(AE.0) Aggressive Engagement (V 5.1)

In all forms of combat throughout history, there have been times when a force is called upon to perform beyond the norm. Forces with superior strategic and logistical support have been shown to be able to maintain contact with enemy forces for longer, and in so doing inflict greater and more lasting casualties.

This rule provides an extra combat option, provided a force can muster the resources needed to utilize it. A force using Aggressive Engagement will be able to force a second round of combat to be fought without change to battleforce composition, allowing more (and more severe) casualties for both sides.

(AE.1) The requirements to attempt AE are as follows:

(AE.11) Leadership. It may only be initiated by a force which is led by an Admiral or has expended a Command Point in the current battle.

(AE.12) Superior Logistics. The side initiating AE must be in supply, and must be no more than two hexes from a convoy belonging to the race providing the Admiral/Command Point. At the time AE is declared, the force using AE expends two EPs.
(AE.121) A single convoy can support only one round of Aggressive Engagement per turn, and supporting AE expends all of the convoy's stored supplies. The empty convoy is immediately removed from the map and returned to a supply node in the owning race's main supply grid to be restocked prior to performing any further convoy functions.
(AE.122) This supply node must be at least six hexes from the battle hex in which AE is being used and the attacker must select a node at least six hexes from any enemy forces. If no such node is available (and AE.123 does not apply), the convoy is not returned to the map (it is lost).
(AE.123) If the convoy is in a position to draw supplies from the race’s off map zone, the convoy may be returned to the map in the off map zone. In this case the convoy may not leave the off map zone for one full turn. Convoys in the offmap area cannot be used to support AE.
(AE.124) A military convoy is treated exactly the same as a civilian convoy for the purposes of supplying AE. Do to its greater speed, a Military convoy may be used to support an aggressive engagement at a range of 3 hexes. A commercial convoy cannot support AE.
(AE.125) A Logistics Task Force can provide supplies for a single AE per turn, at a range of 3 hexes from the LTF. The LTF is not removed from the map as a convoy would be.

(AE.13) Intensity. The side declaring AE must choose a BIR of 4, or 8 if allowed to choose both BIRs.

(AE.14) Battleforce Composition. The following restrictions apply to the force initiating AE:
(AE.141) The force selecting AE loses the benefit of the Formation Bonus for the current combat round.
(AE.142) The force selecting AE cannot contain any slow units or fixed defenses.
(AE.143) Prior to Y180, the force selecting AE cannot have any units other than PFTs in the support echelon (i.e., it cannot use independent fighter strikes or drone bombardment; it can use independent PF strikes). After Y180, the increase in speed of drones and fighters allows these units to be used from the support echelon as normal.

(AE.15) Declaration. A player must desiginate Aggressive Engagement during step 3C, during battleforce construction. A counter for AE should be placed in the battleforce, and revealed when Battleforces are simultaneously revealed. If both sides declare AE, both are under all of the restrictions of this rule, and the extra round proceeds normally. Additionally, if both sides declare AE, the BIR for the battle is automatically considered to be 10. No roll is made for variable BIR in this case.

(AE.2) Effect. The round is resolved normally up to the completion of damage resolution (step 6), before either side has the option to retreat. Both sides then have an option to withdraw from the engagement; see (AE.21). If neither side withdraws, a second round of combat (starting with step 4) is then fought with minimal adjustment to the Battleforce of either side (see AE.26). The following rules apply to this AE Battle Round:

(AE.21) Withdrawal. A side wishing to avoid AE may do so by withdrawing from combat and leaving a covering force. This may be done by either player. The side which declared AE gets the first opion to withdraw.
(AE.211) If one side decides to withdraw, it must form a covering force from the units remaining after the first round of combat. This force must contain one unit for each set of three uncrippled ships withdrawing, plus one unit for each cripple withdrawing. Uncrippled Fast/X-ships do not require covering units; Crippled fast/x-ships count as uncrippled ships. Covering units may be ships, crippled ships and Ship-equivalents of fighters/PFs. SWAC shuttles may also be used as covering units. Slow units may not withdraw but may be used to cover withdrawal. Only ships remaining in the battleforce after the first round of combat require cover; ships in the scout box, support echelon or reserves do not require covering units. Covering units deal damage to the opposing force equal to 50% of their attack factors (as if they had rolled a 6 on BIR 10); this damage is resolved by the player opposing the withdrawal, as the covering force is in no position to direct damage. After this damage is resolved, the covering forces are considered automatically destroyed, and produce no salvage. If the withdrawal is performed by the side which originally declared AE, the unit used to supply the AE in (AE.12) is also lost.
(AE.212) A withdrawal from Aggressive Engagement is counted as a loss for the purposes of approach.

(AE.22) Intensity. The BIR remains unchanged - it is not reassigned, and no roll is made for variable BIR.

(AE.23) Drones. Drone ships may support this round if they supported the previous round, but are not required to. If drone support is used it must be paid for at normal rates. Note that while the side initiating AE may be forbidden from using drones by (AE.143), the other side is free to do so.

(AE.24) Formation. The side which attempted to force AE during the previous battle is still forbidden to use the formation bonus. The side which did not attempt to force AE may change the ship in its formation bonus.

(AE.25) Fighters/PFs. Fighters/PFs lost in the previous round may be replaced only by the following means:
(AE.221) A carrier (in the original battleforce) which held some of its fighters "in the bays" may now deploy thes fighters to replace lost fighters.
(AE.222) FCRs in the battle force (including those added under AE.26) can send fighters to carriers in the battle force.
(AE.223) Federation Escorts which qualify under (502.94) can deploy their spare fighters.
(AE.224) Fighters/PFs may be added by (AE.265).

(AE.26) Replacements. Each side may add one non-slow ship to its battle force from reserve elements in the same hex, with the following restrictions.
(AE.261) The added ship may not be part of a multiship group.
(AE.262) The added ship may not be a ship requiring consorts (Mauler, Troop, SFG), as these ships would never operate independently.
(AE.263) If this is an FCR it may join a Carrier Group as an emergency escort per (535.353).
(AE.264) The added ship must be under the command limits. If adding a ship would exceed the command rating of the original flagship, a ship from the reserve meeting the above restrictions may instead be exchanged for an uncrippled ship in the battleforce.
(AE.265) One ship equivalent of attrition units can be added instead of adding a ship. This unit may either be used to replace lost fighters/PF or may operate independently. If FCR(s) are present in the reserves and this option is chosen, the FCRs may deploy their fighters to replace losses as well.
(AE.266) One Fast/X-Ship ship may be added to the battle force in addition to the ship added by (AE.26). This ship must be under the command rating of the original flagship. No exchange is possible.

(AE.27) Captured Ships. Ships captured during the previous battle round must be included in the Battle Force of the capturer and are treated under 305.25 for the duration of the AE. This option does not preclude the use of any other Option under 305 during future battle rounds (assuming the captured unit survives).

(AE.28) Directed Damage.
(AE.281) A Mauler may be used for directed damage (308.4) in the AE round only if no mauler was used for this purpose in the previous round. The effort required for a battleforce to make maximum use of a mauler is simply too much be accomplished twice in the same engagement.
(AE.282) Both players may designate one or more crippled ships and designate them to be a single target for directed damage, in the same manner as in a pursuit battle (307.4)

(AE.29) SFGs. Units frozen by an SFG do not remain frozen, and (assuming the SFG ship survived), additional SFG attempts may be made during this round.

(AE.3) Restrictions on initiating AE:
(AE.31) AE may not be used in a pursuit battle.
(AE.32) AE may not be initiated in the extra round provided by a successful use of AE.
(AE.33) If AE is used in an approach battle, the extra round does not count as one of the three required rounds of approach. The total damage from both the normal round and the AE round are summed to determine whether the round in which AE was declared counts as a victory for the attacker. This applies regardless of whether AE was declared by the attacker, the defender, or both.

By John Smedley (Ukar) on Thursday, May 29, 2003 - 05:11 pm: Edit

This proposal generated considerable intest about a month ago in the old proposal forum. It has not changed much since ver. 5 - I am posting this version primarely so that it doesn't get lost.

I have tried to incorprate the many suggestions I recieved into this version. Further suggestions are, of course, still welcome.

By Kevin Howard (Jarawara) on Friday, May 30, 2003 - 10:19 am: Edit

Hey John. Thanks for reposting; it was getting buried in a million posts of old.

I liked the AE proposal when you first posted it, but then I turned negative due to the interaction of AE and maulers. You have done much to correct that, but still I'm a little cold on the idea.

However, it occurs to me that by the time AE is ready to be added officially to F&E, Steve might very well be going ahead with F&E3K. He recently said the next major rewrite of F&E might occur as early as 2006 (though I wouldn't expect it until 2010).

Anyway, my point is, AE might be added into the same set of rules that remove CEDS, defang maulers, and add some ship killing requirement rules. Defang the maulers, and the whole mauler/AE interaction problems go away.

The other big concern of AE is more alliance ship kills ("Would the alliance survive?"). Defang the maulers, and there will be far less alliance ship kills - which gives AE and other ship killing rules some room to work without breaking the balance. Less alliance cruiser kills; more small ship kills on all sides; alliance doesn't *have* to direct upon maulers, and thus can go after other things in normal battles as well as AE.

I think, all combined, it would work out well. Thoughts?

By John Smedley (Ukar) on Friday, May 30, 2003 - 01:45 pm: Edit

Kevin,

Notice that Maulers can only be used once in the two rounds of AE. This was proposed by Jeff Laikind.

The reason for this change is that now maulers are no different in AE than they are in normal combat. This should make AE mostly insensitive to the change in maulers, which was my objective (since it seems that maulers will change someday, it would be a good idea if we start taking this into accout with our proposals).