Honor Harrington Full Thrust Adaptation, v2This is version two of Honor Harrington Full Thrust rules. This is an adaptation based on my first version of the rules, feedback from various playtest, and information from the FTGZG-L mailing list.

This is not meant as a challenge to David Weber's Copyright on the Honor Harrington novels. Anybody trying to use this document in such a way should be shot and have horrible things done to his or her body. This is mean to increase enjoyment of Weber's novels, not take away Weber's rightful ownership.

Design Notes

David Weber goes to great lengths to describe velocities and ranges of the weapons in the Honor Harrington universe. His descriptions of his battles are chock full of 'hard' data. Thus, it is possible (once certain assumptions are made) to convert FT 'units' into actual SI distances and times.

The original version of the rules assumed that escorts at full military power, were capable of pulling 580 to 600 g's, had a FT thrust of 8. This meant a single thrust point was 85 g's. If we assumed one turn was four minutes, we had one FT 'unit' equating to 25 000 km. This places one light second at twelve units.

However, this lead to a playability problem. Missiles at their lowest accel settings, have a top range of around 6 million kilometers, or over twenty light seconds, over 240 units! The only way to match that is by increasing the period of time a turn represents, and increasing the distance one unit represents. However, beyond a certain point, this defeats the purpose of the FT system, which simulates ship to ship combat. A ship can usually shoot itself dry in twenty minutes. Most combats in the HH universe are also extremely decisive, being settled within ten minutes. Long turns would cause all this detail to disappear, robbing the variety and richness of the FT system. Thus the HH universe, as envisioned by David Weber, isn't very playable with a tabletop game at the ship to ship level.

Thus, to make the game a little more playable, I've made some changes to the scales things operate on. If weapon ranges are reduced drastically, then all scales can be reduced accordingly. The current scales I've adopted make a turn 30 seconds, a thrust point 60 g's, which means one light second is around 11,000 units. (1 FT unit is 280km, roughly.) Laser/Grasers have a top range of around 3000km - 5000km, and missiles top out at 20 000km. Missiles also don't accelerate as fast. Ship acceleration curves are only slightly modified, though ship maximum speed is seriously reduced. I've also taken advantage of the new construction systems as described in FT:Fleet Book; it makes life a lot easier. To make room for campaign style actions, I've introduced a 'trans-light' drive to allow ships to move, but not fight, at high sublight speeds.

I have also taken some liberties; for example, the equations given in the construction section of the rules aren't even close to reality. The boundary conditions are pretty messed up (the 500 MASS should be a limit that comes out of the equations, not set arbitrarily), and the slope isn't what I want (there should be an asymptotic approach to zero, at the end of the curve, much like an inverted tangent function, or perhaps the solution space to a certain family of DEs), but, given that I'm doing this on a bus somewhere on the 403 between Hamilton and Toronto, without reference books, I hope I can be forgiven.

When all these changes are made, we get something that isn't Honor Harrington, but feels somewhat the same. At least, I get the same ball of fear in my stomach when somebody flushes their missile pods at me. (8-)

However, it is worthy to note that playable doesn't necessarily mean 'fun.' This is the Honor Harrington universe, where ship lethality is amazingly high. Entire task forces can disappear in the face of a well timed, well executed ambush. (Task Forces consisting of a dozen SDNs, plus all required supporting units!) Gamers wanting a lower body count will want to turn elsewhere.

Turn Order

1. Plot Movement (Secret)

All players plot movements for all ships

2. Fire Missile Weapons

Players launch their missile weapons, and move missiles the first half of their movement.

3. Perform Ship Movement

All players perform their ship movement, according to their plot

4. Missile Weapons Movement

Missile weapons move the second half of their movement.

5. Resolving Firing

Each ship in order is selected. All fire is resolved against that ship. All damage is considered simultaneous, and takes effect at the end of the turn. Firing is declared before it is resolved i.e. declare all the ships that are firing on the target, and then resolve all that fire. Missile fire is resolved

last. Declare all incoming missile fire, then declare all defences that will attempt to stop the incoming fire, for that one ship.

Base Rules

These rule modifications apply to FT2.5 i.e. Full Thrust with standard Fleet Book Rule modifications.

Arcs are slightly modified. There are only four arcs, forward, aft, port and starboard. The port and starboard arcs are created by combining the forward/aft port and forward/aft starboard arcs.

Changes to Standard Systems

Standard FT Templates are used, with the following systems icons added:

1 Reactor Icon for each Reactor 1 Inertial Compensator Icon

Movement

Movement uses the vector rules as described in Fleet Book.

ROLLING SHIP The Rolling Ship rule is used as per Fleet Book.

"ROLLING WEDGE" Ships in the "Honor Harrington" universe move by the use of the impeller wedge, two bands of imprevious gravity stress covering the top and bottom of the ship. Because of the existence of the wedge, it is possible for a ship to 'roll wedge' and interpose the stress band between a ship and an enemy.

A ship rolls wedge against one opposing enemy ship.

There is no effect on fire from ships outside the arc of the enemy ship. For ships that are in the same arc as the selected ship, a die is rolled on a 1 or 2, no effect on fire. On 3-5 the wedge acts as another level of screens. On a 6, all fire is totally negated.

For fire from the selected ship, roll the die. On a 1, the wedge acts as another level of screens. On any other roll, fire is totally negated from the target.

When a ship has rolled wedge, any ships in the same arc and the opposing arc (180) as the selected enemy ship cannot be fired upon by the rolled ship.

FULL MILITARY POWER The maximum thrust values given for ships represents 80% of their maximum thrust values. This provides the saftey margin required by the inertial compensator, to prevent compenstaor failure (as things slamming backwards at 500gs tends to break things...)

It is possible to override this saftey measure, and run at full military power. For every turn that a ship runs at full military power, roll 3d6. On a 3, the ship's compensator has failed, and a lot of stuff gets turned into jelly. (This rule could be considered optional, but it makes things SO much more interesting.)

Ships will have two thrust ratings, one the standard 80% 'max' power, and the 'full military power' rating.

TOP SPEED Military Ships have a top speed of 36 under impeller drive. Beyond this point, particle and radiation shielding begins to breakdown, with deterimental effects for the ship and crew. Civilian ships have a top speed of 18.

TRANS-LIGHT DRIVE If the top speed of 36 was a hard and fast limit, interstellar commerce would be extremely expensive. (Imagine crossing fifty light years in twenty days, and then taking thirty to get from the hyper limit to the destination of the planet.) The invention of Trans-light drive helped solve that problem.

Every ship with an impeller wedge can go trans-light; it is simply a reconfiguration of the gravity wedges. A ship must declare that it is going translight two turns before the drive kicks in. During that turn, it loses its wedge (and its sidewalls.) All other systems function normally, however. The turn after that, a 'cone' of gravity stress forms around the ship. This cone completely isolates the front three arcs, permitting no fire either in or out. The aft arc is wide open, however. The ship itself may not maneuver or perform any other actions. Finally, on the turn itself, a band of gravity stress covers up the stern, and the ship accelerates away at ten times its normal thrust, with top speeds around .8c. (The gravity bands acts as wonderful shielding.)

Trans-light operation is also limited by the gravity gradient, though the range at which it may operate is usually much deeper in then the hyper limit. Planets, however, do usually generate a sufficient gravity gradient to prevent trans-light from functioning, though this depends heavily on the size and composition of the planet involved.

GOING FTL A ship can go FTL, if the ship is outside the hyper limit (as defined by the scenario.) It takes about six minutes (twelve turns) for the hyper generator to recycle after usage. (Which means if a group of ships jumps in, it takes twelve turns before they can jump

back out.) A ship exiting hyper space can have a top speed of 4; a ship entering hyper can be travelling no faster then a speed of 4.

A ship entering FTL can have wedges and sidewalls active (baring some special effects with Gravity Waves, which only create problems in scenarios.) The ship declares it is making a jump the turn before the jump occurs. (Turn N-1, declare jump, must stay in a straight line path with speed less than four, Turn N, on the movement phase, the ship jumps clear.)

Damage to a ships hyper generator while preparing to jump is usually fatal, as the energy discharge splatters across the engine room, usually opening up several reactors. Perform an immediate threshold check on ALL reactors in the ship, plus remove one entire row of boxes from the ship.

REACTORS Ships in the HH universe move and fight on the power of fusion reactors. A ship has one Reactor for every 60 MASS, plus one. (So a MASS 50 ship has two reactors, a MASS 300 ship has 6, etc.) Ships under 30 MASS only have one reactor. If a reactor fails a threshold check, roll a d6. On a 6, the fusion bottle has failed catastrophically, and the bottle vents, destroying the ship. Otherwise, the failsafes work, and the reactor shutsdown.

A Captain can shut down reactors in an attempt to reduce the chance of a bottle failing. Treat as a shutdown reactor, except that it may be restarted at any time.

A ship requires the number of reactors aboard, minus one, as the minimum to fight the ship at full capacity. (i.e. a ship with five reactors would require four to operate at full capacity.) The exception is, of course, when there's only one reactor aboard.

A ships lose reactors, they undergo the effects as detailed in the chart:

REACTOR TABLE: # REACTORS ON SHIPR 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10E 0 Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z A 1 - - B B C C C C C CC 2 - - A B B B C C CT 3 - - A B B B C CO 4 - - A A B B BR 5 - - A A B BS 6 - - A A B 7 - - A AL 8 - - AE 9 - -F 10 -T

Z - Adrift; A ship may perform no actions. C - A ship may operate one function B - A ship may operate two functions

A - A ship may operate three functions

Functions: Thrust, ONE Broadside, Chase Weapons (Fore/Aft), Defences (PDS/ECM)

Offensive Weapons

FIRE CONTROL FT firecons act as global fire controls. A weapon can go into local fire control, but one less die is rolled for the class of weapon (e.g. if a weapon rolled 4d8 to resolve damage, only 3d8 is rolled in local control.) Weapons that roll one die have a -2 applied to their damage code. A ship can engage as many targets as it has weapons.

RATE OF FIRE Unless otherwise stated, all weapons can only fire once per turn.

MISSILES The primary weapon of the Honor Harrington universe is the missile. Each weapon system requires two purchase; the weapon system, and the magazine to serve that weapon.

Missiles are treated like one-shot fighters. A system launches six dice worth of missiles (a salvo) every turn. (Another way: treat as a squadron of six fighters.)

A target must be in the same arc as covered by the launcher.

Missiles, when lauched, are moved 6" out from the side that they were launched from. Then they move as fighters: 12" movement, over four movement phases, tracking targets within a 120 degree cone in the front of the missile. Or, they can be set to 'speed' mode, traveling 18" over two turns.

Missile damage is scored by reading the damage of each die directly, divided by two, round up. Missiles have an attack range of 2". Missiles are not subject to the re-roll rule. A 1 is always a miss. Note: They do not have to end up within 2" of their targets, just pass within 2".

Missiles are dumb, and must fly a straight line course to their targets. You cannot maneuver missiles around a point defence escort, for example. Likewise, they can be deceived by Banzai Jamming (see below). However, they will ignore all other targets except for their primary target, even if the primary target has already been reduced to slag by a previous weapon i.e. they can't tell if attacking their target is a waste of ammo or not. However, if their primary target is in 2" range, and other targets are in 2", the salvo may attack them. Randomly select among the targets within 2", with the primary target getting two changes (e.g. three targets in 2", roll a d4: 1-2 Primary Target, 3 Target One, 4 Target Two).

Missile Table:

Level Die Mass Pts1 d4 1 22 d6 2 43 d8 3 84 d10 5 165 d12 10 32

Magazines contain 16 'salvoes' of fire. Each magazine can serve all the weapons of that level on the ship, and cost half the mass and points of the respective launcher i.e. a Level 4 magazine would cost 3 MASS and 18 points. Level 1 Magazines contain 24 'salvoes' of fire.

A Captain can 'double tap'; rotate the ship so that one broadside fires on a time delay, then roll the ship so that the second broadside fires at the same time that the first broadside accelerates way. This burns ammo twice as fast, you lose the initial 6" acceleration, and costs MASS div 75 in Thrust points. However, you throw 12 dice squadrons as opposed to six.

A Captain can fire conventional nuclear warheads as opposed to the X-ray warhead weapons that are normally fired. Nuclear warheads require direct hits to be effective, so they have an attack range of 0 i.e. they must touch the center of the model to attack. In addition, because they require direct hits, they are much easier targets for point defence. PDS effects are doubled. However, if they get through, they do double damage.

A Captain can also fire sidewall penetrators. These also require direct hits, and point defence is also twice as effective. However, if these missiles hit (i.e. reach point blank range), all of a ship's screens on the impacted side go down, as if the systems failed a threshold check. No other damage occurs.

MISSILE PODS Mass: 2 / Cost: 30These pods are one shot 'disposable' pods that fire one broadside of missiles, as per a level 4 battery. These pods can be towed to an area of battle, or carried as cargo and dumped overboard. A ship can 'tow' its MASS divided by 30 of these pods with no degredation of its acceleration rates. (Round down). Every additional pod reduces a ships acceleration by 1 point.

If any missile fire is directed at a ship towing pods, or at an area of space with pods, and these missiles reach attack range, then all the pods in the radius of the attack range are rendered useless (even if they're being towed behind a different ship.) This reflects the vulnerability to 'soft kills' from the EMP generated by missile detenations. Missile Pods don't have the room for the electromagnetic accelerators that ship launchers have; there's no 6" push either.

ENERGY WEAPONS Close-in weaponry is represented by lasers and grasers. Lasers are lighter then grasers, but grasers have more 'smashing' power.

Damage for these energy weapons is read right off the dice. Range attenuation occurs, according to the chart below. If a die has a damage roll of six or more, roll the dice again, applying half the damage to the armour, and half to internal structure. This can only happen once.

Range Chart:

Weapon 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11+Laser 0 -1 -1 -2 -3 -5 Out of Range Graser 0 0 0 -1 -1 -1 -3 -3 -5 -7 Out of Range

Laser Table:

Level Dice Mass Pts1 1d6 1 32 2d6 2 63 3d6 3 124 4d6 4 24

Graser Table:

Level Dice Mass Pts1 1d8 2 62 2d8 4 93 3d8 6 184 4d8 8 36

ENERGY TORPEDOES Mass: 2 / Cost: 12 / Range: 6 / Damage: 4d8Energy torpedoes hit using the basic battery to-hit roll as defined for standard beam batteries. For every hit, roll 4d8 dice for damage. Point defence weapons are useless again Energy Torps. However, if a ship mounts any sort of screens, these weapons are useless (they can't penetrate sidewalls.) (This means, however, that these weapons can shoot 'up the kilt/down the throat'.)

GRAV LANCE Mass: 5 / Cost: 24 / Range: 3 / Damage: Special A ship hit by the grav lance loses all its screens, on the side of the ship hit by the grav lance, as if all the screens failed a threshold check. Roll the basic FT battery to-hit roll; any hit has the above affect.

Defences

POINT DEFENCE SYSTEMS Point Defence Systems come in various types, which differ in the size of dice they roll, and their effective range. All PDS systems can fire on any missiles in their attack range, even if the missiles are intended for a different target. Each PDS system can only fire once a turn.

PDS systems get a last ditch shot at incoming missiles, if the PDS system hasn't fired that turn at another group of missiles.

Total kills are modified by half DIFFERENTIAL; and a high number is always a miss. PDS Table:

Class Dice Mass Points Range1 1d4 2 4 4"2 1d6 3 6 6"3 2d6 5 10 8"4 2d6 6 12 10"5 1d6 4 8 10"6 2d8 8 16 10"

SCREENS/SIDEWALLS Honor Harrington Universe starships are equiped with gravity sidewalls, closing off the port/starboard aspects of their wedges. However, due to the nature of propulsion in the Universe, the fore/aft aspects cannot be protected by these systems; thus any shots "down the throat" or "up the kilt" will not be attenuated and can cause massive damage.

Each installation has a port/starboard icon. When threshold checks occur, check against both systems. It is possible to lose one side without the other, or both.

Each level of screen will stop one die roll of damage against all damage dice rolled against it, per 'strike', per turn. This roll is halved against misisle attacks.

Level Mass(whichever is greater) Points Roll1 3 or 5% MASS 20 1d42 6 or 10% MASS 40 2d43 12 or 15% MASS 80 2d64 24 or 20% MASS 120 2d8

ECM and Sensors

All ships in the HH universe carry extremely comprehensive electronics countermeasures suite, designed to combat enemy sensors and enemy fire control.

In previous versions of these rules, there was an extremely comprehensive sensors/ECM ruleset, involving contested rolls, masking, cloaking, purchasable systems etc. In addition, in the Weber books, sensors and their use form a very important and integral part of the battle. However these rules tripled the length of time a turn took, as well as added to the general confusion.

Thus, to aid playability, everyting has been distilled into two ratings, fire control and ECM. Each ship has these two ratings. In addition, several of the sensor options previous presented are still available, but in an extremely simplified format.

While these rules do add complication to the game, it is highly recommended that they be used. Many of the battles in the HH universe hinge on the control of information; the use of it, and the denying of it to the enemy.

ECM Most ships have an ECM rating; this represents the quantity and quality of the ECM systems and operators aboard a vessel. A ship that shuts down its ECM suite has an effective rating of 0.

FIRE CONTROL Most ships have a Fire Control rating; this represents the quantity and quality of a ships' offensive sensors and the crew manning them. A ship that shuts down its FC has an effective rating of 0.

DIFFERENTIAL RATING Aspects of these rules will ask for the Sensor DIFFERENTIAL rating. This is the attackers Fire Control - the defenders ECM. Keep all signs.

SENSORS A ship can be in one of three modes; active, passive, silent running.

An active ship has its sensors energized and sending energy out to find targets and determine information about them. The base range for active sensors is 12", plus the DIFFERENTIAL rating. Active sensors will determine every target in this range, plus a mass range. (Mod 20 i.e. 0-20, 21-40, etc. minus the DIFFERENTIAL rating. For example, attacker FC is 4, defenders ECM is 0, Mass is determined mod 16, sensor range 28") Velocity information is given, and if a ship's class is known to your side, it will give class information. Active sensors will find ships running silent.

A variant of active sensors is the hull map; if a target comes within 6", a hull map can be created. This gives information as to the external systems of the ship (including, but not limited to, complete weapons info.)

Passive sensors radiate no energy. They are good to a range of 40", except versus ships who are active, when they are good to a range of 64". Passive sensors will give you wedge readings, which will give you the class of a ship, if you've encountered that ship

class before. If not, it will give MASS Readings mod 40, minus the DIFFERENTIAL rating. Passive Sensors Range is affected by DOUBLE the DIFFERENTIAL Rating.

Beyond the base range above, if a ship uses main thrust, it appears on the map, with no other information, other than a MASS Range mod 60. (Minus the DIFFERENTIAL.) If the ship doesn't use main thrust, it is effectively silent running (even though it may radiate energy normally.)

A ship in silent running is invisible to passive sensors (but not active ones.) A ship in silent running cannot use main thrust, fire, or emit any emissions (this includes ECM and fire control, or communications.) In particular, since the ship's engines are shutdown, the ship has no wedge, or no sidewalls to interdict enemy fire. However, the ship can rotate and push using thrusters, with a maximum push of '2'.

It takes one turn for a ship to enter silent running, and one turn for a ship to come out of silent running. Note this in the orders plot for the turn before. (I.e. Ship out of silent running in turn 6 means the ship will be fully functional in turn 7.)

The location of missile pods can only be determined by active sensors.

BANZAI JAMMING A ship can set itself up as a big missile target, using its ECM to attract missiles away from more vulnerable targets. The number of missiles decoyed is the ratio of the defenders ECM to the attackers Fire Control rating. For example, if the ECM Rating is 4 and the FC rating is 4, all the missiles would go after the radiating target.

A ship employing banzai jamming lights up the entire universe; everybody knows what that ship is doing.

MASS FAKING A ship can attempt to 'disguise' itself by the use of its ECM systems. A ship can make itself appear larger or smaller, or disguise its emissions so that it resembles a different class of that type of ship.

This can only work while a ship is being viewed with passive sensors. A ship can increase its MASS rating by its ECM rating x 50, or decrease it by its ECM Rating x 20. An enemy ship can attempt to defeat the masking by rolling own FIRE CONTROL rating or under, minus half the enemy ECM rating (round down).

DAMAGE

Systems damage works the same way as in FT:FB, with the following changes: 1) ECM and Fire Control ratings are reduced by a quarter for every damage track lost. Round up until the last track, then round down.

2) Engines are affected as per EFSB - the thrust of a ship is divided into elements of two (with an extra one left over, if required). Roll a threshold check against all engines, taking out the ones damaged. Likewise, repairs are performed in the same way.

3) All systems (point defence, energy weapons, missile weapons, etc) represents collections of systems, as opposed to discrete items. The first failed threshold damages the system, so it operates at half capacity. The second threshold hit destroys the system. (See Missile exception below.)

4) The first failed threshold check on a missile battery creates a -1 to damage, and a halving of the dice launched. The second failed threshold check destroys the system.

5) A hit on the Inertial Compensator only succeeds on a 6, regardless of what damage track you're on. If the Compensator is hit, roll 3d6; on a 3, 4 or 5, the failsafe has failed to engage, and the ship's crew is now paste. On any other roll, the failsafe has engaged, and the ship may no longer push or accelerate until the compensator is repaired. It may rotate, however.

MISC

STRIKING THE WEDGE A ship that surrenders can "strike the wedge." This is a complete engine shutdown. Ship that has 'struck' has no wedge, and no sidewalls.

CONSTRUCTION

Ship construction follows FT:FB rules, with the following changes. NOTE: The largest ship you can ever build is a MASS 500 ship. I'm hoping to rework these equations so that they don't present an arbitrary limit. Stay tuned. Maximum Thrust Equation Due to the physics of the Impeller drive and the Inertial Compensator, there exists a MASS at which the ship can no longer accelerate. The curve is defined roughly as:

(MAX THRUST) y = ( (500-x)^0.755 ) / 10.90

Where x is the MASS of the ship, and y represents top thrust at 80% power. Note that this determines how fast the ship can go, not how fast it will go. That depends on the thrust points purchased for the ship.

This also means that no ship can weigh more than 500 MASS.

Points per Thrust Point Equation The number of points required for a given thrust rating is determined by:

y = thrust desired*5 ^ (1 + MASS/500)

Where thrust desired is the 100% throttle setting, and MASS is the MASS of the ship.

MASS per Thrust Point Equation The MASS of a ship's impellars is given by: MASS = THRUST * (MASS ^ 2) / (50 * MASS)

Thrust desired is the 100% throttle setting.

Weapon Limitations by ARC As ships get larger, their beams become much shorter in respect to their lengths. Thus, small ships can mount as much as 20-25% of the armament as chase armament, while large ships can only mount 4 or 5%. This equation deals with that: y = (500 - MASS) / 20 y is the percentage of weapons that may be mounted fore and aft. (Both fore and aft weapons count in the percentage given above. ) Hull Selection is as Fleet Book. However, if you pick a certain strength hull, you get the hull above it in terms of hull boxes e.g. a WEAK hull would MASS 10%, and provide 20% Hull Boxes.

Honor Harrington Full Thrust Adaptation Rules Cheat Sheet

Legal Note:In no way is this meant to infringe on David Weber's Copyright of his novels. So there. (8-)

Some Design Notes on Scale Because David Weber describes in some detail the velocities and ranges of the weapons in the Honor Harrington Universe (damn, I want to spell that 'Honour' (8-) ), it's possible to convert FT 'units' into actual SI distances, once certain assumptions are made.

In this case, the assumption were based around the idea of escorts having top thrust ratings of 8, under full military power. Assuming that the thrust rating of 8 represents top Manticorian technology (or Solarian League technology), this presents a reasonable upper limit. In the books, an escort class vessel (frigate,destroyer), can attain velocites upwards of 600+g's. This means that a thrust rating of one comes out to an acceleration of (approximately) 85g's.

I did some calculations, figuring out how far a ship accelerating at 85gs could travel over given periods of time (or one unit in FT scale.) The 'best' results were attained if a ship accelerated at 85gs for 240 seconds (four minutes), covering a distance of 25 000km, from a standing start. (Roughly.) This makes one light second 12 units of distance, and places the powered range of missles around 40 units.

Thus, to summarize: one FT thrust point = 85g of acceleration, and one FT unit = 25 000km of distance. All ranges in this adaptation are adjusted accordingly.

One problem for future revision is the problem of weight. A superdreadnought weighs 10 times what a battlecruiser weighs. Given that a battlecruiser would come in about 40-50 MASS, this poses something of a problem. This has been partly solved by making the higher end weapons more powerful than lower end weapons on a more than linear scale. However, it seems unvaoidable that the really large ships will be superships.

Turn Order

1. Resolve Sensor Rolls Concerning Ship Classes (In Secret) 2. Plot Movement (In Secret) 3. Do Movement 4. Plot Firing (In Secret) 5. Resolve Firing (Simultaneous) 6. Clean-Up

Rule Modifications

Change to Arcs: As a change to the standard FT system of ARCS: 11-1 is the forward arc, 5-7 is the back arc, everything else is considered broadside.

Changes to Std. Systems Every Ship Status sheet includes the following systems, plus the std. FT systems. The systems themselves are explained below.

1 Fusion Reactor per Reactor on ship 1 Passive Sensor Suite 1 Active Sensor Suite 1 Gravitic Sensor Suite

Movement Movement is based on Newtonian Principles. Thus thrust is built up and sustained from turn to turn. When thrusting in different directions, the thrust vectors must be added, and individual thrust vectors must be tracked. (Vector thrust chits might be good here.)

A ship can rotate and apply thrust, or apply thrust and rotate, with the following restriction: a ship can rotate as many units as double its thrust minus the amount of thrust it wishes to spend that turn. So, a unit with thrust eight could turn 16 units if no thrust

was applied, or 8 units if full thrust was applied, or 7 units if the ship went to full military power. (More on this below.)

The easiest way to add the vectors would be to move the ship according to the previous turns movement, and then move the ship according to the movement order. A straight line between the start point of the ship and the end point of the ship is considered to be the flight path the ship took. (Not entirely accurate, but good enough.)

If the ship has lost/doesn't have its wedge, it can still turn, even though it cannot apply thrust. In this case, a ship can spend up to its thrust in turning. It can also "Roll Ship".

"ROLLING THE WEDGE" Because the nature of combat in the "Harrington" Universe, plus the nature of the propulsion systems, a ship can "Roll the Wedge" i.e. interpose an impenetrable band of gravity stress between itself and an enemy.

When a ship "rolls", fire against it is resolved normally. After resolution, the attacking player rolls a die, for the check roll. If a six is rolled, then the wedge acts as another layer of screens. If anything but a six is rolled, then all the damage is wasted i.e. no damage is scored.

A ship chooses to roll the wedge against any group of ships within an arc. Any ships firing on the rolled ship, but not within this arc, score damage as per normal. A ship can roll on enemy ships within any arc (even a front/back arc; the roll represents the ship 'climbing' or 'diving'.)

When a ship has rolled the wedge, it cannot engage any ships in the arc being defended against.

Ships in the arc being defended against can only receive gravitic readings from the enemy ship. (The wedge acts as a very effective broad spectrum jammer.)

"ROLLING SHIP" Rolling the ship involves rolling 180 degrees along the long axis of the ship, presenting an undamaged side to an enemy vessel. Thus, a ship with a battered port side can "roll ship" and present an undamaged starboard side or vice versa. This means all fire and damage is taken through the starboard side.

"FULL MILITARY POWER" It is possible to take your drive to "full military power." When at full military power, your movement factor increases by one for cruisers and capital ships, and by two for escorts. However, for every turn at full military power, roll 3d6. On a 3, the grav compensator has failed, and everything aboard ship has slammed opposite the direction of acceleration at over 500G's. Needless to say, there isn't much left. (Because compensator failure is rare, this rule could be taken as optional and just limit ship speeds to their designed maximums. But this rule makes things SO much more interesting. (8-) )

GOING FTL A ship can leave the map at any time (going FTL), if the the ship is beyond the 'hyper limit' (a question of game scenario), and the FTL system is still operational.

Weapons FIRE CONTROL: The FT firecons act as global fire controls. A weapon can go into local control, but has takes a -1 to-hit penalty. A ship can engage as many targets at it has weapons (so that several targets are engaged by global fire control, and several targets are engaged by weapons in local control.)

BASIC TO-HIT ROLL: A weapon using the basic to-hit roll misses on a 1; one hit on a 2,3, two hits on a 4,5, and three on a 6. (Or divide by two, round down). With bonuses, you may get totals greater than six. For every two above six, add one hit. (Therefore 8 scores four hits, 10 scores five, etc.) As per batteries, in straight FT, roll 1 die for C, 2 dice for B, and 3 dice for A.

OPPORTUNITY FIRE: A ship may fire weapons other than missiles in opportunity fire during the movement portion of the turn. These weapons CAN be used in the correspoding fire phase, as long as they are not firing at the same target. Weapons used in this way have their damage reduced by a third against both targets.

MISSILES: The primary weapon of Harrington's time is the missile. Each weapon system requires two purchases; one for the magazine, and one for the battery. Each battery points in one arc, but a magazine can serve multiple weapon systems. Salvoes is the number of turns a Large missile battery can fire before it is out of ammo, per battery e.g. four Large batteries operating off of one large magazine will empty that magazine in four turns. Also note that the Large/Small designators for magazines and batteries reflect the size of the magazine/battery, not the missile (so a A-Small magazine could serve an A-Large battery.)

The to-hit roll is the same as the basic to-hit roll. Each hit does 1d6 damage, adding the damage bonus for each die.

Large batteries get an additional +1 to their to-hit rolls.

Damage is taken off armour first, then off internal hull, except when the damage roll comes up a six. On a six, six points of damage are taken against the armour, and roll the die again (once.) The second damage roll, halved, applies to internal hull. (Apply the damage bonus as usual.) Disregard this rule if no armour is left.

MAGAZINES FOR MISSILES:

Type: A-Large Salvoes: 16 Mass: 4 Cost: 8Type: A-Small Salvoes: 8 Mass: 2 Cost: 4Type: B-Large Salvoes: 16 Mass: 3 Cost: 6Type: B-Small Salvoes: 8 Mass: 2 Cost: 4Type: C-Large Salvoes: 16 Mass: 2 Cost: 4Type: C-Small Salvoes: 8 Mass: 1 Cost: 2

MISSILE BATTERIES:Type: A Large Range: 44" Mass: 5 Cost: 24 Dam. Bonus: +2Type: A Small Range: 44" Mass: 3 Cost: 18 Dam. Bonus: +2Type: B Large Range: 40" Mass: 3 Cost: 12 Dam. Bonus: +1Type: B Small Range: 40" Mass: 2 Cost: 10 Dam. Bonus: +1Type: C Range: 36" Mass: 1 Cost: 4 Dam. Bonus: 0Small batteries consume half the magazine salvo of a large battery (so a small battery firing at std. fire will consume 1/2 of a pt of ammo.) The C-battery is considered a "large" battery for ammo purposes.

A battery can be setup as a "one-shot" battery. Subtract one from its mass and cost. Everything else about it remains the same, except that it has one shot and then it's empty.

A Captain can order rapid fire or std fire. At rapid fire, add +1 to all to-hit rolls, but you consume two salvoes every turn.

A Captain can fire nuclear warheads as opposed to the X-ray bomb warheads usually fired. These missiles require direct hits to do damage, so the effects of Point defence are doubled. However, if a hit is scored, damage is doubled. Nuclear warheads are not subject to the penetrating armour rule.

A Captain can fire sidewall penetrator warheads. These missiles also require direct hits to do damage. However, if a hit is scored, all of a ship's screens on that side go down (as if the player had failed a threshold check on those systems.) No damage occurs to internal systems or armour, except as described above.

Before a battle, if using special ammo, a Captain must specify how much special ammo he/she is carrying.

MISSILE POD: Mass: 2 Cost: 20 These pods are one shot "disposable" pods that fire one broadside of missiles, as per a A battery (roll three dice.) These missiles have a Range of 44", and have a To-Hit Bonus of +1. These pods are frequently towed by ships into an area of battle, or can be carried around as cargo and "dumped" overboard prior to use. A ship can "tow" (using tractor beams) its MASS divided by twenty (round up) of these pods. (All ships are assumed to have tractors)

If any missile fire is directed at a ship towing pods, then all the pods are rendered useless (even if no hits are scored on the ship.) This reflects the pods vulnerability to "soft kills" from the EMP blast of missile warheads. Likewise, any fire directed at pods drifting in space will eliminate their usefulness.

Because pods are so small and stealthed, they can only be detected by active sensors.

ENERGY ARMAMENT: The close-in Energy Armament is represented by Grasers and Lasers. The to-hit roll is std. and the penetrating armour rule applies.

GRASER BATTERIESType: A Range: 12" Mass: 6 Cost: 30 Bonus: +7Type: B Range: 10" Mass: 4 Cost: 20 Bonus: +5Type: C Range: 8" Mass: 2 Cost: 8 Bonus: +3Each hit does 1d6+1 damage minus range to target

LASER BATTERIESType: A Range: 8" Mass: 3 Cost: 20 Bonus: +3Type: B Range: 6" Mass: 2 Cost: 10 Bonus: +2Type: C Range: 4" Mass: 1 Cost: 4 Bonus: +1Each hit does 1d6/2+1 damage minus (range to target / 2 ) (round down)ENERGY TORPEDO: Mass: 1 Cost: 12 Range: 8" Damage: 2d6 Energy torpedoes hit using the basic to-hit system. They do 2d6 damage per hit, per torpedo. However, if the ship mounts any sort of screens, the torpedoes are useless. In this case, they do no damage. Point defences are useless against these weapons (they just travel too fast.)

GRAV LANCE:Mass 3 Cost: 24 Range: 4" Damage: Special Grav Lances cause screens and other gravitic equipment to blow-out. A ship hit by a grav lance loses all its screens (like a failed threshold check), and performs a threshold check on its engine systems, with target numbers determined normally i.e. which row of the damage track you're on.

MINEFIELDS work as stationary missile warheads; roll the basic To-Hit roll. Damage is 1d6 per hit. Note, you cannot roll wedge against a minefield; a minefield is usually stacked high enough to get a shot at sidewalls. Minefields are also stealthed, so they can only be detected by active sensors, and only at half range.

NOTE ABOUT MOUNTING WEAPONS: On escort class ships, 25% of a ship's weapons (by mass) may be mounted fore and aft. (Total) For cruiser class ships, this is 20%, for capital class ships, this is 15%. This is the TOTAL mass available fore/aft. No weapons can be 'multi-arced' i.e. each battery must point in one arc, and one arc only.

Defences PDAF/ADAF: Roll a 1d6 for each PDAF/ADAF installtion. Each installation eliminates 1d6/2 hits, round up, per installation, per turn. A ships captain allocates PDAF/ADAF defences as he sees fit, once all the hits for a ship are determined. ADAFs can engage missiles fired at other ships, as per the standard ADAF engagement rules, with a range of 12".

ECM:Each local ECM installation reduces the to-hit chance by one for EVERY salvo fired at that ship. An area jamming ECM installation reduces the to-hit chance by one for EVERY salvo fired into ships in the ECM jamming area. Note that the maximum modifier for this is -2; eventually ships start firing a mix of conventional tracking and home-on-jam tracking, so things eventually start getting through. A ship can only have either one local ECM installation or one area jamming ECM installation. An area ECM set covers an area 6" across.

ECM can also be used for sensor deception. When used for sensor deception, a jamming ship can either enhance or weaken its gravitic signature, return false MASS readings. A ship can change its MASS reading by as much as 15%. As well, a ship can changes its emission pattern to make it appear as a ship in a different class e.g. a Class A type destroyer can make itself appear as a Class B type destroyer. Note, that while you can attempt to simulate an enemy ship, you cannot simulate enemy IFF; so you will still appear as a target, even if the jamming roll is completely successful. When Area ECM is being used for deception, it can only affect the ship with the suite. (Can't make a squadron of destroyers appear like a bunch of SuperDreadnaughts. (8-) )

Examine the section on sensors for more information.

BANZAI JAMMERS "Banzai" jammers enhance a ship's signature so as to attract incoming missile fire away from other ships by presenting a "better" target. A "Banzai" jammer is part of a standard ECM suite. (Area or Local)

A ship can activate its Banzai jammer to attract all incoming enemy fire, if the jamming ship is between a firing ship and its target. The firing ship(s) may attempt to 'burn' through the jamming using sensors.

SCREENS: Each screen installation reduces the damage from any hit according to the following.

1 Screen: 2 pts Mass:3 Cost: 252 Screen: 3 pts Mass:7 Cost: 603 Screen: 4 pts Mass:12 Cost: 1004 Screen: 5 pts Mass:18 Cost: 150

Screens only protect the side arcs from damage i.e. any damage coming through the front or back arcs gets through with no attenuation. There can be a maximum of one

installation on Escort class ships, two installations on Cruisers, and three installations on Capital ships. Merchant vessels mount very light sidewalls for navigation/radiation protection only, and thus do not affect weapons.

Each installation is represented by a port/starboard sidewall icon. When performing threshold checks, check against both port and starboard. It is possible for one to fail independently of the other, or for both to fail at once.

A ship must have an active movement wedge in order to have sidewalls.

ARMOUR: It is possible to buy extra armour points, at the cost ratio of 1 mass = 3 pts. These pts. are damaged before any damage reaches the internal superstructure of the ship. Damage Control cannot repair these boxes; they can only be fixed at a base or ship with the proper shipyard/machine shop facilities. 6 pts per mass.

Sensors There are three types of sensors in the Honor Harrington Universe, gravity, passive, and active. Losing the conventional sensor system means weapons are thrown into local control. Losing the gravity system prevents a ship from engaging targets beyond conventional sensor range.

Gravity sensors have a range of effectively unlimited size. (300 units approximately). Gravity sensors are good enough for fire control using global firecons (cannot fire in local control without a passive/active lock), and for the general class of a vessel, if the class has been encountered before and has an active wedge. Otherwise, it is possible to determine the rough size of a wedge. (Mass Range within 10 i.e. 90s, 80s, 50s, etc.) Sensors at this range can determine whether or not a ships wedge has been damaged, velocity and speed of target.

Passive sensors have a range of 36 units. Passive sensors can detect ships that do not have an active wedge, if those ships are either using their active sensors, or are engaged in combat. Passive sensors can determine whether a ships armor has been breached, and whether or not an enemy's weapons are in local fire control. Passive sensors can also confirm the actual class of a ship (Homer class BC vs. Reliant class BC, for example.)

Active sensors have a range of 12 units. An active search enables classification of brand new targets, and a +1 to all to-hit numbers ( a combination of the close range, and real-time updates of targeting information.) They can also determine the damage a vessel has taken in terms of hull percentage (active sensors do a hull map of the enemy vessel). The hull map will determine weapons, active defences (PDAF/ADAF), missile pod bays, and other 'external' systems.

ECM can affect sensors, by creating false MASS readings, or fake ship class readings. It is also possible to mask a ship by placing another ship with an active wedge in front of the first one, preventing a good look at the ships wedge. This prevents class identification, but still allows fire, at a -1. (Treat as fully effective jamming.)

When ECM is operating, roll a d6 for the ECM and a d6 for the sensor suite. Subtract -1 from the sensor suite roll if the suite is gravitic, or passive. Subtract -1 from the ECM roll if the ECM is attemtping to simulate a specific ship class. Add +2 to the Jammer roll if the sensor is attempting to burn through Banzai jamming. Subtract -1 from the sensor suite roll if the ships own ECM and/or Jammers were operating.

If the rolls are within 1 of each other, then the jamming/ECM has partial effect. If the jamming roll is more than one higher than the sensors roll, than the jamming is totally effective. If the sensor roll is more than one higher than the jamming roll, then the ECM/jamming is ineffective.

Summary of Sensor affects Type of Sensor Information Given Effects of Jamming Effects of Partial

Jamming

Gravitic Sensors

( -1 to rolls )

Range: Unlimited

Ships to be detected must have active movement wedges.

Allows Global Fire Control Lock

Mass Range for detected ships given. (70-80, 80-90, 20-30, etc.)

Jamming Mode: No Mass Readings other than by hull type (escort, cruiser, capital, supership).

Deception Mode (-1): Mass reading shifted by 20% Fire conducted normally.

Banzai Mode (+2): All fire attracted.

Jamming Mode: Mass Range given, by 20s.

Deception Mode: Mass reading shifted by 10%

Banzai Mode: Half of all fire attracted, determined randomly.

Passive Sensors

( -1 to rolls )

Range: 36"

Ships to be detected must be 'active' i.e. active wedge, fire control, sensors, jamming, etc.

Allows Global/Local Fire Control Lock

Identify class, if encountered before, or exact Mass if no.

Determine Fire Control Status,

Jamming Mode: No class info other than hull type. (BC, DD, etc.) No other info.

Deception Mode (-1): Simulate a different class

Banzai Mode (+2): All fire attracted.

Jamming Mode: Exact Mass/ID determined.

Deception Mode: As per jamming mode.

Banzai Mode: Half of all fire attracted, determined randomly.

Hull Status (Intact, Armor Breach, Trailing Atmosphere, Dead)

Active Sensors

Range: 12"

Allows Global Fire Control Lock

+1 to to-hit numbers

ID New classes (through hull map); determine hull integrity as perecentage, determine external weapons (gunports, point defence, etc.) Mass given.

Jamming Mode: No information made available.

Deception Mode: Not possible against active sensors

Banzai Mode (+2): All fire attracted.

Jamming Mode: Mass given, hull integrity given within 10%.

Deception Mode: N/A

Banzai Mode: Half of all fire attracted, determined randomly.

It is possible for a ship to go silent and avoid detection by Gravitic or Passive sensors. In order to do this, a ship must shut down its wedge, ECM, active sensors, and fire control.

Miscellaneous SURRENDER: A ship can surrender by "Striking the Wedge." This involves shutting down the movement drive and the sidewalls of the surrendering ship. A ship that has struck its wedge can no longer maneuver, and has no damage reduction against incoming fire.

FUSION REACTORS: A ship uses fusion reactors to power systems. A ship has threshold rows - 1 reactors, and requires one less to operates (with a minimum of one.) Thus, an Escort has one reactor, and requires it to operate, a Cruiser has two reactors, and requires one to operates, a Capital ship has three reactors, and requires two to operate, etc.

A ship may purchase an extra reactor for 10% of the ships mass rating, rounded up. There is no limit on the amount of extra reactors you may purchase

When a reactor fails a threshold check on a 6, another roll is performed. On a 6, the reactor fails catastrophically, destroying the ship.

For every reactor less than the required amount it has, it must either lose that percentage of systems or the required amount, or shutdown the ships wedge. For example, a ship with five reactors, and requires four to operate. Each reactor represents 25% of the total power requirements of the system (four reactors required.) If a ship took damage, and

was reduced to three reactors, than either 25% of the systems aboard ship (Captain's choice) must be shutdown, or the ships wedge must be shutdown.

THRESHOLD CHECKS FOR BATTERIES (Laser, Graser, Missile): Whenever a battery comes under a threshold check, the system is not crossed off. Rather, the system suffers a -2 penalty to all damage and to-hit rolls. On a second threshold check, the penalty is -4 (i.e. one hit only on a six.) On a third threshold check, the system is destroyed. Do not ignore the to-hit bonuses of large systems when undergoing threshold checks.

DATALINKS: Ships can fire on targets that are hidden from view, as long as one friendly ship within 12 units of the firing ship can see the target. This represents the sharing of information between ships in the same formation.

DAMAGE CONTROL: It is strongly recommended that Damage Control Rules from MT be used.

Construction A ship with FTL capability uses 15% of its mass in terms of engines and systems. A ship without FTL capability uses 10% of its mass.

After doing the standard calcuation of MASS available for systems, double it. The ship is still rated at the original MASS; this doubling is only for ship systems. (The same affect is achieved if you halve the MASS of all systems, but this saves the work of dealing with fractions. (8-) )