United Nations Space Command

From its early years as a peacekeeping and policing force in the Core Worlds and Inner Colonies of the human sphere, with ships and crews loaned from the various member states of the UN, the UN Space Command has grown into an autonomous force with its own fleet assets, ship designs and construction yards. By the time of the First Xeno War against the Kra’Vak, the UNSC fleet is as large as that of any of the main human power blocs and its command structure is completely independent of the navies of the member states, answering only to the UN Grand Council - which by this time is a Terran World Government in all but name. During the Xeno War and the ensuing Siege of Sol, the UNSC fleet forms a major part of the defensive forces protecting Earth and the Core Worlds from the alien advance. The ships of the UNSC fleet are powerful vessels designed with the cutting edge of human technology, and make wide use of modular designs to simplify construction and repair.

UNSC warships are very tought and built with redundancies so they take systems damage less often than most starships and have average hull integrety and no armor.  Screens are used only on capital ships.  They mount a variety of beams but for heavy weapons, they use Pulse Torpedoes for a punch and Anti-Matter Torpedoes for area control and large first strikes.  The UNSC weapons development program that came up with the Pulse Torpedoes had a breakthrough with gravatic lens focusing and have developed Grasers as a heavy beam weapon capabile of inflicting massive damage (if it hits).  As the Xeno War progressed, the Kra'Vak's manuverability meant that the AMTs became less useful and construction and refits began to use more Pulse Torpedoes and Grasers instead.   UNSC ships have moderate to high thrust depending on their role.

Graser The Graser (Gamma-Ray Laser), this is the primary heavy armament of the UNSC's large ships. Weapon Mass   Class 1 (1-arc): MASS 2    Class 1 (3-arc): MASS 3    Class 1 (6-arc): MASS 4    Class 2 (1-arc): MASS 9, +3 per extra arc    Class 3 (1-arc): MASS 24, +6 per extra arc For larger classes the mass is 3xMASS of the next smaller class. Cost = Mass x 4. A Graser rolls a number of beam dice equal to its class in the closest range band; reduce by one beam die per extra range band. Range bands are 18mu.  It rolls to hit like a beam, including re-roll dice ignoring screens, but does damage like a Pulse Torpedo, so you miss on 1,2 and 3; do 1D6 damage on 4 or 5 and 2D6 on 6 and get a re-roll. Screens and Vapour Shrouds affect the fire as normal, so they affect initial rolls, but re-roll dice ignore Screens. The final damage is added up and goes half (round up) to the first armour layer, the other half penetrates one layer. The damage D6s don't get any re-rolls.  Alternate Version: Remove the re-roll and cost is Mass x 3. Playtesting Note: Grasers have the ability to do quite a bit of damage with a singe hit, thus their high mass and cost, but please consider how often they do little or no damage because the to-hit roll is a miss before you consider them overpowered.

AMT (Anti-Matter Torpedo) A one turn missile armed with an anti-matter warhead. The Anti-Matter Torpedo is a single shot weapon of Mass 2 and Cost 8. It is a placed-marker weapon (fired in missile phase) like Salvo Missiles with a Range of 18mu.  AMTs can be fired in a 180 arc centered on the direction that the icon faces.  After the ship movement phase, the AMT moves up to 6mu (3mu in vector) from the marker towards nearest target before detonating.  On detonation, all ships within 1mu of marker take 3D6 damage, within 2mu 2D6, within 3mu 1D6. Non-penetrating, ie: damage comes off armour first.  PDS on ships in area effect may attempt to attack the AMT, succeeding on a 6 which reduces the radius, minus 1mu and dice damage, minus a D6 rolled for damage, for each 6 rolled (for example: A PDS rolls a 6 verses a AMT, this reduces the effect to 2D6 within 1mu of the marker, 1D6 within 2mu and there is now no effect from 2mu to 3mu).  Any fighters within the range of effect are destroyed.  A scattergun fired at an AMT removes 1D3-1 "levels" Fighters may wish to attack the AMT and to do this they must close to contact with the AMT and roll as per PDS. AMTs have the same effects as Plasma Bolts vs Screens, Vapour Shrouds etc (level-1 screens negate any rolls of 6, level-2 screens and Vapour Shrouds negate all rolls of 5 or 6).

Variable Hull Rows Not all ships have the same hull integrity, not just with regard to how much mass they put into their hull, but also how well this stands up in a fight before systems start being effected. To simulate this you can arrange hull boxes in more/fewer than the standard 4 rows.        3 hull rows - Hull costs 3xMass; takes only the 6+ and 5+ thresholds before dying        4 hull rows - Hull costs 2xMass (Fleet Book standard); takes the 6+, 5+ and 4+ threshold checks        5 hull rows - Hull costs 1.5xMass; takes the 6+, 5+, 4+ and 3+ thresholds        6 hull rows - Hull costs 1xMass; takes the 6+, 5+, 4+, 3+ and 2+ threshold checks. Ship Design Note: Ships with 3 hull boxes or less should use the 3xMass cost of a 3 row ship to be accurate and not let the designer save points by saying they are supposed to be a 6 row hull and get the point savings. UNSC ships have 3 rows of hull and are costed accordingly.