Lancer: Battlegroup 
Playtest 1.6 
 
Playtest Document Prepared by Miguel Lopez and Kai Tave for Massif Press 
2020 
 
   

 
  

Lancer: Battlegroup is a new, standalone rules system for mass space combat in the Lancer 
setting, designed for use at your tabletop and in digital, non-grid or hex-based play. Blending 
Lancer’s deep unit customization and imbued story with tactical narrative action, Battlegroup 
casts the players as pilots and officers in a fleet deployed to the front line of a naval campaign. 
Their missions may vary, but their main objective remains the same: survive, and return home.  
 
Features: 
● Detailed naval combat that does not require a grid. Command a battlegroup using The 
Gyre, a relative positioning system that depicts capital ships and attack wings 
navigating the tremendous distances that are common in space combat. 
● Battlegroup is both a standalone game and a large-scale space combat module for 
Core Lancer. Whether you want to play a naval campaign or add a new dimension and 
scale to your existing Lancer campaign, you can use Lancer: Battlegroup to expand 
your group’s library of storytelling options.  
● Battlegroup brings the evocative elements of naval warfare in Lancer’s universe into 
play for the first time: from boarding actions with mounted chassis, demisolar 
long-spool weapons shattering capital ships in a single shot, and ontologic warfare 
conducted by fleet legions in dimensions uncanny, Battlegroup continues to expand the 
playable theaters of Lancer’s setting. 
● Fleet and ship customization — from hull to systems, weapons and escorts, the way 
you build your ships determines how you play.  
● A closer look at the Dawnline Shore and the major powers vying for control of the 
region, including campaign beats, plot hooks, and more. 
 
(As a heads up, you may see some traits, weapons, maneuvers, etc, that reference tiers or 
features of play not yet included in PT1 — consider those hints at what is to come in PT2 and 
PT3!)  
 
   

1 
  

Hi there, Pilots,  
 
Figured it’s about time to update this section given some recent developments and to keep 
everyone in the loop as to the ongoing development process of the game. As has been 
discussed on the discord, Miguel and I have talked about things and we have both agreed that 
the original plan of having Battlegroup provide gameplay on two separate layers, a fleet layer 
and a dogfight layer, is not sustainable and so we’ve made the decision to consolidate our 
efforts onto the fleet layer.  
 
Essentially, while having two separate layers sounded really cool in theory, in practical terms it 
was difficult for us to come up with a way to have two separate-but-compatible play layers that 
were both distinct enough to stand alone from one another and also interacted with each other 
seamlessly. Longtime Lancer veterans may recall this is sort of the same dilemma that was 
encountered during that game’s playtesting and development with regards to dismounted 
pilot-level play, and much like with that the best solution available to us is to focus our efforts 
making one of those gameplay layers as robust, polished, and enjoyable as possible. 
 
Nonetheless it’s important to us that Lancer fans have a way to bring their characters into the 
action, and so we’re taking steps to include rules and systems which allow for that. New to this 
version are Ace Squadrons, a new sort of Wing you can take and customize to create your 
own personal super-squad of fighters, bombers, or mounted chassis pilots. I’m also going to 
be looking to include Aces on the GM side as well, though those may take a little longer to 
work their way into the document. Also any cool lore and fluff that existed in the 
now-deprecated dogfight layer will be squeezed into the main draft if at all possible. 
 
As always, feedback is welcome in the Battlegroup channels over on the Lancer Discord 
server. We’ve gotten a lot of excellent playtest feedback so far and we’re happy to have even 
more. 
 
 
 
Thanks, and see you in the stars, 
Miguel and Kai, Massif Press, 2020 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(PS while not strictly confidential, we do ask that you don’t share this document outside of 
Pilot.NET or your table, as it represents early, early playtest material, and likely will not be 
recognizable once development is complete. Honor system on this one, folks.   

2 
  

 
 

Lancer: Battlegroup 0 

How to Play Battlegroup 7 

WHAT YOU NEED 7 
WHAT YOU ROLL 8 
THE GOLDEN RULE(S) 9 
WHAT BATTLEGROUP IS 9 

Characters In Battlegroup 11 

New, Non-Lancer Characters 13 
Creating a Commander 14 
Backgrounds 16 
Battlegroup’s Setting 30 

All Vessels Engaged 33 

SITREP 34 
STAGE ONE: BRIEFING 34 
STAGE TWO: LEGIONCAST 36 
STAGE THREE: PREPARATION 37 
STAGE FOUR: ENGAGEMENT 37 
STAGE FIVE: AFTERMATH 38 
Engagement 39 
Detail of a Round 40 
Quick Reference Turn Order 47 
The Winding Gyre 48 
Range Bands of the Gyre 51 
Posture and Uptime Actions 53 
Set a Posture 53 
Reserves 59 
Kill Table 62 
Nearlight Ejection Table 63 
Keywords and Definitions 64 
Game Terms 64 
Weapon Types 67 
Weapon and System Tags 68 
Building Your Battlegroup 73 
Example: UDoJ/HR Liberator Battlegroup Pullman 76 
Capital Capital Ship Classifications 77 
Frigate Hulls 78 

3 
  

Carrier Hulls 84 

Battleship Hulls 87 
Battlegroup Weapons 93 
Battlegroup Systems 103 
Escorts and Wings 111 
Ace Squadrons 124 
Capital Ship Summary 128 

Battlegroup Game Master’s Guide 131 

GM Principles 131 
Inevitability, Fatalism, and Hope; Characters Outside of Combat in Battlegroup 131 
Progression: Accolades, Legacy, and Reputation 138 
Legacies 143 
Reputation 145 

The Field of Battle 147 

When Fighting Near Terrestrial Bodies and Crowded Airspace 147 
When Fighting Near Natural Stellar Bodies 150 

Battlegroup and Lancer 152 

On Campaign 154 
The End 158 
The Campaign Tree 158 

Building NPCs 160 

NPC Flagship Archetypes 162 
NPC Escort Archetypes 184 

Worldbuilding Tools 195 

Diasporan State and Fleet Generators 195 
General Hooks 197 
Notable Shipwrights 198 
Atelier Skyhooks — Celeste or those made by a different atelier — are rare and 
valuable, not only for their exclusivity and opulence but for their ability to operate in 
stable low orbit, and serve as a transit point for atmospheric ships entering space and 
vice versa. 200 
Comms Chatter 200 

The Dawnline Shore 205 

Places, Everyone 205 
The Road 206 
Worlds of the Dawnline Shore 207 

Port of Call: Dawnline Shore 208 

4 
  

Key Armory Ports 208 

Harrison’s World (DS1) 208 
Arkady II (DS2) 209 
Key Baronic Ports 210 
Upper Laurent (DS8) 210 
San Simian (DS9) 210 
Gloria (DS11) 211 
Key Union Ports 211 
DLS Blink Gate 211 
New Madrassa (DS4) 212 
Other Points of Interest in the DLS 214 

Galactic Powers in the Dawnline Shore 215 

Union Navy 216 
Union Naval Battlegroup 216 
Union Ring Fleet 217 
Union Ship Names 218 
Karrakin Trade Barons 220 
Baronic Unified Command — Naval Group 220 
House Company (Leased Ships) 220 
Free Company Expeditionary Group 221 
Karrakin Ship Names 221 
Harrison Armory 222 
Armory Battlegroups 222 
Armory Ship Names 223 
IPS-N: Northstar Galactic Command 224 
NGC Escort/Secure Premier Package 224 
NGC, Trunk Security, and Other IPS-N Ship Names 225 
Constellar Security 227 
Constellar Skyhook 227 
Constellar Congressional Gendarmery Ship Names 227 

DLS: Campaign Arcs 229 

A More Perfect Union 230 
A New Throne 232 
Controlled Burn 233 
Dawnline Incident — Conclusion 236 

5 
  

   

6 
  

How to Play Battlegroup 

Fleet Commander Conrad Schuyler paced his private deck on the Colossal Promise, his battleship and 
the flagship of the Armory’s 5th Dawnline fleet. He wore his battlesuit, but held his helm behind his back. 
Under thrust, he could walk without the aid of mag boots. The marble surface wouldn’t have accepted 
them anyways. Alone, he paced the walk, a solitary figure against the stark black of a starless void. 
 
Out there the Counters’ ships no doubt matched his battlegroup’s trajectory and burn, their torpedo 
tubes open, their long guns fixed on where they thought he was going to be. They were likely correct — 
not much room to maneuver in this empty space above New Creighton — and that was the essence of 
naval combat anyways: one could not hide when one is the only thing in a void.  
 
If Schuyler wanted, he could open a line to the Colossal Promise’s CIC and have the enemy fleet’s 
course cast to the panorama wall. He could stand before the Counters’ fleet-in-wireframe-miniature and 
hold them in his hand. Schuyler did not want that; he was not interested in paper boats. He wanted a 
Baron, and Invictus had quietly informed him that there were none in the Counters’ fleet.   
 
Schuyler reached the end of his walk, turned, and paced back. The Preludes and their minor keys echoed 
over his footfalls. He was nervous, to be sure — as any sane person was before an engagement — but 
confidence and the piano tempered his nerves. This was not his first duel; god willing and with proper 
planning, it would not be his last. 
 
The final three notes of the final Prelude boomed across Schulyer’s deck. Time, then.  
 
“Invictus,” Schuyler’s voice echoed in the otherwise empty space. He did not wait for an 
acknowledgement: he knew the legion listened to its commander. “Ready my post in the CIC.” Schuyler 
pulled on his helm, securing it to his suit. All indicators save for heart rate showed well within nominal. 
“Let us begin.”  
 
WHAT YOU NEED 
This game uses two sorts of dice: twenty-sided dice (d20) and six-sided dice (d6). You’ll roll 
these dice to determine the outcome of uncertain situations, such as firing weapons, engaging 
in electronic warfare, or undertaking critical maneuvers. When the rules call for you to make a 
roll, it will also tell you how many dice to roll. For example, 1d20 means you need to roll a single 
d20, whereas 2d6 means you need to roll two d6s. 
 
Sometimes the rules may call for you to roll 1d3. That’s just a shorthand way of saying you 
should roll 1d6 and halve the results (rounded up). When you’re called on to roll 1d3, a result of 
1 or 2 on a d6 equals 1, 3 or 4 equals 2, and 5 or 6 equals 3. 
 
Lancer: Battlegroup is best played with 3-6 players, but can be played with as little as two or 
as many as you feel comfortable with. Each player needs at least one d20, a number of d6s, 
and some paper or a character sheet to write down information. 
 

7 
  

Unlike Lancer, this game does not use grid-based tactical combat. Battlegroup instead 
uses a ranging system called the Gyre to track the relative positions of fleets as they engage in 
combat with the enemy. Square or hex maps are not necessary to play the game and neither 
are miniatures; however, you may wish to use a Gyre map and tokens or miniatures in order to 
make combat easier to visualize. 
 
WHAT YOU ROLL 
In fleet combat, attacks are any offensive actions made against other ships or fleets, like firing 
a weapon or directing your fleet legion to disrupt an opponent’s systems. When you make an 
attack roll, you roll 1d20 and add any relevant bonuses. For an attack to be successful it 
needs to equal or exceed the target’s Defense value. Successful attacks are described as 
“hits” - so if the rules tell you that an effect happens “on hit”, that means it takes place when 
you make a successful attack. Some attacks also result in critical hits on a result of 20+, which 
deals double damage and may trigger other effects as well. 
 
Another type of roll that may be called for is a check. Checks are handled the same as attacks, 
rolling 1d20 and adding bonuses, but the target you’re attempting to equal or exceed will be a 
different value than a target’s Defense. The target number will typically be stated in the 
description of the check itself. 
 
Uptime checks are one specific type of check that applies during narrative moments between 
and before fleet battles. The target you attempt to roll against, and the consequences of a 
check, will generally be defined by the sort of action you’re attempting. 
 
There are several ways for rolls to be modified. One way is with a static modifier that simply 
adds a flat amount to the roll, represented as a + followed by a number. For example, if 
something adds +2 to a roll then after making the roll you’ll add 2 to the result to get the total 
value. Another common modifier is Accuracy and Difficulty, which represent momentary 
advantages or disadvantages gained and lost in rapid, chaotic moments of action. 
 
● Each point of Accuracy adds 1d6 to a d20 roll. 
● Each point of Difficulty subtracts 1d6 from a d20 roll. 
● Accuracy and Difficulty cancel each other out on a 1:1 basis. 
 
If you are lucky enough to roll several of the same bonus dice when attempting to attack (or 
resolve any other check), you do not add them together to determine the result. Instead, find 
the highest number rolled and apply it to the final roll. Because of this, no roll can ever receive 
more than –6 or +6 from either Accuracy or Difficulty.  
 
Weapons, attacks, and other abilities will deal damage when they hit their target. Damage 
values are given as a flat number, a dice roll, or a dice roll plus a modifier. In cases where an 

8 
  

attack does damage to multiple targets at once, such as a powerful area attack, you roll 
damage only once and apply the result to all affected targets. 
 
Sometimes, special systems or effects will call for something to be halved, such as damage. 
Halving does not stack, even from multiple sources. If something causes a ship to deal half 
damage, then halving its damage again won’t make it deal one-quarter damage. 
 
THE GOLDEN RULE(S) 
There are two golden rules to remember when playing Lancer: Battlegroup. 
 
I. Specific rules override general statements and rules. 
 
For example, normally certain attacks may not be avoidable; however, certain abilities or 
systems may give you the ability to attempt to avoid those attacks. Because these 
abilities are specific rules, they supersede the general rules concerning those attacks. 
 
II. Always round up (to the nearest whole number). 
 
 
WHAT BATTLEGROUP IS 
Lancer: Battlegroup is a game designed to evoke the experience of fleet battles in the Lancer 
universe; the hum of charging long-spool weapons, the shifting of battle lines inexorably 
leading to a deadly clash, pitched boarding actions and wings of strike craft hurtling through 
defense curtains to deliver their payloads. Your decisions will influence these pivotal moments 
and help turn the tide of battle; however, Battlegroup is not necessarily “about” the individuals 
— heroic though they may be — involved in the battles the system depicts. Battlegroup is 
about large, collective actions, and the cost of success.  
 
Unlike Lancer itself, Battlegroup does not assume that players will create a single character 
and chart their progress as they rise through the ranks. While that is — we guess — likely to be 
the most common way to play Battlegroup, the game does not require you focus on one 
officer, pilot, or crewmember. You might develop a rotating cast whose exploits you follow 
throughout their careers, or you may create new characters each time you establish the stakes 
of a conflict, playing out one of the most important moments in their lives. Your table can use 
Battlegroup to play battles occurring all across a sector of space such as the Dawnline Shore, 
zooming in on different theaters and fronts — or even different time periods.  
 
While many tabletop games have no fixed length or predetermined ending, Battlegroup also 
does not assume an ongoing campaign mode of play by default. Guidance is provided for 
running campaigns — along with numerous plot hooks and additional setting information about 
both Lancer’s setting and the contested region of space known as the Dawnline Shore — but 

9 
  

Battlegroup serves just as well as a standalone tactical space combat game and can be used 
for one-shot play, games with rotating player groups, or short-term arcs. 
 
And of course, Battlegroup can also be used as a way to add extra tactical and narrative depth 
to a Lancer tabletop campaign. The outcome of these large-scale fleet battles can create 
numerous flashpoints ripe for a squad of mech pilots to engage with, whether in space or on 
the surface of a planet, and you’ll find a number of tools to help you create a narrative that 
crosses between games as you play through them. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

   

10 
  

Characters In Battlegroup  
 
Naval combat in Battlegroup is a different beast than the mixed-theater combat found in Core 
Lancer. Battling in the void of space takes coordination and discipline — you are often firing at 
targets a great distance from you, visible only by the waste heat, radiation, outbound fire, and 
comms signatures they throw off; rarely are capital ships in organic visual range of one another. 
Unlike combat found in core Lancer, there is rarely ever hard cover or concealment to put 
between your character(s) and their enemy; naval combat is, generally, won by those who land 
the first hit.  
 
This kind of battle requires intense discipline. For officers and crew aboard a capital ship, your 
foes are only glowing indicators on a terminal screen, and the blow that strikes you down may 
only be telegraphed by a handful of seconds — if at all. Pilots of fighters and other subliners, 
tangling with each other in the killbox between mighty ships of the line, might flash within visual 
range of the enemy, but this requires only a different kind of discipline: to see the enemy and 
kill them, rather than hope you are not killed by an enemy you cannot see.  
 
Boarding actions, bombing runs, battery fire — even legionspace engagements — often instill 
in the people who engage in this warfare a rigidity unfamiliar to ground soldiers. A sailor (or 
“spacer”, “cosmonaut”, “astronaut”, “suit”, “crew”, and so on) has an immediate relationship to 
death that ground-pounders do not: the very environment they operate in, if they were ever to 
be exposed to it, would kill them; likewise the vessel that they crew — even in the course of 
normal maneuvering! — may turn them into paste if they are not careful. Even the otherwise 
“normal” systems required for interstellar travel — stasis-holds for long burns between worlds 
and gates — might be a venture from which they do not return. Death is close for the sailor and 
officer: discipline, regular order, triple-checking systems, and routine gets them through a 
deployment1. 
 
Crashing against this regular-order impulse are the new weapons of naval warfare and 
engagements in which they are employed. After the Deimos event introduced Deimosian NHP, 
and after the Interest War re-wrote the facts — if not the rules just yet — of naval combat, 
states and empires have not fully caught up to the changing natures of combat. This is 
precisely where Battlegroup sits: in the conflict between old strategies and new technologies, 
the struggle between established doctrine and tactical adaptability, and the experience of line 
officers, pilots, and crew against the demands of rear-echelon brass.  
 
As players in Battlegroup, your points of view into this world will sit in this tension. Aboard your 
vessel’s CIC, you act in command of not only your own ship, but the other ships in your 

1
Of course, this is not to say that every ship, commander, and crew are strict disciplinarians, only that the dominant 
naval culture is. 
11 
  

section, distributing orders to one or more capital ships in order to win the day, rather than the 
moment — you may not pull the trigger yourself, but your orders have the same effect.  
 
Battlegroup is a module for Core Lancer meant to expand the scope of the universe and scale 
of play. It is a standalone ruleset, whose characters (mechanically, at least) don’t translate 1:1 
to characters one would make in Lancer. By the nature of Battlegroup’s setting and conceits, 
the characters you make in Battlegroup are likely not as free in their mission portfolios as your 
characters in Lancer. The order of discipline these sailors, pilots, and officers are subject to is 
much more present, the field of battle much more conventional, and their commanding officers 
more used to — and expectant of — established doctrine. Your characters should interact with 
this, push against it or accept it, reject or accept this paradigm. Most all characters in 
Battlegroup will wrestle with these dual truths: that their strategies and defenses do not match 
the weapons they wield and face, but in order to win and survive they must defeat the enemy.   
 
A character in Battlegroup is not like a character from Lancer for the reasons listed above. 
Additionally, they likely do not have the same amount of investment and specialized training as 
a chassis pilot. This is not to say that they are untrained or bad at their job — to the contrary, 
they are very good at what they do —only that piloting a chassis and crewing a space ship are 
two very different beasts (this, too, for Battlegroup characters that pilot mounted chassis — 
they are good pilots, but not Lancers).  
 
Characters from Battlegroup would range in their reaction to having a Lancer aboard their ship 
or flying on their wing: some would welcome having a hotshot pilot watching their back, while 
others might bristle at what they see to be an intrusion by an arrogant toy soldier. How you play 
your character is up to you, though somewhere along this spectrum is likely the best “canon” 
fit. 
 

 
   

12 
  

 
New, Non-Lancer Characters 
If you’re coming to Battlegroup already a fan of Core Lancer, you should know that the two 
games are intended (via mechanics and scope) to depict very different windows into Lancer’s 
setting. Unlike Lancer where characters can range from members of a formal military to 
mercenaries or other independent actors, the character you make in Battlegroup is likely a 
member of an established fighting force in regular order and supply; the structure that they are 
a part of — be it private or state — is assumed to be stable enough to at least manage and 
support a fleet of ships, to direct them across the Orion Arm, and to keep the cosmonauts and 
officers aboard healthy, motivated, and competent2.  
 
Your character in Battlegroup is assumed to be an actor with some agency in this context, 
despite their constrained actions. Likely a commissioned officer or person of equivalent rank, 
your character volunteered or chose this profession, and begins their visible-character life 
motivated (despite their own fears or misgivings) to participate in the battles depicted here. You 
know that your work is dangerous, but see it as necessary. Whether your character throws that 
perspective aside or clings to it as their career progresses will only out in play.  
 
Your character in Battlegroup is under threat in a way that a character in Lancer is not: Lancers 
in their mechs are fearsome, singular warriors, with many systems and strategies to survive 
extended, costly fights. Your character in Battlegroup can be killed in a single shot. While there 
are systems that might give characters in Battlegroup a bare chance at survival should their 
ship not be destroyed, a sudden death is never far away. Be aware of this if you intend to 
import your Lancer character into Battlegroup, and be sure that your table is okay with this 
danger — if not, systems are outlined later in this module to mechanically address this (if you’d 
like a mechanical solution, that is).  
 
Beyond their sudden and evident mortality, characters in Battlegroup must deal with time3. In 
Lancer, space travel and maneuvering — save for moments where your character transits the 
Blink — occurs at varying degrees of relativity, across shifting horizons, with multiple observers 
and local experiences of time. This temporal mess culminates in one of two ways: as the 
unfortunate but unavoidable consequence of interstellar travel, or as tragic acceleration. Your 
character — whether awake and on duty or held in stasis — will be out of sync with the 
“normal” progression of time on their home world.  
 
Traveling through space at varying degrees approaching lightspeed, one begins to slip forward 
in time, from the perspective of those they left behind; this means that, should your character 
return to their homeworld (or station), they will have only aged a fraction of the time everyone 
2
At the very least, the managing entity of the players’ fleet was competent enough to launch those 
ships. Supporting them for the duration of the campaign is negotiable if it produces a more generative, 
rewarding, or appropriate narrative for the story you’re all trying to tell.  
3
“Must” is just a suggestion if time is not important to your table. As always, the narrative/canon 
“Musts” in a Massif book are only suggestions — change what you wish! 
13 
  

else back home aged (assuming any of their loved ones back home have not yet passed on 
from old age). For some on shorter deployments or having to travel shorter distances, this 
could be negligible — a matter of minutes or hours, if their deployment takes them to the edge 
of their local space — or a matter of decades, if their deployments take them to distant stars.  
 
Characters in Battlegroup exist in this context: in combat, they face sudden death aboard their 
ships. In peacetime and transit, they face what amounts to a social/temporal death, as those 
friends and family that remain behind may have died of old age by the time they return. This 
immutable fact haunts characters in Battlegroup, either as tragedy, as a harsh fact, or as relief.  
 
The mechanics of creating characters in Battlegroup can be found in the following sections. 
These serve as a window into some of the narrative backgrounds you can use to define your 
commander, along with further questions you might wish to consider when roleplaying these 
far-flung cosmonauts.   
 
Creating a Commander 
Unlike many RPGs, creating a commander in Battlegroup doesn't involve assigning stats or 
skills. How personally strong or perceptive your commander is doesn't matter nearly as much 
given the scope and scale of the action taking place. Commanders are defined by things such 
as their background, their personality traits and characteristics, and their flaws and foibles. 
When you create a commander, choose three of these traits that define them. Two of these 
traits will be positive qualities, while one of them will be one that complicates, disadvantages, 
or colors their character in some way. You may gain additional traits or change your existing 
traits throughout the course of play. 
 
Maybe your commander is a brilliant tactician with a keen eye, but is arrogant to a fault. Or 
perhaps they’re steadfast and courageous in their belief to protect humanity, but reckless in 
their courage, often putting their battlegroup into dangerous situations as a result. Whoever 
your character is, make sure they have something that colors them. It doesn’t have to be a big, 
grand thing, just something that humanizes them. Heroes are more compelling if they’re 
human. 
 
As a central character in the story, your commander will have moments when their background, 
training, and personality shine through. These moments are called Uptime Checks. You'll 
make uptime checks during narrative play and to accomplish specific uptime actions. When 
one or more of your character's positive traits are relevant to an uptime checks, you'll get a 
bonus +1 Accuracy to the roll for each trait you apply. Once a positive trait has been used in 
this fashion, mark it off. Traits that have been marked off remain a part of your character, but 
can't be used again until they're regained. 
 
You regain the use of all marked off traits by having one of your character's negative 
traits come into play. This can happen in one of two ways; either you make an uptime check 

14 
  

influenced solely by your negative trait, which will be made at +1 Difficulty, or the GM can bring 
your negative trait into play in a way that complicates matters for your character. You and the 
GM can discuss and flesh out what form that complication should take, but it should be 
something that drives the story forward even as it makes things more difficult for you. 
Additionally, if the GM determines that sufficient time has passed they can declare that 
everyone's traits are regained. 
 
Traits are almost always used in narrative play, and they never apply in combat unless 
otherwise specified. Traits are usually fairly open-ended, allowing you to apply them in creative 
ways. That said, the GM is responsible for arbitrating outlandish claims: be prepared to justify 
how your commander's aggressive personality helps them gather vital intelligence, for 
example. 
 
Narrative Play and Uptime Checks 
The following section deals with narrative play. This part of a game is more freeform than naval 
combat, which is a lot more structured. In narrative play, rolls tend to accomplish more, scenes 
cover larger stretches of time, and the outcome of individual rolls is more important. 
 
Something to note is that narrative play in Battlegroup is even more freeform and abstract than 
it is in Lancer. The focus of the game lies primarily on engagements between fleets, taking the 
outcomes of those battles and using them to shape an overarching narrative. It isn’t even 
necessary for players to engage in narrative play at all; you may decide to play Battlegroup 
solely as a tactical combat game, on its own or as a module for Lancer. Should your games call 
for narrative play, however, these rules should provide you with everything you need. 
 
In narrative play, uptime checks are used to determine the outcome of complicated situations 
and actions. They are only required in tense narrative situations and when making a roll will 
move the story forward. Your commander will generally always succeed in mundane tasks, 
especially if it relates to their background. You don’t need to make an uptime check to open a 
door, cook a meal, or talk to a superior officer – unless there’s something complicating your 
attempt, the outcome might further a situation or relationship in an interesting way, or it might 
answer a question. 
 
Unlike tactical combat, there are no turns during narrative play, and NPCs don’t get to act on 
their own initiative; instead, their actions are decided by the outcome of player rolls. 
 
Uptime checks can cover activities as broad or specific as the narrative requires. For example, 
an uptime check might cover a week’s worth of non-combat operations to leash and harvest 
fresh ice for water from a nearby comet. You may also roll for individual moments of action — 
plotting a novel jump at a terminal, or negotiations with a specific supply officer while docked 
at a station, and so on.   
 

15 
  

Let’s break down the process of making an uptime check: 

 
1. Name your goal. 
2. The GM decides the consequences of failure (e.g., losing time, alerting the guards, 
getting shot, etc). If there are no consequences, then you automatically succeed. 
3. Determine which traits apply to this roll, if any (adding +1 Accuracy or +1 Difficulty ). 
4. Roll 1d20 and add any relevant modifiers. On a 9 or less, you fail to accomplish your 
goal and suffer the established consequences. On a 10+, you accomplish your goal. 
5. Only roll once to achieve your goal, and stick with the result. 
 
When you roll less than 10 on an uptime check, you suffer the established consequences. 
Since NPCs don’t act on their own in narrative play, these complications and consequences 
are the main tools the GM has for responding to player action. 
 
Before a roll is made, the GM must outline the consequences of failure. They can only inflict 
consequences that are clearly established this way. How severe the consequences of failure 
are depends on context: the higher the implied difficulty, the more complex or dangerous 
scenario, etc, the more costly failure should be.  
 
For example: if you’re attempting to keep a fleet in good cohesion and temporal sync through a 
series of complicated navigational maneuvers with fleet legion support, it is unlikely that failing 
the roll will immediately result in your fleet losing ships to error. However, if you’re maneuvering 
through a series of complex course changes while being pursued by an enemy or with 
damaged or insufficient systems, the possibility of dramatic, costly failure is much higher.   
 
[SIDEBAR]Deeper Narrative Play 
The narrative play rules in Battlegroup are adapted from those found in Lancer, stripped down 
and streamlined for ease of use. If your group wants an even more detailed narrative 
experience, you can adapt the rules found in Lancer such as Difficult, Risky, and Heroic rolls, 
Skill Challenges, or Downtime Actions. While the rules in both Battlegroup and Lancer share 
many similarities, be aware that there are some important differences as well. Commanders in 
Battlegroup don’t have License Levels, for instance, and so if you wish to adapt Lancer’s 
triggers you may need to decide on a different method of awarding them.[/SIDEBAR] 
 
Backgrounds 
Any background presented in Lancer is likely an acceptable background for characters in 
Battlegroup, though they may take some narrative massaging. Below are some new options, 
which can be carried over to Lancer as well.  
 
Naval Family 
Born into the tradition, you are the child of a family with a long history of naval service. Your parents may 
both have been or are currently in the same (or different!) naval force as yourself, as were their parents, 

16 
  

and their parents, and so on down the line. From when you were a child, you knew you would one day 
pin the silver bars of an officer on your collar, and step to the stars...  
 
This background can be taken along with any other background.  
 
Orbital Defense Force 
Your world asked, and you answered: for years you have served in the orbital defense force of your state 
or world, arcing high above the land you call home in small shuttles and modest subline ships, spending 
years aboard orbital cannons and missile batteries. You have always known the purpose of your work: 
defend the world below from threats above. Now, posted to an interstellar ship, you keep that feeling 
close — the world you defend might be farther away, but it is always there, just below your heart, your 
home to defend.  
 
Veterans of planetary defense forces run the gamut in training, experience, and competency; they can be 
graduates of any of the premier naval schools, or locally-trained and experienced cosmonauts. Owing to 
the rigors of training and breadth of necessary information, ODF personnel trend a little bit older than 
most finishing school graduates — their experience is lived and learned the hard way, not schooled and 
drilled into them.   
* 
Your character fought (or currently fights) in their homeworld’s (or home station’s) orbital 
defense force. They are likely well versed in the operation of ships, as even officers in ODF 
units are called to square away their vessels before, during, and after flights.  
 
Gain one or two of the following background notes, or develop your own using these as 
inspiration:  
 
D6   Background Note 

1  Your world received its first orbital defense vessels, training, and initial officer corps via its 
interaction with Union. You were one of the first of your world to crew these ships, possibly 
among the first people to have left your world and seen it from above; how did you get from 
your ODF to where you are now?  

2  Your world developed its own orbital defense force, stringing its own geosynchronous orbital 
platforms and developing its own training system. Did it help when the invaders came?   

3  During battle against orbital pirates (or during a training mishap) your ODF vessel was split 
open above your world. Many of your comrades died either instantly or in the moments 
following as you were scattered out across the high orbit sky. You were rescued; what did you 
see of your world as you flew? Why did you join up again? Who did you lose during that 
engagement, and who saved you?  

4  You loved to fly. You grew up working the pads at your world’s uplift station, doing every job 
that needed doing. You hauled luggage from arriving travellers, loaded fuel cores on 
outbound shuttles, sprayed down antifreeze on dimpled booster tanks, even flew as a porter 
on orbital cruises. Joining the ODF when you were of age was a no-brainer; how high did you 
want to fly? Did you join to leave your world, or serve it? What of your family that you left 

17 
  

behind? 

5  You remember the fear, and how heavy the dread sat in your belly as you burned for the firing 
line. You were a gunner aboard one of your world’s few ODF capital ships — an old vessel, 
but serviced well and plenty spaceworthy — who saw action during the last years of the last 
war that gripped your world. You fired your ship’s main gun, scoring a killing blow on the 
enemy’s flagship, effectively ending the war to resist unification. How do people receive you 
back home? Are you a celebrated hero? Anonymous? Or was your action unnecessary? Why 
did you choose to take to the stars once more? 

6  Your world’s ODF is quite active, though not against conventional targets: for the past 
decade, your world has been bombarded by potentially catastrophic shards of a 
once-in-a-million-years comet that passed far too close. Now, on-world scientists have 
confirmed that your homeworld will likely be under threat of collision for a century at least — 
the ODF, once a sleepy post for high-flyers, has been forced to shape up into ready and agile 
pilots and gunners: their task — yours, at one time — is to shoot down or deflect any 
projectiles large enough to threaten your home with death. How long were you posted to “sky 
shield” duty? Did you ever slip up and let a rock through? What took you from ODF Sky 
Shield to where you are now? 
 
 
 
 
 
   

18 
  

Karrakin Naval Academy  

As a child or young adult, you were granted (or your parents paid for) admittance to one of the famed 
Karrakin Naval Academies. Founded in the wake of their terrible twin defeats at the hands of Union and 
Harrison Armory, the Karrakins have gone on to adopt, hone, and expand upon the strategies that once 
left them defeated and exposed; in the modern day they have redefined the modern doctrines of space 
combat, producing some of the finest officers and crew in the known galaxy — you included. Graduated 
and posted to your command, your words carry weight: you’re from The Academy, and are likely younger 
than the other officers you serve with who didn’t attend. The simple bronze globe-and-crown pinned to 
your lapel sets you apart, for good or for ill. Long an Ignoble tradition to serve in the Federal Karrakin 
Navy, most of your peers in the KNA were Ignobles, and the class divisions both in The Academy and out 
are clear: though you all wear the Bronze, some have a bit more polish to their pin than the rest.  
 
All graduates of the Karrakin Naval Academy, noble or ignoble, are entitled to wear the bronze 
globe-and-crown pin that indicates they are a graduate. Graduates may further particularize their pin to 
indicate which campus they graduated from, whether they graduated with distinction, and — one of the 
finest honors — if they won the inter-Academy Wargame, a ceremonial final test that pits the best officers 
from each school against each other to determine who is the greatest commander of that year’s 
graduating class.  
 
Graduates of the KNA tend to be Baronic, with roughly a sixty-forty split leaning ignoble. Included in this 
ignoble category are non-Baronic students, sent to the Academy on exchange from worlds in the 
Interest, as well as via a diplomatic exchange program with the Union Navy. 
  
* 
Your character is a graduate of the Karrakin Naval Academy, recent or many years removed. 
There is a high likelihood that they are Karrakin, either noble or ignoble, though Union does 
have an officer candidate exchange program that sees a small number of high-scoring Union 
Navy cadets assigned to the KNA’s main campus on Karrakis for education, accreditation, and 
diplomatic cooperation. Every world in the Baronic Concern has a satellite campus of this main 
facility on Karrakis, and they all fight — sometimes literally during intra-Academy exercises — 
for prestige rankings.     
 
Gain one or two of the following background notes, or develop your own using these as 
inspiration:  
 
D6   Background Note 

1  The child of an Ignoble family, your admittance by lottery into the KNA was celebrated by the 
whole village. You were not the first in your village to win the lottery, but you were the first to 
win in many decades -- overnight, you became the pride and the hope of your village. You left 
determined to make them proud — have you? Did you ever return to your mother and father, 
your siblings and cousins? How high have you climbed since you left your little village — and 
have you fallen? How did your school fare in the Wargame? Were you a part of it, or did you 
watch from the observation decks?   

2  A noble child far from your House’s throne, your dream to attend the KNA was never in doubt; 

19 
  

the only question was how high you would climb. You may have made it into the Academy off 
of your own merits, but you’ll never know: your parents’ healthy donation to the Academy on 
your world will always be a chip on your shoulder. How do you carry that chip now that you’re 
deployed? Does it make you hesitant when you should be decisive, or is it not a big deal at all 
— just how it works in the Concern? How does being a noble in an integrated fighting force 
sit with you? How did your school fare in the Wargame? Were you a part of it, or did you 
watch from the observation decks?   

3  The flight to Karrakis was uneventful — most of it was spent in stasis anyways — and only 
added a year and change to your temporal slip by the time it was done. A Metropolitan from a 
Union Core world, Karrakis confirmed some of the things you feared, and surprised you in 
many other ways. How was it to train alongside Karrakin nobility and Ignobles? Did you make 
friends, or were you a loner? Do you choose to wear the Bronze, or have you hidden it (placed 
it in storage, or thrown it away)? How did your school fare in the Wargame? Were you a part 
of it, or did you watch from the observation decks?   

4  The hard part wasn’t getting accepted to the KNA, since their noncom school takes any 
ignoble that can pass a background check and marks the “enlist” box on the intake form. The 
hard part wasn’t even proving yourself on your quals and being promoted to the far more 
exclusive and demanding Officer Course. The hard part was getting off Sanjak with a clean 
ID. The hard part was passing on every shred of information you could to your handlers 
without getting caught. What are you after, and how deep is your cover willing to go? Now 
that you’ve graduated and posted to a ship, what are you waiting for? What are you seeking 
in your work to aid Free Sanjak, and how do you balance that mission with your cover story? 
How did your school fare in the Wargame? Were you a part of it, or did you watch from the 
observation decks?   

5  The heir to your House’s Barony, you shocked the family by eloping with an endowment to 
join the navy and be schooled in the KNA. Your family may have disowned you, publicly 
shamed you in an attempt to get you to drop out and come home, cut off your allowance, or 
sent assassins and hired mercenaries to come and forcibly take you back — have they? How 
have you resisted the pull to head home, and why? What is it that draws you to the naval life? 
How did your school fare in the Wargame? Were you a part of it, or did you watch from the 
observation decks?   

6  Always a hard worker, you were promoted from the enlisted course at your local KNA outpost 
to the main campus on your homeworld. There, in mixed noble/ignoble company for the first 
time, you found it difficult and exciting — when the walls of social class crack even a little bit, 
it’s like seeing light for the first time after a life of darkness. Who are the friends you’ve made 
at the KNA — regardless of class or nationality? Have you encountered them while deployed? 
Despite your rank in the navy, outside of it (and when dealing with House Companies) you are 
still seen as ignoble — how does this sit with you? How have you been changed by the 
integrated force structure of the Navy? How did your school fare in the Wargame? Were you 
a part of it, or did you watch from the observation decks?   
  
 
 
   

20 
  

Union Naval Corps  

The workhorse departments of Union’s armed forces and logistics projection, the Union Naval Corps 
manages the single largest school and training program for sailors and officers in the galaxy. From its 
core campuses in Cradle to its most distant satellite facilities in the Dawnline Shore, the Union Naval 
Corps can train even the most downwell ground pounder into a competent cosmonaut. You are one 
shining example of this institution. A volunteer from a Core or Diasporan world known to Union, you 
joined the Naval Corps and have trained for years, reorienting your perspective from woefully 
two-dimensional to the Z-Ax that separates naval personnel from the soldiers they transport. Your world 
may be where you were born, but the stars are your home; under Union’s banner, you head out to make 
the galaxy safe and whole.   
 
Graduates of the UNC can be Regulars or Auxiliary, and are well aware of Union’s mission, goals, and 
generally in favor of them. UNC graduates typically go on to serve for five years (subjective) in the Union 
Navy before being given the option of rotating off the line into a reserve unit near or on their homeworld, 
or extending their service in their branch. Personnel who serve on ships in the Union Navy, whether 
Auxiliary or Regular, all do a basic course of training at the most proximal UNC campus to them; most will 
train for a year or two depending on their specialization and need.   
 
* 
Union’s naval corps is a massive organization that draws its personnel from nearly every world 
known to Union, Core and Diasporan both. Most cosmonauts and officers serve for a period of 
about ten years — five active, and five on reserve — though many decide to join up for life; as 
a pilot, cosmonaut, or officer in the Union Navy, you may be a lifer or someone on a limited 
tour. In your time on the ‘lists, you’ve met people from every type of world, of every culture, 
and of every background.  
 
Gain one or two of the following background notes, or develop your own using these as 
inspiration:  
 
D6   Background Note 

1  Your life was comfortable; the stories you heard of the Diaspora were not. Out there, billions 
were doomed from birth to live under the boot of kings, or damned to suffer at the altar of the 
market. Life in the Diaspora the Second Committee left behind was not meant for living, but 
structured to extract as much labor and wealth from the many and funnel it to a powerful, 
greedy few. Your whole life you thought that needed to change, and your heart ached for the 
people of the Diaspora, your brothers and sisters but for time and distance. When you were of 
age, you talked with your parents and aunties and uncles, and told them of your decision: they 
wept, some sad, all proud, and one by one gave you their blessing. You would join the Navy, 
you would train as an officer and be posted to a ship, and then you would say goodbye to your 
family and your loves, your home and your world, and head out to the stars — others, you 
learned, needed your action more than your sympathy. How long as it been (realtime) since you 
left your Core world? Have you seen combat, where your ideals crash into reality? Have you 
killed, or just ordered others to fire? Do you ever want to return home, and if so, how long until 
you can? Who did you leave behind? 

2  When Union liberated your world, you resolved to return a debt you felt you owed. For every 

21 
  

friend lost before the red banner flew above the capitol, for every child who toiled in misery, for 
every comrade whose backs could never stand straight, you decided to take the black and 
enlist with Union’s navy. Ending centuries of injustice against your own people was only the 
start: the galaxy roiled with cruel tyrants who emmiserated their people for want of gold, and 
though it may never end, your struggle is that of the oppressed everywhere. The red flag flies 
above your world now; this is but a start. The galaxy will be free. How long has it been since 
you left your home, and do you ever receive communications from your family there? Are there 
any others from your world in your unit? Have you engaged the enemy yet, or are you on just 
out of training? When will you return, or is your fight not a deployment but a crusade?  

3  Once an enlisted crew, you rose from the pack to become a commissioned officer in the Union 
Navy. You’ve been on multiple interstellar cruises and seen combat once or twice. You know 
your ship from stem to stern. Now, in command for the first time, you’ll have to learn not only 
your crew, but the other ships under your command. How has that gone so far? Have you 
endeared yourself to the other ships as you have your crew? Among the other captains, is there 
one who you are particularly close with? If things get desperate, will you sacrifice other ships to 
preserve your own?  

4  Your education in the ways of life outside the Core was clarifying: though you grew up in 
comfort, you recognized early on that it was a comfort that not everyone in the galaxy enjoyed. 
After a tour in the Liberators — following in the footsteps of your parents — you transferred to 
logistics, and from there to orbital/interstellar support. Now on the CIC of your frigate, you have 
at your command some of the hardest power Union can bring to bear: ownership of the stars, 
and a mandate to right the most terrible wrongs. What was the clarifying experience that sent 
you to enlist in the Liberators? As a ground-pounder, well before your transfer, did you ever see 
combat? Has your faith in Union’s mission ever been shaken? What of your ground experience 
do you bring to naval combat?  

5  Your name carries weight in the Navy — much to your chagrin. Your ancestors were some of the 
last holdouts of the Second Committee, Naval personnel who defected or mutinied and steered 
their ships to bolster Harrison Armory’s Cradle reclamation force. Interdicted and destroyed by 
the Karrakin fleets in the Interest War, they never did strike Cradle, though their initiating act was 
enough to earn your name a black mark. Now, you work to repair that reputation. How does this 
desire manifest in your actions? Are you repentant, or rash? Do you wear your name on your 
sleeve, or do you suppress your identity? How do others receive you, and has this history 
gotten in the way of your progress in the Navy at all?  

6  Joining the Navy was only ever meant to be a rung on the political ladder — a way to ingratiate 
yourself to the system that could make you powerful. Union, you learned, spanned more than 
just your world, but thousands of worlds. Theirs was a kingdom larger than a single mind could 
comprehend, but not so large that a single mind couldn’t covet it. So you joined, you trained, 
you pledged, you served — only, in that time, you found your priorities… changed. How?  
 
 
 
   

22 
  

Purview Interstellar College 

A fresh face from an equally fresh institution, the first cadet corps out of the Purview Interstellar College 
have much to prove — you included. With a history of iconoclastic, daring naval exploits in their past, the 
naval forces of Harrison Armory never had a formal matriculation-to-finishing pipeline for naval officers; 
their crew and officers trained together, with commissions granted through purchase or promotion. Now, 
the Purview Interstellar Colleges have been established to formally integrate the makings of an Armory 
combat doctrine, to set their officer corps apart from what their high command sees to be rival schools in 
Union and the Baronies.  
 
In line with much of the Armory’s other state managed institutions, PIC campuses are startlingly 
cosmopolitan, with healthy representation from both Purview citizens and provisional, colonial citizenry. 
Commissions and admittance to the PIC, whether purchased or earned, must be backed up in the navy; 
space, unlike the legion’s atmospheric battlegrounds, is unforgiving. One must be competent enough at 
least to properly seal their suit and affix their oxygen before graduating with an ensign’s mark — “Proven 
On Ras Shamra” must mean something after all.  
 
Graduates of the PIC can be Purview Citizens or, upon graduation, Provisional Citizens of the Colonies. 
They have earned their commission via the two-year training program, and generally have a firm loyalty to 
the Armory; indeed, the PIC is an internal naval school, meant to train personnel who are already 
committed to serve in the Armory’s Navy or in an orbital/aero element of the legions.   
* 
 
Gain one or two of the following background notes, or develop your own using these as 
inspiration:  
 
D6   Background Note 

1  Your commission assigned and your docket assured, you headed off to the PIC with the rest 
of the boys. College was a grand time — the sport, the people, the air of the place — and 
your early years in the Navy much the same. Your first command now awaits, and there is talk 
of war in the Dawnline. Your chums make the bulk of the officer corps in this fleet, and back 
together it feels like college all over again - invincible, assured, and with glory ahead. Do you 
really believe this to be true? Of the old college gang, are there any who you have bad blood 
with? Or those who you care deeply for? You’ve been in the navy for a while now, but have 
you seen combat yet, or will this be your first taste?  

2  The Armory liberated your world decades ago, formalized your people in their Purview, and 
built your towns and villages into glittering modern cities. Your grandparents may have 
labored under a tyrant, and your parents in the fire of a war, but you have grown up in a 
golden age for your world. The first generation to enjoy the fruits of the Armory’s efforts, your 
parents and grandparents pushed you to give back: serve in the navy, see the homeworld of 
the liberators, and send your pay home — this is the road to prosperity, and if it means 
wearing their flag and learning their language, then so be it. You will climb as high as you can, 
prove your peoples’ worth in the Purview, and never again knuckle under the crown of a 
tyrant. How far have you traveled from your homeworld to the PIC? What of the time slip 
between your parents, friends, and family back home — how many years behind are you 
now? Are there others from your world in your class or on your ship? What was the 
development level of your world? Did you know of Union, or learn of them after enlisting? Do 
you plan to return home, or are you committed to the Naval life?  

23 
  

3  The Purview must be expanded, and it will take brave youths like yourself to expand it. Hailing 
from deep in the Purview, you and your comrades come from families descended from some 
of the first settlers on Ras Shamra — you bleed Armory aubergine, and have never known life 
outside of the Purview. Trained in the PIC, you are now posted to a ship — are you eager for 
combat? What do you know of Union and the Baronies? How far have you traveled in the 
Purview? What do you hope to gain from naval service — an aventure? A title? Land? Glory?  

4  After your home was attacked by the Barons and defended by the Armory, your world 
formally recognized the Armory as an ally and integrated their armed forces. Though you 
initially enlisted in your world’s ODF, you quickly found yourself operating in the Armory’s 
naval forces. Now, you fight for the aubergine banner of the Armory — how do you feel about 
this? Did you volunteer to extend your service, or are you still compelled to finish your current 
tour before decommissioning? Do you find the Armory to be an ally, or just another distant 
power? Did you lose anyone to the Baronies, or has your family made it through unscathed?  

5  It simply made soc-fin since to join. Socially, you could use the prestige upgrades; financially, 
well, it’s hard to argue with the debt wipe when you’re in so deep.  

6  Father made sure your accounts were squared and debts paid before you purchased your 
commission: lieutenant junior grade, as senior status could easily be won if you proved a 
quick study in the College. With a suite rented in the famous Terminus House, your staff 
moved in next door, and schedule set, your time in the College was quite invigorating. 
Networking, sport, tactics and strategies — you were a good student, as this practical 
knowledge would be employed in your eventual billet; perform admirably there, and you 
would be sure to rise in the Social as well as the ranks. Are you excited for combat? Did you 
remain aloof through College or did you make any friends? Did Father really square your 
debts before school? Which is more important to you — the Armory, or your rank within it?   
    
 
 
   

24 
  

The Honest Truth 

The Honest Truth, IPS-N’s free-flying premier naval college, orbits Argo Navis once every three 
Cradle-standard years; their officer corps are said to be “born” after one revolution, the time it takes for 
most candidates to begin and graduate Officer Training School. The Honest Truth began, as most IPS-N 
facilities did, as a merchant cosmonaut training school meant to better acquaint and equip IPS-N pilots 
with the necessary skills for navigating the stars and three-dimensional movement. With the advent of 
space piracy and IPS-N’s scaling up and centralizing of the interstellar freight and transportation sectors, 
the Honest Truth was expanded into one of the largest free-flying, non-orbital, spin-gravity stations in the 
galaxy in order to train and equip sufficient personnel.  
 
Now, with a permanent population in the millions and a student body hailing from around the galaxy, the 
Honest Truth is a buzzing hive of activity. Civilian students and military/security cadets learn side by side 
the rigors of null-atmosphere maintenance, zero-gee movement, high-gee movement, Z-Ax combat — 
every facet of naval and interstellar knowledge necessary to crew, pilot, and command ships in space.  
 
From its lectures on Cosmopolitan culture and atemporal existence, to its studies in naval history, to its 
sling-grav racing league to its ensign postings with Northstar’s GALCOMM Corps, the Honest Truth can 
produces some of the finest all-round cosmonauts in the galaxy — civilian or military. Graduates from the 
Honest Truth tend to be steadfast, dependable crewmembers and level-headed officers, with little time 
for the pageantry of the Academy or nationalistic fervor of the PIC. Many go on to serve tours as pilots in 
respected private security firms, in vital, long-haul freight companies, and among line ships in the Union 
Navy. Most, though, decide to keep close to home, and join up with IPS-N’s Trunk Security or Northstar 
GALCOMM.   
 
* 
Gain one or two of the following background notes, or develop your own using these as 
inspiration:  
 
D6   Background Note 

1  The Honest Truth is many things. A trade school. A talent pool for freighters and private 
security companies. A certificate program for crew from orbital/interstellar private escort 
outfits. For you, it was the way offworld. On your home, there was nothing but dead ends. 
You could toil in the factories or in the offices, or go an build a factory or and office, but none 
of that was for you. You wanted the stars, and IPS-N offered them to you. The Honest Truth 
was just that and more: via education there you earned yourself a posting — do you ever 
want to go home? The Honest Truth collects all types — did you make friends or enemies 
with someone who you’ll face on the opposite side? Was your time in the Honest Truth above 
board, or did you mix it up with the spacers on the metro decks? Do you have debts left to 
repay, or debts to collect?  

2  You were born on the Honest Truth, a spacer through and through. The downwell life has 
never appealed to you, and from the time you learned to navigate null-gee you’ve dreamt 
about crossing the stars. Space — all of its depth and breadth — holds far more wonder and 
promise than any one world. A tour in the navy will get you the pay and certifications you 
need — do you plan to stay for long? Will you return to the Honest Truth? Did anyone from 
your block or deck wind up going to the Truth’s flight school? Before your enlistment, did you 
work private? When you finally muster out, where will you go?  

25 
  

3  You were born on the Honest Truth, a spacer through and through — though yours was a 
comfortable life compared to most who call the metrodecks their home. Raised in one of the 
nicer spin grav sections, your parents were IPS-N officers, assigned to the Honest Truth from 
fair Carina herself. They always told you of the gentle world — her arcipelagos and warm, still 
seas, the white sand beaches and the skiffs that pole between islands, their home back on 
that sapphire sphere — and since you could fly and bound you’ve always wanted to go. Only, 
life and your calling have got in the way. Have your parents passed on, or have they retired to 
Carina? Do you see a route to the world, or are you afraid it will always be a dream? You grew 
up the child of well-positioned executive officers — did you engage at all with people from the 
metrodecks? Was your education private, or did your parents send you to one of the Honest 
Truth’s metrodeck public education centers? IPS-N’s executive dynasty programs, while 
largely bloodless, are deeply competitive — Do you have any rivals? 

4  Your downwell life was a rough one. Raised in the Diaspora, you scrapped and worked for 
what was yours. At fifteen you enlisted in a private mercenary company that hired any and all 
who wanted a ticket offworld — all you needed to know how to do was sign your name and 
state that you were of-age. You hit the stars after, slinging short-pattern guns as a marine in 
your PMC’s naval security ops. In time, you lead your section, and then looked for more: the 
Honest Truth was more. You earned an officer commission — what happened to your old 
PMC? In your “old” life, did you make any friends? Did you lose any? Did any come with you 
to the Honest Truth? Does anything from your old life haunt you?  

5  From Argo Navis straight to Trunk Security, you were born in the Company and will die for the 
Company — and you wouldn’t have it any other way. Union was built by IPS-N, and you 
mean to continue the tradition. Were you posted to the Honest Truth or born there? Has your 
loyalty and/or belief in the Company ever been tested? Do you have a grand design in mind, 
or are you happy to serve? As a Company Man/Woman/Person, what is your view of Union 
and its project? Do you see yourself as part of it, or apart from it?  

6  The Honest Truth taught you how to be more than just a cosmonaut on a long-haul freighter. 
In its curved gravity halls and metrodecks you learned to walk, talk, and bound like a spacer. 
In its vac-spheres and 1:1 simulation chambers, you learned to fly like you were born in the 
void. When your charter company asked you back, you refused — your lot was not hauling 
ice and chunks of rawmat, but with your new dream: to fly under your own banner. Will your 
old company send people after you? What of your old crew — any entanglements there? 
What dream do you hold most dear — stability, or exploration?  
 
 
   

26 
  

Senior Petrel 
Each Albatross makteba trains their Petrels differently, following millenia of their own internal doctrine 
coupled with shared records from the Albatross’s long history of interstellar travel and all-theater combat. 
Petrels — cadet Loyal Wings in waiting — train in tight-knit groups of no more than a dozen, organized 
under their senior Loyal Wing and a retinue of advisors. The Petrel’s course is set from the moment they 
adopt their cadet garb: a shorn head, simple clothing, and unadorned hardsuits mark one as a Petrel, a 
squire destined to be a Wing once their training is complete. In close teams these Petrels learn to crew 
Albatross assault carriers or light cruisers, or how to pilot light and heavy strikeships. The bravest — 
though the most likely to die in their service, most Albatross know — are schooled in the maintenance 
and support of their Loyal Wing’s mechanized chassis, to one day pilot their own.  
 
Albatross Petrels are young, ranging from early teens to early twenties, and are rarely found operating 
outside of official Albatross missions. Petrel crew and officers do not have formal ranks like conventional 
stellar navies — instead, they lean on deeply ingrained systems of cultural seniority and camaraderie, 
where command roles not occupied by Loyal Wings are designated to the most qualified Petrel for the 
job. Generally speaking only Petrels near the end of their training — around their early twenties — ever 
serve on the line. These Senior Petrels command subline ships, act as executive officers for Loyal or 
Honored Wings in command of capital ships, or fly spearships of their own in support of mounted Wings.   
 
*    
Gain one or two of the following background notes, or develop your own using these as 
inspiration:  
 
D6   Background Note 

1  You trained with your Loyal Wing until they were killed in combat; nearly ready yourself, you 
took up their command and completed a desperate objective successfully. This was proof 
enough for your honored wings back home — they promoted you then, and you have served 
with distinction ever sense.   

2  Your Loyal Wing, after terrible injury and many years of recovery, now lends their skills to 
Albatross theater command; you became their protege, and learned by their side  

3  As a child you displayed a proclivity for 3-dimensional navigation, besting children many 
years your senior in spheregames; you were fast-tracked for a command position, and 
learned alongside Petrels and Wings the advanced techniques for space combat under the 
Albatross doctrine. Your brilliance was never in question — only the height to which you 
would rise.  

4  The Albatross rescued you from a lost and otherwise derelict spaceship — the victim of 
piracy. Your family dead and barely remembered anyways, you were raised in the makteba as 
one of the Albatross. Given the choice to track down the ones who murdered your family, and 
to seek out any who remain, you turned it down — the Albatross were your family. Baba who 
took you in was the only father you ever knew, and Mama your only mother. In time you might 
bring justice to those who killed your blood parents, but you are Albatross now you will never 
want for time, or feel fear again.   

5  You fought many years as a Petrel and a Loyal Wing, earning your own armor through 
courage, loyalty, and sacrifice. Now you have your own clutch of young Petrels to guide, and 

27 
  

it is with pride and comeradly love that you seek to teach them to be strong, swift, and brave.  

6  They were standoffish at first, but your years of service in the Liberators coupled with your 
dedication to the Albatross’ mission won you respect and, eventually, admission.  
 
 
Cosmopolitan Security Cluster  
Like planetary defense forces and the Albatross’ makteba system, many Cosmopolitans train in z-axis 
navigation and null-grav maneuvering in a mixed formal/informal setting. From a young age, 
Cosmopolitan children are schooled by their parents and teachers in all aspects of interstellar life, from 
donning and doffing hardsuits, to starship maintenance, to nearlight calculations, and orbital dynamics. 
Theirs is a life removed from the “normal” time of the rest of the galaxy, lonely to some but rich in parallel 
histories, stories, and legends — Cosmopolitans know the void of space, the worlds that dot the stars, 
and the families that trek across time.  
 
Though they may seem mysterious or anachronistic to Diasporans and Metropolitans, Cosmopolitans on 
occasion decide to apply their considerable skills and comfort with interstellar travel and spatial 
navigation to the navies and security forces of non-Cosmopolitan states and entities. As “normal time” 
humans make a great sacrifice in stepping out of synch with their families, so too do Cosmopolitan crew 
and officers — only in the opposite direction. As they age in “normal” time, their families — should they 
ever encounter them again — never seem to have aged beyond the time that they left them. This is a 
comfort to some, and a great tragedy to others.  
 
Cosmopolitans often must translate their “real” age to their subjective age, but few who step from their 
families young have a reason other than tragedy. Most desynched Cosmopolitans would place 
themselves in middle age — often old for their ranks, but with tremendously valuable experience and 
competency.   
 
* 
Gain one or two of the following background notes, or develop your own using these as 
inspiration:  
 
D6   Background Note 

1  How many years has it been? You stopped paying attention to time outside of your own 
conical reference some time ago. When people ask, you just tell them you’re onanon — a 
Cosmopolitan word that means outside of time, but subject to it. Yours is a life free from the 
constraints of governance, material greed, and fear of a limited existence. Who were you 
before you became a Cosmopolitan? What happened to the life and world you left behind? 
Were you running from something? Was your time-slip an accident, or the consequence of a 
necessary journey? What drives you to keep flying? Do you even remember your old home? 
Do you have a desire to return to your old home?   

2  You were born at nearlight, aboard a goodship as it burned at the edge of realspace on its 
way to the next world that would host it. You grew up among the decks and holds of your 
families’ ship, learning as a child would learn to walk downwell the proper way to fly in 
null-gee. Your grace and lithe strength found you placement as one of your goodship’s 

28 
  

security officers, escorting your traders and decklords when they went downwell or docked 
up on a station. You’ve seen scraps, and learned to pilot for yourself. What drew you away 
from this comfortable, normal life? Does your home still fly the stars, or has a terrible fate 
befallen it? Do you keep in contact with others from your goodship, or are you on your own? 
Your goodship dealt in trade and travel — did you ever escort someone to a unique or 
dangerous location? Did you ever encounter los Voladores, or other strange things in deep 
space?  

3  You have become Cosmopolitan by action, though still hold your homeworld dear. You joined 
a long-haul ship as crew, eager for a new start offworld, and found that time-slip was a small 
price to pay to see the worlds of humanity. How long have you been flying? You have fond 
memories of your homeworld, so why did you leave? How did you come to work security, and 
how did you learn to fly? Did you ever have your own ship, or is this your first posting?  

4  You were taken by raiders, made Cosmopolitan by their abduction. Freed and returned home, 
you found your life — your work, friends, family, even your home and familiar surroundings — 
gone, paved over and developed in the time it took you to come home. Relativity is cruel in 
this way: you expected to lose a year or so, nothing more, and instead you lost decades. For 
a while you scraped out an existence on your homeworld, but even with a small group of 
others who had been pulled from their time, it was lonely. You decide that your life is up there, 
out among the stars — the you that was loved on this world died in space, and a new “you” 
took their place. With this origin, do you fight for others or for yourself? Do you search for the 
raiders or entity that took you? Do you have any physical reminders of your home and family, 
or have you thrown those away (or never had them to begin with)? Do you keep the customs 
of the time that once was yours, or are you able to adapt to the new temporality?  

5  Out from the edge of known space, you have made your way into the core and back. There is 
a galaxy of wonders and terrors, and you seek to see them all. Hailing from a long line of 
Cosmopolitans, you don’t feel the same tension and unease as those who only dip their toe in 
the time-slip. You’re a true onanon, and your goodship time is your anchor; the onanon 
fellows and families you meet again and again are your community; you may be few, on the 
galactic scale, but you’re almost eternal. What drew you to the realtime struggle? Why fight 
when you had found a kind of timeless, wandering peace — who or what threatened that, and 
when will you feel safe enough to stop fighting?  

6  There is a death out there, waiting for you. As long as you fly, you can run from it. Time is not 
concrete — after all, how can there be a division between real and subjective? If you keep 
flying, you’ll find a time in which you can divorce the mind from its container. How far are you 
willing to go? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
29 
  

Battlegroup’s Setting 
What your character(s) know, expect, fear, and enjoy 
 
Lancer and Lancer: Battlegroup are set some 15,000 years in the future from the present day. 
In that time, humanity has fallen and risen, been organized under multiple different states and 
entities, and now has spread out across much of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way. Lancer’s 
future imagines a utopia in the making: the capitol worlds of the galaxy are post-scarcity and 
post-capital, but the peripheries do not yet enjoy the same privilege. Union, the galactic 
administration, is working to change that, though many entities with an interest in preventing 
that realization stand in their way. The world of Lancer: Battlegroup is one where technology 
has advanced far beyond that of our modern day, but unevenly: the following paragraphs 
summarize the most setting’s important conceits to help orient players that may be unfamiliar 
with Lancer’s universe.  
 
Starships are — with rare exception — outfitted with a drive system called a Nearlight Drive, 
which allows them to rapidly accelerate nearly to the speed of light, but not beyond. Starships 
cannot break the superluminal barrier (i.e. go “faster than light”, or FTL) on their own, though 
FTL travel does exist in the Lancer universe. The only widely understood method of FTL 
involves travelling through blinkspace, a parallel space that is little understood, but 
manipulated and traversed all the same by humanity. Blinkspace travel is facilitated by a 
far-spanning network of interconnected blink gates, which allow ships to journey from gate 
to gate all-but instantaneously. The interstellar administration known as Union controls the 
blink gate network. Control over the Blink is a key pillar of Union’s socioeconomic and military 
power, and one of the guarantors of their galactic hegemony. Because of this, Union works to 
expand the Blink via the creation and installation of new blink gates, reuniting the forgotten 
worlds of the populated galaxy once more.  
 
When not using the Blink, ships must travel between the stars using slower-than-light Nearlight 
drives. This is conventional travel: even close to the speed of light, humans traveling through 
space are subjected to relativistic time dilation, which results in a divergence between their 
subjective time (time as they personally experience it) and realtime (time as it passes and is 
recorded by Union). Most nearlight interstellar ships travel around .995 c, which translates to a 
rough 1:10 time ratio – that is to say, for every subjective year spent in transit at .995 c, roughly 
ten years pass in realtime (or for every day in transit, ten pass back home; for every hour, ten; 
and so on). Time dilation may not be a part of your game, but it is a key assumption in Lancer’s 
setting — the people who enlist, follow tradition, or volunteer for naval or logistical service 
know this cost before they sign, and do so anyways.  
 
This bifurcation of time has led to the rise of three major galactic cultures: the Cosmopolitans, 
the Metropolitans, and the Diasporans. Cosmopolitans are people who have spent the 
majority of their lives in interstellar space, whether in transit for a purpose or due to a nomadic 
cultural preference/organization. Cosmopolitans usually operate in tight-knit family groups or 

30 
  

other small communal organizations, working and living in a single ship or in a cohesive group 
of many. Though they may be divorced from the “normal” flow of time that the rest of humanity 
operates in, they are all together in their own time. Metropolitans are the many who live rooted 
in the Galactic Core — though may enjoy an interstellar cruise one in a while, or be deployed 
on an interstellar naval campaign, their lives are tied to their homeworld. Being a Core World, 
their homeworld is post-scarcity and post-capital, aware of Union and participating in galactic 
politics under the umbrella of that administration (though likely via their own global government 
and with their own internal politicking). Diasporans — still the majority of humanity — live 
outside of the Galactic Core, populating worlds settled under the First and Second 
Committees of Union then abandoned to history; now organized under its Third Committee, 
Union works to peacefully recontact and re-integrate the Diaspora once more as full members 
of its Utopian Pillars.   
 
As ships can utilize blinkspace to travel faster than light, so too can information be transmitted 
through blinkspace in this fashion via the omninet. While omninet access remains tied to 
necessary broadcast infrastructure, the omninet allows for stable lag-free communication 
ignorant of distance, and forms the backbone by which Union effects cultural, economic, and 
military cohesion across the vastness of space. Ships travelling at nearlight speeds will 
periodically need to slow to more normal velocities in order to allow data transfers to sync with 
realtime, but also enjoy near-instant communication with other vessels and worlds via the 
omninet. Other conventional methods of communication exist — radio, light-based 
communications, and so on — but unlike the omninet they are subject to the normal 
constraints of understood physics.  
 
Stable, constant artificial gravity remains elusive in Lancer and Lancer: Battlegroup. Gravitic 
technologies exist, but are only capable of manipulating or producing artificial gravity for short 
durations. As a result, spaceships and stations must rely on other methods to provide gravity 
for their inhabitants; most spaceships utilize thrust gravity, where steady acceleration provides 
stable and consistent artificial gravity, while stations often use spin gravity to achieve the 
same effect. When unable to maintain steady acceleration, crews will either utilize magnetic 
boots or simply maneuver throughout a ship in zero-gravity, and most ships are designed to 
accommodate this. Ships do make use of gravitic technology for one very important function 
however: kinetic compensators or k-comp systems use bursts of artificially generated 
contragravity in order to offset the tremendous acceleration forces applied to a ship’s crew by 
sudden nearlight bolts or nearlight ejections. Without k-comp systems, such nearlight 
maneuvers would be lethal to all those aboard. 
 
Artificial Intelligence exists in the form of Companion/Concierge Systems, but as advanced 
as they may be Comp/Cons are not truly sentient. A more advanced AI equivalent, Non-Human 
Persons or NHPs, exist as well, forming a foundation upon which the infrastructure that powers 
humanity has been built. From civil infrastructure management to warfare, NHP operate at all 
levels of human organization. In Battlegroup, NHP are encountered on naval vessels, which 
carry an NHP aboard to handle a variety of tasks, gunnery and navigation chief among them. 

31 
  

NHPs are truly sentient, having their own unique personalities and capacity for independent, 
novel thought, and their unique blinkspace-derived nature grants some of them even more 
impressive abilities beyond that. To most people in the galaxy, NHPs are simply advanced 
next-generation AI systems; the true origin and nature of NHPs is rather more complicated, 
more information on which can be found in the Lancer core rulebook. NHPs must periodically 
undergo a restoration process known as cycling in order to prevent a gradual process of 
increasing instability known as cascading. 
 
Regrettably, war remains a continued part of human history and events. The state of naval 
warfare currently exists at a point where weapons technology has swiftly outpaced defensive 
technology, resulting in the contemporary naval combat doctrines presently in use. Ballistic 
weapons using chemical and electromagnetic propellant systems, directed energy weapons, 
guided missiles, torpedoes, drones, and more are regularly employed, along with exotic 
paracausal technologies that defy conventional science. Many larger ships mount long-spool 
weapons, tremendously powerful main cannons that require a significant charging time but 
result in unimaginable devastation when fired, overwhelming even active defenses such as 
projected energy shields, electromagnetic screens, or stasis barriers. Carriers exist as well, 
launching wings of fighters, bombers, and mounted chassis — mechs outfitted with external, 
disposable drives — to launch precision strikes against enemy vessels, while boarding troops 
are sent to attack enemy ships from the inside. 
 
This is the point in history where your characters will enter the spotlight, and the command 
decisions they make will determine whether the crews they lead into battle live or die. 

   

32 
  

All Vessels Engaged 

“Orientation. Orientation is going to kill you or save your life, depending on how fast you understand it,” 
Fleetmaster Lecuyer-Orion said. He paced the lecture floor, addressing the assembled cadets.  
“Combat and navigation in a three-dimensional environment is antithetical to our primate brain; 
we’re not fish. Our natural impulse is to orient visually, to seek an immutable horizon and draw our 
orientation from that. ‘Up’, ‘down’ — these are empirical things to us, a species that evolved with its feet 
on the ground. In space, this primate desire to see your horizon will get you killed.”  
Mayura Song took notes — she drew spheres, shading with cross-hatching. Fleetmaster Orion 
continued.  
“As pilots and officers in command of ships, remember this — especially you born down a well 
— for you, there is no horizon. Do not attempt to orient by static visual reference — ‘up’ and ‘down’ 
changes constantly. So how do you orient? Which way is ‘up’ and which way is ‘down’?” Orion crossed 
his arms and dropped his lecture voice. ‘Not a rhetorical question, cadets, I’ll need an answer before we 
move along.’  
Song finished shading. It was an easy question — Baronic decorum lead the others to hesitation, 
which is why there was still silence. She didn’t bother to raise her hand. “Fleetmaster,” Song’s voice cut 
the silence. “You can orient by your gut. ‘Down’ is always paired to thrust: ‘Down’ is always behind you.” 
Fleetmaster Orion smiled. “Good. Correct, Cadet Song, and well said. The rest of you, remember 
this: ‘down’ is always behind. When you are in space, you only ever head one direction: up. Orient 
yourselves accordingly.”  
Orion nodded, and the slide behind him changed, and Song started in on a new sphere.   
* 
 
Battlegroup is all about the engagement. Pre-battle positioning, acceleration and deceleration, 
chasing down enemy fleets, navigation from one’s deployment zone to the battle line — all of 
that is assumed to have already happened by the time the first dice are rolled. Battlegroup is 
about the moments where the unpredictability gap is about to close — and the climax when it 
does. It is best to assume the following opening scaffolding for your players, and then let them 
place their ships in context as they would prefer: 
 
The enemy is out there, somewhere. Your instruments place them around a hundred thousand 
kilometers distant — give or take a few hundred, as their sensor bafflers fight your own — not yet 
visible on optics, but certainly within range. Radiation and comms interceptors light up, and long-range 
suites highlight their ships in wireframe. Their hulls, stark unnatural crimson boxes against the starless 
black.  
 
The chase is done. The enemy, sighted. The battle is engaged.  

  
Assume the following about the beginning of each combat session of Battlegroup: 
 
● The field of battle is set, and the enemy fleet will not continue to flee or maneuver away 
(at least, at first); if you are defending, you either cannot outrun the enemy ships or 

33 
  

cannot abandon your objective. Your orders are clear: engage the enemy and defeat 
them. 
 
● Any movement is — on balance — going to be blueshift movement: as a player you of 
course have the leeway to determine the best way to approach the enemy, but your 
overall movement will take you closer to the enemy or the battle’s objective. 
 
● Movement is relative to the enemy and player-directed: range bands describe not 
objective placement, but your battlegroup’s relative position to the enemy.  
 
● Positioning along the X, Y, and Z axis of space is important narratively, but unless 
movement takes a battlegroup between range bands, it will not impact mechanics.  

 
SITREP 
"Good morning Commander,” the ship’s NHP greets you. “I trust you slept well. Shipboard time is 0800 
Cradle. I've taken the liberty of compiling a strategic overview for your perusal, it's waiting for you on 
your personal terminal. Estimated time to terminal contact is 36 hours. Crew reactivation is at 43% and 
proceeding on schedule, weapons systems are undergoing pre-combat diagnostics, and I've had coffee 
sent to your quarters. Do you need anything else?" 
 
Before the actual fighting begins, one must plan. Cycled up from stasis, you join your fellow 
officers in Legionspace or on the flight deck and discuss your objectives in the battle that has 
already begun.  
 
STAGE ONE: BRIEFING 
First, the GM (or a player) fills in the party on any and all relevant information that the player 
characters will know going into the fight. Enemy force strength, composition, and direction. 
Environments, complications, and allied forces. The length and detail of this moment may vary: 
as long as the parameters of the mission before them are clearly laid out (for the players, not 
necessarily their characters!) then the SITREP is complete. 
 
As the GM, your responsibility here is to provide your players with some amount of information 
which they can use to plan their fleet construction and strategies around accordingly. The most 
important part of this is that you should never lie to the players. You don’t necessarily have 
to inform them of every single detail of the enemy’s composition or environmental 
complications, holding some information close to your chest is fine and even expected; if the 
players want to have more detailed information about upcoming engagements, there are ways 
for them to obtain it. But what you shouldn’t do is, for example, inform the players to expect a 
heavy presence of carriers and strike craft, then include no carriers or strike craft whatsoever. 

34 
  

The information you provide to the players here, however detailed it is or isn’t, should be 
truthful.   
 
For example, during this stage of play you may choose to inform the players that the upcoming 
engagement will be played using the Defensive Emplacements battle modifier and that the 
enemy fleet commander’s flagship is a Breakwater with the Den Mother Template, an NPC 
you’ve been wanting to try. While some groups will appreciate that degree of forthrightness, it’s 
also possible (and may be preferable) to convey this information to players in a more narrative 
fashion as well: 
 
“The Laguna shipyards represent a highly fortified target objective, as well as a vital link in the 
enemy’s logistical capabilities. Recon pickets indicate that local space anti-ship defense 
batteries have been established on a nearby moon which provide the shipyards with effective 
support fire from all optimal approach vectors. Avoidance isn’t an option here, you’ll just have 
to weather the storm. In addition, an enemy supercarrier we’ve identified as the Ardent Spirit 
has been tasked with providing additional security for Laguna at this time. NAVCOMM 
anticipates heavy strike craft activity in the AO, and recommends adjusting secondary 
armament loadouts accordingly.” 
 
As part of the pre-engagement in (or out!) of character briefing, the GM must inform the players 
— or work with the players to define — the success condition of the impending battle as well. 
Is it to utterly eliminate the enemy fleet? Or is it to escort a VIP through a blockade? Is it to 
board and capture a certain number of ships? Or is it to defend a station from attack? To 
defeat a network of planetary defenses? Or repel an invasion fleet?  
 
As long as the parameters of the mission have been clearly laid out (SITREP) and the win 
conditions of the engagement explained and agreed upon (OBJ CONFIRM), then you’ve 
established the plan before the action. Next, you’ll need to establish or agree upon the stakes 
of the engagement.  
 
Example Objectives 
d20  Morning, GROUPCOM. Briefing Is On Your Desk.  

1-2  [Enemy faction battlegroup] is inbound on a HIGH CONFIDENCE intercept trajectory. Has 
not responded with CLEAR/OK to our hails and is HOSTILE. Looks to be a stand up fight, 
just waiting for your go.   

3-4  [Allied faction ship] has issued a coalition-wide call for assistance, and reports [enemy 
faction battlegroup] bearing and blue on their coordinates. Our task is to intervene and 
rescue the allied ship. 

5-6  FLEETCOM has pushed an immediate NL-STOP order to your battlegroup: [enemy faction] 
in local bubble have diverted assets to bomb [allied ground forces] from orbit. Re-orient 
and proceed to break the orbital forces.  

35 
  

7-8  Nearing SAFELAND; as predicted, [enemy faction] has dispatched a number of ships to 
attempt an intercept. This was a fight you expected: now it’s time to square up.  

9-10  VIP ship reports multiple hostile actors aboard their vessel and requests aid; complicating 
things, [enemy faction] ships have just realigned and launched torpedoes, targeting your 
ships — It’s going to be a brawl over the VIP.   

11-12  You’ll be realigning to realspace within two light seconds of [DLS World]; [Enemy Faction] 
has ships in orbit preparing to bombard. Remove them.  

13-14  BREAK BREAK BREAK CONTACTS <1ls DISPERSE AND REALIGN — TOO MANY ON 
SCOPE — JUMP WHEN ABLE TO COBALT-ELM-GREEN — ORIENT ON MY RADIAN 
AND PUNCH THROUGH THIS LINE!  

15-16  At 0900 hours our long-range monitoring stations detected HOSTILE INTENT ACTORS on 
a HIGH CONFIDENCE intercept trajectory towards [Friendly Station]; multiple heavyweight 
contacts bearing dead on, multiple lightweight contact indicate low-choke k-clouds 
inbound. Fire interdiction and prepare to defend the station. .  

17-18  Reports of a [known enemy ship or group] have been confirmed by system-local 
monitoring stations. Proceed with caution and intent: [known ship or group] is hostile, 
dangerous, and appears to be moving with a specific objective in mind.  

19-20  This will be a stand up fight: [enemy faction]’s fleet is traveling well within predicted 
trajectories along a known radian — engage and eliminate. Win the day, captain.  
 
 
STAGE TWO: LEGIONCAST 
What happens if the engagement goes well? What happens if it goes poorly? Before any action 
begins, be sure to take time to establish, as a party, clear consequences for the positive, 
negative, or neutral outcomes of what is about to happen. If the players fail to protect the VIP 
ship against the enemy fleet — what happens? If the players fail to board and capture the 
target ship — what happens? If the players cannot buy enough time for civilian ships to 
evacuate a world ahead of an enemy invasion fleet — what happens?  
 
In Battlegroup, the stakes of a single fight can be appreciably large — larger, even, than in 
Lancer. You and your players are engaging with the strength of states and corpros; they are not 
simply a single squad of powerful mechs, but a battlegroup of ships that could, if their 
weapons were turned towards terrible ends, destroy worlds. The consequences of failure may 
mount, or they may be isolated to the sector of space that they occupy, but in most cases they 
should be known and agreed upon by the party (out of character) before heading forward. 
Once the players are informed on the engagement to come, have clear knowledge of their 
objective, and know what could happen as a consequence — i.e. know the strategic big 
picture — they can begin to plan their tactical approach.  
 
   

36 
  

STAGE THREE: PREPARATION  

Captains confer and plan in legionspace, matching their ship’s tunings to their compatriots’, 
sharing information on hardcopy munitions, printing schedules, and the specifics of their group 
comps. Pilots on flight decks bid farewell to friends, with promises of drinks and downtime 
after the fight — if they make it back — and then hurry to their ships for pre-flight checks.  
 
At this point of the pre-engagement, players may, if they like, make in-hull modifications to their 
ship(s)4 — modifications like swapping weapons, systems, and ordinance, along with any 
“narrative” considerations they so choose (ordering onboard marines to certain modules of 
their ship, describing the general orientation or formation of their ships, describing where their 
character is and what they are doing, and so on). 
 
This stage is also where the players will either select a Posture to determine the starting 
position of their fleet or take Uptime Actions, unique actions which allow them to better 
prepare for the coming battle. 
 
Generally speaking, you’ll likely not skip any of four steps outlined so far. However, in some 
special circumstances — say, a surprise attack that catches the players off-guard, or the 
introduction of some esoteric/unknown weapon that yanks them from cruising speed, and so 
on — you will jump directly to Engagement. Even in that case, you’ll likely want to do a little 
out of character run through of steps 1-4, just so that everyone is on board as a player and can 
start to figure out how their characters will respond to such a sudden engagement.  
 
STAGE FOUR: ENGAGEMENT 
Once everyone has had a chance to prepare and is ready to begin the battle, it’s time to move 
on from the SITREP phase to Engagement. This is where the players will have their 
battlegroups and their strategies put to the test as they make contact with enemy forces. 
Engagement is outlined in the following sections, which detail the step-by-step process of 
Battlegroup’s tactical combat from round to round. 
 
The GM will set the scene and describe the situation as the players arrive at the initial staging 
area. Perhaps the enemy fleet has been engaged in battle with other forces prior to their arrival, 
and the wreckage of destroyed ships is slowly drifting across local space endlessly 
broadcasting automatic emergency beacons on repeat. The fight may take place in a unique 
region, blanketed by nebulas or near an asteroid belt. Your comms officers may begin picking 
up panicked distress calls from refugee vessels fleeing ahead of approaching forces. Whatever 
the situation, now is the time to man action stations and prepare for combat. 
 

4
Generally, players would not be able to wholly change the hulls they already have equipped. However, 
as a GM, you have fiat to allow them to do so — perhaps they are a division of a much larger fleet, with 
moving printers or a nearby shipyard.  
37 
  

STAGE FIVE: AFTERMATH 

When the final ships have fled, surrendered, or been destroyed, the battle is over. Now comes 
the unenviable task all commanders inevitably must face; assessing losses and tallying the 
fallen. Naval combat is a destructive and deadly affair, and even the winning side will often 
emerge bloodied as a result. 
 
After each combat engagement, players will have earned a chance to rest, repair, and refit their 
ships as needed. Even a single battle between fleets is a monumental affair, and players should 
not be expected to fight more than once without a chance for repairs; pitting a heavily 
damaged fleet against a fully stocked enemy force is likely to result in the players’ ships being 
completely annihilated. 
 
Narratively the time spent between engagements can vary, but it can range from weeks to even 
months spent undergoing repairs at a shipyard, restocking munitions, and taking on 
replacement crew. Printers, advanced matter processor/fabricator systems, make the task of 
repairing and refitting even massive capital ship hulls much easier than it might otherwise be, 
but these systems can only expedite the process so much. The logistics of ship repair is, 
thankfully, something which the players can leave to other characters to handle while their own 
characters reflect on recent events, enjoy much needed R&R, pursue personal goals, and 
prepare for their next assignment. 
 
This isn’t a necessary step but can also be helpful for players (and their characters) to discuss 
the recent engagement and think about what worked and what didn’t during the session. If 
there were any notable moments that were fun, interesting, or exciting it can be helpful to talk 
about them here as well. Not only is it good feedback for the GM but also can help validate 
your fellow players. If you’re going to take this step, remember to be respectful – every session 
has the potential to be someone’s first session or first experience with a situation, encounter, or 
choice. Battlegroup is a collaborative game, not a competitive one. 

 
   

38 
  

Engagement 
Engagement in Battlegroup is active play, which begins after the SITREP phase of a session. 
Engagement, like SITREP, occurs across a number of steps: the Logistics, Impact, Action, and 
Boarding Steps. Taken together, each set of these steps represents a round.  
 
The Logistics Step is when players and NPCs in command of Battlegroups count down the 
timers on powerful charge weapons and payloads, as well as restocking and resupplying 
depleted systems or utilizing other special abilities which occur during this step of play.  
 
The Impact Step is where those ponderous charge weapons and payloads that have 
completed their cycles during previous rounds finally hit and deal damage. These are some of 
the most devastating weapons in use in current naval combat, and their use frequently decides 
battles all by themselves. 
 
The Action Step is where individual battlegroups will maneuver, trade blows with one another, 
launch fighters and order subline ships to perform attack runs, and so on. Battlegroups will 
alternate turns between players and NPCs until everyone has had a chance to perform their 
actions for the round. 
 
Lastly, the Boarding Step follows any boarding actions launched by players or NPCs. Marines, 
combat subalterns, and mechs fight their way through cramped corridors to disrupt and 
disable enemy ships in the hopes of turning the tide of battle in their favor. 
 
After the Boarding Step, the round ends, and the next round begins at the start of the Logistics 
Step. 
 
Optional 0 Step: Posture 
 
Choose the Posture of your battlegroup as the fleet heads towards combat. See the Posture section 
for more information.  
 
Optional 0 Step: Make an Entrance 
 
Roll on the Make an Entrance table to see where your battlegroup drops out of nearlight. See the Gyre 
section for more.  
 
A Round of Play 
1. Logistics Step 
2. Impact Step 
3. Action Step 
4. Boarding Step 
  
39 
  

As with the core Lancer game, players decide their own turn order and act first during any 
given step, followed by NPCs, alternating between players and NPCs until everyone has acted, 
then moving on to the next step in sequence. 
 
Players individually control battlegroups, groups of capital ships, subline escorts, and strike 
craft, all acting under orders from their character. Together, a party of battlegroups composes a 
fleet. 
 

 
Detail of a Round 
Uptime Play will go here later once it’s more fleshed out, or maybe somewhere else, either way 
it will happen before all this 
 
Combat in Battlegroup is intended to be slower and a bit more thoughtful than combat in 
Lancer, giving a bird’s-eye view of battles between fleets of powerful warships. Where Lancer 
is intended to capture the immediacy and chaos of fast-paced combat between elite mech 
pilots, Battlegroup seeks to capture the sense of planning and inevitability of a capital ship 
engagement. Some weapons take multiple rounds to reach full charge or to hit their targets, 
building to a destructive climax in which both sides may ultimately wind up battered and 
bloodied. Long-spool lances and torpedoes crash into the flanks of opposed frigates, 
kill-clouds blow through wings of fighters, boarding actions slowly crawl up the spinal corridors 
of carriers and battleships, and so on.  
 
First, the Logistics Step: 
1. All Charge weapons remove 1 charging counter. All active Payload weapons remove 1 
flight counter. If a Reloading weapon or system has been used, it removes 1 refresh 
counter. 
2. Any other systems, maneuvers, etc, that would trigger or be used during the Logistics 
step do so now.  
3. Use this step to make sure everyone is on the same page — there is plenty of narrative 
“free time” for in-character communications, movement inside one’s ship, and other 
non-tactical character moments. Players can ask questions of the GM and other players 
here — feel free to narratively abstract those questions and answers as the characters 
consulting with their NHP and other officers in the fleet legion.  
 
Note that the three major types of counters handled during this step, charging, flight, and 
refresh, all count down to 0. This is to make it easier for everyone to see at a glance which of 
these significant weapons and systems are close to being ready to use. If a Charge weapon 
has 2 charging counters remaining, then that tells you exactly how many rounds remain before 
it’s able to fire. 

40 
  

Then, the Impact Step: 

1. Any Charge attacks that have completed their charging cycle and reached 0 may reset 
their charge to fire now, rolling to hit, or hold their attack for later. Decide the order of 
this similar to how you would decide turn order, first a player with a charged weapon 
may elect to fire or hold, then an NPC with a charged weapon, and so on, but do not 
roll damage yet. Payload attacks whose travel times have reached 0 automatically hit 
now. 
2. Roll damage for any incoming Charge or Payload attacks that need damage rolls and 
assign the total incoming damage to the correct ships and/or battlegroups.   
3. Then, if the incoming attacks can be Interdicted, do so now. Roll your battlegroup’s 
total Interdiction score and apply the result to incoming damage that can be interdicted 
however you like. Interdiction is only rolled once against all incoming attacks, which 
makes timing multiple salvos to arrive simultaneously a powerful strategy for ensuring 
damage gets through. 
 
Then, the Action Step.  
1. Turns alternate between players and NPCs. Each active battlegroup makes Maneuvers 
and Tactics. 
2. Any attacks made during this step are resolved immediately. 
3. Effects or conditions that occur or are cleared at the end of the turn happen when a 
player or NPC concludes all actions they wish to perform. Boarded ships may now roll 
against a boarding unit’s Tenacity score in order to repel them. 
 
During the Action Step, players choose their order and then act, alternating with NPCs. Players 
may perform one Maneuver (a primary action) and one Tactic (a quick action). If you like, you 
may forego your Maneuver in order to use two Tactics instead. 
 
The basic Maneuvers available to all player battlegroups are:  
 
All Ahead Full! (Maneuver)  

Battlegroup Maneuver 
Your battlegroup may advance one range band forward, and you may fire one Primary 
weapon before or after moving. 
 
Open Fire! (Maneuver)  

Battlegroup Maneuver 
Your battlegroup remains in its current range band, devoting all extra power to its weapons. 
You may fire one Superheavy weapon, or up to two different Primary weapons. 
 

41 
  

Retrograde Burn! (Maneuver)  

Battlegroup Maneuver 
Your battlegroup may fall back one range band or you may ignore the next enemy effect that 
would force it to move until the end of your next turn. You also become Bolstered, which 
means you gain +1d6 Interdiction and all ships in your battlegroup gain +2 Defense until the 
end of your next turn. 
 
Ramming Speed! (Maneuver)  

Battlegroup Maneuver 
Ramming is not considered a standard combat doctrine by any major naval power, and 
capital ships are never designed with such actions in mind, but desperate times may call for 
desperate measures. You may only use this Maneuver at Close or Point Blank range. 
Advance your battlegroup to Point Blank range, then choose one of your Capital Ships and 
an enemy Capital Ship; both ships take 2d6 damage that cannot be reduced in any way. 
 
You may not use this Maneuver if your battlegroup is unable to move for any reason. 
 
 
Attacks performed as a part of a Maneuver occur immediately. Regular Single Target attacks 
are made against a specific ship’s Defense stat, and on hit deal their listed damage. Area 
Target attacks require no roll to hit. Payload attacks, whether Single or Area Target, are 
deployed and begin their flight towards their designated targets, counting down until the strike 
during the Impact Step as outlined earlier. 
 
The basic Tactics available to all player battlegroups are:  
 
Lock Firing Solution (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
You route legion processing power towards lining up a perfect shot or tracking an especially 
wiley target, and share the revised telemetry with the rest of the fleet. Nominate an enemy 
Capital Ship or Escort; that target gains a special status called Lock On. Any battlegroup 
making a Single Target attack against a ship that is Locked On may choose to gain +1 
Accuracy on their attack roll, and then clear the Lock On status after the attack resolves (hit 
or miss). This is called consuming Lock On.  
 
Lock On lasts until it is consumed or until the end of the next Impact Step, at which point 
ships are assumed to have maneuvered enough to render the targeting data obsolete. Lock 
On does not stack; a target ship is either Locked On or not.   
 
42 
  

Careful Shot (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
By ordering your gunnery crews to carefully place their fire or by adjusting weapon power 
outputs you can attempt to deliver an attack that aims to destroy an enemy without 
completely annihilating it outright. Until the end of your next turn, your battlegroup's attacks 
cannot reduce an enemy ship below 0 HP and cannot critically hit. This Tactic does not apply 
to Superheavy, Charge, or Payload weapons, as those are simply too powerful to effectively 
reduce or precisely aim in any meaningful capacity; even a glancing blow with a long-spool 
weapon is enough to cause catastrophic damage on impact. 
 
If reduced to 0 HP, you may have the target of this attack be rendered combat-ineffective 
instead of destroyed; it is dead in the water, unable to flee or present a threat. This tactic is 
mostly useful for attempting to avoid the more destructive results on the Kill Table on page 
XX, should the players wish to capture an enemy ship intact (more or less) for narrative 
reasons. 
 
Be aware that even “careful” shots with naval weaponry are still massively powerful and 
destructive. Mechanically the ship has been disabled, but narratively your careful shooting 
may have still struck critical components, caused a breach in the starboard fusion chamber, 
or exposed compartments to hard vacuum. 
 
Defensive Screen (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
During fleet engagements, a common strategy is to task smaller ships with providing a 
defensive screen for larger vessels, supporting and protecting them while they coordinate 
fighter-tier activities or bring devastating weapons to bear. This Tactic can only be used by a 
battlegroup that contains at least one active Frigate-type vessel; carriers and battleships are 
too ponderous to provide effective screening.  
 
Choose a Frigate under your command and assign it to screen for another Capital Ship in 
your battlegroup or a Capital Ship in an allied battlegroup within the same range band. Until 
the start of your next turn, whenever the screened ship is targeted with attacks or abilities 
they have a 50 percent chance of being intercepted, and the enemy must either abort their 
attack or ability, wasting their action, or target the screening Frigate instead. Roll a die or flip 
a coin to determine this. Once assigned to protect a ship, a Frigate cannot be ordered to 
screen for another vessel until the start of your next turn. 
 
Frigates cannot be assigned to a defensive screen if they’ve also attacked on the same turn, 
and frigates on protective duty cannot make attacks or use weapons except for Auxiliary 
weapons as they are concentrating on intercepting incoming threats. If the screening Frigate 

43 
  

is destroyed all effects it was providing to screened ships immediately end. Only a single 
Frigate can screen for another ship at a time, and Frigates cannot screen for Frigates that are 
also screening. 
 
When you have access to an Escort or Wing that has the Boarding tag, you gain the following 
Tactic: 
 
Deploy Boarders (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Choose an Escort or Wing with the Boarding tag and assign it board an enemy Flagship 
within range. Once a particular unit or System has been assigned to board an enemy ship, 
they can no longer be used for any other purposes until that boarding action ends. 
 
Certain other weapons or systems may also grant the ability to initiate boarding actions 
outside of using this Tactic. 
 
And finally, after the Action Step has been fully resolved, the round ends with the Boarding 
Step. 
1. Any boarding units or systems that were launched in the Action Step arrive at their 
target. 
2. Boarders are given commands and roll to see if they successfully carry them out. 
3. Boarders can be repelled either by a boarded ship succeeding on a roll against the 
unit’s Tenacity at the end of their turn or by spending a Maneuver during the Action 
Step to repel all boarders from that battlegroup. 
 
Boarding actions are grim, bloody affairs. Section by section, corridor by corridor, through 
every redlight-dim compartment, marines, chassis, and subalterns fight to wrestle control of a 
ship from its crew. Casualties are assured, and no quarter given to combatants. To commit to a 
boarding action is to commit to an all-or-nothing engagement in some of the most brutal, 
claustrophobic conditions possible, where stray fire can tear a ship in half, oxygen is scarce, 
and inertia itself can become a weapon.  
 
Unless otherwise specified, boarders arrive at their destination and become active during the 
Boarding Step which takes place at the end of the round after all player and enemy forces have 
taken their actions. Boarding happens automatically, without a need to roll for it. While it's true 
that boarding actions are extremely dangerous from the moment they launch due to 
point-defenses, flak screens, errant weapons fire, and debris, the most interesting and exciting 
part of boarding isn't the approach, it's the boarding action itself. As a result while narratively 
you may describe the losses taken as breaching pods and landers hurtle across an airless no 
man's land to reach their objective, in gameplay terms it's assumed that a certain sufficient 
number of boarders survive to make contact with the enemy and contest the ship. 
44 
  

 
If you've boarded a ship then during this step you'll begin to issue those units commands as 
they fight their way through enemy vessels. Choose a command, make a boarding roll of 
1d20 against the boarded ship's internal defenses of 8, and on an 8+ your boarders will be 
able to carry out their objectives. Boarding effects aren't always permanent as the ship's 
defenders will be fighting back every step of the way, but a successful roll here gives your units 
a foothold for now. If multiple boarding rolls occur during this step, resolve their order as you 
would for anything else; first a player will make their rolls, then an NPC, and so on. 
 
Boarding units may have unique capabilities, but unless otherwise specified all boarding units 
can attempt the following standard actions: 
 
● Sabotage Fire Control: The boarded Flagship’s battlegroup makes all Single Target 
attack rolls with +2 Difficulty until the end of their next turn. 
 
● Sever Comms: The boarded Flagship’s battlegroup cannot use Tactics until the end of 
their next turn. 
 
● Assault CIC: The boarded Flagship’s battlegroup cannot move player battlegroups with 
actions or abilities until the end of their next turn. 
 
As long as a boarding party continues to remain on a ship, you can automatically give them a 
new command during the next Boarding Step.  
 
A ship that has been boarded has two options for attempting to repel active boarders: 
 
● At the end of their battlegroup’s turn, a boarded ship automatically rolls 1d20 to 
represent their internal defenses (automated systems, subalterns, crew, marines, etc) 
fighting back. This roll is made against the boarding unit's Tenacity, listed in its 
description. If the boarded ship succeeds on this roll, then they eject the boarders, 
inflict casualties sufficient to force them to fall back, or otherwise drive them off. This 
does not automatically destroy the boarding unit unless specified, but it does free it up 
to be used again in later turns. 
 
● If the boarded Flagship wants to be thorough, it can institute a deck-by-deck purge and 
repel all boarders from it by spending a Maneuver. As before, this doesn’t automatically 
destroy the boarding unit, but it does buy the besieged ship some breathing room. 
 
Boarders can also be manually recalled by their commanders during the Boarding Step if they 
wish, disengaging them from the ship they’re on without a roll and freeing them up for later use 
during the following rounds. 
 

45 
  

A ship can be boarded by multiple units, though the effects of any given command do not 
stack unless specified otherwise. For example, you can’t attempt Sabotage Fire Control 
multiple times to stack multiple Difficulty penalties on a single ship. A boarded ship rolls once 
per unit boarding it at the end of its turn, but spending a Maneuver repels all boarders at once. 
 
Be advised that NPCs can also attempt boarding actions against player Capital Ships. Those 
boarding actions use their own unique effects, but otherwise work identically to how boarding 
actions work for players. Players repel NPC boarders the same way as well, either by each 
boarded vessel succeeding on a roll at the end of their turn against the boarding party’s 
Tenacity or by their battlegroup committing to a Maneuver to clear all boarders from all Capital 
Ships in their battlegroup. 
 
A note: Boarding actions also represents an ideal place to take a break from Battlegroup and 
integrate Core Lancer if your group wants to play out the action with their own mechs and 
pilots. If that is the case, you may, of course, disregard the rules for boarding actions as 
outlined below and simply play it out using Core Lancer rules. The rest of the battle may be 
placed on hold, or continue in the background, be played out in alternating turns or at natural 
breaks in the boarding action, etc.   
  
After the Boarding Step has been resolved the round concludes, and play moves on to the next 
round with the start of the Logistics Step. 
 
 
   

46 
  

Quick Reference Turn Order 

 
Logistics Step 
1. Remove counters from Charge and Payload weapons along with counters from 
expended Reloading weapons and systems. 
2. Any other abilities that are used during the Logistics Step can now be used. 
3. Make sure everyone is on the same page and ready to move on. 
  
Impact Step 
1. Any Charge weapons that have reached 0 counters may either hold or fire, rolling to hit. 
Payload weapons that have reached 0 counters automatically hit. 
2. Roll damage for any Charge and Payload weapons that have hit. 
3. Battlegroups may roll Interdiction and apply it to attacks which can be interdicted, 
reducing their incoming damage. 
 
Action Step 
1. Player and NPC battlegroups alternate taking turns to use Maneuvers and Tactics. 
2. Any non-Charge, non-Payload attacks made during this step resolve immediately. 
3. If a ship has been boarded, it rolls to repel boarders at the end of its turn. 
 
Boarding Step 
1. Boarding actions launched during earlier steps now arrive at their target ships. 
2. Boarders are given commands and make rolls to determine if they succeed or not. 
  

   

47 
  

The Winding Gyre 

Battery Three on the FKS Sanspeur was locked down for combat. As of ship-morning, the battlegroup 
was engaged; now, the enemy was in scope range, and Battery Three’s shift was about to begin.   
Dim red safelight illuminated the soft corners and padded walls of the battery, blunting the grain 
and grit of every surface. Under thrust, Battery Three had gravity; combat speed pushed the weight of 
Lance Gunner Fisher’s hardsuit onto himself. Even with the structural and internal aids, in order to stay 
conscious Fisher had to force air in and out, tensing his legs and gut to keep the blood in his head.   
“How long till we engage?” Gunner Parson’s voice hissed in Fisher’s ear, deformed by the 
intense gees.  
Fisher could only move his eyes — enough to see the subtext chatter flying across the 
Sanspeur’s open channels. “Thirty minutes. You ready?” 
Parson hissed an affirmative around the gees.  
“Good, load Starkill — CO wants us on fly-swatting duty.”  
“A-firm.”  
Fisher did the same, queueing up belts of prox-burst. “I got, uh, ten racks before we hit feed — 
you?”  
“Twelve.”  
Fisher grimaced. “Let’s hope it’s a short fight.” He settled into his control seat, and counted down 
the clock. Thirty minutes before engage, and the helm still had this boat burning hard for the assumed 
horizon.  
“Hey Fish —” 
“Yeah?” 
Parson hissed again. “I hit more Purv flies than you, you’re buying my coffee for the rest of the 
week. Deal?” 
Fisher would’ve laughed, but for the gees. Instead, he chirped a-firm, and keyed his cannons into 
pre-cycle warmup.  
Thirty minutes to go.   
* 
 
Space combat is both tightly controlled and chaotic. At the outset, battlegroups begin spooling 
up long-cycle weapons and launching low-confidence volleys of missiles and torpedoes meant 
to probe enemy defensive capabilities. Fleet legions similarly jab at one another across the 
vastness via blinkspace channels, ontologic weapons, and esoteric defenses, clashing far 
removed from human perception. However great the distances involved at first, the engaged 
fleets will gradually begin to wind their way towards each other as they seek out more 
advantageous positions and look to bring more weapons to bear.  
 
Shorter distances open up new avenues of attack as carriers launch squadrons of fighters, 
bombers, and mounted chassis on combat sorties and main batteries open fire with greater 
confidence and accuracy. Wolfpacks of subline ships prowl the flanks looking for targets of 
opportunity, and boarding landers are sent on perilous journeys across a deadly no man’s land 
to strike at the enemy from the inside.   
 
Inevitably, like a wire drawn tighter and tighter, something has to give. 

48 
  

Unlike many tactical combat games, Battlegroup doesn’t use a gridmap to note the position of 
units. The nature of naval combat in three dimensions is too complex to track in such a manner 
without requiring a significant amount of work, and so combat is tracked along an abstract 
representation of space called the Gyre. Using the Gyre, the battle space is best visualized (in 
a two dimensional space) as a series of six concentric range bands, like so:  
 

 
 
Of course combat doesn’t actually take place on a 2D plane. Commanders are constantly 
exploiting every axis of movement as they plan their engagement angles, plot counterfactual 
evasive maneuvers, and line up salvos on enemy ships, but for gameplay purposes at the scale 
Battlegroup exists at, these movements are too “minor” to worry about tracking in detail. They 
can simply be assumed to be occurring at all points throughout a battle. 
 
All battlegroups, unless otherwise noted, will begin play at the outermost range band of 
the Gyre (Extreme Range). Certain steps can be taken during pre-engagement preparation to 
begin play further in or with additional benefits and effects. 
 
Every range band save for Scope Range, the effective “midpoint” of the Gyre, confers bonuses 
and conditions to reflect the changing proximities of the engaged fleets. Range bands are only 
used to note the position of player battlegroups — NPC positions are not tracked on the Gyre, 
their spatial relationship to the players’ battlegroups is measured entirely by the position of the 
players and the range of their weapons. Each player’s battlegroup moves as a single cohesive 
unit, but individual battlegroups can move independently of one another. One battlegroup may 
prefer to operate from long range while another will want to close the distance and engage 
enemies in closer quarters.  
 

49 
  

In Battlegroup — unless one’s commander calls for their ships to disengage and flee — you 
will always move towards the enemy: you may have command over the tactics of the battle to 
come, but there will be a fight, and movement in Battlegroup takes this as a core assumption.   
As the engagement continues, engaged ships slowly begin to draw nearer to each other, 
circling around the Gyre and working to close the unpredictability gap in a way that gives them 
the most advantageous position possible to fire their most devastating weapons and hit their 
targets. To that end, there is a point of no return that engaged fleets push up against as the 
battle draws on - seasoned veterans and experienced commanders refer to this as the Tipping 
Point. 
 
At the beginning of the 5th round of play just before the Logistics Step begins, every player 
needs to determine whether or not they plan to continue the current engagement — by this 
point, their nearlight drives have cooled down and charged back up, their crew and characters 
are well prepared and ready to make the necessary call, and the likely tactical outcome of the 
engagement should be pretty easy to infer: each player must choose whether to jump or to 
stay engaged.  
 
If a player jumps, their battlegroup retreats from the combat, punching out via nearlight 
ejection. Any Payload weapons still in flight towards them are outstripped by their acceleration 
and will not be able to catch them. Battlegroups ejecting from an engagement are no longer 
threats worth targeting anyways. 
 
Those who choose to stay remain engaged. From then on, every round they’ll make the same 
check — retreat, or remain engaged. If they choose to remain engaged, they’ll move closer, like 
so:  
 
Round 6: all ships further than Long Range collapse to the Long Range band. You can no 
longer fall back further than this range. 
 
Round 7: all ships further than Collapsing Range move to the Collapsing Range band. You can 
no longer fall back further than this range. 
 
Round 8 and up: all ships collapse to Point Blank range. From here on, no one can disengage: 
they can only survive, surrender, win, or die.  
 
Ships and battlegroups in the Point Blank range band at round 6 and beyond cannot choose to 
disengage; they are far too close to the enemy, and the processes of preparing for a nearlight 
ejection would conflict with the main objective of staying alive. Instead of moving closer with 
each round of combat beyond the 6th, they remain in Point Blank range. If a battlegroup wishes 
to disengage from combat at this point, they will first need to fall back to a more distant range 
band while they still have time to do so. 
 

50 
  

At any stage of an engagement battlegroups can also choose to surrender. This decision is 
made at the start of a round just before the Logistics Step begins. If a commander surrenders 
they are boarded, their crew captured, and their ships either scuttled or salvaged at the end of 
the combat (assuming their side loses, disengages, or some combination therein). Surrender 
effectively removes that battlegroup for the remainder of the fight. Surrendering immediately 
powers down any and all of their weapons and systems, including any active Payload attacks 
under their control, and any effects their ships or upgrades were providing immediately cease. 
 
Surrender is a difficult decision but should a battle be going poorly it can be a necessary one to 
prevent more lives from being lost. Surrendering is most likely to occur prior to the Tipping 
Point, before a battlegroup is capable of ejecting, but even after that point a commander may 
opt to retire rather than risk further casualties from a nearlight ejection. 
 
Range Bands of the Gyre 
The Gyre’s range bands and their conditions are outlined below. Moving between range bands 
is accomplished via the use of certain Maneuvers and Tactics, outlined immediately after this 
section.  
 
Extreme Range (Band 5) 
At extreme range, ships engage via long-flight payloads and optimistic shots with their main 
cannons. At this range, ships and their commanders must work with their aspect of the fleet’s 
Legion to track and predict target locations, flinging shots and directing missiles towards 
trajectory-derived, middle-confidence locations a cradle-standard day to days away.   
 
At Extreme Range: 
● Only battlegroups can engage targets 
● You may only fire Payload and Charge weapons: 
○ Charge weapons make attacks with +1 Accuracy   
○ Payloads launched from Extreme Range have a base flight time of 5. 
○ Each Area Attack made from and against Extreme Range only deals half 
damage, before Interdiction. 
 
Long Range (4) 
At Long Range, ships continue to engage with large caliber and wattage weapons, tracking 
targets with marginally more confidence than when they are engaged at Extreme Range. Here, 
commanders can see their enemy via long range sensor suites and modeling, and can identify 
with high confidence the capabilities and equipment they may face as the gyre tightens and the 
unpredictability gap closes. With mere hours to a Cradle-standard day at most of flight time 
between fleets, subline pilots begin their pre-flight checks, briefings, and assembly.  
 
At Long Range: 
● All weapons systems can be used, but: 

51 
  

○ Charge weapons make attacks with +1 Accuracy 

○ All other Single Target attacks are performed with +1 Difficulty 
○ Payloads launched from Long Range have a base flight time of 4. 
 
Scope Range (3) 
The middle confidence range for engagements between fleets, Scope Range is where the 
effectiveness of long-spool weapons begins to fall off compared to quicker cycling, quicker 
tracking batteries. Many weapons systems and legionspace abilities are calibrated for scope 
distance, the enemy is identifiable, and their trajectories are well within nominal predictive 
cones. Travel time between fleets is less than half a Cradle-standard day at most; subline 
squadrons and fighter/bomber wings deploy and begin their first sorties.  
 
At Scope Range: 
● Payloads launched from Scope Range have a base flight time of 3. 
● There are no additional modifiers, all weapons and systems can be used. Attack rolls for 
Charge weapons are performed as normal once more as the closer confidence range is 
counterbalanced by greater difficulty tracking targets. 
 
Collapsing Range (2) 
Driving towards the heart of the enemy fleet, Collapsing Range is when the pressure of an 
engagement begins to turn up. Time between firing and impact reduces to mere hours. Friendly 
and enemy subline squadrons and wings begin their attack runs on their counterparts or, if they 
have broken through, on enemy capital ships. Area denial weapons — kinetic kill-clouds, most 
commonly — become more difficult to avoid, as single-target weapons become easier to 
target. Flak or PDC screens are visible to the naked eye via optical scopes, as are the enemy 
vessels they cover.  
 
At Collapsing Range: 
● Payload attacks launched from Collapsing Range have a base flight time of 2. 
● There are no additional modifiers. 
 
Close Range (1) 
At Close Range, the distance between fleets is reduced to an hour of travel time at most for 
payloads. Light-based weapons impact essentially instantaneously, and there is little room for 
captains to maneuver to avoid being hit by kinetic or particle-based energy weapons. Flight 
decks are roiling, busy platforms, with subline wings landing, loading, and clearing constantly. 
Marines hurry to their posts. Landing shuttles and limpets launch for their grim deployments. 
The enemy can be seen without the aid of scopes — star-bright drive signatures and PDC 
screens to the naked eye — as can subline squadrons and wings.  
 
At Close Range: 
● Single Target attacks are made with +1 Accuracy. 
● Payload attacks launched from Close Range have a base flight time of 1. 

52 
  

● Each Area Attack made from and against Close Range deals +2 damage.   
 
Point Blank (0) 
At Point Blank range, capital ships are in a rare and deadly engagement. Few battlegroup 
commanders push their captains and vessels to this point, as casualties — even among the 
victors — are sure to be terrible. At point blank range, capital ships are in danger of colliding 
with each other, subline wings and squadrons slip under PDC screens to attack ships without 
fear of reprisal, and boarding actions fight bloody corridor-to-corridor brawls. Here, there is 
little chance to miss, as one could nearly fire without targeting and score a devastating hit on 
their target.  
 
At Point Blank range: 
● Single Target attacks are made with +1 Accuracy 
● Each Area Attack made from and against Point Blank range deals +4 damage. 
● Payload weapons reduce their flight time to 0, hitting instantly, but they deal half 
damage to their firer, or battlegroup in the case of Area Target attacks, that cannot be 
reduced in any way. 
● Attacks cannot be Interdicted. 
 

Posture and Uptime Actions 

Prior to an engagement, commanders will have an opportunity to navigate within the strategic 
bounds of the battle and make decisions that will influence their fleet’s starting position and 
capabilities before even the first shots have been fired. Players will have one of two options 
available to them during pre-engagement preparation, either setting a Posture or participating 
in Uptime Actions. 
 
Choosing between these two options should be a group decision. Setting a Posture is a 
quicker and simpler form of pre-engagement preparation that requires no additional rolling, and 
is suitable for jumping straight into combat. GMs may also opt to restrict preparation to setting 
a Posture for an engagement in order to represent the constraints of a more time-critical 
mission. Uptime Actions are more detailed, allowing players to choose which aspect of their 
battlegroup’s preparations they wish to focus on. Uptime Actions can also serve as 
opportunities for additional pre-engagement narrative exploration of activity aboard one or 
more ships as commanders take on supplies, consult with officers and crew, and draw up 
battle plans. 
 
Set a Posture 
 
When using this option, during the preparation stage prior to the start of the engagement 
players will select their battlegroup’s Posture. This affects the starting deployment of the ships 
under their command. Postures are outlined below:  

53 
  

 
Conservative Posture 
“CIC to Helm: drop our burn by twenty percent and push corresponding velocities to all escorts. 
Reroute our power to forward shielding, and keep our wings spread — we’re going in slow for this 
one.”  
 
Your ships spread out and adopt a more defensive, cautious posture for this battle, 
tempering their speed and directing the saved power to forward shielding, layering systemic 
redundancies, and giving your Legion more slack to play with. Your ships deploy at Extreme 
Range. You may use one additional tactic on your turn during the first round of combat. 
 
Nominal Posture  
“Helm, steady on. By the books and as the Admiral orders for this one, crew — we engage as 
planned.”  
 
The tactical situation matches the strategic parameters as outlined in your briefing. You order 
your ships to their nominal trajectories and prepare to engage. Your ships deploy at Long 
Range. 
 
Aggressive Posture 
“Engineering, narrow our shielding and dump all excess power to our drives! Gunnery, hot-cycle your 
batteries! Legion, find us a way through that flack, we’re ending this now!”  
 
You command your ships to adopt an aggressive posture. With wings and escorts screaming 
ahead at maximum speed and your batteries hammering away, your battlegroup punches 
straight for the core of the enemy fleet, seeking to strike a death-blow in defiance of 
accepted doctrine and old strategy. Your ships deploy at Scope Range. During the first 
round of combat you may only use one maneuver or one tactic. 
 
 
Uptime Actions 
 
Before any planned battle, most fleet doctrines will see their personnel decanted from stasis 
and engaged in training, maintenance, and pre-theater operations (navigation, weapons 
checks, screening maneuvers, NHP interaction, and so on). This non-stasis-time is generally 
called “Uptime” and is what most cosmonauts refer to when they talk about their time debt, 
“subjective time”, and so on.  
 
When using this pre-engagement preparation option, players will select specific actions prior to 
a battle. These actions are, understandably, called Uptime Actions. Uptime Actions are 

54 
  

initiated by players looking to acquire or achieve specific strategic and tactical benefits prior to 
entering combat. They may want to drill their gunnery crews and calibrate their weapons to 
ensure optimal performance, or they may use their time gathering additional intelligence on 
enemy forces to better plan their next move. 
 
The framing of Uptime Actions should be informed by narrative context; if the players are 
docked at a station or shipyard then they may have different opportunities to pursue their goals 
than if they begin preparations already in transit to a staging area aboard their flagship, but the 
overall outcome of the actions they take will ultimately remain the same. Uptime Actions before 
a battle are an opportunity to focus on the personal and interpersonal — zoomed-in scenes of 
what your character and their close circle are doing.   
 
Uptime Actions are made using a d20 roll, and may be modified by a character’s traits or other 
sources of Accuracy and Difficulty. The final result of the roll determines the effect of the action, 
though the specific narrative outcomes may vary. A roll of 9- is a minimal result, though most 
Uptime Actions will still give commanders something even should they roll poorly, a roll of 
10-19 will typically provide a greater outcome or a selection of outcomes for you to choose 
from, while a roll of 20+ is an exceptional result which provides powerful benefits. 
 
Commanders may take one Uptime Action of their choice prior to an engagement. Repeatedly 
choosing the same action has diminishing returns, however; there’s only so hard you can push 
your crew in a given direction before they fail to return exceptional improvements, and part of 
effective command is understanding these limits. Whenever you take a specific Uptime Action 
two or more battles in a row, you treat results of 10-19 as if they were 9- instead. 
 
UPTIME ACTION — SET A POSTURE 
Standard textbook naval engagement doctrine involves commanders approaching battle from a 
conservative position, granting them ample time to optimize their counterfactuals, analyze 
enemy forces, and respond to unforeseen developments. Some commanders, however, prefer 
to adopt a more aggressive approach, seeking to overwhelm the enemy before they can 
coordinate their forces in response. 
 
Unlike the other Uptime Actions, this does not require a roll, you may simply choose the effect 
you want. By default, all battlegroups begin play at range 5 (Extreme Range) with no additional 
benefits or effects. By choosing this as your Uptime Action, you may instead select your initial 
position using the same rules for Set a Posture as outlined above. Since this action does not 
require a roll, you can select it as your action multiple times in a row without penalty. It is, in 
effect, a default Uptime Action commanders may always rely upon. 
 
More ambitious commanders may wish to find a way to choose their starting position while 
also benefiting from other actions, however. This requires them to Plot a Course instead. 
 
UPTIME ACTION — CONSULT GUNNERY AND ENGINEERING 

55 
  

Ships of the line are useless if they cannot hit their targets. Officers, ship NHP, and crew cycled 
up pre-engagement commonly stress test their systems, perform routine maintenance, and so 
on, in order to ensure they are ready for the fight to come.   
 
Practice at your station or in a virtual environment; negotiate with your battlegroup’s head 
fabrication officer for ordinance priority in print orders; check in on engineering to see the 
progress they’ve made on in-flight upgrades and maintenance; consult with your ship’s NHP on 
their latest enemy counterfactual predictions; brief gunnery crews with the most up-to-date 
NavInt on the enemy battlegroup; and so on.   
 
Describe your actions, and roll:  
 
On a 9 or less, despite your best efforts, your current capacity remains largely unchanged. 
Your gun teams or engineers, while competent, don’t improve their abilities. You fail to secure 
additional or specialized ordinance. You make no special breakthrough in the analysis of your 
enemy’s defensive patterning. You begin the upcoming battle with a banked Accuracy die. You 
may spend this banked die to add +1 Accuracy to one of your Single Target attack rolls during 
play. 
 
On a 10-19, you manage to secure what you set out to obtain. Your gunnery or engineering 
teams show measurable improvement in their performance. During the upcoming battle, you 
may reroll any one attack or damage roll you make during play, but must keep the second 
result.   
 
On a 20+, your gunnery teams show dramatic improvement; engineering makes a significant 
breakthrough; you make a key discovery about the enemy fleet’s defenses; you are able to 
route long-flight torpedoes via an unconventional flight path; and so on. During the upcoming 
battle, you may choose one of the following benefits: 
● You may reroll any one attack or damage roll you make during play, but must keep the 
second result. 
● You may remove 1 additional charge counter from any Charge weapon in your 
battlegroup during the first Logistics Step. 
● You may add or remove 1 flight counter from any one Payload attack you make.   
 
UPTIME ACTION — CONSULT NAVIGATION AND INTELLIGENCE  
Gunnery is only the business end of Navigation and Intelligence: if you don’t know where your 
target is, or what your target is, your chances of scoring a mission-critical kill are, essentially, 
zero.   
 
Maintain relative speed and distance from the other ships in your battlegroup; assign patrol 
orbits to defend against known-unknown attack vectors; review NHP updates on thrust control 
and ETAs relative to local stations and worlds; long-range surveillance on known and predicted 
enemy movements; run specific deep scans on sighted enemy vessels; and so on.    

56 
  

 
Describe your actions, and roll:  
 
On a 9 or less, NAVINT is a mess, and it takes far longer than normal to sort signal from noise. 
You fail to glean much more useful intelligence than was already known, though your efforts 
may still identify some tactical advantages which you can exploit. You begin the upcoming 
battle with a banked Difficulty die. You may spend this banked die to add +1 Difficulty to any 
Single Target attack roll made against you during play.  
 
Additionally, you may ask the GM one question about the upcoming battle. This question 
may be about the enemy’s fleet’s composition or the combat area (such as whether they have 
a specific NPC Flagship type, how many Charge weapons they have, if there are any notable 
environmental hazards that haven’t been noted during the briefing, etc), or it may be more 
narratively driven (such as the morale of the enemy forces, their own stakes or interests in the 
outcome of the battle, the personality and tactical deportment of a notable enemy commander, 
etc). The GM must answer this question truthfully to the best of their abilities. 
 
On a 10-19, all systems are nominal and the report you requested arrives on your desk 
promptly. You may ask the GM three questions about the upcoming battle which they must 
answer truthfully as outlined above.  
 
On a 20+, you make key, critical discoveries as to the enemy fleet’s composition, heading, and 
posture. In addition to asking three questions about the upcoming battle, you may also choose 
one option from the Reserves table to bring with you into the upcoming engagement. 
 
UPTIME ACTION — CONSULT SENIOR OFFICERS 
Maintenance of a ship is more than mechanics. A commander must engage with their direct 
subordinates — their officers — to provide counsel, command, and direction. 
 
Catch up on the status of the ship and crew with officers who have been on watch while you 
were under; gossip about or discuss officers who have not yet been cycled out from stasis; get 
the latest on the various departments and modules of your ship; get the latest in rumors on 
other captains and officers in the battlegroup (who to look out for, who to trust, and so on); brag 
or compare ship compositions, flight tactics; bet on kill numbers; and so on.   
 
Describe your actions, and roll:  
 
On a 9 or less, your consultation with your senior staff is less productive than you’d hoped. 
While nothing seems particularly out of order, no one has any special insights to share 
regarding the upcoming engagement. You begin the upcoming battle with your choice of a 
banked Accuracy die or a banked Difficulty die. You may spend these banked dice to 
(respectively) add +1 Accuracy to one of your Single Target attack rolls or to add +1 Difficulty to 
any Single Target attack roll made against you during play. 

57 
  

 
On a 10-19, through astute tactical analysis or canny leveraging of available resources, you and 
your officers are able to formulate an effective plan of attack, but it will take time to bring to 
bear as last-minute preparations and adjustments are required. You may choose one option 
from the Reserves table to bring with you into the upcoming engagement, but during the first 
round of play you act last after everyone, including all NPC battlegroups. 
 
On a 20+, a flash of insight or a sudden windfall gives you just what you need to exploit a 
critical weakness in the enemy’s defenses or capitalize on an unexpected advantage. You may 
choose one option from the Reserves table to bring with you into the upcoming engagement, 
and in addition you may grant one of your allies a banked Accuracy die or a banked Difficulty 
die. 
 
UPTIME ACTION — PLOT A COURSE 
Some commanders may feel daring enough, though some might say reckless enough, to try 
and engage the enemy from a completely unexpected vantage, tasking the helm with plotting a 
course while they make preparations elsewhere. 
 
In effect, this Uptime Action is for players who wish to set their position at the start of an 
engagement but also wish to partake in other actions as well. Selecting this action allows you 
to use another Uptime Action of your choice at the same time. This carries some risks 
however, as it divides the crew’s attention and may result in dangerous navigational errors. This 
action also cannot be repeated in consecutive engagements; too many daredevil maneuvers in 
a row may leave your superiors questioning your tactical judgement. It can be used at most 
every other battle. 
 
When it’s time for your battlegroup to make an entrance, roll: 
 
On a 9 or less, disaster! You realign directly into the enemy line, your battlegroup colliding with 
an enemy element. As warning klaxons howl and automated systems struggle to balance 
damage control protocols with life support mandates, you take stock of the situation. This fight 
is going to be a mess.   
 
Your battlegroup and one enemy battlegroup suffer an immediate, unavoidable 2d6 damage as 
they collide, distributed among your Capital Ships as you wish (the GM, likewise, distributes 
the NPC’s damage as they see fit among the battlegroup’s Capital Ships and Escorts). You 
may choose to begin the engagement in Scope Range, Collapsing Range, or Close Range. 
During the first round of combat you may only use one maneuver or one tactic. 
 
On a 10-19, the bolt was well-plotted, but failed to account for some critical variable which 
gives the enemy a chance to respond. You begin the engagement in Long Range. Before the 
first round begins, the GM may choose to move you back into Extreme Range or forward into 
Scope Range, using the same starting position modifiers as Set a Posture for the first round of 
combat. 

58 
  

 
On a 20+, navigation just won themselves a round in the ship’s mess — your battlegroup 
realigns exactly where they plotted. You may choose to begin play in Extreme Range, Long 
Range, or Scope Range, using the same starting position modifiers as Set a Posture for the 
first round of combat. 
 
UPTIME ACTION — POWER AT A COST  
Some things in your commission’s purview are best left unsaid. Anything to win an advantage, 
right? The options covered in this category cover both mundane and esoteric off-book or 
otherwise outside of regulations actions. Anything not covered by the previous Uptime Actions 
can fall in this category; your GM can also append this on to any of your stated Uptime 
Actions, context permitting.   
 
Have a private audience with your ship’s NHP — you had strange dreams when you were 
under, and need to ask them some questions; spacewalk alone on the hull of your ship, not to 
be disturbed as you plan your next move; go and triple-check the provisions and functionality of 
the CIC’s lifeboat, as you have a bad feeling about this one; slip into the gestalt and spend time 
in legionspace, enjoying being in an approximation of “home”; participate in a high-stakes game 
of chance with other commanders, putting everything on the line; and so on.     
 
Name what you want or what you’re attempting to do. You’ll get it before the engagement 
begins, but depending on the nature of the ask, the GM may choose one or two 
consequences:  
 
● It’s going to have repercussions for future engagements. 
● It’s going to affect your chances at promotion. 
● You’ll have to give something up or leave something behind. 
● You’re going to piss off someone or something important and powerful. 
● Obtaining it will disrupt other plans. 
● Enemy forces won’t remain idle during this time.  
● Whatever you receive will be of lesser quality, falling apart, or malfunctioning. 
 

Reserves 
Seasoned commanders take every advantage they can get going into battle, and one form 
these advantages can take are Reserves. These bonuses take the form of additional supplies, 
gear, support, advanced intel, and old fashioned grit and luck, anything that might make a 
difference in the fight ahead. 
 
Players can secure Reserves for themselves by undertaking Uptime Actions, or you may 
decide to award them directly as part of an ongoing campaign. 

59 
  

 
Whitewash DECON  Expanded stores of specialized whitewash utility nanites are held 
as a countermeasure against nanotech warfare, helping to mitigate 
casualties without the need to employ more destructive methods 
of decontamination. 1/battle, during the Logistics phase you may 
clear all greywash from one of your ships. 

Crack Pilots  They're some of the best in the service, and all they need now are 
orders. You may either add a Wing slot to one of your ships or 
reduce the point cost of any equipped Wing upgrade by 1. 

Seconded Vessel  On loan from another fleet, or perhaps the last survivor of one, 
they're nonetheless eager to return to the fight. You may either add 
an Escort slot to one of your ships or reduce the point cost of any 
equipped Escort upgrade by 1. 

Veteran Marines  The best thing to do with a ship full of marines is point them 
towards the enemy. You may equip a Marine Lander to one of 
your ships that does not require an upgrade slot. 1/battle, when 
this unit fails a boarding roll you may instead declare that roll a 
success. Then destroy this unit. 

Terrain Advantage  Knowing where and when to fight is just as important as knowing 
how to fight. You may choose a modifier from the Field of Battle 
section on page XX, appropriate to the upcoming engagement, 
and then either choose to have that modifier be present in the 
upcoming battle or replace a previously established modifier with a 
new one of your choice. Choices should be appropriate to the 
engagement as outlined during the briefing; for example, choosing 
a modifier intended to represent a battle near a populated world 
may not be appropriate for an engagement taking place in deep 
space. Discuss this selection with your GM to reach a satisfactory 
agreement. 

Uncommon Fortune  Sometimes the difference between a good commander and an 
exceptional commander is a bit of luck at the right time. You begin 
the upcoming battle with a banked Accuracy die and a banked 
Difficulty die. You may spend these banked dice to (respectively) 
add +1 Accuracy to one of your Single Target attack rolls or to add 
+1 Difficulty to any Single Target attack roll made against you 
during play. 

Fire Ship  A decommissioned hull can still find new life, if only for a brief 
moment. You may reduce the points cost of equipping a 
Throughline Skip Drone to your battlegroup to 0. 

Chaperone Payload  Launched far in advance of initial contact, these munitions provide 
additional fire support during major engagements. At the start of 

60 
  

the battle, just before the first Logistics Step, you may launch a 
Primary Single-Stage Torpedo at an enemy ship of your choice. 
Treat this as being launched from range 5 regardless of where your 
battlegroup begins play. 

Legionspace Priority  The fleet legion has taken a particular interest in your ship for 
Host  reasons known only to themselves. 1/battle, you may choose a 
single NPC battlegroup at the start of the engagement. You act 
first during the first round and that battlegroup acts last during the 
first round. If multiple battlegroups suffer from this disruption effect 
at once, they choose a viable turn order as needed. 

Enhanced Shielding  A little extra power to defense systems can spell the difference 
between victory or defeat. 1/battle you may reroll any number of 
Interdiction dice, chosing the best result. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

61 
  

Damage and Destruction 

Ships that are damaged by incoming fire but not reduced to 0 HP or lower are still operational 
— even with 1 hit point remaining, the officers, crew, and automated systems continue to 
manage to keep the ship operational. At 0 hit points, a ship is considered destroyed — any 
lower, and you begin to see more and more catastrophic levels of destruction. Use the 
following chart to determine the degree to which a ship has been removed from the fight, and 
how many — if any — crew managed to escape.  
 
A note about player safety: while Battlegroup assumes that characters’ lives are fragile in the 
context of space combat, we never want players to be placed in situations that they find 
unsafe. To that extent, clear it with your players whether or not they are comfortable with the 
(very likely) chance that their character could die in a session. If they are, play on as written. If 
not, make sure to leave some wiggle room for their character to live.   
 
A destroyed ship is no longer a valid target for attacks and abilities. 
 
Kill Table   
Remaining HP   Outcome 

0 to -4  The ship is “mission killed”: its drive is holed, or life support systems and 
reservoirs ruptured, or navcomm and weapons systems rendered ineffective, 
and/or it drifts uncontrolled — however it is flavored, the ship is unable to continue 
the fight in an effective manner. If a ship is mission killed, its crew and passengers 
have time to escape via conventional systems (escape pods and lifeboats) if they 
so choose, and are able to grab only as much personal effects, supplies, critical 
hardcopy intelligence, etc, that they can carry.   

-5 to -9   The ship suffers a sudden and catastrophic blow, shattering its hull and causing it 
irreconcilable damage to its superstructure. The point of damage likely shears a 
section of the ship off, boiling all proximal modules to slag in a catastrophic 
rupture. Crew are killed outright or, if not, are spaced. Some of the lucky ones 
manage to escape via lifeboat, but they are few.   

-10 to - 14  The ship is immediately destroyed by the impacting weapon. The brief, 
catastrophic explosion or series of explosions as critical systems rupture 
immediately kills nearly everyone on board the ship. Survivors are limited to the 
single digits — of these, few live longer than a handful of moments after the initial 
explosion. The ship is not salvageable, having been reduced both by the weapon 
impact and drive rupture to a glittering plume of slag and debris.   

-15 or lower  The ship is immediately destroyed as its nearlight drive, magazine, or longspool 
  capacitors suffer a direct, penetrating hit. The resultant explosion is so massive 
that it blanks nearby ships’ sensors for a moment — possibly even destroying 
other subline ships and projectiles caught in its radius. All hands are lost; no one 
can survive an explosion like that.   

62 
  

Ships may also suffer catastrophic effects as a result of sudden emergency nearlight 
maneuvers away from an unfavorable battle, a process referred to as nearlight ejection. Much 
like ejecting from the cockpit of a mech or fighter, nearlight ejecting from a naval battle isn’t 
without its risks. Done only as an emergency measure, without the luxury of ample time to 
prepare for such sudden acceleration both damage to the ship and danger to the crew aboard 
are to be expected. And much like ejecting from a cockpit, such dangers are often still 
preferable to the alternative. 
 
The following optional table can be rolled on to determine the consequences of a nearlight 
ejection, if any. These consequences are entirely narrative; they have no additional bearing on 
the state of an engagement or a player’s battlegroup, as ejection is already a less than 
desirable outcome. You can roll on this table once for each capital ship remaining in your 
battlegroup, or simply roll once and apply the results broadly to all ships. 
 
Nearlight Ejection Table 
D6  Effect 

1  Crew Casualties 
 
During ejection, the ship’s g-compensators fail to properly engage across all decks, 
resulting in numerous casualties. Roll a d20: that percent of the ship’s remaining 
crew has been killed as a result of the ejection, crushed to death by unprotected 
exposure to sudden, massive acceleration. 

2  Internal Explosion 
 
Whether due to existing battle damage or critical overloads caused by sudden 
nearlight acceleration, an internal explosion occurs aboard the ship immediately after 
realigning to realspace. Roll d6: the ship suffers that damage immediately and 
without mitigation. If this were to reduce the ship below 0 HP, this effect may only 
result in a Mission Kill result.  

3  Misaligned Jump 
 
Due to a navigational error or hardware malfunction, when your ship finally 
retranslates back to nominal velocity you discover that your ejection has placed you 
far off course. This could also place you dangerously close to stellar bodies, a 
gravity well, or other hazardous conditions. 

4  Dead in the Water 

 
The jump was successful — on target, with no injuries — but massive power surges 
have put the ship’s reactors into an automatic shutdown sequence. The ship is now 
operating on emergency power to essential systems only. It will take several days or 
more for the reactors to fully cycle down and then be brought back online. Until 

63 
  

then, you’re adrift in space. 

5-6  Jump Successful, All Clear 

 
Despite the desperate circumstances, your ejection from battle is handled without 
error. You retranslate on course, and while the ship and her crew may suffer minor 
systems damage and treatable injuries in the aftermath, this is nonetheless a 
textbook example of a successful jump. 
 
 
 

Keywords and Definitions 

Game Terms 
 
Ally/Allies 
Some effects and abilities refer to your allies, such as an allied battlegroup or an allied ship. In 
cases like these, ships in your own battlegroup do not count as your ally for these purposes. If 
an ability can be used to affect you, it will say so. 
 
Attack 
Attacking in Battlegroup can take one of a few different forms: either as a direct, hostile 
engagement of an enemy target with a weapon or weapon system, or as a time-and-space 
dilated engagement via launching self-propelled and guided weapons. An attack is any action 
or effect that calls for an attack roll with a weapon or that launches a Payload of some sort. If 
something prohibits you from making attacks, then you cannot perform these actions. Some 
weapons, upgrades, and abilities simply do damage automatically, such as ordering strike craft 
into battle or certain Auxiliary weapons. These do not count as attacks. 
 
Attacks are most commonly made using Maneuvers.  
 
Battlegroup(s) 
A battlegroup is the name used to represent each group of ships commanded by each player 
and NPC acting at the Fleet phase of combat.  
 
Bolstered 
Battlegroups which are Bolstered have shunted additional power towards their defensive 
systems, rerouting power to maneuvering thrusters, shields, electronic countermeasures, and 
point-defenses in an effort to avoid or mitigate incoming damage. Becoming Bolstered doesn’t 
stack with itself. 
 
Capital Ship 

64 
  

Capital Ships are typically some of the largest vessels used in modern naval engagements, 
such as Frigates, Carriers, and Battleships. NPC Flagships are also all Capital Ships. Some 
weapons and systems may only target or affect Capital Ships. 
 
Counters 
Various gameplay elements such as weapons and systems track their readiness or time to 
impact with counters. You can use actual tokens to track this, a d6, or just mark things on a 
piece of paper if you like. Charge weapons use charging counters, Payload weapons use 
flight counters, and Reloading abilities use refresh counters, among other types. 
 
Critical Hit 
A result of 20+ on an attack roll with certain weapons and effects causes a critical hit. On a 
critical hit, all damage from that attack is doubled. Attacks that do not have the Critical tag 
along with attacks that hit automatically such as Payload attacks or other effects that 
automatically deal damage cannot critically hit. 
 
Fleet 
An organized force of trade or military spaceships, composed of a mix of ships of the line, 
sub-line squadrons, and wings of fighters, bombers, and/or mounted mechanized chassis.  
 
In Battlegroup, the entire player party taken together is considered to be a fleet. Conventional 
fleets typically give a single capital ship the honor of being the fleet’s flagship which is often led 
by the most senior officer among all battlegroup commanders, though other structures are 
acceptable and found across various naval powers. 
 
Flagship 
Each player has one Flagship that represents the center of their battlegroup’s command 
structure, generally the ship carrying their representative character. Flagships also serve as the 
standard enemy unit around which NPC battlegroups are formed.  
 
Fleet Legion/Legionspace  
The Fleet Legion is the name for the networked minds of capital ship-based Diemosian NHPs. 
This networking only occurs during the preamble and course of battle to allow for the 
Diemosian NHPs to fully form their Legion — itself a gestalt, unique entity. Legions typically 
only exist for before, during, and in the immediate aftermath of a battle; if the fleet they serve is 
deployed on a long campaign, then the same legion gestalt tends to reappear each time a fleet 
calls it forth to assist in the battle.   
 
Fleet legions allow for rapid, essential-simultaneous communication between the Legion, 
comp/cons, and organics onboard the ships of a given fleet. Additionally, Legions have the 
capability to reach out and strike opposing Legions, tearing at their systems with terrifying, 
anti-causal powers little understood by their constituent Diemosian minds, much less humans 
and other organics.   

65 
  

 
Hit Points (HP) 
Hit Points (HP) represent the health, cohesion, and morale of a battlegroup; for individual 
fighters, HP represents the structural and corporeal integrity of the pilot and their ship. When a 
ship’s HP is reduced to 0, that ship is destroyed. 
 
Some systems or abilities may allow another vessel such as an equipped Escort to take 
damage as either a cost or in place of something else. If using one of these abilities reduces a 
vessel’s HP to 0 or less, it is destroyed after carrying out its command or effect unless 
specified otherwise. If a particular upgrade does not have HP then it cannot take damage and 
cannot be used for effects such as these. 
 
Lock On 
During naval engagements, ships are constantly vying for a clean firing solution. Powerful 
sensor suites and networked NHPs work in concert to analyze, predict, and acquire positive 
lock on their targets when they can, setting up devastating attacks before maneuvers and 
countermeasures can disrupt their efforts. Lock On is a status that ships can acquire from 
Maneuvers or Tactics, and it can be consumed as part of an attack to give that attack +1 
Accuracy. Certain weapons, systems, or abilities may also have additional effects that require 
inflicting or consuming Lock On to activate. Lock On does not stack with itself. 
 
Maneuver 
In Battlegroup, a Maneuver is one of the types of actions that players and NPCs can take. 
Maneuvers are typically actions that involve the entire fleet under their control, ordering them to 
attack or reposition, or actions that require a significant investment of time and attention. A 
player may make one Maneuver during their turn. 
 
Movement 
Movement refers to a battlegroup changing position along the gyre, either advancing forward 
(towards Point Blank range) or moving back (towards Extreme Range). Some upgrades and 
abilities may enable or force battlegroups to move or prevent them from doing so. 
 
NHP 
Non-Human Person. Artificial Intelligence-adjacent noncorporeal entities confined to digital 
containment systems (“Caskets”) in order to interface with human technological systems. Each 
ship in a fleet has its own individual NHP whose personalities vary as much as any other 
person, though during engagements they network together with each other to form a gestalt 
Fleet Legion for enhanced tactical capabilities. 
 
A ship’s NHP Core is the module that stores the ship’s NHP casket, along with other hard-copy 
data banks. NHP Cores are generally inaccessible by design, with various access-limiting 
features built in. On Union ships, they can be reached via a monitored access shaft large 

66 
  

enough to admit a single person crawling up a ladder, but too small to extract the ship NHP’s 
casket; on Armory ships, one must turn hardcopy keys simultaneously in the CIC to open the 
NHP-C module doors; on Baronic ships, one must turn sideways and shuffle through a narrow 
passageway; and so on. 
 
In emergency situations however, such as when the order to abandon ship is given, NHP 
caskets can then be jettisoned or removed and evacuated along with the rest of the crew. This 
typically requires authorization from the ship’s captain or other senior officers. 
 
Tactic 
Tactics are the other type of action that players and NPCs can take. They tend to be less 
demanding of time and resources, involving more specialized systems and abilities that can be 
used to enhance a fleet’s performance. A player may use one Tactic during their turn normally 
along with one Maneuver, or they can instead choose to forego their Maneuver and use two 
Tactics instead. 
 
Turn 
Many abilities and effects refer to a particular battlegroup’s turn. A battlegroup’s turn takes 
place during the Action Step, where it uses Maneuvers and Tactics to move throughout the 
Gyre, to launch attacks and boarding actions, or utilize various upgrades. Once a battlegroup 
has taken all the Maneuvers and Tactics it can or that it wishes to, its turn is over and any 
effects that trigger or clear at the end of its turn do so then. 
 
Uptime 
In naval parlance, uptime is used to refer to those moments when a ship’s crew are awake and 
active but not necessarily engaged in combat, such as drilling, maintenance, gathering 
intelligence, negotiating for supplies and reinforcements, and so on. “Downtime” by contrast 
refers to time spent by a crew in stasis. What others might call downtime, such as recreational 
activities and blowing off steam, is instead referred to as R&R or shore leave (often shortened 
to just “leave”). 
 
 
Weapon Types 
 
Auxiliary Weapon 
Auxiliary weapons are smaller, non-primary weapon systems that can be fired alongside other 
weapons at no additional action cost. These weapons often serve to enhance or augment the 
capabilities of other weapons or provide additional firepower against subline/fighter-tier 
targets. When you attack with or otherwise activate a Primary weapon you may fire an Auxiliary 
weapon alongside it for free. These weapons do not have to be equipped on the same ship.  
 

67 
  

An Auxiliary weapon can only be used once per attack. For example, if a battlegroup uses a 
Maneuver that allows it to attack with two Primary weapons, you couldn’t use the same 
Auxiliary weapon to fire alongside both of them, but you could use two different ones. 
 
Primary Weapon 
Primary weapons are larger main-battery weapon systems that form the backbone of a fleet’s 
armament. 
 
Superheavy Weapon 
The most powerful and devastating weapons mounted on capital ships, drawing enormous 
power or launching volleys of powerful munitions. Superheavy weapons without the Charge tag 
can only be used as part of the Open Fire! Maneuver unless otherwise noted.  
 
Superheavy weapons make all attack rolls against Escorts with +1 Difficulty. 
 
Single Target 
Single Target attacks must be rolled to hit against a single target; if they hit their target, then 
they apply all their damage to that target. If they miss, then they deal no damage. Generally 
speaking, Single Target attacks cannot be Interdicted unless they are Payload weapons. 
 
Area Target 
Area Target attacks do not need to roll to hit. Instead, they are applied to a battlegroup and 
their damage may be reduced by Interdiction.  
 
When an Area Target attack is used against a battlegroup, the attack’s damage is rolled, then 
the defender’s total Interdiction value for that battlegroup is rolled and subtracted from the 
damage. Whatever damage remains is then applied to all ships in this battlegroup except for 
Wings who are small and nimble enough to evade them automatically. 
 
 
Weapon and System Tags 
Accurate 
Attacks with an Accurate weapon are made with +1 Accuracy. 
 
Boarding 
Upgrades with the Boarding tag can participate in boarding actions. Many Escorts and Wings 
can be commanded to participate in boarding actions in addition to their usual commands. 
While boarding a ship, these units are removed from play. They cannot be damaged, targeted 
by attacks or effects, or repair HP unless specifically noted. 
 
Charge X 

68 
  

A weapon with the Charge tag requires a completed charge in order to fire. The length of a 
Charge weapon’s charging time is listed in its description (i.e. “Charge 2” indicates it will take 2 
rounds to charge before it can be fired). Firing a fully charged weapon resets its charge. 
 
No Maneuver or Tactic is required to begin charging or to fire a Charge weapon. Charge 
weapons begin charging during the Logistics Step at the start of the first round of play, and 
they can be fired when ready during the Impact Step. Charge weapons cannot be Interdicted. 
 
[SIDEBAR]Running With Scissors 
An extremely common question naval academy instructors are asked is why fleets don’t simply 
maintain long-spool weapons at firing charge before entering a battle’s outer perimeter. 
Wouldn’t it make sense to approach a fight as ready as possible? 
 
There are a number of answers to this question, ranging from wear and misalignment of critical 
weapon components to unacceptable levels of electromagnetic interference with long-range 
sensors, but the most immediate concern is simple; fully charged long-spool weapons are 
incredibly volatile. The output of these weapons can carve holes through moons, shatter space 
colonies, and upend a continent’s ecosystem. Nearlight travel and battlespace realignment is 
also a volatile endeavor, with ships moving at a significant fraction of lightspeed before 
attempting to safely decelerate to combat velocity while remaining on target for optimum 
positioning.  
 
Mixing the two together, therefore, is highly inadvisable, and to satisfy their curiosity cadets are 
often invited to view after-action recordings of engagements where reckless commanders have 
attempted this maneuver, with spectacularly catastrophic results.[/SIDEBAR] 
 
Critical 
Some weapons are especially devastating or capable of penetrating a target’s defenses to 
strike vulnerable components with careful aim and a bit of luck. Attacks with a Critical weapon 
can critically hit, dealing double damage on result of 20+ on an attack roll. 
 
Escort 
Escort vessels, in contemporary naval strategic parlance, refer to groups of subline ships that 
occupy a middle ground between massive capital vessels and smaller fighter-tier craft. 
Corvettes, destroyers, cruisers, and other specialized ships fall under this category. Certain 
ships are outfitted with the necessary command-and-control infrastructure and supply reserves 
to command one of these subline groups, and upgrades marked with the Escort tag can be 
equipped to ships with the appropriate slots to take them. Some NPCs are Escorts as well, and 
certain weapons or systems may target or affect them specifically. 
 
Greywash 
Greywash represents insidious weapons and munitions which infest a target and steadily break 
them down over time. Often this takes the form of destructive nanotech swarms but it could 

69 
  

employ other similar effects as well. Greywash weapons and systems inflict targets with 
greywash counters. During the Impact Step, a ship takes damage equal to the number of 
greywash counters on it, ignoring Overshield, and then removes 1 greywash counter. Greywash 
counters can stack. A battlegroup can clear all greywash counters from it automatically by 
spending a Maneuver. 
 
Inaccurate 
Attacks with an Inaccurate weapon are made with +1 Difficulty. 
 
Interdiction 
Interdiction typically represents the efforts of electronic, kinetic projectile, or directed-energy 
countermeasures to shoot down or neutralize incoming attacks. Interdiction is an abstract value 
that comprises numerous defensive systems all working in concert, and can just as easily 
represent point-defense guns as it can a fleet legion’s anti-incursion protocols. 
 
Weapons and systems with the Interdiction tag may be used during the Impact Step to reduce 
incoming damage from Payload weapons, and can be used to reduce the overall damage of 
Area Attacks. When defending against such attacks, you’ll roll your Interdiction and apply the 
result to negate incoming attacks on a 1 to 1 basis; 1 point of Interdiction negates 1 point of 
damage. If you reduce an attack’s damage value to 0, that attack is completely neutralized and 
deals no damage. A battlegroup’s Interdiction stat is a collective value taken from all all 
equipped weapons and systems and added together, applied to any and all ships in that 
battlegroup. 
 
For example, an Area Attack torpedo salvo strikes a battlegroup dealing 2d6 damage, rolling an 
8. The target battlegroup’s overall Interdiction value is 1d6 and they roll a 3, subtracting that 
from the 8 damage to leave 5 damage remaining. Every Capital Ship and every Escort in that 
battlegroup then takes 5 damage. If the defender could have applied 8 Interdiction to that 
attack, it would have neutralized it entirely and none of the ships in their battlegroup would take 
any damage. 
 
Legionspace 
Attacks with the Legionspace tag are systemic, paracausal attacks unleashed upon opposed 
fleet legions or realspace. Other systems may have the Legionspace tag as well, representing 
their connection to the fleet legion, and various systems or abilities may bolster or hinder their 
performance. 
 
Limited X 
This weapon or system can only be used X times before it is fully expended. To use the system, 
the user expends a use. Limited weapons expend uses when used to attack. 
 
Overkill 

70 
  

When rolling for damage with this weapon, any damage dice that land on a 1 are immediately 
rerolled. Additional 1s continue to trigger this effect. 
 
Overshield 
If a weapon, system, or maneuver grants you Overshield, you gain a number of indicated, 
temporary hit points on top of your current base of HP. These hit points cannot be regained by 
things which restore HP, but benefit normally from anything that would affect HP or damage 
(such as damage reduction). Overshield can put a ship above its normal HP total. 
 
Damage is dealt to Overshield first, then HP. The user only retains the highest value of 
Overshield applied; it does not stack. 
 
Payload 
Payload-tagged weapons do not require an attack roll to hit their targets. Instead, they have a 
flight time based on the range band they’re fired from; longer distances result in a longer flight 
time. Payload flight counters are removed in the Logistics Step of each fleet phase; when the 
final flight counter is removed, the Payload weapon hits its target on their Impact Step. 
Generally speaking, weapons with the Payload tag can be interdicted. 
 
Some Payload weapons may have a slower or faster flight time, and if so they will indicate this 
in the tag. A weapon with Payload -1, for example, will reduce its initial flight time by 1. Some 
abilities and effects may also adjust Payload flight time by increasing or decreasing it, down to 
a minimum of 1; you cannot reduce a Payload’s flight time to 0 before the Logistics Step. 
Payload weapons cannot be fired again until any attacks in flight have impacted, but if a 
Payload attack’s target is destroyed before it can reach them automatic failsafes detonate them 
early, allowing you to attack with them again without having to wait. You may also choose to 
manually detonate any of your Payloads during your turn if you wish to fire a new salvo. 
 
Payloads do not automatically shut down when the ship that launched them is destroyed and 
can continue to act as a persistent threat over the course of an engagement, but if a fleet is 
defeated, surrenders, or ejects from battle then without the necessary coordinating telemetry to 
support them they no longer pose a threat and are effectively destroyed without harm. 
 
Reliable X 
Reliable weapons are those that always deal some amount of unavoidable damage, whether 
due to sheer volume of fire, collateral thermal bleed, or exceptional course-correction 
capabilities. Weapons with this tag will always deal X damage even if it rolls less damage, is 
interdicted, avoided, or otherwise misses the target.  
 
Reloading X 
Weapons and systems with the Reloading tag may not literally require reloading per se, but 
they do have to refresh, recharge, or cool down between uses. When a Reloading weapon or 

71 
  

system is used, it will begin refreshing during the Logistics step. When the last refresh counter 
is removed, then the weapon or system is ready to be used again. 
 
System 
Specialized equipment and upgrades can only be installed on ships that have the appropriate 
command structure, electronics architecture, power surplus, or extra cargo space to effectively 
utilize them. These are marked with the System tag, and may only be equipped on ships with 
System installation slots. Each System slot on a hull can hold a single upgrade with the System 
tag. Systems grant a variety of powerful abilities to the ships and fleets they’re equipped to, 
and both when and how they can be used will be listed in each System’s description. 
 
Tenacity 
All units capable of boarding an enemy vessel have a Tenacity rating that represents how 
difficult it is to dislodge them once they are aboard. Boarded ships will roll against a boarder’s 
Tenacity to repel them if they do not spend a Maneuver on their turn to do so automatically. 
 
Unique 
This rare or unconventional weapon or system cannot be assigned casually – each player may 
only have a single one of these weapons or systems equipped to their battlegroup. 
 
 
 
Wing 
Wings represent flights of fighters, bombers, drones, or mounted chassis. Individually these 
craft may pose little threat to a capital ship, but in numbers they can punch well above their 
weight with a combination of tactical flexibility and salvos of anti-capital ordnance. Certain 
ships, most notably carriers but other types as well, are outfitted with the landing bays required 
to house and launch these strike craft as noted by the appropriate slots listed in their 
descriptions. 
 
 
 
 

   

72 
  

The Battlegroup 
Battlegroups are composed of a number of capital ships supported by subline squadrons and 
wings. As a player, you’ll build your battlegroup by selecting ships and upgrades before leading 
them into battle. The character whose role you occupy during these battles may be a 
commander on one of the ships, the fleet legion called to service only in battle, or a moving 
perspective that touches on many different characters.  
 
Battlegroup structures generally follow a common force organization chart: A flagship with the 
fleet commander on board, a number of escort capital ships, and a larger number of subline 
ships, corvettes, gunboats, and fighter/bomber wings. However you build your battlegroup, 
though, is up to you.  
 

Building Your Battlegroup 

In order to build your battlegroup, you’ll spend points from your pool on capital ship hulls, 
weapons, and upgrades. Keep track of each capital ship that you build — their loadouts, 
individual hitpoints, and unique abilities. 
 
Each player has 20 points to spend on building their battlegroup. 
 
A battlegroup must have at least two ships of capital classification in any combination. One of 
these ships will be chosen to act as your flagship. This is the vessel that your character will 
command their battlegroup from, and the one that — should it be destroyed — end in the 
death of your character (unless they make it to an escape pod). When you designate a ship as 
your Flagship, it gains +3 HP, +1d6 Interdiction, and +1 System slot. This represents the 
personalizations that have gone into making this your command vessel. Any type of ship can 
serve as a Flagship; while battleships are commonly chosen for the role, many commanders 
prefer to oversee matters from the bridge of a frigate or carrier. Note that losing your flagship 
during an engagement does not prevent you from continuing to fight on with the remainder of 
your forces. 
 
There is no restriction on building a battlegroup based on hull manufacturer. These ship 
designs are sold, traded, and copied enough that they may find a home in any commander’s 
fleet.  
 
Once you’ve selected the hulls you’d like in your battlegroup, you may spend your remaining 
points on weapons and upgrades to equip them with. All ships, unless otherwise specified, are 
considered to have sufficient life support systems, food and water supplies, crew and quarters, 
nearlight and sublight drives, necessary basic systems (targeting control, a CIC, navigation, 
etc) and so on.  
 

73 
  

Ship hulls have several important stats to note when selecting and outfitting them: 
 
Points  
A hull’s Points stat indicates how many points it costs to add it to your battlegroup. This cost 
represents only the hull itself without any weapons or other upgrades. 
 
HP (Hit Points)  
This is the measure of a ship’s physical durability. When a ship’s HP reaches 0, it is destroyed 
along with all of its equipped upgrades, including weapons, systems, and any Escorts or Wings 
it was carrying. Any ongoing effects provided by these upgrades will persist, however. For 
example, a destroyed ship’s Payload attacks will continue their last flight, and any boarders 
they’ve deployed will continue fighting until the bitter end. 
 
Defense 
This is an abstract representation of the ship’s structural integrity, defensive countermeasures, 
and maneuverability. When an enemy targets a ship with a Single Target attack, they roll 
against that ship’s Defense stat to see if they hit or not. Some effects may modify a ship’s 
Defense stat, but Defense can never go below 6 or above 20. 
 
Weapons  
This shows how many weapons of each size can be mounted onto that ship. Some highly 
specialized ships may not have weapon mountings.  
 
Systems  
This shows how many upgrades with the System tag that ship can equip. 
 
Escorts/Wings  
This shows how many upgrades with the Escort or Wing tags that ship can equip. 
 
Traits, Maneuvers, and Tactics 
Each ship, in addition to its unique stat profile, also brings to the table one or more Traits, 
Maneuvers, or Tactics. Traits are passive modifiers, with triggers listed in the frigate’s profile, 
and do not need to be activated unless stated so in their profile. Maneuvers and Tactics work 
like normal, and can be used during the Action Step according to their descriptions.   
 
   

74 
  

Leftover Points 
Based on the ships and loadouts you choose, you may wind up with some leftover points you 
can’t spend because you have no more room for weapons or upgrades. If this happens, you 
may convert up to 2 unspent points into banked Accuracy dice. You may spend a banked die 
to add +1 Accuracy to one of your attack rolls during play. 
 
Battlegroup Strategies 
With all of the options available for constructing a battlegroup, it can perhaps feel a bit 
overwhelming at first until you become more accustomed to the system. For newer and less 
experienced players, here are some guidelines to help you get started. 
 
To begin with, take note of the strengths and weaknesses of your chosen ships. Some ships 
are better in close-in fights while others will prefer to hang back and act from a distance. 
Choosing ships that compliment one another, and that can also compliment other players at 
the table, is a good start. 
 
Many NPCs have ways to move player battlegroups along the gyre, representing their ability to 
shift the lines of battle in their favor. You likely won’t be able to simply remain in a single range 
band uncontested for the entire game. It’s therefore a good idea to try and avoid creating a 
battlegroup that can only act effectively at a single specific range band. Some systems and 
upgrades will allow you to mitigate these movement effects to some extent. 
 
Make sure you always have something to do during your turns. It’s possible to create 
battlegroups without any Primary weapons, for example, and so during your turn you won’t be 
able to conduct attacks using certain Maneuvers such as All Ahead Full! or Open Fire! This 
doesn’t mean you have to have any one particular type of weapon or system in your 
battlegroup, there are a number of options available to choose from, including weapons, 
support options, commanding fighters and subline vessels, or conducting boarding actions. 
 
There are 0-point options for all weapon and upgrade types available, so spending all of your 
points before you’ve fully outfitted your ships doesn’t mean you won’t be able to finish the job. 
There’s no need for you to let any weapon mount or upgrade slot go unused, so don’t be afraid 
to indulge in some more expensive choices that you’d like to try out. 
 
Taking a look at the other battlegroups can help you find opportunities for coordination and 
teamwork. If a player’s battlegroup benefits from consuming Lock On, you might take 
something that can help by locking onto targets for them. If another battlegroup is focused on 
Payloads, then perhaps you might instead choose options that work well alongside that. 
 
   

75 
  

Example: UDoJ/HR Liberator Battlegroup Pullman  

Let’s build a battlegroup!  
 
To start the example: You know you want to play a pack of bruisers — big ships that can take 
hits and dish them out. Some of the other players in your group are building lighter — quick 
carriers with plenty of wings and subline squadrons — and seeking to chip away at your foes, 
but you want to hit them with the knock out punch. You have 20 points to spend on ships 
and upgrades. 
 
So off the bat, you’re going to spend points on three capital ship hulls: two GMS Caspian Sea 
Class Frigates (3 points apiece) and one GMS Thoreau Class Battleship (7 points) for a total 
of 13 points. You elect to designate the Thoreau as your Flagship, which gives it 3 additional 
HP, 1d6 Interdiction, and an additional System upgrade slot.  
 
The Thoreau has several abilities that compliment this playstyle as well, including a powerful 
Maneuver called Unleash Hell! which allows you to fire a Superheavy weapon alongside two 
Primary weapons or up to four Primary weapons all at once, and your hull choices allow you to 
cover both possibilities. Meanwhile the Caspian Sea-class frigates are effective at screening 
since they can provide Lock On when assigned to a defensive screen, and they can also give 
your allies rerolls, making them a very versatile and flexible hull.  
 
With your remaining 7 points, you’ll outfit your hulls with upgraded weapons and systems; any 
slots you don’t have points to spend on, you can simply fill with a 0 point cost weapon or 
system.  
 
Your flagship is going to be the big damage-dealer of your battlegroup, so you’d like that ship 
to be the one that really slings fire. Between the battleship and your two frigates you have 
plenty of weapon mounts, but many of the Superheavy weapons don’t fire like normal during 
your turn but instead build up charges or launch payloads which have to travel to their target. 
There is, however, an option that’s perfect for this sort of playstyle, the 3x3 Block Short-Spool 
Cannon. Equipping that costs you 2 points. 
 
Along with this weapon, the Thoreau has two Primary weapon mounts, two Auxiliary weapon 
mounts, and because it’s your Flagship it also has a System upgrade slot. For its Primary and 
Auxiliary weapons you choose a pair of Heavy Kinetic Batteries and Secondary Turrets. The 
Heavy Kinetic Batteries cost 1 point each, and the Secondary Turrets cost 0, so you have 3 
points remaining. For the Systems slot, you decide you want to make sure your big guns hit 
when you unleash hell, so you equip the 0 point upgrade Fire For Effect! on your battleship. 
 
Now we come to outfitting the frigates, which each have a Primary and an Auxiliary weapon 
mount. With the 3 remaining points, you purchase another pair of Heavy Kinetic Batteries to 
give your battlegroup even more firepower. You could simply take another set of Secondary 

76 
  

Turrets, but the mission briefing suggested that enemy forces may have carriers in the area of 
operations, so instead you give each frigate a set of Flyswatter Missiles for 0 points apiece. 
 
1 point remains. Unfortunately you don’t have any open weapon or upgrade slots to spend it 
on, but that just means that it gets converted into a banked Accuracy die which you can then 
spend during the upcoming battle. 
 
With everything set, you note on your battlegroup profile card the weapons and systems 
equipped to each ship, their traits and any special abilities they have, each ship’s HP, and then 
you go about naming them accordingly. Your battlegroup is accompanied by your party 
members’ own battlegroups; together, the ships the four of you command compose a fleet.   
 

 
Capital Capital Ship Classifications 
Frigate 
Frigates are the backbone of any battlegroup worth its manna. A broad-tonnage class, frigates 
are the jack-of-all trades ship that no admiral would want to be without; encompassing 
everything from sturdy ships of the line to cutting-edge, deeply specific specialists, the frigate 
class is the most common and varied ship of capital designation. 
 
A battlegroup can have up to 3 Frigates. 
 
Carrier 
Carriers sacrifice weaponry and specialized systems to increase command ability and the 
potential portfolio of scenarios to which a given battlegroup can respond. Media often depicts 
the “classic” flagship carrier: a large vessel crewed by thousands of enlisted and officers, its 
hangars home to wings of fighters, bombers — and, in some cases — light subline ships. Most 
carriers fielded throughout the Orion Arm, though, trend towards light and middle tonnage, 
adopting frontline/gyre-proximal positions where they can better manage their wings in 
aggressive midrange combat.  
 
A battlegroup can have up to 2 Carriers. 
 
Battleship 
A common wartime flagship, battleships are the pure realization of raw destructive power. Most 
ships that fit the “Battleship” role are built around one or more massive spinal cannons — 
kinetic accelerators or linear beam projectors (“lances”) — meant to deal a killing blow to 
enemy capital ships in a single shot. Charging these titanic weapons takes time, however, and 
during that time these great ships must be protected by their escorts; some battleships 

77 
  

sacrifice raw ordinance to carry wings of fighters with them, or robust defensive systems meant 
to ensure they remain unmolested as they prepare to fire.  
 
A battlegroup may only have 1 Battleship. 
 

 
Frigate Hulls  
Frigates are workhorse ships of any battlegroup. With decent defenses and structural integrity, 
their strength lies in their versatility. Frigates often occupy a support role in battlegroups, 
enhancing a fleet’s tactical and strategic capabilities, escorting heavier vessels, and providing 
additional firepower as needed. 
 
Only battlegroups with at least one active Frigate can use the Defensive Screen Tactic. 
 
 
 
GMS Caspian Sea Class Frigate 
GMS’s Caspian Sea class is Union’s backbone frigate, a tough and flexible multi-role vessel that 
functions just as well in a battle line as it does on lone patrol. Developed by GMS under the 
Second Committee, the Caspian Sea class was one of the few hulls not to be scrapped by the 
Third Committee’s ground-up redesign of the Union Naval Department. Now a common first 
posting for Regular and Auxiliary navy personnel, Caspian Sea class frigates in standard Union 
Naval doctrine are typically tasked as fire-coordination platforms.   
 
3 Points  16 HP  1 Primary Weapon  1 Auxiliary  10 Defense 
Weapon 
  
Fire Control Networking (Trait) 

1/round when an allied battlegroup in your range band consumes Lock On as part of an 
attack they may reroll that attack, but must keep the second result. When the Caspian Sea 
Class Frigate is assigned to a Defensive Screen, it may Lock On to an enemy Capital Ship or 
Escort.  
 
 
   

78 
  

GMS Huron Class Frigate 

The Huron class frigate is a dedicated weapons platform typically stationed on the perimeters of 
friendly fleets. Tasked with anti-subline/fighter defense, Huron class frigates are stalwart 
defensive units generally never encountered outside of combat deployments; in the Union 
Navy, there’s an old axiom: “If you can see a Huron from the deck, prepare for a storm.”   
 
3 Points  16 HP  1 Primary Weapon  1 Auxiliary  10 Defense  
Weapon 
 
Flak Screen (Trait) 

Whenever an Escort or Wing attacks or deals damage to any ship in your battlegroup, roll 
1d20. On a 10+, that Escort or Wing takes 3 damage. If this damage is enough to destroy an 
Escort or Wing, it is destroyed before it can carry out its attack or command and its effects 
are negated. When the Huron Class Frigate is assigned to a Defensive Screen, this roll 
automatically succeeds and applies to the battlegroup it is screening for. 
 
 
GMS Superior Class Frigate 
One of the few new designs produced by GMS under the Third Committee, Union’s Superior 
class frigates are built to equip the UN’s top of the line weapons and EWAR systems. 
Assignment to a Superior is considered a prestigious posting for new officers. Standard naval 
outfitting sees Superior class frigates equipped with bays of repair drones to supplement 
fleetwide damage control, though other more offensive configurations — especially those tuned 
to better effect fleetwide legionspace — are not uncommon.  
 
3 Points  16 HP  1 Primary Weapon  1 System  10 Defense 
 
Repair Drones (Trait) 

When the Superior Class Frigate is assigned to a Defensive Screen, the ship it is screening 
repairs 2 HP. 
 
Gain the following Tactic: 
 
Fleet Triage 
Battlegroup Tactic, Limited 1 
Choose one of your Capital Ships or Escorts, or an allied Capital Ship or Escort in 
your range band. That ship repairs 5 HP. 
 
 

79 
  

HA Schuyler Class Frigate 

HA designs their Frigates to fulfill a wide portfolio of specialized roles, each one operating as 
one component of a large and flexible fleet. Schuyler-class frigates are EWAR platforms, 
designed to enhance a fleet's systemic and logistical capabilities. Lightly armed, Schuyler-class 
frigates are nonetheless critical components of any long-deployment blacksky or orbital fleet. 
 
4 Points  14 HP  2 Systems  12 Defense  
  
Enhanced Logistics (Trait) 

The Schuyler Class Frigate is equipped with a Limited 2 fleet logistics suite. 1/round you may 
expend a use from this system to remove 1 refresh counter from any expended Reloading 
weapon or system in your battlegroup or an allied battlegroup in the same range band during 
the Logistics Step.  
 
A weapon or system can only have a single counter removed this way between uses. 
 
 
HA Creighton Class Frigate 
In true HA fashion, the Creighton is an experiment to see whether the Armory could mount one 
of their largest guns available on the smallest possible hull they could. The Creighton class is 
less a ship carrying a gun than it is a gun with a ship built to support it. Designed for 
deployment as a second-line, over-horizon platform, the Creighton excels when it has the time 
and distance to engage targets downrange without proximity pressure.  
 
3 Points  12 HP  1 Superheavy Weapon  10 Defense 
 
Calibrated Targeting (Trait) 

The Creighton Class Frigate adds +3 Reliable to attacks made at Extreme and Long range, 
but attacks made at closer ranges are made with +1 Difficulty instead. 
 
Purpose-Built (Trait) 

The Creighton Class Frigate can only equip Superheavy weapons with the Charge tag. 
Superheavy weapons equipped to this frigate have their point costs reduced by 1 to a 
minimum of 0. 
 
 
   

80 
  

HA Turenne Class Frigate 

A ship designed for escort duty, made to screen for other vessels with a combination of 
conventional point defense systems and HA's advances in shield technology. 
 
4 Points  14 HP  2 Auxiliary  1 System  12 Defense 
Weapons 
 
Active Defense (Trait) 

When the Turenne Class Frigate is assigned to a Defensive Screen, that battlegroup gains +3 
Interdiction. 
  
 
FKS Cirsium Class Frigate 
A newer Baronic design, any officer fresh from the Academy knows that assignment to a 
Cirisium class frigate indicates that someone in Command has taken a liking to them. Standard 
doctrine is for a Cirisium sees this vessel accompanied by a subline escort for which it has the 
tactical command-and-control infrastructure to effectively coordinate; considered a "tactician's 
vessel," though a lot of captains are known to order their escorts into dangerous or suicidal 
circumstances in an effort to reap glory. 
 
3 Points  14 HP  1 Primary Weapon  1 Escort  10 Defense 
 
Honor Guard (Trait) 

1/round when the Crisium Class Frigate takes damage from any source while it has an 
equipped Escort, it may reduce that damage to 0. That Escort then takes that much damage. 
 
 
FKS Tolumnia Class Frigate 
A heavily armed frigate built built to support an aggressive doctrine of overwhelming firepower, 
intended to phase out the aging Onopordum but teething issues with the design and political 
squabbling have resulted in delays and uneven distribution throughout Baronic fleets, one of 
the hull's critical drawbacks is a noted lack of flexibility in its loadout capability as its advanced 
autoloading and power cycling systems are only compatible with specific armament types, 
plans for a revised design which addresses this shortcoming have been submitted to the 
Baronic Admiralty Chambers for review. 
 
5 Points  16 HP  2 Primary Weapons  10 Defense 
 

81 
  

Synchronized Batteries (Trait) 

1/round when the Tolumnia Class Frigate consumes Lock On as part of an attack with one of 
its equipped Primary weapons, instead of gaining the usual bonus it may make an additional 
attack against that target with its other equipped Primary weapon. This attack is made with 
+1 Difficulty. 
 
Specialized Mountings (Trait) 

The Tolumnia Class Frigate cannot equip weapons with the Payload tag. 
 
 
FKS Onopordum Class Frigate 
One of the oldest ships still in service, underpowered and undergunned by contemporary 
standards, outweighed by the fact that there are tons of them still in use and they're cheap to 
field. Cramped, poor amenities, definitely not a glorious ship in the slightest, but those that 
crew them tend to develop an inordinate, somewhat superstitious attachment to them, going as 
far as to consider them lucky vessels...those that survive battle, anyway. Following a series of 
mutinies, Baronic Unified Command has instituted regular periodic rotations of Onopordum 
crews to maintain “acceptable levels of morale and combat readiness.” 
 
2 Points   14 HP   1 Primary Weapon  10 Defense  
 
Stealing Luck From The Devil (Trait) 

1/battle, you may add or subtract 1d3 from any d20 roll (your own, ally, or enemy) after 
seeing the result. A roll can only be modified in this way once. When the Onopordum Class 
Frigate is assigned to a Defensive Screen, roll a d20 instead of the usual 50 percent chance. 
On a result of 10+, the screen is successful.  
 
 
IPS-N Bakunawa Class Frigate 
A flexible multi-role frigate that makes use of its somewhat oversized hull to house a fully 
functional flight deck and launch bay capable of housing and supporting fighter-tier craft 
including mounted chassis, a common sight among anti-piracy forces and, somewhat ironically, 
among the better equipped pirates themselves who value its combination of firepower and 
boarding capabilities. 
 
4 Points  18 HP  1 Primary Weapon  1 Wing  8 Defense  
 

82 
  

Pocket Carrier (Trait) 

During the Logistics Step, the Bakunawa Class Frigate can repair 2 HP on a Wing equipped 
to it. When this ship is assigned to a Defensive Screen, you may also issue a command to a 
Wing equipped to it. 
 
 
IPS-N Laho Class Frigate 
A dedicated "torpedo boat" designed to launch long-flight munitions accurately and efficiently, 
employed by a variety of navies as part of a combined arms doctrine, the Laho is vulnerable on 
its own and often relies on other ships to defend it against close range threats. 
 
4 Points  18 HP  1 Primary Weapon  1 System  8 Defense  
 
Rotary Launch Tubes (Trait) 

All Payload weapons equipped to the Laho Class Frigate may reduce their travel time by 1 to 
a minimum of 1 
 
Torpedo Boat (Trait) 

The Laho Class Frigate can only equip Primary weapons with the Payload tag. 
 
 
IPS-N Minokawa Class Frigate 
Based on the Bakunawa but trading out the flight deck and strike craft launch capabilities for 
expanded marine crew capacity, mechanized chassis bays, and an integrated array of short 
range ship-to-ship transfer vehicles, the Minokawa is commonly employed by IPS-N Trunk 
Security as a well-armed boarding/counter-boarding vessel capable of operating independently 
or as part of combined fleet actions. 
 
4 Points  18 HP  1 Primary Weapon  1 Escort  8 Defense  
 
Rapid Reaction Force (Trait) 

The Minokawa Class Frigate makes all rolls to repel boarders with +1 Accuracy. When this 
ship is assigned to a Defensive Screen, all boarding actions made against it and the ship it is 
screening are made with +1 Difficulty. 
 

83 
  

Patrol Cutter (Trait) 

The Minokawa Class Frigate can only equip Escorts with the Boarding tag. 
 
 

Carrier Hulls  
Carriers are linchpins of a fleet; with light weapons and decent defenses, though only middling 
structural integrity, their main strength lies in their ability to command frontline wings and 
squadrons. Unlike in terrestrial theaters where carrier-type vessels often serve as long range 
force multipliers, carrier doctrines in the extreme distance contexts of space combat are often 
inverted, serving as mid- to close-range strike platforms. 
 
All Carriers have 3 free points that can only be spent on equipping Escorts or Wings. 
 
 
 
GMS Amazon Class Line Carrier 
The standard carrier design used by dozens of stellar navies across Union space, a dedicated 
example of conventional carrier doctrine, its flight decks utilize the latest advances in printer 
technology to quickly return damaged strike craft to service 
 
4 Points  14 HP  4 Wings  14 Defense  
 

Rapid Printing (Trait) 

The Amazon Class Line Carrier has enhanced flight decks with Limited 2 rapid printing 
systems. 1/round, during the Logistics Step you may expend a use to repair a Wing 
equipped to this ship to full HP, even from 0 HP. 
 
 
GMS Tongass Class Line Carrier 
A carrier built to house, support, repair, and coordinate squadrons of low- to mid-tonnage 
subline combat vessels, often tasked with fire support operations using attached squadrons to 
rapidly move between battle lines as needed. 
 
4 Points  14 HP  2 Auxiliary  2 Escorts  14 Defense  
Weapons 
 
Close Support (Trait) 

84 
  

Allies in your range band may use Tactics granted by the Tongass Class Line Carrier’s 
equipped Escorts as if they were under their control. 
 
 
HA Farragut Class Starfield Carrier 
Unlike their more specialized frigates, HA's carrier design emphasizes modularity in order to 
create a flexible command-and-control/support platform capable of performing well when part 
of any battlegroup. 
 
5 Points  16 HP  1 Primary  1 Modular  2 Wings  13 Defense  
Weapon  
 
Modular Design (Trait) 

The Farragut Class Starfield Carrier has a special Modular slot that can be used to equip 
either an Auxiliary Weapon, System, Escort, or Wing. 
 
Fleet Coordinator (Trait) 

When you assign a Frigate to a Defensive Screen, you may assign it screen for up to two 
ships at once. 
 
 
FKS Tagetes Class Agile Carrier 
Fighter/bomber pilots are one of the few elements of Baronic naval doctrine that approaches 
the glory of a chassis pilot and consequently competition for a spot on one of these carriers is 
fierce, superior maneuverability and defensive systems help ensure that their pilots can get to 
the fight in order to make a name for themselves. 
 
6 Points  14 HP  1 System  3 Wings  15 Defense 
 
Lead Dancer (Trait) 

The Tagetes Class Agile Carrier’s equipped Wings gain +1 to all non-boarding damage 
effects. All damage dealt to this ship’s equipped Wings by hostile effects or abilities is 
reduced by 1 to a minimum of 0. 
 
 
 
 
85 
  

SSC Apeiron Class Carrier 

Smaller than the Skyhook Class Carriers utilized by SSC's Constellar Security forces, the 
Apeiron class serves in a more conventional carrier role as part of a battlegroup, albeit one 
designed with SSC's exacting standards for engineering, aesthetics, and cutting-edge 
technology in mind. Apeiron class carriers are manufactured for a variety of stellar powers and 
disaporan states by order, though generally only the wealthier nations can afford to commission 
them. The Apeiron incorporates advancements first developed as part of the LUX-Iconic line's 
Mourning Cloak combat chassis, utilizing experimental gravitic power plants and singularity 
motivators to act as a novel fighter-tier launch system capable of quickly teleporting strike craft 
towards targets from greater distances, extending the carrier’s operational range. A series of 
strict minimum safe launch distance failsafes work to prevent the risk of catastrophic 
comaterialization. 
 
6 Points  14 HP  4 Wings  15 Defense  
 
Singularity Catapults (Trait) 

The Apeiron Class Carrier’s equipped Wings increase both the maximum and minimum 
ranges of all of their effects and abilities by 1 (for example, a Wing with a range of 2-0 
becomes 3-1). 
 
 
IPS-N Tawa Class Medium Carrier 
One of the most commonly sold carriers in the IPS-N line, a favorite of smaller state navies that 
appreciate its robust physical durability and simple layout. 
 
4 Points  16 HP  1 Escort  1 System  2 Wings  12 Defense  
 
Away Teams (Trait) 

All boarding actions launched from the Tawa Class Medium Carrier gain +2 Tenacity. 
 
 
IPS-N Masauwu Class Heavy Carrier-Frame 
An outsized design built to support mixed subline/bomber/chassis tactics, capable of carrying 
even smaller subline ships within its cavernous launch bays. 
 
6 Points  16 HP  2 Escorts  2 Wings  11 Defense  
 

86 
  

Wolfpack Tactics (Trait) 

1/round, when you use a Tactic to command an Escort equipped to the Masauwu Class 
Heavy Carrier Frame, you may command another Escort or Wing equipped to it at the same 
time. 
 
 

Battleship Hulls  
Battleships are the heaviest ships commonly encountered in battle lines. With rare exception, 
they are the only ships able to field superheavy long-spool weapons and capital-killer 
torpedoes, capable of destroying lesser ships in a single blow. Battleships often serve as the 
centerpiece for numerous battlegroups, and the legacies of specific battleships frequently 
achieve a mythic status. 
 
Battleships do not have any special rules unique to their hull type, but each one boasts 
powerful abilities that can define how your battlegroup operates. It is not required to take 
a battleship when building a fleet. 
 
 
 
GMS Muir Class Battleship 
The standard GMS battleship design, well rounded, suitably armed and outfitted to handle a 
variety of scenarios in multiple theaters, has a storied history and a lot of famous names in its 
pedigree, this is the iconic battleship associated with Union's navy and is prominently featured 
in a lot of omninet dramas and games. 
 
6 Points  25 HP  1  1 Primary  2 Auxiliary  1 System  12 Defense 
Superheavy  Weapon  Weapons 
Weapon 
 
Paragon (Trait) 

1/round, you may add +1 Accuracy to any roll you or an ally in the same range band makes. 
1/battle, you may add +3 Accuracy instead. 
 
 
GMS Thoreau Class Battleship 
A heavier GMS battleship platform whose history can be traced back to late Second Committee 
designs, though updated for the modern era, built to enhance a fleet's offensive capabilities 
with a combination of advanced fire control systems, aggressive NHP deportment, and robust 

87 
  

power distribution, able to operate independently as well and occasionally a single Thoreau is 
assigned to help defend a polity under Union's umbrella as a "fleet of one". 
 
7 Points  25 HP  1 Superheavy  2 Primary  2 Auxiliary  12 Defense 
Weapon  Weapons  Weapons 
 
 
Barrage Doctrine (Trait) 

When you fire a Primary weapon as part of the All Ahead Full! Maneuver, you may use two 
Auxiliary weapons alongside it instead of one. 
 
Unleash Hell! (Maneuver)  

Battlegroup Maneuver 
Limited 1 
You may fire one Superheavy weapon and up to two Primary weapons, or up to four Primary 
weapons. You may not use this Maneuver if you have moved this turn. 
 
 
HA Louis XIV Class Dreadnought 
An unusual design, the Louis XIV is comparatively fragile for a battleship-grade vessel but only 
because it foregoes raw structural integrity for a novel system of advanced projected defense 
systems and high-power shielding that can deflect or disperse even naval-grade firepower, it 
can also extend this protection to other nearby fleets. 
 
7 Points  15 HP  1 Superheavy  1 Primary  2 Systems  13 Defense  
Weapon  Weapon 
 
Pinpoint Aegis (Trait) 

Your battlegroup gains +1d6 Interdiction. The Louis XIV begins each battle with 5 Overshield, 
and gains 5 Overshield at the start of the Logistics Step. While this ship has Overshield it 
gains +2 Defense. 
 
Projected Blackshield (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 1 

88 
  

You or an allied battlegroup of your choice gains +3d6 Interdiction until the end of the next 
Impact Step. 
 
 
HA Michel Ney Class Dreadnought 
HA's venture into integrating allegedly-stolen Volador blinkspace technology into a capital ship 
hull, this version of the Michel Ney is actually an augmented retrofit being used as a testbed 
platform, capable of unusual hit-and-run maneuvers for a ship of its tonnage, with the conflicts 
in the Dawnline Shore heating up HA is using this as an opportunity to gather live combat data. 
 
7 Points  25 HP  1 Superheavy  2 Primary  1 System  12 Defense 
Weapon  Weapon 
 
Blinkspace Carver (Trait) 

When you use the Retrograde Burn! maneuver you may fire a Primary Weapon as well. This 
may be done before or after moving. 
 
Tactical Blinktunneler (Maneuver)  

Battlegroup Maneuver 
Limited 1 
Your battlegroup may fall back or advance one range band and becomes Bolstered until the 
end of your next turn. You may also fire one Superheavy Weapon or up to two Primary 
Weapons before or after moving. 
 
 
FKS Calendula Class Battlecruiser 
Sometimes referred to as a "siege cruiser," an ostentatious design that makes numerous 
sacrifices in order to mount overlapping superheavy weaponry, more a show of force than any 
sort of practical consideration, nonetheless the ship is capable of shunting tremendous (and 
unsafe) levels of power into its weapon systems on demand, pushing them far past standard 
tolerances even as they unleash devastating firepower. 
 
7 Points  23 HP  2 Superheavy  1 Primary  1 System  13 Defense  
Weapons  Weapon 
 
Last Argument of Kings (Trait) 

89 
  

The Calendula Class Battlecruiser must equip at least one Superheavy weapon with the 
Charge tag. 
 
Overcharge Capacitors (Trait) 

The Calendula Class Battlecruiser may pour more power into its long-spool weapons than is 
strictly advisable. Whenever you remove a charge counter from a Superheavy weapon 
equipped to this ship, you may take 1 damage to give that weapon an overcharge counter as 
well, up to a maximum of 4. This damage cannot be prevented in any way, but cannot 
reduce you below 1 HP. When you fire that weapon, remove all overcharge counters from it 
and deal an additional +1d3 damage on hit for each counter removed this way. 
 
Maximum Power! (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 1 
Choose a single Superheavy weapon equipped to the Calendula Class Battlecruiser with the 
Charge tag. That weapon immediately removes all charge counters and gains 4 overcharge 
counters, up to a maximum of 4. The next attack made with this weapon gains Reliable 4, or 
adds +4 to its existing Reliable value, but afterwards it is destroyed and cannot be used 
again for the rest of the battle. When you use this Tactic you immediately take 4 damage that 
cannot be prevented in any way, but this cannot reduce you below 1 HP. 
 
 
FKS Hesperis Class Battlecruiser 
A special project spearheaded by interests within the Baronic Unified Command who firmly 
believe that missiles and torpedoes are the dominant future of naval warfare, the Hesperis Class 
Battlecruiser was designed as a proof of concept testbed for a new form of payload-focused 
strategic doctrine. In addition to advanced targeting and munition coordination systems, the 
Hesperis also serves as a command-and-control platform for the “Crosier” Self-Contained Kill 
Vehicle, a munition that straddles the line between ordnance and an independent vessel. The 
Hesperis has yet to see live combat, given the newness of its design and exorbitant cost of 
each SCKV, and both the Admiralty Board and the project’s detractors are eager to see how 
well it fares in action.   
 
7 Points  23 HP  1 Superheavy  2 Primary  1 Escort  13 Defense  
Weapon  Weapons 
 
Impact-Assurance Targeting (Trait) 

90 
  

1/round you may choose; you may consume Lock On during the Logistics Step to remove 1 
flight counter from one of your active Single Target Payload attacks against that ship, or you 
may consume Lock On during the Impact Step against an enemy Flagship rolling Interdiction 
against one or more of your Payload attacks to force them to reroll 1 Interdiction die and 
keep the worse result. 
 
Self-Contained Kill Vehicles (Trait) 

The Hesperis Class Battleship begins combat accompanied by a pair of Self-Contained Kill 
Vehicles, massive independent munitions large enough to carry their own defenses. Treat 
each SCKV as a Capital Ship with 10 HP, 12 Defense, and an Auxiliary slot. 
 
You may launch one or both SCKVs during your turn as a Maneuver. Treat them as 
Superheavy Single Target Payload -1 attacks that deal 12 damage and can be launched at 
one or two targets, tracking them individually. SCKVs are also automatically launched 
whenever you move into range 1-0 during your turn or whenever you begin your turn there. 
Once this attack is started, an SCKV is considered destroyed and cannot be recalled. 
Whenever you take the All Ahead Full! Maneuver during your turn, each unlaunched SCKV 
under your control increases their damage by +2 for the rest of the battle to a maximum of 
+8, and you may also assign one unlaunched SCKV to a defensive screen as though it was a 
Frigate. 
 
Whenever an enemy destroys an unlaunched SCKV, that enemy’s battlegroup takes 1d6+1 
Area damage. If the SCKV was destroyed while assigned to a defensive screen, the ship it 
was screening takes 1d6 damage and then that enemy’s battlegroup takes 2d6 Area damage 
instead. 
 
 
IPS-N Greenland Class Battlecarrier 
The "Battlecarrier" is an unusual hybrid ship classification that attempts to marry the firepower 
of a battleship with the flexibility of a carrier, strategists regularly argue over the usefulness of 
the design with no end in sight, it's generally agreed though that IPS-N manufactures the most 
successful ships of this type and the Greenland is a prime example of such a vessel, projecting 
fighter-tier superiority backed by superheavy ordnance. 
 
7 Points  30 HP  1 Superheavy  1 Primary  3 Wings  10 Defense 
Weapon  Weapon 
 
Hook-Jab (Trait) 

91 
  

1/round whenever any ship in your battlegroup consumes Lock On as part of a Single Target 
attack, you may immediately use a Tactic to command a Wing equipped to the Greenland 
Class Battlecarrier for free. 
 
Body Blow (Maneuver)  

Battlegroup Maneuver 
Limited 1 
Fire one Superheavy weapon or up to two Primary weapons. You may then command all 
Wings equipped to the Greenland Class Battlecarrier for free. 
 
 
IPS-N Eiland Class Command Carrier 
Technically classified as a subline fleet command carrier, the Eiland is on par with battleships in 
terms of total tonnage if not absolute firepower. A mobile logistics hub, this ship’s massive bulk 
is given over to command-and-control infrastructure, vast stores of ordnance and supplies, 
utility subalterns, and automated fabrication and repair systems capable of restoring even 
critically damaged ships to nominal fighting condition. 
 
7 Points  30 HP  1 Superheavy  1 System  3 Escorts  10 Defense 
Weapon 
 
Superior Logistics (Trait) 

The Eiland Class Command Carrier has 3 free points that can only be spent on equipping 
Escorts. All of this ship's equipped Escorts begin each battle with 2 Overshield. 
 
Combat Refit (Tactic)  

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 1 
Repair all Escorts equipped to the Eiland Class Command Carrier to full HP, and then 
command up to two Escorts equipped to this ship. 
 
 
 
 

   

92 
  

Battlegroup Weapons 
 
Weapons at the battlegroup stage have the following tags and notes in their profile:  
 
Charge notes the number of rounds that the weapon must “charge” until it is ready to fire. 
Charge weapons begin at their listed value and remove 1 charging counter during each round’s 
Logistics Step. When they reach 0, they may expend their stored energy and fire: roll to hit and 
apply damage if successful.  
 
Payload weapons have flight times before they reach their target. These flight times are based 
on which range band they’re launched from, though some may travel faster or slower. Note the 
number of rounds that the weapon must travel to reach its target: Payload weapons begin at 
the number noted in their profile and remove 1 flight counter during the Logistics Step of each 
round; when they reach 0, the weapon hits its target — barring any Interdiction. Remember, 
Payload weapons cannot be fired again while they have attacks still in flight. 
 
Reloading weapons are ready to use from the start. Note the number of turns that must pass 
before they are reloaded and ready to use again. 
 
Range indicates both the maximum and minimum ranges in which a weapon effectively 
operates, noted by counting the range bands it can be fired in starting at the outer bands and 
working inward. For example, a weapon with a range of 4-1 can be used anywhere from Long 
Range (4) to Close Range (1) but cannot be used at all in either Extreme Range or Point Blank 
range.  
 
 
 
Long-Cycle Primary Lance  
The galactic standard for any heavyweight ship of the line, LCPLs encompass a wide category 
of cannons and particle beams which all effect the same end: the immediate and total 
destruction of the enemy on a square hit. With balanced spool times and high output, an LCPL 
is a reliable main gun for any ship that can field it.   
0 Points 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Charge 3, Critical, Reliable 3 
Range 4-0 
12 Damage 
 
Spinal LinAc CBC 
An old workhorse, the linear accelerator coherent beam cannon once marked the pinnacle of 
energy weapon development. Reliable at middle-confidence ranges and, with modern power 

93 
  

systems, capable of rapid cycling main battery fire, a LinAc CBC is nonetheless still a 
formidable weapon favored by conservative captains.  
2 Points 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Charge 2, Critical 
Range 4-1 
8 Damage 
 
Spinal Petajoule Kinetic 
The PJK spinal cannon is a tremendous kinetic main gun typically only fielded by heavy, 
long-range fire support platforms. PJKs hurl a single, shaped solid-state projectile at its target: 
a clean hit will knock any vessel out of commission.   
2 Points 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Accurate, Charge 3, Critical 
Range 5-2 
15 Damage 
On hit or miss, when assigning damage during the Impact Step this weapon deals 5 damage to 
another Capital Ship or Escort in that target’s battlegroup. If there are no other targets in the 
battlegroup, this ability has no effect. 
 
3x3 Block Short-Spool Cannons 
This system is a fearsome weapon composed of three racks of three vertically-aligned 
short-spool spinal guns. Firing in sequence, oppositional tempo, or all at once, 3x3 Block 
Cannons represent a movement away from massive single-shot spinal guns for favor of lighter 
kinetics: with a faster firing cycle, the same effect on target can be achieved via accumulation, 
rather than single-tap kill shots. 
2 Points 
Superheavy   
Single Target 
Range 4-2 
7 Damage 
This weapon does not take the +1 Difficulty penalty for targeting Escorts. Whenever you would 
make an attack with this weapon you may instead begin preparing it to fire a devastating volley 
shot. Mark this weapon with a special volley counter every time you do this up to a maximum 
of 2 volley counters stored at a time. Attacking with this weapon expends all stored volley 
counters, dealing +7 damage on hit for each counter spent. At 2 volley counters, this weapon 
also gains the Critical tag when fired. Your battlegroup gains the following Maneuver: 
 
Volley Sequence (Maneuver)  

Battlegroup Maneuver 

94 
  

Add one volley counter to the 3x3 Block Short-Spool Cannons, and then you may also fire 
one Primary weapon or move forward one range band. 
 
Speartip Anti-Capital Torpedoes  
Using a scaled-up version of Union’s standard two-stage ACT system, Speartip torpedoes are 
long-range anti-capital payload delivery systems typically carried by the heaviest missile ships 
in any navy.   
2 Points 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Payload -1 
Range 5-4 
25 Damage  
 
Spinal Tachyon Lance 
First developed by Harrison Armory, STL main guns were introduced to Union Navy and 
Baronic Unified Command via GMS’s Systems Normalization department. Adapted from a now 
stagnant branch of theoretical faster-than-light travel, the tachyon lance is a devastating 
weapon best used at extreme to long ranges, but suffers up close.  
3 Points 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Charge 4, Critical, Reliable 10 
Range 5-3 
20 Damage 
 
Nearlight Kill-Pack 
An NKP is essentially just a bundle of nearlight drives packed behind a dome-shaped 
micrometeorite shield. While some frigates can equip single-use skip drones, only battleships 
can fit NKPs into existing torpedo tubes or accelerator bays without substantial modification. 
NKPs are devastating — if crude and temperamental — weapons favored by states and navies 
with limited access to more advanced navspec ordinance.   
3 Points 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Overkill, Reloading 2 
Range 4-3 
4d6 Damage 
This weapon cannot be used during the first round of combat as it requires preparatory 
calibration. 
 
Co-Consciousness Lance 
Your fleet legion shapes a shared thought into a legionspace weapon and hurls it at the enemy’s 
gestalt. On impact, the lance causes realspace chaos to break out across enemy ships, 

95 
  

detonating smart payloads in their launch bays, firing retroburn rockets, venting atmosphere, 
overheating reactors, and other systemic, catastrophic failures.  
3 Points 
Superheavy 
Area Target, Legionspace, Reloading 3 
Range 4-2  
2d6+2 Damage 
This devastating systemic attack shatters an enemy fleet legion’s cohesion and deals +2 
damage for each non-Template Escort in the target battlegroup. After taking damage from this 
weapon, the target battlegroup must choose one; either they must take the first NPC turn of 
the next round but all of their rolls are made with +1 Difficulty, or they must act last in the next 
round after everyone else has taken their turn. If multiple battlegroups suffer from this 
disruption effect at once, they choose a viable turn order as needed. 
 
Primary Kinetic Batteries 
Ships of virtually any classification are known to equip primary kinetic batteries — a cluster of 
kinetic cannons that fire shaped projectiles accelerated chemically, electrically, or otherwise. 
Reliable in any engagement, kinetic weapons grouped into battery fire have been a mainstay in 
stellar combat since the first guns were strapped to a ship.    
0 Points 
Primary 
Single Target, Reliable 1 
Range 3-0 
1d6+1 Damage  
 
Short-Cycle Lance Batteries 
Temperamental, quick to hit but slow to kill, and demanding on ship powerplants, early energy 
weapons were generally only found on specialized ships until the invention of the Cycle. Tuned 
and perfected across the centuries since, the Cycle weapon powerplant is now a viable option 
for ship commanders at all positions of the line — some even arguing that it has outclassed 
kinetic weapons entirely.   
0 Points 
Primary 
Single Target, Accurate, Critical 
Range 3-0 
3 Damage 
 
Conical Kinetic Projector 
An old, reliable, and perfected system, Conical Kinetic Projectors are simple close-quarters 
weapon systems. Akin to a terrestrial shotgun, CKPs fire choked clouds of microprojectiles 
intended to blanket areas, rather than target specific points. At speed, the “kill-clouds” fired by 
CKPs can ruin uncautious ships.   
0 Points 

96 
  

Primary 
Single Target, Critical 
Range 2-0 
1d3+5 Damage 
Attacks with this weapon made from further than Close Range (1) are made with +1 Difficulty. 
 
Primary Single-Stage Torpedoes 
A reliable mainstay in stellar and wet-navy combat for millenia, single-stage torpedoes are 
simple systems composed of a shaped explosive payload atop a single-stage rocket body.   
0 Points 
Primary 
Single Target, Payload -1 
Range 4-2 
10 Damage 
 
Tandem Spread Torpedoes 
Tandem Spread Torpedoes are larger than classic “Primary” torpedoes, bundling multiple 
warheads into their payloads that split and track multiple targets, overwhelming defensive 
systems.  
0 Points 
Primary 
Single Target, Payload -1 
Range 4-2 
6 Damage 
This weapon can attack two targets at a time, firing separate Payloads that are tracked 
individually. 
 
Pinaka Ship-to-Ship Missiles 
SSC’s Pinaka missile system was adapted and upscaled from an older ship-to-ship design for 
use in terrestrial theaters by Monarch ordnance platforms; its performance in this regard has 
proven so successful that SSC revived the Pinaka system for its LIMITD line of naval weaponry.  
0 Points 
Primary 
Area Target, Payload 
Range 3-0 
1d6+1 Damage 
When you attack with this weapon, if the target battlegroup’s Flagship is Locked On you may 
consume Lock On to increase this weapon’s damage by +3, but you must also increase its 
flight time by 1. 
 
Gemini Laser Array 
Harrison Armory's Gemini Array utilizes a series of multiple beam emitters capable of 
synchronous fire for single-point amplification or independent target tracking. This dual purpose 

97 
  

ability allows commanders the flexibility of assigning the Gemini to proximal interdiction as well 
as single-point targeting as necessary.  
1 Point 
Primary 
Single Target, Interdiction 
Range 3-0 
4 Damage 
When you would attack with this weapon, you may instead set it to track incoming threats. This 
deals no damage, but your battlegroup and an allied battlegroup in the same range band gain 
+2 Interdiction until the end of your next turn. 
 
Lamprey Boarding Torpedoes 
IPS-N’s Lamprey system is a combination munition and single-use boarding vessel. These 
torpedoes are simple vessels: a crew compartment atop a drive, vertically oriented, capped 
with a solid state impact shield and shaped warhead. Seconds before positive target impact, 
the shaped warhead detonates, tearing open holes in a capital ship through which its true 
payload — crash-secured subaltern boarding parties — can then infiltrate. 
1 Point 
Primary Weapon 
Range 4-1 
Single Target, Payload -1, Boarding, Tenacity 11 
8 damage 
A target that takes damage from this weapon is immediately boarded by subalterns and suffers 
the effects of a successful standard boarding action of your choice, but if this torpedo's 
damage is reduced to 0 or otherwise negated then the boarders are lost along with it. You may 
make multiple boarding actions with this weapon at a time. 
 
Heavy Kinetic Batteries  
A simple upscaling of battery-fired kinetic weaponry, heavy kinetics achieve increased effect on 
target through a combination of greater projectile size and enhanced acceleration. 
Representing the upper bounds of conventional naval weapons, in sufficient numbers these 
batteries can approximate the destructive power of even a long-spool weapon. 
1 Point 
Primary 
Single Target, Reliable 2 
Range 4-1 
5 Damage  
 
Dorsal Razorback Missiles 
HA’s Razorback pattern missiles are typically dorsally mounted in 4x10 racks, designed to be 
used by line vessels as broad-trajectory denial weapons, avoiding enemy point defense 
weapons via target-neutral tracking, positioning, and overwhelming numbers.   
1 Point 

98 
  

Primary 
Single Target, Payload 
Range 4-0 
1d6+6 Damage 
You may consume Lock On as part of firing this weapon to increase or decrease its flight time 
by 1. 
 
Long-Flight Active Control Missiles 
While most guided naval munitions employ standard 1+n copy drive or comp/con system 
architecture, LFAC missiles maintain an ongoing fleet legion link from launch to terminal impact, 
enabling direct control for agile target reprioritization as circumstances dictate. 
1 Point 
Primary 
Single Target, Payload 
Range 5-2 
1d6+8 Damage 
While this weapon is in flight, if an enemy ship is Locked On you may consume Lock On at 
any point during your turn to change its target to that ship. If this weapon's current target is 
destroyed before it impacts you may choose to have it remain active and not self-destruct, 
though if its flight time reaches 0 without a target it automatically self-destructs without any 
effect. 
 
Legionspace Schism 
Conventional electronic warfare occurs throughout every stage of naval combat at the 
sub-legion level, but some vessels also equip powerful narrowband omnitransmitter arrays 
designed to enhance their fleet legion's ability to take direct, aggressive action against enemy 
ships, disrupting coordination and creating advantageous openings for allied battlegroups to 
exploit. 
2 Points 
Primary 
Single Target, Accurate, Legionspace 
Range 4-2 
3 Damage 
On hit, choose one of the following effects: 
● An allied battlegroup may advance one range band or that allied battlegroup may ignore 
all enemy effects that would force it to move until the end of their next turn. 
● If the target’s battlegroup has any active Payload attacks, they must choose; either take 
+5 damage or add 1 flight counter to an active Payload attack of your choice. 
 
Mass Accelerator Turrets 
Mass accelerators are kinetic weapons that operate on simple magnetic principal, accelerating 
projectiles via atmosphere-ignorant catalyzation in furious “storms” of metal. Faster tracking 

99 
  

than conventional kinetic weapons, mass accelerator turrets are capable of engaging multiple 
targets including fighter-tier threats with no effective loss of accuracy. 
2 Points 
Primary 
Single Target, Reliable 3 
Range 2-0 
1d6+1 Damage 
When you attack with this weapon, you may also automatically deal 3 damage to one or two 
Wings. 
 
Darkstar Multiple-Warhead Torpedoes 
Powerful, modern torpedoes, Darkstar MWTs pack delayed-firing payloads into long warheads 
that trigger at randomized intervals to avoid enemy interdiction and point defense screens.   
2 Points 
Primary 
Area Target, Payload -1 
Range 4-2 
6 Damage 
If this weapon’s damage is not completely Interdicted, it deals +1d6 damage applied after 
Interdiction. 
 
Throughline Skip Drone  
The skip drone hangs, still, drifting alongside the great bulk of the frigate. With a flash, it is 
gone; moments later, three hundred thousand kilometers away, a new star erupts. A clean hit. 
2 points  
Primary 
Single Target, Charge 2, Limited 1, Overkill, Unique 
Range 4-3  
Skip Drones do not automatically begin removing charging counters during the Logistics Step. 
When you want to fire this weapon, target an enemy Flagship at the start of the Logistics Step 
and begin charging it. Unlike other Charge weapons, a Skip Drone must immediately be fired 
when fully charged, it cannot be held. Instead of attacking normally, roll 1d20. On a 10+ the 
drone hits, dealing 3d6 damage to the target ship and dealing 1d6 damage to all Escorts in that 
ship’s battlegroup. On a 9 or less, or if your battlegroup is out of this weapon’s effective range 
when it finishes charging, the drone misses its optimal delivery window and deals 1d6 damage 
to the target ship only. This special attack roll cannot be modified in any way, and charging 
counters cannot be added to or removed from a Skip Drone by other systems or abilities. 
 
Secondary Turrets 
All great compositions are the work of first and second strings.  
0 Points 
Auxiliary 
Range 3-0 

100 
  

When fired alongside any Primary Single Target weapon targeting a Capital Ship or Escort, 
automatically deal 1 damage to that weapon’s target. 
 
Flyswatter Missiles 
Under the big guns of any ship of the line are auxiliary weapons, tasked with managing threats a 
captain would be wise not to ignore: enemy strike craft.  
0 Points 
Auxiliary 
Range 3-0 
When fired alongside any Primary weapon, automatically deal 2 damage to one or two Wings. 
 
Messenger Lead Laser  
Lead and Confidence lasers are “hot” targeting lasers: bundled comms and data arrays tuned 
to weapons-tier wattages. Messenger lead lasers ensure on-target accumulation damage via 
thermal energy pumped in from a ship’s main drive. 
0 Points 
Auxiliary 
Range 4-2 
This weapon does not fire alongside other weapons. Instead, whenever your battlegroup is 
within this weapon’s range during the Logistics Step you may choose one of your Payload 
attacks that has reached 0 flight counters. That Payload attack deals +1 damage for each 
Messenger Lead Laser equipped to your battlegroup, to a maximum of +4 damage.  
 
Harbinger Confidence Lasers 
Harbinger confidence lasers, like Messenger lead lasers, are “hot” targeting lasers. The 
difference lies in the vehicle by which they generate spare thermal energy: while Messenger 
lasers draw from a ship’s main reactor, Harbinger lasers utilize bleed-heat generated by Cycle 
generators as a ship’s main gun charges to pump their wattage up.   
1 Point 
Auxiliary 
Range 5-3 
This weapon does not fire alongside other weapons. Instead, 1/round whenever your 
battlegroup is within this weapon’s range and you remove a charging counter from a weapon 
with the Charge tag, you may automatically deal 1 damage to a target Capital Ship or Escort of 
your choice for each Harbinger Confidence Laser equipped to your battlegroup, to a maximum 
of 4 damage. 
 
Nearspace Directed Energy Perforators 
NDEPs are auxiliary laser weapon systems, typically automated or delegated to a Legion 
partition, tasked with ensuring near-space defense against projectiles, missiles, inbound kinetic 
weapons, and smaller subline ships.   
1 Point 
Auxiliary, Interdiction 

101 
  

Range 2-0 
When fired alongside any Primary Single Target weapon targeting a Capital Ship or Escort, 
automatically deal 1 damage to that weapon’s target and 2 damage to a Wing. In addition, 
while in this weapon’s effective range your battlegroup gains +1 Interdiction for each 
Nearspace Directed Energy Perforator equipped to your battlegroup, to a maximum of +4 
Interdiction. 
 
Cloudkill Kinetics 
Cloudkill Kinetics use auxiliary-tier conical projectors to defend against subline vessels and 
strike craft by filling high-confidence enemy trajectories with deadly flights of microprojectiles.   
2 Points 
Auxiliary, Limited 2  
When fired alongside any Primary weapon you launch a kinetic kill-cloud of projectiles that 
threatens enemies attempting to approach you along predicted routes. Choose your own 
battlegroup or an allied battlegroup in the same range band; until the end of your next turn, any 
Escort or Wing that attacks or deals damage to the selected battlegroup automatically takes 
1d6+1 damage each time they do so. If this damage is enough to destroy an Escort or Wing, it 
is destroyed before it can carry out its attack or command and its effects are negated. A 
battlegroup can only benefit from one kill-cloud at a time. 
 
  
 

   

102 
  

Battlegroup Systems 
Aggressive Commanders 
Your battlegroup’s combat doctrine emphasizes aggressive movement towards the enemy, 
closing gaps and plotting courses that more timid commanders would eschew. This impetus is 
not without sacrifice, often trading defensive positioning and unpredictability for a chance to 
take the fight directly to your enemies.  
0 Points 
System 
Unique 
You gain +1 Accuracy to all attacks while at range 2-0. All attacks against you while you are at 
range 2-0 gain +1 Accuracy. 1/battle, when an enemy forces you to move forward any number 
of range bands, one Capital Ship in your battlegroup may gain 5 Overshield. 
 
Insightful Commanders 
Through hard-won experience, advanced predictive modeling, or simply a keen sense of 
tactical intuition, your battlegroup’s commanders are adept at reading the shifting tides of battle 
and responding accordingly.  
0 Points 
System 
Reloading 2, Unique 
Whenever an enemy would force you to move back or forward any number of range bands, you 
may become Bolstered until the end of your next turn. You may choose to destroy this system 
to ignore that movement and all other enemy effects that would force it to move until the end of 
your next turn instead. 
 
Veteran Crews 
Veteran crews have been through the tense dance of interstellar combat, and are prepared to 
handle the stress and chaos of the engagement.  
0 Points 
System 
Limited 1 
You may reroll one of your attack rolls, but must keep the second result. On a reroll result of 
20+ you do not expend this system’s Limited use. 
 
Predict/Overlay Shield Projector 
P/OS projectors flash-layer alternating fields of magnetics, kinetics, coherent particles, and 
shimmering waveforms shields over friendly ships under threat. These layered systems, flashed 
in for a moment, can dismantle, deflect, or defray incoming fire.  
0 Points 
System, Limited 1, Unique 
During the Impact Step, a ship in your battlegroup may reduce incoming damage from one 
Superheavy weapon by 6. At Extreme Range, increase this damage reduction to 10. 
103 
  

Single-Plane Shield  
A common system among all ships of the line and subline ships as well, SP Shields use 
strong-energy systems to deflect, defray, and destroy incoming fire.   
0 Points 
System 
Interdiction, Limited 1 
During the Impact Step, you may reroll your Interdiction and take the best result. 
 
Piper Drones 
Piper drones are common defensive, single-use drones fired from ships under guided missile 
threat: once launched, piper drones emit like-signatures cloned from their parent ship, diverting 
incoming missiles via signal spoofing.   
0 Points 
System 
Limited 1, Unique 
During the Logistics Step, choose; you may either add 1 flight counter to an active enemy 
Payload attack targeting one of your ships or your battlegroup or you may redirect an active 
enemy Payload attack towards one of your ships or your battlegroup. 
 
Fire For Effect! 
Bracketing is satisfactory and trajectories are true: all guns, fire for effect.   
0 Points 
System 
Unique 
Gain the following Tactic: 
 
Fire For Effect! (Tactic)  

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 1 
You may nominate a specific enemy battlegroup as a priority target. Until the next Logistics 
Step, all attacks made against that battlegroup are made with +1 Accuracy. 
 
Steady...Now! 
The key is balance: never fire too early, and always before it is too late.  
0 Points 
System 
Unique 
Gain the following Tactic: 
 
Steady...Now! (Tactic)  

104 
  

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 1 
Add 1 charging counter to a weapon in your battlegroup with the Charge tag. Your next 
attack with that weapon gains +1 Accuracy and +X Reliable based on your range band 
(Extreme Range +5, Long Range +4, etc). 
 
Emergency Maneuvers! 
Better to live than die; hold on! 
0 Points 
System 
Unique 
Gain the following Tactic: 
 
Emergency Maneuvers! (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 1 
Advance or fall back one range band. 
 
Cleared to Land! 
A deckie has one job: keep the deck clear, planes loaded, bombers crewed, marines in their 
pens, subalterns packed, wounded cleared, fires suppressed, munitions clean... 
0 points 
System 
Unique 
Gain the following Tactic: 
 
Cleared to Land! (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 1 
All of your equipped Escorts and Wings or all Escorts and Wings belonging to an allied 
battlegroup in the same range band as you repair 2 HP. One Escort or Wing of your choice 
may repair 4 HP instead. 
 
Brace For Impact! 
When there is nothing left to do but take the hit, you gotta take the hit. 
0 Points 
System 
Unique, Limited 1 

105 
  

You may use this during the Impact Step, after attacks have been rolled and damage has been 
assigned. Until the end of your next turn, all damage dealt to all ships in your battlegroup is 
reduced by half. You may not use any Tactics or make any Maneuvers during your next turn 
except for All Ahead Full! or Retrograde Burn! Alternately, you may use this system during 
your turn to perform the following Tactic: 
 
Brace For Impact! (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 1 
Your battlegroup becomes Bolstered until the end of your next turn. 
 
 
Fighter Launch Catapults 
While dedicated carriers have an uncontested place in conventional naval doctrine, many 
commanders value the versatility of carrier tactics enough to have other types of ships modified 
to be able to launch and maintain a modest complement of fighter-tier strike craft or mounted 
chassis. This can involve either internal retrofitting or the addition of externally mounted hangar 
bays affixed to a ship's hull. 
0 Points, Unique 
System 
This ship gains +1 Wing slot. 
 
Bulwark Redundancies 
Extensive superstructural modifications and endo/exo up-armoring can ensure a ship survives 
hits that would otherwise kill a stock version of the same vessel.  
0 Points 
System 
Increase this ship’s HP by 3. This system may be taken multiple times, but only once per ship. 
 
Power Distribution Systems   
Advanced PD systems are managed by officers working in concert with a legion partition to 
distribute power across an active ship far more efficiently than automated systems.  
1 Point 
System, Unique 
Gain the following Tactics: 
 
Divert Power to Defenses (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Reloading 2 

106 
  

You may add 1 charging counter to a weapon with the Charge tag in your battlegroup. That 
weapon’s ship gains +2 Defense and your battlegroup gains +1d6 Interdiction until the end of 
your next turn. 
 
Divert Power to Weapons (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 1 
You may shunt power from defenses straight into a ship’s weapon systems. Doing this 
removes 1 charging counter from any weapon with the Charge tag in your battlegroup, but all 
attacks against that weapon’s ship gain +1 Accuracy and Interdiction applied to that ship is 
only half as effective (requiring 2 points of Interdiction to prevent 1 damage) until the end of 
your next turn. 
 
Smartscreen 
Smartscreens use physical-presence spoof and baffle drones to interrupt enemy smart and 
guided weapons, layering additional defensive measures to ensure vessel survival.   
1 Point 
System 
This ship is orbited by a screen of baffler drones. The first Single Target attack made against 
this ship each round is made with +1 Difficulty. 
 
Anticognition Hyperfractal  
Your Fleet Legion pierces the enemy Legion’s layers of shielding, implanting a germ of 
anticognative thought. It blooms, disrupting simul-neural pathways and creating excited 
hyperfractal redundancy loops. With the right effort, the enemy NHPs will begin to cascade — 
just as planned... 
2 Points 
System 
Legionspace, Reloading 3, Unique 
During the Logistics Step, you may add 1 flight counter to up to 2 active enemy Payload 
attacks. An enemy battlegroup whose Payload attacks are affected by this system may ignore 
this effect by taking 3 Area damage per flight counter negated. This damage cannot be 
Interdicted. 
 
Impossible Dodge 
No ship can move like that! 
1 Points 
System 
Legionspace, Unique, Reloading 3 

107 
  

During the Logistics Step, after charging, payload, and refresh counters have been removed, 
choose a ship in your battlegroup. Using sudden counterfactual positioning that ship is 
temporarily “removed from play” until the end of your next turn. While removed from play in this 
fashion it cannot be targeted by attacks or take damage, but none of its weapons, equipped 
upgrades, or traits can be used or benefitted from. This includes any Interdiction bonuses it 
grants and any Charge weapons equipped to that ship. 
 
Active Payload weapons targeting that ship whose flight times reached 0 during the same 
Logistics Step this system was used are successfully evaded, dealing 0 damage. Area Target 
Payload weapons will deal their damage to the other ships in the battlegroup as normal. 
 
Echopraxic Imago 
Conventional systemic attacks are largely ineffective at the scale fleet legions operate at. To 
engage enemy legionspace gestalts requires more powerful — and more esoteric — methods 
of electronic/ontologic warfare. 
1 Point 
System 
Legionspace, Boarding, Tenacity 10, Unique 
This electronic warfare system can only be used to perform the following Tactic: 
 
Echopraxic Imago (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 5-3 
You introduce a viral logic bomb into the systems of an enemy Flagship, treating this as a 
boarding action. During the Boarding Step this logic bomb takes hold, and attempts one of 
the following commands: 
● Induce Nostalgic Loop 
Until the end of their next turn, whenever the boarded ship's battlegroup would roll 
Interdiction they roll twice and take the worse result. 
 
● Inflict Ontological Parasite 
Choose a range band. Until the end of their next turn, the boarded battlegroup’s 
attack rolls against targets in that range band have a 50 percent chance to miss 
outright before the attack is made. Roll a die or flip a coin to determine if the attack 
misses. This does not stack with Defensive Screen; defending targets choose which 
effect to apply. Additionally, the boarded battlegroup cannot choose that range band 
for abilities that affect or target specific ranges. 
 
Subjective Syzygy 
Your Fleet Legion forces a subjective syzygy upon an enemy ship, momentarily projecting its 
own consciousness into the enemy Fleet Legion, tearing at the mind(s) of the enemy NHPs.  

108 
  

2 Points 
System 
Legionspace, Reloading 3, Unique 
When an enemy attacks a ship in your battlegroup or an allied ship in your range band with a 
Single Target attack, you may force them to roll twice and take the worst result. 
 
Subaltern Combat Crews 
A significant portion of your fleet’s crew is comprised of combat subalterns, adding speed and 
efficiency to combat operations. 
2 Points 
System 
Reloading 3, Unique 
You may use an additional Tactic during the Action Step of your turn. 
 
Legionspace Coordinator 
A Legionspace coordinator is an organic human officer that acts as a liaison between the Fleet 
Legion and battlegroup commander, distributing the Legion’s recommendations to their 
commanding officer as quickly as possible.  
2 Points 
System 
Legionspace, Unique 
Gain the following Maneuver:  
 
Exploit Positioning (Maneuver)  

Battlegroup Maneuver 
Reloading 3 
Nominate an allied battlegroup. That battlegroup may take an additional Maneuver on their 
next turn. 
 
“Sandstorm” Vanguard  
Your battlegroup releases a massive cloud of dust, rocks, and asteroids out in front of your 
ships. This wall of rock and metal obscures your ships from system scans and absorbs fire — 
some can even act as projectiles in their own right. 
3 points 
System, Interdiction, Unique 
Your battlegroup gains +2 Interdiction, and the following Tactic and Maneuver:  
 
Lithoscreen (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 2 

109 
  

One Capital Ship in your battlegroup gains 5 Overshield. 

 
Slingshot (Maneuver)  

Battlegroup Maneuver 
Single/Area Target, Payload, Limited 1 
Range 3-0 
This special Maneuver lobs asteroids and debris at an enemy Capital Ship or Escort of your 
choice, dealing 8 Damage. You may also expend Lithoscreen uses when you use this 
Maneuver to add +2 Area damage to this attack for each use expended this way. Interdiction 
against this Payload is applied to Area damage first. This attack is immune to hostile effects 
and abilities that add or remove flight counters or destroy Payloads.  
 
Aurora Stealth Shrouding 
"Stealth" in a naval combat context is largely a matter of inverse thermal concealment; 
combat-ready ships simply cannot hope to conceal their heat signatures from enemy detection, 
and attempting to minimize heat emissions through internal sink storage results in the crew 
being cooked alive. As such, effective concealment takes the form of thermal plumes emitted 
via ejected waste heat mediums or by unfurling enormous spools of conductive nanocarbon 
filaments to act as a radiator array. This massive heat output prevents enemy sensors from 
maintaining positive target identification and allows a shrouded vessel to effectively maneuver 
while keeping its true position masked. 
3 Points 
System, Unique 
Whenever your battlegroup moves, either during your turn or from enemy effects and abilities, 
you may clear Lock On from this ship. Your battlegroup gains the following Tactic and 
Maneuver: 
 
Thermal Spoofing (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 1 
Choose one or two of the following effects: 
● This ship gains 5 Overshield. 
● Add 1 flight counter to any number of active enemy Payload weapons targeting your 
battlegroup or any of your ships. 
● Clear Lock On from this ship. Until the end of your next turn all Single Target attack 
rolls against this ship are made with +1 Difficulty. 
 
Shrouded Advance (Maneuver)  

110 
  

Battlegroup Maneuver 
Reloading 2 
Your battlegroup may advance one range band forward, and you may fire one Primary 
weapon before or after moving. You become Bolstered until the end of your next turn. 
 
Battlespace CIC 
Developed as a joint venture between Harrison Armory's Think Tank and Smith-Shimano's 
Ontologics & Cosubjectvity Research Campus, Battlespace is a next-generation Command 
Information Center architecture that allows for more efficient and agile information flow 
between fleet legions and human bridge elements. Though complete 1-1 human/legion 
cosubjectivity remains an as-yet elusive goal, this development represents a significant step 
forward in full-spectrum fleet command capability. 
3 Points 
System, Legionspace, Unique 
This ship gains +1 Escort slot. Your battlegroup gains the following Tactic and Maneuver: 
 
Adjust Bearing (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Reloading 2 
Move an allied battlegroup back or forward one range band. If you use this Tactic at range 
5-3, you may also Lock On to an enemy Capital Ship or Escort. 
 
Coordinated Impact (Maneuver) 

Battlegroup Maneuver 
Limited 1 
Add or remove 1 flight counter from up to two active Payload weapons belonging to you or 
allied battlegroups. 
 

 
Escorts and Wings 
Sortie combat occurs in the no man’s land of the gyre, where small squadrons of subline ships and 
fighter/bomber wings engage enemy torpedoes and sorties in an effort to win the midrange battle and 
disrupt incoming fire. Sortie combat is the field of young officers and pilots eager to make a name for 
themselves: Smaller ships, debris, and kill-clouds make for a crowded and deadly field, where survivors 
become heroes and the dead are numerous... 
 

111 
  

Battlegroups are not composed of capital ships alone. Around the flanks of the great ships of 
the line fly their escorts and fighter screens, wings of bombers and smaller, sub-line vessels 
built to strike fast, hard, and often. These ships — cruisers, destroyers, and corvettes on the 
large end, fighters, bombers, drones, and mounted mechanized chassis on the smaller end — 
are critical components of a battelgroup’s tactical readiness.  
 
Escorts and Wings grant your battlegroup additional Tactics and capabilities to use during your 
turn, which are listed in their corresponding descriptions. Escorts and Wings are always 
considered "deployed" during combat, you never have to manually launch them in order to use 
them, they're simply always at your command. Narratively they may be moving between battle 
lines before returning to their carrier or command ships for repairs and resupply, but in 
gameplay terms they're always considered "on the board" so to speak. 
 
Whenever you use a Tactic that employs Escorts or Wings, each Escort or Wing can only be 
used that way once in a given round before their payloads are exhausted and they need to 
rearm. For example, if a Tactic allows you to use up to two Fighter Wings then you cannot use 
the same Wing twice, and once both of those Wings have been used they cannot be used 
again until the next turn. When using Escorts or Wings you may wish to note which ones have 
been used with a token or marker of some sort. Escorts and Wings refresh during the 
Logistics Step. 
 
Escorts and Wings also have their own HP separate from the rest of the battlegroup and can 
be targeted or damaged by attacks. Some attacks target Escorts and Wings specifically, while 
other attacks may damage them as part of the battlegroup. Escorts and Wings do not have 
Defense scores, weapons and abilities will either damage them directly or will call for specific 
attack rolls or checks as needed. 
 
Escorts and Wings are separate upgrades, and can only be equipped to ships with the 
appropriate upgrade slots. You cannot put Escorts on a Wing slot or vice versa. 
 
One final note is that many strike craft are equipped with a system called a nearlight leash. 
When a parent ship spools up for an emergency nearlight jump, strike craft with a nearlight 
leash system installed and paired are automatically recalled back to their parent ship. This can 
occur even if the pilot is injured or disabled and unable to respond to calls to retreat. In this 
way commanders who eject from a battle can do so with greater confidence that their pilots 
will not be left behind. Of course these systems may become damaged in the course of battle, 
but for the most part if a player opts to eject from an engagement their Wings will still come 
with them. 
 
 
 
 
Legion Drone Nexus 

112 
  

Remotely piloted drone fighters controlled by an aspect of a fleet legion are a simple and 
cost-effective method of force projection that also serves to minimize overall casualties during 
engagements, but susceptibility to electronic interference and systemic attacks prevents them 
from ever fully replacing manned strike craft. 
0 Points 
Wing, 3 HP 
Gain the following Tactic: 
 
Legion Command (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 2-0 
Choose one or two Legion Drone Nexus assigned to your battlegroup and give them each 
one of the following commands. You may select the same or different commands for each: 
● Hunt/Kill 
Deal 1 damage to target Capital Ship, Escort, or Wing 
 
● All In 
Deal 3 damage to target Capital Ship or Escort, then destroy this Wing 
 
 
Fighter Wing (GMS Peregrine, IPS-N Walleye, FKS Passacaglia, HA Mahler) 
Fighters are small, multi-purpose, single-pilot ships with a wide combat portfolio, ranging from 
long range patrols, to subline escort, to ordinance interception. Fighter wings, though 
outclassed by the raw power of larger ships, are integral units in any battlegroup for their 
versatility alone.   
1 Points 
Wing, 5 HP 
Each Fighter Wing adds +1 to your battlegroup’s Interdiction as they maintain combat patrols 
within your fleet’s perimeter, up to a maximum of +4 Interdiction. 
Gain the following Tactic: 
 
Fighter Command (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 2-0 
Choose one or two Fighter Wings assigned to your battlegroup and give them each one of 
the following commands. You may select the same or different commands for each: 
● Strafing Run 
Deal 1 damage to target Capital Ship or Escort 
 
● Engage and Eliminate 

113 
  

Deal 3 damage to target Wing 

 
 
Bomber Wing (GMS Payloader, IPS-N Swordfish, FKS Anaxandron, HA Holst) 
Bombers are larger vessels crewed by 2-4 crewmembers and loaded with anti-capital 
ordinance that lets them punch far above their weight class — if ignored, a wing of bombers 
can be as dangerous as a ship of the line. Bombers are also frequently outfitted with large 
reserves of defensive countermeasures to help screen their carrier’s advance during strike 
operations, including pulse-flares, EMP charges, and decoy signal emitters. 
2 Points 
Wing, 5 HP 
Gain the following Tactic: 
 
Bomber Command (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 2-0 
Choose one Bomber Wing assigned to your battlegroup and give them one of the following 
commands: 
● Torpedoes Away 
Deal 4 damage to target Capital Ship. You may assign another Bomber Wing to join in 
on this bombing run to increase this command’s damage by +2. 
 
Active Countermeasures 
Limited 1 
Choose a Capital Ship in your battlegroup or a Capital Ship belonging to an allied 
battlegroup in the same range band. Until the end of your next turn, the next time that 
ship takes damage reduce it by 1d3. This effect does not stack. 
 
 
Mounted Chassis Wing (GMS Everest, IPS-N Raleigh, SSC Metalmark, HA Sherman) 
Chassis Mounts are exterior-mounted frames that mechs can equip in order to allow them to 
operate in deep space. With a CM installed, mechs rocket towards enemy capital ships, 
dogfight, and maneuver in space with far more ability than conventional mech-tier EVA units 
would otherwise allow.  
2 Points 
Wing, 5 HP 
Boarding, Tenacity 11 
Gain the following Tactic: 
 
Chassis Command (Tactic) 

114 
  

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 3-0 
Choose one Mounted Chassis Wing assigned to your battlegroup and give them one of the 
following commands: 
● Toe-to-Toe 
Deal 1d3 damage to target Capital Ship, Escort, or Wing. 
 
● Breach and Clear 
Assign this Wing to board an enemy Flagship. Each time you succeed on a boarding 
roll with this Wing, the boarded ship takes 2 damage. 
 
Tortuga Chassis Wing 
IPS-N's Tortuga is one of their most iconic and widespread chassis designs, offered in 
whole-fleet line contracts to numerous clients and states. Purpose-built to operate in deep 
space, though it serves as an adequate strike unit with the addition of a chassis mount the 
Tortuga is made to breach and clear carrier decks, hostile station environments, and the spinal 
columns of capital ships. With its heavy, angular hull it serves as both battering ram and 
bulwark, clearing a path for allied boarders as it advances. An integrated WATCHDOG co-pilot 
system provides pilots with additional full-spectrum response capability under even heavy fire.   
3 Points 
Wing, 8 HP, Unique 
Boarding, Tenacity 12 
Gain the following tactic: 
 
Tortuga Command (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 3-0 
Give the Tortuga Chassis Wing one of the following commands: 
● Heavy Gunner 
Deal 1d3 damage to target Escort or Wing. Until the end of your next turn, the next 
time the Tortuga Chassis Wing or the ship it is equipped to takes damage from an 
Escort or Wing while in range 3-0, you may deal 3 damage to them in response. 
 
● Decksweepers 
Repel a boarding unit from a ship in your battlegroup or a ship belonging to an allied 
battlegroup in the same range band, and deal 3 damage to it. 
 
● Daisy Cutters 

115 
  

Assign this Wing to board an enemy Flagship. Each time you succeed on a boarding 
roll with this Wing, the boarded ship takes 2 damage. 2/battle, you may deal 1d6+1 
damage instead. 
 
 
Monarch Chassis Wing 
Smith-Shimano's Monarch is a highly versatile all-theater combat chassis, part of the 
company's BELLA CIAO line, created to serve as a multirole missile launch platform. Rigorously 
designed to exacting standards and surprisingly agile for its size, Monarchs are equipped with 
advanced targeting systems capable of coordinating multiple simultaneous weapon launches 
for optimal effect. Though not originally intended as a naval combat chassis, the Monarch's 
responsive controls and ability to equip a wide variety of missile payloads have led to its 
increasing adoption by pilots who value its combination of speed and firepower. 
3 Points 
Wing, 8 HP, Unique 
A Monarch Chassis Wing's integrated SSC-30 High-Penetration Missile Systems allows them 
to coordinate reactive volleys of Avenger micromissiles with other weapons. Whenever a 
weapon in your battlegroup or that of an allied battlegroup in your range band critically hits a 
target in range 3-0, even if it does not have the Critical tag, you may deal 2 damage to a 
Capital Ship, Escort, or Wing. Gain the following tactic: 
 
Monarch Command (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 3-0 
Give the Monarch Chassis Wing one of the following commands: 
● Seeking Payloads 
Consume Lock On to deal 3 damage to target Capital Ship or Escort, and 2 damage 
to all Wings equipped to that target. 
 
● Gandiva Missiles 
You order the Monarch Chassis Wing to launch a salvo of advanced Gandiva missiles. 
Treat this as a Primary Single Target Payload attack that deals 1d6+2 damage and 
can be launched at two targets at a time, tracking them individually. You may 
consume Lock On when using this command to increase or decrease a Payload’s 
flight time by 1. 
 
 
Balor Chassis Wing 
One of the more infamous HORUS pattern-groups, the Balor is a highly resilient chassis design 
that employs frame-integrated, neurosynced "hellswarms" of greywash nanites both offensively 

116 
  

and defensively. First encountered during the end of the Sanjak Rebellion under control of the 
Maw, a Baronic Free Company turned decentralized hive being, Balors enjoy a grim reputation 
as a persistent and intractable danger within Baronic space and beyond, but some ambitious 
Karrakin commanders in the Dawnline Shore have developed an appreciation for the unique 
tactical advantages it provides as a horrifyingly effective boarding unit. 
3 Points 
Wing, 8 HP, Unique 
Greywash, Boarding, Tenacity 11 
A Balor Chassis Wing's nanoswarm construction allows it to hellishly regenerate physical 
damage sustained during combat. During the Logistics Step, this Wing repairs 2 HP. Gain the 
following tactic: 
 
Balor Command (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 3-0 
Give the Balor Chassis Wing one of the following commands: 
● Nanocomposite Munitions 
Deal 2 damage to target Wing, or consume Lock On to apply 2 greywash counters to 
target Capital Ship or Escort. 
 
● Hive Frenzy 
Assign this Wing to board an enemy Flagship. Each time you succeed on a boarding 
roll with this Wing, the boarded ship gains 2 greywash counters. Ships boarded by 
this Wing do not remove greywash counters during the Impact Step. 
 
 
Barbarossa Chassis Wing 
Harrison Armory's Barbarossa heavy siege chassis is an artillery/anti-air frame designed to 
engage targets in both terrestrial and low-gravity operations. Equipped with an integrated 
LGC-04 "Apocalypse Rail" gravitic catapult, the Barbarossa is capable of favorably engaging 
subline vessels and in massed volleys can even threaten capital ships. The additional power 
plants and stabilizers provided by a chassis mount help mitigate the famously temperamental 
Apocalypse Rail's drawbacks, allowing for more consistent output while still permitting full 
zero-g maneuverability. 
3 Points 
Wing, 8 HP, Unique 
A Barbarossa Chassis Wing's integrated flak launchers and anti-aerospace munitions count as 
an Auxiliary weapon for your battlegroup. When fired alongside any Primary Single Target 
weapon targeting a Capital Ship or Escort in range 3-0, automatically deal 3 damage to a Wing. 
Gain the following tactic: 
 

117 
  

Barbarossa Command (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 3-0 
Give the Barbarossa Chassis Wing one of the following commands: 
● Siege Cannons 
Deal 3 damage to target Capital Ship or Escort. 
 
● Charge Apocalypse Rails 
Reloading 2 
You order the Barbarossa Chassis Wing to charge their integrated Apocalypse Rail 
weapons. During the next Impact Step you may order this Wing to open fire on a 
Capital Ship or Escort within range. Make a Single Target attack roll, and on hit deal 
2d6 damage. If you consume Lock On as part of this attack, it gains Reliable 4. 
 
Marine Landers 
The design of marine boarding vessels has changed little in the last 100 years of naval warfare. 
Minimally armed and moderately armored, built for speed and carrying capacity, these craft are 
solely designed to make contact with enemy ships and breach the outer hull to allow their 
passengers to begin the perilous task of boarding actions. Veteran marines have a wealth of 
colorful nicknames for these ships, few of which are fit for polite company. 
 
0 Points 
Escort 
Boarding, Tenacity 10 
Range 3-0 
 
Corvette Escort (GMS Combahee, IPS-N Barracuda, FKS Charlemond, HA Wagner) 
Corvettes operate in small squadrons, filling a lighter-than/heavier-than role that some fleet 
commanders prefer for versatility. The smallest subline vessels in use, corvettes are often 
tasked with fire support and targeted strike operations, acting in a gunship-equivalent role. 
1 Point 
Escort, 6 HP 
Designating targets for close fire support allows your Corvette Escorts to rapidly track and 
engage them. 1/round whenever you Lock On to a target in range 3-0, automatically deal 1 
damage to that target. Gain the following Tactic: 
 
Corvette Command (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 3-0 

118 
  

Choose one Corvette Escort assigned to your battlegroup and give them one of the following 
commands: 
● Trade Blows 
Deal 2 damage to target Wing, or deal 4 damage to target Capital Ship and take 2 
damage in return. 
 
● Defensive Formation 
Add +2 to your battlegroup’s Interdiction until the start of your next turn. 
 
● Gun Run 
Limited 1 
Deal 2 Area damage to target battlegroup. Consuming Lock Ons as part of this 
command increases this Area damage to 4 against those target locked Capital Ships 
or Escorts instead. This damage cannot be Interdicted. 
 
   

119 
  

PIPECLEANER Subalterns 
PIPECLEANER Subalterns, part of IPS-N's Warfighter line, are commonly inserted into enemy 
ships at dangerous, unconventional breach-points. They can be remote controlled by a human 
handler, but are more often commanded by a projected NHP partition controlling a networked 
squad as a single unit. Humanoid in appearance, they are built with far more points of 
articulation along with secondary bladed appendages for activity in close-quarters low/null-g 
environments, and in combat act with frightening, uncanny speed and movements. 
 
2 Points 
Escort 
Boarding, Tenacity 12 
Range 3-0 
These fearsome combat subalterns are able to infiltrate and sabotage areas of a ship that 
would be hazardous or inaccessible for humans such as long-spool weapon power storage 
systems. When this unit performs a successful Sabotage Fire Control command, if the boarded 
Flagship has one or more weapons with the Charge tag the target must also choose one; either 
add 1 charging tag to a weapon of your choice or take 5 damage. A boarded ship can only 
suffer from this effect 1/round. 
 
PGR_Gourd Limpets 
Cruel, terrible weapons. PGR_Gourd limpets are banned nanite weapons, likely created and 
propagated by HORUS cells. After firing and attachment, the limpets disgorge liters of 
“Greywash” into their targets. These nanite washes tear through the open spaces inside of 
capital ships, consuming organic and soft inorganic material, eliminating the enemy without 
firing a shot. All that is left after a greywash burnout is a brownish-red slurry of processed waste 
material, empty hardsuits, and dead nanites. 
2 Points 
Escort 
Greywash, Boarding, Tenacity 10 
PGR_Gourd Limpets can only be used to perform the following Tactic: 
 
PGR_Gourd Limpets (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 3-0 
You deploy greywash limpets towards an enemy Flagship, treating this as a boarding action. 
During the Boarding Step these limpets disgorge their contents into the ship, attempting the 
following command: 
● CONSUME 
Apply 3 greywash counters to the boarded ship on a successful boarding roll, or 1 
greywash counter on a failure. Spending a Maneuver to clear greywash counters also 
repels this boarding unit as well. This boarding action can stack with itself. 

120 
  

 
● SURGE 
Limited 1 
Double the number of greywash counters on this ship. If this boarding action fails, 
you do not expend this command’s Limited use. 
 
 
Destroyer Escort (GMS Custodio, IPS-N Bowsprit, FKS Tui, HA Sam Barber) 
Sleek, fast, and outfitted with powerful weapons that can threaten both capital ships and other 
subline vessels alike, destroyer designs typically sacrifice as many nonessential functions as 
possible in order to maximize their effective firepower. Destroyers typically operate in 
wolfpacks, prowling the perimeter of engagements on the lookout for opportunities to strike at a 
fleet’s exposed flanks. 
2 Points 
Escort, 8 HP 
A Destroyer Escort's pulse lances, kinetic guns, or missile batteries count as an Auxiliary 
weapon for your battlegroup. When fired alongside any Primary Single Target weapon targeting 
a Capital Ship or Escort in range 3-0, automatically deal 2 damage to that weapon’s target. 
Gain the following Tactic: 
 
Destroyer Command (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 3-0 
Choose one Destroyer Escort assigned to your battlegroup and give them one of the 
following commands: 
● Cannonade 
Deal 3 damage to target Capital Ship. 
 
● Snapflight Torpedoes 
Deal 6 damage to target Escort. 
 
● Encirclement 
Limited 1 
Advance or fall back 1 range band. You may not use this command if you have 
already moved this turn, and after using it you may not move again this turn. 
 
Subline Picket 
Your subline picket ships scout the predicted battlefield days before your capital ships arrive, 
running silent and cold to avoid enemy scanners. With the data they feed your captains on 

121 
  

enemy positioning, numbers, direction, and trajectory, the efficacy of your volleys will surely be 
staggering.    
2 Points 
Escort 
This special Escort has been tasked with scouting the battlefield and does not have stats as 
normal. Instead 1/round you or an ally of your choice may gain +1 Accuracy to any Single 
Target attack. 
 
Payload Escort 
Your subline wings are tasked with escorting your payloads across space, ensuring they are not 
intercepted before they reach their targets.   
2 Points 
Escort 
This special Escort has been tasked with providing your launched munitions with a protective 
escort, clearing the way for them to strike their targets. When you or an allied battlegroup in the 
same range band fire a weapon with the Payload tag, you may assign this squadron to escort 
it. An escorted Payload cannot have flight counters added to it from enemy systems or abilities. 
During the Impact Step, add +1 to that Payload’s damage for each flight counter removed from 
it before impact, and you may force the enemy battlegroup to reroll 1 Interdiction die of your 
choice and take the worse result. However if the damage from this escorted attack is reduced 
to 0 from Interdiction then this Escort is destroyed. 
 
Minelayers 
"Mines" in the context of naval combat operations are a bit of a misnomer. Rather than 
stationary defensive emplacements, naval mines are more akin to missiles, seeded in clouds 
across anticipated approach vectors to maximize odds of terminal contact. Mines loiter in a 
low-power state until their sensors detect hostile vessels in proximity, at which point they 
activate and home in on the nearest target at full burn. Most naval vessels do not carry mines as 
part of their standard ordnance loadout, delegating minelaying duties to specialized subline 
vessels instead. 
2 Points 
Escort 
Reloading 2 
This special Escort is tasked with deploying minefields and does not have stats as normal. 
Instead, during the Logistics Step you may order this escort to deploy minefields in either the 
range band directly ahead of you or directly behind you. Until the next Logistics Step, the first 
time an enemy forces you or an allied battlegroup to move into or out of that range band the 
mines detonate and the enemy battlegroup takes 10 Area damage. Minefields cannot stack 
with themselves. 
 
Cruiser Escort (GMS Blair Mountain, IPS-N Carina, FKS Khayradin, HA Chopin) 
The largest subline ships, a step below frigates, cruisers mount a wide array of offensive and 
defensive systems which allow them to flexibly and robustly reinforce a fleet’s threat envelope 

122 
  

as circumstances dictate. Relatively independent for a subline vessel and often used for 
in-system patrols or local planetary defense, commanding a cruiser is often seen as a vital step 
in a naval officer’s career towards being assigned a command position on a capital ship. 
3 points 
Escort, 10 HP 
1/round whenever an enemy forces your battlegroup to fall back or move forward any number 
of range bands, you may have a Cruiser Escort deploy a field of seeker mines that deal 4 
damage to a Capital Ship or Escort of your choice in that enemy battlegroup. Gain the 
following Tactic: 
 
Cruiser Command (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 3-0 
Choose one Cruiser Escort assigned to your battlegroup and give them one of the following 
commands: 
● Fire at Will 
Deal 4 damage to target Capital Ship. You may also deal 2 Area damage to all Escorts 
in that ship’s battlegroup and take 2 damage in return. This damage cannot be 
Interdicted. 
 
● Defensive Gunnery  
Add +3 to your battlegroup’s Interdiction until the start of your next turn. 
 
● Local Kill Screen 
Limited 1 
Deal 3 damage to target Capital Ship or Escort and all Wings equipped to it. 

 
   

123 
  

Ace Squadrons 
Ace Squadrons are specialized Wings that players can take to represent particularly renowned 
and skilled pilots operating under their command. Unlike regular Wings, Ace Squadrons 
possess both more autonomy and capability; when the ship an Ace Squadron is equipped to is 
destroyed, the Ace Squadron is not destroyed along with it. Instead, assign it to another 
ship. If an Ace Squadron's entire battlegroup is destroyed, it can be reassigned to a ship 
belonging to another active allied battlegroup in play, turning control of it over to that player. In 
this way, Aces will remain in the fight until the bitter end. 
 
A number of capital ships (primarily carriers) have traits and abilities that affect Wings equipped 
to them. Ace Squadrons can benefit from those effects but only from the ship they’re initially 
equipped to. If that ship is destroyed and they’re assigned to another ship, they remain in play 
but do not benefit from their newly assigned ship’s traits or abilities unless that battlegroup’s 
player integrates the Ace Squadron onto that ship’s command structure. Doing so requires 
spending a Tactic, which can be done by the player who controls the ship that Ace Squadron is 
assigned to. 
 
Aces can represent a variety of types of strike craft including advanced fighters and bombers, 
but they also serve as a way to represent Lancer characters within the context of Battlegroup, 
allowing players to incorporate their mech pilots directly into the action. While mechs are 
among the most dominant weapons on the modern terrestrial battlefield, in a naval theater 
even the largest and most heavily armed mech is unlikely to be more than a minor threat at 
best. The scale of conflict is simply far too great for conventional frame designs and weapon 
loadouts to influence, and so to bridge that gap the chassis mount was developed. 
 
A chassis mount is more than the simple up-armor/EVA package intended to allow a mech 
maneuverability in null/microgravity environments. Chassis mounts are, roughly, the same drive 
system, powerplant, and hardpoint mounts of a standard-pattern fighter built to accept a 
mechanized chassis instead of a casque cockpit or conventional flight deck. Installed, chassis 
mounts allow mechs to keep pace with other naval strike craft and operate independently of 
cumbersome lander modules, wielding weapons and systems that make them a flexible asset 
in naval combat.  
 
Contemporary naval doctrine still prioritizes fighter and bomber wings to achieve mission 
objectives; however, properly deployed by canny commanders, CM wings offer a 
multi-spectrum tactical portfolio encompassing everything from payload escort and 
interception, to en-plane defense, to precision strikes against capital ships. Additionally, with 
jettisonable CMS, mechs have the ability to undertake boarding actions, a capability fighters 
and bombers both lack.  
 

124 
  

Common chassis mounts currently in use include the GMS Haymarket Chassis Mount, the 
IPS-N Rockskipper Boost Frame, the HA Foster Naval Assault Pack, and the SSC Durandal 
Exoaugment. 
 
All Aces have the following base stats and abilities: 
 
Ace Squadron 
3 Points 
Wing, 6 HP, Unique 
Gain the following Tactic: 
 
Ace Command (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Range 3-0 
Give your Ace Squadron the following command: 
● Strike Package 
Deal 1d3+1 damage to target Ace, Capital Ship, Escort, or Wing. 
 
You may then choose three of the following options to represent your personalized Ace 
Squadron. Some options may add more commands for you to issue your Ace Squadron, and 
each option may only be taken once. 
 
Redline Operation (Overpower Caliber Munitions, Titan-Enceladus SURTR Reactor, FABI 
Modifications)  
Ace pilots are known for frequently making unsanctioned modifications and enhancements to 
their craft, overclocking weapons and systems beyond conventional tolerances. Many 
commanders are willing to overlook this practice since it helps get results, though just as many 
flight deck chiefs rather wish they wouldn't. 
 
Your Ace Squadron may take 2 damage to deal +2 damage with any non-boarding damage 
effect. 
 
Casque Armor (GMS Type-4 Projected Shield Array, IPS-N HyperDense Armor, Corregidor 
Group Advanced Composite/Laminate Hull) 
Your cockpit or mounted chassis is tucked inside a hardened shell: with no canopy, portholes, 
or view slits to see out of, your pilot relies entirely on screens, projections, or subjectivity sync 
to view and interact with realspace. 
 
Your Ace Squadron gains +4 HP. 
 
   

125 
  

Aggressive Pickets (SCYLLA-Class NHP, Networked Autoguns, Hivemine Seeders) 

Ace units are often tasked with maintaining regular active nearspace patrols during ongoing 
battles when they aren’t engaged with other missions. Though these patrols can be both 
mentally and physically taxing, they allow pilots to swiftly respond to enemy maneuvers at a 
moment’s notice. 
 
Whenever an enemy forces your battlegroup to fall back or move forward any number of range 
bands, you may deal 2 damage to an Escort or Wing in that enemy battlegroup. 
 
Goalkeeper (NOAH-Class NHP, Needleye Outbound Defense Projector, PRISM Array) 
At the scale of an individual strike pilot, naval ordnance is often on par in terms of size and 
signature with other subline ships: incoming fire can be engaged accordingly. 
 
Any battlegroup your Ace Squadron is assigned to gains +2 Interdiction. 
 
INSTINCT Pods (GMS Mk10 EWAR/ECM System, Syngin-Dyat Loudspeaker Active 
Jammer, Howler Probes) 
Electronic warfare at the fighter-tier level is primarily defensive in nature, meant to provide 
protection against subcapital munitions and interdiction screens. By employing temperamental 
INSTINCT paracode derived from HORUS invasion rig architecture, strike craft pilots are able to 
perform more aggressive e-war actions against fleet legions. 
 
Your Ace Command Tactic gains the following command option: 
 
INSTINCT Pods (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 2, Reloading 2 
Choose an enemy battlegroup within range. Until the end of your next turn that battlegroup 
cannot benefit from Accuracy on its attack rolls except to cancel out Difficulty, and whenever 
a ship in that battlegroup misses an attack roll it takes 3 damage. 
 
Jettison Ram (SEKHMET-Class NHP, Titan-Enceladus Quick-Breach Mounting, Hullcutter 
Charges) 
One of the primary tactical advantages of mounted chassis in naval theaters is their ability to 
transition directly from strike operations to boarding actions by shedding their mount. Early, 
less advanced mounts required explosive decoupling to dismount, necessitating resupply 
between missions, but newer models allow pilots to dismount and remount at will. 
 
Your Ace Squadron gains the Boarding tag and has a Tenacity of 13. Whenever a boarded ship 
fails a roll to repel your Ace Squadron, they take 4 damage. If they spend a Maneuver to repel 
boarders which include your Ace Squadron, they take 2 damage. 

126 
  

 
Microburst Drives (GMS Advanced Nearlight Package, Atelier Celeste Singularity Drives, 
An advanced form of fighter-tier nearlight drives, these enhanced drive systems allow pilots to 
engage in repeated "microburst" jumps without undue risk of terminal pilot injury. This extends 
a squadron's effective operational range, allowing them to maneuver and engage targets further 
from their home carrier. 
 
Your Ace Squadron's command range becomes 4-0. 
 
NHP Co-Pilot (TLALOC-Class NHP, SISYPHUS-Class NHP, ASURA-Class NHP) 
Apart from the fleet legion gestalt, many veteran pilots opt to employ individual NHP co-pilots 
to enhance their combat performance, often turning over weapons targeting and electronic 
systems operations to them so that they can focus on maneuvering across the battlefield. 
 
Reloading 3 
You may use an additional Tactic during your turn which can only be used to command your 
Ace Squadron. 
 
Shipkiller (GMS BRIGHTSKY Particle Cannon, Titan-Enceladus Haymaker 50MT Conical 
Nuclear Warhead, Anti-Capital Railgun) 
Shaped-charge nuclear warheads, relativistic kill javelins, coherent particle beam cannons, 
devastating weapons such as these allow suitably equipped pilots to strike killing blows against 
even capital ships. 
 
Your Ace gains the following command option which can be used as a Maneuver: 
 
Shipkiller (Maneuver) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Limited 1 
Deal 4 damage to target Capital Ship. If that ship is at half HP or less, not counting 
Overshield, deal 6 damage instead. If this destroys the target, you do not expend this 
command’s Limited use. 
 
Tac/Comm Scout Package (ATHENA-Class NHP, Syngin-Duat Panopticon Suite, 
Integrated Omnihook Relay) 
Your ship is equipped with advanced sensor clusters and communication relays, tying you into 
the fleet legion and by extension into every ship in the fleet, allowing you to relay forward 
information all the way up the line. 
 
Your Ace Command Tactic gains the following command option: 
 

127 
  

Tac/Comm Scout Package (Tactic) 

Battlegroup Tactic 
Reloading 2 
Lock On to two Capital Ships or Escorts. 
 
Ticket Puncher (Desperate Measures, A Blaze Of Glory, The Final Run) 
Seeing no other option, you steer your ship towards the great bulk of the enemy. You send your 
telemetry on to the Legion, and unplug from the battlenet. The hiss of air through your helmet is 
overwhelming. You dive towards the heart of the enemy, driving your ship into your target in 
one final, desperate act... 
 
Your Ace Command Tactic gains the following command option: 
 
Ticket Puncher (Tactic) 

Choose a Capital Ship or Escort. Your Ace sets a collision course with them. During the next 
Impact Step, deal 1d6+6 damage to the target ship and destroy your Ace Squadron. This 
damage ignores Overshield and cannot be reduced or increased in any way. Your pilots will 
not survive this; an Ace Squadron destroyed after being issued this command cannot be 
brought back this battle by any means. 
 
 
 

Capital Ship Summary  

Hull  Pts  HP  DEF  Superheavy  Primary  Auxiliary  Wings  Systems  Modular 
Weapons  Weapons  Weapons   and 
Escort
s 

GMS  3  16   10     1  1       

Caspian Sea 
Class Frigate 

GMS Huron  3  16  10      2       

Class Frigate 

GMS  3  16   10     1      1   

Superior 
Class Frigate 

HA Schuyler  4  14   12          2   

Class Frigate  

128 
  

HA  3  12   10   1            

Creighton 
Class Frigate 

HA Turenne  4  14   12       1    1   

Class Frigate 

FKS Cirsium  3  14   10     1     1e     

Class Frigate 

FKS  2  14    10     1         

Onopordum 
Class Frigate 

FKS  5  16  10    2         

Tolumnia 
Class Frigate 

IPS-N  4  18   8      1     1w     

Bakunawa 
Class Frigate 

IPS-N Laho  4  18   8     1      1   

Class Frigate 

IPS-N  4  18  8    1    1e     

Minokawa 
Class Frigate 

GMS  4  14   14        4w     

Amazon 
Class Carrier 

GMS  4  14   14       2  2e     

Tongass 
Class Carrier 

HA Farragut  5  16   13     1    2w    1 

Class 
Starfield 
Carrier 

FKS Tagetes  6  14  15         3w  1   

Class Agile 
Carrier 

SSC Apeiron  6  14  15        4w     

Class Carrier 

IPS-N Tawa  4  16   12         2w  1   

Class 
Medium 
Carrier 

129 
  

IPS-N  6  16   11        2e, 2w     

Masauwu 
Class Heavy 
Carrier 

GMS Muir  6  25   12  1   1   2     1   

Class 
Battleship 

GMS  7  25  12  1  2  2       

Thoreau 
Class 
Battleship 

HA Louis XIV  7  15  13  1  1      2   

Class 
Dreadnought 

HA Michel  7  25  12  1  2      1   

Ney Class 
Dreadnought 

FKS  7  23  13  2  1      1   

Calendula 
Class 
Battlecruiser 

FKS  7  23  13  1  2    1e     

Hesperis 
Class 
Battlecruiser 

IPS-N  7  30  10  1  1    3w     

Greenland 
Class 
Battlecarrier 

IPS-N Eiland  7  30  10  1      3e  1   

Class 
Command 
Carrier 

   

130 
  

Battlegroup Game Master’s 

Guide 
Like many tabletop games, Battlegroup requires a GM. The role of the GM may be slightly 
different here given that Battlegroup is slightly different from many RPGs, but there are also 
plenty of similarities as well. As the GM you’ll be responsible for setting the stage, outlining the 
stakes, assembling NPC fleets, and challenging your players. 
 
This section will dive into greater detail on how to run games of Battlegroup. This includes 
advice on setting up games including one-shots or ongoing campaigns, ideas for rewarding 
players, a guide for creating NPC fleets, and ways in which you can incorporate the outcomes 
of Battlegroup into a Lancer campaign and vice versa. 
 
As the GM you, like your players, are a player in this game. Your role is not to play a character, 
but to facilitate and describe the context in which your players’ characters exist, and to give 
voice to multiple non-player characters. To dip into both sport and analogy, it is best to 
consider yourself more a goalkeeper than a referee: like a goalkeeper on a soccer team, you 
are an individual with a unique role and access to tools only you can use. You’re there to help 
your team — the players at your table — not adjudicate their play. Yes, you are the tie-breaking 
vote on rules questions, and yes you at least provide the framework of a narrative for your 
players to interact with, but this does not make you the referee: unlike a ref, you should be 
invested your players’ success — establish shared goals, make the game fun, play as a team, 
and you’re sure to be a good GM.  
 
GM Principles 
1. Facilitate Fun 
2. Renounce Control 
3. Consider Your Players 
4. Say Yes 
 
Inevitability, Fatalism, and Hope; Characters Outside of 
Combat in Battlegroup 
Battlegroup, unlike core Lancer, demands a certain acknowledgement: every character in 
Battlegroup is about to be involved in a battle — whether they are ready for it or not — that 
they may not survive. Whether Karrakin or Purview, from a DLS world, or Union, every 
character in Battlegroup knows that there is a fight ahead; there is no avoiding it, and one must 
do whatever they can to get through it.  
 

131 
  

Though there are things to do and roleplay to be had before and after an engagement, 
Battlegroup makes the assumption that it is a tactical game first — your characters are going to 
wind up in a fight, one that they may not win or return from. Outside of more involved 
downtime actions, there are moments before, during, and after a battle that might prove good 
roleplay material. As a GM, the following section (before we get into NPCs) might prove useful 
for structuring narrative play.  
 
What Happens Before:  
 
In The Middle — Nothing but the Fight 
[...] 
 
For the duration of the engagement there is no room for proper uptime activities, even if your 
characters might spend hours or days not engaged in constant combat. Your ships and 
characters are in a combat posture, and focused on the job at hand.   
 
 
After the Battle and What Comes Next: Post-Battle Uptime and 
Progression  
The opening days of an engagement are difficult ones: hard maneuvering, pre-firing, 
anticipation of initial interdictions, making sure your crew stays focused and ready, and 
considerable gestalt time in the fleet legion are all taxing on a person.  
 
You’ll likely spend a significant time acting as the final say in decisions presented to you by 
officers and your ship’s NHP —between the sudden need to interdict or hard burn to avoid 
low-confidence incoming fire, the stress never really lets up. To that end, you might spend 
more time in legionspace, practice meditation, take anti-anxiety cocktails, or even spend some 
time under stasis while delegating command to your executive officer. 
 
During the battle proper — when there are only hours, minutes, or seconds between launching 
weapons and impact — you will be fully engaged in commanding your ships. Your main goal is 
to survive: you can deal with the aftermath of your actions once the enemy is defeated.  
 
A naval engagement is a momentous event for everyone involved, and once the firing stops 
things may never again be the same. Lives are lost, borders are redrawn, and legacies are 
made. As your group brings the fight to a close, you may wish to explore the consequences in 
detail, addressing questions and looking to the future. There are several ways your group may 
choose to frame this, ranging from formal ceremonies to more intimate personal moments of 
reflection. You may even choose to shift focus onto other characters, letting them briefly take 
the spotlight as they react to everything that’s occurred and how it’s affected them. 
 

132 
  

Unlike the uptime actions that commanders undertake in preparation for an engagement, 
post-battle uptime doesn't necessarily involve specific rolls or actions. The aftermath of an 
engagement is instead an opportunity for everyone to decompress and take stock of what's 
happened as well as to explore the reactions of their characters to the events that have 
unfolded. 
 
AFTER ACTION REPORT 
Captain Salazar sighed as she looked over the preliminary damage assessment, rubbing her 
eyes as the combat stims faded from her system. The Luzon had taken a direct hit that had 
cored her from bow to drives, no survivors. One minute there'd been a frigate hanging in space, 
the next there was nothing but a distant flash and a cloud of plasma. Two other ships had 
suffered significant damage but at least they were still operational after a fashion. Half of the 
Aotearoa's fighters had been downed, and the Rakahanga was still operating on minimal power 
as technicians purged ontologic payloads from her systems. 
 
On the other side of the battle, a half dozen enemy ships had been disabled or destroyed. 
Search and rescue teams were making their way through the debris now in search of survivors, 
though estimates weren't optimistic. It was cold comfort knowing that however many spacers 
under her command she'd lost here, the enemy had suffered tenfold. 
 
A victory that tasted like ash was a victory nonetheless. 
 
When FLEETCOM issues the all-clear and the Legion spins down, you’re left with the aftermath 
of what happened. Damage control teams and medics hustle between the decks of your ship. 
Distress calls and positioning beacons flood the CIC. Your NHP, unflappable, informs you of 
the engagement’s cost in lives, time, and capability. 
 
An after action report is the formal or informal summary of what occurred during the 
engagement, what was learned, the status of one’s forces in the engagement’s wake, and a 
look at what comes next. The immediate questions that must be answered: Who did you lose? 
Who made it through? How is the ship? Answering this can be something your group explores 
if necessary, or avoided. If your side “won” you’ll likely have this information at hand, or 
sortable within the hour; if your side lost, you’ll likely not have this information readily at hand, 
as your character (if they lived through the loss) is likely busy trying to survive the retreat. This 
information might not make it through to your character for hours or days after the fight — 
maybe never, depending on the degree of the loss and the context in which the narrative action 
zooms back in to your character. 
 
Composing an after action report also covers a character’s internal monologue as they take a 
mental and emotional inventory of how they are left once the engagement concludes. Some 
questions that your characters might find worth exploring are:   
 

133 
  

Is this engagement considered a victory or a loss? Did any of the enemy escape? Do you know 
who they are now? What did you learn of their tactics, and how soon will you give chase? 
 
As the fleet regroups and heads on, how are you left — furious and seeking vengeance, or 
broken but inexorable? In high spirits and eager for the next fight, or steady on, resolute to see 
the mission done? 
 
HONOR THE VICTORS 
The great hall was packed for the occasion, attendees smartly clad in their dress uniforms or, in 
the case of Eudora the ship’s NHP, her finest subaltern chassis. The flock of camera drones 
flitting about from all angles only added to the intense feeling of scrutiny that Gabe was feeling 
at the moment, dressed in his own freshly pressed uniform. Had the collar always been this 
tight? 
 
The murmurs of conversation died down as Admiral van Rijn took the stage, uniformed 
personnel snapping to attention before he waved them at ease. “Captain Gabriel Anderson, 
step forward.” Gabe did his best not to squint against the flurry of camera flashes that followed 
him as he stepped up to the Admiral, and for a brief moment he found himself wishing he was 
trading fire back on the bridge of the Midwinter’s Sovereign. Then again, that’s how he’d 
wound up here in the first place. 
 
“Captain,” the Admiral said, holding the medal in his hands, “the Sirius Cross is awarded to 
those who have demonstrated the utmost bravery and devotion in the face of overwhelming 
danger, and to those who exemplify what it means to command…” 
 
Medals and decorations are more than a pretty piece of metal and ribbon to wear on your 
dress uniform, they serve to commemorate great deeds and accomplishments. More 
importantly, perhaps, they serve to inspire. Not every commander seeks personal glory, though 
many begin their careers dreaming of accolades, but these ceremonies aren’t just for their own 
benefit, they stand as a tangible reminder to all those that serve that their deeds will be 
recognized and remembered. 
 
The nature of these ceremonies can vary widely depending on naval tradition and local 
cultures, but they’re rarely casual affairs. Dignitaries, politicians, diplomats, and high-ranking 
naval personnel are often invited to attend, as well as members of the press; events such as 
these are frequently broadcast throughout the fleet and even across settled worlds for morale 
or propaganda purposes. The obvious questions to ask at first are what accolades are being 
awarded and who is receiving them. What deeds are being commemorated? 
 
Also important to explore is how characters feel about being awarded these honors. Is this a 
celebratory moment following a triumphant victory? Or is it a bittersweet occasion? Do they 
even feel as though they deserve these accolades? 
 

134 
  

REMEMBER THE FALLEN 

The main flight decks were still under repair, hull compromised and exposed to hard vacuum, 
so they’d held the service in the mess hall instead. They only needed room for the one coffin 
anyway. 
 
No one was inside of it, of course. It was just a symbol. If they’d had a coffin for everyone 
who’d been lost there wouldn’t be any room left for the living to stand. One of the walls had 
been covered with pictures of the deceased, a mosaic of still moments in time, along with notes 
and mementos left by those who were still here. Offerings for the absent dead. Even the injured 
had come to pay their respects, uniforms carefully tugged on over bandages and slings.  
 
They could tend to their wounds in the days to come. For now, this moment belonged to the 
fallen. 
 
For spacers, the specter of death is a constant companion. The blinding flash of a long-spool 
weapon, the megaton detonation of a torpedo salvo, the slow hiss of a punctured suit, these 
are the ways a sailor dies. 
 
For these brave souls, then, remembering the fallen is a comforting and necessary ritual. They 
know that when their time comes there likely won’t even be a body let alone a grave, their 
physical form transmuted to dust or left to drift among the stars, and so these rituals serve to 
imbue the memories of the departed among those who still live, preserving some essence of 
them. They provide a chance for closure, a moment to reflect and to say one’s final farewells. 
 
Much like award ceremonies, funeral rites are different from navy to navy, and even then they 
may differ greatly depending on the personal customs of the crew and the departed, their 
native homeworlds, and even the necessities of war; if your fleet has recently suffered 
significant losses or been forced to retreat, funerals may be sparse and brief simply out of 
practical necessity. In many cases, given the number of casualties taken during an 
engagement, these ceremonies may be held to honor them as a group rather than individually, 
though certain individuals such as ranking officers are likely to receive more personal 
consideration. 
 
To begin with, whose funeral is this? Was it someone under your command? A close friend? Or 
was it your character themselves, giving their life in the line of duty? What cultural or religious 
rites are being observed? 
 
Players may want to go around the table to say a few words about the departed, particularly if 
it was someone they knew (or one of their own characters!), recounting memorable events from 
an engagement or campaign as a sendoff. If morale in the fleet is low, the right words here 
could grant them the resolve they need to finish the fight in the name of those who gave their 
all. 
 

135 
  

LETTERS FROM HOME 

For cosmonauts, “home” often means two things; the ship they serve on, and the world they 
left behind. The effects of time dilation from frequent necessities of stasis and nearlight travel 
mean that they find themselves caught between the subjective and the objective, the world 
outside their fleet slipping inexorably ahead in time while they seemingly remain ageless. Such 
a life isn’t for everyone, and the ranks of long-serving naval personnel are frequently comprised 
of those without temporal roots, content to travel the stars until retirement or death. 
 
Still, some sailors, notably auxiliaries and those serving limited terms, have things which 
anchor them to the world outside of their ships. Friends, family, loved ones, a homeworld they 
fondly remember. Even career spacers may maintain contact with their families over the years 
and generations that pass for them on the other side, a distant figure maintaining presence in 
their lives via the omninet. 
 
While other post-battle vignettes take a more collective approach, involving multiple characters 
and looking at things from a big picture perspective, this is a much more personal and intimate 
window into a character’s backstory and personality. Everyone comes from somewhere, after 
all. Where does your character call home? Who’s waiting for them there? A spouse? Children? 
Parents? What events have been happening in their absence? 
 
Bear in mind that the conflict in the Dawnline Shore as presented in Battlegroup only lasts for a 
few years of objective time, running from 5019 to 5021, though of course this may vary in your 
own campaigns. The effects of time dilation on those participating in this war are therefore 
likely to be minimal in and of themselves, but other conflicts may involve a much more 
pronounced difference, to say nothing of the cumulative effects for career spacers. This can be 
something to explore in a campaign that takes place over a longer stretch of time as you look 
in on pivotal moments across multiple systems. 
 
VIEW FROM THE GALLERY 
Another option which can be explored following engagements (and even during pre-battle 
Uptime as well) is to zoom in on non-player character action or larger “scenes” involving more 
than simply your own characters. As with any episodic series, the camera doesn’t simply focus 
on the main character (the A Plot); a setting’s world is enriched by focusing on side characters 
and other developing stories that add context to the main story — these are the B and C Plots 
of a given narrative.   
 
There are many people aboard a ship, and while your player character might not have access 
to their interiority, you as a player certainly do. With this sort of expanded scene space, you 
can — as a player — zoom in on action and actors that your own character might not 
participate in or be wholly ignorant of. Use this space to flesh out life on your ships in a way 
that is compelling and builds additional context around your character and your battlegroup. 
 

136 
  

Some examples of these scenes might include strike craft and chassis pilots returning to their 
carriers, deck hands or gunners at work after the engagement, harried engineers working to 
repair damage to the ship, NHPs reorienting to individuality after exiting legionspace, and so 
on.  
 
REST AND RELAXATION 
Whether or not you are on campaign, all cosmonauts engage in either sanctioned or 
unsanctioned rest and relaxation to recover from the rigours of naval service. After an 
engagement, amid the grim tally or the rapid chase, you’ll likely find some time to relax — 
however relaxation expresses itself on deployment.  
 
What does your character do to decompress? Do they hurry back into stasis for a short sleep? 
Do they catch up on old media packets, finally re-synced after so much time at relative burn? 
Do they exercise, play games, or find a quiet space to read? Drinking and gambling are the 
classic pastimes of soldiers everywhere, though rules and regulations aboard a ship may place 
prohibitions on these activities (not that this always stops determined spacers, of course). 
 
More raucous, then, is shore leave, though it may not involve setting foot on an actual planet. 
The rigors and stresses of naval combat are great, and even the sternest commanders 
understand that allowing their crew to blow off steam is necessary to prevent burnout. Ships 
coming in for shore leave are often viewed by locals with a mix of excitement and 
apprehension. Spacers on leave are rarely stingy with their money, but along with a shipful of 
rowdy sailors comes an uptick in drunken reveling, bar brawls, and petty crimes.  
 
If taking leave, where do you go? Are you docking at a station or rotating down to a planet’s 
surface? What do you plan to do when you arrive, and what sort of trouble do you expect to 
get in along the way? Shore leave is an excellent chance to explore a new locale, and also 
presents a good opportunity to bring in some Lancer scale action on the ground should the war 
follow you there. 
 
DYING OF THE LIGHT 
One’s post-engagement experience might be quite grim. Your commander, your crew, may not 
survive the battle. Maybe you drift, the lone (or one of very few) survivors aboard the ruin of 
your ship, watching the dial on your oxygen reserves dip ever lower, waiting for anyone to 
come and rescue you.  
 
What do you do in the time you have left?  
 
 

137 
  

Progression: Accolades, Legacy, and 

Reputation 
There are three different forms of advancement that can be awarded to players. Accolades are 
decorations and citations given to commanders or other crew members for displaying 
exemplary skill during battle. Legacies are traits and qualities that ships acquire throughout 
their history of service. Lastly, reputation is gained by commanders and represents their 
personal growth over time as well as the pivotal moments which come to define them. 
 
Advancement carries with it a narrative component as well as a mechanical one. Being 
awarded a medal for valor will influence how people see your character, while a ship that 
acquires a particular legacy will develop its own stories and superstitions surrounding it. 
 
After each battle in an ongoing campaign, players will gain either an accolate or one of the 
ships in their battlegroup will gain a legacy. All players will also gain reputation. In addition to 
this, players may also take this opportunity to change one of their commander's traits to a 
different one if they wish. Perhaps they're no longer satisfied with it, or it narratively makes for a 
more interesting story for their commander to trade out an older trait for a newer one. 
 
Because characters in Battlegroup may wind up dying in the course of play, or because your 
group may opt to shift perspectives between different characters throughout the course of a 
campaign, it's recommended that you allow new characters to enter play with the same 
number of advancements as the rest of the group in order to keep everyone on equal footing. 
 
   

138 
  

Accolades 
Accolades are granted in recognition of meritorious service and noteworthy acts of bravery or 
skill. An accolade is awarded to a character in a player’s battlegroup, often the commander but 
it can be awarded to other characters serving under them as well. Each accolate grants players 
a bonus they can call upon during battle. 
 
While the GM can award accolades on their own, you may find it more enjoyable for the group 
to decide as a whole if someone has earned one due to a particularly memorable moment or 
pivotal action. Accolades are generally awarded for specific reasons, and you should keep this 
in mind when deciding which one best suits both the story and the player’s preferences. 
 
The following rewards assume characters are officers in the Union Navy.  
 
Olduvai Cross 
The Olduvai Cross is the most prestigious decoration that can be awarded to Union naval 
personnel for acts of singular devotion and valor above and beyond the call of duty, granted to 
fleet admirals and junior enlisted personnel, to humans and to NHPs alike. As a result, it is most 
often awarded posthumously; living recipients of the Olduvai Cross number in the dozens, if 
that. Each of these medals is formally awarded at a special ceremony held on Cradle, though 
given the constraints of interstellar travel, it can be months or even years before a recipient (or 
their next of kin) is officially decorated in person. 
 
Characters awarded the Olduvai Cross are among a rarified few. The parameters for being 
awarded the Cross are as noted in its commendation: peerless valor. Your table decides what 
that means, keeping in mind the extreme rarity of the commendation.  
 
Those with the Olduvai Cross will be recognized as heroes and known by name and reputation 
by anyone in their fleet. As such, any doors closed to them by rank or station can be opened, 
within reason. Prior to a battle, players with this commendation may roll two d20s before any 
engagement and record the results: 1/battle them may, at any time, use one of those results in 
place of any d20 roll they make. 
 
Interstellar Expeditionary Cross 
This award is granted to those that have, in the course of their service, displayed great valor 
and courage in combat in three or more “foreign theaters”, defined as within the generally 
recognized borders of a territorial sphere, polity, or star system which they themselves did not 
originate from. Despite the seemingly simple prerequisites, this medal is granted less often than 
many people imagine, as a majority of cosmonauts rarely see enough combat upon “foreign 
shores” to qualify. As conflicts within the Dawnline Shore region escalate, however, more and 
more personnel have begun to qualify for this award. 
 

139 
  

Characters awarded the Interstellar Expeditionary Cross have participated in battles in multiple 
theaters, generally as part of an ongoing campaign. They’ve travelled further and seen more 
combat than many cosmonauts, and this undoubtedly colors their character in some way. How 
has this experience affected them? What places have they seen, and what stories do they have 
to share? 
 
Those with the Interstellar Expeditionary Cross are recognized as seasoned veterans with a 
wealth of experience. Whether they want it or not, others will look to them for guidance and 
advice during difficult times. 1/battle, players with this commendation who are forced to move 
by an enemy effect or ability may choose to ignore that movement. 
 
Communal Order Ribbon 
Informally known as the "Lifeline," the Communal Order Ribbon was one of the first new naval 
service decorations to be officially created by Union's Third Committee. Awarded for courage 
and selflessness in rendering protection and aid to those in need at great personal risk, this 
service ribbon is granted as much for search-and-rescue operations following battles as it is for 
defensive or support actions undertaken during combat. This includes providing aid to enemy 
combatants, and more than one commander has received the Communal Order Ribbon for 
saving lives regardless of which side they might have been fighting on. 
 
Characters awarded the Communal Order Ribbon have earned it through selflessness and 
sacrifice, whether it be in defense of their comrades or a commitment to saving lives, even 
those of their enemies. 
 
Those with the Communal Order Ribbon are generally viewed with great respect, and serving 
under a commander with this award is considered auspicious by many cosmonauts. They can 
generally expect a free round of drinks in any port, and even if taken prisoner during battle they 
can expect to be treated courteously by their captors. 1/battle, players with this commendation 
may reduce the damage taken by an allied Capital Ship in the same range band to 0. However 
their own Flagship then takes that much damage. 
 
Marine Distinguished Service Medal 
Among the many lethal aspects of naval combat, boarding actions stand out as perhaps one of 
the most grim and statistically deadly affairs with even the victors often suffering significant 
casualties in the course of duty. Marines who participate in major combat operations either in 
defense of their vessel or as part of a boarding action are eligible to receive this medal, 
posthumously or otherwise. Among Union marines, earning one’s MDSM is considered a rite of 
passage, and is a marker dividing the fresh from the salt.   
 
Characters awarded the Marine Distinguished Service Medal have been through the hell of 
boarding actions and come out the other side bloodied but victorious. It isn’t a question of 
whether they’ve seen friends die, but how many. Who have you lost in the corridors and spinal 
passageways of an enemy ship? What scars have you collected? 

140 
  

 
Those with the Marine Distinguished Service Medal are known to be tough as nails, lucky as 
hell, or more likely some combination of the two. When breaching charges detonate and bullets 
start flying, they’ll be someone that others count on to take point. Having the MDSM is also a 
sign that someone can back up their bravado, or at the very least can hold their own in a bar 
fight. 1/battle, players with this commendation may reroll any boarding roll they make, but they 
must keep the second result.  
 
Liberator's Shield 
There can be no doubt that one of the most important divisions within Union's Third Committee 
is the Department of Justice and Human Rights, tasked with critical missions such as first 
contact scenarios, humanitarian aid, and direct action intervention against those who would 
violate the rights and wellbeing of others. While not strictly a branch of the navy, the DoJ/HR 
and Union Navy often work together on missions, and more than one Liberator Team has been 
saved by timely orbital fire support or extraction from a hot zone courtesy of a navy dropship. 
Those naval units that participate in missions alongside the DoJ/HR are eligible to receive this 
award for their service. 
 
Characters awarded the Liberator’s Shield are generally recognized to be a part of Union’s 
ideological spearpoint, having served alongside or embedded with DoJ/HR Liberator units 
either in a combat or universe-building capacity. 
 
Those with the Liberator’s Shield are recognized as heroes by those who know of the DoJ/HR, 
whether they themselves feel they deserve that title or not, and members of the DoJ/HR are 
likely to look upon them favorably, going as far as to provide favors or simply to vouch for 
them. 1/battle, players with this commendation may immediately end any one ongoing effect 
on one of their ships, such as the effect of a boarding action, greywash counters, an effect 
imposing a Difficulty penalty, etc.  
 
Meritorious Service Bar 
The Meritorious Service Bar, typically attached to another theater-specific medal, is granted to 
commanders to recognize noteworthy acts of courage and prowess against the enemy while 
under fire. Decisively scoring a kill on an enemy flagship while avoiding return fire is generally 
seen as the key to earning this commendation, though it isn't strictly necessary, but as 
hostilities between major naval powers continue to increase some young commanders have 
begun to take greater risks in order to make a name for themselves. While specifically awarded 
to a ship's commander, all personnel serving aboard that ship at the time of the act are entitled 
to wear the bar as well. 
 
The MSB, as with the Marine Distinguished Service Medal, is another “gatekeeper” award, 
viewed by officers and personnel as marking a clear line between those who have seen and 
survived combat, and those who don’t know what they’re talking about beyond how to win a 
sim.  

141 
  

 
Those with the Meritorious Service Bar have a story to tell of how they earned it, and 
depending on how long they serve the details of that story can grow more outlandish as time 
goes by. 1/battle, players with this commendation may reroll any Single Target attack roll they 
make, but they must take the second result. 
 
Gallantry Cross 
A medal awarded for "honorable conduct befitting the finest traditions of naval service," the 
Gallantry Cross is typically awarded to naval personnel at the completion of at least two tours of 
duty without any significant disciplinary infractions or court-martial offenses, but it can also be 
granted at other times for noteworthy displays of skill and excellence both during and outside of 
combat. Effecting critical repairs which prevent a ship's destruction, successfully plotting a 
pinpoint nearlight realignment that grants a decisive tactical advantage, or commanding a ship 
in battle with minimal losses suffered are all acts that could merit this commendation. 
 
The Gallantry Cross is an award granted to those whose service has been distinguished by 
personal excellence. A spotless service record and a noteworthy display of tactical brilliance 
are two very different things, but both speak to a commander that’s meticulous, thoughtful, and 
detail-oriented. 
 
Those with the Gallantry Cross often have a reputation for running a tight ship, expecting (or 
demanding) the same sort of excellence from those serving under them. Others may be 
prodigies thrust unexpectedly into a position of great responsibility and even greater 
expectations. When a player with this commendation makes an Uptime Action roll prior to 
battle, on a result of 9- they may make a second Uptime Action if they wish. They must still 
accept the consequences of the first roll, and they cannot make the same Uptime Action twice. 
 
Silver Crescent 
While strike craft and chassis pilots have a variety of medals and decorations to call their own, 
the Silver Crescent is given to fleet commanders who have displayed exemplary skill while 
leading carrier operations during combat. To receive this honor marks a commander as a canny 
tactician, but more than just combat performance metrics are accounted for in the awarding of 
this medal. Devotion and dedication to the pilots under one's command are the marks of a 
Silver Crescent candidate, and many of the recipients have extensive experience in the cockpit 
of a strike craft themselves. 
 
Silver Crescent recipients are universally well-regarded commanders in the Union navy. The SC 
is a commendation afforded to consummate, compassionate, courageous officers usually 
following a collective nomination from their crew; for this reason, the Crescent is recognized as 
a rare award given from enlisted personnel to their commanding officer, even if the official 
presentation is from the nominated officer’s own executive. 
 

142 
  

Those with the Silver Crescent tend to share a camaraderie with the strike craft and chassis 
pilots under their command that’s perhaps a bit more personal or familiar than the relationship 
between other commanders and their subordinates. Maybe they like to reminisce about the 
“glory days” when they were in the cockpit, but it’s undeniable that their firsthand experience 
has made them an excellent commander. 1/battle, players with this commendation may issue a 
command to a Wing equipped to their battlegroup for free during their turn. 
 
Azure Star 
All Union naval personnel are awarded the Azure Star upon retirement after 30 or more years of 
active duty, death, or "the suffering of grievous injury sufficient to prevent further honorable 
completion of one's service." Countless sons and daughters, wives and husbands across a 
hundred worlds have received this medal to commemorate the loss of a loved one many light 
years away, and to receive it while still living is an achievement viewed with a mix of great 
respect and somber recognition. 
 
The Azure Star is a commendation available to any character who dies while on deployment or 
is otherwise discharged. Few active duty personnel pin this decoration to their uniform, though 
it is not unheard of for some personnel to have come back from retirement to serve once more.  
 
Unlike other accolades, the Azure Star is generally only awarded in the event of a character’s 
death. Should a player’s commander be killed in battle, then they’re eligible to receive this 
accolade to commemorate their passing. Note down when and how they were killed in action. 
1/battle players with this commendation may automatically convert a successful attack into a 
critical hit or force an enemy critical hit to become a normal hit after seeing the result. Once 
used this accolade’s effect is permanently expended and cannot be used again. The Azure Star 
may be awarded to a player multiple times, refreshing the ability to use its effect again, but the 
benefit does not stack with itself. 
 
Legacies 
Legacies are acquired by ships over the course of their service, through the numerous battles 
and actions they take part in. Over time, ships take on anthropomorphized characteristics (i.e. a 
ship might start to be viewed as “indomitable” or “cursed”) which, though seemingly 
immaterial, may have a morale effect on its crew and staff, a reputational effect on the enemy, 
and contribute to the history of the vessel besides.  
 
Like accolades, legacies can be granted during advancement by the GM or by the group based 
on memorable events which occurred during a battle or throughout the course of a campaign. 
Unlike accolades, however, legacies aren’t granted to characters but to individual Capital 
Ships. This doesn’t have to mean a player’s flagship either. Legacies grant a bonus to the ship 
they’ve been assigned to and will often have a narrative effect as well; crew serving aboard a 
ship with a particular legacy may develop little customs or superstitions over time such as 

143 
  

touching a picture for good luck, leaving hull scars unpainted, or warning new crew members 
not to venture into the maintenance shafts between certain hours. 
 
A ship can only have up to two legacies at a time, though if desired and deemed appropriate a 
legacy can also be exchanged for another during advancement.  
 
Bloodthirsty 
This ship invariably finds itself in the thickest of fights, and its hull bears both the scars and the 
kill markers to show for it. 
 
At the start of each battle, choose a weapon equipped to this ship. It gains the Critical tag. 
 
Cursed 
This ship always seems to bear the brunt of the enemy assault, often to the cost of its systems 
and crew. It is widely regarded among the more superstitious of the fleet personnel as cursed, 
and assignment to the ship is never well received.  
 
The first time each battle this ship would be destroyed, it survives with 1d6 HP. You may 
sacrifice equipped weapons and upgrades (limited weapons and upgrades that have been fully 
expended cannot be chosen) to increase this amount by +2 HP per weapon or upgrade 
sacrificed. This cannot leave a ship with more than its maximum HP. 
 
Headstrong 
Often acting against doctrine, the crew of this ship has been rewarded with victories on balance 
— but also a steep butcher’s bill.  
During the Logistics Step, you may remove 1 flight counter from an enemy Payload attack 
targeting this ship or this ship’s battlegroup. 
 
Indomitable 
Despite everything thrown at it, somehow this ship and her crew always manage to make it 
through a fight.  
 
This ship begins each battle with 5 Overshield. 
 
Lucky 
This ship and her crew always seem blessed with good luck, from winning cards on shore leave 
to avoiding — only just — the spinal cannons of her foes. Others may shirk at the idea of 
serving on a lucky ship — to be lucky, you must be in danger — but her crew wouldn’t trade 
their berths for the world. 
 
This ship gains +2 Defense. You begin each battle with a banked Accuracy die which you can 
spend to add +1 Accuracy to one of your attack rolls during play. 
 

144 
  

Mighty 
This ship is known to friend and foe alike as a powerful ally and fearsome foe. Her crew is proud 
and competent, and will fight as such.   
 
This ship may reroll the damage dealt by any of its equipped weapons on hit or impact, but it 
must take the second result. 
 
No Pasaran  
A line ship that has been boarded, but never taken. Her crew will never give up the ship. 
 
Boarding actions made against this ship only succeed on a result of 10+. 
 
Phoenix 
This ship was once destroyed in combat or it was scuttled, rendered inoperable either to 
prevent its capture or as a bloodless logistics decision. After being salvaged and repaired, it 
now once more flies in the line, carrying with it a long history...  
 
This ship gains 2 points that can be only spent on weapons or upgrades equipped to it. 
Whenever this ship is destroyed, regardless of how much damage it takes it is always 
salvageable afterwards, though the crew may not fare as well. 
  
 
Reputation 
Commanding a ship is about more than endless fighting, but battles are where a commander’s 
reputation is made. The lessons they learn and the choices they make will become as much a 
part of them as any scar, and will speak to their character as much as any medal. 
 
After each battle, players will have a chance to shape their commander’s reputation by adding 
and changing their traits. All commanders begin play with three traits, two positive and one 
that complicates things for them, and they can have up to a maximum of five positive and 
two complicating traits. Having additional positive traits gives players more potential sources 
of Accuracy when making uptime checks, and having more than one negative trait gives both 
them and the GM more choices when it comes to refreshing traits that have been marked off. 
 
The traits earned over the course of play can take a number of different forms, from new 
personal qualities that a commander cultivates or discovers an affinity for to moments of fame 
or infamy which indelibly mark them and color their interpersonal interactions with other 
characters. For example, after a heroic defense of their ship through a brutal series of boarding 
actions, they may want their character to be known for keeping Steady in an otherwise chaotic 
fight; following a brilliant bit of maneuvering that won the day, players may decide that they 
want their character to have earned a reputation as a Brilliant Tactician.  
 

145 
  

Complicating traits do not necessarily have to be wholly negative. For example, after a 
particularly bloody battle a player may decide that their commander has earned a notorious 
reputation, and that they’re now referred to in hushed tones as a Butcher. 
 
Players should also be able to append locations and specific names to any traits they may 
want their character to have associated with them. As with accolades and legacies, the rest of 
the table can help players decide what a suitable and evocative reputation might be for a 
commander to earn in the aftermath of battle.  
 

 
   

146 
  

The Field of Battle  

Battlegroup assumes that by the time play begins, both fleets have already made their initial 
engagement maneuvers and fired their first volleys; there is no active hunting for enemy 
signatures, no skillful concealment of one’s waste heat in the proximity of a neutral station, no 
baiting an exposure attack via deft feint — the only thing left to do is fight.  
 
However, that is not to say that there isn’t room for skillful maneuvering: though the field of 
battle in Battlegroup is the cold void of space, combat in this setting is not always fought in 
sterile environments — ships may engage above worlds under assault, or be caught as they try 
to slip through an asteroid field, or hide their heat signatures in the long trail of a comet. While 
commanders try to engage the enemy far from the worlds, stations, and strategic objectives 
they seek to capture or defend, some engagements cannot be avoided; one must then take 
into account the proximity of other bodies. 
 
Note that these environmental modifiers may not necessarily cover the entirety of the Gyre, of 
course. Naval battles take place on an enormous scale, and it would be unlikely for an asteroid 
field to blanket the entire area with densely packed rocks, but you can assume that these 
modifiers have enough of a presence to play a measurable effect in the battle to come as 
battlegroups maneuver towards nearby stellar bodies for cover or use a nebula to baffle enemy 
sensors. 
 
At the outset of the battle, one side — via narrative context — is considered the “Attacking” 
side, and the other the “Defending” side. Statuses, conditions, etc, that denote Attacking or 
Defending sides will apply to their respective side.  
 
The following environmental conditions describe suites of optional modifiers you and your 
players may choose to implement in your engagements. Be careful not to overwhelm 
engagements with too many additional conditions or modifiers, as this can make things difficult 
for both you and your players to keep track of in the heat of battle. Also keep an eye on how 
the chosen modifiers are likely to affect your players’ battlegroups, as some conditions will 
affect them more harshly than others depending on their loadouts and preferred tactics. 
 
When Fighting Near Terrestrial Bodies and Crowded Airspace 
To a commander aware of the consequences of such an engagement, combat near populated 
worlds, moons, stations, and other stellar bodies with crowded airspace (i.e. the orbital rings 
and platforms of a developed world, a constellation of populated stations, a heavily trafficked 
transit corridor, and so on) is a nightmare. Even a single missed shot has the potential to 
shatter a station or critical infrastructure; a miss with a long or short spool gun could not only 
devastate a city, but whole continents. To reflect this fact and the strategies conscious 
commanders adopt to mitigate causing potentially catastrophic collateral damage, the GM may 
make any of the following modifications to combat:  

147 
  

 
● Cold Calculus: If the players are on the Defending side, they may use the following 
ability:  
○ Acceptable Casualties  
During the Impact Step, after attacks have been rolled and damage has been 
assigned you may use this ability to reduce all damage that would be dealt to 
ships in your battlegroup by half; the remaining damage is dealt to the terrestrial 
object or crowded space beyond, dealing proportional narrative damage.   
 
● Collateral Damage: All Area Target attacks gain the following profile: 
○ Unavoidable Consequences 
All Area Attacks that target the Defending side of the combat may impact the 
terrestrial body or populated airspace beyond their targets. Hundreds to 
thousands of civilians and garrisoned soldiers may die; likewise there may be 
minor, though widespread, damage to facilities, infrastructure, and the natural 
environment. To avoid this collateral damage when launching Area Target 
attacks against the defending side, you may reduce the damage they deal after 
Interdiction by half, to reflect gunners trimming the area of effect in order to 
avoid causing collateral damage.   
 
● Danger Close: All Single Target attacks add one difficulty. In addition, all Single Target 
attacks gain the following profile: 
○ Hold Fire, Dammit! 
Trigger: You roll a Single Target attack and miss.  
At the last moment, you call off your shot/you order your ships to hold fire: 
trajectory shows this shot has a high likelihood to miss its target and impact on 
the world/moon/station/etc behind, and you cannot risk collateral damage. If this 
attack is a Limited attack it is not expended, and if this attack is Reliable it does 
not deal Reliable damage. You may still choose to deal Reliable damage on a 
miss, but if you do your attack also causes a proportionate amount of civilian 
casualties as a result of errant weapons fire. 
 
● Defensive Emplacements: If the NPCs are on the Defending side, all NPC Flagships 
may use one or both of the following Maneuvers: 
 
Anti-Ship Missiles (Maneuver)  

Deep space defenses are an effective method of reinforcing zones of control in and around 
highly contested regions. Perimeter defense platforms, typically unmanned, are able to 
network with fleet legions in order to coordinate firing solutions against encroaching threats. 
Some DSD platforms seeded under the Second Committee have waited centuries for 
activation — dormant until ordered awake.  
 

148 
  

Primary 
Single Target, Payload 
Range 4-3 
2d6 Damage 
 
Anti-Orbital Defenses (Maneuver)  

Closer to populated worlds and stations, anti-orbital defenses are common installations 
around population centers. In peacetime, they primarily track and engage rare — through not 
uncommon — natural threats. In wartime, they are readily tasked to engage hostile ships. A 
variety of surface-to-orbit and satellite-based kinetic, directed energy, and missile systems 
provide additional coverage against proximal threats. 
 
Primary 
Single Target, Reliable 2 
Range 2-1 
5 Damage 
On hit, deal 2 damage to one or two Escorts in the target ship’s battlegroup. 
 
An enemy suffering from the effects of a Sever Comms boarding action cannot use 
these Maneuvers. 
 
● Occupied Exit Vectors: When making a Nearlight Ejection, if you roll a 1 you ignore the 
normal result. You may either abort your ejection and remain in the battle, or you may 
proceed with it by rolling again. If you roll another 1, one of your ships makes a terrible 
error and ejects into the terrestrial body or crowded airspace. That ship is utterly 
destroyed, along with everything onboard, and the terrestrial body or crowded airspace 
suffers catastrophic, region-affecting damage.   
 
● Search and Rescue: The crews of all vessels that are scuttled, foundered, or 
destroyed, or otherwise taken out of combat in a non-catastrophic manner have a much 
higher chance of being rescued — or their bodies recovered — due to the proximity of 
emergency services, civilian ships, terrestrial gravity, and rapid system-local search and 
rescue responses.   
 
● Threading the Needle: All weapons with the Charge tag increase their Charge value by 
+1 (for example, a Charge 2 weapon becomes Charge 3), to reflect commanders 
holding fire until they are absolutely sure they will not hit an unintended target. However, 
if you do miss your shot flies harmlessly into empty space. In addition, all Charge 
attacks gain the following profile: 
○ An Acceptable Risk 
You may choose to forgo adding this modifier to your Charge attacks whenever 
they begin a charging cycle, using their normal value. If so, when you make an 

149 
  

attack with any of those weapons and miss roll a d20; on a 1-5 your attack hits 
the terrestrial body or plows through the crowded airspace beyond your target, 
causing untold catastrophic damage and killing tens to hundreds of thousands 
of civilians5.  
 
When Fighting Near Natural Stellar Bodies 
In contrast to engagements near populated terrestrial bodies and crowded space, combat in 
proximity to the natural features of unpopulated system space, void, and deep space is often 
the preferred ground of canny commanders. Challenged to navigate not only dangerous 
physical environments, but confusing and frustrating natural phenomena that play hell with 
even the most hardened systems, commanders and pilots able to adapt can win themselves 
powerful tactical advantages.  
 
“Natural and Stellar Bodies” in this context include the fantastic and mundane phenomena of 
systemic and interstellar space: asteroid fields, nebulae, titanic comets and their long tails, 
debris fields of old battles, the crowded rings of gas giants, the moonfields of colossal gas 
giants, and so on. Some optional modifiers that your table may choose to adopt are listed 
below.   
 
● Ambush: If the NPCs are on the defending side, by taking advantage of local 
conditions to conceal their exact positions they’re able to lure the players into an 
ambush, launching a counterattack from unexpected angles which forces commanders 
onto the back foot. For this battle, NPCs always go first each round with turn order 
alternating as usual. 
 
● Debris Fields: The battle takes place in and around an area of space with an unusually 
high concentration of debris such as asteroids, planetary rings, or wreckage. As the 
battlefield shifts, so does the relative density and concentration of the debris along the 
gyre. Debris fields begin at range 1-0 during the first round of play. During the next 
Logistics Step move the fields to range 3-2, then during the Logistics Step after that 
move them to 5-4, then back to 1-0, repeating this process until the battle concludes. 
Player battlegroups that end their turn within a debris field have a 50 percent chance of 
colliding with debris, taking 2d6 Area damage and making all attack rolls with +1 
Difficulty until the end of their next turn. Roll a die or flip a coin to determine this. 
 
If an enemy forces a player battlegroup to enter a debris field, that enemy battlegroup 
must also check to see if they collide with debris in the process using the same rules as 
above.   
 

5
Of course, it is absolutely acceptable for you and your table to forgo this collateral damage effect 
(along with the collateral damage effect described in Area Target attacks near terrestrial bodies); player 
safety remains paramount.  
150 
  

● Graveyard: The remains of previous battles can be found throughout the area, from 
derelict ships to the shattered wreckage of space stations. Quick-thinking commanders 
can take advantage of these conditions during lulls in the action to conduct salvage 
operations, gathering discarded munitions or raw materials to bolster their battlegroup. 
All battlegroups gain the following Maneuver: 
 
Salvage Ops (Maneuver)  

Limited 1 
Choose one; one Capital Ship in your battlegroup gains 5 Overshield or you may remove a 
refresh counter from a Reloading weapon or system of your choice. 
 
● Running Silent: Nebulas, cometary tails, or some other environmental condition 
provides battlegroups with a rare chance to engage in stealth maneuvers, hiding in blind 
spots and damping their signature to minimize detection. Battlegroups that end their 
turn without attacking or taking any action which targets a hostile battlegroup clear 
Lock On and all attacks against them are made with +1 Difficulty until the end of their 
next turn. 
 
● Power Surges: Energized nebulas, power discharges from shattered wreckage, and 
other similar conditions cause fluctuations in high-capacity power storage systems, 
necessitating additional safety protocols to prevent catastrophic overloads. All weapons 
with the Charge tag increase their Charge value by +1 (for example, a Charge 2 weapon 
becomes Charge 3), but 1/round during the Logistics Step commanders may push their 
weapon systems past safe levels and remove 1 additional charging counter from a 
weapon of their choice. If they remove a counter this way, that ship takes 1d6 damage 
that ignores Overshield and cannot be prevented in any way. 
 
● Sensor Flares: High levels of electromagnetic interference, solar flare activity, derelict 
IFF transponders, or other such phenomena make utilizing guided weapons more 
difficult as they waste time tracking phantom signals. Each time a ship launches a 
Payload attack roll a d6. On a result of 1, add 1 to that Payload’s flight time. 
 
 

   

151 
  

Battlegroup and Lancer 

In addition to being a standalone game, Battlegroup also serves to broaden the scope of action 
within Lancer's setting, putting players in the role of commanders leading fleets of capital ships 
in pivotal battles that can change the tide of war. While both Battlegroup and Lancer are 
designed to be played on their own they can also be woven together, the outcomes and 
consequences of one game serving to inform the direction that the other takes. 
 
Bringing Lancer into Battlegroup can be as simple as zooming in to follow a squad of mech 
pilots tasked with a critical mission set against the backdrop of a naval engagement, such as 
boarding an enemy ship. At a suitable moment during an engagement, the action can shift from 
commanders giving orders to their battlegroups to pilots breaching the hull and advancing 
through the corridors towards their objective. Once the mech pilots have completed (or failed) 
their mission, gameplay can once more zoom back out to Battlegroup's perspective and 
resume from there, with the outcome of this mission affecting the remainder of the 
engagement. 
 
Note that running full-fledged tactical mech combat each time a boarding action is undertaken 
in Battlegroup is likely to be somewhat impractical; a single tactical combat encounter in 
Lancer can take groups 1-2 hours to complete, and Battlegroup can involve numerous 
boarding actions in the course of a single engagement. Such a thing is best reserved for 
special objectives with outcomes that are equally special, more so than that of a standard 
boarding action. Perhaps the players have been tasked with spearheading an assault to 
commandeer an enemy vessel, with a successful assault resulting in the ship being turned 
against its allies. Fail, and it reinforces the enemy battle lines. Perhaps the players are sent in to 
acquire command codes that will allow their allies to deactivate the local defensive installations 
protecting a critical target, or to steal intelligence vital to future operations. Whatever the 
mission objective is, it should be significant and impactful either within the context of 
Battlegroup or an ongoing Lancer campaign. 
 
Boarding actions in Lancer are a good opportunity to make use of the game's Sitreps such as 
Control, Gauntlet, or Holdout. Capital ship interiors may be large enough for mechs to board 
them but quarters are likely to be cramped, with plenty of chokepoints, cover, and obstructions 
to navigate, as well as potential hazards such as power storage systems, ordnance magazines, 
automated internal defenses, and even stray weapons fire from other ships. 
 
The same principles can apply when using Battlegroup to add another dimension to a Lancer 
campaign. The outcomes of major naval battles are significant, pivotal events which can 
establish the backdrop and tone for an entire series of missions, and playing that out using 
Battlegroup is one way of providing your group with a stepping off point to determine the 
shape of things to come on the ground. 
 

152 
  

For example, if the players succeed at securing a beachhead in orbit around a planet then that 
can influence not only the sorts of missions they'll likely be tasked with in the cockpit of a 
mech but also the opportunities they'll have to acquire and utilize Reserves such as fire 
support, satellite recon, or orbital insertions. Enemy forces will be more likely to be operating 
on the defensive with their own supply lines and orbital assets contested by blockades, and 
their strategic objectives may involve taking control of anti-orbital defenses to try and punch a 
hole in fleet coverage or striking at port facilities to deny the players reinforcements and 
resupply. 
 
Conversely, if the players suffer setbacks during the initial naval battle then when things switch 
to the action on the ground they may find themselves essentially operating behind enemy lines. 
Their options for Reserves may be limited until they achieve objectives necessary to enable 
them, and enemy forces will be operating with the benefits of orbital superiority on their side. 
Missions may have to be timed carefully around gaps in fire support coverage while enemy 
reinforcements will be able to arrive via reentry shuttles or drop pods. 
 
Of course naval battles can do more than set the stage, they also make a suitable climax for a 
mission arc. As the players progress through their missions, they may have the opportunity to 
lay the groundwork for a naval battle meant to decisively secure victory within the theater. 
Sabotaging defenses, gathering intelligence, and participating in the final engagement 
themselves can all be critical steps necessary to tip the odds in their fleet’s favor. 

   

153 
  

On Campaign  
What follows is a quick tool for determining the progress of a longer naval campaign, a series 
of linked engagements fought to a strategic or total end-state.  
 
Campaigns can be abstracted or grounded. Abstracted advancement does not need to be tied 
to any numeric system, but can be agreed upon by the table depending on narrative context. 
Grounded campaign advancement in Battlegroup utilizes a mixed system of narrative 
abstraction coupled with a simple tracking/context system.  
 
Whether on the attack or on the defense, use the following strategic conditions as a kind of 
“campaign tracker” to determine the state of a given campaign:  
 
Beachhead 
This is where any campaign, defensive or offensive, begins. Likely large affairs, where the 
attacking side attempts to overwhelm the enemy’s defences and establish a series of forward 
bases, supply lines, and operational zones from which to launch further attacks.   
 
A campaign can be ended here should the attackers fail to establish a beachhead.  
 
Expeditionary  
The expeditionary front of a campaign represents advancement beyond initial contact. Whether 
attacking or defending, once a beachhead has been established, the first probes into enemy 
territory are always expeditionary: not the full strength of a force but its vanguard and scouts, 
attempting to find the path of least resistance. The battles here are likely smaller than those in 
the Beachhead phase, as they are expeditionary engagements.   
 
A campaign will likely not be ended here, as neither side has committed the full strength of its 
forces to an attack or defense.   
  
The Advance  
Following expeditionary engagements, a force will commit to a campaign route that takes them 
the farthest, fastest, while not outrunning their supply lines. These are the advancing lines of 
battle, where the advancing forces attempt to take advantage of their initial momentum and 
defending forces try to stem the initial tide. The battles here should be larger than those in the 
expeditionary phase.   
 
A campaign likely will not end at this point, as the attackers have the defenders on the run, but 
defenders know they have prepared defenses waiting for them.  
 
Second Line  

154 
  

The Second Line represents the time and or/place when the defending side has gathered its 
strength enough to resist en mass the advancing enemy. The battles at the Second Line should 
be on par or larger than the battles during the Advance; generally they are less mobile than the 
Advancing Lines phase, and more focused around attackers breaking through, bypassing, or 
defeating key strategic points.  
 
A campaign can be ended here with a successful defense.   
 
Routed  
A Routed enemy fights on the back foot following an attacking side’s successful breakthrough. 
The defense at this point is not yet shattered, but likely wavering; the next line is far too close 
to home (or other critical objectives) and the attackers were meant to be stopped here.  
 
The campaign will likely not end here, though defenders will suffer some significant losses. The 
battles fought during the Second Advance/ Routed phase should be smaller, focusing in on 
detached units fighting their way back to safety (if on defense) or hunting down critical 
objectives/VIPs (for attackers)  
  
The Home Front 
Here, the attackers meet a stiff, well-defended, legacy defensive line: the home front. The 
defending side likely always had contingency plans to make their defense here, though unless 
tested in the past this will be the first time. Old ships will join new ones, and defenders will fight 
bitterly and with strength to repel the invaders.  
 
The battles at this stage should be large; the attacking side will not win here — they have one 
more step to go — but defenders could, with a heroic effort, styme an attack here.  
 
The Center 
A bit of a medial step between the previous stage of the campaign and the final, the Center 
represents the dark, waning days before the end. Here, lone pockets of defenders who refuse 
to surrender hold out, waiting for relief or a coordinated response to the as-yet unstoppable 
advance of the enemy.  
 
The battles here are small and grim. The attackers cannot be defeated; the defenders can only 
survive and escape, or die.  
  
The Last Stand  
The final gasp of the defending side, the last chance they have to resist the as-yet unstoppable 
advance of their enemy. Every ship that can defend is organized along the final line of battle; 
there is no retreat from this, only victory, relief at the hand of a timely intervention of an ally, 
surrender, or death.  
 

155 
  

There should only be one battle here, large and final. If the narrative allows the defenders to win 
here, then they will fight with that hope.  
 
Win and Advance  
Coming out the winners of a naval engagement may be, in many cases, all but equivalent to 
winning a war. However, in combats of scale between great galactic powers (say, if the 
Karrakin Trade Barons mount a multi-front campaign against Harrison Armory) or if one side 
has made a successful retreat, there will likely be a number of other battles to be fought before 
a clear winner is decided. If your narrative leads to more battles in the future, it may help to use 
the following campaign advancement system.  
 
For naval commanders, victory is more than simply a matter of destroying the enemy. The 
weapons at their disposal are phenomenally powerful, and causing massive destruction is all 
but assured. What truly marks a naval engagement as a decisive victory is achieving strategic 
objectives while minimizing losses in return. Capital ships are a tremendous investment of both 
trained personnel and material resources, and the loss of even a single one is a significant blow 
to a polity’s ability to project power or defend itself. 
 
As a result, one of the key factors in determining what sort of victory players have achieved in 
an engagement is how many of their ships survived intact, if not undamaged. Some degree of 
leeway is acceptable in determining the severity of losses; for example, ships that are reduced 
to between 0 and -4 HP are considered destroyed but are nonetheless largely salvageable and 
many of their crew are likely to survive. Assuming the outcome of the rest of the battle is a 
victory, such losses may not be as punishing as they might otherwise be. 
 
Another important factor to keep in mind, however, is the death or destruction of key ships and 
commanders. A commander overseeing maneuvers from the bridge of his battleship is a much 
more significant target than the trio of frigates accompanying him, and the loss of that ship is 
likely to be much more keenly felt even if it only comprises a fraction of that battlegroup’s 
overall numbers. Enemy forces can and will pursue high-value targets as part of an overall 
military strategy, for honor and glory, or even simply for revenge. The loss of a commander and 
their flagship can be enough to tip a battle in the enemy’s favor. 
 
Decisive Victory  
Decisive victories are determined by group agreement based on the context of their narrative 
and the encounter that was just fought: typically, decisive win sees the enemy utterly defeated 
on the field of battle, any survivors either captured or fled in numbers too small to be 
meaningful. Battles in which 75% or more of player ships survive are likely to be considered 
decisive victories. 
 
Decisive victories allow significant strategic advancement. Depending on how you use the 
campaign ladder, this could mark a victory on a whole front, the defeat of a notorious admiral 

156 
  

and their fleet, or a decisive defense that breaks an enemy advance, and so on. The enemy will 
meet you next at a disadvantage — perhaps one of their heroes has been killed in action, or 
their supply lines have been destabilized, or their defenses remain unprepared for the next 
battle.  
 
Strategic Victory 
Strategic victories are determined by group agreement based on the context of their narrative 
and the encounter that was just fought: typically, strategic wins are contests that end with your 
side the victor, either taking or defending the objective, routing the enemy, or some other 
certain — though not crushing — victory condition. Enemy fleets might withdraw having lost a 
capital ship or had significant damage dealt to their units, but not annihilated or otherwise 
wiped out. Battles in which roughly 50% of player ships survive constitute a strategic victory. 
 
Strategic wins allow normal advancement through the course of a campaign. A strategic win 
accomplishes a desired strategic outcome, but is not a sweeping victory. The enemy will meet 
you with normal strength, organization, and morale.   
 
Pyrrhic Victory 
Pyrrhic victories are, on balance, little better than a loss. While you may have achieved a 
necessary victory and sent the enemy to flight, your side has likely been terribly bloodied. A 
battle in which the players ultimately win but are left with only 25% of their ships or less 
remaining is a Pyrrhic victory.   
 
Choose as a table whether to go forward or maintain your current position. Going forward is 
likely an overextension, but might be necessary to press an advantage that would otherwise be 
lost. Maintaining your current position is prudent, but risks losing any advantage a rapid 
advance might grant. 
 
If you choose to go forward, any ships not able to participate in the advance must drop back 
for repairs, as they simply do not have the capacity or structural integrity to continue on.   
 
If you choose to maintain your current position, you’ll see to it that all of your ships (assuming 
your fleet has a sufficient supply line) are resupplied, rearmed, and repaired. However, you lose 
any advantage you may have going into the next engagement, as the enemy has had enough 
time to repair their own ships and re-set their line.   
 
Strategic Loss 
Strategic losses are those in which a fleet fails to achieve its objectives but does not suffer 
unsustainable losses in the process, either retreating from battle or holding out with significant 
— though survivable — loss of numbers. If the players fail to achieve their primary objectives 
but 50% of their ships survive, or if in the course of battle 50% of their battlegroups or 
more eject from the engagement before its conclusion, a strategic loss is the likely 
outcome. 

157 
  

 
A strategic loss does not necessarily mean the end of an advance, much less the end of a 
campaign, but multiple losses in a row likely spell doom. Nonetheless, prudent commanders 
may prefer a strategic loss over a Pyrrhic victory if it means preserving more of their fleet to 
employ at a later point. 
 
Decisive Loss 
Decisive losses constitute a significant blow to any naval power. A failure to achieve strategic 
objectives alone is not enough to constitute a decisive loss; fleet destruction must be 
near-absolute as well, with 10% of player ships or less surviving, if that. This also means such 
a loss likely claims a staggering number of lives as well. If this is the first loss in the course of a 
campaign, the losing side might have their resolve hardened for the next battle; if this is the 
second or third in a series, they might be broken or pushed to the brink of desperation. They 
may consider pulling back to consolidate their remaining forces to protect their borders, or 
even open diplomatic channels to negotiate a ceasefire.   
 
A decisive loss also shakes individuals to their core. If they live, they likely have watched many 
of their comrades die in combat, and may even bear wounds themselves. A decisive loss does 
not necessarily mean the end of a war in and of itself, though one could easily set the stage for 
an end of some sort.   
 
The End 
A campaign ends when one side achieves what it set out to achieve: take a critical territory, 
defend a critical territory, establish clear borders, deny a critical objective, and so on.   
 
The conclusion of a campaign does not mean the conclusion of a war. Your faction might 
continue on, but your character may not; if your character survives a naval campaign from start 
to finish, they are members of a rare class. Do they continue in that life, or do they retire?6  
 
The Campaign Tree 
A Battlegroup campaign doesn’t need to have every beat planned out in advance, and in many 
cases you shouldn’t try to plan too far ahead. Neither you nor the players know how any given 
engagement will go until the shooting starts, after all. Nonetheless, it can help you to start 
planning ideas for future objectives, as well as setting the stakes for each engagement, to 
sketch out a few possible outcomes for each fight based on a simple set of post-battle results. 
From there you can follow this path to the next beat and repeat the process, sketching out a 
new set of possible outcomes, following the result of the battle, and so on all the way to the 
end of the campaign. This is called a campaign tree. 
 

6
Lancer presumes that your character has the option or ability to make this choice.  
158 
  

The three most likely outcomes you’ll want to have in mind for each engagement are if the 
players achieve victory, if the players are defeated, and if the fight ends in a Pyrrhic 
victory. Victory and defeat will generally have clear outcomes, though you’re certainly free to 
add some wrinkles here and there. In the case of a Pyrrhic victory, the outcome is less than 
desirable for both sides. The players may have succeeded in accomplishing their primary 
objectives, after a fashion, but have also suffered significant losses in the process that will 
cause them as many complications as they caused for the enemy. 
 
For example, one mission may task the players with securing a strategically-located shipyard 
facility with enemy forces attempting to do the same. If the players win then they gain control 
over the shipyard, while if the players lose then the enemy does. If a Pyrrhic victory occurs then 
the players may prevent the enemy from seizing control over the shipyard, but the shipyard 
itself might suffer significant damage during the fight that renders it inoperable without 
significant repairs, or both sides may wind up too battered and bloodied to prevent a third 
faction from seizing control of it instead. It’s still a victory of a sort, the players did indeed 
prevent the enemy from achieving their goals, but these complications will doubtlessly alter the 
course of the campaign in an unforeseen direction. 
 
Once a campaign has concluded, the campaign tree that you created can serve as a historical 
record of sorts for future campaigns both in Battlegroup and in Lancer. Something which can 
flesh this out further is going back over the campaign tree at the conclusion of a campaign and 
giving a denouement to the events which occurred; the effects of a naval campaign are 
impactful enough to have consequences that affect things long after the players’ direct 
involvement.  
 
For each engagement which took place during the campaign, go around the table and allow 
someone to decide what the lasting consequences are as a result. For engagements where the 
players succeeded, let one of the players decide. For engagements where the players were 
defeated, the GM will decide. For Pyrrhic victories you can randomly determine whether a 
player or the GM gets to first establish consequences, and then the other side can add their 
own details to it as well. For example, if the GM gets to determine the initial consequences for 
a Pyrrhic victory, a player will then be able to add to this as well. In cases like this, try to avoid 
simply ignoring or overruling the consequences that one party initially established. Both sides 
should get to have their input stand; think more “yes and” or “yes but” rather than going “no.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

159 
  

Building NPCs 
 
In Battlegroup, building NPCs is a three-choice process:  
1. Decide on your ratio of NPCs to players (we recommend 1:1, or, one NPC per player for 
an “even” match).  
2. For each NPC choose a Flagship.  
3. For each Flagship, choose one to three Escorts.  
 
NPC Battlegroups are composed of two parts: the Flagship, which should be considered the 
“featured” or “face” enemy — i.e. the main thing you should be targeting, the vessel you’re 
hunting (regardless of its escort), where named NPC characters are stationed, the boarding 
target, and so on — and their Escorts, which are the attendant ships under the Flagship’s 
command.  
 
NPCs have the same action economy as players: on their turn (following their Impact step) they 
may make one Maneuver and use one Tactic or they may trade out their Maneuver to use a 
second Tactic if they wish. NPCs do not have standardized Maneuvers and Tactics the way 
players do, they use Maneuvers and Tactics that are unique to them which are listed on their 
profiles. A Flagship’s actions default actions may only be spent on Maneuvers and Tactics 
which belong to itself, not to Maneuvers or Tactics granted by any of its Escorts (see NPC 
Escort Archetypes for more information on that). 
 
Like a player party, multiple NPC battlegroups are considered a fleet. Individual NPC 
battlegroups alternate with player battlegroups in the initiative order, following the first acting 
player (unless otherwise stated, of course). NPCs do not have a position on the Gyre like 
players do. They are considered to be within the sphere of the active battle, but their exact 
positioning is abstracted. You won’t worry about whether an NPC is at Extreme Range or 
Scope Range, as the player’s position determines whether the player is able to attack an 
NPC and also whether the NPC is able to attack that player. To say it a different way: the 
range bands of the Gyre indicate each players’ relative position to the NPC fleet.  
 
When NPC rules refer to “enemies” or “allies,” it is from their perspective. Players are their 
enemies and their fellow NPCs are their allies. 
 
Some rules and tags work slightly differently for NPCs than they do for players: 
 
Range: When an NPC weapon or system lists a range, that lists the range bands that weapon 
or system can affect. For example, if an NPC weapon has a range of 3-1, it can attack any 
player battlegroup within Collapsing Range (3) to Point Blank Range (1) but cannot attack any 
battlegroups outside of those range bands. In other words, players attack from range 
bands, while NPCs attack towards range bands. 

160 
  

 
Payload: Because NPCs do not occupy specific range bands, their Payload weapons have a 
flight time based on the range band their target is occupying at the time they’re launched. For 
example, a Payload attack fired at a target in Scope Range (3) will have a base flight time of 3. 
 
Boarding: NPCs use special boarding effects instead of the ones that are granted to players. 
These will always be described in the system or ability that grants the effect. Unlike player 
boarding actions which always target NPC Flagships, NPC boarding actions can target any 
Capital Ship under player control. 
 
Charge and Reloading weapons and systems work the same as they do for players. 
 
Traits are passive qualities or abilities that some NPCs possess based on their ship type or 
role. These are always active and do not require activation. 
 
Systems are abilities that require active use on the NPC’s part, and will tell you when they can 
be used and what the costs are, if any. 
 
All Flagships are Capital Ships for weapons, systems, and rules that specifically affect those. 
 
 
   

161 
  

NPC Flagship Archetypes  

Below is a list of enemy flagship archetypes, along with their stats.  
 
Turtleback 
A heavy battleship, up-armored with additional plating across its dorsal and ventral surfaces, as 
well as a hardened citadel guarding its core systems. On your scope, it appears solid and 
imposing: not hard to hit, but hard to kill. Turtleback vessels are common across the galaxy, 
more of a rough silhouette/armament designation than a particular hull made by any one 
shipyard of note.   
HP 35, Defense 6, Interdiction 1d6, Capital Ship 
Tactics: The Turtleback is a heavily armored Flagship which is difficult to kill using long-range 
weapons, and capable of providing additional protection to the Escorts under its command as 
well. It’s content to trade blows from long range using its Heavy Kinetic Batteries and Swarm 
Missiles, but commanders that are able to close the distance will be able to tear into its 
exposed underbelly. Use Priority Target to push aggressive players back so that its Reinforced 
Hull can protect it. 
 
Reinforced Hull (Trait) 

The Turtleback takes half damage from Single Target attacks and abilities made from range 
5-3. 
 
Heavy Kinetic Battery Fire (Maneuver)  

Any captain worth their brass knows that space combat is won through trajectories: to defeat 
your target, fill their flight path with fire. 
 
Primary 
Single Target 
Range 4-0 
6 Damage 
You may attack one or two targets with this maneuver. 
 
Swarm Missile Volley (Maneuver) 

Those who say missiles have no place in space combat have never seen how hard they hit. 
  
Primary  
Area Target, Payload 
Range 4-1 
1d6+2 Damage 
This weapon can attack two battlegroups at a time, firing separate Payloads that are tracked 
individually. 

162 
  

 
Priority Target (Maneuver) 

Push an enemy battlegroup back one range band back. Until the end of the Turtleback’s next 
turn, whenever one of its Escorts is targeted with attacks or abilities they have a 50 percent 
chance of being intercepted, and the enemy must either abort their attack or ability, 
wasting their action, or target the Turtleback instead (even if the attack or ability could not 
originally target Capital Ships). Roll a die or flip a coin to determine this.  
 
 
Starkiller 
Long and knife-edged, this supercapital ship’s slim profile elides its fearsome strength. One of 
the few hulls fabricated by Syngin-Duat, each Starkiller supercapital is a staggering work of 
craftspersonship; a scale model of each one produced hangs in the grand arcade of SD’s main 
campus.   
HP 25, Defense 10, Interdiction 1d6, Capital Ship 
Tactics: The Shipkiller is a long range sniper, taking advantage of its Long-Range Targeting 
Array and Kill-Point Targeting Laser to secure critical hits with its Starkiller Cannon. While 
Reroute Spinal Charge provides it with some additional protection in an emergency, it’s 
otherwise fairly vulnerable for a Flagship, and so Escorts which can help its survivability are a 
good choice to accompany it. 
 
Long-Range Targeting Array (Trait) 

The Starkiller makes Single Target attacks against ships in range 5-4 with +1 Accuracy 
 
Starkiller Cannon (Charge)  

Starkiller Main Cannons are a popular class of large-bore/high-k spinal guns made by many 
warship outfitters. While specific classifications, bore/joule size, and capabilities may differ, 
the Starkiller designation is never applied without merit. Even the smallest spinal gun can deal 
severe damage to its target, and are capable of scoring a kill-hit against ships of the line.  
   
Superheavy 
Single Target, Charge 2, Critical 
Range 5-3 
15 Damage 
On critical hit, this weapon deals 10 damage to another Capital Ship in that target’s 
battlegroup. If there are no other Capital Ships in the battlegroup, this ability has no effect. 
 
Kill-Point Targeting Laser (Maneuver) 

KPT Lasers are common among vessels that mount spinal canons. Ship designers, 

163 
  

acknowledging the ordered and exposed nature of fleet combat, often order the installation of 
“hot” targeting lasers; while normal (or “cold”) targeting lasers often score their targets with 
superficial thermal damage, “hot” lasers simply run at higher powers. With extended time on 
their target, they can deal more than superficial damage to painted ships prior to main gun 
impact. 
 
Primary 
Single Target 
Range 5-1 
Automatically deal 2 damage to target enemy Capital Ship and Lock On to it. The Starkiller 
gains +1 Accuracy to attacks with the Starkiller Cannon against that target until the end of 
its next turn. 
 
Reroute Spinal Charge (System) 

The energy load of a charging spinal long or short spool cannon is tremendous. Canny ship 
captains can take advantage of this charge if necessary by shunting stored potential energy 
into emergency shielding, energy PDCs, reactive wave-armor systems, or even maneuvering 
thrusters. The tradeoff — a longer charge time if utilized — is worth the benefit: survival, at all 
costs. 
  
System 
During the Logistics Step, when the Starkiller Cannon begins charging you may choose to 
treat it as Charge 3 instead of Charge 2. If you do, the Starkiller gains +1d6 Interdiction and 
+2 Defense until its last charge counter is removed. 
 
Reloading 2 
At the start of its turn, if the Starkiller Cannon has 1 or more charge counters remaining the 
Starkiller may add 1 charge counter to it and push one or two enemy battlegroups back one 
range band. 
 
 
Needleship 
Tapering to a thin point, Needleships are most commonly found among spacefaring Diasporan 
states — which, it should be noted, are rare. Records of their construction were lost during the 
FirstComm era of Union, though owing to their longevity and unique construction (outside of 
their core superstructure silhouette) one can assume they were built from a shared pattern, if 
not by a single, long gone manufacturer. Spacefaring Needleships have since been upgraded, 
retrofitted, and refurbished for modern spaceflight and combat, though even with extensive 
modernization, Needleships are examples of divergent capital ship design. Those that exist now 
are marvels of longevity, with unique defensive and maneuvering systems little understood by 
Union. Each ship is a discovery, and a pity to see destroyed...   
HP 25, Defense 12, Interdiction 1d6, Capital Ship 

164 
  

Tactics: The Needleship is a disruptive area controller that manipulates enemy positions to its 
advantage. Though not particularly tough, Assess Reality gives it several options for 
repositioning enemy battlegroups or bolstering its own defenses, while Spatial Distortion 
creates even more opportunities for it to control the Gyre itself. Both Ancient Star and 
Shattered Reflection are powerful offensive tools in the right situations, but on its own the 
Needleship isn’t particularly well suited to head-to-head fights and may require additional 
support to take full advantage of its unique capabilities. 
 
Assess Reality (Trait) 

Cogent Minds developed by the House of Water are the only systems capable of interacting 
with the strange computers and cognizants that power Needleships. Utilizing a combination 
of ancient coding libraries, modern user interfaces, and evolutionary codices, the partnership 
between Cogent Minds and cognizant Needleship “Ghosts” chart strange, unpredictable 
trajectories, forcing fleet legions to imagine alternate modes of approaching reality. 
 
At the start of the Needleship's turn, roll 1d6. On a 1-3 you may push an enemy battlegroup 
back one range band. On a 4-6 you may advance an enemy battlegroup one range band 
forward. If you do not choose to move an enemy battlegroup, the Needleship gains +2 
Defense and +1d6 Interdiction until the end of its next turn. 
 
Ancient Star (Maneuver)  

So-called “Ancient Star” torpedoes are unique to Needleships. Each weapon represents 
millennia of potential energy, held in containment, waiting to meet its explosive, terrible end. 
Firing even one Ancient Star means the end of a many-thousand-year-long journey. 
  
Superheavy 
Single Target, Payload -1 
Range 5-2 
10 Damage 
This weapon deals +1d6 damage when launched at targets in range 3, or +2d6 damage 
when launched at targets in range 2. When launched at targets in range 5-4, decrease its 
flight time by 1. 
 
Shattered Reflection (Maneuver) 

The Needleship steers itself towards you, opening comms, and for a moment it’s your own 
fleet you see on the scopes looking back at you. 
 
Primary 
Single Target, Accurate, Legionspace 
Range 4-1 
3 damage 

165 
  

This disruptive systemic attack has different effects depending on how far away its target is.  
 
Range 4-3 
On hit, the target must choose; take +5 damage or they cannot benefit from Accuracy on 
attack rolls until the end of their next turn except to cancel out Difficulty. 
 
Range 2-1 
On hit, the target must choose; take +5 damage or they deal only half damage with all 
attacks and abilities until the end of their next turn. 
 
Spatial Distortion (System)  

Are these strange systems the end result of some abandoned experiment in pre-blink FTL 
propulsion? Were they meant to be a weapon? Whatever the case, the effect is undeniable as 
invisible waves render mass and inertia mere suggestions rather than constants. 
 
System 
Reloading 2 
The Needleship creates a distortion that briefly warps space in a localized area. During the 
Logistics Step, you may choose one: 
 
Collapse: At the start of each enemy battlegroup's turn, if they are at range 5-4 they are 
advanced one range band forward. If they are at range 2-0 they are pushed one range band 
back. Battlegroups at range 3 are unaffected. A battlegroup may choose to ignore this effect 
by immediately spending a Tactic. 
 
Shunt: Until the next Logistics Step, enemy battlegroups cannot enter range 3. Whenever 
they move into it they "skip" it and move to the next range band in sequence based on the 
direction of their movement. A battlegroup may choose to ignore this effect and move into 
range 3 by taking 1d6+1 Area damage. 
 
 
Highline 
An Armada Shipyards stalwart, Highline frigates bristle with multi-band point defense systems 
and omnidirectional thrust points built directly into their superstructure. Maneuverable and 
low-heat profile, Highline vessels are popular frigates among modern Diasporan interstellar 
fleets.   
HP 20, Defense 10, Interdiction 1d6+4, Capital Ship 
Tactics: Highlines are close/mid-range Flagships which excel at deterring and destroying 
enemy Escorts and Wings. Their low base HP is offset by their perpetually regenerating 
Overshield, and all of their systems and abilities are tuned to shred any subline vessels or strike 
craft unfortunate enough to be pitted against them. While relatively well protected from 
Payloads, they’re more vulnerable to direct fire and Charge weapons and fare poorly against 
longer ranged opponents or those that don’t rely on Escorts or Wings. 

166 
  

 
Curtain Call Proactive Defense Screen (Trait) 

Proactive defense systems like the Curtain Call multi-point defense network provide 
unparalleled interdiction defense against tidal firing patterns; combined with a Fleet Legion’s 
functionality and rapid processing, the Curtain Call PDS is unparalleled in its defensive ability.  
 
The Highline or an allied Flagship of its choice gains 5 Overshield at the start of the Logistics 
Step. While a ship has Overshield from this trait, any Escort or Wing that damages any ship 
in its battlegroup takes 2 damage. Overshield applied to allies this way lasts until the start of 
the next Logistics Step. 
 
Cloudkill Batteries (Maneuver)  

“Kill-cloud at .4 conical density. Good choke, good density. Impact expected and assured.” 
 
Primary 
Single Target, Reliable 2 
Range 3-0 
7 Damage 
Attacks with this weapon made against targets further than range 2 gain Inaccurate. On hit, 
all Escorts and Wings equipped to the target ship take 2 damage. 
 
Aggression Wall (Maneuver)  

Reloading 2 
Advance an enemy battlegroup one range band forward, then deal 2 damage to all enemy 
Escorts and Wings equipped to one enemy battlegroup within range 2-0. 
 
Firewall (System) 

Woe to the creatures that fly through hell, for none escape with unburnt wings! 
 
System 
Reloading 2 
The Highline launches a spread of burnout directed-energy munitions that rapidly track 
targets and fire until depleted. During the Logistics Step, choose one range band from 3-2. 
Until the next Logistics Step, any enemy battlegroup that ends their turn in the chosen range 
band takes 3 Area damage that cannot be Interdicted, and any enemy Escorts and Wings 
issued commands from within the chosen range band first take 3 damage. If this damage is 
enough to destroy an Escort or Wing, it is destroyed before it can carry out its command and 
its effects are negated. 
 
 

167 
  

Breakwater 
Breakwater carriers were designed to be bastions around which middle-Gyre lines could form; 
with their wide, three-tiered landing decks, multiple fuel and ammunition routing corridors, and 
overlapping PDC screens, they perform this task admirably.  
HP 25, Defense 10, Interdiction 1d6, Capital Ship 
Tactics: The Breakwater is a carrier Flagship, capable of dealing reliable damage at closer 
ranges with its fighter/bombers while either keeping them repaired and ready for the next 
sortie. As its Wings are destroyed it loses defensive capabilities and becomes more vulnerable 
to attacks of all sorts, but it gains more aggressive abilities in the process. Anti-fighter 
weaponry is one of the Breakwater’s weaknesses, as well as long range opponents, and 
Escorts which provide it with additional movement abilities can help it keep the right targets in 
the right ranges. 
 
Launch Bays (Trait) 

The Breakwater carries a complement of 4 Wings of long-range heavy fighter/bombers into 

action along with it (5/5/5/5 HP) with a range of 3-0. During the Logistics Step it may repair 
one of its Wings to full HP. The Breakwater gains +1 Interdiction for each of this Trait’s 
remaining Wings, and it gains +2 Defense as long as at least one of this Trait’s Wings 
remains. 
 
Flak Batteries (Maneuver)  

Primary 
Single Target, Accurate 
Range 2-0 
4 Damage 
On hit, deal 2 damage to all Escorts and Wings equipped to that target. If the Breakwater has 
only one or fewer Wings remaining, you may attack one or two targets with this maneuver. 
 
Refuel and Rearm (Maneuver)  

Fuel, ammunition, combat stims, coffee, and no-c smokes: wars are won during R&R.  
 
Reloading 2 
Push one or two enemy battlegroups back one range band, then repair up to two of the 
Breakwater’s Wings to full HP. If the Breakwater has only one or fewer Wings remaining, you 
may advance an enemy battlegroup one range band instead. 
 
All Wings, Attack! (Tactic) 

The Breakwater scrambles one or two of its Wings and gives them one of the following 
commands. You may select the same or different commands for each:  

168 
  

 
Dogfight 
Deal 1 damage to target Wing, or deal 3 damage to target Wing and take 2 damage. 
 
Bombing Run 
Reloading 2 
Deal 1d3+1 damage to target Capital Ship or Escort. 
 
Close Support 
The Breakwater directs one of its Wings to provide close fire support to one of its allies, 
disrupting and confounding their target’s defenses. Choose an allied battlegroup and an 
enemy battlegroup. That ally gains +1 Accuracy to all Single Target attacks against ships in 
that enemy battlegroup until the end of their next turn. This command does not stack with 
itself. 
 
When the Breakwater is reduced to its last remaining Wing, those pilots push themselves 
to the limit in a desperate last stand. The remaining Wing is automatically repaired to full HP, 
and their commands are enhanced as follows: 
 
Dogfight 
Deal 3 damage to target Wing. 
 
Bombing Run 
Reloading 2 
Deal 4 damage to target Capital Ship and an Escort in that ship’s battlegroup. 
 
Close Support 
Choose an enemy battlegroup. All Single Target attacks against ships in that enemy 
battlegroup are made with +1 Accuracy until the end of their next turn. 
 
 
Triton 
More mobile defense platforms than proper capital ships, with proper modifications to protect 
otherwise vulnerable spin sections Triton MDPs are common among Diasporan ODF fleets.  
HP 30, Defense 6, Interdiction 3d6, Capital Ship 
Tactics: The Triton is a support Flagship, highly protected against Payloads as well as Escorts 
and Wings, which can lend even more protection to its allied Flagships. It lacks much in the 
way of offensive capabilities, and so it benefits from Escorts which provide its battlegroup with 
additional firepower. While it’s well protected against multiple types of weapons and abilities, 
it’s much more vulnerable to Charge weapons and boarding actions, and once it drops below 
half HP it becomes much easier to finish it off. Damage Control Teams can help keep it above 
that critical threshold while you cycle between Overlapping Armaments as circumstances 
dictate. 
 

169 
  

Defensive Constellation (Trait) 

Defensive Constellation systems are common counter missile, battery, and kinetic-projectile 
weapons (C-MBKP) used by large-frame ships and stations to defend against hostile actors 
and debris strikes.  
 
1/round the Triton or an allied Flagship may reroll one of its Interdiction dice, but must keep 
the second result. The Triton takes half damage from Escorts and Wings as long as it is 
above half HP. Damage dealt by boarding actions ignores this effect. 
 
Overlapping Armaments (Maneuver) 

Triton defense platforms bristle with layered defenses, presenting a formidable threat to any 
ships that dare approach them. Missiles, cannons, and more provide safe harbor for those 
under their protection.  
  
Primary  
Range 4-1 
Choose one of the following effects. You may not choose the same effect twice in a row: 
 
Missile Batteries 
Single Target, Payload 
1d6+4 Damage 
This weapon may have up to two active Payloads in play at a time. Track these Payloads 
individually. 
 
Guidance Lasers 
Single Target 
Automatically deal 2 damage an enemy Capital Ship and Lock On to it. You may remove 1 
from the flight time of any active allied Payload attack targeting that ship or its battlegroup, 
including your own. 
 
Asteroid Defense Cannons 
Single Target 
7 Damage 
 
Chaperone Cloud Projector (Tactic) 

Chaperone Clouds are conventional K-Kill Clouds launched ahead of friendly ships. Flying 
silent before deployment in long, simple rockets, upon activation they split open into broad, 
quick-spread clouds of shaped flechettes and impact panels. These Chaperone Clouds shred 
incoming solid-state projectiles and missiles, countering hostile kinetics with enough of their 
own opposed energy that they render the debris ineffective against allied armor. 
  

170 
  

Reloading 2 
The Triton fires a Chaperone Cloud ahead of an allied Flagship at matching speed. It screens 
the ship’s trajectory, adding +1d6 to that Flagship’s Interdiction and +1 Difficulty to all Single 
Target attack rolls made against it until the end of its next turn. Then one enemy battlegroup 
must choose; be pushed back one range band or take 1d6+1 Area damage. 
 
Damage Control Teams (System) 

If a ship survives its first hit, organic and automated damage control teams hurry to patch, 
weld, and reinforce: one hit means another will follow.   
 
System 
Limited 2, Reloading 2 
During the Logistics Step, the Triton may dispatch damage control teams to repair 5 HP to 
itself, to an Escort in its battlegroup, or to an allied Flagship. 
 
 
Cornicen 
A solid-state flagship with no organic personnel, managed by a Cogent Mind, a new series of 
dramatically more powerful comp/cons produced by the Janus Combine, a scientific 
foundation devoted to the development of parasubjective strategic solutions. The Janus 
Combine is based on the House of Water’s homeworld, Umara, and is one of Water’s many 
private/public development ventures devoted towards the expansion of parallel-track “mind” 
systems.  
HP 25, Defense 10, Interdiction 1d6, Capital Ship 
Tactics: The Cornicen is a Flagship capable of saturating targets with corrosive greywash, 
eating away at them steadily over the course of an engagement. In addition to its No-Repro 
Munitions and Excite ability, it possesses a uniquely powerful weapon in Achiral Abolition 
which can selectively remove a ship from play for a turn. This has numerous applications, 
including preventing ships from manually clearing greywash infestations. The Cornicen has no 
particular defensive strengths and may find itself a priority target as enemies seek to quickly 
remove it from play before it can do irreparable harm, and so you’ll likely want Escorts that can 
help protect it. 
 
Cogent Mind (Trait) 

The Janus Combine developed Cornicens as vehicles for their Cogent Mind warprocessors. 
Distinct from Deimosian NHPs, Cogents are more conventional — though still incredibly 
powerful — machine minds, akin to an end-state evolution of the comp/con, coupled with 
some of the more unique interpretations of legacy machine minds. Their freeform processing 
without fear of cascade provides a window, then, into what humanity could have become.   
 
The Cornicen is a solid-state ship; it is immune to critical hits and boarding actions against it 

171 
  

only succeed on a result of 10+. Whenever the Cornicen repels boarders, apply 2 greywash 
counters to each ship those boarders belong to. 
 
No-Repro Munitions (Maneuver)  

No-Repro Munitions are as they sound: unit-directed projectiles packed with canisters of 
no-reproduction “greywash” nanites. Inert until impact, NRM shells detonate inside their 
target ships, releasing their nanite payloads to continue disruptive, malignant consumption of 
inorganic vessel matter; the resultant “burn” damage ensures that a target continues to suffer 
ongoing, widespread damage even if later fire misses its target. 
 
Primary 
Single Target, Greywash 
Range 3-0 
On a hit, apply 3 greywash counters to the target ship. Advance an enemy battlegroup one 
range band before or after making this attack. 
 
Achiral Abolition (Maneuver) 

Chirality makes individuals from otherwise identical things: Cornicen cogents force 
amphichiral alignment upon their targets, erasing them via the obliterating whole. Oneness 
without equivocation, the cogent determines, is death. 
  
Primary 
Single Target, Legionspace, Reloading 3 
Range 4-2 
This Maneuver deals no damage on hit. Instead, if the attack succeeds the target is hit by a 
potent systemic attack that disrupts a ship’s fleetmind connections. Ships hit by this attack 
cannot use any Maneuvers or Tactics until the end of their next turn, any Charge weapons 
equipped to the target are “paused” while under the effects of this attack, and weapons and 
upgrades equipped to them cannot be used. They can still be targeted by allied and hostile 
attack and abilities, and any active Payload weapons belonging to that ship continue their 
flight as normal. 
 
Excite (Tactic) 

Reloading 2 
 
Choose one of the following effects. This Tactic can only be used on targets with certain 
amounts of greywash counters: 
● 1-5 Greywash Counters 
Double the number of greywash counters on that ship or push that ship’s battlegroup 
back one range band. 

172 
  

● 10+ Greywash Counters 

That ship clears all greywash counters and must choose; take 1 damage for each 
counter cleared this way or you may destroy one of that ship’s equipped weapons or 
upgrades of your choice. 
 
 
Phantasm  
Phantasm vessels are equipped with a suite of anti-photon systems and armor. Coupled with 
massive heat sinks surrounding core modules, rapid-coolant cycling systems, and microflaking 
heat panels, Phantasm-type vessels hide themselves behind spiraling, blooming clouds of 
waste heat. Their stealth is less a factor of “invisibility” than it is hyper-visibility: the thermal 
“noise” they produce on purpose obscures their “signal”, confounding enemy targeting systems 
via overwhelming input.   
HP 18, Defense 15, Interdiction 1d6, Capital Ship 
Tactics: The Phantom is a stealthy Flagship that confounds Single Target attacks, with its 
Caloric Plume trait making it difficult for enemies to compensate for its high Defense with 
Reliable damage. Most comfortable at longer ranges, its High-Precision Railgun allows it to 
keep enemies from closing on it while it waits for its Killdart CNAL to charge. The Phantom is 
weaker against Payloads and also against Escorts and Wings, so allies which can help cover 
for those gaps in its defense are welcome additions. 
 
Caloric Plume (Trait) 

Heat. In space, that’s how you’re seen. You can’t hide in the cold, so the Phantasm doesn’t 
try to hide in the cold: it vents a combination of waste and intentionally-generated heat to 
wreathe itself in an obfuscating plume many orders of magnitude larger than its silhouette. 
Hidden in this caloric plume, the Phantasm is incredibly difficult to target.   
 
The Phantasm is wreathed in obfuscating clouds of waste heat, purposefully hiding its hull 
from enemy scopes and weapon systems. Single Target attacks against the Phantom are 
made with +1 Difficulty, and Reliable attacks that miss the Phantom deal no damage. 
 
Killdart CNAL (Charge)  

The Killdart Coherent Nuclear-Actuated Laser is a hybrid weapon: a single-use laser projector 
mounted atop a specialized torpedo that, after launching and accelerating to a safe distance 
from its deployment vessel, detonates a nuclear charge. This eruption is directed into a 
single-use lensing system, which, at proximal distance to its target, is a devastating weapon. 
  
Superheavy 
Single Target, Charge 3, Critical, Reliable 5 
Range 4-1 
15 Damage 

173 
  

The final attack roll for this attack can never be affected by Difficulty. 
 
High-Precision Railgun (Maneuver) 

Phantasm ships maintain their flight patterns inside of their Caloric Plumes, stuttering through 
microfracture nearlight bursts that make it even more difficult for enemy ships to land a clean 
hit. These erratic movement patterns require the use of specialized weaponry to maintain 
effective accuracy, such as stabilized, independently tracking railguns optimized for short- to 
mid-cycle precision fire. 
 
Primary 
Single Target, Accurate, Critical, Reloading 2 
Range 4-2 
5 Damage 
You may push an enemy battlegroup back one range band before or after making this attack. 
On critical hit you may push that battlegroup back an additional range band. 
 
Signal to Noise (Tactic) 

Shooting into a Phantasm’s caloric plume may as well be throwing your ordinance away; even 
if you were to score a hit, you wouldn’t know a positive impact from the Phantasm’s 
intentional off-gassing — all by design, as you can’t hit what you can’t see.   
 
The Phantom Locks On to an enemy Capital Ship, and may then clear Lock On from itself or 
an Escort in its battlegroup. If Lock On is cleared in this way you may also advance or push 
back an enemy battlegroup one range band. 
 
 
Man O’War 
Tyrants of the Gyre, Man o’War vessels are massive ships with equally large weapons, built out 
of the Corregidor Group’s Titanyards. Crewed by hundreds to thousands of cosmonauts and 
officers (depending on their size, age, and automation), Man o’War vessels are rarely ever 
anything but the flagship of their fleet; a warship above all others, the Man o’War dominates the 
battlefield.   
HP 30, Defense 6, Interdiction 2d6, Capital Ship 
Tactics: The Man O’War is a well-rounded, robust Flagship that can form the centerpiece of a 
variety of battlegroup compositions. Its Demisolar Lance is slow to charge but hangs an 
impending threat over its opponents as the fight goes on, and while that weapon is charging it 
can lay down Counter-Battery Fire and blanket the battlefield with Pulse-Pack Missiles, steadily 
damaging and disrupting enemies and preventing them from launching a coordinated 
counterattack. 
 

174 
  

Demisolar Lance (Charge)  

Demisolar lances, while not literally drawing half of a star’s energy, demand and output truly 
staggering wattages. Even a Demisolar’s targeting laser can kill a ship: a square hit will take 
anything out of the sky. 
 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Accurate, Charge 4, Critical 
Range 5-3 
20 Damage 
Each time this weapon removes a charging counter, deal 2 damage to an enemy Capital Ship 
in range 5-3. 
 
Counter-Battery Fire (Maneuver) 

Commanders on great ships know that they are unlikely to avoid incoming fire, so they adopt 
strategies to adapt. Counter battery fire is one such aggressive defensive measure: by 
destroying the guns that threaten your ship, you ensure you will not be hit by them. 
  
Primary 
Single Target, Reliable 2 
Range 4-0 
6 Damage  
On hit, the target suffers +2 Difficulty to all Single Target attack rolls until the end of their next 
turn. 
 
Inexorable Advance (Maneuver) 

The feint, the parry, maneuver and deception, these are the strategies of the frail. There is 
only one way to advance; straight towards the enemy. 
 
The Man O’War gains 5 Overshield. Advance an enemy battlegroup one range band forward. 
 
Pulse-Pack Missiles (System)  

Pulse-Pack Missiles detonate in stages after release from a single warhead, blanketing an 
area of hundreds of kilometers in nuclear radiation. Ships without proper shielding (physical 
or otherwise) face immediate lethal consequences for their personnel, and even those 
hardened to radiation struggle to withstand proximal detonations. 
 
System 
Reloading 2 
The Man O’War launches a massive volley of multi-warhead missiles that blanket an area in 
devastating explosions and deadly radiation. During the Logistics Step, choose one range 

175 
  

band from 4-3. Until the next Logistics Step, any enemy battlegroup that ends their turn in 
the chosen range band takes 2d6 Area damage. 
 
 
Paladin 
The modern ironclad built out of the Corregidor Group’s flagship campus, Purview Starworks, 
Paladin vessels are the svelte cousin of the Man o’War. With advanced systems and weapons, 
Paladins compose, hold, and dominate the battle line — if a commander can afford their hefty 
sticker price.   
HP 25, Defense 8, Interdiction 2d6, Capital Ship 
Tactics: The Paladin is a “jousting” Flagship which excels at crossing lances with other ships 
and emerging victorious. The RED GIANT’s unique properties mean that if the Paladin hits with 
it during the Impact Step, their target will be forced to make a difficult decision even before 
they’ve had a chance to roll any attacks of their own, which can disrupt their window of 
opportunity for firing charge weapons. Meanwhile, Low Albedo Plating provides it with 
enhanced defense whenever incoming fire is expected. While the Paladin’s main armaments 
both have a delay to them, its Coordinated Advance ability allows it to serve in a support role 
while it waits for the RED GIANT to charge and its Supernova torpedoes to hit. 
 
RED GIANT Solar Lance (Charge)  

The successor to the Demisolar Lance, the RED GIANT Solar Lance is a large-format pulsed 
particle beam designed for modern ship-to-ship combat. Trading “paint” damage for impact 
and ionization effects, the RED GIANT runs cooler than the Demisolar, though its effect on 
target is no less impressive than its older sibling.  
 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Charge 3, Critical, Reliable 5 
Range 5-2 
15 Damage 
Whenever the Paladin makes an attack with this weapon during the Impact Step, it always 
rolls to hit first before any other attacks. On hit, the target ship suffers catastrophic ionization 
and must choose; take an additional +5 damage or make all Single Target attack rolls with +1 
Difficulty and have all of its equipped System upgrades disabled until the end of its next turn. 
 
Supernova Multi-Stage Torpedo (Maneuver) 

The latest in long-flight naval munitions, these advanced torpedoes employ a staggered 
payload delivery sequence that unleashes multiple waves of warheads against targets, 
overwhelming close-in defense screens through successive barrages. 
 
Primary  
Area Target, Payload 

176 
  

Range 3-0 
8 Damage 
After this attack impacts, if the target battlegroup remains in the same range band at the end 
of their next turn they take an additional 2d6 Area damage. 
 
Coordinated Advance (Maneuver) 

The Paladin’s advanced systems allow its fleet legion to coordinate multi-pronged offensive 
advances across the entire theater. 
 
Choose one of the following effects. You may not choose the same effect twice in a row: 
● Advance an enemy battlegroup one range band forward. 
● An allied Flagship of your choice gains 5 Overshield. 
● Lock On to one or two enemy Capital Ships. 
 
Low Albedo Plating (System) 

Borrowing from Ras Shamra’s library of passive defensive systems, Paladin-type vessels are 
outfitted with LAP anti-photon OVERPLATE sheathes designed to absorb direct and 
background light, as well as confound conventional laser targeting systems.   
 
System 
Reloading 2 
During the Logistics Step the Paladin may expose its Low Albedo Plating stripes, 
confounding active targeting systems. Until the next Logistics Step, the Paladin gains +4 
Defense. 
 
 
Narcissus  
Narcissus vessels are produced at limited order from SSC’s stock of decommissioned 
Constellar Security cutters. Refurbished by designers from Atelier Celeste’s Apiary School for 
fleet purchase, Narcissus are agile, fearsome attack ships, notable for their low-crew 
requirement and effective heat dispersion systems for silent running. In the Shore, Narcissus 
vessels are rare — few having made it into the region before Union’s embargo on military ships 
— and typically only encountered among professional outfits.   
HP 16, Defense 10, Interdiction 1d6, Capital Ship 
Tactics: The Narcissus seizes enemy resources and turns them against their users, particularly 
Payload attacks. Its Veil Cannon allows it to consume Lock On from any ship to enhance its 
accuracy, allowing it to clear target locks from friendly ships, while Inbound Outbound seizes 
control of torpedoes or missiles and redirects them. Between this and the powerful, if limited, 
options provided by Legionspace Shrike, the Narcissus is capable of defending both itself and 
allies against numerous volleys of munitions, but its defenses against other forms of attack are 
less effective. 
177 
  

 
Lagoon Shielding (Trait) 

SSC’s Lagoon Shielding system strings a reactive network of defensive rockets around the 
Narcissus’ hull; if projectiles slip through, the Lagoon system triggers, firing waves of shaped, 
proximity-detonation shells as a last defense, preventing incoming solid-state fire from 
impacting. 
 
The Narcissus begins battle with 10 Overshield, +2 Defense, and +1d6 Interdiction. When the 
Narcissus is first reduced to 0 Overshield, it loses this additional Defense and Interdiction, 
and this trait is permanently disabled.  
 
Veil Cannon (Maneuver)  

Utilizing upscaled VEIL-pattern weapons, Narcissus-type ships hurl coruscating bolts of 
pulsed particle energy at their targets. The systemic and superstructural damage is 
compounding: the uncanny signatures of VEIL weaponry throws off hostile targeting systems 
as it damages their ships in realspace.  
 
Primary 
Single Target, Critical 
Range 3-0 
4 Damage 
You may consume Lock On from any ship of your choice when attacking with this weapon, 
including from allied ships, gaining the bonus for doing so against your target. You may 
advance an enemy battlegroup one range band forward before or after making this attack. 
 
Outbound Inbound (Maneuver) 

The Narcissus utilizes its powerful sensor suite to reach out and rapidly hack the flight control 
systems of inbound missiles and guided weapons. By orienting its own targeting computer as 
the projectile’s main unit, it can re-route some incoming missiles to targets of its own 
choosing.  
 
Primary 
Single Target, Payload 
Range 4-1 
1d6+2 Damage 
The Narcissus hacks and redirects incoming payloads back towards enemy ships, creating a 
salvo of hijacked munitions under its control. If there are no active enemy Payload attacks, 
this Maneuver cannot be used. This attack deals +2 damage for each active enemy Payload 
attack when you fire it. You may then add 1 to the the flight time of any active enemy Payload 
attack, or if there are 4 or more active enemy Payload attacks you may instead choose a 
single active enemy Primary Payload attack and immediately destroy it. 
 

178 
  

You may consume Lock On as part of using this Maneuver to increase or decrease its flight 
time by 1. 
 
Legionspace Shrike (Tactic) 

Utilizing information gleaned from the DHIYED excursion, SSC engineers have expanded 
upon and upscaled the broad-spectrum memetic code-attacks that were engineered for 
conventional use into a more esoteric format suitable for naval warfare contexts. 
  
Limited 3  
Choose one of the following effects. Each effect can only be chosen once: 
● Choose an active enemy Payload attack and redirect it towards an allied Flagship or 
battlegroup of your choice, including the Narcissus or its battlegroup. 
● The Narcissus or an allied Flagship of your choice gains +1d6 Interdiction until the 
end of its next turn. 
● An enemy Capital Ship of your choice must choose; take 2 damage for each active 
Payload attack belonging to it or immediately destroy an active Payload attack of your 
choice belonging to it. 
 
 
Hivequeen  
Another component of the Janus Combine’s Cogent Mind naval combat paradigm, the 
Hivequeen functions as a command and control platform for numerous maniples of combat 
drones. A distributed intelligence network allows the central ship to coordinate these 
appendages across several fronts at once with unerring precision. 
HP 30, Defense 8, Interdiction 2d6, Capital Ship 
Tactics: The Hivequeen is a Flagship that specializes in applying and taking advantage of Lock 
On. Infestation allows it to quickly begin applying target locks to enemies, which it can then 
take advantage of by launching a K-Drone Pack to deal damage and push enemies further 
back. This can place those enemies in a difficult situation if the outer range bands have been 
seeded with Sapper Drones. The Hivequeen has good defenses all around, but most of the 
damage it deals tends to be delayed in some fashion. This can make securing kills difficult, and 
so it pairs well with Escorts that supply its battlegroup with more conventional firepower. 
 
Royal Palace (Trait) 

“The idea of ‘chaos’ — disorder, openness of a system, novel eruption and manifestation — 
rules the Cogent Mind. Contrary to the strict order of the NHP as-understood by cognitive 
programmers, NHP engineers, solipsticians, and other professionals in the field, the cogent 
minds (that is a ‘mind who thinks of itself’) revels in the chaos of many meanings, 
unconstrained sampling, ecstatic utterance; if the NHP and fleet legion is the apotheosis of 
an ordered, wholly controlled (i.e. non-entropic) system, every siloed-off cogent mind is the 

179 
  

apotheosis of entropy bottled in a vessel of silicon and rare metals, given life through 
thundering current and potential energy, and loosed upon the worlds. The entropic being, a 
chaos consciousness; there is no end to the roads that our Combine’s cogent minds will 
wander.”  
 
The Hivequeen is a solid-state ship. It is immune to critical hits and boarding actions against 
it only succeed on a result of 10+. Whenever the Hivequeen repels boarders, you may Lock 
On to each ship those boarders belong to. If a ship is already Locked On, deal 2 damage to 
it instead. 
 
K-Drone Pack (Maneuver) 

The difference between a drone and a missile is measurable only in end-states. 

 
Primary 
Payload 
Range 4-2 
This spread of weaponized drones can be launched in multiple configurations. When you fire 
this weapon you may treat it as a Single Target attack dealing 1d6+6 damage or an Area 
Target attack dealing 1d6+3 damage, and you may also increase or decrease its flight time 
by 1. 
 
While this Payload is in flight, as a Maneuver you may deal 2 damage to an enemy ship that 
is Locked On and push that ship’s battlegroup one range band back. 
 
Infestation (Tactic) 

Similar in principle to the Cornicen’s No-Repro Munitions, the Hivequeen’s seemingly endless 
breaching pods pack hundreds of tiny drones aboard solid-state payload munitions. Upon 
penetration of the target vessel the drones deploy as secondary and tertiary effects from the 
initial hit, broadcasting sabotage protocols while simultaneously providing allied units with 
real-time targeting data. 
 
Boarding, Tenacity 11 
Range 4-0 
The Hivequeen Locks On to an enemy Capital Ship and then launches a breaching pod that 
disgorges a drone swarm into that ship’s interior. During the Boarding Step, roll 1d20. On an 
8+, that ship takes 3 damage and automatically becomes Locked On at the start of the next 
Action Step. If this roll doesn't succeed you may continue to attempt this boarding action 
each Boarding Step until you either succeed or the boarded ship repels them. You may have 
up to three ships boarded this way at one time. 

180 
  

 
Sapper Drones (System) 

Long-loiter sapper drones are often seeded in volleys across predicted approach vectors, 
operating on minimal power until targets come into range. Once activated they quickly home 
in and affix themselves to ships, injecting viral attack code directly into compromised systems 
which results in cascading malfunctions until purged by damage control teams. 
 
System 
Reloading 2 
The Hivequeen launches a spread of long-flight drones that remain powered down until they 
detect nearby enemy vessels. During the Logistics Step, choose one range band from 5-4. 
Until the next Logistics Step, any enemy battlegroup that ends their turn in the chosen range 
band takes 1d6+1 Area damage, and all ships in that battlegroup make attacks with +1 
Difficulty until the end of their next turn. 
 
 
Corsair 
While many pirate groups are only capable of maintaining and mustering subline vessels, it isn't 
unheard of for larger and more ambitious organizations to field capital ships, most often frigates 
which have been captured or salvaged and repurposed. These vessels pose a significant threat 
even to well-armed merchant marine crews and can even hold their own against naval 
warships. While most pirates prefer to avoid open battles whenever possible, some polities and 
corpro states are known to employ naval assets acting under the guise of piracy in order to 
conduct operations against merchant shipping, to sow chaos and terror, and to conduct 
clandestine missions while maintaining plausible deniability. 
25 HP, Defense 10, Interdiction 1d6, Capital Ship 
Tactics: The Corsair is a close-range aggressor that seeks to drag opponents close and maul 
them before they can muster a response. Its chassis wings are only average fighters but deadly 
boarders, and in a pinch can be sacrificed to bolster the Corsair’s own defenses. The 
Scrapcaster is an ungainly weapon but potentially quite powerful should it land, while 
Demolition Charges provide a reliable source of damage as well. 
 
Motley Crew (Trait) 

The Corsair carries a complement of 4 Wings of mounted chassis into action along with it 
(5/5/5/5 HP, Boarding, Tenacity 12) with a range of 3-0. 1/round during the Logistics Step it 
may sacrifice one of these Wings to gain 5 Overshield. 
 
Scrapcaster (Maneuver)  

This particular configuration of heavy mass driver is often employed by pirates or navies with 

181 
  

a more limited manufacturing base. A comparatively unsophisticated weapon, a 

wide-aperture spinal mounted magnetic accelerator launches enormous volleys of 
ferromagnetic material ranging from shaped kinetic penetrator bundles to loose debris and 
even clouds of micrometeorites. Crude and cumbersome but devastatingly effective at closer 
ranges, this weapon is capable of severely damaging or even destroying other ships outright 
in a single blast of high-velocity shrapnel. 
 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Inaccurate, Overkill, Reloading 2 
Range 2-0 
4d6 Damage 
On hit or miss, Single Target attacks against the Corsair are made with +1 Difficulty until the 
end of its next turn. 
 
Legionspace Siren (Maneuver) 

Not every legionspace directed attack has overtly dramatic effects. An extremely common 
form of electronic warfare, overlaying false signals and navigational overrides onto a legion's 
subjectivity allows operators to surreptitiously adjust a target's heading without immediately 
alerting them, drawing ships and even entire battlegroups off course. Commonly used to 
draw merchant vessels into ambushes, such systems have obvious military applications as 
well. 
 
Advance an enemy battlegroup one range band forward. That battlegroup must then choose; 
either they cannot take or benefit from actions or effects that would move them back any 
number of range bands until the end of their next turn or a Capital Ship of your choice in that 
range band takes 1d6 damage. 
 
 
Raiding Party (Tactic) 

The Corsair scrambles one or two of its Wings and gives them one of the following 
commands. You may select the same or different commands for each: 
 
Marauders 
Deal 1 damage to target Capital Ship or deal 1d3 damage to target Escort or Wing, and take 
that much damage in return. 
 
Uninvited Guests 
Select one of the Corsair's Wings of mounted chassis and order it to board an enemy Capital 
Ship. During the Boarding Step, issue this Wing one of the following commands and then roll 
1d20, succeeding on an 8+: 
 

182 
  

● Deploy Targeting Beacons: All attacks against the boarded ship are made with +1 
Accuracy until the end of their next turn. 
 
● Plant Demolition Charges: During the boarded ship's next turn they must choose; 
either use a Maneuver to repel boarders or take 1d6 damage that ignores Overshield 
and cannot be reduced in any way at the end of that turn. This boarding command 
can be stacked up to a maximum of 3d6 damage. 
 
● Disable Life Support: The boarded ship cannot remove refresh counters from 
Reloading weapons or upgrades during the next Logistics Step. 
 
If this roll doesn't succeed you may continue to attempt this boarding action each Boarding 
Step until you either succeed or the boarded ship repels them. 
 
 
   

183 
  

NPC Escort Archetypes 

Flagships alone will likely not be enough to truly challenge players. To increase the difficulty of 
NPCs and flesh out their battlegroup capabilities, you should also choose between one to 
three Escorts to assign to each Flagship. Escorts have their own HP and Defense (outlined in 
their profiles) and bring some mix of additional attacks, maneuvers, and systems to their 
Flagship’s profile. 
 
Escorts do not act as independent characters that take their own turns. Instead they add 
Maneuvers, Tactics, Traits, or Systems that their Flagship’s battlegroup can make use of during 
that battlegroup’s turn. A Flagship may take multiple Escorts of the same type, for example two 
Brothers in Arms Escorts.  
 
For each Escort a Flagship has assigned, it may make one additional Maneuver or use one 
additional Tactic during its turn. This additional Maneuver or Tactic can only be spent on a 
Maneuver or Tactic granted by that Escort. If the Escort doesn’t have a Maneuver or Tactic 
associated with it, then no such additional actions are granted by that Escort. Attacks and 
abilities granted by an Escort are considered to have come from that Escort for the purpose of 
systems and effect triggers. 
 
Escort profiles containing more than one ship are represented by split HP, like so: HP X/Y, 
indicating there are two ships in the group, or HP X/Y/Z, indicating there are three, and so on. 
Area Target damage is assigned to all ships in an Escort group, Single Target damage is 
assigned to a specific ship in the group, chosen by the attacker. As long as a single part of an 
Escort group remains intact, all of that Escort’s effects continue to contribute to the battlegroup 
that they’re a part of, such as Traits, additional Maneuvers, and so on, though some may suffer 
reduced performance if parts of the Escort group are destroyed. 
 
For example: A Brothers in Arms Escort has HP of 8/8 representing that it’s a pair of destroyers 
accompanying their Flagship. If this Escort group takes 3 damage from a player’s Single Target 
attack then the player will choose which one of those two HP pools to assign damage to. They 
pick one, and now the Brothers in Arms have 8/5 HP. 
 
Later that same Escort group takes 5 damage from an Area Target attack that slips through. 
This damage is applied to both of the group’s HP pools, and so afterwards the Brothers in Arms 
are left with 3/0 HP. One of the destroyers has fallen, but the other one remains intact and still 
grants its bonuses and abilities to the Flagship it’s accompanying. 
 
When a Flagship is destroyed, destroy one of its remaining Escorts (the player who destroyed 
the Flagship can choose). Perhaps it’s caught in the explosion, or perhaps they simply flee the 
battle. Then reassign the other remaining Escorts to other Flagships still in play as you see fit. If 
a Flagship only has a single Escort when it’s destroyed, that escort takes 1d6 Damage 

184 
  

assigned however you like among the ships in its Escort group and then you may reassign it to 
another Flagship. If no Flagships remain, all remaining Escorts surrender or flee. 
 
Some Escorts are Templates which are special options that directly enhance the Flagship 
they’re given to. Templates cannot be reassigned if their Flagship is destroyed, and a Flagship 
can only ever have one Template. Other Escorts may have keywords such as Unique 
restricting their use to only one instance per battlegroup. 
 
Brothers In Arms 
In a well-ordered line, a pair of destroyers slip along the starfield, occluding all light behind their 
sturdy silhouettes. 
HP 8/8, Defense 8, Escort 
 
Short-Spool Spinal Guns (Charge)  

Reliable as the sunrise and tuned for a quick charge, low maintenance, and decent punch, 
GMS 3SG Cannons are the galactic standard for subline escorts and low-gross ships of the 
line.  
 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Charge 2 
Range 4-1 
12 Damage 
This weapon does 6 damage when only one ship remains in this Escort group. 
 
Tender Comrade (Trait) 

Will you say that we were brave? 

 
Trait 
During the Impact Step, if this Escort’s Flagship is hit by a Charge weapon you may have one 
of the destroyers intervene. Apply damage from the attack to the destroyer first. Any 
remaining damage is then dealt to the Flagship.  
 
 
Sisters of Battle 
Your battlescape blooms with contacts and torch signatures. Confirmed a moment later: a pair 
of escort carriers fly in formation with the flagship, disgorging dozens of strike craft.  
HP 10/10, Defense 8, Escort 
 
Angels of Death (Trait)  

Wings upon wings of fighters and bombers dive towards your ship. Some erupt, caught in 

185 
  

your PDC screen, but enough break through and begin their gun run... 
 
Each of this Escort’s ships carries 2 Wings of fighters (5/5 HP) and 1 Wing of heavy bombers 
(6 HP). 1/round when this Escort’s Flagship uses a maneuver, repair 3 HP to one of this 
Escort’s Wings. You can only use this ability as long as neither ship in this Escort group is 
destroyed. 
 
Wing Commander (Tactic) 

The Sisters of Battle scramble their Wings and give them one of the following commands: 
 
Fast Movers (Fighters Only) 
Range 2-0 
Deal 2 damage to target Escort or Wing and take 2 damage. You may issue this command to 
one or two Fighter Wings at a time, and may choose different targets for each one. 
 
Interceptor Screen (Fighters Only) 
This Escort’s battlegroup gains +1 Interdiction until the end of its next turn for each Fighter 
Wing remaining in this Escort group. 
 
Tactical Strike (Bombers Only) 
Range 2-0 
Deal 2 damage to target Capital Ship for each Bomber Wing remaining in this Escort group. 
 
Nuclear Option (Bombers Only) 
Reloading 3 
Range 2-0 
Deal 1d6+1 damage to target Capital Ship for each Bomber Wing remaining in this Escort 
group, and each Bomber Wing takes 3 damage. This command's damage can be 
Interdicted. 
 
 
Wardogs 
They bolt on to your battlescape from an uncharted trajectory, sending your escorts scrambling 
to reorient. Two destroyers, sleek and slim, their weapon ports open and charging. Your blood 
runs cold — they have you flanked.  
HP 8/8, Defense 10, Escort 
 
Rapid-Fire Mass Drivers (Maneuver)  

Primary 
Single Target, Accurate, Critical 
Range 2-0 
5 Damage 

186 
  

Instead of attacking with this weapon normally, you may instead target one or two Escorts or 
Wings and automatically deal 2 damage to them. 
 
 
Relay Target Data (Tactic) 

This Escort may act as a relay for their Flagship’s targeting systems. Lock On to one enemy 
Capital Ship for each remaining ship in this Escort group. 
 
 
Daggerflight 
Breaking from the signature screen of their flagship, a squadron of low and fast corvettes flit 
towards your line. Like daggers, they angle directly for the heart of your fleet.  
HP 6/6/6/6, Defense 10, Escort 
 
Battery Fire (Maneuver) 

There is no replacement for the power of massed guns; only refinement upon sound 
principle.  
 
Deal 2 damage to a different target Capital Ship or Escort within range 3-0 for each ship 
remaining in this Escort group. 
 
Draw Fire (Tactic) 

The dagger draws the eye; the killer strikes from elsewhere.   
 
The Flagship may order these Escorts to draw away incoming fire. Until the end of their next 
turn, all non-Charge Single Target attacks against the Flagship’s battlegroup must target this 
Escort first. Against Single Target Payload attacks that reach 0 during the Impact Step, you 
may sacrifice a ship from this Escort group to reduce that Payload’s damage by an amount 
equal to the sacrificed ship’s HP. If this Escort group is completely destroyed, this effect 
immediately ends.  
 
 
Giant  
It is colossal, a ship that may as well be a world. You order all of your guns to target the giant — 
there is nothing else to do but fire and hope.  
 
HP +20, Defense (Flagship -2), Template 
 

187 
  

Impossible Power (Trait) 

The Giant is a ship capable of powering continents — if only its great reactors and engines 
could be used for such a peaceful endeavor.  
 
1/round this Template’s Flagship may use an additional Maneuver or Tactic during its Action 
Step. At the start of the Logistics Step you may permanently disable this Trait for the 
remainder of battle to remove one charge counter and one refresh counter from all 
Maneuvers, Tactics, Systems, and Charge weapons belonging to this Template’s Flagship. 
 
Tyrant Cannon (Charge)  

There is no beast more terrible than the Tyrant who knows their own power.  
 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Charge 4, Critical, Reliable 10 
Range 5-4 
30 Damage 
 
 
Diluvia 
A seething, boiling mass spills across your CIC — your Legion hurries to particularize the 
signatures; within moments, they return what was already clear. It is a flood, a diluvian wave of 
drones heading towards your fleet.   
HP 18, Defense 8, Escort 
 
Endless Tide (Trait) 

This Escort takes half damage from Single Target attacks and abilities. 
 
Drone Control (Tactic)  

Alone, they’re too small to be picked up by anything other than specialized sensors; together, 
they can blot out the stars.  
 
This Escort takes 3 damage, and you may issue it one of the following commands: 
 
Swarm Wall 
Your Flagship or an allied Flagship is orbited by a series of defensive drones. Single Target 
attacks against that ship are made with +1 Difficulty until the end of their next turn. 
 
Engulf 
Choose an enemy Capital Ship within range 4-0 and apply 3 greywash counters to it. 

188 
  

 
Lashing Storm 
Choose an Escort within range 4-0 and deal 1d6 damage to it. 
 
 
Battlethread 
The Janus Combine’s Battlethread Solid-State Escorts are “appendage” vessels, meant to pair 
with their Cornicen Flagship PSS to create a holistic strategic ecosystem — a group of ships 
that function as a single inorganic mind.   
HP 12/12, Defense 8, Escort 
 
Terminal Process (Maneuver) 

With the rest of its tactical options exhausted, this Escort dumps its onboard data to its 
Flagship and sets itself on a collision course.  
 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Payload, Limited 2 
Range 4-0 
Choose one of this Escort’s ships and set it fly itself straight into an enemy Capital Ship. This 
attack deals 12 damage on impact. Once this attack is started, the chosen Escort ship is 
considered destroyed and cannot be recalled. 
 
Local-Legion Gestalt (Tactic) 

LLG systems allow for partitioned, sub-legion networks of NHP-commanded drones distinct 
from their parent gestalt; though there is the addition of some command lag between the 
main Legion and its partition, the distributed processing power allows for tactical 
decision-making many steps ahead of conventional command structures. 
 
Choose one; either Lock On to an enemy Capital Ship or choose to either advance or push 
back an enemy battlegroup one range band. As long as neither ship in this Escort group is 
destroyed, you may do both. 
 
 
Loyal Guardian  
Like a mirror in motion, the two ships arc across the edge of your scopes. Identical heat 
signatures, identical silhouettes — the only differences between the two ships are superficial. 
HP 20, Defense 8, Escort, Unique 
 
Pavise Formation (Trait) 

189 
  

No shield more gallant than one’s own body. 

 
Whenever this Escort’s Flagship is critically hit, divide the attack’s damage evenly between 
the Flagship and this Escort. When this Escort’s Flagship is destroyed, set the Flagship’s HP 
to this Escort’s remaining HP and then destroy this Escort instead. 
 
Retribution Salvo (Maneuver) 

No sword more deadly than one’s own wrath. 

 
Primary 
Single Target, Accurate 
Range 4-1 
3 Damage 
When this Escort’s Flagship takes damage from a hostile source the next attack with this 
weapon deals 8 damage on hit instead, and when this Escort’s Flagship is critically hit the 
next attack with this weapon gains the Critical tag. 
 
 
UNKNOWN  
The only designation your sensors can give you is a single word: UNKNOWN. Silhouette 
analysis returns an 87% match but the broadcast blisters and unfamiliar weapons lining its hull 
make its purpose, if not its exact capabilities, clear. 
HP +5, Defense (Flagship), Template 
 
Naophoros Omnigun (Charge)  

The blackness of the sphere stands out even against the backdrop of the void, dark and 
hungry. It coruscates, contracts, and with terrifying certainty a ship winks out of existence. 
 
Superheavy 
Single Target, Charge [ERROR] 
Range 5-0 
This ship-scale weapon is a piece of experimental hardware so advanced that it defies 
physics. Instead of working like a normal Charge weapon, the Naophoros starts at 0 and 
adds an omnigun counter each Logistics Step, dealing damage to a Capital Ship or Escort 
during the Impact Step equal to the number of omnigun counters on it to a maximum of 6. 
This doesn’t count as an attack, hits automatically, and its damage can’t be reduced or 
ignored in any way. No rule in this book or any other supersedes this. 
 
Metafold Breach (System) 

Space lurches and twists around you, folding in upon itself. The impossible, however 

190 
  

improbable, is briefly made possible, and the lines of battle are suddenly redrawn.  
 
Reloading 3 
After the Impact Step, but before anyone begins their Action Step, you may activate this 
system and choose one; you may advance or push back an enemy battlegroup one range 
band or pick two enemy battlegroups one or two range bands apart from one another and 
force them to switch range bands. Switching range bands this way does not count as 
movement and cannot be affected by things that affect or are triggered by movement. 
 
 
Stalwarts 
Aged and ironed, these cruisers burn bright against the night’s backdrop. They may not be as 
modern, but their hulls are sturdy and their weapons are still fearsome enough to present a 
significant threat.   
HP 10/10, Defense 8, Escort 
 
Forward Kinetic Batteries (Maneuver) 

Fixed-forward kinetic batteries lack the punch of long-spool weapons or the coverage of 
turreted designs, but their stable housing allows for continued fire even while approaching 
the enemy at speed. 
 
Primary 
Single Target 
Range 3-0 
5 Damage 
While both ships remain in this Escort group, you may advance an enemy battlegroup one 
range band forward before or after making this attack. 
 
Longbow Torpedoes (Maneuver) 

Fired in volleys designed to overwhelm enemy point-defenses through sheer numbers, 

subcapital torpedoes frequently trade the sheer killing power of capital-grade munitions for 
speed and maneuverability, allowing them to more quickly achieve positive effect on target. 
 
Primary 
Single Target, Payload -1 
Range 4-2 
6 Damage 
While both ships remain in this Escort group, this weapon can attack two targets at a time, 
firing separate Payloads that are tracked individually. 
 

191 
  

 
Den Mother 
It's a beast of a ship, the hangar nacelles on either side of it giving its hull a predatory look. At 
its command flights of mounted chassis streak from its decks, ready to rain fire down on its 
enemies before ripping them apart from the inside. 
+5 HP, Defense (Flagship), Template 
 
External Flight Decks (Trait)  

The Den Mother carries a complement of 4 Wings of Mounted Chassis (5/5/5/5 HP, 
Boarding, Tenacity 11) with a range of 3-0. 
 
Scramble All Pilots! (Tactic) 

The Den Mother scrambles one or two of its Wings and gives them one of the following 
commands. You may select the same or different commands for each: 
 
Shipbreakers 
Deal 1d3 damage to target Capital Ship or Escort. 
 
Can Opener 
Select one of the Den Mother's Wings of mounted chassis and order it to board an enemy 
Capital Ship. During the Boarding Step, issue this Wing one of the following commands and 
then roll 1d20, succeeding on an 8+: 
 
Eliminate HVTs: The boarded ship cannot use or benefit from any weapons, systems, 
or abilities that grant additional Maneuvers or Tactics to itself or allies until the end of 
their next turn, and its battlegroup can only use one Maneuver or one Tactic during 
their next turn. These effects immediately end when this Wing is repelled. 
 
Detonate Ship’s Magazines: The boarded ship takes damage equal to the Wing's 
remaining HP and makes all attack rolls with +1 Difficulty until the end of their next 
turn, then this Wing is destroyed.  
 
If this roll doesn't succeed you may continue to attempt this boarding action each Boarding 
Step until you either succeed or the boarded ship repels them. 
 
 
Roughnecks 
A pair of boarding barges, subcapital ships loaded with troops. Say a prayer for the poor souls 
waiting to take that long ride across the airless gap, but be ready to meet them once they carve 
their way through your hull. 

192 
  

HP 8/8, Defense 10, Escort 

 
Point-Defense Kinetics (Trait)  

Fast-tracking mass drivers on gimbaled mounts provide total coverage from all angles of 
approach. 
 
This Escort’s battlegroup gains +2 Interdiction, and whenever an Escort or Wing damages 
this Escort you may deal 2 damage to them automatically. 
 
First On, Last Off (Tactic) 

Boarding, Tenacity 10 

Range 3-0 
The Flagship may give the order to launch boarding landers, targeting one enemy Capital 
Ship for each ship remaining in this Escort group. During the Boarding Step, issue each 
lander one of the following commands and then roll 1d20, succeeding on an 8+: 
 
● Disable Primary Drives: The boarded ship’s battlegroup cannot voluntarily move or 
benefit from friendly effects that would allow it to move until the end of their next turn. 
NPC effects that move it continue to work. 
 
● Sabotage Fire Control: The boarded ship makes all attacks with +1 Difficulty until the 
end of their next turn. 
 
● Deploy Ontologic Payload: Choose one; the boarded ship cannot use or benefit from 
any weapons, upgrades, or abilities with the Legionspace tag until the end of their 
next turn or the boarded ship’s equipped Escorts and Wings are disabled until the 
end of their next turn (deployed boarders may continue to operate as normal). An 
affected ship may choose to ignore this effect, but if they do so they immediately take 
5 damage each time they use a disabled upgrade or ability, or each time they use a 
Tactic to command equipped Escorts or Wings. This damage cannot be reduced in 
any way. 
 
If this roll doesn't succeed you may continue to attempt this boarding action each Boarding 
Step until you either succeed or the boarded ship repels them. You may have one ship 
boarded this way at a time for each ship remaining in this Escort group. 
 
 
Tactician 
They saw this battle coming. They planned for it, simulated it, a thousand variables all 
accounted for before the first shot is even fired. All that remains now is to witness everything 
unfold just as predicted. 
+0 HP, Defense (Flagship), Template 

193 
  

 
Art of War (Tactic)  

“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem 
unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make 
the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.” 
Sunzi, The Art of War, Massif-A Translation 
 
Reloading 2 
Choose one of the following effects: 
● Add or remove 1 from the flight time of any active allied Payload attack, including 
your own. 
● Until the end of your next turn, you or an ally may reroll one attack of your choice, but 
must keep the second result. 
● An enemy battlegroup of your choice must choose; be advanced or pushed back one 
range band or a Capital Ship of your choice in that battlegroup takes 1d6 damage 
and becomes Locked On. 
 
Perfect Timing (Tactic) 

“Checkmate.” 
 
Limited 1 
This Flagship or an allied Flagship immediately gains one non-template, non-unique Escort of 
your choice, emerging from a hidden position or arriving via nearlight. That Escort may 
immediately use one Maneuver or Tactic of its assigned Flagship's choice. 
   

194 
  

Worldbuilding Tools 
Diasporan fleet-strength force organizations are rarely ever large enough to contend with the 
great powers of the galaxy. Even SSC, which maintains a comparatively small standing navy, 
would likely outclass and outnumber all but the most developed diasporan state’s fleet. That 
being said, in Lancer’s setting there are diasporan states with the organizational capacity and 
resources to deploy and maintain appreciable fleet-strength organizations, keep up 
battlegroup-sized patrols, and go toe-to-toe with the galaxy’s major powers.  
 
What follows are a host of tools and generators to quickly flavor your Battlegroup setting, or to 
draw inspiration from to build your own shipwrights, states, and entities.  
 
Diasporan State and Fleet Generators  
 
State Character, Organization, and Affiliation 
d20  Character  d20  Organization  d20  Affiliation 

1-2  Tyrannic   1-2  Monarchy  1-2  None — Isolated 

3-4  Egalitarian  3-4  Oligarchy  3-4  None — Pariah 

5-6  Democratic  5-6  Theocracy  5-6  None — Normal Relations 

7-8  Communal  7-8  Anarchy   7-8  Union — FirstComm 

9-10  Tribal  9-10  Federation  9-10  Union — SecComm 

11-12  Plutocratic  11-12  Confederation  11-12  Union — ThirdComm 

13-14  Imperial  13-14  Hegemony  13-14  Harrison Armory — 

Colony 

15-16  Dynastic  15-16  Corpro  15-16  Harrison Armory — 

Purview 

17-18  Ancient  17-18  Unitary State  17-18  KTB — Concern 

19-20  Revolutionary  19-20  Protectorate  19-20  KTB — Interest 

Opt 1  Interesting Times (roll twice for state organization: the first result is the old form of state power, the 
second is the emerging state power) 

Opt 2  New World From The Ashes of the Old (Roll or choose a state organization. Then, roll twice on the 
State Flavor table. The first roll is the old flavor, the second roll is the emerging flavor) 
 
 

195 
  

Key VIP 
d20  Trait  d20  VIP 

1-2  Storied  1-2  Captain 

3-4  Honorable  3-4  Marine Commander 

5-6  Dauntless  5-6  Fighter/Bomber/Mech Wing 

7-8  Brilliant  7-8  Frigate 

9-10  Rival  9-10  Carrier 

11-12  Heroic  11-12  Ace (Fighter, Bomber) 

13-14  Canny  13-14  Lancer (Mech Only) 

15-16  Ruthless  15-16  Battleship 

17-18  Venerable  17-18  Fleet Legion 

19-20  Apex  19-20  Admiral 

 
Ship Naming Conventions 
d20  Naming Theme 1  d20  And/Or, Naming Theme 2 

1-2  Mythic Heroes and Places   1-2  Mythic Creatures, Weapons, and Equipment 

3-4  Cities, States, and  3-4  Aspirational Qualities Associated with State 
Administrative Districts  Character and/or Organization 

5-6  Alphanumeric   5-6  Qualities, Nouns, and Virtues Associated with 

State Character and/or Organization 

7-8  Rivers, Lakes, and Oceans  7-8  Painters, Sculptors, or Composers 

9-10  Creatures Associated With the  9-10  Ironic Phrases, Maxims, and Puns 
Sea, Air, and Space 

11-12  Mountains, Valleys, and Craters  11-12  Battles, Victorious or Worth Commemorating 

13-14  Famous Generals and Admirals,  13-14  Famous Politicians, Monarchs, Nobility, 
Historic  Warriors, and/or Executives, Living (or in living 
memory) 

15-16  Famous Politicians, Monarchs,  15-16  Months, Named Years, Ages, Weather 
Nobility, Historic  Phenomena, and Seasons 

17-18  Valorous, Pious, or Other  17-18  Short, Codenamed Phrases Composed of Two 
Virtuous Traits  Nouns 

19-20  Gods and Demigods   19-20  Demons, Devils, and Gods of Death or Chaos  

196 
  

 
General Hooks 
d20  Hook 

1  Beset by pirates, you have no other option but to turn and fight... 

2  A corrupt station keeper has refused to let your ships depart after completing paid-for repairs 
and refittings. Surrounded by their guardships, you decide to fight your way out... 

3  A VIP and their retinue has hired your ship(s) to escort them to their destination. They told you 
to expect trouble, but you didn’t expect that to mean Union chasing you... 

4  You intercept a distress call from a floundered Trunk Security cutter and head to assist. En 
route, you detect another group of ships heading their way, weapons hot.  

5  While chartered to escort a caravan of mining rigs from their plots to a nearby processing 
station, a desperate group of pirates attack... 

6  You attempt to smuggle supplies and weapons to Free Sanjak, but that Baronic Unified 
Command patrol is getting suspicious. As they come in to board and inspect, you prepare for a 
close-in fight... 

7  In the Purview, your gig ferrying low social credit citizens has been sweet. However, when 
“taxmen” and their ships come calling, you have no choice but to shoot your way out...  

8  A group of gas miners held hostage aboard their platforms wait for rescuers that are fighting 
deck to deck to free them. You and your ships must hold a cordon against the pirates’ relief 
forces that are inbound... 

9  There is a secret war boiling in Purview space, rebels taking a stand against the appetite of the 
Armory’s legions; you’ve just nearlighted into it, and the Armory’s guns have decided you’re 
hostile... 

10  A life-flight of polytemporal Cosmopolitans is bound for an IPS-N realignment world. Normally, 
this wouldn’t call for anything beyond regular security. However, one of the Cosmopolitans on 
board is carrying a secret — a secret SSC is willing to kill for... 

11  Out along the terminal shock, the enemy battlegroup that you’ve been tracking disappears. 
Whether it is some advanced stealth tech or something else, the only way you’ll know where 
they went is if you go hunt them down...  

12  You realign at nominal distance from the enemy shipyard; despite larger numbers of enemies 
on your scope than you expected, the attack must still go through... 

13  The eggheads planetside are sure of it: the asteroids hurtling towards the planet are on a 
collision course. First, your ships will have to deal with them; then, you’ll have to deal with 
whoever threw them...  

14  A dead ship appeared in local space, and every boat above the world died. After it blinked 
away, after a week’s worth of repairs, your ships were ready. Now all that remains is tracking it 
down via its conspicuous nearlight radian... 

197 
  

15  The battle rages around your ships, allies and enemies trading fire on all sides. You’ve 
navigated your battlegroup through the sprawling mess, and now the enemy’s flagship lies 
vulnerable before you — or would be, save for its retinue of ships. One last fight... 

16  You’re on a boring but important duty: escort a fully loaded water-ice mining convoy from the 
field to the larger fleet. Surely nothing will happen on this milkrun... 

17  A spin-colony ship being towed for decommissioning suddenly lights up, flying on its own. The 
ship refuses to respond to remote autopilot commands, and worse, when a team boards to 
attempt to wrest manual control, it jumps away, leaving a flight of hostile drones behind. After 
mopping them up, your group has been tasked to hunt the “stolen” ship down... 

18  An Armory Force Projection unit has launched without notifying flight control of their intent to 
depart. They have aligned along a trajectory well outside of any acceptable flight plan, and — 
according to records back at port, have outfitted themselves for combat deployment. No one 
knows where they’re headed, and they’re not responding to any hails. Time to investigate.   

19  A Trunk Security unit has requested assistance taking down a notorious interstellar-capable 
pirate group. You arrive at the rendezvous point to find the “interstellar-capable pirate group” 
flying Karrakin flags... 

20  In the course of a normal cruise, a damaged Volador ship snaps into realspace realignment. 
Before you can hail them, a Constellar Skyhook appears and orders you to stand down as they 
spool up their guns. Los Voladores, meanwhile, message you to ask for help…  
 
 
 
Notable Shipwrights  
Janus Combine  
The Janus Combine is a scientific foundation and deep space engineering firm based on 
Umara, in the House of Water, in the Karrakin Trade Baronies. Devoted to the development of 
parasubjective strategic solutions that blend operator and platform together in lossless 
harmony, the Janus Combine is a moderate power player in the field of non-NHP inorganic 
minds. Primarily in use across the Baronic Unified Command, some Diasporan states have 
purchased fleet orders of Janus Combine hulls, subalterns, and cogent minds.   
 
Under the Federal Karrakin Government’s Agreements on the Rights and Duties of Noble 
Ventures, the Janus Combine provides 30% of its annual production to the FKG for use in the 
Baronic Unified Command and other federal deep-space ventures. The remaining 70% of 
Janus’s output is leased for private sale, usually fleet contracts to Diasporan states or private 
entities with necessary funds.   
 
Syngin-Duat  
Syngin-Duat is a supplier affiliated with a grounded branch of HORUS gnostic monasticism 
endemic to SSC’s Constellation of realspace worlds. An independent, minor corpro, 
Syngin-Duat technology is widely used among Skyhook class vessels and Constellar 

198 
  

Gendarme/Midnight subliners. Primarily a systems and materials producer, Syngin-Duat does 

produce a number of limited-number monocoque hulls popular with EWAR specialists and 
navies with more esoteric doctrines. Syngin-Duat monocoques can be encountered among the 
SSC Gendarmerie, in use as private yachts for the security forces of Karrakin nobility, and 
among the lists of the Baronic Unified Command’s EWAR vessels.   
 
SD vessels utilize many Union Science Bureau-cleared HORUS technologies and systems, as 
well as their own proprietary developments. Documentation shows no clear link between SSC 
and Syngin-Duat, though the connection between the two corpros is plainly visible.   
 
Armada Shipyards 
A venerable, middle-tier shipwright now operating as an independent subsidiary wholly owned 
by IPS-N, Armada Shipyards produces a vast number of functional, no-frills, and affordable 
hulls marketed towards developing Diasporan states. Armada, like IPS-N’s internal 
Titan-Enceladus Field Project, is run as a lithe corpro able to develop new products 
independent of IPS-N’s larger bureaucratic structures, while benefiting from IPS-N’s vast 
resource libraries. 
 
Fleet licenses with Armada Shipyard are granted via a lengthy evaluation process overseen by 
the Union Naval Department’s Diasporan Licensing Board (and a nominal approval process by 
AS and IPS-N). A number of Diasporan states enjoy long-standing contracts with Armada, most 
notably New Madrassa United and San Simian, both key worlds in the Dawnline Shore.  
 
Corregidor Group 
Outside of Ras Shamra and hulls licensed from IPS-N, the Armory’s third most prolific supplier 
is the Corregidor Group, an enclave corpro founded under Harrison II and bequeathed to his 
niece, Emile Salvacruz, of the 2% Creighton-Cruz forking line.  
 
The Corregidor Group produces two distinct hull lines: the first is licensed IPS-N clones built to 
Ras Shamran specifications. The second is bespoke vessels for the Armory’s steward classes 
and officers wealthy enough to purchase commissions and supplement their existing 
commands. Built to accept Legion-standard fittings, munitions, and powerplants, Corregidor 
Group hulls are considered by RS high command as complementary to existing, 
state-produced vessels; if one is wealthy enough to add specialized Corregidor Group hulls to 
their state-provided command, the legion will allow it, and prestige likely demands it.   
 
Atelier Celeste  
Of the Constellation’s ateliers, Atelier Celeste is the most venerable and lauded supplier of 
Skyhooks and Chassis Mounts to the diplomatic and security arms of Smith-Shimano’s 
Constellar Congress. The Atelier (though there are many, At. Celeste is typically referred to 
simply as “The Atelier”) can trace its roots back to the founding departments of SSC, where it 
began as the firm’s in-house design studio for engineers and designers working on producing 
reliable long-distance vessels and exo-suits for deep space operations.  

199 
  

 
Building from a core series of pre-Union era Cradelian skyhook plans enhanced via access to 
SSC’s library of materials, construction methods, and signature design notes, the Atelier’s 
Skyhook-class vessels are unmatched in build quality. Each Skyhook is hand-built by Atelier 
craftspersons and then finished by Atelier furnishers, outfitters, and designers; no more than 
100 are produced each local year.  
 
Atelier Skyhooks — Celeste or those made by a different atelier — are rare and valuable, not 
only for their exclusivity and opulence but for their ability to operate in stable low orbit, and 
serve as a transit point for atmospheric ships entering space and vice versa. 
 
Comms Chatter 
If you’d like to play Battlegroup via text (realtime or play-by-post) and want to be “in character”, 
you can use the following template to structure your communications so that (with some 
cleaning, to be sure) your text log can look like the subtext that would play out during an 
engagement.  
 
Open Comms 
Open channel, ship-wide, or fleet wide communications — ALLCOMM Text, or ACM Text — 
have a simple structure dictated by commanding officers or those given permission by COs to 
lead and issue communications.  
 
Battlegroup assumes these communications are happening in real-time and, thus, don’t need 
to be introduced with a date, time, and location marker. However, if you would like to add one 
in (actively or retroactively), then note the date, the purpose of the message, and the issuing 
authority, like so:  
 
TIMESTAMP: (4.3.5016u 0600 CrST) 
CODE+++PURPOSE: TOWER GOLD+++MISSIVE TO BATTLEGROUP 
DISTRIBUTION: TAG “BG_COMET” 
 
MESSAGE TO FOLLOW::: 
 
In the above example, CrST stands for Cradle Standard Time. Battlegroup assumes Cradle 
standard time and month/day/year dating — use what format works best at your table.  
 
 
 
 
 
 

200 
  

Who Is This? 
The speaker is indicated by a three-letter short label and parenthetical official designation all 
within brackets, following an open comms marker, like so: 
 
>//[AUG(UNS-LS_03272)]:: SEND MESSAGE 
 
The speaker’s message follows the double colons.  
 
Initial responses to the first message also follow the full format (three-letter short label, 
parenthetical official designation, both contained within brackets) before shifting to a short 
format for condensed transcripts. In the standard Union text, the short format only features the 
three letter designation and the last two digits of their official designation contained within 
brackets, like so:  
 
>//[AUG(UNS-LS_03272)]:: SEND MESSAGE 
>//[MKH(UNS-LS_03738)]:: RECEIVE 
>//[AUG72]::WE HAVE YOU ON LRD SWEEP MKH38+++DO YOU SEE US? 
>//[MKH38]:: AFFIRM+++WE SEE YOU 
 
Afterwards, when being referred to in formal ACM Text, speakers will be addressed in text via 
this bracketed short designation.  
 
Punctuation in ALLCOMM  
Punctuation in ALLCOMM chat uses a blend of replacement symbols and 1:1 marks drawn 
from written English (as a side note, like other Lancer texts Battlegroup is written in American 
English though the actual linguistic construction used in-universe may be different). In 
ALLCOMM Text, the comma (“,”), question mark (“?”), and exclamation point (“!”) remain the 
same.  
 
The most important replacement symbol to know for accurate ALLCOMM chatter is that the 
period . is replaced with three plus marks: +++. This mark +++ functions as a stop and a full 
stop, but is not needed to close a speaker’s line, like so: 
 
>//[AUG(UNS-LS_03272)]:: SEND MESSAGE 
>//[MKH(UNS-LS_03738)]:: RECEIVE 
>//[AUG72]::WE HAVE YOU ON LRD SWEEP MKH38+++DO YOU SEE US? 
>//[MKH38]:: AFFIRM+++WE SEE YOU 
 
 
 

201 
  

Ways of Speaking: Lists and Abbreviations 

Beyond the rules of identification, formatting, and punctuation, two more traits of ALLCOMM 
text must be known: listing and abbreviations.  
 
Lists are common enough in naval commas as objectives, units, navigational points, etc, are 
commonly relayed via ACM Text. When beginning a list in ACM Text, indicate the beginning of a 
list with three colons ::: and contain your list within a set of parenthesis, like so:  
 
>//[AUG(UNS-LS_03272)]:: SEND MESSAGE 
>//[MKH(UNS-LS_03738)]:: RECEIVE 
>//[AUG72]::WE HAVE YOU ON LRD SWEEP MKH38+++DO YOU SEE US? 
>//[MKH38]:: AFFIRM+++WE SEE YOU 
>//[AUG72]:: [MKH38] PROCEED VIA THE FOLLOWING ROUTE:::(NAV1, NAV 1, NAV 
3)+++CONFIRM 
>//[MKH38]::WILCO+++PROCEEDING 
 
Some commanders will forego the formal construction of :::(ITEM 1, ITEM 2, ETC) and simply 
separate their lists with +++. This is acceptable, though might make for difficult record keeping 
down the line. If one were to apply this less formal method to the above text, it would look like 
so:  
  
>//[AUG(UNS-LS_03272)]:: SEND MESSAGE 
>//[MKH(UNS-LS_03738)]:: RECEIVE 
>//[AUG72]::WE HAVE YOU ON LRD SWEEP MKH38+++DO YOU SEE US? 
>//[MKH38]:: AFFIRM+++WE SEE YOU 
>//[AUG72]:: [MKH38] PROCEED VIA THE FOLLOWING ROUTE+++ NAV1+++NAV 
1+++NAV 3+++CONFIRM 
>//[MKH38]::WILCO+++PROCEEDING 
 
Message text following speaker tags is abbreviated where possible; however, do note that the 
goal of abbreviation is never to abbreviate for the sake of shortening a message, but to remove 
extraneous text and preserve meaning (i.e. “objective” is often shortened to “obj”, “torpedo” to 
“torp”, and so on). There is nothing official about what is abbreviated and what is not; 
abbreviations (as well as acronyms, nicknames, and so on) are often implicitly agreed upon as 
groups come to use them. As well, text can include links to data packets, formatted as 
necessary.  
 
 
 
 
 

202 
  

Full Example Conversation 

Below is an example of a standard, formal ALLCOMM Text conversation looks like rendered on 
the page, with the closed-comms punctuation, ===, included:  
 
TIMESTAMP: (4.3.5016u 0600 CrST) 
CODE+++PURPOSE: TOWER GOLD+++MISSIVE TO BATTLEGROUP 
DISTRIBUTION: TAG “BG_COMET” 
 
MESSAGE TO FOLLOW::: 
 
>//[AUG(UNS-LS_03272)]:: SEND MESSAGE 
>//[MKH(UNS-LS_03738)]:: RECEIVE 
>//[AUG72]::WE HAVE YOU ON LRD SWEEP MKH38+++DO YOU SEE US? 
>//[MKH38]:: AFFIRM+++WE SEE YOU 
>//[AUG72]:: [MKH38] PROCEED VIA THE FOLLOWING ROUTE+++ NAV1+++NAV 1+++NAV 
3+++CONFIRM 
>//[MKH38]::WILCO+++PROCEEDING 
>//[AUG72}::FLASH COMMS WHEN YOUR ARRIVE [MKH38] 
>//[MKH38]::WILCO+++COMMS AT ALL NAV POINTS? 
>//[AUG72]::CORRECT+++COMMS AT ALL NAV POINTS 
>//[MKH38]::WILCO+++REDSHIFTING, [MKH38] CLOSING COMMS 
>//[MKH38]::=== 
>//[AUG72]::=== 
 
 
Subtext 
Private communications between officers on the same ship or officers in the same battlegroup 
or fleet play out as threaded comments under an original or opening post. This is the officers’ 
Subtext: the thread of comments shared by officers in private or open conversation amidst the 
clamor and general comms of battle. Usually there are only ever two people engaged in subtext 
chatter, though on occasion a third or fourth may be brought in.   
 
The originator of a given subtext thread will be the first comment, and only uses a single >. The 
next speaker is marked as >>, the third as >>>, and the fourth as >>>>. A pair of forward 
slashes are used to divide the speaker > from the text they send, like so:  
 
>//hello world  
>>//hello you  
>>>//hello all 
>>>>//goodbye 
>//goodbye 

203 
  

 
With subtext, one does not necessarily need to indicate in-text who is speaking, as the number 
of > is used to indicate. As with normal text communications, though, subtext can differ in 
format depending on the users interacting with it! 
 
Subtext tends to use normal, American English punctuation (i.e. no +++ or === notation, 
necessarily) and tends to be presented only in lowercase, though case change is acceptable.  
   

204 
  

The Dawnline Shore 

A Battlegroup Campaign Setting  
 
Places, Everyone  
In late 5019u, On New Creighton, Barony-aligned monostatists under the banner of the 
Concordant Administration mount a surprise attack on a small alliance of polystatist territories, 
the Perfect Ministeriat; this attack marks a dramatic escalation in hostilities between the two 
factions and a total breakdown in the diplomatic process. The move draws sharp 
condemnation from Harrison Armory, who had personnel present in the territories that the 
Concordant Administration attacked, and an immediate rebuke in the form of a series of 
surgical strikes on Concordant military targets. These strikes kill dozens of Karrakin personnel; 
the Baronies respond with their own retaliatory attacks, and the world soon flares with war.  
 
Union responds quickly, shutting down the recently activated and not-yet-named Dawnline 
Shore blink gate to all traffic save for Union-flagged naval ships.  
 
Grim forecasts from GALSIM note that the momentum behind this conflict cannot be stopped. 
What is happening in the Dawnline Shore will only grow. However, the Central Committee — 
save for a handful of Cradle-based senior committee secretaries, forecasters in GALSIM, and 
the Voices themselves — does not know that their predictive models have failed to produce a 
high-confidence path forward. The variables are too complex to model at the rate inputs flow 
in. For now, the Voices have fallen silent. Union, for the first time in centuries, is on its own. 
While the most experienced forecasters at GALSIM work to pull any output from the Voices, 
the Central Committee waits for guidance. The bureaucracy of Union shudders — for a 
moment. In this moment — perhaps ignorant of the GALSIM’s pause or having been fed 
information by clandestine agents — the Armory and the Karrakin Trade Barons make their 
move in the Dawnline Shore, tapping regular elements in-sector to execute long-planned 
annexation campaigns in support of local factions.  
 
Union, though, is not only GALSIM and the Central Committee. Elements in the Dawnline Shore 
— naval groups, auxiliary ground forces, and their newly placed Administrator — know that 
they must act fast in order to stabilize and cauterize what could grow to become a 
galaxy-shattering conflict. Union has a number of battlegroups in-system and a mandate to 
enforce the boundaries of the simmering HA/KTB conflict, and begin peacekeeping operations 
accordingly...   
 
 
   

205 
  

The Road   
The seeds of this new iteration of an old conflict were planted well before the present day, in 
the 4600’s u when the early Harrison Armory clashed with the expanding Karrakin Trade 
Barons. This was the Interest War: a colonial expansion rush triggered by Union’s planned blink 
network and engaged between the two powers in the early years of the Third Committee’s 
administration. The war was quick and brutal, resulting in a settling of powers negotiated by 
the Third Committee — negotiations the modern committee views as a misstep, a hurried 
series of concessions and mollifications made to end a war and enter a 
peace-through-gritted-teeth, not a just end.  
 
With the overt Interest War concluded and Union’s attention focused on the inner rings of their 
administrative state, a second, longer, quieter war began. The Armory and the Baronies, not 
content with the modest holdings awarded to them by a Union whose authority they did not yet 
recognize, carved up the Dawnline Shore. They adopted whole worlds with little more than 
pledges and assurances made to the Third Committee that they would be stewards, not 
colonial masters, and comport to the standards of this new Union. While their representatives 
on Cradle negotiated terms of matriculation under the Third Committee, both Harrison Armory 
and the Baronies engendered proxy conflicts across the Shore; their diplomatic overtures did 
not match the on-the-ground reality. To effect the precidentary claims over the worlds they 
desired, the Armory and Baronies identified and cultivated local factions to align with them via 
common colonial manipulation tactics: the exploitation of local power divisions, massaging of 
existing factional interests, cultural conditioning via patron favoritism, material rewards handed 
out to collaborators and sympathetic factions, and so on.  
 
Union, for its part, was not ignorant of the state of the galaxy for long. Reports from forward 
observation probes fired across the known spread of humanity flowed into the Central 
Committee, documenting what corpropessimistic factions among the revolutionaries feared: 
across the galaxy, their utopian revolution had failed. Like a king tide raging inland and then 
receding, their revolution made only a utopia out of the Galactic Core. The Diaspora — the vast 
majority of humanity — was not yet liberated. Even worse, the Core enjoyed the fruits of their 
labor and gave them nothing back. This had to change. Motivated and clear-eyed, this new 
Union began the long, attritional work of reconnecting the galaxy, building out from the utopian 
centers a new practice of liberation.  
 
In the Dawnline Shore, Union’s Administrative Department, prompted by orders from the 
Central Committee, embarked on a massive infrastructure and administrative integration plan, 
seeding the populated worlds of the Shore with Union personnel. At first only Administrative 
attaches, Auxiliary trainers, and various engineering and bureaucratic personnel, then later 
DoJ/HR, Omninet Bureau staffers and engineers, etc. The tide, once recessed, was now 
creeping back in. The ocean would soon follow.  
 

206 
  

Worlds of the Dawnline Shore 

Below is a list of the worlds in the Dawnline Shore; the rest of this section details major faction 
ports, important logistics corridors, points of interest, and other considerations for Battlegroup 
engagements set in the Dawnline Shore. Removed from their context, the features presented in 
this section give a good idea of what naval forces take into account and consider important 
when planning and executing campaigns.   
 
Travel time (subjective) across the DLS end-to-end would take four years. Travel time 
(subjective) world to world takes anywhere from 1 to 3 months.   

Designation  Armory Name  Baronic Name  Local/Union  Major Affiliation 

Name 

DS1  Harrison’s World  Rosegift  Wali  HA 

DS2  Arkady II  Underthrone  Barr  HA 

DS3  Cruz’s Landing  Stone Harbor  Hadii  HA 

DS4  New Madrassa  New Madrassa   New Madrassa  Local Gov’t 

DS5  Emerald Harbor  Viridian  Verdevilla   Baronic 

DS6  Langley  Longmont   Lluvilla   Baronic 

DS7  Montcalhoun  Crowngarden   Jabal  Baronic 

DS8  Upper Laurent  Upper Laurent  Upper Laurent  Baronic 

DS9  San Simian   San Simian   San Simian  Baronic 

DS10  Dosantos  Crossland   Maseca  Baronic 

DS11  Legionrest  Gloria  Mesa  Baronic 

DS12  New Creighton  Odeland   Odeland  HA/ Local Gov’t 

O17  Solar 3  Solar 3  Terminal   Local Gov’t 

 
 

   
7
“Object 1”. Partial ring habitat at New Madrassa L4. Provides power for New Madrassa. KTB
mega-engineering project underway since the Second Expansion Period, currently an independent polity
under protection of the KTB.
207 
  

Port of Call: Dawnline Shore 

The Dawnline Shore has gone hot, and the next few months of maneuvering and engagements 
will decide whether or not the conflict in the Shore spreads out to the rest of the Galaxy.  
 
With the outbreak of fighting on and above New Creighton, Union has shuttered the DLS blink 
gate, isolating the Shore from the rest of the galaxy. Both the Armory and Baronies have tasked 
a fleet each to the Shore; they will arrive in 5021u, unless called off. In the meantime, ships 
already in transit through the Long Rim arrive daily — as the gridlock around DLS Blink grows 
more and more desperate, Union struggles to contain the steady flow of ships. Both the 
Armory and the Baronies have started to use this to their advantage: omninet comms are not 
shut down, and both factions have tapped their contacts in the Rim — pirate groups and 
Enterprises both — to smuggle equipment, personnel, and even ships into the Shore. 
 
This flow of partisans, private security forces, and ordinance into the Shore is steady, but alone 
it will not give either side the edge. For the Baronic, Armory, and — to a lesser degree, as they 
hold the DLS Gate — Union forces already in-sector, their major lifelines are their home ports: 
heavily defended worlds with established infrastructure and supply lines capable of supporting 
naval groups.   
 

Key Armory Ports 

Harrison’s World (DS1)  
DS1 was Harrison Armory’s first territory in the Dawnline Shore. Taken during the Interest War,
DS1 has been rebuilt from a failed, desolate colony to a bustling industrial center. DS1’s
population numbers around 1.2 billion souls; it is a common recruitment site for DS-local
colonial legions and naval groups, and features one of the only large-scale chassis-fabrication
facilities in the Shore. Harrison’s World is known as Rosegift to the Karrakin Trade Barons, and
Wali to Union.

Orbital Defenses
● Two Hippolyta Class DefSat constellations: The Tropic of Industry and the Tropic of Grit,
located at DS1’s northern and southern lines of latitude, respectively.
○ Hippolyta Class DefSat constellations are a series of networked defense
platforms in orbit.
● Two battlegroup strength detachments
○ 1st Global, Planetwatch
○ 2nd Global, Planetwatch

Local Power and VIPs

Planetary Governor: Executive Director

208 
  

Local Forces
● Legion I Orontez
● Legion II Armory Industrial
● Legion III Antiomenes

Climate and Points of Interest

Harrison’s World’s dominant biome is tropical and subtropical grasslands, prairies, savannahs,
and broadleaf forests. Its cities are mostly clustered around the equator, which enjoys consistent
rainfall and off-year monsoons.

The capital city of Harrison’s World is Orontez.

Arkady II (DS2) 
DS2 is another Armory-controlled world, considered to be fully in their Purview along with its
sister planets, DS1 and DS3 (a largely non-industrial center for commerce and diplomacy). A
cold, barren rock with a thin atmosphere, DS2 once hosted a colony site near its icy polar cap.
Long derelict by the time the Armory arrived, DS2 is now an important fuel and freshwater site
for the Armory’s vessels arriving from the Long Rim transit corridor, as well as naval groups
already in-sector. Arkady II is known as Underthrone to the Karrakin Trade Barons, and Barr to
Union.

Orbital Defenses:
As a freshwater world, Arkady II enjoys a healthy defensive network and steady stream of naval
groups.

● One Hippolyta Class DefSat constellation, Ogmios Equatorial

● One battlegroup strength detachment on permanent patrol, and many ships arriving and
departing
○ 1st Arkady, Planetwatch

Local Power and VIPs:

Asdasd

Climate and Points of Interest:

Asdadsasd

209 
  

Key Baronic Ports 

Upper Laurent (DS8) 
DS8 is the primary Shore-side campus of the House of Stone. Another Cradle-sized world, DS8
features a mix of biomes and a rich indigenous history stretching back to the First Expansion
period prior to the Baronies’ colonization. Now, centuries later, DS8 hosts the Shore-side
residence of House di Khayradi and the main garrison of their house company, the Boulder
Company. Upper Laurent’s population has surged in recent years owing to the significant
infrastructural (social, civic, and military) investment that the House of Stone has poured into the
world, and now tops out at a staggering 10 billion; the BUC’s main secondary campus is located
on Upper Laurent, as well as a number of shipyards.

DS8’s primary non-rawmat/industrial exports are foodstuffs, spices, textiles, inks, and precious
luxury minerals; the House of Stone views Upper Laurent’s prime export to be personnel and
cultural capital. Upper Laurent is known to all factions as Upper Laurent.

Orbital Defenses:
Asdadsasd

Local Power and VIPs:

Asdasd

Climate and Points of Interest:

Asdadsasd

San Simian (DS9) 

DS9 is the capital of the Baronies’ presence in the Shore, a core-status world currently in the
process of being formally enrolled in the KTB’s record of Major Houses. Its claimant structure,
the House of Promise, is composed primarily of minor houses founded in the Shore during the
KTB’s first expansion into the sector, along with a minority of recent immigrant houses. With a
population of around 6 billion souls on a world only .9 the diameter of Cradle, it is a densely
populated arcology, heavily trafficked by Baronic personnel of all Major Houses with business in
the Shore. The bulk of the KTB’s fleets mark San Simian as their home port, and its orbital
structures are heavily defended by layers of gun platforms, orbital defense ships, and BUC
naval groups on rear-line duty. San Simian is known to all factions as San Simian.  
 
Orbital Defenses:
Asdadsasd

Local Power and VIPs:

Asdasd

210 
  

Climate and Points of Interest:

Asdadsasd

 
Gloria (DS11) 
DS11 is the Shore-side capital of the House of Rememberance, a popular destination for minor
houses looking to curry favor with House Alexander, the current head of Remembrance back on
Arrudye. Once a burgeoning trade capital in proximity to the Shore-side edge of the Long Rim,
Gloria was bitterly contested during the first Interest War. The series of battles fought across
and above Gloria (at the time, Mesa) were one of the few campaigns that pit the early Armory
Legions against pre-chassis House Companies; the world was devastated by these battles, its
indigenous populations and rich biomes scoured by long, attritional ground warfare. In the wake
of the Interest War, Gloria has been rebuilt, but scars remain, and its history as a strategically
important source of fresh water and air only heightened by the BUC’s current militarization of
the world.

Gloria is home to the main base of House Rememberance’s house company, the Crimson
Memory, as well as Baronic Unified Command’s primary shipyard, central armory, and
Deimosian repository in the DLS. As such, it is heavily defended by the BUC, with many layers
of orbital defense platforms and planet-side hardened bunkers.

Gloria has a local population of 1.2 billion souls, and is known to the Armory as Legionrest, and
to Union as Mesa.

Orbital Defenses:
Asdadsasd

Local Power and VIPs:

Asdasd

Climate and Points of Interest:

Asdadsasd
 
 

Key Union Ports 

DLS Blink Gate 
The newly finished DLS Blink Gate awaits a formal name: for now, it is informally called 
Beachhead. The blink gate is a ThirdComm standard pattern: a stack of toroid habitats built 
around a blink gate realspace anchor, which is tethered to a stabilized dyson panel. The toroid 
habitats are known collectively as “Beachhead Station” — the functional parts of the gate are 
the realspace anchor and dyson panel. The panel provides necessary power to the station and 
211 
  

its blink infrastructure; Beachhead’s gate capacity allows it to transit thousands of ships per 
day, if it were active. Likewise, its skyscraper-stack toroid habitat rings would allow for a local 
population of roughly twenty million souls at capacity — currently its local population numbers 
in the low millions (not counting military personnel), and only one active torus of the five in the 
stack.   
 
Beachhead and its immediate environs are Union’s zone of control in the Dawnline Shore. With 
access to the gate limited only to Union vessels and the facility itself under Union command, it 
is a constant, active terminal for all auxiliary and regular personnel in transit between their 
gates of origin and the Shore; it is heavily defended by both dedicated patrols and whatever 
battlegroups happen to be in local space.  
 
Despite the gate’s isolation from the blink network, non-Union ships still arrive almost daily via 
conventional travel; transit corridors through the Long Rim are not “closed” — as it is, 
essentially, impossible to close space — but Union attempts to track and intercept all ships 
inbound to the Shore. This steady accumulation of civilian and corpro vessels at Beachhead is 
a logistical nightmare for Union, and some ships, inevitably, break through the blockade; HA 
and the KTB both use this to their advantage, directing friendly elements in the Long Rim to 
smuggle supplies, personnal, ordinance, and ships into the Shore.  
 
Orbital Defenses:
Asdadsasd

Local Power and VIPs:

Asdasd

Climate and Points of Interest:

Asdadsasd

 
New Madrassa (DS4) 
DS4 is a fulcrum world in the Dawnline Shore and the closest world in proximity to DLS Gate/
Beachhead. DS4 is known to Union, Harrison Armory, and the Karrakin Trade Barons as New
Madrassa.

New Madrassa counts roughly three billion souls. Independent from both Harrison Armory and
the Karrakin Trade Barons, New Madrassa’s sovereign government is called New Madrassa
United, a meta-government that acts as a high legislative body for the various constituent states
across the globe. Union’s Administrator for New Madrassa and — for now — the entirety of the
Dawnline Shore is Administrator Park Jun-seo, who keeps his office on New Madrassa United’s
main campus near the Alhambra district of New Madrassa City.

212 
  

A world petitioning for Core status prior to the outbreak of hostilities around New Creighton,
New Madrassa hosts diplomatic and military elements of both Harrison Armory and the Karrakin
Trade Barons.

Orbital Defenses:
Asdadsasd

Local Power and VIPs:

Asdasd

Climate and Points of Interest:

Climates of New Madrassa

The Armory’s main presence on New Madrassa is Green Zone Alhambra, an 8x8 block of New
Madrassa City’s oldtown centered around the Grand Stupa Royal Hotel, a luxury resort near the
city’s bay now owned by Harrison Armory. Though not legally supported by NMU, Harrison
Armory has established a green zone (the eponymous GZ Alhambra), blocking off the area
inside to anyone not cleared by their legionnaires and/ or internal security forces. Citing their
right to protect their people from attack, the Armory has begun to send counterterrorism patrols
out into New Madrassa — this has prompted widespread protests against the Armory and NMU
for not kicking them off the world.

GZ Alhambra’s ingress and egress points are constantly under pressure from permanent protest
camps set a few hundred meters back from the gates. The situation seems to be deteriorating
as the Ungratefuls and other local resistance groups have become more brazen in their attacks
on Armory personnel and the green zone itself; likewise, Armory patrols have become far more
aggressive, and there have been some instances of Armory legionnaires trading fire with
Boulder Company ground troopers. Union has yet to mount a ground campaign beyond visible
peacekeeping forces, but speculation assumes that some measure of intervention is imminent.

The primary KTB presence on New Madrassa is in Baron Hardy Plaza, a quiet, broad plaza on
the opposite end of the city as GZ Alhambra. Baron Hardy Plaza is a public park in the wealthy
Khamseen neighborhood, overlooked by the historic Plaza House estate, which now serves as
the KTB’s embassy on New Madrassa. Quite opposite the embattled status of Green Zone
Alhambra, Baron Hardy Plaza and the Baronic embassy there are both heavily, peacefully
trafficked by Madrassans and Barony personnel both. Viceroy Hardy-Alto is the KTB’s
ambassador on New Madrassa; he keeps Plaza House as his ambassadorial residence.

Madrassa Uplift is New Madrassa’s main spaceport, located around 100km outside of New
Madrassa City. Madrassa Uplift also hosts Camp Crown, the main BUC base on New
Madrassa. Camp Crown is a joint base, hosting NMU security forces, BUC soldiers, and
dragoons from the Boulder Company. Despite hosting Camp Crown, Madrassa Uplift is not a

213 
  

military spaceport; NMU’s orbital defense force is currently being trained by Union naval
personnel.

Other Points of Interest in the DLS 

Voladores — will not fight, and will carve away if engaged. Has a trade ship, Ojala, engaged 
over ________.  
 
Albatross Makteba?  
 
IPS-N starbases (4 in the DLS) 
 

214 
  

 
 

Galactic Powers in the Dawnline 

Shore 
In Lancer, space combat at the upper end of the scale described by this module is exceedingly 
rare; even space combat at the lower end — a single battlegroup or patrol of subline ships 
engaged with enemy elements of similar strength — is uncommon. The sheer scale of logistics 
involved in maintaining a fleet of any size is difficult for pan-galactic powers; for Diasporan 
powers that must worry about capital in addition to logistics, the cost is disqualifying even 
assuming they have the capacity to manage multiple ships spread out across the void of 
space.  
 
These dual restrictions — logistics and capital — restrict large-scale fleet actions to a mere 
handful of states and state-like entities inside and outside of Union’s hegemony; these actors, 
however, are not isolated to the Dawnline Shore, and it is perfectly possible for other 
flashpoints to crop up as news of the conflict spreads.  
 
 

   

215 
  

Union Navy  
ISSUING: NAVCOMM (6.6.5020u 0600 CrST) 
CODE: TOWER GOLD 
DISTRIBUTION: TAG “DLS_FLEETGROUP” 
 
>//ATTEND UNBG [ODYSSEY, INDLAMU]   
>//MORNING ALL. UPDATE ON THE CURRENT SITUATION TO FOLLOW::: 
>//AT THIS TIME DLS_GATE IS OFFLINE AND CLOSED TO ALL NON-UN TRAFFIC+++DLS_GATE WILL 
BE THEATER COMM HQ AND PRIMARY UN PRESENCE+++ORIENT ACCORDINGLY   
>//KTB NAVAL GROUPS [ALPHA, BRAVO, TAU, ECHO] ON TRACK FOR ARRIVAL VIA NADIR 
ROUTE+++TRAJECTORIES HAVE BEEN MAPPED AND ETAS ARE WITHIN HIGH (>95%) 
CONFIDENCE+++ROE ARE [SENTINEL-PARAGON-PALADIN] 
>//EXPECT BULK KTB FORCES IN-SYSTEM TO TAKE POINT+++NAVAL GROUPS EN ROUTE ARE 
REINFORCEMENTS+++UAD WILL CHAPERONE UNTIL A,B,T,E ARRIVE+++I AM TOLD GOAL IS TO 
STAND DOWN KTB FORCES SO STEADY ON+++  
>//IN-SECTOR:::MAINTAIN CURRENT POSTURE TOWARDS CONCORD ADMINISTRATION.  
>//MOVING ON+++ 
>//HA NAVAL GROUPS [BLUE, GREEN] CURRENTLY ROUTING VIA RIM HABITAT EXCLUSION 
ZONE+++INTERCESSION EFFORTS ARE UNDERWAY+++LOW CONFIDENCE REPORTS OF GROUPS 
[RED, ORANGE, GOLD] INBOUND VIA APEX ROUTE+++WILL CONTINUE TO MONITOR VIA NMU 
FORECASTING STATIONS+++STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES AND MAINTAIN CURRENT POSTURE 
>//OUR ENDEAVOR IS JUST+++STEADY ON  
MESSAGE CONCLUDES  
 
The Union Navy, even in its scaled-down state unde the Third Committee, is the largest and 
most capable stellar navy by orders of magnitude. It has outposts, docks, installations, 
battlegroups, and patrols in almost every sector of space — those that it does not have a 
presence in, it can reach with priority access to the blink network. Short of a blink station being 
destroyed, or a conflict occurring in a sector of space not yet connected via the blink, Union 
naval forces can be present and ready to engage targets within days, and at full strength in a 
target sector within months.  
 
Union naval strength is best imagined as an inexorable accumulation rather than a limited 
resource: they will have the strength to respond to a threat or provocation, the only constraint 
on their application of force is the amount of time it takes for tasked battlegroups to arrive. 
 
Union can field any classification of vessel from the largest, most unique dreadnoughts, to the 
smallest fighter. The only limit on building a Union battlegroup for your narrative is your 
narrative: what do you want Union’s strength to look like?  
 
Union Naval Battlegroup 
Battlegroups are led by an officer of Commander rank or higher and are the most common 
Union force compositions. The workhouse units of the Union Navy and the most common force 

216 
  

strength on patrol, battlegroups are generally able to respond first to any distress call, 
provocation, or flashpoint within the Rings within a month. If Union is dispatching an auxiliary 
peacekeeping force, an interdiction force, or a DoJ/HR liberation team to address a critical 
scenario on a world, they are dispatching a force of battlegroup strength.  
 
The presence of a Union battlegroup indicates Union’s ability to rapidly transit forces to the 
theater in which it is present: Battlegroups, even on their own, are never really alone, as they 
are usually in constant omninet communication with their parent fleet, which is in turn in 
communication with their Ring Fleet. Though the full strength of Union’s naval forces might 
never be brought to bear in an engagement, each battlegroup represents a possible spearpoint 
of a mighty force behind. 
 
Battlegroups have blink codebooks that allow them to bypass public queues at blink gates and 
NHP onboard to assist with navigation, ship management, strategy, and tactics. Battlegroups 
also have the ability to allow their NHP to form a gestalt subjectivity called a fleet legion. 
Legions allow for near-perfect instant information sharing between ships, coordination, and 
power management, as well as predictive targeting and defense beyond what isolated NHP 
can handle. Additionally, it is not uncommon for battlegroups to carry a large number of 
marines and mechs aboard their carriers, as they are more often than not tasked with ground 
operations; even those that are more purely naval in orientation still have a decent complement 
of marines on board.   
 
Battlegroups are typically composed of two to six capital ships and their escorts, not counting 
strike craft such as fighters or bombers. Multiple allied battlegroups operating in-theater are, 
together, referred to as a fleet, and are commanded and coordinated by an Admiral. Note that 
these fleets are distinct from Union Ring Fleets, which are the combined forces of an entire 
Ring.   
 
 
Union Ring Fleet  
Union Ring Fleets are the largest organizations of ships a non-Union entity could expect to 
engage. Collecting the entire naval and ground strength of a Union administrative Ring, a URF 
can bring thousands of capital ships and tens of thousands of subline ships to bear. A URF, 
should one be called, would be commanded by a Ring Admiral and an advisory council of 
Admirals; the Ring Admiral would likely report directly to CentComm and NavComm, and enjoy 
priority access to GalComm iteratives. No threat faced by Union has demanded the 
deployment of a URF, though contingency plans do exist based on low-confidence GalComm 
forecasts. URFs, for the Union Naval Department, are more of an administrative designation 
than a strategic or tactical one.  
 
Engaging and defeating a URF is, on paper, possible, but unlikely, and not without knock-on 
complications. Union has eleven administrative Rings: while not all of them are as built up as 

217 
  

those closer to Union’s center, all of them would be ready and able to respond with strength 
should one of their neighbor URFs be defeated. Furthermore, when engaging Union directly, 
one must plan to lose access to the omninet and blinkspace. As it stands, these advantages 
enjoyed by Union — size, communications, and logistics — makes it all but impossible to chart 
a course to total victory.  
 
Should a URF be deployed, it would likely never be deployed in one massed battle (though the 
overall scale of engagements would likely be much larger than conventional interstellar 
warfare). URFs stream into combat theaters in a steady, increasing accumulation of 
battlegroups and fleets. Bolstered by unfettered access to the omninet and blinkspace, URFs 
do not suffer from the logistical hazards and pitfalls one would expect from a fleet of that size; 
fighting an entire Union Ring Fleet demands not just fighting the collected strength of an entire 
Union Ring, but fighting against the very infrastructure of what makes interstellar travel and 
communication possible in the galaxy. It is best, then, to represent a URF mechanically in most 
narratives as a Clock or otherwise accumulatory Defeat Condition, not necessarily an enemy 
you fight (save for, say, pivotal scenes involving particularly important events, locations, or 
NPCs).   
 
Union Ship Names 
Union Naval capital and subline ships (not fighters, bombers or mounted chassis), whether 
operating under the direct command of the Navy or in support of DoJ/HR missions, are marked 
by the ship prefix UNS, which stands for Union Naval Ship, as so:  
 
● Frigates are denoted by the prefix UNS-LS (Union Naval Ship — Line Ship).  
● Carriers are denoted by the prefix UNS-CV (Union Naval Ship — Carrier Vessel). 
● Battleships are denoted by the prefix UNS-BB (Union Naval Ship — Battleship).  
 
Union ship names tend to fall on the “dry” or “professional” side, and tend to be named after 
proper nouns: figures or events from history, geographic and geologic features found on 
Cradle, and other proper nouns. While there is some variance, the following naming 
conventions tend to be true:  
 
Battlegroups and Fleets 
Union battlegroups typically adopt a single word codename, usually a proper noun. For 
example: Battlegroup Comet, BG Ceremony, BG Orchard, and so on. There are few restrictions 
for battlegroup names; fleets are named in the order that they are raised (i.e 1st Fleet, 2nd 
Fleet, and so on).  
 
 
Frigates 

218 
  

Frigates are generally named for inland Seas and lakes found on Cradle, seasons and months 
on Cradle, cities (extant or long gone) found on Cradle, and folk heroes and figures from labor 
history. For example: UNS-LS Tahoe, UNS-LS November, UNS-LS Kinshasa, UNS-LS   
 
Carriers 
Carriers are generally named for rivers and canals found on Cradle, forests on Cradle, folk 
heroes and events in labor history, capital cities (extant or ancient) on Cradle, and so on. For 
example:   
 
Battleships 
Battleships are generally named for naturalists and environmentalists, mountain peaks and 
canyons on Cradle, large geographic features on Cradle, theorists and writers, and so on. For 
example:   
 
Subline Ships 
Subline ships generally are named for  
 
Wings 
Wings typically are numbered in the order of their proximity to a command element.  
 

219 
  

Karrakin Trade Barons  

The Karrakin Trade Barons’ combined strength is second only to Union in terms of potential 
fleet size; however, as a uniquely structured group of federal states and noble dominions, their 
total united strength is rarely ever — and not yet in recorded history — able to be brought to 
the field. All the same, on their own and in temporary strategic structures, each of the Karrakin 
worlds is able to field a tremendous amount of stellar strength. 
 
Karrakin warships of all classification are, by Karrakin law, fabricated by the Federal Karrakin 
government and organized under the control of Baronic Unified Command. The Federal 
Karrakin armed forces crews and commands the Karrakin navy; the noble houses and their 
House Companies typically only interact with the navy when in need of transport or while 
engaged in a joint mission. Though technically illegal under Karrakin federal law for House and 
Free Companies to hold naval strength, many do in the form of converted yachts, barges, and 
other pleasurecraft.   
 
Baronic Unified Command — Naval Group 
Naval groups under the command of the BUC are the most common naval force structures 
found in the Concern and the Interest. Under Karrakin law, House Companies are not allowed 
to field their own ships of naval strength and intent — thus, the responsibility for managing and 
effecting the Baronies’ interstellar ambition falls to Unified Command, the forces of the Federal 
Karrakin Government. Baronic Unified Command manages both the Baronic navy and their 
ground forces (outside of the House Company system). Their command purview covers the 
entirely of the Baronic naval infrastructure, from logistics to force application.   
 
A BUC naval group is usually outfitted for a wide possibility of encounters. As such, the term 
can be applied to anything ranging from a handful of ships to many dozens, though most 
commonly refers to a group of six to ten ships of the line and their escorts, commanded by a 
Group Commander. 
 
Naval groups typically field NHP, but do not have blink codebooks. As military vessels of a 
recognized state in Union, they may enjoy some faster cycling through blink queues, though 
certainly do not have unfettered access.  
 
House Company (Leased Ships) 
House Companies of the Baronic nobility must lease their ships from the Baronic Unified 
Command if they mean to engage in naval warfare or interplanetary maneuvering. In this 
context, lease means that the minor house(s) must submit detailed applications to the BUC 
describing the extent of their mission, as well as pay the salaries of the personnel that will crew 
and command the ships. The BUC enjoys total oversight of the House Company’s mission and, 
for their part, works to ensure that all naval components — logistics, navigation, and 

220 
  

space/orbital engagements — are handled so that the House Company/Companies billeted 

aboard their ships can perform the duties they are tasked with completing.  
 
A House Company mission likely consists of eight to a dozen ships of the line and their 
escorts. Unlike a given BUC naval group, the HC mission will typically field a number of carriers 
laden with house company soldiers, chassis, and ground personnel. The commanding officer 
of the naval element of an HC mission will still be a Group Commander, though they likely have 
the command staff of the house company they are escorting breathing down their neck.  
 
House Companies are considered to be private groups by Union; as such, they have no priority 
access in blink gate queues.   
 
Free Company Expeditionary Group 
Unlike House Companies, Free Companies are wholly private entities — legally, that is. As 
such, under Baronic law they are entitled to field their own naval ships and personnel, so long 
as their full strength is registered with the BUC, maintained to BUC readiness standards, and 
will comply with BUC calls to arms (once all other requirements are met) if ordered.  
 
Free Company ships run the gamut from professionally crewed, purpose-built ships of the line 
built by mastercraft shipwrites, to cheap converted civilian vessels. The quality of ship and 
group is directly proportionate to and indicative of the power of its free company: the larger, 
wealthier, more powerful, and better connected the free company is, the better quality their 
supporting ships likely are.   
  
Karrakin Ship Names  
Karrakin ships have the following designations:  
● Frigates are designated as Federal Karrakin Ship — Rasée (FKS-RE).  
● Carriers are designated as Federal Karrakin Ship — Carrier (FKS-CC).  
● Battleships are designated as Federal Karrakin Ship — Battlecruiser (FKS-BC).  
 
For example, the full designation for the Karrakin battlecruiser Invincible is FKS-BC Invincible.  
 
Fleets 
Karrakin fleets are called “Armadas” and battlegroups are called “Naval Groups”. Karrakin 
Armadas take the name of the world their commanding Fleetmaster is sworn to, and are 
numbered in the order that they are raised; naval groups adopt a name associated with the 
House Company they are supporting, the minor or major house their commanding officer is 
associated with, or, failing that, the name Federal. For example:  
 
Example battlegroup names: Naval Group 33 Boulder, or Naval Group 1 Yond, or Naval Group 
2 Federal, and so on 
 

221 
  

Example fleet names: Armada 1 Khayradin; Armada 5 Bo; and so on 

 
Frigates 
The primary naming convention for Karrakin frigates (Rasees) are the families, genera, and 
species of flowering plants. They may also be named for ignoble officers who have retired from 
the service or been killed in battle.   
 
Carriers 
FKS carriers are named for heroes of Karrakin myth and history, legendary weapons, and cities 
across the Concern. Carriers may also be named for living figures of Karrakin nobility.   
 
Battleships 
FKS battleships are named for heroes of Karrakin myth and history, worlds of the Concern, 
Karrakin warrior virtues, and the major signs of the Karrakin deck of fates. Battleships may also 
be named for living figures of Karrakin high nobility.  
 
Subline Ships 
FKS subline ships, like frigates, can carry the names of genera or species of flowering plants. 
They also are commonly named for ignoble officers who have retired from the service or been 
killed in battle.   
  
Wings 
Wings are numbered, and carry the name of their parent carrier.  
 
 

Harrison Armory  
Harrison Armory is a centralized, robust corpro-state with an incredible ability to punch above 
its weight; proven in critical battles against the Karrakin Trade Barons, Harrison Armory enjoys 
unparalleled logistic and strategic vision backed by powerful, cutting edge weapony. The 
Armory is a corpro-state with broad territorial holdings directly administered by its central 
government — centuries of imperial expansion have driven the Armory’s military development, 
creating a martial culture that reproduces a disciplined officer corps and professional enlisted 
ranks.  
 
The Armory’s fleet is comparable in size to a single Karrakin world’s federal naval allotment, but 
the Armory’s command over logistics, strategy, and center-point tactics makes them a 
comparatively nimble, fearsome threat with the capability to win wars with a single, rapid strike.  
 
Armory Battlegroups 
Armory Battlegroups began first as primarily orbital support fleets; only recently has Ras 
Shamra began to produce fleets organized for naval combat. As a result, while their ships and 

222 
  

personnel are equipped with some of the finest technologies, systems, and weapons in the 
galaxy, they are largely unproven in real, scale battle. This often leads to the adoption of 
radical, unconventional strategies in naval combat — and, just as likely, disaster, as the Armory 
perfects their own doctrine.   
 
The Armory has two fleet doctrines: Planetwatch and Force Projection. Planetwatch fleets are 
organized to support Armory ground legions and ensure total downwell-theater dominance. 
Force Projection, meanwhile, is the Armory’s standard naval group meant to engage in 
ship-to-ship actions. 
 
Armory Ship Names 
Harrison Armory naval vessels have the following designations:  
● Armory frigates are designated as Purview Command Vessel — Line (PCV-L) 
● Carriers are designated as Purview Command Vessel — General Carrier (PCV-GC). 
● Battleships are designated as Purview Command Vessel — Dreadnought (PCV-DN).  
 
For example, the proper designation for the Armory frigate Hannable is Purview Command 
Vessel — Line Hannible, or, PCV-L Hannible.   
 
Fleets 
Armory battlegroups are named in the order they were raised and for the world that they were 
raised from, and appended by their purpose; they may also have an agnomen, depending on 
the battlegroup’s history. Armory fleets are temporary force organizations, as legion 
commanders can be territorial about their command, and are named for the task they are 
formed to accomplish.  
 
Example Battlegroup Names: 3rd Ras Shamra, Planetwatch; or 1st Cordoban, Force Projection; 
and so on 
  
Example Fleet Names: 1st Expeditionary Fleet, 2nd Expeditionary Fleet, 5th Purview Defense 
Fleet, and so on.  
 
Frigates 
Armory frigates are named for heroic figures of human and Armory myth and history, warrior 
virtues valued by the Armory, and ranking legionnaires as well as c-suite Armory executives.  
 
Carriers 
Carriers are named for heroic figures from ancient Cradle, virtues, and heroes and executives of 
the Armory. They may also be named for “matronly” adjectives and qualities, Purview 
metropolises, and women of myth.   
 
 

223 
  

Battleships 
Armory battleships are named for leaders of the Armory, as well as monarchs, conquerors, and 
composers from Cradelian history and myth. They may also be named for heroic or virtuous 
qualities, worlds of the Purview, and gods of power and import from various human religions 
and mythologies.   
 
Subline Ships 
Armory subline ships are named for minor cities in the Purview, minor heroes of Cradelian 
myth, vand middle-tier Armory executives.  
 
Wings 
Armory wings are numbered and named for their parent ship.  

 
IPS-N: Northstar Galactic Command  
Northstar Galactic Command, NGC, is a newly revived and recomposed proactive security 
force created by IPS-N to manage the transportation and reactive defense of clients, client 
goods, and resources outside of the galactic core. Distinct from IPS-N’s normal lease- or 
purchase-to-own commercial trade in hulls, NGC vessels remain owned and operated by 
IPS-N while not contracted to a client; while contracted to a client state or entity, NGC vessels 
will be maintained and operated by IPS-N staff, but are integrated in to the client’s command 
structure and will operate much like a mercenary force.   
 
NGC’s first test is the burgeoning conflict in the Dawnline Shore, where their first detachments 
have been brought on by various KTB house company personnel and private citizen groups to 
provide security and interplanetary transportation. NGC’s strength in the Dawnline Shore is 
widespread and contracted out to multiple parties; because of this, while NGC may be strong 
in a one-off fight, they are not considered to be a factional strength threat.  
 
IPS-N also supports Trunk Security, their galaxy-wide anti-piracy force primarily tasked with 
reactive defense of interstellar shipping lanes, as well as limited proactive operations.  
  
NGC Escort/Secure Premier Package  
The standard interplanetary escort and VIP package that Northstar Galactic Command offers to 
new clients is built around a core pair of carriers, escort mech wings, rapid defense frigates, 
and a healthy complement of marines. NGC E/S-P packages are designed to defend and 
rapidly transport their clients, and will outfit their ships accordingly.  
 

224 
  

NGC, Trunk Security, and Other IPS-N Ship Names  

NGC vessels are deputized by the faction, group, or entity that has contracted them. In 
addition to the flag and designation in the organizational structure of their hiring entity, NGC 
vessels have their own internal designations: 
● Frigates carry the designation NGCS-FF 
● Carriers carry the designation NGCS-CV 
● Battleships carry the designation NGCS-BB  
 
The proper designation for an NGC vessel on contract will conform to their contracting entity’s 
command structure; the proper internal designation for an NGC vessel will use Northstar 
Galactic Command’s markers i.e. NGCS-FF Professional or NGCS-CV Select.  
 
Fleets 
Northstar Galactic Command ships adopt the force organization and naming of their client 
state. Trunk Security is structured more as a policing and reactive security force, rather than a 
proactive force-projection military. TS battlegroup-strength forces would be called Force 
Patrols, and would have names comporting to their area of operation and the order in which 
they were raised. Trunk Security does not have a fleet-strength organization, though the body 
in command of multiple force patrols would be called a Division. 
 
Example TS battlegroup names: Dawnline Force Patrol 15, or Carlie’s Gap Force Patrol 2, and 
so on.  
 
IPS-N ships leased to Northstar Galactic Command will adopt the naming conventions and 
designations of their client state/entity for the duration of their contract. It is important to note 
that the following naming conventions are internal IPS-N names for record-keeping, as IPS-N 
does not maintain a standing fleet like Union, HA, or the KTB. 
 
Frigates 
NGC frigates are named with simple, single-word qualities associated with IPS-N virtues, or 
mythic creatures associated with flight or the sea. 
 
Trunk Security frigates are named with simple two- or three-digit alphanumeric tags, with any 
applicable longform phonetic to differentiate a frigate from its duplicate number: 34-Charlie, or 
56-Kilo, or 203-China, and so on.  
 
Carriers 
NGC carriers borrow their names from North, Central, and South American gods and 
mythologies. Additionally, they are often named using single-word qualities related to IPS-N’s 
internal virtues.  
 

225 
  

Trunk Security Carriers are named with simple, four-digit alphanumeric tags, with any 
applicable longform phonetic to differentiate a carrier from its duplicate number: 1100-Kilo, or 
1900 Gold, or 1001 Hotel, and so on. 
 
Battleships 
NGC battleships are named for islands found across Cradle and IPS-N’s conservation worlds; 
they may also, like frigates and carriers, be named using single-word qualities related to 
IPS-N’s internal virtues 
 
Trunk Security does not field any battleships.   
 
Subline Ships 
NGC subline ships are named for large and/or carnivorous fish, sharks, and water-bound 
mammals found across the galaxy. 
 
Trunk Security subline ships have a wide variety of names, but are denoted first by an four 
character alphanumeric key, split by a hyphen, with one letter in the second digit: 9A-38, or 
2B-99, or 8Z-21, and so on.   
 
Wings 
Wings are numbered according to their order on the flight deck, and named following their 
parent ship.   
 
 

 
   

226 
  

Constellar Security  
Constellar Security is an umbrella organization that collects a number of on- and/or off-book 
Smith-Shimano Corpro security and intelligence organizations under a single force structure for 
operations outside of the Constellation.   
 
In the Dawnline Shore, the majority of Constellar Security forces are ground-based and flagged 
as such. Tasked with providing security for Constellar Congressional delegations, diplomats, 
and development officers, Constellar Security forces operate around unique low-orbit-capable 
mobile skyhooks, the aptly named Skyhook Class Carrier. They field few other ships besides 
their Skyhooks: a mix of corvettes and mounted chassis wings all rated for atmospheric and 
vacuum operations.  
 
Constellar Midnights — members of SSC’s off-book deniable operations force by the same 
name — are rumored to be operating in the Dawnline Shore. As of yet, this has not been 
confirmed.   
 
Constellar Skyhook  
SSC’s Constellar Security forces operate in support of Congressional delegations and are 
composed around flexible, air-and-space capable vessels, mechs, and Skyhook carriers. 
 
Skyhook carriers allow for long term, self-sufficient ground-to-space transportation when 
deployed; when converted for space travel, Skyhook carriers allow for interplanetary and 
interstellar long-hauls. Large ships that blur the line between space station and carrier, 
Skyhooks have a massive internal and external carrying capacity: while in-transit, Skyhooks 
can support a dozen mounted mech wings stored internally and multiple externally-mounted 
corvettes and gunboats, along with hundreds to a thousand personnel in well-equipped and 
comfortable quarters.  
 
Constellar Congressional Gendarmery Ship Names 
Skyhooks are denoted by the designation C-HK.   
 
Fleets 
The Constellar Congress does not have a fleet-sized force structure. The largest force 
organization would be around battlegroup size, would be referred to as a “mission”, and be 
code-named. For example: M. Capital, or M. Signet, or M. Crown, and so on.   
 
Frigates 
The Constellar Congress does not field frigates.  
 
 
 
227 
  

Carriers 
Skyhooks are, by function, carrier ships. Constellar naming follows internal SSC bicode terms, 
combining two nouns into a code phrase, for example: C-HK Sightline Green, C-HK Canopy 
Atlas, C-HK Pinnacle Dome, and so on. 
 
Battleships 
The Constellar Congress does not field battleships.  
 
Subline Ships and Wings 
Subline ships and wings are designated with the same prefix, GB, differentiated by a marker 
character, and are named in reference to their Skyhook.  
 
For example: C-GB Pinnacle 1, C-GB Pinnacle 2, and C-GB Pinnacle 3 are three corvettes 
assigned to the skyhook C-HK Pinnacle Dome. W-GB Canopy 1 and W-GB Canopy 2 are two 
fighter wings assigned to the skyhook C-HK Canopy Atlas.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

   

228 
  

DLS: Campaign Arcs 

Below are three campaign arcs that take place in the Dawnline Shore, from 5019u to 5021u 
local time. They are broken into Beats, or, story moments that will happen during the course of 
any campaign; Beats can also serve as the beginning of any player campaign. If you’re playing 
out the “story” of this flash-war in the Dawnline Shore, the routes you take up or down the 
campaign should link the story Beats that occur (or, be interrupted by the story beats, per the 
GM’s discretion).   
 
Dawnline Duty  
The beginning of any of the following arcs assumes the following: your characters are present 
in the Dawnline Shore before the first Beat occurs, and are officers of either Harrison Armory, 
Union, or the Karrakin navies (or one of their local allies).   
 
Your characters do not need to be native to the Shore, though they may if you would like.  
 
Union characters might be regulars, auxiliary, or local factions; additionally, Union characters 
could arrive at any Beat, as Union controls access to the DLS blink gate.  
 
Officer and Enlisted Naval Ranks 

Union  Harrison Armory  Baronic Unified  Normalized 

Command 

Ring Admiral    Armadier   1 

Admiral  Lord Director  Fleetmaster  2 

Vice Admiral  Director  Vice Fleetmaster  3 

Fleet Commander  Commandant    4 

Commander    Lord Captain  5 

Line Captain  Strike Captain  Captain  6 

Captain      7 

Chief W.O. (4-5)      8 

Warrant Officer (1-3) 

Lieutenant      9 
Lieutenant, Jr. 

Ensign      10 

Enlisted (1-6)  Enlisted  Enlisted  11 

229 
  

A More Perfect Union 

Harrison Armory & The Perfect Ministeriat 
 
Harrison Armory, ostensibly acting in support of the Perfect Ministeriat, jumps to secure fresh 
territory in the Dawnline Shore. The frontier is theirs — countering the Baronies is a happy 
bonus, and all the more reason to act quickly and decisively.  
 
Harrison Armory’s maneuver in the Dawnline Shore is the result of the machinations of the 
Steward Council acting per Nomen Dei8 to declare the Shore of interest to the Purview, citing 
their treaties and obligations won during the end of the Interest War. Union has dispatched a 
team of negotiators and bureaucrats to Ras Shamra, and has called the Steward Council to the 
Omni to demand they cease their aggressive maneuvers. The Steward Council has dragged its 
feet, pointing to the absence of Harrison III to handle negotiations with Union. The Dawnline 
Shore engagement, they argue, is internal politics and inside their portfolio; whereas 
negotiations with Union are external, and outside of their portfolio. As they see the Dawnline 
Shore as part of their Purview, aggression by Karrakin proxies is well within their rights to 
police; escalation shows Karrakin guilt.   
 
As negotiations continue, Armory forces in the Dawnline Shore begin their campaign under the 
direction of Supreme Director Angel Bernal.   
 
Late 5019u: Novus Ordo Seclorum  
Harrison Armory and their local-power allies, the Perfect Ministeriat, begin their campaign on 
and around DS12 (New Creighton to them, Odeland to the KTB and Union) where their 1st 
Dawnline Shore fleet will engage the Federal Karrakin fleet parked above the world. As New 
Creighton burns with widespread conflict on the ground and in low orbit, the Armory attempts 
to win a decisive early victory by taking out the bulk of the federal fleet’s forward deployment.   
 
Early 5020u: Homeland Security 
After the Battle of New Creighton, both sides activated their reserves in the Shore. The Armory 
assumed that Union would follow its standard crisis response plan — cut gate access, localize 
the omninet, and begin peacekeeping operations — and was prepared. There is little room for 
stealth in deep space, though, and as their shipyards on DS1 (Harrison’s World) fire up, they 
sight a Baronic fleet on approach. A defense is necessary, or the shipyards will be destroyed.  
 

8
Per Nomen Dei is a legal power reserved by the Steward Council following the death of Harrison II and 
the departure of Harrison III. Roughly translated, PND means “by the name of god”; in this case, it is a 
law that allows the Steward Council to manage the state as if they, collectively, were the head of state. 
Many in the administration joke privately that the Steward Council is, essentially, Harrison III, as his 
absence de facto indicates assent to the Steward Council’s rule.   
230 
  

Late 5020u: Terminal Engagement 

An Armory detachment realigns above O1 (Terminal) far from the current battle lines. Both 
Union and the KTB dispatch proportional strength battlegroups to O1, setting up the first 
three-way battle between the great powers.  
 
Early 5021u: So Below   
The Armory’s 2nd and 3rd Expeditionary Fleets arrive via the Long Rim nadir transit route, 
encountering Union’s blockade at the termination shock line before DS2 (Arkady II). Union 
orders the ships to turn back; Supreme Director Angel Bernal orders them forward.   
 
Late 5021u: Annuit Coeptis 
The Armory’s full strength makes its play to secure New Madrassa, meeting Union and Karrakin 
forces above the world in a second three-way battle. The winner will command the world’s 
orbital space until the other factions bring reinforcements to bear. 
 
   

231 
  

A New Throne  
Karrakin Trade Baronies & The Concordant Administration 
 
The Karrakin Trade Barons, Federal Karrakin Government, and Baronic Unified Command 
(supported by various free companies and the house companies of Stone, Remembrance, 
Water, and the petitioner house Patience) scramble to launch partner strikes across New 
Creighton in support of the Concordant Administration, their planet-side ally on New Creighton. 
They were caught off guard by the Concord’s sudden attack on the Perfect Ministeriat, but with 
the Armory escalating the KTB has no choice but to match and overwhelm their rivals.  
 
The KTB, struggling under the weight of its old Concern, seeks to ride the momentum of this 
sudden flare up and secure their holdings in the Dawnline Shore. Their representatives on the 
Central Committee point to HA’s escalation as casus belli for their own escalation. They are, the 
Prime Baron argues, effectively fighting a defensive war against Armory aggression. The KTB 
pledges not to expand the front beyond the Dawnline Shore; negotiations are ongoing.   
 
The Karrakin forces operate under the unified command of Sovereign Admiral Alia Boudilier, of 
the Baronic Unified Command. Involved in the action are the house companies of the Houses 
of Stone, Remembrance, Water, and petitioner Promise; though independent while deployed, 
they are under the command of SA Boudilier while in transit and during naval engagements.  
 
Late 5019u: Causus Belli  
Above DS12 (Odeland, New Creighton), the Federal Karrakin forces scramble to support their 
allies, the Concordant Administration, as they launch a globe-spanning attack on the last 
monostatist holdouts, the Perfect Ministeriat. Furious at their allies’ impatience, the KTB 
nonetheless steps up to support them, engaging the Armory 1st fleet above DS12 (Odeland, 
New Creighton). 
 
Early 5020u: Weight of Stone 
While the bulk of the Federal Karrakin naval forces push to trap the Armory’s strength at DS1, 
hundreds of transport ships struggle to ferry the combined forces of the House of Stone, 
various free companies, and Baronic Unified Command soldiers up from DS8 (Upper Laurent) 
before a telegraphed Armory strike. These soldiers are bound for New Creighton and, secretly, 
for New Madrassa — a successful defense of this loading operation is critical.  
 
Late 2020u: Object Desire 
The Karrakin play for New Madrassa is not subtle. Their ground force buildup — successful or 
not — prompts the Amory to dispatch a Special Task battlegroup to O1 (Terminal) in order to 
secure a beachhead and critical infrastructure for any planned invasion of New Madrassa. The 

232 
  

Karrakins must counter; this draws the direct force attention of Union, and begins the first 
three-way fight of the ThirdComm era.   
 
Early 5021u: As Above 
Karrakin reinforcements — some planned, some launched in response to the closure of the 
DLS blink gate — arrive via the Long Rim apex route and via a more direct route linking the 
Concern to DS11 (Gloria). Union can only commit forces to intercede and stop one of the 
arriving fleets.   
 
Late 5021u: Vivat Rex   
Renewed by the strength of their reinforcing fleets, the Karrakins move to counter the Armory’s 
fleets above New Madrassa. Citing the Armory’s belligerent defense of GZ Alhambra and 
ground combat with Baronic Unified Command soldiers, the Karrakins deploy their fleet above 
the world and engage the Armory in a fight to determine who will command the jewel of the 
Shore.  
 
 

Controlled Burn 
Union and New Madrassa United 
 
Union knows that both the Armory and Karrakin Trade Barons have devised flimsy legalistic 
justifications for the resumption of hostilities following the flare up on New Creighton; however, 
the Central Committee demands documentation and adherence to bureaucratic rigor in order 
to ensure their position is as powerful as possible when negotiations conclude. The only 
acceptable outcome is a cessation in hostilities, a drawdown of forces, and reconciliation. 
Achieving this will take time, though it can be achieved.  
 
Until then, it’s the Navy’s job to put a stop to this bullshit as fast and professionally as possible. 
They’ve got some tools in their shed to help them out, but a whole load of complications to 
face down: two large, technologically advanced, strategically competent, and tactically sound 
factions with robust in-system ground and naval strength, supply lines, and personnel are 
facing off, and Union’s job is not only to stop both of them from killing each other, but also 
everyone else stuck in the Shore with them. Mission success in this theater is going to be a 
balancing act involving peacekeeping, dispersal, evacuation, deterrence, and precise 
application of force.  
 

233 
  

Union’s only Administrator currently in the Dawnline Shore is Administrator Park Jun-seo, who 
is assigned to New Madrassa. Union’s naval commander is First Admiral Fortun Aguirre9; there 
are four other large Union Crisis Response10 groups in the Dawnline shore, together they 
compose the 1st Dawnline Response Fleet.   
 
Late 5019u: Operation Corridor Gold   
Union theater command tasks their frontline battlegroups to establish and hold an evacuation 
corridor off of New Creighton. Union ROE prohibits them from launching preemptive or hostile 
attacks; they can, however, fight defensively. Right now their plan is to observe the HA/FKG 
engagements, gather data, and ensure the evacuation corridor is established and held.  
 
Early 5020u: Wingspan Corral  
This conflict is very obviously a war. The Karrakins launch a series of attacks on key Armory 
ports and depots. The Armory establishes a blockade of certain Barony-aligned worlds. Union 
gets advance warning of incoming Baronic and Armory fleets via the apex and nadir routes 
across the Long Rim. Union shifts the bulk of its forces to intercept these fleets, leaving a small 
core to defend New Madrassa and DLS blink; DLS blink remains open for ships with Union 
codebooks only.   
 
Late 5020u: Sunrunner   
Harrison Armory and the Karrakin Trade Barons engage above O1. Union steps in, arranging 
their New Madrassa Local fleet against both factions to prevent them from capturing O1; 
Union’s in-system Administrator has approved the use of limited, lethal deterrent when 
engaging these fleets. 
 
At the same time, a smaller force of New Madrassa United ships hurry to evacuate civilians 
from Terminal back down to New Madrassa.   
 
Early 5021u: Full Containment Necessary   
The Armory and Federal Karrakin fleets arrive via the Long Rim, meeting Union’s strength at 
their entry points into the Dawnline Shore. A tense series of days play out as representatives 
from each fleet meets with their respective Union admirals in the no-man’s-land between them, 
negotiating their entry into the DLS past the Union fleets.  
 
If negotiations fail, the fleets engage.   
 
Late 5021u: Operation Guillotine  

9
“First” is a field title indicating the most senior of equals, usually granted to a nominated commanding 
officer to indicate who will lead . First Admiral Aguirre, in this case, was selected via blind vote by his 
peers. There are four other admirals in the Dawnline Shore.   
10
Union’s Crisis Response Group is a group of ships larger than a battlegroup but smaller than a Ring 
Fleet. Flexible and well-equipped, CRGs a broad-portfolio defensive force structures.  
234 
  

The Armory launches its liberation attack on New Madrassa, seeking to secure its Green Zone 
Alhambra via the pacification of the local government, New Madrassa United, and the Karrakin 
forces there, all of whom the Armory sees as hostile combatants targeting their legally 
occupied land. Baronic Unified Command counterattacks, deploying the banner companies of 
the Houses of Stone, Remembrance, and petitioner Promise to the world, with the BUC Navy 
engaging Armory ships above.  
 
Union now must fight on three fronts: on the ground in support of New Madrassa United 
against the Armory and the House Companies deployed to New Madrassa, and above New 
Madrassa against the clashing fleets of the Armory and Baronies.  
 
   

235 
  

Dawnline Incident — Conclusion 

The campaign arc depicting the canon engagement in the Dawnline Shore ends with the 
conclusion of the beat Late 2021u. While tables might have different outcomes, the following 
general truths should stand:  
 
● Harrison Armory and the Karrakin Trade Baronies are drawn to a stalemate above New 
Madrassa, with Union standing between them. Negotiations between the two factions, 
facilitated by Union’s Central Committee over the Omni, have brought them to a point 
where they are willing to stand down their forces.  
● New Creighton will hold a simple majority vote to determine whether or not it unites into 
a metagovernment; should the plebiscite confirm unification, dissenters are welcome in 
the Armory’s Purview as provisional citizens. New Creigton will then be assigned priority 
status under New Madrassa in Administrator Park Jun-seo’s portfolio.  
● Any occupied worlds will be returned to their sovereign claimants, with the occupiers 
paying restitution to cover any necessary infrastructure rebuilding.  
● In order to restore their access to DLS blink both the KTB and HA will decommission 
their naval shipyards in the Dawnline Shore. All hulls entering the DLS via DLS blink will 
register with Union their transponders, flight plans, and allowed mission time.  
● Harrison Armory will reduce their legion capacity across the board by 50%. 
● The Karrakin Trade Baronies will reduce their armed presence in the DLS as well: they 
will reduce their BUC presence by 50% and are limited only to deploying the banner 
companies of their House Companies.  
 
Neither side gains much from the fight. New Madrassa sees a dramatic increase in Union 
presence. Harrison Armory withdraws from Green Zone Alhambra; Union moves in and 
Administrator Park Jun-seo headquarters there, ordering the Armory’s walls torn down.  
 
San Simian is formally enrolled in the Major Houses of the Karrakin Trade Barons.  
 
New Creighton is formally awarded Purview State status.  
 
The Dawnline Shore cools down, and shifts towards a different kind of fight…   
   

236 
  

 
That’s it for now. More to come in Playtest 2 and 3 later this year!   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

237