Combat Summary

TURN PHASES

PHASE 0: PRE-ENGAGEMENT
* Before the engagement begins, players must determine their battlegroup’s starting positions.  They can do this by either choosing a posture or using uptime actions.
* If the players aren’t performing uptime actions for this engagement, they simply choose a position and posture for their battlegroup as the fleet heads toward combat (see p. 48).
* If the players are performing uptime actions, they can either use the Set a Posture uptime action to choose a position or they can use Plot a Course to perform another action and then roll to find out where their battlegroup drops out of nearlight (see p. 51).

PHASE 1: LOGISTICS

Battlegroups that wish to surrender or retreat (if able) must do so at the start of the round, before the Logistics Phase.

• Remove counters from CHARGE weapons, PAYLOAD weapons, and expended RELOADING weapons and upgrades.

• Exhausted ESCORTS and WINGS are readied for use.

• Resolve any upgrades, abilities, or effects that take place during the Logistics Phase. Make sure everyone is on the same page and ready to move on.

PHASE 2: IMPACT

• CHARGE weapons that have reached 0 Charge Counters may either fire, rolling to hit, or hold their attacks.

• PAYLOAD weapons that have reached 0 Flight Counters automatically hit.

• Roll damage for any CHARGE and PAYLOAD weapons that have hit.

• Battlegroups may roll Interdiction and reduce the result from relevant attacks.

PHASE 3: ACTION

• Battlegroups take turns using Manoeuvrers and Tactics, alternating between player and NPC battlegroups, beginning with players.

• For players, choose to either use one Manoeuvre and one Tactic, or two Tactics.

• Non-CHARGE, non-PAYLOAD attacks made during this step resolve immediately.

• Commanders roll to repel boarders from each boarded ship at the end of their turn.

BASIC MANOEUVRERS

All player battlegroups have access to the same set of basic manoeuvrers.

ALL AHEAD FULL
Your battlegroup may advance forward by one range band, and you may fire one PRIMARY weapon before or after moving.

OPEN FIRE
Your battlegroup remains in its current range band, devoting all extra power to its weapons: you may attack with one SUPERHEAVY weapon or up to two different PRIMARY weapons.

RETROGRADE BURN
Choose one:
* Your battlegroup falls back one range band.
* Until the end of your next turn, you may ignore the next hostile effect that would force it to move.


Either way, your battlegroup becomes BOLSTERED until the end your next turn, gaining +1d6 Interdiction and granting +2 DEFENCE to each ship in the battlegroup.

RAMMING SPEED
You may only use this manoeuvrer at Close Range or Point-Blank, and only if your battlegroup is able to move. Advance your battlegroup to Point-Blank, then choose one of your CAPITAL SHIPS and a hostile CAPITAL SHIP: both ships take 2d6 damage that cannot be prevented in any way.


Ramming is not considered a standard combat doctrine by any major naval power and capital ships are never designed with such actions in mind, but desperate times may call for desperate measures.

BASIC TACTICS

All player battlegroups have access to the same set of basic tactics.

CAREFUL SHOT
By adjusting weapon power outputs or ordering your gunnery crews to carefully place their fire you can launch an attack intended to disable an enemy ship without annihilating it outright. Until the end of your next turn, your battlegroup’s attacks, including damage dealt by AUXILIARY weapons, cannot reduce hostile ships below 0 HP and cannot critically hit. SUPERHEAVY, CHARGE, and PAYLOAD weapons ignore this effect, as they are too powerful; even a glancing blow from a long-spool weapon is enough to cause catastrophic damage.


When you reduce a ship to 0 HP using this tactic, you may choose to disable it instead of destroying it; it is dead in the water, unable to flee or attack.


The main purpose of the Careful Shot tactic is to avoid the more destructive results on the Kill Table (p. 53), should a commander wish to capture an enemy ship more or less intact for in-character reasons. Be aware, however, that even “careful” shots with naval weapons are still massively destructive. Although ships targeted by this tactic may not be destroyed, there may still be narrative effects: the attack may have struck critical components, caused a breach in the starboard fusion chamber, or exposed compartments to hard vacuum.

LOCK FIRING SOLUTION
You focus legion processing power on lining up a perfect shot or tracking an especially wily target, sharing the revised telemetry data with the rest of the fleet. Nominate a hostile CAPITAL SHIP or ESCORT; that ship gains a special status called LOCK ON. Any battlegroup making a single-target attack against a ship with LOCK ON may choose to gain +1 ACCURACY on its attack roll and then clear the LOCK ON status after the attack resolves (hit or miss). This is called “consuming LOCK ON”.


LOCK ON lasts until it is consumed or until the end of the next Impact Phase, at which point ships are assumed to have manoeuvred enough to render the targeting data obsolete. LOCK ON does not stack; a ship either has LOCK ON or it doesn’t.

EMERGENCY MANOEUVRERS 
Advance or fall back one range band.


This tactic is Limited 1, which means each player can only use it once per engagement. It represents the battlegroup undertaking taxing or daring manoeuvrers to reposition itself at a crucial moment, and so it should only be used when it is of the utmost importance to do so.

DEFENSIVE SCREEN
Smaller ships are often tasked with providing a defensive screen for larger vessels, supporting and protecting them while they coordinate fighter-tier activities or bring devastating weapons to bear. This tactic can only be used by a battlegroup that contains at least one active FRIGATE; CARRIERS and BATTLESHIPS are too ponderous to provide effective screening.


Choose a FRIGATE under your command and assign it to screen for another CAPITAL SHIP in your battlegroup or for an allied CAPITAL SHIP within the same range band. Until the start of your next turn, all attacks and abilities targeting the screened ship have a 50 percent chance of being intercepted. Roll a die or flip a coin to determine this. Abilities or attacks that are intercepted must either be aborted (wasting the action) or target the screening FRIGATE instead. If the attacker cannot target the screening FRIGATE for some reason, it may then choose another valid target, not including the screened ship. Once assigned to protect a ship, a FRIGATE cannot be ordered to screen for another vessel until the start of your next turn.


FRIGATES cannot be assigned to a defensive screen if they’ve also attacked on the same turn, and FRIGATES on protective duty cannot use weapons except for AUXILIARY weapons as they must concentrate on intercepting incoming threats. If the screening FRIGATE is destroyed, all effects it was providing to screened ships immediately end. Only a single FRIGATE can screen for another ship at a time, and FRIGATES cannot screen for other Frigates that are also screening.

Battlegroups that include an ESCORT or WING (or some other upgrade or ability) with BOARDING gain the following additional tactic:

DEPLOY BOARDERS
Assign an ESCORT or WING with BOARDING to board a hostile CAPITAL SHIP within range. Once assigned to board a ship, a boarding unit can no longer be used for any other purposes until that boarding action ends. It cannot be damaged, targeted by attacks or effects, or repair HP unless specifically noted.


Certain weapons or systems also grant the ability to initiate boarding actions separate from this tactic.