I've updated the website:
homepage.mac.com/cheethorne/sfb/Updates this time around:
November 24, 2008
Rules v7:
* Modified 2.5.8 - Tholians can now purchase Small Asteroids, which are only useful as Web Anchors around bases and planets.
* Added 2.7.3 - Players can now build Legendary Traders which double a base's supply range and provide a small increase in provincial income where they are located.
* Modified 3.6.7.1 - Legendary Weapon Officers now provide a bonus to a ship's razing potential.
* Modified 4.3 - A Legendary Engineer increases a ship's operational movement points, but the ship is still limited to moving one hex per impulse, and clarified that all ships can always move at least one hex per turn.
* Modified 5.3 - The Civilian Exploration Service must use a supply chain that includes an inhabited planet first.
* Modified 6.2.5 - Legendary Captains can attempt a Strategic Bluff to prevent combat where they are located.
* Modified 6.8.17.2 - Detailed how many web hexes and at what web strength a Tholian base and/or planet can begin a battle.
* Modified 8.2.1 - The presence of Legendary Ground Forces Officer increases the number of units that can defend a planet.
I have also finished an update to the Off-Map Resource Zone rules that I would like to add to the rules for this campaign. They are as follows:
5.4 - OFF-MAP RESOURCE ZONE
* Although players fight over the hexes in the galactic map, each player can send ships to an off-map resource zone where new races and planets can be found and exploited.
* The exact location of the off-map resources is unimportant, as is the path each player takes to reach the off-map resourse zone.
5.4.1 - EXPLORING THE ZONE
* Survey ships can be sent into the off-map resource zone to explore it to find resources to return to their owner's empire.
* At the beginning of each Economics Phase, a player can send any number of survey ships in the capital hex into the off-map resource zone. When sent these ships disappear from the map and reach the zone at the end of the turn.
* At the beginning of each Economics Phase, a player can also bring any number of ships from the off-map zone back to the capital hex and they arrive at the end of the turn.
* At the beginning of each Economics Phase, roll 1D6 for each survey ship in the Off-Map Resource Zone and keep a total of all rolls, these are known as exploration points. These points can be used to develop the zone to provide a player with additional income and supplies.
* Civilian survey ships generate only 1 exploration point per turn.
* A size-4 military survey ship takes a penalty of -1 on its exploration point roll, with a minimum result of 1 point per turn.
* A survey ship with a Legendary Science Officer geneates +1 exploration point per turn.
* Players cannot trade or exchange the exploration points they have accumulated, nor can they assist each other in generating exploration points.
* Each player is considered to have a separate off-map resource zone that is too big to allow for combat between ships.
* Once per turn, a size-3 military survey ship can forgo the exploration point roll and instead conduct a high risk exploration mission. If it does so, roll on the following table:
o 1 = Major trade profit of 50 CPV
o 2 = Major trade profit of 25 CPV
o 3-4 = Ship finds nothing
o 5 = Ship badly damaged! This ship performs no action next turn.
o 6 = Ship destroyed!
5.4.2 - DEVELOPING THE ZONE
* As a player accumulates exploration points, he can spend those points to develop the off-map resource zone to produce income. This develop consumes exploration points.
* A development is purchased during the Economics Phase and does not take appear until the end of the turn.
* All income generated in the off-map resource zone appears in the player's capital hex.
5.4.2.1 - Province
* This development costs 50 exploraion points.
* The player has found enough small resource sites and has established a small number of supply points to create a province.
* The province produces 15 CPV per turn.
5.4.2.2 - Minor Infrastructure
* This development costs 100 exploraion points and a player can only control three of these at any one time.
* The player has found a small, habitable world to use as a staging area in the off-map resource zone, generating income and useful supplies for the rest of the empire.
* A Minor Infrastructure produces 10 CPV per turn and counts as a small inhabited and integrated planet for any rule that counts the number of such planets controlled by the player.
5.4.2.3 - Major Infrastructure
* This development costs 150 exploraion points and a player can only control two of these at any one time. Alternatively, a player could upgrade a Minor Infrastructure to a Major Infrastructure at a cost of only 100 exploration points.
* The player has found a large, habitable world to use as an important staging area in the off-map resource zone, generating income and useful supplies for the rest of the empire.
* A Major Infrastructure produces 20 CPV per turn and counts as a major inhabited and integrated planet for any rule that counts the number of such planets controlled by the player.
5.4.2.4 - Second Home-World
* This development costs 250 exploraion points and a player can only control one of these at any one time. Alternatively, a player could upgrade a Major Infrastructure to a Second Home-World at a cost of only 100 exploration points.
* The player has decided to establish a second home-world in the off-map resource zone, generating income and useful supplies for the rest of the empire.
* The Second-Home World produces 40 CPV per turn and counts as a primary inhabited and integrated planet for any rule that counts the number of such planets controlled by the player except for the number of size-2 ships a player can support.
The off-map resource zone rules allows players to continue to expand their economies even after the map becomes full, but the development is still slow enough that players would look at it as an alternative to exploring claiming on-map resources (especially since the infrastructure is limited).
In the original version of the rules, The infrastructure also provided some ship building support, but it proved just too generous to properly balance.
What do you guys think?
