Jump Lanes & Movement

[Tyrel Lohr]

Something I continually ran into issues with in 2E was trying to come up with a clear improvement on the movement rules to make things flow better or be easier to remember. I'm still not happy with the end result, and that's why I think we should probably revisit these elements in Galaxies.

We have four jump lane classes:

• Unexplored
• Restricted
• Minor
• Major

Minor lanes are our "standard" jump lane. Unexplored are a special case that are there to just denote that the lane exists but we don't know what it is yet. Restricted and major lanes are the ones that end up giving us headaches.

Before going any further, let me lay out what I think our movement rates should be for units:

• Crippled/Slow: 1 jump per turn
• Normal: 2 jumps per turn
• Fast: 3 jumps per turn

This makes for a clean +-50% speed variance and keeps things on a pretty even keel. So a normal fleet could jump across 2 minor lanes in a turn, but a crippled fleet could only jump across 1.

Where this gets tricky is with major and restricted lanes. Major lanes should allow for faster movement, while restricted lanes should make movement more difficult. The question is: how best to actually translate that into easy to remember rules?

We've tried several different options in the past. Here are a few thoughts off the top of my head, and we can refine them from here:

• (Major) Allow a fleet to move across one major lane in addition to other movement this turn
• (Major) Allow a fleet to move across any number of major lanes in a turn at no cost
• (Restricted) Have moving across a restricted lane immediately end movement
• (Restricted) Require a fleet to have a Scout with it to cross a restricted lane
• (Restricted) Military ships treat restricted lanes as minor lanes, but civilian convoys require military escort to cross the lane

These are just a few thoughts for now. Rereading Charlie's old Fool's Rush In campaign diary, I was reminded that in that campaign all lanes started as restricted lanes and then got upgraded from there, and you had to be more methodical about expansion.

[Tyrel Lohr]

I updated the Google Doc with a proposed solution:

Crippled, Slow, and Out of Supply units move 1 jump per turn
Normal units move 2 jumps per turn
Fast units move 3 jumps per turn

A fleet may jump across one major lane at no cost each turn (increasing their effective movement limit by 1)
A fleet may only cross a restricted lane if it has a Scout (to help navigate the route)

This creates a situation where major lanes provide an important movement advantage, but it's not unbalancing. And the rate of movement across restricted lanes is the same as minor lanes, but have the added technical requirement of having a Scout (or a Jump ship, if playing with B5-style hyperspace optional rules).

I am also liking the idea that the Explorer ability is tied in with lane upgrades / downgrades and receiving fewer out of supply levels from being In Peril.

[murtalianconfederacy]

Of the options presented, I'd say that:

[*](Major) Allow a fleet to move across one major lane in addition to other movement this turn
[*](Restricted) Military ships treat restricted lanes as minor lanes, but civilian convoys require military escort to cross the lane

Would be the 'better' options. I'm still wondering how I'm going to mark the difference between the lane types, but that's my problem.

[Tyrel Lohr]

Depending on how you're mapping the lanes, this is what I do:

Unexplored: dotted line
Restricted: dashed line
Minor: normal line
Major: thick line

I also vary the line stroke in Illustrator for each one, to make it easier to tell which is which.

That way they show up in black and white.

Back in the day, Jay used colored lines for his. I think it was red for restricted, yellow for minor, and white for normal?

[murtalianconfederacy]

Ahem, Tyrel, remember who you're talking to--the neo-Luddite that plays with pen and paper I'm concerned with the upgrading/downgrading of jump lanes, so I need a P+P method of both marking jump lanes and then modifying it in a way that keeps the readability of the map...One method I've toyed with is having a small box with which I can number them (1 for restricted, 2 for minor, 3 for major), which would at least restrict the area required for erasing...

[Tyrel Lohr]

Ahem, Tyrel, remember who you're talking to--the neo-Luddite that plays with pen and paper I'm concerned with the upgrading/downgrading of jump lanes, so I need a P+P method of both marking jump lanes and then modifying it in a way that keeps the readability of the map...One method I've toyed with is having a small box with which I can number them (1 for restricted, 2 for minor, 3 for major), which would at least restrict the area required for erasing...

In that case, putting a box in the lane to record a number works great, as then you can just update the number in the box and go from there.

Alternatively, you could just not allow jump lanes to be upgraded/downgraded in your campaigns (perfectly valid!) and then use colored pencils or markers to draw them in permanently.

[wadewan]

Another possible alternative for Major Jump Lanes between unlimited and one additional move options is to allow one extra Major Jump move for each speed category.

Slow - 1 Extra Jump if all movement transits on Major Jump Lanes.
Normal - 2 Extra Jumps
Fast - 3 Extra Jumps.

Cheers.

[Tyrel Lohr]

I've reorganized the Movement Phase content and think most of it is ready for review. The Moving Cargo still needs to be consolidated and edited, but that is another ball of wax, mainly because if we're going to let Assault ships start carrying ground forces again it bears discussion whether we want Supply ships to be able to carry units and cargo, too.

My head is spinning and I must lie down.



Anyway, let me know if the movement rules make sense or if more clarifications or changes are required.