A new ACTA's mod

[Joe_Dracos]

Akoran Imperial Navy

Special Rules

Energy Disruption field (EDF): This is a form of energy shield that the Akoran’s use to protect there ships instead of armour. All Akoran shields are useless against missile weapons.

Living Ships: Due to the advanced technology the Empire employs, it is capable of “growing” its ships. The ships are also capable of repairing themselves. As a result, all Akoran ships add a +1 to repair critical hits by one and repair 1d6 damage at the end of every turn. However the Oberon class super battleship repairs at a much faster rate. It adds +2 to repair rolls and rolls 4d6 to repair it self every turn.

Phasers: The Empire employs phaser technology on all of its vessels. These weapons are accurate enough that primary and secondary batteries may be employed in firing at missiles and fighters instead of firing at another ship. If this is done then these weapons use the panic fire rules. They may not fire as panic fire when the fighters or missiles enter base to base contact however; they are already too close at this point.

 

[Joe_Dracos]

Decoran Republic

Special Rules

Disruptors: These potent weapons literally disrupt the bonds of the molecules of any ship they hit causing severe damage. These weapons will reduce the targets ships armour score by an additional 1 point every time they hit it (regardless of whether or not damage is scored). In addition, these weapons will always cause one damage for every hit irregardless of armour or shields.

Living ships: Unlike the Akoran Empire, the Decoran republic grafts mechanical elements into the ships hull to augment the ships natural regenerating capabilities. The ship will regenerate 1 point per priority level in damage during the every turn. (For example the Heavy Battle Carrier will regenerate 5 points of damage where as the escort frigate will only regenerate 1 point of damage.)

River of Death: This is the common term for Decoran fighter tactics. The fleet simply will attempt to drown the enemy in attack fighters. Every ship capable of carrying fighters does, in fact they carry spares for the pilots in case that their fighter is too damaged to return to combat. They are experts are repairing, refuelling and rearming fighters. Every Decoran ship carrying fighters at the start of the game can recover fighters of the same type as if they had the fleet carrier trait. Those ships with the fleet carrier trait gain a +1 bonus on top of the usual bonuses.

 

[Joe_Dracos]

Federated Commonwealth

Special Rules

Technological abhorrence: The Federation detests any form of advanced technology, believing that technology was the cause of the Fifth Terran civil war. As a result their military lacks any advanced weapons and defences. Even the engines are of the most rudimentary design. As a result, the federation instantly repairs any internal critical hit suffered during the next turns end phase (but not the damage). There simply just aren’t any real critical systems to destroy.

 

[Joe_Dracos]

Andromidan Empire

Special Rules

Stellar Converters: These Powerful weapons convert matter into energy and the release of this energy is usually catastrophic in nature. The best explanation would be that parts of your ship are suddenly and violently brought to critical mass. As a result, no ship may repair any damage caused by stellar converter (if they survive) regardless of any special rule that would normally allow the player to do so.

Barrier Shields: Barrier shields are the most effective energy shield in the galaxy. As long as they are operational they will block any missile or fighter attempting to penetrate the barrier and any missile or fighter counter that is in base to base contact with the ship is automatically destroyed. Also any weapon that would normally ignore shields will not ignore barrier shields. When reduced to 0 the Barrier shield will always block one hit from every attack.

Cascading Mass Drivers: Another deadly weapon devised by the Andromidans, the weapon launches a mass that slowly cascades to critical mass and then detonates. Chose a possition on the table. If the mass explodes in empty space, treat it as an energy mine. Anything within 3" takes 10AD SAP TD, no criticals allowed. If it explodes in an enemy ship (on its counter), that ship alone takes 10AD SAP TD, criticals are allowed. If that then causes the target ship to explode - not merely destroyed but explode immediately - then the explosion of the mass continues outwards and does the same 10AD SAP TD, no criticals, to anything within 3", as if it had exploded in empty space to start with.

Passing through a ship on the way, the mass will do 10AD SAP to that ship, criticals allowed but no TD. All armour higher then 6 counts as 5 when struck in this matter.

The mass will move when the ship moves and has a speed of 20.

Tachyon weapons: These advanced weapons ignore all shields (except for those used by the Decoran Republic Navy).

Railguns: These weapons may inflict damage on any ship with armour values of 3 or less.

No such thing as a Civilian Andromidans: Andromidan ships have no troops score, instead treat each crew point as a troop point. However, all Terrans are experts at fighting Andromidans (even after 300 years) and as a result they must follow the normal rules for forming troop points from crew points.

Terrans: Andromidans used Terrans as slave labour for a full millennia (plus change) and they resisted there control the entire time, as a result they have developed weapons to penetrate Andromidan defences. Terran missiles and fighters pass through the barrier field and attack as normal without penalty.

Akorans: One of only a handful of races to fend of the Andromidans in full total war, they have a particular knowledge on how to defeat them in open battle. Andromidans do not gain any benefits from the Formation fighting rules when playing against the Akorans.

 

[treknogeek]

Thanks for the command phase explanation. I like the attention you are giving to each of the races, and the idea of balistic weapons having a movement turn is intriging.

In regards to the Cascading Mass Driver, as it is written is sounds too powerful. A weapon that can cause the maximum amount of damage to an unintended target and still proceed to its original destination is devistating. Granted, the damage to the ships in this way is automatic and therefore not subject to critical potential, but is still massive (no pun intended). As a constructive suggestion, how about a ship that is struck by this projectile take the 30 as described but the projectile itself becomes out of play. That way there is another tactical aspect to the game (self sacrifice) and retains the realism you are striving for in the movement phase by effecting a projectile that is physically impeded. If the damage capacity of the struck ship is less than the 30 delt then reduce the number of AD accordingly (1 AD remains for every 3 points of damage unused) and the remaining chunk proceeds to target. Realistically, the vector should change as well, but that might just be making it too complicated.

 

[AdrianH]

The cascading mass driver seems to be the Andromidan version of an energy mine. It probably explodes outside the target ship, as does an energy mine, so should not score criticals anyway.

30 points is the maximum it can score after it has reached critical mass and exploded. It should certainly not be able to do that much damage on the way.

Suggestions:
If the mass explodes in empty space, treat it as an energy mine. Anything within 3" takes 10AD SAP TD, no criticals allowed. If it explodes in an enemy ship, that ship alone takes 10AD SAP TD, criticals are allowed. If that then causes the target ship to explode - not merely destroyed but explode immediately - then the explosion of the mass continues outwards and does the same 10AD SAP TD, no criticals, to anything within 3", as if it had exploded in empty space to start with.

Passing through a ship on the way, the mass will do 10AD SAP to that ship, criticals allowed but no TD.

 

[Joe_Dracos]

sounds reasonable

 

[Joe_Dracos]

Critical hits

If you require a number greater then 5 to deal damage then you can not score a critical hit. Otherwise on any 6 you score a critical hit. Follow the procedure below.

Roll 1d6
1-3 Weapon deals one damage multiplier higher (max x5)
4-5 Weapon scores an external critical hit
6 Weapon scores an internal critical hit

External Critical hit table
2d6 Result Dmg Crw Fire Effect
2 Light weapons damaged - +2 - -1 to all and T AFC
3 Secondary’s damaged +1 +1 - -2 AD to one S
4 Turret hit +2 +1 - -1 AD to one P
5 Sensors hit - - - no special actions
6 Hanger hit +1 +4 1d3 all craft destroyed
7 Light weapons Devastated +2 +3 1 Lose 1 arc to T and AFC
8 Secondary Turret Destroyed +3 +4 2 - 1 AD to one S, -3 to All T and AFC
9 Turret Ruptured +3 +2 - -1 AD to one P, -2 to all T and AFC
10 Turret Destroyed +4 +5 1d3 -1 AD to one P, + 1 internal
11 Turret Blown off +5 +3 1 -1 AD to one P, roll again
12 Turret annihilated +6 +5 1d6 -1 AD to one P, +1 Internal, No T or AFC may fire out that arc

Internal Critical hit tables
Location
1d6 Location
1-2 Power
3 Weapons
4-5 Crew
6 Vitals

Power
1d6 Result Dmg Crw Fire Effect
1-2 Capacitors Damaged - +2 - -2 Acc/Dec
3-4 Power Surge +2 +3 1 -4 Acc/Dec
5 Power Fluctuations - - - -2 Acc/Dec, No Special Actions
6 Black out +1 +3 1d3 -6 Acc/Dec, no turns, -2 AD to all weapons

Weapon
1d6 Result
1-2 Tracking sensors damaged - - - -1 AD to all weapons
3 Fire Control Damaged - +1 - only one weapon may fire
4 Missile Tube Blocked +2 - - - 1 AD to one M
5 Secondary Explosions +1d6 +1d6 1d6 -4 AD to all weapons
6 Magazine Explosion +3d6 +2d6 3d6 -6 AD to all weapons, Lose one arc, +1 internal

Crew
1d6 Result
1-2 Fire - +2 1 -
3 Multiple Fires - +3 1d3 May not extinguish fires
4 Localized Decompression +1 +3 -1 -1 armour
5 Hull Breach +2 +4 -1d3 -2 armour
6 Massive Hull Breach +4d6 +3d6 -1d6 No damage control for 1 turn, -3 armour

Vitals
1d6 Result
1 Bridge destroyed +1 +1 1 No special actions, no turns
2 Engineering Hit +4 +4 1d3 No damage control for 1 turn, -5 Acc/Dec
3-4 Fuel Leak +6 +2 2 Half Acc/Dec
5 Reactor/Engine Meltdown +1d6 +4d6 3d6 No Acc/Dec
6 Reactor/Engine Explosion +6d6 +6d6 +6d6 No Acc/Dec, No special actions, no damage control, can not extinguish fires, all weapons -10 AD. Ship is now considered wreckage (if not completely destroyed). Place a 3” radius wreckage marker under the ship. Both the ship and the wreckage marker will drift at the ships previous speed.

 

[Joe_Dracos]

There is one particular aspect I wish to convey about these fleet lists. There will be an equal number of ships at each PL available to each fleet... except for the Akorans will have the only Armageddon level ship available until I write the first suppliment.

 

[Joe_Dracos]

Here is the rule I have devised concearning the All stop and pivot issue that was raised earlier.

"If for any reason your ships speed is reduced to 25% of its Acc/Dec turning will become exceptionally difficult due to lack of engine power (surplus power is generally routed to other critical systems). The cost of a point of turn is increased by one on top of any other penalties or bonuses. You may not reduce your speed to 0 without using a special action. In addition at 0 speed your main engines are essentially turned off to avoid accelerating so a single point of turn will cost your entire Acc/Dec. If you have 0 Acc/Dec then you may not execute any turns (this may seem obvious but is here for clarification purposes)."

This is word for word from the rules.

 

[Joe_Dracos]

So here is a little bit of a teaser for you. I don't have any counters ready yet but I at least describe some of the ship design philosophies of the UNE... and yes I will explain why the four alliances exsist later.

Commintern

Generally the ships designed and produced by the commintern are defined by there length and boxy command towers. Because there ships are unusually slim there hieght tends to be exagerated to make up for the lost space. The use of angles on the hull allows for maximum armour protection for the thickness used.

Commomweath

Somewhat similar to their commintern cousins commonwealth hulls utilize many angles. Unlike the commintern these ships tend to have more sleek angles rather then the boxy appearance that plagues the Commintern. The commonwealth does sacrifice angeled armour protection to make room for AFC batteries by creating alcoves in empty angled armour. This does lead to a slight degredation in protection. Commonwealth ships appear to be wider then they are taller and the command tower has a 45 degree angle on the forward armour to assist in bridge protection.

European Union

EU ships have a shape similar to that of a Sting Ray. They do use the same angeled armour that the previous two alliances do but they tend to be very wide and have multiple main engines and reactors. This does double to chance of a critical overload during battle but the power expenditures and speed provided more then makes up for the risk. This also allows for a greater concentration of fire power in any given direction.

United States

The US is decidedly unconcearned with Ship to Ship combat and takes every measure to utilize its carriers and missile cruisers. This has lead to a deficiency in design practices (such as the New Jersey) but does allow for some very sleek and spectacular looking ships. Also the level of stream lining means that larger ships can enter an atmosphere and expect to fly. There are two occasions of a Battleship entering an atmosphere and escaping (not in battle conditions mind you). This development has lead to some spectacular ground support missions where missile criusers close on military or stratigic targets and saturate it with precisition missile and heavy photon cannon fire. The US favours carriers and by no means this specialization has proven its worth on the battlefield as much as the Commonwealths specialization in front line warships.

 

[Joe_Dracos]

Would you guys like some more fluff? Perhaps the alternate history of Earth?

 

[Joe_Dracos]

I will need playtesters to help smooth out the rough edges. A playtest pack will be available shortly so if you wish to run the ships and rules through your expert and very critical examinations then please PM me.

 

[Joe_Dracos]

I think I might switch to a points based system, the combinations of the Priority level and the Formation rules is serving to restrict the fleet choices a bit much.