I have heard of this, but don't know anything about it. I think it is a series(?).

Who wrote it and do you recommend it?

You'd defninitely be dealing with hundreds or thousands of ships per system depending on it's population.  Since piracy exists, and compared to the cost of the rest of the ship, laser batteries don't cost all that much, any interstellar capable ship will probabaly be outfitted with as many laser batteries as they can without sacrificing preformance.  That means you have hundreds or thousands of laser battery platforms floating around the system at any given time even if they aren't mustered  And each one of those platforms has a decent number of hull points that it is going to take some effort to get them out of the fight.

Even if you could muster only 10% of the ship in the system into a battle (the other's being out of range, unwilling/unable to participate, etc), that still leaves you with tens to hundreds of additional weapons that you could bring to bear.  Using the unskilled percentage column from the game rules and assuming an average shot from 5 hexes (the merchies want to stay out of torpedo range if they can), each ship hits about 15% of the time.  On average, each hit will do double damage 10% of the time (average 11 points of damage) and normal damage 35% of the time (average 5.5 points of damage).  So applying a little probability math gives the following, any given ship does an average of (0.15 * (0.10*11+0.35*5.5)) = 0.45 Hull Point of damage per time they fire.  That doesn't count the othe system hits that they will do (an average of 0.15*0.55 = 0.08 System hits per short or 1 every 12 shots)

That's not much for any individual weapon, but if you take 50 ships each with one LB a piece and remember that they fire twice per turn (once on defense and once on offense) they do, on average, every turn, 8.25 system hits and 45 HP.  That translates into destroying one frigate every round with a little left over for some other ships.

The interesting thing is, if the sathar vessels push in close enough to use their torpedos and rocket batteries (3 hexes), the merchies become even more effective,  At a range of 3 hexes on average, the damage from 50 ships jumps up to 75 HP a turn and 13.75 system hits.  That will take out a Light Cruiser or Assault Carrier.  If the civies get really brave and storm into the same hex as a sathar vessel, those 50 ships will do an average of 120 HP and 22 system hits.

At the same time, a frigate, with average gunner skills, at a range of 5 hexes will do an average of 2.8 HP with it's laser cannon and laser battery.  Moving in to 3 hexes to use it's RB and T improves it's hull damage to 15.33 HP a turn.  (My flight's about to leave so I don't have time to compute system hits).  Thus at a range of 5 hexes, it takes 4 civies to equal a frigate and at a range of 3 hexes a frigate is equal to 20 civies becuase of it's torps and rocket batteries, however they are quickly used up and they fall back to the 4 to 1 ratio.

The strength here is the strength of the herd, the civilian ships would mass together for mutual protection.  To attack one, you have to come after all of them. 

Wow...still and all, the civ casaulties from the action would be horrendous.
 

The runners and the refusers will be balanced out by those who don't want to live under Sathar rule.

As to how many are going to run after a buddy gets blown out of the sky, more likely the response will be,"those bastards torched Edmonds, voggin' kill those worm dead!"

 

The twin towers had not effect on me emotionally until they became a justification for destruction of civil rights. Just another distant calamity.

The Shuttle Accidents, however, both really ticked me off.

Watching a friend dying of cancer, even tho' I did not witness his death hour, was an order more profound than either, and slightly more profound than the boy who I saw hit by a semi, a former student of mine. I covered him with a blanket, and kept him from bleeding out as best I could; an open fracture of the cranium is profound. He died as they loaded him into the ambulance; he was never resuscitated; DOA at the hospital. The smile as he ran from his mother into traffic lingers still. But it's not half as profound as Dale's last few days. Nor Sister Dorothy's last few days. People dying before me, and my inability to help them, that hurts. John's death from ALS was a joyous thing, a release to sing for the man gone mute; still, 20 years later, it is an empty spot, tho'...

The pain will hit more when you hear the screams, tho'... and with a buddy in a fighter, you might not hear, and probably won't have time to react.

We just fight amongst ourselves, because we like drama. But when someone comes over to our country and starts blowing up buildings, then it's "Cracker! Darkie! Beaner! Wonder Twin Powers, activate!"

@TerlObar: What did Han Solo say? "Never tell me the odds."

That is all true, in the abstract, but not in real battle; even in a board game, because it doesn't take into account brilliant and poor ship handling or good or bad luck. Also, as ships drop out of the fight the odds will change.  Still it does demonstrate that the Sather combat (line?) ships will not have it all there own way, even against merchant ships.

In so far as the wargame is concerned, I would think that the civvy ships would have to take morale checks as they get blasted.

Big penalties would not only apply to ships that lose their fellow deputies, but also would have to look out for damage to their ships.  I would imagine many of the captains flipping out and running away.  After all, they are only civilians...

Plus, it adds a random element to the game and reduces the advantage of the UPF.

Some would also wimp out of the muster.  Then some would insist that they "protect the station" or whatever and have some sort of lame restriction on their deployment that the Sathar can tactically exploit - or not...

Are there house rules for minimizing the die rolling by grouping either the ship rolls or weapon rolls together?

Although I like to roll dice as much as the next dral... 50 just for LB's is a lot!

you could just not roll at all! if the chance to hit is 60% then 60% of the 50 LBs hit which would be 30 hits and if you dont wish to roll the damage dice then apply the bell curve and make each shot count at 5 or 6 under the basic rules for KH.

Okay, so what would happen if a "general muster" is called? Shadow Shack showed that many would show up only to lend their services, but not for combat. So who would sign up for direct combat in any given system? Are "armed merchants" the only ones? What about a corporation's security forces? What about Mercenary forces? What about smugglers, pirates (particularly those seeking a repreive from prosecution), and private citizens? After all, when the First Sathar War began, there was no UPF. So who answerd the general muster?