Unit Type Max Attacks/Turn
DropShips 4
JumpShips 4
Satellites 4
Space Stations 6
WarShips 8
INTRODUCTION
ALPHA STRIKE TACTICAL ANNEX
ABSTRACT SPACE COMBAT
ALPHA STRIKE FORCE BUILDING
ALPHA STRIKE SCENARIOS
EXPANDED REPAIR AND SALVAGE RULES BATTLETECH CONVERSIONS
ALPHA STRIKE POINT VALUE CALCULATIONS a modified roll result of 10 (8 + [4 ÷ 2] = 8 + 2 = 10). This
means BD1 also gets to pick the attack range, and chooses Short range. AD1 will still be able to fire at BD1—since a DropShip cannot be tailed—but AD1 may only use its aft-mounted weapons to do so.
DropShip AD1 leaves its remaining three possible weapon attacks undeclared, partially because Side A’s player doesn’t yet know what Side B’s remaining DropShip will be doing. BD1 also leaves its remaining weapon attacks undeclared.
Now it is Side B’s turn for the Combat Phase, and it still has one unit left that has yet to declare any attacks:
DropShip BD2.
Fighter B1 already declared its attack on A1 during Side A’s attacks, and is thus skipped. The same goes for DropShip BD1, which has declared its intent to fire on AD1 as its primary target.
DropShip BD2 decides to add its guns to the attack on AD1, and declares an attack with that vessel as its primary target. BD2 makes a successful Control Roll with a result of 7, and adds half its Thrust of 4, for a final modified total of 9. AD1 also makes a successful Engagement Control Roll of 7, and adds half its Thrust to achieve a the same modified total of 9.
Because both ships tied, their controlling players may determine their facings independently, and all combat between them in this round will take place at Medium range. DropShip AD1 decides to put its front facing toward BD2, and declares one of its three unused attacks against BD2 as a “secondary” target. DropShip BD2—deciding to take advantage of its capital missiles’ reach—decides to face its left side toward AD1 instead. This will give BD2 two possible attacks against its primary target; the capital missiles will attack as if they are at Short range, while the Side A has two aerospace fighters and one DropShip, A1,
A2 and AD1. Side B has one fighter, and two DropShips, B1, BD1 and BD2. All units are Skill 4; all of the fighters have a Thrust rating of 6, while the DropShips all have a Thrust rating of 4. This engagement is taking place outside of the atmosphere, and of the units involved, only BD2 possesses capital weapons—in the form of capital missiles on its side arcs (in addition to standard weapons).
The fighters each receive only 1 attack per turn, but the DropShips may each attempt up to 4 attacks per turn. Of the DropShips, BD2 is the only one capable of delivering 2 attacks in the same arc, thanks to the combination of capital missiles and standard weapons there.
Side A won Initiative for this turn, and both sides moved all their units into the same zone of the same Engagement Map.
Side A starts the Combat Phase as the Initiative winner.
A1 makes an attack on B1. B1 chooses to return fire.
Both A1 and B1 will make Control Rolls. Both have a target of the Skill Rating 4, which becomes their target numbers to control the engagement. A1 rolls 2D6 and succeeds with a 7 result. A1 adds half its Thrust rating of 6 for a modified Control Roll of 10 (7 + [6 ÷ 2] = 7 + 3 = 10).
B1 rolls 2D6 and also succeeds at its Control Roll with a 5.
B1 thus also adds half its Thrust rating of 6, for a modified Control Roll of 8 (5 + [6 ÷ 2] = 5 + 3 = 8).
Because A1 and B1 both succeeded, each fighter may determine its own facing relative to each other.
Unsurprisingly, both opt to face one another, but because A1’s modified Control Roll is higher than B1’s modified Control Roll, A1 gets to choose its attack range, and selects Short range. Both A1 and B1 can attack each other using their Short range damage value.
A2 also declares an attack on B1. B1 is already committed to firing on A1, so it cannot return fire on A2 this turn.
Still, B1’s player rolls to control the fighter’s engagement position and range against A2. A2 succeeds with a roll of 6, and adds half its Thrust rating of 6 for a modified Control Roll of 9 (6 + [6 ÷ 2] = 6 + 3 = 9). B1 also succeeds, but with a roll of 11, and thus achieves a modified Control Roll of 14 (11 + [6 ÷ 2] = 11 + 3 = 14). Since both fighters succeeded, each one picks its own facing; A2 naturally chooses to face B1, while B1 chooses to face its attacker once again, rather than present its tail. Because B1’s modified Control Roll is higher than A2’s, B1 chooses the combat range between itself and selects the Extreme range bracket. This keeps A2 nice and far away while B1 deals with A1.
Side A’s DropShip, AD1, now opts to take on Side B’s DropShip, BD1, as its “primary” target. BD1 decides it will be firing back, with AD1 designated at its “primary” target.
AD1 rolls a 3 and thus fails its Control Check, while BD1 rolls an 8 and succeeds. Because BD1 succeeded and AD1 failed, BD1 chooses the facing for both units, and declares that it will direct its front-mounted weapons against AD1’s aft-facing. When determining the attack range, AD1 adds only one-fourth of its Thrust to its roll result because its
Patrolling otherwise unguarded worlds is stock-in-trade for the Periphery Star Guard mercenary force.
Step 5: Roll to Hit
Roll 2D6 for each unit and compare the total to the modified to-hit number identified in the previous step. If the dice roll equals or exceeds the modified to-hit number, the attack is successful.
Otherwise, the attack fails.
Step 6: Determine and Apply Damage
When an attack is successful, its damage is applied immediately, but damage effect will not take place until the End Phase. Before damage can be applied, the attack direction and amount of damage must be determined.
Attack Direction: Under these rules, the direction an aerospace unit is attacked from is determined during Step 2: Establish Engagement Control.
Amount of Damage: As with ground units, the base amount of damage delivered by a successful aerospace weapon attack is equal to the attacking unit’s damage value at the appropriate range bracket. Remember that aerospace units have four range values, rather than three. For targets at Short range, the base damage is that listed in the attacking unit’s S value. For a target at Medium range, the M value is used. For a target at Long range, the L damage value applies. For targets at Extreme range, the E damage value is used. All of the weapon classes that may be employed under these expanded abstract aerospace combat rules (including capital/sub-capital weapons, capital/sub-capital missiles, and standard weapons) employ this same mechanic.
Damage to Rear: Add 1 point of damage to any successful attack that strikes its target in the rear if the target is any unit type other than a station-keeping aerospace unit (movement mode k).
Overheat Damage: Aerospace units that track heat may inflict additional damage on their targets at the expense of overheating, in the same manner as ’Mechs can. The decision to overheat for additional damage potential must be made when the attack is declared, but before it is resolved (see Overheating, p. 44, AS).
Special Ability Damage: Aerospace units do not use damage-modifying special abilities under these rules.
Heat Special Ability: Aerospace units may not use Heat special abilities under these rules.
Step 7: Roll for Critical Hits
As with standard Alpha Strike, any damage to an aerospace unit that marks off structure bubbles will require a roll on the Determine Aerospace Critical Hits Table, using the column appropriate for the aerospace unit type that suffered the damage (see p. 81).
Armor Thresholds: In addition, aerospace units must also roll on the Determine Aerospace Critical Hits Table if the damage from a single attack exceeds the unit’s damage threshold, even if the damage does not strike off any structure bubbles. If an aerospace unit’s “armor threshold” does not appear on its unit card, its value is equal to the aerospace unit’s starting armor value, divided by 3, and rounded up. Damage delivered to an aerospace unit throughout the scenario will not reduce the unit’s armor threshold.
Step 3: Determine Range
If both units failed at their engagement Control Rolls in the previous step, all combat between them in the current round takes place using the standard Long-range bracket, and the players proceed to Step 4.
If either or both of the two units succeeded at its Engagement Control Roll, half of the successful unit’s current Thrust rating (rounded down) is added to its Control Roll result. If one unit succeeded and its opponent failed, the unit that failed its Control Roll only adds one-quarter of its current Thrust (rounded down) to its Control Roll result.
The unit with the higher of these two Thrust-modified Control Roll results may then decide the range bracket at which combat takes place. If both Thrust-modified results are identical, then the aerospace unit with the highest margin of success (MoS) from Step 2 decides the range bracket that will apply between them. Only standard range brackets may be chosen under these rules; the range brackets available are Short, Medium, Long, and Extreme.
If both units’ Thrust-modified Control Roll results and their unmodified MoS values are the same, combat takes place using the standard Medium-range bracket.
Capital Weapons: When using capital or sub-capital weapons—including capital and sub-capital missiles—to attack, reduce the selected range bracket by 1 level (to a minimum of Short range), regardless of the Control Roll outcomes.
Step 4: Determine To-Hit Numbers
The Aerospace To-Hit Modifiers Table (see p. 81) provides the to-hit modifiers that are used in abstract aerospace combat, both when using these capital-scale rules, and the air combat rules from Alpha Strike. When delivering an aerospace attack, the attacking unit’s Skill Rating is its base to-hit number, with any applicable modifiers added to account for conditions such as range, damage to the attacking aerospace unit, atmospheric effects, and so forth. Aerospace attacks generally do not factor in a target’s movement or terrain, although some exceptions—such as attacks from grounded DropShips, or attacks against drifting aerospace units—will apply as shown on the table.
Capital and Standard Weapons: Some larger aerospace units may possess up to three broad classes of weapons in any given attack arc. These classes include capital weapons (which includes non-missile capital and sub-capital weapons), capital missiles (which includes all capital and sub-capital missiles), and standard weapons. During the Combat Phase, units with more than one class of weapons in the same arc may decide to execute as many attacks in the same turn as it has weapon classes in the appropriate firing arc.
Each weapon class fired in this case will require its own to-hit roll. Remember that capital weapons and capital missiles will apply additional modifiers for targeting smaller units and firing upon units with Point Defense special abilities (PNT#), but benefit from reduced range brackets as noted above.
INTRODUCTION
Capital Non-Missiles (CAP or SDS-C) +5 Sub-Capital Non-Missile (SCAP or SDS-SC) +3 Capital or Sub-Capital Missiles (MSL or SDS-CM) +0
Standard Weapons +0
MISCELLANEOUS MODIFIERS
Condition Modifier
Advanced Capital Missile Attack
Vs. target in same sector +0 Vs. target in adjacent sector +2 Air-to-Ground Capital/Sub-Capital Weapon Attacks
Attack from Central Zone
(Atmospheric Map) +0
Attack from any other zone
(Atmospheric Map) +3
Orbit-to-surface attack +3 Ground target designated by
friendly TAG –2
Attacker is a Drone +1
Attacker is in a Naval C3 Network
(in same sector) –1
Attacker is Overheating +Heat Level (1-3) Attacker is Tailing the Target –2*
MISCELLANEOUS MODIFIERS
Condition Modifier
Attacker is Support Vehicle/Satellite with:
Advanced Fire Control (AFC) +0 Basic Fire Control (BFC) +1 No AFC or BFC special +2 Attacker’s Fire Control damaged
(per hit) +2**
High-Speed Attack +8
Point Defense (PNT#) vs. Capital/Sub-Capital Missiles Point Defense damage (1 point) +1 Point Defense damage (2+ points) Auto-Fail Screen Launchers used (SCR#) +SCR special
(max +4)
Secondary Target +1
Target has Grappled the Attacker –4 Target is Crippled/Drifting –2 Teleoperated Missiles
(TELE + MSL/SDS-CM) –1