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Transcript of CROSSOVER: ANDROMEDA ASCENDANT - …smikesworld.dk/smworld/magazines/babcom_issue23.pdf · 3...

August /September

2003Issue No. 24CONTENTS

1 Cover art: Diogenes2 B5 News

Soi Long3 Crossover: Andromeda7 Crossover: Buck Rogers8 Crossover: Enterprise D10 Crossover: Eagle12 Crossover: Imperial Forces

Playtest Pack16 Crossover: Conestoga Class20 Crossover: Freespace23 Empirical Evidence:

Epsilon III Exiles27 Exile Wanderer Modules29 Takarn’s Modules31 When Collecting Is More

Than A Hobby33 Crossover: Space, Above and

Beyond34 News: Blake’s 7 Revival36 News: Battlestar Galactica

Re-imagination results

www.robertshome.org/babcom

Babcom 2

JMS keeps producing>IIRC, development season shouldbe starting around now. Any planson dusting off "Polaris" and/or"World on Fire" and pitching themagain?= Polaris is still making the rounds,so we'll see what happens on thatfront. "Wofld on Fire" is not do-able anymore because the events ofthe world caught up with the story.(Essentially, it was about the eventsleading up and following Americagetting into its next war, startingwith an attack on New York. Veryeerily, nearly everything that was inthe script and the planned series hasnow happened, so the show is nowa moot issue.)>What's happening with your other

projects - new, old , TV, comic,play, audio drama or anything else? = I've put my play "Among theRuins" on a back burner for now,because it got too clever for its owngood, too slick, almost self-con-sciously so...it needs time to seasonand develop the right kind of matu-rity.Comics: the first issue of SupremePower comes out August 6th, andit's going to be a terrific book. AndSpidey continues apace, I'm justabout to start writing issue 500, a38 page monster that culminates athree-issue arc that encompassesmuch of Spidey's history and somethings that should be real surprisesfor people.

TV: I'm making the network roundswith the people at MarvelProductions, pitching a new series,but that's all I can say about it forthe moment.Audio: I've finished the 20 shortscripts for "The Adventures ofApocalypse Al" for a company thatwill be distributing them either latefall or early Spring 2004. It's a very,very funny series.Other than that, working on anovel, making the pitch rounds forMidnight Nation as a feature, andtaking some down time after finish-ing season two of Jeremiah lastmonth.

- JMS

“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”

- Diogenes, ancient Greek Cynic philosopher

MORE than two years ago I was silly enoughto volunteer to help compile and publish a“small” fan-generated magazine for the

Babylon 5 Wars community.It remained “small” for about one edition. It rapid-

ly grew - and remained - above 30 pages.While the workload grew in parallel, I found I did

not mind. It was fun. And rewarding people for theircreativity by presenting it in a neat magazine formatwas satisfying.

Babcom soon attracted a core group of volunteersto check, coordinate, publish and encourage submis-sions. At one stage, the yahoo group established tomanage the magazine was repeatedly generatingmore than 300 messages a month.

That has now fallen to less than 30. And most ofthose volunteers have passed beyond the rim.

Now, it is my turn.Changes in work and relationship conditions (both

for the better) have finally tipped me over the edgeinto “permanently too busy” territory.

Such is life.I’ve tried to encourage and nurture replacements

during the past six months. And Todd Boyce hasstepped up to the plate, taking on a considerable por-tion of the page design and makeup. And Babcomveteran Scott McGaffin has taken on the bulk of thecoordination work.

Now, it is up to these two and you to determine ifBabcom continues in this - or any - form.

All my Babcom templates and Babylon 5 resourceshave been copied to disc and distributed among those

who have expressed a degree of interest in helpingthe magazine continue. I hope they chose to converttheir intentions to actions.

I’ve just finished leafing through the printouts of all24 editions. I’m very proud of what we have all -authors, checkers and designers - produced.

I’m certain that, with a little enthusiasm and mutu-al support, Babcom can continue for some time yet.

So long.Enjoy the game. Enjoy the universe.

- Diogenes(Jamie Seidel)

So long...and thanks for all the fish!

Babcom 3

Andromeda WarsBy James Cunningham

AH, WHAT to say about this show. Irecall highly anticipating it. They pub-lished a website that went into good

detail about the technology of the setting andadvertised that the site would serve as thewriter's bible when creating stories that involvedthe technology.

I was particularly interested to see the starshipcombat because the paradigm that was supposedto be used, involved ships standing off at greatdistances (light second ranges) and lobbingsmart missiles controlled by even smarter dronesat each other while point defenses tried to takecare of anything that slipped through.

That Kevin Sorbo was the lead didn't botherme much as I hadn't ever really watched any ofhis previous work. It all started out relativelywell. I was not pleased with some of the make-up effects used for aliens in the show, especiallyfor the character of Rev Bem, a spirituallyreformed member of the rapacious Magog race.Things rapidly began to disintegrate for me aswe began to periodically see swooping starshipsand close range fighting, but still occasionallythe fights would all be played out with targetinggraphics on screens indicating how thedrone/missile combats were going and then theshots of missiles that had broken through racingup to the target ship. Nicely done stuff, itseemed to be proving that you could do "realis-tic" space combat and still make it suspensefuland visually enticing.

Well, that became less and less and swooshesand blast-'em-at-close-range became more andmore. This process of degeneration seemed toaccelerate in the second season after several of

the shows original creative team left and appar-ently Mr. Sorbo became more and more of thecreative force behind the episodes.

For those unaware, the show focused on a shipcalled the Andromeda Ascendant, a heavy cruis-er of the fleet of an idyllic federation style gov-ernment called the Commonwealth that encom-passed multiple galaxies full of different species.This ship, through an act of treason, ends upcrewless except for its commander Dylan Hunt(Sorbo) trapped on the edge of a black hole'sevent horizon. While there and experiencinggreatly slowed time, the Commonwealth falls tointernal and external conflict. Some 200 objec-tive years later the Andromeda is rescued by amotley group of salvagers who wind up becom-ing its new crew.

Dylan then embarks on a plan to restore theCommonwealth to its former glory. The incom-prehensible magnitude of that endeavor seemsoverwhelming to me, but apparently he does itwith an optimism that I find unfathomable.From then on we see the trials and tribulations ofthe ad-hoc crew and their captain as they pursuethis quest. By the end of season two they hadcreated a fledgling new Commonwealth. Myunderstanding is that this plot point was found tobe too limiting in the second season and thefocus began moving away from that. From whatI've read of the third season and coming fourthseason, the mission of the Andromeda to forgethe new Commonwealth will be scrapped alto-gether as too confusing and not enough fun.

Personally, I gave up on the show in the secondseason, but continue to catch the odd episode.

When I decided to do the conversion of this forB5 Wars, I decided that I wanted to try to go asmuch as I could from the original concept ofhow their space combat would work. This got a

little difficult though as B5 Wars wasn't reallyset up for that 2300AD/Space Cruiser style ofspace combat.

I did a lot of compromising and finally uponreading about the Orieni Hunter Killers in Warsof the Centauri Republic, I came up with someideas for how to handle the drone and missilecapabilities in Andromeda. I'm not certain, hav-ing only had limited access to play-testing theseconcepts, as to whether my ideas are playable,enjoyable and reflective of what I was trying tomodel. I also found that the ballistic rules werenot an easy fit with their fire first, hit first styleand so I came up with Ballistic-2 class. Thesefire in the ballistic phase and hit in the direct firephase if the target is within a certain range, but ifthe target is beyond that range, then they don'thit until the ballistic resolution phase of the fol-lowing turn.

Combining this with a version of a HunterKiller drone that can lend EW, have launchedmissiles slaved to it and then effectively re-launch them later and a number of other func-tions, I pretty much had my systems set.

Finally I did some analysis of theCommonwealth's level of technology in relationto Babylon 5 races and decided that theCommonwealth which had been in space for10,000 years was roughly equivalent to theMinbari in technology in many ways and superi-or in a few.

I hope you enjoy this conversion. For more ofthe ships from this show please see my Yahoogroup devoted to their developmenthttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/androb5w .Also, I have uploaded much of what I've devel-oped onto the repository if you're not interestedin Yahoo groups.

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CROSSOVER: ANDROMEDA ASCENDANT

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Designer: James CunninghamAndromeda Rules Version 1.6

ELS MISSILES TUBES ELS missiles are the primary weapons of theCommonwealth High Guard.The High Guard, some enemies and allies oper-ate several types of ELS missile weapons:Missiles fired from ELS launch tubes (not thefighter launch rails) are accelerated like a railgun's shell and are classed as Ballistic-2*weapons. Fighter Launch rail launched ELSmissiles are standard Ballistic weapons(Ballistic-1).* Ballistic-2 weapons are launched in ballisticphase, hit in direct damage phase if withinlaunch range** or hit on following turn's ballis-tic resolution phase if beyond it). Unlike mostBabylon 5 missiles, they do not have a maxi-mum launch range or maximum range. They do have an initial launch range which rep-resents the range the launcher can fire a givenmissile type accurately (giving no range penal-ty).ELS Missiles suffer penalties to hit based onrange beyond their launch range.Unlike standard B5W Missiles, they have nobuilt in OEW, but use their launching ship'sOEW and the launcher's FC like a torpedo.Fighter launched missiles use the launchingfighter's offensive bonus. ELS missiles require alock-on or suffer doubled range penalties andhalved launch ranges (as they also do versus aJammer).Light ELS rails are used on fighters and verysmall craft. These are individual launch rails

and are treated as individual weapons and do notaccelerate the missiles to nearly the same degreeas the full size tubes and thus are treated as astandard ballistic.ELS Missile tubes are full sized single tubelaunchers.Standard ELS missile batteries have five tubesthat fire as a single weapon. Its damage acts asa pulse weapon with the quality of the to hit rollinfluencing how many of the five missiles hit thetarget.Heavy ELS missile Batteries have 10 tubes thatfire as a single weapon. Other than this it acts inall ways like the standard battery.The Super Heavy ELS missile battery is used onstations, installations and a few very specializedor test bed ships. It has 20 missiles tubes, but inall other ways acts as a standard ELS battery. ELS missiles themselves have the followingtypes:Kinetic Kill missiles do damage as a matterweapon.Kinetic Defense missiles are used to interceptmultiple incoming missiles, torpedoes, and mat-ter weapons.Standard Anti-ship missiles contain an explo-sive warhead and do damage in standard mode.Long range anti-ship missiles are identical tothe standard, but with some of the warheadreplaced with fuelMultiple Independent Kill Vehicle missilesdischarge multiple small explosive submuni-tions, which do standard damage.Ground attack missiles are used against (youguessed it) ground targets.Standard and Ground attack missiles may be

equipped with Nova Bomb warheads.

ANTI-PROTON GUNSThe Commonwealth made use of Anti-ProtonGuns as a close in secondary weapon.These are largely identical to those used by theVree though they tend to have less overall struc-ture, power requirements are generally less andranges are slightly shorter. The types used were:Ultra-Light Anti-Proton Gun: used on fight-ers. Identical to Vree weapon of the same name.Anti-Proton Gun: identical to that used by theVree except for structure and power require-ments and a shorter range.Anti-Proton Array: an array composed of twoAnti-Proton Guns, which acted much like theDual Array for the Centauri.

XRAY LASERS OR XRASERSThe power requirements for this weapon pre-vented its use on most fighters and very smallcraft. It is a laser weapon that fires in Standardmode and is very similar to the Blast Laser.Light Xraser: a short ranged defensive weaponprimarily used for anti-missile and anti-fighterwork. Fires once per turn.Light Xraser Array: a paired Light Xraserweapon much like the Dual Array.Medium Xraser: a heavier, longer ranged ver-sion of the Light Xraser that fires every otherturn.Medium Xraser Array: a dual Medium Xraserthat fires once per turn.Heavy Xraser: a very uncommon heavy defen-sive/offensive weapon used on High Guard sta-

CROSSOVER: ANDROMEDA ASCENDANT

RULES AND WEAPON SYSTEMSRULES AND WEAPON SYSTEMS

Babcom 5

tions. This weapon fired once per three turns.Gatling Xraser: used primarily on screeningelements within battle groups particularly on theGDF (group defense frigate). This weapon usedlarge amounts of energy in order to produce anextremely high firing rate coupled withadvanced defensive targeting mechanisms andsensors so that it could defend itself and theother ships of it's group from incoming missiles,fighters and drones.

HIGH GUARD DRONE TECHNOLOGYThe High Guard developed Drone technology togreatly expand the engagement range of its pri-mary weapons, the ELS Missiles and to expandits ships' sensor capabilities. High Guard Drones act like a cross between aHunter Killer and an ELINT sensor package.Drone Control: Drones must be controlled by aship using a special drone control system whichwill have the number of drones it can controllisted on it just like the Orieni's device, exceptthat these drones may not be grouped into flightsand count individually towards the control limit. Lending OEW: Drones at their most basic levelprovide a remote sensing package for use inidentifying and painting a target for their con-trolling ship. This ability allows the drone topaint targets with lent offensive EW in exactlythe same way that an Elint vessel can lendOffensive EW (including the same restrictions). Mine Detection, Ship Identification:Additionally these drones could use their EWrating for mine location/identification and forship identification if using tactical intelligence.Offensive Ramming: Drones may make ram-ming runs following the exact same rules as theOrieni Hunter Killers. Various drone types haddiffering range penalties on the ramming rolland on initiative.ELS Missile Control: Heavier drones ifequipped for it can be used to increase the rangeof ELS Missiles.ELS missiles may be launched and then taskedto the drone.

Limitations:Up to the Drones sensor rating worth of missilesmay be slaved to the drone. This is determined based on launchers. If a 20-tube battery and a one-tube battery slaved theirmissiles to a drone that would require that thedrone had EW 2.Slaved missiles may only be "held" by a dronefor two turns before they must be "fired" or theyrun out of fuel and self-destruct (harmlessly).Kinetic Kill and Kinetic Defense missiles maynot be slaved.Drones may not receive lent EW.

ELS MISSILE SLAVING PROCEDURE:In this case the target drone is announced and thenumber of missiles being assigned to it is alsoannounced (unless hidden targeting is beingused), the type of missiles is kept secret, butshould be written down when the missiles arelaunched. A d20 is rolled against a 20 minus the

range modifier for the type of missile as if themissiles were targeting the drone on the launchturn during ballistic resolution. If they "hit" theyhave successfully made it to the drone and beenslaved to it's control.Slaved Missile In-Flight Interception: Duringthe turn missiles are making the roll to comeunder command of the drone, enemy units ableto intercept attacks against units other thanthemselves may try to prevent this transfer fromsucceeding in the same way they would interceptfor a friendly unit. All the conditions for theirparticular ability to intercept must still be metwith the drone standing in as the defended ship.Slaved Missile Launch: On the turn followingbeing placed under the drone's control, these andany other missiles slaved to the drone may be"fired" at any unit targeted by the drone's OEW. The missiles will be treated as having beenlaunched from the Drone's hex for purposes ofrange calculations, except that minimum rangelimitations are removed. Only the missile'sOEW is counted for slaved missiles' to hit calcu-lation.Slaved Missiles' Transfer of Control: Dronesmay transfer control of missiles to another suit-

ably equipped drone if it is within one hex dur-ing the critical resolution phase. If a drone con-trolling slaved missiles is destroyed, anotherfriendly drone within one hex, may take com-mand of those missiles if it has available controlslots (the missiles will not be lost if these condi-tions are met).

NOVA BOMBSDuring the height of the Commonwealth, NovaBombs were the heaviest weapons available andwere used in a similar way to the Nuclearweapons of Earth in the 20th century. Theseweapons may only target "immobile" enormousunits (planets, suns, stations). The effect is sim-ilar to that of the Vorlon Planet Killer's mainweapon.Nova Bombs can be launched on their own as adumb projectile or fitted onto Drones or ELSmissiles. Targets struck by them are attacked asby the Vorlon Planet Destroyer Gun. Few shipsin the post Commonwealth era have theseweapons (thankfully).

DEFENSIVE SYSTEMSCold Plasma Armor: this armor is a field of

CROSSOVER: ANDROMEDA ASCENDANT

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plasma held relatively close to the hull of theprotected ship that provides significant improve-ments in the ability to dissipate directed energyand kinetic weapons. It requires a significantamount of energy to keep energized. It acts likea Gravitic Shield in terms of mitigating damageonly (not reducing signature/to hit).Reactive Armor/Shielding: this is a highlyadvanced sensor net coupled with explosiveplasma charges peppering the hull of the protect-ed ship. When an impending or continuing (rak-ing) directed energy or kinetic weapon impact isdetected, the armor reacts by blasting a spray ofplasma in the path of the incoming damage.This can mitigate some of the effects of thatdamage.For game purposesthis allows shipsequipped with it toreduce the damage ittakes from everyattack by the ratingof the reactive armor(typically one totwo). This decreasemay not be appliedto light speedweapons (lasers andtypically anythingthat may not beintercepted) unlessthey are raking, inwhich case they maybe applied to all"rakes" after the ini-tial. Example: amedium laser hitsfor 27 damage on aship equipped withreactive armor oftwo. The first 10damage is appliednormally, the second10 and the seven arereduced by twobefore beingapplied. Blast lasers would be completely unaf-fected by reactive armor.Battle Blades: these structures are composed ofhighly resilient supporting spines with lattices ofthermal super-conducting, ultra high tensilestrength nano-threads strung between them.These serve to distribute directed energy andkinetic attacks along the nano-threads beforethey make contact with the hull of the ship.These structures act like shields with the damageabsorbed from each sub-volley being applied totheir structure. They tend to increase the signa-ture of the craft benefiting from their protection.Escort Suite: this set of sensors and fire controlsallows the ship equipped with it to fire all of it'sweapons in defensive of other ships. The restric-tions and rules covering this are exactly the sameas those for the Centauri Guardian Array, but canbe applied to every weapon aboard the ship withthis system.

ASSORTED WEAPON SYSTEMSPSP Point Singularity Projectors: these mas-sive weapons use extremely advanced graviticgenerators to hold micro-singularities in a formof stasis until they are ready to fire. At this pointthe weapon unleashes one of the micro-singular-ities at a significant percentage of C towardstheir target. These weapons have very small arcsof fire and a relatively low fire-control. Criticaldamage to the weapon can result in catastrophicfailure of the containment structure, resulting inusually fatal results for the ship mounting it.In exchange for these downsides the projectilesfrom this weapon offer devastating damage that

is very hard to defend against. PSPs ignore allarmor and shields except advanced armor andshields. PSPs do matter damage in piercingmode so can be quite devastating.Seraphim Remote Marauders: these devicesare nearly identical to the Limpet Bore Mineused by the Kor-LyansAG Mass packets/Strange Matter Torpedoes:This weapon system is only known to be used bythe Pyrian Hegemony Fleet. These packets ofstrange matter are attracted to and adhere tolarge masses of normal matter. They increase inmass when in contact with normal matter andtake six turns to degenerate. As such, each hit bythe weapon on a unit should be tracked by turn.They are treated as a Ballistic-2 weapon doingno actual damage to ships. Their primary effectwhen striking a ship is to decrease the amount offree thrust available to units struck by them. Each successful hit by Strange Matter Torpedoesdecreases the targets free thrust by .25 (rounding

fractions down when actually calculating theeffect). Available free thrust may be broughtinto negative numbers at which point purchasedthrust is also affected. When one strikes aFighter, roll for drop out at +4 for each torpedothat hits (cumulative as they take six turns todegenerate).Nietzchean Plasma Throwers: there are ultra-light, light, medium, heavy, and superheavy ver-sions of this weapon. It functions like a combi-nation of a matter and a plasma weapon. On thelocation struck standard armor is ignored, thenany blowthrough/left over damage is treated as aplasma weapon attack on the supported system'sstructure block. This weapon is not intercept-

able by High Guardi n t e r c e p t i o nweapons technolo-gy.Pulse cannons:these are identical tothose used in stan-dard B5W exceptthat they do not havethe ability to inter-cept non-matter/bal-listic weapons.These are operatedby many govern-ments.Rail Cannons:these are standardmatter weapons thatcome in the follow-ing sizes Ultra-Light, Light,Medium, Heavy andUltra-Heavy. Thereare also rapid firingversions of eachcalled RailRepeaters. All ofthese can be used forinterception of bal-listic and matterbased weaponry.

These are considered a very low-tech weaponand are usually not useful offensive weapons.Pyrian "Plasma Torches": this is the namegiven by the Commonwealth and others to thePyrian's Plasma weapons though they are in factmuch more advanced. The Pyrians operate thefollowing plasma weapons:Plasma Spear (Light, Medium, Heavy): thesefire in standard or piercing mode and do plasmadamage. Obviously in piercing mode theseweapons can be devastating. Fortunately theyare very short ranged and their damage drops offquickly with range.Plasma Burster (Light, Medium, Heavy):these fire as plasma flash weapons. These arethe Pyrians primary anti fighter weapons otherthan the Strange Matter Torpedoes. Doing flashplasma damage they are quite good at their job.

* * *

CROSSOVER: ANDROMEDA ASCENDANT

A SELECTION OF SHIPS FROM ANDROMEDACONVERTED TO THE B5W SYSTEM CAN BE

FOUND IN THE ATTACHMENTS FOLDER

Babcom 7

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century WarsBy James Cunningham

IAM again trying to get ahead of the re-imag-ining crew. I'm probably about a decadeearly on this one.

In 1979 a new version of the venerable BuckRogers property was developed.

This version featured William Anthony 'Buck'Rogers, portrayed by actor Gil Gerard, as anastronaut frozen in his space shuttle while pilot-ing a one-man deep space probe in 1987. He isfound and revived by baddies Princess Ardalaand Kane, 504 years later in a plot to help themdefeat the Earth. Buck breaks from their plansand becomes the pivotal figure in saving theEarth (again and again).

The implication is that his rough and tumblemethods from the 20th century are more suitedto solving problems than the overly intellectualstyle of the humans of the 25th century. Thiswas originally intended to be a set of TV movies,but was instead released as a feature film.

Later scenes were added and then the film ver-sion became a TV pilot.

The show ran for two seasons. In the secondseason they changed the setting from beingbased on Earth to being aboard an explorationship called the "Searcher" or "Seeker" (depend-ing on what source you use) and introducedsome new supporting characters, most notably a"Birdman" named Hawk who flew a bird shapedfighter and was the last of his race.

Overall, the show featured some adequate spe-cial effects and stories for the time, though manychoices made would have science fiction fanswrithing if they were produced now.

Most notably the character of Twiki, who wasa three foot tall robot that spoke in the mostannoying manner "Beedeebeedeebeep, Hi Buck,how's it going, Beedeebeedeebeep". He alsotypically carried a wall clock shaped, highlyintelligent and equally annoying talking comput-er brain around on his chest for no discernablereason (giving the computer brain it's own robotbody would be so hard? Perhaps they wanted tolimit the mobility of it's annoying manner).

In researching this show I was reminded ofhow mutable memory is. I loved the show as akid, but have a hard time not being overwhelmedby how kitschy it is now.

So in the conversion process I pegged the sizeof the standard Earth Defense DirectorateStarfighters as roughly the size of a Frazi and sosettled on making them Heavy fighters with

pretty decent structure and armor. The technology in use in the show was, when

taken with a grain of salt for how long ago it wasproduced, a little better than B5's Earth Force.As such I decided to make the main guns equiv-alent to a Star Fury's as the baseline.

The Thunderfighter was a heavier Earth fight-er used a few times. Hawk's fighter was an inter-esting design.

Shaped very much like a bird with retractable"wings" and landing gear shaped like and func-tionally equivalent to the talons of bird of prey.It appeared to be a bit smaller than theStarfighter and was more maneuverable so itbecame a medium fighter.

There wasn't a lot of ship-to-ship combat in theshow as far as I can tell. The focus was on thefighters (much like Battlestar Galactica).

Beyond that, all I can say is enjoy the fightersand the trip down memory lane for those thatsaw the show.

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CROSSOVER: BUCK RODGERS

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STAR TREK - FLEET ACTIONCONVERSION

By ALEX ROBERTS

STAR TREK has been for many decades,one of the most beloved Sci-Fi shows ontelevision. However, despite various

board game and RPG incarnations there remainsthe lack of a viable large-scale space combatsimulation.

Fleet Action incorporates aspects of traditionalnaval warfare in a simple, quick to play, yetfuturistic format. By adapting Fleet Action'srules to the Star Trek universe it is possible toenjoyably recreate some of the largest battles ofthat universe. An added advantage is that theplayer need only know one set of core rules toplay space combat games, rather that a new setof rules every time you sit down to play. Thefollowing essay will detail the design philosophyand simplified methodology used to create thisadaptation of Fleet Action.

The first thing you want to do with any con-version is find your source material. Ideally thiswill be another game, if someone is going to gothrough the effort of publishing their work, theywill typically have put in countless hours study-ing canon material; for a show, this typicallymeans the broadcast episodes. An alternative istechnical readout material, which is often pub-lished in book format or on the web for popularseries such as Star Trek or movies like Aliens.

Typically you want to take all your material fromthe same source if possible, as being that it is ashow on TV, everyone is going to have differingopinions on the strength of a phaser or the dura-bility of shields. Having a uniform baselinefrom which to compare ships to each other isextremely useful and makes the going much eas-ier. Failing that, you can do your own canonresearch, watching the show and taking notes onthe weapons, arcs, strengths and interactions ofships on various episodes. For a show like StarTrek, this can be a monumental task with literal-ly hundreds of episodes available for viewing.Fortunately, Last Unicorn Games (LUG - StarTrek RPG) has several in print and and in e-bookformat that detail the vast majority of the shipsfrom all of the Trek series, providing a fantasticuniform baseline from which to proceed.

Once you have obtained your source material,you need to figure out a uniform conversionmethodology. You want to make sure that yourships first, at least closely reflect the weaponryand combat abilities they display in the show, inaddition to making sure they will play to a satis-factory conclusion in Fleet Action. The easiestand best thing to start with is structure.Although you could start off by comparing thesize of a Galaxy class ship to an Omega, showsare very difficult to integrate and though you cancertainly get close, you foremostly want to besure you can incorporate all the ships you want.Take a quick look at the ships you want to

include and choose the smallest ship, a mediumsized ship and the largest ship you expect toinclude. For Star Trek this was a DominionAttack Craft, a Galaxy Class Explorer and amassive Borg Cube. As the LUG material hadstructure numbers for each ship it is a pretty easymethod to simply choose the base structure forone representative ship, in this case the Galaxyat around 15 structure point. From this first fig-ure, calculate back how many LUG structurepoints equals one Fleet Action structure point.Then perform a similar initial analysis and cal-culation for shields. Note these statistics on acentral methodology sheet to ensure you haveeverything in one place once you are happy withyour methodology and ready to convert ships.

Next, take a look at whatever engine andmaneuverability data you have available and tryand compare the ships to what you think theirmaneuverability in Fleet Action would be. ForLUG's Star Trek ships, each ship had a specificclass of impulse engine and power, which wascross referenced with the size of the ship to pro-vide a base Turn rating for Fleet Action, as wellas an Acceleration and Deceleration rating.From here it is easy to get the other maneuverstatistics. This calculation was also noted on thecentral methodology worksheet to facilitate latermass conversions. Sensors were converted byusing the rating of Sensor systems in LUG andassigning a corresponding Fleet Action sensorrating. Armor was similarly converted by using

CROSSOVER: ENTERPRISE D REFIT

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CROSSOVER: ENTERPRISE D REFITthe integrity of the ship and also assigning anappropriate armor rating in Fleet Action.Defense was again a static factor based on thesize of the ship, adjusted accordingly for thin orlarge profiles.

Once you are happy with the base characteris-tics, you need to look at weapons. The easiestway to convert weapons systems for any gameor show is again, to take one or two weaponssystems that are representative, in this casePhasers and Photon Torpedoes and assign statsto these based on factors such as how long youwant games to last (more powerful weapons willresult in quick games) and more importantly,how much damage they should cause in relationto the structure and or shields available to thedefending ship in the show. Once you have fig-ured out the stats for these weapons, it should bean easy process to convert the rest of theweapons used by ships you wish to include. Onetip is to define the stats of all the weapons youare going to have on all of your ships before-hand, perhaps on a spreadsheet or notebook. Bydefining everything before hand in one centralplace, you can easily see if too many weaponsare out of line with your baseline, or if too manyof them are too similarly powered when theshow may indicate else wise.

The final methodology step is to figure out anyrules changes or special rules you will need toinclude. Some things like shields warranted adifferent treatment than shields in Babylon 5,due to their greater prevalence and differingeffects. Specialized weapons such as the Son'aballistics also warranted special treatment.Generally you want to keep the modifications toa minimum. However, if such modifications arewarranted to maintain the feel of the show, cer-tainly any designer should feel free to add orsubtract anything they feel necessary.

Once your conversion methodology is fin-ished, the hardest and most intensive part is fin-ished. Having a thorough methodology makeseverything else very easy. Simply go throughyour source material, along with your methodol-ogy and calculations quick at hand and takenotes on what each ship should look like in FleetAction. One easy method is to use a spiral note-book, with half a page devoted to each ship.Note down the specifics like CR, CC, Type, YearIn Service, Armor and Defense in the left col-umn, structure and sensors in a center columnand maneuver stats in the right column. Belowthat, note weapons carried and draw a small cir-cle with arcs shown. On the left of the weapons,note any special abilities, such as shield ratings.Certainly every designer will have their ownmethods of note taking, but this is what workstime and time again for this author.

After converting every ship and noting them inyour notebook, it is a relatively simple, thoughperhaps labor intensive method, to create beauti-ful SCS's for your new constructs. If you areusing Illustrator (though these recommendationsshould apply to all conversions) start off by mak-

ing templates. You want one template with all ofthe weapons you expect to use, so that you cansimply copy and paste as needed. Another tip isto have a separate template based on the numberof weapons systems carried. In doing so, youobviate the need for adjusting the damage boxeson the SCS, beyond filling colors. This will saveyou a significant amount of time. Another thingto remember, if available of course, is that pic-tures of your ships makes a huge improvementon their use and likeability. Most people don'tremember what most ships look like. By havinga picture on the SCS, it makes them more usable.

The above essay was intended to give a broadoverview of the methodology used for the StarTrek to Fleet Action conversion, as well as helpany other designers embarking on their own con-version projects. Full rules and ship SCS's forthis conversion can be found at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fatrek

Source material can be downloaded at this site:

http://www.trekrpg.net/trek/core/netbooks_2.asp

Also included within the attachments folder forthis magazine is a spreadsheet detailing the con-version statistics used for anyone interested.Note however, that many ships were modifiedfrom these numbers by the designer to ensure amore appropriate representation of that individ-ual ship. These numbers are a baseline to workfrom and don't necessarily represent static num-bers used to create ships.

Every piece of game design, be it bottom up orconversion of existing material, involves aninvestment of time and effort on the part of thedesigner. However, most designers see theirreward not solely in the creation of a product ordownload, but also in helping others escape fromreality, if only for a short while, in the grips of agame. With this conversion, players the worldover can become Picard defending theFederation from Borg predation, or lead a mas-sive armada of Dominion ships in an assault onthe Alpha Quadrant.

* * *(SCS in the Attachments folder)

Babcom 10

CROSSOVER: SPACE 1999

Space: 1999 WarsBy James Cunningham

I, LIKE many in our mid thirties or later, havefond memories of the Gerry Anderson pro-duced series Space: 1999 that originally

aired 1975 through 1978. In this time of re-imagining of classic sci-fi shows and a generalinclination to recycle things that worked in thepast, I decided to get a leg up on the suits over atSci-Fi.

For those unfamiliar with the series the basicstory goes like this: it was imagined that Earthhad reached the conclusion in the mid 1990s thatmuch of it's nuclear armament and nuclear wastewould need to be put in an ecologically safe andsecure location and what better place then a spe-cially constructed containment facility on themoon. In order to manage this waste facility andto serve as a human scientific and manufacturingcolony, a moonbase named Moonbase Alphawas constructed. This was originally envisionedas a conversion of the SHADO base from theUFO series (another Gerry Anderson produc-tion), but that was written out for marketing rea-sons.

The base was staffed with scientists, techni-cians, security and such. It was a very slickplace considering a large part of their missionwas to maintain and safeguard hazardous waste.Everything was going pretty swimmingly for alittle while, but trouble loomed ahead.

A new commander arrived to supervise amanned mission to a newly discovered planetcalled Meta. In the meantime there were signsthat the nuclear containment facility was inter-acting unexpectedly with the lunar environment.Workers were being affected psychologically

and physiologically and more frighteningly thenuclear weapons might be preparing to explode.A last ditch attempt to avert a potentially mooncracking explosion resulted in some pseudo sci-ence that caused the moon to be launched out oforbit and eventually well out of the solar systemand into encounters with a great many othersolar systems.

From then on, the show dealt with the encoun-ters the personnel of Moonbase Alpha had withvarious aliens, environments and phenomena.The way that the moon moved so quickly andvarious other big technical questions were to anextent side stepped or ignored. Some overallexplanation was offered in an episode that dealtwith an omnipotent being that they encounteredin the episode: "Black Sun" (a black hole). Inspite of some big problems, the show did a goodjob much of the time with its science content.

The main space vehicles used for transport andcombat in the show (the only ones that themoonbase had in fact) were the multi-purposeEagle transports. These were lovely ships and

very well thought out and designed. The modelsused in the series were generally quite well doneand much credit goes to the series model makers.There was very little of the Star Trek smooth-ness. Instead, there were exposed braces, manysets of directional rocket motors, a modulardesign and lots of grime where grime ought tocollect.

There was one main laser in the nose and it waspretty capable of dealing with most of the thingsthey ever ran across that they had any hope offighting. The show was not at all focused onspace combat overall, though I can't recall anepisode that didn't involve at least one Eagleflight.

In deciding to do this conversion for B5 Wars,I took a look at what exists already in the B5Wars universe and the things that happened inthe show. I came to the conclusion that the tech-nology of Moonbase Alpha is roughly 100 yearsless advanced than B5's Earthforce technology,for the most part, though they did have artificialgravity as a convenience for filming interior

The Eagle

Babcom 11

scenes.The Eagle size wise is a bit smaller than most

estimates of the White Star, but clearly quite abit larger than a Star Fury. I settled on makingthem LCVs because I couldn't really see them asMCVs in terms of size and durability, but theyjust seemed too big for a Super Heavy Fighter.This is that unfortunate gray area in the sizeclasses in B5 Wars that I dread, not really likingSuper Heavy Fighters or LCVs very much, butthese vehicles seemed to blend with the LCVconcept quite well.

So I decided to wing it and put these SCStogether. The Eagle has multiple configurationscalled for by its modular design. I lookedaround for what the most commonly used ver-sions of the Eagle were and made versions forthe ones that interested me. There were othersthat I may get to if anyone has a need for them.

In order to give these something to fightagainst, I had to sift through the various enemiesthe show featured. The obvious choice to mymind was the Hawk seen in the episode "WarGames", a ship that was the Eagle's combat ori-ented sister. In some quarters this ship or a ver-sion of it is discussed as being older than theEagle and obsolete. I drew my conclusion,based on the episode, that they were roughlyequivalent technologically, but were clearlymore combat capable.

There were a number of other ships that sawcombat in the show, but nothing else stood out asmuch in my mind as the Hawk. They onlyappeared in one episode, but they merited theirown model kit and several toys. Most peoplethat remember the show would recognize aHawk. I based the Hawks armament off of blue-prints published originally in Starlog magazine.Other sources report different capabilities for theHawk, but I settled on these because this wasn'ttoo over the top. People will probably notice (ifthey are very keen on the show) that the Hawkdoes not in fact have twice the speed of the Eaglein my version, but it is more maneuverable. Thiswas a design choice on my part. The dialoguefrom the episode mentioned that the Hawks aregoing twice as fast as the Eagles, but we allknow speed isn't the issue in space combat asmuch as acceleration is.

For the most part ships seen in the show wereeither smallish like the Eagle with the occasion-al large ship thrown in for good measure, buteven the large ships would have tended to beHCV to MCV sized in Babylon 5 Wars terms,with some rare exceptions.

As time and interest permit, I plan to createother combat ships seen in the show and possi-bly create some future Alphan home growndesigns.

For probably the most definitive guide toSpace: 1999 I recommend :

http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/ .

Enjoy the ships and the nostalgia and if this isnew to you, check it out on DVD.

Thanks,James Cunningham

CROSSOVER:

THE completed Omega destroyermodel is a sight to behold. The detailis very good, but also very accurate.

The “unofficial” modellers obviously spent alot of time watching Omega sequences in theshow frame-by-frame.This is most evident in the engine section,with all its sensor pylons and ducting.The proportions are all quite accurate. Thereis no sense of the ship being slightly out ofshape.When combined with a good model painter,the finished product is as good - if not better- as the best official starship models I haveencountered.This model took a fair number of workinghours to complete, however, Most of thattime was spent cleaning up irritating splashesof flash. But it was not more than one wouldnormally expect. Much of the rest of the time was spent paint-ing and highlighting the fine detail on theship. This cannot be considered a fault.

There was no stand provided with the model.At the moment a basic light metal brace cutto hold the forward and aft superstructure. This ship has been done up to match theEAS Churchill from the episode “SeveredDreams”. It would be nice to get Churchill’scoat of arms etched on the base plate. We’llsee.The end product is worth the model’s highprice.The Thunderbolt, however, is a major disap-pointment. We have not been able to correctthe severe warping in the wing pylons.This warping destroys the visual effect of themodel, as it is highlighted by the skewedengine/aerofoil pods at their ends.Much heating, twisting and fast cooling hasbeen attempted to correct this problem. It hasnot worked.Stay away from this model. The detail, lackof decals, heavy flashing and warped bodyparts make it next to worthless.

* * *

The unofficialmodel that

makes the grade

Babcom 12

CROSSOVER: STAR WARS

Star DestroyerStar DestroyerImperial Forces Preview pack

THIS preview pack is designed to show-case the basic ships of the Imperial fleet,the Victory and Imperial class Star

Destroyers. These craft are the bread and buttercapital ships of the Imperial fleet, and they arepresented here with the support craft theydeployed in the period before the Battle ofYavin.

The Hangar stats on the SCSs are for theRebellion era, and describe only the standardload out for that period. The ships can be usedwith the hangar load outs specified in (Table A).

Victory Class Star Destroyer(Common Availability)

The predecessor to the Imperial Class StarDestroyer, the Victory Class, is atmospherecapable to allow close support of ground troops,a vital role for warships in the clone wars era.This is very much a ship built with an eye to theprevious major conflict. The clone wars had

shown the inadequacies of the Dreadnoughtheavy cruiser, and the Old Republics reliance onlight frigates for low priority missions, which ledto several missions beginning with the destruc-tion of a delegations transport ship. Fielding tur-bolasers, quad lasers and torpedo tubes before itsImperial era refit (this refit program, like theImperial mark II refit, was never fully complet-ed) and heavy turbolasers, turbolasers, quadlasers and ion cannons after, the Victory classStar Destroyer is still an elegant and powerfulwarship. If it has any weaknesses, it is its lowfighter complement, as two squadrons are sim-ply not enough starfighters to cover a capitalship in modern naval warfare.

However this ship is still an important featureof Imperial fleets, and can launch planetaryattacks on its own, serving a vital role in main-taining order in the Empire.

However a large number of these ships weredecommissioned and sold to the CorporateSector Authority, where they form the backboneof their fleet.

In the Imperial Remnant period few of thesecraft remain, but those that do still fill a key rolein the Imperial Navy. A number are in privatearmies, planetary defence forces or pirate fleets,as large numbers of these ships have either beenlost in combat or decommissioned.

Imperial Class Star Destroyer(Common Availability)This enormous warship is one of the most obvi-

ous symbols of the Empire, and at 1600 metreslong it was the largest warship deployed in itstime. While larger ships have now seen service,such as the Mon Calamari Star Defenders and avariety of fleet carrier designs, the StarDestroyer class ships are the starting point forsuch large capital ship designs.The Imperial class Star Destroyer is a successor

to the pre-empire Victory class Star Destroyers,and while it is less elegantly designed and effi-cient to produce, it is still an impressive warship.Carrying two full wings of starfighters andmounting 60 turbolasers, the Imperial Star

Babcom 13

CROSSOVER: STAR WARSDestroyer is an awesome fighting force capableof defeating a whole enemy battle group on it'sown.

Conventional tactical wisdom dictates the useof Star Destroyers as mobile siege platforms, butmore gifted commanders have used them instrike and fades, and a variety of other roles.

The ship was further improved with theImperial Class II refit, which replaced many ofthe ion cannons and turbolasers with heavy tur-bolasers.

The standard fighter loadout for a StarDestroyer at the time of the battle of Endor wastwo squadrons of Tie Interceptors, threesquadrons of Tie Fighters and a squadron of Tiebombers.

However this can vary significantly accordingto the mission, and the status of the ships cap-tain.

Following the fall of the empire, the fightercomplement has begun to vary wildly as fighterslike the A-9 Howlrunner and Preybird enterImperial service.

However a hidden strength of the StarDestroyer is its copious storage capacity, as itcan field over forty support craft directly fromits bays, and carry upwards of fifty other vehi-cles in vehicle storage. These support craftinclude Stormtrooper transports, landing craft,AT-AT transports, assault gunboats, missileboats and shuttles.

A Star Destroyer can also dock an MCV classship or smaller in it's primary bay, enabling it tocapture and board small enemy ships.

FIGHTERS AND SUPPORT CRAFT

Tie Fighter (Unrestricted Fighter)Millions of these fighters have streamed from

production facilities across the Empire, and theyare the most common fighter in service in theKnown regions of the galaxy.

A cheap and expendable fighter it is seen inImperial fleets and planetary defence forces invast numbers, using swarm tactics to overwhelmheavier fighters.

Tie Bomber (Unrestricted Fighter)The assault version of the Tie fighter, the Tie

bomber is larger and can absorb more damage,but is much slower, less manoeuvrable and easi-er to hit. The standard Imperial doctrine dictatesthat these fighters be escorted when attackingdefended targets. They have 12 payload spacesfor purchasing missiles, torpedoes and specialequipment. For +8 points they can purchase abombardier, who has the effect of adding +1 tothe to hit roll for torpedo and missile attacks, andallows missiles or torpedoes to be fired at a sep-arate target to the fighters laser cannons.

Tie r/c Recon fighter (Unrestricted fighter)The Tie r/c Recon fighter was the sublight only

equivalent of the Tie Scout, created to serve aspicket ships around the edge of an Imperial fleetwhile Tie Scouts attempted to locate enemy for-mations. The Tie r/c is also used to surveyground targets for orbital bombardment, and to

attempt to locate enemy assets concealed on theground.

These craft, by their nature smaller and lighterthan the Tie Scout, have also been used to scoutasteroid fields for pirate or rebel installationswhere Tie Scouts would find it harder to operate.

This class of craft has been supplemented bythe Tie Vanguard, a cheaper version of the origi-nal using a less expensive sensor package. TieRecons are more valued by fleet commanders,and this has resulted in many being reserved inthe Core sector fleets while Rimward forcesmake do with Vanguards.

Tie Scout (Unrestricted fighter)The Tie scout was the first hyperspace capable

scout fighter deployed by the Empire, and it isnot unusual for their arrival in-system to act as awarning that an Imperial task force will soon bethere.

While it is hyperspace capable, the design stilllacks shields and a significant armament, and flyby tactics to ascertain the number of enemy craftis the routine tactic with these craft, thus pre-venting a level of attrition that would render thedesign uneconomical.

Lamda Class Shuttle (Unrestricted Shuttle)With unusually good shields and weapons for

a unit of this size and role, the Lamda class shut-tle is a transport capable of defending itself.Originally produced by Sienar Fleet Systems,the Lamda is now produced by a number ofsmall companies under licence, as well as areverse engineered version made by CygnusSpaceworks, who were originally licenced toproduce the escort version of the shuttle. TheLamda now finds itself used by almost everyarmed force in Known space as a transport andpersonnel carrier, which is a fitting testament toa well thought out design.

Stormtroop Transport (Unrestricted Shuttle)With a pair of lasers and ion cannons this trans-

port can disable a target and then board it, but itis slow and vulnerable when compared to fight-ers. A Star Destroyer commonly carries a dozenof these in bays, and up to twenty-four in stor-age. These transports are used for opposed land-ings on planets or boarding actions in space. Inplanetary assaults these craft are loaded withstormtroopers to be dropped into a hotzone,while in boarding actions they are commonlyloaded with spacetroopers and flown close toenemy ships, where spacetroopers disembarkand fly the remaining distance to target, thenpunching holes in the hull and boarding the ship.

Imperial AT-AT Barge (Unrestricted Shuttle)This enormous landing craft is designed to

carry 2 Imperial AT-AT walkers and the troopsthat accompany them to a held landing zone ona planets surface. Unarmed but heavilyarmoured and shielded, this unit is often amongthe units found aboard a Star Destroyer.

The AT-AT barge is a super-heavy fighter, andtakes up six hangar boxes.

* * *

Amended ISD loadout for Riseof the Empire period

Main Hangar

48 Tie Fighters18 Tie Bombers6 Tie Recon6 Tie Scout18 Lamda Class Shuttles12 Assault Shuttles

Forward Hangar

6 AT-AT Barges 12 Stormtrooper Transports6 Assault Shuttles6 Lamda Class Shuttles

Amended VSD loadout for Rise of the Empireperiod

Main Hangar

Either 24 Tie FightersOR 12 Tie Fighters12 Tie Bombers6 Lamda Class Shuttles

Forward HangarEither 5 AT-AT BargesOR 30 Assault ShuttlesOR6 Tie Scout12 Assault Shuttles12 Stormtrooper Transports

Babcom 14

Star Wars Rules for use with theB5W rules system Ver 1.5

Rules Changes and Additions

Changes

Movement

Changes to fighter movement

Fighters can no longer combat pivot. Thismakes tactics and winning the initiative muchmore important.

Firing

Interception

Interception degradation is dropped complete-ly, as all interceptable weapons are ballistics.

Interception comes in two modes:- dispersedand directed.

Dispersed:- this is used to intercept multiplemissiles approaching along the same vector.Designate the hex from which you wish to inter-cept fire. You intercept all fire from this hex forthe total intercept of the weapons you have des-ignated to intercept those shots.

Directed:- Apply intercept of weapons inter-cepting multiplied x2 to only the shot youchoose to intercept.

You can use both sorts of intercept against thesame shot.

Fighter interception

Fighters can intercept ballistics targeted at themor that pass through the hex they are in as longas the fighters have the launch hex in arc.

Ships intercepting on behalf of other ships.

Ships can intercept ballistics fired as long asthey are between the launch hex and the targetship. They intercept in any mode they desire.

Ballistics

Ballistics are launched in the firing segment.

If they are launched at range zero they impactin the fire phase they are launched. If they arelaunched at a target not in the same hex theyimpact in the following fire phase in the stepgiven.

Escort Craft

Some ships benefit from the escorts specialrule. These ships can intercept ballistics firedirected at other ships (though they must desig-nate at the start of the turn what ships are beingprotected by this rule). As long as the escort

remains within two hexes of its charge, it maycontribute interception fire, either directed ordispersed, as if it were the ship itself.

Electronic Warfare

Ships have automatic lock ons. EW points areallocated to give pluses to hit. Defensive EW canonly be created by terrain effects, cloaking orother special rules.

When playing games against ships from differ-ent settings (B5 and Star Trek) then use standardEW rules.

Star Wars ships may not buy additional EWpoints greater than 25% of their EW.

Jumping to Lightspeed

Ships can leave play by jumping to lightspeed.They do this by announcing they are planning todo so the turn before they do. Other ships candetect the charging of the hyperdrive andweapons going offline. Ships use this turn tobegin to power their hyperdrive (paying the costfor hyperdrive on their SCS) and jumping in thephase next turn. As jumping to lightspeed takesa lot of power, this can mean ships deactivateweapons to power their hyperdrive. Ships thatjump to light speed leave the battle, and combatcannot be continued in hyperspace.Fighters can also jump to lightspeed (if they are

hyperdrive capable), but cannot fire weapons theturn before they jump.Ships jumping into combat appear at the start of

the movement phase, but cannot allocate spotterpoints that turn.

New Weapons and systems

Ion Cannons

Ion cannons have two number split by a /. Thefirst one is a number, the second one is a + num-ber. The first one is the number of location rollsan ion cannon makes if it hits a ship, and the +number is the modifier to criticals or drop outrolls made if it strikes a system or fighter.

Fired at fighters

If ion cannons strike fighters then the fighterrolls to dropout with the bonus given in the ioncannons description.

Fired at ships

Ion cannons fired at ships roll for the number oflocations given in their description. A fighter ioncannon would roll one die, for example, andapply ion damage to whatever system it struck.

Ion damage

Against structure - -1 power for the rest of thescenarioAgainst weapon - disabled for two turnsAgainst system - roll a critical and add the +

number

Against shields - roll the hit location dice asdamage (d10 per location die) against the facing shield. If the shield is down and there isdamage left, every whole 5 translates into onedice of ion damage.

Shields

These operate to protect ships from damage.Before you even hit a ship, you have to knock itsshields down. You do this by inflicting anamount of damage on the shield equal to thetotal in the shield box for that arc. Shields havearcs and a player taking damage chooses whichshield he wishes to fill if ships are firing from theborder of two shield arcs. However this appliesto all ships and fighters in that hex.If fighters are range zero against a ship, they do

not count as being inside the shields. Star Warsshields work differently to Star Trek and B5shields, forming a protective layer very close tothe hull, rather than a hollow bubble around theship.

Piercing weapons vs. shields - Piercingweapons punch through shields. Divide damagein half, apply half to shields and half as damage.If the target has a downed shields on the facingbeing fired upon, resolve using the standardpiercing weapons rules.

Shields recharge at the start of the turn at therate given on the ships shield generator.

A ship may turn off weapons and other systemsto divert power to shields (as may fighters)

For every point of power a ship applies toshield recharge, they get 2 points of shields back.

If fighters don't fire their weapons they get anextra box of shields back. If they divert powerfrom engines they have 1/3 less thrust than theirfree thrust value but get an additional box back.Note that you decide this at the start of the turnand are then stuck with not firing your weaponsor only using your remaining thrust.

Fighter Shields

A standard fighters shields empty one filledshield box per turn in the shield charging of thepre turn phase.

Advanced fighter shields empty two boxes,primitive fighter shields empty one box everytwo turns. If a fighter has advanced or primitiveshields it will be marked on its SCS.

Fighter submunitions

Fighters have a certain number of payloadspaces to carry submunitions. A fighter can buyone of any sort of submunition but cannot pur-chase more than it can carry.

Fighters can only buy one type of submunitionunless specially noted.

The costs for these weapons are found on theballistics chart.

Bombardiers

CROSSOVER: STAR WARS

Babcom 15

Bombardiers are dedicated crewmembers whohandle the submunitions launched by a fighter.

They use a targeting computer to lock onto tar-gets, and do so independently of what the pilotof the fighter is targeting with the ships lasers orion cannons.They give submunitions +1 to hit, and allow the

fighter to fire its lasers at a separate target to thetarget of its submunitions.

Scout Fighters

Scout fighters are often deployed ahead offleets to determine the size, content and locationof enemy assets.

Scout fighters count as an ELINT unit for thepurposes of identifying enemy craft, using therules on page 172 of the Rules compendium.

Special Rules

Cloaking

If a ship has a cloaking device and it activatesit then it automatically benefits from 18 points ofdefensive electronic warfare applied to shotsfired at it AND shots it fires. Also weapons losetheir automatic lock-on when fired at or bycloaked ships. Fighters do not ignore this DEW.Players have the option of using secret move-ment, though cloaked ships move first, beforeany other ship. Cloaked ships cannot be lockedonto.

Reforming fighter Flights

You may designate your fighters at the start ofthe battle into groups or squadrons i.e. RogueSquadron or Gold group. These must be of onlyone type of fighter.

If during the battle you are left with two ormore incomplete flights from the same group,and they are in the same hex, you may amalga-mate them into a smaller number of flights,forming complete flights of six whenever possi-ble.

Players may experiment with flights of four ifthey wish, as it is more realistic to dividesquadrons up into pairs of wingmen.

Unreliable Systems

Some ships are so old (or so poorly main-tained), that their systems operate at a muchlower level than the standard systems on modernwarships. They may suffer the penalties forsome unreliable systems.

Unreliable Hyperdrive

Hyperdrive fails when activated on a d6 roll of1 or 2. Power allocated to the hyperdrive is stillused.

Availability Rules

When picking forces you must follow the fol-lowing restrictions except in special case scenar-ios.

Ships Availability

You can buy any number of ships with commonavailability.

You can send 33% of your total points onLimited availability ships.

You can spend 10% of your total points onRestricted availability ships.

Fighter Availability

Unrestricted availability fighters can be pur-chased in any number desired. Unless the sce-nario is a base or planetary defence then fightersselected without hyperdrive capability musthave a carrier.

Limited fighters - one flight of limited avail-ability fighters can be selected for every twoflights of unrestricted fighters that have beenselected.

Restricted fighters - one flight of restrictedfighters can be selected for every five flights ofunrestricted fighters you have purchased.

Prototype fighters - one flight of prototypefighters can be selected for every ten flights of

unrestricted fighters you have purchased.

Playing large scale battles -time saving meas-ures

In large battles (10+ ships and 20+ flights offighters per side) there are a number of timessaving measures that can be taken.

Fighters should be operated in squadrons, notflights, or even in wings in very large battles.

Ships should be organised into squadrons witha flagship. The flagship rolls for initiative, andthe squadron moves together.

This simplifies movement and initiative. Thebest way to simplify firing is the use of an elec-tronic dice roller to roll firing, allocation anddamage for large numbers of weapons simulta-neously.

* * *

(SCS in the Attachments folder)

CROSSOVER: STAR WARS

Babcom 16

By ADAM FULLERhttp://angelfire.com/fl3/Chicago/movies/alienship4.html

SULACO is the thirteenth Conestoga classstarship to be built. Its final mission was aquick response to the loss of contact with

the Weyland-Yutani colony on LV-426. Shenever returned, her present whereaboutsunknown. Originally the Sulaco was designed asa light transport possessing limited armamentsfor self-defense. However, the Sulaco, with hersister ships, has become a multi-role space ves-sel. To date, ships of this class have beenemployed in transport, light assault, space com-mand and control, and orbital bombardmentduties. The Sulaco tips the scales at 78,000 met-ric tons, measuring 385 meters from bow tostern. Her asymmetric configuration allowsmaximum cargo capacity within the confines ofa compact, heavily armored hull. The vessel'sstructural framework is built around its primarypower unit. Primary/Secondary Power Systems: Primarypower is provided by a Westingland A-59 fusionreactor that can generate a peak output of 3.6Terawatts. The fusion process is fueled by pow-dered lithium hydride (LiH). Fuel is consumed at.25 mg per second per liter. Auxiliary power ofwould be provided by a cluster of fourContinental Electric AS-4B/AV5 magnetohydro-dynamic turbines, each unit capable of generat-ing 20 to 40 megawatts. Propulsion Systems: All propulsion units arelocated aft of the Sulaco's main reactor. TheSulaco, as do all Conestoga class vessels,employs a dual drive method for sublight andFaster Than Light (FTL) movement. To maneu-ver in realspace at sublight speeds, the Sulaco isequipped with four Gates-Heidman GF-240

rockets than derive power from the main reactor.At maximum power, each rocket provides athrust of more than 35,100 metric tons.However, fuel consumption is astronomical,allowing maximum thrust for short periods.When FTL travel is necessary, the Sulacoemploys a Romberg-Rockwell Cygnus 5 tachy-on shunt hyperdrive. The normal cruising speedsustainable by these units is .74 light years perTerran day. Hull/Spaceframe Construction: Spaceframecomposition consists of bonded alloy and com-posite beams. These materials provide enoughstrength for massive acceleration while remain-ing flexible enough to withstand atmospherid re-entry. Hull armor consists of one armored skin,heavier than that on civilian transports. Thearmor is composed of laminated insulators,micrometeorite shielding, composite material,and aerogel. Protection against projectileweapons is limited, as with all spacecraft, but theaerogel is capable of dissipating radiation fromlasers and particle beams. The hull is also cov-ered with radar absorbent material. The enginesvents are provided with infrared suppression/dis-

persion. The hull coating is laser absorbent toreduce lidar detection. The ship is colored in adark charcoal scheme to reduce visibility. Theforemost hull section provides the main cargoarea for the Sulaco. Five 25x10 meter cargodoors on each side of the hull provide access.They have even been retrofitted into improviseddropship/shuttle launch bays. Underneath thecargo area reside the Sulaco's dedicated drop-ship/shuttle hangar with capacity for up to sixUD-4L Cheyenne dropships. Life Support: Cryogenic hypersleep capsulesare provided for crew use during the stresses ofhyperspace travel. While in hypersleep, theSulaco's computers maintain the crew's bodyfunctions at enormously slowed rates, wakingthem upon arriving on station. Sufficient cap-sules are provided for up to ninety crew,marines, and passengers, but there are provisionsfor troop transport configurations of up to 2000capsules in the cargo bay. Artificial gravity isprovided by field generators parallel to the mainaxis of the ship. Computer Systems: To reduce crew workload,and increase efficiency and safety, operation of

CROSSOVER: CONESTOGA CLASS

Babcom 17

the Sulaco and all Conestoga ships is fully auto-mated. The Sulaco is equipped with a 28Terabyte, carbon-60 based core mainframe. Ineffect, the ship could pilot itself and fight a spacebattle even if the crew were all dead or in hyper-sleep. However, at any time, combat or naviga-tional decisions made by the ship can be over-ridden by the commanding officer. Backup isprovided by an 8 terabyte mainframe and localterminals dispersed throughout the ship. Damage Control Systems: Most damage con-trol is automated by the Sulaco's mainframe. Ifthe reactor suffers severe damage, the entireassembly can be jettisoned before an explosionoccurs. If the vehicle is damaged to the point itbecomes untenable, emergency evac is prompt-ed by the CO or automated systems. The Sulacocarries 20 type 337 emergency escape vehicles.If the crew is in hypersleep, their capsules willbe loaded by the automatic systems. The shipmay also be scuttled by the CO. Self-destructprotocols are initiated manually, causing thereactor to go critical after fifteen minutes. Sensors/Communication Systems: TheSulaco's main sensor array is mounted on theforeside of the cargo bay. Ninety meter pylonsproject from this area, ensuring that the ship'sbulk causes no interference. The passive arrayconsists of: two optical telescopes, two infraredtelescopes, a 60m planar-array radio telescopewith a 20m backup unit. Active sensing is pro-vided by three radar domes that employ cen-timeter wave radar for navigation and long rangescans. Five more phased arrays along the hullprovide target acquisition/tracking informationfor the ship's weapons. The main comm array isjust forward of the drive units, consisting of a64m antenna used to broadcast during FTL trav-el, and a secondary 16m antenna for in-systemcommunication. A variety of other relays andreceivers exist for securing, and interceptingtransmissions.

Main/Secondary Armament: The Sulaco car-ries a light complement of weaponry that allowsit to function as a light cruiser. The main space-to-space punch is provided by eight XIM-28ALong Lance ASAT missiles within a dorsallaunch bay. The missile is self guiding, and iscapable of homing through the reception of sev-eral different formats of energy emission fromthe target. Its warhead is a forged fragment ringthat creates a lethal burst of fragments.Secondary punch is provided by several sys-tems. Twin 800 megavolt particle beams run par-allel to the ship's main axis. These weapons arepowered from storage cells between the mainreactor and the weapons. For close combat, theSulaco mounts twin railguns in dorsal and ven-tral turrets. Muzzle velocities exceed 12 km persecond, with a practical range of 100 km. A sin-gle hit from a railgun round is often enough tocripple a ship. Close-in defense is handled byport and starboard laser turrets. The Sulacomounts 80 megawatt infrared lasers capable ofvaporizing railgun fire or crippling incomingmissiles and fighters. A ventral launch bay car-ries 60 orbital mines, enough to deny low orbitto large ships. A dorsal bay amidships also car-ries 20 decoys designed to present a radar signa-ture mimicking the Sulaco's. There are also twomaneuvering drones designed to confuse enemyspacecraft. Space-to-surface capability is pro-vided by a magazine below the cargo bay andforward of the dropship hangar. 80 free-fall, self-guiding re-entry vehicles are carried. The arma-ment carried by the Sulaco enhances her flexi-bility, allowing her to function as a multi-roleplatform independent of a fleet or taskforce. Shecan carry a sizable Marine complement whiledefending herself from attack, or provide orbitalbombardment in support of a Marine landing orplanetary action. This has made the Sulaco andher sisters the prime movers of the Marine fleetfor almost two decades.

A

B

A

WEAPON SYSTEMSA = Rail Gun TurretB = Twin Laser cannon turretC = Particle Beam gunD = XIM-28A Missile rack

C

E

G

F

SENSOR AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMSE = Sensor arrayF = Hyperspace com transmitterG = Communication receiver

2x HANGAR BAY

Bay Configuration2x Dropships each2x APCs each4x Marine platoons each

A

B D

D

G

C

F

UDL-4 CHEYANNEBy John Hamill (MrPunch)

No Colonial Marine starship would becomplete without it's pair of CombatDropships, which serve the task of actualinsertion of the teams transported by the star-ship. Capable of carrying an M577 APC orsimilar vehicle into the thick of combat, andsporting a veritable arsenal of weaponry theCheyenne is a transport to be respected byboth crew and opponents. When deployed inspace or for drop, the Cheyenne's primaryweapon bays are stowed and only the for-ward 25mm Gatling Gun and the six largermissiles are capable of being used. Onceatmospheric insertion is complete theCheyenne unfolds its wings and deploys itsground attack weaponry. Four Air-to-Airdogfight missiles become available alongwith the primary ground suppressionweaponry consisting of 32 unguided rockets.

In terms of B5Wars, the Cheyenne sitssomewhere between an assault shuttle and asuper heavy fighter. Treat it as an assaultshuttle for all purposes. When in space onlythe 25mm gun and the six fighter missilesmay be used. Once within the atmosphereand slowed to subsonic speeds, the rest of theweaponry may be deployed, though theGROPOS stats in a previous Babcom wouldbe more appropriate at this stage.

(Stats part of the Conestoga SCS)

CROSSOVER: CONESTOGA CLASS

Babcom 18

Aliens - Conestoga Class Assault TransportBy John Hamill (MrPunch)

INTRODUCED in the mid twenty secondcentury, the Conestoga class moved from aninitially requested light transport to a full-

blown multi-role combat vessel and assault ship.Massing 78,000 tonnes and measuring 385meters from stem to stern and equipped to carry90 marines along with two Dropships and APCs,this ship provides a flexible force capable ofhandling almost any conceivable problem.Better known as the USS Sulaco from the 1986movie Aliens, this is one of my all time favoriteship designs. The whole feel of the Aliens uni-verse (at least the first three films) is incrediblybelievable as a shape for "things to come". TheConestoga class (as they're called) was allegedlydesigned by British Aerospace for the filming ofAliens based upon the shape of the M41A PulseRifle.

BABYLON 5 WARS CONVERSIONConestoga Class

"These Colonial Marines are very tough hom-bres. They're packing state of the art firepower.

There's nothing they can't handle."First things first, it is a Heavy Combat Vessel.Measuring just 385 meters in length leaves littleroom for maneuver on that issue. While it's a bigship today, on the scale of B5Wars it's a minnow.That said, it is one of the most feature packed lit-tle ships one is likely to find. With both trooptransport and cargo capacity and jump capable toboot, this ship can fill many roles. Whether act-

ing as an investigative transport or mainline war-ship, this class can deliver.The weaponry of the Conestoga class is impres-sive for a ship it's size. Primary space-to-spacepunch is provided by eight XIM-28 ASATMissiles, launched from a dorsal bay. Two 800Mega volt Neutral Particle Beams provide longrange firepower with the capability of disablinga hostile target at great range. Close in firepow-er comes in the form of twin turreted Dual30mm Railguns, top and bottom, with a 360Degree field of fire. Finally, two twin 80MWlaser turrets handle anti-fighter and anti-missilepoint defense amidships. Backing up all this is acollection of ordinances from mines to nuclearwarheads, which can be deployed against plane-tary surfaces from the dorsal launcher.

XIM-28 ASAT Missile RackThis is a special Missile Rack that is capable offiring a variety of ordinance. Usually it is loadedwith the XIM-28 ASAT Missile, but when need-ed the launcher may be reloaded to drop orbital

mines or even deliver nuclear ordinance to aplanetary surface. Due to the size of the mainmissile armament, the launcher is capable ofholding only eight warheads, and reloading is atime consuming process taking several hours.Game-wise the Launcher is similar to a Class-LRack, with the exception of only holding eightmissiles. It may also be utilized as a Bomb Rackshould that be required.

XIM-28 MissileThis missile delivers the primary Space-to-Space hitting power of the Conestoga Class.The missile is self-guiding, and is capable ofhoming through the reception of several differ-ent formats of energy emission from the target.Its warhead is a forged fragment ring that createsa lethal burst of fragments.In B5Wars terms, the missile is a Long RangeHeavy warhead. Due to its large size, the XIM-28 cannot be fired from a normal Missile Rack,only from the ASAT Missile Rack. Should apoint cost be needed for the missile (for cam-

CROSSOVER: CONESTOGA CLASS

SulacoSulaco

Babcom 19

paign purposes), it weighs in at 20 points perwarhead.

800 MeV Neutral Particle BeamsTwin 800 Mega electron Volt particle beams runparallel to the ship's main axis. These weaponsare powered from storage cells between the mainreactor and the weapons. They provide long-range soft kill capability. While Missiles candestroy a target at range, often the ColonialMarines would prefer to disable and board anopponent instead. The Particle Beams disableelectrical systems with ease and can overloadand short out a target vessel's power grid withease. The 800 MeV Particle Beams function in anidentical fashion to the Minbari Shock Cannon.Armor is ignored in all cases, and any system hittakes the listed damage. Should structure be hit(either directly or through overkill) then dividethe damage by four, rounding down, and applyas a negative power modifier to the target there-after. Should a fighter be hit by the Beams, andsurvive the damage, then it automatically dropsout as its electrical systems short out completely.

Dual 30mm RailgunsClose in punch are provided by twin turrets, eachmounting two 30mm Railguns with a muzzlevelocity in excess of 12 km per second, and apractical range of 100 km. A single hit from apair of railgun rounds is often enough to cripplea smaller vessel, or at least provide a large incen-tive to surrender. The twin railguns act like a pair of Fire-LinkedMatter Cannons. One to-hit roll is made, and ifsuccessful, a single damage location roll ismade. The struck location takes 2d10+2 fromone round followed by a second 2d10+2. Shouldthe first shot destroy the system then the secondwould strike structure. This one-two punchmakes this weapon especially deadly.

80MW Point Defense LasersFinally, anti-fighter and defensive fire is provid-ed by two turrets amidships, each mounting two80 MW Infrared Lasers. These rapid trackingturrets provide vital protection against threats tothe ship. In B5Wars, Lasers rarely get used as a defensiveweapon, however the Point Defense Laser doesexactly what it says on the tin. A low damage,short range weapon, it never the less is capableof disrupting most incoming fire and swattingthe occasional fighter craft that ventures tooclose to the ship. Though they are mounted intwin turrets on each side, the weapons are sepa-rate, fore and aft on the SCS.

SourcesMuch information on the size and armament ofthe Conestoga class comes from the ColonialMarine Technical Manual, by way of many siteson the Web, and from my rusty old copy of theLeading Edge Aliens RPG.

* * *(SCS in the Attachments folder)

CROSSOVER: CONESTOGA CLASS

Babcom 20

FREESPACE 1 and 2 have always beensome of my favourite computer games.They involve engaging story lines with

great graphics and game play. The latter of thetwo games, has become the last, best hope for aBabylon 5 flight simulator and is showing itselfto have some longevity. Several groups are stillbusy creating missions and campaigns for thegame despite the fact its four years old. Due to my love of the game and the accessibili-ty of precise ship and weapon statistics usedwithin it, Freespace seemed to be a suitablechoice for conversion to Babylon 5 Wars. Andbecause Freespace provides numbers on all theships within the game, my approach to designingthe ships can be more accurate with less guessesinvolved. Though of course there will be a lot ofcompromise and interpretation regardless.

Freespace 2 is a ship to fighter to fighter combatgame. As a flight simulator, the fighters arestrong and detailed. My conversion therefore isdesigned to emphasis fighter combat and dog-fights. Expect Freespace fighters to be stronger,with good shields, large missile load outs and insome cases lots of guns. The conversion isdesigned to be played only amongst itself, andnot for combat against other genres such as B5or Star Wars. This isn't to say the fighters will beunbeatable, in fact many of them suffer from lowthrust, armour and horrible turn delays, but theyare in general stronger. The Bombers especially

will seem more like small ships than fighters.

Warships will tend to be stronger than their B5equivalents. One problem lies in the wide dis-parity between the strength of their hulls. Thesmallest warship has only one percent of thestrength of the largest. Therefore some shipswill seem reasonable, and the larger ships willhave a ton of structure and incredibly powerfulweaponry. I'm not one for making huge com-promises for the sake of game play. My primaryconcern is emulating the game and everythingelse is secondary. Does it matter that the ShivanJuggernaut has better weaponry than thestrongest B5 ancient? Not to me. Every numberand ship in B5Wars is irrelevant save for settinga point value baseline. But now to the specificsof the two SCSes within this magazine:

FIGHTERSAs stated, Fighters are fairly detailed comparedto their B5W counterparts. They're also in gen-eral much more survivable. Essentially there arejust a few things which are needed to be knownfor understanding and playing Freespace fight-ers. And those are: Organisation, Deployment,Customisation, Counter-measures and perhapsmost significant, Shields.

ORGANISATIONUnlike Babylon 5, fighters in Freespace are typ-ically organised into flights of four ships rather

CROSSOVER: FREESPACE 2

"Thirty-Two years have passedsince the Great War. The Shivansvanished half a lifetime ago. Andnow we live in the mausoleum ofhistory. We inherit the legacy of

ghosts who haunt these ruins. Theelders call us the lost generation. Iremember stories of a glorious civil-

isation, of cities with spires thatreached the sun, of a blue planet

with vast seas, of people withmyths of humanity everlasting, of

children who saw in the embers ofdying stars the destiny of their race,and they hurled themselves into the

void of space with no fear. Theysay our people have no present,

only a past filled with horror, and afuture they can only dream of.

Now we forge a new alliance toguard the tomb of space, and to

find within its cold expanse the sal-vation of our race."

- Admiral Aken-Bosch, Freespace 2 Intro

Babcom 21

than six. I stuck with this number to not onlyemulate the game but for the sake of being prac-tical as the shield system just would not fit wellwith six fighters. As the ships are organised intoflights of four, this in turn has implications onthe rules. First, there is no flight level combat.Each fighter rolls to hit individually. This makesintercepting fighters more difficult, but fighterswere never really intercepted in Freespace in anycase. At the same time, the defender no longerhas the choice of which fighter takes damage.Hits scored against the flight are allocated ran-domly, preferably with a d4. I believe that theshield system is simply too easy to be abusedwithout adopting this rule. The only downside isthat it means there will be more dice rolling, butsince there is more attention given the fighters Ithought it was acceptable.

DEPLOYMENTIn Freespace, only two types of vessels carryfighters: Space Installations and Destroyers (orSuper Destroyers). But because the fightershave their own subspace (jump) drive andbecause Destroyers are very large, expensiveand seem more like super carriers, there are dif-ferent deployment rules. Quite simply,Freespace fighters do NOT need a hangar tolaunch from in a battle. Which is good, becausethe ship I've provided doesn't have a hangar.This means that one side of the battle could becompletely fighters if so desired. In a campaign,the fighters would either need a base of opera-tions in system to operate from or if they haveinter-system drives, a base in an adjacent sys-tem.

CUSTOMISATIONIn Freespace the pilot was almost always able tocustomize the weapons on their fighter. Unlikesomething like Star Wars, a fighter can have sev-eral different guns installed. The game allowedalmost any fighter to have almost any gun. I'vebeen a little more restrictive and tried to limit theweapons to suitable choices for the fighter's role.As the Hercules is a jack-of-all-trades, it has alot of selection. The point value for the fighteris listed along with the weapon statistics. Inaddition, each fighter may carry missile weapon-ry. A fighter will have one or two banks(bombers, up to three) in which they can mountmissiles. Each fighter will have a list of possiblemissile loads, and the maximum that will fit ineach bank. Each bank may carry one type ofmissile. Simply write the type of missile andhow many carried in the missile track.

COUNTERMEASURESCountermeasures represent the high-tech equiv-alents of today's flares and chaff systems. Whentargeted by ballistic weapons, the fighter mayuse countermeasures to intercept the missiles.Each fighter has a number of countermeasures,each with a -4 intercept rating. At the moment,a fighter may use as many countermeasures asthey choose on one turn. Though this unlimitedrate of fire may be subject to change.

SHIELDSShields are the most distinctive aspect ofFreespace fighters and this conversion. In otherconversions we've seen two avenues taken. Theblock damage approach, and the Shadow tendrilapproach. I've taken neither, instead opting for acompromise. Shields in Freespace are detailed,yet very simple. There are three main aspects toconsider with fighter shields:

[***Insert Diagram Somewhere near here***]

SHIELD STRENGTHThis represents the overall strength of the shield,the maximum amount of damage that the shieldcan take. This value will vary greatly dependingupon the individual fighter. Some of the smallerVasudan fighters will have a value of only 8,while the large Shivan Bombers will reach ashigh as 64. This value is the maximum amountof damage the shield can take, but that does notmean that all of the damage must be taken beforethe fighter is destroyed.

SHIELD BREACH VALUEThe Breach value is an abstract representation ofthe four quadrants of a Freespace fighter.Essentially, the Breach Value is the maximumamount of damage that a shield can absorb fromany one hit. If a Hercules MK2 has 24 shieldsoverall, each of its four quadrants has only avalue of 6. So if it takes 10 points to its rightside, 4 points will make it past the shield. Nowthe fighter SCS is not so detailed to keep track ofeach shield quadrant because that's just silly.Instead, it's assumed that for EVERY hit (evenlinked guns), the breach value will apply. Onecan assume that the fighter knows where it'lltake damage and instantaneously strengthens thefacing shield to its maximum value to receivethat fire. Typically the breach value will be onefourth of the total shield strength, but some racessuch as the Shivans will have bonuses to bothrepresent their advanced technology and to make

them more playable as their fighters tend todepend almost solely upon shields.

SHIELD RECHARGE VALUEThe recharge value is simply how quickly theshield regains its strength. During the powerallocation segment, the value is added to theshield strength up to its maximum value.Fighters can also typically forego firing theirguns for the turn, to boost their shield recharge.For those weapons with lower than once per turnrates of fire, treat the weapon as though it hadbeen deactivated as you would a ship weapon.An Example of Taking Damage for theHercules Mk2:In a crazy crossover battle, a Hercules Mk2 withfull shields takes fire to its front from a PrimusBattle Cruiser. The Hercules has a startingshield strength of 24 with a breach value of 6,and a front armour value of 1 with 11 structure.The fighter is hit by two shots from a TwinArray, with good damage values of 9 and 14.The first hit of 9 damage hits, 6 damage isabsorbed by the shield, leaving 3 damage tostrike the fighter directly. One damage isabsorbed by armour, and the remaining twopoints damage the fighter's structure. The fight-er now has 18 shields with breach 6 and 2 struc-ture damage. The second shot then hits for 14damage, against 6 damage is absorbed by theshields, which leaves 8 points to hit structure.One damage is absorbed by the armour and theremaining 7 points damages the fighter. Thefighter now has 12 shields with breach 6 and 9structure damage. With only two structureremaining the Hercules has a good chance ofdropping out.

Lets for a moment assume that afterthe first shot, the fighter only had 4 shieldsremaining. The twin array hits for 14 damage,and typically the shield would absorb 6 butbecause the shields have only 4 strength left itcan only absorb 4 damage leaving 10 to hit thefighter. One point is absorbed by armour, and

CROSSOVER: FREESPACE 2

Babcom 22

the remaining 9 cause structure damage. Thefighter would then have 11 structure damagewhich would be a perfect kill.

FREESPACE SHIPSShips in Freespace are also different from theirB5Wars equivalents. The most notable differ-ences are high amounts of structure with pitifulpoint defence weapons and a few very stronganti-ship weapons. One of the most deadly shipsin the game, the Shivan Lilith is a small shipwith a bunch of piddly guns and one of the dead-liest beam weapons in the entire game. Its mainbeam makes the Shadow Slicer seem weak bycomparison. But its only one weapon, and with-out that one gun the ship is just a heavilyarmoured target. So Freespace ships are a littledifferent, and as with fighters there are a fewthings one must understand, namely: Sensors,Anti-ship Beams, Anti-fighter Beams, SubspaceDrives and general ship layout.

SENSORSBecause Freespace is a game that revolvesaround fighters, I've taken a slightly differentapproach with ship sensors. Each ship will havea main sensor array just like in B5Wars, but inaddition will also have one or more CCEW pods.These pods are identical in function to the Aegispods on the Hyperion of the same name, exceptthat these pods can be armoured. An optionalidea may be to raise the CCEW range to 15.Since the EW from the pods cannot be combinedit wouldn't be a big deal. Ships consequentlyhave rather substandard main sensors. But over-all the ships do have high levels of sensors butthe difference is that much of it is devotedtowards locking on fighters.But because ship-to-ship sensors are not asimportant, I've also introduced a factor that I'veused with custom races, Limited Sensors.Limited Sensors are essentially sensors with"overthrust" rules added in. Whenever sensorsare boosted, the ship is required to make a criti-cal roll at the end of the turn with the value ofimprovement used as a modifier to the dice roll(just like overthrusting thrusters). So if a shiphas five sensors and the player boosts them toseven, they will roll a critical with a +2 modifi-er. Any result of this roll is permanent!

ANTI-SHIP BEAMSAnti-ship beam weapons in Freespace 2 varygreatly, but not in ways that we're typically usedto in B5Wars. In general, all beam weapons willhave the same range of -1 per 3 hexes (withsome exceptions). Beams will vary in their rateof fire, fire control and overall damage. But notonly their overall damage, but also the way inwhich damage is determined. Slashing Beamsfor instance will have much more variable dam-age than beams that simply hit their target, yet atthe same time they will generally have better firecontrol ratings.

ANTI-FIGHTER BEAMSAnti-fighter beams have been given a significantboost in my conversion. In the game they typi-

cally do maybe ten percent versus fighters, yet inthe conversion they can kill some fighters deadin one hit. I've always found these to be thedeadliest weapons on a ship and so I've tried tomimic the player's feeling rather than the in-game statistics. The main strength of thesebeams, such as the Terran Minerva, is that theycompletely ignore fighter shields both in thegame and in the conversion. These are by far thebest defence any ship will have against fighters.

SUBSPACE DRIVESThese act nearly identical to B5 jump drivesexcept that all units have them, and no unit canenter another units vortex, or jump point. Thereare two main differences to keep in mind. If asubspace drive is damaged, there is no roll todestroy the ship as in B5W. Rather a damagedsubspace drive only rolls to see if it works or not.If the roll fails, the jump fails and the drive isconsidered destroyed (mark off all boxes).

Subspace drives also have different properties.A ship may use these drives anywhere to jump toany point within the same system, but intersys-tem jumps can only take place at specific pointsknown as jump nodes. This makes blockades amuch more viable option. If a battle takes placenear a node, simply designate one hex as beingthe node point. The node has no physical repre-sentation (i.e., it cannot be destroyed except forVERY scenario-specific circumstances).

GENERAL SHIP LAYOUTThe first thing someone might notice looking atthe Deimos is that "there's guns in the primary!Heck, there's main thrusters in the primary andin the forward section too!! What the hell isgoing on here?!". Freespace ships tend to haveengines mounted from bow to stern, and I've rep-resented that on the SCS. Many ships will alsohave primary mounted weapons, especially cap-itals. But seriously, considering what weapons

CROSSOVER: FREESPACE 2

Babcom 23

are on the outside of the primary, few people willcare for what's in the primary. The precedent forprimary weapons is already established and afew piddly guns won't break the bank. The second thing some people may say is "hey,where's the hangar?". Most of the Freespaceships do not have hangars. Only Destroyers orlarger ships will have hangars. All ship transfersare done via dock points on the hull of the ship.The two Terran transports for this operation arethe Argo and the Elysium. Realistically theHangar has no in-game value save soaking dam-age anyway. One may also notice that many of the guns arepulse weapons, yet they have no roll for thenumber of pulses. This has been done in aneffort to reduce the number of dice rolls. Withrolls already added to such things as fighters, theless rolls the better. So rather than give a gun ahigher rate of fire, I've just made them pulseweapons with the number of pulses decided byvolley bonus alone.

Hercules Mk2 Heavy Assault FighterThe GTF Hercules Mark II is the next generationof Terran heavy assault fighter. Introduced dur-ing the Great War, the original Herc's balance offirepower and maneuverability made it the mostversatile strike fighter in the fleet. Some mili-tary historians have claimed the Hercules wonthe Great War, citing its deployment in key bat-tles near the end of the Shivan conflict.Implementing recent advances in fusion drivetechnology, the Mark II improves the assaultfighter's speed and maneuverability without sac-rificing loadout capacity.

Rockeye Heat-Seeking MissileA fire and forget missile. The Rockeye is abulky missile with a substandard payload. Butthe missile is cheap and can be fired with little tono further regard for the target. It is often usedby general-purpose fighters and bombers. TheRockeye does not benefit from the fighter's

offensive bonus but instead has a built in +2 ver-sus fighters in addition to the missile's 3 OEW.And because the fighter does not need to lockon, it may also be snap fired at range 0 like theClass-Y missile. In addition, the weapon may befired at double the standard rate of fire (which istypically 2), and from different secondary banks.In order to benefit from the improved rate of fire,the fighter may not fire any other missiles onthat turn. (A Hercules Mk2 could not fire aHarpoon and two Rockeyes, only two to fourRockeyes).

Tempest Dumbfire RocketsUsed to supplement a fighter's firepower at closerange, Tempests are inaccurate but deadly.Though considered a missile, they are not ballis-tic but instead are treated as particle weapons.Which means they fire during the standard fight-er vs. fighter and fighter vs. ship segments.

Harpoon MissileThe standard anti-fighter missile, it is both com-pact and deadly. With good range and damage,it is the missile of choice for Interceptors every-where.

Hornet Swarm MissilesLaunched as a pack of four target-seeking war-heads, the Hornets have a better chance of hit-ting the target but less chance of doing signifi-cant damage. The missiles have the same dam-age potential as the Harpoon, yet typically onlyinflict half as much damage.

Deimos Class CorvetteDeimos-class corvettes, such as the GTCvActium and the GTCv Lysander, are the newestaddition to the Terran fleet. These sleek, ultra-modern warships are the products of a new eraof ship design, maximizing maneuverability andfirepower. Their hulls are strengthened with col-lapsed-core molybdenum sheathing for betterprotection against beam fire, and their Vasudan-

designed reactor core provides more energy perton than any other allied ship class. As theLeviathan and Fenris cruisers of the Great Warare gradually phased out, these corvettes willbecome the foundation of tomorrow's fleet.

Additional Units:More ships are of course on the way. As I writethis I have already completed the SCSes for allof the Terran Fighters and the smaller Terranwarship. By the time of publication I hope tohave most of the Terran Fleet complete (saveperhaps the Colossus). These ships will mostlikely be hosted by Tyrel on another section ofhis website: http://planetside.firenebula.com.The Terran fleet will allow civil war battlesagainst the Neo-Terran Front. After it is com-plete I will most likely do the Shivans, and thenthe Vasudans. Assuming I complete both ofthese, the future is open to possibilities depend-ing upon the popularity of these ships. Mostlikely I will then convert the Freespace 1 eraships, but there are also dozens of new ships inFreespace MODs which would make great addi-tions I'm sure. Blackwater Operations and HardLight Productions alone will provide dozens ofnew possibilities. If there is something specifi-cally that a person wants to see, feel free to givefeedback. Criticism, praise and flames arealways appreciated. Though playtest reports arethe best feedback that anyone can give.I would also like to note that I am currently cre-ating a Freespace 2 campaign as well. If anyonewho plays FS2 would like to check these out,you can drop me an email and I'll send them toyou.

Paul [email protected]

* * *(SCS in the Attachments folder)

CROSSOVER: FREESPACE 2

Babcom 24

Previously on Babylon 5... “Any change inthose seismic disturbances?” “The surface lay-ers have calmed down but we’re still picking uprumblings from further down.” “Best check itout just to be sure.” ... “What the hell was that!?All of our readings blacked out for a second.”“It must have come from deep inside the plan-et.” ... “We’v-e got something ... definitely arti-ficial.” “Commander, you okay?” “Michael,you wouldn’t believe it! A whole new area oftechnology, machines as big as... buildings.” ...“What the hell!?” “Help me, or your people, allyour people, will die.”- prelude to “A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 2”

The discovery of a vast machine of unknownorigins deep within the bowels of Epsilon 3, her-alded many events for the diplomatic stationorbiting above it, some having a major influenceon the future of the Galaxy. The first, however,was the unscheduled arrive of two warships inthe vicinity of Babylon 5 ...The first to arrive was the EAS Hyperion, sent toEpsilon 3 as soon as Earthdome was informed ofa possible find of advanced alien technology,with orders to gain control of that technology.

The Exile’s cruiser, emitting a scanning beam.

Arrival“This is Tak-arn, we have your lang-u-age filestaken, to learn, to speak, we have been fivehundred years searching for this place. Wereceived its call signal ... this world belongs tous; we are last of our people. Searched fivehundred years. We will take! Give you ten of

your hours to move aside. We do not wish to kill.But we will if you will not let us take what isours!”- Takarn of the Great Machine Exiles“Is it true that this world and its technologybelongs to them?”- Commander Sinclair“No, outcast, violent! My people cast them out,centuries ago. Signal was not meant for them,was put here to hide from them. Given to me butthe rest of my people died. Sacred trust, legacy,for the future. I am guardian, protector. I live inthe heart of the machine, we are one! Five hun-dred of your years have I waited in the machine”- Varn, Guardian of the Great Machine

On arrival, the mysterious ship scans bothBabylon 5 and the EAS Hyperion with a brilliantwhite beam. In both cases, the beam appears tobe aimed at the command centre of the target,although the beam directed at the Hyperionappears to hit forward of where the bridge isconsidered to be. The alien ship then downloadsBabylon 5’s language and translation files andTakarn, the commander of the exiles, learns tospeak comprehensible if halting English almostinstantly. The resulting conversation, quotedabove, reveals that Takarn and his (or her, or its)people are exiles from the Builders of the GreatMachine, driven out for their violent ways andprobably because they sought to seize the GreatMachine to use for their own ends.

The Exile’s ship scans Babylon 5 and the EASHyperion. Note that the scanning beamdirected at Babylon 5 hits near for thecontrol centre, while that directed at theHyperion actually appears to hit somewhatforward of the bridge.

This scanning technology raises morequestions that it answers. Obviously theGreat Machine Exiles (as I shall callTakarn’s people) have the ability to accessalien (to them) computer systems at range. Asimilar ability was observed being used bythe alien attackers in “A View from theGallery” (See Babcom 22), however unlikethose aliens, Takarn’s people do not attempt toaccess anything except the language and trans-lation files, which we can assume would beconsiderably less well protected that the securi-ty and defence grid systems. The GreatMachine Exiles make no attempt to disable thecomputer systems of either Babylon 5 or the

EMPIRICALEVIDENCEExiles From The Great Machine

Babcom 25

EAS Hyperion, which could indicate that theycouldn’t do anything except a remote data searchon unsecured systems.

The blindingly bright scanning beam appearedto have noticeable effects on the Babylon 5 com-mand crew and could possibly have some nega-tive effects on the C&C of a targeted unit incombat, but wasnever usedthat way.

Likewise,the ability tolocate andlock on tothe C&C ofa target unitcould bedevastating iflinked to aweapons firecontrol, butagain, such acapability wasnot observed(luckily forthe Babylon 5c o m m a n dstaff). It ispossible thatsuch a use hadsimply notoccurred to the Great MachineExiles.

Attack“You have ignored our warnings!You’ve sent ships to our world.No more lies! Now we take whatis ours, and we stop your peo-ple!”- Takarn of the Great MachineExiles

Interpreting the approach ofLondo’s shuttle to the planet,Takarn believed that his threatswere being ignored and theGreat Machine Exiles openedfire upon the shuttle (Takarn’sangry outburst, quoted above,implies that some ‘off-screen’negotiations might have beengoing on). Several red-orange bolts, resemblingminiature comets, streak pastthe shuttle as it jinks. A cut back to the GreatMachine Exile’s cruiser shows it firing a barrageof such bolts from a number of weapons mounts.Each weapon seems to have a fairly slow rate offire, but there are a number of them and theystagger their fire to create an almost continualbarrage.

The Exile’s ship fires its weapons.“They’ve opened fire, secondary gun

array is targeting my ship!”

- Captain Ellis Pierce

Although the weapons being used to targetLondo’s shuttle and later the EAS Hyperion andBabylon 5 are fairly obvious, it is less obviouswhat Captain Pierce is referring to by the ‘sec-ondary gun

array’.It is possible that some of the weapons are infact larger than others, or possibly the differenceis not noticeable to the eye, but some weaponsregister a more powerful energy spike on sen-sors.

At this point Babylon 5’s fighter wings arelaunched and fly to engage the Great MachineExiles, accompanied by at least one Badger StarFury from the EAS Hyperion. The Exile cruiserfires the same weapons at the oncoming fighters,

but fail to hit. It also divides up into three sec-tions, the largest consisting of its top half, whilethe bottom half subdivides further into twosmaller sections. Why it does this is not clear atthis time. As the Exile’s cruiser appears to con-sist of four similar parts, it is possible that the

top section could have also dived intotwo, but this capability is not shown.

The Exile’s ship separates into threesmaller ships. It is possible that thelarger ship could separate into twomore of the smaller ships.The massed Star Fury fighters openfire on the now divided Exile cruiser.Several Uni-Pulse Cannon shots areobserved hitting, creating temporaryblue glows on the surface of the ship.The Exile ships continue firing, theirrate of fire appears to have dimin-ished somewhat, but this is uncertain.

A Badger is seen close to thecamera, firing upon the main Exileship, its first shot just seems to van-ish as it hits the target, while the sec-ond hit creates a temporary blue fireon the surface of the ship, as seenabove. The Exile ships do notappear to be affected at all by these

hits.T h e

Exile shipsreturn fireon the fight-ers witha n o t h e rweapon sys-tem, which atfirst glance,resembles thefire fromBabylon 5’sQuad ParticleArrays; twinstreams of red-orange streaksr e s e m b l i n gtracer fire, how-ever closeranalysis indi-cates that eachstreak consists offive closelyspaced bolts. Nohits on StarFuries areobserved.Cut to the EAS

Hyperion, where several of the larger red-orangebolts are seen nearly hitting the ship, theHyperion’s rear turret opens fire, firingblue/cyan bolts, then the forward turret does thesame, firing larger bolts of the same colour(these are probably groups of pulses, howev-er, the shots are sufficiently far from thecamera that they merge into one object).These shots are seen hitting incom-

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE: Exiles From The Great Machine

Babcom 26

ing fire from the Exile ships, exploding it intoorange-yellow fireballs, a good example ofinterception fire.The EAS Hyperion turns to face theExile ships, while continuing inter-ception fire.Endgame“Hyperion’s forward guns poweringup, preparing to fire, locking on...”- Lieutenant Commander Ivanova

The EAS Hyperion fires itsmain forward gun (firing whatappears to be a pair of pulses,similar to those fired by hersmaller weapons, but larger, theactual forward guns appear tohave four barrels, and so, insome shots, do the turrets); atthe same time she also firesher forward turret.

Several shots from theHyperion are seen missingthe Exile ship, as a largeorange explosion erupts onthe lower part of the largestexile ship, presumably froma hit by one of Hyperion’s weapons. TheExile ship shows no sign of suffering anyimpairment from this.

The larger Exile’s ship takes a hit from one ofHyperion’s weapons.

The Exile ships proceed to thrust towardsBabylon 5, moving as a group.

“Range to target?”- Commander Sinclair“Closing, to 300km, 250...”- Lieutenant CommanderIvanova“Stand bydefence grid,prepare to fire,Alpha flight, takepoint and engage”- CommanderSinclair“Confirmed, con-trol, engaging”- Alpha FlightLeader“Fire defence grid,maximum range”- Commander Sinclair

The Star Furies ofAlpha flight are seen

opening fire, then theBabylon 5 defence

grid is seen firing (yellow orange boltswith a reddish fringe, superficially

similar to the Exiles weapon

fire). Fire from the defence grid is seen strikingall three Exile ships, creating small explosions,but not appearing to inflict much damage.

Several shots from the defenceg r i d

appearto miss and explode inempty space in the vicinity of the Exile ships.The larger Exile ship returns fire, its first shotmisses, passing past the forward section ofBabylon 5, while the second shot scores a directhit on the forward sphere, just above the front ofone of the Cobra bays. Cut to the control centre,where power fluctuations and noticeable shakingare observed.

“Direct hit, reporting damage to cobrabays, holds

blue-8 through C buckling, 20%

power loss. One more shot like that and they’llblow out the whole forward section”- Lieutenant Commander Ivanova“Where’s the Hyperion?”

- Commander Sinclair“On the other side, the enemy ship’s keeping usbetween them”- Lieutenant Commander Ivanova“It’s coming round again, weapon system’s pow-

ering up ... they’re lockingon!”- Tech #2“This is it!”- LieutenantCommanderIvanova

T h i sshows that theweapon of theExiles, whenthey hit, can bequite devastating,with two hits pos-sibly being capa-ble of destroyingthe forward sectionof Babylon 5. It isalso shown that theExile ships, at leastin their separatedstate (possibly thisexplains why theyseparated their ship),are more manoeu-

vrable than a Hyperion heavy cruiser and thatthe Exiles feared the firepower of the EASHyperion sufficiently to place themselves on theother side of a large space station. Alternatively,they might have feared the combined firepowerof Babylon 5 and the EAS Hyperion, andmanoeuvred to reduce the number of opponentsfiring on them. It is interesting to note that theshot that struck Babylon 5 appears to brightennoticeably just after being fired.

At this point Babylon 5 is saved by an almostliteral Deus ex Machina as Draal uses the GreatMachine to temporarily shut down all combat-ants, and announces his stewardship of the GreatMachine to all present. The Exiles ignore hiswarning and advance towards Epsilon 3. A red-orange beam lances out from the planet, touch-ing each of the Exile ships in turn, destroyingthem utterly in an instant.

The beginning of the end for the Exiles of theGreat Machine. Unlike Shadow MolecularSlicer Beams that would cut through a ship, theGreat Machine’s beam weapon completelydestroys the target.

The ship used by the Exiles of the GreatMachine appears to consist of four similar mod-ules connected in a rectangular arrangement,those to port mirror those to starboard, likewisethose on top mirror those below. Each moduleconsists of a number of long rectilinear struc-tures of various sizes with tapered ends,resembling long, thin crystals, but ofobvious technological manufacture.

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE: Exiles From The Great Machine

Babcom 27

The forward ends of these structures, or ‘spikes’,house weapon systems. It is possible that therear end might do so as well. Each module hasone large such structure, with the others being ofprogressively smaller size. Whether the size andpower of a weapon is related to the size of the‘spike’ in which it is housed or not, is unknown.The smaller structures are largely found in the‘bridge’ sections connecting the two halves ofthe ship. Each module has two main thrusters.

It is dif-

ficultto gauge the size of this ship; the onlyplace where a comparison can be made is thescene where the ship arrives through theBabylon 5 jump gate. From this, it would appearto be somewhat larger than an EA Hyperion-class cruiser. Possibly it is roughly the same sizeas an Omega-class destroyer or similar.

The ship can separate. It was observed sepa-rating into three pieces, one piece consisting ofthe top two modules, while the other two werethe bottom two modules. It appears likely thatthe larger piece could also have subdivided intotwo pieces. It is possible, but unverifiable, thateach module could further subdivide into twounequal sub-modules, with further subdivisionbeing unlikely due to the observed number ofmain thrusters. The reasons for this divisionability are open to speculation.

Technologically, the ship is somewhat of anenigma. The ability to remote-access computersystems is a sophisticated capability whereas thedrive systems do not appear to have any unusualcharacteristics and the performance of the shipin combat would not appear to be particularlyeffective.

The ship demonstrates at least two weapon sys-tems. It’s main weapons consist of weapons

firing single large bolts with a not particu-larly fast rate of fire, with the fire of

multiple weapons being staggered

to maintain a constant rate of fire, rather than fir-ing all weapons at once, then performing defen-sive manoeuvres while they recharge. This mayor may not be several similar weapons of differ-ing size, however the visual effects of theseweapons would appear to be very similar to eachother. These weapons are definitely intercept-able. The one observed hit by this type ofweapon did considerable damage to the forwardsection of Babylon 5 and from the dialogue, it islikely that a second such hit would have

destroyed the forward section.T h e

o t h e rweapon sys-t e mobserved isa rapid-fireanti-fighterw e a p o n .These appearto be twin-mounted andeach fires in‘bursts’ of fivepulses eachwith a rapidrate of fire. Nohits by thisweapon wereobserved, so itsfirepower isunknown.

T h eExile’s shipseemed to ‘shrugoff’ hits fromeither fighter

weapons or the Babylon 5 defence grid, while ahit from one of Hyperion’s larger weaponscaused them to use Babylon 5 as a shield. Thereis no visual evidence of any exotic defensivecapabilities, however in at least one case, firefrom a fighter appeared to disappear upon hittingits hull.

In its separated state, the Exile’s ship demon-strated significantly more manoeuvrability thanthe EAS Hyperion, being able to keep Babylon 5between them. No ability to open its own jumppoint was demonstrated by the Exile’s ship,however due to the ship’s history, such an abili-ty would be likely.

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

Babcom 28

Voice in the WildernessExile Wanderer Modular CruiserBy Paul Brown

Wanderer Modular CruiserDesigned centuries ago by the same people whobuilt the Great Machine, the Wanderer is a shipcomprised of four small segments, which in andof themselves form individual vessels. Eachsegment is self-contained with its own weapons,power, sensors and manoeuvring capabilities.The unique configuration, previously unseenamong the local powers, is designed to maximisethe tactical potential of the vessel. By separatinginto smaller ships it becomes more agile andable to out manoeuvre slower opponents as wellas becoming able to successfully bring its limit-ed-arc heavy weapons to bear.

Despite its ability to operate as smaller individ-ual ships, the Cruiser is designed to move strate-gically as one unit. Consequently minor varia-tions in the segments include the use of a jumpdrive and a hangar in two segments, while theothers utilise the space for rear-firing secondaryweapons. While an older vessel, the ship has astrong armament coupled with adequatedefences in the form of point defence weaponryand electromagnetic shielding.

Modular Warships:The rules for Modular Warships can be found onthe second page of the appropriate PDF file.While seemingly extensive, many of the rulesare necessary non-combat procedures that forthe most part will have minimal bearing on anycombat the ship engages in.

Solar Blaster:The primary weapon of the Exile’s Cruiser. Thisweapon is similar to the Drazi Solar Cannonwith the exception of being superior in almostevery way. The weapon has increased range,damage and a higher rate of fire. Its’ maindownfall is the size and configuration of the

weapon that results in a rather constrained arc offire. Regardless, even a single hit from one ofthese weapons can result in massive amounts ofdamage to the target.

Medium Bolter:Though not derived from the Dilgar weapon, thesecondary arrays on the Cruiser are functionallyidentical to their more recently designed coun-

terparts. Like the Solar Blaster the weapon isdesigned to deliver a high amount of damagethrough a large volume of rapid fire.

Point Particle Cannon:This anti-fighter weapon fires a stream of parti-cle bolts with fairly convincing accuracy. Withdamage comparable to the Standard ParticleBeam, the main difference is the more reliabledelivery of damage derived from the tight focusof the projectiles. Unfortunately, the weaponloses accuracy fairly quickly at high ranges andhas substandard tracking capabilities to interceptincoming fire.

Design Musings and InterpretationsAs with the last challenge, I began this one byreviewing the episode in question and then bylooking over the empirical evidence drawn up byNerik. The episode in question was one of myfavourites of the first season with a good battlesequence and a huge secondary plot: The MarsRebellion. But after reviewing the episode Ifound myself at somewhat of a loss to explainthe behaviour of the alien vessel, for several rea-sons.

The vessel demonstrates the ability to split apartbut while it does so, the individual segments stayin close proximity to one another. What doesthis accomplish? The vessel furthermore seemsto have a total of four, quick firing guns thatindividually cause substantial damage toBabylon 5. And in addition, when I finally wasabout to create the SCS, how does one handle aship that may have up to four sensor arrays andenough thrust to move each segment individual-ly. Give each segment three sensors? Why thenwould the ship wish to separate? Not to mentionall the problems of how does one handle the hitprocedures of a ship that can appear in three dif-ferent possible forms. In the end, here’s what Ideduced/made up.

The process of the ship splitting up was designedwith three factors in mind: manoeuvrability, sur-

EXILE WANDERER MODULAR CRUISEREXILE WANDERER MODULAR CRUISER

“Centuries ago, our own peo-ple cast us out, said we weretoo foolish and too trouble-some. Over these years we

have wandered the stars, a lostand forgotten people. We alone

endured through our tremen-dous strength and conviction,while the people of our homewithered and died. We have

been without a home and with-out a purpose. But now the sig-nal has been received, the greatlegacy of our people is callingto us. The rest of our peopleare dead, but we yet live. We

will move to this planet,Epsilon 3, and retake what isrightfully ours. And no one

shall stand between us and ourrightful inheritance.”

-Tonkar, Leader of the Exiles2258

Babcom 29

vivability and offensive potential. A smallership tends to be more manoeuvrable than alarger ship. My specific numbers won’t makesense but neither do existing turn + pivot costs,so no worries. Secondly, four ships are harderto kill than just one. And thirdly, I decided togive the main weapons of the ship crappyOmega-style arcs. Therefore by splitting upinto four segments, they could roll and positionthemselves so that all four guns pointed at thetarget rather than just two (centre lining aside).Now why did the ship stay together duringcombat? That’s simple: the desire to concen-trate and coordinate firepower plus the benefitof overlapping anti-fighter arcs against a fight-er heavy opposition.

For weaponry, I decided on a simple armament.The ship obvious has four main weapons, oneof which causes a lot of damage to Babylon 5.Due to the large, seemingly fiery shock wavefrom the impact against the station,I decided that a Solar Cannon-styleweapon would be suitably evil. Iincreased the values a little acrossthe board and gave it a good, butperhaps not-reflective, fire rate forthe sake of game balance. The anti-fighter weapon was a bit harder. Ilooked at all the different weaponsavailable and decided the bestchoice would be to create a newweapon. This was actually the hard-est weapon to deal with, as I had tothink up a new name for it! Now asNerik points out, Captain Piercementions secondary arrays are targeting hisHyperion. Yet it would seem apparent that nosuch weapons exist from a casual re-watching ofthe battle. But as I rewound the tape severaltimes to try and capture the silhouette of the ves-sel (and in the process watching a “it makes amother proud” Cascade commercial about 25times), I noticed a blue bolt seemingly comingfrom the hull of the alien vessel. At first Ithought it was a Star Fury round but it seemsunlikely that any fighter fired the bolt. The shotappears from the left half of the “upper deck” ofthe ship, in the very beginning of the scenewhere a Badger is missed by anti-fighter fire. To

try and represent this I simply gave them someBolters, which are not very high-tech weaponsbut I thought they would do all right. The alienship also seems to take very little damage, as hitsfrom fighters only cause a blue flash and B5’sParticle Beams explode all around it without sig-nificant damage. The only real damage causedto the vessel is from the Hyperion’s main guns.As a result I gave the ship some EM shielding toboth reflect the scanning ability of the ship andthe results of opposition fire against its hull.

Finally, I handled each ship segment as an indi-vidual Medium ship. I avoided the Vree “choose

your structure” mistake by adding anadditional dice roll to determine whichsection gets hit, depending on where thefire came from. Thrust was somewhatproblematic but ultimately manageable,save for the proliferation of low-pointthrusters. And for sensors I decided thatmultiple sensors would not combine into

some ungodly super-array, but rather took a pageout of Dream Pod 9’s Silhouette rules where therolls are not combined, but rather each identicalhigh roll adds one to the total. I believe it worksfairly well and allows the player the desire tofight as one unit or up to four individual units.

In any case, I hope you enjoy my interpretationand I pray that no one is rendered blind trying toread the SCS.

The Wanderer SCS can be foundin the attachments file.

VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS: EXILE WANDERER

Babcom 30

IntroductionI have based these Babylon 5 Wars implementa-tions of the alien vessel seen in the Babylon 5season 1 episode: ‘A Voice in the Wilderness,Part 2’ on my ‘Empirical Evidence’ article andthe research I did compiling it. I call the alienspiloting it ‘the Exiles of the Great Machine’, or‘Takarn’s People’ after the spokesperson andapparent commander of this ship.

BackgroundTakarn and his/her/its’ people arrived at Babylon5 in 2258, claiming ownership of the GreatMachine. This was disputed by the EarthAlliance, in the form of Captain Ellis Pierce ofthe EAS Hyperion, the Babylon 5 AdvisoryCouncil and Varn, the Guardian of the GreatMachine. The resulting battle caused seriousdamage to Babylon 5 and was only ended by theintervention of the new Guardian, Draal, whowas forced to destroy Takarn’s forces.

TechnologyThe technology available to Takarn does notappear to be particularly advanced, the ship pos-sesses the ability to remote access other comput-er systems, but this was only used to access lan-guage and translation files, which would not beconsidered a security priority.

SensorsThe sensors of Takarn’s ship are not of an espe-cially high rating, but do have ELINT capability,which provides some benefit when the ship sep-arated into its constituent modules.Given its poor performance in scoring hits, thisimplies a combination of mediocre sensors andpoor fire control ratings, however, its ability toremote-access computer systems implies a cer-tain degree of sophistication, hence the ELINTcapability.

Jump DrivesEach module of Takarn’s ship possesses its ownjump engine and each can jump independently.If two or more modules are connected, the jumpdelay times are reduced as the jump enginesinterface with each other.We have no direct evidence of the presence ofjump engines on this ship, however its 500 yearsojourn in deep space rather implies that it canjump independently.

Fuser BolterClass: Plasma Mode: FlashThis powerful but short ranged plasma basedweapon combines features of the Descari PlasmaBolters with the Pak’Ma’Ra Fuser. However, itsenormous damage potential comes at the cost ofreduced range and accuracy.

This is the weapon that hits Babylon 5, one hitcauses significant damage to the forward sectionof the station.

Medium Plasma BolterClass: Plasma Mode: StandardThis plasma-based weapon is similar to theDescari weapon of the same name, and can betreated as that weapon in all respects.

This is the first weapon seen firing at Londo’sshuttle. It has a reasonable rate of fire and range,but lacks accuracy. From the battle scene, itwould appear to have roughly the same range asthe weapons on the EAS Hyperion, or possiblyslightly longer.

Twin Pulse ArrayClass: Particle Mode: PulseThe Twin Pulse Array combines two weaponssimilar to Light Pulse Cannons into a single

mount, in the same way that a Twin Array com-bines two weapons similar to Light ParticleBeams into a single mount.

The Twin Pulse Array can either be fired as twoindependent pulse weapons, or the fire can becombined against a single target (or flight offighters), which is resolved as a single pulse-mode attack with a greater number of pulses andan increased pulse grouping.This is the weapon seen firing at Star Furies.From examination of the visual effects, its fireconsists of two parallel streams of pulses, ingroups of five.

MilitaryLittle is known of either the Builders of theGreat Machine or Takarn’s people. Varndescribed Takarn’s people as “Outcast, violent!”but further knowledge is not available.StarshipsOnly one ship built (or at least used) by Takarn’speople has been seen and it is implied that it wasthe only one. It is likely that it is a ship built bythe Builders of the Great Machine, as some of itdesign features resemble those seen in the GreatMachine.

Takarn’s Modular Cruiser - Combined FormBase Hull (Unique Ship)This cruiser-sized ship is of rugged construction,capable of shrugging of the combined firepowerof an Earth Alliance Hyperion Cruiser, Babylon5 and the fighter complements of both unitswhile suffering only minor damage.

It has the ability to split up into four smallermodules, either singly, or combined as a pairwhich are described below. While in combinedform, the cruiser can share power between themodules and can use any of the sensors on the

TAKARN’S MODULAR CRUISERMy Interpretation Of

By Charles ‘Nerik’ Taylor

Babcom 31

modules using the rules for a ship with multiplesensor systems.

In the episode, the ship takes several hits, but isnot noticeably affected, so I gave it high armourratings and reasonably robust structure blocks.For simplicity, I designed the ship as four identi-cal modules, each with its own sensors, reactorand engine. There is some evidence for somekind of shield technology, but it is far from con-clusive.

Takarn’s Modular Cruiser - Two linked modulesBase Hull (Unique Ship)This is two of the four modules of Takarn’scruiser combined into a single heavy combatvessel-sized ship. It is more manoeuvrable thanthe fully combined cruiser, but not as much as anindividual module. It does have a longer jumpdelay than the fully combined cruiser however.

Takarn’s Modular Cruiser - Single modulesBase Hull (Unique Ship)This is one of the four modules of Takarn’scruiser, it a medium-sized ship. Individual mod-ules gain a greater manoeuvrability than anycombination of modules, but suffer from anincreased jump delay time.

Takarn’s Modular Cruiser SCS can be found inthe attachments file.

TAKARN’S MODULAR CRUISER

Babcom 32

The Streib CollectorsBy Paul Brown

The Streib are both a xenophobic and arro-gant people. Their society is driven byscientific and technological advancement,

yet for the most part, they avoid outside contactwith other species. Their scientists are contentwith researching and exploring the intricacies oftheir few star systems and they believe that thereis little that cannot be learned within thosebounds. They avoid contact with outsidersbecause they believe themselves intellectuallysuperior beings with little use for lowly out-siders.

Their government is a democracy composed ofindependent, elected representatives. Once in

office, representatives form coalitions on eachmajor individual issue and both debate and voteupon them. In order to create new bills or laws,an individual person or group will rally others totheir cause in order to form a larger coalition onthe issue. But on any one issue the large elec-torate body is typically intensely divided andfragmented. This results in a largely wastefuland ineffectual form of government, which is

satisfactory for every day life, yet often becomesbogged down on major issues.

The two main professions of individuals with-in the electorate are scientists and military offi-cers. The scientists are usually the more numer-ous and preserve the xenophobic stance of thegovernment. The military on the other hand, isaware of their technological prowess in compar-ison to the other species, and is constantly push-ing for war and conquest. However, any motionto go to war is consistently denied by conserva-tive coalitions of scientists and other electoratemembers.

Every once in a while, the military is able togain backing for a defensive probe into outsideterritory by convincing the electorate of the sci-entific value behind the study and dissection ofalien individuals and technology. Thus, a ship orsmall group of ships is dispatched, with the mil-itary hoping to gain valuable information aboutalien defences, and the scientists hoping to studyalien “animals” by means of dissection, psycho-logical analysis and study of their fightingprowess and ingenuity in paired combat.

The military representatives hope that thesemissions will garner support for further militaryoperations. Typically however, these missionsend in the destruction of the Streib vessels byalien forces. And this event will usually cementthe opposition against any war. When the shipsdo manage to return, opposition to major mili-tary action remains strong, though furtherdefence probes usually follow in the wake of thefirst mission’s success for additional scientificdata.

While a group within the military is eager forbattle and conquest, the government as a whole,is against outside excursion, either from fear ofchange or fear of the world outside the bound-aries of Streib space.

Military DoctrineStreib fleet and ship doctrine is different frommost other races. While many races employ arange of ships such as destroyers, cruisers andcarriers to fill roles within a combined arms doc-trine, the Streib focus on specialised vessels.Many of their ships are designed primarily tooperate independent of other vessels, whilemaintaining good integration ability with otherships in fleet situations. The Collectorship forexample, is very good at what it does, that is cap-turing enemy vessels. But in a fleet situation it’simproved blast lasers can add to the destructiveforce of the fleet while its burst weaponry canmake other ships incapable of fighting and there-fore easier to destroy.

Though the Streib are an advanced race, their

fleet is relatively small by most standards. Thismeans that all ships must be able to help with thedefence of their world should they come underattack. And for most opponents, they couldemploy enough vessels to deter future aggres-sion. In a state of relative isolation, most of theStreib fleet is geared towards the defence of theirhomeworld. The majority of their space faringmilitary is composed of fixed defences, moni-

When Collecting Is

More Than A Hobby

Babcom 33

tors, and maintenance vessels. Only about onethird of their ships are built for expeditionaryforces but by their nature, they are the ships mostoften seen by outside forces, while purely defen-sive forces remain a mystery.

Streib vessels employ some of the heaviestarmour in known space and utilise a mix of laserand electromagnetic weaponry. Laser weaponryis favoured on most of the dedicated warships,yet due to the effectiveness of EM weaponryagainst fighter opponents, they still see wide-spread use. EM weaponry is most strongly con-centrated on the Collectorship.

Streib forces favour ambushes over other tac-tics. Their high armour is most effective whenthe enemy has little chance to respond. Whilethe armour can withstand a few attacks, mostprolonged assaults will quickly overwhelm thesmall amounts of structure on Streib vessels.

New TechnologySurge LaserThe surge laser is a fast firing weapon present onmost Streib military vessels. Its primary use isto defend against fighter craft, a role for which itis very adept. Coupled with EM radiation, theweapon cuts apart and disables enemy fightersand gun turrets. It’s only failing is its relativelylow level of damage and its dispersal patternagainst heavy ship armour.

New UnitsIntruder Deep Recon VesselThe intruder is the smallest Streib military vesseland also one of the smallest ships equipped witha jump engine in known space. It is designedprimarily for scouting and deep penetration raidsagainst minimally protected convoys and othertargets of opportunity. It is equipped with sever-al Surge Lasers that are effective against enemyfighters and poorly armed vessels such asfreighters or other logistic transports. When notperforming its primary role it can act as an anti-fighter escort for larger vessels or as a borderpatrol ship.

Adjudicator Prime WarshipThe Adjudicator is the primary expeditionarywarship in service within the Streib fleet.Equipped with five Blast Lasers and an array of

defensive laser and EM weapons it is a formida-ble warship by any race’s standards. Utilised forquick strikes and ambushes deep within enemyterritory, it is also a ship that has not seen muchexperience on the battlefield. Until the mentali-ty of the Streib government shifts to a moreaggressive stance, it will likely remain a rarecommodity in common experience and insteadbe tasked with patrolling the region of hyper-space surrounding Streib space, thereby deter-ring stray ships and explorers from venturinginto the Streib home system.

Author’s Interpretation:The Streib are some of what of a challenge toexpand upon. The evidence from the show givesa capable ship from a one-off race, whereas theCollectorship and accompanying fluff inShowdowns-3 presents a much more powerfulrace than I would have personally envisioned.The ship in S3 is certainly not reflective of whatwe see in “All Alone in the Night” by my andmany other’s estimation. If the author of theoriginal Streib is still within the community, Icertainly mean no disrespect by this comment.The Streib Collector was in fact a very refresh-ing change from the typical ships of the time.

The Intruder is quite simply, my interpretationof the Streib vessel seen on the show. It essen-tially serves the same purpose as theCollectorship but simply at a smaller scale. TheSurge Laser was born as a hybrid Laser/EMweapon based upon what I saw on the show.Though it can be justly argued that the shipmounts EM weapons, the consistently destruc-tive nature of the weapon suggests that it’s notthe typical burst beam armament. From theshow I counted no more than four weapon pointsand added a defensive array for good measure.

The Adjudicator is another ship altogether. Itis simply based upon the premise that if theCollectorship is a cruiser designed to capturethings, this is what a cruiser designed to killthings would look like. It mounts less EMweaponry and more laser weaponry. Yes it’s avery powerful ship, but with the Collectorship asit is, I really saw no alternative. I envisioned thatsmaller warships without jump drives wouldexist in the Streib fleet but almost solely in adefensive nature. Showdowns-3 does claim thatthe Streib would be “quite a threat to knownspace” if they were more aggressive. The mostimportant thing to keep in mind is that the Streibwould probably only operate a small fleet. Justas some people shouldn’t complain the Sharlin istoo weak unless they fight it on a one-to-onebasis versus Hyperions, people must also realisethat at normal force levels the EA or any of theother major powers, would probably lay waste tothe Streib. The Streib should only be at a levelequal to or below one of the middle-groundLeague powers.

There are other ships forthcoming but some ofthe fleet is being re-evaluated. One aspect I canmost certainly guarantee is that I will not designa Streib fighter. Who needs fighters when shipsmount nine armour and Burst Pulse Cannons?

THE STREIB COLLECTORS

Paul Brown’s Streib vessels can befound in the attachments file.

Babcom 34

Well, this design came from my lacklus-ter attempt of a Space: Above andBeyond conversion of the Saratoga-

styled carriers from the shop. Using the specsthat were released to the net, I realised one couldattempt low damage weapons to reflect the 2063level of tech. Also, the specifications mentionpulse weaponry, which meant a straight adapta-tion of B5 weapons. I tried to use existingweapons and see how they would fit on thisdesign. The sensors being so low are to reflectthe close nature of engagements in Space: Aboveand Beyond.

To replicate the 50 broadside torpedo tubeswould be insane to represent in a true one-to-onerepresentation. I decided that such attackswould be similar to <shudder> the WingCommander movie’s broadside torpedo attacks.Having two ballistic torpedo launchers couldsimulate the launches without being too over-powering (since only the regular missile launch-ers were seen in the show (which these launch-ers also cover).

The SCS for the John F. Kennedy Carrier canbe found in the attachments file.

SPACE:ABOVE AND BEYOND

John F. Kennedy Class Space Carrier VehicleBy Jason Stadnyk

CROSSOVER: SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND

Babcom 35

BLAKE’S 7 is back. Or at least that’s thehope of a consortium including one ofthe show’s original cast.

The 1970s BBC series, about a group of free-dom fighters battling against a ruthless interstel-lar Federation, won an adoring audience withpowerful and consistent stories and despite itscheap, low-budget sets and wacky gadgets.

Now, producer Andrew Sewell, who boughtthe Blake's 7 rights from the estate of its creator,the late Terry Nation, wants to turn the seriesinto a multi-million pound TV film.

He is even lining up original cast member PaulDarrow, who played charismatic anti-hero Avon,to reprise his role.

Mr Sewell said: "The plan is to set it 20 yearson from when the last series ended. When Pauldid the last one he was in his mid-30s. He's nowin his mid-50s."

But the days of props that looked like they hadbeen put together by Blue Peter presenters - onespaceship on the original series was made froman old hair-dryer - are over.

Mr Sewell said: "The beauty of Blake was thecharacters and it's not going to be overloadedwith special effects, but when they are there theywill be state-of-the-art."

Mr Sewell said the film would retain the nameBlake's 7, despite the fact that the title characterwas killed by Avon in the last episode to date in1981.

One of the stars of cult sci-fi series Blake's 7has signed a deal to bring the show back toscreens more than 20 years after it ended.

Paul Darrow, who played the ruthless anti-heroAvon, is in a consortium that has acquired the

rights to the show from the widow of its creator,Terry Nation.

But Sewell declined to give a hint as to howAvon, last seen surrounded by Federationstormtroopers before apparently perishing withhis companions in a hail of gunfire, managed tosurvive.

Mr Sewell, whose recent projects with BBCWorldwide have included working on the globalnew media marketing of recent BBC hit Walkingwith Dinosaurs, said he did not yet know whowould broadcast the film.

But he added: "It would be nice to think maybethe BBC would go with it, but the new nature ofthe broadcasting markets gives us a lot ofoptions."

Originally made as a UK answer to Star Warsor Star Trek, Blake's 7 became a hit between1978-81 - despite its shaky sets and basic effects.

The new TV mini-series, starring Darrow, willhave a budget of $5-6m (£3-3.7m), the show'swebsite said.

That will lead onto a full series or a string ofTV movies, the consortium members hope.

"British science fiction has remained in thedoldrums far too long," Mr Sewell said.

"We believe that our plans will deliver a com-pelling science fiction drama that appeals to thesensibilities of today's audience both domesti-cally and internationally."

A tentative transmission date has been set forspring 2005, its website says - conditional on"many factors, not least financing".

The group behind the new show say it hasendured better than any other British sci-fiseries, and there is a strong global appetite forscience fiction.

Darrow said: "The programme had such a grit-ty and dramatic style that was every bit as greatan influence on the genre as the original StarTrek."

* * *

Revival: not remake - nor re-imagination

Will Blake’s 7 be back?

Babcom 36

ONCE, the Federation ruled everything…They ruled with a ruthless, iron will…Every inhabited planet, every develop-

ing trade route was brought under its control.There was resistance of course, and none more

legendary than Blake's Seven, a largely unprin-cipled group of disparate dissidents, keptremarkably effective by the leadership first ofBlake himself, and then the enigmatic Avon.

Now, after nearly 30 years of civil war amongstthe various factions of the Federation, peace hascome, Blake and the Seven are myth, and anenlightened new Federation presides over abrave new Empire.

While the heart of the new Federation pros-pers, life in the distant reaches of its Empire isnot what it seems. On the outer rim, where thecutting edge of technology remains decidedlyblunt, ruthless dictatorship and rampant corrup-tion secretly prevail.

Meanwhile, in a far-flung prison station, a for-gotten legend remains in almost Napoleonicexile, the last surviving member of the Seven.

Conditions are ripe for renewed rebellion.Or is this a symptom of something altogether

more sinister?A Rebellion RebornPaul 'Avon' Darrow remembers Terry Nation's

early ideas for a revival and sets the scene for aRebellion Reborn.

As we have established against all odds;nobody wins, and if Blake's 7 in the 1980'sended with the triumph of 'Establishment Terror'and the least likely of a hopeful group of dissi-dents left to oppose it, then Blake's 7 threedecades later, must spring forward from thatunpromising base.

The good/bad guy is beaten. All's wrong withthe World/Universe. When has this been the casebefore? In Earth's history, many times.

Terry's idea for a later reworking of his Blake's7 concept was, as before, inspired by his previ-ous work(s). A bleak Universe where if you'rerich and powerful - or useful to those who are -you're in a kind of corrupt paradise. Then, out ofnowhere, comes one man, then another andanother and so on. Hope springs eternal, but (andit's a big but) are these new heroes truly heroic?Not in Terry Nation's Universe. They are, asbefore, recognisable misfits… Colin Wilson'sOutsiders.

Having said that, outsiders are those who trig-ger, either by default or design, the greatest ofchanges for those on the 'inside'. There is such athing as a one-man (or in this case seven man)army and armchair enthusiasts will cheer themon, win or lose. In fact, it makes the enthusiastsfeel a lot better if 'they' lose. It saves the insiderscollective conscience and excuses them fromtaking up the mantle of outsiders. Until, ofcourse, the next adventure.

Therefore, Terry's concept for a TVMovie/Mini-Series with a view to develop intoanother series of Blake's 7, was as follows;

THE basic storyline was that the Federation,while still seeming all-powerful, would be

rotting from within (cf, collapse of the SovietEmpire).

Out of the past comes yesterday's man. But allour yesterdays are viewed with nostalgic affec-tion. So, through no fault or will of his own thesole survivor of the original Blake's 7 becomesthe catalyst for the creation of its successor.Terry likened this to Napoleon emerging fromElba and fighting his last hundred days. He wasalways going to lose, but he'd put up one hell ofa fight. Glorious defiance is very appealing.

Avon, imprisoned for 25-years, has in theminds of the average citizen essentially 'disap-peared'. The Federation's propaganda machinehas gone to great lengths to ensure that Blakeand his compatriots are remembered simply asoutlaws and certainly not hailed as martyrs.Information suppression plus the amount ofphysical time passed makes Avon a forgottenman. That said there is of course an undergroundnetwork of dissidents for whom he representsthe voice and potency of resistance and in manyways Avon will become the unwitting figure-head to their movement a reluctant El Cid.

The new seven are like a wind, divine or not.Sometimes welcome, sometimes not, the wind is

never static, it always moves on.Whereas, the mores and values of the TV

audience of the time tempered Terry's vision of'The Dirty Dozen in Space' playing more like'Robin Hood in Space' the new series must begrittier, more believable, and possess an almostepic and mythic feel to it that will raise it abovethe 'SF bubblegum' that often predominates ourscreens.

A good analogy for the series going forwardwould be West Wing meets The Dirty Dozenwhere the gloves are off and the rules of engage-ment ill-defined and thereby the outcome of anyconflict either in battle, emotionally or political-ly, unpredictable!

CURRENTLY in development is a four-hourmini-series reviving the classic 70's SF

series Blake's 7. It is the intention of the produc-er(s) that this mini-series will act as a back-doorpilot to a potential series, or a series of tele-movies.

The pilot script has been re-commissioned andis currently undergoing rewrites. It is anticipatedthat pre-production, i.e., the process of concep-tual design, casting and script revisions willcommence April/May 2004 with actual produc-tion commencing in the Summer 2004. Post-pro-duction, i.e., editing, music and special effectsare likely to be completed by Fall 2004 withbroadcast in the Spring 2005. All these dates arecontingent on many factors not least financing.

The consistent ratings success of SF related TVseries, the revival of many classic SF show'sfrom the 70s, plus the strong genre retail (video,DVD, merchandise) market, indicate that thereis a healthy worldwide audience for original SF.Many argue that twenty-five years on TV SF isstill mapping the paths first explored by TerryNation's creation.

As was the intention of the late Terry Nation,only Paul Darrow who played the characterAvon will reprise his role, acting as a catalyst fora Rebellion Reborn. It is fair to say that all theoriginal characters are dead and there are noplans for their resurrection.

The production is currently being budgeted,but will probably be in the region of $5-6 milliondollars.

* * *

Revival: not remake - nor re-imagination

Legacy: the eternalstruggle continues

Babcom 37

Taking the Opera Out of Space Opera: RonaldD. Moore discusses the forthcoming BattlestarGalactica miniseries Aug 14, 2003Author: Robert Falconer Script Magazine - Scriptmag,com

TO SAY that today's TV science fiction isawash in cliché is to tell only half thestory, according to producer Ronald D.

Moore. The veteran television writer, who beganhis career with a spec script sale to Star Trek:The Next Generation in 1989, ought to know.

Over the past 14 years he's written more than60 hours of genre television for series such asStar Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: DeepSpace Nine and Roswell. He has also co-pennedtwo Star Trek feature films, Star Trek:Generations and Star Trek: First Contact. His lat-est project, the re-imagined Battlestar Galacticamini-series for the SCI FI Channel, promises notonly to avoid familiar clichés, but to inject real-ism into what Moore believes has become "anaggressively unrealistic genre."

Whereas sci-fi staples such as UPN'sEnterprise have arguably fallen victim to formu-la, other series, such as Farscape and Buffy theVampire Slayer, have shown a real commitmentto avoiding hackneyed story-telling. In addition,they reflect a more contemporary zeitgeist. ButMoore believes sci-fi on television can go evenfurther by introducing new levels of verisimili-tude. "Call it 'naturalistic science fiction,'" hesays.

"Our goal is nothing less than the reinventionof the science fiction television series," notesMoore. "We take as a given the idea that the tra-ditional space opera, with its stock characters,techno-double-talk, bumpy-headed aliens, thes-pian histrionics and empty heroics, has run itscourse and a new approach is required." Hebelieves Battlestar Galactica is an ideal premiseupon which to base this new approach.

For the uninitiated, the original BattlestarGalactica premiered on the ABC television net-work on September 17, 1978, at a record cost of$1 million per episode. It was created by writer-producer, Glen Larson, also known for The SixMillion Dollar Man, and later, Magnum P.I. last-ing only one season, the series told the story of12 human colonies destroyed in a genocidal

attack by an alien race known as the Cylons. Ledby the only surviving warship, the BattlestarGalactica, a convoy of holocaust survivors setoff across the stars in search of a mythological13th colony: a sister world known as Earth.

The new series, which wrapped up productionin Vancouver in June, maintains the same darkpremise, as well as most of the original charac-ters. Yet Moore elected to make a decisive breakwith many of the elements introduced in the firstseries, several of which he believed were impos-sible. "What attracted me to the project was thatat the core of it was a really horrific premise.How many television series get to start withsomething like that? However, in its original run,the show was a network piece of its time, ridingthe Star Wars crest of fame. I think the originalproducers felt they had to make escapist, pop-corn fare," observes Moore. "I mean, in the pilotthey go to the casino planet and start gambling.Starbuck [the dashing fighter pilot] is chattingup the ladies. And just moments ago their entiresociety's been wiped out! The contradictionbetween the premise and what they could actual-ly do was inherent within the pilot."

Moore promises that these sorts of contradic-tions have been addressed in his new version of

Galactica. Other elements have been significant-ly modified. The new Cylons, for example, looklike humans, and there is a significant reason forthis. "Human-like Cylons are better from a cre-ative standpoint because the backstory now isthat the Colonials created the Cylons," Moorepoints out. "The Cylons went off and developedon their own … and then they came back in thisnew form. There's a stronger tie between Cylonand human; it literally is parent and child now.That creates a different resonance in the piece,because it's really your children that you haveresponsibility for, that you've created in a veryliteral sense, and that have now come back tohaunt you. I think that's just richer territory."

For the pundits who may suspect the decisionwas made due to budgetary constraints, Mooreconcedes that although cost is always a consid-eration, this time cost and creativity truly wenthand in hand. "The discussion did begin with,'Okay, what are the Cylons going to be?' butonce we started looking at doing humanoidCylons, we realized that, creatively, it was amuch better idea anyway. It creates many otherpossibilities. They can infiltrate human society.Will they lose themselves in human society?Will they begin asking existential questions suchas 'Who am I?', and 'Is there a God?' Those arefascinating things when they are ostensibly asynthetic lifeform." Despite this fresh take,Moore promises that the original Cylons willappear in the new Galactica. "The originalCylons are still in the story, but in very smallroles … they're not really the newest, coolestmodel of Cylon anymore."

The new version also departs from the originalin other dramatic ways. Thanks to their experi-ence with the Cylons, the Colonials are wary ofnew technology-a thematic element that playswell in our own increasingly technology-dependent society.

Moreover, realistic characterization is at theheart of this new Galactica. Beyond the well-reported gender changes for Starbuck andBoomer (both are now women, played byactresses Katie Sackhoff and Grace Park),Moore promises that, gender notwithstanding,all the characters will be more believable.

"This is perhaps, the biggest departure from thescience fiction norm. We do not have 'the cockyguy,' 'the fast-talker,' 'the brain,' 'the wacky alien

RE-IMAGINATION RESULTS:

OFF TARGET: Ronald Moore sayshe drew inspiration for hisBattlestar remake from the movie InHarm’s Way. Not Galactica. Is he“re-imagining” the wrong movie?

From barritone to soprano:Moore tells how he removed the

opera from space opera - and cameup with a blank space oddity

Babcom 38

sidekick' or any of the other usual characterswho populate a space series," Moore pledges."Our characters are living, breathing people withall the emotional complexity and contradictionspresent in quality dramas like The West Wing orThe Sopranos. In this way, we hope to challengeour audience in ways that other genre pieces donot. We want the audience to connect with thecharacters of Galactica as people. Our charactersare not super-heroes. They are not an elite. Theyare everyday people caught up in an enormouscataclysm and trying to survive it as best theycan."

Moore's desire to eschew the traditional storyconventions of television science fiction beganwhile he was working on Star Trek. "I was think-ing about this as I was working on Deep SpaceNine," he recalls. "On Deep Space we were tak-ing Trek into more realistic areas in terms ofcharacter. We were taking characters away fromthe The Next Generation 'perfect human' modeland making them more complicated, moreambiguous. The moral questions were never soclear. That interested me. As those charactersbecame more and more recognizably human, thebetter I felt the drama worked in the genre. Aswe pushed those boundaries, I began to get inter-ested in the idea of how much further one couldtake this concept."

ONE might wonder why Moore didn't beginwith a blank sheet of paper and develop an

entirely new property within which to explorethis approach. He reveals the reasons as partpracticality and part creative. "When the idea ofGalactica was brought to me, I quickly realizedthis was a really good way to go. Here's an exist-ing franchise. I don't have to walk in and sellthem the whole concept-okay, let's do sciencefiction again-which is hit or miss sometimes. It'salways an expensive proposition. Other than StarTrek, many are the bodies of the dead," he quips. "Plus [Universal] already owned it, and theyalready wanted to remake it. I realized that thiswas a perfect opportunity. Also, the things thatGalactica was built around-the idea of wipingout an entire civilization and then having thissmall group of survivors who run away, the factthat it's literally centered around an aircraft car-rier in space, the fact that I'm fascinated with thenavy and naval history and know the carrier bat-tles of World War II backwards and forwards-itwas a happy marriage of all the things I coulddo, and wanted to do."Moore's fascination with World War II naval his-tory extends to film, and one of his favorites isthe 1965 motion picture, In Harm's Way, direct-ed by Otto Preminger. Not surprisingly, InHarm's Way offers a good example of the sort ofrealistic, "flawed" characters we will see inGalactica. "Kirk Douglas' character of PaulEddington and Galactica's Colonel Tigh sharemany commonalities," offers Moore. "I love therelationship, personified in In Harm's Way,between Rock Torrey (John Wayne) and PaulEddington: two friends, one the stalwartCommander, getting on in years, the other thedeeply flawed man who is there for his com-

mander and who can be relied on in time of cri-sis, but ultimately is a victim of his own weak-nesses." Classic sci-fi films also influenced Moore'sapproach. "Alien showed a way to present a nat-uralistic environment on a space ship. The waythe crew operated and functioned aboard theNostromo, the way the characters were sketchedout-it's a completely believable place. Andthey're just people on this freighter doing theirthing; they're not bigger-than-life heroes. TomSkerritt's character is just a regular Joe trying tohaul cargo from A to B. I loved that."

BEYOND story and character, the most sig-nificant departure from sci-fi television is in

the approach to the production itself, from edit-ing and visual effects, to the cinema vérité styleof filmmaking that permeates the entire look andfeel of the project. One of cinema vérité's centraltenets is remaining an unobtrusive observer,impartial and outside the process, usuallyachieved through the use of hand-held camerasand "actual" surroundings, much like a docu-mentary filmmaker. Moore intended this fromthe outset. "This was in the original pitch. It wasone of the first things I said: 'Look, we're goingto do this cinema vérité, documentary style.'"This was constantly on Moore's mind as hewrote the script. "As I was writing it, it was verymuch in my mind that that was the style. It pre-sented certain challenges because I had beenused to writing in a genre that was kind of hyperreal, where dramatic scenes were more dramaticthan life. I did make concessions to the genrealong the way," Moore admits. "There are placeswhere it is a little bigger than is true to the stylethat we're trying to emulate. At the same time Imade a real effort to try to pack down the scenesthemselves in the dramatic sense."

This technique extends to the exterior spaceshots as well. "We're approaching all the visualeffects with the idea that someone is document-ing them. Someone is sitting in a cockpit [forexample] holding a camera and pointing it outthe window. We're not going to do the big,sweeping 'hero shot,'" says Moore. "That's not tosay we never used a dolly or a crane; we did doa few of those shots. But by and large it's prettymuch hand-held, pretty much guerilla, 'you arethere' style cinematography." Moore elaborates:"Imagine the sorts of shots you might see onCBS News. If the CBS News crew goes out tothe carrier, Enterprise, they'll give you an estab-lishing shot of the carrier, but it's shot out theside of a helicopter as it goes down the side ofthe ship."For Moore, this "naturalistic" approach offers afresh way to do what sci-fi has always done best:explore existential questions about humanity.Furthermore, he doesn't believe that televisionscience fiction has necessarily reached a satura-tion point in terms of the stories that can be told."With [science fiction] you still have an abilityto challenge the mind in interesting ways, tomake you think outside the box, to examine thehuman condition from a different perspective.Our goal was to find a new way to do all that."

The new Battlestar Galactica premieres on theSCI FI Channel on December 7, 2003.

About This AuthorRobert Falconer is a professional writer-editorand photographer living in Vancouver, BritishColumbia, Canada. He specializes in corporatecommunications, freelance articles and screen-writing for film and television. He can bereached at [email protected]

RE-IMAGINATION RESULTS:

Babcom 39

Ship’s crest Mk2

Viper Mk1Viper Mk2

Shuttle Mk1Shuttle Mk2

Galactica Mk1Galactica Mk2

Moore or less the same?RE-IMAGINATION RESULTS:

Ship’s crest Mk2