Pax stellarum rules pdf download

A more scientific and mature approach it taken with these rules. I try to use current science and carry it forward to a logical extension far in the future. Though most is speculation interlaced with conjecture. These rules are currently being designed and play tested. Right now the fleet battle system is underdevelopment.

Note I probably will be changing the scale of the ships. Plus I will add a computer assist function. Two or more players can use the rules as well, with very little modification, but the design focus was for solo-play. The supplement covers spinal mount weapons, tractor beams, defense satellites, asteroids and more, and offers improved rules for fighters to add greater tactical variety to the game.

I've also included new racial fleet statistics and a handy fleet stat chart. Also include as a bonus, stats for the new Hive miniatures from Studio Bergstrom.

We don't need no stinkin' physics! If you like space opera style action, G. Also added was a new game Big Burn which covers big fleet actions and is designed for each player to control many capital ships.

Included are rules, movement order sheet, random number table spreadsheet, and sample scenario. This game uses a hex mat and can be played with any miniatures, as long as both players are clear on what type of vessel each mini represents. You can use any starship miniatures in your collection, but you do need a hex mat. Recordkeeping is fairly simple--you can fit a whole fleet on one sheet of paper. Ship design and combat is abstract. Also they are developing a video game of Launch Fighters!

You can design your own fleet of starships and challenge your opponents in an exciting star battle. Unlike other space battle games that have a page rulebook or cost an arm and a leg, you can just download and print Launch Fighters! It's a simple, flexible, fun and FREE space battle system for any galaxy you can imagine. To support the game, Consortium Games has set up an Forum, and Admiral's Club and a Newsletter to help players connect and share ideas.

OPF is designed to support large numbers of ships with a minimum of fuss and little reference. After a few games it should all be second nature. Players are not Limited to just designing ships, but can also develop their own fighters, weapons and troops. There are 11 different types of weapons, and each may have as many as 5 stats customized. Additionally, weapons may have multiple traits, which grant them unique capabilities.

This results in a virtually infinite number of weapon combinations. Troops may also be customized with varied stats and different traits. This allows players to design different forces for each race they play with, thus better representing the diversityfound in Sci-Fi universes. Finally, the ship construction system was developed to accommodate designs from extremely different scales.

Players may create functional ships of merely 1 hull point or behemoths with dozens of hull points, all of which may be fielded in the same game while keeping game play balanced. In Pax Stellarum , miniatures are to be used to represent each ship. Other items such as planets and asteroids make up the scenery in which fleets will clash for ultimate supremacy among the stars.

The main rulebook and design rules are available in both regular and print-friendly versions. Available are the RCR rules, Daveway's Fighting Ships of the Galaxy , and several versions of the ship forms, turning guides, etc. Most most are PDF files. Over and over I keep going back to my new mantra: "I have these cool miniatures. I want to play a game with them. This philosophy is blaringly obvious in the design work I've been doing lately on Red Chicken Rising , the spaceship combat component set in the Generic Legions universe.

It has no relationship to science, physics, mathematics, engineering, or even logic. I suspect such things can be tacked on fairly easily, but I don't care. I suppose that would change when I get around to finishing and publishing the GL novels. That's really the only reason Full Thrust isn't quite what I want: it's great at the "each player controls up to 5 ships" but I don't think it works well with more than that.

Like GL , there will be several versions, with various levels of detail and playability. As I get these hammered out I will post them to the web site for free consumption. I will probably field 8 fleets from 8 different races, but I haven't figured out which races I'll use yet. I have a big fleet of the Aquarians from Starfleet Wars , which my wife painted and dubbed the D'Orque fleet. It'll be a few months probably before I get it up on the web site. Now, ships hit their enemies based on their own Quality, and the enemy Profile is now a modifer to this role, only.

Quality now becomes one of the most important stats on a ship, for it determines its to-hit number not only for shooting, but for Skill Checks to take on Special Orders and such as well as Morale Checks. I've changed that so that now it's effective against any weapon.

This, in turn, makes the distinction between energy based and projectile weapons irrelevant, and thus I've done away with that element. The reason for these changings is to make CTM a defensive system complete on its own, so to better represent those sci-fi universes where ships don't have Shields at all. Still, CTM plays differently from Shields, they have distinct mechanics and feel unique. If it loses up to 25 hull points, it doesnt have to take a Morale Check.

If it loses 26 already more than half , than a morale check must be taken. At the End Phase of each turn, players must add up the number of hull points that have been destroyed, captured or that disengaged.

If this number is equal to or greater than the value calculated above, he must roll a Morale Check. If the flagship has been destroyed, use the Quality Rating of the new appointed Flagship. However, losing the primary flagship generates a modifier to this test, as show on the chart below:. If the test fails, the fleet immediately leaves the table and the game is over. If the morale test is passed, the fleet remains, but the morale check must be retaken in each subsequent End Phase, with the difficulty increasing by 1 each time.

Regardless of the number of turns, the target number will never drop below 1. Achieving Victory Victory conditions are foremost determined by the specific scenario rules. Below are the Standard Victory Conditions, which are adopted by most scenarios and are the default victory conditions unless otherwise specified by the players. The Game ends when one of the following conditions is met:. At the end of a predetermined number of turns.

If one or both sides are forced to disengage their entire fleet. The fleet that remains on the table is the winner. If no fleet remained on the table, victory will be determined by victory points. In case players choose to play a game with a predetermined number of game turns, they can use the rules here to determine who the winner is.

These rules can also be used to determine a winner in a game where both fleets fail a Morale Check for hull destruction on the same End Phase.

At the end of the last game turn, each player will have scored a number of victory points equal to the number of hull points destroyed on the enemy fleet, multiplied by the enemy Tech level.

Each point of hull remaining in a captured ship counts as 2 hull points destroyed. Each hull point remaining in a captured Flagship counts as 3 hull points destroyed.

Each completely destroyed fighter flight counts as 1 hull point destroyed. Additionally, there are some specific rules for victory points. They are: Ships that disengage individually, earn the opponent a number of victory points equal to half their remaining hull points. Fighter flights, Patrol ships and any other ships e. If the enemy fleet does not disengage they are considered captured. In such a case, the fighter flights are worth 2 VP each.

Ships that were still in reserve by the time the game ended are treated as destroyed in regard to calculating victory points. Teleporting , Boarding Actions, Fighters and more.

These rules will add more tactical depth to your games. Feel free to decide with your opponent before the game if you will use the advanced rules or not, and, if you do, which you will use if you do not wish to use all of them. Terrain Anything that is part of the game table and is not controlled by any player is a terrain feature.

It can be stars, planets, moons, asteroid fields, space anomalies, etc. Terrain adds exciting features to the game, and can influence the ships actions, by blocking line of fire, or hindering movement. In Pax Stellarum, the location of Units such as Starships or fighters is indicated by the flight peg and not the miniature itself. However, the location of terrain features is defined by its actual size on the table.

This is to represent the immense size of such features compared to our fictional starships, however big they might seem. In case they are mounted on flight stands, planets, moons and stars are considered to occupy all the space of their shadow that is, the imaginary projection of their silhouette on the game table.

For other terrain features that are made up of a grouping of smaller elements. Types of Terrain Clear Terrain: Does not interfere with shooting, sensors or movement. This includes open space or far field stars and nebula that are printed on some gaming mats.

Rough Terrain: Interfere with line of fire for shooting, line of sight for sensors and movement. Rough Terrain includes nebulas placed on the gaming table by players, asteroid fields, distortion fields, black holes, etc. Impassable Terrain: Block line of fire for shooting, line of sight for Sensors and movement entirely. This is the case of planets, moons and stars. Before placing your fleets on the table, have a discussion with your opponent about the effects of each terrain type.

Establish which category each terrain element falls into, as this may avoid arguments once play has started. It is especially important to establish this if a particular terrain type is not listed above.

Players should determine if a piece of rough terrain is light or very rough. This means that if either the attacking ship or its target has got any part of its flight peg located on it, or if the terrain lies it the trajectory of the shooting, the modifier applies, raising the to-hit number by 1.

Similarly, a ships Sensors receive a -1 modifier when determining if it detects a target through a piece of light rough terrain. Ships moving through a piece of rough terrain risk being damaged by it. For every full inch or fraction of inch a ship moves through a piece of rough terrain, its attacked by 2AD of Fire Power 2, if light rough terrain, or Fire Power 4, if very rough terrain.

The opponent should roll the dice. CTM and Shields can be used against those attacks. This type of terrain blocks line of sight and sensors completely, which means no shooting can be performed through it, nor can targets be detected when a piece of impassable terrain lies in the direct line of sight. If a ship moves into a piece of impassable terrain, such as a planet, moon, gigantic asteroid or such, its immediately destroyed.

Deploying ships in squadrons is one of the most tactically important aspects of the game. It also allows players to control large fleets with relative ease. Starships can be part of a squadron with other ships of the same class. The formation of squadrons can only be done at the beginning of the game.

This must be announced when the ships are deployed and the ships in a squadron must all be deployed at the same time and in formation. A squadron is considered to be one unit, thus all ships in the squadron activate at the same time in both the movement and attack phases. Ships in a squadron must be on the same thrust mode. The only exception to this is if one or more ships are on a Special Order which changes their thrust mode. However, they must attempt to bring their thrust mode back to that of the majority of the squadron as soon as possible.

A ship may never deliberately move out of formation. Thus, if the ships in a squadron have got Quality 4, each ship must keep a distance of up to 4 to another ship in the squadron.

The entire squadron must remain as a single chain of models, which means its not allowed to keep some ships in formation with one another, but distant from the rest of the squadron. Example of formation for Squadron Quality Whenever a ship becomes out of formation due to loss of another ship on that squadron , it must try to return to formation as soon as possible that is, in the next Starship Movement Phase and it cannot be activated with the rest of the squadron on a Starship Attack Phase until it returns to formation.

In order to be considered of the same class, ships must have identical stats to each other i. An exception to this is Legendary and Command ships. Legendary ships are rare, and most games will sport a single one of them per fleet if any!

In that case, the squadrons formation distance is the Legendary ships Quality, that is, 5. Similarly, a ship with the Command special rule may be part of a squadron with ships of identical stats to it, even if they are not also Command ships.

The advantage of having ships in a squadron is being able to activate them all at once per activation on the attack phase. On the other hand, squadrons are a disadvantage in the movement phase, for moving second is an advantage, as youd move knowing the final location of the enemy unit.

However, players. When activating a squadron in the Starship Attack Phase, all the ships do not have to fire at the same target. However, if one or more ships do attack the same target, it is considered a Coordinated Attack. When ships make a coordinated attack, use the lowest range modifier for all attacking ships based on the distance to the target from the closest ship. Attacks do not actually extend the range of a weapon, and as such the target must be within the weapons maximum range to participate in the attack.

This represents the ship closest to the target providing the rest of the squadron with more accurate Intel regarding the exact position of the enemy. This ability also helps speed up gameplay, for all attacks from a squadron directed at the same target may and must, in fact be rolled at once, as they will usually have the same modifiers to hit.

The exception to this is when one of the ships in the squadron is Legendary, or when there is terrain in the line of fire of some of the firing ships only. In that case, the to-hit numbers will be distinct, and therefore the shots from these ships must be rolled separately.

When a ship is attacked by multiple enemies from the same squadron, it must wait for all the attacks to be rolled before using its defenses CTM and Shields , as all of these rolls constitute a single source of enemy fire, as explained on the Basic Rules. Escorting Individual ships or squadrons may be designated to escort an allied ship.

No ship may have more than one escorting unit i. A ship whether individual or in a squadron may only be designated to escort an ally with at least double its Hull Size. Therefore, a squadron with 3 frigates of 4 hull points each could only escort an ally with 8 or more hull points.

A ship or squadron may also be designated to escort a squadron. In this case, each escorting ship cannot have more than half the number of hull points of each ship in the escorted squadron. Escorts must be declared on the beginning of the game, upon deploying the escorting unit.

No ship can be designated as an escort during the game. Whenever they move farther away than this, they temporarily lose the escort prerogatives. When whole squadrons are escorts, only one of the ships in the squadron must be within Quality distance of the escorted unit to maintain their escort status. Units which have been assigned as escorts cannot have escorts themselves. If the escort is designated to interrupt, it immediately activates and may attack the unit whose activation it interrupted, and only that unit.

After that attack has been resolved, the escort is considered activated and may not go again in the current attack phase including interrupting other attacks against its escorted unit. Continue the activation of the interrupted unit. Note: It is possible for an escort to be interrupted itself if its interrupting the attack of a ship that also has its own escorts! D is then designated to interrupt As attack, thus attacking it first.

The controller of ship A chooses to get B to interrupt ships D interruption. Therefore, B is going to attack D. If D survives, it is going to attack A, which is then going to attack C, here again, provided that A survives an attack from D. This means that whenever the escorts controller so chooses, the escort may block line of fire to the escorted unit, by deliberately putting itself in the line of fire between the attacking unit and the escorted unit. Screening may be declared whenever an enemy activates a unit to fire at the escorted ship during the Starship Attack Phase.

If the line of fire between the attacking ship and its target passes within a 1 radius of the flight peg of a escorting ship performing Screening, the attacks are resolved against that escort instead or the original target. Escort are allowed to shoot their own CTM at enemy fighter in contact with the ship or unit they are escorting.

This is resolved as if the CTM was being fired by the escorted ship itself. If an escort uses its CTM this way, it cannot use it to also fire on enemy fighters in base contact with itself on the same turn. Each escort ship may freely choose any number of its CTM dice to lend to escorted ships, while keeping some to use on enemy fighters its itself in base contact with. Starships that are armed with weapons with the Mine trait may deploy them whenever they are activated during a Movement Phase, regardless of Thrust Mode.

Unlike other weapons, the Attack Dice AD for mines do not represent the number of mines that can be deployed per turn, but rather is the total number of mines that may be deployed each game.

A ship may deploy all of its AD in mines in one turn or may spread it over a number of turns, but may never exceed this number. Mines are deployed along the flight path of the ship. Simply place a token or die in any location between where the ship started that turn and where it finished its movement. A ship may deploy more than one mine in the same spot. Players should use dice or tokens of different colors, so as to differentiate them from those of their enemies.

After that, if the ship survives, it will finish its movement. When a mine with the Blast trait detonates, all units not just enemy units within its blast radius are caught in the explosion that is, take an automatic hit.

The damage inflicted by mines may be prevented by Shields. If players choose to do so, they should roll for Shields just as with any other weapon. CTM cannot be used to protect a ship from a mine once it explodes. Whenever a mine detonates, all mines both allied and enemy alike within its blast radius also detonate. Therefore, close-placed mines can really trigger a chain reaction.

In this situation, ships will take damage from every exploding mine within range, unless they save such damage with Shields. Note that since all the mines detonate at the same time, they are considered one source of fire and thus only one Shields roll can be made against all mine damage collectively.

After a mine explodes, remove its token from the game. Players may fire at any space mines deployed on the game board, in order to detonate them. This can only be done before a mine is triggered by enemy movement. For shooting purposes, treat mines as Signature 2 targets that can only be hit with a result 10 on a shooting roll. If they are hit, they explode in the same way as if a ship had moved into contact.

Both allied and enemy mines may be fired at in this way. Space Stations Space Stations are any space installations that lack the means of moving under their own power. Space stations are designed similarly to ships, but do not have any Propulsion, Pivoting Rating or Hyperdrive. As such, space stations do not move in the movement phase, and therefore are not activated in that phase.

In the Starship Attack phase, space stations activate as normal. Ships are allowed to dock at Space Stations. In order to dock a ship, the player must move it into base contact with the station under Low Thrust or Adrift mode. A ship can only dock at an allied or occupied station. Once a ship docks, it immediately changes its thrust mode to Adrift.

Docked ships are not allowed to fire any weapons. During the Starship Movement Phase, whenever a player wants to undock one of his ships, he may simply move it as if it were on Low Thrust. If it remains docked, the player can choose to have it pivot on the spot at facing any direction.

Additionally, it is able to make a Repair Roll for each damaged critical system in the End Phase, instead of only one system. No Space Station may have more hull points of docked ships than it has itself. For instance, a 20 hull point station could dock, say, 4 ships of hull size 5, each, or 2 ships of hull size Current hull points for the station and initial hull points that is, Hull Size for the ship are to be considered here.

A number of units, with a combined hull total of no more than a third of the fleets total hull points, may be placed aside, while the rest of the fleet is deployed normally. At the movement phase of each game turn after the first, whenever its a player turn to activate a unit, he may choose to try activating one of his units currently in reserve.

He then performs a Skill Check with the ship or squadron Quality Rating. If the test is a pass, the unit enters the game immediately. If the test is a fail, the arrival of that unit will be deferred by a number of turns equal to the difference the test failed by. The Destroyer has a Quality Rating 3 Good , and Mark rolls a 5 on the Skill Check, which means the arrival of the Destroyer will be deferred another 2 game turns, and will only be able to arrive on the 4 game turn.

Additionally, a unit whose arrival from reserve has been deferred by a failed Skill Check doesnt have to enter the game exactly on the turn it becomes available. The player may instead hold it in reserve for additional turns still, and whenever he wants it to arrive, he will be able to activate it and bring it from reserve automatically.

Escorts do not roll to enter from reserve. They enter the game on the same turn the escorted unit does. When a unit that is currently in reserve enters the game, the controller must deploy it on the table according to the type of entry chosen for that unit.

The type of entry is decided by the player prior to the start of the game, upon deployment. The arrival of reserves by moving onto the game board is done by placing each ship in the unit out of the game area, but with its flight peg in contact with it, and then moving them into the battlefield according to the chosen thrust mode.

As a general rule, the border the reserve units arrive from is that of their controller. However, a unit arriving from reserves by moving onto the game board may choose to Flank, instead.

This means that the unit will be able to enter from either of the 2 sides of the table that dont constitute deployment zones for either player. In order to do so, a unit is required to stay 1 extra turn in reserve in addition to those determined by its Skill Check. Units moving onto the game board may act normally receive.

The arrival by means of Hyperspace Jump follows the rules for deviation rolls, as explained below. These units do not move at all the turn they arrive, and they may not use any Special Orders the turn they arrive either. The controller chooses a thrust mode for them upon their arrival.

Units jumping from Hyperspace may attack normally that turn. Units in reserve are treated as if they were on the table for the purpose of determining total hull points still left in a fleet for determining if a Fleet Morale Check is required. The Deviation Roll works as follows: 1. Determine the exact intended entry point on the game board of the ship. Place the reserve unit there; 2.

Roll 1D10; 3. Subtract the units Quality Rating from the D10 roll. The result indicates the deviation distance from the intended entry point, and the facing of the die indicates the direction of deviation; 4. Results of 10 are treated as 0 zero on the Deviation roll. If the total, after Quality is subtracted, is zero or negative, then the unit arrives right on target i. He selects the exact place on the game board where he would like his ship to enter.

He indicates that location to the other player by placing the arriving unit there, and then performs a Deviation Roll. The result of the D10 is 7, and the direction is indicated below by the orange arrow, according to the D10s facing:. As his ship has a Quality Rating Good 3 , he must subtract that number from the D10 result. The exact spot the ship is going to enter is 4 away from the intended location, in the direction shown by the upper edge of the die.

The ships heading may be freely determined by the controller. However, it must be selected before the Deviation Roll. Ships in a squadron jump out of the Hyperspace together. Whenever they do so, the Deviation Roll is performed for the squadron as a whole. In such occasions the player must determine the exact position and location for each ship, by placing them all on the table.

He should then pick one of the ships to be the reference point for the Deviation roll. PAX STELLARUM In case of escorts, their position is also determined in relation to the escorted unit prior to the deviation roll, and it will deviate together with the escorted unit it wont perform a deviation roll for itself. If the actual entry point of any ship in a unit places it in a collision situation with rough terrain, make a terrain attack roll against that ship. The number of D10 to be rolled for its hits is going to be exactly 2, as no distance was covered through the terrain.

If any ship in the unit jumps into Impassable terrain, its automatically destroyed. If the actual entry point of a ship places it in the same spot as another ship, then both must be arranged so that they may be placed adjacent to each other.

This is done by both units being relocated the minimum distance necessary to create space for both of them, as near their original spots as possible. If the actual entry point places any ship in the unit outside the game board, then there has been a navigational error and the whole unit does not arrive that turn.

It may enter on next turn, performing a new deviation roll. Fighters Fighters are small attack craft that are carried into battle on carriers. Fighters are grouped into Flights. Each flight consists of 6 fighters. Each flight is represented by a single model or token. This can be something elaborate like a hex base with a spider stand with 6 individual fighter miniatures or simply a plastic counter. All measurements to and from fighters should be measured from the edge of their base, as the fighter miniature may not have a peg or have multiple pegs.

Fighter flights are assumed to be at full strength unless they have a die beside them. As a fighter flight loses members, place a die beside them indicating how many fighters are left in the flight. Fighters are classified as Light or Heavy. Light Fighters are fit for the roll of Interceptors, because they are small, fast fighters, efficient at dogfighting.

Heavy Fighters, on the other hand, are designed to attack capital ships with considerable fire power, and thus usually perform the roll of bombers. Fighters only operate as flights, never individually unless a fighter becomes the only one remaining in its flight. Fighter flights cannot form squadrons with other Fighter flights. Fighter Flights are considered to be part of the weaponry of each ship or space station, and so share some of the stats weapons possess.

Stats in white are default, stats in green are optional, and may be upgraded to the limit shown in red. On the ship display, the number of attack dice indicates the number of fighter flights of that type.

Every Fighter flight must be assigned to one ship or space station that has capacity to transport it. As each flight occupies 1 Hangar, the number of Hangars on a model determines the limit of flights it can carry. At the start of the game, each Fighter flight has 2 payload counters on it. Each time they attack, they lose one payload counter including CTM, see below. When all of a fighter flights payload counters are gone, it may not attack again until it has returned to its base and rearmed.

Fighters may be upgraded with a trait called Extra Payload. These Fighter flights have 3 payload counters at the start of the game and when reloaded. All fighter flights that are on board their base during the End Phase of any turn will be rearmed i. If a carrier has a critical hit on its bridge, no fighters will be able to take off or land until the bridge damage is successfully repaired see topic Critical Hits.

Use 4 colors of D6s. Use the color to represent a certain payload level e. All flights based on the same carrier are moved at the same time, as if they were part of a single squadron, before the initiative is passed to the opposite player.

That doesnt mean such flights should move as squadrons that is, keep any formation distance. They are still independent units, moving simultaneously only to speed up game play. Activating a fighter Flight in this phase may consist of: Launching it and then moving it, if the flight is onboard its carrier; Moving it, if the flight is already on the game board; Moving it and then landing it back on base, if the flight is already on the game board and is to be brought back to rearm.

Fighters begin the game onboard their carriers. Thus, a carrier with 5 Hangars and only 2 launch bays is only able to launch 2 flights per turn. The number of Launch Bays a ship has is indicated under Specials on the ship display. Upon being launched, the flight will be deployed on the game board at base contact with its carrier.

The flights that leave the ship must be placed at base contact with the carrier in that specific arc. No ship may use launch bays and fire weapons through the same fire arc on the same turn. Fighters can move a number of inches, during the fighter movement phase, equal to their Range in inches.

Fighters may only move up to half their range on the turn theyre launched. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Pax Stellarum. Edit source History Talk 0. Categories Science Fiction Spaceship Add category. Cancel Save. Universal Conquest Wiki.