Mass battles…these are my notes
Mass battles…these are my notes
I don’t know if I should put this here or in the narrators area but I chose here as it is all about ships and stuff. I never until someone asked me looking through the stuff in the basement asked if I had ever written up my rules for Mass Battles. I hadn’t anything solid that is just notes here and there stuck in my TNG Core book from Last Unicorn.
So here is the Mass Battle write up that is what I have used to generate the mass battle scenarios I have posted here in the Spacedock forum. I don’t know if there was anyone interested but here it is just the basics. I left the house rules for all gaming to be put in a PDF file sometime in the future, all two hundred pages and addendums.
Mass Tactical Battle
The mass combat Tactical battles are basically the line battle seen in the Dominion war where the two sides have hundreds of starship on either side. Even though this can be expanded to that level this was inspired by the Dominion War and the videos of Star Trek vs. Babylon 5 where the two sides fight. Here is how it is done.
This has been done only by my group using basic LUG Icon and Spacedock ship I don’t know how it would work with the other systems. Mongoose games created a series of war games for Babylon 5 games A Call to Arms including their supplement publications and the First and Second World War Navel Sea Combat table top that have interesting additions that can be added to the battles. I have personally done the Second World War navel war fair and even reenacted Pearl Harbor where the American Fleet was waiting for the Japanese and even a counter strike where the Aircraft carriers engaged the Japanese fleet with drawing. If you can find them they are helpful in this set up and this uses some of its play methods where it is still individual ships this is element of six ships and such.
The Set up
The set up for a mass tactical combat scenario is something like any other game it takes a little while longer here as there is several people playing. There are the two to twelve people involved (and sometimes even more) in this version plus a GM all whom must have agreed on before beginning. The group decides who is on who’s team.
The teams are broken down into one guy is vote leader of the team and will direct the overall plan of the battle while the rest are wing commanders. If two per side the two players have to come up with compatible strategies and working together and that even goes for the three or more players.
If there is only three players a death match where each player has ships and the three go after each other no holds barge. All rules apply to the battle.
Each of the wing commanders will have four to six elements of ships. Each wing commander will set up his elements. (See fleet organization below)
All weapons are agreed upon before the battle starts. No super weapons pulled out after the battle begins. Ramming another ship is allowed and generally both ships are lost to the act. The six ships in an element can target a single ship in the enemy element or even their own forces elements if called.
Fleet organization
The fleet organization is set up as Fleet Admiral an overall commander of the wing commanders. The wing commanders follow the Admirals orders nevertheless when the tactical situation changes they must take the moment to adapt to the fight.
There are multiple ways of setting up your ships into their elements. The first and easiest is six ships making an element of ships all ships cannot be the same size.
An example is one Galaxy class, two Excelsior class, two Miranda class, and one Defiant Class. Basically a battle ship two cruisers, two destroyers and an escort ship would make up an element even though I have approved an all Miranda class element.
Another way is a point restriction. Each wing commander will have 180 size points total to make up their elements. A 30 point average to an element, where the above element is a 37 point element based on the size of each ship. If they do not use all their points on one element they can move it to another element to boost its fighting capability. This keeps the fleets balanced and better looking as a real battle group. The exception to this is when the configuration is approved by the GM or the fleet is smaller. Looking at the Babylon 5 fleets they would need a large individual element number or the Original series Star Trek fleet would be easily manageable in the points and Enterprise era would be able to comprise a fleet in an entire element. GM’s will need to look to what your fleets will be as both sides should have the same amount of points available. Some scenarios such as a Star Trek vs. Babylon 5 match up does not work as well yet where the Star Trek ships have shield the Babylon 5 ships make up in armor and size.