From: HRAZ71A@p... (MR DAVID E PETERS)
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 20:26:43, -0500
Subject: BattleLords/FT Notes
Battle Fleet Full Thrust Adaptation for BattleLords BattleLords of the 23rd century provides a very interesting look at life in galaxy full of strife on the ground, but not in space. The basic rules cover ground combat very well and with many toys to do so on the individual Level. There are very limited rules for space combat provided for BattleLords in earlier editions and there are no official space combat rules in the foreseeable future. Full Thrust and More Thrust are a simple set of rules for large space fleet combat from any genre. The adaptation presented here will make space combat interesting for the BattleLords setting. Background Notes: The rules for designing ship for Battle Fleet will be from The Full Thrust Fleet Book and movement will be handled according to Full Thrust. Weaponry: The weaponry from Full Thrust represents the weapons common to the BattleLords universe. Lasers operate as standard beam weapons according to Full Thrust Fleet Book. Class l laser batteries are light lasers used as secondary/defensive armament on smaller ships, freighters and larger ships. Class 2 laser batteries are medium lasers used as primary weapons on small and medium ships and secondary on larger ships. Class 3 laser batteries are heavy lasers that are primary weapons on capital ships. Class 4 laser batteries are the superheavy lasers that are available on the very large ships and stations. Point defense systems are high-speed lasers that are used for fighter/missile defense with their own self-contained fire control and can be used in limited anti-ship mode. Pulse Torpedoes are bolts of plasma contained in magnetic field that is fired at which goes through shields and damages the hull, armor is somewhat effective against pulse torpedoes. Submuntions packs are a cluster of fire-and-forget missiles that are very affective at close-ranges but diminish in strength the further they have to travel. Submunitions packs are carried on smaller ships to give them a very effective punch but the packs are one shot items that have to be replenished a base or supply ship. Salvo Missile Systems are group of 6 missiles that are launched from an external rack or an internal missile magazine. They are very deadly but can be stopped by point-defense batteries and class 1 batteries. The gunner launching the missile salvo must have a very good idea of were his target is. External racks after they have been fired need to be replaced at a base or supply ship, internal missile magazine have a certain capacity after that they need to be replenished. Needle Beams is an EMP based weapon that is designed to knock out systems on ships. The firing ship must take time to target the specific system they wish to knock. Needle beams are short ranged weapons but are very effective at what they do. Mines are equipped with detonation laser beam warheads that are set off when a hostile ship not answering IFF codes within certain distance of the mine the warhead charge will detonate. Directing a focused pulse of energy into the target ship in the micro-seconds before the mine itself is consumed by the blast. Missiles are large projectiles with an on-board AI computer that will allow it to track their intended target. Missiles come in three varieties: Normal Missile (nuclear detonation warheads), EMP Missile (Electo-Magnetic-Pulse warhead), and Needle Missiles (focused EMP warhead with a small nuclear charge). The Nova Cannon is a weapon that belongs to the Mutzachan used only on their ships. The Nova Cannon draws a massive amount of from the ship's power plant it projects a huge round that consists of an uncontrolled plasma generator and powerful gravitic system. The projectile is hurled out in front of the ship and the plasma core is detonated, the gravitic field holding the plasma long enough for it to form a self-sustaining reaction, like a miniature sun. The Mutzachan do not allow this weapon to be sold to the other races. The Wave Gun is variation on the Nova Cannon, it fires a plasma charge that expands as its travels along its line of fire, causing damage to any vessel along its path. The wave cannon can only fire along the main axis of the carrying ship. Ortillery represents special weapons that are designed to attack planets surface such as space-to-surface missiles, planetary bombs, and space-to-surface energy weapons. Defensiv Screens represent the general defensive screens that disurpt the weapons fire from the beam batteries. They do not provide any proctection from heavy energy weapons and missile weapons. Sensors work as per Full Thrust and More Thrust rules, also the ECM systems are available for military ships. All of the fighters from More Thrust are available and represent the various types in the Galactice Alliance. Although individual descriptions of the fighter will vary from race to race. The endurance rules will be used. The FTL drive from BattleLords is a standard hyperspace drive and normal space drive is a fusion drive. Use Mass Point and Crew Factor defaults from the Fleet Book.