SQUADRON COMMANDER 3600:
A Detailed Description

• The Fighters
• Squadrons and Scenarios
• The Game

Before you can play, you'll need one or more space fighters to command. You have the option of designing your own, or selecting from one of the pre-designed fighters.

The Pre-Designed Fighters

These rules come with an entire universe of seven political "empires," all of which can be used or ignored as you choose. The basic concept is that as humans have expanded among the stars, six societies have taken form:

The Eastern Empire is at war with the Alliance and the Altair Republic. Meanwhile, the United Colonies are fighting...

The rulebook contains 21 pre-designed fighters, each associated with one or more of the political entities of the 37th century.

Designing Your Own Fighter

First, you determine the Tech Level of the fighter. All of the pre-defined empires have a maximum allowed tech level. Next, you choose the type (normal or assault) and size of the fighter. Together, these decisions determine how many points you can spend on your fighter.

You then spend points for:

• size of crew, and ejection systems
• structural strength and armor
• sensor visibility (in other words, how easy you are to detect)
• maximum speed, and rate of acceleration/deceleration
• maneuverability
• hyperdrive (optional, but without hyperdrive you must use jump gates)
• shields, jammers, and decoys
• scanners
• cannons (beam or projectile, with ten sub-varieties)
• missile systems (launchers and missiles)

Optionally, players may acquire Strengths and Weaknesses for their fighters. There are roughly 40 of these, and they add a lot of color to the game. For instance, you could take:

• Maintenance Nightmare
• Emergency Thrusters
• Brittle Armor
• Repair Circuits
• Leaky Shields

Designing a fighter - or choosing one from the list - is only half the fun. When playing this game, you're encouraged to put together a squadron and take it through a few missions.

Players select the number of points each can spend on their squadrons. Some guidelines are given, with guidance depending on the type of squadron and (if the optional background is used) nationality. The points are spent for fighters, crew members, and ground crews. (Fighters with modular weapons also need to purchase their optional weapon modules.)

For each crew member (pilot or gunner), a die roll is made to determine his skill level at piloting (pilots only) and gunnery (all crew). If the optional rules are used, rolls are also made to see if the character has any Advantages or Disadvantages (similar to the Strengths and Weaknesses given for fighter construction).

When you have a squadron, what to do with it? The rules provide descriptions, objectives, and victory conditions for four basic types of missions (patrol, recon, strike escort and fighter sweep). There are also guidelines for a space superiority campaign, with repair, maintenance, and crew fatigue factored in between missions.

Once a mission is determined, whether by the campaign rules or by player choice, standard rules determine how the forces are placed. Both players secretly determine their formation and starting speed. Each then makes an Initial Positioning dieroll, modified by scanner type, fighter visibility, number and type of fighters, and by special circumstances (i.e., "high emission engines" are easier to detect).

Based on the difference in the scores, players can begin with a Neutral Start, Advantaged Start, or Surprise. With a Neutral Start, both forces are placed facing each other on opposite courses. An Advantaged Start lets one player place his forces at any heading from his enemy, and at shorter range. Surprise allows the winning player to decide the starting range (within limits), and the surprised force suffers movement and combat restrictions for the first two turns.

The rules come in two degrees of difficulty:

• The Basic Game is designed as an introduction to the rules, and leaves out a few of the more advanced concepts (such as firing on the move). It is only two pages in length, though there are a number of references to sections in the advanced rules.
• The Standard Game is the complete set of rules, and is the version used for this article.

Each turn comprises the following steps, taken in sequence by all players simultaneously:

Any fighter which isn't "Out of control" must decide each turn whether to be Free or Evasive. Evasive fighters are considered to be maneuvering defensively. They receive a bonus against incoming fire and missiles and are eligible to release decoys, but cannot fire weapons and must move before Free fighters do.

Rather than fighting to the point of destruction, a player can opt to disengage his forces. Fighters with hyperdrives can jump out under their own power; other ships must reach a jumpgate in order to escape.

Movement

The game as originally designed is not a miniatures game, but rather a traditional boardgame with counters placed on a hexgrid. Custom miniatures are available from Brigade Models, but are too large to be used on the maps which come with the game. Players can use the miniatures on any larger hexgrid (such as the space mats available from several manufacturers), or can adapt the rules to be hexless.

One unusual feature of the game is that ships are not limited to being placed inside hexes, but can also be placed (in some cases) on the borders between hexes.

The speed of a fighter is chosen during the Pre-Combat Sequence portion of the turn. The new speed is based on the fighter's previous speed, modified within the limits of that fighter's acceleration, deceleration, and maximum speed ratings. Pilots can "push the engine" to get more speed, but risk causing damage to their engine. The number of Movement Points a fighter can use in a turn is equal to its speed.

Ships move sequentially - first "out of control" fighters, then "evasive" fighters, then "free" fighters. Within each step, the order in which fighters move is determined by the skill level of their pilots. "Out of control" fighters move randomly. Other fighters move by spending all of their movement points, one at a time. As each point is spent, the following sequence is followed:

Ordinarily, a fighter spends one movement point in order to advance one hex. Alternatively, the movement point could instead be used to perform a Special Maneuver - Snap Turn, Sideslip, or Barrel Roll.

Fighters can adjust their facing (that is, make a turn) only if their speed and maneuverability allow. A chart indicates how many hexes of forward movement are required before a ship can make a 30-degree turn. Some ships are sufficiently maneuverable to be able to perform 60-degree turns. As an option, a fighter can make a "hard turn" - this allows it to turn sooner than it ordinarily could, but each turn reduces the fighter's future speed.

As an optional rule, at the moment when a fighter would normally spend a movement point and make a move, any "Free" fighter which hasn't moved yet (i.e., higher skill pilots) can take a Defensive Pre-Emption of Movement. In other words, a higher-skilled pilot can interrupt the movement of another pilot in order to make his own move. However, fighters which move pre-emptively automatically become "Evasive."

Another optional rule allows higher-skilled pilots to move out of order (i.e., earlier), if they wish. Unlike pre-emption, this gives the fighter a chance to be "Free" and conduct attacks.

Cannon Combat

Weapons come in two categories: cannons and missiles. The two sub-categories of cannons are Beams (lasers, ion cannons, disruptors, etc.) and Projectile Weapons (autocannons, rail guns, etc.). Projectile Weapons require ammunition, while Beam Weapons suffer from loss of effectiveness due to range (dissipation).

The stats for each fighter include specifics on the firing arc for each weapon, measured in increments of thirty degrees. Cannons also have a rate of fire (how often they can fire per turn). In order to fire, there must be a crew member available to operate the weapon.

Before firing, a fighter can attempt to lock on to a target using its short-range scanners. A lock is not required in order to attack with cannon fire, but does provides a bonus. A lock is only good for one turn.

Weapons with a high rate of fire must space their shots out during the course of movement, trying not to fire more than one shot per movement point. Each attack is assigned a "to hit" number, based on the type of cannon and the range to the target. The attack die roll must equal or exceed this number. Two six-sided dice are rolled, plus a third dice of a type determined by the gunnery skill of the weapon operator. Modifiers apply to the roll, depending upon the weapon, scanner lock-on, target speed vs. weapon speed restrictions, special abilities of the weapon operator, and whether the target is "Evasive" or not.

Missile Combat

A missile weapon system consists of a launcher, plus one or more missiles. Like fighters, missiles can either be custom-designed or taken from the pre-designed listings. Missiles vary in size, maximum and minimum range, warhead strength, vulnerability to decoys, accuracy, and guidance type. Launchers differ in their rate of fire and the number and size of missiles they can carry. The firing arc of a missile launcher is always an 120-degree arc directly to the fighter's front.

To fire a missile, a fighter must have a lock-on to its target, the target must be in range, and a crew member must be available to operate the launcher. If the missile can be launched, it is placed on the tabletop in the current turn, but does not impact until the next turn. However, the missile does not travel on the tabletop, nor is there any need to determine a course for the missile.

During the Missile Impact Segment, a roll is first made to see if any decoys have deceived the missile. If the missile still impacts, a To Hit roll is made. Two dice are rolled, with modifiers applying due to guidance system, whether the target is evasive, the angle of impact, speed and maneuverability of the target, size of missile, and the skill of the targeted pilot.

Damage

If a beam, projectile or missile succeeds in hitting a fighter, damage may be caused. First, the shields are checked to see if they absorb the damage. Any unabsorbed damage results in Critical Hits on the target. The number of criticals is determined by comparing the total damage to the fighter's armor.

For each critical, a location dieroll is made, followed by a roll to determine the specific damage. Modifiers may apply to the roll, if the fighter has Strengths or Weaknesses which apply (i.e., "Weakened Cockpit" modifies all cockpit critical hit rolls). The various critical hit results are self-explanatory.

A fighter is destroyed when it has received sufficient Critical Hits to reduce its superstructure points to zero. When this happens, the crew makes ejection rolls (to see if they escape the exploding craft) and fate rolls (to see if they are captured or make it home).