Battlefleet Mars: Tactical Game Changes 1. There are no longer fire groups. To hit with lasers roll 1D10 (0-9) and score greater than [Range] minus [Current Laser Strength/2 (round UP)]. There's no need to turn this into a table, but if done so it would look like this, where N is the minimum score necessary to get a hit at the indicated range: Laser Strength Range 6/Bse 5 4/Cat 3/Trn 2/Mnr 1 0/Ftr 11 9 9 - - - - - 10 8 8 9 9 - - - 9 7 7 8 8 9 9 - 8 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 7 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 6 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 5 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 4 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 3 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 2 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 This allows bases to be mutually supporting. 2. Once a hit has been achieved, to calculate damage roll 1D10 (0-9), ADD current laser strength of the firer, SUBTRACT range/3 (round down) and refer to these tables: Total v. Ship/Ftr/Msl v. Base -2 - - -1 B1 - 0 L1 - 1 B1 L1 2 L1 L1 3 iL iL 4 R R 5 L2 L1 6 B2 L2 7 L3 L2 8 B3 L3 9 L4 L3 10 B4 L4 11+ D D iL, R and D results will destroy fighters and missiles; an L result will destroy missiles. For calculating damage by missiles, use the above tables, roll 1D10 (0-9) and ADD 1; range is ignored (it's 0). 3. Fighters and missiles now cost logistics' points. 1 LP buys 3 fighters or 6 missiles. Fighters and missiles do not count against the LP expenditure limits, but may not themselves exceed those limits, eg Mars may not spend more than 4 LPs on fighters/missiles in Game-turns 11-15 (in addition to 4 LPs on other things). 4. A ship or base may launch twice as many missiles in a turn as its launch capacity. 5. Close-in weapons' systems (CIWS): all ships and bases have last-ditch automated anti-missile defences (rapid-fire cannon, gravel dispensers, low-powered lasers, etc). When, in the alternating tactical combat sequence, a player chooses to resolve a missile attack he may attack one target with as many missiles as he chooses, but he must declare how many missiles are attacking before he resolves the attack of any. The target ship/base may use its CIWS in an attempt to destroy missiles before their attacks a re resolved. The following rules apply:- 5.1 Only the ship/base that is the target of the attacking missiles may use CIWS and only the missiles attacking may be fired at with CIWS. 5.2 CIWS strength is the same as the target's current laser strength, but never falls below 0, ie even if the laser strength of a ship/base is destroyed it still has a CIWS strength of 0. 5.2 Range is not calculated; all CIWS takes place at range 0. 5.3 Roll 1D10 (0-9) for each attacking missile and score equal to or less than the firing unit's current laser strength plus 3. However, each missile attacking after the first has its chance of being hit reduced by 1, to a minimum of 0. A table would look like this, where N or less is the score required for a hit to be achieved: Laser Strength Missile 6/Bse 5 4/Cat 3/Trn 2/Mnr 1 0 1st 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2nd 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 3rd 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 4th 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 5th 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 6th 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 7th 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 8th 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 9th 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 nth 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Any hit will destroy an incoming missile. 5.4 Fighters may not use CIWS. 5.5 Missiles may continue to be targeted with non-CIWS as part of the normal sequencing of combat. The effect of these rules is to make bases significantly more powerful within the tactical combat sequence. They also reduce the impact made by fighters. This will benefit Ares Corporation more than Mars, but this is intentional. The rules are intended to remove a perceived imbalance. Please tweak, modify, adapt, expand them as you see fit. Feedback welcome. Tony Hickie t_s_hickie@online.rednet.co.uk