Battlestar Galactica

[RCgothic]

Some rules I was musing over today whilst at work:

Colonial Battlestar Galactica 200pts
Cruiser/8 Speed20/Turns45 Shields0 Armour6+ Turrets2

Dorsal Bombardment Cannon R30 FP8 all round
Port/Starboard Firing Solution R30  Special L/R
Port/Starboard Launch Bays N/A S6 all round

Vipers: Fighter Bombers
Raptors: Assault Boat. If surviving in a wave, makes Vipers Resilient.
Strike Raptors: Torp Bomber.

Firing Solution: A Battlestar may lay down suppressing fire with her broadside batteries. The firing solution is fired in the shooting phase, and remains active until the Battlestar's next shooting phase. The firing solution is defined as the region within the max range of the firing solution, bounded by the arc it is fired in. Until then, any ordnance marker (friend or foe) that passes through the firing solution is removed on a 4+. If the ordnance passes through multiple firing solutions, it is removed on a 3+, but do not roll twice. Roll each marker separately. Eg, a wave of 4 AC roll 1,1,4,5, and is reduced to 2 AC. A torpedo salvos of 6 rolls 6D6, and is reduced in strength by 1 per 4+. AC on CAP are unaffected.

Cylon Base Ship 200pts
Defence/8 Move10/Special Shields0 Armour 5+ Turrets0

Dorsal Torpedo Silos Speed30 S12 all round
Dorsal Launch Bays N/A S12 all round.

Move: The base ship may move 10cm in any direction during the movement phase.
Guided Torps, may turn 45' at beginning of Ordnance Phase.
Unlimited Ordnance: The Base Ship may always fire half its ordnance, whether or not it fails to reload.
Raiders: Fighter Bombers
Heavy Raiders: Assault Boats with +1 modifier to Hit&Run.

The goal is that a Battlestar is just about able to defend itself against a Base Ship, which will sit outside the firing solution, firing homing torps through the solution, will probably get quartered by 2 ordnance phases in the solution, whilst the raiders outnumber the vipers, and will fly around the firing solution. This forces the battlestar to use its bombardment cannon defensively, and combined with the base ship's better manoeuvrability it should be able to grind the battlestar down, despite its 6+ armour and 2 turrets. If the Battlestar does get to go on the offensive, the base ship's lack of turrets and vulnerability to the bombardment cannon will see it quickly overwhelmed.

Two more battlestar variants:

Colonial Battlestar Pegasus 350pts
Battleship/12 Speed15/Turns45 Shields0, Armour6+, Turrets3

Prow Bombardment Cannon R15 S6 F
Dorsal Bombardment Cannon R30 S10 all round
P/SB Firing Solution R45 Special L/R
P/SB Launch Bays N/A S10

Colonial Battlestar Valkyrie 100pts
Cruiser/4 Speed25/Turns45 Shields0/Armour6+/Turrets1

Dorsal Bombardment Cannon R30 S6 all round
Port/SB Firing Solution R15 Special L/R
Port/SB Launch Bays N/A S4 all round

[Valhallan]

the peg had forward missiles.

iirc, the galactica was bigger than a base star.

vipers would *not* be fighter bombers. raptors might be 'super bombers' though...

interesting idea!

[RCgothic]

Battlestar wiki describes the Pegasus as having 4 forward fixed twin kinetic energy banks. They're the same guns that are in the turrets - possibly a heavier calibre. Both battlestars have missiles, but they appear to be used more for strategic deployment of nukes, rather than in a tactical sense.

I did think the Base Ship was bigger though, I'm not tied to having it with 12 hitpoints. I want to capture the feel of the combat to some extent.

Galactica can't just charge the Base ships, because that would leave her vulnerable to the massive amounts of Ordnance. She has to try and close the distance obliquely and take advantage of the Base Ship's failure to reload ordnance.

Another rule I'd been pondering:

Radiological Alarm!: They've got Nukes! When a wave of torpedoes or AC come within 15cm of an enemy Attack Craft or 30cm of an enemy ship for the first time, roll a D6. On a 6, the wave is armed with nukes. AC armed with nukes count as torpedo bombers. Nuclear Torpedoes roll D3 attacks, and inflict criticals on a 4+.

[Admiral_d_Artagnan]

Galactica, Base Stars etc are just the size of an Escort in BFG terms though.

[RCgothic]

Pegasus is 1.8km long, so it could qualify as a light cruiser.

The point isn't to give the ships what their stats would be in the 40k universe, where everything is turned up to 12, but to make an interesting homage to the series.

[Admiral_d_Artagnan]

Those aren't light cruiser weapons however. Paying homage is fine but stats are now being distorted. Str 6 AC is not even in the realm of regular cruisers. And I am assuming you mean total. If it's Str6 per launch bay, then this ship is quite broken.

[RCgothic]

No, it's strength 6 total. I was being lazy in typing both sides in one combined line.

First I'd like to get internal balance between these ships, then I'm open to suggestions about how much they should cost relative to other ships in BFG. They have no shields, and so are entirely vulnerable to lances, which should give them a bit of a price break relative to other 6+ ships.

[Admiral_d_Artagnan]

Well, before anything else, what do you want the ship type to be first? I would say if you want to put a BSG vessel in BFG scaled large then it should really be a GC at least. The Pegasus would be the equivalent of a BB. Once you get that out of the way, you can then design the ship. You want it to have no shields but have 6+ armor is fine. Definitely vulnerable to everything including WBs. Not sure if that would sit well with you. Having 6 squadrons of AC would be then fine on a vessel this size. You can then put torps in the port and starboard to represent the missiles it could launch (while the Pegasus would have the torps in the prow). At least those were the places where I remembered the missiles were fired in the old series. You can max out the turret at 3 or maybe even bump it to 4 for the Galactica and 6 for the Pegasus.

[RCgothic]

I'm going for the reimagined series, and I want them to act like battlestars - hybrid armoured gun carriers that:

Can take a pounding from Ordnance.
Successfully suppress enemy ordnance to the side.
Be still sufficiently behind in the ordnance race so as to be forced to engage ordnance with primary weapons.
Can easily defeat the enemy if it gets close enough.

[Admiral_d_Artagnan]

You want a Battle Barge. LOL! 

[RCgothic]

Yes, they are very similar to battle barges! I'm hoping the lack of conventional weapons and the port/SB firing solutiongs distinguishes them a bit.

[wellspring]

The trouble with doing BSG in BFG is that Battlefleet Gothic has a very abstract approach to fighters, with heavy attrition. It's mostly about maneuver and attacks with capital ships.

Battlestar Galactica is mostly about ordnance battles, with the ships mostly standing off at a distance. Occasionally, they move in for a gun duel, but even then there isn't a lot of maneuver involved. Most of your main characters are stacked up in one ordnance wave that is either eliminated or not. Hardly sporting.