Action Vehicular Combat Playtest 1 - Starhawk vs Typhoon

Now that we have an update to our Action Vehicular Combat, integrated the Chase rules, the Dogfighting rules and a few additional expansions, we need to test it out, with our newly revised Typhoons and Starhawks! Naturally, we need pilots, so we’ll choose our old friend Tobin Starlaw, to whom we’ll give this fancy new Ace Fighter advantage, and we’ll choose Starlet as his wingman. Starhawks are superior to Typhoons (they certainly cost more), and Tobin and Starlet are superior pilots, so they should be able to easily handle an array of mook fighters. Thus, for this battle, we’ll have the pair face off against a wing of 5 typhoons in an asteroid field (Rough, Normal terrain which starts at Distant range).

For simplicity, Tobin has Pilot 18, Gunnery/Artillery 16, Daredevil and Ace Fighter. Starlet has Skill 15 in everything pertinent. Tobin has an ally Tech-Bot with skill-18 in anything pertinent (mainly Electronics Operations, Hyperspace navigation and doing quick repairs). Starlet has some lame, run of the mill robot with no personality and skill 12. The Starhawk stats are here. What matters most is that the Starhawk has the following traits:

• 140 HP, HT 11
  
  
• An absolute maximum speed (for escape) of 650 (+14)
  
  
• +4 Dodge (in high agility)
  
  
• A best possible Chase Roll (high agility, afterburner) of +17
  
  
• +4 accuracy on its missiles (4 missiles), with 6dx10 damage
  
  
• -4 ECM (and a decoy launcher)
  
  
• ROF 12 cannon (+2 to hit), with 6dx5(5) damage
  
  
• DR 15 and force screen DR 200 which can be angled.
  
  

Our imperial pilots have skill 12. For a reference to a typhoon, see here. What matters most is that the Typhoon has the following traits:

• 90 HP, HT 9f
  
  
• An absolute maximum speed (for escape) of 750 (+15)
  
  
• A best possible Chase Roll (afterburner) of +15
  
  
• +5 dodge
  
  
• -4 ECM (and a decoy launcher)
  
  
• ROF 6 between two cannons (+1 to hit), with 6dx5(5) damage
  
  
• DR 15
  
  

The Dogfight

Turn 0: Encounter

So, Tobin and Starlet patrol an asteroid belt, seeking to ensure its safety as a route to attack the dread imperial warship, Sunbreaker. As the great boulders float serenely past, Starlet breaks from her introspective musing to notice the red flash on her screen: five incoming bogeys. She taps her comms on and notifies Tobin, who responds that he sees them. The five Typhoons seem as aware of their presence as the heroes are of theirs.

The Encounter begins at Distant Range. The sensors won’t pick up targets farther than that, thanks to all of the interference from the Asteroids.

Note: It might be interesting to look at what an ambush might look like. How can you keep someone from detecting you, visually or with sensors, and then ambush them. What would such an ambush look like?

Turn 1: Distant (-19); 5 Typhoons vs Tobin and Starlet

Tobin signals to Starlet to break off. He’s faster and more agile and knows he can take out the Typhoons faster than she can, but not if he’s shackled to her less-capable piloting skill. He hopes to break some of the enemy fighters off. She acknowledges, her hands tighter on her controls, as she now knows she must face this threat on her own.

The Typhoons see the split and their engines rev with screaming plasma as they activate their afterburners and split, three after Tobin and two after Starlet.

This is an example of “Breaking up the chase into smaller parts.” Alternatively, all five could go after one, in which case we get a three part chase.

Terrain and Thrills: The GM declares the asteroid belt as sufficiently dense that it counts as Rough Terrain.

Step 1: Quarry chooses chase maneuver

In this case, we have no clear “quarry” and “pursuer”, so we go with whomever has the highest Basic Speed, which is surely Tobin. Thus, the Typhoons need to pick first. They choose “Move and Attack” of course, and pursue their respective stahawks. They activate their afterburners.

Step 2: Pursuer chooses chase maneuver

Tobin and Starlet are separate and can choose their own maneuvers. However, both Tobin and Starlet chooses Move and Attack. Their wings whine and then thunk as they shift into forward position and their afterburners unleash their plasma roar as they bear down on their targets (pursuit). They also adjust their force screens forward.

Step 3: Pursuer resolves any rolls for their maneuver

Tobin and Starlet both need to roll their operating rolls: 22 and 19 respectively, to avoid hitting an asteroid. They pass easily with a 3 (what a place to waste a critical success) and 13.

Tobin fires a missile at a Typhoon. His artillery skill is 16, the missile has +4 acc, is firing for airburst (+4), the Typhoon has +4 SM, -4 ECM, and a -8 speed penalty (Range does not matter). This means he’ll hit on a 16 or less and does so with a 10.

The Typhoon must defend. It has a dodge of 11, with +2 from its decoy which it fires. The missile applies a -3 to dodge, thus, the ship dodges on a 10 or less. It rolls an 8 and the missile sails past.

Starlet fires a missile at a Typhoon. His artillery skill is 16, the missile has +4 acc, is firing for airburst (+4), the Typhoon has +4 SM, -4 ECM, and a -8 speed penalty (Range does not matter). This means she’ll hit on a 15 or less and barely does so with a 15.

The Typhoon must defend. It has a dodge of 11, with +2 from its decoy which it fires. The missile applies a -3 to dodge, thus, the ship dodges on a 10 or less. It rolls a 9 and expertly evades the attack.

Step 4: Quarry resolves roll for their maneuver

All 5 typhoons must evade the asteroids; with a skill of 12 and a handling of +5, they need a 17 or less, and all do so (the worst roll is a 13). They swarm around the asteroids, having rolled out of the way of the first salvo of missiles, and then open fire in a hail of blaster bolts.

Each Typhoon is at Distant (-19) with an ROF of 6 (+1) against SM +5 starhawks. They have a radar lock (+3) and targeting computers (+2). With their skill of 12, this gives them a 4 or less. Not ideal, but this is extremely distant. At this point, all fighters are just specs to one another. Unsurprisingly, the bolts go wide, peppering the asteroids and lancing the space near our Starhawks, but never quite hitting.

Step 5: Resolve the Chase quick contest.

Each group must resolve their own. Tobin has a skill of 18 with a total bonus from his craft of +17 -2 from Move and Attack, giving him a 33. Starlet has skill 15 and +17 from her craft, -2 for move and attack, for a total of 30. The Typhoons all have skill 12 and +20 from their craft -2 for move and attack, for a 30.

Tobin rolls a 13, beating his skill by 20, while his 3 pursuing typhoons roll a 12, beating theirs by 18. Neither gains advantage of comes closer to the other. As both are pursuing, the agree to close range one step and are now at Extreme. The swift Typhoons more than compensate for Tobin’s amazing piloting, and though he edges towards advantage, they manage to fend him off for now.

Starlet rolls an 8, beating her skill by 22. Her two pursuing typhoons roll a 17, which is a failure. It’s not clear what happens here, if Starlet gets a 10+ margin, or if her opponent gets a success by 13 and thus she “only” succeeds by 9. She chooses to become Advantaged and to close a step. As both pursued, they agree to shift another range band closer.

Starlet’s not doing so bad! With a quick blast of afterburners, she manages to outwit the two typhoon pilots who notice too late what she’s doing as she suddenly looms less than 200 yards behind them!

Turn 2: Tobin (3 missiles) vs 3 Typhoons: Extreme (-15); Starlet (3 missiles; advantaged) vs 2 Typhoons: Long (-11)

Terrain and Thrills: The GM rolls and comes up with a giant asteroid. He applies this to Starlet: her typhoons and she need to dive into Tight terrain, or Evade the giant rock.

Step 1: Quarry chooses chase maneuver

Starlet’s typhoons race to escape Starlet’s fighter and find themselves accelerating towards a looming planetoid full of craggy canyons and spikey craters. They dive towards it, accepting the danger. They attempt a Move (Escape) with their Back facing Starlet.

Those facing Tobin choose a Move and Attack (Pursuit) with the F facing Tobin.

Step 2: Pursuer chooses chase maneuver

Tobin notices Starlet’s starhawk chasing her prey dangerously close to a moonlet, and so figures he needs to end this. He chooses a Move and Attack, which he thinks should be sufficient to take out all three enemies.

Starlet chooses Move and Attack as well.

Step 3: Pursuer resolves any rolls for their maneuver

Starlet needs to make a roll at -2 to avoid the sides of the canyon she finds herself racing down and breakneck speeds. The GM insists on making it even more perilous, increasing it to -4. She has an effective skill of 19, reduced to 15. She passes handily with a 6.

Advantaged, her opponents face whatever direction she wishes. She chooses B, which they had assumed. She opens fire: their +15 speed is worse than her -11 range penalty, so she has a -15 from speed, +4 from size, +5 from radar and targeting computer, and +2 from ROF. She is focused on a single target. With her skill of 15, she has an 11 to hit. She rolls a 15 and her shots go wide, ripping chunks out of the canyon wall that her near supersonic fighter just misses as she dodges under them, but the typhoons remain untouched.

Tobin needs to make a basic Piloting roll to avoid asteroids and does so easily with a 9. He races around a smaller rock and then brings his cannons to bear. He divides his DR among all three: 8, 4, 4. He’s at Extreme (-15) range, with +5 from radar and targeting computers, +4 from their SM and, thanks to his Ace Fighter advantage, +9 from accuracy. His RoF allows him to add +1, +0 and +0. With his skill 16, he has a 20 or less against the 8-shot one, and a 19 or less against the rest. He could go for deceptive attack, but he expects his ROF to be enough to take them out. He rolls 10 (6 hits), 14 (3 hits) and 6 (Critical hit, with 4 hits).

The critically hit Typhoon cannot dodge. As a mook ship, it should promptly explode, but we check anyway: Tobin rolls a 17, causing a cascading failure, which inflicts double damage and he rolls twice more for 9 (no effect) and 15 (disabled weapons). Thus, the first hit blasts through the cannon, ignites the fighter’s power cells which explode dramatically. The first shot deals a total of 240 damage vs an effective DR of 3. This is a major wound, which forces the ship to check to see if its disabled (at -1), which it fails, and it forces a survival check, which it just passes. Then the other three shots hit it. Thus, the cannon explodes, the ship begins to drift out of control for a split second before the rest of the shots lance home and it catastrophically detonates.

The second Typhoon needs to dodge by 6 or more. It has a base dodge of 11 with no additional bonuses. It rolls a 10 and thus dodges 2 of the four shots. The remining 4 hit for a total of 440 damage after DR. The second typhoon disintegrates under the hail of fire. The third rolls a 10, also dodging two of the three hits; the remaining hit deals 120 damage, which is enough to disable the craft: however, it rolls an 8 on the HT check and is still able to continue, though realistically its plasma fuel will probably ignite and in the interest of handling mooks like mooks, we say the starfighter is dead. The pilot ejects, and Tobin streaks past him while the imperial pilot shakes his fist amidst the growing debris fields of his companions.

Step 4: Quarry resolves roll for their maneuver

3 typhoons are dead. Two remain. They attempt to flee from Starlet and, perhaps, get the upper-hand on her. They need to evade the canyon walls, rolling a piloting skill at -4. This gives them a 13: They pass with a 13 and 12. Close one, with one of then just scraping its oversized wing on a canyon wall..

Step 5: Resolve the Chase quick contest.

Each group must resolve their own. Tobin has no opponents, and thus no chase roll.

Starlet has a 30 and rolls a 14, beating her skill by 16. Her two fleeing typhoons have a 32 and roll a 7, succeeding by 25.

Starlet’s wings narrow and she dives through a particularly close canyon and then erupts onto a craggy plain on the planetoid. Too late, she notices the circling Typhoons, which suddenly arise on her tail. They have advantage!

Turn 3: Tobin (3 missiles) vs 2 Typhoons (Distant vs Tobin, Advantaged and Long vs Starlet) vs Starlet (3 missiles).

Terrain and Thrills: The GM declares that the giant asteroid remains valid for Starlet and the two remaining typhoons.

Step 1: Quarry chooses chase maneuver

Starlet knows she needs to escape, but she’s pissed. She goes for a Force. She does not angle her force screens.

Step 2: Pursuer chooses chase maneuver

The Typhoons continue to pursue Starlet with a Move and Attack.

Tobin blasts through his Typhoons’ debris and then spots the red images of the Typhoons bearing in on Starlet, too close for comfort! He shifts his wings into their backswept position, and then punches his after burners, screaming at 600 (+14) to get to her. This gives him a total chase bonus of +17 (as usual) but only a handling of +3. To get “around” the asteroid, he declares his manuever to be a Stunt. The GM demands a -6 stunt. Tobin chooses a -8 stunt, and makes it a High-G maneuver.

Step 3: Pursuer resolves any rolls for their maneuver

The typhoons need to not crash into the asteroid. They roll a 9 and 8 and are fine.

They open fire on Starlet; She is Long Range (-11) but her speed of 300 (+13) is worse, so they’re at -13 to hit her; her SM is +5, their targeting computer and radar give them an additional +5 and their ROF gives them +1. With skill 12, they have a 10 or less to hit her. The first rolls a 13, his blaster fire going wide and spattering against the rocks and spires that Starlet races between, but the second rolls an 8, which hits her with not one but two shots.

Starlet must dodge. She has a skill of 15 and a handling of +4, which gives her an 11 or less to dodge (15/2 = 7, +4 = 11); at move 300 she cannot make a High G defense. She rolls a 15. Both shots hit. The first inflicts 115 (5) damage, which is reduced by her ablative DR of 200 and her static DR of 15 to 72 damage, and the second shot rolls 100 damage, which is reduced by her remaining 140 DR and her static DR of 15 to 69 damage, which means her vehicle has taken 141 out of 140 damage. This is a major wound; the GM rolls on the critical hit table to see if she has any additional issues and rolls a 14, which is a disabled engine. A blast lances through her fusion generator and her engines wink out. She finds herself tumbling out of control, lights blinking and her robot screaming in her comm while she shouts back at it to fix it. She rolls a 10 to see if her ship is still functional, and it, otherwise, is.

As Tobin’s starhawk reaches its absolute peak speed, he kills his engines, brings his wings flush against his body and lets the Starhawk spin as it hurtles up and away and begins to turn and fall towards the planetoid. The entire of the Starhawk shakes and Tobin grits his teeth as his vision begins to grey out. He must roll HT to endure the intense maneuver and succeeds with a 10. Then throttles forward, brings his wings back and rockets back into control, perfectly on course. With a -8 to his skill from his stunt and +3 from handling, he needs to roll a 13 or less, and succeeds with an 8. He has a +5 in his next chase roll against the two Typhoons.

Then Tobin opens fire, because he’s an Ace Fighter, which lets him fire during a Stunt. He fires a missile at one of the Typhoons: He ignores range, applies +4 for air burst, +4 for acc, -4 for ECM, +4 for SM, -8 for speed and his own skill of 16 for 16 or better. He hits with a 7.

The typhoon must dodge. Its Tactical ESM warns him of the incoming missile from the unexpected target before it’s too late. He banks sharply to the side in an attempt to dodge and throws flares at the last moment: the Typhoon has a dodge of 11 with +2 for flares, +1 for tactical ESM and -3 from the missile’s speed, and fails with a 14. The missile inflicts 180 damage, -15 for DR, for 165. This is not actually enough to kill the Typhoon, but as it’s a mook vehicle, we’ll declare it destroyed. It’s dodge fails to clear the explosion radius and the blast slams it into the planetoid, where its disintegrates in a spray or parts across the surface.

Step 4: Quarry resolves roll for their maneuver

Starlet’s robot attempts to restart the power and engines with an Electrician of 12, moving its tools and grippers deep into the bowels of the craft while beeping back diagnostics to Starlet. It rolls a 9 and her engines flare back to life.

Starlet tucks her wings closer to her body and then uses her larger body to slam into the Typhoon, hoping to knock it to its doom. She must make an operator roll (skill 15 + 4) and succeeds with a 10. The Typhoon deftly evades, rolling an 8 against its dodge of 11.

Step 5: Resolve the Chase quick contest.

Tobin pursues the remaining Typhoon. He has skill 18, his vehicle grants him +17, and he has a +5 from his high-G stunt. He rolls a 7 vs a 40 and succeeds by 33. The opposing Typhoon rolls a 9 against its 30 (-2 from Move and Attack) and succeeds by 21. Tobin closes to Extreme and gains Advantage.

Starlet has a 30 and rolls a 10, beating her skill by 20. The last Typhoon has a 30 and rolls a 12, succeeding by 28. Starlet escapes its close confines: it still remains at Long, but neither has advantage on the other, though with her spinning out of control, that might not remain true.

Turn 4: Tobin (2 missiles, Advantage) vs 1 Typhoon (Extreme vs Tobin, Long vs Starlet) vs Starlet (3 missiles, Out of Control, -1 HP).

Terrain and Thrills: Why not more problems? He rolls a 9 for a new Chase Circumstance: nothing happens. Space is boring!

Step 1: Quarry chooses chase maneuver

The typhoon is pursued by Tobin and must make its maneuver. It tries to make its escape with a move, now that it’s outnumbered, or at least buy some time until Starlet crashes.

Starlet must make an Emergency Action even though her engines have been restarted. She keeps her wings forward and her screen in standard configuration.

Step 2: Pursuer chooses chase maneuver

Tobin Moves and Attacks. He sets his wings forward once more.

Step 3: Pursuer resolves any rolls for their maneuver

Tobin is “on the asteroid” now and must roll Piloting -4. Even with a 14, this is child’s play for an elite pilot like Tobin. Then he locks on the Typhoon and opens his gatling blaster on full auto to eliminate it.

Tobin is at Extreme (-15) range, against an SM +4 craft, with a full targeting system (+5) and a high ROF (+2). He may also use his accuracy (+9). He needs a 21 to hit and hits with 6 out of 12 shots. The Typhoon needs to dodge with its 11 and fails, rolling a 13. The total comes to something around 620 damage and the fighter disintegrates under the withering hail of fire.

Step 4: Quarry resolves roll for their maneuver

The last Typhoon is dead, but Starlet must still endure. She must roll against HT to keep operational. She rolls an 12 and the vehicle is “out.” She triggers the ejection system as the Starhawk descends towards the planetoid and then crumples against its surface.

Notes

In Tinker Titan Rebel Spy when I ran a space fight, I felt embarrassed and sort of brushed through it. I felt like it was too abstract, too long, and too uninteresting. This has none of those problems. I think if I’d had this system in place then, I would have been far less shy, as this, to me, feels very dramatic and exciting. The numbers are a bit fiddly to work out, but this is no worse than space combat.

The Typhoons performed pretty well. They remained something of a threat to the Starhawks, though Tobin ripped through them like nobody’s business. His Ace Fighter made an enormous difference, maybe too much of a difference, but I’ll chalk that up to the fact that his opponents were mook pilots. Starlet, being a more reasonable character (more on par with what a typical player character might be, if they invest a little into their piloting skills), had a tougher time. A lot of her results came down to luck. With a slightly better set of results, she might have turned it around.

The Typhoons are very simple and very effective. Their blasters proved enough to take out a starhawk, and their extreme speed made even mook pilots a challenge, especially given their high dodge values.

The Starhawks also did what they were supposed to do. Their force screen let them survive serious hits, as did their superior HT. Their heavier armament also made a difference. They were clearly better than the Typhoons, but one would expect them to be. I worry that the afterburners, variable wings and adjustable screens might be too “fiddly” but at least here it worked out oka.

I think I would argue that blasters are better than missiles, but it depends on range and ECM. The -3 to dodge works out well, though I’d like to play with that a bit. Different missile times might have different values. A missile certainly does the job, as we could see, but blasters really aren’t bad, at least not for fighting other fighters. If you can get close, I’d use it as a primary weapon, which means we have that “Mig Alley” feel that I wanted: Missiles are good, but don’t dominate.

The robots didn’t do much. They maybe could have tried to jam sensors (perhaps this would have saved Starlet’s fighter). They could have jammed missiles, but the typhoons had no missiles, and no robots to jam the starhawk missiles, so it was moot. Could they have jammed the targeting sensors? Slamming attackers with a -3 might have been a big deal. I should work out those details in Passenger Actions, and contemplate what happens if a fighter pilot tries to do the same.

Next, we need to look at Dreadnoughts and what they can do, and what it’s like to face one in a fighter, as well as (laser) hot dreadnought-on-dreadnought action!