Ship Combat Overview

Combat Round Overview
In a single round of combat, each player takes their turns during various phases.

The multiple phases are:
 * 1) Utility
 * 2) Movement
 * 3) Firing
 * 4) Assessment

Utility Phase
In the Utility phase, here is where you may activate all of your utility equipment. Your intelligence officer may roll to scan the enemy ship and learn more, you may activate any non-combat equipment such as Targeting Computers, EWAR, Interdictor devices, jump beacons, and anything else along these lines. This is also where the ship's captain determines whether to lock a target or not.

Movement Phase
This is the phase where ships perform their maneuvers. The ability for a ship to move around on the battlefield is dictated by its "Thrust Value." The Thrust Value accounts for the mass of the ship versus the force of its thruster-plant. In the New Horizons RPG system, range between ships is an arbitrary amount set by the table below, named "Range Table." In the movement phase, players allocate thrust into three different maneuvers:
 * 1) Forward Surge

A forward surge means full power to thrusters, closing the distance and moving across range brackets.
 * 1) Traverse

A traverse maneuver means allocating the ship's thrusters to moving sideways, dodging incoming shots.
 * 1) Reverse Surge

A reverse surge means the ship is reversing, and trying to pull a greater distance away, moving higher along range brackets. When a ship does the Transverse action, it becomes harder to hit. Each Thrust point makes the ship harder to hit, applying each point to the difficulty of the enemy's Gunnery checks.

Firing Phase
In the firing phase, each ship allocates its guns at a target, and fires. To determine whether the guns hit, you follow the following check:

Range Modifier
Every weapon has an optimal range it was meant to be used in. Anything further out becomes difficult for the weapon to predict, and anything closer gives the weapon trouble tracking. For each bracket above the weapon's listed range, apply a +2 for each bracket above the listed bracket. For each bracket below, apply a +1 modifier.

Traversal Modifier
If the target used a Traverse Maneuver in the movement phase, add that number to the check amount.

Weapon Tracking Modifier
Subtract your weapon's tracking value from the check, as this is the ability for the turret or missile to follow the target's movements.

Assessment Phase
Damage is applied during this phase, as well as other effects from actions taken are applied.