Description

These rules are designed for a player to control many capital ships in a major fleet action. They are designed to allow players to refight the huge space battles of the Exterminator War.

• HELLFIRE, which allows players to control a single ship in considerable detail.
• Big Burn is for small fleet actions with a degree of detail as to what damage is done.

This set of rules are another step in the abstraction process, designed to make a battle playable in an hour or less, and several battles in a campaign context practical in an evening.
The basic rules concept is a direct steal from the excellent WRG game 'Seastrike' published in, I think 1974.

Inevitably, that original system has mutated somewhat in its conversion to the Universe, and this system is an attempt to reflect the doctrine and practice of 300+ years of space combat in the Universe.

Space battles in the Universe generally take place in the orbital space around a colony world. Combat is generally not 'to the death', and fleets will usually withdraw if overmatched.

Combat is also very greatly influenced by political constraints and the consequent rules of engagement. Similarly, the loss of a capital ship is a major economic loss as it takes a year and a half to build a replacement, and it has significant credit value. (See the Macro Rules for the Humanity Will Prevail Campaign). Captains and admirals are schooled with the prevailing ethos – which is that if an enemy ship breaks off combat you let it go (after all, it might be you next time).
Much of this was challenged during the Exterminator War – where the enemy was an implacable machine intelligence – so when fighting Exterminators the loss of ships is expected. However, that specific threat has now receded.