Pax Stellarum - My homebrew ruleset

So I finally got to begin large scale testing of my ruleset for Spaceship Games. I'm calling it "Pax Stellarum". 

It's a reference to the condition of "armed peace" in which I believe star empires would live with each other. Surrounded by many enemies, it is unlikely they would invest in an all-out war against one foe in particular, leaving their other borders at the mercy of their other enemies. It's more reasonable to think conflict would happen on the terms of what we used to see in Star Trek: TNG, among Federation and Romulans: Skirmish exchange of hostilities.

Anyway, back to the topic, here. I played a scenario where the Romulans faced the Cardassians. The conflict was due to a recent discovery of large reserves of a rare mineral in an earthly planet on the Cardassian border. The cardassians showed little interest on that region until that moment, and had even shut down activities on a Nor station installed there decades ago.

Now, with the possibility of starting large scale mining operations on that planet, the Cardassians are looking forward to restablishing their presence there. Meanwhile, a Romulan task force is dispatched there to try and seize controll of the station, claiming to be supporting the right for sovereignity of the aliens who inhabitate that world against Cardassian opression.

I played about 1.500 points per side, with the following setups for each side:

Romulans:

4 D'Deridex Warbird (divided in 2 squadrons)

5 Scouts (in one squadron)

6 Birds of Prey (one squadron)

Cardassians:

10 Galors (divided in squadrons of 4-3-3)

4 Keldons (one squadron)

10 Hidekis (divided in squadrons of 5-5)

The total hull points of the Romulan fleet was 68, and the Cardassians, 70. No side actually used 1500 points. It was 1477 and 1472, respectively.

Initial Spacefaring of the Romulan fleet was 10, and the Cardassians, 13. Therefore, the Cardassians had initiative, meaning the Romulans had to begin moving, and the Cardassians could begin the firing.

The abandoned Nor station, in orbit of one of the planet's moons.

Cardassian right flank

The Center of the Cardassian formation, with the Keldon Squadron escorted by a Hideki Squadron

Cardassian Left flank

Romulan right flank

Romulan left flank

The ships' sheets

The game begun with the romulan converging their forces into the middle, maneuvering to get the flanks of the center formation of the Cardassians (the Keldons), since the enemy Flagship was there. Destroying the enemy flagship is an important aspect of the game, because it forces the adversary to pass a morale check or leave the board.

This maneuver from the romulans left their flanks exposed to the Cardassians right and left formation, and they knew how to take advantage of it...

Here is how I turn ships on my game, regardless of what shape of base they are fit on: hex, square, round, etc. Also, note the marks for the 60° fire arcs on the ruler.

The converging Romulan fleet, being "enveloped" by the Cardassian flanks.

After all squadrons move, hostilities begin. The Cardassians concentrate fire on the small escorting squadrons on both flanks. The romulans, on the other hand, unleash their heavy warbird firepower on the Keldon formation, eliminating half of it on the first turn, along with most of the hidekis escorting them.

The Keldons return fire, crippling one warbird, that suffers a Critical Hit that negates its Prow fire (the die showing 6 indicates the Critical Hit, the die showing 4 indicates the remaining hull points)

The critical hit table

At the end of the 2° turn, the Cardassian flagship had been destroyed. The fleet passes a morale check and go ahead fighting. The crippled warbird is lost, too, but the Romulan Flagship is still intact.

On the end of the 3° turn, both fleets had already lost more than 50% of their total hull points, and so both must pass a morale check to continue the battle, or else they will flee to their mommies...

The Romulans pass the test, the Cardassians, not so much. Thus, the last prepare to leave the battle at the end of the next turn, and power up hyperdrives.

On the 4° turn, a Romulan scout rams a Galor, vaporizing itself on the process, almost managing to take the enemy with it, too.

The romulans get to repair Critical Hits on several systems. The Flagship, with a damaged Power Core, fails to repair it, and the risk of it exploding remains.

Luckly, the Cardassians leave the sector at the end of the 4° turn, leaving the Romulans with a pyrrich victory.

The Romulan Task force (what is left of it), in controll of the Nor Station.

The remains of the Cardassian fleet leaving the battle into hyperspace.

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with how rules worked out. 4 game turns played, in 2,5 hours (an average of 38 minutes per turn, with all the photo taking included), with lots of action.

I was particularly happy to see that the system affords a good number of ships to be played in a reasonable timeframe.

The casualties of this battle

Of course that I found somethings to be corrected, but so far it seems quite promissing. Next, I'll try my rules for fighters!

When I'm all done developing the rules, I'll upload it on 4shared or similar, so anyone interested may give it a try.

*End of Transmisison*