Shipwars (variation on Brikwars for dogfighting)

Supplement ideas, house rules, homemade stat cards, homebrew weapon types, and other cool variations

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Shipwars (variation on Brikwars for dogfighting)

Post by Dr. X » Fri Jul 11, 2008 1:16 am

Shipwars was thought up when I got really deep into the subject of aerial combat. I made these rules then, late at night, half-asleep.

Shipwars takes place in rooms, not on the usually smaller place of battlefields. Terrain is minimal or nonexistant, except for of course the floor. Planes always, always stay on the horizontal surfaces, because you can't really hold them in the air for long. But, if say there was a stack of books or a table, you could move your plane up onto it, avoiding other's gunfire. So, Shipwars takes place in rooms, and in larger battles, entire houses.

In shipwars, each ship has it's own stat card. Unless you have duplicates of ships, which is not very normal for me at least, every ship/plane you have will have it's own stat card. These stat cards have on them: The armor level of the plane, the speed/move of the plane, the armament of the plane, and the plane's special ability, if it has one. The average speed for a plane, on my cards, is about 5/6 feet (remember, ROOMS and HOUSES, not battlefields). Now since planes can't stop in mid air, you must spend at least 50% of your move in 1 turn, wether before or after attacking. You can move and attack in the same turn with a ship. In one turn, you can move all your ships also. Armor average is about 6-8 (NO DICE). A special thing about armor in this game: Say the plane was hit and the damage was 9, and the defense was an 8. The plane dies. Now say the damage was 7, and the plane's defense was 8. The plane is now DAMAGED. Place some sort of consistent marker (whatever piece you have most of, doesn't have to be same color) on the plane to show it's damaged. Once a plane is damaged, any damage inflicted, wether below or above the armor level, destroys the plane. That's how armor works. Now skill is determined by the minifig piloting it. If the minifig is an officer, than the skill of the plane is the officer's skill (1d6+1), and so forth. You may write this down on your stat card of the plane, for easy reference.

OPTIONAL RULE:
Stat cards can be confusing, because they need to be made just right in coherence with the stats of weapons. This is hard if you don't know what you are doing, and Anoraks may attempt to make a card with 300 armor and move. If they do this, you may want to use universal stat cards. Here they are:

Small fighter:
MOVE: 6 feet
ARMOR: 6

Big fighter:
MOVE: 7 feet
ARMOR: 7

Small bomber:
MOVE: 7 feet
ARMOR: 9

Big BOmber:
MOVE: 7 feet
ARMOR: 11

BLOODY HUGE PLANE/S.H.I.P (Seriosly Huge Investment of Parst)!
MOVE: 8 feet
ARMOR: 15


Weapons in shipwars work like this:
Guns come in two varieties, big, and small. You decide your own criteria for what's big and small, I can't really tell you.

Big gun stats: (big guns in my games are pretty big, usually more than 3 inches long)
UR: 2
DMG: 1d6+2
RNG: 7 feet
Small gun stats: (Anything smaller than big guns)
UR: 2
DMG: 1d6+1
RNG: 6 feet

Now say you wanted to fire your gun. You can move before or after you fire. Usually you move to aim your gun, or if your gun is a turret you aim that. Make sure you are in range. Then roll your skill. I shipwars, all skill is for guns is just the act of pressing a button. Hence the low URs. So, say you make it. Now the bullets have fired. To determine if they hit, roll your pilot's skill against the pilot who you were firing at's skill. If you roll above his, you hit, now roll damage. If he wins, his planes dodges the fire, like in a real dogfight, and the bullets miss. This is why it depends on the pilot's skill, it's his skill to dodge those bullets by piloting his aircraft.

That's how GUNS work.

Missiles are different. Seeker missiles are the only kind in this game. First, let's look at the missile Mk levels. It's up to you also to determine what missiles are what level, the examples in parentheses are what I use.

Mk1: (Just a plain cone and cylinder, with maybe a dot too)
UR: 3
DMG: 1d6+3
SKILL: 4
Speed/move: 8 feet

Mk2: (still 1x1, but longer with those small tailfin pieces)
UR: 4
DMG: 1d6+4
SKILL: 5
Speed/move: 9 feet

Mk3: (pretty big, 2x2 circular)
UR: 5
DMG: 1d6+6
SKILL: 7
Speed/move: 10 feet

Mk4 (nukes, gotta be frikin' huge)
UR: 6
DMG: 3d6+10
SKILL: 8
LOR: 3 rooms

Now you're probably wondering why missiles have thier own skill now. Well, these missiles track. They heat seek. After successfully locking on and firing, you roll the missile's skill against the pilot's skill to determine if it hits. To lock on, either have the missile pointing at the enemy ship within the missile's lock on range (LOR), or have a radar on your plane. Small radars can lock on to anything in front or to the side of them, but not behind. For example, a small radar on teh front of a plane could lock on to anything within one room on the sides or front of the plane. If it was on the back, it can lock on to anything within the sides or BACk of theplane. LARGE radars (they have to be huge, like frikin' huge, to be large radars) can lock on to anything within 4 rooms, but can only use this to fire Mk3 and Mk4 missiles. These radars are usually for large planes that carry cruise missiles. NOTE: Large radars, when mounted on a plane, give it a -2 feet move penalty.

Get it now? So, once it's locked on and successfully fired, roll the missile's skill against the enemy pilot's to see if it hits. Got it? Good.

That's basically all there is to Shipwars, but if you still can't understand it here is a combat example.

A squadron of F-14s spots an incoming swarm of UFOs from space. The UFOs start on a table, the F-14s on the floor in teh next room. Play rock/paper/scissors to determine who goes first. The UFOs, with thier psychich abilities, win this. So the UFOs, with thier special ability 'radar LR', can lock on to enemies with Mk2s up to one room away. A UFO with a Minifig inside locks on to the lead F-14, and rolls the dice. Getting a 5, he fires his Mk2 and it zooms toward the F-14. The F-14 breaks off and tries to lead the missile away and avoid it. THe pilot is an officer, and so he rolls his skill of 1d6+1 against the missile's skill of 5. He rolls a 4. "Oh CRAP!" The missile hits him. The damage roll commences. 1d6+4 damage. The UFO pilot rolls a 2, cusses, then adds for for a total of 6. This is one below the fighter's armor of 7, so the missile only DAMAGES the fighter. The player puts some flame and blood pieces on teh fighter, and a small dot (pip, 1x1 curcular plate) on it to indicate that it is damaged. The UFOs decide to not fire any more, in favor of eating some donuts. They do however move thier ships up 8 feet (max move), which is thier move. They have now gone almost to the door leading in to the lroom with the F-14s. They give up their turn. now the F-14s move up 3.5 feet (minimum move, 50% of original move), 2 of them firing Mk2s and destroying one UFO, damaging the other. (I don't need to go into detail here i think) The other 2 turn around, cowards, and head back to base. These did not include the damaged one. IT is now the UFOs turn again. One fires first, aiming at the damaged F-14. He rolls a 3, succesfully pulling the trigger. The bullets whizz through the air. the UFo pilot now rolls his skill (1d6) agianst the F-14 pilots skill of 1d6+1. The UFO rolls 5, and the F-14 rolls 3 (+1 = 4). Crap, he thuoght, just a bit higher and I would have made it. So the bullets hit his plane. Damage roll time. The gun is a small one, so DMG = 1d6+1. However, they don't even knead to roll, becaues this F-14 is alreadgy DAMAGED. Any amount of DMG will now destroy it. The plane blows up. Anyway, the battle goes on and the UFOS whine, (win) but anyway you get it now.

And that's it. THis is only an outline, when yo play it you'll probly modify it, make up your own stat cards or specail abilitys, and stuff. You can have 1on1 battles wit only 2 planes, or huge scale airgfights like WW2 with tons of planes and spanning the whole house. You might want to modify the stats for your own purpose or preference, or whatever. Anyway, Have fun wit it!

--Dr. X

(P.S.: Sorry for all the misspellings near the end, my fingers are tired)
I think those stats only apply to non-Mexicans.

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Post by Tesla Coyle » Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:35 pm

This is a long long post. I'll read the whole thing later but I really dig the idea of room sized aerial battles. Gives a whole new meeting to the combat ceiling.

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Post by Dr. X » Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:09 pm

Lol'd!
I think those stats only apply to non-Mexicans.

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Re: Shipwars (variation on Brikwars for dogfighting)

Post by Evil Wayne » Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:11 pm

Dr. X wrote:Terrain is minimal or nonexistant, except for of course the floor. Planes always, always stay on the horizontal surfaces, because you can't really hold them in the air for long. But, if say there was a stack of books or a table, you could move your plane up onto it, avoiding other's gunfire.
Actually, you can make real good use of Duplo to hold up airships for altitude. I've done it on several occasions.

SkiffFight made great use of it:

Image

Three Duplo blocks are an altitude change. By color coding them, you can easily see how far up or down something is supposed to be or is likely to move. You do need a couple of bricks on the bottom to make the transition and sometimes the clutching power is less than desirable, but it's a great use for Duplo which you can usually find at yard sales for a song.

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Post by Dr. X » Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:14 pm

Good idea wayne. Altitude is the only problem I had when designing the rules... unfortunately I don't have any Duplo blocks at all.
I think those stats only apply to non-Mexicans.

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Post by Evil Wayne » Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:19 pm

Dr. X wrote:Good idea wayne. Altitude is the only problem I had when designing the rules... unfortunately I don't have any Duplo blocks at all.
Honestly, Duplo is one of those things that once kids outgrow, parents just want to get rid of it. Ask around, sometimes they'll just give it to you. Yard sales are a good source too.

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Post by Dr. X » Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:28 pm

Yeah, I saw a box at a sale once (I go yard sale hunting every saturday) but I didn't get it. Wish I had now.

Strangely enough, I never had any when I was little. My first set was the large RES-Q base, when I was 3. Duplos suck, I thought when I was 3.
I think those stats only apply to non-Mexicans.

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Post by Rody » Sat Jul 12, 2008 6:10 am

you could also build those stands using lego you know....
using duplo is just easier because they have larger briks.
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Post by Theblackdog » Sat Jul 12, 2008 7:42 am

I feel like it would be nice if these rules were a little more Brikwars compatible. That way you could have two-player teams, with one player controlling the ground forces while another player controls the air battle.
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Post by Tesla Coyle » Sat Jul 12, 2008 9:22 am

Theblackdog wrote:I feel like it would be nice if these rules were a little more Brikwars compatible. That way you could have two-player teams, with one player controlling the ground forces while another player controls the air battle.
Sounds like we need to some developing.

By the way Duplo blocks are pretty sweet sometimes. I've got a fair amount of them from when my sisters were younger.

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Post by Dr. X » Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:07 am

This is meant to be somewhat compatible with Brikwars. The stats aren't on the same level/scale, though. So if you want to make it Brikwars-integrated, just change the scale of the stats to match your Brikwars.

I usually have a ground and air battle, but when the air vehicles start shooting ground things or come into the ground battle, I switch to normal Brikwars vehicle rules for that aircraft.
I think those stats only apply to non-Mexicans.

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Post by Theblackdog » Sun Jul 13, 2008 7:23 am

Some air-to-ground weapons like bombs or cluster bombs would also help out here, I think. And I believe WAMALUG once made up a Flak gun designed to kill aircraft.
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Post by Dr. X » Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:57 am

For Air To Surface missiles, bombs, and stuff, I simply use NORMAL Brikwars stats for explosives. Simple.
I think those stats only apply to non-Mexicans.

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Post by Silent-sigfig » Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:33 am

I've been looking for simple rules for dogfighting like this. you see, a friend and i are having a battle. his harry potter and dino attack against my rabble. he has the large helicopter, and I have a comandeered news chopper.
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Silent-sigfig wrote: :dog:
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Post by Dr. X » Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:22 am

Silent-sigfig wrote:I've been looking for simple rules for dogfighting like this. you see, a friend and i are having a battle. his harry potter and dino attack against my rabble. he has the large helicopter, and I have a comandeered news chopper.
Well, these are pretty darn simple. They also work with helicopters.
I think those stats only apply to non-Mexicans.

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