May 9, 2013

Martian Rebellion campaign - rules and background

We are at the beginning of the Space Age: Earth is ruled by the Federal Nations' Overssers; mankind's first colony is the terraformed Mars, and outposts had been built throughout the solar system. A good two hundred years ago a fleet of colonists left Earth, seeking for other habitable planets, but no news were heard of them. 
After warp speed had been made possible for humans, so-called warp holes spawned around Sol in the outskirts of the system, and sentient aliens appeared - one species, the Zaqasdari being aggressive, while the others look for trading and forming new alliances. These Zaqasdari usually appear, cause some trouble then leave with their massive ships. These actions called for the commission of a united Martian-Terran fleet, together a formidable force of several types of ships.


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Also check out the Principality of Schultze-Böhnstadt where I uploaded two battle reports with tons of pictures.

A few years later, outside the deep space sensors' range, new warp holes came to being, and the Netherkin, another hostile alien faction entered the solar system. The Martian fleet beat them in several battles, but they kept pushing forward, until Commodore August Kartak's Red Fleet defeated them at Jupiter's moon Europa.
The Commodore died in this battle after a Netherkin missile swept the flagship's brige clean - to honor his memory, the new flagship of the Martian fleet is named after him. 
This new fleet fought with the Netherkin many times more, until one day, returning to Mars, the news struck them that the FNE (Federal Nations of Earth) extended the system of Overseers to Mars, making it effectively, instead of a sovereign authority, a true colony secondary to the motherland. All negotiations failed and Mars called for separation, the folk killed two Overseers and declared war on Earth. The distances being relatively short (a ship with warp speed takes a full hour to reach the furthest outpost from Earth), fight is inevitable while both the Zaqasdari and Netherkin watch for a chance to interfere.

Very sketchy map of the Solar System.

Campaign rules
A ship's effective range is 8 hexes in real space and 15 in the warp. Using the latter renders the unit unable to perform real-space actions for one turn and losing Fleet Initiative. Overheated warp drives mean in this turn carriers may not launch Squadrons during battle.
Fleets are 100p strong. Allied fleets may be increased to 120p with selecting units of the highest value.
A tabletop battle lasts 4-5 turns and is decided by the point losses of the participants: if the difference is little it is a draw. 
According to the 17th Geneva Conventions, Terran and Martian ships will be spared when damaged beyond use in battle and will be escorted to repair bays. These units fall out of line for 5 turns. Zaqasdari commanders agree upon these regulations and usually spare badly damaged ships if their own is dealt with in the same manner. Netherkin spare no one - unless being dragged back by other ships, units lost in combat against Netherkin count as permanently destroyed and new units must be commissioned.

4 comments:

  1. Nice. Looking forward to battle report or two.

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  2. very interesting! great ideas also, I cannot wait to see what happens next!

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