BR.house.rules.1.1.txt

BR Rules Fixes version 1.1 February 11, 1996

Hi,

This is the lastest revision of my BR rules.  I have also updated this to 
include the BR versions of my BL rules additions.

All Additional Rules require certain fixes to be made to BR to make it 
mimic BL better (first are some useful terms):
 
Term				Abbreviation
---------------			------------
Active EMS			AEMS
Bogey Detection			BD
Brilliant Lances		BL
Battle Rider			BR
Difficulty Level		DL, DiffLevel
Difficulty Modifier		DM, DiffMod
Meson Gun			MG
Meson Screen			MS
Particle Accel. Weapon		PAW
Passive EMS			PEMS
Rate of Fire			ROF
Short Range			SR
Tech Level			TL


Task Difficulty Fix:
--------------------
All sensor, jammer, screen and fire tasks are 1 Difficulty Level harder.
This is a change in the _Base_Difficulty_Level_, this is not a DiffMod!
 
This reflects the fact that all the tasks considered _Average_ in BL,
mysteriously changed to _Easy_ in BR, even though the BR rules give a 
table for converting TNE task DiffLevels to BR, and 1=Easy, 2=Average,
etc..
 
 
Overpowering DiffMod Fix (clarification):
-----------------------------------------
Overpowering -DMs may only be used to counteract +DMs (same as FC rating 
rule).
 
Missile Damage Clarification:
-----------------------------
Det-Laser missiles do 1-6 hits of damage value 2 (or 3), just like BL.  

Damage (another non-BL compatible screw-up):
--------------------------------------------
I've been thinking about the way damage is handled in BR, and it seems 
a little screwy.  The fact that you add Outstanding Hits together is 
what bugs me.  It can be argued that this is to cover for the lack of 
incremental damage, but it alters MG/MS interactions too much.

The solution is not to add Outstanding hits together, but to treat them 
as separate hits.  This will kill MGs unless you fix the screen task 
(which is broken to the extent that the same combat will never come out 
the same in BL and BR if MGs are involved).  PAWs will be pretty weak 
against big ships as well, but that is the case with BL so at least it 
will be consistant.

In a nutshell:

1.  Treat all Outstanding Hits as two separate hits.

2.  Do Meson Screen tasks as they are done in BL.  This means that you 
    need to do the following:

	a.  Meson gun hits target (outstanding hit counts as 2 hits *not* 
	added together)

	b.  Lookup BL value of MG attack (chart at near end of BR).  Lookup 
	BL value of MS (same chart).

	c.  Do the meson screen task, but with the following DMs:
        * if the BL MG value exceeds the MS value by 2+ times, DM=+1
        * if the BL MG value exceeds the MS value by 4+ times, DM=+2
        * if the BL MS value exceeds the MG value by 4+ times, DM=-1

	d.  Roll (draw card) the task.  A success means the MG attack is
	negated, a failure means the attack succeeds and does *full* damage.

 
Additional, Optional Rules:
==========================
(note that these rules are in addition to existing rules, and do not 
supersede them except where noted)
 
Automatic Tasks (AutoTasks):
----------------------------
Any Task reduced below "1" (Easy) is automatically Successful.  You still 
have to draw a card (or roll) to determine Outstanding Success.

Limited attacks by Spinal & Parallel (non-trainable) Weapons mounts:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
A ship, in addition to the Multiple Firing Batteries (MFB) Rule (pg.19), 
may only fire a number of spinal and other non-trainable *weapons* equal 
to its maneuver rating in gs, minus every gturn spent on evasion and 
maneuver (tracking does not count for this, see below).  Results less than 
1, are treated as 1.
 
The exception being that it may always fire weapons up to the number 
allowed in the MFB Rule at any *single* target.
 
The maximum weapons bearing Re:MFB Rule are *always* in effect.
 
Optional addition 1:  A ship/taskforce may expend gturns on _tracking_. 
For each tracking gturn, add 1 to the number of weapons that may attack.
 
Optional addition 2:  Ships may fire more than the allowed number of 
weapons, but add +1 Diff Level (to *base* level) for each additional 
weapon.
 
 
Advanced Sensor Rules:
======================
It is assumed that the Bogeys that are represented by Taskforce counters 
(real, or false) were detected before the beginning of a given scenario 
using long-time observations with the ships' passive sensor arrays (rules 
for this are more suitable for BL, than BR and are not discussed here). 
Bogey Detection Rules from my BL Additions may be used.
 
All ships are assumed to enter a scenario passive (unfolded) unless 
otherwise noted.
 
Variable short range:  
---------------------
All active sensors may operate at any short range (SR) below their maximum 
for various tactical reasons.
 
	eg: A CA with A:16 sensors may choose to
	operate them at A:2 in an attempt to lock
	nearby missiles without broadcasting its
	capabilities to the enemy.
 
Advanced Passive Folding Arrays:  
--------------------------------
Because they are aperture synthesis arrays, passive sensors may be listed 
with 2 short ranges.  The first is the SR that the ship may use _without_ 
suffering folding array penalties, the second, in parentheses, is the SR 
for the unfolded array.
 
	eg: A BB might be listed as P:6(8).  This ship
	could use P:6 without unfolding an array, or
	P:8 with its array unfolded.
 
Going Active:  
-------------
Going active vs. a passive sensor gives a -1DM to the sensor task of the 
passive player.  There is an alternate method for attempting to Lock 
active targets.

A passive sensor can detect the emissions of equipment that emit signals 
in its reception band.  Thus, a passive EMS sensor can detect the 
emissions of AEMS sensors,as well as radio communicators and jammers.  
These signals can frequently be detected at ranges in excess of the 
maximum effective range of the emitters.
 
As a result, when a target goes active*, passive sensors may roll their
Lock-On attempts using special, longer range breaks.  Compute the range
breaks using the sum of the passive sensor's short range and the active
sensor's short range.

If a passive sensor is being used to detect active sensors in this way, 
it may only use active sensor DMs to the task.
 
	eg: A CA in its detection phase decides to
	attempt detection of an active taskforce 60
	hexes away.  Its folded passive array (P:5(8))
	has a SR of 5, so it wouldn't normally be able
	to detect a target past 40 hexes.  Since the
	target is active, with a SR=16 detector, the
	detecting ship may attempt detection with a
	base difficulty equal to Long range (within 84
	hexes).  The base difficulty would therefore
	be 4 (using the diff level fix above), and all
	other DMs would be added/subtracted from this
	value.
 
 
Past Extreme Range Locking:  
----------------------------
If as Locking Task is possible (not greater than 5) then it may be 
attempted, regardless of range.
 
Advanced Surprise:
------------------
Any targets that are surprised (see BR, pg. 25) are unaware that other 
ships are present at all, and are therefore conserving gturns.  
 
Under combat conditions ships use microbursts from their maneuver system 
to slightly randomize their positions.  The range DMs on the Player Aid 
Card assume these micro-evasions---but surprised ships (or non-evading 
ships with limited gturns) are *not* making these micro-evasions.  As a 
result, the range table needs to be altered for attacks on surprised ships 
as follows:
 
Surprised ships are attacked normally, but the range DM is +1 for every 
10 hexes range (instead of 3).  In addition, surprised targets may be 
engaged out to the limits that FC and overpowering allow, simply add a 
DiffLevel to the base level at each doubling of range (+1 for 2xExtreme, 
+2 for 4xExtreme, etc.), and use the +1DM/10 hexes range table.
 
Obviously, only size will make attempts possible past a weapon's Extreme range.
 
 
Designer's Notes:
===================================================
 
First things first.  The Difficulty Level fix had to be done.  It *must* 
have been an oversight---otherwise any player character fleets would be at 
a DiffLevel disadvantage vs. non-player fleets according to BR's rules.
 
The Overpowering thing is clear in BL, and unclear in BR, just thought I'd make it clear.
 
The rationale for the limit on det-laser missile damage seems clear enough.

I didn't like the fact that BR didn't duplicate BL results with MGs.
In BL a ship with a small MG can do criticals if it can beat the 95% odds
against actually penetrating the meson screen.  This means battle riders
actually have a use, since you don't need a battleship sized MG to take out 
a big target.  It also means you get more shots, which also makes the canon
existence of battleriders make even more sense.  We always use this rule.
 
The idea that a limited number of non-trainable weapons can actually engage 
targets seems to make a lot of sense to me.  Since all such weapons must be 
pointed at a target by rotating the entire ship, it would greatly constrain 
maneuver if too many targets were fired at, or too many weapons were trained 
on targets.
 
The variable SR active sensors, and advanced passive folding array rules are 
more of the common sense variety, I thought many people would assume them, 
but wanted to add them for clarity.
 
The use of the active sensor long range, and passive locks on active targets 
out past Extreme is the result of the fact that the detecting ship sees more 
energy than it reflects back at the active source.  As a result, it should 
see about the same energy the active ship sees at longer ranges.
 
The advanced surprise makes sense of the range DM table as it pertains to 
non-evading targets, and frankly, it was also a rationale for not driving 
around with the AEMS lit up all the time.  It would also have interesting 
implications if one was to assume missiles did not micro-evade (kinda 
closer to the BL designers notes in Challenge, huh?).
 
I took out the KKM rules since Guy and Bertil are working on a much better 
version than mine.  Also, we have MultiTargeting rules done for BL (mostly 
for anti-missile use) and they are a bit complicated for BR.  I need to 
make a simple system that is consistant with those rules for resolving the
thousands of missile attacks youUd see in BR.

Once again, let me know what you think!

					Merrick Burkhardt