Not A Snark

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====== Star Wars ======

The release of Star Wars was a milestone in science fiction
film history. It merged high quality space opera adventure
with dazzling special effects and brought them to the big
screen for the first time. But then, you probably already
know that. So, to give you a reason to dig out those old
Star Wars models, toys and anything else which brings back
nostalgic memories (such as turning your book shelves into
the Death Star, and making screeching noises as X-Wings and
TIE fighters fight next to it), here's a few rules on
converting ships from Star Wars to Full Thrust.


===== Conversion Notes =====



Ships in **Star Wars** are //big//. The Imperial
Class Star Destroyer, the mainstay of the Imperial
Fleet, is 1.6km long. It has a volume of over 65
million cubic metres (that's equivalent to over
4.5 million //Traveller// tonnes). They are not so
much a warship, more a small, heavily armed, city.
Even the relatively small Nebulon B Frigate is 300
metres in length. Restricting the designs to 100 mass
totally looses (IMO) the whole point of
**Star Wars**.



As such, what I've done is to sit down and convert
the designs in the Imperial Sourcebook (from the Star
Wars Roleplaying Game) directly, and to Hel with the
standard Full Thrust mass limitations. As such, the
designs given here are big. Really big. But not as
big as they could have been.



What I'm basically trying to say is, don't expect to
field a whole fleet of Star Destroyers against a
fleet of MC80s, and expect to play out the Battle
of Endor in an evening. These designs are here for
interest value only. Don't expect them to be of
practical use.


==== Turbolasers ====


**Turbolasers** are the standard heavy weapon of
the Star Wars universe, and are present on most
capital ships (the term 'capital ship' is used to
designate any large warship, from frigates up to Star
Destroyers). Turbolasers are very similar to beam
batteries, and use the same symbols, mass and point
costs as for beam batteries. They are available in C,
B, A and AA varieties. A turbolaser though can only
have one arc of fire, but has a range category of 16".



The AA turbolaser does 4d damage within 16", 3d
out to 32", 2d out to 48" and 1d out to its
maximum range of 64". The Imperial AA turbolaser
has no chance of a misfire. A C turbolaser may
fire at fighters within 6", destroying one on a
roll of 6. Any turbolaser may be mounted to fire
through the rear arc.



PDAFs also exist, and are used as normal, except
that they may be used against ships within 6".
All such targets are treated as having 2 extra
levels of shields though - targets with
effectively 4 or more levels of shields cannot
be damage by PDAFs. It requires use of a FireCon
to use PDAFs against non-fighter targets. PDAFs
have a 360 degree arc of fire.



I've converted turbolasers into standard Full
Thrust beam batteries, according to the damage
of the SW lasers. Turbolasers of around 3D
damage are C batteries, 5D damage becomes B
batteries, 7D are A batteries and 10D are AA
mega batteries. The technology of the Empire
is such that AA batteries are reliable, having
no chance to malfunction.



==== Ion Cannons ====



I've translated ion cannons into needle beams,
since they both have more or less the same
effect, though ion cannons have a range of 16".
They may only fire through a single arc, and
have a mass and point cost as per a needle beam.
They may be mounted aft.



==== Tractor Beams ====



Tractor beams aren't covered by //Full Thrust//,
which is somewhat unusual since they are so common
in science fiction. I've assumed mass 5 for a
tractor beam, and left the exact rules to another
time. I know there are rules for the things
floating around on the web, but I haven't had
time to go find them.



==== Imperial Fighters ====



There are various types of fighters in the
**Star Wars** universe, which can be
translated to //Full Thrust// without too
much bother. The fighter types I use are as
follows, together with their //More Thrust//
sub types.



{{./designs/ties.gif}}


| TIE/In | Standard fighter. |
| TIE Bomber | Heavy torpedo fighter |
| TIE Interceptor | Interceptor |
| TIE/fc | Special |
| TIE/rc | Fast/Long range |
| TIE/gt | Attack |

=== TIE/fc ===

The TIE/fc is designed for target acquisition duties against larger vessels. It is not particularly good at either dog fighting or attacking larger vessels itself - halve (rounding down) all damage down by a TIE/fc squadron against any target. If the TIE/fc group is within 6" of a large ship though (ie non-fighters), it can
designate targets for any other ship in the Imperial fleet. Each fighter rolls 1d6, and on a roll of 5+, a shot from a single weapon may ignore all shields and armour on the target vessel. The TIE/fc cannot attack, or be involved in a dogfight, while designating targets.

=== TIE Bomber ===

The TIE bomber is treated as a standard heavy torpedo fighter, except that it may also attack ground targets from orbit. The 'torpedo' may be launched at planet side targets within 3" as for a single ortillery attack, instead of firing at a ship.

==== Alliance Fighters ====

{{./designs/wings.gif}}

| A-Wing | Fast. |
| B-Wing | Heavy attack. |
| X-Wing | Interceptor, but no penalty against large ships. |
| Y-Wing | Heavy |

==== Hyperspace ====

Hyperspace is very safe and reliable in Star Wars, so no problems are caused by jumping into hyperspace when close to other ships. A planet's gravity well still prohibits hyperspace travel though.

Optionally, entry to, and exit from, hyperspace can be done differently to better simulate the 'special effects' used in the films. On the turn after hyperdrives are engaged, during the movement phase, the velocity of the ship is quadrupled. Each turn thereafter, the velocity is quadrupled again until either the ship leaves the board, or a velocity greater than 256"/turn is achieved. At this point, the ship is assumed to have entered
hyperspace.

Likewise, a ship exits hyperspace at a velocity greater than 64" a turn (at the start of its movement phase, so it moves 64" that turn). It's velocity is quartered every turn until it reaches the velocity the ship had when it entered hyperspace. For ships coming in off the board, this is basically anything the controlling player decides before play.

A ship may be assumed to come out of hyperspace off the board, decelerating and only coming onto the board when a low velocity has been reached. The enemy fleet will be aware of any ships coming out of hyperspace this way though, and will now its speed and rough location.

Ships cannot change facing while engaging hyperdrives. A ship may use hyperdrives to move rapidly across the battle area, engaging them for a single turn only. A ship cannot make a second jump within three turns of coming out of the previous, and weapon systems may not be fired, or fighters launched or recovered, while
accelerating into, or decelerating out of, hyperspace. Fighters equipped with hyperdrives only have enough energy for two jumps.

====== Ship Designs ======

===== The Empire =====

==== Imperial Class Star Destroyer (Mass 4,000; Points ~50,000) ====

[[this>_media/ft/starwars/designs/imperial.gif|{{:ft:starwars:images:imperial.gif?nolink}}]]

This is a really silly ship design, basically because it is just so damn big. The Star Destroyer though is designed to be a fleet in itself, with massive amounts of firepower, and large numbers of fighters.

A less well known role for the ISD is in planetary assault - a single star destroyer is capable of reducing entire civilisations to slag. For this reason, I've given it large numbers of ortillery systems, as well as drop ships. Also included in the design are minesweeper systems, since these will also be useful when attacking
well defended planets.

If you add up the mass of all the systems, you'll find that they don't fill the total available mass of the ship. What isn't noted on the designs are the 9,700 troops, the workshops,the factories, the training rooms, entertainment complexes, the six years of supplies, the 40,000 crew etc etc. These things are cities in space. They can't afford to devote their entire mass to military systems.

==== Imperial Class Star Destroyer II (Mass 4,000; Points ~50,000) ====

[[this>_media/ft/starwars/designs/imperial2.gif|{{:ft:starwars:images:imperial.gif?nolink}}]]

The Imperial II is an upgraded version of the older Imperial I. It has significantly improved firepower for ship to ship combat, at the expense of ground assault systems. The SW:RPG rules merely list the Imperial II as being better, but since both ships are the same size, upgrading B batteries to A and AA in Full Thrust means
something has to go.

==== Victory Class Star Destroyer (Mass 1,600; Points ~10,000) ====

[[this>_media/ft/starwars/designs/victory.gif|{{:ft:starwars:images:victory.gif?nolink}}]]

The Victory class of star destroyers are much older designs than the Imperial class, dating back to the time of the Clone Wars. They are considerably smaller (900m in length), though they still can be a force to be reckoned with. They were originally designed as planetary assault and defence platforms, and are ill-suited to space combat. They do have the ability to enter the upper atmosphere, and deliver an awesome barrage of highly accurate destructive energy at any planetary target. Their original design assumed they would carry space-to-ground missiles, but they are capable of carrying any of the standard missile configurations.

==== Victory Class Star Destroyer II (Mass 1,600; Points ~ 10,000) ====

[[this>_media/ft/starwars/designs/victory2.gif|{{:ft:starwars:images:victory.gif?nolink}}]]

Right at the end of the Clone Wars, the Victory Class Star Destroyer was redesigned into the Victory II. It is more suited to space combat than its predecessor, having more powerful drive systems, and longer ranged weapon systems. In its conversion, it lost its formidable array of missile systems, but the Emperor wanted the Victory II to be able to serve as a long range patrol vessel. Given such a mission profile, where it would be unable to resupply its missile tubes for a considerable time, they were dropped in favour of reusable systems.