ACTA: B5 special campaign rules advice please

[Arch Lector Petrovski]

I'm running a B5 Campaign at my local club and I was thinking of adding a little spice to it by introducing the Ancients. These are the rules me and my brother have come up with and I'd really appreciate feedback and any advice guys, thanks. Rules are as follows:


During Campaign turn:
At the end of every Campaign turn the Campaign Organiser (CO) will roll a D6 to see if the Ancients will begin appearing, adding 1 to the score for every system that is owned. If the score is 15 or over, then the Ancients will begin appearing from the next Campaign turn onwards.
After every player has declared their attack for this turn, the CO will roll a die to determine which sector will have an Ancient Appearance (single die to ensure equal likelihood). If anyone occupies or is attacking the chosen sector, then they must combat the Ancient, just as if it were an invading fleet. If defending a sector against Ancient attack, loss in the battle will result in loss of the sector (which will revert to neutral).

In Combat:
Any battle with the involvement of the Ancients will use following scenario.
Fleets: Players have 4 Fleet Allocation points at War level and choose their fleets freely.

Deployment: If it is a single fleet vs. the Ancient, they may deploy their force anywhere on the table. If it is two fleets and the Ancient, each fleet will have half of the table to deploy on but may not deploy closer than 6 inches to the centre of the board (decide amongst selves whether to divide by long or short edges, if no agreement can be met then roll off). Both non-Ancient players will make an Initiative roll and whoever loses must set-up their entire fleet first.

Once the non-Ancient fleet(s) is deployed, roll a die to determine which Ancient will appear (1-Thoughtforce, 2-The Traveller, 3-The Lordship, 4-Triumviron, 5-The Dark Knife, 6-One Vorlon Armageddon Level Ship and One Shadow Armageddon Level Ship [they will be on the same side for the purposes of the battle. The Ancient will then appear in a random section of the board. Divide the board into 24 12 inch x12 inch squares; as below. Roll a D20 to determine which square the Ancient will appear in. The actual model must be placed by the CO or any impartial observer (someone who isn’t playing in the campaign).

3 7 11 15
1 4 8 12 16 19
2 5 9 13 17 20
6 10 14 18

In each turn the Ancient will move after all other ships have been moved, but before fighters, and will attack after D6 other ships have attacked (roll separately each turn). Have the ship(s) moved by the CO, or an impartial observer, it will observe the following behaviour:

Non-hostile stance
• The ship(s) will be moved 6 inches (or as far as it can be moved) and will then turn randomly (1-2 45° left, 3-4 no turn, 5-6 45° right).
• It will not attack whilst in non-hostile stance
• If the ancient ship(s) is attacked or if any ship of either fleet comes within 15 inches it will enter ‘Hostile Stance’

Hostile Stance
• Every Movement Phase it must attempt to bring as many weapons to bear as possible on the closest target (in the case of a tie it will go for the highest Priority Ship, roll off in the case of a tie of PL)
• In the Shooting Phase it must fire at the closest legal target (in the case of a tie it will go for the highest Priority Ship, roll off in the case of a tie of PL), but may split weapon’s fire between the target and any other ship(s) within 6” of the target.
• If attacked by either fleet the ancient ship(s) will attempt to attack the offending fleet; ignoring closer targets from the other fleet and using Special Actions (such as All Power to Engines and Come About) if necessary, and will continue to do so unless attacked by the other fleet

The game will end after 12 turns, or once all ships on one side have fled or been destroyed. If the Ancient is destroyed, then all ships in the fleet that destroyed it will gain +1XP, in addition to any they would normally earn in this battle.

Once an Ancient has been destroyed, it will no longer be a threat, reroll the die to determine which Ancient is fighting.

 

[locarno24]

Really nice idea!

I love the thought that there's an Ancient lurking around in the system, and either getting drawn into the war or (more likely) the war fleets simply blundering into it accidentally.

Observations:
Pick the Ancient you like the most. Corianna was a nearly-unique example; the odds of multiple Ancients turning up for anything other than the climactic battle of a Great War is essentially nonexistant. If it gets 'destroyed', then obviously it's activated stealth, or dropped into hyperspace, or spends the next few days re-assembling itself from the debris, or whatever.

roll a D6 to see if the Ancients will begin appearing, adding 1 to the score for every system that is owned

System or Strategic Target? Presumably you're only playing a normal sized campaign.

After every player has declared their attack for this turn, the CO will roll a die to determine which sector will have an Ancient Appearance (single die to ensure equal likelihood).

Depends how big the campaign map is. But randomly picking one, anyway.

Scenarios:
Player-versus-ancient is easy; just select any opposing player to get to use the ancient for that turn (have a look at S&P 39, at the scenario Giant Slaying). They get to whomp on their rival with a totally disposable uber-tech ship of utter death, but don't get the strategic target if they win.

Player-versus-player-plus ancient is harder, and a battle "interrupted" by an Ancient woken up by the gunfire is going to be quite interesting....


I'd be tempted to put most of the effort into writing this scenario.



Deployment:

The obvious one here is to give each player their normal deployment zone, and then have the ancient enter at the end of the first movement phase from the mid-point of one of the two side edges (1-3, attacking player's left, 4-6, attacking player's right).

A nice thought might be to give both players only 2 or 3 points at war priority - so they've got to co-operate to fend off the annoyed ancient, but want to eliminate one another at the same time.....

If doing that, you'd want to have the ancient come on all-guns-blazing, so you'd need to roll randomly to see who it goes after.

One possibility - make the victory condition "force the ancient to disengage" (say it does so at 25% health or something), so both players are forced to fight it - but can quite happily target one another with secondary guns at the same time?

 

[AdrianH]

Nice idea!

I'd leave the Shadows and Vorlons out, partly because they're playable fleets and partly because their attitude is different from the rest of the Ancients. If the roll to decide which Ancient ship turns up is a 6, re-roll.

Other Ancients do not concern themselves with the affairs of younger races. If they notice us at all, it is as if we were ants; we can either stay out of their way or be trodden underfoot. The Ancient will not attack unless first fired upon, but if it is still alive at the end of turn 12, the scenario ends and the Ancient occupies the strategic target. Record the Ancient's presence; it stays there and the target becomes neutral until someone destroys the Ancient. And the Traveller's energy drain rule applies whether it has become hostile or not; this is a side effect of its drive, not an overt attack.

If Shadows or Vorlons do appear, you could use the P&P space station rules to design a planet killer. Roll a D6 to decide whose it is: 1-3 = Vorlon, 4-6 = Shadow. This will attack anyone who ventures into its space; it is in hostile stance right at the start of the scenario. If it wins, the strategic target is destroyed - cross it off the list entirely!