Battleshift Scenario – Battlespace Dominance
Basic Scenario
There are few reasons to fight over most of galaxy. Even ignoring the vast emptiness that lies between star systems, few objects have an intrinsic value worth losing a few ships over. Any rock capable of supporting life, of course, but almost any mineral resource can be found in thousands if not millions of locations, if it can be found at all. Likewise, there are almost no defensible barriers in a universe with a giant back door like hyperspace.
Hyperspace itself can create and alter matter in strange and unique ways. Areas of Twisted Space dump energy and matter out of hyperspace, most likely originating in supermassive black holes. Sometimes natural objects get altered passing through such areas, and drift along for eons until discovered by chance. Many civilizations station response fleets on the edges of twisted space, waiting for something interesting to pop up. Rare stable elements over atomic number 300 can sometimes be found in the debris of stellar collisions. Dense asteroids are valued to build stealthy listening posts, hyperspace relays and secret bases.
When such treasures are found, standard doctrine is to arrive with a fleet, drive off any enemy fleets, and establish a dominant presence to dissuade any other fleet from trying to attack. Once dominance is established, the appropriate research or recovery vessels can capture the objects, and take them back to a more protected location. However, these things are (almost) never worth fighting to the death over - no commander wants to be the guy who lost 20 battleships over a piece of weird rock.
In this scenario, a large object (or many) are in the battlespace. Two fleets will enter to dominate the battlespace. The first fleet to lose 30% of its starting VP will bug out, leaving the space to the other side.
Victory Conditions
This is a very basic game of attrition. A side gains loses the VP for each ship destroyed, half VP for ships in squadrons taking over their total damage which then bug out, and quarter VP for ships in squadrons that bug out before they reach their total damage. This makes it prudent for commanders to get badly damaged ships out of the battle before they can be destroyed.
At the end of each turn, determine the amount of VP lost. When a side has given up VP equal to or greater than 30% of the starting total (for instance, 300 VP out of a 1000 VP fleet), they will bug out. If both sides cross that total at the same time, the side that has lost the most VP will bug out.
Marginal Victory - Driving off the enemy but taking over 30% casualties yourself.
Victory - Driving off the enemy while taking less than 30% casualties yourself.
Total Victory - Driving off the enemy while taking less than 15% casualties yourself.
Players can agree before the game to increase or decrease the VP required to bug out.
Set-up
The battlespace can be as crowded or empty as agreed to by the players. There should be at least one large object to represent what is being fought over. Players can agree to give special properties to the object, such as intense gravity fields that pull ships within 12" of it d6" closer at the start of each turn, or strange energies that weaken shields for ships within 18" of it, etc.
Both players can start shifting task forces into the battlespace on the first turn. The players should write out when and where their TF's will first appear, with the standard rules applying.