Gamehelpshatteredreach

Shattered Reach is a tactical space battle for 2 or 3 players. Each player commands one of three factions, builds a fleet to a points budget, and fights across a hex map scattered with planets. Ships keep their momentum from turn to turn, so planning where you'll be next turn matters as much as what you shoot this turn.

Factions

Each player commands a different faction.

• Ferrum Directorate: swarms of cheap, unshielded drone fighters, backed by ion and missile fighters, the very fast Lancet, and heavily shielded laser-turret capital ships.
• Ember Coalition: shielded fighters that all carry proton torpedoes, some with ion cannons, plus laser-turret capital ships up to the Thunderhead.
• The Myriad: no missiles, but thick-hulled ships packed with short-range acid spitters and long-range mass drivers, up to the huge Bristlemaw.

Click any ship to see its card: speed, hull, shields, weapons and missiles.

Setup

• Build your fleet up to the scenario's budget, in construction points.
  • Fleet limits: at most 10 of each fighter type; 2 each of the Picket, Rampart, Larrikin, Outrigger, Broodling and Barkhide; 1 each of the Cudgel, Autocrat, Lodestar, Thunderhead and Bristlemaw.
• Deploy in your highlighted zone. Capital ships longer than two hexes must have their rearmost hex on the map edge.
  • Secret deployment: you can't see where opponents place their ships until everyone has deployed. Allies can see each other's placements.
• Initiative: each player rolls 1d6; the highest roll takes initiative, and ties re-roll.

Rounds

Each round has two phases. Turn order starts with the player to the left of the initiative holder and goes clockwise, so the initiative holder goes last in both phases.

1. Movement phase: one at a time, each player moves all of their ships.
2. Firing phase: then, in the same order, each player fires with all of their ships.
3. End of round:
   • Destroyed ships are removed.
   • Shields recover: +1 for fighters, +1d4 for capital ships.
   • Victory is checked.
   • Initiative passes clockwise.

A ship destroyed earlier in the round (by a ram, or by fire earlier in the firing phase) still fires in its owner's firing turn.

Movement

• Speed is how many movement points (MP) a ship can spend each turn.
• Velocity is how many hexes the ship drifts forward on its own. It can never be higher than its speed.
• A ship that enters a planet hex or leaves the map is destroyed. Only one ship may occupy a hex.

Planning a move

Select a ship, build its move one step at a time, then click Move ship. The board previews the whole path, including drift. You get a warning if the move would ram a ship, leave the map or hit a planet. Steps happen in the order you choose:

• Forward (1 MP): velocity +1, and the ship moves one hex straight ahead immediately.
• Slow down (1 MP): velocity −1, and the ship drifts one hex less this move.
• Turn left / Turn right: turn one hex side, at the cost in the Turning Table for the ship's velocity at that moment.
  • Before turning, the ship must have travelled the table's "hexes before the turn" since the start of its move or its previous turn. Drifted hexes count.
  • At velocity 0 a ship turns in place.
  • Several turns made back to back, with no hex moved between them, count as one manoeuvre. Each hex side costs its points, but the hexes before the turn only have to be travelled once.
• Drift: the ship's starting velocity, minus any slowing down. Hexes travelled before turns use it up, and whatever is left is travelled at the end of the move, in the ship's final direction. A ship always travels its full drift; only a ram stops it early.

Ships you don't move drift when you click End movement. You get a warning if that drift would cause a crash or a ram.

Velocity	MP to turn one hex side	Hexes before the turn
0	1	0
1–2	1	1
3–4	2	2
5–6	3	3
7–8	4	4
9–10	5	5
11–12	6	6
13	7	7

Examples:

• A stationary ship turns right (1 MP), then goes Forward 4 times (4 MP). It turns in place and moves 4 hexes in its new direction, ending at velocity 4.
• A ship at velocity 3 turns right. It travels 2 hexes, turns, then drifts its last hex in the new direction. Slowing to 2 first makes the turn cost 1 MP and happen after 1 hex.
• A ship at velocity 4 travels 2 hexes, then turns 2 hex sides for 4 MP.

Large ships:

• Pivot: a large ship can pivot on any of its hexes; use Change pivot hex to pick one.
• Range: measured from its closest hex.
• Hazards and rams: if any of its hexes enters a planet or leaves the map, it's destroyed. If any of its hexes runs into another ship, it rams.

Ramming

Running into a ship is a ram. Every ship has a ram value: its cost ÷ 1,000, rounded up, shown on its card.

• Damage: the target takes the rammer's ram value × the rammer's velocity, and the rammer takes the target's ram value × the same velocity. Shields absorb ram damage first.
• Displacement:
  • Rammer has the higher ram value: it moves into the target's hex, and the target is pushed back 1 hex.
  • Equal or lower: the rammer stops in the hex before, and the target doesn't move.
  • Push blocked: if a ship, a planet or the map edge is in the way, the target stays put and the rammer stops in the hex before.
• Afterwards: both ships' velocities drop to 0, and the rammer's move ends.
• Turning into a ship also counts as a ram, using the turning ship's remaining drift as its velocity.
  • Heavier turning ship: it pushes the target 1 hex away and completes the turn.
  • Otherwise: the turn fails, but the MP are still spent.

Firing

• One action per weapon: each weapon on a ship acts separately and takes one action per firing phase: a shot, a missile lock or a missile launch.
• Firing arc: laser turrets fire in any direction. Every other weapon only fires into the ship's forward 180°; a target exactly on the side line counts as inside.
• Line of sight: a shot is blocked if the line between hex centres passes through a planet hex. Ships don't block line of sight.
• To hit: roll 2d6. The shot hits on a roll equal to or less than the number for that weapon and range.
• Shields absorb damage before the hull.

Weapon	Damage	Arc	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Notes
Laser	1	Forward	11	10	9	8	7	6	–	–	Most accurate at short range
Ion cannon	2 (ion)	Forward	9	9	8	7	–	–	–	–	Disables (see below)
Laser turret	2	Any	9	8	7	6	–	–	–	–	Capital ships only
Acid spitter	1	Forward	10	9	8	–	–	–	–	–	Short range
Mass driver	2	Forward	8	8	8	7	7	6	6	5	Long range, steady accuracy
Proton torpedo	5	Forward	9	9	8	8	7	6	5	–	Lock needed; launch: 2–4 miss, 5–11 hit, 12 dud
Concussion missile	3	Forward	10	9	9	8	8	7	7	6	Lock needed; launch: 2 miss, 3–10 hit, 11–12 dud

The numbers under 1–8 are the to-hit rolls at each range in hexes.

Ion cannons:

• Temporary disable: if any ion damage reaches the hull, the ship is inoperable in its owner's next movement phase and the firing phase after it. It drifts, but can't spend MP or fire. If it's hit before its owner has fired this round, it still fires this round, and the disabled round is the next one.
• Permanent disable: if ion damage takes the hull to 0, the ship isn't destroyed. It stops (velocity 0) and stays on the board as an obstacle.

Missiles:

• Lock: roll on the to-hit table, which uses the launcher's action.
• Launch: in your next firing phase, if the target is at that range or closer, launch the missile and roll on its table.
• Reacquire: a missile that misses can try to reacquire its target in the next firing phase. This doesn't use a launch action or need the forward arc.

Winning

Victory is checked at the end of the round, after destroyed ships are removed.

• Last fleet standing: a player is out when all of their ships are destroyed or disabled. The last player (or allied team) left wins.
• Capturing a planet (Homeworlds, Race for the Core):
  • A capital ship that enters the objective planet stops on it.
  • It captures the planet only if it's still operational and still on it at the end of the round, so opponents who act later can still stop it. Ships can fire at a ship on a planet.
  • If several ships capture in the same round, the first capture that holds wins.

Scenarios

Scenario	Players	Fleets	How to win
Small Skirmish	2 or 3	2,500 points each	Last fleet standing
Homeworlds	2 or 3	5,000 points each	Capture an enemy home planet with a capital ship, or last fleet standing
Long Corridor	2	5,000 points each, on a map only seven hexes wide	Last fleet standing
Crossroads	3	5,000 points each, on a three-armed map	Last fleet standing
Race for the Core	2 or 3	7,500 points each	First capital ship to capture the core planet (tile 6), or last fleet standing
Fleet Assault (2p)	2	Assault fleet: 10,000 capital + 1,000 fighter points. Interceptors: 10,000 points of fighters	Last fleet standing
Fleet Assault (3p)	3	Assault fleet as above, against two allied fighter fleets of 5,000 points each	The allies win together if the assault fleet is destroyed or disabled; the assault player wins if both fighter fleets are. Allies can't target each other.
Planetary Defense (2p)	2	Myriad: Bristlemaw + 2,500 points. Defender (Ferrum or Ember): 10,000 points	Myriad: the Bristlemaw devours the planet by entering it. Defender: destroy or disable the Bristlemaw.
Planetary Defense (3p)	3	Myriad: Bristlemaw + 4,750 points. Ferrum and Ember defend together, 6,000 points each	As above; the two defenders win together
All Out War	2 or 3	15,000 points each	Last fleet standing
Grand Armada	2 or 3	20,000 points each	Last fleet standing
Open Play	2 or 3	Choose 2,500 to 20,000 points	Last fleet standing

In Fleet Assault the first player in turn order commands the assault fleet. In Planetary Defense one player must play the Myriad.