When diplomacy fails, it is sometimes necessary to deploy armed forces.

These rules are used to determine the flow of battle between military fleets (and worlds). The battle rules are based on the same principles as the Jedi Combat rules, so knowing one system might help your understanding of the other.

In combat, Fleets and worlds have three Rings of Defence, the Outer Ring, Middle Ring and Inner ring

Outer Ring ( / ) attacks involves grand salvoes of capital ship cannons. These attacks are very powerful and can pulverize other vessels. Such attacks are generally avoided by dodging out of their way.

Middle Ring ( / ) attacks are executed by corvettes and bombers. Such attacks are generally less spectacular, but are an effective measure when the enemy is capable of dodging salvoes of capital ship fire. These attacks are defended against with shielding and interceptors.

Inner Ring ( / ) attacks are usually executed by fighters or troops. Such attack are defended against with point defence and defensive positions.

Note that these attacking and defensive manoeuvres are a general indicator, not a hard requirement - for example, You can roleplay that you shield an Inner Ring attack instead of using point defence. But you still use the inner ring rating to defend.

During the course of a battle, fleets take up different formations, depending on their mission objectives. Each formation offers specific benefits and disadvantages, and some special manoeuvres require a certain formation before they can be executed.

Only fleets use formations. Worlds can not do so.

See Battle Formations for more information

As detailed later, each fleet both attacks and defends during the same round! They attack using the defensive Battle Formation of the previous round and they defend with battle formation their choice (which will be their attack formation next round).

This method is known as the Parry Mechanism and is based around the concept of parrying. You defend against an opponents attack and use the opening for your next attack. (Roleplay note: this isn't necessary a blow by blow parry, but a more tactical one which may involve multiple blows, various movements, etc. A round is not a single salvo with the cannons.)

When battle is joined, this will be somewhere in the sector. Depending on where the attack is executed, the surroundings might include interesting scenery (such as gas cloudes, asteroids, debris from a previous engagement, etc.).

If a world or other entity in orbit is engaged, the combat scene will include all entities that orbit. So, attacking a moon will enter a combat scene with the moon, the planet it orbits, all other moons in orbit around that planet, and any other things in the same orbit.

It is not possible to 'fly into' a combat by accident. Actively joining a combat is done with the Join Battle fleet action.

Battle takes place in rounds. Rounds are announced by the Storyteller. Each player (and each NPC) involved in the battle gets to make one post every round. As a general rule, NPC's go last, but actually there is no set order. All actions during a round are executed simultaneously regardless of posting order.

Unlike jedi combat rounds, fleet battle rounds have a set duration: 1.

At the end of the the Storyteller announces the end of the round and processes it. At this point, the success or failure of any actions is determined and the result is posted by the Storyteller, after which the next round begins.

If you are involved in a battle and do not post your fleet's actions, your fleet keeps the same formation.

Before battle starts, every fleet that joins battle chooses a battle formation to use. This wil be used for offence in the first round of battle.

Once a fleet has joined battle, it can no longer participate in Strategic Fleet Operations.

Worlds do not use battle formations, and do not have to choose anything at battle start.

During battle, each fleet gets to do three things each Round: Choose Defensive Formation and take a Battle Actions, and Attack and Defend. Next to that, you can freely move within the battle scope within reason.

Any offensive action taken by the fleet uses the battle formation they declared in the previous round (or in the before battle phase in case of the first round). The offensive action is countered by the defensive action taken this round. If you do not have an active battle formation you can not make an attack.

During each round, a fleet may change battle formations as they see fit. When doing so, this should be obvious from the roleplaying post. When in doubt, add an OOC note about it. If they do not change, a fleet continues using the same battle formation they were using beforehand.

Each round you may attack and defend. In addition, you may take an action.

Actions can change the circumstances of the battle or may aid in your attacks or defences. For example, you might order a bomber strike, hide behind a moon or use a nebula's natural energy discharge to your advantage. In principle, you may take at most one action during each round. Depending on the action, a check may be required. Fleets take checks based on their ratings.

The base of each check is your Base Rating + Style Bonus. The total score is determined as follows:

Base Rating + Style Bonus + Advantages + Skills + Force Powers + Jedi Boost

That is your fleet's base rating plus your battle formation score, with added bonuses from suitable advantage actions. If a Jedi is attached to the fleet, you also get the Jedi's applicable Force Powers and Skills. Circumstances may provide a bonus or a penalty, usually between 1 and 2 in either direction. The total determines how good you executed your action. The higher the final result, the better!

The Story Teller then determines if your check is high enough. If it is higher or equal than the difficulty of the task, you succeed (and may even succeed brilliantly if your score is much higher than the difficulty). If not, you fail (and may even fail horribly if your final score is much lower than the difficulty. As a general rule, you are not told the difficulty beforehand, though you can get an indication if you are in doubt.

There are three types of actions (detailed on Battle Actions):

• Direct Combat Actions: A Direct Combat Action is not just an attack. It's an attack that takes advantage of an action, equipment or circumstance during battle.
• Advantage Actions: Advantage Actions gain you a long term advantage.
• Non-Combat Actions: Non-Combat Actions are not combat related and thus provide no combat bonuses, but they may help accomplish secondary objectives.

You may choose not to attack during your round. You should state this in your post. Doing this gives a bonus on an action. During your next round, you do not receive any battle formation bonuses, either defensive or offensive, as you struggle to get out of the advantage you gave your opponent by not attacking them and thus not forcing their hand.

We have mentioned offensive and defensive stats but we have not specified how the final number used in each round is determined.

The final rating for each attack and defence value is determined as follows:

Fleet Rating + Formation Values + Direct Combat Actions + Advantages + Circumstances

Your Fleet Rating forms the basis, to which the values you have in your given Battle Formation are added. Circumstances may provide a bonus or a penalty, usually between 1 and 3 in either direction. Circumstances include attached armies, terrain and general surroundings and multiple circumstances may apply. Direct Combat Actions also provide a bonus, depending on the action.

Be careful of how it all fits together. For example, if you describe your long range capital ship cannon salvo in great detail, you may gain a bonus in your Outer Ring Attack, but if you also describe how you turn the canon ports away from the enemy to protect the vulnerable parts of the ship, your movements are now less realistic (is your capital ship squadron firing or turning??), it might even reduce your bonus on your Outer Ring Attack. Quality over quantity here!

Important: During the first round, fleets suffer a -2 penalty on all their attack as they measure up their opponent and try to determine their ability.

You can only attack one opponent during a round (though you may attack a different one each round as you choose), but you may find yourself fighting multiple attackers. In such a case, both fleets attack as normal to determine their offensive scores. The defender must defend against the highest result of each opponent.

As a general rule, no more than three fleets can attack one opponent at a time. You don't want to get your allies in the line of fire by accident.

If an attack, after all modifiers are applied, has a lower or equal value in all offensive rings than in the opponents defensive rings, or if only one attack value out of three is higher, no hits are scored and battle continues as normal.

If an attack, after all modifiers are applied, has a higher value in two out of three offensive rings than in the opponents defensive rings, but the defences are higher or equal in one, the attacker brings the defender off-balance, which give them a -1 penalty on attack and defence in their next round. Being off balance lasts one round.

If an attack, after all modifiers are applied, has a higher value in each of the three offensive rings than in the opponents three defensive rings the opponents defences are breached and they are either damaged or destroyed, depending on the amount of damage they sustained (see Effectiveness Levels).

Note that if a fleet loses a level of effectiveness, this does not put them off-balance. There has been a discussion on this in Fleet Battle Rules: Off-balance and losing effectiveness.

Unlike jedi, fleets and worlds can take several succesful attacks without being disabled or destroyed with the first one. When a fleet or world is damaged, it loses an effectiveness level.

Effectiveness Levels represent the amount of punishment something can withstand before being utterly destroyed.

Effectiveness levels are representated as '-0: ☒, -1: ☐☐, Incap.: ☐☐☐', with the following symbols:

• ☐: Available effectiveness Levels, i.e. damage taken is not large enough to impact the effectiveness of your fleet on this level
• ☒: Lost effectiveness Levels, i.e. taken enough damage to start loosing effectiveness

There are three kinds of effectiveness levels:

• -0: No effectiveness is lost
• -1: Some effectiveness is lost; a non-cumulative -1 penalty to all rings, regardless of the number of lost -1 levels
• Incap.: Short for 'Incapacitated'; all effectivness is lost and the fleet or world can no longer attack

As these levels are always lost in order (i.e. first -0, then -1 then incapacitated), the combined levels are called the effectiveness track. If something is in it's -1 track, this means that it has lost at least a -1 level. In short, the following statusses have the following total effects:

• -0: ☐, -1: ☐☐, Incap.: ☐☐☐: Nothing wrong, everything running smoothly
• -0: ☒, -1: ☐☐, Incap.: ☐☐☐: Taken a few hits, no measurable effectiveness lost
• -0: ☒, -1: ☒☐, Incap.: ☐☐☐: Some more effectiveness lost, fleet takes a -1 penalty to all rings
• -0: ☒, -1: ☒☒, Incap.: ☐☐☐: Significant effectiveness lost, fleet still has only a -1 penalty to all rings
• -0: ☒, -1: ☒☒, Incap.: ☒☐☐: Fleet is incapacitated due to high amounts of damage to ships, multiple capital ships have been 'sunk'
• -0: ☒, -1: ☒☒, Incap.: ☒☒☐: Fleet is on the verge of total destruction
• -0: ☒, -1: ☒☒, Incap.: ☒☒☒: Fleet is completely disabled, any more damage and it will be utterly destroyed
• Destroyed: The fleet is wiped from existence

Losing the first effectiveness level has no significant impact on a fleet's operations. After the second effectiveness level is lost, the fleet suffers a -1 penalty to all rings. Next to these three levels, it has three incapacitated levels. While incapacitated, the fleet can only move. If all incapacitated levels are damaged, any further damage will destroy the fleet.

Battle ends when the threat is neutralized. This can be when all opponents are destroyed or incapacitated, or when they have retreated. Normally, fleets can only retreat through the Disengage/Retreat manoeuvre.

In general the Storyteller determines when battle is over.