Starship Combat in N.E.W. - a Tutorial

 What follows is a detailed account of the encounter that I played recently for my The Ace of Spades Campaign featuring a short battle between The Ace of Spades scout ship and The Polecat pirate patrol ship. I'm posting this to show how starship combat works in the N.E.W. RPG... and because I was asked to. 😊 There are two ways of conducting starship combat in N.E.W., just as there are two ways of running ground-based combat. They are Theatre of the Mind or Tactical Combat. Whilst starship combat can be played out on a hex map with positions and movements carefully plotted, Theatre of the Mind can result in faster, more cinematic, albeit less tactical, starship combats. Theatre of the Mind and Tactical Combat are fundamentally very similar, with one major difference; movement and positioning are described narratively in the former rather than being based on the position of a miniature on a hex map. What I'll be describing here is Tactical Combat. Tactical Combat is especially useful if there are many ships involved, as their relative positions can be clearly seen.
A hex on a star map represents 1 kilometre. The movement phase has the pilot move the vessel a number of hexes up to its SPEED (as indicated in its stat block) on the map. Ships can accelerate or decelerate a number of hexes up to to the ship's SPEED stat. Turning one hex side  counts as one hex of movement. However, for a more realistic approach, you can use the optional Newtonian Movement rules, which is what I did. At first glance they look complicated but actually they're pretty simple to use. I'll explain it fully when it crops in the gameplay example.
The round structure for Newtonian Movement differs slightly to that of regular movement in that all movement occurs simultaneously, followed by all actions. The Newtonian round looks like this -

1. All ships make INITIATIVE checks.
2. All ships move in reverse INITIATIVE order (from lowest to highest starting with the ship that lost). 
3. All ships take actions in forward INITIATIVE order (from highest to lowest starting with the ship that won)
4. Return to Step 1.

The sequence creates more realistic movement, but allows ships which win INITIATIVE to make tactical movement decisions based on what they see their opponents doing. The movement takes place simultaneously but is resolved in reverse order to give an informational advantage to faster ships.
TURN 1

This turn was essentially a free turn for the pirates on The Polecat. I was working on the assumption that the crew of The Ace of Spades thought the unknown ship was not a threat when Lynda picked it up on her sensor scan, even though it was approaching them.
So, Mors Katajak, the captain of The Polecat had his gunner fire a Flamespear Photonic Torpedo at The Ace of Spades. The range was 16 hexes, which was not good for the pirates as a Flamespear only has a range increment of 4 hexes. For each range increment beyond the first it suffered a -1d6 to hit penalty and so it would incur a -3d6 penalty. The gunner had a combined Logic and Gunnery skill score of 4d6. To this he added +1d6 because of the weapon's stat bonus and a further +1d6 because he was firing a forward arc facing weapon. He also added a further +1d6 from his LUCK pool to give him a total of 7d6. However, this was reduced to 4d6 because of the -3d6 range penalty. The Ace of Spades had a Defence score of 22, so he needed to roll 22 or better on 4d6. It was possible but he only rolled a 14 so he missed. Missiles and Torpedoes move 10 hexes per turn and if they fail to reach their target in two turns they automatically miss. This missile couldn't have hit The Ace of Spades this turn because of the range, but it could have hit next turn if he'd rolled better.
As soon as the Photonic Torpedo was fired at The Ace of Spades, the crew knew they were dealing with a hostile ship and so reacted accordingly next turn.
TURN 2

Both pilots rolled for INITIATIVE. Mors rolled a 19 on 5d6 but Storm Galloway rolled a 32 on 8d6. The Polecat would move first. It maintained its SPEED of 6 and closed the range to 10 hexes.
This is where I made my one mistake of the combat. I should have moved The Ace of Spades next but instead I made the actions for the The Polecat. I forgot that both ships moved simultaneously. To be fair, it made no difference to the overall outcome. Seeing as this was my very first starship combat I think I did well to just make this one slip up.
A starship can have as many actions as its CLASS or the number of player characters on board, whichever is highest. The Polecat was a Class III patrol ship with no PCs on board so was limited to 3 actions. Mors and one crew member attempted to spot where The Ace of Spades was in order to give their gunner a better chance to hit. A spotter makes a Perception check against the Defence of the target ship and if successful, all allies on board gain a +1d6 bonus to hit that target until the start of the spotter's next turn. Both men had Perception scores of 4d6 and both failed to score a 22 or better. They rolled 14 and 16.

The pirate gunner fired a second Flamespear Photonic Torpedo, this time at range 10 hexes, which gave him a -2d6 penalty for the range increments. As before, he added +1d6 for the weapon stat, +1d6 for the forward firing arc and +1d6 from his LUCK pool, which gave him 5d6 to score 22 or better. He rolled a 17, so he missed again.

The Ace of Spades had a SPEED score of 9 but was only moving at SPEED 5, so could move 5 hexes this turn. However, Storm wanted to position the ship so that she was facing The Polecat. This would mean turning two hex sides so she was pointing in the right direction. This brings us to how Newtonian Movement works. Instead of each hex side turned counting as one hex of movement, the turning circle is calculated using the following formula - SPEED x CLASS divided by 10 (you just multiply the two and then use the first digit, in other words, ignore any fractions). The Ace of Spades was moving at SPEED 5 and was a CLASS IV ship so 5 times 4 equals 20, divided by 10 equals 2. It had to move 2 hexes before turning one hex side. So it moved 2 hexes forward, turned to the right one hex side, moved forward 2 hexes, turned to the right one hex side again and then moved forward 1 hex. Note that in Newtonian Movement the actual turning is free. Also note that a ship at SPEED 0 can still rotate one hex side for free.

Now the crew of The Ace of Spades got to make one action each in order of INITIATIVE from highest to lowest. With a crew of 10, I could take 10 separate actions. Yes, that is a lot! Although it had a crew of 13, only 10 could be actively on duty at any one time. I decided that Danica, Katja and Rebecca would be off duty at this time. They were more suited to ground-based actions. These were the results of the INITIATIVE rolls I made listed from highest to lowest - Storm on 32, Kimberley on 21, Julia on 20, Sharuna on 19, Celeste and Jeanette on 18, Kyran on 15, Lynda on 13, Gwendoline on 12 and Judith on 10. Any character can do anything on their INITIATIVE turn. They can fire a weapon, use sensors, do some engineering, perform medical aid, etc. The only restriction is that any given system (such as a weapon) can only be used once.
Storm used her Evasive Flying exploit, which granted her a Defence bonus equal to her AGI attribute dice pool to The Ace of Spades. This was 3d6, so she increased the ship's Defence from 22 to 25. Note that ship movement is essentially free - it does not constitute the pilot's action for that turn. So using her exploit in that way was an excellent choice.
Kimberley decide to use her action as a spotter for her two gunners, Celeste and Jeanette. She had a Perception score of 4d6 but decided to add +2d6 from her LUCK pool so that she was rolling 6d6 against The Polecat's Defence score of 22. She rolled a 22, exactly what was needed! Celeste and Jeanette would receive a +1d6 bonus to hit the pirate vessel this turn.
Julia should have gone next but there was nothing I could think of for her to do, so she did nothing. If Kimberley had failed on her spotter roll, I'd have had Julia make an attempt to spot The Polecat.
Sharuna used her action to make an electronic attack against the pirates and she targetted their forward shields, hoping to reduce them to make it easier to damage them. She had to make a LOG check against the target's Electronic Defence, which was only 16. Compare that to The Ace of Spades which had an Electronic Defence of 32. Sharuna had a LOG score of 4d6. To this she added +1d6 for the Luxury rating of The Ace of Spades plus +1d6 for her White Hat exploit to give her 6d6. She rolled a 27. This easily beat the score of 16 required to hit but was not a critical hit. I ruled that she did enough damage to reduce The Polecat's shields by 1d6 (I rolled a 3), dropping it from SOAK:7 to SOAK:4. This would prove to be decisive when Jeanette went next.
Celeste and Jeanette both rolled an 18 for their INITIATIVE. Technically, Celeste should have acted before Jeanette because in a tie, the person with the highest AGI attribute goes first. Celeste had an AGI attribute of 10, whereas Jeanette's was only 6. However, Kimberley ordered that Jeanette fire first. Guns use the INT dice pool plus Gunnery skill to hit, whereas missiles use the LOG dice pool plus Gunnery skill. Jeanette had dice pools of 3d6 in both, so started with 6d6. To this she added +1d6 for the Redsword Phaser Beam stats, +1d6 for firing a forward arc weapon, +1d6 for the ship's Luxury rating and +1d6 for the spotter bonus from Kimberley. The range to The Polecat was 7 hexes, which put it at short range for this weapon. So there was no penalty for the range increment. She rolled 10d6 against The Polecat's Defence of 22 and scored a 36 - a critical hit with three sixes. The Redsword did 5d6 heat damage and I rolled a 22. From this, The Polecat was able to SOAK 4 for its forward shields but the 18 that penetrated was exactly enough to reduce its Superstructure score of 18 to 0. That would have dire consequences, as we will see. In addition, it also suffered 1d6 casualties. I rolled a 5 and split them as 2 crew dead and 3 troopers dead. Plus, I rolled a critical hit. Using the rules from the Starship Combat FAQ document, I rolled 3d6 to determine the effect of the critical hit. I rolled a 10, which resulted in a Helm hit, meaning that The Polecat could not turn any more.
Celeste did not act this turn. Celeste would have fired a missile at The Polecat if Kimberley hadn't ordered her to hold fire.
Kyran increased the power of the forward shields of The Ace of Spades from 9 to 11 by using her Reinforce Shield exploit.
Lynda made a sensor scan to determine the effects of the damage The Polecat suffered. This was a LOG check plus Computers skill, which gave her 6d6, plus +1d6 for the sensors stats, plus +1d6 for the Luxury rating of The Ace of Spades for a total of 8d6. I rolled a 27 for her, which succeeded. She relayed the damage report to Kimberley.
Gwendoline and Judith stood by, ready to treat any casualties The Ace of Spades may have suffered. Fortunately their services were not required.

A ship reduced to 0 Superstructure must start a fast (4-6) countdown from a dice pool equal to its CLASS, after which it explodes, killing everybody on board. The time taken by the countdown period can be used to evacuate the ship. The Polecat, being a Class III patrol ship had a dice pool of 3d6. For every 4, 5 or 6 rolled, it would lose 1d6 from its dice pool. Once the dice pool reached 0, the ship would explode. On this turn I rolled 5, 4 and 1. That was bad news for the pirates! On the next turn, its dice pool would only be 1d6.
TURN 3.
I didn't bother rolling INITIATIVE this turn as there was nothing The Polecat could do. It was dead. It came to a full stop and so did The Ace of Spades. I gave the remaining crew of the pirate vessel a chance to get away via the ship's escape pods. I had each person make a LUCK Routine (10) roll on 3d6 to see if they reached an escape pod this turn. Two crew members and four troopers succeeded. Mors Katajak, the pirate captain, was one of the five people who failed to reach an escape pod. For the countdown check I rolled a 6, which reduced the dice pool down to zero. The Polecat exploded doing damage equal to the power of all of its engines. This was 18 for its subluminal Ion engine and 16 for its hyperdrive engine for a total of 34. The damage was reduced by 50% for each hex of distance from the centre of the explosion - thus 17 at 1 hex range, 8 at 2 hexes range, 4 at 3 hexes range, 2 at 4 hexes range and 1 at 5 hexes range. The Ace of Spades was 7 hexes away so suffered no damage from the explosion.
That ended the combat. For me, this was very much a learning experience. I don't know why, but I have always avoided starship combat in previous sci-fi role-playing games. This time, however, I knew I wanted to include it as part of my campaign. The rules really appealed to me as soon as I'd read them and so I was keen to try them out as soon as possible. Yes, this was a very one-sided fight as The Polecat was totally outclassed by The Ace of Spades. I accept that, but that was how it was written in the scenario. The PCs were supposed to win, otherwise it would have been a very short scenario. But for an introduction to starship combat it served its purpose extremely well and above all, it whetted my appetite for more.