Full Thrust

FAQs

What is Full Thrust - 2nd edition? This is the second edition of the Full Thrust, the rules for tactical space combat.Full Thrust is designed to be generic set of space combat rules that can easily be adapted for any space combat background. Its great strengths are its simplicity and speed of play and above all any rule can be modified if agreed by all concerned.

The game system has a construction and points system based on the mass of the ship and the available hull size for the ship class. Various ship systems are defined and these can be included into the ship design until the mass is used up.

The game plays in a sequence of turns with the writing of simple movement orders followed by the movement and firing and damage. The game caters for small ships of escort size to large capital ships and includes options for fighters. An optional background is provided to go along with the ship miniatures available from GZG. However most fun is had adapting it to a popular existing background or one of your own. If you want to know more details then you will have to buy the game.

What does Full Thrust contain?

What is the fire arc of a submunitions pack ?

The submunitions pack has only one 90 degree fire arc (60 degree in FB1). You can position the fire arc to fire in any single arc direction (excluding rear arc), but you can not purchase addition arcs for the weapon.

Do pulse torpedoes require a separate firecon per tube, or do they simply require a dedicated firecon per target?

A dedicated firecon per target. The rules state that torpedoes (plural) require a single firecon:

engaging a target with Torpedoes requires the use of one Fire Control system, which may not also be used to direct Beam Batteries that turn

For damage points and MASS available for weapons/systems do you round up or down on odd MASS ships?

The rules don't explicitly state what to do. A special hull can have any MASS up to 100, so odd number hulls are possible and the hull classification breakpoints on page 29 have odd MASS values. Unfortunatly all the design examples are for even MASS hulls. The spirit of the rules is to divide the MASS evenly between the damage points and that available to weapons/systems. So the designer chooses on how to do the odd MASS split, so that available MASS to damage points and weapons/systems is as equal as possible. One side of the split will gain the extra MASS point. Rounding up or down isn't used as it either gives advantages or disadvantages to using odd MASS hulls, which encourages mini-maxing.

For example, on a MASS 19 special hull you can either choose 9 damage points and 10 MASS for systems, or 10 damage points and 9 MASS for systems. This makes odd MASS hulls no better or worse than their even counterparts.

Can ships smaller than captials carry fighters?

No, the design system only allows for large captial or supership class ships to carry fighters.

What is a Carrier?

The ship classes that can carry fighters in FT2 are Battledreadnought, Superdreadnought, Light Carrier and Fleet Carrier, see page 16. For a design to be classed as any of these they would need to have a similar MASS as page 14 and design as the SSD on page 15. Of these only the dedicated Light and Fleet Carriers can launch two fighter groups per turn. Carriers follow the spirit of these designs.

Other suggested house rules are if the ship has 4 or more hangars or if it carries more MASS in fighters than other offensive systems it can be classed a Carrier.

Alternatively if your game background has something designated a carrier then it should behave as one, for example Battlestars and Star Destroyers.

Alternatively use the semi-official fighter launch and recovery rules

Why cant a Carrier launch all its fighters in one turn, given a turn is about 15 minutes?

Jon Tuffley suggests:

As a [semi-official] suggestion, how about launch full complement in one turn (based on earlier comments about turn length), and recover 50% (rounded up) of full complement? Thus a ship with five groups embarked could launch them all, but recover only three per turn. 

Gets away from having to define carriers in terms of game function - carrier just becomes a descriptive term applied to any ship that has a large percentage of its payload devoted to fighter bays.

Crated fighters carried in cargo or in fleet auxiliaries should only be used to replace losses between games in campaign settings - transfer from cargo to launch bays, assembly/uncrating, prep-up, tests/checks and everything else should be way outside the game timespan.

How fast can carriers recover fighters?

Page 16 states, ONE fighter group may be recovered per turn.

Can carriers launch and recover in the same turn?

There is no stated rule for this. Use a house rule, a suggestion is that they can't.

How long do fighters take to refuel / re-arm?

There is no stated rule for this. Use a house rule, some suggestions are:

Do fighters cause missiles and mines to attack?

No, the mine rules on page 18 seem specific to ships as do the missile rules on MT page 3.

How far do fighters move after immediate launch?

If using the FT2 movement sequence the fighter get full movement, after all ships have moved, from their launch point. If using MT turn sequence the fighters move before ships so would get no movement on the turn of launch. A house rule is to allow half their maximum movement at launch.

In breaking off a dogfight can the attacking group follow (assuming it hasn't moved yet this turn) and initiate another dogfight, with the same group? 

FT page 17 last column states that if a group breaks away from a dogfight the other may take a parting shot, then move as normal, but may not attack a second time that turn.

Jon Tuffley has since suggested this house rule based on the FB extensions: 

I see no reason why not. Provided the pursuers can catch the fleeing group (ie: assuming they are not a slower type of fighter), then I would think they can attack again. Looked at in real terms, what happens is that one group disengages, giving their opponents a clear free shot at their turned tails, then the other group decides to pursue and finish them off - for the sake of game mechanics, assume they catch up to them wherever the first group finish their move, and another brief furball ensues. Maybe if you want to give the fleeing group a chance to get away altogether, you might choose to allow them to burn a CEF for an additional move if they want, while denying the pursuers the chance to do this (perhaps on the PSB that they've had to spend a little time re-organising themselves after the first dogfight, and are thus a little way behind the escaping group) - but that's just an idea......

Can you move to port and starboard in the same turn?

The core rules say that you can't and that all turns are in the same direction. A common house rule allows a turn to port and starboard in the same turn, allowing a sideslip maoeuvre.

If I have an odd thrust ship how much thrust can I use for course changes?

From page 6:

if the ship has an ODD number of Thrust points available, the portion that may be expended on Course changing is rounded UP, eg: a ship with Thrust Rating of 5 could alter Course up to 3 points per Game Turn

Note in FB1 the rules now round ODD Thrust available for course change DOWN

Does applying thrust affect the ship's velocity in the turn in which the thrust is used, or does it affect the ship's velocity for the next turn? 

Well, the official answer is that it affects the V in the turn the thrust is used - ie: if you're doing velocity 6, and thrust 4 to accelerate to 10, you move 10MU in the turn that the thrust order relates to. I'd always assumed that was pretty clear, but maybe that's just because no-one has ever queried it with me before!

Can you spin turn on the turn that you decelerate to zero speed, or do you need to be at zero speed before the turn starts in order to perform a spin turn?

From page 7:

A ship with a velocity of zero (ie:stationary) may, in its movement phase, be rotated on the spot to any desired Course, irrespective of available Thrust or normal limitations on Course changes. The ship may NOT make any actual movement or apply any other Thrust in that Game Turn.

If you're decelerating to a stand-still, you are applying any other Thrust and therefore is not allowed to spin to any direction (you can, of course, turn the normal amount).

A Batteries are so cost effective why should I design a ship with anything else?

This is known anomaly in the design costs and a suggested house rule to stop design abuse is to increase their MASS to 4.

If a ship passes two thresholds in one shot, do you do the system checks twice?

Yes.

How do you calculate the number of crew in a ship?

The FB ships use 1 Mass of ship = 1 crew member, but there is nothing in the rules stating this. MT specifies the size of the Marine contingent aboard each ship, but gives no relation between the size of the crew and the number of Marines.

The real answer is, of course, that the exact size of the crew is completely arbitrary - what is important is the relative size of the crew (in comparision with other games), and you can (and the rules do) use the ship's Mass for that purpose. The actual number of crew members aren't used in any game calculations.