FG: Galactic Overlord III Game Thread

[GeneralTacticus]

Galactic Overlord
A New Forum Game from
Jamski Productions

Overview

Galactic Overlord is a game of space strategy and warfare for any number of players. It is turn based and builds on the success of the well-known Paper-Stone-Scissors^tm system. Each player is the ruler of a faction determined to bring the whole galaxy under their domination using every means at their disposal until they are the sole survivor and the almighty Galactic Overlord!

Setting up the Game

Each player starts the game with three Bases. A Base is a planet, hollowed out asteroid, huge space station or any other large structure capable of supporting life and industry. Each player also starts the game with 20 Build Points, or BPs. As long as the player has at least one base still in operation he receives an additional 5 BPs each turn per home base, and 2 BPs each turn per captured base. The player's initial BPs can be used before the game starts to build the starting Ships or more Bases according to the following table:

Spending BPs

Self-built bases 1 through 6 cost 16BP each.
Self-built bases 7 through 12 cost 24BP each.
Self-built bases 13 through 18 cost 32BP each and so on.

Frigate......1 BP     
Cruiser......2 BPs
Battleship...3 BPs
Dreadnaught..4 BPs
Titan........5 BPs

The more expensive the Ship, the more Bases are required to build one:

Frigate......1 home Base     
Cruiser......2 home Bases
Battleship...3 home Bases
Dreadnaught..4 home Bases
Titan........5 home Bases

***NOTE - Only self-built bases count towards maximum hull sizes***

Each Ship built can be armed as you wish with Lasers, Fighters or Torpedoes with each weapon taking up one unit of space from the Ship's total. A ship may only carry one kind of weapon.

Frigate......1 unit of space/2 hit point     
Cruiser......2 units of space/4 hit points
Battleship...3 units of space/6 hit points
Dreadnaught..4 units of space/8 hit points
Titan........5 units of space/10 hit points

EXAMPLE : A Battleship might have 3xLasers (Laserbattleship), a Cruiser 2xTorpedoes(Torpedocruiser) and a Frigate 1xFighters (Carrierfrigate).

BP's may be stockpiled for use later during the game.

Playing the Game - Orders

This part of the game is similar to Nuclear War^tm. Each player sends his orders to the GM who processes them all together once they are received.

Normal Orders (you may make both these orders in conjunction with the orders in the next section)

• Build Ships/Bases : You may spend your BPs or stockpile them for later. Ships built that turn may be used for attack and defence, Bases built may be destroyed that turn. Damaged Ships may be fully repaired for a cost of 1 BP (Now you see why big ships are good)
  ***NOTE - You need to already have bases built for them to count for hull size allowance.***
• Use Spy : If you have a Spy you may stop one of your opponents orders that turn being executed. The Spy is lost. Spy affects Attack!, Rebuild Generator and Train Spy.

Special Orders (you must choose only one of these per turn)

• Attack! : This starts a fight between your fleet and that of an opponent. You must choose which ships to send, and which to leave at home in case you yourself are attacked that turn. See Combat for more.
• Raise Shields! : This protects your Bases and Ships from all attacks that turn, and also stops any spies. Any opposing fleet that attacks you will take twelve Hits (distributed as per combat damage) while you remain snug and secure. The generator is exhausted by this use and must be rebuilt.
• Build Generator : Rebuilds a shield generator. Up to three shields can be stockpiled for later use.
• Train Spy : Trains and inserts a new Spy for your cause. Up to three spies can be stockpiled for later use.

Alliances

You may want to organise joint attacks on an opponent with an ally. In this case you must agree on an Order of Battle between the allies. If two different opponents attack at the same time without informing the GM of their alliance, then the defender must fight them consecutively, fighting first against the one who posted their orders last.

It is possible that when a player is attacked by two non-allied fleets at the same time that he loses both battles. In this case both attackers gain a base. Allied fleets that attack together must decide who is to get the captured base.

The GM applies hits to allied fleets in the same way as to a normal fleet. This means that if one ally has smaller ships than his partner, he will take the bulk of the casualties. War is hell.

If not otherwise specified, multiple bases captured by an alliance will be divided up evenly between the fleets that actually arrived. Players may choose to redistribute them afterwards if they wish.

Transferring Ships & Bases:

In some situations, players may wish to transfer ships or bases among themselves. This is allowed.

Shields:

It is possible for a player to send out a fleet and have it run into a shield, while his home bases are simultaneously captured. In this situation, the fleet remains independent, but will lose all stockpiled shields, spies, and BPs, and will lose 10% of it’s original numbers every turn due to lack of supply. Thus, such a fleet would be advised to capture or negotiate for a base ASAP.

The GM

The GM will report each turn on the activities of each player. He will keep their orders secret and their current navies secret also, but will reveal their bases, the size of their navy and their current BPs.

Winning the Game

You win the game by destroying all the bases and fleets of your opponents to become the Galactic Overlord^tm!!!

Note: Co-operative victories are not permitted.

Playing the Game - Combat
Combat Version 1.3

Combat is a simple, and yet complex, Paper-Stone-Scissors^tm system :

Lasers    - beat - Fighters
Fighters  - beat - Torpedoes
Torpedoes - beat - Lasers

If your weapon beats the other fleet's weapon, your raw attack strength against them is doubled, cumulative with all other modifiers.

Every player must also specify an "Order of Battle" every turn, whether attacking, or expecting to be attacked. Failure to do so results in the loss of your whole fleet in confusion and panic. This is simple to do though. The OOB is divided into two groups of three weapons each; both groups must contain one of each kind of weapon.

EXAMPLE: Lasers-Fighters-Torpedoes-Laser-Torpedoes-Fighters (LFTLTF)

These can be further refined by different tactics.
Tactics 1 - Range:
You may instruct your captains to try to engage at different ranges.

• Close In - Lasers from both fleets count an extra x2. If both fleets Close In then this stacks to a x4. This negates Back Off.
• Back Off - Lasers from both fleets count an extra x0.5 penalty. This is negated by Close In. If both players Back Off this stacks to x0.25.

Default is no special orders.

Tactics 2 - Formation:
You may instruct your captains to engage using different formations.

• Bunch Together - Your ships huddle together to protect each other from Fighters, but are more vulnerable to the large explosions of Torpedoes. Attacks with Fighters against Bunched Together fleets are at x0.5, while Torpedoes get x2.
• Spread Out - Your ships spread out, making the fleet hard to target with Torpedoes, while leaving individual ships vulnerable to Fighters. Attacks with Fighters against Spread Out fleets are at x2, while Torpedoes get x0.5

Default is no special orders. These orders can be used even when sending out a single ship.

Tactics 3 – Miscellaneous:
[*]The attacking player may decide to attack to the death. In that case, proceed as normal, but repeat the combat until one side or the other is completely destroyed.[*]You may set different OOBs for different enemies, if you wish, but always send a default OOB in, to cover any situation not specially mentioned.

Example of full OOBs:

Attack: TFFTLT back off, bunch
Defence: LFTFTL close in, default

• Add hitpoints for fleets involved in the battle (2xBP cost of fleets)
• Add total Fighters/Lasers/Torps in each fleet.
• Sort fleets according to their empire's Order of Battle. Fleets with no OoB are destroyed.
• Adjust raw fighter/laser/torp numbers.
• The fleet with the "winning" tactic in a given round has their raw total attack strength doubled.
• Spreading or bunching your fleet affect the opposition's raw total attack strength. Double or halve this accordingly.
• The higher adjusted total wins. Apply Hits equal to the difference between the totals.
• Every three rounds, tally up the hits taken by both sides, and apply them as losses, then continue on to the next three rounds, if applicable.
• Remove destroyed ships, smallest first, in the same order as the OoB.
• Combat continues until one fleet receives more hits than it has hitpoints, or 6 rounds of combat have taken place unless the attack ordered a fight to the death, in which case combat ends with the destruction of one fleet.
• A destroyed fleet loses.
• If both fleets survive, the fleet that takes the most Hits is the loser.
• If the attacker won, he captures one base.
• If the attacker destroyed the entire enemy fleet, he captures all his opponents bases.

 
Player Name
 
Bases
 
BPs
 
TotalShips
 
Frigates(1)
 
Cruisers(2)
 
Battleships(3)
 
Dreadnaughts(4)
 
Titans(5)
 



 
Las
 
Fig
 
Torp
 
Las
 
Fig
 
Torp
 
Las
 
Fig
 
Torp
 
Las
 
Fig
 
Torp
 
Las
 
Fig
 
Torp
 



 
Smiley
 
3
 
20
 
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Boshko 
  
3
 
20
 
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Chaunk
3
 
20
 
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DrSpike
  
3
 
20
 
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Geomodder
  
3
 
20
 
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Jamski
  
3
 
20
 
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joncha
  
3
 
20
 
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Kassiopeia
  
3
 
20
 
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Kuciwalker
  
3
 
20
 
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Ljube-Ljcvetko
  
3
 
20
 
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Skanky Burns
3
 
20
 
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Whoha
3
 
20
 
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[Spaced Cowboy]

sent...how was that for a quick reply?

[Skanky Burns]

Sent.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
Sent.

slowpoke.

[Skanky Burns]

Hey, I put thought into my orders.

[joncha]

orders sent

[Kuciwalker]

The GM will report each turn on the activities of each player. He will keep their orders secret and their current navies secret also, but will reveal their bases, the size of their navy and their current BPs.

Oooh, I likey

But why do you still have the big table?

[GeneralTacticus]

That rule changed sometime during GO1, and I guess that bit of the rules was never fixed. However, I'd be perfectly willing to go back to keeping exact fleet compositions secret; that table is ridiculously complicated to post.

[joncha]

I vote we keep the table.

[Kuciwalker]

I vote against.

Oh, and sent.

[Whoha]

Sent.

I vote to tell how many of each ship, but not what kinds of weapons are on them.

[Kassiopeia]

I vote against revealing weapon details. Also, sent.

[Skanky Burns]

I vote to keep the table and fleet compositions. There are plenty of unknowns to keep players on edge, but we do need some information.

[Whoha]

If its secret then going 2 weapons would be a passable strat, and I understand what you meant by the PM GT, had a brain fart there and thought that bases were only 15 bp, so disregard the question in the second pm.

[GeoModder]

I'm in favor of keeping the table as it is.

Btw, didn't Jam participate in this one as well?

Orders sent.