higher.

 

Flagships

 

Each side has one flagship that can be commanded by the grand admiral. The flagship can earn a variety of powerful upgrades, but if it is destroyed, all upgrades are lost. Furthermore, if the flagship is destroyed then the following round actions for that side are resolved after the opponent's, representing confusion and panic from the loss of such a powerful symbol.

 

Mechanics

 

Ship scaling

 

A Task Force is 6 points worth of ships.

One capital ship is 6 points, meaning that it comprises the entire task force.

One artillery cruiser is 5 points.

One cruiser is 3 points, meaning that a task force can either have two cruisers or one cruiser and smaller support ships.

One frigate is 1 point.

Two corvettes are 1 point.

 

Removal effects and ship health

 

Ship shields and hull by type

Corvette: 2/1

Frigate: 3/3

Evacuation Transport: 6/10

Cruiser: 9/9

Artillery Cruiser: 10/20

Capital Ship: 25/25

Golan Defense Platform (MK I-III): 25/25, 35/35, 45/45

 

Damage per by ship type

Bomber Wing: Varies by size of target, damage goes directly to hull unless abilities or corvette support prevent it (Frigates: 1, Golan Defense Platforms and Cruisers: 2, Artillery and Capitals: 3)

Cruiser: 4

Artillery: 8 against cruiser or larger targets, 4 against frigates and corvettes.

Capital: 6

Golan Defense Platform (MK I-III): 3, 6, 9

 

Starfighter Actions

 

Each side gets three starfighter actions per round, with some task forces providing additional ones. Skirmishes have one starfighter action, Sorties have two, and Engagements have three. There is a cap of three offensive starfighter actions on a single TF.

 

Bombers Inbound: The fleet’s bombers move to engage a frigate or larger ship, doing direct removal damage at fast action speed. When bombers target ships supported by corvettes their damage must go through shields before doing hull damage.

 

Starfighter Rush: The fleet's light interceptors and starfighters move to engage a frigate or smaller ship doing direct removal damage at fast action speed. Capable of doing three damage to corvettes and two damage to frigates. 

 

Interception(Forward Deployment): The fleet's interceptors move to engage the enemy's heavy and light attack craft. All enemy Bombers Inbound and Starfighter Rush actions are resolved at delayed action speed rather than fast action speed, and one point of damage is directed to shields from the bomber action. This action can stack. 

 

Interception(Focused Deployment): The fleet's interceptors are directed to protect a specific task force. If the task force has no corvette support, then it is treated as having corvette protection for this round. If the task force has corvette support, or an Interception(Focused Deployment) order is already being issued on the same target, then the cap on stacked Bombers Inbound and Starfighter Rush attacks on the target is reduced by one for each additional Interception(Focused Deployment) order. If this reduces the cap below the amount of incoming bomber/rush attacks, the excess bomber actions can be redirected to other targets, suffering a one point damage penalty and resolving at delayed speed.

 

Sensor Sweep: The starfighters assist with locating potential hidden enemies, allowing for an additional scan of one frequency in a task force’s area. Each consecutive turn that the action is used on the same task force, the number of frequencies scanned increases by one.

 

Fighter Escort: Supplements bombers inbound, so only usable if the fleet can use more than one starfighter action a round. Snubfighters escort the bombers, restoring Bombers Inbound cap reductions caused by Interception(Focused Deployment) actions on a one for one basis.

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The Campaign System and Legendary Task Forces 

 

This system is designed to facilitate the pendulum swing of the galactic conflict. With each faction vying for control of the core worlds and the galaxy as a whole. When the galaxy is conquered, all worlds are considered to have realigned to the new dominate faction for their own peace and prosperity. (The exception to this are the non conquerable worlds laid out in the main rules, and designated power base worlds determined by faction leaders. Subject to Mod Approval)

 

The dominant faction will start the campaign cycle with more legendary task forces, but must spread them out throughout their holdings. The underdog faction will have to pick their targets carefully, slowly dismantling the dominant faction’s forces through surgical strikes while liberating/subjugating worlds to expand their own forces for a final no holds barred battle at the capital. Seizing the capital will be virtually impossible for the underdogs in the beginning of the campaign, but each high value enemy target destroyed and shipyard captured will shift the balance.

 

There is a three tier escalation to taking the galaxy from the dominate faction, with each tier having two legendary task force hunt missions and one assault on a fortified hardpoint. The hardpoints will increase in difficulty as the campaign progresses, with the attackers having to overcome increasingly more formidable threats such as golan defense platforms. Each time that the underdog forces manage to defeat a legendary task force, they gain a legendary task force of their own. Each hardpoint defeated decreases the size of the capital’s naval garrison while giving the attackers additional ships during the final siege.

 

When players are doing fleet battles at non campaign targets, legendary task forces can only participate in engagement scale battles, and each side is limited to one legendary task force. The dominating faction is limited to one legendary task force in missions where the underdogs are hunting them, and cannot use them in assaults on hardpoints (The attackers will already have enough on their plates with the special defenses). When the underdogs attack the capital, any legendary task forces that have not been hunted down will be present for the defense of the capital, along with a dreadnought class battleship with a terrifying amount of firepower and health, and a golan defense platform for each hardpoint not taken, plus one additional platform. Controlling the dreadnought in the final battle replaces a player’s allotment of task forces for that battle, and controlling one of the golans replaces two task forces.

 

After the destruction of a hardpoint, the dominant faction launches a reprisal mission on the rebel base, with the option of using any or all of their legendary task forces while the underdogs try to evacuate as many of their forces and materials as possible with each defending commander running two task forces instead of three. The goal of the defenders is to successfully evacuate at least half of their transports(of which there are four, each taking three rounds to make it to the evac point), which they can launch together en masse, in groups, or separately. Success earns the underdogs another legendary task force, but if the dominant faction manages to destroy over half of the transports, the underdogs lose a legendary task force and the dominant faction gains one. This new legendary task force can be targeted by a hunt mission as per normal.

 

The underdogs can use whatever legendary task forces that they have unlocked so far in the campaign on any campaign missions (Hunts, Assaults, and the final siege). Each hardpoint taken grants an additional unowned destroyer or escort task for the final siege. Numbers are not final and are very subject to change. If the underdogs fail to take the capital, the most recently captured hardpoint is retaken by the dominant faction, and the campaign continues as normal. 

 

If the underdogs successfully take the capital, control of the galaxy changes hands, and the newly dominant faction gains control of the narrative for the status quo of the galaxy. Both sides reset their experience for their task forces as a period of peacetime dulls the edge of their soldiers, and the flagships for each side have their upgrades scaled back to one upgrade each. For two months there is a period of peace for players to catch their breath and enjoy their conquest/plot their revenge before hostilities resume. The new dominant faction chooses its pool of legendary task forces at this point and the cycle continues. 

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Task Forces

 

Overview

Task Forces are the primary unit of combat and each comes with their own composition requirements, unique abilities, and usefulness. There are three major types of TF's, though more may be developed over time. All Task Force names are for flavor and clarification. PC's are still able to post creative narratives of the actions being taken, but those actions must be in line with the abilities of their TF's

 

Some Task Forces have specialized abilities such as Interdictors. The Cruiser or specified ship is considered the source of those abilities, so if it is destroyed or disabled (such as by the ion cannons of the Surgical Strike TF), that TF cannot perform the abilities. Escorting TF's and smaller ships part of that TF are critical in protecting those primary ships so they can continue to contribute to the battle.

 

Offensive

These Task Forces are geared towards dealing damage to the enemy, usually though the Focus Fire ability of Capital Ships and Cruisers, but also through fighter/bomber actions of Bombers Inbound. Though other types of TF's can deal removal damage, these are the primary ones that can destroy opposing enemy forces.

 

Artillery

Artillery are designed for the precise, heavy hitting damage from the back lines of a fleet fight. Designed to specifically target Capital, Starbase, and Cruiser sized elements, they may struggle against smaller targets.  Artillery halves enemy focus fire damage as long as other non artillery allied task forces are present, but their removal abilities are resolved at delayed speed.. Artillery damage does not spill over to other ships after destroying its target. Redeploying an escort to an artillery TF takes a full turn regardless of the escort’s ship classes. Fighter actions targeting artillery have a one round transit delay before they can engage, but attack or intercept on subsequent rounds at regular speed until they target a non artillery target. The transition delay occurs each time that they shift between the two zones. Artillery can target other artillery without halving damage due to range. Artillery cannot fire if escorted by anything larger than a corvette.

 

Escorts

Escort Task Forces are designed to be attached to other TF's to serve as a sort of shield to protect the other TF from damage. This is especially useful if there are highly experienced TF's that may be focused on by the enemy because it lets them stay alive longer and use their Elite abilities. Some of them also have additional perks and abilities that can supplement the offensive or defensive capabilities of the ship classes they are made up of, such as additional protection from bombers or incoming Focus Fire.

 

Special Forces

These Task Forces are offer special and unique abilities for a deeper, more complex strategy. Stealth, Interdiction, and Medical Task Forces can provide a savvy commander the ability to surprise the enemy or mitigate damage done. While these TF's may have seemingly limited uses, when used properly, they can drastically change the outcome of any battle.

 

Legendary Task Forces

Very limited but incredibly powerful. Their use is key to the campaign system. 

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Offensive Task Forces

 

Destroyer Group [Turbolasers]: Focus Fire

Capital Ship or 2 Cruisers

Green: The TF can target an enemy ship and subject it to a withering hail of turbolaser fire using Focus Fire.

Veteran: More potent turbolaser gases and higher quality crystals allow the ships to better chew through enemy shields. Once per attack, the TF causes two additional damage if a capital ship or one additional damage each to the hull regardless of shield status

Elite: The TF can put all power to weapons, allowing allied task forces focus fire to do one point of hull damage when attacking the same target.

 

Destroyer Group [Rail guns]: Focus Fire

Capital Ship or 2 Cruisers

Green: The TF can target an enemy ship and subject it to a destructive barrage of rail gun fire using Focus Fire.

Veteran: The TF has been allocated special armor piercing rounds for punching through enemy ships. Once per attack doing hull damage to an enemy escort or support ship does two damage if the destroyer is a capital ship or one damage each if the destroyers are cruisers to the ship being protected.

Elite: The TF does not suffer damage penalties or the one round delay to attacks on distant targets like artillery.

 

Destroyer Group [Missiles]: Focus Fire

Capital Ship or 2 Cruisers

Green: The TF can target an enemy ship within range and subject it to an explosive salvo of missiles using Focus Fire.

Veteran: The TF may treat its Focus Fire damage as similar to a Bombers Inbound action, Ignoring Cruiser and Capital escorts but making it vulnerable to interception by corvettes.

Elite: The TF has been allocated specialized high explosive cluster bombs for targeting Corvettes. When the TF uses Focus Fire on Corvettes in a Round, they do double damage, but only to the Corvettes. Spillover and all other damage to other ships is reduced to zero. The target can choose to scatter to reduce the damage to normal, but in doing so they lose their round action.

 

Precision Strike Carrier Group: Fighter Command

Capital Ship or Cruiser supported by Frigates and/or Corvettes

Green: The TF controller can perform an additional two Starfighter Action for the round, that must be Bombers Inbound.

Veteran: Bombers Inbound from this task force do an additional point of damage.

Elite: The TF controller can perform an additional Starfighter Action for the round, that must be Fighter Escort.

 

Interceptor Carrier: Hornet’s nest

Capital Ship or Cruiser supported by Frigates and/or Corvettes

Green: The TF commander gets an additional two starfighter actions that must be escort bombers or interceptor rush.
Veteran: The decision whether the actions will be escort bombers or interceptor rush will be made in the reaction stage with interceptors declared. 
Elite: Starfighter actions from this carrier can perform both escort bombers and interceptor rush in the same turn as long as they are both targeting the same Taskforce.

 

Starfighter Command: Tactical Guidance

Capital Ship or Cruiser supported by Frigates and/or Corvettes

Green: The TF commander gets an additional starfighter action, bombers inbound damage can be chosen to be resolved at delayed speed, and forward interception only reduces bombers inbound to normal speed.
Veteran: The first allied starfighter action used for forward interception each round counts as two, and allied starfighter actions no longer suffer a penalty for redirects.
Elite: For the first three rounds of combat, one reserve carrier can contribute their starfighter actions, and starfighter actions are lost the turn after a carrier is destroyed or withdraws.

 

Assault Lance [Kinetic Ram] ( Capital ship): Juggernaut

Green: The TF is equipped with a kinetic ram, and is able to charge enemy task forces. When the ship charges a task force, it can do standard removal damage to a target as normal, or if the target is escorted by a cruiser or capital ship, half to the escort and half to the original target. While

Veteran: Every attack by this TF on a TF that it targeted the previous round (Which may be different from the one that was hit due to escorts) is resolved at fast speed.

Elite: the TF can charge at increased momentum, dealing full removal damage to both an escorting ship and the TF that it is protecting, at the cost of three hull damage to itself.

 

Advanced Warfighter Cadre (Cruiser and support craft): Superior technology

Green: The cruiser delivers precise fire at greater speed on account of its superior targeting computers. The task force does removal damage at fast speed. Base damage output is 6. 

Veteran: Greater familiarity with the targeting computers has allowed the crew to line up shots on obscured targets more effectively. The TF commander can choose which ship in the enemy TF it is hitting. This does not allow it to bypass escorts, if an escort is attached to the targeted TF, it must pick a ship from the Escort TF instead. 

Elite: This taskforce, through superior training, ignores stacking penalties. 

 

Partisan Militia Force (Corvettes): Overly Enthusiastic Bystanders

Green: A group of civilian vessels serving as partisan forces or having been seized by ultranationalist paramilitary forces, this TF can deal one damage per three corvettes, and task forces hit by them have their damage reduced by two for their first damage action of the round (This reduction does not stack with other Partisan Militia Forces, does not apply to carriers or artillery), as their bridge crews try to sort out hostiles from civilians.

Veteran: The TF has become better at blending in with civilian traffic, and is not considered a target until it opens fire, and is not announced at the start of the battle. All attacks targeting the TF do minus two damage unless the attacking side sacrifices a starfighter action to verify targets.

Elite: The TF adds one to its overall damage, and destroyed corvettes from this task force do one damage to their attackers as their fanatical crews make a last desperate act of defiance by bullrushing the enemy. 

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Artillery Task Forces

 

Artillery Battery[Incendiary] (Artillery Cruiser with support): Long Range War Crime

Green: The Artillery Cruiser does artillery damage, which is resolved at delayed speed.

Veteran: Ships and stations hit by this weapon take one hull damage each round until they spend a turn doing nothing other than fighting the flames or they all burn to death.

Elite: Space stations and Dreadnoughts take two damage a round, instead of one. Burning ships cannot be repaired until the flames are extinguished.

 

Artillery Battery[Gravity Crusher] (Artillery Cruiser with support): Maelstrom

Green: The Artillery Cruiser does artillery damage, which is resolved at delayed speed.

Veteran: Targets hit by the gravity attack have their actions delayed as the crew is sent reeling by competing gravity fields.

Elite: Escort ships hit by this TF are knocked out of position and cannot intercept enemy attacks that round.

 

Artillery Battery[Beam Cutter] (Artillery Cruiser with support): Determined Destruction

Green: The Artillery Cruiser does artillery damage, which is resolved at delayed speed.

Veteran: Each round that the TF targets and hits the same ship that it hit the prior turn, its damage increases by one. This is a cumulative effect that continues to increase damage until the target is destroyed or the chain of attacks is interrupted.

Elite: The cumulative damage increase is now two each round.

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Escort Task Forces

 

Battle Line Escort: Tradition of Excellence (Can escort two cruiser or smaller Taskforces at the same time)

Capital Ship 

Green: The TF regains two points of shield damage at the end of each round. The TF has been fitted with heavy shields, and has an additional ten shield points. The TF can escort two carrier TFs at the same time.

Veteran: The Battle Line Escort can focus all power to shields and reduce all incoming removal damage by 2. (Does not effect Bomber Inbound Actions)

Elite: Veteran damage response teams quickly react to internal threats to the ship's functionality, ending damage over time effects after their first resolution. Additionally, the TF can reduce one source of removal damage to one damage for a single round, once per battle, after attacks have been allocated.

 

Heavy Brawler Escort: Hammer and Anvil (Can escort two cruiser or smaller Taskforces at the same time)

Capital Ship

Green: The TF has been fitted with heavy armor, and has an additional ten hull points.

Veteran: The TF uses its heavier armor to close the distance with threats and engage them at close range with weapons designed for high damage at short range. Up to two non artillery and detected TF's that attack ships being escorted by this TF or the TF itself using focus fire take three removal damage in return.

Elite: The TF can retaliate against up to three attacking task forces.

 

Light Defensive Escort: Suppressing Fire

Frigates and Corvettes

Green: Starfighter actions on the TF or allied ships that the TF is supporting are resolved at normal speed. This TF can attach as escort to allied TFs that already have one escort.

Veteran: The TF can treat itself and any TF that it is supporting as being targeted by Interception(focused deployment).

Elite: Any enemy Bombers Inbound and Fighter Escort actions that target this TF or a TF that it is attached to suffer a one round cool down before they can be reused.

 

Tactical Support Escort (Cruiser and support craft): Jack of All Trades

Green: The cruiser can do removal damage. This Taskforce can both fire and attach as an escort on the same turn. 

Veteran: The cruiser does an additional two damage when it is the only ship attacking its specified target this round.

Elite: When supporting a focus fire action from the TF it is escorting, this TF can outflank an escorting enemy TF and hit the escorted TF.

 

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Special Forces Task Forces

 

Interdiction Cadre: Interdiction Field

Interdictor Cruiser supported by Frigates and/or Corvettes

Green: Gravity wells severely hamper retreat, allowing the TF commander to nominate a number of task forces equal to the rank of the TF each round, those task forces cannot withdraw or microjump for that round. Alternatively, allied TFs may be nominated to make them immune to enemies using microjumps or precision jumps to flank them.

Veteran: Interdiction fields can be used to precision deploy fleet assets, but this damages their hyperdrives, preventing them from being able to withdraw early for the rest of the battle.

Elite: As long as the Interdictor is functional, its crew can largely prevent any ships from fleeing. Enemies can only withdraw one task force each turn.

 

Electronic Warfare Pod: Information Control 

Dedicated EW and Comms Cruiser with Frigate and/or Corvettes

Green: The TF can jam long range communications. When task forces are brought in from reserve they must wait a turn before acting.

Veteran: The TF can jam enemy sensors. Opposing fleet commanders may no longer assign abilities as a reaction when ships exit hyperspace.

Elite: The enemy penalty for targeting the same TF with more than one TF becomes a cumulative -3 instead of -2.

 

Covert Strike Unit: Silent Hunters

One Stealth Cruiser

Stealth Destroyer: Stealth destroyers use torpedoes of various yields and designs that possess different signatures, but all of them require course plotting to evade point defense. Computing this requires the stealth TF to attach to the enemy task force and reduces their stealth rating by one for each turn unless stated otherwise, and each turn adds another torpedo to the salvo. Stealth rating loss when firing multiple munition types is whatever is highest. Firing decreases the stealth rating by three, and can be done on the turn that the ship attaches. Stealth destroyers start with one munition type and the Go cold action, and gain an additional munition at each level of veterancy.

High yield slow mover: Treated as a normal attack that deals six damage at delayed speed. Only reduces stealth rating by one instead of the normal three when fired.

Precision shield penetration: Deals three damage that ignores shields.

Droid piloted stealth torpedo: Deals four damage to targeted ship of stealth TF’s choice. Ignores escorts, and can ignore support ships if stealth is two above TF’s awareness rating.

Rad torpedo: Deals five damage to targeted task force that cannot be repaired without decontamination from an engineer support ship. Prepping rad torpedoes creates a highly noticeable signature, and each turn of course plotting/prepping reduces stealth by two. 

Cluster munitions: For each turn of banked course plotting, affect one additional ship with plus one damage, with smallest ships taking priority(IE, one turn of plotting will affect one ship for one damage, and three turns will affect three ships for three damage.)

Go Cold: The stealth ship breaks off from engagement range and increases stealth rating by one

 

Covert Electronic Warfare Force: Silent Distruption

One stealth capital ship or cruiser

EWAR ships focus on reducing enemy effectiveness and disrupting the cohesion of hostile forces, while also supporting allied covert operations. Ewar ships have multiple unique actions available to them, but start with Go cold and two choices from the following list. They gain an additional choice for each level of veterancy.

Jam Local Communications: Add a plus two penalty for stacking attacks for a turn on targeted task forces at the cost of one stealth per affected TF. TFs that do not stack attacks with other TFs suffer no penalties for being targeted by this action.

Jam Sensors(Wideband): Give allied stealth ship plus two stealth rating up to cap at the cost of three stealth rating.

Jam Sensors(Focused): Prevents a targeted escort TF from benefiting from the bonus to awareness when not engaged. When performed by a capital ship, the enemy is not informed that the jamming is occurring. Costs two stealth.

Deploy decoy drones: Creates a false positive blip “engaging” a targeted task force. For that turn, the enemy is falsely told that they have discovered an enemy stealth vessel, and it is treated as a valid target the next turn. Costs two stealth.

Burn Hard: If this action is taken on a turn that an allied stealth TF would be discovered, this TF is revealed instead. Lowers stealth by four and can only be done once per battle.

Go Cold: The stealth ship halts operations to reduce its signature, increasing stealth rating by one.

 

Cyber Warfare Pod (Cruiser and support craft): Go for the Eyes

Green: The TF controller can attach any number of its support frigates to enemy TFs to serve as Relays. Enemy TFs that have Relays attached to them reduce their damage by one as hackers compromise their targeting computers. Frigates serving as relays cannot intercept damage for their parent TF or benefit from escorts attached to their TF. They can be targeted individually by enemies, but if they are destroyed damage does not carry over to other ships in their TF, unless there are other frigates acting as Relays. Multiple Cyber Warfare Pods cannot stack their Relays with each other. At this rank only one Relay may be attached to a given TF.

Veteran: Disrupted TFs do removal damage at delayed speed. Up to two Relays may deploy on a single TF. Carriers disrupted by Relays from this TF contribute one less fighter action.

Elite: Each frigate is now its own datacenter, and no longer relies on the cruiser to do the hacking. If the TF controller opts to keep a cruiser in the TF, Relay penalties to damage are doubled while the cruiser remains in play, and loss of the cruiser does not remove the TF’s ability. Alternatively, the cruiser may be swapped for three more independent frigate relays. Up to three relays can be deployed on a single TF. Targeted TFs cannot target this TF’s cruiser unless all other TFs have been destroyed or are invalid targets.

 

Medical Support Cluster: Guardian Angels

Frigates (Cannot support Legendary Task Forces or Flagships) 

Green: As long as the Task Force doesn’t engage the enemy, it is considered a war crime to target them. The TF can support an allied TF by attaching to it, that TF reduces the end of battle damage penalties it suffered by one degree.

Veteran: The frigates can split into two groups and move to support two different task forces.

Elite: The frigates can split into three groups and move to support three different task forces. If the enemy has fought honorably(IE not committed war crimes), both sides benefit from the presence of medical rescue teams, and task forces that are wiped out lose one XP instead of an entire rank. If the enemy has fired on medical ships this campaign, only the medical support cluster's side gets this benefit.

 

Asset Denial Force: Surgical Strike

Cruiser with Frigate and/or Corvette support

Green: A heavy ion cannon barrage disables one unshielded ship at fast speed for that Round. Disabled ships cannot contribute their Focus Fire or other special abilities (such as Interdiction or Comms Jamming), withdraw from battle, provide support or escort, or issue additional starfighter commands.

Veteran: The TF can perform its ability on arrival if coming in from reserve.

Elite: The TF has an experimental new type of hyperdrive that allows it to choose to ignore interdiction fields and make precise micro jumps, allowing for constant repositioning. The TF can ignore Supporting and Escort ships or TF for its ion cannon attack, but only if the target is not the same one that was targeted last Round.

 

Combat Air Patrol Carrier (Capital ship or cruiser and support craft): No Fly Zone

Green: The TF controller can perform an additional two starfighter actions each round, that must be interception.

Veteran: Interception actions from this TF are declared in the reaction phase, with the bombers inbound attacks declared. Bombers Inbound actions that are forced to redirect by interceptions involving this TF’s interceptors suffer a minus two damage penalty, instead of minus one.

Elite: When interception actions from this TF are stacked on a single TF, if the enemy targets it with any starfighter actions, the enemy will lose that many starfighter actions for the next round.

 

Search and Destroy Carrier (Capital ship or cruiser and support craft): Ghost Hunters

Green: The TF controller can perform a global sensor sweep, raising allied combat awareness by one. This benefit increase by one for each turn that the TF is present and functional, up to a cap of three. Furthermore, the TF provides two starfighter actions that must be sensor sweep unless targeting revealed stealth TFs, in which case they can become bombers inbound. If all stealth targets are believed to be neutralized, the TF commander can replace the sensor sweep actions with bombers inbound, but this exchange cannot be undone for the remainder of the battle.

Veteran: When enemy stealth actions affect allied TFs targeted by sensor sweep that turn, they lose an additional stealth.

Elite: If an enemy stealth TF is detected, the cap for bombers inbound actions targeting that TF is removed the following round.

 

Heavy Gunship Carrier (Capital ship or cruiser and support craft): Hit and Run Tactics

Green: The TF can deploy its complement of gunships to support attacks on enemy ships. The TF controller chooses an enemy TF, and all allied TFs that hit the target this round do an additional point of damage. If the targeted TF is escorted, the additional damage effect is transferred over to attacks on the escort. Gunship support from multiple TFs cannot be stacked on the same target. Gunship support actions are treated as Bombers Inbound when determining how many starfighter actions can target a TF. If an interdictor is targeting the same task force with a grav well, the heavy gunship carrier owner allocates the bonus damage with the option to ignore supporting vessels.

Veteran: TFs targeted by this TF cannot use abilities that allow them to regenerate shields or hull damage, or benefit from repair or medical abilities being used on them.

Elite: If the targeted TF has support ships, they take three damage from the gunships, with the carrier TF controller choosing which ship is hit. If the targeted TF does not have support ships, the damage that it adds goes straight to hull.

 

Engineering Support Cluster (Cruiser and support craft): Bucket Brigade

Green: Specialists on the frigates transfer repair materials stored on the cruiser to damaged ships. The TF attaches in a similar manner to an escort, but does not take up the escort slot. Each frigate in the TF can transfer enough materials to recover one damage on the targeted TF.

Veteran:  The TF may stop ongoing damage effects such as fires from incendiary rounds or viruses from the Shadow Warfare Pod.

Elite: Frigates can now restore two damage each, and ships they are repairing only have their actions delayed by TF abilities like ion cannon strikes, rather than being prevented entirely.

 

Fleet Command: Flagship

Capital ship, one per faction under the command of the grand admiral.

The grand admiral does not need to use his or her flagship, but only they can command it if it is on the field.

The grand admiral picks one upgrade to start, and selects a new upgrade after the completion of each new battle. Since the upgrades are specific to the ship, abilities that prevent veterancy loss cannot be used on the flagship.

Axial Weapon (MK I-III): The ship may perform Focus Fire as if it was a Destroyer Group(Turbolasers). At MK II, its damage becomes eight, and at MK III, its damage becomes nine.

Target Saturation (MK I-V): The ship is flanked by a number of up armored and heavily shielded transports used to provide cover, halve focus fire damage to it for the first round that it is fired upon. Each additional upgrade grants an additional round of halved damage.

Precision Deployment: The ship house a small gravity well generator that can be used to precision deploy fleet assets, but this damages their hyperdrives, preventing them from being able to withdraw for the rest of the battle.

Advanced Sensor Suite: Gain an additional scan every round.

Ultra-Heavy Flak Cannons (MK I-IV): The ship carries a network of remorselessly deadly flak weapons. At MK I, treat the flagship as supported by Corvettes. At MK II, treat the flagship as having been targeted by an Interception (Close Support) action. Add an additional Interception (Close Support) for MK III and IV.

Meditation Chamber: Force Users can use these specially designed rooms to increase the efficiency of their forces, either gaining an additional Starfighter Action or allowing two TF's to choose the same target for Focus Fire without penalty to damage.

Citadel Overshield: Restore up to two points of lost shields per round at normal speed.

Pocket Dreadnought (MK I-3): The flagship is far larger than a standard capital ship, allowing for heavier armor and more powerful shield generators. This translates to an additional five shield and hull health. Each further upgrade grants five additional shield and hull health.

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Legendary Task Forces:

 

Krath War Menagerie (Cruiser supported by two colossal Sithspawn, considered to be roughly cruiser sized themselves): Monsters in the Darkness

Note: Sithspawn are considered to have the equivalent of ten hull health, and deal three damage to shields or five hull damage if the hull is exposed.

Green: A conspiracy of Sith sorcerers guide their unnatural creations to acts of destruction and butchery in the void. Each Sithspawn can attack a separate target. 

Veteran: The sorcerers have perfected a new form of Sithspawn and can’t wait to share the results (Choose from the Sithspawn Mutations list below).

Elite: The TF gets a third Sithspawn.

 

Sithspawn Mutations

Storm Beasts: The task force is always considered to be benefitting from the starfighter interception action, and hull damage by the Sithspawn disables the targeted ship for the next round.

 

Devouring Leviathan: Instead of multiple Sithspawn, the TF has one Sithspawn that does double damage and has double health (Triple in both cases when the TF reaches Elite). If the Sithspawn is part of an attack that destroys a cruiser or capital ship, it can spend a round eating to restore its health to half or full, depending on the size of the ship. Damage to it is halved during this round. (It is possible but difficult to kill while feeding, health is restored once the round that it fed is completed.)

 

Whisperers: Whisperers can mentally subjugate enemy crew into briefly serving their will. If whisperers destroy an enemy cruiser or capital ship, it persists under the control of the Sith for one turn per Whisperer still alive in the TF, with the Sith able to use its abilities if appropriate or attach it as an escort if it is an escort ship. Each round the Whisperers can redirect one source of damage targeting them originating from a task force that they have damaged to an enemy task force.

 

Shieldeater Wyrms: Shieldeaters steal any shields that they damage, gaining a number of shield health points equal to the amount of shield damage they caused in their attacks. Any time that they attack, Shieldeaters can deal additional damage equal to their shield health, although this expends the shield health.

 

Dreadmaws: Terror incarnate, Dreadmaws infect the ships that they attack with crippling fear. Task forces damaged by Dreadmaws suffer the delayed action effect for as long as the Dreadmaws are alive and present on the field. Each time a Dreadmaw would damage a ship, the TF leader can instead opt to do nothing next round in exchange for taking no damage. (No abilities can be used and if the targeted TF is escorting another TF it is considered separated for the next round).

 

Annihilator Swarm: Instead of two (or three) massive beasts, the annihilator swarm is composed of corvette sized wasps, with each colossal Sithspawn converting into six of these darling little homemakers. The TF gains the escort ability, and whenever an enemy ship of cruiser size or greater is destroyed, as long as there is at least one wasp alive and present, the wreckage becomes a nest the following round, producing one wasp each round. Nests can be destroyed by targeting them with any amount of damage. Detected non artillery ships that attack the swarm or the task force that they are escorting take one damage for every six wasps in the swarm, with partials rounding up (Since all damage is happening concurrently, remember that it’s the number of wasps at the beginning of the round, not the number of wasps after damage is done, unless the attacker has something giving them an early attack). 

 

Jedi Conclave of Vigils (Capital ship): Battle Meditation

Green: A council of Jedi mystics sit arrayed in peace with themselves and the galaxy. Each round the TF leader can pick another TF to make a second action. 

Veteran: Through shared meditative focus, the Jedi manifest the will of the Force that they serve, choosing from a number of effects (See Light Side Manifestations below).

Elite: The TF can both give an allied TF an extra action and manifest the Light Side in the same turn.

 

Light Side Manifestations

Reveal: The Jedi bring light to the darkness, effectively scanning all allied task forces for a stealth frequency this round.

Barrier: The Jedi create a shield of light around a target, causing it to take half damage from all sources for that round.

Hope: The Jedi bolster morale in a task force, allowing it to resolve its action for the round early. If the targeted task force is already under a delayed action effect, the two cancel each other out.

Foresight: An allied task force can declare its action after actions are revealed, it resolves at normal speed. 

 

Jedi Starfighter Aces (Capital or cruiser supported by frigates and corvettes): May the Force be with us

Green: The task force controller can perform two starfighter actions each round.

Veteran: When this TF is performing Bombers Inbound with its starfighter actions, attack speed cannot be delayed by forward interception.

Elite: Corvettes do not make Bombers Inbound actions from this TF go to shields instead of hull.

 

Rebel Scrappers and the Patchwork Raven Escort (You could technically call it a Capital Ship, if you’re feeling generous and have very low standards): Oooh, piece of shiny! (Note: This ability cannot steal effects tied to Force powers, Hero TFs, or ships being a different size, such as abilities for corvettes focused on maneuverability.)

Green: The scrappers of the Patchwork Raven are enthusiastic, to put it lightly, about “borrowing” salvaged tech. The TF can spend a round salvaging a destroyed task force’s wreckage, adding ten hull health and gaining the TF’s ability at green rank.

Veteran: As above, but the ability stolen can be at veteran rank if the destroyed task force was at veteran or elite.

Elite: As above, but the ability stolen can be used at up to elite rank, depending on the level of the salvaged task force, and abilities salvaged in the last turn resolve at early speed because of the crew’s excitement to play with new toys.

 

Imperial AVATAR Command Module (Capital ship or cruiser with frigate and corvette support): Predictive Algorithms

This Task Force doesn’t have levels of experience, instead it builds a series of statistical models as it observes the battle and develops strategic dominance. Each round that the TF is present, its simulation bank increases by one, and it can use the simulations to activate abilities from the following list. There is no cap to how many abilities it can activate in a turn as long as it has the points. Unspent points are lost. Each round the points are regained up to the new cap. The simulation bank does not reset between battles, only reverting to the starting value if the ship is destroyed or the campaign ends.

Feint(1): An allied TF may choose a different ability target after actions are announced.

Parry(2): An allied escort task force may choose to escort a different task force after actions are announced.

Thrust(3): An allied TF may perform an attack ability at delayed speed but causing an additional three points of damage.

Query(X): The TF can spend X number of points to scan that many frequencies on itself or an allied task force to look for stealth vessels.

Efficiency(4): One combined attack this turn suffers no penalties.

Clarity(8): The enemy forces reveal their actions first, rather than concurrently. All actions still resolve at normal speed.  

 

Amkhara the Destroyer (Capital ship): Symbiosis

Green: The star destroyer bristles with weapons wreathed in coruscating flames of Dark Side energy. It can perform a focus fire attack like any other destroyer group. If unescorted, the TF takes half damage on any round that it is firing at an enemy.

Veteran: The TF can use one of the veteran benefits from the turbolaser, railgun, or missile destroyer group task force. Furthermore, if the TF is attacking alone and not as part of a combined attack, it deals an additional two damage.

Elite: The TF can use one the elite benefits from the turbolaser, railgun, or missile destroyer group task force. Additionally, if the TF is destroyed, if there is another allied capital ship destroyer group in the battle, it becomes Amkhara the Destroyer while keeping the new host’s original rank and current health. Control of Amkhara shifts to the owner of the possessed task force. If more than one option is available to possess, the controller may choose which task force becomes Amkhara. This may only occur once per battle.

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