Number of Sides: 2
Number of Players: Up to 12 per side. One player is required for each ship and its ATUs, if any.
Map: 50 x 50 hex rectangular map surrounded by a tournament barrier
Initial Setup: One team will set up within 10 hexes of the 01xx column, the
other within 10 hexes of the 50xx column. All ships will be at Weapon Status
III, with the exception that all fighters, Interceptors, and PFs can be already
launched, at max speed, and ready to fire or launch. Shuttles
(including MRS) cannot be deployed prior to 1.01.
Officers and Crew: Each side will receive one of each type of legendary officer except Captain, and one good crew. All ATUs will roll for pilot quality.
Victory Conditions: Standard victory conditions will be used.
Full SFB non-optional rules including full EW. (NOTE: This means no hidden mines).
EXTRA-FOGGY TAC INTEL: Tac Intel will be used for the purpose of determining enemy ship classes only. D17 TacIntel Ranges will be halved.
COMMS: We will use the FOG 6 communication rules.
WEB RULES: Webcasters only work in Fist Mode. All Tholian units in a fleet are considered one race for the purposes of laying, reinforcing, flying through or firing through web.
T-BOMB RULE: No more than one T-bomb can explode in any hex on any impulse. Which one explodes will be determined by the Movement Order of Precedence.
SCATRERPACK RULE: Ships in the DRONE Food Group can have one shuttle rigged to be used as a scatterpack. It can be loaded at the beginning of the game. Only that one specific shuttle can be used as a scatterpack.
COMMAND LIMITS: Fleet size and composition will not be limited by the S8.2 command limits. Instead, there will be one ship per player, not restricted by the command limits on the flagship.
FOOD GROUPS: For many aspects of Fog 6, racial Food Groups will be used. The Food Groups are:
· DRONE: Klingon, Kzinti, and the WYN Fish ships.
· PLASMA: Romulan, Gorn, ISC
· CRUNCH: Federation, Hydran, and photon-armed Tholians
· DANCE: Lyran, Seltorian, and disruptor-armed Tholians including the 312th. (See Rules In Force for webcaster rules.)
These food groups apply to a 24-player game. If
there are less than 24 players, this chart will be modified to combine the Tholians
into one race (in the Crunch group). Ship assignments will be three from each
of the first three food groups, the remainder from the Dance group.
PLAYER PREFERENCES: At sign-up, each player will send the moderator the following information:
· One race from each food group that they prefer to play.
· Two races, from different food groups, that they do not want to play.
· If they want to be or are willing to be an Admiral.
· If they want to be or are willing to be a Squadron Commander.
· If they want to be or are willing to be a fleet scout ship.
ADMIRAL SELECTION: After player preferences are received, all who want to be Admiral (and those who are willing to be Admiral if there are not enough Admiral candidates) will submit a ‘Campaign Speech’ to the Moderator outlining how they intend to operate as Admiral. The Admiral may not mention specific races they prefer, specific BPV bucket sizes they plan to use, or their own personal history. The speech should focus on command style, victory plan, use of comms to support effective play, and other items not related to ship allocation. These campaign speeches will be delivered to the players and they will rank them in order of preference. The top two candidates will receive the positions, and players will be divided into two fleets based on their Admiral selection. Players will not, at this time, be informed of which Admiral they were assigned to.
BPV BUCKETS: Each Admiral will take the total BPV for their side (165 *
Number of players) and divide it into a number of slices of varying sizes.
These are referred to as BPV Buckets. No bucket can be more than 300 points or
less than 100 points. The Admiral can choose which of the buckets he retains.
The rest are randomly assigned to the other players on the team. The Admiral will
also give the moderator guidelines to use in resolving conflicts in the ship
selection process. (Should too many captains be designing specific types of
units, which should be allowed to continue and which should be told to change.) The nod can either go to a given race, in order, or
to the player with a certain bucket size (largest, smallest, closest
to X). In the case of the BPV criteria, race will be used as a tie-breaker.)
The Admiral will also tell the Moderator either a racial or BPV-based decision
criteria for choosing a fleet Scout Ship. (If there
are less than 12 players, the Admiral may opt at this time not to have a scout
ship. If that is the case, no player will be assigned to build one.)
RACE SELECTION: Once buckets are chosen and randomly assigned to the Captains, the Moderator will select a race for each captain. The criteria for this selection process are:
· No one is playing a ship on their non-preferred list.
· One person who agreed to be a Squadron Commander is in each Food Group.
· As many players as possible are playing a preferred race.
· BPV is spread evenly among the food groups.
The player selected as the scout will be told, as will potential squadron commanders, so that they may design their ships appropriately.
SHIP SELECTION: Once each player is given his Race and BPV Bucket size, he
will design a ship, including all mods, refits, drone
options, and
Since players will not be aware of what their teammates are designing, enforcing fleetwide restrictions will fall to the Moderator. However, certain selection rules will be enforced, as follows:
S8
LIMITATIONS AS APPLIED TO FOG 6
All S8 restrictions will be adhered to except as modified here. For a complete list of the S8 rules, check the ADB S8 PDF. Any rule not mentioned here is assumed to be in force as written. In any contradiction between the official S8 rules and these modifications, these modifications are considered correct.
(S8.1) Units will be purchased for their combat BPV. Ship, mods, refits, drone options, drone speeds, COs, and all other items related to the BPV value of the ship must fall within the allocated BPV bucket size. By (G24.35) Scouts will use their Economic BPV instead of combat BPV.
(S8.12)
Commander’s Options are purchased from the Bucket BPV, not from any additional
percentage. Still, the BPV cost for
(S8.13) Scenario date - Each ship will be designed to fit a given year in which it existed. All refits, munitions and attrition units on that ship must be of the same year. The year in effect is selected for each ship independently of the year for any other ship. The year in effect and configuration (fighters, drones etc) for a ship MUST be one in which it historically existed as shown in the ship description. Refits are assumed to have been applied to all ships of a class after 7 years of its availability.
(S8.14) Races – There will be one and only one ship of any race, using the races listed above under Food Groups. The exception is the Tholians, who will bring one disruptor-armed and one photon-armed ship. Tholian ships with no heavy weapons qualify as either.
(S8.15) Terrian will be an open map 50x50 hexes.
(S8.16) Rules – See the Rules In Force section above.
(S8.17) Ships per player – There will be one ship per player. That player will handle the ship and all of its attached ATUs, if any.
(S8.18) Ship Modifications – No ship modifications are allowed.
(S8.2) Command Limits – There will be one ship per player regardless of the Command Rating of the flagship. All ships are considered to be operating outside their own territory.
(S8.23) Attrition units do not use up control channels regardless of whether they are casual or from a carrier / PFT.
(S8.24) Command Points are not used.
(S8.26) Off-Map Drone Bombardment – This is not allowed.
(S8.27) Bases are not allowed.
(S8.31) Carriers and Escorts - As there will be only one ship of each race, carriers requiring escorts are not allowed. Fighters cannot be installed on any ship that did not routinely carry them. All true carriers (marked with a V in the MSC) must bring fighters to fill at least 3/4ths of their fighter bays (rounded up). Escorts are not allowed.
(S8.316) Survey ships may carry fighters up to the limits in the ship description. If a fully-loaded survey ship is considered a carrier (V designation in the MSC) and that carrier requires escorts, the ship is not allowed. If the carrier version of a survey ship does not require escorts, a full load is allowed. Survey ships used as casual carriers cannot carry more than 4 fighters.
(S8.32)
Fighter and PF limits - The number of fighters, interceptors, and PFs allowed
will be limited by the Moderator. No ship may bring more than 2 casual PFs or
interceptors. Fighters, interceptors, and PFs cannot come into the game without
a carrier. PFs are limited to standard, Assault, and Phaser versions. PF Leaders, scouts, Fi-con,
drone, escort, minesweeping, and Cargo versions are not allowed. Starhawks can carry A and B modules. Multi-Role Needles can
carry A, B, and J modules.
(S8.33) Heavy Ships - There can be only one Size Class 2 ship in the fleet. In addition, there can be only one BCH in the fleet. This limit will be enforced by the moderator.
(S8.34) PF Tenders - These ships are not allowed. Exception: Lyran PFTs can be used, but have no requirement to carry any specific number of PFs/Ints.
(S8.35)
Scouts – If there are 12 players, one player on
each side will be designated as the Scout player. Only true scouts, survey
ships, and HDWs in Exporation
mode (G33.41) can take this position. (Exception – Lyran PFTs.) Frigate leaders with special sensors are not allowed as the
fleet scout. PFTs are not allowed in this
game, and drone bombardment units are considered fleet elements, not scouts. If there are less than 12 players, the Admiral can
determine if he would like to forego the scout, in which case, no player will
be required to bring one.
(S8.36) Leaders – These restrictions will not be enforced, in order to give players maximum flexibility in meeting BPV totals.
(S8.41) Conjectural Ships (Marked CJ) – These ships are not allowed. (Exception: The WYN DN is allowed.)
(S8.42) Stasis Field Ships – These are not allowed.
(S8.43) Maulers (Marked M) – No SC2 maulers are allowed.
(S8.44)
Limited Production and Unique Ships – No ships marked
Unique (LPU, RPU, UNQ), unbuilt variants (UNV), or
described as prototypes, are allowed. Exceptions: Unique SC2 units are allowed.
All Ships of the Tholian 312th, Seltorian
Tribunal, and WYN Fish Ships that are not otherwise restricted are allowed.
Tholian units that were converted to Photon technology are a
special exception. Photon versions of Tholian ships
are under the same restrictions as their disruptor-armed counterparts.
(S8.45) Minesweepers – These are not allowed.
(S8.46) Tugs – Only one tug will be allowed per side. This limit will be enforced by the Moderator. PFT and Carrier pods are not allowed.
(S8.47) Drone bombardment ships – These can only be purchased by ships in the Drone Food Group. Only one will be allowed by the Moderator. No ship outside the Drone Food Group can have more drone racks than it has of its race’s most usual heavy weapon. Special Sensors count as heavy weapons for this calculation.
(S8.48) X Ships – These are not allowed.
(S8.49) Heavy War Destroyers – It takes only six spaces of fighters for an HDW to be considered a carrier (G33.42) and thus require an escort, which would make the ship invalid for this game. Escort, PF Tender, and Minesweeper versions are not allowed.
(S8.5) Limited Duty Ships – These are not allowed except for Police Ships.
(S8.56) Captured and Converted Ships (Marked CP) – These are not allowed.
Other rules on unit selection:
LEGENDARY OFFICERS: One Legendary Officer of each type will be assigned semi-randomly to a ship in each fleet. (Semi-randomly means that Legendary Weapons Officers will not be assigned to ships with no heavy weapons, nor to ships with six Photon torps.) One ship will receive a quality crew. All ATUs will be assigned pilot quality. Benefits of legendary officers apply to the ships only, not to their ATUs.
PETTY CASH: Any unused BPV, up to a max of 5 times the number of ships, can be returned to the Admiral for use in last-minute upgrades. These take place after the team has joined the BBS and their fleet composition is known. Petty cash cannot be used to exchange one ship for another, but can be used to apply a refit, add new drone modifications, increase drone speeds, add special shuttles, add fighters to a ship that came in with less than a full load, apply megapack refits to a fighter, or buy other Commander’s Options. There can be no substitutions of one item for another, only additions. For example, if a ship with 4 A-racks gets an upgrade to 2 B racks and 2 C racks, the two C racks will be loaded with their original drones and four of the slots in each B rack will be loaded with its original loadout. Standard drones (Types I and IV) can be modified, but any drone that has already been modified cannot be changed. If a ship comes in with six Stinger-Fs, they cannot be exchanged for Stinger-2s.
ADDITIONAL RULES ON PETTY CASH USE:
1) Petty cash can ALWAYS be used
to upgrade drone speed, regardless of any other restriction.
2) Petty cash CANNOT be used to modify the payload of any drone that has
already received a payload modification (FD10.4).
3) Modifications that cost no points should be made by the Captains. Admirals
can only use petty cash to BUY things. Free exchanges are not covered by petty
cash.
4) Petty cash can be used to add ATG to a drone, or to convert a Type-I to a
Type-III, but cannot be used to convert a Type-III to a Type-III-XX, since
doing so makes the drone two-space.
5) Exchanges of Type-I drones for Type-IVs should be made by the Captains.
6) Use of Petty cash CAN create a ship that exceeds the bucket total assigned
to that captain.
7) Use of Petty cash CANNOT create a ship that exceeds legal limits of drone
percentages or commander's options.
8) If Petty cash is used to add a refit to a ship, it can also be used to make
modifications to drones and COs based on the new BPV of the ship. But any drone
mods or COs previously purchased cannot be removed to
make room for new ones.
These comments explain the history of the development of Fog scenarios and why we have created this one as it is.
As Fog of War #1 was winding down a group of players of that game were invited to discuss the next Fog of War scenario based on their experience. What worked, what didn't and how to fix it was discussed and this scenario and the Fog of War #2 rules grew out of those discussions (as well as other discussions on the Fog of War egroups list and the Fog of War thread at ADB's discussion board).
The most significant decisions revolved around what races to allow and how to apportion them to each side. Fog of War #1 was an Alliance vs Coalition battle, with a dynamic which forced the Coalition to adopt a majority Klingon fleet in order to be flexible enough to battle any of the possible Alliance fleets. It was decided to avoid such a Rock-Paper-Scissors dynamic in Fog of War #2. The moderator also wished to limit ATUs (fighters and drones) to preserve his sanity.
Fog 2 allowed each side to choose from any race, and thus there was a lot of duplication. Though each side was unique in its composition and had a different attack rationale, both sides ended up with many of the same races, and many other races went unrepresented. Though the fleets were not literal cookie-cutter copies of one another, the fact that both had the many of the same ships was deemed boring.
Fog 3 was a published Gorn vs Romulan scenario, and thus had little impact on the rules.
Fog 4 was an attempt to solve the problem of similar fleets that grew out of Fog 2. In this game, each team submitted sealed bids for which races they preferred, in order, and the races were assigned by order of preference. This resulted, by chance, in a racial divide that placed all the drone-using races on one side and most heavy direct-fire races on their other, and the game would have become a textbook exercise in drone defense had it continued. The moderator had also placed no restrictions on ATUs or drone launch potential, and gave too wide a latitude in ship selection. The fleets were found to be excessively abusive, and this game was ended after 24 impulses.
Fog 4.5 immediately started, with all the Fog 4 players. In this game, teams chose races in a playground-style selection that divided the races more evenly by technology type. More restrictions were placed on ATU selection, ship selection, and drone launch capacity. The game lasted 5 turns despite a general feeling that one fleet was still overpowering in its ability to launch drones and plasma.
Fog 5 added a new wrinkle – four independent squadrons instead of two fleets, each coming onto the board at the four compass points of a 49x49 map. Pairs of squadrons were allied, but squadrons could not identify their allies until range 11 or so. Races were divided by a playground vote, but two races could be chosen twice, and by the same squadron. Thus, one squadron was totally Federation while all others were divided up. The initial starting positions made a two-on-one sandwich (two allied squadrons double-teaming one squadron of the other side) likely, and that is exactly what happened by the end of Turn 2. Game over.
Thus, Fog 6 draws upon nearly a decade of Fog experience. It addresses one basic issue: that many games were won and lost in fleet design (a 2-month effort at the beginning of the game) instead of in game play (a two-year effort). In Fog 1, 4, and 4.5, fleet design and the ability to min-max the ships and options purchased throughout the fleet were seen as decisive factors in the eventual victory. By requiring Captains to design their ships in isolation, this will be highly unlikely to recur. Limits on ship types, random allocation of BPV points to players and races, all serve to encourage a game where fleet design is of less value, actual play of paramount importance. Also, by requiring one and only one ship from each race, we avoid a concentration of BPV into a single technology, making fleets that are more truly balanced.
The small fixed map is a concession to the PBEM nature of the game. It encourages combat and engagement rather than the swapping of range 30 photon salvos - leading to a quicker end. Even so the game is expected to last over 2 years.
Most of the other rules are to exclude items or ships which don't work well with 4 impulse breaks (SFG's, webcasters, Andromedans, stacks of T-bombs), reduce moderator workload (visible mines), or just because they are fun (Extra foggy tacint).
Page maintained by Jim 'Vandal' Hart Last Updated 19 October 2007