Star Wars: Galaxy at War Space Mode Rules

1. Star Wars: Galaxy at WarSpace Mode Rules Created by stardestroyer

2. Table of Contents Click on a link to jump to that page. Or simply click on an empty space to view in order. • A Few Starting Remarks • Concerning Star Wars Miniatures™ • New Concepts • Attack • Defence • HP • Movement • Special Weapons/Abilities • Currency ($!) • A Complete Turn • Additional Rules • Side Notes • Closing Remarks • Note: Clicking on the title of any page will return you to this page.

3. A Few Starting Remarks Welcome to the most interesting board game you will ever play! This game features the benefits from both the Star Wars Miniatures™ board games and the Star Wars Empire at War™ video games. The result is a relatively simple, yet immersive turn-by-turn tactical strategy tabletop game. This mode, the space mode, is one of two modes that will comprise the entire SWGAW game. Each mode requires intensive planning to successfully construct it, so please be patient for the next mode to be constructed. We are working as fast as we can to get the game going! The rules are the hardest part to make when creating a game, as it will determine the game pieces and capabilities. That’s why this rule guide should be the first out the door and onto my wiki, swgaw.wikispaces.com. Soon the game pieces will be made and available for download and printing. Enjoy the game, we hope it will be just as fun playing it as building it!

4. Concerning Star Wars Miniatures The Star Wars Miniatures board game is similar to this one, with some concepts copied from there. However the two games are incompatible. While the playing board may be used, the game matrix is different, and not compatible. The Star Wars Miniatures classifying system is cluttered at best. Class 1 refers to capital ships like Super Star Destroyers. Class 4 refers to fighters like X-Wings. However the Empire at War classification system is totally different, Tech 1 refers to fighters while Tech 5 refers to top-of-the-line ships and stations like the Death Star. The SWGAW classification system will use the SWEAW system for easier recognition (and to balance the game). An exact list of ships and techs will be posted onto the SWGAW page on the swgawwiki.

5. New Concepts The new features of the space mode include luxuries that were not present in SW:M that will help you plan your attacks and defences accordingly. • One of them is the new feature Weapons Range, or WR. WR determines how far your ship can shoot. For example, fighters have a maximum WR of 1cm. That means it can only attack ships next to it, since the weapons on that fighter cannot shoot any further (in reality, the attack would be so weak at large distances it wouldn’t matter). Usually WR can be guessed by the size of the ship in relation to the board’s squares. Capital ships can have as much as a 15cm WR. • Another new concept is the space station. Space stations can be established in Galactic Mode or automatically placed at the beginning of an instant action game. Bases can upgrade your ships in your fleet(s) with upgraded weapons, armour, shields, engines, etc. at any point in time, as long as you have enough money. Also, in Instant Action, your base is able to construct ships and heroes that can be warped in. Also in Instant Action the base can be upgraded so additional bonuses, ships and heroes, upgrades, and defences on your space station are available (and sometimes auto-installed). • Like SWM, there are turns. Here turns are divided into two phases, movement and attack phase, and construction and damage assessment phase.

6. A Complete Turn A complete turn includes two different phases (in order): • Movement and Attack • Construction + Damage Assessment • Movement and Attack are moving ships on the board or attacking. According to each type of ship, that many movement squares are allowed. One 90 degree turn is allowed for any ships bigger than fighter size, but will replace Reinforcements are also in this category. • Construction is the building time. Upgrades, mining facility construction, and ship production are all in this category. • Damage Assessment is the phase where you count how much damage your ship has sustained. If a weapon system is destroyed, this falls into this category as well.

7. Attack A very important part of the game, attacking is much more rewarding than in the SWM board game. It is achieved by: • Weapons Range. (see New Concepts) • Weapon Systems. One of the SWGAW game objectives was to create a game that features individually usable and targetable weapon systems. This means that on larger ships they will feature weapon systems that the opponent can target. These weapon systems usually have 100 HP (HP will be discussed later.), and the HP of any weapon system (or additional system) will add to the total HP of the ship. These weapon systems have a listed damage. • Damage. Damage is the amount of “damage” that your ship deals to the opponent when you attack them. Unlike SW:M, damage is purely that, and is used against the enemy defence and hull. Damage numbers are available to be seen on the Empire Space Unit Statistics page I have created. Damage will be discussed later as well. • Auto-Targeting. Basically it means most weapon systems will not miss when firing. Exceptions include larger ships attacking fighters, where an additional accuracy roll is required. (1-10=miss, 11-20=hit)

8. Defence Attacking will win the battle. However what happens if you are attacked? What will protect your ships? • HP (Hit or Health Points). HP is your ships’ health. Larger ships have hundreds or even thousands of HPs, while fighters generally have 8 HP. HP is always at full health automatically as the game starts. HP can be taken away if your ship has sustained damage. If your ship runs out of HP, your ship is destroyed. The full details of HP and its two kinds will be discussed later. • Shields. Your shields protect you from enemy laser fire. They are finite; shield energy will be drained if damage is dealt against your ship, but your HP and systems will not be harmed. If the shields are completely drained, they are considered “down” and therefore your ship is vulnerable to direct hits. Some ships, like fighters, do not have shields or they drain very fast. Certain types of attacks, such as proton torpedoes and collisions with asteroids, will go through the shields and directly hit the hull. • Additional special weapons or abilities will help prevent attacks from damaging your shields and HP.

9. HP HP is the hull. As described in the previous slides, HP is made up of all the weapon systems on that ship. They can be taken away and if there is no HP left, the ship is destroyed. To further enhance the game experience (or more confusing for some) we term HP differently as well. The general term “HP” has two kinds: Hull HP refers to the overall HP of the ship so any attacks against the ship itself will deduct HP from the Hull HP. Weapon HP refers to that weapon systems’ HP so any attacks against the weapon system itself will deduct HP from that weapon systems’ Weapon HP and not from the Hull HP. • Hull HP is gained from weapon and additional systems. 100 HP is the standard number for each weapon system, and 50 HP is the number for most secondary systems such as hangars, shield generators, engines, etc. If the system is destroyed, so are those HP. • An opponent may choose to attack the ship or its weapon systems. Attacking a weapon system won’t reduce the Hull HP of that ship until the weapon system is destroyed. Or, attacking the ship itself will drain the Hull HP of that ship and will result in all systems being destroyed at the same time, however that leaves that ship to fire back at you.

10. Movement Movement is another crucial part of the game. In Space Mode, movement is done SWM style. • Fighters move 4 squares a turn. Frigates and cruisers move 3 squares a turn, battleships move 2 squares, super battleships move 1 square, and the Death Star does not move at all. Diagonal movement counts as two squares moved. • Ships cannot leave the board. • One 90-degree turn is available each turn for any ship, but will replace your forward movement (you either turn or move). 45-degree turns (diagonal translation) are considered “free” and you can move forward as usual after using them. • Even if the engine system (optional) is destroyed the ship can still move. Destruction of the engine system will reduce the ship’s forward speed by half. • Reinforcements: Reinforcements are additional ships that can be deployed if your point value isn’t at its max. Each ship has a point value and if your total point value does not exceed your maximum point value you can warp in reinforcements until your max point value is full.

11. Special Weapons/Abilities Every ship in the SWGAW game has a weapon of some sort. In addition to the regular weapons, some ships have a special weapon or ability. Some are defensive, some are offensive, and some are good for your faction. • Special weapons or abilities can be activated at any phase in the turn unless special rules come with it, like Regenerate TIE Fighters can be activated at any time, while Boost Engines can only be activated in the Movement Phase. • Special weapons’ or abilities’ rules may state that it would cancel an attack or another weapon or ability out. If the rules don’t state that it cancels a weapon out, assume that the special ability or weapon is more powerful. If a special weapon or ability is confronting another special weapon or ability, assume that they cancel each other out.

12. Currency Currency is another important part of Galaxy at War. Currency is measured in credits. On the whattobuildnext website, there are printable documents that feature credits in 100, 500, 1000, 5000, 10000, and 20000 amounts. Credits, in Space Mode, can be used to buy: • Ships and structures • Upgrades • Planetary Weapons • Super Weapons • Mining Facilities (Mining Facilities increase your income by a percentile. They can be upgraded to increase the mining facility’s income percent.) • Other selected game elements.

13. Additional Rules The few rules that don’t have room or a page to fit in: • Retreating (GC Mode). Retreating is possible but the risks are high. If and when you choose to withdraw your forces, your ships become sitting ducks. They cannot move, attack, use special weapons or abilities, or launch fighters. Meanwhile the other faction’s ships may destroy yours. You must wait two turns like this before successful retreat from that engagement. If your ships’ engines are destroyed while attempting to retreat, your ship will be considered destroyed. • Setting Up. When setting up for a battle, place the starbases at opposite corners. (if not playing Instant Action, disregard this rule.) Defending ships can be placed around the starbase, and no further than three squares away from the starbase. (if not playing Instant Action, attacking ships should be placed like in SWM, in the 3X11 “end zone”.) • Usually there is one starbase and two fighting factions. In Instant Action, there are two factions with a starbase each. The game rules in Instant Action can be changed, however there are two main victory conditions: destroy enemy starbase, and destroy enemy (all). • At no point in time should factions mutually annihilate each other. If such a scenario occurs, the ship that dealt the most damage to the other ship wins. If both ships dealt the same damage, the ship with the most health before destruction wins. And if they’re equal, use chance to determine the winner.

14. Side Notes • The game pieces, charts, and more are located on the SWGAW home page on the swgaw.wikispaces.com site. • Updates will also appear on that page. We are hoping to get a real-time chat on there too. • Other possible post-SWGAW projects include: Online SWGAW, Star Trek Galaxy at War • This presentation may have some errors, as the game pieces and their rules are still in development. If there are errors, they will be posted on the updates page. • Please do not plagiarize or sell my work. Read the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 licence, it can be found at the bottom of every page in Wikispaces.

15. Closing Remarks Well, we’ve reached the end of this presentation. However there are a few things I wish to say: • Thank you to Lucasarts for both the SWEAW and SWM games, I couldn't have made this game without you! • Thank you to Wikispaces for allowing me to house my various projects and information. • Thank you Apple for the iTouch and the Notes program, it helped me design the preliminary rules. • Thank you, the viewer, for watching this presentation. (Me? It couldn’t be! I just want to learn the game/have nothing else to do! Whether you seriously wish to play or not, your feedback is greatly appreciated. Who knows, maybe a game about you could come soon, in a galaxy not so far away...) May the Force be with you... -stardestroyer