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Each Battle Turn happens in the following order:
1- form jump point/activate jump gate
2- launch fighters
3- fire weapons (Capital then fighter)
4- move ships

The battle system is rather simple to use but detailed. Battle occurs on a hexagon (hex) grid map that is marked by rows of numbers and columns of letters. Only one ship or fighter group may exist in each hex. 

When a battle is to begin, the game master posts the map with any physical features (asteroids, jump gates, etc) already marked. Then, the game master is secretly informed where a player's ships are going to be located on the map and where they will be facing. 

A new map is posted that now shows the location and type of the ships. The players then post their turns. The turns are posted on the battle board and the game master modifies the map and posts the results (damage to ships) of the last turn. The players review this data and then formulate their next turn. 

This continues until either one player surrenders, retreats, or is destroyed. 

The full strength of weapons can be found on the Ship Control Sheets. Also, during the battle, it is a good idea to mark on the control sheet for that ship what damage has been done. 

Some weapons have different "modes", or ways that they can fire. These modes are: 

Standard:  

All damage to one hit location.

 

Raking:  

Different hit location each 10 points, armour only counts on first 10 point volley in each location

 

Piercing:  

1/2 hits primary section. Damage per raking hit in both locations

 

Sustained:  

Automatically hits the following turn if still in arc. Damage per raking above. Extra cool down time required.

When firing weapons, it is a good idea to specify which mode the weapon is in. If it is not specified, the weapon is assumed to be firing in normal mode. The following as a list of weapons that can do the special modes and which special modes they have: 

Heavy Laser:

  Raking, Sustained, Normal

 

Battle Laser:

 Raking, Piercing, Normal

 

Neutron Cannon:

 Raking, Piercing, Sustained, Normal

 

Electro Pulse Gun:

 Destroys a fighter in one shot. No damage to capital ships

 

Heavy Neutron Cannon:

 Raking, Piercing, Sustained, Normal

 

There are also some special rules for certain weapons. 

Twin Array:

 Fires TWICE per turn at the same target.

 

Energy Mine:

 This weapon releases an energy burst in an area. It is effective against fighters as it can damage many of them in one shot.

 

Pulse:

 Each pulse hits separate location.

 

Flash:

 Plasma damage, 1/2 goes to structure, remaining split among systems on side damaged. 1/4 damages facing structure of all ships in hex.

 

Matter:

 Ignores armour, no overkill. Burst beam n/a vs. structure.

 

Babylon 5, names, pictures, etc. are trademarks of Time Warner Entertainment Co., LP. No copyright infringement intended or implied. All other material not belonging to Time Warner is the property of Alex Kroeze.