Stat test or roll: Your stat ranges between 1 and 10.

Roll a d10, try to get equal to or under it. You start with 3 in each. Proactive: These stats are rolled during the selection phase, when you elect to use a tactic which requires such a roll. Intellect and Leadership are proactive. Reactive: These stats are rolled during the tactics phase, whenever it is necessary. Organisation and Resolve are reactive. The stats also have other benefits: Intellect: Value is one more than the maximum tactics and active technologies you can employ per turn. Leadership: Counts x3 when determining commander rank. Organisation: Units which suffer 2xOrg damage or more dissolve during the resolution phase. For every 3 organisation, all ships gain 1HP to their total HP. Resolve: Is the primary means to resist enemy tactics. Cost you have to distribute: Commander Rank (Organisation + Resolve + Intellect + Leadership x3 + Tech Cardinal Nodes) + Tens digit of your standing x 10. Experience Points: Each corresponds to one step along the tactic web (See later in the document), from any node you currently own (Beginning at start). A starting character has 4, You guys will have 5 for playtests at the moment . Nodes closer to the center are more well, essential utilities, but nodes further out are more powerful abilities. As such a balanced build and a highly powerful but situational build are both possible at your XP. In the latter case you will have actual exploitable weaknesses, but be much more potent when you are in your element. UNIT TYPES: Frigates: Deal a d6 per unit, can only engage at medium and close range. 9(10)HP, cost 2 Destroyers: Can engage at all ranges except extreme, deal a d10 per unit. 14(15)HP, cost 4 Carriers: Can launch one fighter per turn, and contributes two to the fighter pool. 9(10)HP cost 3 NOT REALLY A UNIT: Fighters: The turn they appear on the field, they are attached to your fleet and deal a d6 per unit that can only engage at close range. The turn afterwards they attach to any *other* fleet within extreme range at the beginning of the movement phase, being considered to be in close range. During this movement they may be immediately returned to the fighter pool instead. If they are intact the turn after this, they return to the fighter pool. Assigning any damage die to them at all will destroy the token. Fighters can only be engaged at medium or close range unless otherwise stated. Each carrier gives you two fighter tokens to your pool for the combat. Once the pool is exhausted no more fighters can be launched. Capital Ship: This is your admirals home on the battlefield. They cannot attack, or be attacked, until your fleet enters Last Stand, or you use an appropriate tactic which allows them to do so. They cannot be dissolved,

and any effect which would instantly destroy them (IE through means other than raw damage) instead halves their health rounding down. Its default stats are the same as that of a unit of frigates: possessing 10HP and producing a single d6 attack die, able to attack up to medium range. It can however be upgraded using some of the technology cardinal: State of the Art: You may reroll one failed stat test per turn during fleet combat. Assault Vessel: The ship adds 2 fighters to the fighter pool, and can launch one per turn when in Last Stand, or in the tactics phase if Personal Interest is active. Additionally, its attack die is a d10 instead of a d6, and it can fire up to long range. Shield Generator: During the attack phase you may remove one d10 attack die from the pool each opponent who attacks you, before they are rolled. Battlecruiser: The ship generates 2 attack dice instead of 1, if it has Assault Vessel it adds 4 fighters to the pool and can launch 2 per turn. If it has Devastating weaponry it is able to instantly destroy two units instead of one. Also doubles the HP of the ship after other bonuses. Devastating: When in Last Stand or using Personal Interest, one intact enemy unit of your choice within a fleet within range of your capitol ship is destroyed at the end of the movement phase. Furthermore, the maximum HP of the capitol ship is increased by 5. The mechanics: Essentially, based on which engagement range you are set at, a number of your units of ships will be in contact with the enemy. Under most circumstances, fighters are the only ships with an engagement range with a given enemy different from the rest of the fleet. SELECTION PHASE The first step in a ship combat turn is that all sides designate which tactics, technologies and formations they will use this turn. All technologies that may have an effect this turn and the fleet using them are made known to all players, prior to selection of tactics and formations. As for tactics, they are not told to anyone, just write them on a piece of paper or something. Something that cant be changed. Tactics which require a proactive roll to activate are rolled now to determine their viability, in order. The actual rolls results, even failures, are kept with the tactics until they are resolved. You can only attempt a number of tactics per turn equal to your intellect minus one. Which formation you will assume may be decided after you know which tactics have failed. Movement is decided now, both for eligible fighter squadrons and for the fleet itself. FIGHTER PHASE Secondly, any valid number of fighters you wish to deploy this turn appear on the field. You do not need to designate this in the selection phase first. FORMATION PHASE Thirdly, the fleets assume their designated formations for the turn, be this keeping the formation they had or assuming a new one. Fourthly, any active abilities triggered by formations are resolved simultaneously (These should be kept rare enough that there isnt a risk of them clusterfucking each other) TACTIC PHASE Fifth, tactics and technologies resolve in this phase where applicable, to determine the final state of affairs for the attack this turn. Reactive rolls related to tactics are made now. Those contingent on movement await it. MOVEMENT PHASE Sixth, any movement designated to occur does so. This includes fighters moving to the enemy fleet.

ATTACK PHASE And Seventh, the attack phase occurs. Under normal circumstances each ship capable of engaging the enemy fleet, or its fighters, rolls its relevant die. Half the resulting attack die, rounded up, are first assigned by the victim to the victims own units. The other half are THEN assigned by the attacker to the victims units. These are distributed by highest-lowest-highest-lowest etc. This phase continues until all attacks have resolved. Obviously the flow of this phase is significantly effected by any tactics or formations that are in play. RESOLUTION PHASE Eight, resolution occurs: Any units with damage meeting or exceeding their health is destroyed. Any units that have not been outright destroyed, but have taken twice your organisation or more, are added to the dissolved units pool. An admiral may elect to dissolve any units that have taken 6 or more damage. The dissolved units pool: Disorganised forces consisting of remnants of critically damaged units. They cannot attack, and cannot be attacked so long as intact units besides the capitol ship remain in play. The process of entering this pool is called dissolving. The process of leaving it is called reformation. Flanking: In order to count as being flanked, a fleet must have two or more enemy fleets within medium range of it, which are attacking it with destroyers or frigates. These fleets are the flanking parties. If there are three or more flanking parties for a single flanked fleet, it is Surrounded. If not, if one of the flanking parties sits on the opposite side of the enemy to the other flanking party, it is Flanked at 180 degrees. If there is still flanking involved but the flanked fleet is neither surrounded nor flanked at 180 degrees, it is Flanked at 90 degrees. Successful flanking at 180 degrees allows a reroll of a single attack die made by each flanking party, of their choice, and choose the higher result of the two rolls. They may also reroll a die used to attack their fleet by the flanked fleet after it has been assigned, and choose the lower result of the two. Successful flanking at 90 degrees allows a reroll in the same fashion as 180 degrees, however for two attack dice of their choice against the flanked fleet, and none in defense of them. Successful surrounding of a fleet allows all of the flanking parties to reroll three of their dice in this fashion. Movement: One can normally move up to two engagement ranges per turn (IE long to close, unseen to long). Towards a fleet is an advance, away is a retreat. Moving two or more in the movement phase is considered a full move. Moving in full retreat allows the opponent from which you are retreating to reroll 1s on all their attack dice made against you if they wish, keeping the second roll. A full circle around your opponent can be done in one turn per range increment between you. IE A close engagement allows you to circle and reach their rear this turn. At medium range you will get halfway around in one turn. At long range one third of the way (This is the minimum amount required in order to flank with another fleet that is attacking them). At extreme range one quarter of the way. Collisions: During the movement phase movement is resolved by order of movement ranges (IE all fleets move 1 range, then all move 2 as applicable). In the event that two fleets attempt to move in such a way that they would have to move into or through one another, there is a collision. In the event of a collision anywhere in the resolution of this movement, if the fleets would have to move through one or the other or both to complete their movement they simply stop in place and do not conclude their movement. If they would both occupy the same region, (IE move closer to each other than close range but not out the other side) then a fleet that has remained stationary this turn, or, failing that, has more units, has priority and the other fleet ceases moving.

Being destroyed: If in the resolution phase of a turn a player has been reduced to three or fewer intact units, they enter a status referred to as the Last Stand. Furthermore, if a player has no intact units at any point during a turn they will always enter last stand in the resolution phase of that turn. Their capitol ship enters play as a unit within their fleet next turn, allowing its combat abilities to be used, but also allowing it to be hit. Certain tactics only function in the last stand status. Furthermore, a turn where a fleet begins in Last Stand, any units that do not reform from the dissolved units pool as a result of tactics or formations used in that turn immediately reform in the movement phase (emptying the entire pool) as a single unit functionally identical to a unit of frigates. If a fleet in Last Stand should have four or more intact units in the resolution phase, they are not in Last Stand the next turn. Side: This is the terminology used to refer to a set of allied fleets in tactics, be they allied with you (Your side) or allied against you (Enemy side). Normally, a fleet battle will at any given time have only two sides active, as even if there are three or more discrete factions they are likely to declare temporary alliance in some fashion or other. However, in the event that multiple mutually hostile sides are active in a battle, the GM should carefully mediate how certain tactics which relate to outnumbering function, depending on the specific circumstances and the tone of the game. Technologies: They function similar to tactics, however any technology which could have effect on a turn must be made known to all players prior to the assignment of tactics. Thus passive bonuses must always be known, but technologies which are activated on specific turns need only be indicated at the beginning of the turn they will become active.

(Technology) Advanced Computing Suite: The galaxy hasnt yet seen anything quite like this yet, its a formidable tool to boost your already imposing intelligence, with the ability to run tactical simulations, structural analyses, and detect enemy units more effectively than any common computer system. Effects: Increase your effective Intellect by 2. Type: Passive Cost: 5 cost. (Tactic) Advanced Reformation: You and your officers reorganise units taken below effective strength more efficiently than anyone could have thought possible: Effects: 2 units of the same type in the dissolved units pool are removed from it. You receive one unit of this type in as new condition. (Tactic) Aim for the Engines: Your fleet prepares to cripple the enemy in their cowardice. Effect: Select a target fleet. If they count as being in full retreat relative to you this turn, You may reroll results of 1 and 2 on attack dice against them, and their movement available is cut short by 1 space. (Tactic) Anchorage: Your ships possess anchoring grapnels, however youve taken to finding more creative uses for them than simple docking procedures. Effects: If you do not make any movement this turn, any tactic or technology that would influence your movement this turn has no such effect. In the event of a collision between you and an enemy fleet during the movement phase, you may choose to anchor onto their fleet. If you do, your two fleets cannot make attacks

during the attack phase against one another except through fighter craft, and are both treated as being in the same location, that of the enemy fleet, for this turn. Furthermore, other tactics, technologies or formations which would trigger in the event of a collision do not treat a collision as having occurred, unless they are Anchorage. (Tactic) A Plea for Surrender: You use your formidable skills of speech offensively, broadcasting to all ships of the enemy fleet, either warning them of your prowess aggressively, or engaging them in a heartfelt plea for their surrender. The response to this approach can also be used to gauge if the enemy is expecting reinforcements. Effects: Roll a Leadership test. Your effective leadership for this test is one higher for every unit in your fleet beyond the combined total of all enemy units anywhere on the field (including those not yet visible). If the speaker is successful, ALL enemy fleets must pass a resolve test, or elect to either set their movement this turn to a one space retreat directly away from your fleet, or send 2 units of their choice to the dissolved unit pool. (Tactic) Backseat driver: You expend some of your own fleets operation and logistics resources on helping to organise a comrade whose circumstances are more dire. Effects: Choose another tactic you successfully deployed this turn. Its benefits and penalties apply to an allied fleet, and not you. (Tactic) Basic Reformation: The fleet re-organises disrupted units back into fighting formations. Effects: 3 units of the same type in the dissolved units pool are removed from it. You receive one unit of this type in as new condition. (Tactic) Broad Spectrum Jamming: Deciding that it is worth the sacrifice to your own fleets coordination if it disrupts the machinations of the enemy, you jam all frequencies with unpredictable waveforms, disrupting all but the most determined efforts to initiate manoevers in an organised fashion. Effects: Both you and a target fleet within medium range must test resolve once for each tactic you have elected to use this round. If the test fails, the tactic does not activate, as if you or they had not elected to use it this turn. (Tactic) Charge: Test leadership to move one space further towards an enemy of your choice. Reroll one attack die with a result of 1. In the event of a collision during this movement phase, you have priority regardless of the relative sizes of the fleets. One unit in your fleet of your choice and one of the choice of whichever fleet you collide with are dissolved. If you collide with an enemy fleet, they must dissolve two additional units of their choice. (Tactic) Copycat: Sometimes the most informative sensei is the very enemy you battle. Effects: You may select as many targets as you want from opponents within visual range of your fleet or any allied fleets. All targeted opponents make a resolve test. If any of these tests succeed, the tactic fails and nothing occurs. If all the resistive tests fail, you may select one tactic any of these targets has elected to play this turn. You gain its benefits as if you had elected to use it this turn and had the same result from any tests of Intellect or Leadership (Success or failure), even if you do not know it.

(Tactic) Counterstrategy: All that plotting about how best to destroy you leaves enemies with open weak points. By exploiting the friction caused by their constant micromanagement, you can shatter the enemy with vicious attacks they dont see coming, the weapons of your frigates, normally ineffective at such long ranges, being used to devastating effect. Effect: Provided you still have frigates, every enemy within long range that causes you to roll resolve as part of their turns actions has an additional d6 attack die assigned to their fleet by you for every roll they force you to make, further to any other attacks you use this round. (Tactic) Dazzle: By adjusting your fleets rear and side weapons to fire in as wide and unfocused a beam as possible, you can scramble observing sensors and make attempting to interfere with your gentlemans duel a risky proposition for allies of your opponent. The high resulting ambient radiation is slow to build, but makes using fighters too suicidal and wasteful to be considered. Effects: If you are fired upon this turn from outside close range, the attack dice which are yours to assign from such attacks may be allocated to any enemy fleet within close range of you, if there is one, instead of you. Any fighters which arrive at your fleet this turn instead return to their respective fighter pools. You cannot fire at more than one enemy fleet this round. If you are flanked this turn you remove two highest rolled results on your dice from your attack pool. (Formation) Delta wing: The entire fleet assumes a pyramidal formation. This is excellent for maintaining a spotter ahead of the fleet to coordinate firing, however it also sacrifices the noble few at the head of the formation in the event of an engagement. Effects: If an enemy moves into long range or closer during this turn from extreme range, you may roll two extra d6, or d10s if you have intact destroyers, during the attack against that enemy. Choose one unit: This unit is at the head of your formation: They take +2 damage for every damage die assigned to them. (Tactic) Destroyer Wall: You employ your heavily armoured destroyers long sides as shields against the incoming fire, defending your more fragile ships. Effects: Select an enemy fleet: Your destroyers may not attack this fleet. All attack dice from that fleet are assigned to your intact destroyer units until there are none left undestroyed, before they can be assigned to other ships. Any result of 1 on damage dice which are rolled by that fleet are removed from their attack pool entirely. All non destroyer units treat your organisation as if it were 1 higher on the turn this tactic is active. (Tactic) Devotion: Your men consider preserving you above their own lives. Effects: Only usable in last stand, your Capitol Ship cannot have attack dice allocated to it until all other units in your fleet have taken enough damage to render them dissolved or destroyed. (Tactic) Disengage: The fleet observes the velocity of the enemy and matches it: in reverse. This tactic is often used to prevent the enemy from penetrating too far into formations. Effects: Make a resolve test. On a success, you may elect to move one range away from an enemy of your choice in addition to your movement this turn, after normal movement for this turn has resolved. This additional movement may be decided at this time, it need not have been selected beforehand. You do not count as having taken a full retreat for moving two or more ranges back in this fashion unless your normal movement phase also included a full retreat or more.

(Technology) EMP Bomb: A small ship carrying a devastating electromagnetic pulse weapon disrupts the electronics of all ships for miles, destroying itself in the process. The skilled engineering crews of a fleet can restore function rapidly, but it can provide an opening. Effects: Select another fleet engaged at medium or close range. This turn, both you and that fleet suffer the following effects: Any fighter craft within close range of the fleet are destroyed. The admiral must choose between either their movement for the turn, or their ability to generate attack dice. Type: Active Cost: 9 per use (Technology) Engineered Solar Flare: Through some means such as a bombardment of fusion bombs in some far away star, or perhaps other machinations in something closer, you have artificially triggered a powerful solar flare. Whilst such events are hardly the bane of modern starships under normal circumstances, in battle they pose a disruptive effect, but one prepared for the event may ride them. Effects: All fleets on the field must test resolve. The initiator of the technology may select any number of other fleets allied or enemy of their choice, including themselves, to receive a bonus of 2 to their effective resolve for this test. The initiator selects a direction across the whole map. Any fleets that fail the resolve test treat their organisation and resolve as one lower this turn, and are flung one space in that direction at the beginning of the movement phase. Those that pass may choose to move one space in that direction at the beginning of the movement phase if they wish. Type: Active Cost: 9 per use. (Technology) Experimental Artillery: An immense array of capacitors, focusing arrays and extraneous reactors, this device can cut out the heart of a fleet from ranges well beyond that of any ship of the line. The experimental artillery can fire at up to extreme range, but cannot fire if it the fleet containing it is engaged in close range during the attack phase. Furthermore, it must designate its target fleet as the formation phase resolves. When it is fired, distribute 3 d10 attack die on the targeted fleets units as you wish, this does not effect the normal division of attack die between the attacking and attacked player. It is considered a unit with 15HP, and may be reformed as if it were a unit, as several heavily damaged artillery pieces can be field repaired to maintain functionality due to its modular design. Type: Passive Cost: 13 per unit. (Tactic) Fatal Predictability: You prepare your ships to shoot a barrage of fire along the lines you know your enemy plans to align themselves upon. If you were right, few shall escape. Effects: Roll an intellect test. On a success, two of your damage dice for frigates or destroyers default to their highest possible result prior to being rolled. (Tactic) Field Requisition: Through your own force of personality, or a devastating form of informational warfare focused on the enemy, you can convince a small portion of their fleet to join your forces. Effects: Test leadership. A target enemy within long range tests resolve. If your test is successful, dissolve one of the targets units of your choice. If their test is unsuccessful, dissolve one of the targets units of your choice. Any units dissolved are instead added to your dissolved units pool.

(Technology) Field Upgrade: By transporting a large number of disassembled spare parts and engineering vessels, the meager manufacturing facilities aboard your fleet are capable of working wonders. Effects: You can gain up to 10 cost of units or technologies that you could have purchased when spending requisition prior to this combat, during the tactics phase of this turn. This means that If it is a technology with a cost determined by the number of ships in your fleet of a given type, destroyed units do not count towards the number. Type: Active Cost: 14 per use. (Tactic) Focus Fire: Your fleet concentrates its fire in a devastatingly coordinated barrage something akin to frying ants with a magnifying glass. This attack rends through the enemy formation, shooting to kill rather than to weaken. Effects: Your Resolve is treated as 1 lower this turn. You may assign all attack dice you roll against one fleet this turn. Any unit you assign dice to, you must assign as many dice as possible until the unit is destroyed. (Technology) Foresight System: Using an experimental quantum computer and sensor system, you are able to, for a short time, glean the secrets of the near future before incineration from overheating and esoteric entanglement induction events render this shining jewel of modern science irrecoverable. Effect: The turn this is activated, you do not select your tactics during the selection phase, and instead select them in response to the revealing of enemy tactics in the tactics phase. If you are targeted with Copycat, it resolves after this, obviously. You may choose not to select your movement during the selection phase, and instead move as you wish after all other admirals have moved. In the event multiple admirals use Foresight at once, they both act without knowledge of each others actions as if they were playing their own, more normal turn. Type: Active Cost: 12 per use. (Technology) Heavy Destroyers: Offense is the best defense in most conflicts this millennium, to be sure, however this has not prevented certain prototypical technologies, from electromagnetic disruptors, to shields, to superalloys undreamed of, in an attempt to create a ship that can simply shrug off hits from enemy ships of the line. Effects: Dice with a result of 4 or less cannot be allocated to destroyers. If this causes some dice to be unable to be allocated, those dice are negated. Type: Passive Cost: 2 per destroyer in your fleet (Technology) Holofield Gambit: Holofields see some notable use in civilian entertainment, however their high power requirements keep them from seeing use everywhere, and indeed to a proper set of scanners their use is easily detectable, though hard to pinpoint. This prevents them from seeing military use in any normal fashion. However, a few commanders occasionally use them as small tricks to keep their opponents on their toes. Effects: Select one unit type in your fleet. When the time comes for your opponent to assign rolled damage dice to you in the attack phase, consider there to be one more of this unit within your fleet, that does not create a damage die itself. In the resolution phase, you remove all damage dice from one of this unit type, and

remove the unit which you removed the dice from. The remaining units are treated as normal for the rest of the resolution phase and following turns. Type: Active Cost: 2 per use. (Tactic) Interception: You have drilled the rare art of dogfighting into your pilots, allowing them to strike faster, without wasting volleys of missiles, and thus preventing the enemy from striking at you. Effect: During the movement phase, any of your own fighters which remain attached to your fleet may destroy an equal number of enemy fighters which move into attachment with your fleet this turn. (Tactic) Last Hurrah: You have a few surprises hidden inside some of your more heavily damaged craft. Effects: Select a number of units in your dissolved units pool up to your resolve. They are removed from the dissolved units pool, and from play. If the enemy is in close engagement range this turn you may destroy an equal number of units of theirs. (Tactic) Make it count: Test leadership. If successful, the fleet overloads components in their ships in a last attempt to output as much firepower as possible before the end. Effects: Can only be used in Last Stand. You may take no move actions. All ships and fighters output an additional damage die of the appropriate type this turn. All craft of yours that are not carriers are considered to take 2 damage in the resolution phase in addition to any damage dice allocated this turn, even if no damage dice are allocated to them this turn. (Tactic) Manpower: Even when the metal shell against the void is weak, under your leadership, the men, women, and repair automatons within it remain strong under your inspiring command. They can hold their ships together under an unusual amount of punishment. Effect: In the resolution phase of this turn, any ship which has not exceeded the threshold of damage that would cause it to dissolve is not destroyed by the damage it has taken. (Technology) Meteoric Caber: You have expended significant resources to attach engines and some basic facilities to a truly colossal chunk of space rock or ice. It can be used as cover, or as a terrifying projectile for use against the enemy. Effects: The Meteor is treated as a unit within your fleet that has 30HP, generates no attack dice, and cannot be dissolved. Attack die can be assigned to it as per any other unit. In the event of a collision with anything but an allied fleet, the meteor deals its remaining health in damage to the obstacle (Be that an enemy fleet or environmental obstacle) during the resolution phase, with fighters only able to take a maximum of 1 damage from it. The enemy fleet may roll a resolve test and assign the damage themselves if they succeed, otherwise it is assigned by the owner of the meteor. Type: Passive Cost: 10 per unit. (Technology) Minefield: A series of magnetic mines are ejected into a wide area of space to prevent approach. Effects: Select a position in medium range. This position, and the close range position between it and your fleet is littered with mines. Any attempt to approach the fleet to medium or close range via this heading until such a time as the fleet which deployed it moves (The minefield will persist however, it will simply become possible to

approach via the previous heading, unless it retreats in which case the minefield will exist at a longer range) will incur 3 d10 attack die per position/range to the fleet that does so. Type: Active Cost: 7 per use. (Tactic) Minnows: By causing critical ships to scatter and break ranks in the right way, they can shelter and hide amongst your fleet, leaving them safe from harm, though temporarily ineffective. Effects: A number of units of your choice up to your organisation are treated as if they had dissolved last turn, until the resolution phase of this turn when they return. (Tactic) Misinformed: Tapping into the enemy subordinate officers communications, you imitate a superior and issue them an order that seems as though it confers sound tactical advice, but is in fact leading them into your trap. Effects: Roll leadership to activate against a target enemy fleet. That fleets admiral rolls resolve to resist. If they succeed, the tactic fails, but you may choose to select one other tactic of yours besides this to have no effect this turn. If they do not, choose a tactic that you have elected to use this turn (having used your proactive rolls to activate it if necessary, however they are responsible for any reactive rolls). Its effects apply to the enemy. If the tactic includes a clause wherein the user may elect to perform a certain action, you can choose to force the target to perform the action. (Technology) Missile Frigates: Your frigates are loaded up with a number of very large warheads attached externally in addition to their standard armament. Effects: You have one use of missile barrage, after which it is considered expended. The turn this is used, all intact frigates produce two d6 attack dice instead of one when attacking targets. Type: Active Cost: 1 for every 2 frigates in your fleet. (Formation) Ouroboros: The entire fleet assumes a curved line like formation and attempts to draw the enemy fleet into circling with it. Many unskilled commanders with the benefit of superior forces can be fooled to their doom by this ability. Effect: A single enemy fleet of the initiators choice within medium range (During the formation phase) must have its admiral succeed at a resolve test, or the attempt is successful. On a success, the initiator of the formation selects a number of dice. This is the maximum number of attack dice that can be rolled by either fleets frigates and destroyers this turn if the attempt is successful. Additionally, the affected enemy fleet lose the effects of their active formation for this turn, and cannot move unless their move for the turn counts as a full retreat. Engagement range is treated as close for all effects between the initiating fleet and the target fleet, though the physical position of each fleets core remains at whatever it was. The initiator treats their resolve as if it were 1 higher. If the attempt fails, your fleet is treated as being in the Pincer formation this turn. (Tactic) Outnumbered 1 to 2: A successful flank doesnt guarantee victory, the guns of the enemy, if avoided, can be turned on one another. Effects: Test Intellect. If you are flanked at 180 degrees, or by three or more fleets this turn, for each point you exceeded that required for a success, reduce the enemy attack die pool by 1 die of your choice and add the die removed to your own attack pool. If multiple separate fleets are involved in the action, apply this to each

individual fleet. (Tactic) Overconfidence: You exploit the enemys security in their position of power, hitting back with an attack made all the more devastating by the assurance it will hit their mass of ships. Effects: If during the attack phase you and your allies within long or medium range (chosen during the tactic selection phase) are outnumbered by two to one or more by enemy units within the same range, add 2 d6 attack dice to your attack roll, or 2 d10s if you have intact destroyers. (Tactic) Personal Interest: You personally intervene in the battle with your capitol ship and its honor guard, rousing your troops into action. This does however remove some of the protection that a typical formation provides you. Effects: Your resolve is treated as 1 higher for this round. For this round, your capitol ship may make attacks, launch fighters, or trigger infamous as applicable, as if it were in Last Stand. It may have a single attack die assigned to it this round by enemies. You may not use your own share of the attack dice to assign to it. In the event of multiple attacking fleets, you choose the single enemy fleet that may take assign a die to it. (Formation) Pincer: The entire fleet assumes a risky, pincer like formation. Excellent for creating a combat advantage, however it exposes the delicate core of the fleet as you swarm around them. Effect: If your fleet is in medium or close range with any enemy fleet it gains 180 degree flanking bonuses as if there were another fleet at the opposite side of that enemy fleet. However, those effected by this may assign all attack die rolled against you this turn, regardless of what range you are at. (Tactic) Power to Engines: The fleet diverts all extraneous power in order to maneover faster than normal. Effects: Frigates and Destroyers do not generate attack die this turn. You may move your fleet up to three engagement ranges this turn instead of the usual two, and for the purposes of circling speed count as if you were one distance closer to the enemy. You may remove one attack die made against your fleet if it rolled the highest possible result. (Technology) Probe: You launch a small squad of ships equipped with supercharged engines, and an extensive optics and communications arrays away from the fleet to investigate an area. Effects: Select an site within extreme range this turn. For this turn only you may perceive any fleets within extreme range of that site. If an enemy fleet ends its movement in exactly medium range of that site, you may detect one of that opponents base statistics, of their choice. If this technology is used multiple times against the same opponent they must reveal a statistic not already revealed, until all are known. Type: Active Cost: 2 per use. (Formation) Ragnorok: Not so much a defined or schooled formation, as one which can only be formulated from the commanders own extensive experiences with battle and death. No two instances are quite the same, but they have the same intent, to inflict death upon the enemy as rapidly as possible. This requires the fleet to move steadily, and care not for losses. Effects: Each attack die allocated to the enemy deals an additional 3 damage. Resolve of your fleet is treated as 1 higher. No full move actions may be taken by your fleet. The enemy may roll assign two more d10 attack die to you in their attack phase.

(Tactic) Rallying Cry: Under your charisma and virtuous ideals, even the most shellshocked members of your fleet fall in line for attack when everything is on the line. Effects: Only usable in Last Stand. A number of fleets up to half your leadership, rounding down, reform on a 1 to 1 basis. (Tactic) Ramming Speed: You give the order for some of your units to give the ultimate sacrifice. Effects: Roll leadership, treating your leadership as two higher if you are outnumbered by forces within long range of your fleet. On a failure the tactic will not function this turn. If it is successful, you may choose two of your own units, and two enemy units in a fleet in close range that have a combined HP that is double or less the combined HP of the two units you chose. They are all destroyed. (Technology) Redundant Systems: Fighters are normally disabled by even the most rudimentary damage to their systems. This equips your fighters with backups of their functional components. Whilst this hardly renders them invulnerable, and they remain dead in space for some time after taking a hit, they can quickly be rendered fully functional after limping back to their carriers. Effects: Any time your fighters would be destroyed, they are instead sent to the dissolved units pool. Reforming them as if they were a normal ship will return the resulting unit to the fighter pool. Type: Passive Cost: 1 per carrier in your fleet. (Tactic) Renew: You reinforce an existing squad of ships with the intact remnants of one that was brought out of the fight previously. Effect: An intact unit of your choice is effectively instantly dissolved, and then reforms on a 2:1 basis immediately if possible. (Formation) Rotating Splinters: Splitting your fleet into smaller groups that maintain combat effectiveness, you cycle fresh groups to the attacking front and cycle damaged groups out, allowing damage control protocols to be carried out in peace, prolonging the life of your fleet. Effects: You may assign all damage dice rolled against your fleet this turn. Unless you are flanked at 180 degrees or Surrounded during the attack phase, subtract 2 attack dice from those generated by your fleet prior to rolling them. (Technology) Saboteurs: You launch a wave of craft carrying forces prepared for closer quarters combat aboard the enemy ships, to sabotage their systems, and drive their ships into disarray. Effects: This technology does not need to be announced prior to its resolution this turn. Each of your carriers deploys an additional set of tokens this turn, as the technology resolves. They are treated as fighter tokens, however they do not generate attack die when attacking and instead cause a single unit per token to treat its dissolve threshold as the admirals resolve during this resolution phase. They do not return to the fighter pool. If all of your tokens of this type that are on the field at a time are destroyed prior to their return, your resolve for the rest of the battle is reduced by 1, unless you have Redundant systems, which does not otherwise effect them as if they were fighters. Cost: 1 per use per carrier in your fleet.

(Formation) Schooling: A rapidly flowing ball of ships in oscillating paths throughout your fleet works to prevent straggling units from being picked off, maximising the fleets ability to maintain its firepower in the short term. Effect: Test Resolve. On a failure, destroy one ship unit in your fleet of your choice. On a success, during the attack phase each opponent may not assign more attack dice to one of your ship units than 1 more than the amount already assigned to every other intact unit. (Formation) Skewer: You form a thin, dense formation to pass through the enemy like a knife, disrupting their plans. Effects: In the event that you trigger a collision this turn, the other fleet involved loses the effects of their chosen formation this turn, and removes any die whose final result after tactics was 3 from their attack pool. Furthermore, you may choose to pass directly through the fleet or immediately have priority over them for purposes of movement during the collision. If you do not trigger a collision this turn, opponents who attack you this turn may reroll any result of 2 on attack die. (Tactic) Spawn Camp: You gun for the bay doors of the enemy. Effects: Any Enemy Fighters which have appeared on the field this turn within medium range of you from a target fleet are destroyed. You may only assign your share of the attack dice to carriers this turn until all carriers are outright destroyed. If an enemy fleet has a tactic, formation or technology active this turn that would prevent you performing the latter, this tactic does not effect them, or your interactions with them. (Technology) Stealth Field: Using an expensive one use generator you can warp the light of space about your fleet and advance unnoticed. Effects: On the turn this technology becomes active, you cease to become a viable target at the beginning of the movement phase. Your fleet cannot be detected by allies or enemies. You do not need to specify where your movement this turn is to, only its length. You may not make attacks this turn. Due to your lack of an actual location you may not employ tactics the following turn that need their target to be in long range or closer. You do not count as being present for the purposes of outnumbering or flanking. For the purposes of sight and extreme range tactics you may be considered to be anywhere you could have moved last turn. At the beginning of the movement phase next turn you reappear anywhere you could have moved during the last turn and may make your movement for that turn as normal. Type: Active Cost: 11 (Tactic) Suppression: Many of your strikes are tailored to force the enemy to back down, and disrupt their firing lines, rather than to inflict damage. Effects: When this tactic resolves, choose a number of dice of your choice that will be removed from your result after your attack has been rolled but before the dice are allocated. The opponent rolls a resolve test. If they fail, you may choose a number of attack die from your opponent's next attack result up to the number you were able to remove and force them to reroll those dice after they have been rolled. (Tactic) Take them down: You rouse your forces to action, instilling in them the importance of taking down one specific enemy unit to your strategy. Effects: During the attack phase, a single unit of that type of your choice with an attack die assigned to it takes additional damage equal to your leadership.

(Tactic) Terrify: The fleet postures its superior position, leaving the weaker links in the enemy ranks closer to making a mistake. Effects: If your side has twice or more the number of intact units the enemy side has within medium range of any given enemy fleet, that fleets resolve is treated as 2 lower this turn. (Technology) Tractor beam: Unified field theory is yet to be fully completed, but gravity wave technology, in its infancy, allows for admirals to understand the attraction this concept holds for scientists. Effects: Select a target during the selection phase. At the end of this movement phase, you move one space of your choice that is the most direct route towards them. They move one space of your choice that is the most direct route towards you. Type: Active Cost: 10 per use. (Formation) The Sprung Trap: You use your losses so far to create a deadly tomb for your enemy, stealthily infiltrating them with the remnants of your devastated units, which abruptly reform into a disciplined wall formation guarding against escape. Effects: Target an enemy fleet: If the target fleet launches fighters this turn the formation fails to take effect. Make an intellect test. If the test is successful, and no fighters are launched, the enemy admiral must make a resolve test. If both are successful, you may immediately reform on a 3:1 basis as many times as you are able to. If only your test is successful, you may reform on a 2:1 basis as many times as you are able. If your test is not successful, consider one unit in your dissolved pool of your choice destroyed instead, and your fleet defaults to standard formation. If frigate or destroyer units reform using this ability this turn you gain the following benefits: Consider the opponent to be flanked 180 degrees. If the opponent attempts to move to retreat or disengage this turn, set one damage die from a unit reformed this turn to its maximum result. The opponent may not assign damage dice to units reformed this turn. (Tactic) Weave: You move your ships back and forth in time with their volleys, maximising their range and minimising the harm from the enemy. Effects: If the final engagement range this turn between you and an opponent is medium, you may halve the number of attack dice their frigates generate this turn, rounding up.

STANDING CHANGES: +1/-1 Victory/Defeat +1/-1 Your side killed more units/Lost more units +1/-1 Your side killed more points/Lost more points

+1/-1 Enemy Capitol Vessels Destroyed/Friendly Capitol Vessels Destroyed +1/-1 The enemy had 2x or greater / or fewer units, points, or capitol vessels +1 Battle was especially significant +1 Lowest standing on your side at the beginning of the battle +1 Lowest standing on either side at the beginning of the battle +1 Destroying an enemy capitol ship while in Last Stand +1 Survive an attack phase outnumbered 2:1 within medium range without entering Last Stand immediately afterwards -1 Spent the most turns of anyone on your side not attacking or being attacked -2 Fired on a surrendered fleet -1 Lost to a previously unknown admiral -1 Entered Last Stand but noone else on your side did and your side eventually won -1 Retreated -1 Surrendered -1 Faking Surrender Defeat occurs if all fleets in the battle belonging to a faction succumb to one or more of: - Retreat: Exit the map via its borders. - Surrender: Declaring themselves defeated and not being attacked, or attacking, subsequently to the conclusion of the battle. - Destruction: Their capitol ship is destroyed.

CHANGES TO STANDING: WHAT IS UP WITH THAT ANYWAY? Standing, as a statistic, is an abstract representation of your political connectedness, esteem, administrative power, and indeed, how many people that administrative power is over. So what happens when your standing changes? Well, it indicates a change, both in public and private opinions, and potentially also a promotion or other increase in your official power and responsibilities. An increase in standing will correspond to a short term increase in the public opinion of you, and a permanent increase in the degree to which other individuals playing the game of kings consider you significant. Those with low standing sit at the bottom of the political food chain, serving the interests of those above, scrupulous and unscrupulous, in the hope that they too can one day become significant. They are ultimately expendable. Those who have achieved high standing exert a significant level of control over their government, and are considered relatively indispensable individuals. A small change in standing, of 1 to 2, doesnt necessarily mean a big deal. It ultimately is simply a natural course of doing their job. It might represent them having a particularly good or bad day, but unless they are already of very high standing, no attention is likely to be attracted. The news may write about it, but they may not even bother with interviews. A change of standing of 3 or 5, is a notable event. An amount of press coverage will be generated, but it wont be front page for certain. Superior officers might imply that there could just be hope for you yet. A single military propaganda campaign can be made from the stories of about 3 people who gained this much standing. Losing this much standing represents a shaming and humbling defeat in some sector, which will also be given

some attention. Superiors or political benefactors wont openly hold this against you, but they may begin considering alternative candidates for your role if it happens more than once. A change of 6 to 9 will make front page news unless something extremely interesting is already happening, and the character will be swamped by reporters, who may even camp outside their residence in a throng in the mere hope of catching some quote they can broadcast. Many powerful political and military personalities may start wanting to involve themselves in your life, either to associate themselves with your success, or to gain popularity by decrying your shocking failure. A single change of 10 or more is a shocking change in the power structure of your government. You have either been thrust up to a new level of the command hierarchy that some may worry you do not have the sense of responsibility to perform in, or demoted significantly for the stain upon the nations pride that you have generated. The media may not even make much more of a big deal of things, because *everyone* already knows. As a rule of thumb, standing tends to correspond to positions of similar power to the example positions below. Whilst it is an interesting and immersive step to allow players to recieve specific accolades or appointments as they gain standing, the nature and specifics of those awards should be discussed between GM and player first so that they appropriately match the players actions. Standing Example Positions 1-9 Personal aide an admiral, unanimously reviled admiral, NCO. 10-19 Fresh out of officer school but qualified to command a fleet. 20-29 Proven Admiral, member of parliament. 30-39 Somewhat decorated Admiral, CEO of an important but not vital company. 40-49 Well trusted Admiral, incredibly well known and popular socialite. 50-59 Leader of a task force of fleets, Senate member. 60-69 On first name basis with supreme ruler of the government, head of public works. 70-79 Adviser to the head of state, Head of the secret police. 80-89 The supposed supreme commander of the states armed forces. 90-99 Second in command of the nation. 100-109 The supreme authority of one of the largest nations in the setting. 0 Standing: A character reduced to 0 standing has tested the patience of his state to its full extent and beyond. The character is removed from play, being court martialled and imprisoned, or perhaps even put on death row or outright executed. Depending on the leniency of the GM however, there may be an opportunity to save them from their fate by use of abilities that bestow standing on people.

THE TACTIC WEB

STARTING ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES: Each admiral selects one advantage and one disadvantage. Advantages: Connected: You have some friends in high places, be it by the acquaintances youve made in your life, or by the circumstances of your birth. Effects: Increase your starting standing by 9 Protege: You have a trustworthy, if less skilled officer under your command who takes after you. You can afford him some autonomy in his actions. Effects: You may, at any point in the selection phase, designate a number of your units to act out their turn as if they were separate fleet starting from your present location this turn. They will not be effected by any of your tactics this turn, and instead use their own, however tactics which target your fleet only the turn that they separate from you also effect them provided that they do not directly effect attack dice, and do not trigger a reactive test. Obviously you cannot have more than 2 fleets in this way unless you somehow obtain Protege a second time. They are treated as if the admirals stats were all 3, or all 4 if you have a stat at 6 or above. Furthermore, while they can use any of your tactics or formations, they can only use one tactic per turn, but this does not count towards the tactics per turn your fleet can use. Recombining the two fleets requires that the secondary fleet use no tactics or formations that turn, and end movement in the same location as the primary fleet (the fleets do not collide). Your Protege is likely a reliable ally in politics and at personal scale. Specialist: Your military experience once lay in another area, such as espionage, riot suppression, ground warfare, or even research and development. As such some more advanced tactics are more inherently familiar to you than to another commander. Effects: Select a tactic, formation or technology of your choice from anywhere on the web. Should you ever reach a point where that tactic could be reached by two steps along the nodes of the tactics web, you gain that node. You gain the personal scale skill you would gain from taking this tactic at character generation instead of when you gain it. Trickster: You draw upon the finest traditions of misdirection and comedy, throwing unconventional twists into many of your duties that leave enemies and some say, fate itself confounded. Effects: Once per fleet battle, and once per interval, you may roll a test with any stat of your choice instead of the stat that would normally be tested. Penalties or bonuses to the stat that would have been tested do not apply to the new stat, although any modifiers to the stat that is substituted apply. Disadvantages: Blinkered: You have repeatedly shown yourself to be utterly incapable of operating your armies in certain ways that others consider elementary, and you are unable to learn. Effects: Choose one cardinal direction of the tactics web (IE along the line of Intellect, Leadership, Resolve, Organisation or Capitol Ship upgrades). You do not gain the ability to use any tactic or formation or technology node which sits adjacent to it when these nodes are taken using XP. You can still take nodes in the cardinal

direction itself as normal. Depression: Your mental state is quite vulnerable, and hopeless odds, terrifying sights, and surprises easily rattle you. And when you get rattled, you get REALLY rattled. Effects: Whenever a stat is at penalties, you treat the total penalty to the stat as 1 more. Flawed: The officers academy prides itself on creating officers who all function at a certain baseline in the duties of a commander, however sometimes, due to special arrangements, cheating, an undetected medical condition, or a poor disposition, an officer will graduate whose abilities are below par. Effects: Decrease either your starting organisation, resolve, intellect or leadership by 1. Shamed: At some point you or someone close to you did something reprehensible, or barely forgivable, that has led to most superior officers viewing you with disdain. If you fail your next battle, you will have reached the limits of their forgiveness, and even if you should succeed, you will forever be judged. Effects: Decrease your starting standing by 6.

Personal Scale: Between fleet battles, it is encouraged that the players have an opportunity to roleplay their admirals people, not just the faceless embodiments of the fleet they command. Such stages can be used as an opportunity for the players to gain and gamble with standing as a representation of political power, or perhaps to investigate their enemies, supposed allies, or perhaps even to work towards finding a peaceful solution to a hopeless war. They may also face threats to their own person, without the thick hull of a capitol vessel to protect them. Not to say the least of humanising both their admiral, and even the crew onboard their fleets vessels, whom they might meet and interact with as part of these events. Such events are referred to as Intervals, in the same sense as the interval in a movie. A single interval is any free time an admiral has between space battles. The same stats are maintained. However, as admirals are very competent individuals, they can be assumed to accomplish any typical task without a roll. The function and pairing of stats is reassigned, though ultimately it is the GM who has the administration of what is tested and when during the course of personal scale play: Leadership: Social offense. Used to motivate, inspire or manipulate others, particularly large groups of subordinates but not limited to this, to act on your behalf in an immediate and proactive fashion. Represents your force of personality. Organisation: Social defense. Used to defend your social networks, connections and reputation, as well as organisations you administrate, from disruption by exterior events. Represents the systems of delegation and protocols that you have set in place, as well as your own general preparedness and ability to rapidly respond to political threats.

Intellect: Physical/Mental offense. Used to initiate offensive actions, ranging from simply attacking with a firearm, to martial arts, to having previously placed tripping hazard at a convenient location, or even hacking a computer or playing Chess. Represents your knowledge and wits in all manner of areas, allowing you to apply yourself effectively to various tasks. Resolve: Physical/Mental defense. Used to withstand intimidation, interrogation, a potentially fatal wound, loss of faith in a hopeless situation, or even more exotic threats such as psychic assault. Represents your strength of will, physical resilience, and ability to maintain your cool. A number of processes in the course of a campaign can be mediated with the use of the above stats, rolling tests. However, as mentioned above, the majority of interactions should be freeform, wherein the player is able to simply state acts their character could reasonably carry out with ease that can be assumed to happen. In the event that the rules do not rigidly dictate the terms of a phenomenon, the GM may want to assign small modifiers to the stat used in the test as an indicator of difficulty. This should be done sparingly: easy tests shouldnt even be being rolled, and ultimately incredibly hard tests shouldnt be either: an Admiral has very little they can logically do to survive in the event that a destroyer should choose to fire its main cannon directly at his house. Furthermore, Admirals are capable, varied, and brilliant individuals, some of the best and brightest people under their flag. Even in the event a test is necessary, the player and GM should decide what the result of the roll represents from an in-universe perspective with some creativity. Another thing to consider is that Admirals are not prized for their personal athletic ability or abilities as a warrior, but rather their skill with people, and their intellectual might. An admiral may interact with many situations a typical RPG character would deal with by blade or by bullet by commanding their men to do so instead, by immediately devising a solution to the issue using logic, or even having already anticipated the issue and pre-preparing a solution. Perhaps they broke the assassins neck using a kick aimed with medical precision. Perhaps they detonated the explosives they had the foresight to place at the exact location the assassin is standing. In the event that they failed, well, they can decide whether that represents having no way to respond to the assassin, or the failure of some attempt at taking control of the situation. As a general rule of thumb the player should have the most input on Intellect and Leadership tests, and the GM on Resolve and Organisation tests. Another matter is that there is sometimes some crossover in what they ought to be used for. Whilst ostensibly it involves telling people what to do, having a group of your personal guard hidden behind a false wall in expectation of an attack is still an Intellect test. In addition, to make sure players who prioritise tactics over stats in fleet combat are not left out at personal scale, there is also an additional provision of perks, abilities which provide new options for Admirals, or improved odds of success under specific circumstances. One of these can be selected for every point of XP spent on a tactic, formation or technology. Perks that require targets can normally only target allied admirals, however use of the smuggler ring perk can allow them to target admirals of enemy factions as well. Furthermore, viable targets should be limited to individuals that the admiral using the ability is specifically aware of, and are aware of him, having fought or at least met them on some occasion. Whilst mysteriously targeting a PC with a perk is a good way to introduce a

new NPC, it goes somewhat against the spirit of the game if the PCs could not possibly figure out from their list of known characters who is taking an interest in them. Once per Interval for the purposes of perks refers to any period between two fleet battles that isnt spent solely travelling from one battlefield to another. After taking 11 perks, your character has reached the limits of their growth as a lesser and petty individual, and it is time to ascend to greater things. The 12th opportunity you would have to take a perk is instead used to gain another starting advantage. The 13th opportunity grants you the ability to play in the Strategic arena. Every opportunity after this simply increases your standing by 3. Accident: Sometimes, the death penalty isnt the most effective reminder that someone should cease straying from your orders. Sometimes they just need a little push in the right direction. Effects: Once per interval, you may test leadership to motivate an appropriate group of cronies to perform the act for you. On a success, they will engineer, somewhat covertly, a situation that will significantly injure a target individual in some fashion. The individual is entitled to a resolve test to resist, should they fail, one of their stats of your choice is reduced by 1 for the rest of the interval, and for the next fleet battle they participate in. Accomplished Pilot: You have significant qualifications in directly controlling smaller craft, either from previously serving in that role, or simply as a hobby. Effect: You may routinely operate any air or space craft designed for a flight crew of 6 or less (Counting as 2 crew for the purposes of minimum crew). Treat all stats as 2 higher when the test pertains to operating or repairing an air or space craft during an interval. Assassin Ring: You possess the resources and infrastructure necessary to make an attempt on the life of someone important, enemy or ally. This includes provisions to deal with the routine guards on their premises, either by stealth, distraction, bribery, and the like, however specific obstacles that have been set in place must still be negotiated with care. Effect: Once per interval you may make an attempt on a target individuals life. First, test intellect. If this test fails, your attempt is undone there and then. If you succeed, you must choose whether or not you are participating personally, and the target tests organisation. If they succeed, they become aware of the attempt ahead of time and may make an appropriate intellect or leadership roll to try and detect and disable the assassin. In the event that the target succeeds either, the assassin may still attempt to survive the pre-emptive strike and continue the attack by testing organisation if they used leadership, or resolve if they used intellect, however if you participated personally, your involvement has been discovered. If you did not personally participate, then the test is made with a relevant stat of 3. On a failure, either the assassin dies, or you yourself are put to death, as relevant. If the attack goes ahead, with or without discovery, the target must test resolve, perishing on a failure. If they succeed, they have another opportunity to prevent the attack using the same method described above, only no organisation test is necessary for them. If the assassin is still alive, the attack continues, expanding in scope to possibly incorporate some kind of running battle, or ongoing deadly game of cat and mouse over the course of a few hours, or even days. The target may from this point enlist the help of those close to them to make the appropriate tests on their behalf, but the assassination attempt continues until either the target or the assassin dies. At the end of this time, if your involvement was discovered, but you survived, you lose standing equal to half the targets standing.

Beefy: Your body is as grand as your tactical mind, being that you stand almost a head above the average person, and whilst the muscles dont help you command any better, people think twice before messing with you. Effects: Treat your Resolve as 2 higher when it is used to resist injury from any source. Body double: You have, in your passage through life, made an acquaintance who has more than a passing resemblance to you, be they a twin, or simply someone you found and aided. Effects: At the beginning of an interval, you may elect to have the body double in play, either as a counterassassination measure or as a method of taking the fall for you. This causes your tests this interval to be rolled as if all your base stats were 2 less than your own, however if you should be successfully killed or injured, the body double is expended permanently (rendering you unable to use Body double again), and you emerge unharmed at any point you wish (You must emerge in the setup stages of the next fleet battle to continue as a playable character). In the event that the body double is expended, standing loss for that interval is halved. The body double may also be voluntarily expended. Bodyguard: While the average admiral spends their time with a number of guards in their vicinity for much of their professional life, only a few possess a socially and physically capable individual singularly dedicated to their safety. Effect: Once per interval, upon failing a resolve or organisation test, you may reroll in an attempt to pass the test a second time as if your resolve or organisation was 4. Cult of Personality: You have a large number of not necessarily competent followers, but at least ones easily inclined to violence and hatred. When your reputation is at stake, the situation rapidly becomes volatile. Even if there is no obvious culprit, the mayhem caused by their actions will stain their credentials in turn. Effect: In the event that you test organisation to avoid an attack of some kind, if you fail, the initiator of the social attack loses 1 standing, and if you succeed, they lose 2 instead. Established Player: You are starting to spread your roots, and assembling followers from within the realms of politics and the military is first on the list for that. Once you have enough power to throw around, rewarding those dedicated to you is within reach. Effect: Once per interval, select up to two individuals with standing that is lower than yours by 10 or more. They each gain 1 point of standing. Everything you hold Dear: You have in mind the fact that whilst your enemies can be replaced if killed, the true way to ensure your opposition stays crippled is not to cripple them, but to destroy what they value. Whether this involves killing some of their immediate family, or just a pet or breaking something they valued above all else, the agents you have in mind for this task will be able to figure out the right target. Effects: Once per interval you may test leadership to bring an agent to bear against a target individual. The target resists with organisation, a success detecting and preventing the attempt but not revealing your involvement. If they should fail the organisation test, the attack goes ahead. The target is crippled with anxiety and grief, causing them to reroll any successful test once until they fail a test due to the reroll. This effect may persist into a fleet battle.

Fausts Bargain: You have found a way to accelerate your rise to power, albeit at a cost. Through bargaining, you have found yourself ostensibly in the pocket of a larger political force, though fortunately they use the carrot and not the stick. Effect: Every fleet battle, you receive an additional objective which can be achieved by you with your current skills regardless of whether it is an overall victory or defeat. It may or may not be conducive to eventual victory however: Examples include being the one to defeat a specific admiral, securing the surrender of one, sending boarding craft against a specific ship in a specific fleet, or even not attacking a specific fleet or retreating from battle when given a specific signal (possibly even by enemy craft). If you successfully perform the task, you gain 3 standing. If you do not, you lose 1 standing. Flattery: It takes a shrewd mind to figure out how to apply it well, but you certainly have a talent for passing the credit for your own good deeds onto others. Effect: Once per interval you may test leadership, on a success transferring an amount of standing gained from one source to another individual. This has the context that you explain to those bestowing the standing gain that it was ultimately due to the efforts of the other individual. This may be used with respect to the overall standing gained from a fleet battle. Homeground advantage: Sometimes you dont know why you do it, but what started as small things like calculating the best escape route in the event of an assassination attempt ended up being a matter of compulsively cataloguing all items in the room that could be used as weapons, memorising the passwords on all electronic systems or even going so far as to prepare booby traps. Effects: Your Intellect is treated as 2 higher, and your resolve as 1 higher, in areas you have been in many times before, or have had access to alone for a significant period. Innocent Face: Everyone cant help but love you! Whilst many hold a simmering jealousy for your good looks, they find it difficult to hold on to their anger in person. And the media just loves you. Effect: Once per interval you may test leadership, on a success halving the standing loss from one specific source, rounding the remainder up. Makes me stronger: Youve learned to make a reputation out of your life of constant threat and danger. The media, and even lesser political players striving for power see you as a badass, because after all, if everyone wants a piece of you, then you MUST be important somehow! Effects: Any time you are the target of Accident, Everything you hold dear, Rumour Mill or Assassin Ring, you gain 1 standing. Each time you are the target of such abilities, you gain 1 more standing for every previous time you have been the target of the ability in question. Politically Grounded: You are notable for having played the other game of kings from time to time, and owe your allegiance to a particular ideology or faction within your nation, but that is simply the price for their assistance. Effect: Select a political faction. Treat your leadership as 2 higher when interacting with members of that faction in any sense. If you anger the factions leaders with your actions you may lose this advantage, however you may establish a new, replacement alliance with a different faction at the beginning of the next interval at the cost of 3 standing.

Problem solver: You have established a reputation as a someone capable of solving problems if enlisted to. You may not ACTUALLY have any aptitude at doing so, but well, that doesnt matter. In the event you succeed, people are prepared to give rewards. Effect: Once per interval, the player should be presented with a conundrum, political or otherwise, that requires at least one proactive test to solve, as well as some thinking on the part of the player about how to apply themselves to it. Should they succeed, they gain 2 standing. Should they fail, they lose 1 standing. Rumour Mill: You know where, how and with who to spread a rumour. And boy do you know how to make a story that hurts. Effects: Once per interval, you may test leadership. On success a target admiral, enemy or allied, loses 2 standing, and tests organisation. On a failure, they lose 2 more standing. Smuggling Ring: You have well established contacts in a group capable of stealthily negotiating the frontlines to transfer cargo to and from those on the other side, and even establishing papers for those sent along with them. Effects: Twice per interval, an ability of yours that targets a specific individual or individuals may be used against admirals or political personalities on the enemy side. Soldier Extraordinaire: All Admirals have basic combat training in sidearms and some very limited close quarters drills, simply as a baseline naval requirement. However, your skills go beyond this, you have trained alongside the best at some point. Your martial skills would earn you a modicum of respect even among special forces operatives. Effects: Treat your Intellect as 2 higher when it is used for attacks made by you personally. Spymaster: You have a network of contacts both close to home and even infiltrated within the enemy forces. They wont risk blowing their cover, but they are willing to observe and research rivals in any camp for you. Or perhaps, if it is relevant to the setting, you may actually possess some kind of psionic scrying ability. Effects: Each interval, you may select a known Admiral or other similarly powerful individual. The target tests organisation (Ideally if it is a PC they should not be made aware this ability is the reason, though they should be allowed to suspect it). If they fail, you gain information on one of the following: Their specifics of their starting advantage, the specifics of their starting disadvantage, one tactic or formation or technology and one perk of their choice that you have not known them to display (The target may be made aware of this use), or their standing and commander rank, or their XP. Instead of the above, you may choose to gain yes or no responses as to whether they possess a specific perk and a specific tactic, formation or technology. Superior Subordinates: The men youve gathered under your umbrella of influence are a step above the average joe in their various professions. Effects: When a subordinates own stats would be relevant during an interval, they are treated as 1 higher. Superior technology: You have personal access to the most advanced products the eggheads at R&D can produce, perhaps because you used to work with them, or perhaps because you were simply one of only a few people to take an interest in them. Whilst use of their devices is frowned upon and costs the state greatly, it is often worth it.

Effects: Once per interval, you may sacrifice 4 standing to treat yourself as having rolled a 1 on a failed Intellect test. Well Read: The average admiral should never be completely without knowledge of an individual, but you read the papers, keep an ear on social circles, and many other things, setting you ahead of the rest. Effect: You are always aware of all publicly available information (even if from a very obscure source) about any given individual or event. This includes approximate summaries of battles they have participated in, the tens digit of their standing, and people who are known to be associated with the individual or the event.

MAJOR FUTURE PATCH NOTES: - Include some kind of power to frame people for shit - Split spymaster - Fuck with standing from battles YET MORE