Third Draft, Playtested Solitaire
Scout-1: Salvage on Sharmun (adapted from Best of JTAS Vol 1). The balkanized planet of Sharmun is on the verge of a nuclear war between its two major powers -- a soviet-style "Collective" and a charismatic dictator known as "The Victor". Judging that Imperial Interference would prove the catalist to such a war, the Imperium has posted the system "Red" and Interdicted the planet. However, in the 25 years since Interdictoin, both powers have risen to Tech Level 7, and both have colonized Sharmun's closest planets. When the Scout Ship Intrepid jumps in-system in an attempt to salvage a lost Imperial cargo, it unwittingly passes too close to one of the colonies and attracts "The Victor's" attention. The Colony immediately assumes the Scout is an experimental "super-weapon" being tested by the Collective. It launches a Shuttle to land on Sharmun and warn the Victor of impending attack. If the Shuttle lands, it will begin a series of events that inevitably result in nuclear catastrophe.
The Scout Ship Intrepid is the intruder; the Shuttle and Interdiction Satellite (see below) the native. Place four maps in two rows of two so that you form a 40x26 hex board. First the intruder places Beta, representing the gas giant, in any of the three hexes that mark the center of the board. Next, the native places Alpha, representing the Victor's colony, anywhere exactly 6 hexes from Beta. Third, the intruder places Gamma, representing Sharmun, anywhere exactly 4 hexes from Beta. Fourthly, the native places Delta, representing the Collective's colony, exactly 3 hexes from Beta. The intruder places the past, present, and future counters of the Interdiction Satellite (see special rules, below) in orbit of the outer gravity ring of Beta (see special rules, below). The native places the Scout's present counter anywhere within 3 hexes of Alpha, and the past, present, and future counters of the Shuttle on the same hex as Alpha. Finally, the intruder places the past and future counters of the Scout in any legal positions.
If any starship leaves the game board, it is removed from the game.
The native's objective is to land the Shuttle on Sharmun so as to warn The Victor's planetary defenses of an impending attack, or to prevent the Scout from landing on Sharmun. If it succeeds in either task, the native is victorious.
The intruder's objective is to prevent the Shuttle from landing on Sharmun before they can alert The Victor to their presence, and then to land the Scout on Sharmun. If it succeeds in both tasks, the intruder is victorious.
If the Intruder destroys the Shuttle and lands the Scout's lifeboat on Sharmun, but fails to land the Scout itself, the game ends in a draw.
If the Shuttle passes within 3 hexes of Delta the game ends with the Intruder victorious.
If the Scout or Scout's Lifeboat passes within 3 hexes of Delta the game ends with the Native victorious.
Special Rules Beta, the large gas giant, has two rings of gravity hexes instead of one. The closest ring should alter the course of a passing vessel 2G. The second ring should alter the course of a passing vessel 1G.
In high orbit of Beta is an Imperial Interdiction Satellite, keyed to Imperial Transponder Data. The Satellite will ignore all Smallcraft (since they have no transponders), but it will launch one standard 6G6 contact detonation homing missile at the Scout every Native Launch Phase. The Interdiction Satellite is heavily armored, and so is not subject to rule 7A. Successive Damage. Further, it has neither Jump nor Maneuver Drives, so any damage to those systems is read as "NE" instead. The Interdiction Satellite has nine missile launchers, so no fewer than nine seperate hits to "Weapon" will destroy its offensive firepower. In other words, only a "Computer" hit will disable the Interdiction Satellite. The Due to the number of missile launchers it contains, the Interdiction Satellite is treated as having an unlimited number of 6G6 contact detonation homing missiles in its magazine. Due to the fact that it always moves 2 hexes per Native Movement Phase in orbit of Beta, and it always launches a single missile during the Native Launch Phase, its statistics are otherwise unimportant and so it has not been outlined below.
Mayday Ship Stats</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Intruder Scout
Model/1bis
CPU=4 Storage=0 PHASES:
2G Movement 1=Maneuver
Laser-1 Attack DM Laser Fire 1=Target
Laser-2 Attack DM Return Fire 1=Target 1=Return Fire
Mssl 6G6 hmg 000 Launch 1=Target 1=Launch
-or-
Lifeboat 1G 00000 Launch 1=Launch
Computer 2=Predict2 2=Anti-Missile 1=Maneuver/Evade 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Native Shuttle
No Computer PHASES:
3G 00000 0000 Movement</pre>[/QUOTE]Design Note
In order to properly design this scenario I had to create a system for Sharmun (X-86787A-5 Red) using the Book 6 "Continuation" method. Here is the system's full stats:
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Orbit Name UPP Remarks
Primary Patro F05
0 Empty
1 Companion Duomo MD
2 Empty
3 Small GG Espose
Small Planet X-S00000-0
4 Small GG Cardino
Ring X-R00000-0
5 Large GG Heiro 120,000 km radius
5 Ring X-R00000-0
6 Collective Pride X-316469-6 Imperial Records falsely record X-316000-0
10 Sharmun X-86787A-7 Imperial Records falsely record TL 5
13 Victors Prize X-31426C-6 Imperial Records falsely record X-314000-0</pre>[/QUOTE]