From: Izenberg, Noam <Noam.Izenberg@j...>
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 11:17:32 -0400
Subject: [FT] More for the testing range: The Grav Backfire
One thing I've always grumbled about in FT is the no aft fire rule. I think it
has decent reasoning behind it, but I hate having no aft recourse (discounting
the admittedly common optional rule that you can fire aft when not using MD).
I wanted to come up with something that might be a) not unbalancing gamewise,
b) fit the FT PSB of grav drives, c) dramatic, and
d)
not invented in the first century of Human space combat until the more
maneuverable and vicious KV made their appearance and called for more drastic
measures.
One such measure might be the Grav Backfire, "invented" by Commander Holger
Mueller of the Szent Istvan Dusseldorf in 2192. With escorts picked off by an
ambush, the Dusseldorf was under heavy fire from a Ko'Vol and its companions
locked in behind her. With the rear of the ship being shredded by
K-guns, and no possibility of maneuvering an escape in time, Mueller
ordered the engineer to overload the Grav engines and then execute the cold
ignition
sequence on the too-hot drives. The resulting "backfire" shorted half
the circuits on the Battlecuiser and left it virtually immobile, but the blast
wave and wake left behind the Istvan destroyed a Da'Kak outright, crippled a
pursuing Vo'Bok, and took the KV Battlecruiser through two thresholds, forcing
it to break off. Truly a measure of last resort, the Grav Backfire is sort of
an FT 'Bonehead Maneuver.'
Perhaps it belongs more in the realm of FT story fiction than as a playable
game option, but I wrote it up to see how it looked:
Grav Backfire - A ship may, instead of writing movement orders, opt to
'backfire' the grav engines. Backfire automatically gives the Main Drive one
threshold hit, and the ship must immediately roll another (shipwide) threshold
at one higher than the current level. The Backfire damages everything in the
grav wake of the ship. Before movement, determine initial area of effect: a
pie wedge covering the entire aft arc with three damage zones: high, medium
and low extending 1", 2",and 3" per 5 mass of Main Drive behind the backfiring
ship; respectively, round down. Any ship caught in the high damage zone takes
2 dice of damage (roll = damage) per 5 mass of Main Drive. Ships in the medium
damage zone take half (round down) the number of dice, and ships in the low
damage zone take
1/4.
(example, the Dusseldorf, with 15 mass for Main Drive has zones 3", 6" and 9",
which apply 6 dice, 3 dice and 1 die respectively, with a 3 die wake). Damage
is applied immediately. Screens have no effect, but damage is all applied to
armor first. The wedge effect disappears before movement begins. When ships
are moved, keep track of the movement of the backfiring
ship and whether other ships cross its wake. Ships crossing the 1"-wide
backfire wake take damage as in the medium damage zone of the initial
backfire.
Fighters/missiles caught in the backfire wedge are destroyed.
Fighters crossing the backfire wake during movement must spend thier reaction
move CEF or be destroyed. Missiles, SMs, and Plasma Bolts crossing the wake
take a number of PD dice equal to the wake strength.
Ships with damaged drives may also backfire for half-effect, but
if the shipwide threshold results in another engine hit, the ship is destroyed
by a critical overload. "Advanced" grav engines have additional safeguards and
buffers that prevent backfiring.
Balancing tweaks: Increase/decrease blast distance or dice (or damage
type). Possibly confine to aft 30 degrees instead of aft 60 degrees.
Feedback welcome.