GhostRecon
Mongoose
If anyone remembers, a friend and I had started a Raider campaign; you'll also remember I abruptly stopped posting updates to it. The reason is simple. My opponent, the Defending player, gave up because, put simply (No offense to Matt) the Raider player had far too many advantages. He could bring however many ships he wanted, buy whatever priority he wanted, and the Defending player was limited to, at his very best and most lucky, 5 Raid points. The next campaign turn in our Raider campaign that we omitted was our last, because I (deviously) bought a Warlock Advanced Destroyer and used it in the next scenario, and my opponent came to the realization that even at best, he could bring 5 raid to fight me, and more often, he would just have 2 or 3 raid points to fight me off, and at that point there was no way to stop me.
In response, I thought it over, and came up with these "advanced" or "changed" rules. These are tentative, as I haven't had time to test them, but I wanted to post them here for review and, hopefully, someone to mess around with them and playtest them.
Beginning the Campaign
The Raiders player must choose the type of system in which he is launching his attacks. This will determine what he has to achieve in order to win the campaign and the type of
forces he will be facing. The choices are listed below.
Frontier System: With just a small military presence, the pickings will be easy here but slight.
Civilized: A perfect balance of risk against reward.
Core World: Only a brave or foolhardy Raiders captain would dare to launch a campaign against the core worlds of an empire.
There will be 10 Strategic Targets in the system. One will automatically be a Settled World, as normal, while the others are generated randomly. For each strategic target, roll D3 trade routes that must connect to other strategic targets. The Raiders and Defending player take turns assigning each strategic target’s trade routes, and no two trade routes from any one single strategic target can lead to the same other strategic target. Once the system has been generated, the Raiders player secretly notes down one Strategic Target where his hidden base will be located. This may not be on a Settled World.
Defending Fleet
The defending fleet starts the game with 10 Fleet Allocation Points. These will be at Raid level in a Frontier system, Battle level in a Civilised system and War level in a Core World. The defending player is free to make any choices from his fleet list as normal.
Raiders Fleet
The Raiders player starts with 1 Fleet Allocation Point at Raid level – yes that is all! He might choose to have a powerful Battlewagon right at the beginning or a couple of Strike Carriers or maybe a Strike Carrier and some supporting fighters. Even this level of fleet represents an already successful Raiders captain.
Fighting the Raiders
To control a Strategic Target, the Defending Player must chose to deploy any number of his ships to the system, declare these ships as seeking to control the Strategic Target, and then have an unimpeded presence in that system for one campaign turn. If the Raider’s attack forces attempting capture a system, and win the scenario, the Defending Player does not capture the system, as the Raider’s hinder efforts by the Defending Player to exert control over the area.
Fight Battle
Defending player assigns ships to each trade route or strategic target he desires, Raider player chooses targets for individual ships, which can result in multiple scenarios per turn. Ships assigned to Strategic Targets can reinforce convoys or ships being attacked on trade routes connected to that system using the following table:
2D6
Turn 2: 12+
Turn 3: 11+
Turn 4: 10+
Turn 5: 8+
Turn 6: 6+
Turn 7: 4+
Turn 8 and on: 2+
Lumbering or Speed below 6: -1
Speed over 10: +1
Ship with “Command” trait in Fleet being reinforced (Must be on table): +1
Ships reinforcing a trade route will not be present if the Strategic Target is subsequently attacked in the same turn. The Raider player can declare attacks in any order he chooses, meaning he can attack a trade route’s convoy in an attempt to draw away the reinforcements waiting at a Strategic Target, then attack the Strategic Target directly. All ships assigned to a specific target, such as a trade route, must fight in the scenario.
If the Raiders player attacks a trade route or strategic target that the Defending player can’t reinforce or has no presence, the Raider player gains only 3 RR, even if he attacks more than one position. The convoys outside of the protection of the Defending player’s fleet are smaller and tend to have lesser value, governments and corporations unwilling to risk their goods to the predations of the Raiders’ fleet.
Generate Scenario
What tactics the Raider player chooses, and what Strategic Target he is attacking will determine the Scenario:
All-Out Assault: You own the system and are determined to prove it! By tweaking the
lion’s tail, you hope to teach the military that you are here to stay and earn the highest profits.
Business as Usual: By selecting targets that promise high reward, you take risks but not foolish ones.
Softly, Softly: Cautious to the maximum, you will avoid trouble where you can, picking only on the weakest of targets. Income will be lower but you will likely meet far
less trouble.
Strategic Targets:
All-Out Assault
1D6 Scenario
1 Ambush
2 Annihilation
3 Assassination
4 Supply Ships
5 Supply Ships
6 Call to Arms
Business as Usual
1D6 Scenario
1 Ambush
2 Blockade
3 Blockade
4 Flee to the Jump Gate
5 Recon Run
6 Supply Ships
Softly, softly
1D6 Scenario
1 Ambush
2 Ambush
3 Assassination
4 Blockade
5 Flee to the Jump Gate
6 Recon Run
Trade Routes:
All-Out Assault
1D6 Scenario
1 Ambush
2 Annihilation
3 Assassination
4 Blockade
5 Flee to the Jump Gate
6 Space Superiority
Business as Usual
1D6 Scenario
1 Ambush
2 Blockade
3 Convoy Duty
4 Flee to the Jump Gate
5 Recon Run
6 Rescue
Softly, softly
1D6 Scenario
1 Ambush
2 Assassination
3 Blockade
4 Convoy Duty
5 Convoy Duty
6 Convoy Duty
Ambush: The player with the initiative this turn will be the attacker. If the Raiders are the attacker, the defending player will also have six corporate freighters, which may
be swapped out for different civilian ships, as normal.
Assassination: If All-Out Assault has been chosen, the Raiders will be the attacker and the Raiders player may choose any ship in the defending player’s fleet as a target
– this ship must be used in the battle. If Softly, Softly tactics are chosen, then the defending player will be the attacker, though he may not force the Raiders player to use a specific ship.
Blockade: The defending player will be the blockader unless All-Out Assault has been chosen, in which case the Raiders will. If the Raiders are the blockaders, the defending
player will also have six corporate freighters, which may be swapped out for different civilian ships, as normal.
Convoy Duty: The Raiders will always be the attacker in
this scenario.
Flee to the Jump Gate: The Raiders will be the attacker in this scenario. In addition to his forces, the defending player will also have six corporate freighters, which may be swapped out for different civilian ships, as normal.
Recon Run: The Raiders player will be the attacker in
this scenario.
Supply Ships: The Raiders player will be the attacker in
this scenario.
Raiders Secret Base
In order to destroy the Raider Base, the Defending player must first locate it. In order to do so, he must assign ships to scout Strategic Targets. He must choose specific ships, assign them to a Strategic Target, and declare them as searching or defending the searching ships. Regardless if the Raider base is actually present, the Defending player must roll on the following table for all of the ships searching the specific Strategic target:
Roll 2D6
Found Nothing: 1-9
Located Raider base: 10-12
Raider base has Stealth upgrade: -2
Scout ship: +1 per Ship with the trait
If the Defending player is actually at the right system, and does locate the Raider’s base, the defending player may decide to attack it at any by assigning ships to attack it. The mission will be Assassination, with the Raiders as defenders and their secret base as the assassination target.
The Raiders player will place a planet in his deployment zone if the Strategic Target in which the base is located is a Dead World or a moon if it is not. His base will be in its gravity well, accompanied by any Defence Satellites that have been purchased. The Raiders secret base is a Space
Station and has the same characteristics as listed in the Raiders Campaign entry in S&P56.
Boarding Ships
It should be noted that if a Raiders player boards an enemy ship and wins the scenario, then he may include that ship in his own fleet from that point on. It will need to be re-crewed (and no doubt repaired too) but this is a good way for a Raiders player to gain access to ships far more powerful than he might otherwise be able to use. If the defending player boards and captures a Raiders ship, it will simply be impounded or destroyed. Further, if the Raiders player captures a Civilian ship in the course of a scenario, he may spend 5 more RR to disguise the vessel (If the Defending player is fielding the appropriate ship) as one of the Convoy Vessels. Obviously, the Raiders player will not get RR for the destruction of the disguised civilian ship.
Ship Experience
Experience is handled as normal in a Campaign of
Terror.
Repairs and Reinforcements
The Defending Player gets RR based on how many convoys successfully reach systems under his control. Every uninterrupted trade route, or convoy that successfully escapes if a scenario is played, will result in RR being awarded to the Defending Player, using the following table:
+4 RR per for Frontier System
+2 RR per for Civilized System
+1 RR per for Core World
In addition to those, the Defending Player gets RR for any bonuses a controlled Strategic Target may give. Beyond this, trade routes and end-turn bonuses do not apply.
The Raiders player will receive a number of RR points (each RR point representing around a million credits) depending on where the campaign takes place, what tactics were chosen and what was accomplished during the turn.
Action RR Points Gained
Playing in Frontier System +1d6
Playing in Civilised System +2d6
Playing in Core World +3d6
Used Softly, Softly Tactics +0
Used Business as Usual Tactics +3
Used All-Out Assault Tactics +5
Each Civilian Ship Destroyed + the ship’s CFP
Each Civilian Ship Boarded + three times the ship’s CFP
Each ship scanned in Recon Run +1
Objective Captured in Rescue +5
Target Destroyed in All-Out Assault Assassination +12
Victory Achieved in Space Superiority +8
Scenario was a Victory x2 all RR points gained this turn
RR points can also be gained by scrapping ships – Raiders do this all the time, effectively recycling components and large portions of the hull that regular fleets would simply dispose of. The Raiders player gains the following RR points for scrapping ships. Fighter flights may never be scrapped in this way.
Priority Level of Ship RR Points Gained
Patrol 1
Skirmish 2
Raid 4
Battle 6
War 10
Armageddon 20
The defending player may spend his RR points on Repairs, Recruiting and Reinforcements as normal. The Raiders player can spend his RR points in this way as well but also gains the following options.
Refits: Raiders ships are often rigged with temporary repairs or have spare parts grafted on from completely different vessels. There are very few ‘standard’ ships in a Raiders fleet. Because of this, 5 RR points may be spent gaining an extra Refit roll.
Defence Satellites: The Raiders player may reinforce his secret base with defence satellites. These cost 5 RR points each and a maximum of 10 may be purchased. These are identical to the satellites shown on page 40 of the main rulebook.
Secret Base: RR points may also be spent on fitting new systems to the Raiders secret base. The Stealth 4+ trait may be purchased for 30 RR points, Fleet Carrier for
+15 points, the Delta-Vs upgraded to Double-Vs or Delta-V2s for +10 points, Troops increased to 15 for +5 points and the Hull may be increased to 5 for 20 RR points.
Victory and Defeat
Sooner or later, the player hunting for the Raiders will find their base and destroy it. At this point, the campaign ends, as the Raiders leave the system to pursue riches elsewhere.
The Raiders player may claim victory if he manages to either build his fleet up to ten Fleet Allocation Points worth of ships at Raid level, or if he manages to build his
bank balance up to a total of 100 RR points. If the Raiders player fails in any of these tasks, then victory belongs to the defending player.
In response, I thought it over, and came up with these "advanced" or "changed" rules. These are tentative, as I haven't had time to test them, but I wanted to post them here for review and, hopefully, someone to mess around with them and playtest them.
Beginning the Campaign
The Raiders player must choose the type of system in which he is launching his attacks. This will determine what he has to achieve in order to win the campaign and the type of
forces he will be facing. The choices are listed below.
Frontier System: With just a small military presence, the pickings will be easy here but slight.
Civilized: A perfect balance of risk against reward.
Core World: Only a brave or foolhardy Raiders captain would dare to launch a campaign against the core worlds of an empire.
There will be 10 Strategic Targets in the system. One will automatically be a Settled World, as normal, while the others are generated randomly. For each strategic target, roll D3 trade routes that must connect to other strategic targets. The Raiders and Defending player take turns assigning each strategic target’s trade routes, and no two trade routes from any one single strategic target can lead to the same other strategic target. Once the system has been generated, the Raiders player secretly notes down one Strategic Target where his hidden base will be located. This may not be on a Settled World.
Defending Fleet
The defending fleet starts the game with 10 Fleet Allocation Points. These will be at Raid level in a Frontier system, Battle level in a Civilised system and War level in a Core World. The defending player is free to make any choices from his fleet list as normal.
Raiders Fleet
The Raiders player starts with 1 Fleet Allocation Point at Raid level – yes that is all! He might choose to have a powerful Battlewagon right at the beginning or a couple of Strike Carriers or maybe a Strike Carrier and some supporting fighters. Even this level of fleet represents an already successful Raiders captain.
Fighting the Raiders
To control a Strategic Target, the Defending Player must chose to deploy any number of his ships to the system, declare these ships as seeking to control the Strategic Target, and then have an unimpeded presence in that system for one campaign turn. If the Raider’s attack forces attempting capture a system, and win the scenario, the Defending Player does not capture the system, as the Raider’s hinder efforts by the Defending Player to exert control over the area.
Fight Battle
Defending player assigns ships to each trade route or strategic target he desires, Raider player chooses targets for individual ships, which can result in multiple scenarios per turn. Ships assigned to Strategic Targets can reinforce convoys or ships being attacked on trade routes connected to that system using the following table:
2D6
Turn 2: 12+
Turn 3: 11+
Turn 4: 10+
Turn 5: 8+
Turn 6: 6+
Turn 7: 4+
Turn 8 and on: 2+
Lumbering or Speed below 6: -1
Speed over 10: +1
Ship with “Command” trait in Fleet being reinforced (Must be on table): +1
Ships reinforcing a trade route will not be present if the Strategic Target is subsequently attacked in the same turn. The Raider player can declare attacks in any order he chooses, meaning he can attack a trade route’s convoy in an attempt to draw away the reinforcements waiting at a Strategic Target, then attack the Strategic Target directly. All ships assigned to a specific target, such as a trade route, must fight in the scenario.
If the Raiders player attacks a trade route or strategic target that the Defending player can’t reinforce or has no presence, the Raider player gains only 3 RR, even if he attacks more than one position. The convoys outside of the protection of the Defending player’s fleet are smaller and tend to have lesser value, governments and corporations unwilling to risk their goods to the predations of the Raiders’ fleet.
Generate Scenario
What tactics the Raider player chooses, and what Strategic Target he is attacking will determine the Scenario:
All-Out Assault: You own the system and are determined to prove it! By tweaking the
lion’s tail, you hope to teach the military that you are here to stay and earn the highest profits.
Business as Usual: By selecting targets that promise high reward, you take risks but not foolish ones.
Softly, Softly: Cautious to the maximum, you will avoid trouble where you can, picking only on the weakest of targets. Income will be lower but you will likely meet far
less trouble.
Strategic Targets:
All-Out Assault
1D6 Scenario
1 Ambush
2 Annihilation
3 Assassination
4 Supply Ships
5 Supply Ships
6 Call to Arms
Business as Usual
1D6 Scenario
1 Ambush
2 Blockade
3 Blockade
4 Flee to the Jump Gate
5 Recon Run
6 Supply Ships
Softly, softly
1D6 Scenario
1 Ambush
2 Ambush
3 Assassination
4 Blockade
5 Flee to the Jump Gate
6 Recon Run
Trade Routes:
All-Out Assault
1D6 Scenario
1 Ambush
2 Annihilation
3 Assassination
4 Blockade
5 Flee to the Jump Gate
6 Space Superiority
Business as Usual
1D6 Scenario
1 Ambush
2 Blockade
3 Convoy Duty
4 Flee to the Jump Gate
5 Recon Run
6 Rescue
Softly, softly
1D6 Scenario
1 Ambush
2 Assassination
3 Blockade
4 Convoy Duty
5 Convoy Duty
6 Convoy Duty
Ambush: The player with the initiative this turn will be the attacker. If the Raiders are the attacker, the defending player will also have six corporate freighters, which may
be swapped out for different civilian ships, as normal.
Assassination: If All-Out Assault has been chosen, the Raiders will be the attacker and the Raiders player may choose any ship in the defending player’s fleet as a target
– this ship must be used in the battle. If Softly, Softly tactics are chosen, then the defending player will be the attacker, though he may not force the Raiders player to use a specific ship.
Blockade: The defending player will be the blockader unless All-Out Assault has been chosen, in which case the Raiders will. If the Raiders are the blockaders, the defending
player will also have six corporate freighters, which may be swapped out for different civilian ships, as normal.
Convoy Duty: The Raiders will always be the attacker in
this scenario.
Flee to the Jump Gate: The Raiders will be the attacker in this scenario. In addition to his forces, the defending player will also have six corporate freighters, which may be swapped out for different civilian ships, as normal.
Recon Run: The Raiders player will be the attacker in
this scenario.
Supply Ships: The Raiders player will be the attacker in
this scenario.
Raiders Secret Base
In order to destroy the Raider Base, the Defending player must first locate it. In order to do so, he must assign ships to scout Strategic Targets. He must choose specific ships, assign them to a Strategic Target, and declare them as searching or defending the searching ships. Regardless if the Raider base is actually present, the Defending player must roll on the following table for all of the ships searching the specific Strategic target:
Roll 2D6
Found Nothing: 1-9
Located Raider base: 10-12
Raider base has Stealth upgrade: -2
Scout ship: +1 per Ship with the trait
If the Defending player is actually at the right system, and does locate the Raider’s base, the defending player may decide to attack it at any by assigning ships to attack it. The mission will be Assassination, with the Raiders as defenders and their secret base as the assassination target.
The Raiders player will place a planet in his deployment zone if the Strategic Target in which the base is located is a Dead World or a moon if it is not. His base will be in its gravity well, accompanied by any Defence Satellites that have been purchased. The Raiders secret base is a Space
Station and has the same characteristics as listed in the Raiders Campaign entry in S&P56.
Boarding Ships
It should be noted that if a Raiders player boards an enemy ship and wins the scenario, then he may include that ship in his own fleet from that point on. It will need to be re-crewed (and no doubt repaired too) but this is a good way for a Raiders player to gain access to ships far more powerful than he might otherwise be able to use. If the defending player boards and captures a Raiders ship, it will simply be impounded or destroyed. Further, if the Raiders player captures a Civilian ship in the course of a scenario, he may spend 5 more RR to disguise the vessel (If the Defending player is fielding the appropriate ship) as one of the Convoy Vessels. Obviously, the Raiders player will not get RR for the destruction of the disguised civilian ship.
Ship Experience
Experience is handled as normal in a Campaign of
Terror.
Repairs and Reinforcements
The Defending Player gets RR based on how many convoys successfully reach systems under his control. Every uninterrupted trade route, or convoy that successfully escapes if a scenario is played, will result in RR being awarded to the Defending Player, using the following table:
+4 RR per for Frontier System
+2 RR per for Civilized System
+1 RR per for Core World
In addition to those, the Defending Player gets RR for any bonuses a controlled Strategic Target may give. Beyond this, trade routes and end-turn bonuses do not apply.
The Raiders player will receive a number of RR points (each RR point representing around a million credits) depending on where the campaign takes place, what tactics were chosen and what was accomplished during the turn.
Action RR Points Gained
Playing in Frontier System +1d6
Playing in Civilised System +2d6
Playing in Core World +3d6
Used Softly, Softly Tactics +0
Used Business as Usual Tactics +3
Used All-Out Assault Tactics +5
Each Civilian Ship Destroyed + the ship’s CFP
Each Civilian Ship Boarded + three times the ship’s CFP
Each ship scanned in Recon Run +1
Objective Captured in Rescue +5
Target Destroyed in All-Out Assault Assassination +12
Victory Achieved in Space Superiority +8
Scenario was a Victory x2 all RR points gained this turn
RR points can also be gained by scrapping ships – Raiders do this all the time, effectively recycling components and large portions of the hull that regular fleets would simply dispose of. The Raiders player gains the following RR points for scrapping ships. Fighter flights may never be scrapped in this way.
Priority Level of Ship RR Points Gained
Patrol 1
Skirmish 2
Raid 4
Battle 6
War 10
Armageddon 20
The defending player may spend his RR points on Repairs, Recruiting and Reinforcements as normal. The Raiders player can spend his RR points in this way as well but also gains the following options.
Refits: Raiders ships are often rigged with temporary repairs or have spare parts grafted on from completely different vessels. There are very few ‘standard’ ships in a Raiders fleet. Because of this, 5 RR points may be spent gaining an extra Refit roll.
Defence Satellites: The Raiders player may reinforce his secret base with defence satellites. These cost 5 RR points each and a maximum of 10 may be purchased. These are identical to the satellites shown on page 40 of the main rulebook.
Secret Base: RR points may also be spent on fitting new systems to the Raiders secret base. The Stealth 4+ trait may be purchased for 30 RR points, Fleet Carrier for
+15 points, the Delta-Vs upgraded to Double-Vs or Delta-V2s for +10 points, Troops increased to 15 for +5 points and the Hull may be increased to 5 for 20 RR points.
Victory and Defeat
Sooner or later, the player hunting for the Raiders will find their base and destroy it. At this point, the campaign ends, as the Raiders leave the system to pursue riches elsewhere.
The Raiders player may claim victory if he manages to either build his fleet up to ten Fleet Allocation Points worth of ships at Raid level, or if he manages to build his
bank balance up to a total of 100 RR points. If the Raiders player fails in any of these tasks, then victory belongs to the defending player.
