Tactical Space Combat Game

Demo Version

Imperial Crusade Armada

Paul Linton (order #5618822)

Welcome to Imperial Crusade Armada This is a demo version of Imperial Crusade Armada. This modified rule book is designed to present only the rules required to play a simplified version of the game. To play Imperial Crusade Armada, you need a ten sided die, a tape measure, a dry erase marker, and plastic card protectors. In order to play the game, you must print out the last page of this document which has all the cards needed to play the demo version. Cut out the cards on this page and place them in plastic card sleeves so that they can be marked on with a dry erase pen. Print and cut out the fighter tokens and you are ready to the play the game.

Demo Battle This simplified demo version has set battle groups with simple victory conditions. In the full version, you will make your own fleets that can be any size and use powerful fleet tactics that will give your ships special abilities.

Introduction Imperial Crusade Armada is a space combat game where battles between a few ships can be played in a couple of minutes or massive fleet battles can be played in about an hour. Each ship in a player’s fleet is represented by a ship card, which is moved around the table during combat. The distances between each card on the table are used to determine the range when these ships fire their weapons. A ship card’s position and facing determine what targets it can fire on and which of its shields defend it from enemy fire. Damage, energy allocation, and system usage are recorded directly on each ship card with a dry erase pen. Players create their own fleet by selecting ships available to their faction while remaining within the specified Cost of the upcoming battle and adding Fleet Tactics to sup-port these ships. Fleet Tactics give ships new abilities for a single turn or allow them to perform a special action once per battle. Background Humanity has spread to the stars, but most of the populated worlds have been dominated by the mighty Imperium. The Imperium is a massive star empire that fields millions of lightly armed starships and swarms of fighters to conquer other worlds. The Empress is the Imperium’s brutal dictator who controls her empire with an iron fist. She seeks complete control of the galaxy, and the Imperium is on the verge of stamping out the light of the final few galactic powers that stand between the Empress and total domination of the universe. The fledgling Star Republic is one of the few galactic powers that has been able to put up any resistance to the Imperium. The Republic only controls a few hundred habitable worlds, but its technological superiority and highly trained Fleet officers have allowed it to hold off every attempt at Imperial conquest. The Imperium relies on mass attacks of small lightly armed ships and fighters manned by poorly trained conscripts. The Star Republic’s fleets are comprised of a small number of advanced capital ships crewed by skilled Fleet officers.

Paul Linton (order #5618822)

GlossaryActivation: Activation refers to using weapon icons, Power boxes, and Sensor boxes. Ac-tivation also refers to moving a ship card, rotating it, and firing its weapons during the Combat Phase. Attack Roll: A ship attempting to hit a target with a weapon must make an Attack roll by rolling a D10 for each attack. If the Attack roll is equal to or greater than the target ship’s Agility, it is hit. Any roll lower is a miss. +/- X Attack represents modifiers to a ship’s Attack roll. All Attack modifiers must be determined before an Attack roll is made. No Attack roll can ever be rerolled more than once.Card Facing: The line drawn across the middle of each card is called the center line. It divides a card in half. The top half of a card is the front of a ship while a card’s shaded portion is its rear section. Card facing determines what shields defend a ship card and the firing arc of a ship’s weapon icons. Black weapon icons can only be fired from the side of a ship card where they are located. Blue weapon icons can be fired from both sides of a ship card. Red weapon icons can only be fired from a ship’s indicator. Card Notation: A dot is marked in each box when a ship activates a Power or Sensor box. A dot is marked in a Shield box for each point of damage applied to a specific side of a ship. Excess damage that penetrates through a ship’s facing Shield is applied to a ship’s Structure. Structure damage is represented by an X marked in a Structure box. For each Structure box marked off, draw an X in one Sensor box, one Shield box in each row of Shield boxes, and one Power box in each row of Power boxes on the damaged ship. Dots are erased during each turn’s End Phase but Xs are permanent.D10: These are the ten sided dice used in this game. Faction: This is a galactic power that controls a large region of space and fields battle fleets of capital ships for conquest and defense. The Imperium and Star Republic are powerful factions in the Imperial Crusade Armada universe.Space Combat: Combat occurs in open space so ship cards and fighter tokens can move and fire through each other and end their movement touching or even on top of one an-other.

Ship Card Overview Each ship in the game is represented by a plastic card that has its statistics, abilities, shields, and weapons printed on it. Players record the current status directly on each ship card with a dry erase pen. These cards are moved around the field of play during play.

Indicator: A small black box on the front edge of every ship card used to determine move-ment, rotation, and the firing arcs of red weapon icons.Center Line: A line across the middle of every ship card that separates its Front and Rear sections. It is also used to determine the firing arcs of black and blue weapon icons.Power: Power is used to move a ship and fire its weapons. For each unit of Power a ship activates, mark off a Power box on its card with a dry erase pen. During the End Phase of each turn, restore all marked off Power boxes, except for those marked off because of Structure damage.Shields: Any damage applied to the front of a ship is applied to its Front Shield. Damage applied to the rear of a ship can only be absorbed by its Rear Shield. When a ship is hit, mark off Shield boxes on the appropriate side until all damage is applied. If there is more damage than Shield boxes, apply the excess damage to a ship’s Structure. All Shield dam-age not related to Structure damage is removed during the End Phase of each turn.

Paul Linton (order #5618822)

Structure: Structure represents the amount of damage a ship’s hull can absorb before it is destroyed. Any excess damage that penetrates a ship’s facing Shield is applied to its Structure. When a ship’s Structure boxes have all been marked off, it is destroyed and im-mediately removed from play. A ship permanently loses one Sensor box, one Power box from each row of Power boxes, and one Shield box from each row of Shield boxes for each Structure box destroyed.

Speed: Advanced inertial dampers and gravity drives allow these massive star-ships to move at incredible speeds. Speed is the maximum distance in inches a ship card can move for every Power box it activates for movement. A ship card with Speed 3 that activates four Power for movement can move up to 12” that turn.Agility: Agility represents how maneuverable a ship is during combat. Agility is the lowest Attack roll an attacker must roll to hit a target ship. To hit a ship with Agility 5, a player has to roll 5 or higher on a D10. Agility also determines the order in which ships activate during combat.

Sensor: Sensors represent advanced targeting and control electronics. When a ship acti-vates a Sensor, a Sensor box is marked off. A Sensor can be activated to assign a -1 or +1 Attack modifier to any target ship or fighter. These modifiers are marked directly on the target ship or fighter with a dry erase pen. Any number of these modifiers can be allocated to a target ship or fighter, but they must be assigned before an attack is made. Modifiers are cumulative for the turn but are discarded during the End Phase of each turn. Sensors can be activated during the Initiative Phase to give a player a +1 Initiative modifier for each Sensor activated. All Sensor boxes are restored during the End Phase of each turn except for those marked off because of Structure damage. If an Imperial Destroyer receives three +1 modifiers and one -1 modifier, the ship will have a cumulative +2 Attack modifier so all rolls of 5+ would hit the ship that turn instead of its normal 7+.

Fighter: This is the number of fighter squadrons carried by a ship. During the End Phase of each turn, a ship with a Fighter icon can deploy any number of fighter tokens or take aboard any friendly fighters in contact with the ship until its total number of fighters equals its Fighter value. Fighters are represented by the tokens included in the game. Fighter tokens should be placed on each ship card

before the game begins so that they can be easily accounted for. Fight-ers are Agility 8. When activated, a fighter may move up to 18” and attack. Once per turn, fighters may attack any target up to 12” away to deal four damage for a successful attack. Fighters are destroyed by any successful attack from a ship or fighter. Fighters cannot be targeted until they have been launched from a ship. Any unlaunched fighters are destroyed when a ship carrying them is destroyed. Cost: This value represents the amount of points required to add a specific ship to a fleet so that bal-

Sensor Boxes

Ship Design ationFactionShip TypeAbilitiesCost

Structure Boxes

Speed

Three Rows ofFront Shield Boxes

Three Rows of Rear Shield Boxes

Fighter

Rear of the Ship

Ship I con

Front of the Ship

Two Rows of Power Boxes

Weapon Icons

Indi cator

Agili ty Center Line

Paul Linton (order #5618822)

anced fleet battles can be fought. Ships from different factions cannot be fielded together in the same fleet.Ship Description: The first line is a starship’s designation. The second line is the faction that produces and operates the ship. The third line is its hull type and ship class. The itali-cized lines list a ship’s special abilities. The final line is its Cost.

Abilities Some ships have abilities that provide them or the player controlling them with special advantages during a battle. A player may choose not to use a ship’s special ability at any time.

Advanced: Advanced ships have powerful targeting electronics and a highly trained crew that make them extremely accurate when they fire their weapons. These ships can activate a Sensor to reroll an Attack roll. Agile: An Agile ship’s light hull makes it extremely maneuverable. These ships can per-form two rotations when they are activated.Devotion: A Devotion ship can ram a target ship card by ending its movement touching a target ship and making a successful Attack roll. If the attack succeeds, the ramming Devo-tion ship is destroyed and the target ship loses an amount of Structure equal to the Devotion ship’s remaining Structure.

Weapon Icons The top number on every weapon icon is the amount of damage it produces for a suc-cessful attack. The middle number is the weapon’s maximum range in inches. The bottom number is the amount of Power boxes that must be activated to fire the weapon once. Most ships have multiple weapon batteries so black and blue weapon icons can be fired as many times as a ship activates the Power required to fire them. Each shot fired from a weapon icon can be aimed at a different target. Black weapon icons can only be fired from the side of the ship card where they are located. Blue weapon icons can be fired in any direction. Red weapon icons can only be fired once per turn from the side of the ship card where they are located.

Laser: Lasers represent a ship’s long range high powered laser cannons. Most ships have multiple laser batteries and turrets mounted all over their hull so lasers can be fired in any direction.

Plasma Cannon: Plasma cannons produce and propel a super heated sphere of plasma contained within a weak magnetic field that results in an incredibly pow-erful weapon with a very limited range. A plasma cannon icon can only be fired once per turn.

Hydra Laser: Hydra lasers use an electromagnetic field to bend and direct multi-ple laser beams at a target. A hydra laser icon fires three times when it is activated. These three beams must be aimed at the same target. A separate Attack roll must be made for each beam fired. A hydra laser can be fired in any direction.

Paul Linton (order #5618822)

Missile: These guided drones have powerful matter/antimatter warheads. Mis-siles have four stats. The top number is damage produced for a successful attack, the second number is the range of the missile, the third number is the power re-quired to fire a missile, and the bottom number is the amount of missiles carried

by a ship. Missiles can be fired in any direction. Place a mark in the box under the missile icon for each missile fired. Once the bottom number of missiles is fired, the missile icon can no longer be used.

Reflex Cannon: Reflex cannons are massive gravity projectors that bend the fabric of space in front of a ship allowing it to rip a target ship in half. When a reflex cannon fires, measure a range line 36” long from the front edge of a ship card directly from its indicator. Any enemy or friendly ship or fighter that this

line passes through is a target of the reflex cannon. If the range line passes through both sides of a ship card, both sides of the ship are targets of the reflex cannon.

Fleet Deployment The playing field can be a large table or the floor. The standard field of play is two feet wide and five feet long. Each player chooses one short side of the field of play. The entire area 12” in front of the player is her deployment zone. Each player places her ship cards within her deployment zone. In the Demo version, the Imperial will deploy his ships first and the Republic player will deploy her ship last.

Sequence of Play The following are the phases that players must perform during each turn of combat. Once both phases of play are complete, the current turn ends and the next turn begins. The Initia-tive Phase has been removed from the Demo version.

Combat Phase In the Demo version the Imperial player’s ships and fighters always get to activate first each turn because their Agility is higher than the Republic player’s Heavy Cruiser. When a ship is activated, mark it with an A. During its activation, a ship card may move once, rotate once, and fire its weapons. When activated, a fighter may move 18” in any direction and then attack one target within 12” to deal four damage for a successful attack. A ship does not have to perform all these actions when activated but these actions must occur in this order. All damage a ship produces is immediately resolved, and any ship cards that have all their Structure boxes marked off or fighters that have been hit are destroyed and removed from play. When a ship has finished its activation, it cannot take any more actions that turn except for activating its Sensors. Sensors can be activated at any time to apply attack modifiers to any ship, but they must be applied before an Attack roll is made. When a ship card moves, a movement line is measured from the front edge of the ship card directly from its indicator. The length of this line in inches equals a ship’s Speed times the Power activated for movement. A movement line can be measured in any direction, but

Fighter is a target of the Reflex Cannon

The front of the ship is a target of the Reflex Cannon

Both sides of the ship are targets of the Reflex Cannon

36”

Paul Linton (order #5618822)

it cannot cross over the surface of a ship’s card. A ship card can now be moved the distance of the movement line, but its orienta-tion does not change. After the movement is completed, the ship can then be rotated based on its original orientation before move-ment began. To rotate a ship card turn it left or right but its indica-tor cannot pass the original posi-tion of its center line. This limits

Illegal Movement

Legal Movement

A ship may be rotated to the left orright as long as its indicator does not go further than the original position of its center line.

Ship moves a distance in inches equal to its Speed times the Power activated for movement.

rotation to 90 degrees per turn. To represent the three dimensional nature of space combat, ships can move right through each other and can end their movement on top of one an-other. When a ship card fires it weapons, it may activate any weapon icons as many times as desired as long as enough Power is activated. Every time a weapon icon is activated, it can be fired at a different target. Space combat is three dimensional so weapons can be fired straight through other ships. When a ship activates a weapon, measure a targeting line that starts on any side of a card that the weapon icon can be fired from and ends at the target ship. The targeting line for a red weapon icon must start directly from the ship’s indica-tor. No targeting line can ever cross over its ship’s card or pass over an imaginary line that extends from its center line. This targeting line cannot be longer than the range of the weapon in inches, so use the tape measure included in the game to determine its length. If a specific target is not in range, another target may be selected. If both sides of a ship can be targeted, the attacker decides which side to attack. An ion cannon mounted on the front of a ship card can only be fired from the front half of the card because it is a black weapon icon. A laser can be fired from either side of a ship card because it is a blue weapon icon. A hate cannon can only be fired directly from the indicator of a ship card because it is a red weapon icon. Make an Attack roll for each weapon activated by rolling a D10 and applying any Attack modifiers. If an Attack roll is equal to or greater than the target ship’s Agility, the weapon

Black weapon icons (Ion Cannon) can only be fired from the side that they are located

Ship can hit the Front or Rear of the Target Ship Target

Ship

Ship can only hit the Front of the Target Ship

Blue weapon icons (Laser) can be fired from either side

Paul Linton (order #5618822)

icon’s damage is dealt to the side of the target card that was touched by the targeting line. Only Front Shield boxes can absorb damage directed at the front of a ship, and only Rear Shield boxes can absorb damage directed at the rear of a ship card. Mark off a number of Shield boxes equal to the damage dealt to a specific side of the ship. If there is not enough Shield boxes to absorb all the damage on that side of the ship, the excess damage is applied to the ship’s Structure. Every Structure box marked off permanently causes one Sensor box, one Power box from each row of Power boxes, and one Shield box from each row of Shield boxes to be marked off on the damaged ship. If a ship’s Structure boxes have all been marked off, the ship is destroyed and immediately removed from play. Once the ac-tive ship has finished activating its weapons, the other player can respond by activating a ship with the same Agility. End Phase All Power, Shield, and Sensor boxes are restored during this phase unless they were marked off because of Structure damage. All Sensor modifiers and activation indictors are removed and all Fleet Tactics in play and Initiative modifiers are discarded. Any number of fighters can be launched from ships during this phase. Disembarked fighters must be placed on the outer edge of the ship card that carried them when they are deployed. Con-tinue forming rings of fighter tokens around the ship until all launched fighters have been deployed. Any friendly fighter tokens in contact with a friendly ship with a Fighter icon can be taken aboard the ship up to its Fighter value. Once the End Phase is complete, the next turn begins. Leaving the Field of Play Any ship that moves off the field of play during a battle is permanently removed from play and is considered destroyed for victory condition purposes.

Winning a Battle In the demo version, the battle lasts for a maximum of five turns. The player with the most Victory Points at the end of the battle wins. The Star Republic gets a Victory Point for each Victory War Destroyer that she destroys. The Imperium player receives a Victory Point for each Structure that he destroys on the Freedom Heavy Cruiser. Either player wins instantly if they destroy an opponent’s entire battle group.

Thanks for Trying Imperial Crusade Armada

I would like to thank the following people for important contributions to the game:Ben Phipps, Dan Roberts, Donald Dennis, Eric Dewey, Jeff Brewer, Jorge Alvarez, Joseph Le May, Josh Look, and Walter Lukowski

Produced by JEN GamesCopyright @ 2012 James Tadashi Kato and JEN Games. All rights reserved. Imperial Crusade Armada is a trademark of and James Tadashi Kato.

Paul Linton (order #5618822)

Print these cards out, cut them out, and place them, in card protectors.

Paul Linton (order #5618822)

Paul Linton (order #5618822)