Warfleets FTL
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Warfleets FTL has been superseded by Grimdark Future: Warfleets
Warfleets: FTL is a single-page miniatures game set in a distant galaxy at war, designed to be easy to learn but hard to master. The game is played with 10-15 models per fleet, giving you spaceship battles that can be played in 60-90 minutes.
Background Story
There are 6 major factions in FTL, from the mighty Empire to the mysterious Progenitors:
- In the universe of FTL, humanity is stuck in a civil war, with the Empire and Alliance fighting for dominance.
- The Marauders are off to the side, making a profit from attacking unsuspecting battlefleets, and then selling salvaged parts to the other side.
- The Nomads wander through space aimlessly as they have no home world.
- The Xenos are treated like horrible monsters even though they just want to coexist peacefully.
- Finally the Progenitors have arrived from a distant place, bringing an extremely important message, which unfortunately nobody knows how to decode and just leads to more conflict.<ref>Warfleets: FTL - Factions Book v1.5</ref>
There is much in the galaxy still currently mysterious and unknown. Throughout space, storms and large anomalous warp fields might suddenly form, pulling and tearing ships apart. A dead ship or deserter might reappear later, warped to a different time and dimension before returning with stories of psychic anomaly. Mysterious artifacts, imbuing it with strange power, could be found on distant planets...<ref>Warfleets: FTL - Campaign Rules v1.0</ref>
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 6 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 facing a penalty based on the weapon's Attack value. If the final roll beats the Toughness score, then the hit is blocked.
- If the ship takes damage, then the damage must be assigned to a particular upgrade. Once an upgrade takes three damage, it is disabled. Squadrons, lacking the slots for an upgrade, are destroyed once they suffer three 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.
Special Rules
- Anti-Ship: This weapon can only target enemy ships and takes a +1 to hit them.
- Anti-Squadron: This weapon can only target enemy squadrons and takes a +1 to hit them.
- Blast: If a target is hit by a weapon with this property, than any other ships within 4" of the target, friend or foe, are also hit.
- Broadside: This weapon can only be mounted on a ship's side firing arcs. If this weapon targets an enemy ship's side arc, then this weapon gives double the hits because of how much they can cover.
- Deadly: Each hit by this weapon deals an additional +1 damage.
- Fragile: A model with this rule takes an additional +1 damage when they suffer any damage.
- Overheating: If this weapon rolls a 1 to hit, then the ship firing the weapon must take 1 damage.
- Relentless: This weapon can split its attacks to fire at different targets. if you fear about wasting any rapid-fire weapons.
- Rogue: Any squadron with this rule can be activated on any phase outside of the Squadrons phase. However, they can only move or shoot during this activation.
Generic Units & Rules
The following are heroes, ships, and upgrades that are available to all ships regardless or army.
Heroes
Heroes and Titles are paid upgrades that can considerably change how a ship operates. Each hero is unique to their army, while each ship can only carry one title and hero each.
- Tactical Master: This ship can hide in reserves at the start of the game instead of being deployed. Instead, it can arrive at any turn, at any place, so long as it is at least 9" away from an enemy.
- Expert Sapper: Whenever this ship is activated, you can deploy a mine within 4" of it. Enemies that move within 2" of this mine take 2 damage. Great for keeping rammers at bay or forcing distances.
- Ace Commander: Made for a squadron-heavy army. Any time you activate a squadron within 6" of this ship, you can also activate another ship within 6" at the same time.
Titles
- Vanguard: This ship can immediately move straight ahead when it's deployed. This is more worthwhile for short-ranged guns than anything else.
- Avenger: Any time this ship fires a side-arc weapon, both sides can fire at once. If you're expecting to throw this ship into the the thick of fire, then you absolutely want this. Especially if you mount any guns with Relentless or Broadside.
- Defiant: At any point when a friendly ship within 6" is destroyed, this ship can immediately heal 2 damage, which might be what you need to restore a system or take a damaged one out of the red.
Upgrades
Unlike Heroes and Titles, Upgrades and Weapons are completely free to you.
- Ablative Armor: The ram-tank's choice. Any enemies ramming this ship suffer 1 damage, and this ship suffers no injuries from overlap.
- Armored Plating: This particular upgrade is for ablative HP. Rather than 3, this upgrade takes 5 points to be disabled.
- Gravity Bumper: When this ship rams, any ships it pushes add +1d6 to their shove distance. If you plan on being in a cluttered arena, then this is not going to waste.
- Nuclear Ammo: +1 Strength to the ship's turret.
- Precision Rig: +1 to hit with the ship's turret.
- Pulse Engine: Boosts speed for slow ships or makes faster ships that much harder to catch. Adds +2" to the ship's move speed and +3" to the ship's cruise/ram speed.
- Reinforced Ram: Add +1 damage to any ram damage this ship inflicts. Pair with the Gravity Bumper for special cruelty.
- Repair Bay: When activated, you can remove 1 damage from a friendly ship within 4" of this ship. Very necessary for smaller fleets.
- Shield Booster: Adds another save against damage. If you fail the Toughness check to negate damage, you can roll another die and block the hit on a 5+.
- Stealth Rig: Any enemies targeting this ship from over 12" away treat it as if this ship's hiding in cover.
- Tractor Beam: The tool of choice to halt stragglers. Once activated, an enemy ship within 8" can be dragged 1d6+1" towards this ship.
- Warp Drive: When this ship moves, it can teleport d6+2" in any direction, ignoring any terrain in between. A major boost in maneuverability.
Weapons
- Energy Cannon: An Anti-Ship gun with some decent range and strength. Something of an all-rounder.
- Giga-Cannon: A short-range gun with one shot, but that shot's Deadly and has a massive Strength to rip through ships.
- Heavy Cannon: No Strength, but you're firing plenty of shots and Relentless lets you split them up however you wish.
- Linked Railgun: Better range than the energy cannon, but suffers from Overheating, which can put a damper on things.
- Missile Cluster: Only one shot with 1 strength, but it's blast, so that 1 hit can cover more than just one ship. Just be mindful of who's in the splash zone.
- Plasma Gun: A pretty devastating gun with good range, but also suffers from Overheating.
- Tsunami Cannon: The FTL equivalent of a sniper rifle. It can only be fired when the ship's stationary, but this gun's got Deadly and Strength 2 to pop most ships.
- Weapon Batteries: Short-ranged Broadside weapons, but 2 attack and 2 strength make it more than welcome for a close-quarters ship.
Ships
- Heavy Ship: A big bruiser of a boat with 4 slots and the best defense out there. Its turret is also a potent gift, though it's hamstrung by the ship's glacial speed. Also, beware of that measly 2+ evasion, because that means you're just as easy to hit whether or not you move this ship.
- Medium Ship: Slightly weaker in every respect with a turret with 1 strength and 3 slots. While not as well-armored, it's more mobile and can evade a few more hits.
- Light Ship: The most nimble of your ships, but also your least protected. It only has two slots for upgrades, so you're likely to rely on your turret with 0 strength. Having a 5+ toughness also means that if you get hit, you're likely to feel that blow
- Squadrons: Each of the squadrons are similar in some way. All of them enjoy the best speeds in the game as well as turrets with only 2" range. This means that you'll often be relying on your squadrons' turrets to do any manner of damage, and that means relying on their evasion to make their way.
- Gunship Squadron: The all-rounder squadron. With no special rules, they can be taken to target any ship they wish. However, their static loadout means that they're not well-equipped to face down heavier ships.
- Fighter Squadron: Anti-Squadron variant. These ships have a worse Toughness, but deal an extra attack and the benefits of Anti-Squadron. Naturally, these are so you can shut down any enemy squadrons before they can do any harm.
- Bomber Squadron: Anti-Ship variant. Though their turret has only one attack, that attack has 2 Strength to dent ships and Anti-Ship and Deadly make those hits deadlier. Do beware their weaker evasion though, as this will definitely hurt you when facing Fighter Squadrons.
Gameplay
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