[spaceships] prepare to be boarded!

[muduri]

Simple rules for boarding parties? And fudges to make them an optimal strategy?

Our crew has a long-standing (Dungeon) Fantasy campaign, but I'm getting them to try out tactical Spaceships combat for a change of pace. Something like $1T, TL11 or quadruple price for TL10^, 1000-mile hexes, 10-minute turns, 4-ship limit and a few TL11^ secrets for each team. The Pittsburgher is of course taking the pirates and it seems like he should be able to buy a few Habitats worth of rapscallions to board and take over the other ships.

My two questions, then, are 1) how would I run a super-streamlined combat on a boarded ship? I was thinking of using Mass Combat to pre-determine the relative bonuses of the sides and then make it a simple contest. But is there a pre-established go-to I should look at?

And 2) not having done this before, the RAW Point-Blank and Rendezvous bonuses make it seem to me like your average pirate ship will get obliterated by Imperial, Federation or Rebel lasers on that last turn before they engage. Not above gimmicking my way out of this for playability - "energy weapons only focus at a certain distance" or "force screens interfere with particles inside a 2000-mile radius". But if there are possible loopholes in the rules I can look to, or any other suggestions about how to make it plausible, they'd be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by muduri

And 2) not having done this before, the RAW Point-Blank and Rendezvous bonuses make it seem to me like your average pirate ship will get obliterated by Imperial, Federation or Rebel lasers on that last turn before they engage. Not above gimmicking my way out of this for playability - "energy weapons only focus at a certain distance" or "force screens interfere with particles inside a 2000-mile radius". But if there are possible loopholes in the rules I can look to, or any other suggestions about how to make it plausible, they'd be much appreciated. Thanks!

There's nothing you can do that will make boarding a resisting spaceship even faintly plausible without either (a) drastically changing the relevant distances and speeds to something completely unlike what Spaceships deals with or (b) using teleporters.

Preventing the use of weapons at short ranges might be enough to make it halfway possible if you also made all the target ships have very weak engines.

[(E)]

All spaceships use precursor hulls (very tough + regeneration), destruction is difficult so capture is more attractive. It is easy to blind/cripple a ship without causing much internal damage

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by (E)

All spaceships use precursor hulls (very tough + regeneration), destruction is difficult so capture is more attractive.

Tactics I've used:

Small assault shuttles with some form of stealth features to get right up next to the enemy ship. These clamp on and then drill through the hull.

Boarding pods fired from your ships designed to slip past the shields (for whatever reason they have the ability and not missiles, possibly due to needing to be piloted through the shields) and punch through the hull to deposit smaller boarding parties.

Fly your shuttles right into the enemy's hangar bays; the enemy should probably have some form of shuttle bay in their capital ship (SM +9 or larger) designs, even if these designs aren't dedicated carriers. (Most warships today - destroyers and cruisers, and I believe frigates as well - have a small landing deck for a helicopter or two, so it's not inconceivable.)

[muduri]

Many thanks - Phantasm's solution (small shuttles with sneakily high acceleration) probably a practical one, but using precursor hulls for longer battles seems appealing. And noted Ulzgoroth, if I don't go with teleporters I might tweak weapon ranges and give tractor beams inordinate and immediate effect so that if you're within half the distance of a graser you could also find yourself boarded immediately.

Regarding part 1), any suggestions for quick shipboard combat? Should I just calc up some TSs for a standard crew, pirates, space marines and stormtroopers and do some mass combat or is there something else out there? Thanks!

[weby]

Originally Posted by muduri

Regarding part 1), any suggestions for quick shipboard combat? Should I just calc up some TSs for a standard crew, pirates, space marines and stormtroopers and do some mass combat or is there something else out there? Thanks!

Mass combat is likely the best way to handle larger ships. In a frigate or similar individual normal combat would work better.