Sa'vasku variants

Below are some variant Sa'vasku rules.	These are inspired by Lew 
Stoneking's rules.  Lew ran a game at GenCon '98 pitting Sa'vasku
against 
Kra'vak.  He subsequently sent me a copy of his rules, and here's where
I'm 
at with them.

Currently, I consider them to be worth a touch more 10 pts per MASS or
20 
pts per damage box.  

Generating fighters is not their most efficient tactic, but if the range
is 
great enough, they will pump out many.	I've considered making them
unable 
to attack ships or making them suffer penalties when they attack or
reducing 
their combat endurance below standard.	Another possibility is that the 
launching ship takes a point of damage upon launch.

The graviton pulse does not translate well to vector movement; I'm 
considering that each point of damage from this weapon instead gives a 1
in 
6 chance of preventing the target from using any thrust next turn.  It
means 
a second roll, but it would set up the target for a Buzzcutter shot.

I'd like your opinions on these rules and the alternatives.

Note that Lew kept one of the key Sa'vasku traits (freely allocate
energy) 
but not the other (random energy per turn), making room for another
alien 
race.  The same could be applied to the current discussions on aliens;
too 
many good ideas are entirely discarded because they don't fit Sa'vasku
or 
Kra'vak.  They still might be great rules for space mugwumps, the
tyrannical 
Wombles of Wimbledon Nebula, or the very alien	M'k'Sm'ts and
Jae'Peef's'ts.
++++++++
Sa'vasku ships are each unique creatures, but they all share common 
features.  The ship can devote its attention and energies to different
tasks 
each turn, but as they are injured, their capabilities are reduced.

Each turn, the Sa'vasku ship has a pool of energy and a number of
sensors or 
fire controls.	The energy is divided between thrust (for acceleration, 
deceleration, and turns), defensive screens, anti-fighter defences
(ADAF), 
spawning drones (fighters), and attacks (particle beams, graviton
pulses, or 
buzzcutter beams).  The cost of thrust or screens is proportional to the

ship's size, while ADAF, drones, and attacks are based upon flat costs.

Each turn, consider the available energy points.  Divide them between 
engines, ADAF, weapons, arming and launching fighters, and screens.  As 
damage is taken each turn, your available energy will drop and points
will 
disappear from the pools.  Normally, points will disappear from ADAF,
then 
shooting, then screens.  If ADAF and shooting points have already been 
expended, then the next pool will lose points.

Each ship control sheet has five pools to allocate the points to each
turn.  
Thrust is a pentagon.  Attacks is a circle with three posts.  ADAF is a 
diagonally-quartered square.  Screens is a dot with two arcs above. 
Drones 
is a cluster of 4 circles.

Ship's MASS
The ship's are broken into power factor (PF) categories by increments of
10 
MASS.  Ship's of MASS 1-10, for example, are PF1.  MASSes 21-30 are PF2.

Damage Boxes, Fire Control, Damage Control and Repairs
Each ship gets one damage box for every 2 MASS, and starts with a number
of 
fire controls and damage control parties equal to the PF number.  For
every 
5 damage boxes lost, one fire control and one damage control party are 
automatically lost.

At the end of each turn, some power may be restored.  Roll a D6 for each

damage control party.  On a 4 or 5, one damage box is restored.  On a 6,
two 
are restored.  This will also restore some power, and may reactivate a
fire 
control or disabled damage control party.

Thrust
The energy required to generate a point of thrust is based upon the size
of 
your ship.  For every 10 MASS, it takes 1 point of energy to generate
one 
thrust (i.e. PF3 ships pay 3 points for 1 thrust).  Because engines are 
vectored in every direction, all points of thrust may be applied to
turning 
(a la Kra'vak).   You may generate any amount of thrust, provided you
vave 
sufficient energy (theoretically, the limit is 11 thrust).

Screens
The energy required to screen your ship is based upon the size of your
ship. 
 For every 10 MASS, it takes 1 point of energy to generate level-1
screens, 
or 2 points of energy to generate level-2 screens, or 4 points of energy
to 
generate level-3 screens (i.e. an PF5 ship pays 5 points for 1 screen,
10 
points for 2 screens, or 20 points for 3 screens).

Arming and Launching Drones
A large Sa'vasku ship has the available bio-mass to spawn huge numbers
of 
drones, but rarely do.	To arm and launch a drone, allocate 20 points of

energy that turn.  The drone appears immediately, as a standard fighter 
group with 6 turns of combat endurance (as explained in the Fleet Book).

ADAF
The potent anti-fighter defenses of a Sa'vasku can devastate a target. 
ADAF 
fire requires 1 fire control per target, and every 2 points of energy
will 
generate a single die of standard ADAF fire, with a range of 12 units.

Weapons

Sa'vasku have three different weapons systems, each having advantages
and 
disadvantages.

Particle Beams
Particle beams are similar to the standard armaments of human ships. 
The 
Sa'vasku can generate massive particle beam pulses in any direction.  By

paying the appropriate cost in energy and concentration, they can launch

powerful attacks at any range.

Range		Cost		Fire control
0-12		1 energy per die	1 Fire control per target
12-24		2 energy per die	2 Fire control per target
24-36		4 energy per die	3 Fire control per target
36-48		8 energy per die	4 Fire control per target

Buzz Cutter Beams
Buzz Cutter Beams are sustained pulses of plasma which must remain
focused 
and track the target for relatively long periods.  They ignore screens. 

They also require extreme concentration, and fire only in the front arc.
 
They require 3 Fire controls per target and 4 energy points per shot. 
Each 
shot that hits does D6 damage with no re-rolls.  The odds of hitting
drops 
with range.

Range		To Hit
0-6		2+ on a D6
6-12		3+
12-18		4+
18-24		5+
24-30		6 on a D6

Graviton Pulses
These energy beams don't do as much damage as Particle beams, but they
can 
throw an enemy ship off course or an enemy formation into disarray. 
Roll 
the dice and calculate damage as for particle beams, but for each point
of 
damage, the target will change its course by one facing.  Roll a D6.  On
an 
odd result, change the target's course clockwise.  For even results,
turn it 
counter-clockwise.

Range		Cost		Fire control
0-12		2 energy per die	2 Fire control per target
12-24		4 energy per die	3 Fire control per target
24-36		8 energy per die	4 Fire control per target
Tom + Dana McCarthy