Infinite Dark - HEAVENLY BODIES (beta)

Nothing adds to that feeling of a space battle like the presence of some asteroids or even a planet or moon.  In practice, in a setting with long-distance scanners and smart weapons, such things can't be used to obstruct line of sight, but their sheer mass distorts space-time, which will have an effect upon the ability of weapons to accurately strike targets within their gravity well - but also make it harder for those within the well to escape it!

While you are learning the rules for Horizon Wars: Infinite Dark, it will probably be easiest to ignore these rules.  However, once you are confident with them, adding various bodies in space can make for a more entertaining, tactical and challenging battle in both Solo and Versus modes.

Heavenly bodies (or just “bodies” for short) are any obstacle in space with sufficient gravity to cause interference with the normal operation of movement and fire that isn’t itself a part of any fleet or a component part of the mission.

The sum of the categories of all the bodies on the table should not exceed 16.

Range to a body is measured from the edge of the body’s diameter rather than to its centre.

SHOOTING AND BODIES

Any vessel within a range from a body equal to or less than its category adds +2 A against shoot tests that target it.  So, for example, if a shoot test would normally require 15 or more for a successful hit, if the target were within 7” of a category 7 body, it would require 17 or more for a successful hit.

MOVEMENT AND BODIES

A vessel is always considered to have a lower MAS than a body, so if a vessel ends normal movement less than 2” from a body, the vessel will move directly away from the body until it is exactly 2” away.  If a vessel collides with a body it is immediately destroyed.

If a vessel is within a range from a body equal to or less than its category, its target for manoeuvre tests is increased by +1.  In addition, if a vessel performs a normal move without having previously performed a successful manoeuvre test in the same activation, the vessel’s normal movement must follow a curve such that it may not end its movement further away from the body than it began.  If the vessel’s normal movement would, without curving, bring the vessel closer to the body than it began then no curve is applied.