Advanced Starship Combat

Newtonian Movement

Newtonian movement is an optional way to deal with ship movement on a hex grid. 

As normal, the ship's SPEED score tells you how much it can increase or decrease its velocity by each turn. A ship at zero velocity may rotate one hex side per turn for free.

Turning does not cost any movement. It takes place for free, but there are limits on how fast you can turn based on your ship's overall agility and current velocity. A fast moving carrier has a very wide turning circle, while a tiny fighter can change direction much more easily.

A ship's turning circle is equal to its speed multiplied by its class, divided by 10 (round down to a minimum of 1). A class XI ship moving at a velocity of 6 has a turning circle of 11 x 6 / 10 = 6. A smaller Class V scout moving at the same velocity has a turning circle of 3.

The turning circle value simply represents the number of hexes in a straight line that a ship can move in its turn before turning one hex side.

Note that tactical combat speeds do not use the same scale as navigational combat speeds for SUB-L travel, although both are based on the same SPEED score. For this reason, time dilation is not a factor in combat, and a ship is not limited to a velocity of 25.

The Newtonian Round

The round structure for Newtonian movement differs slightly to that of regular movement. All movement takes place simultaneously, followed by all actions. The Newtonian round looks like this:

1. All ships make INITIATIVE checks.

2. All ships move in reverse INITIATIVE order (starting with the ship which lost).

3. All PCs and ships then take actions in forward INITIATIVE order.

4. Return to Step 1.

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