FT Campaign /4000AD

Dear all,

Here's a suggestion for a simple way to run an FT campaign:

4000AD

This game was published by Waddingtons but is now (sadly) long out of
print.

Playing Area

The playing area is three dimensional and divided into cubes known as
sectors. In the original game, the board was 4 * 3 * 2 sectors. Each
sector
is identified uniquely. Each sector contains two star systems.

In addition, there is also a hyper-space track for each player, seven
spaces long.

Star Resources

Star systems on the map have human population, material resources, both
or
neither.
In each pair of sectors there is one star with both population and
materials, one with only population, one with only materials and one
with
no resources.

Set Up

Each player (2 to 4) has a home star (which has both population and
materials) and a fleet of 15 ships at that star.

Turn Sequence

If this is a Production turn, all players place new ships at their home
star.

In his turn a player may do the following:

Move fleets already in hyper-space.
Make one departure of a fleet into hyper-space.
Resolve any battles

Production

Production takes place on alternate turns, starting with turn 3. This
can
be kept track of by means of a coin. At the start of the game, place a
coin
on the board heads up. At the start of each turn flip the coin over.
When
the coin shows heads it is a Production turn.

In a Production turn, each player counts up the resources available at
each
star system he occupies (i.e. the player has one or more ships at the
star
system). For each pair of population and materials resources the player
takes one new ship. The resources do not have to be located on the same
star or in the same sector. The new ships are placed at the players home
star.

Moving Fleets in Hyper-space

The hyper-space track only indicates how long a fleet has been in
hyper-space. It does NOT indicate direction of travel or destination.
The
concept here is that a fleet in hyper-space is potentially at ANY sector
that is at the distance indicated by its position on the hyper-space
track.
For example a fleet that is in space 3 could come out of hyper-space at
any
sector that is 3 turns away from its departure sector.

The player moves each fleet that is in hyper-space. Any or all of these
fleets may drop out of hyper-space into a sector that is the appropriate
distance from the fleet's departure sector. Fleets dropping out of
hyper-space are placed at one of the stars in that sector.

Battles

If an opposing fleet is at the star when a fleet arrives then a battle
occurs. In the original game, the larger fleet completely destroyed the
smaller.

Fleet Departure

In the original game each player could only have a maximum of two fleets
in
hyper-space at any time.
(This was because the ships were moved in little trays called "warps"
and
there were only two per player!!)

A player may only make one fleet departure per turn. All the ships in a
fleet must depart from the same star. If the ships are NOT moving to a
star
in the same sector, place the ships in the first space on the
hyper-space
track. The sector from which the fleet departed is recorded.

If the ships are moving to a star in the same sector, then they arrive
in
the same turn. Place them at the destination star.

Loss of Home Star

If a player's home star is captured, if he cannot regain it on his NEXT
turn, then he is eliminated from the game. If the player does not
recapture
his home star, then any fleets he has on the board will surrender to the
first ship of any other player that they encounter. Any fleets he has in
hyper-space may  continue to move normally until they re-enter normal
space.

Ships that surrender immediately join the forces of the capturing fleet.

Winning the Game

The winner is the last player remaining in the game after all the others
have been eliminated. The game can also be ended by mutual agreement by
all
the remaining players. The winner in this case is the player who
occupies
the greatest number of stars. If two or more players occupy the same
number
of stars, then the winner is the player with the largest fleet.

Modifications for use with Full Thrust

The obvious appeal is that 4000AD could provide a simple campaign
background for Full Thrust. The following modifications are suggested:

Each ship in 4000AD represents a specified number of FT points. I would
suggest 1 ship is equivalent to 100 pts, but you can set it at any
suitable
value. If you want bigger fleets, make it larger, for smaller fleets it
should be less. Thus each fleet in 4000AD is so many FT points worth of
ships.

When ships are built during Production, the player must state what FT
ships
have been built from the points available. Points may be stockpiled at
the
home star.

Battles are fought using Full Thrust. The losing force must retreat to
the
other star in the same sector (if it is not occupied by enemy forces).
If
it cannot do so then it must travel via hyper-space to the nearest
friendly
or unoccupied star of the owner's choice.

Optional Extensions

The system described above is easily extended to include other aspects.

You could assume the existence of transport ships to move resources from
outlying star systems to the home star, so that resources must be
physically transported to the home star before they are used for
construction.

The number of hyper-space flights or the number of spaces traversed in
hyper-space can be limited, requiring ships to spend time refueling and
so
on...

Mike Elliott