[FT] More for the testing range: The Grav Backfire

One thing I've always grumbled about in FT is the no aft fire rule. I
think
it has decent reasoning behind it, but I hate having no aft recourse
(discounting the admittedly common optional rule that you can fire aft
when
not using MD). I wanted to come up with something that might be a) not
unbalancing gamewise, b) fit the FT PSB of grav drives, c) dramatic, and
d)
not invented in the first century of Human space combat until the more
maneuverable and vicious KV made their appearance and called for more
drastic measures. 

One such measure might be the Grav Backfire, "invented" by Commander
Holger
Mueller of the Szent Istvan Dusseldorf in 2192. With escorts picked off
by
an ambush, the Dusseldorf was under heavy fire from a Ko'Vol and its
companions locked in behind her. With the rear of the ship being
shredded by
K-guns, and no possibility of maneuvering an escape in time, Mueller
ordered
the engineer to overload the Grav engines and then execute the cold
ignition
sequence on the too-hot drives. The resulting "backfire" shorted half
the
circuits on the Battlecuiser and left it virtually immobile, but the
blast
wave and wake left behind the Istvan destroyed a Da'Kak outright,
crippled a
pursuing Vo'Bok, and took the KV Battlecruiser through two thresholds,
forcing it to break off. Truly a measure of last resort, the Grav
Backfire
is sort of an FT 'Bonehead Maneuver.' 

Perhaps it belongs more in the realm of FT story fiction than as a
playable
game option, but I wrote it up to see how it looked:

Grav Backfire - A ship may, instead of writing movement orders, opt to
'backfire' the grav engines. Backfire automatically gives the Main Drive
one
threshold hit, and the ship must immediately roll another (shipwide)
threshold at one higher than the current level. 
	The Backfire damages everything in the grav wake of the ship.
Before
movement, determine initial area of effect: a pie wedge covering the
entire
aft arc with three damage zones: high, medium and low extending 1",
2",and
3" per 5 mass of Main Drive behind the backfiring ship; respectively,
round
down. Any ship caught in the high damage zone takes 2 dice of damage
(roll =
damage) per 5 mass of  Main Drive. Ships in the medium damage zone take
half
(round down) the number of dice, and ships in the low damage zone take
1/4.
(example, the Dusseldorf, with 15 mass for Main Drive has zones 3", 6"
and
9", which apply 6 dice, 3 dice and 1 die respectively, with a 3 die
wake).
Damage is applied immediately. Screens have no effect, but damage is all
applied to armor first. The wedge effect disappears before movement
begins.
	When ships are moved, keep track of the movement of the
backfiring
ship and whether other ships cross its wake. Ships crossing the 1"-wide
backfire wake take damage as in the medium damage zone of the initial
backfire. 
	Fighters/missiles caught in the backfire wedge are destroyed.
Fighters crossing the backfire wake during movement must spend thier
reaction move CEF or be destroyed. Missiles, SMs, and Plasma Bolts
crossing
the wake take a number of PD dice equal to the wake strength.
	Ships with damaged drives may also backfire for half-effect, but
if
the shipwide threshold results in another engine hit, the ship is
destroyed
by a critical overload. "Advanced" grav engines have additional
safeguards
and buffers that prevent backfiring. 

Balancing tweaks: Increase/decrease blast distance or dice (or damage
type).
Possibly confine to aft 30 degrees instead of aft 60 degrees. 

Feedback welcome.

Noam