Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
(nickconstantine.com)
SECOND EDITION
2015
PAX STELLARUM
PAX STELLARUM
PROPERTY
OF
COMMERCIAL
IS the INTELECTUAL
MATEUS
USE
CARNEIRO.
OF
PAX
ANY
STELLARUM
FORBIDDEN
INTERNATIONAL
AND
SUBJECT
LAW
TO
REGARDING
PAX STELLARUM
trickiest,
most
difficult,
dirtiest
PAX STELLARUM
Contents
Introduction
Elements of Play
11
Units
11
Game Board
12
Fleet Display
12
15
Basic Rules
18
18
20
Initiative Phase
20
21
Forward Movement
23
Pivoting
24
Disengaging
26
28
Weapon Stats
29
Shooting
37
43
Example of Combat
47
End Phase
49
Quality Checks
50
51
53
53
PAX STELLARUM
Advanced Rules
56
Terrain
56
Rough Terrain
58
Impassable Terrain
58
Squadrons
59
61
62
Activation Interruption
63
Screening
64
65
Mines
65
Space Stations
67
Docking
67
Reserves
68
Deviation Roll
70
Fighters
73
Fighter Movement
76
Catapults
78
Dogfighting
79
Point Defense
80
Fighter Attack
82
Crew
86
Critical Hits
87
90
Precision Attacks
91
Planetary Assault
92
Planetary Bombardment
92
Planetary Invasion
93
End Phase
97
PAX STELLARUM
98
Agile
98
Assault
98
Automated
98
Command
99
Composite Plating
99
Holographic Screens
100
Mine Sweeping
100
Modulate Shields
101
Patrol
101
Quick Jump
102
Ram Ship
102
Reinforced Prow
103
Scout
103
Self-Repair
104
Stealth
104
Special Orders
105
106
107
107
112
Emergency Jump
113
Evasive Maneuvers
113
Full Stop
114
Linked Fire
114
115
Overload Engines
116
Overload Weapons
116
Ramming
117
Roll Over
119
Running Silent
119
7
PAX STELLARUM
Heroic Characters
120
The Brave
120
The Brillant
120
The Dreadful
121
The Ingenious
121
The Lucky
121
The Tactician
121
Faction Traits
122
Barbarians
122
Cybernetic
122
Collective Mind
122
Organic
123
Rogue
123
Superior
123
Swarm
123
Fleet Composition
124
125
125
126
126
126
Optional 3D Rules
127
Design Rules
129
PAX STELLARUM
Introduction
PAX STELLARUM is a spaceship Tabletop Miniature gaming ruleset designed to be able to
represent ships from any Sci-Fi universe.
Players are not limited to just designing ships, but can also develop their own fighters,
weapons and troops. This allows players to design different forces for each race they play with,
thus better representing the diversity found in Sci-Fi universes.
The ship construction system was developed to accommodate designs from extremely
different scales. Players may create functional ships of merely 1 hull point or behemoths with
dozens of hull points, all of which may be fielded in the same game while keeping game play
balanced.
In PAX STELLARUM, miniatures are to be used to represent each ship. Other items such as
planets and asteroids make up the scenery in which fleets will clash for ultimate supremacy among
the stars.
In addition to miniature ships and scenery items, players will also need:
A Large playing surface, without hex/square grid, preferably portraying the starry outer
space;
A set of different colored 6-sided dice (D6) and 10-sided dice (D10);
PAX STELLARUM
A Circular Protractor, for angle measurement, and a measuring tape for movement and
range measurement;
Dice or other tokens for keeping track of ships stats.
Each unit in PAX STELLARUM has a point cost. The total number of points players choose
to play with will determine the number/size of units theyll be able to use in that game, as well
as the time required to play.
10
PAX STELLARUM
Elements of Play
UNITS
All forces in control of each player are arranged into units. Units in PAX STELLARUM consist
of:
Space Stations
Fighters Flights
Troops
Starships
Troops are not represented on the game board with miniatures. When needed, players keep
track of the number of troops each of their ships has by simply placing a die next to the ship.
Starships, fighters and space stations must be represented on the game board with miniature
models.
Fighters are grouped in flights, and each flight begins the game with 6 fighters. A D6 should
be placed next to the flight model to represent the current number of fighters.
Players should consider placing their ship and space station miniatures on hex bases for ease
of use, as these will match the 6 firing arcs used in Pax Stellarum.
11
PAX STELLARUM
GAME BOARD
The Game Board can be any flat, stable surface, with at least 3 x 3 of free space, but a
4 x 6 area or greater is recommended.
Players should have a mat portraying the deep space. Any space mat will do, and no
hexes/squares are required. There are dozens of options for players on this, provided by many
hobby stores worldwide.
Players
may
add
scenery
FLEET DISPLAY
The Fleet Display contains all the stats of the players ships that hell need to consult
during the game.
When playing with multiple identical ships (either in a squadron or fielded individually),
players may use a single display for all ships of the same class (thus saving on printing), as the
displays are not used to keep track of a ships current stats, but are rather a reference table for
the ships initial stats. Any modifications should be tracked with tokens or dice next to the ship.
12
PAX STELLARUM
The boxes should indicate the following:
Type: Indicates the ship classification: Corvette; Frigate; Destroyer; Light Cruiser; Heavy
Cruiser; Battlecruiser; Carrier; Battleship; Dreadnought; Mothership; Space Station.
Class: The family of ships to which it belongs.
Cost: Indicates the game value of that ship, as well as the cost of fighter flights onboard
(Ordnance).
TECH: Technology. Varies from 1 to 10, and determines the overall level of scientific
advancement of the race to which the ship belongs. Tech determines what weapons and
systems are available when a ship is designed, and applies certain modifiers in combat.
Quality: The crews level of training, talent and experience.
Profile: Indicates any modifier to enemy shooting against it, due to its size.
CTM: Countermeasures. The number of D10 the ship can roll to defend against enemy fire.
Shields: The number of D6 the ship can roll to defend against enemy fire.
Armor: The amount of damage that is absorbed from an attack before damage is applied to the
hull.
Hull: The amount of damage the ship can endure before being destroyed.
Sensors: The level of detection capabilities the ship possesses.
Signature: The level of energy emissions the ship generates, thus rendering it more or less
detectable by enemy sensors.
Propulsion: Indicates the maximum speed, in inches, of the ship.
Pivoting: Indicates the standard pivoting ability of the ship at high thrust.
Specials: Lists all additional capabilities the unit possesses.
Weaponry: Displays every weapon the ship possesses, including fighter flights and troops it
may have onboard. The weapon stats are:
AD Attack dice: the number of D10 that weapon can roll when fired.
FPO Fire Power. The number of damage points that weapon can inflict.
ARC The arcs of fire through which the weapon may be fired.
RNG Range: The maximum distance the weapon may be fired at.
TRAITS Special rules of that weapon.
13
PAX STELLARUM
TECH
1
DESCRIPTION
EXAMPLES
Space Age
War
Solar Age
Initial Exploration of own Solar System
Interstellar Age
Discovery of Faster-Than-Light Travel
Bajor
Exploration Age
Exploration of nearby Solar Systems
Orks, Narn
Expansion Age
First Colonies beyond own Solar System
Imperial Age
Civilization
Galactic Age
Romulans
Introspection Age
8
Cosmos
Dimensional Age
Transition into Dimensional Beings
10
Nigh-Omnipotence Age
Knowledge
Ancients
14
PAX STELLARUM
Players will need some a set of D6 and D10 to play PAX STELLARUM.
Dice are needed not only for resolving weapons fire and other tests, but are also used as
tokens for keeping track of the ships stats throughout the game.
The most common tokens will be for keeping track of a ships current hull points, Shields
and Thrust Mode. During the game, some circumstances may require additional tokens for some
ships.
Those are:
Crew
Troops
Critical Hits
15
PAX STELLARUM
In Pax Stellarum, most die rolls require players to roll high numbers to succeed. In such
cases, a to-hit number indicates the minimum result the player must get to be successful.
A to-hit number shown as number+, means that a result of that number or higher is a
success. Results below are failed rolls.
However, success is never guaranteed in Pax Stellarum. Regardless of modifiers, a natural
roll of 1 on a die roll is always considered a failure.
Similarly, there are no automatic failures either. A player will always succeed if they roll a
6 on a D6 or a 10 on a D10, even if modifiers would bring the target number above 6 or 10,
respectively.
When the roll calls for low numbers, the to-hit value is indicated as number -, with
number being the maximum result for a success. In such cases, a 1 is always a success, while
the highest possible roll is always a failure, despite modifiers.
Pax Stellarum uses inches to measure distances. Players should have an Imperial scale
ruler or tape measure to play. The amount starships can turn and the range of the fire arcs is
measured in degrees, so a protractor is also a recommended game play tool.
16
PAX STELLARUM
BASIC RULES
Unless players are playing a scenario with specific instructions for deployment, they should
do as follows:
Place terrain. No more than 1/6 of the table should be covered by terrain, such as
asteroid fields, nebulae, planets, etc. Both players should participate in arranging the
terrain on the table.
17
PAX STELLARUM
Appoint a Flagship. Each fleet must nominate one ship to be the Flagship. If any ships
have the Command Special Ability, it must be the command ship with the highest Quality
stat. If no ships have command it must be the ship with the highest Quality stat.
Determine Initiative of Deployment. Each player then rolls a D6 and adds the result to
their Flagships Quality Stat. The side with the highest total has got Initiative.
Initiative allows a player to determine who deploys first. The player who deploys
first chooses his table side. The player with the highest total has also got the Initiative
for the first game turn, just as if he had won the roll off on the Initiative Phase of the
first turn (see ahead, Initiative Phase).
The table edges used for deployment (long or short) must be agreed upon by players
before rolling for Initiative.
Deploy ships. The player designated to deploy first must then place his ships on the game
board at up to 10 from their own table edge. As each ship or squadron is placed, their
controller must also place a token indicating the thrust mode of the ship (or squadron).
The first player will deploy their entire fleet at once, before its the opponents turn to
do the same
Begin the Game. First turn.
18
PAX STELLARUM
1.
INITIATIVE PHASE
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
END PHASE
The Initiative, Starship Movement, Starship Attack and End Phases are covered in the Basic
Rules. Fighter Movement and Fighter Attack Phases are in the Advanced Rules.
19
PAX STELLARUM
Initiative Phase
At the start of each turn, players must establish the initiative order for the turn. This is
done by rolling a D6 and adding the result to the Flagships Quality Stat. The side with the
greatest total has got initiative, which means he gets to choose who starts activating in each
phase. Thus, he may, for instance choose the opponent to start activating on the movement
phase, and then choose to activate first on the Attack Phase.
On both the movement and the attack phases, players will alternate activating their units,
until there are no units left to activate, and then that phase will be over. If a player finishes
activating all his units while the opponent is still left with one or more units to activate, he will
activate all his remaining units in sequence.
There are 4 levels of Quality, each having an associated score:
QUALITY
STAT
Poor
2
3
Good
Elite
Legendary
As will be further explained under Special Systems & Abilities, if a flagship has got the
Command Special Rule, it rolls a D10 on all initiative rolls (including for determining Initiative of
Deployment), instead of a D6. If there are multiple Command ships in the fleet, the player rolls a
total number of D10 equal to the number of Command ships he controls, and keeps the highest
roll, discarding the rest.
If the flagship becomes destroyed or flees the battlefield during play, a new flagship must
be appointed by the player.
20
PAX STELLARUM
In this phase, players will get the chance to move all their starships. This is done by players
taking turns activating one of their units at a time, until all players have activated all of their ships.
A unit may be an individual ship or a squadron of ships (squadrons are detailed in the
Advanced Rules).
Every unit MUST be activated only once per Starship Movement Phase, and as such must
perform all intended movement at that time. No unit may skip the movement phase.
The winner of the initiative roll can decide to move one of his units first or to force his
opponent to move first. Only starships and fighter flights can Move. Space stations dont move.
Fighter movement is covered in the advanced rules.
The amount of movement a ship is allowed to perform depends both on its Propulsion Rating
and on its thrust mode.
There are 3 modes of thrust:
Adrift
Low Thrust
High Thrust
PAX STELLARUM
PROPULSION RATING
0
half
Low Thrust
maximum
High Thrust
1
Adrift
Ships must operate at the thrust mode they began the turn with, but may switch from one
mode to the adjacent one at the end of their movement activation.
As such, the change in thrust normally only affects the next turns movement. Ships cannot
transit through all 3 modes in the same turn, except with certain Special Orders.
ADRIFT
LOW THRUST
HIGH THRUST
Thus, a ship currently Adrift may change its thrust mode to Low Thrust at the end of its
activation on the Starship Movement Phase. A ship currently on Low Thrust may change its
thrust mode to Adrift or High Thrust on the end of its activation on the Starship Movement Phase.
A ship currently on High Thrust may change its thrust mode to Low Thrust on the end of its
activation on the Starship Movement Phase.
The Special Order which allows a ship to switch from Adrift to High Thrust immediately is
called Accelerate to attack speed. Another Special Order allows a ship to switch from High Thrust
to Adrift in a single turn, and is called Full Stop.
In addition, these Special Orders change the thrust mode at the beginning of the movement
phase. Since the thrust mode of a ship may only be changed once per turn, a ship that uses
either of these special orders may not also change thrust modes at the end of the movement
phase.
22
PAX STELLARUM
FORWARD MOVEMENT
In order to move a ship, the distances to be crossed must be measured from the moving
ships flight peg.
Simply place a measurement tape at the base of the ships peg and trace its movement,
which has to be performed in a straight line forward.
In order to do so, picture an imaginary line running from the stern through the prow of your
ship. This is the direction of this ships forward movement.
Other ships, both allied and enemy, do not block line of movement. Only terrain does (see
Advanced Rules). However, no ship may end its movement on the same place already occupied
by another ship.
23
PAX STELLARUM
PIVOTING
In addition to moving forward, ships may also turn (pivot), up to twice a turn. Each ship has
a Pivoting Rating that indicates the distance it must move in a straight line before turning the
first time each turn and between the first and second turns. In addition, the Pivoting Rating also
lists the maximum number of degrees it can rotate during each pivot.
Ships that are in the Adrift Thrust Mode may not turn. Ships that are in Low Thrust can
reduce the distance of forward movement required for a turn by 1. Ships in High Thrust use the
Pivoting Rating as listed.
No starship is required to pivot on any given turn.
_____________________________
Example:
A ship with a Propulsion Rating of 12 and a Pivoting Rating of 445 is in Low Thrust. As
the ship is in low thrust, his effective Maneuver rating is reduced to 345.
He moves his ship forward 3, expending 3 points of thrust, and then rotates 45. He then
moves forward another 3 expending his remaining thrust, and then turns another 45.
______________________________
24
PAX STELLARUM
DESIGN NOTE:
The Pivoting Rating for each ship is already calculated and located on their Ship Stat Card.
However, for those of you interested, the Pivoting Rating of a ship is based on its Hull size and
armor rating.
The base Pivoting Rating based on Hull size is listed on the table below:
Hull Size
Pivoting Rating
1 or 2
90
3 to 8
190
9 to 18
275
19 to 30
360
31 to 45
445
46 and up
530
Each level of armor shifts the Pivoting Rating down that table according to its rating.
Armor Rating may be:
0 - No Armor
1 Light Armor
2 Medium Armor
3 Heavy Armor
Thus, a ship with 6 hull points and Armor Rating 2, is going to have Pivoting Rating 2 levels
lower than 190 (the level for ships from 3 to 8 hull points), which means its Rating is going to
be 360.
You will notice that while ships are allowed to turn up to twice per turn, this can be difficult
for large and well armored ships to achieve. Large ships often have Propulsion ratings lower than
the amount of distance they need to move forward in order complete two turns.
25
PAX STELLARUM
Should a ship such as this need to turn more sharply it can either drop to Low Thrust to
reduce the forward movement requirement or execute the Maneuvering Jets to Full Power Special
Order (see Advanced Rules). In extreme cases the captain may wish to do both!
DISENGAGING
Starships may disengage from combat by 2 means:
To move off the game board, a player simply maneuvers the ship and moves it far enough
so that the flight peg crosses the edge of the play space.
26
PAX STELLARUM
There are three ways a ship can jump into hyperspace to disengage. The first method is to
declare the intention to disengage by hyperspace at the end of a ships activation in the
Spaceship Movement Phase. The player then places a token on it indicating that Hyperdrives are
on.
Such tokens represent the energy increase on engines, which can be detected by other
vessels on the battlefield.
Ships
that
disengage
27
PAX STELLARUM
In this phase, players will take turns activating their ships to fire with them just as they did
on the previous phase for movement. The Player with Initiative may decide if he wants to attack
with one of his units first or let his opponent attack first.
In some situations (usually when there are ships with the Stealth Special Ability) a player
with inactivated units in the attack phase will no longer have any targets in range. If this situation
arises the player may pass the attack to his opponent.
His opponent can then select another of his units to attack, or pass. If he also passes, the
attack phase is over and inactivated ships do not get a chance to attack. If he chooses to attack
with a ship, then play continues as normal.
Additionally, there are times when a ship does not want to fire (again usually because of
stealth) even if there are targets in range. A player has the option of activating a unit in the
attack phase and simply choosing not to attack with it. (Note: this is different than passing as
you are forfeiting the units chance to attack, not simply deferring it. Additionally, when you pass,
you are essentially granting the opponent the prerogative of ending the attack phase immediately
if he wills).
Every ship can only attack with its weapons once per turn and every weapon can fire only
once per turn. Thus, activating a ship in this phase gives its controller the chance to fire once
with every weapon the ship bears, provided they have targets on range.
28
PAX STELLARUM
WEAPON STATS
Each weapon mounted on a ship has 4 stats Attack Dice, Arc(s) of Fire, Fire Power, Range
and Traits.
Attack Dice
This stat indicates the maximum number of D10s the ship can roll for that weapon on that
specific arc of fire.
The number of D10s you can roll for each kind of weapon your ship bears are meant to
represent the relative number of batteries of that same type on that arc of fire.
It isnt supposed to represent exactly the number of weapons of that kind youre firing.
Although this could be true for small ships, we wouldnt want you to have to roll 250 D10s for
figuring out the batteries fire of a Battleship!
Arc(s) of Fire
Arc(s) of Fire indicate through which of the ships firing positions the weapon can target
enemy ships. There are 6 different Fire Arcs on any ship or space station:
PROW
FORE PORT
FORE STARBOARD
AFT PORT
AFT STARBOARD
STERN
29
PAX STELLARUM
Each Arc of Fire consists of a 60 angle. There are two ways of figuring out which of the
ships arcs of fire the target enemy ship is in:
1. If your ships are based on hexagonal flight stands, the arcs are determined by simply
placing rulers or measuring tapes on the edges of the stand, along an imaginary line
running from the peg to that edge.
2. For ships without hexagonal flight stands, place a circular protractor over the ship, so
that the 90 mark is aligned to its Prow, and the 270 is aligned to its Stern.
The Fore Port arc of fire is located between the 360 mark and the 60 mark.
The Prow arc of fire is located between the 60 mark and the 120 mark.
The Fore Starboard arc of fire is located between the 120 mark and the 180 mark.
The Aft Starboard arc of fire is located between the 180 mark and the 240 mark.
The Stern arc of fire is located between the 240 mark and the 300mark.
The Aft Port arc of fire is located between the 300 mark and the 360 mark.
30
PAX STELLARUM
Tip: Mark the limits of every arc of fire on your circular protractor with white paint. This way
you can easily see the different arcs of fire:
31
PAX STELLARUM
Some weapons will be able to fire from two or more arcs of fire. A weapon can only fire at
a target ship that has its peg at least partially within one of the weapons arcs of fire.
As no weapon can fire more than once per turn, when a weapon fires from one arc, it cannot
fire from another arc on the same turn.
Nevertheless, when firing, a player may split his attack dice of any given weapon between
more than one arc of fire.
On the Fleet Display, players may indicate the fire arcs of each weapon as they see fit. This
might be using acronyms for each fire arc, or diagrams such as below:
WEAPONRY
AD
1
4
5
5
4
6
FP
5
3
2
2
4
-
ARC
RNG
42
36
32
32
20
-
TRAITS
AP2 BEAM
AP2
AP1
AP1
SP1 AP2
Quality 3
Teleport
Some very big and powerful weapons fire only straight forward. This weapon arc is called
fore fixed and may be represented on the fleet display by a straight vertical line.
The Fore Fixed arc of fire covers an area one inch wide extending out directly forward from
the peg of the firing ship out to its maximum range. Only ships with their flight pegs at least
partially within this narrow band may be attacked by this weapon.
Attack Dice
This is an indication of the number of dice available for firing that weapon on each attack
phase. This is not a weapon stat, but rather a ship stat, as it broadly represents the number of
batteries of that weapon mounted on the ship.
Fire Power
Fire Power indicates the weapons relative destructive power. Every 1 point of Fire Power
indicates the capacity of that weapon to inflict 1 damage point.
32
PAX STELLARUM
Range
Every weapon has a range, which is the maximum distance, in inches, that it can fire at a
target.
Some weapons not only have a maximum range but also a minimum range. This is the case
of weapons that take some time in order to become armed after being fired. Such weapons have
their range stats shown with two values: X Y, where x is the minimum range and y, the
maximum range. A weapon cannot be fired at targets which are closer than its minimum range.
Range is measured from the peg of the base of the firing ship to the peg of the target ship.
Traits
Some weapons have Traits, which are properties not defined by the weapons stats. While
not all weapons have traits, some have more than one, but no weapon can have more than three
traits. Below is a list of all weapon traits:
Annihilate (An)
Beam (Be)
Blast (B)
Mine (Mn)
Tractor (Tr)
Weapons with Annihilate destroy anything they hit, provided the hit is not effectively blocked
by Shields. Such weapons cannot target features of terrain.
33
PAX STELLARUM
Armor piercing weapons ignore a number of points of the targets armor equal to the Level
of armor piercing, to a minimum of 0. E.g. A weapon with armor piercing 2 would treat an Armor
Rating of 3 as 1.
Beam: When a Beam weapon fires, if it misses the initial target, the player may roll to attack
the next closest enemy ship on the same squadron, as long as its also within the arc(s) of fire
that weapon can fire from.
Blast weapons explode on their targets, creating an area of effect. All weapons with this
trait have a number indicated next to the letter B, which determines the radius of the area of
effect, in inches.
All ships/stations/fighters (allied or enemy) caught in the area of effect are automatically
hit and are subject to damage.
Blast weapons need to hit their primary target to deal damage to those in the blast radius.
If the shot is a miss or if it is prevented by countermeasures, then the area of effect damage
does not occur.
However, if the blast weapon hits the target it will deal damage to the surrounding targets,
even if the primary target cancels the damage with shields. The targets in the area of effect may
also prevent damage with shields.
Electromagnetic Pulse weapons are capable of causing all systems on the target ship to
shut down momentarily when the EMP weapon hit is not blocked by Shields. Such targets will be
unable to roll for weapons fire or Shields until the end of the turn, and their Thrust mode will
immediately become adrift. Ships affected by EMP may not go on Special Orders until the end
of the turn.
If an EMP weapon is also a blast, then each target within the area of effect is also subject
to the same effect if their shields do not block the hit.
The Fire Power of EMP weapons does not inflict hull damage, and EMP weapons are unable
to inflict critical hits either. The FP of EMP weapons is only used to establish if it is blocked by
shields. Armor provides no protection against EMP weapons.
34
PAX STELLARUM
Weapons with a High Rate of Fire may reroll all attack dice that failed to hit the target. The
result of the second roll is final, and no further rerolls for the same weapon are allowed on that
turn.
Mines are a type of weapon that is not fired against an enemy target. Its placed over the
battlefield as the ship moves. See the Advanced Rules for further rules on how Mines work.
Shields Piercing (see the section on Shields for further explanation on how Shields work)
increases the difficulty of the shields roll by the level of the Shields Piercing stat of that weapon.
Therefore, if a weapon has a Fire Power of 4 and Shields Piercing of 1, then instead of
having to roll 4+ to cancel the hit, the player needs a roll of 5+.
Weapons with Target Lock are capable of performing Precision Attacks (see the Precision
Tractor is the defining trait of Tractor Beam weapons. Such devices are able to immobilize
the target when they lock beam on them. They are also able to literally tow the target in space,
by applying its ship thrust to move itself and the target ship together.
The Fire Power of a Tractor Beam is not used to determine damage (Tractor beams
themselves never inflict damage) but rather indicates its Tractor Power.
In order to target an enemy ship with a tractor beam, the tractor power must be equal to or
greater than the Initial hull points (also known as Hull Size) of the target unit. Thus, a Tractor
Beam with Fire Power 5 can only target ships with Hull Size 5 or less. In addition, no ship may
target its tractor beams on ships of greater Hull Size.
35
PAX STELLARUM
Whenever a player succeeds at hitting a target (starship, space station or fighter flight) with
a Tractor Beam and such hit is not blocked by the targets Shields, that target is locked. Locked
targets cannot perform any movement and its Profile is reduced by 1.
The effect of the tractor beam lasts until the ship controlling the tractor beam optionally
decides to shut it down or when it suffers any hull damage.
During the period the tractor beam is locked upon a target, the ship projecting the beam
can only move if it is able to move (tow) the locked target as well.
To tow a locked ship, the ship controlling the tractor beam must expend 1 point of thrust
for every 10 hull points of the locked ships Hull Size. Round to the nearest 0.5 thrust points.
For example, if a ship with Propulsion 8, on high thrust, has locked its tractor beam on a
ship of Hull Size 22, it could only move 6, for the remaining 2 thrust points would have to be
applied to tow the locked ship.
When the tractor ship moves, the locked unit moves with it the same distance, in same
direction, thereby maintaining its relative position to the tractoring ship.
Immediately upon tractoring the target ship, the ship controlling the beam has options to
move the target ship if the FPO of the tractor is greater than the target ships Hull Size. The
target ship can be both translated or rotated.
The locked ship may be translated 1 in any direction or it may be rotated 15, for each
point of tractor FPO in excess of its Hull Size. The controlling player may also both translate
and rotate the target as long as the sum of the points is less than or equal to the FPO minus the
remaining hull of the locked ship. Such movement can be performed in any direction, provided
that the locked unit remains within the beams range and fire arcs.
The locked ship can be moved again in the next attack phase when the tractor beams
controlling ship activates again. No to-hit roll is required to maintain the lock, provided the tractor
lock was not either voluntarily broken by the controlling ship nor did the controlling ship suffer
any hull damage.
It is important to apply the effects of the tractor beam at the correct time. As a tractor
beam is a weapon, its intended use and effects happen at the same time as the other weapons
on the controlling ship.
As such, in the first turn the tractor beam Is used on a target, the reduction of Profile down
to a 5+ does not occur until after the to-hit rolls of the other weapons.
36
PAX STELLARUM
Additionally, the translation or rotation of the target does not happen until the weapons fire
has been resolved. So the controlling ship does not receive the benefits of the tractor lock for
its own weapons until the subsequent turn (provided the lock is maintained) but other ships in
the same fleet that have not yet activated can benefit.
SHOOTING
Firing a weapon against enemy ships is performed as follows:
1.
2.
Choose a target that is within you Sensors Range. Each attacking ship has a Sensors Rating,
ranging from 1 to 9. Sensors represent the ships ability to detect other ships, the higher
the Sensors rating the better it is at detecting.
Each target ship has a Signature. Signature is the overall energy traces a ship emits in
space, due to the use of its various systems, such as thrusters, life support, weapons, shields,
etc.
37
PAX STELLARUM
Those emissions are responsible for making a ship detectable by other crafts in outer
space. Thus, the lower is the signature, the harder it is for enemy units to detect it.
* DESIGN NOTE:
A Ships Signature Rating is based on the following table:
Signature
There is no need for players to memorize or check this table during play, as each ship
has its Signature indicated on the Fleet sheet.
The maximum distance a ships Sensors can detect an object at is equal to:
Sensors Rating X objects Signature.
Thus, a ship with Sensors 4x could detect (and therefore fire at) a ship with a signature
of 6 is at a distance of 24 (4x6=24).
38
PAX STELLARUM
If such an enemy ship was at a greater distance, it would be undetectable by the firing
ships current Sensors Rating, which would mean that no weapon could be fired at it, even if
there were weapons available that have sufficient range.
Sensors ranging from 1x to 3x are considered weak. 4x to 6x are average Sensors. 7x to
9x would constitute advanced Sensors Arrays.
Sensors have a 360radius, and therefore encompass all 6 fire arcs. See Terrain in
Advanced Rules for sensor modifiers due to terrain.
A ship may freely divide their attack dice for each weapon among as many
different targets as desired.
* DESIGN NOTE: While ship captains are allowed to split fire liberally, the best captains always
ensure that they have enough fire concentrated on a target to be effective.
3.
Choose any of your ships weapons that have the enemy ship within its range and fire arc.
Once you have determined a target within range of your Sensors, select any number of your
ships weapons that may be fired at it that is, that have the target within its range and fire
arc.
Range and distances can be checked anytime during play.
4.
Enemy Profile
Range
Terrain
Special
39
PAX STELLARUM
The basic to-hit number of any ship is determined by its Quality, as seen on the chart
below. This value is modified by the circumstances above, which are first combined and then
applied (added to or subtracted from) the shooting ships basic to-hit number.
QUALITY
BASIC TO-HIT
Poor (2)
8+
Good (3)
7+
Elite (4)
6+
Legendary (5)
5+
40
PAX STELLARUM
Modifiers to the Basic To-Hit Number work as follows:
Enemy Profile: Each ship has got a Profile. For most ships, this is Standard, which
means ships firing at it dont suffer any modifiers for Enemy Profile. Small or large
ships impose modifiers to enemy shooting, as shown on the chart below. Note that
the Profile Modifier for each ship is determined by its Hull Size:
HULL SIZE/TYPE
MODIFIER
DESIGNATION
Fighters, Troops
+2
Tiny
+1
Small
3 to 20 hull points
Standard
21 to 40 hull points
-1
Large
-2
Colossal
Range: Targets located more than 10 away get a +1 modifier to their profile. Targets
located more than 20 away get a +2 modifier to their profile. Targets located up to
10 away from the firing ship do not receive range modifier, as this is considered to
be close range.
Special Modifiers: There are some special circumstances that entail additional
modifiers, and when this is the case, it will be mentioned in the rules.
5.
Roll a number of D10 up to the total number of Attack Dice of that weapon.
6.
Every success is a hit. Every failed roll is a miss. A roll is going to be a hit if it is equal to or
higher than the shooters actual to-hit value. Regardless of modifiers, the best actual to-hit
number is always 5+, while the worst is always 10.
41
PAX STELLARUM
7.
8.
Apply Damage. Compare the weapons fire power to the enemy ships Armor. Each hit will
cause damage to the target equal to the weapons Fire Power minus the armor rating of the
ship. Each point of damage will remove 1 hull point. Ships that lose all their hull points are
immediately removed from play.
____________________________
Ex:
3 hits of Fire Power 2 against a target
of armor 1. Each hit causes a single
point of damage, as the other point is
absorbed by armor, for a total damage
of 3, which reduces the targets
current Hull points by 3.
____________________________
Note: Every unit is considered to fire all of its weapons simultaneously. Therefore, the target
ship only rolls for its defensive systems after all the attack dice for all weapons from the enemy
unit have been rolled.
In order to speed up play, players should roll for all weapons from the same unit at once,
using different colored D10 to represent different weapons.
42
PAX STELLARUM
Most ships and space stations either a Shields Rating or Countermeasures (CTM) Rating,
and some even have both. This is represented by a number, which indicates how dice that craft
can roll for that system.
Shields use D6, while CTM uses D10. Thus, a ship with Shields Rating 3 can roll up to 3D6
for Shields, while a ship with CTM 5 can roll 5D10 for this system.
Shields and CTM are not used when the ship is activated, but rather whenever they are
attacked by an enemy, in an attempt to cancel any hits, thus preventing damage to the ships
hull.
CTM represents flak, flares, point defense, electronic jamming and other suitable means of
deflecting or neutralizing incoming fire.
Shields represent any kind of protective energy/electromagnetic bubbles enveloping a
ship, and which are so common in sci-fi backgrounds.
Only one CTM and Shields roll may be made against each source of enemy fire.
Each unit (all weapons on an individual ship, squadron of ships or fighter flight) is considered
to be a single source of enemy fire.
A roll of CTM or Shields involves rolling a number of dice equal the ships dice pool for that
system.
43
PAX STELLARUM
____________________________
Example: A ship is attacked by 5 enemies. If they are all from the same squadron, all their
attacks are treated as a single source of enemy fire, and thus the defending ship may roll their
dice pool for Shields only once against all their weapons.
If each ship was running individually, the defending ship would get a Shields roll against each
ships attacks.
__________________________
Shields and CTM provide protection around the entire ship, and thus can be rolled regardless
of what fire arcs the attacks originate from. In case the ship has got both systems, CTM must
be resolved first.
Note that when there are multiple hits that rolled the same number, an equivalent roll of
CTM may be paired with any of them, as the defending player chooses.
44
PAX STELLARUM
____________________________
Example: A ship received 5 hits, which scored 9, 8, 8, 7 and 10 on their to-hit rolls. The
attacked ship has got 4 CTM, so the defending player rolls 4D10 and gets the results 3, 5, 7 and
1.
The results 3, 5 and 1 are below the lowest result of enemy hit (7), so they may be rerolled.
The new roll results in 4, 8, and 3.
Thus, the defending player pairs up the 7 and 8 of his CTM rolls with those respective
numbers on the dice pool of enemy hits, cancelling 2 hits, leaving the hits of result 9, 10 and one
8 undefended.
____________________________
Finally, compare the firepower total of all the attacks from the source of fire that hit the
ship and werent canceled by CTM. If this equals or exceeds the current Shields rating of the
ship, then reduce it by 1. If this equals or exceeds double the current Shields Rating, its reduced
by 2, rather than 1.
A die should be used next to the ship to indicate its current Shields Rating.
45
PAX STELLARUM
This effect only occurs after the ship rolls its Shields dice for the current attack. So, if it
has Shields 5 and is hit with a total fire power of 7, it will be able to roll 5D6 for Shields.
Immediately after that, its Shields will be reduced to 4.
___________________________
Ex:
The Cruiser Agamemnon has a Shields Rating of 3. Its hit by 2 shots of Laser Cannon, with
fire power 3, and another shot from a Photon Torpedo, which has got fire power 4.
The controller of Agamemnon rolls his 3D6 for Shields and gets 3, 5 and 1. He chooses to
pair the 5 with the hit of Fire Power 4, and the 3 with one of the hits of Fire Power 3. The
remaining hit of FP 3 is not cancelled, for his roll of 1 is ineffective against it, and will thus be
resolved against the ships armor/hull.
The total fire power that impacted on Agamemnons Shields was 10 (2x3 + 1x4 = 10), causing
it to be reduced from 3 to 1, once the attack is resolved.
___________________________
46
PAX STELLARUM
Players must roll all dice for weapons fire from the same source of fire against the same
target at once.
Weapons that have the Blast trait, are completely neutralized when they are canceled by
CTM; however, Shields only protect the target ship. If the primary target of the blast weapon
cancels the attack with shields, ships caught within the blast radius still take a hit.
EXAMPLE OF COMBAT
The Heavy Cruiser Pride of the Empire has the enemy Destroyer Audacious at 22 distance
from its Fore Port weapons, which are:
AD
FPO
RNG
TRT
T3 Torpedo Tube
16
SP1
Pulse Cannon
20
HF
ARC
Pride of the Empire has a Sensors Rating of 6x, while Audacious has a Signature of 4. Thus,
Pride of the Empire is able to detect Audacious at a distance of up to 24, which means it has
detected the Destroyer and is able to fire at it.
Audacious also has Armor 1, Shields 3, CTM 2. The Heavy Cruiser is going to fire both its
weapons against the Destroyer.
The Heavy Cruiser can roll 3 attack dice (AD) for torpedoes and 4 for the Pulse Cannons,
but before doing that, the player checks for Profile, Range and Terrain modifiers.
Pride of the Empire has got Quality Rating Good, so its basic to-hit value is 7+. Audacious
Profile is Standard, so there is no Profile Modifier to enemy shooting. At a distance of 22, the
range modifier is +2.
There is no terrain feature along the line of fire from the attackers flight peg to its targets.
Therefore, the actual to-hit number is 9+, which means only results equal to or higher than
9 are going to be hits.
47
PAX STELLARUM
Pride of the Empires controller then rolls 3D10 for torpedoes and 4D10 for the pulse
cannons. He uses red dice for the torpedoes, and blue dice for the cannons.
He gets 2, 5 and 9 on the torpedoes roll, and 9, 3, 7 and 9 for the pulse cannons.
Thus, 1 shot is a hit and 2 are missing for the torpedoes, and 2 shots are hits and 2 are
missing for the cannons. Because the cannons have High Rate of Fire, he gets to reroll his 2
missing shots, and gets a 2 and another 9. In total, 3 pulse cannons shots are hits.
Now its time for the Destroyers controller to use its defensive systems. He rolls 2D10
for his ships CTM and gets 3 and 7. Since any CTM miss may be rerolled, the player rerolls both
D10, getting a 2 and a 9. He chooses to pair his roll of 9 with a hit from the Torpedoes, thus
cancelling it.
The remaining torpedo hit and 3 pulse cannon hits then impact the targets Shields. The
total fire power of this attack is 10 (1x4 + 3x2 = 10), which is more than double the targets
current Shields Rating, and will reduce it from 3 to 1 after the attack from this source is
completed.
Before determining damage, the Destroyer
gets to roll all 3 Shields Dice. Any subsequent
attacks from different sources of fire will find
Audacious at Shields Rating 1.
The torpedo has a Fire power of 4 and
Shields Piercing 1, while the Pulse Cannon has Fire
Power 2. Thus, each shields roll of 5+ can cancel
the Torpedo hit, and any roll of 2+ can cancel one
Pulse Cannon hit.
The player rolls 3D6 and gets 2, 6 and 1. He
chooses the 6 to cancel the torpedo, while the 2
cancels 1 hit from the pulse cannon. The remaining
2 cannon hits are not blocked by Shields, and must
then be inflicted to the ships hull.
The destroyer has Armor 1, and so 1 damage
point from each cannon hit is absorbed there,
48
PAX STELLARUM
leaving only 2 damage points (1 from each cannon shot) to be applied to the units hull.
Having a total hull structure of 9 points, the Audacious hull is now down to 7 points.
_____________________________
End Phase
calculate the number of hull points each fleet still has in the game;
Make morale checks if one or more of the fleets has lost 50% of its starting total of
hull points;
If either fleet fails the Morale Check and leaves the table, the game is over and the
fleet still on the table is victorious.
If both fleets must take Morale Checks and fail, the game is over. Calculate victory
points to determine the winner (see ahead Calculating Victory Points).
If the game doesnt end, ships with current Shields Ratings below their maximum
raise them by 1 point. Continue to the Initiative phase of the next turn.
49
PAX STELLARUM
Quality Checks
Morale Checks
Skill Checks
Both types of tests are performed using the ships Quality Rating, by rolling a D6 to get a
result equal to or lower than that number. Skill Checks are referred to on the Advanced Rules.
The distinction between Skill and Morale Checks is important, for there are circumstances and
modifiers that only apply to one of those types of Quality Checks.
Sometimes, during battle, a ships crew, or even the entire fleet, may go through
circumstances that challenge their courage and determination to keep on fighting.
On such occasions, a Morale Check must be taken. Passing the test means that the crew
overcame their fear and carried on with their duties.
Failing the test represents the lack of proper determination and spirit of sacrifice among
the ranks, or simply that they understood there was no tactical advantage in fighting a lost battle
and chose to withdraw.
50
PAX STELLARUM
Modifiers may apply in some cases, and these will be listed in each section, explaining the
details of a particular type of Morale Check. Regardless of modifiers, a 6 is always a failure on
a Morale Check. Players may choose to fail the Morale Check without rolling.
At the End Phase of each turn, players must add up the number of hull points that have
been destroyed, captured or that disengaged. If this number is equal to or greater than the value
calculated above, he must roll a Morale Check.
51
PAX STELLARUM
The morale check here is taken based on the Quality Rating of the Flagship. If the flagship
has been destroyed, use the Quality Rating of the new appointed Flagship. However, losing the
primary flagship generates a modifier to this test, as show on the chart below:
More remaining hull points than the enemy fleet: +1 to the Target value
If the test fails, the fleet immediately leaves the table and the game is over.
If the morale test is passed, the fleet remains, but the morale check must be retaken in
each subsequent End Phase, with the difficulty increasing by 1 each time.
For example, if on the turn the fleet dropped under 50% of its total hull points the target for
the morale roll was 3, on the next End Phase the test will be taken with the target number of 2.
Regardless of the number of turns, the target number will never drop below 1.
*DESIGN NOTE: This is due to the assumption that the loss of hull points will continue, and
so will morale, to the point where remaining in the fight is simply not a (sane) option anymore.
52
PAX STELLARUM
Achieving Victory
Victory conditions are foremost determined by the specific scenario rules. Below are the
Standard Victory Conditions, which are adopted by most scenarios and are the default victory
conditions unless otherwise specified by the players.
The Game ends when one of the following conditions is met:
One side concedes defeat. The other side claims the win.
At the end of a predetermined number of turns. the side with most victory points will
be the winner;
If one or both sides are forced to disengage their entire fleet. The fleet that remains
on the table is the winner. If no fleet remained on the table, victory will be determined
by victory points.
In case players choose to play a game with a predetermined number of game turns, they
can use the rules here to determine who the winner is. These rules can also be used to
determine a winner in a game where both fleets fail a Morale Check for hull destruction on the
same End Phase.
At the end of the last game turn, each player will have scored a number of victory points
equal to the number of hull points destroyed on the enemy fleet, multiplied by the enemy Tech
level.
Each point of hull remaining in a captured ship counts as 2 hull points destroyed. Each hull
point remaining in a captured Flagship counts as 3 hull points destroyed. Each completely
destroyed fighter flight counts as 1 hull point destroyed.
Thus:
53
PAX STELLARUM
Victory Points =
total enemy hull points destroyed x 1
+
total enemy hull points captured x 2
+
total enemy hull points captured on flagship x 3
X Enemy Tech
Additionally, there are some specific rules for victory points. They are:
Ships that disengage individually, earn the opponent a number of victory points equal to
half their remaining hull points.
Fighter flights, Patrol ships and any other ships (e.g.: ships with damaged engines, unable
to jump into hyperspace) that are left behind because their fleet has disengaged without
them are considered destroyed if the enemy fleet also disengages. If the enemy fleet does
not disengage they are considered captured. In such a case, the fighter flights are worth
2 VP each.
Ships that were still in reserve by the time the game ended are treated as destroyed in
regard to calculating victory points.
***
This is the end of the Basic Rules Section. These should give you the fundamentals you
need to play a game of PAX STELLARUM.
54
PAX STELLARUM
55
PAX STELLARUM
ADVANCED RULES
Terrain
Anything that is part of the game table and is not controlled by any player is a terrain
feature. It can be stars, planets, moons, asteroid fields, space anomalies, etc. Terrain adds
exciting features to the game, and can influence the ships actions, by blocking line of fire, or
hindering movement.
In Pax Stellarum, the location of Units such as Starships or fighters is indicated by the flight
peg and not the miniature itself. However, the location of terrain features is defined by its actual
size on the table. This is to represent the immense size of such features compared to our fictional
starships, however big they might seem.
In case they are mounted on flight stands, planets, moons and stars are considered to
occupy all the space of their shadow (that is, the imaginary projection of their silhouette on
the game table).
For other terrain features that
are made up of a grouping of smaller
elements
(e.g.
asteroid
fields),
Place
the
individual
56
PAX STELLARUM
Each terrain feature falls into one of 3 categories, as defined in the box below:
Types of Terrain
Clear Terrain: Does not interfere with shooting, sensors or movement. This
includes open space or far field stars and nebula that are printed on some
gaming mats.
Rough Terrain: Interfere with line of fire for shooting, line of sight for sensors
and movement. Rough Terrain includes nebulas placed on the gaming table by
players, asteroid fields, distortion fields, black holes, etc.
Impassable Terrain: Block line of fire for shooting, line of sight for Sensors and
movement entirely. This is the case of planets, moons and stars.
Before placing your fleets on the table, have a discussion with your opponent about the
effects of each terrain type. Establish which category each terrain element falls into, as this may
avoid arguments once play has started. It is especially important to establish this if a particular
terrain type is not listed above.
57
PAX STELLARUM
ROUGH TERRAIN
Rough Terrain has got several impacts in play:
+1 or +2 Modifier for Shooting
-1 or -2 Modifier for Sensors
Risk of damage if moving through it
Players should determine if a piece of rough terrain is light or very rough. Light rough terrain
imposes a +1 modifier to all shooting with line of sight passing through any part of it. This means
that if either the attacking ship or its target has got any part of its flight peg located on it, or if
the terrain lies it the trajectory of the shooting, the modifier applies, raising the to-hit number by
1.
Similarly, a ships Sensors receive a -1 modifier when determining if it detects a target
through a piece of light rough terrain.
If the terrain is classified as very rough, the modifier for shooting is +2, and the modifier for
Sensors is -2, instead.
Ships moving through a piece of rough terrain risk being damaged by it. For every full inch
or fraction of inch a ship moves through a piece of rough terrain, its attacked by 2AD of Fire
Power 2, if light rough terrain, or Fire Power 4, if very rough terrain.
The to-hit number for these attacks is 7+, and is modified by the ships Profile (no other
modifier applied). The opponent should roll the dice. CTM and Shields can be used against those
attacks.
IMPASSABLE TERRAIN
This type of terrain blocks line of sight and sensors completely, which means no shooting
can be performed through it, nor can targets be detected when a piece of impassable terrain lies
in the direct line of sight. If a ship moves into a piece of impassable terrain, such as a planet,
moon, gigantic asteroid or such, its immediately destroyed.
58
PAX STELLARUM
Squadrons
Deploying ships in squadrons is one of the most tactically important aspects of the game.
It also allows players to control large fleets with relative ease.
Starships can be part of a squadron with other ships of the same class. The formation of
squadrons can only be done at the beginning of the game. This must be announced when the
ships are deployed and the ships in a squadron must all be deployed at the same time (and in
formation).
A squadron is considered to be one unit, thus all ships in the squadron activate at the same
time in both the movement and attack phases. Ships in a squadron must be on the same thrust
mode.
The only exception to this is if one or more ships are on a Special Order which changes
their thrust mode. However, they must attempt to bring their thrust mode back to that of the
majority of the squadron as soon as possible.
Rule of Formation:
In order to remain part of a squadron, a ship must be within x of at least one
other ship in the same squadron, where X = Squadron Quality. A ship may never
deliberately move out of formation.
59
PAX STELLARUM
Thus, if the ships in a squadron have got Quality 4, each ship must keep a distance of up
to 4 to another ship in the squadron. The entire squadron must remain as a single chain of
models, which means its not allowed to keep some ships in formation with one another, but
distant from the rest of the squadron.
Example of formation for Squadron Quality 3:
RIGHT
WRONG
8
3
Whenever a ship becomes out of formation (due to loss of another ship on that squadron),
it must try to return to formation as soon as possible (that is, in the next Starship Movement
Phase) and it cannot be activated with the rest of the squadron on a Starship Attack Phase until
it returns to formation.
In order to be considered of the same class, ships must have identical stats to each other
(i.e. hull size, weaponry, Shields, CTM, Hangars, Propulsion, etc.), including Quality Rating.
An exception to this is Legendary and Command ships. Legendary ships are rare, and most
games will sport a single one of them per fleet (if any!), and so we will allow them to be part of a
squadron where the other ships are equal to them in all stats but Quality (the other ships must
all be of the same Quality, though). In that case, the squadrons formation distance is the
Legendary ships Quality, that is, 5.
Similarly, a ship with the Command special rule may be part of a squadron with ships of
identical stats to it, even if they are not also Command ships.
The advantage of having ships in a squadron is being able to activate them all at once per
activation on the attack phase.
On the other hand, squadrons are a disadvantage in the movement phase, for moving second
is an advantage, as youd move knowing the final location of the enemy unit. However, players
60
PAX STELLARUM
will quickly notice that the benefits of firing with multiple ships per activation usually far exceed
the downside of also having to move them all at once!
that
Coordinated
PAX STELLARUM
The exception to this is when one of the ships in the squadron is Legendary, or when there
is terrain in the line of fire of some of the firing ships only. In that case, the to-hit numbers will
be distinct, and therefore the shots from these ships must be rolled separately.
When a ship is attacked by multiple enemies from the same squadron, it must wait for all
the attacks to be rolled before using its defenses (CTM and Shields), as all of these rolls
constitute a single source of enemy fire, as explained on the Basic Rules.
Escorting
Individual ships or squadrons may be designated to escort an allied ship. No ship may have
more than one escorting unit (i.e. ship or squadron).
A ship (whether individual or in a squadron) may only be designated to escort an ally with
at least double its Hull Size. Therefore, a squadron with 3 frigates of 4 hull points each could only
escort an ally with 8 or more hull points.
A ship or squadron may also be designated to escort a squadron. In this case, each escorting
ship cannot have more than half the number of hull points of each ship in the escorted squadron.
Escorts must be declared on the beginning of the game, upon deploying the escorting unit.
No ship can be designated as an escort during the game.
Escorts must keep within x of the escorted unit, where x = Escorting unit Quality Rating.
Whenever they move farther away than this, they temporarily lose the escort prerogatives.
When whole squadrons are escorts, only one of the ships in the squadron must be within
Quality distance of the escorted unit to maintain their escort status.
Units which have been assigned as escorts cannot have escorts themselves.
62
PAX STELLARUM
Escorts may:
ACTIVATION INTERRUPTION
Whenever a unit is activated in the Starship Attack Phase and declares an attack against
an enemy unit which has got an escort, the escort has the option to interrupt the attack before
the dice are rolled.
If the escort is designated to interrupt, it immediately activates and may attack the unit
whose activation it interrupted, and only that unit.
After that attack has been resolved, the escort is considered activated and may not go
again in the current attack phase (including interrupting other attacks against its escorted unit).
Continue the activation of the interrupted unit.
Note: It is possible for an escort to be interrupted itself if its interrupting the attack of a
ship that also has its own escorts!
_________________________
Example:
Ship A is escorted by ship B
Enemy ship C is escorted by ship D
A is designated to attack C. D is then designated to interrupt As attack, thus attacking it
first. The controller of ship A chooses to get B to interrupt ships D interruption.
Therefore, B is going to attack D. If D survives, it is going to attack A, which is then going
to attack C, here again, provided that A survives an attack from D.
__________________________
63
PAX STELLARUM
SCREENING
Escorts may also be designated to screen the escorted unit. This means that whenever
the escorts controller so chooses, the escort may block line of fire to the escorted unit, by
deliberately putting itself in the line of fire between the attacking unit and the escorted unit.
Screening may be declared whenever an enemy activates a unit to fire at the escorted ship
during the Starship Attack Phase. If the line of fire between the attacking ship and its target
passes within a 1 radius of the flight peg of a escorting ship performing Screening, the attacks
are resolved against that escort instead or the original target.
64
PAX STELLARUM
Mines
Starships that are armed with weapons with the Mine trait may deploy them whenever
they are activated during a Movement Phase, regardless of Thrust Mode.
Unlike other weapons, the Attack Dice (AD) for mines do not represent the number of mines
that can be deployed per turn, but rather is the total number of mines that may be deployed each
game. A ship may deploy all of its AD in mines in one turn or may spread it over a number of
turns, but may never exceed this number.
Mines are deployed along the flight path of the ship. Simply place a token or die in any
location between where the ship started that turn and where it finished its movement. A ship
may deploy more than one mine in the same spot. Players should use dice or tokens of different
colors, so as to differentiate them from those of their enemies.
65
PAX STELLARUM
Whenever a starship moves into
contact with an enemy mine, it will
immediately
happens,
detonate.
the
When
triggering
this
ships
PAX STELLARUM
Space Stations
Space Stations are any space installations that lack the means of moving under their own
power. This includes Star Bases, Defensive Platforms, Space Docks, etc.
Space stations are designed similarly to ships, but do not have any Propulsion, Pivoting
Rating or Hyperdrive. As such, space stations do not move in the movement phase, and
therefore are not activated in that phase.
In the Starship Attack phase, space stations activate as normal.
DOCKING
Ships are allowed to dock at Space Stations. In order to dock a ship, the player must move
it into base contact with the station under Low Thrust or Adrift mode. A ship can only dock at
an allied (or occupied) station.
Once a ship docks, it immediately changes its thrust mode to Adrift. Docked ships are not
allowed to fire any weapons.
During the Starship Movement Phase, whenever a player wants to undock one of his ships,
he may simply move it as if it were on Low Thrust. If it remains docked, the player can choose to
have it pivot on the spot at facing any direction.
67
PAX STELLARUM
While docked, a ship gains the special trait Self Repair. Additionally, it is able to make a
Repair Roll for each damaged critical system in the End Phase, instead of only one system.
No Space Station may have more hull points of docked ships than it has itself. For instance,
a 20 hull point station could dock, say, 4 ships of hull size 5, each, or 2 ships of hull size 10.
Current hull points for the station and initial hull points (that is, Hull Size) for the ship are to be
considered here.
Reserves
When a player is deploying their fleet, they may elect to hold some of their ships/units in
reserve (i.e. off the table). A number of units, with a combined hull total of no more than a third
of the fleets total hull points, may be placed aside, while the rest of the fleet is deployed normally.
At the movement phase of each game turn after the first, whenever its a player turn to
activate a unit, he may choose to try activating one of his units currently in reserve. He then
performs a Skill Check with the ship or squadron Quality Rating. If the test is a pass, the unit
enters the game immediately. If the test is a fail, the arrival of that unit will be deferred by a
number of turns equal to the difference the test failed by.
___________________________
EX:
Mark has a Destroyer in reserve, and will try to bring it to the table on the current game
turn, the 2. The Destroyer has a Quality Rating 3 (Good), and Mark rolls a 5 on the Skill Check,
which means the arrival of the Destroyer will be deferred another 2 game turns, and will only be
able to arrive on the 4 game turn.
___________________________
68
PAX STELLARUM
Even if the Skill Check fails, the player is considered to have spent his initiative of activation,
and therefore it then passes to the opponent.
Additionally, a unit whose arrival from reserve has been deferred by a failed Skill Check
doesnt have to enter the game exactly on the turn it becomes available. The player may instead
hold it in reserve for additional turns still, and whenever he wants it to arrive, he will be able to
activate it and bring it from reserve automatically.
Escorts do not roll to enter from reserve. They enter the game on the same turn the
escorted unit does.
When a unit that is currently in reserve enters the game, the controller must deploy it on
the table according to the type of entry chosen for that unit.
Hyperspace Jump
The type of entry is decided by the player prior to the start of the game, upon deployment.
The arrival of reserves by moving onto the game board is done by placing each ship in the
unit out of the game area, but with its flight peg in contact with it, and then moving them into the
battlefield according to the chosen thrust mode.
As a general rule, the border the reserve units arrive from is that of their controller.
However, a unit arriving from reserves by moving onto the game board may choose to Flank,
instead. This means that the unit will be able to enter from either of the 2 sides of the table that
dont constitute deployment zones for either player. In order to do so, a unit is required to stay
1 extra turn in reserve in addition to those determined by its Skill Check.
69
PAX STELLARUM
The controller of the
unit is not required to declare
the side his unit will arrive on,
when holding a unit an extra
turn in reserve to flank.
Units moving onto the
game board may act normally
(receive
Special
Orders,
DEVIATION ROLL
Results of 10 are treated as 0 (zero) on the Deviation roll. If the total, after Quality
is subtracted, is zero or negative, then the unit arrives right on target (i.e. no
deviation).
70
PAX STELLARUM
___________________________
EX:
A player is going to bring onto the table one of his reserves. He selects the exact place on
the game board where he would like his ship to enter. He indicates that location to the other
player by placing the arriving unit there, and then performs a Deviation Roll.
The result of the D10 is 7, and the direction is indicated below by the orange arrow,
according to the D10s facing:
As his ship has a Quality Rating Good (3), he must subtract that number from the D10
result. The exact spot the ship is going to enter is 4 away from the intended location, in the
direction shown by the upper edge of the die.
________________________
The ships heading may be freely determined by the controller. However, it must be selected
before the Deviation Roll.
Ships in a squadron jump out of the Hyperspace together. Whenever they do so, the
Deviation Roll is performed for the squadron as a whole.
In such occasions the player must determine the exact position and location for each ship,
by placing them all on the table.
He should then pick one of the ships to be the reference point for the Deviation roll. If the
roll deviates, all ships in the squadron will deviate together, keeping their relative position/heading
in relation to each other.
71
PAX STELLARUM
In case of escorts, their position is also determined in relation to the escorted unit prior to
the deviation roll, and it will deviate together with the escorted unit (it wont perform a deviation
roll for itself).
If the actual entry point of any ship in a unit places it in a collision situation with rough
terrain, make a terrain attack roll against that ship. The number of D10 to be rolled for its hits is
going to be exactly 2, as no distance was covered through the terrain.
If any ship in the unit jumps into Impassable terrain, its automatically destroyed.
If the actual entry point of a ship places it in the same spot as another ship, then both must
be arranged so that they may be placed adjacent to each other. This is done by both units being
relocated the minimum distance necessary to create space for both of them, as near their original
spots as possible.
If the actual entry point places any ship in the unit outside the game board, then there has
been a navigational error and the whole unit does not arrive that turn. It may enter on next turn,
performing a new deviation roll.
72
PAX STELLARUM
Fighters
Fighters are small attack craft that are carried into battle on carriers. Fighters are grouped
into Flights. Each flight consists of 6 fighters.
Each flight is represented by a single model or token. This can be something elaborate like
a hex base with a spider stand with 6 individual fighter miniatures or simply a plastic counter. All
measurements to and from fighters should be measured from the edge of their base, as the fighter
miniature may not have a peg or have multiple pegs.
Fighter flights are assumed to be at
full strength unless they have a die beside
them. As a fighter flight loses members,
place a die beside them indicating how
many fighters are left in the flight.
Fighters are classified as Light or
Heavy. Light Fighters are fit for the roll of
Interceptors, because they are small, fast
fighters, efficient at dogfighting. Heavy
Fighters, on the other hand, are designed
to attack capital ships with considerable
fire power, and thus usually perform the
roll of bombers.
Fighters only operate as flights, never individually (unless a fighter becomes the only one
remaining in its flight). Fighter flights cannot form squadrons with other Fighter flights.
Fighter Flights are considered to be part of the weaponry of each ship or space station, and
so share some of the stats weapons possess.
73
PAX STELLARUM
Below are indicated the basic stat lines for both Light and Heavy fighters. Stats in white
are default, stats in green are optional, and may be upgraded to the limit shown in red.
Light Fighter
RNG
FPO
TRAITS
Quality 2( Quality 5); Dodge 6 (Dodge 5+); Shields Piercing
14 (23)
1 (2)
Heavy Fighter
RNG
FPO
TRAITS
Quality 2( Quality 5); Dodge 6 on FPO 2; Shields Piercing 1
10 (18)
2 (3)
74
PAX STELLARUM
On the ship display, the number of attack dice indicates the number of fighter flights of
that type.
Every Fighter flight must be assigned to one ship or space station that has capacity to
transport it.
Each ship/station may have a number of Hangars. As each flight occupies 1 Hangar, the
number of Hangars on a model determines the limit of flights it can carry.
At the start of the game, each Fighter flight has 2 payload counters on it. Each time they
attack, they lose one payload counter (including CTM, see below). When all of a fighter flights
payload counters are gone, it may not attack again until it has returned to its base and rearmed.
Fighters may be upgraded with a trait called Extra Payload. These Fighter flights have 3
payload counters at the start of the game and when reloaded.
All fighter flights that are on board their base during the End Phase of any turn will be
rearmed (i.e. have all their payload counters replenished).
If a carrier has a critical hit on its bridge, no fighters will be able to take off or land until the
bridge damage is successfully repaired (see topic Critical Hits).
75
PAX STELLARUM
FIGHTER MOVEMENT
In the Fighter Movement Phase, players will take turns activating their fighter flights in order
to move them around the game board. All flights based on the same carrier are moved at the
same time, as if they were part of a single squadron, before the initiative is passed to the opposite
player. That doesnt mean such flights should move as squadrons (that is, keep any formation
distance). They are still independent units, moving simultaneously only to speed up game play.
Fighters begin the game onboard their carriers. In the Fighter Movement Phase, each carrier
is able to launch and/or recover a number of fighter flights equal to its number of Launch Bays.
Thus, a carrier with 5 Hangars and only 2 launch bays is only able to launch 2 flights per turn.
Each Launch Bay may launch or recover 1 Fighter Flight per Fighter Movement Phase
The number of Launch Bays a ship has is indicated under Specials on the ship display.
Upon being launched, the flight will be deployed on the game board at base contact with its
carrier. If such position is not possible, due to the size/shape of the carrier or to other ships
around, then the flight must be placed as close to its carriers flight stand as possible.
76
PAX STELLARUM
Each Launch Bay has a position designated for it, which may be any of the six fire arcs. The
flights that leave the ship must be placed at base contact with the carrier in that specific arc.
When returning to the base, simply move the fighter flight into base contact with the
carrier/base, on the specific arc where the launch bay is located.
No ship may use launch bays and fire weapons through the same fire arc on the same turn.
(Ships wouldnt fire while launch bays on that side of the hull are operating, for fear of hitting
fighters that are being deployed/recovered there!).
Fighters can move a number of inches, during the fighter movement phase, equal to their
Range in inches. Fighters may only move up to half their range on the turn theyre launched.
A Fighter Flight may be moved at any direction regardless of facing which means they do
not have to turn. Thus, a Fighter flight with range 18 may be moved at any direction up to 18.
As explained ahead in the topic Fighter Attack, fighters may only make attacks against units
theyre in base contact with. Thus, fighters wishing to engage targets must move adjacent to
them in the fighter movement phase.
77
PAX STELLARUM
Note 1: As with starships movement units do not block the way for fighter flights
movement, but rough terrain does.
Each hit on a fighter flight due to collision with terrain destroys 1 fighter, regardless of the
strength of the hit.
Note 2: Fighter flights moving into contact with enemy mines do not trigger them, as those
are too small crafts to be detected by mines sensors.
Note 3: When a fighter flight is in base contact with a ship or a space station, no unit allied
to that fighter flights may fire at the enemy ship/station through the enemy fire arc where the
allied fighter flights is, for fear of hitting allied fighters, except for those using weapons with the
CATAPULTS
As an exception to the standard rule, fighters may move up to their full range the turn they
are launched provided they remain completely within the launching fire arc of the carrier they
belong to.
This simulates the use of catapults to launch a fighter at full speed, which of course makes
it difficult to execute a sharp turn immediately after launching. This option will often be employed
by carriers that have their launch bays facing the forward arc, with the disadvantage that they
cannot fire forward that turn.
78
PAX STELLARUM
DOGFIGHTING
Whenever a Fighter flight is in base contact with one or more enemy Fighter flights, they
are considered to be in a dogfight. Dogfights may involve multiple flights from both sides.
If any flight involved in the dogfight is activated and designated to either move or attack a
target out of the dogfight - that is, a ship its also in base contact with a single enemy flight
its in contact with may be designated to intercept it. Only one flight may perform an interception
against an enemy flight, and this action cannot be intercepted by other flight.
The effects of the interception depend on whether the intercepted flight is attempting to
move or to shoot.
If a Fighter flight involved in dogfight wishes to move away (i.e. break off the dogfight), the
interception will force both flights to roll a Maneuver Check.
The test is taken by both flights rolling 1D10 and adding their Range stat. If the flight
attempting to break-off gets a higher total than that of the pursuing flight it can move away
unharmed.
Otherwise, the enemy flight gets to roll a free attack against the fleeing flight before it
moves. Such attack is a normal fighter flight attack (see ahead, Fighter Attack), but will not
prevent that flight from attacking again in the Fighter Attack Phase of the current turn.
After this interception attack, the fleeing flight is free to move and attack normally, provided
it was not completely destroyed.
If, instead, the flight is attempting to fire at a target out of the dogfight, such as a ship its
also in base contact with, an intercepting enemy flight in contact with it will automatically be
granted a free attack (no maneuver checks required). This free attack is resolved before the
intercepted flight gets to perform its attacks.
Even though those free attacks dont prevent the flight from attacking on its own activation
on the Fighter Attack Phase, they do spend a payload counter, and therefore flights that are out
of payloads cannot perform free attacks on dogfights or normal attacks on their own activations.
79
PAX STELLARUM
Additionally, no units from outside the dogfight may fire at those fighters (including CTM),
or at any ship in base contact with them, for fear of hitting their allies. Weapons that have the
Target Lock Trait are an exception to this and may attack fighter flights participating in a dogfight.
POINT DEFENSE
In the end of the Fighter Movement Phase, after all flights have moved, ships that are
equipped with CTM are allowed to use them to shoot at any enemy Fighter flights that are at
base contact with them. This represents point defense platforms firing close range bursts against
the incoming threats.
Additionally, ships are able to lend CTM to ships in their squadron, to fire at enemy
fighters in base contact with them, provided that the allied ships that are sharing CTM are within
formation. Escorts and escorted ships may also share their CTM among each other, here again,
provided that escorts are in formation with the escorted unit.
Note that because Point Defense is resolved at the end of the Fighter Movement Phase, it
cannot be used against fighters merely passing by an enemy ship. Only the place where a fighter
flight ends its movement is used to determine whether they may be attacked with CTM.
80
PAX STELLARUM
In order to hit a fighter with a CTM roll, the to-hit number is determined by the firing ships
Quality, modified by the fighters Profile (always -2), just as if shooting a weapon. Because there
is no distance between the fighters and the ship, there is never a Range modifier to this roll.
Terrain modifiers will only apply if both the fighter flight and the ship are within an area of terrain.
CTM used as Point Defense also benefits from the High Rate of Fire trait.
The player that has initiative first nominates one of their ships/squadrons that will be using
CTM against fighters and resolves the attacks. Then the other player picks a unit and does the
same. Players continue alternating ships until there are either no more fighters to attack or no
more ships engaged by fighters.
___________________________
Ex:
2 Interceptor Fighter flights end their movement at base contact with an enemy ship. One
of these fighters has got 6 fighters, the other, only 2.
The ship has a CTM of 4, and so its controller may roll up to 4D10 against the fighters.
The ships controller cannot roll his 4D10 and then choose where to allocate the hits. He
must point out the flight hes going to target with each D10 before rolling it.
He chooses to roll all 4D10 for the flight with only 2 fighters left, as he believes he may be
able to destroy the flight completely.
His ships Quality is Good, so his modified to-hit value against fighters is 9+. He rolls the
dice and gets 9, 3, 1 and 4, thus managing to destroy 1 fighter. He then gets to reroll the 3 miss,
and gets results 6, 1 and 10, which means that the single fighter left on that flight is now destroyed,
too.
___________________________
NOTE: In addition to point-defense, ships may also attack fighters normally in the starship
attack phase. The difference being that Point-defense occurs at the end of the Fighter Movement
Phase and can only be done using CTM. Thus, point defense can destroy fighters before they
have a chance to attack ships.
Attacking fighters in the starship attack phase can be done with any weapon, but it occurs
after fighter flights have had a chance to attack on their own attack phase.
81
PAX STELLARUM
Also, fighters have very low signatures, which will often require the starship to be very close
to the fighter flight to even attack it with regular weapons. CTM cannot be used to attack fighter
flights during the starship attack phase, although they may be used to defend against their attacks
as normal.
FIGHTER ATTACK
In this phase, every Fighter flight that is in base contact with an enemy unit (starship, space
station or fighter flight), may attack. The orientation of the fighter flight does not matter as
fighters are extremely maneuverable and are assumed to be able to change course as part of
their attack.
Similar to the Starship attack phase, players will activate fighter flights one at a time based
on initiative order. Each flights attacks will be resolved before proceeding with the next flight.
In order to perform an attack, Fighter flights roll a number of D10s equal to the number of
fighters remaining in the flight (remember: undamaged flights have 6 fighters).
82
PAX STELLARUM
The attack roll follows the same
procedure as for starship attacks:
apply modifiers, roll the die and, if the
result is equal to or greater than the
modified to-hit number, the attack hits.
Fighters attack based on their
own Quality Rating, just as with ships.
Because
fighters
attack
in
base
ships/space
stations,
During the Fighter Attack Phase, players may choose to move any of their flights when
activating them, instead of making attacks.
Any squadron may move its full range on this phase when activated. Such squadron wont
be able to make any attacks on this turn.
83
PAX STELLARUM
If that squadron is locked in dogfighting with an enemy squadron, an interception may be
declared, as already detailed above.
________________________
Example of Dogfighting:
During the Fighter Movement Phase, a Heavy Fighter Flight from the red side is moving
to attack an enemy cruiser from the blue side. The Flight ends its movement in base contact
with the enemy vessel. A blue Light Fighter Flight, allied to the cruiser, is then moved to base
contact with the Red Flight.
Seeing this, the Red controller then sends
another Fighter Flight, this time a Flight of Light
Fighters of his own, into base contact with the blue
Fighters. All 3 Flights are now locked in dogfighting.
In the Fighter Attack Phase, the controller of
the red fighters who has initiative - chooses to
activate his Light Fighter Flight first, trying to
destroy the blue Light Fighters. This would free
the Heavy Fighters to attack the cruiser without
the risk of interception.
The red Light Fighter Flight is at full
strength, and so 6D10 will be rolled for the attack.
The to-hit number will be 9+, as both flights have
got Quality Rating Good (basic to-hit = 7+),
modified by the fighters Profile Tiny (+2).
The Red player rolls the dice and gets the
results: 4, 2, 10, 5, 2 and 9. With 2 hits, 2 blue light
fighters are destroyed.
Now, its time for the blue player to activate
his flight. With only 4 fighters left in the group, he can roll only 4D10. The player chooses to attack
84
PAX STELLARUM
the red Heavy Fighters, but his modified to-hit number is 8+, instead, for his blue fighter flight
has got Quality Rating 4.
The blue light fighters roll 4D10, with the results: 10, 8, 10 and 2. That means 3 hits, and so
3 red Heavy Fighters are destroyed.
The Red Player now gets to activate the heavy fighters. Because the heavy fighters are
still locked in a dogfight with the 4 remaining blue fighters, if they attempt to attack the cruiser,
those enemy fighters will receive a free strike on them (provided theyve still got payloads left).
Thus the red player chooses to try to break off with them, instead, so that next turn itll
be free from the dogfight and will then be able to seek a better (less hazardous!) target, even
though in doing so it will grant the enemy a free strike just as well.
The blue player declares an interception, and therefore they both roll a D10 for the opposed
maneuver check. The red player rolls a 9, which, added to the range of the red heavy fighters of
12, gives him a total of 21. The blue player rolls an 8, which is added to the range of the blue light
fighters of 15, giving him a total of 23.
Having failed the maneuver check, the red heavy fighters are subject to a free attack from
the blue fighters before breaking off. The blue fighters roll 4D10 (one for each fighter remaining
in that flight) and get 1, 3, 1 and 9. The 9 is a hit, and another red heavy fighter is destroyed.
After that, the remaining heavy fighters in the flight two are able to break off, moving
up to 12 away from the dogfight.
85
PAX STELLARUM
Crew
Every ship/space station is considered to have 1 crew point for every 1 hull point. Whenever
a hull point is lost, 1 crew point is lost as well. Because of this equivalence, there will normally be
no need to keep track of crew points. However, in some circumstances, crew may be killed while
hull points remain the same.
These are:
Boarding actions
Whenever the crew points of a ship are different from its current hull points, a specific token
must be placed next to the model to indicate the difference.
Whenever a ships crew gets reduced to less than half the initial value (= Hull Size),
its Quality is reduced by 1, to a minimum of Quality Poor (2). Thus, ships of Hull Size
3 or more will suffer reduction of 1 point to their Quality if their current hull points
or crew points are below half their Hull Size.
If the crew total is reduced to 0, then the ship/space station is considered destroyed,
and will either grant the opponent normal victory points, or double, in case of
Boarding action (see ahead Boarding Enemy Ships, for further explanation);
86
PAX STELLARUM
Critical Hits
When a player gets a result 10 on a D10 roll for firing a weapon, and that hit is not cancelled
by CTM or Shields, he scores a critical hit on its target. However, critical hits are not scored
when a 10 is the minimum result required to hit, or when the hit doesnt inflict damage to the
ships hull.
A target may attempt to cancel a critical hit with CTM or Shields, just as normal. However,
when attempting to do so, a CTM or Shields die can only be paired with a critical hit if there are
no other non-critical hits it could be validly paired with.
__________________________
Ex:
A Ship with Shields 2 is hit by 3 shots, with Fire Power 3, 3 and 5. One of the hits of Fire
Power 3 is a critical.
The player rolls his 2D6 for Shields, and gets a 2 and a 4. The result of 4 cannot cancel the
hit with Fire Power 5, but it can be normally be paired with hits of FP 3. Since one of those hits
is a critical, it could only be cancelled by that Shields die if it had no other valid hits to be paired
with. Here, there is a non-critical hit of FP3, and therefore this is the only hit that Shields roll
may neutralize.
__________________________
87
PAX STELLARUM
RESULT OF
REPAIR
CRITICAL HIT
THE 2D6
ROLL
(1D6)
At the beginning of every Starship Movement Phase, the ship loses 1 crew point, until it is
repaired.
Shields Generator
5+
Sensors Array
Countermeasures
4+
3+
Engines
10
4+
Bridge
11
Quality Rating reduced to 2 (Poor). Cannot take on Special Orders. Cannot perform any
5+
action until the end of the current turn. The ship will disengage, by means of Hyperspace
jump, at the end of the next turns End Phase, after the repair roll, if it fails.
Power Core
At the beginning of the next Starship Movement Phase, roll a D6. If the result is 1, the ship
12
explodes. Repeat the test at every subsequent turn, raising the required result by 1 every
time. Treat the explosion as a blast explosion of D6 range and damage equal to the ships
Propulsion Rating.
88
PAX STELLARUM
Critical hits may be inflicted by any ship, space station or fighter flights, but are only applied
to ships or space stations, not fighter flights (remember: fighters are destroyed when they get
hit, so there is no point in finding out if a critical system was damaged on them).
For every Critical Hit you score on an enemy ship, roll 2D6 to allocate the hit on the Critical
Hit table.
During the End Phase of each subsequent turn, players may attempt to repair one critical
hit damage of their choice by rolling 1D6 for each one of their ships. The minimum result required
to succeed at repairing the critical hit is shown on the table above. Players can roll only one
repair roll for each of their ships in each End Phase, regardless of the number of critical hits the
ship or station has sustained.
The repair roll for a damaged system cannot be performed on the same turn it received the
critical hit. However, the repair rolls during the subsequent end phases are performed before the
effects of the damaged systems are applied to the ship, for those that have effects during the
end phase.
Ships that are destroyed by loss of hull that received a critical hit as part of the fatal volley
of fire must still roll to see if they receive a Power Core critical. If they do, the ship explodes
immediately. All other critical hits for destroyed ships are ignored.
Ships that receive a bridge hit may only perform Shields rolls and repair rolls. No other
actions may be performed on the turn the critical damage took place.
When the Shields Generator critical is repaired, the ships Shields Rating raises back to the
level it was at before receiving the shields critical. When a ships Shields are down due to a
critical hit, they are not reduced by incoming fire, nor does it replenishes during each End Phase.
If the roll on the critical hit table allocates the hit on a system the ship doesnt possess
(for example: Stern Weapons hit on a ship with no weapons capable of firing through that arc, or
a Engines hit on a Space Station), then the allocation roll must be rerolled.
89
PAX STELLARUM
A unit may get a critical hit on a system that has already suffered a critical hit before. If
that happens, consult the table below:
MULTIPLE HITS ON
RESULT
Reroll
Bridge
CTM
Sensors Array
Engines
Each successful repair raises the Sensors back by 2 points. As for Engines, as the first hit
halves thrust and the second negates it completely, there can only be up to 2 critical hits on the
same ships engines. Any additional hits to engines are treated as the next higher result on the
Critical Hit table. Ships with 2 critical hits on engines need 1 repair success to get their thrust
back to half (and back under control), and another to get it fully up again.
Also, since units with 2 critical hits on engines cannot power Hyperdrives, they cannot jump
into hyperspace, even if the Fleet fails a morale check. In that case, such ship would be left
behind, and would count as being captured if the enemy fleet remains on the table. If the enemy
fleet also disengages, the ship would be counted as destroyed.
Life-support and Power Core need only one repair success to be fixed, regardless of the
number of critical hits there.
90
PAX STELLARUM
PRECISION ATTACKS
Weapons with the Target Lock trait and fighters may be designated to perform precision
attacks on enemy ships/space stations, aiming at critical systems.
In order to perform a precision attack, declare that you are going to do so before rolling the
dice, and indicate which system you are going to target.
The difficulty for a precision attack on each system is represented by a Special Modifier for
shooting, and is related to the Repair Roll numbers, for easy reference, and because they both
are relative to the importance of such system:
Required number
Precision Attack
on repair roll
Special modifier
3+
+1
4+
+2
5+
+3
+4
Precision Attacks are able to inflict critical hits even if the fire power of the weapon/fighter
flights is not enough to pierce the targets armor, representing the shot hitting an exposed area
of the ship.
Precision attacks may be canceled with CTM and Shields as normal.
Regardless of the number of hits of a precision attack against the same system, once the
target rolls their CTM/Shields, a single critical hit will be inflicted on the chosen system, even if
there is more than one hit undefended.
91
PAX STELLARUM
Planetary Assault
ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT
Planets and moons, if inhabited, have a level of Structure, ranging from 1 to 100. Each
Structure point on a planet/moon is equivalent to 1 hull point of ships.
Unless players want to play a game that involves bombarding or invading a planet/moon,
there is no need to determine Structure for planets and moons.
Planetary Structures can be targeted by a ships weapons. In order to do so, treat
Structures as Signature 1 and Profile Small targets.
Measure the distance from the ships peg to the planets surface (remember: celestial
bodies are assumed to occupy an area on the game board equivalent to their shadow, not flight
peg).
Every hit on a Structure destroys a number of structure points equal to the fire power of
the attack.
92
PAX STELLARUM
Planets/moons may be given CTM by players to be able to defend themselves. They may
also be given fighter flights and troops.
Fighter flights are launched from and collected by planets/moons by been placed in base
contact with them.
Planets/moons may be given active defenses, such as orbital weapons platforms, which
can be designed as Space Stations. Those active defenses can also be land-based weapons, and
placed according to specific scenario rules.
CTM and weapons arrays on the surface of planets/moons are treated as targets with 1
hull point, no defenses, and Profile Tiny. Each hit against them destroys 1 CTM or 1 weapon
battery (i.e. reduces it by 1 attack die).
Bombardment may be directed against enemy troops based on the planet/moon. Treat
Troops as Signature 1, Profile Tiny targets.
PLANETARY INVASION
Ships may use their troops to invade enemy-held planets similarly to the way they are able
to board enemy ships.
Ships from the player that controls the planet/moon may designate their own troops to help
defend, by sending them to land during the Starship Attack Phase.
The ship that is going to deploy troops on the surface of a planet must be at no more than
3 from it.
In case troops are landing on enemy-held planets, they may be attacked by the
planet/moons CTM.
Troops that survive the enemy CTM are then considered to have succeeded landing on the
planet/moon. You may represent it by placing tokens/markers on the planets flight base.
Troops on the surface of a planet/moon will fight enemy combatants following similar rules
as for boarding actions (see Boarding Enemy Ships, on topic Special Orders). There is a difference,
though: Civilians.
93
PAX STELLARUM
Civilians may take part in the fighting, helping either the defenders or the attackers,
according to the rules for that scenario.
For instance, if the defenders are seen by the population as an occupation force, they
are likely to fight alongside the attackers to expel their mutual enemy.
The number of civilian units that participate in the fighting is determined at every round of
combat, by rolling a D6 and multiplying by the number of remaining structure points divided by 10,
rounded down.
For instance, if the total structure points are currently 43, the D6 is going to be multiplied
by 4.
If the structure level
is less than 20, take the
result of the D6 alone.
Therefore, it is likely
for civilian resistance to
drop
with
Structural
relative
represents
Bombarding
their homes may force them into submission or it may give them cause to rise up against their
aggressors.
Civilians fight according to the same rules as of crew (see ahead Boarding).
The other difference between boarding actions and planetary invasion is that invading troops
may also attack structures in addition to enemy troops or civilians.
Structure is hit by troops if the Skill Check for their attack is successful. Every hit from a
troop destroys 1 Structure Point.
As with boarding combat, invading players must indicate what their troops are attacking
before rolling the dice.
94
PAX STELLARUM
The attacker may fight as many rounds of combat in the same turn as he so chooses,
provided that his troops pass any morale checks they are required to make, just as with a normal
boarding action.
The combat on ground is only going to be resolved at the end of the attack phase, after all
attacking and defending ships have had a chance to send their troops to surface.
___________________________
Example of Planetary Assault:
During the Starship Attack Phase, some ships are activated to bombard the Planet Burigon,
allied to the enemy, which has 15 troops based there.
Burigon has Structure 50 and 4 CTM.
As each invading ship is activated, it fires its weapons on the planets structure, thus
reducing the structure level and the probability of the invading troops facing severe civilian
resistance.
Burigons Structure points get reduced to 23 after all ships have fired at it.
As each ship is activated to fire and bombarded Burigon, they also deployed their troops
there.
The
total
number
of
was
18.
The
player
PAX STELLARUM
Structure, hoping to lower its points to fewer than 20. That would be likely to reduce the civilian
resistance on the next round of combat.
The other 13 attacks are going to be directed at the enemy troops based there.
Both sides roll their attacks, and the 10 civilian rolls destroy 2 invading troops, while their
allied defenders destroy 4 attackers with their 15 rolls.
The assaulters attacks destroy 4 Structure points and 5 troops.
The invading player chooses to fight another round of combat, with the invading forces at
12 troops strong, the defenders at 10 troops strong and the planet down to a Structure level of
19. This means that the D6 roll for determining the number of civilian parties is now going to be
multiplied by 1, instead of 2.
___________________________
An invaded planet will only fall under the control of the invading forces on a round of combat
where all enemy troops are destroyed, as well as all civilian parties engaged in the fighting on that
round.
If the enemy troops are killed but the invading player fails to kill all civilian units, he may
choose to fight an additional round of combat to try destroying such enemies, and the D6 for
determining the number of civilian parties must then be rerolled.
The invading player may go on fighting consecutive rounds at will, until he kills all civilian
parties, loses all invading troops, loses a morale check or chooses to withdraw.
96
PAX STELLARUM
End Phase
With the additional rules laid out in the Advanced Rules section, the End Phase has
additional actions to be performed (in the following order):
Calculate the number of hull points each fleet still has in the game;
Make morale checks if one or more of the fleets is at or below 50% of its starting
total of hull points;
If either fleet (or both) have left the table, the game is over;
If not, ships with current shields values below their maximum raise them by 1 point;
Give each fighter flight that is currently on board a carrier its maximum number of
payload tokens;
97
PAX STELLARUM
AGILE
Agile Ships may move again in the starship attack phase immediately after they have made
their attacks, as long as they are not Adrift. For this additional move, Agile ships may spend a
number of thrust points equal to half the maximum for their current thrust mode.
Agile ships may make up to 1 pivot during their move in the Starship Attack Phase, following
all the same rules and restrictions as pivots in the starship movement phase. This pivot is in
addition to the limit of 2 per turn.
ASSAULT
AUTOMATED
Automated ships have no crew. This means they dont suffer any effects that cause loss
of crew.
When an Automated ship is boarded, the only way for it to surrender if their systems are
overrun. The invading troops can only try to overrun an automated ship once there are no enemy
troops onboard it. The overrun is single roll of Skill Check (regardless of the number of troops
98
PAX STELLARUM
assaulting the ship). If it passes, the automated ship surrenders. If it fails, the boarding action is
over, and the invading troops return to their own ship.
COMMAND
Some ships have advanced bridges designed to coordinate fleet actions. This is represented
by the Command special rule.
If a player has only one command ship in his fleet, that ship MUST be the Flagship, and the
player will roll 1D10 for initiative instead of 1D6.
If a player has multiple command ships, then he will roll 1D10 for each command ship on the
table (there is, not in reserve or destroyed) and take the highest die as his initiative roll. This also
applies to the roll to determine initiative on deployment.
Command on a ship ceases to function if the ship takes a critical hit to the Bridge. If the
Bridge critical hit is repaired, then Command will function again normally.
COMPOSITE PLATING
Ships with this system treat the Armor Piercing of all enemy weapons as 2 points lower, to
a minimum of 0. Thus, AP3 weapons are treated as AP1, and all other weapons are treated
as AP , when fired against such ship.
99
PAX STELLARUM
HOLOGRAPHIC SCREENS
Holographic screens (or simply Holoscreens) are a very advanced form of electronic warfare
that tricks not only enemy targeting systems but also the vision of most sentient beings.
Holographic screens make the ship appear in a slightly different location than they really are,
which makes them difficult to hit.
Each hit on a ship with this ability
must be rerolled.
MINE SWEEPING
Ships may be fitted with Mine Sweeping equipment that enables them to disarm any mines
(either enemy or allied) within range.
Each ship with the Mine Sweeping trait is capable of attempting to disarm nearby mines,
during the Starship Movement Phase (before, during or after the ship has been moved).
For each mine within sensors range (remember, mines are Signature 2 targets), you may roll
a Skill Check. If the result is a pass, the mine is immediately disarmed.
Disarmed mines are simply removed from play. They do not detonate.
100
PAX STELLARUM
MODULATE SHIELDS
This ability allows the ship to reroll any number of Shields dice against enemy fire coming
from units that have already attacked this ship at least once in the game. This represents the
ships shields adapting to the enemy attacks.
PATROL
Ships with the Patrol Special ability are small system patrol ships or light attack craft that
do not have hyperspace drives. They have a hull size of 1 and must start the game onboard a
carrier or a space station.
If a carrier/space station has multiple patrol ships, these must form a squadron when
launched. Patrol ships may or may not have their own sensors rating. If they do not have a
sensors rating, they use the carriers sensors in the same way that fighters do.
Each squadron of Patrol ships occupies 2 Hangars on its carrier.
Patrol ships launch and land on carriers/space stations in the same way as fighters, but do
so during the regular movement phase and not the fighter movement phase. When a Patrol ship
is launched, it is in the Low Thrust mode.
If, when launching multiple patrol ships, there is insufficient room to place all of the patrol
ships in base contact with the carrier and in the arc of launching, a patrol ship may be placed in
base contact with another patrol ship that is being launched at the same time.
Note that Patrol ships do not have to return to their carrier to rearm the way fighters do.
The only reason would be to get back on board before the carrier disengages.
Patrol ships left on the table after the carrier has disengaged count as being destroyed or
captured (according to rules already explained) for victory point purposes.
* DESIGN NOTE:
The main advantage of patrol ships is one of design. Patrol ships can pack more weapons
or defenses than similar ships of the same size, as they are not required to spend room with a
101
PAX STELLARUM
Hyperdrive (or sensors). The disadvantage is that they must start the turn onboard a carrier
which must have room for them.
The tactical advantage of Patrol ships, and likewise all small ships, is that targeting them
with non-aegis ships requires one TCS. This makes it very difficult for large ships to efficiently
deal with squadrons of patrol ships.
QUICK JUMP
Ships with this Special ability can perform short jumps into the Hyperspace, allowing them
to change their position on the game table entirely.
This is performed as a Movement Phase Special Order for those ships, which means that
on the turn they do so (or attempt to), they cannot perform any other Special Order.
A ship trying to perform a Quick Jump must pass a Skill check. If it fails, nothing happens,
but the ship may move normally. If the test is successful, the ship leaves its current position on
the table and immediately reenters the game following the same rules as if it was entering reserves
through Hyperspace Jump there is, determines intended entry point and direction, performs a
Deviation Roll, etc.
In case of squadrons, the Quick Jump must be attempt by the unit as a whole, and so a
single Skill Check is performed for all ships involved.
RAM SHIP
Ships with this ability can attempt Ramming actions regardless of current hull points.
Additionally, ships with this ability may act normally if they fail a Morale Check for Ramming
that is, they dont become adrift or skip their activation on the subsequent attack phase.
According to the Design Rules, only ships of Hull Size 4 or less may purchase this ability.
102
PAX STELLARUM
REINFORCED PROW
Ships with this ability have +1 armor on their prow arc of fire, without penalties to their
movement. This cannot take total armor above the limit available for that ship size and the overall
limit of Armor 3.
Additionally, ships with reinforced prows excel at ramming. This is represented by them
rolling 2D3 when determining damage on ramming actions and keeping the highest result.
When such ship rams, the damage the enemy ship inflicts on it is resolved against its prow
armor. If this ship is rammed, instead, the damage it suffers is going to be resolved against its
prow armor only if this is the arc of fire its hit at.
SCOUT
Usually, ships may only attack targets that are within range of their own Sensors, or of those
from an allied ship of their squadron.
However, ships with the Scout Special Ability are able to inform all ships in their fleet of any
enemy targeted by their Sensors.
This allows all allies to fire at enemy units within the scouts sensors range, provided that
such a vessel is within range of their respective weapons.
According to the Design Rules, only ships with a hull size of 5 or less may have the scout
special ability.
103
PAX STELLARUM
SELF REPAIR
At the End phase of each turn, ships capable of self-repairing may roll a Skill Check to try
repairing lost hull points. If the roll is a pass, the ship gains back 1 hull point, plus another hull
point for each point on the roll below the ships Quality Stat.
Thus, a ship of Quality 4 rolling a 2 will repair 3 hull points. This cannot bring total hull points
to above the initial value (that is, the Hull Size).
Additionally, ships with this ability roll for repair for every critical hit theyve got, during
each End Phase.
Repairing damaged hull points also bring back the correspondent crew points lost.
STEALTH
Ships with Stealth decrease their Signature a number of points equal to their level of Stealth.
This ability can never drop a ships Signature to less than 2.
As an example, a ship with Signature 5 and Stealth 2 will have its Signature reduced to 3
for as long as its Stealth is up.
Whenever a ship with Stealth fires any weapon or CTM, it loses this ability until the end of
the current turn.
Ships using Stealth should have a token next to them indicating such condition.
Stealth devices are integrated with the ships Shields Generator. Thus, whenever it suffers
a critical hit on Shields, its Stealth system is damaged as well, and will only be repaired when
Shields get fixed.
104
PAX STELLARUM
Special Orders
Players may give Special Orders to their ships. Most involve rearranging the distribution of
power among different systems for a period. Such effect lasts until the end of the current turn.
Each ship may take a single Special Order per turn, and this is performed at the beginning
of its activation on the Starship Movement Phase.
Every time a ship is given a Special Order, it must take a Skill Test. If failed, no order is
taken. The Ramming Special Order is an exception to this, as it requires a Morale Check, instead.
Special Orders may be taken individually by a ship, or as a unit, in case of squadrons. In that
case, the Skill/Morale Test is performed with the highest Quality Stat in the squadron. If passed,
all ships in it take the order.
In case of orders that
have
target,
such
as
PAX STELLARUM
Special Orders:
Emergency Jump
Evasive Maneuvers
Full Stop
Linked Fire
Overload Engines
Overload Weapons
Ramming
Roll Over
Running Silent
106
PAX STELLARUM
Players can board enemy starships or space stations from their own starships which have
troops on board. A boarding action represents combat between troops (and crew) from both
sides. Troops within a ship/station must be indicated in the armament of that unit.
1 The Skill Check is taken prior to moving the ship. If it fails, the ship may move normally,
but wont perform a boarding action. If it passes, it should move into base contact with its
target.
If base contact is not possible due to the size/shape of models, then the ship
attempting a boarding action should be as close as possible to its target. If the boarding
ship doesnt have enough movement to reach the target, the boarding action doesnt take
place.
2 If the boarding ship reaches its target, the attacking player chooses any number of
Troops inside his starship to perform a boarding attempt on the enemy ship;
107
PAX STELLARUM
3 The target ship may launch its CTM as Point Defense against invading troops. CTM may
be shared among allied ships here according to the rules already addressed (see topic Point
4 Troops that are not destroyed by CTM are considered to have succeeded in invading
the ship and are going to enter into a combat with the troops and/or crew of the boarded
ship. Destroyed troops cannot be used on boarding attempts later on the game.
The total number of troops that successfully boarded the enemy ship constitutes the
players total dice pool for the boarding combat. The opponents total dice pool for that
combat comprises his own troops onboard the ship (if he has any), as well as half (rounded
up) the ships current crew points.
Only half the number of
crew points are added to the
defending players dice pool to
represent the fact that the rest
of the crew need to stay at their
stations so that the ship may
keep minimum functionality.
Troops
contribute
with
players
dice
pool
is
determined, they each perform Skill Checks with each die in their own pool.
Note that crew from the boarded ship will perform this test with a D10, which makes
the test harder, thus representing the fact that they are not as fit for combat as regular
boarding troops.
Each successful Skill Check destroys 1 enemy troop or crew point. Both the attacker
and the controller of the ship being boarded are considered to roll their attacks
simultaneously, which means a troop/crew may kill and be killed in the same boarding action.
If the invaded ship has got troops onboard, hits can only be allocated to crew once all
those troops are destroyed.
108
PAX STELLARUM
Destroyed troops/crew get their correspondent dice removed from their respective
dice pools.
5 Once a round of combat is finished, the side that sustained most casualties must perform
a Morale Check, unless it has still got a larger dice pool.
If the attacking player needs to take a Morale Check and fails, his surviving troops
immediately return to their base ship and the Boarding Action is finished. Alternatively, if
he passes the Morale Check, he may choose to return his remaining troops to their base
ship (just as if he had failed the Morale Check) or to continue the Boarding Action, fighting
an additional round of combat.
If the defending player needs to take a Morale Check and fails, his ship immediately
surrenders. If he passes, the opponent may choose to either continue the Boarding Action
with an additional round of combat, or to return his surviving troops back to their ship, thus
finishing the Boarding Action.
As long as he keeps winning rounds of combat, or passing Morale Checks when losing
them, the attacking player may continue fighting multiple rounds of combat, until he either
loses all his troops, fails a Morale Check, or defeats the enemy ship, either because it
surrenders after losing a Morale Check itself, or because it spent its entire dice pool.
Therefore, a Boarding Action is always completely resolved in a single game turn.
Boarding Actions end when one of the following circumstances take place:
109
PAX STELLARUM
Its possible to board the same enemy target with multiple ships. In that case, the player
attempting a boarding action is going to proceed up to step 3 with all ships until he activates the
last ship he wants to participate in the boarding action. At that point, all troops from the ships
involved are going to have their attacks resolved as if they were arriving from the same invading
ship that is, they constitute a single dice pool.
A ship cannot fire weapons through the fire arc where the ship its attempting to board is
located. This is to avoid any friendly fire against the troops attempting the boarding action. This
limitation does not apply if troops are being transported to the enemy ship through Teleport (see
below Special Traits).
There cannot be more troops available in a ship than the number of hull points it currently
has. Thus, for instance, if a ship of Hull Size 15 and 5 troops loses 12 hull points, the number of
troops available will drop to 3 (the same as the ships current hull points). The other troops are
considered destroyed. This represents troops dying due to the damage inflicted on the ship
theyre in.
110
PAX STELLARUM
Troops can have 8 special traits. They are:
Assimilate (As): Whenever a troop with this ability destroys an enemy troop or crew,
another troop identical to the killer is put into play, and added to the dice pool of the
player who controls the troop with this trait.
Close Combat (CC): Troops with the Close combat trait may reroll any failed attack rolls.
Troops with this trait have to get close to their foe to fight effectively. On the first round
of combat, they dont attack simultaneously, but after the enemy.
On every subsequent round of the boarding action after the first, close-combat troops
will attack simultaneously with the enemy.
Fearless (Fs): Ships are not required to pass any morale checks for casualties during
boarding actions if their troops are fearless.
Force Field (FF): Force Fields are incredible powerful energy domes that surround the
troop unit. Make a 1D6 roll for every hit inflicted on troops with the Force Field Trait.
Every result of 4+ negates 1 hit.
Horror (Hr): When ships are required to perform a Morale Check and they are fighting
enemy troops with the Horror trait, the Morale Check is taken with their Quality Rating 1
point lower than normal, to a minimum of 1.
Stealth (St): Troops with this ability can approach the enemy without being detected, until
they start attacking. This is represented by such troops being able to attack first, rather
than simultaneously with the enemy, on the first round of combat.
Stealth provides no benefit on the second and subsequent rounds of a boarding action.
Teleport (Tp): Troops teleported to enemy spaceships cannot be targeted by the enemys
CTM.
Tough (To): Hits allocated to troops with this trait must be rerolled.
Whenever a troop has both a trait that grants it the ability to attack first (e.g. Stealth) and
another that causes it to attack last (Close Combat), the two cancel each other out and the troop
attacks at the regular speed, which is usually simultaneously with the enemy (unless they have a
trait which changes their attack timing).
111
PAX STELLARUM
When this order is taken, the ship immediately shifts its Thrust Mode to 1 level lower.
Raise the ships current Shields Rating by X. Until the end of the current turn, reduce
the number of Attack Dice on every line on the ships Weaponry display by X. This cannot
raise Shields Rating beyond its initial value, and therefore is only useful on ships with partially or
totally depleted ships.
___________________________
Example:
The USS Texas, which is currently at High Thrust, has an initial Shields Rating 8, but has
been reduced to 5.
During its activation on the Starship Movement Phase, it takes a Divert Power to Shields
Special Order, and chooses to boost shields by 3. Its Thrust Mode immediately shifts to Low, and
its Shields Rating returns to 8.
Until the end of the turn, all weapons on the Texas will have its AD reduced by 3.
___________________________
112
PAX STELLARUM
If a ship goes on Divert Power to Shields two turns in a row, then it will immediately receive
a Shields Generator critical hit.
EMERGENCY JUMP
This Special Order is useful on games based on victory points. When youve got a severely
damaged ship, it might be a better option for it to leave the table than to stay and meet certain
destruction.
On the Emergency Jump, the ship needs to leave normal space immediately, most of times
to avoid being annihilated by an imminent enemy attack, and so the captain chooses to take its
chances with a rushed hyperspace jump.
To represent the risk of a catastrophic error on the route definition, the ship will immediately
become destroyed if the Skill Test fails. We can assume it jumped straight into the scalding
surface of a star, or perhaps the irresistible gravity on the eye of a black hole.
If it succeeds, it leaves the board immediately.
A ship that succeeds on leaving the game this way is treated as a disengaged ship. A ship
destroyed while attempting this Special Order is treated as if destroyed by the enemy.
EVASIVE MANEUVERS
Only ships of Hull Size 10 or less, and currently at High Thrust, may go on Evasive
Maneuvers. All shooting from and against it is resolved with a +1 Special Modifier until the end of
the turn.
113
PAX STELLARUM
FULL STOP
Units given this order immediately change their Thrust Mode (whether High or Low Thrust)
to Adrift.
Because the unit has already changed thrust modes at the beginning of its activation, its
not allowed to change again at the end of its Movement, as would normally be allowed.
LINKED FIRE
Linked fire is a firing option where identical batteries are aligned to fire precisely on the
same spot, thus increasing the chances of piercing a targets Shields and Armor.
A ship is allowed to link fire of a number of attack dice up to its Quality Rating. Thus, a ship
of Quality Elite (3) may link fire of 3 attack dice of the same weapon.
Ships from the same squadron may link fire from identical weapons among them, limited to
the highest Quality Rating among them.
Linking fire combines multiple hits into a single hit, with a total fire power equal to the fire
power of that weapon multiplied by the number of linked shots that actually hit.
For example, if a ship links fire from 3 weapons with fire power 4, and 2 of these shots are
hits, then the result is a single hit with fire power 8.
All of the traits that apply to the weapon are used as normal.
Players may arrange their linked shooting freely, forming sets with different numbers of
shots, and even leaving some shots unlinked while others fire linked. All linked fire must be
announced before any dice are rolled.
Linked shots are treated as a single shot for all matters: Shields, CTM, Armor and the
weapons traits.
All to-hit roll for linked shots receive a +2 Special Modifier, representing the increased
difficulty in attempting to fire multiple weapons on such precise points.
114
PAX STELLARUM
Linked fire will only cause a critical hit if at least half of the participating hits roll a 10. In
such cases, only 1 critical is inflicted.
Fighters may also link fire among crafts in the same flight or with identical allied fighter
flights that are in base contact with the same target as theirs.
* DESIGN NOTE:
Linking Fire is the only way weapons are able to inflict damage on enemy ships with Armor
Rating higher than their Fire Power (unless they have Armor Piercing).
Only ships on Low Thrust may take on this Special Order. Ships under this order have their
Pivoting Rating (TR) shifted one line up on the Pivoting Rating table for the current Movement
Phase. Therefore, a ship with PR 530 will be able to turn at PR 445, instead.
Additionally, the ship is allowed to take
3 pivots during its movement, instead of only
2.
As no ship may have PR better than 90,
therefore, the only effect of this order on
such vessels is to increase the allowed pivots
from 2 to 3.
For the rest of the turn, the ship will only
roll half the dice on any Shields, CTM or
weapon attack rolls.
115
PAX STELLARUM
OVERLOAD ENGINES
A ship under this order will be able to spend a number of thrust points equal to its Propulsion
Rating + 50%. However, it cannot pivot this turn.
This Special order is extremely exhausting to Engines, as it forces it to work beyond the
level it was designed to operate on. If a ship receives two Overload Engines Special Orders on
consecutive turns, it immediately takes an Engines Critical Hit.
A ship must already be at High Thrust to take this order, and must remain so at the end of
the Movement Phase.
OVERLOAD WEAPONS
Only ship currently Adrift or at Low Thrust may take on this Order. Reduce you CTM and
Shields Rating by X until the end of the turn. An equal number of weapons AD may fire twice
this turn, on the Starship Attack Phase.
The limit you can reduce CTM and Shields by is equal to the highest of these two stats.
CTM and Shields return to their previous rating on the beginning of the End phase of that turn.
These extra rolls are resolved simultaneously with the normal shots.
___________________________
Example:
A ship with CTM 3 and Shields 4, if given this special order, may reduce both systems by
up to 4, thus shutting them down completely.
During its activation on the Starship Attack Phase, it may roll up to 4 AD of any weapon
twice. Lets say it has got 3AD of torpedoes, 5AD of Light Cannons and 4AD of Heavy Cannons.
It could, for instance, roll all 3AD for torpedoes twice, and another 1AD of light cannons, also, or
maybe 2AD for light cannons and 2AD for heavy cannons twice, instead.
___________________________
116
PAX STELLARUM
No ship may go on the Overload Weapons two turns in a row.
Weapons that are overloaded need to be cooled down before firing again. If a weapon is
fired the turn after being overloaded (regardless if it actually fired) then, after firing, the ship will
receive a critical hit to the weapons in the arc of fire that the weapon shot out of, during the end
phase of that turn.
RAMMING
Ramming is when one ship intentionally collides with another ship. Normally, ships can move
past other ships without colliding. Outer Space is so vast that even though ships may appear on
the game board to be right on top of one another, they are actually very far apart. Thus, for game
purposes, ships do not collide unless one ship is deliberately attempting to ram another and elects
to use the Ramming special order.
A ship may only attempt a ram action if it has already lost at least half its Hull Points
(desperate measures are only considered in desperate circumstances).
The ship attempting a ram action must pass a Morale Test, instead of a Skill Test, and
its taken before the ship moves.
117
PAX STELLARUM
If the roll is failed, in any result other than 6 the ship will simply fail to take this order
and will immediately become Adrift. Its also going to forfeit its activation on this turns
Starship Attack Phase. In a result 6, the ship will immediately perform an Emergency Jump,
just as if it had been given that order, instead. This represents the ships crew in mutiny
against the suicidal orders of their captain. As Legendary ships only fail a Morale Check on
a result 6, they will mutiny only if they roll another 6.
If the roll is successful, the ship will move into base contact with the target, within the
limits of its current Thrust Mode.
Unless the target ship is willing to let the other ship collide with it, a Maneuver Check must
be made by both ships. Each ship rolls a D10 and adds the result to their maximum allowed thrust
for its current Thrust Mode (that is: half Propulsion if on Low Thrust and full Propulsion if on High
Thrust). Adrift ships are hit automatically.
If the ship attempting the ram gets the higher result, the ram was successful, otherwise
nothing happens.
If the ram occurs, each player rolls a D3 and multiplies it by its Hull Size. This is the Fire
Power of the hit they inflict on the other ship. Shields, CTM and Holographic Screens offer no
protection, but damage is reduced by armor.
If either ship, or both, gets destroyed, remove them from play immediately.
As space stations have no Propulsion, ramming attempts on them always succeed (if the
Morale Check is good), in which case just go directly to rolling the D3s for damage.
The Ramming Special Order can be given to fighters. Fighter flights ramming ships have
some specific rules:
If the ramming succeeds, the whole flight is destroyed, so theres no need for the
rammed ship to roll a D3 for damage on the fighters.
For each fighter in the ramming flight, the target is going to suffer 1 hit. The Fire
Power of each hit is going to be the result of the D3, alone, since they each have a
single Hull point. Roll for each fighter separately.
118
PAX STELLARUM
If the ramming succeeds, the ramming flight loses 1 fighter for every fighter there
was on the rammed flight;
The rammed flight loses 1 fighter for every fighter there was on the ramming flight.
ROLL OVER
When a ship is given this order, its Port fire arcs become Starboards, and vice versa. This
may be useful when a ship has got a critical hit on one of its broadsides.
Such order spends 2 points of
thrust for this turns movement. A ship in
the Adrift mode cannot be given this order.
This order may be cancelled on any
subsequent Starship Movement Phase;
again, at expense of 2 points of thrust.
RUNNING SILENT
This Special Order is very similar to All Systems Shut Down. The difference is that here
the ship keeps not only the life support systems running, but also the engines operating, at half
power, allowing it to move at Low Thrust mode.
Because the engines are partially operating, the ships Signature is going to be 2.
Other than that, all features from the All Systems Shut Down Special Order apply here.
119
PAX STELLARUM
Heroic Characters
In addition to a high Quality Rating, Legendary ships may be given a Heroic Character. This
is represented by them having a Character Trait, portraying the unique qualities of that heroic
character.
Before deploying fleets, players with Legendary ships must name their characters in the box
Specials on the Fleet Display, and must indicate which character trait that hero will use.
There are 6 different character traits to pick from. All are listed below.
Unless stated otherwise, the effects of each character trait only apply to the ship or fleet
while the Legendary ship is on the table.
THE BRAVE
You may reroll all failed Morale Checks for this Legendary ship, as well as for all friendly
ships/units within 5. This doesnt apply to the Fleet Morale Check for total hull destruction.
THE BRILLANT
You may reroll all failed Skill Checks for this Legendary ship, as well as for all friendly
ships/units within 5.
120
PAX STELLARUM
THE DREADFUL
All successful Morale Checks for enemy ships within 5 must be rerolled. A successful
fleets Morale Check for total hull destruction of the enemy fleet must also be rerolled, if the
enemy flagship is within 5.
THE INGENIOUS
All failed Repair Rolls for the Legendary ship may be rerolled. In addition, it may attempt to
repair each of its critical hits during the End Phase, instead of only one. This ability also extends
to all allied ships within 5 of this Legendary ship.
THE LUCKY
You may reroll any one die each turn, or force your adversary to do so. This ability cannot
be used in circumstances that already allow a reroll (e.g. High Rate of Fire Weapons).
In order to use this ability, you must declare youre doing so immediately after the result
you wish to be rerolled.
THE TACTICIAN
All enemy units within 5 of this Legendary ship must activate first on the beginning of each
Starship Movement Phase, before all other units do. After these units have activated, alternated
activations between players are taken as normal, respecting initiative.
121
PAX STELLARUM
Faction Traits
Players may choose one of the Faction Traits listed here to further customize their fleets.
Faction Traits provide Special Rules that apply to all ships in the fleet.
BARBARIANS
All ships in a fleet with this trait may reroll failed Skill Checks to take a Boarding Special
Order, as well as failed Morale Checks to take a Ramming Special Order.
CYBERNETIC
All ships in a fleet with this trait may purchase the Automated Special Ability for free.
COLLECTIVE MIND
The player that controls a fleet with this trait may attempt multiple unit activations in
sequence during the attack phase of each turn.
This is done as follows: the player activates a unit normally, when it is his turn to do so.
After resolving the activation of that unit, he may choose to try activating another unit in
sequence, instead of allowing his opponent to activate one of his own.
In order to do so, that unit must pass a Skill Check. If it fails, that unit wont be able to
activate for the remainder of that game turn. If it passes, it immediately activates.
As long as the player succeeds at activating units in sequence, he may continue to do so,
until he either fails a units Skill Check, or chooses to stop doing so. In either case, the initiative
122
PAX STELLARUM
of activating a unit passes to his opponent, but when it returns to him, he may once again try
sequenced activations.
ORGANIC
All ships in a fleet with this trait may purchase the Self-Repair Special Ability for free.
ROGUE
All ships in a fleet with this trait may flank when arriving from reserve without having to
spend an extra turn in reserve.
At least a third the total hull points in the fleet must be of Quality Poor ships, and no ship
in the fleet may have Quality Elite.
SUPERIOR
Fleets with this trait have no limit on the total number of hull points of Quality Elite they
may have in play (see Fleet Composition).
SWARM
Ships in a fleet with this rule may gather into squadrons with one ship in excess of what is
normally allowed for their Point Cost. Ships of Point Cost 201 or greater are still forbidden of
joining squadrons.
123
PAX STELLARUM
Fleet Composition
There are a number of restrictions players must bear in mind when building their fleets.
Other than that, they are free to arrange their fleets as they will. The restrictions are:
124
PAX STELLARUM
51 to 100
101 to 150
151 to 200
201 and up
A second restriction on the size of a squadron is that no squadron may have more ships
than there are units in the fleet.
For example, if a fleet is arranged into 3 units, with 1 unit being an individual ship and the
other 2 units being squadrons, neither of those squadrons may have more than 3 ships, even if
the ships cost less than 101 points.
* DESIGN NOTE: This rule is in place to prevent players from massing their fleets up into a single
squadron in small games, which would otherwise allow the player to activate and fire all of his
ships at one time.
125
PAX STELLARUM
As each fighter flight requires 1 Hangar and each squadron of patrol ships requires 2, the
total number of such units onboard each ship may not exceed its number of hangars.
126
PAX STELLARUM
Optional 3D Rules
For players wishing to add some additional complexity and tactical depth to their games,
here are some (very) simple 3D rules that do no slow down the game:
When playing in 3D, Ships can be located in one of 3 different altitudes:
Galactic Plane
All ships and terrain begin the game on the galactic plane, as well as Space Stations, unless
the scenario indicates otherwise.
Terrain does not block movement of ships at different altitudes. Terrain only blocks line of
fire if the target is on the same altitude as the terrain, or if the terrain is at an altitude between
the attacker and the target.
During the Starship Movement Phase of each turn, ships may change their altitude by 1
level, up or down, by spending 3 points of thrust.
In order to keep track of where each ship is, place tokens of different colors next to ships
above or below the galactic plane. Ships without tokens are located on the galactic plane.
Fighter flights may change altitude on the Fighter Movement Phase in the same way.
Whenever a ship is firing at an enemy target located 1 level of altitude away, the range
modifier will have an extra +1.
Whenever a ship is firing at an enemy target located 2 levels of altitude away, the range
modifier will have an extra +2.
The Sensors Rating of each ship detects enemy signature in different galactic altitudes with
inverted modifiers.
Thus, detecting an enemy ship 1 level away will be done with its signature at 1 point lower.
Detecting an enemy ship 2 levels away will be done with its signature at 2 points lower.
127
PAX STELLARUM
As fighters may only fire at targets that are at base contact with them, they are not allowed
to fire at enemies situated on a different altitude.
In games using 3D rules, Shields, CTM, fire arcs and everything else works just as normal.
Shields envelop the entire ship, and can protect the ship from attacks coming in any direction.
The same applies for CTM, which are turret batteries capable of turning to any direction to engage
incoming projectiles.
Fire arcs are cone shaped, rather than linear V shaped, and therefore are capable of
attacking targets above/below the ships position.
Blast weapons only affect ships on the same level or 1 level of altitude away.
Note that playing in 3D adds a few positive (penalty) modifiers for shooting, therefore making
attacks on average less accurate. To avoid significantly increasing the time to play a game, players
may consider reducing the profile of all ships by 1. This should keep the game length to the same
time as a regular 2D game.
128
PAX STELLARUM
DESIGN RULES
This section of the rules covers the design of ships. These rules not only allow you to
recreate the starships from popular sci-fi series and books, but also allow you to bring to life
ships from your own imagination.
The Design Rules go beyond just
starships, allowing you to also design
your own weapons, fighters and troops.
We think you will find that the level of
customization which can be achieved is
extremely broad and players will have no
trouble designing very unique forces.
In the Design Rules, each starship
component is described and given a cost
in both points and mass.
Additionally
there
may
be
129
PAX STELLARUM
Design Overview
When designing a ship there are two important parameters to consider. The first is Mass.
Hull provides Mass Capacity (MC) and weapons and systems on a ship have each a Mass Value
(MV). No ship may have more total Mass Value than its Mass Capacity.
The second important design parameter is Point Cost. This is the currency in Pax
Stellarum and represents the resources and effort required to build the ship you have designed.
While there is no design limit on the cost of a ship, players should be mindful of the relative
cost of ships as it will have a significant impact when its time to gather up a fleet and play with
it!
In order to design a ship, simply open up the Design Tool and start selecting values for the
various ship parameters. You will need to decide on Tech, Hull Size, Armor, Quality, Propulsion,
Sensors, Shields, etc. Some ship parameters, such as Signature, Profile and Pivoting are not
chosen by you, but rather determined automatically, based on your previous selections.
Then it is time to design some weapons to go on the ship. Weapons are designed separately
and then added to the ship.
Some ships have fighters, and these are designed in a similar way to weapons. They are
designed separately and then added to the ship.
You will then decide which Special Systems & Abilities the ship has (if any), such as
Holographic Screens, Teleport, Stealth, etc.
130
PAX STELLARUM
Finally, most ships have some troops. Again, the design process is similar to those of
weapons.
Once all of these items have been completed you will have to review your ship design to
make sure there are no Validation Warnings in the ship design tool. Once the design is finalized,
you will need to type the information on a ship display, so that the design can be easily printed
and used for reference during play.
The following sections provide the details of the design rules. We recommend you go reading
each topic as you go about designing a ship for the first time.
Faction Traits
Players may select a Faction trait for their forces. Each fleet may have a single Faction
Trait, and their rules apply to all ships on it.
The cost of a Faction trait is not part of the cost of each ship. It is accounted for as a point
cost for the fleet composition.
FACTION TRAIT
Barbarians
2,0
Cybernetic
2,0
Collective Mind
4,0
Organic
3,0
Rogue
1,0
Superior
3,0
Swarm
4,0
131
PAX STELLARUM
Hull Size
HULL DESIGN
One of the fundamental aspects you should determine when building a ship is what kind of
ship its going to be. Is it a Frigate? Or a Cruiser? Or maybe you just want to create a Space
Station.
Although there is no rule that says this or that kind of ship must have a specific Hull Size,
we offer some parameters that may be suitable for most designs:
TYPE
HULL POINTS
Corvette
1 or 2
Frigate
3 or 4
Destroyer
5 to 7
Light Cruiser
8 to 10
Heavy Cruiser
11 to 13
Battlecruiser
14 to 20
132
PAX STELLARUM
Battleship
21 to 30
Dreadnought
31 to 50
51 and up
Mothership
5 and up
Space Station
No Propulsion or
Hyperdrives
Each Hull point costs 1 point. Thus, after defining the number of hull points for your ship,
youll have begun defining its point cost.
Every Hull Point provides a Mass Capacity (MC) value of 10.
Note 1: As we said, there is no rule fixing size or number of hull points for each type of ship.
In some space fiction universes, there are mile-long destroyers, while in others a mere 200 meters
ship is classified as a battlecruiser.
You should only keep in mind that if you create a 10km long Frigate, with perhaps 200 hull
points, what is going to be the size of your Battleships? And what about their cost? Are they
going to be affordable? How long will it take to play a game with such large ships?
Thus, while designing new ships, bear in mind the relative size of ships and how it will affect
fleet selection and game play (and the relative size of your opponents ships).
Note 2: The Design Tool is going to automatically inform the ships type when you choose
its number of hull points. It will classify it as a Space Station if you buy no Propulsion for it.
133
PAX STELLARUM
Technology
As a general rule, all ships from the same race should have the same Tech, but players may
agree to include ships of different Tech in their fleets. Tech determines what items (and what
levels of each item) are available to be included on that design.
TECH
1
DESCRIPTION
Space Age
First steps out of its own atmosphere
Solar Age
Initial Exploration of own Solar System
Interstellar Age
Discovery of Faster-Than-Light Travel
Exploration Age
Exploration of nearby Solar Systems
Expansion Age
First Colonies beyond own Solar System
Imperial Age
Constitution of thriving trans-stellar Civilization
Galactic Age
Capacity to reach far into the Galaxy
Introspection Age
Search for the ultimate secrets of the Cosmos
134
PAX STELLARUM
Dimensional Age
Transition into Dimensional Beings
Nigh-Omnipotence Age
10
When choosing options for your ship, youll notice that several items have a Tech Requisite,
which is the minimum TECH required to be able to purchase it. No ship may purchase items that
are beyond their TECH.
Also, ships of TECH 1 or 2 do not have Hyperdrives. For all others, this item is mandatory
(unless they are Patrol Ships or space stations).
The cost of TECH is defined by the following equation:
Tech Cost =
TECH x Hull Size x 0.2
135
PAX STELLARUM
Quality
The Point Costs for Quality Rating is determined by the equation:
Quality Point Cost =
Quality Rating Value + (Quality Rating Value x Quality Rating Value x Hull Size x 0.08)
If Quality 5 (Legendary) is chosen, the player may purchase a single Heroic Character trait
on the list below, for 5 points:
The Brave
The Brilliant
The Dreadful
The Ingenious
The Lucky
The Tactician
136
PAX STELLARUM
Profile
Profile modifiers are determined by the type or model, for non-starships, and by hull size,
for starships, according to the table below:
HULL SIZE/TYPE
MODIFIER
DESIGNATION
Fighters, Troops
+2
Tiny
1 or 2 hull points
+1
Small
3 to 20 hull points
Standard
21 to 40 hull points
-1
Large
-2
Colossal
Countermeasures
Shields Cost =
CTM Rating + (CTM Rating x Hull Size x 0.3)
PAX STELLARUM
The total combined Rating of Shields + CTM cannot go beyond 15. Additionally, ships have
a limit of this total combined equal to half (rounded up) their Hull Size.
Thus:
Shields
Shields Cost =
Shields Rating + (Shields Rating x Hull Size x 0.2)
Thus, a ship of Hull Size 12 with Shields Rating 5 would have a total point cost for Shields
of 17 (5+(5x12x0.2)), while a ship of Hull Size 3 and Shields Rating 2 would have a total point cost
for Shields of 3.2 (2+(2x3x0,2)).
Every 1 point of Shields Rating has 0.2 Mass Value for every hull point. Thus, a 25 Hull point
Battleship with Shields 8 will have mass value 40 (0.2 x 25 x 8 = 40) for Shields.
The Tech Requisite for Shields is 5.
138
PAX STELLARUM
Armor
The cost of each armor point depends on the ships hull size, for the larger the vessel, the
greater the cost to cover its hull with a layer of armor.
The Tech Requisite for Armor is equal to twice its level. Thus, Amor 1 has got Tech
Requisite 2, Armor 2 has got Tech Requisite 4 and Armor 3 has got Tech Requisite 6.
Armor Cost is determined by the following equation:
Armor Cost =
Armor Level + (Armor Level x Hull Points x 0,7)
Armor is very heavy. Thus, each level of armor will cause the ships Pivoting Rating to drop
one line in the Pivoting Rating table. Additionally, each level of armor causes the total Propulsion
of the ship to drop 1 point.
No ship may have armor beyond 3. Armor does not have Mass Value, as it is mounted on
the outside of the ship.
139
PAX STELLARUM
Sensors
Each 1 point of Sensors has a Mass Value of 0.8, and cost determined by the equation:
Signature
Signature is determined by Hull Size for starships and Space Stations and by the type of
unit for everything else, according to the table below:
TYPE/HULL SIZE
SIGNATURE
Heavy Fighters
1 to 3 hull points
4 to 10 hull points
11 to 24 hull points
25 to 38 hull points
140
PAX STELLARUM
Propulsion
Each point of Propulsion Rating has got Mass Value 0.1 for every hull point. Thus, a Hull
Size 3 Corvette with Propulsion 16 has got Mass Value 4.8 (0.1 x 3 x 16 = 4.8) for this system.
Hull Size 1 or 2: 16
Hull Size 3 to 5: 14
Every point of Tech above 7 increases the limits above by 1. Thus, a ship of Hull Size 18
and Tech 9 could purchase a maximum value of Propulsion of 12, instead of 10.
Every point of Armor reduces the purchased value of Propulsion by 1.
141
PAX STELLARUM
Pivoting
Starships Pivoting Rating will be proportional to its hull size, according to the following
table:
HULL SIZE
1 or 2
3 to 8
9 to 18
19 to 30
31 to 45
46 and up
PIVOTING
90
190
275
360
445
530
Each point of Armor in a ship shifts its Pivoting Rating 1 level worse. Thus, a ship of Hull
Size 5 and Armor 2 (medium armor) is going to have Turning rating of 360, instead of 190.
However, the worst Turning Rating possible is 530 for all ships, regardless of their
armor/hull co-relation.
Ships of Tech 8 or superior are able to purchase better Pivoting Rating, to a limit equal to
their Tech Level in excess of 7. Thus, ships of Tech 8 may upgrade their Pivoting by 1, ships of
Tech 9 may upgrade their Pivoting by 2 and ships of Tech 10 may upgrade their Pivoting by 3.
142
PAX STELLARUM
Hyperdrive
Hyperdrives are mandatory for starships above TECH 2, and so any ship youre designing
for standard single battles must have them. The exceptions to this are Space Stations and ships
with the patrol trait.
Hyperdrives have a base Mass Value of 2, and an additional 0.5 for every hull point.
Therefore, a ship of Hull Size 1 is going to have Hyperdrives at Mass Value 3; a ship of Hull
Size 10 is going to have Hyperdrives at mass value 12, and so on.
Choose the location (arc) of each launch bay on your ship/station, and indicate it on the
box Specials, on the ship display.
143
PAX STELLARUM
Weapons
Weapons are designed under the Arsenal Design Tool in the Design Tool spreadsheet.
Once you design a weapon and store its stats on one of the stock grids available, its name
is going to show on the list of options for each weapon choice on the Ship Design Tool. If you
select that weapon, its cost and mass value will be retrieved automatically, and added to your
ship cost, according to the number of AD you purchase for that weapon.
There is a limit on the number of different types of weapons each ship may carry, according
to its Hull Size, as follows:
144
PAX STELLARUM
1-10
RANGE
2-50
ARCS
1-6
TRAITS
The base cost of each weapon is determined by its Fire Power + Range + Traits. No weapon
may have more than 3 traits.
Once the base cost is determined, it will be increased by the selected number of additional
arcs of fire, if any, according to the type of weapon.
145
PAX STELLARUM
Weapons Mass Value is equal to (Fire Power x 0,4) + (Range x 0,07).
Weapons with multiple arcs must pick adjacent arcs.
E.g.: A weapon with 3 arcs of fire. If you choose the first arc to be Prow, the second will
have to be either Fore Port or Fore Starboard. Choosing the second arc to be the Fore Port, the
third may either be the Aft Port (adjacent to Fore Port) or the Fore Starboard (adjacent to Prow).
Troops
Each point of Troops has got Mass Value 2.5. The Basic point cost of each point of Troops
in a ship is equal to Quality Rating /2. Thus:
QUALITY RATING
TROOPS COST
Poor
1.0
Good
1.5
Elite
2.0
Legendary
2.5
146
PAX STELLARUM
The base cost for each point of troops in a ship is then increased according to the traits
chosen (if any):
Each ship/space station is required to have a number of troops equal to a minimum of 20%
and a maximum of 50% (rounded up) of its hull points.
Thus, a ship with 10 hull points must have at least 2 troops, and no more than 5.
Only ships with 5 hull points or more are required to comply with the rule of minimum number
of troops.
147
PAX STELLARUM
Fighters
Fighter Flights have got distinct cost for each item, according to their type (Light or Heavy),
as shown on the chart ahead.
LIGHT
HEAVY
1 or 2
2 or 3
RANGE
14 - 23
10 - 18
1-50
2-5
2-5
FIRE POWER
QUALITY
148
FPO 2
Extra Payload: 5 points
Shields Piercing 1: 2 points
Shields Piercing 2: 3 points
PAX STELLARUM
Hangars
Each Fighter Flight on your ship must be displayed in a Hangar. Each Hangar costs 2.5 points
and has a Mass Value of 6.
Launch Bays
Each Launch Bay costs 2 points and has a Mass Value of 2.
AGILE
Agile costs a number of points equal to Hull Size and has got Mass Value equal to 0.4 x
Hull Size. Only ships of Armor rating 1 or 0 may have this ability.
Thus a ship of Hull Size 4 may purchase this ability for a total cost of 4 points, and a total
Mass Value of 1.6.
Requires Tech 4.
149
PAX STELLARUM
ASSAULT
Assault has got a point cost of 0.5 x Hull Size, and has got no Mass Value.
AUTOMATED
Automated has got a point cost of 0.5 x Hull Size, and has got no Mass Value.
Requires Tech 9.
COMMAND
Command has got a point cost equal to 0.7 x Hull Size, and has got no Mass Value. Only
ships of Hull Size 5 or greater may have this ability.
150
PAX STELLARUM
COMPOSITE PLATING
Composite Plating has got no Mass Value, and has got a point cost equal to 5 + Armor
Level x Hull Size x 0.5.
Requires Armor Level 1 at least, and Tech 6.
HOLOGRAPHIC SCREENS
Holoscreens have got Mass Value equal to Hull Size x 0.8 and point cost equal to 10 +
Hull Size x 2.
Requires Tech 8. Ships equipped with Shields cannot have Holoscreens.
MINE SWEEPING
Mine Sweeping costs 8 points and has got a Mass Value of 5. Requires Tech 6.
MODULATE SHIELDS
Modulate Shields has got a point cost equal to Shields Rating x 2.5, and has got Mass
Value equal to Shields Rating x 0.8.
Requires Tech 9.
PATROL
Patrol has got no point cost or Mass Value. Only ships of Hull Size 1 may have this ability.
Patrol ships do not purchase Hyperdrive.
151
PAX STELLARUM
QUICK JUMP
Quick Jump has got a point cost equal to Hyperdrive cost x 0,6, and its Mass Value is
equal to Hyperdrive Mass Value x 0,3.
Requires Tech 8.
RAM SHIP
Ram Ship has got a point cost equal to Hull Size, and Mass Value equal to Hull Size x 0.5.
Only ships of Hull Size 4 or less may purchase this ability.
Requires Tech 4.
REINFORCED PROW
Reinforced Prow has got no Mass Value, and has got a point cost equal to Armor Level x
Hull Size x 0,3.
Requires Tech 5.
SCOUT
Scout has got a point cost of 4.0 and has a Mass Value of 2. Only ships of Hull Size 5 or
lower may have this ability.
Requires Tech 6.
152
PAX STELLARUM
SELF-REPAIR
Self-Repair has got a point cost of 2 + Hull Size x 0,3, and has got no Mass Value.
Requires Tech 9.
STEALTH
Stealth has got a point equal to 5 + Stealth Level x Hull Size x 0.5 and Mass Value equal
to Stealth Level x Hull Size x 0.2.
Stealth 1 requires Tech 6. Stealth 2 requires Tech 7. Stealth 3 requires Tech 8.
***
153