WOLCON 97 - Update #1

Hey Hey Hey Groovers and Lurkers!

The post below contains an update of the WOLCON 97 Full Thrust
competition
details. There are one or two minor changes and several clarifications
made
necessary by player queries.

We also now have a sponsor , EUREKA MINIATURES, a splendid mail order
company
based in Melbourne, who can supply all your miniature needs..  :)

________________________________________________________________________
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FULL THRUST COMPETITION

WOLCON 97

WHEN			Easter Saturday and Sunday
WHERE		       The Beaton Park Tennis Club, Wollongong
SPONSORED BY	 Eureka Miniatures

Full Thrust Wolcon 97

Introduction
The competition will be held on Saturday and Sunday, and on Monday we
will be
running demo games.  Tables and terrain will be available if people wish
to
play friendly games on Monday.
For further information contact Geoffrey Stewart: 
Telephone	(042) 299 367 (before 10 pm)
E-mail	Geoffrey_Stewart@uow.edu.au

Fleets
Only STANDARD SHIP designs will be used in the competition.
Players are to provide the following:
o	The Attack Fleet
	A fleet of 1800 points, chosen from List 1, with no more than
50%
	of points to be spent on any one class of ship. Any upgrades of
fighters
count		as expenditure against capital ships, therefore the cost
of any
capital ships
	AND their fighters can be no more than 50% of points.

o	The Defence Fleet
	A fleet of 1020 points, chosen from List 1 and/or 2, with no
more 
	than 50% of points to be spent on any one class of ship. Orbital
forts are a
	separate class of ships, and only one may be chosen. Any
upgrades of
	 fighters count as expenditure against Orbital Forts, therefore
the cost of
any
	 Orbital Forts AND their fighters can be no more than 50% of
points.

o	The Patrol Fleet
	A fleet of 800 points, chosen from List 1, with no ship to cost
more 
	than 100 points.

All fleets are to have the bases clearly marked or otherwise
distinctive,  so
opponents know if a ship is of Escort, Cruiser or Capital class.  

Battles
There will be four battles per day. There will be two planetary invasion
games, with players swapping, so each attacks and defends, two games
using the
Patrol Fleet, and four battles using the Attack Fleets under various
conditions.

Setup
Ship setup and starting velocities will be supplied for each battle.
Terrain,
such as asteroid belts, gas clouds and planets , will be preset. Special
conditions, such as solar flares, will also be specified.

Time
Each battle will run for two hours, plus or minus ten minutes,	except
the
last battle of the first day, and the first battle of the second day,
which
will run for one hour, plus or minus five minutes.  When time is called,
the
current turn shall be completed.

Notes on Rules For WOLCON
The following rule changes and options will be in force during the Full
Thrust
Competition at Wolcon 97.

Items from Book 1 NOT USED:
o	Sensors and Target Identification.  (Class of ship and all ship
damage will
be	visible to the opponent)

Items from Book 2 IN USE:
o	C batteries as anti fighter defence
o	Terrain effects (by scenario)
o	Damage control as per p21
o	Fighter Endurance
o	Advanced and Specialised Fighter types (fighter types cannot be
combined,	
ie a base of fighters can be Fast or Interceptors but not Fast
Interceptors)
o	Aces and Turkeys (optional, the player chooses)
o	Planets (by scenario)
o	Entering the table after battle has begun (ships that jump off
table are
lost, 
	and count as having left the table)

Additional Notes
o	Ships leaving the table cannot return (including those who
misjump off
table)
o	Threshold tests shall be made openly so that both players know
what 
	system is being tested for and what damage was done
o	Damage control rolls shall be made openly so that both players
know what 
	system is being tested for
o	Fighters that spend a full turn on board a ship are assumed to
be fully 
	refuelled and rearmed, and can be relaunched.
o	The FT turn sequence will be used ei fighters move after other
ships.
o	When using PDAF's against fighter groups, each PDAF must be
allocated to
	 a specific fighter group. If the PDAF's destroy more fighters
than are in
the
	 group, the other hits are wasted, and may not be transfered to
another 
	fighter group.

Changed  Rules

Ramming
Ramming can only be attempted if the ship has been reduced to it's last
row of
hull boxes. Fighters may not ram.

New Rules

Gravity Sling
Any ship that has been in orbit around a planet may break orbit as a
gravity
sling. To do this it adds the orbit speed to it's starting speed and any
acceleration..
Example 1  A planet has an orbit speed of 12". A light cruiser in orbit
around
it could gravity sling, and achieve a speed of (12 starting speed  + 12
orbit
number + 6 drive) = 30!

Formations
o	Up to five(5) ship equvilants	can be in a formation, each ship
must be
within 4" of at least two(2) other ships.
o	For the purposes of the calculation  of ship equvilants, an
escort counts as
	 one ship, a cruiser as two ships, and a capital as three ships.
EG1	Five escorts could be a formation, as each is one ship
equivilant. 
	A battleship(three equivilents) and two escorts (one equivilant
each) could
	 also be in formation. A battleship (three equivilents) and a
cruiser (two
	 equivilents) could also formate. 
o	Ships can either start the game in formation, or formate during
the game.
o	To formate, the ships must all be going the same velocity(ei
speed and
	 direction), and be within 4" of each other.
o	They move as a single ship, with all measurements from the
common centre,
	 therefore they must travel at the speed of the slowest ship.
o	A formation that goes into orbit forms up into line astern, with
the ships
	 touching tail to nose, if they break orbit, they do so line
astern,
following the lead ship
o	A formation fires as a single ship, ei at the same time and at
the same
target.
o	Each ship counts as an individual ship for initiative.
o	A ship in formation can "loan" an unused firecon to another ship
in the
	 formation that has lost theirs.
o	All ships in the formation pool their PDAF, so that any ship
that is
attacked
	 may use up to all the pooled PDAF's, if desired.
o	In a formation only, an ADAF counts as three PDAF's.
o	Ships can break formation at any time, or ships can leave or be
added to the
	 formation at any time, provided the formating rules are obeyed.
This is
	 specified at order writing time, and announced at the start of
movement.

	Example 1	Two(2)	corvettes and a battle cruiser are in
formation. They
	 would have available five(5) PDAF's, which could be allocated
any way
	 desired if one or more of the ships were attacked by fighters.

	Example 2	After some battle damage,  the corvettes have
lost their firecons,
	 the battle cruiser could loan two(2) of it's firecons so the
corvettes could
			shoot.

Close Escort
o	A fighter group may close escort a ship or formation, to do so
it is placed
in
	 contact with the ship (or one of the ships), and announced that
close escort
	 is occurring.
o	The ship, or formation, may not exceed the speed of the fighters
(12" or
18").
o	The ship, or formation, may not be attacked unless all the
escorting fighter
	 groups are engaged in dogfight.
o	Escorting fighters may not be shoot at a distance by other
fighters, they
must
	 be engaged in dogfight.
o	Close escorting fighters may break escort at any time.

New Ship Types

Orbital Fort Class A	
Same as System Defence Cruiser without drives.	All batteries have 4
arcs.

Orbital Fort Class B		
Same as Superdreadnaught without drives, all batteries have 4 arcs.

Orbital Fort Class C		
Same as Fleet Carrier  without drives, all batteries have 4 arcs.

Victory Point Determination
The VP's for each ship are listed in the attachments.  Each time a full
row is
destroyed you receive the listed VP's, these are non cumulative. 
Partially
damaged rows are worth no VP's.

Example 1:
An escort cruiser is worth the following number of victory points -
15/30/45.
If it has taken one full row of damage it would be worth 15VP's
If it takes two full rows of damage it is worth 30VP's
If it is fully destroyed (all three rows) it is worth 45VP's.

Any ship that leaves the table is worth the points for the current
amount of
damage inflicted or half total points, whichever is greater.
Example 2:
A heavy cruiser is worth the following number of victory points -
20/40/63.
If it has taken no damage and leaves the table it would be worth 32VP's,
as
all fractions are to be rounded up, half of 63 is 32.
If the same ship leaves the table after taking 2 full rows of damage it
would
be worth 40VP's, as this is greater than half points.

If a player concedes, it is assumed for VP calculation that all of their
remaining ships have left the table and are worth the current damage
level or
half points, whichever is greater.
Destroyed fighters are also worth VP's.  A fighter that fails to return
to
it's parent ship is assumed to be destroyed.

Type 1 Ships

Ship Type	Points Cost	Victory Points

Courier 15	3

Strikeboat Bk2	26	0/4

Scout Ship	28	0/5

Lancer Bk2	39	0/6

Corvette	43	0/8

Frigate 65	5/14

Torpedo Destroyer Bk2	86	5/19

Destroyer	92	10/21

Super Destroyer Bk2	105	10/28

Needle Cruiser Bk2	187	10/25/41

Light Cruiser	190	10/25/39

Escort Cruiser	195	15/30/45

Strike Cruiser Bk2	198	15/30/50

Heavy Cruiser	238	20/40/63

Super Heavy Cruiser	267	25/50/75

Escort/Patrol Carrier Bk2	286	15/30/45/63

Battlecruiser	381	25/50/75/101

Battleship	447	30/60/90/123

Battledreadnought	431	35/70/110/147

Light Carrier	499	35/70/105/142

Superdreadnought	580	55/115/170/230

Fleet Carrier	687	50/100/150/202

Normal fighters 20	1 per fighter

Fast fighters	32	1.5 per fighter

Heavy fighters	32	1.5 per fighter

Interceptor fighters	32	1.5 per fighter

Attack fighters 26	1.5 per fighter

Long Range fighters	32	1.5 per fighter

Torpedo fighters	44	2 per fighter

Type 2 Ships
Ship Type	Points Cost	Victory Points

System Defence Ship	255	30/60/94

Orbital Fort Class A	203	30/60/94

Orbital Fort Class B	355	55/115/170/230

Orbital Fort Class C	397	50/100/150/202