Space Fighter 3012

This is another experiment borne out of annoyances with record-keeping (missiles and damage in particular) with Silent Death which has been for years the "go to" game for space fighters.  

I'm not aiming for much hard sci fi realism and am eschewing drift markers as I think having a distinct 'facing' is very important for the fixed guns on fighters. I'm thinking B5/new BSG style - still somewhat WW2-in-space but with drifts, slides and spins, giving a nod to intertia. 

Initiative is card based and thus unpredictable, simulating the chaos of a dogfight - only wingmen can operate with a degree of organisation.

Again we have reactions that have been so successful in skirmish games. 

MOVEMENT

Deccelerate:  costs 1 thrust to slow 1"
Accelerate: costs 1 thrust to speed up 2"
Facing: costs 2 thrust to change to any hex side of facing
Heading: costs 1 thrust for each 3 velocity the ship is travelling i.e. a ship traevlling at 7-9" velocity would cost 3 thrust to turn 60d. Ships noses must face the direction they are moving in to attempt a heading change.
Turn Radius: After a heading change, a ship must travel a distance = to the thrust cost before attemping another maneuver - i.e. the ship example above would need to travel 3" (= to thrust cost of 3) before trying another turn

REACTIONS

Any time a ship moves within 10" of another ship, the other ship may 'react'

Both ships roll a d10. They must score under their Crew Skill level but also beat their opponent's roll to succeed. 

A ship may choose to "evade" or "fire"

Fire:  The reacting ship must have the firer in its weapons arc. The winner then rolls to hit with his weapons.  As long as the loser also 'succeeds' by rolling under his Crew Skill, he can fire second after taking any damage. The reacting ship has -2 to his 'to hit' roll due to making a snap shot. 

Evade: The reacting ship dodges the attack

Fighter Modifiers:
Very Agile Fighter +2
Agile Fighter +1
Normal Fighter 0
Slow Fighter -1

Pilot Modifiers:
Elite Pilot +2
Veteran Pilot+1
Experienced Pilot 0
Green Pilot-1

FIRING

Measure distance to target. That is what you need to roll under to hit the target. Roll 1 d10 each weapon.
Use pilot modifiers to adjust the to hit roll, and also the angle modifiers:

Angle Modifiers:
Firing into target rear 0 (also parallelling target)
Firing into target side +2
Firing at head-on target  +1

CARD INITIATIVE

This is done by assigning a card to each pilot + wingman combo.  When a card is drawn, a pilot can activate.  Veteran pilots have 2 cards, and Elite pilots have 3.  They can only activate once but can choose to discard a card and activate later; giving better pilots some control over their activation.

DAMAGE

Fighters have a threshold to damage, and to destroy.  I.e. a medium fighter might take 2 hits to damage and 4 hits to destroy it.

"Damage" can be either
(a)  Engine (halve thrust - round up; -1 to all rolls, +2 to be hit)
(b) Hull (halve weapons, sensors out; -1 to all rolls; +2 to be hit)

A second damage destroys the fighter.  

MISSILES

Pilots can lock on using their Crew Skill.  Once locked on, the missile can be fired.  It  can attack any ship in its forward arc.  

Missiles roll a contested roll against the pilot of the fighter it is attacking. 

Missile Damage is d10/2.