Honor Harrington Rules for FT

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a new mailer). 
 
 
 
Full Thrust : Honor Harrington Conversion Rules. 
 
 
The Honor Harrington series (hence HH) by David Weber has been described
as "Hornblower is Spaaaace", with good reason. The tactics of the
Napoleonic wars , with limitation of weapons and hull designs, have been
faithfully transported into Interstellar war, with a high tech twist
(Electronic warfare, and missiles). 
 
 
This is a alpha set of rules to allow Full Thrust players enjoy the rich
background of Weber's work. Any feedback is welcome, and should be sent
to dadams@tig.com.au. 
 
1. Design Systems. 
 
1.1 Hulls 
 
Hulls are unchanged as per normal FT rules. There are however no
fighters in the HH books, so any reference to fighters and Carriers are
ignored. (There are ship boats, pinnaces and  the like, treat them as
MASS 1 ships, with bays taking MASS 2, and the cost of the bay is 5
(design the pinnaces as per normal ships) 
 
1.2 Engines 
 
In the HH books, manoeuvre and FTL drives are one and the same, they
change configuration (see below : shielding). However for FT, treat them
as normal (this represents the mechanics of converting the drive fields
to  FTL sails).  
 
On the ship display, Place 1 manoeuvre box for non military ships (and Q
Ships) and two boxes for military ships. This represent the Alpha and
Beta nodes of the drive system.  
 
In normal space, treat these boxes as normal (ie if a drive hit occurs,
reduce the thrust rating by 1/2, with both hit, the ship is immobile).
In FTL, a node hit is considered an instant kill as both nodes are
needed to manoeuvre in FTL space safely, so a ship with a node hits
continues original vector and speed, making, and con not safely exit FTL
space in a battle situation). 
 
1.3  Fire control 
 
Fire control is slightly different in HH, as electronic warfare and
technology difference is prevalent. So , drawing on DSII , the
modification is made. 
 
Fire control comes in 4 type, basic, standard , enhance and superior.
Each takes 3 MASS in the ship (with the first one free) with the
following cost (if you wish to upgrade the free system, use the upgrade
cost, else for extra systems, use the Full System cost): 
 
Class					Upgrade 		Full
System		   Dice 
 
Basic					-3			7	
	       d4 
Standard				0			10	
	       d6 
Enhance 				+3			13	
	       d8 
Superior				+6			16	
	       d10 
 
The symbol for the fire control is a box with the dice value inside (ie
4,6,8,10). See below for combat rules for FC. 
	 
1.4 Fire Arcs and Shielding. 
 
In HH, the drive system does not block the rear quarter of  a ships arc.
It is slightly worse. 
Drive fields project in normal 2 grav bands, one "above" and one "below"
the ship. This grav band is impervious to ALL Fire. However the grav
bands do not cover the sides, the bow and stern of the ship. Sidewall
shielding can be used to protect the sides (these are normal screens, as
per FT rules), but the bow and stern can not be protected whatsoever!!!
Any hit in the bow and stern is tripled!!! (to offset this disadvantage,
bow and stern shots are determined to be any weapon that fires a shot in
a strait line from the bow/stern line of the target ship). 
 
Since the drive field is impervious to fire, many ship captains will
spin the ship to allow full firing of weapons and some protection
against return fire. This is represented as a dice bonus based on ship
size 
 
Escorts 		d8 
Cruisers		d6 
Capital 		d4 
 
a +1 dice shift up is also given if the ship presents the drive field
towards enemy ships (flip the model onto its side to show which arc has
the protection). A ship doing this may not fire beam weapons, and has a
-1 dice shift down on missile systems (see below) to represent the
difficulty of attacking in this mode. THIS DOES NOT PROTECT BOW/STERN
SHOTS 
 
If a drive node is hit, reduce the dice roll by 1 dice shift (ie escorts
roll d6, cruisers d4 and capital ships can not roll, but may present his
drive field for a d4 dice) 
 
This manoeuvre is optional , but a desired survivability trait. 
 
1.5 Weapons 
 
The following weapons are used in HH combat. Most will be the same as
FT, but some will be changed (like missiles). Note that FC controls are
as per normal FT rules (including missiles). 
 
1.5.1 Beam weapons 
	 
Beam weapons are the almost the same as FT, with a couple of exceptions.

 
Beam weapons can fire on the port and starboard sides, but only C
batteries can be mounted on the bow and stern (thus c batteries can
mount on all 4 arcs) 
 
1.5.2 Missiles 
 
Missiles are treated differently than in More Thrust. A missile battery
is a launcher system fed from a magazine, thus have greater shots than n
MT.  
 
Missile batteries are like Beam batteries, with Class 3 (equivalent to a
A battery), Class 2 (B Battery) and 1 (C battery). The battery number
shows the number of missiles launched in a salvo.  A missile battery can
only bear in 1 direction, and only class 1 can be mounted on the bow and
stern (depending on the size of the ship , Escorts can mount 1 bow and
stern, Cruisers 2, and Capital ships 3). 
 
Missile batteries  feed from magazines, which take up 2 MASS and Cost 2
points. Each magazine can carry 20 missiles (Costing 2 point each for
Xray laser missiles, and 1 point for Nuclear missiles).  Again, escorts
can have 1 magazine, cruisers 2 and capital ships 3. 
 
Missiles have a range of 50". and are affected by PDAF/ADAF , stealth
and ECM. 
 
1.5.3 PDAF/ADAF 
 
These are treated as point defence weapons  against missiles, but treat
them as per normal FT rules (with the hot roles determining missile
kills not fighter kills). 
 
 
1.5.4 Submunition packs. 
 
These cost the same as in FT, but their payload are taken out of
magazines, and have the same range as normal missiles. Escorts can
deploy	1 pack at a time, cruisers 2 and capital ships 3. 
 
 
1.5.5 ECM 
 
ECM can be bought to protect from missiles.  
 
ECM Class		MASS			Cost		Dice 
 
Basic			1			2		d4 
Standard		2			4		d6 
Enhance 		3			6		d8 
Superior		4			8		d10 
 
1.5.6 Stealth 
 
Stealth can be bought to spoof detection by hiding ship sizes. They can
be bought as drones or mounted on the ship.  
 
At Stealth level 0, you can change details of the ship to hide
nationality and class , but not size. Stealth 0 can not be mounted on
drones. 
 
Stealth 1 can make a ship look larger or smaller by 1 class (make
escorts and capital ships look like cruisers, and make drones look like
escorts.) 
 
Stealth 2 can make a drone look like any ship class (Stealth 2 are
generally not mounted on ships due to the cost.  
 
Stealth systems take levle+1 mass on a ship , no matter if it a drone or
ship system. 
 
On a drone, the drones thrust level is as following : escorts -6,
cruiser-4, capital ships-2 
 
SYSTEM			COST - Drone		COST - SHIP 
Lv 0				NA			10 
Lv1				10			20 
Lv2				20			40 
 
1.7 Weapons not used 
 
Needle beams, Pulse Torpedoes, Nova cannons. 
 
 
1.8 Installations, Space stations. 
 
Since these items dont have drive fields, they can only use 360 degree
sidewall shields (normal FT shielding) which makes them vulnerable. They
use normal installation rules as per FT. 
 
2.0 Combat 
 
2.1 Beam combat. 
 
To fire a beam weapon against a ship that is not spinning or presenting
a drive field to the attacker is as normal. If one of the above is being
used, an extra step is needed. 
 
2.1.1. Attacker rolls Fire control die (d4,d6,d8,d10) 
2.1.2 Defender rolls his "spin" die as per 1.4 (with dice bonus if
presenting drive field) 
2.1.3 If defender rolls higher equal or more than attacker, then attack
fails. 
2.1.4 If attacker rolls higher than the defender, roll damage dice as
per normal (including shield penalties) 
 
2.2 Missile combat	 
 
Missile combat is resolved as per following 
 
2.2.1 Attacker launches salvo, noting missile used (by counters or
models), removing that number from a magazine. 
2.2.2 Defender rolls any valid PDAF and ADAF (using normal PDAF/ADAF
rules) 
2.2.3 Surviving missiles now attempt to break through ECM. Attacker
rolls FC rating for each salvo, and Defender rolls ECM rating (as  per
1.5.5) and "spin" dice (as per 1.4). 
2.3.4 If defender rolls equal or higher on any dice, the attack fails. 
2.3.5 If the attacker rolls higher than the defender, roll 1 damage dice
per missile (including shield penalties). 
 
2.3 Missile types 
 
There are two missile types in HH, Xray lasers and nuclear. Xray
missiles are treated as any other attack. 
 
Nuclear missiles are devistaing when they hit, but since they must get
closer to the enemy ship, they can get shot down easier. 
 
on a 1,2 : No hit. 3,4 : 1 hit, 5 : 2 hits. 6 : 3 hits. 
 
If a nuclear missile hits however, roll 2 dice per surviving missile. 
 
3. Tactics 
 
In the HH books, the formal tactic was the "Wall of Battle" a massed
line of capital ships presenting their sides to the enemy and protecting
their vulnerable bow/stern by pointing perpendicular to the enemy. These
tend to be inconclusive , a formalised slugging match as it were. There
has been some startling victories, but these depend on surprise or
ambushes, or overwhelming numerical superiority. 
 
Most ship captains aim for a "shot down the T" where a broadside is
aimed down the bow/stern line of the ship. As this area has no
protection whatsoever, this tends to be quite devastating. So a HH
battle is more dependant on manoeuvring than FT. 
 
Missiles are the king of the HH universe. Better range than beams, a
ship can fire a considerable "broadside" 


Darryl Adams		dadams@tig.com.au