Kra'Vak 'house' rules for FB, long

The following are the rules we have been using since I got my hands on 
FB.
 They seem to be working out pretty well.  Mostly, these are just a
remake
of a set of rules I posted some time ago (before I was forced to 'crash'
move – a military thing).   I'll post a set of ships as soon as I get
the
chance (as soon as I can make up some 'Kra'Vak' sounding names).   

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Armoured hulls
	We dropped the concept of Kra'Vak Armoured hulls and instead
limit the
Kra'Vak to armor only.	

Railgun

Class	Mass	Cost	Damage		    
1	1	3	1	
2	2	6	2
3	3	9	3

All Railguns follow the following table for range and chance to hit
Range:	0-6	6-12	12-18	18-24	24-30
Hit:	2+	3+	4+	5+	6+

Railguns ignore shields when doing damage.  All Railguns may only be
mounted through one arc.  When attacking ships with armor damage is
marked
against armor first before moving to internals.  The Double damage
concept
was also dropped.

'Charge' Weapons.  

Scattergun Charge

Mass: 1 Cost: 10

The Scattergun charge is a  one shot type weapon that fires a large
number
of solid shot projectiles.   It is designed to intercept and destroy
fighters and missiles that are attacking the Kra'Vak fleet.  The
Scattergun
round can engage any target within 360 of the ship and has a range out
to
6".  The Scattergun may only engage one target (missile or fighter) and
is
expanded and marked off the sheet after it is fired.  The Scattergun may
not damage ships.  Against a missile the Shotgun charge has the effect
of
destroying the missile on a roll of 4,5, or 6.	Against Salvo Missiles a
d6
is rolled and that number of missiles are destroyed.  The Scattergun
chooses its targets during its fire turn and is not limited to those
missiles targeting the ship itself. 

Cannon Charge

Mass: 1 Cost:  10

The Cannon round is a one shot type weapon that fires a single (or fewer
and bigger projectile than the Shotgun) larger caliber projectile
designed
to damage ships.  Any ship within 6" may be targeted, but only one ship
per
Cannon Charge.	Roll a d6 and the result is the amount of damage
inflicted
on the target.	Shields have no effect, but the Mass Caster below has
the
result of subtracting one point of damage from the dice roll.  Damage is
sustained with half going to armor (if any) and half to internals.  The
Cannon Charge has no effect on missiles and fighters. 

Mass Caster Charge

Mass:  1	  Cost:  10

The Mass Caster Charge is designed to give a ship suffering heavy fire a
short term means of defense.  When used it blows a large quantity of
small/fine mass (sand, ice crystals, etc) into one arc.  For the
remainder
of the turn (until the ship moves) the discharged mass will have the
effect
of reducing the chance of a weapon targeting the ship by one through one
arc.  Against Battery weapon fire it has the effect of granting one
level
of screen.  Casters discharged from one ship cannot be used to protect
another ship and only one caster will have an effect through any one
arc. 
This system is 'fired' during the ships normal firing opportunity (and
so
some enemy ships may have the chance to fire before the charge is
discharged) and the choice of what arc is to be defended is chosen then. 

Class 10 Weapons.   
These two weapons are an attempt to give the Kra'Vak some weapon systems
that are the equivalent of the spinal mount weapons (Nova Cannon, etc.).

If your group doesn't use such weapons then I would suggest ignoring the
following two systems.	In addition we usually restrict these kind of
weapons to 200+ mass ships (since FB) and further restrict them to no
more
than one such weapon per ship, but that again is a group specific thing.
 
Both of these weapons use the concept of limited ammo.	For each weapon
you
must buy a number of 'rounds'.	These should be displayed on the ship
diagram and can be destroyed by threshold checks.  When the weapon is
fired
one round is marked off the ship display.  When there are no further
rounds
to mark off the weapon may not fire as it is out of ammo.

Class 10 Railgun
Mass:  10	Cost:  30

The Class 10 Rail Gun is 'spinal mount' version of the normal Rail Gun. 
It
fires a single large projectile that can cause critical shock damage to
a
target it hits.  The game mechanics are much like the normal rail gun. 
The
Class 10 will deliver 10 points of damage to its target with damage
being
marked off of armor first and the chance of hit being as per the normal
rail gun.  

It is a spinal mount weapon, but may fire into the forward arc (rather
than
directly ahead). 

The Class 10 Rail Gun has the same chance of hitting as a normal Rail
Gun
and may target only one ship at a time (it is not an area affect
weapon). 

The Class 10 Rail Gun will cause 10 points of damage if it hits. 

In addition to the damage normally caused the Rail Gun will also cause
the
ship struck to suffer an additional threshold check from the shock of
such
a single large projectile hitting it. This additional threshold check is
made on the current (after all damage this volley) level.  The Class 10
may
only be mounted through the forward arc.  Any ship that takes internal
damage from a volley that includes the Class 10 will sustain a special
6+ 
threshold check.  All systems are checked as per a normal threshold
check
and this check has no effect on any other/further checks the target ship
may suffer.

Class 10 Rail Gun Charge
Mass:	1	Cost: 3

Class 10 shotgun
Mass: 10	Cost: 30

The Class 10 Scattergun is a 'spinal mount' version of the normal
Scattergun. It fires a large number of solid shot projectiles that
spread
out over the course of their trajectory, the game mechanics are much
like
the Wave Gun. The Class 10 has a range of 30 inches. Over the first 10
inches move a 2 inch template, all ships hit take 3d6 damage. Over the
second 10-20 inches move a 3 inch template, all ships hit take 2d6
damage. 
Over the last 20-30 inches move a 4 inch template and all ships struck
suffer 1d6 damage. All damage ignores shields. 

The Class 10 may fire every turn. It may fire only directly forward of
the
ship. 

Class 10 Shotgun Charge
Mass: 1 	Cost: 10

High Maneuverability

Cost is 5% of ship's MASS.  An alternate method would be to cost it as
an
additional cost to thrust, making each point of thrust cost 6% or 7% of
MASS instead of 5%.  

All other costs are as per normal FB rules (thrust, FTL, etc.)

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Armoured Hulls
We had actually dropped this and gone to an armor concept prior to
seeing
the Fleet Book.  We were using 1 mass gives 6 points of protection to
balance it against the mass 3 ft/mt shields.  I was kind of disappointed
that FB gave armor rules.  The idea that the Kra'Vak were the only ones
that used this form of protection helped give them a different feel and
reinforced their 'we got to do it now' feel that other fleets didn't
have.
.

Rail Guns
The Rail Gun is slightly more effective than the similar pulse torp. 
However, this is balanced by having all of the damage from the Rail Gun
effect against armor first and then internals and limiting the RG to one
arc.  For my money the Rail Gun still has concept problems.  The Class 1
is
no different from the Class 3.	This problem was well handled with Beams
by
giving the class 1 the pd ability and restricting/costing arcs of fire
for
all batteries.	Something along these lines needs to be added to the
Kra'Vak Rail Guns so there is a reason, beyond limited mass, to take a
class 1 over a class 3.

We dropped the double damage for balance reasons and discovered it also
speeded up play (large fleets and all that).

Charge Weapons
The Changes to the Scattergun were at first to bring the weapon into
balance.  That d6 damage range 12" made even us die hard Kra'Vak fans
blush
(mass 1 cost 5 also).  However, after playing with the 'split' system I
have found that it is actually a lot more fun to design Kra'Vak ships
('now, what  do I want this one to do) and to use them in play.  The
addition of the Mass Caster Charge just improved the above by giving
more
choices and allowing further development of class/mission specific
ships. 
Note that the Scattergun Charge now is able to target missiles (mt and
salvo).  Even the Kra'Vak deserve some kind of missile defense and if it
is
going to be a one shot it needed to be good.  They are still very
vulnerable to heavy fighter and follow on missile attacks just the same.

The Mass Caster should probably have an effect on missiles/fighters, but
doing so would rob the scattergun of some of its specific function.  I
wanted well defined systems with a specific function to force players to
balance the needs of a ship, not choose a system that did a little bit
of
everything.

Class 10 weapons
The Class 10 weapons were added to balance all the other centerline type
weapons races can choose from.	It seemed to me that the Kra'Vak might
design something like these weapons and the addition of limited ammo
also
fit the concept I had floating around in my mind.

High maneuver
An alternate method would be to cost it as an additional cost to thrust,
making each point of thrust cost 6% or 7% of MASS instead of 5%.  This
would probably be best, but just prefer working with multiples of  '5',
call me a math wimp.

Concept

The changes above seemed to work well for us.  The Kra'Vak became a
race/fleet that works against time.  Many of its systems are one shots
and
the capital weapons are limited on ammo.  This fact meant that Kra'Vak
fleets had to be designed with a specific tactic in mind and ships
needed
to be designed to perform in their roles.  At least IMHO it became more
fun
to design Kra'Vak ships.  J

Hope this helps
Chad