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| | %%===[|]====(_______)| |=====X=X=X====HHHHHHHHHH
|_|/ [|] (_______)\_/ MMMMMMMMMM
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Fusion Warp Fuel/ System Beam/Screen
Drive Gnrtr Crew Ships Generator
__ __ __ ____ ____ __ __ __ ____
\ \ /\ / / \ \ |___ \ |___ \\ \ /\ / / \ \ |___ \
\ \\ \ / / __\ \ ___) | ___) |\ \\ \ / / __\ \ ___) |
\ \\ \/ / / / \ \ |___ < | ___/ \ \\ \/ / / / \ \ |___ <
\ \\ / / /___\ \ | || | \ \\ / / /___\ \ | |
\/ \/ /_________\ |_||_| \/ \/ /_________\ |_|
Tactical Spaceship Design and Combat
2nd Edition
Game Design by Howard Thompson
(c) 1977 by Metagaming
Revised 1994 by WarpWar Design Group
WarpWar simulates a hypothetical future when time for flights between stars is huge...but ends in brief but violent combat. Warpships can enter the stressed space channels ("warplines") between stars for nearly instantaneous travel. Nevertheless, wars among the stars last so long that huge advances are made in technology. Older ships are at a disadvantage against newer ones.
The destructive power of weapons technology has become so great that space combats have become tactical guessing games between ship commanders. A clear hit will wreck or cripple all but the most powerful ships. The goal, then, is to outguess the enemy - to use your own weapons in the optimum manner where his defenses are weakest, while avoiding a killing counterblow.
Battles are fought for control of resource-producing star systems. Bases are built on systems to exploit the resources and to construct new ships, but the bases have no other defenses. The battle for a star is over when its sky is swept clean of ships; the planetary bases will be helpless.
Are you man enough to accept the challenge of WARPWAR?
A star map is included at the end of this file. Guidelines for creating new maps can be found in section VII. PBEM. The map is divided into hexes which control movement, and the hexes are numbered to identify the hexes. Hexes are further distinguished by stars and warplines
>--<
/SUSA\ STAR HEX is the term used for all hexes containing a star.
(1)* > Stars are named and referred to by hex number and name.
\1207/ The numbers in parentheses is the star's basic econ. value.
>--<
>--<
/ \ SPACE HEX is the term used for any hex on the map that does
< > not contain a star. If a hex has a warpline in it but no star,
\1007/ it is just like any other space hex. Space hexes are referred
>--< to by their hex number.
>--<
/ * \
>--< // >
/ // /
>--< // >--< WARPLINE is the term used for the lines
/ \// / connecting some stars.
< //>--<
\ * /
>--<
Players who wish to develop more complicated rules to enhance their enjoyment of WarpWar are encouraged to experiment. WarpWar's modular design is easily expandable. A collection of rule variants is known to exist.'
The sequence of game events for each player-turn is:
BUILD POINTS (BP) are produced at stars according to the economic value of each star. They are spent to build Warpships, Systemships and Bases, to repair ships, and to resupply ships with Missiles and Shells. A written record is kept by each player for every ship he builds. Players show these records to each other after (but not during) the game. A written record is also kept for each Base, denoting BPs accumulated and spent.
Build Points build ship components according to this schedule:
1 BP = 1 unit of Power/Drive strength (PD)
1 unit of Beam strength (B)
1 unit of Screen strength (S)
1 Tube for firing Missiles (T)
3 Missiles
1 unit of ECM capability (E)
1 Cannon (C)
6 Shells (SH)
2 units of Armor (A)
1 Hold (H)
1 Systemship Rack (H)
5 BP are needed to build a Warp Generator or a Repair Bay.
WARPSHIPS are ships with warp generators. Warpships may have any
ship component. They may move from hex to hex on the star map and may
move along the warplines. Warpships may also engage in combat, carry
Systemships, have Repair Bays and Holds. A Warpship may select any
combat tactic. Systemships carried by Warpships are noted by their
numbers on that Warpship's record. If a Warpship is destroyed, all
Systemships and cargo it was carrying when destroyed are also destroyed.
EXAMPLES: W2 is built during turn 3, which means its technological level is 0. 21 BP are used to construct it. W2 cannot carry any Systemships (SR=0), but does have beams of strength 3, screens of 2, one Tube and 3 Missiles to fire, and two points of ECM. W2 also has a Power/Drive strength of 7 to use for movement and to allocate to weapons and drive during combat. W2's movement allowance is 4. W2's ship record looks like this: W2: TL0 PD=7 S=2 B=3 T=1 M=3 E=2 (This totals 16 BP. Adding the cost of the warp generator, to make it a Warpship, brings the cost to 21 BP. W7 is built during turn 12, which means its technological level is 2. 23 BP are used to construct it. It is built to be a freighter and repair ship; it can't fight, since it has no Beams, Screens, Missiles or Cannons. W7's record looks like this: W7: TL2 PD=6 A=8 H=2 SR=3 R=1 (the numbers of any Systemships carried by W7 would also appear here.) SYSTEMSHIPS do not have warp generators. Systemships may not have Holds, Systemship Racks, or Repair Bays. They may exist only on star hexes unless carried by Warpships. When a Systemship is being carried by a Warpship, its number is noted on the Warpship's record sheet, and the Systemship's counter does NOT appear on the map. Systemships may NEVER move from one hex to another under their own power. They must always be carried by a Warpship, and may be dropped off at a star hex. In combat, a Systemship may never select the RETREAT tactic; it can escape from combat only if carried by a Warpship. EXAMPLES: S20 is built during turn 2 (tech level 0). It costs 20 BP. It can have no warp generator, Systemship Racks, Holds or Repair Bay. Its record is: S20: TL0 PD=7 B=5 S=5 E=3 S55 is built during turn 9 (tech level 1). It costs 4 BP; it is a fighter-type gunship, with PD=1 to power the Cannon. Its record is: S55: TL1 PD=1 C=1 SH=12
In combat, ships add their TL to the number of hits their Beams, Missiles and Shells (per burst) do. For example, a TL 3 ship would add 3 hits to its Beam damage, 3 hits to each Missile damage, and 3 hits to each burst of Cannon fire, when the weapon actually hit. ECM is affected by tech a little differently: the player using ECM allocates his ECM to incoming Missiles as desired. The tech level of each Missile is then subtracted from the tech level of the target ship, and the difference is added to or subtracted from the ECM points allocated against that Missile ONLY.
TECHNOLOGY IN COMBAT EXAMPLE: A tech level 2 ship fires with a Beam strength of 4 and hits a tech level 1 ship. The firing ship adds 2 to its Beam strength of 4, for a total of 6 hits. The target ship had Screens powered at 3. It adds its tech level of 1 to the Screen power of 3, for a total of 4 hits absorbed by the Screen. Subtracting 4 hits absorbed from 6 inflicted leaves 2 hits the target ship will have to take somewhere in its attributes and mark off its ship record before the next combat round.
Resupply of Missiles and Shells allows a player to replace a ship's original stock of ammunition after some has been fired or destroyed in combat. One BP replaces up to 3 Missiles or up to 6 Shells. A ship may not be resupplied with more Missiles or Shells than it originally carried. Fractions of BPs left over after resupply are not saved. However, one BP CAN be used to resupply (for instance) 3 ships with one Missile each.
During the Move event of a player's turn, he may move some, none, or all of his Warpships up to their maximum movement allowance (= 1/2 PD), taking any damage into account. Warpships may pick up or drop Systemships during movement, at a cost of one movement point per Systemship dropped or picked up. Ship counters are placed face up on the map, with lettering visible. Systemships are not placed face up on the map while being carried by Warpships, but ARE placed on the appropriate star hex when not being carried. Warpship movement is governed by the Power/Drive unit. One half of a ship's present PD value, rounded up, is the ship's store of Movement Points. A ship with an undamaged PD = 7 would have 4 Movement Points. It costs a Warpship 1 MP to do any of the following: Move from one space or star hex to an adjacent hex Move the full distance along a warpline, from the star hex at one end to the star hex at the other Drop off OR pick one Systemship A Warpship may NOT stop at any intermediate on the warpline when using warpline movement. Warpships may only enter warplines for warpline movement at one end of the warpline, NOT in the middle Warpships must stop movement on any star hex occupied by an enemy ship. This applies to Warpships moving either normally or by warplines. Warpships may freely move through space hexes occupied by enemy ships. In 'blind' games where movement is hidden, such as refereed PBEM games, players may indicate in advance that they are going to drop Systemships when their Warpship arrives at a specific star. If enemy ships are found to be present at that star, the Systemships are dropped and available for use on the first round of combat. If no enemy ships are present the Systemships are still dropped. The Warpship must have sufficient movement points remaining to drop the Systemships. Warplines between stars are treated as space hexes for non-warpline movement purposes. A Warpship whose PD is reduced to zero may not move. Movement points expended during the move event are not considered "lost" or expended during the following combat event. When combat commences, a ship may allocate its full present PD strength. Ships may NOT move onto an enemy Base star during the first turn. WARPSHIP MOVEMENT EXAMPLE: W6 starts its movement on space hex 1720 (starting position is indicated by #, end position by %). It moves onto Umma (1 movement point), moves along the warpline to Girsu (1 movement point), moves 3 space hexes to Kish (3 movement points), and stops. It expended 5 movement points. Had it dropped a Systemship on any one of those three stars, it would have expended one additional movement point, for a total of six used in that move. Another example: W8 starts on hex 1919 and moves two hexes to 1717 at a cost of 2 movement points. W8 treated hex 1818 like any other space hex, even though a warpline passes through 1818. >--< >-|| >--< ||>--< *(5)--< >--< *(3)>--< / \Sumarra||\1418/ \151|| \1616/ \1715/ \||14/ \ < >--<(2)*\ >--< >--|| >--< >--< ||-< > \1320/ \1419\\ \1518/ ||\1617/ \1716/ \1815/|| \1914/ >--< >--< \\ >--< || >--< #W8# >--< >--<|| >--< / \1420/ \1519\\ \16||/ \1717/Girsu1816/ ||915/ \ < >--< >--< \\ >||< ======*(1)>--< ||--< > \1421/ \1520/ \161\\ ||(2)===== \1817/ \191|| \2015/ >--< >--< #W6# >Umma\*=====-< >--< >--|| >--< / \1521/ \1620/ ||719/ \1818/ \1917/ ||\2016/ \ < >--< >--< ||--< >--< >--< || >--< > \1522/Isin\1621/ \172|| \1819/ \1918/ \20||/ \2116/ >--< *(1)>--< >--|| >--< %W8% >--< >||< >--< / \1\\2/ \1721/ ||\1820/ \1919/ \20Kish%W6%2117/ \ < >-\\ >--< || >--< >--< >-====*\\(0)-< > \1623/ \\\1722/ \1||1/ \1920Akkad\20===== \2118\\ \2217/ >--< \\>--< >||< >--(3)*======< >--< \\ >--<
Combat MUST occur when ships of opposing sides occupy the same star
hex at the end of a player's movement. Each contested star hex is
treated as a separate combat and is resolved separately. The player
whose turn it is decides in which order he will resolve combats on
contested star hexes. The combat on one star hex is resolved before
combat on the next star hex is begun. The combat event of a player's
turn is over when combat on all contested star hexes has been resolved.
COMBAT ROUND SEQUENCE:
1. Each player writes an order for each of his ships at that star
hex, keeping it concealed from his opponent. Each order must include:
(a) A combat tactic from the Combat Results Table (Attack, Dodge or
Retreat)
(b) A target enemy ship for Beam fire, if any
(c) A target enemy ship for Cannon fire, if any
(d) A target enemy ship for each Missile fired, if any, and each
Missile's drive setting
(e) A power allocation from PD to Beams, Screens, Drive (PD), ECM
and Tubes (if Missiles are fired). The sum of these
allocations may not exceed the ship's total current PD.
(f) Which Systemships, if any, the ship (if a Warpship) is to pick
up or drop.
2. When both players finish writing their orders, they show them to
each other. Reading the Combat Results Table, in conjunction with the
ship orders, the players determine the result for each weapon fired.
3. Players apply the results of weapon hits to the ships. Any damage
a ship receives is immediately marked off its ship record. Any ship
that has received enough hits to reduce all its attributes to zero,
except for the warp generator and repair bay, is destroyed. Counters
representing destroyed ships are removed.
4. Ships that successfully retreat are moved to any hex adjacent to
the star hex.
5. If both players still have ships on that star hex, a new round of
combat is begun on that hex. Writing, revealing and applying one set of
orders constitutes one combat round.
6. Combat ends on a star hex when:
(a) All of one player's ships there have been destroyed, or
(b) All of one player's ships there have successfully retreated off
that hex, or
(c) Three consecutive combat rounds pass in which no ships take any
damage not absorbed by Screens. In that case, the player whose
turn it is must withdraw all his ships from that star hex to
any hex(es) adjacent to that star hex. Systemships are assumed
picked up by any Warpship the retreating player wishes. If
there are no Warpships capable of carrying a Systemship, the
Systemship is destroyed.
POWER ALLOCATION AND SHIP ORDERS
Each ship order describes a ship's actions during one combat round.
Much of the order will detail how much power is allocated from PD to the
other ship attributes. The power allocated from PD is necessary for
those other attributes to operate. No more power may be allocated to
attributes than is undamaged and available in the PD unit. Drives,
Beams, Screens, ECM, Tubes and Cannons are the attributes that need
powering. The Warp Generator, Missiles, Systemship Racks, Holds, and
Repair Bays do not need power in combat.
POWER ALLOCATION EXAMPLE
A ship was built with an original PD of 9. In previous combat 3 hits
have been taken on that PD, reducing it to 6. From that PD=6, the ship
allocates 1 to Drive (for maneuver during combat), 2 to Beams, 2 to
Screens, and 0 to Tubes. This totals 5, so one is unallocated. (The
ship could not power its Tubes to fire Missiles, since it was using
Beams and Screens.)
EXAMPLE OF BEAM FIRE
W3 is going to fire its Beam at S25, using the attack combat tactic.
The order for this combat would look like this:
W3 (TL0) ATTACKS S25: D=0 B=3 S=2 T=0
(W3 also powered its Screens while allocating nothing to Drive or
Tubes. W3 would have needed a minimum of PD=5 for this example.
Obviously, if W3 had not been built with a Beam of at least 3 and a
Screen of at least 2, it could not have carried out this order. Beams
and Screens and ECM cannot be powered past their capacity, even if extra
power is available.)
EXAMPLE OF MISSILE FIRE
S25 fires back at W3, using a Missile and the Dodge combat tactic.
S25 (TL0) DODGE: D=4 B=0 S=0 T=1
M ATTACKS W3: D=3
(Note that S25 needed a PD of at least five to execute this order.
The D=3 for the Missile did NOT come out of the firing ship's PD. Also,
note that S25 did not designate a target of its own. It dodged while
firing a Missile, and the MISSILE attacked W3. When the Combat Results
Table (CRT) is read, the Attack tactic will be used for the Missile to
see if the Missile hit.)
It may be helpful to think of a Missile as a little ship that exists
for only one combat round and always uses the Attack tactic. The
Missile also has its own Drive unit, which can be set to any level of 1
or greater when launched, regardless of the PD of the firing ship. A
Missile does a basic 2 hits of damage when it hits.
EXAMPLE OF CANNON FIRE
S32 fires at W3 using two Cannons and the Attack tactic.
S32 (TL1) ATTACKS W3: D=3 C=1 (firing 3 shells) C=1 (firing 1 shell)
(Note that the number of Shells fired by each Cannon must be
specified. Each Cannon may fire up to 3 Shells per round.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMBAT RESULTS TABLE
Target Ship Tactics
Firing
Ship DRIVE
Tactics DIFFERENCE ATTACK DODGE RETREAT
A -3 or less Miss Miss Escapes
T -1, -2 Hit Miss Escapes
T 0, +1 Hit +2 Miss Miss
A +2 Hit +1 Hit +1 Miss
C +3, +4 Miss Hit Hit
K +5 or more Miss Miss Miss
D -4 or less Miss Miss Escapes
O -2, -3 Miss Hit Escapes
D 0, -1 Hit Hit Escapes
G +1, +2 Hit Miss Escapes
E +3 or more Miss Miss Escapes
RE -2 or less Miss Miss Escapes
TRE -1, 0 Hit Miss Escapes
AT +1 or more Miss Miss Escapes
EXPLANATION OF COMBAT RESULTS
MISS: The MISS result means the weapons fired missed the target ship,
and no damage was done.
ESCAPES: The ESCAPES result means that the ship that selected the
RETREAT combat tactic successfully withdrew from its enemy and escaped.
In order to ESCAPE, a retreating ship must simultaneously obtain the
ESCAPE result against EACH enemy ship (not Missile) that fired on it.
HIT: The HIT result means that the Beam or Missile or Shell(s) fired at
the target hit it. A Beam which hits does damage equivalent to the
power of the Beam, plus tech level. A Missile which hits does 2 hits
damage, plus tech level. Shellfire which hits does 1 hit of damage per
Shell, plus tech level per burst. "HIT +1" and "HIT +2" mean you add
one and two hits, respectively, to the hits of damage inflicted by the
weapon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
READING THE COMBAT RESULTS TABLE
Beam or Cannon Fire: The appropriate cell from the CRT for Beam or
Cannon fire is read at the intersection of the target ship's combat-
tactic column and the firing ship's combat tactic row. The specific row
is found by subtracting the target ship's Drive allocation from the
firing ship's Drive allocation and using the row corresponding to the
difference.
Beam Fire Example: The firing ship selects the Dodge tactic,
allocates 3 PD to drives, and allocates 3 PD to Beam. The target ship
selects the Attack tactic and allocates 2 to Drive with Screens
unpowered. Subtracting the target's Drive of 2 from the firing ship's
Drive of 3 yields a +1. The result from the CRT is read at the
intersection of the target ship's ATTACK column and the firing ship's
DODGE row at +1, +2. The +1, +2 row is read because of the +1
difference between Drives. (It also would have been read if the
difference was +2.) The result at this intersection is "HIT".
Cannon Fire Example: The firing ship selects the Dodge tactic,
allocates 3 PD to drives, allocates 1 PD to its Cannon, and chooses to
fire 2 Shells from the Cannon. The target ship selects the Attack
tactic and allocates 2 to Drive with Screens unpowered. Subtracting the
target's Drive of 2 from the firing ship's Drive of 3 yields a +1. The
result from the CRT is read at the intersection of the target ship's
ATTACK column and the firing ship's DODGE row at +1, +2. The +1, +2 row
is read because of the +1 difference between Drives. (It also would
have been read if the difference was +2.) The result at this
intersection is "HIT" Both Shells hit.
Missile Fire: The appropriate CRT cell for Missile fire is read at
the intersection of the target ship's combat tactic column and the
firing ship's ATTACK row. (Missiles always attack.) The specific ship
tactic row is found by subtracting the target's Drive allocation from
the Drive setting given to the MISSILE. (Remember: A Missile may be
given any Drive setting of +1 or greater, at no PD cost except the 1 PD
needed to power its Tube.)
Missile Fire Example: A Missile is fired and given a Drive setting of
4. It attacks (as always). The target ship selected the Attack tactic
and allotted 3 PD to Drive. Subtracting the target's Drive allocation
of 3 from the Missile's Drive setting of 4 yields a +1 difference. The
CRT result is read at the intersection of the target's ATTACK column and
the firing ship's ATTACK (0, +1) row. The 0, +1 row is read because the
difference between the Missile's Drive setting and target's Drive
setting is +1. The result at that intersection is "Hit +2".
ECM: After orders are revealed, the player using ECM allocates his
ECM points among the attacking Missiles, and then adds or subtracts the
difference between the defending ship's tech level and each Missile's
tech level from the ECM points allocated to that Missile ONLY.
ECM Use Example: A ship of tech level 2 is attacked by a Missile
using a Drive rating of 3 and with a tech level of 3. The ship selected
the ATTACK tactic, powered Drive to 3 and allocated 2 PD to ECM.
Normally the Missile would subtract the target's drive of 3 from its own
drive to get a difference of 0, then read the CRT at the intersection of
the ATTACK (0,+1) row and the ATTACK column, giving a result of Hit +2.
However the ship allocates its 2 points of ECM to the incoming Missile.
Subtracting the Missile's tech level of 3 from the ship's tech level of
1 gives a result of -1; this is applied to the ECM allocated to the
Missile, resulting in 1 effective ECM point. The player using ECM
chooses to lower the Missile's Drive setting to 2. This causes the
Missile to get a drive difference of -1 and to use the ATTACK (-1,-2)
row, resulting in just a Hit.
RECORDING SHIP DAMAGE FROM COMBAT
When enemy weapons hit a target ship, that ship takes damage
cumulatively from all weapons (of all ships) that hit it in each combat
round. The amount of power allocated to a ship's Screens, PLUS that
ship's technological level, is subtracted from all hits a ship receives.
(If the Screen is not powered, no tech level is added to the S=0.) The
Hit + 1 and Hit + 2 results from the CRT add one and two hits,
respectively, to the hits a weapon inflicts. One hit (if unabsorbed by
Screens) does one Build Point worth of damage to the target. Warp
Generators and Repair Bays NEVER take damage in combat; when all the
rest of the ship is destroyed, the warp generator and repair bay
explode.
After subtracting the hits absorbed by the target ship's Screen from
all hits scored on it, the remaining hits ("effective hits") are taken
somewhere in the target's attributes. When all of a ship's attributes
are reduced to 0, the ship is destroyed. Its counter is then removed
from the map.
The player owning a ship decides where the hits are to be taken.
EXAMPLE
A ship of technological level 0 has Screens powered at 4. It takes 7
hits in one combat round (including tech level adjustments). The Screen
absorbs 4 of the 7 hits. The remaining 3 "effective" hits must be taken
in the ship's attributes. This is done by subtracting directly from
Power/Drive rating, Beams, Tubes, Cannons, Missiles, Shells, Armor, ECM,
Holds and Systemship Racks. Before and after records for one round
might look like this:
BEFORE: W4: TL0 PD=7 B=3 S=3 C=1 SH=12 E=1 (a 22-BP ship, counting
the generator.)
AFTER: W4: TL 0 PD={7}6 B=3 S={3}2 C=1 SH={12}6 E=1
The player chose to take one hit in PD, one in Screens, and one in
Shells. Since 6 Shells cost 1 BP, the one hit took out 6 Shells. If a
ship has only one or two Shells left, it can use them to take a hit.
However, if a ship has 6 or more Shells, a hit in Shells must take out
6. The same is true for Missiles, except that 1 hit of damage will
destroy 3 Missiles.
Suppose W4 did not kill its enemy, but enters another round of
combat. The enemy ship is S35, a TL1 Systemship. It fired two Missiles
last round, and has attributes as follows:
S35: TL1 PD=6 S=3 T=2 M={9}7
Combat orders for both ships are written out. The players chose the
following tactics:
S35 (TL1): DODGE D=4 T=2
M1 at W4: D=3
M2 at W4: D=4
W4 (TL0): ATTACK D=2 B=2 S=1 E=1
The Systemship dodged and fired two Missiles, one at drive setting 3 and
one at 4. The Warpship attacked, firing its Beam at 3 and putting up a
Screen with a strength of 1.
Reading the CRT we see that both Missiles hit W4: one at ATTACK
(0,+1) and one at ATTACK (+2). Those are, respectively, a Hit +2 and a
Hit +1. S35 also adds one more hit to the damage inflicted by each
Missile because it is tech level 1. Thus, the two Missiles that hit
each do a basic 2 hits of damage, plus one more for tech level, and add
the +2 and +1 from the CRT. The two Missiles inflict 5 and 4 hits,
respectively, for a total of 9 hits. W4 had ECM powered to 1, and
allocated that point of ECM to the first Missile. However the Missile's
tech level of 1 is subtracted from W4's tech level of 0 for an ECM
modifier of -1, rendering W4's ECM ineffective.
W4's Screen was powered at 1, which subtracts 1 hit from the 9 done
by the two Missiles -- leaving 8 effective hits. (Since W4 is only tech
level 0, the Screen absorbed no extra hits.) W4 must take 8 hits
somewhere in its attributes. Its record at the end of last round looked
like this:
W4: TL 0 PD={7}6 B=3 S={3}2 C=1 SH={12}6 E=1
After taking 8 hits, it looks like this:
W4: TL 0 PD={7}6 B={3}0 S={3}0 C={1}0 SH={12}0 E={1}0
W4 has elected to preserve all the PD possible in order to make an
effective retreat attempt.
(S35 took no damage, because W4 missed with its Beam fire. The Drive
difference, subtracting S35's drive from W4's drive, was a -2. Reading
the ATTACK (-1,-2) row for the firing ship and the DODGE column for the
target ship gives a result of MISS.
SYSTEMSHIP PICKUP AND DROP IN COMBAT
A Warpship may pick up or drop Systemships during a combat round if
it allocates Drive = 0 and Screen = 0 and selects the Dodge or Retreat
tactic. The Warpship may fire its Beam or power ECM while picking up or
dropping Systemships, but may NOT fire Missiles or Cannons. A Warpship
may pick up or drop during one combat round as many Systemships as it
has undamaged Systemship Racks.
Systemships dropped during a combat round may NOT fire weapons (or be
fired on) that combat round.
Systemships picked up during a combat round may not fire any weapons
during that round, but may power Screens and ECM. They may be fired
upon by enemy ships.
If a Systemship was to be picked up by a Warpship on a given combat
round, but the Warpship is destroyed during that round, the Systemship
is not automatically destroyed, but remains on the star hex.
If the Warpship dropping Systemships is destroyed on the round it
drops the Systemships, the Systemships are NOT destroyed. If the
Warpship successfully retreats on the round it drops Systemships, the
Systemships stay in the star hex.
SYSTEMSHIP PICKUP AND DROP AFTER COMBAT
After all combat on all star hexes has been resolved for a player's
turn, he may designate any Systemships he wishes picked up or dropped by
any Warpship on the appropriate star hex. This is essentially a free
rearrangement of Systemships following combat, for the player whose turn
it was.
WarpWar is especially suited to PBEM due to its diceless character. Games may be played with a referee or without. Refereed games are usually run "blind"; that is, no player knows anything about other players' fleets or stars, and possibly nothing about the map as well. Three or more players may play this way. Non-refereed games are more suited to two players. All moves and builds are "seen" (but BP and ship attributes are still secret) and combat rounds are sent with a blank screen or two preceding them so that the other player may write his orders and resolve the round immediately. Referees of PBEM games must keep records for all ships, all stars and all Bases in the game. They must also keep records of how much each player knows about all other players and about the map. CREATING NEW MAPS New maps may be created if players desire a larger galaxy in which to fight. Get a large sheet of hex paper with at least 400 hexes. Each hex has a 1 in 12 chance of containing a star; roll 1d12 for each hex, or roll 2d6 and give it a star only on a roll of 11 or 12. However, do not roll for a hex adjacent to an existing star. Stars are never adjacent. Give each star a 1 in 4 chance of having a warpline to each of the 4 nearest stars. No star will ever have more than 4 warplines. Players' home worlds should be assigned in one of two ways. Either spread them more or less evenly throughout the map, or distribute them around the periphery of the map with none in the center. Give each star on the map a basic BP value. A good range for BP values is 0-5, with higher values being rarer. Rolling 2d6 and dividing the result by 3 is a quick method of assigning BP values. Overall the map should be as fair as possible to all starting positions. If the rolls give bad results, change them to produce a playable map. _____________________________________________________________________ | WARPWAR COUNTER SHEET | |_____________________________________________________________________| | W1 | W2 | W3 | W5 | W7 | W8 | W9 |S13 |S23 |S33 |S43 |S53 |S55 |S65 | | () | () | () | () | () | () | () | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | |____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____| |S65 |S73 |S75 |S83 |S85 |S93 |S95 | W2 | W3 | W4 | W5 | W7 | W8 | W9 | | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | == | == | == | == | == | == | == | |____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____| |S10 |S20 |S22 |S30 |S40 |S42 |S44 |S50 |S52 |S54 |S60 |S70 |S80 |S90 | | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | |____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|
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\1926/ \2025/\\ \2124/ \2223/ \2322/ \2421/ ||\2520/ \2619/
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/ \2026/ \2125/ \2224/ \2323/ \2422/ \25||/ \2620/ \
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\2027/ \2126/ \2225/ \2324/ \2423/ \2522/ || \2621/ \2720/
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/ \2127/ \2226/ \2325/ \2424/ \2523/ \2622/ \2721/ \
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\2128/ \2227/ \2526/ \2425/ \2424/ \2623/ \2722/ \2821/
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