Ship Combat

Ship combat is a nasty, but essential part of space combat. It occurs both in the combatants space ships, and on the Stellar Hexmap. The characters move around in the space ship, going to different compartments, preparing firing solutions, and repairing systems. The space ship itself is navigated around the Hexmap, controlled by the pilot, with a set velocity vector for speed and direction. Combat can be divided into three phases, Engineering, Piloting, and Gunnery.

Combat Phases
Combat can be divided into three phases, Engineering, Piloting, and Gunnery. During the Engineering phase, a ships crew may preform one action each, which can be used to do the following: At the beginning of the Engineering phase, the ships reactor adds the designated amount of energy to its reserve.
 * Repair or use systems
 * Use system boosters
 * Launch external deployment

Before the piloting phase, the pilots will make opposing pilot checks to determine who acts first. Afterwards the pilot may do the following: If a ship has not moved a number of hexes equal to its velocity, it moves the remaining hexes strait forward at the end of its turn.
 * Move their ship
 * Perform maneuvers
 * Prepare tracking weapons
 * Perform jumps to Hyperspace or Warpspace

During the gunnery phase the crew of a ship may fire any functioning weapons on the ship. The ships act in the same order as they did in the pilots phase.

Movement
A Ships movement can be described by two attributes, its heading, and its velocity. A ships heading is which hexface it is pointing to, and its velocity is which direction it is moving, and how fast it is moving. A ship will move a number of hexes equal to its velocity on its turn.

Movement on the Hexmap is largely effected by two factors of the ships frame, its Size Class (SC), and its maneuverability. A ships Size Class represents its mass, and therefore how much thrust it requires to pull off maneuvers. A ships Maneuverability represents how easy it is to force a ship to pull off a maneuver, and how quickly it can turn.

Burns
Before a ship can execute any type of movement it requires a velocity, which it acquires through executing a burn. A normal burn adds an amount to the ships velocity and afixes it to its heading, and consumes an amount of energy, both of which are specified in the thrusters stat block.

Retrograde Burn
If a ships heading is opposite to a ships velocity, then a burn it executes will be a retrograde burn, which will drop a ships velocity to zero at the cost of an amount of energy equal to the ships SC.

Radial burn
If a ships heading has a two-face difference from its velocity, it will execute a radial burn, which will drop its velocity by one.

Maneuvers
Maneuvers are more complex feats of piloting that put a greater strain on the ships and its systems. The each have an energy cost, a DC, and an effect. A ships size class effects how much energy is taken up by each of these maneuvers, however larger ships typically make up for this with increased defensive or offensive systems. A ship may pull off as many maneuvers as it has energy for in one turn.

Turning
Turning is a special maneuver that has no energy cost, and requires no form of check or expenditure. When a ship preforms a turn it rotates one hex face, and loses no velocity. In order to turn, a ship must have first traveled in a strait line a number of hexes equal to its maneuverability.

The Image on the right represents various ships turning, and shows the relationship between maneuverability and turning radius.

Strafing Turn
A strafing turn is a variation of a turn where the ship does not immediately change its heading upon rotating. At any point after a strafing turn a ship my reengage its thrusters for free and continue flying as normal.

Bank
A bank is similar to a turn, however it results in allows a ship to rotate two hex faces at once. This puts a greater strain on the ships engines as well as the pilot, consuming energy equal to the ships SC and requiring a DC (10 + Maneuverability) pilots check. Due to the rapid change in heading, will preform a perpendicular burn.

Strafing Bank
A strafing bank is a variation of a bank where the ship does not immediately change heading upon rotating, nor does it loose velocity. At any point after a strafing bank a ship my reengage its thrusters for free and continue flying as normal, however it will preform a radial burn.

Switch
A switch is a maneuver in which the pilot quickly rotates the ship 180°. It is difficult to pull off, and is intensive on the ships systems. It requires a DC (10 + 2 * Maneuverability) pilots check to accomplish, and consumes an amount of energy equal to twice a ships SC. If the check is made, the ship will be in position to execute a retrograde burn.