Mine warfare in Space

The concept of using mines in space is ancient and is merely an extension of the basic usage of land mines.

You deploy mines to:
* Defend stationary targets against attacks or reconnaissande
* Limit movement of ships (friendly or hostile) to a few choke points, which are more easily controlled/defended.
* Create barriers
* Establish blockades around planets or stellar systems

The main drawback is that space is big! The volume inside a stellar system is tremendous, so creating extensive mine fields is very expensive and requires literally millions of mines.

If you want to create such mine fields, you must have both the time and money. By building automated mine factories which spew mines into designated orbits, you can cut the time substantially. However, this needs to be complemented by manual placement of mines, so mine layers are also required. They range in size from stock light freighters to specially constructed mine ships, capable of carrying thousands of mines.

Mines are best used in combination with squadrons of warships which can patch any holes in the mine-fields, or used in combination with such equipment as the Guardian gravity well station.

Another use is in fleet combat where a hastily placed mine-field can act as a force-multiplier by protecting the flanks of the fleet. However, this requires several fast and capable minelayers, and is of limited use in a running battle, but it can be valuable if the fleets are doing battle in a small area of space.

A somewhat sneaky defensive move is to drop several mines astern of a ship that is fleeing from pursuers, but this move only works if there is no heavy maneuvering which might spoil the chance of a mine hit.

There exists several countermeasures against space mines. the most common is perhaps to avoid the known mined area! But then the purpose of the mine-laying party has been fulfilled; to deny space to the enemy.

So, scientists has laboured to find new methods. The oldest method is to tow specially designed nets of light mesh between two or more vessels. Most mine types encountered will detonate upon contact with the net, but the towing vessels are in grave danger of being hit themselves.

Thus, the scientists have developed other methods, ranging from using drones towing nets to the usage of the newly deployed Anti-Mine Emitter System.


Rules

When a ship approaches a mine or mine field, the sensor operator needs to beat an Easy Mechanical or Sensor roll to detect a mine, modified by any stealth modifiers. To avoid detection, the pilot makes a relevant piloting roll, either using Starfighter Piloting, Starship Piloting or Capital Ship Piloting, while each mine makes a Sensor roll.

Any mine which rolls higher than the piloting roll detects the ship and uses all of its available weapon systems which are in range.


Equipment

Anti-Mine Emitter System

- This is a powerful emitter that projects a weak grav-field around a Mine Disposal Vehicle (MDV). The grav field confuses most of the standard mine types into believing that a large vessel is passing by, thereby making the mine explode prematurely.
The grav-field has a range of 10 units in space. Needs several MDV's to function properly. It is usually illegal to have this on a private vessel.
Cost: 40000 Credits
Weight: 30 Tons

Mine Disposal Vehicle

- Part of the Anti-Mine Emitter System (Se above), can be placed up to 20 units away from its mothership.
Cost: 2000 Credits
Weight: 2 Tons

Minehunting Sensor

- Gives +1D to detect mines in space
Cost: 3000 Credits

Mine Types

Model: Arakyd Industries SpiderWeb Mine
Type: Contact Mine
Scale: Capital
Stealth Modifiers: +10 to Difficulty
Weight: 2 Tons
Cost: 2000 Credits
Availability: 2, X
Body: 1D
Blast Radius: 2/4/6/8
Damage: 8D/6D/4D/2D
Sensors: Passive (Wires): 4 / 0D
Game Notes: The mine relies on several long, molecular thin wires, which are spread around the mine, to detect any prey. This type of mine is easily manufactured and has been in service for several millenium.
There have been cases where a mine of this type have been found fully operational up to 800 years after it was deployed.

Model: Arakyd Industries Boobytrap Mine
Type: Contact Mine
Scale: Starfighter
Stealth Modifiers: +20 To Difficulty
Weight: 0.1 Tons
Cost: 500 Credits
Availability: 1, X
Body: 1D
Damage: 6D
Game Notes: This type of mine is usually deployed around other mines to increase the probability of hitting something, and to prevent EVA crews from manually disarming the mine.

Model: Byblos Drive Yard Pellet Mine
Type: Stationary Sensor Mine
Scale: Capital
Skill: Sensors 5D
Stealth Modifiers: +15 To Difficulty
Weight: 2 Tons
Cost: 2500 Credits
Availability: 2, X
Body: 1D
Blast Radius: 4/6/8/10
Damage: 4D/3D/2D/1D (Special Damage, See Game Notes)
Sensors: Passive: 20 / 0D
Game Notes: This mine releases several thousand tungsten spheres at high velocity in a cloud to ensure that as many as possible will hit the target. The exact range is automatically selected to achieve the maximum probability of a hit based on the closing velocity between the mine and the target.
The damage comes from the kinetic energy of the spheres and is specifically aimed at sensors, windshields and other sensitive equipment suspectible against this type of damage. Roll damage against the attacked vessels sensor dice to get damage result. Damage affects only Sensors!

Model: Incom Intercept Mine
Type: Mobile Sensor Mine
Scale: Capital
Skill: Sensors 5D, Space Mine Piloting 4D
Stealth Modifiers: +5 To Difficulty
Weight: 2 Tons
Cost: 4000 Credits
Availability: 3, X
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 4
Body: 1D
Blast Radius: 1/2/3
Damage: 6D/4D/2D
Sensors: Passive: 20 / 0D
Game Notes: The Intercept mine uses its propulsion system to increase the chance to hit a target. When using its propulsion system this type of mine is easy to detect, -10 to difficulty.

Model: Incom Jump Mine
Type: Jump-Capable Mobile Sensor Mine
Scale: Capital
Skill: Astrogation 4D, Sensors 5D, Space Mine Piloting 4D
Stealth Modifiers: +5 To Difficulty
Weight: 4 Tons
Cost: 7000 Credits
Availability: 3, X
Consumables: 2 Days
Hyperdrive Multiplier: X5
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 4
Body: 1D
Blast Radius: 1/2/3
Damage: 6D/4D/2D
Sensors: Passive: 20 / 0D
Game Notes: By mounting a hyperdrive on a Intercept Mine is it possible to dramatically increase the area which can be covered by it.
This type of mine jumps randomly around a solar system and creates some difficulties to intruders, since nobody, except the owner of the mines, know the jump pattern. The Jump Mine has a miniature solar sail which deploys between jumps to recharge its power cells. Needs to recharge for one day between jumps.

Model: Arakyd Industries Missile Mine
Type: Missile Sensor Mine
Scale: Capital
Skill: Sensors 5D, Starship Gunnery 4D
Stealth Modifiers: +5 To Difficulty
Weight: 3 Tons
Cost: 5000 Credits
Availability: 3, X
Body: 1D
Blast Radius: 1/2/3
Damage: 6D/4D/2D
Sensors: Passive: 20 / 0D
Weapons: 6 Concussion Missiles
    Scale: Starfighter
    Fire Arc: All
    Skill: Starship Gunnery
    Fire Control: 1D
    Space/Orbit Range: 1-2/8/15, 2-4/16/30 km
    Damage: 7D
Game Notes: The primary weapon for this type of mine is its six concussion missiles, but after they have been fired the mine relies upon its internal warhead and functions exactly like an ordinary sensor mine with the exception that it cannot move.

Model: Merr-Sonn Defender Mark III Ion Mine
Type: Stationary Space-Based Ion Mine
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 4 Meters
Skill: Sensors 5D, Starship Gunnery 4D
Stealth Modifiers: +4D to resist detection
Weight: 5 Tons
Cost: 5000 Credits
Availability: 3, X
Body: 2D
Sensors: Passive: 10 / 0D
Weapons: 1 Ion Cannon
    Scale: Starfighter
    Fire Arc: All
    Skill: Starship Gunnery
    Fire Control: 2D
    Space/Orbit Range: 1.5/3/5, 3/6/10 Km
    Damage: 10D
Game Notes: This is based on the mine described on page80 in Cracken's Rebel Field Guide. It uses its ion cannon to cripple any target, and makes it easy for other types of mines/ships to take care of the target by conventional methods.

Model: Imperial Munitions Defense Satellitec
Type: Orbital Defense Satellite
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery 4D, Sensors 6D, Starship Gunnery 4D
Stealth Modifiers: -5 To Difficulty
Weight: 10 Tons
Cost: 15000 Credits
Availability: 3, X
Body: 4D
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
    Passive: 20 / 0D
    Search: 50 / 2D
    Scan: 35 / 1D
    Focus: 2 / 3D
Weapons:
  1 Ion Cannon
    Scale: Capital
    Fire Arc: All
    Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
    Fire Control: 2D+2
    Space/Orbit Range: 1-10/25/50, 2-20/50/100 km
    Damage: 3D
  2 Laser Cannons (Fire Separately)
    Scale: Starfighter
    Fire Arc: All
    Skill: Starship Gunnery
    Space/Orbit Range: 1-3/12/25, 2-6/24/50 km
    Fire Control: 2D
    Damage: 5D
Game Notes: 12 Satellites can cover a standard planet so than one satellite can always fire on any ship approaching or leaving the planet. The idea is for the satellites to cripple unauthorized vessels with blasts from their ion cannon, so the intruders can be finished off by fighters.
This type of satellite can also be deployed in a mine-field to make it more difficult to sweep it.