Analysis of the Call to Arms system
Core Gameplay
Call to Arms uses a base movement system, attack system, and special actions ships can use to alter their performance.
Players roll for initiative every round.
Loser activates one of their ships first, then players take turns activating ships until every unit has been moved.
In Babylon 5, units must move half their Move rating forward every activation. After that they may make their first turn according to their turn rating. If they have multiple turns, they must move 2" after the previous turn before turning again.
In Star Trek all units can move up to 12", they may stay stationary or go in reverse. A ship's Movement Rating is how many inches forward the ship must travel before turning. Therefore, a ship with a turn rating of 6 can turn twice if it moves 12" - the first turn at 6", and the second at 12".
After moving, the activated ship chooses which special action to make and performs the necessary test. Special Actions alter how ships operate or provide additional abilities. Each advantage comes with a trade off or restriction and some have a chance of failure. If a special action requires a test and is failed, the ship acts as normal and it's special action has been wasted.
Once all capital ships have been moved, auxiliary craft are moved.
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Attack Phase
Players may measure distance at any time.
The player that won initiative picks a capital ship unit and activates it. They then choose which weapons will attack which targets, and then resolve these weapon attacks one at a time. Weapons have a maximum range, a fire arc they can shoot out of, the number of dice they roll to attack, and special properties that alter the weapon's effect on the base mechanic.
The attack dice are rolled and successes score damage against the target.
In Babylon 5, the target has a hull rating that determines what rolls hurt the target.
In Star Trek, all targets are hit on a 4+ by default. Range, ship and weapon traits can alter these results.
The number of hits that surpass the defenses then roll again to determine their effect. 1 deals no damage, 2-5 deals 1 damage, and 6 deals 1 damage and causes a critical effect. Weapon traits can alter these results.
Each critical result rolls a die on the critical chart to determine the system hit.
In Babylon 5, any crit could generate any severity of result.
In Star Trek, each crit to a location inflicts an increasingly severe effect.
Damage is recorded. Below a certain threshold, ships become Crippled. This severely weakens the ship and limits it's capabilities.
After a ship resolves all of it's attacks, the other player activates a capital ship and play repeats until all capital ships have fired.
Once all capital ships have attacked, auxiliary craft have their chance to attack. In Babylon 5, If they are contacting other auxiliary craft, they attack using Dogfight rules.
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The rules play well after the initial learning curve. The use of dice pools to resolve weapon attacks allows reliable estimation of a weapon's expected performance. Ships are capable and have statistics that make fleet construction interesting. Their interactions fit the theme of each fiction they seek to model and resolve rapidly.
The exception based ruleset is difficult to learn at first due to the variability of conditions and sequencing. The lack of reference components makes checking the rules taxing. The high amount of ship hit points is a chore to track without component assistance. Critical Hits take a lot of rolls to determine and referencing the chart and effects takes time. Tracking the effects of Critical hits across a battle is difficult without component assistance. The rules are written in an unclear manner.
The game has had balance issues since publication for Babylon 5 more than four editions ago. Lots of testing will be required to ensure as much fairness as possible when using these mechanics.
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