Mobile Frame Hangar

I am fascinated with air war ever since I can remember. As soon as I started playing MFZ that I imagined ways to make an air combat simulator out of it, however it never felt right to me. However, as soon as Vitor Faria posted his Dog Fight rules I knew I had found my answer.

This mod is thus an adaptation of Vitor Faria's Dog Fight and everything not stated otherwise can be assumed to behave like that rule set:

These rules I’m posting here are for running air battles set in the late 1960s. You will notice that there are plenty of SSRs flying around, making the game quite lethal, as it should given that real-life dogfights are usually solved with one or two shots. On the other hand, fighters do have less chances to cause damage. However, it still requires proper testing, so feedback is welcome.

I also provide ideas for systems and weapons, so you could create your own aircraft in case you wish to go full alternate history, or maybe just offer your take on how real aircraft could be built under this system.

Given that this system is intended to portray battles between real aircraft from the mid Cold War I ask for commenters to remain civil about the topic and maintain a neutral view of these aircraft and their feats and capabilities.




Systems
Systems work roughly the same way they work with Dog Fight – each fighter has two white dice, up to three systems and a floating , which does not count for the systems’ count.
Fighters are also divided in two classes: light fighters, which take two systems, and heavy fighters, which take three systems.
All fighters carry a gun, which counts as the white die that can be used for an attack on burst range.
Each fighter can take two SSRs for direct fire range.
If a fighter equips at least one yellow system, it can also carry two SSRs for support fire range.
A fighter can fire up to two SSRs for the same range at the same time.

The systems a fighter can carry are the following:
For burst range a fighter carries a HtH system if it carries one gun in addition to the first one.
For burst range, a fighter adds one HtH d8 if it carries three or more guns.
For direct fire range a fighter can equip a long-range cannon.
For direct fire range a fighter can equip an air-to-air rocket launcher.
A fighter can also carry an “additional missile rails” system that allows it to carry 4 direct range SSRs and also 4 support range SSRs if it can carry the latter. A fighter can carry up to two of these systems for a maximum of 6 missiles in both ranges. If a fighter loses this system, it also loses any additional missiles it carries (for example, if it carries 3 DR SSRs and loses this system, it also loses the unused third SSR).

For defense a fighter can carry an ECM system.
For defense a fighter can carry a Decoy Dispenser system.
For defense a fighter can equip the Sturdy Airframe system.

For movement a fighter can equip the Advanced Afterburner system.
For movement a fighter can equip the Canard system.
For movement a fighter can equip the Light Frame system.

For spotting a fighter can carry the Advanced Radar system.
For spotting a fighter can carry the InfraRed Tracking System (IRTS) system.
For spotting a fighter can carry the Datalink System.


Cover
Cover works as described in Dog Fight (offering cover at a 2 unit distance,), but with a twist. There are two kinds of cover:

Mobile Cover – mostly clouds, these are large patches of cover, that behave like normal cover. However, at the end of a round, each patch of cover moves one die in a direction predefined at the outset of the game (alternatively roll 1d8, where each number represents one cardinal direction, with 1 being north, 2 northwest, and so on). Once this cover reaches the edge of the table, it leaves the game.
Furthermore, if a fighter is inside a piece of terrain classified as "cloud" it has cover from any direction. However, it cannot attack or spot.

Stationary cover – hilltops, roofs of tall buildings, big trees, this is cover that simulates a low-altitude dogfight. It behaves like normal cover. The exception are the hilltops, which are indestructible.
Furthermore, if a fighter’s movement ends on top of a piece of static cover, the fighter takes damage.


Stations
Because of the nature of the mod, there’ll be two types of stations:
For battles in high altitude stations should be helicopters or transport aircraft. They could also move, in the same fashion mobile cover does, but controlled by the player. Generally, they should follow the alternative station rules for station movement as presented in the MFZ:RA book.
When buildings or, especially, hilltops are present, stations could be communication antennas or other fixed high-priority asset that can behave like normal stations.

Example Fighters:

USA
F-4C Phantom II
Advanced Radar + ECM + Additional missile rails + 4 DR SSRs + 4 SR SSRs -
NOTE: In fact this aircraft could only carry a gun in an external pod; if you so wish you can forego the option to make burst range attacks and instead add an additional red d6 to each SR SSR launch.

F-5C Freedom Fighter
Additional Gun + Sturdy Airframe + 2 RD SSRs -


URSS
Su-15 Flaggon
Additional Gun + Advanced Radar + Advanced Afterburner + 2 RD SSRs + 2 SR SSRs -

MiG-21
Advanced Afterburner + Additional missile rails + 4 DR SSRs -


Europe
Sea Vixen
Advanced Radar + Datalink + ECM + 2 RD SSRs + 2 SR SSRs -
NOTE: In fact this aircraft could only carry a gun in an external pod; if you so wish you can forego the option to make burst range attacks and instead add an additional red d6 to each SR SSR launch.

J-35 Draken
IRST + Advanced Afterburner + 2 RD SSRs -


I will try to provide models in the future, but I really wanted to get the rules here as soon as possible.

Thanks to Vitor Faria for coming up with Dog Fight in the first place.

I really enjoy this, Francisco! It's a huge honor to see you going forward with this!

That said, I'm afraid your version, as is, would favor attackers way too much.

In Dog Fight, the fact that less cover is on the table and each fighter has one less "life point" than a traditional frame is balanced out by the difficulty of always being both in range and in a firing arc.

Here you have a considerable amount of fighters going with even less "life points" and you have a huge number of SRR style weapons on top of it.

I know that the point is to make fighters feel more fragile by design, but that can also affect game balance.

I would suggest either cutting down on the rockets or inventing an unique way of giving the defender an extra edge.

(In fact, one of my methods of balancing Dog Fight will be adjusting the quantity of SSRs, if I feel defenders are winning too much, I'll add to the number, on the contrary, I will subtract.)

Thank you for the feedback!

Regarding your question, I have actually been contemplating that issue since day one, actually. How to make the combat feel unique and thematic without compromising the "simulation" side too much. Keep in mind, the firing arc of your rules still holds and you need to be in the right place to use the SSRs, regardless of their respective range. Moreover, the limited amount of attacks you're provided means that you need to contemplate your attack rolls carefully. Simply put, there aren't many red dice being thrown around, albeit most of them would be d8s (usually only one per attack, though).

That said, when the attack does take place, it can be a little too lethal. After reading your post I started to contemplate maybe treating the missiles like normal attacks, although limited in number (ie, you fire one missile, you throw two red d6s, you throw two, you get an additional d8), but this means that combat is still treated normally, except you have a limited amount of them. Another option would be to allow using green d6s for defense, along with the normal blue ones and the white ones, which would increase the defense options but could cause additional issues - I'm actually curious about what you think of this.

But, yeah, creating fun new rules is cool, but balancing things out is really hard.

I've also contemplated a less drastic mod for your system which I've christened Dog Fight 2025.

Within this mod you keep my rules for cover, movement abilities and stations, but the rest remains similar to your rule set. Furthermore you get two SSRs per fighter and no more (they are akin to self-defense missiles like the AIM-9X and equivalent missiles - I think this could also be a solution for your SSR problem).

The thematic systems would be the following (because of the characteristics of modern combat aircraft, weapon systems work normally here, given that they normally carry enough missiles to last for the normal duration of a MFZ battle):

for one cannon in addition to the normal one
For 3 or more cannons

for a long-range gun
for a battery of SACM missiles
for a Combat Drone

For a battery of long-range missiles
for a Laser

for Stealth Coating
for Decoy Dispensers
for ECM

for Supercruise
for Canards
for Vectored Thrust

For AESA Radar
For IRTS
For a Sensor Drone

Of course, this is no solution for the inherent problem of '68, but could be a way to play your rule set with a more "modern warfare" flair.

PS: sorry for the double post, but I thought the different topics warranted two posts.

Really interesting, mod, Francisco!

Gave me some really great ideas for coming up with systems for Dog Fight!

I frankly didn't get the snap shot rule all that well at first, you might consider rewording it a bit.

The only way to know for sure would be game testing, but I'm afraid the optional 90º would make a ship able to shoot everyone that isn't right behind it really easy, may be way too "turret-ish" to keep balanced.

Makes sense, keep it simple at first and add more detail later, if needed.

Yet, I must say, your missile ideas stroke me as very odd at first but they are really growing on me. I can't wait to see how would they work in practice!