Date sent: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 13:32:28 -0500 (CDT) From: Wraith To: "'babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU'" Subject: [B5W] Scenerio (My we haven't seen one of these in a while) For Comment Send reply to: babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU A Quick Run Through the Asteroid Field: A Scenario for B5 Wars For 2-4 people "Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field are 3720 to 1!!!" "Never tell me the odds." -C3PO & Han Solo: The Empire Strikes Back- BACKGROUND: During the Earth/Minbari war, accurate intelligence was a priority for Earthforce. Often Earth had to go to drastic measures to ensure that it was able to get its recon units in and out with a marginal chance of success. On one occasion, after a quick intelligence sweep of a Minbari occupied sector, a flight of Star Furies found that their only hope of eluding their Minbari tail was to put it all on the line and head straight for an asteroid field. PLAYERS#1 (Earth): 6 Star Furie Heavy Fighters PLAYER#2 (Minbari): 6 Nial Heavy Fighters SETUP: Map: ABC(ABC)[A] DEF(DEF)[D] Note: ( ) & [ ] represent where the map will float during the course of the game. Asteroid Field: Each row #15 - 42 receives 5 Asteroid counters (little pieces of paper work just fine, as do rock and pebbles.) Placement should be random with either the players taking turns placing the Asteroids, or rolling dice (d30 works best or 3d10 - this leaves a gap at the top of the map.) Star Furies begin anywhere in the 10 & 11 rows at speed 12. They are placed first. Nials begin anywhere in the 4 & 5 rows at speed 12. VICTORY CONDITIONS: Earth: The Asteroid Field ends after the second CF board. In [AD] there is one Hyperion Cruiser at 1015 waiting to pick up the Furies and take them home. So long as one of the Furies lands on the Hyperion successfully, Earth wins. Moral Victory: 3 or more Nials destroyed Minbari: Destruction of all Star Furies. They can not be allowed to get away to report on what they saw. SPECIAL RULES: Fighter Flight Rules are not in use. Ramming is not allowed. Asteroid Field: This is a highly volatile Asteroid Field such as found in "The Empire Stikes Back" (okay not B5 but makes some great inspiration), and thus is different from the Asteroid Field presented in the Core Rules. These Asteroids MOVE! They move before all other ships in the movement phase. To determine how an Asteroid moves roll a d6 for direction and a d3 for the number of hexes it moves. This attempts to mimic the chaos of the hundreds of Asteroids flying around, colliding and moving in a new direction. (To save time it works best to have every player put a finger on 2 to 3 Asteroids and have them move as a group. However these Asteroids should be rather spread out. Use your own judgement.) If an Asteroid moves into a fighter occupied hex, then the fighter has a base 10 to dodge it (roll under). This is modified by a +1 for every unspent thrust available at the end of the previous round, and a -2 for every critical taken. If a fighter is hit, it is destroyed. If two Asteroids move into the same hex, they are both destroyed. If an Asteroid moves off the board, it disappears (unless you want to keep track of it.) At the end of every turn 5 new Asteroids are added to the edge of the board. This will be the CF section to begin with, but as the map floats it will change. As the map floats, each new section has Asteroids placed on it in a similar fashion to the Set Up (i.e. every row gets 5 Asteroids placed randomly.) OPTIONS: 1. Multiple size of Asteroids. Separate the Asteroid in to size 1-4. If asteroids collide they lower each other by the others number. Thus is a 4 and a 1 collide then the 1 becomes -3 or destroyed and the 4 becomes a 3. If they hit a fighter then: 1's = 5 damage 2's = 10 damage 3's = 15 damage 4's = 20 damage To determine an Asteroids size roll a d4 (or d6 and ignore 5 & 6) during set up and note this on the paper used to represent the Asteroid. 2. Fixed Movement of Asteroids: While fun having an Asteroid move in direction 1 on the first round and 6 on the second may be a little too crazy for some people. For fixed movement use blank pieces of paper for the Asteroids and roll their direction of movement and speed only once. Write this on the paper and move them appropriately every turn. If using the Multiple size option and two Asteroids collide and one survives, re-roll its direction and speed and note this as it's new heading. 3. Shooting the Asteroids: Fighters can target and attempt to kill the asteroids. Base chance to hit is 6 and they have 15 points of damage. Nothing happens till they are totally destroyed. If the Multiple size option is used then every 5 points of damage brings the Asteroid down one type. Type Defensive Value Structure 1's 2 5 2's 4 10 3's 6 15 4's 8 20 4. Longer Asteroid Field: Make it as long as you like. 5. More Asteroids: Try playing with 7 to 10/ row. Ouch! 6. Other Races: Narn vs. Centauri 6 Frazis or Goraths going towards a G'quan beyond the Asteroid Field against 6 Sentries or 12 Raziks Cenrauri vs. Narn 6 Sentries going toward an Alterian beyond the Asteroid Field against 6 Frazis or Goraths 6 Rutarians going toward a Dargan beyond the Asteroid Field against 12 Frazis or Goraths Multiple other Possibilities as well. COMMENTS: It take a while to see the nuances of how things move on the board. There is a lot of luck and a lot of chance, but there is also a lot of room for strategy. Do what ever it takes to make the Asteroid movement fast for your group, don't let this bog the game down, even if it fun to watch the opponents ship get nailed. (not Nialed.) Wraith rhahn@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu