 July 9, 2009 - 8:40am | Has anyone made any effort to build a simplfied version of Knight Hawks? Maybe one based on the original rules but that simplifies the fighting system so that you could easily adjudicate a fleet sized battle in a small amount of time? An example of simplified fleet combat would be "A Sky Full of Ships" located here: http://www.hwcn.org/%7Eao421/fleet.html This could be very useful if you wanted to play out large fleet actions in a game and allow your PC's to control parts of the fleet. I have been working on just such a system but am getting bogged down on parts and would much rather collaborate if there is anyone else out there. Thoughts? |
 July 27, 2009 - 7:35pm | yes Time flies when your having rum. Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time. |
 July 27, 2009 - 9:07pm | Ok, it's Monday, finals are over, what do want to see first? weapons; combat rules; ships; yes  View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 July 28, 2009 - 6:34pm | I have to say I really enjoy the Damage Table. I think it is the best part of Knight Hawks. It is simply amazing the amount of punishment that gets meted out on the average capital ship before it dies. In the recent Battle of Cassidine with Larry, I hit some of his Frigates with 10 different weapons of various types and they still lived - though extremely messed up. Only in the second turn did they finally start blowing up, and I was blazing away with 2/3s of the ENTIRE UPF! MR and NAV hits are particularly fun, as the damaged ship is often forced to exit the main stack where it can be hunted down. I also LOVE lighting ships on fire. That's just fun for the whole family. I respect the Basic Rules and all, and I did indeed play those scenarios to learn the game and enjoyed it, but I could not imagine playing Knight Hawks without the Damage Table, regardless of the size of the engagement. |
 July 28, 2009 - 7:52pm | Imperial likes roasted sathar on a stick. :-D |
 July 28, 2009 - 8:07pm | I agree, Imperial Lord, the damage table adds an entirely new dimension to the game and makes it much more interesting. I also use it regardless of the size of the engagement. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 July 29, 2009 - 5:37pm | All of the weapons are the same except for these weapons, there are no canons, no ICMs, and no seeker missiles. These get replaced with other weapons like the laser battery. The PB ans EB go on the cruisers, battleships, and the carriers. The new weapon we used was called a laser strafer. We first came up with 2 versions but only used one. This one is laser strafer of course. The thing with this weapon is it is for fighters to be able to strafe targets with lots of damage in a small package. One strafer has no MHS, this does not become a factor until four stafers are put on one fighter. So, a HS 1 can carry 2 to 4 depending on the load-out you are looking for in your fighters. The standard that we went with was ARx2 LSx2 RH. the laser strafer: FF RD Range 5 damage 1D10 no DTM roll not enough damage in one location each strafer carries 30 rounds of ten shots. Here is how it works. When fired, it is actually 10 independent shots each shot does 1 point. When the roll is made you can use the laser battery table divided by half plus any skills plus 1 percent per hull size. The skills pilot of 1st level has a 20 plus 5 for pilot plus 1 for a targrt fighter equaling 26 percent for most shots to hit. However, the roll will almost have one hit each time. In the 1st level pilots case a roll of 1 means all shots hit but not in the same place. a roll of 26 means only 3 shots hit a roll above 26 is 27 to 62 is where the remaining 2 shots hit, 28 to 44 2 shots hit, 45 to 62 1 shot hits, above 62 no shots hit. On the other end a roll of: 1 to 5 all shots hit, 6 to 10 6 shots hit, 11 to 14 5 shots hit, 15 to 19 4 shots hit, 20 to 26 3 shots hit. Now imagine having 4 of them on one fighter. The pilot does not really have to aim just point and shoot that is why they are called stafers. The other strafer was going to be able to do 2 points per hit but we figured that was way to much damage for one weapon and made the game extremely unbalanced. We did use the stafer as a point defense gun on the bigger ships with 100 rounds limited to only four banks of 2. Ask if there are any questions. |
August 30, 2009 - 8:03pm | There are not comments on these. I am just wondering if anyone had anything to say. These weapons were in place for more of a fighter based combat. We used to think that they were too much damage for such a small ship. But when we put it into the game and seeing these fighters could only take one or two hits at best, we seen that it was not too out of balance so we stuck with the rules. We even carried it over into our RPG for awhile then we just dropped it for being out of the canon rules. We kept using it in other re-enactment battles. |
 August 31, 2009 - 2:48am | So are the "ammo loads" like charges? LS(x2) would constitute two total weapon discharges, and then you're out? Is there range diffusion or is that taken into account by the smaller to-hit probability? |
September 1, 2009 - 5:51pm | So are the "ammo loads" like charges? LS(x2) would constitute two total weapon discharges, and then you're out? Is there range diffusion or is that taken into account by the smaller to-hit probability? The LS(x2) means two wepaons are there. When they are installed the pilot has to have how they fire known or they all fire at the same time. Each one can carry 30 bursts of 10. I is based on an electonicly excited gas that produces a intense pulse of light that gets focused toward the target area. The range diffusion is in the calculation of the roll. It Also includes the spread between the weapons if there is more than one. The fighter fires this weapon in a come into range fire then pull out in a stafing run. The ranges in our game the fighters did not get much closer than 4 hexes to large ships and as close as possible to other fighters. My group found it fun to use in the re-enactments but when we used them in the RPG game it slowed things down a bit. However, for the most part, once the to hit is calculated the only differences that come into play is range and target ship size. |
September 2, 2009 - 5:57am | Gilbert, Neat idea. Looks like a lot of dice rolling, correct? |
 September 2, 2009 - 9:58am | Gilbert, Neat idea. Looks like a lot of dice rolling, correct? Buckets-O-Dice? I use to hate that but was one over by Regiment of Foot rules for the English Civil war I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 2, 2009 - 4:02pm | Gilbert, Neat idea. Looks like a lot of dice rolling, correct? Buckets-O-Dice? I use to hate that but was one over by Regiment of Foot rules for the English Civil war Actually, no. Just one pair of d10s has to be rolled. The hardest part is calculating the to hit roll. Using the example and if your fighter has only one Laser Strafer if you rolled an 18 according to the to hit calculation you would have done 4 points of hull damage. If you have 2 strafers you can go with separate dice rolls or roll each if you went with one dice roll you would have done 8 points of damage. now with 3 you did 12, four you did 16 ponts of damage. When we first put this together, you needed bucket-O-dice which turned out to be a pain in the bucket. So, we came up with this system. When you have say 10 fighters it would have been a nightmare to roll all them dice, but now one roll for each fighter will do, but if you want to roll for each weapon, that is up-to you. |
 September 3, 2009 - 5:25pm | Neat weapon. Might incorporate that into the next RPG I run. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
September 3, 2009 - 7:24pm | The laser strafer was modeled after actual fighter combat footage by actual fighter pilots. The weapon rules to hit is so if a target ship does not do anything it will be torn to shreds. It only takes a few shots to destroy even an assault scout but by then you could be out of ammo ;). That is why they have limited number of shots that can be fired this keeps the game more balanced with a lot of damage for a very short amount of time. If there is no other questions or comments we can move on to barages with the big guns. An attack that can make even a handful of assault scouts deadly to other bigger ships. |
September 3, 2009 - 11:13pm | I'm game. Bring on the barrages! "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
September 25, 2009 - 10:45pm | Barrages, here are the set of rules I like to use in large scale combat of 10 or more ships. Let us use the Militia fleet at Inner Reach (Dramune) that consists of 3 Assault Scouts 1 frigate 1 destroyer. Now that we have the federation side lets say the Sather have three destroyers. Now for the rules. We will be using LB since all the ships have one that means we have 5 to deal with. Rule 1: All weapons being used in a barrage do not get defensive fire and should be of the same type. Rule 2: All ships involved have to be in formation. Rule 3: The target ship, one only, has to stay in range. If the ship goes out of range the target cannot be hit. If the ship does evasive all attacks are adjusted accordingly. If the target is changed, the process starts all over. If a barrage ship takes a weapon hit and it is the barrage weapon, the barrage is only down that weapon and its bonus. If the formation is forced to scatter, the barrage is terminated. The process starts all over. If a barrage ship takes a fire control hit, the barrage is down one weapon and its bonus. If the command gunners weapons control is hit, the barrage is lost. If the command gunners weapon gets hit, the barrage can continue the attack but it is the last barrage with a doubling chance unless a new command gunner is selected. However, the process starts over. Unless, the command gunner's ship has more than one of the same weapon. If any ship in the attack has more than one weapon of the same type, they do not have to use them all. Changing from one to other can cause a delay due to getting the new weapon in the network unless it is already incuded in the attack. If a new ship gets added to the barrage, the process starts all over. *********This is imortant Only the masking screen has a chance of changing the effects of a barrage attack from LB. Only the cammand gunner's attack is affected by defenses. DTMs are used and can be rolled for each hit. Rocket weapons are not used in this attack. A torpedo and assault rocket barrage is a one time attack. Cannon weapons cannot be used in a prolonged barrage. The target can get lost easily. Barrage attacks with canons has only a bonus of 3%. The minumum range for a barrage is 4 hexes. At this point it is better for individual attacks. ********* Commanding gunners hit at 5% per level with an average level for malitia being 2 gives us a base chance of 10% plus the shaded area of the hit table of 40%. Now we have a total chance to hit with LB of 50%. Now let us say the sather destroyers are in range at 8 hexes away. With range diffusion this reduces our hit by 40% to a 10% chance to hit the target. Now the rest of the LB in our barrage. Each LB added to the attack use a base chance that one shot will hit say 5% times the number of LB not including the gunner controlled LB we have a 20% chance that at least one will hit. Not much for the trouble but then we have not covered target locating. Now we will run the first salvo. Command gunner's first shot is rolled first to see if he hits and has the correct range and this will make the other hit more. The commanding gunner has a 10% chance of hitting the target. We roll a 21 he missed. Wait, we not through with te barrage. Remember all of these weapons are firing at one time, we are just breaking it down. The rest of the ships fire and have a 20% chance that one will hit. I use this as a breakdown of the hit probability. Since we are using 5% as our barrage base we have a 20% We roll and get an 18 which is broke down like this: 1-5 4 hit 6-10 3 hit 11-15 2 hit 16-20 1 hit So, we got one hit. One out of five only. Just wait, it gets better if the sather do not high tail it outa here. Now that we fired our first shot. We can do our target locating. With one LB getting a hit we can increase the next barrage hit by 5%. Ok, now we close range by 2 hexes. New command gunner base hit of 50% is only reduced by 30% by RD getting a 20% chance to hit. We roll the command gunners hit and we get a 9. We hit! This makes the barrage attack get a double chance to hit. Ok, we have 5% for each LB plus 5% for the target locating giveing us a 25% that is now doubled to 50% for the barrage to hit. We roll our hit and get an 11. I will make a table to show what happens: 1-13 4 hit 14-27 3 hit 28-41 2 hit 42-50 1 hit I divide 50 by four to get that if you are wondering. So with an 11 we got 4 hits. In total we have dealt out 6 hits to te target that is 6d10. Ok our third attack goes like this: command gunners base hit 50% range diffusion -40% barrage base to hit 20% target locating hits 6 times 5% gives the barrage a bonus of 30% If the command gunner misses, the barrage still has a base to hit at this point of 50% If the command gunner hits, the barrage atack gets a 100% chance to hit. 1-25 4 hit 26-50 3 hit 51-75 2 hit 76-00 1 hit If this continues the table would look something like this: 1-33 4 hit 34-66 3 hit 67-00 2 hit next table: 1-50 4 hit 51-95 3 hit and so on... until the range is made 100% with only 95-00 being a miss. Can you say OUCH! You can roll the rest to see what happens. These little ships, if they can keep from getting blown up, can deal out a lot of damage. Any ship or space station can be included in the barrage. The ships have to stay with the space station. Or if a ship in the barrage is damaged and is in range of the target can be included but again all the ships have to stay together. This type of attack if it goes on for 5 turns can destroy almost any ship. I have seen Sather HC go down in 4 turns from just a handful of small ships. This takes into mind the "shotgun" effect. |
September 29, 2009 - 2:15pm | A viable alternative to pod lasers, definitely, maybe even to laser batteries. It'll definitely give even an assault scout some serious firepower, and make bigger ships think twice about underestimating their smaller opponents. Well done, Gilbert. Can't wait to see yours and Larry's polishing of the strafer rules. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
October 2, 2009 - 5:52pm | I am glad to see someone likes them. Larry has said something about putting these and others into SFMAN. We are going to get all the info together for one of the next issues. |
