FT Economic Campaign System

Turn Sequence:

1. Initial setup
2. Movement
3. Economics
4. Construction
5. Combat
6. Crew Training
7. Research
8. Bookkeeping phase
9. Optional Rules
10. Minefields

1. Initial Setup

Setup a grid map using sectors with the home sector in a corner. The distance between home planets should be equal to the number of weeks you want to play (assuming 2-3 games/week), up to a maximum of 8x8 or 10x10 (anything larger becomes unwieldy).   This supports up to 4 players.
If there are 3 players, the player being "bracketted" gets an extra 25% start bonus to give them a fighting chance. If you want to use more than 4 players, you'll need to use a hex grid and spread the players out equidistant.
Each game turn is approximately 4-6 weeks of game time.

eg: A 4 real-world week campaign uses a 4x4 square grid

Players start with an initial fleet allocation of 1500 NPV, spread among 5 designs.   They also start with a "bank-roll" of 500 NPV with which to purchase new construction etc.  The home sector initially produces 500 NPV per turn of military surplus.

The player with the most territory at the end of the campaign "wins" and must take a 10% penalty on all starting resource production and starting fleet points in the next game.

All squares outside the home sector are left blank initially & rolled for when explored for the first time (this can be kept secret if you have a GM to moderate the game). The result indicates the resources available to the sector (see economics). Once initally rolled, this doesn't change except through economic upgrading.

1: Useless (roll again: on a 5-6, it is a black hole/pulsar and the fleet is destroyed).
2: 40 NPV, bonus 2d6 research for the turn due to ancient tech finds.
3: 60 NPV
4: 80 NPV
5: 100 NPV
6: 120 NPV & fleet repair base.

To be held, the player must have been the last one in the sector & have at least 2 other "friendly" sectors touching it (including diagonals). The home sector counts as 2 for this purpose.

Optional Rule: Each time a sector changes control, it loses 10% (round up) of it's NPV value.  Thus ravaged sectors on the front lines could be worth nothing very quickly.

2. Movement

Players write orders for each fleet using grid references in secret & then move fleets simultaneously. Fleets move 1 sector each month (abstract) and fight any enemies encountered. Unless outmassed more than 2:1, fleets must fire at least one turn in anger before disengaging (including transport vessels). This is to force at least minimum damage, as the winner claims the square.

3. Economics

The home sector produces 500 NPV per turn of military budget & can build ships of any type allowed by the tech base. Each additional sector produces a random amount from 40-120 NPV per turn. These points can be spent anywhere in the empire for replacement munitions / crew or saved up for later use. They can only be spent at an appropriate facility.  Forward Fleet Repair Bases can repair any ship which visits, but cannot commence new construction.

4. Construction

Ships are constructed at the home sector.  The full cost in NPV is paid when the keel is laid, and at the end of each turn (including the turn the cost is paid), 40 mass (or optionally 1d6 x 10 mass) of the ship is built. 
Treat cargo space as already built (thus freighters are built faster).
This should give an average of 1 turn for escorts, 2 turns for cruisers & 3 or more turns for capital ships.

Each player starts with 5 starship designs they can build.
Any new design costs an NPV equal to it's Mass*3 in architecture costs, prototyping etc, payable before the first new keel is laid.
Refitting a ship costs the NPV of all systems removed plus the NPV of all systems added & modification time is treated as the changed mass in construction time (d6x10 mass/turn).

If the sector falls, then all current construction is lost.

Fixed defences can be constructed, but note they require an appropriate tug or tender to move to their new location.

Repairs / Captured ships:

All ships are fully repaired in one turn (not on the turn they were damaged or arrived at the base) at a fleet repair base, at a cost of 20% (or part thereof) per threshold of the hull damage. [ie: it costs 1-80% of the new price to fully repair].
Ships destroyed in combat, but not reduced to debris can be recovered and repaired at normal cost or scrapped for 10% of their new value at any fleet base, but do not provide any research bonus.

Ships not destroyed in combat can be scrapped for 25% of their current value at any fleet base (based on the percentage of hull remaining). This includes any captured enemy ships (which could give a bonus in research if higher tech than your own).

Fleets which are in validly held territory (2 adjacent friendly sectors) are considered to be "in supply" and can replace expendables at the end of turn at normal costs.
If the fleet is operating outside this area, it will require a fleet train of freighters with all cargo accounted for.

5. Combat

Combat is resolved as a normal FT game. If there are fixed defences in the sector, they must start on the table unless both players agree to fight 2 separate battles for the sector. If three or more players contest the same sector, they all fight at once if you have a large enough play area.

Striking the Colours should be used with the following modifications:
Everytime the ship suffers a threshold check, roll a die according to the crew quality (Untrained = d4, Elite = d12 etc, see Crew Training).   This roll must exceed the number of thresholds suffered, or the ship will cease firing/thrusting and surrender to the enemy.  Either side can board a surrendered ship to take control, as the crew will not fight back or scuttle the ship (the price of being taken off alive).  If boarded by friendly forces, the command crew is replaced and the ship will retreat (if possible) back to friendly lines.

It is recommended that you use the Overkill rules from MT, as ships which are not scuttled or debris can be boarded & captured for later use.
Ships can activate their self-destruct by detonating the Core system: Powercore, using DCP rules (if you've already dumped it, you can't self-destruct).  Once it has been set to scuttle, normal rules for a damaged powercore apply (ie: 5+ on turn 1, 4+ on turn 2, etc).  This gives your opponent the chance to board and abort the self-destruct.   Each Boarding Party which survives (presumably all, as the crew has abandoned ship) counts as a DCP for repairing the powercore only (maximum 3 DCP as normal).

Boarding Shuttles can be used.  Each shuttle is equivalent to one fighter and follows all appropriate fighter rules.  Instead of dealing damage, each shuttle that survives PDS drops it's complement of Boarding Parties (one per shuttle) onto the ship.   Note that they need to be crossed of the ship roster, or extra marines supplied with accomodations (at 1 mass / 5 pts per marine party).

Boarding actions are resolved in one turn, using the fighter dogfight rules.  Any crew casualties must be marked off the ship display due to being generally deceased.

6. Crew Training (optional)

Building new ships isn't enough if you don't have the personnel to crew them.   Each CF required to man a ship costs 5 NPV to train up to Green standards, or 2 NPV if you send Untrained crew directly to the ship.  Note that when using Striking the Colours, it is in your own interest to have crew quality as high as possible.

Damage Control CF cannot be reduced below 0 through crew quality.  If this occurs, the ship must make a threshold check for all systems (at current level) before the start of any battle due to poor maintainance.
Part of the rationale is that most combat related activities are heavily computer controlled so crew quality will have little effect on activities not requiring hands on activity or problem solving situations.  This affects boarding parties as well.

Ships and squadrons replacing casualties must roll greater than the number of replacements (in % terms) to avoid being downgraded a step towards the replacements.
All navy replacements are drawn from Green crews (unless you decommission another ship with surviving CF aboard). Sending Untrained crewmen aboard is asking for trouble (although you could probably put them aboard merchant ships).
eg1: a Regular cruiser of 5 CF replaces 2 CF with Green crew after battle, there is 40% chance that the crew experience will be reduced to Green due to key personnel losses.  
eg2: a Veteran fighter squadron takes 6 casualties and is replaced with Green pilots, there is a 60% chance it will be reduced to Regular (thus losing ace status).

Holding wargames costs 5 x maintainance for the turn (5% NPV), but count as a battle for advancing crews from Untrained to Green or Green to Regular.

Marine Boarding Parties can be added to ships & require additional crew quarters (1 mass / 5 pts per Marine).  They have the same quality as the ship they serve on, as they are used as auxiliary DCP when not used in action.

Fighter Pilots cost 1 NPV each (per PILOT, thus 10 NPV for a full squadron roster) with the same advancement as their starship counterparts.

Each fighter bay can support 10 pilots. When a fighter is lost, roll d6 for each:
1 = pilot lost & fighter recovered, but unavailable for 1 turn due to repairs.
2-3 = pilot and fighter lost (KIA/MIA)
4-5 = fighter lost & pilot recovered, but is unavailable for 1 turn (medical and psychological treatment)
6 = fighter & pilot recovered.

Ship CF lost in action can also be rolled for in a similar way.  Roll d6 for each CF lost:
1-3 = KIA
4-5 = WIA, unavailable for 1 turn due to medical treatment
6 = Escaped, available for immediate re-deployment.
However, you need to win the battle to actually recover any crew (or board friendly intact vessels), otherwise they become POWs for the duration.

7. Campaign Research (optional)

Each player gets an initial, free, research budget of 1000 BPV.
For every 100 NPV spent, players receive 1 die of research in a single chosen field which is spent and allocated between areas *before* the die roll.  There is no maximum amount which can be spent on research during the game.
On average, 40 die of research will allow you to build most FTFB1 ships without Salvo-missiles.

The next advance is available at double mass for the same benefit.  This doesn't apply to Construction Research (ie. you develop class-1 beams at 1 mass, class-2 beams are available at 4 mass +2 mass for 6-arc fire).

Each species Weapon Research fields are mutually exclusive (due to design philosophy) unless you capture an intact piece of tech from the enemy (requires boarding or finding abandoned ships) and scrap it at a base. If you scrap an enemy ship with higher tech items, you get a d6 bonus in that field for the turn (parity bonus) in all fields higher than your own. This is the only way to research other species weapon technology.

Construction Research:

1 Fragile hulls / Mass 40 ships / Partial Streamlining
10 FTFB armour
15 Weak hulls / Mass 80 ships / Full Streamlining
30 Average hulls / Mass 120 ships / Basic Fighters (requires thrust-6)
50 Strong hulls / Mass 200 ships / Heavy Fighters (requires thrust-6)
70 Phalon layered armour
80 Very Strong hulls / Superships greater than 200 mass
100 Multi-Type Fighters (Heavy Attack, etc).  They cost an additional +1 pt per fighter for each ability after the first.

Propulsion systems:

1 Thrust-1
5 FTL Drive
10 Thrust-2
30 Thrust-4
50 Tug / Tender FTL Drives
60 Thrust-6
75 Thrust-8+
100 Cloaking Field

Advanced Propulsion:

50 Advanced KV/SV main drives.

Human Weapon Research (cannot choose any other species Weapon Research):

1 PDS
5 Class-1 beam
15 Class-2 beam / Human fighter damage
20 Needle beams / Beam style mines (must have Minelayer)
30 Class-3 beam/Interceptor fighters (must have basic fighters)
50 Pulse Torpedoes
80 Class-4+beam/Torpedo fighters (must have basic fighters)
100 Nova Cannon
200 Wave Gun

Kra'Vak Weapon Research (cannot choose any other species Weapon Research):

1 Scatterpack / MKP
5 Class-1 railgun
10 Class-2 railgun / KV fighter damage
25 Class-3 railgun
40 Class-4 railgun / MKP Mines (must have Minelayer)
60 Class-5 railgun
100 Class-6+ railgun

Phalon Weapon Research (cannot choose any other species Weapon Research):

1 One Arc Pulsar Batteries
15 Three Arc Pulsar Batteries / Phalon fighter damage
30 Six Arc Pulsar Batteries
40 Plasmabolt-1
50 Plasmabolt-2
60 Plasmabolt-3
75 Plasmabolt-5+
100 Plasmabolt-1 mines (must have Minelayers)

Missile Weapon Research (can be combined with one of the other Weapon Research fields):

1 Submunition Packs
10 Basic Capital Missile (MT nuclear)
20 Minelayer / Minesweeper
30 EMP Capital Missiles / Needle Capital Missiles / Submunition Pack mines
40 Ortillery / Attack Fighters (must have basic fighters)
50 Salvo Missiles (Std) / Capital Missile mines
75 Salvo Missiles (ER)
100 Salvo Mines (minefields are IFF salvo missiles)

Computer Systems Research:

1 Firecon
10 ADFC
20 Flag Bridge (optional)
30 Energy Screen 1 (requires Class-3 beams)
50 Energy Screen 2 (requires Class-4 beams)
70 Phalon Vapour Shroud (must have Phalon Weapon Research)
100 Reflex Field (requires Cloaking Field)

8. All bookkeeping is performed.

Maintainance costs of 1% NPV are payable on all active ships (5% for ships involved in wargames), before new construction becomes available.
New ships completed this turn are now available for use.

Sectors can expand their production at this point.  By spending 100% of a sector's NPV for the turn, the sector increases it's NPV permanently by 20%.  eg: a 20 NPV sectors spends it all and becomes a 24 NPV sector next turn.

If the campaign is GM moderated, strategic sensor rules can be used. This means that each player can only see enemy ships that are within 1 square of their own ships.

9. Other Optional Rules

Flag Bridges can be included on the fleet command ships.  They are 2 mass / 20 NPV and give the fleet a fighter/firing initiative modifier equal to the Admiral's experience level. 
Admirals start as Green (and cost 20 NPV each) and advance in experience in the same way as CF.  If the ship's flag bridge is hit by a threshold, roll a die for the Admiral's fate.
1-3 = Admiral killed in action,
4-5 = Admiral wounded and unavailable for 1 Campaign turn.
6 = Admiral survived and can continue action once Flag Bridge has been repaired.

Fleets in combat without an Admiral count as Untrained (-3) for initiative purposes.

10. Minefields:

Minefields are generally laid around shipyards or a home planet as a last-ditch defence against invasion.  Sectors designated as having a minefield need to be noted as to the size of the field and where it is laid.  The maximum size of any minefield for campaign purposes is 100 mines per sector.  This is a play balance decision.

All mines in a field must be of the same type and must be separated by more than the trigger range. The trigger range for mines is the same as for fighter/missile attacks (6mu for cinematic / 3-4mu for vector). Any ship that ends within the trigger range without an active, friendly firecon, OR moves through the trigger range is attacked by the mine.

Minelaying: No thrust can be applied while laying mines. Each minelaying system can lay 1 mine per turn, at any point of movement.

Minesweeping: Each minesweeping system gives a chance of disabling a mine before it explodes. Roll 1d6 for each sector operating; 1: mine detonates as normal, 2-3: mine not cleared, but doesn't detonate, 4-6: mine cleared.

Mine types: (in order of lethality)
All mines are Mass:1, variable cost by type. All standard rules apply (range is the closest point of movement for damage purposes).

Beam Mine (cost: 3): A one shot class-2 beam.
Subpac Mine (cost: 3): A one shot submunition pack.
MKP Mine (cost: 4): A one shot MKP.
Capship Mine (cost: 6): A single MT missile attacks (nuclear, needle or emp), PDS applies.
Salvo Mine (cost: 12): A single Salvo Missile barrage attacks (1d6 missiles), PDS applies.
Plasma Mine (cost: 15): A single Plasmabolt-1 detonates, PDS applies.

For mines which allow PDS, all mines which are detonating attack simultaneously in the fighter attack phase, so PDS will need to be distributed as normal for multiple attackers.   This means it is advantageous for defenders to seed their minefields with fighters to overload a ships PDS and maximise damage.

Return to FTHome.