Fleet action, breaking off and surrender
A fleet action is a fight with more than two hulls, in which each side picks targets by a doctrine, a hull breaks off when the cost of staying grows past what it can win, and a beaten hull may yield to a boarding party.
32 numbers, 0 with an outside source
- A0 numbers at grade A
- B0 numbers at grade B
- C0 numbers at grade C
- D0 numbers at grade D
- E32 numbers at grade E
Functionality
3 topics
Enemy doctrine
- Every faction fights to a DOCTRINE. Each hostile picks its target by it every 20 s.
- It matters once escorts or allies fly with you.
- Earth | HUNTS YOUR GUNS, whatever shoots hardest.
- Mars | PRESSES CRIPPLES, whatever is already bleeding.
- The Outer Guild | SPREADS FIRE across your formation.
- The Unclaimed | TAKES THE SOFT TARGET, your lightest hull.
- Bounty Hunters | COMING FOR YOU, because they were paid for you.
- The contact report names the doctrine before the shooting starts.
Wing orders
- [6] | orders for one ship, or Enter for the whole wing.
- A ship that forms on you flies beside you, and the row says what share of the fire lands on you.
- ENGAGE | it screens ahead and meets the hostiles first.
- HOLD BACK | it stays near its leader, guns cold.
- FOCUS FIRE | it works the weakest hostile.
- FORMATION | crossfire, line abreast, loose or trail.
- Between your orders each escort leader flies by their own temperament.
Ways out
- [M] | every way out, and why a blocked one is blocked.
- HAND IT TO THE SECOND | the Second fights on by your standing orders.
- YIELD | only when the hostiles offer terms.
- DEMAND SURRENDER | orders every breaking hostile to stand down.
- CRACK THEIR CHANNEL | names the ship each hostile is on. The last of 3 tries works.
- A demand or a crack holds your fire for 20 s.
- BREAK OFF AND RUN | on the helm, a full burn away.
- You are clear when every hostile is past 3,000 km.
Values
32 numbers: 32 E
Each value is read from the game code. Sort by any column heading, or filter by grade or by a word.
| Quantity | Value | Grade | Source | Why this value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hours the escape pod rescue detour takes | 24 hours | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game as one day, spent through the game clock so the daily systems tick. No source gives a pod pick-up time. |
| Chance a wreck leaves a flight recorder | 0.4 share | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game; a recorder is turned in at any station for a reward and standing. No source gives a recovery rate. |
| Base chance a response force arrives while the crew strips a wreck | 15 percent | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game: lingering to strip a wreck takes time, so the chance rises with the haul. A quick grab never rolls. |
| Credits of boarding bonus that add one point to the interception chance | 20 Cr per point | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game as the step that scales the chance with the boarding bonus the haul earned. |
| Highest chance a response force arrives | 60 percent | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game as the cap, so even a long strip is never certain to draw a response. |
| Danger level of the response force | 40 level | EAuthored | No source recorded | A flat level for a plausible response force, tuned by playtesting rather than mirrored from the fight just won. |
| Base chance a boarding party holds when it defends the hull | 10 percent | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game as the floor of the defend roll, which rises with marines aboard. |
| Chance gained per marine when defending a hull | 0.5 percent per marine | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game; the defend chance is the base plus the marine combat score times this, up to the cap. |
| Highest chance of holding a hull against boarders | 85 percent | EAuthored | No source recorded | The cap chosen by the game at 85, so a civilian crew of aces can still match a navy hull's party. |
| Strike accuracy of a bay with no crew of its own | 55 percent | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game between a rookie operator at 50 and a veteran at 70, so an enemy carrier is a threat but beatable. |
| Hands in a leased navy hull's free boarding party | 5 hands | EAuthored | No source recorded | A sergeant and four marines, chosen by coldweld on 2026-10-07. The deck fight repels a boarding of 8 in 49 percent of fights unsuited and 77 percent suited with this party (200 trials, plus or minus 4 points), against 10 and 24 percent for 2 marines. |
| Skill of the navy hull's sergeant | 80 skill points | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game at 80, a veteran by the deck fight's skill floors; no source rates a sergeant. |
| Share of its hull a captured hull is left with | 0.25 share | EAuthored | The Commander's Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations (NWP 1-14M), 1995 edition, 7.10 Prize | Chosen by the game as a hull disabled and roughly patched and not scrapped. The handbook treats a captured enemy hull as prize for a court, and gives no condition. The sources are silent on this figure. |
| How much a posture pulls enemy fire onto the flagship | screen 2.2, line 1, standoff 0.3 multiplier | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game at 2.2 for screen, 1.0 for the line and 0.30 for standoff. An earlier set (3.0 and 0.35, with a standoff penalty of 12) made hold the line dominate and standoff worst; the notes say to re-measure before quoting the balance. |
| Hull size at or under which a target reads as easy prey | 360 hull points | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game as roughly a light patrol craft, so a raider doctrine goes for the lightest hull. |
| Targeting doctrine of each faction's ships | Earth weightthreat, HUNTS YOUR GUNS, TERRAN FIRE CONTROL: they shoot whatever is shooting hardest., Mars weightcripple, PRESSES CRIPPLES, OLYMPUS DOCTRINE: they press whatever is already bleeding., The Outer Guild weightspread, SPREADS FIRE, LONGHAUL SATURATION: they keep your whole formation under fire rather than concentrating., The Unclaimed weightsoft, Takes the soft target, RAIDERS: they want an easy kill, not a duel | they go for your lightest hull., Bounty Hunters weightflagship, COMING FOR YOU, BOUNTY HUNTERS: they are paid for you specifically, and will largely ignore your wing. rules | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game: Earth hunts the hardest shooter, Mars presses the cripples, the Guild spreads fire and raiders take the soft target. Which hull an enemy shoots was a coin flip before. |
| Hit chance gained by each added hull firing on one target | 4 points of hit chance | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game so a pair on one target is worth something and a squadron is decisive; no source gives a bonus for concentrated fire. |
| Most hit chance concentrated fire can add | 12 points of hit chance | EAuthored | No source recorded | The cap on the focus bonus, chosen by the game so a squadron on one contact is decisive and not a rout. |
| Hull share at which an enemy of no listed hull class breaks off | 0.25 share | EAuthored | No source recorded | The fallback for a hull whose class has no entry below, chosen by the game at a quarter of the hull. |
| Hull share at which an enemy breaks off, by hull class | LIGHT CRAFT 0.4, MEDIUM CRAFT 0.3, HEAVY CRAFT 0.25 share | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game: a light craft breaks at 0.40 of its hull, a medium at 0.30 and a heavy at 0.25, so a light hull breaks before a starter gun crosses all of it. |
| Break-off threshold multiplier for a hostile bounty hunter | 0.45 multiplier | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game: a hunter was paid to kill this captain and collects nothing by leaving, so it holds on longer. |
| Break-off threshold multiplier for a hostile navy patrol | 0.7 multiplier | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game: a patrol is on station, and leaving is a decision somebody answers for. |
| Break-off threshold multiplier for a hostile with no special reason | 1 multiplier | EAuthored | No source recorded | The plain threshold, for a raider who wants cargo and will not die for it. |
| Break-off threshold multiplier for a hull with no way to shoot back | 2 multiplier | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game at 2.0: a hull that cannot shoot back leaves early. A light craft then breaks at 0.80 of its hull and a heavy at 0.50, one or two exchanges at the measured 14 percent of a hull a round. |
| Earliest round a lawful flag offers the stand-down | 2 round | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game: a flag that keeps courts offers the stand-down once a fight, and not before round 2. No source gives a round. |
| Base chance a lawful hull believes the captain's feigned surrender | 70 percent | EAuthored | The Commander's Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations (NWP 1-14M), 1995 edition, 6.2.5 War Crimes, item 12 | Chosen by the game at 70 for a clean record. The handbook lists a treacherous request for quarter, feigning surrender to gain an advantage, as a war crime, so the record answers. |
| Chance lost for each point of the captain's record | 3 percent per point | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game: one perfidy is 30 on the record and takes a clean captain from 70 percent to the floor, once per flag. |
| Lowest chance a surrender is believed | 5 percent | EAuthored | No source recorded | The floor of the believed-surrender chance, chosen by the game. |
| Highest chance a surrender is believed | 90 percent | EAuthored | No source recorded | The cap of the believed-surrender chance, chosen by the game. |
| Chance a hostile feigns surrender when it would gain from it | 30 percent | EAuthored | The Commander's Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations (NWP 1-14M), 1995 edition, 6.2.5 War Crimes, item 12 | Chosen by the game: a hull feigns only when it buys a free volley, and a pirate takes the chance readily. The feint is a war crime in the handbook, which a pirate does not answer to. |
| The same chance for a lawful hull | 15 percent | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game at half the pirate's chance. |
| Share of the captain's hull at or below which a hostile may feign surrender | 0.5 share | EAuthored | No source recorded | Chosen by the game: a hull feigns only when the captain is hurt enough for one free volley to count, or when another hostile is still shooting. |
Real-world basis
6 points
- A fleet action is decided by who shoots whom, so each navy trains its ships to pick targets by one rule.
- A ship breaks off when staying costs more than the fight can win, and a ship that was paid to kill has less reason to leave.
- Surrender is an offer to the other side, and the other side must accept it for it to work.
- Feigning surrender to gain a military advantage is treacherous, and the law of armed conflict counts it as a war crime.
- A captured hull goes to a court as prize, and the sources give the captor no share of it.
- A boarding party that takes a hull strips it, so the victor can be caught at the wreck by a response force.
Game and reality differences
2 points
- The game charges a captain's record for a feint as a perfidy that a lawful flag remembers once per flag. The handbook treats it as an offense for a court and names no price.
- Enemies once picked a target by a flat random choice. A doctrine per faction replaced it without lengthening a fight.
Source absences
4 points
- No source on the shelf provides values for the following:
- Chances, thresholds, or hit bonuses. All are authored.
- Odds and penalty of a feigned surrender. The Handbook calls a feigned surrender treacherous.
- SORM does not cover the following:
- Who may strike colors.
- Procedure to yield a ship.
Sources
2 documents
- The Commander's Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations (NWP 1-14M), 1995 edition, 6.2.5 War Crimes, item 12: The list of war crimes includes a treacherous request for quarter, which is feigning surrender in order to gain a military advantage. The game charges a captain's record for the same act. "feigning surrender" (all uses)
- The Commander's Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations (NWP 1-14M), 1995 edition, 7.10 Prize: A captured enemy hull goes in as prize for a court, and no source gives the captor a share. The game pays the boarding bonus as a capture bonus and not as salvage. (all uses)