Battleshift
Mass Space Fleet Battles
(in Playtesting)

Main Rules Current Rules (1.08) (12/13/06) Fleet Record Sheets

Scenarios, Fleets, Extras Slug Intercept Scenario (8/11/05) Battlespace Dominance Scenario (8/11/05) What is Hyperspace? (7/1/05) Join the Yahoo Group

Welcome to Battleshift!

Battleshift was born in a thread on The Miniatures Page. People were looking for a fast, enjoyable space game that would let them field real fleets. Not like a dozen ships, but scores or hundreds of ships.

I knew I wanted that too. Big space battles are one of the sweetest sights in sci-fi movies and TV - Babylon 5 in the last few seasons, the last season of Deep Space Nine, the start of the new Star Wars movie, everything EE "Doc" Smith ever wrote, etc. But there aren't many rules systems that really do it right. Most cap out at running ten or so ships effectively, a few make it to twenty, but none of the commercially available sets really let you drop a couple hundred on the table and decide the fate of the galaxy!

Battleshift will fix that.

As a playtesters, not only will you be able to try it out before everyone else, but your input can add new features and otherwise improve the game. It's your chance to influence the design process to make it more like your ideal game.

"Battleshift" refers to ships shifting into and out of battle through hyperspace. This is a fairly unique gaming mechanism, though not uncommon in science fiction. It allows units of ships to disappear from the table, and then re-enter the battlespace a few turns later. I think it helps make maneuver in the game important, as you can't just focus on what's on the table. Here's the hyperspace concept I've written for the game.

Battleshift also features a suppression system, which causes squadrons to lose accuracy as they take fire. Suppression has traditionally been critical in battle. Modern infantry units are taught that if they are the first unit to make contact with an enemy, their job is to suppress the enemy, pin them in place, and prevent the enemy from effectively firing on other units that are maneuvering to flank and destroy them. In naval gun engagements, near misses on enemy ships were still useful as they made crews flinch, rocked the ship to spoil aim and obscured targetting.

Few miniature games even looked at suppression's effect on a battlefield. In reality, you usually want to put fire on as many targets as possible to keep them from maneuvering and accurately firing back. In mini gaming, you usually want to concentrate fire as much as possible, to quickly eradicate whole units because that is the only way to eliminate their threat. The three miniature games I've got in playtesting each have their own suppression system. I want them to be an important part of the games, but not a drag on the game.

In Battleshift, hits on squadrons work to blind the sensors on the ship through shield flares, even if the shields fully block the attacks. Imagine the gigawatt lasers, plasma beams, projectiles hurled at relativistic speeds, and other such weapons systems. Imagine the power of the shields capable of harmlessly deflecting those energies. Now imagine what that collision would look like - you'll get an idea why ships might start to lose their ability to target effectively.

Ships are organized into squadrons, which can be organized into task forces. Ships in a squadron share sensor data, so if some ships are not hit by a volley of fire, they can quickly recalibrate the sensors of the other ships in their squadrons. Taskforce flagships integrate the sensor data of all squadrons in their group, allowing squadrons to synchronize their fire on a target and helping to recover from the effects of suppression.

The current rules set has very basic weapons and ship building rules. Over time, these will be updated into specific fleets, with specific abilities. Some rules will be listed as "experimental", indicating they could have major issues and I'm especially interested in finding out how they work. Ideas for new weapons and abilities are welcomed.

Battles over spacestations, spacedocks, moons and planets should be the mainstay of scenarios. There is very little reason to fight over empty space, especially when hyperspace lets you bypass much of it. Scenario ideas are welcomed.

Please join the thanesgames yahoo group to leave feed back or discuss the game. Or, email me directly. I base my development time on the feedback I get from a game - if I don't hear anything, I assume I should put my efforts in an area with more interest.

Updates:

12/13/06 - Rules for squadrons of mixed ships - Version 1.08

This will allow players to make squadrons of mixed ships. It is more paper work, but still pretty streamlined and quick. It needs to be playtested for abusability.

11/19/05 - Major changes and additions!

Kicked it back to 5 squadrons per TF. Please try it at 3 and 4 though, and let me know what you feel made for more interesting games.

Light weapons do not fire to the rear of the ship. Forward 270 arc.

Broadside batteries are defined and ready for use.

Squadrons are no longer disabled when they gone over their starting damage. This will keep squadrons around longer, and not have players pushing around essentially useless ships. It makes killing off entire squadrons much less certain on any given shot. Instead, players may attempt to disable ships instead of destroying them when they fire.

Ionic weapons have been added that always fire to disable.

Fast ships, engulfing, hardened hulls, and other systems have been added.

The point system is better refined. Two new fleets have been made based on the Xenocide background that utilize the point system in different ways. More are coming. Please watch to see if the points match the capabilities.

Two special formations have been added, to give squadrons different capabilities in the game. Be sure to try them out and give me feedback!.

8/12/05 - Added two scenarios.

8/10/05 - Lots of tweaks in 1.06. BS has now been tested up to 160 ships on the table, played in roughly 3 hours (with a lot of gab time). Space fleet warfare never looked so good!

Fleet record sheets are now available. It simplifies fleet building and damage tracking.

Fighters have been tweaked a bit more - they can cause suppression. An experimental set of fighter recovery rules is included, to keep them relevant even if the game goes for many turns.

Interceptors have had their range shortened, and controls put in place to reduce the desirability for close packs of ships with overlapping interceptors. Big clusters of ships were essentially impervious to missiles and fighters.

Missiles will become a bit more effective against fighters - they now target on 5's.

Task force size has been reduced from five to three squadrons. This may be too small, but you can put a lot of firepower into a single activation with 5 squadrons, probably too much. It can always be readjusted up. Also, more TF's is more maneuver options and a bit trickier to plan out - it should be an improvement. Let me know if its not. Another option is simply to limit TF size to 650 points or so, so you could have more squadrons of smaller ships.

Broadside batteries will cost 5 extra vp each. A few other ship building tweaks and a few new ships have been added. The game is approaching the point where fleet concepts will get divided up.

Boarding actions need to be more carefully considered. Please let me know any experiences you have. New systems are about ready to be added as well.

Battleshifting has been clarified a bit more. Planned battleshifts happen at the end of an activation, so it is completely cool to fly at an enemy squadron, guns blazing, and then disappear J

8/2/05 - Updated to version 1.05. Fighters cannot overwhelm the shields of capital ships, but can have better luck picking through shields with a few hits, too. Fighters can only make 1" intercept moves if their carriers have left the battlespace, instead of 6". There are now a couple of reference sheets included. Broadside batteries cost 3 space units, but can fire either to the left or right 90 degree arcs.

7/1/05 - Updated to version 1.04. Turns out a couple of important sections fell out of the final build: movement, light weapons, and interceptors. I also corrected some things I'd meant to do from earlier (keep notes while playtesting!) - Interceptors have a targeting of 4, not 3; destroyers using light batteries as interceptors have a targeting of 3. Also, the number of hits to cause suppression has been adjusted, to not give squadrons of larger ships an advantage.

© 2007
Thane's Games