Fringe Space Tutorial

I've gotten some requests for a game of 5150 Fringe Space that looks at the mechanics in more detail.

So I put together a quick one on one game, a fight between a TIE Fighter on patrol and a Rebel ace pilot in an X-Wing.

TIE Fighter--- Fly 4 Fight 4 Fix 4
Hull 1
Fighter
Speed 12
Engine 6
Complexity 3
Armor 1
Mobility 5
2x Light Cannon (Impact 3 Reaction)
1 Crew/Cargo Space

X-Wing--- Fly 5 Fight 5 Fix 5
Hull 1
Fighter
Speed 12
Engine 5
Complexity 3
Armor 1
Mobility 5
2x Light Cannon (Impact 3 Reaction)
2x Torpedo (Impact 9 Missile Action)
1x Crew/Cargo Space

TIE Fighter starts out in the corner at cruising speed (8"). X Wing will move onto the opposite corner at the same speed.

TIE Fighter (Blue) rolls a 6, over its Fly score, so gets 1 Action. X-Wing (Red) rolls a 4, under its Fly score but not a 5, so gets 2 Actions.

Movement Phase: The side that activated 'better' (by rolling higher or by not rolling over) gets to go second in this phase. The TIE Fighter rolled over, while the X Wing did not, so the Tie Fighter moves first. It chooses to Drift, and so moves forward. Note that in maintains its current velocity.

The X-Wing moves onto the board.

Sensor Check: This test is taken simultaneously. The TIE Fighter rolls over its Complexity with all 3 dice, and passes 0. The X Wing passes 2 dice under its own Complexity, also 3. As the X Wing just 'sighted' the TIE Fighter, it takes an In Sight test. It passes both dice beneath its Fight of 5, but is outside of shooting range for all its Reaction weapons.

Command Phase

The X Wing decides to take Evasive Action and then Fires its missiles.
It rolls passes 1 Die against its own Complexity (shown above), and the range between the ships is measured as 40". Because X Wing is going at 8", the TIE Fighter gets one Shoot Down test for every (8"+18") 26", or 2 Shoot Down Tests.

The TIE Fighter, rolling against its own Complexity, passes 1d6 on both tests. This does not take care of either of the X Wing's missiles.

The TIE Fighter successfully passes 2d6 vs the average of Mobility and Fly, and so is not hit by the missiles. It then takes a received fire test, passes 1d6, and Carries On.

The next turn, the X Wing rolls over its Fly score and gets one Action, and so does the TIE Fighter. The X Wing rolled higher, however, so the TIE Fighter goes first in movement and second in command.

The TIE Fighter drifts forward, hoping to use its Action for another attack. The X Wing decides to slow down, going down to 4" a turn, and takes a Fuel check. Passing 1d6, it loses one Fuel. The X Wing figures it has a bigger advantage trying to shoot the TIE at long range, as in a Dogfight the two only have a 1 die difference.

With no remaining Actions, the X Wing is unable to act in the Command phase. The TIE, on the other hand, saved its Action, and can now fire. It misses with both dice, even with the 8, because the two fighters have equal Complexities.

The X Wing passes both dice on a Received Fire test and shoots back.

The X Wing hits with one of its Light Cannons, rolling a 10.

The TIE dodges it (rolling Alien Snake Eyes!)

The TIE fires back and misses, but the X Wing only Carries On on its Received Fire test, ending the turn.

The TIE Fighter rolls a 6, getting only one Action, and the X Wing rolls a 1, getting 2 Actions.

The TIE Fighter uses its Action to accelerate forward a bit, the pilot eagerly hoping to prove his worth by defeating an ace Rebel pilot. Note that the TIE, which accelerated with 4 Speed (to increase to 12" a turn), only goes 10" this turn. Only half of the speed used is effective on the turn it is used, the rest takes effect the next turn. This may sound complicated but is very easy to do, as seen above. The TIE Fighter takes a Fuel Check against its Fix and passes 1d6, losing 1 Fuel.

As the TIE fighter moved to within 12" of the X Wing, the X Wing takes an Engagement Test, and passes 2d6. The X Wing misses, however...

... And the TIE fighter Carries On from its received fire test. The X Wing chooses to shoot once more with an Action but is similarly ineffective, and for its last action the X Wing takes Evasive Action, to try to force the TIE into a Dogfight: The X Wing figures the fight is now inevitable and doesn't want the TIE to get ideas about over shooting and trying to gun the X Wing down from behind.

The next turn, both sides activate with 2 Actions, and the TIE Fighter wins the activation (4 to 1).

The TIE Fighter slows down while the X Wing drifts forward. The TIE again loses 1 Fuel (down to 3).

The TIE then initiates a Dogfight (Down to 2 Fuel... the end result being that, if it survives this dogfight, it'll need to fall back with 1 Fuel and then stop back at base with its final Fuel). 

The X Wing passes 2 dice on its Dogfight Initiation test and shoots at the TIE, but misses.

In the Dogfight, the X Wing has 10 dice (5 Mobility + 5 Fly) and the TIE has 9 (5 Mobility + 4 Fly). Rolling for successes, the X Wing ends up with 2 dice when the TIE has 0. Both of these dice are used to make one of the X Wing's light cannon shots hit (it otherwise would've missed). At this range, the TIE cannot dodge. The Impact 3 Light Cannon (-1 Armor and +5 die roll) causes Heavy Damage.

Now its the X Wing's turn to activate. It starts another Dogfight (down to 3 Fuel) and kills the TIE, this time adding remaining success dice to impact.

The X Wing turns around and accelerates (down to 2 Fuel).

As it turned 180˚ (4 Mobility), it had 1 Mobility remaining... 12" Speed/5 is 2.2 inches per turn (don't worry about little fractions like that... just make it 2 and a half inches) of speed... with 2 Fuel remaining the X Wing drifts back to base with more than enough Fuel to stop and dock.

Thoughts:

Used the new Dodge test. Changed the game a bit, but its a good change... it might bog down really big games, but its only one more test, so its not a big deal. I do think I want to change it slightly, though, so that its a LITTLE easier to get hit... right now, unless you're a pretty slow ship or a bad pilot, its pretty unlikely that you get hit by anything but lasers.