Grimdark Future Warfleets
Players control powerful warships as they engage in intense, fast-paced battles in the vast reaches of space. Equip advanced technologies such as faster-than-light engines, shields, and weapons. There are different classes of ships, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and you must choose their fleet composition carefully to gain an advantage.
The rules are designed to be flexible and modular, so players can customize their games and add their own unique rules and scenarios.
Background Story
Grimdark Future is a sci-fi universe at war. The galaxy is in turmoil, where powerful factions and alien races are locked in a struggle to control valuable resources and territory. The technology in this universe is advanced, with faster-than-light travel and powerful weapons, but the origins and true capabilities of this technology still need to be fully understood.
There are various factions, each with their own unique ideologies and agendas, fighting for dominance, and the true motivations of the war are not entirely clear. The universe is also home to many different alien species, some of which are peaceful, while others are hostile and aggressive.
The war is fought across a wide range of environments, from deep space to planets and asteroids, and the battles are intense and brutal, with ships and soldiers using advanced weapons and tactics to gain an advantage. The universe is full of uncertainty and secrets, and the true nature of the war and the various factions fighting it are open to interpretation.
Gameplay
Players take on the roles of commanders of a fully personalized fleet, which is made up of ships, heroes and upgrades from a common set of assets, as well as special assets from one of 17 interstellar factions.
Each faction comes with its own selection of ships, heroes and upgrades, and there is also a wide selection of legendary fleets, giving players the chance to step into the shoes of legendary FTL admirals.
Turns
Unlike other games, turns in FTL are broken up in phases. While each player still alternates between each activation, the ships with which they can move is determined by phase, listed in order:
- Squadrons
- Light Ships
- Medium Ships
- Heavy Ships
When a ship is activated, you can pick one of the following:
- Hold: The ship can't move, but it can pivot up to 180° and shoot. Unless the ship is a squadron, all ships can hit a holding ship on a 2+.
- Move: The ship can move by its move speed and fire after moving. You can pivot the ship by 90° after moving at least half the ship's speed.
- If a ship moves off the table edge, it'll vanish for the rest of the round and then return the next round, reappearing around 4" of their last location.
- If a ship moves to a point where it overlaps with another ship, then the moving ship has to continue moving until such a point where it's now 1" away from the other ship and both ships suffer 1 damage. If the ship's overlapping any squadrons, then the squadron can just be repositioned within 1" of the moving ship without any damage.
- Cruise: The ship moves by its cruise speed, but cannot shoot. You can pivot the ship by 45° after moving at least half the ship's speed.
- Ships have firing arcs where certain weapons can fire from. You can only fire a certain weapon when a target is within its range and firing arc. Turrets can be fired from any arc.
- When rolling to hit, you roll a number of dice equal to the weapon's Attack against the target's Evasion. Any rolls meeting or exceeding the target's Evasion counts as a hit. Note that you add +1 to the hit roll if you're targeting the target's rear arc. Squadrons add +1 to hit when firing on other squadrons.
- For each hit, the target must roll a die, trying to score it's Toughness score, the roll with a penalty based on the weapon's Strength value. If the final roll beats the Toughness score, then the hit is blocked. Note that you add a -1 to block when hit in the rear arc.
- If the ship takes damage, then the damage must be assigned to an upgrade of the target's choosing. Once an upgrade takes 2 damage, it is disabled. Squadrons, lacking the slots for an upgrade, are destroyed once they suffer 2 damage.
- Squadrons can end up engaged by moving within 2" of an enemy squadron. Engaged squadrons cannot move once engaged.
- Ships have firing arcs where certain weapons can fire from. You can only fire a certain weapon when a target is within its range and firing arc. Turrets can be fired from any arc.
- Ram: The ship moves by its cruise speed, but it cannot shoot and must end its movement within base contact of another ship. You can pivot the ship by 45° after moving at least half the ship's speed. This doesn't work when targeting squadrons considering how small they are, and similarly squadrons can't ram either.
- Compare the maximum number of upgrades for each ship. The ship with the most slots takes 2 damage while the ship with less takes 3 damage and is shoved away d6". In an event where both ships have the same number of slots, they each take 2 damage.
If a fleet is reduced to half its starting size (or else otherwise forced to), the fleet's player must test for Morale. Each ship rolls a d6, adding the number of upgrade slots that aren't disabled - a 6+ means the ship is otherwise unaffected, but rolling below a 6 means the ship surrenders (if it's rolling because of army size.) Squadrons don't take Morale checks, but if the rest of the fleet surrenders or dies, then the squadrons must automatically surrender.
Terrain
- Blocking Terrain: Large asteroids, planets, and other orbital stations. This terrain's impassible, and any ships pushed into them suffer 1 damage.
- Cover Terrain: Space clouds, nebulas, and other fields of tiny space-stuff. If a ship's hiding behind this, then anyone targeting the ship takes -1 to hit.
- Difficult Terrain: Asteroid fields, gravity wells, and other fields of debris. Any ships moving through this terrain can only do so at half-speed.
- Dangerous Terrain: Radiation zones, minefields and black holes, pretty much anything that could seriously damage or destroy models. Anything pushed onto these zones take d3 damage.
Gameplay
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