Strategy Map Overview:
The core of the game is the strategy map. Here, players move their forces across the entirety of the Earth Sphere, command squadrons of fighters and mobile suits, fleets of warships, and fight through the bloody conflict known as the One Year War.

The strategy map itself is simply a hexagonal grid overlay on top of a map of the Earth sphere circa U.C. 0079:



The map starts out with two dominant factions--the Earth Federation in blue, and the Principality (or Republic) of Zeon in red. The game starts at the begining of the OYW, when--in an attempt to free all of the space colonies from the economic stranglehold of the decadent Earth Federation--the newly-formed autonomous colonial nation at Side 7, Zeon, launches a blitzkrieg attack through space.

As you can see on the above map, both sides start out with a great deal of territory--including tiles that confer various special benefits to the respective factions. Certain tiles enable the production of mobile suits, some give the faction extra gold per turn, and other will allow whomever controls them to build super weapons that are capable of annihilating targets anywhere on the map.

Basic Movement & Combat Rules:
Movement rules on the strategy map are fairly simple, and allow for the game to maintain a fairly quick pace.



A fleet can move up to three panels in a straight line--similar to how they function on the battle map.

A squadron can move up to two panels, but in ANY direction.

Super-weapons can only move one panel at a time.

Stationary facilities--such as MS factories and mining stations cannot be moved, and if the tile they are built on is captured by the enemy they are automatically destroyed.

For a fleet or squadron to attack an enemy fleet, squadron, installation or colony, the fleet or squadron must move to the same panel where the enemy fleet, squadron, installation or colony is located. Combat will commence immediately. The victorious faction will gain the panel where the battle took place, and the defeated faction will move any surviving units to any free adjacent panel.

Squadron Operations & The Tagalong Effect:
The mobile suit squadron is the most important unit on the strategy map. As players increase their rank, their squadron-size increases. Eventually, players can even be promoted to the level where they command multiple squadrons, fleets of warships--or even become the leader of the faction itself!

Each player moves his or her squadron across the strategy map at his or her desire--though one would hope they would listen to the directives of the supreme commander. As players are promoted, the number of units that can be placed in their squadrons increases.

Each turn may present a squadron commander with a particular choice. If a squadron is on a panel adjacent to an allied fleet, that squadron can either move 2 panels in any direction as per usual, or utilize the "tagalong" effect.

The tagalong effect simply moves every squadron (up to a total of six) adjacent to a fleet along the same trajectory as the fleet. In other words, the squadrons move with the fleet. The tagalong effect allows the squadrons to move further each turn, but as a result it lessens the squadron's own ability to act.

After a squadron follows a fleet via the tagalong effect, that squadron is only able to move ONE tile across the strategy map that turn, instead of the normal two.

For a visual representation....



As you can see, the squadron (represented by the black circle) follows the fleet (the black square) into enemy territory, remaining on the same panel in relation to the fleet as it was when the fleet first moved--in this case, the southeast panel.

Once the squadron has moved via the tagalong effect, the squadron can also move an additional panel in any direction--but if the panel that the squadron lands on as a result of the tagalong is occupied by an enemy force, then the squadron's movement turn will be negated and it will be forced into combat immediately.

Resource & Construction:
The faction leader is known as the "supreme commander". He or she has absolute control over his or her faction, though the role is primarily administrative in nature. It is the job of the supreme commander to issue orders to the fleet and squadron commanders, order the development of new model mobile suits, purchase additional mobile suits, construct mining stations, garrison colonial territories (only applicable on certain tiles) and issue promotions to other players. A more detailed description of the duties and responsibilities of the supreme commander can be found at the Player Ranks & Responsibilities thread.

To build anything, the supreme commander needs money. A lot of money. At the start of the game, each faction starts out with a bank of money to spend. Also, each tile that a faction controls nets +1 gold per turn.

In addition to this, there are special tiles that give large amounts of money per turn--from +10 gold per turn to +50 gold per turn. Controlling these resource panels is instrumental for victory.

Once certain panels are constructed, various upgrades can be built for specific panels. For resource bonus panels, mining stations can be built that increase the amount of gold that is added to the faction's bank each turn. Special superweapons and facilities can be constructed on certain "special" panels. And on MS Factory panels a faction can build mobile suit production facilities, and later upgrade those facilities to construct more advanced mobile suits.

All MS Factory panels are able to produce warships without having to purchase a MS Production facility.

The capitol panel is automatically able to produce mobile suits and warships. The capitol panel can also be upgraded to increase both the quantity and type of units kept as a garrison.

Conquest & Supply:
The primary purpose of the strategy map is for various factions to conquer territories, and eventually capture the enemy's capitol. On the space map, the game ends in victory if Zeon's capitol is captured, but if the EFSF captiol on Luna II is captured on the space map, the game does not necessarily end. The faction leaders of the EFSF and Zeon can either agree to end the game with a victory for Zeon, or the war can move to the surface of the Earth--played out across an entirely new strategy map.

Both fleets and squadrons are capable of capturing enemy panels, and fleets are by far more effective at this task than mobile suits.

Every panel a fleet touches becomes a part of the faction that owns the fleet. This means that if a fleet moves across two empty panels in enemy territory, those two panels automatically become a part of that fleet's territory.

When fleets engage in combat with enemy mobile suits or squadrons, the territorial gains are incredible. If a fleet is victorious in battle, EVERY adjacent panel that is either neutral or belongs to the faction that was defeated in battle, falls under the control of the victorious fleet. For example...



...in this map the red hexagonal panels represent the territory of Zeon, the blue panels the territory of the Earth Federation. The two black squares each represent a fleet.

In this example, the Zeon fleet moves three panels northeast* capturing all three panels it moves across for the Zeon faction. If in the following turn the EFSF fleet moves two panels north to attack the invading Zeon fleet, a battle will occur. If the battle results in a victory for Zeon, then ALL six of the surrounding panels will become territories of Zeon. This effect allows fleets to conquer vast amounts of territory very quickly.

Now, let us continue with the example to demonstrate the effects of zone-of-supply in the game and the importance of defending "supply lines".

As you can see, Zeon was victorious in battle and captured an additional five territories from the Earth Federation.

New to this map are the panels in opposing corners with large, rather ugly stars. These represent the respective capitols of the two factions. In this example the Zeon fleet has opted not to move directly toward the enemy's capitol, but rather to the periphery of the EFSF territory.

The darker shade of blue on the map represents the EFSF territories that are still fully supplied, while the lighter-blue territories are areas that have been cut off, because they are no longer attached to the same body of territory as the capitol.

Every territory that is cut-off (light-blue) is no-longer usable by the faction that owns it. That means that the EFSF will not recieve any money from the cut-off territories, will not be able to construct any new units in those territories, and will not be able to automatically-resupply any of its units in those territories.

Mobile suit conquest is much more limited than a fleet's. When mobile suit squadrons cross enemy panels, those panels are NOT captured. The only way for a mobile suit squadron to capture an enemy panel is to engage in combat with the enemy and emerge victorious--in which case the panel where the battle was fought becomes the territory of the victorious faction.

Rogue Factions:
One of the more interesting aspects of the game is the possibility of rogue factions and players. A rogue faction or player is a player, or group of players, that play the game outside of the existing EFSF and Zeon factions. As a result, both the EFSF and Zeon factions are the enemies of ALL rogue factions. A player can go rogue at any time in the game, but doing so is extremely risky and will require no small amount of skill to pull off.

A player can go rogue at any time in the game, but unless the rogue player is a member of a rogue faction, that player will be little more than a pirate. Rogue players do not get automatic re-supply. They do not get additional units. They do not earn promotions.

To form a rogue faction, a single condition must be met--the player wishing to go rogue must capture a colony or fortress tile. To capture the tile for a rogue faction, the player squadron must fight a full enemy squadron composed of both the garrison units AND whatever quantity of basic grunt-units is necessary to fill up the squadron.

If the player is successful, the colony or fortress (and all six adjacent) panels will be captured, and a rogue faction will be created.

At this point it is the duty of the new leader of the rogue-faction to decide on a name for the new faction, as well as determine the color that will be used to represent the rogue faction's territories on the strategy map.

A rogue faction can only exist as long as it controls a single colony or fortress tile. If a rogue faction loses all of its colony or fortress tiles, then the rogue faction ceases to exist completely and all of the squadrons belonging to the rogue faction become rogue players--at which point they can petition an existing faction to employ them, or try to make it through the One Year War on their own.

Because rogue factions are not "true" factions they are limited in certain aspects. A rogue faction (unless it has captured the capitol of either the EFSF or Zeon) cannot promote officers.

In every other aspect, however, a rogue faction is identical to a normal faction. Rogue factions can construct facilities, purchase upgrades, research and construct new model mobile suits, and conquer additional territories.

Because creating a rogue faction is so difficult, it is recommended that players do NOT attempt to go rogue at low-ranks, and that players think very carefully about their actions--and the impact their actions will have on other players--before committing to going rogue.

That being said, there are no limitations on how many players go rogue, or when players choose to go rogue. The goal of this game is to provided a highly-structured area of play, while still allowing the individual players the greatest possible amount of freedom.


*for simplicity, the six possible directions on the strategy map will be called North, Northeast, Southeast, South, Southwest and Southeast.

Battle Map Overview:

Each battle will occur on a simple 12x12 grid, similar to a chess board. It is advised that each player save the maps of each individual battle and use MS Paint (or another drawing program) to move his or her game pieces individually. In the (hopefully) rare cases that a player is unable to manipulate the game board personally, he or she can describe the actions he or she wishes to take and a GM (Game Master) will modify the gameboard accordingly.

Combat relies heavily on generating random numbers. To do so, we recommend that players use the incredibly versatile randomization tools found here: http://www.random.org/

There are two general types of battle maps. First, is the space-map. It will look something like this:



In the case of the space maps, any movement can move across the black tiles, but NO unit may move across the dark-gray tiles--which indicate wreckage or debris.

The second type is the Land map. Land maps are slightly more complex. Mobile suits and other units cannot move as far each turn on land as they can on space, and there are many different kinds of tiles. Take the following example:



In this map the dark brown panels indicate rocky terrain, and as such only flight-capable units can cross over them, and no unit can attack over them. They serve as obstacles on the map. The blue tiles indicate water, and therefore only amphibious mobile suits would be able to cross or occupy those tiles. The gray tiles represent bridges--and are a way for land-units to cross over water terrain. A unit on a water tile can only be attacked by another unit on a water tile; a unit on a mountain tile can only be attacked by a flying-unit.

In each battle, a GM will post the various rules pertaining to each tile type in order to avoid any confusion--so don't worry, you don't have to memorize it all!

Movement Overview:

Unlike on the Strategy Map, units on the Battle Map are limited to moving either vertically or horizontally ONLY--there is no direct diagonal movement.

Each type of unit is able to move across a certain number of tiles each turn. The number of tiles a unit can travel across depends on whether or not it is in space or on Earth.

In the following illustrations, the dark cyan panel represents the starting point of the unit, the gray panels represent each possible panel for the unit to travel to, and the light-cyan panels are an example of how the particular unit might move.



>Mobile suits and mobile armors (Zeon only) may move up to three spaces in any direction.
>Combat craft (fighters, bombers, etc.) can move only two spaces in any direction.
>Non-Combat vehicles can only move a single space each turn.
>Warships may move across up to four panels--but ONLY in a straight line.

On land the rules are similar, but units are (typically) slightly slower than they are in space.



>Mobile suits and mobile armors (Zeon only) may move up to two spaces in any direction.
>Combat craft (fighters, bombers, etc.) can move only one space in any direction.
>Non-Combat vehicles can only move a single space each turn.
>Warships may move across up to three panels--but ONLY in a straight line.

General Combat Overview:

For both land and space battles, the rules of combat remain the same.



>Mobile suits and mobile armors can use ranged weapons on a target on any tile within three tiles, so long as the path the the target is unobstructed--either by terrain or other units.
>Only mobile suits and mobile armors are capable of using melee attacks; melee attacks must be preformed at close range and a mobile suit/armor can only attack another unit on a diagonal tile.
>Combat vehicles can attack any tile within two tiles from the unit.
>Warships can attack ANY tile at ANY range, but can only attack once every two turns. When a warship attacks, every tile that is not obstructed by terrain every unit (friend and foe alike) is dealt combat damage. This enables warships to attack any number of targets at any range.

Ranged Combat Determination Overview:

When determining combat, there are a variety of factors that determine which unit will triumph over another, as well as a few rules that are set in stone.

Basic combat between two units requires two unique stats for each individual unit--the attack stat and the defense stat.

A unit's stats may look something like this:

Quote:

Attack: 2x 1d6 Defense: 5