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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-Scissorstm 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 one Base. 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 2 Counter-espionage options. Each of these options is capable of immunising the player that uses it against any enemy spy action for one turn. Each player also starts the game with 32 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 BPs can be used to build Ships or more Bases according to the following table:
Turn zero
You may give any orders except Attack! during turn zero, the prebuild turn. In essence, you can build ships or bases, as well as either a shield or a spy.
Spending BPs
Self-built base 1 costs 8 BP.
Self-built bases 2 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.
Code:
Frigate......1 BP Cruiser......2 BPs Battleship...3 BPs Dreadnaught..4 BPs Titan........5 BPs
Code:
Frigate......1 home Base Cruiser......2 home Bases Battleship...3 home Bases Dreadnaught..4 home Bases Titan........5 home Bases
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.
Code:
[color=red][b]Frigate......1 unit of space/3 hit point Cruiser......2 units of space/6 hit points Battleship...3 units of space/9 hit points Dreadnaught..4 units of space/12 hit points Titan........5 units of space/15 hit points[/b][/color]
BP's may be stockpiled for use later during the game.
Playing the Game - Orders
Each player sends his orders to the GM who processes them all together once they are received.
Normal Orders (you may make any number of 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 captured that turn. Damaged Ships are repaired for free (Now you see why big ships are good).
***NOTE - You need to already have bases built for them to count for hull size allowance. That means if you have 2 bases at the start of the turn, then you can only build crusiers even if you build another base during that turn.*** - Use Counter-espionage : You may use one Counter-espionage order per turn, to a total of two, to protect your orders from enemy spies’ interference. Once used up, this option cannot be rebuilt.
- Use Spies : If you have a Spy you may stop one of your opponents orders that turn being executed. The Spy is lost. Spy affects Attack!, Allied Defence, Rebuild Generator and Train Spy. You cannot build a spy and use a spy in the same turn. If two players spy on each other, the spies cancel each other and their orders proceed as if no spies were used.
Special Orders (you can 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.
- Allied Defend. : See heading below for more details.
- 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 hits equal to 10% of total tonnage (distributed as per combat damage) while you remain snug and secure. The generator is exhausted by this use and must be rebuilt.
- Build Shield 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. You cannot train a spy and use a spy in the same turn.
Alliances
Allied Attack
- 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/s.
- 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. Odd bases will be assigned to the members of an alliance that sent their orders first. Players may choose to redistribute them afterwards if they wish.
Allied Defense
- As his orders a player may instruct the GM that instead of attacking or shielding he wishes to perform an Allied Defense. This works exactly like an allied attack, except the target is a friendly base/s.
- All fleets must have the same defensive OoB, or the allied defense will not occur!
- If player A sends orders to make an allied defense with Player B, it is possible both that Player B returns the favor and sends orders to make an allied defense with Player A, or that they trust Player A to defend their bases and attack a third Player.
- If a player orders an allied defense, but is themselves attacked at home that turn, their fleet will cancel the allied defense order and defend at home. Defending home bases has priority over rushing to assist a rival.
- Because of the above rule, it is always assumed that allied defense uses the whole fleet.
- Should the defense fail, the player that was attacked loses his bases as normal, but the assisting player(s) is safe.
Transferring Ships & Bases:
Is not allowed, period!
Baseless players:
- It is possible for a player to send out a fleet and have it run into a shield or lose the battle, while his home bases are simultaneously captured. Such fleet then remains baseless.
- A player with no bases cannot use or build any specials except use counterespionage.
- A player with no bases at the beginning of a round must capture at least one base that round or be eliminated.
- Overlords with no bases lose their stockpiled shields. Spies and counterspies are retained.
- It is possible to use a spy on an player with no bases.
Captured Bases or Base Swappery
If those overlords get back into the game by capturing someone's bases, they then often have to sit a few turns, unable to do much due to lack of home bases. So...
A player who captures some bases when they previously had none at the beginning of that turn or was a victim of base swappery does not automatically trade any captured bases for one home base. The price of the first base has been reduced to 8 BP to help get players back into the game.
Clarification: There is no longer any attrition due to not having bases.
The GM
The GM will report each turn on the activities of each player. He will keep their orders secret, but will reveal their bases, the size and breakdown of their navy and their current BPs.
Winning the Game
Conquest Victory
You win the game by destroying all the bases and fleets of your opponents to become the Galactic Overlordtm!!!
Domination Victory
If a player has more than 2/3 of the bases in the galaxy, or more than 75% of the shipping tonnage they may claim a domination victory. If this is accepted by the other players then the game ends. No player is forced to accept domination, and has a right to fight to the last.
Note: Co-operative victories are not permitted.
Playing the Game - Combat
Combat Version 1.4
Combat is a simple, and yet complex, Paper-Stone-Scissorstm system :
Code:
Lasers - beat - Fighters Fighters - beat - Torpedoes Torpedoes - beat - Lasers
Every player must also specify an "Order of Battle" every turn, whether attacking, or expecting to be attacked. Failure to do so results in elimination of the defending fleet. This is simple to do though. The OOB is divided into two groups of three weapons each. You must have 2 of each type in any order.
EXAMPLE 1: Lasers-Fighters-Torpedoes-Laser-Torpedoes-Fighters (LFTLTF)
EXAMPLE 2: Lasers-Torpedoes-Laser-Torpedoes-Fighters-Fighters (LTLTFF)
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.
Default is do not fight to the death.
New for Combat v 1.4
Maneuver (M)- your ships do not fire and take normal damage. On the next round their firepower is doubled. You can only maneuver once, and it may not be in the 3rd or 6th slot of your OoB.
Disengage (D) is no longer allowed.
[*]You may NOT set different OOBs for different enemies. Only one OOB for offense and one OOB for defense will be accepted.
Example of full OOBs:
Code:
Attack: MFFLLT back off, bunch Defence: LFTFML close in, default
- Add hitpoints for fleets involved in the battle (3xBP 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 (Players that do not send in orders on time do not have OOBs).
- 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 according to the following rule. All ships of one type first, before moving to the next type, in the same order as the order of battle. Start removing frigates first, titans last. Damaged ships don’t break formation.
- 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.
Additional rules concerning damaged ships
All ships that have taken damage are repaired for free at the end of battle.
Weapon values vs unusual orders:
Lasers x2 vs Unopposed
Torpedoes x2 vs Unopposed
Fighters x2 vs Unopposed
Lasers x1 vs Manouvre
Torpedoes x1 vs Manouvre
Fighters x1 vs Manouvre
*Unopposed refers to and OOB with a missing fleet type either by not having any to start with or by losing them in earlier rounds of combat.
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