Welcome, and might we say how pleased we are that you have taken an interest in Fleeting on Star Wars Chaos. Before we begin, we must ask a simple question that will direct the rest of this conversation to its conclusion… What is Fleeting?
Simply put, Fleeting is wargaming in space and follows many of the standard rules and regulations that are often found in wargames. Some of you may even be familiar with the games published by Fantasy Flight Games, Star Wars Armada, and Star Wars X-wing Miniatures, in which you build a fleet or starfighter squadron and pit them against an opponent. Fleeting carries on in a similar manner though involves a great deal more of imagination and creative writing. Like anything else on Chaos, Fleeting is yet another tool to weave and spin an intricate story by collaborating with your opponent to create heart-racing scenes of action, suspense, and drama.
Now, with that in mind, there are a few important aspects for us to cover. Each of these individual aspects creates a piece that when connected with the others forms the whole picture that is fleeting.
If you’ve spent any time listening to the older writers talk about fleeting, or have delved into the older Invasions, you may have heard or read the term ‘Meterage’. You may have even taken a moment to ask, “What is meterage?” - the answer is that it is a ‘Point Buy’ System that denotes the overall size of your fleet. Now, if you’ve had experience with Tabletop War Games, or Table Top RPGs, you’ll understand the system and pick it up fairly easily. For those that do not have that experience or need a refresher, don’t worry, we’ll cover it in this section.
Before an Invasion or an event that involves Fleeting, a set meterage will be discussed and agreed upon by all parties involved. Often, this ‘Meterage Limit’ or ‘Fleet Limit’ will reflect the size of the engagement as well as the size of the factions involved. A minor skirmish may involve a handful of ships and starfighter squadrons whereas a larger engagement may include entire fleets with vast wings of starfighters.
The most commonly used Fleet Limits are scaled following a simple progression.
1km - 2.5km - 5km - 10km - 15km - 20km - 25km - 30km - and so on, with larger Fleet Limits often indicative of Major Factions showing their muscles or pulling out a Super Star Destroyer - a topic that we will cover later on in this guide. The important thing to remember is to break these numbers down into points and assign each vessel a point value equivalent to their length.
With that in mind, let’s look at a simple example of Fleet Limit in action.
The Galactic Alliance and the Sith Order are at War and a Fleet Engagement is to be held in the Spar Sector. Amelia von Sorenn from the GA agrees to participate and signs up Fleeting for the Alliance while John Locke also decides to participate and signs up Fleeting for the Sith. Before the Invasion begins, Amelia and John reach out to one another and agree on a Fleet Limit - For this example, they have agreed upon a Fleet Limit of 10km.
With this Fleet Limit in mind, let’s break it down into a more manageable number via Point values.
Amelia has a Fleet Limit of 10km or 10,000 meters, or 10,000 points, with which to purchase her fleet. Her end goal is to create a Fleet whose total ‘Meterage’ equals to or under 10km.
Ship Name | Ship Length | Point Value |
| Hosnian-class Star Cruiser | 2,000 meters | 2,000 |
| Republic-class Star Destroyer | 1,250 meters | 1,250 |
| Ackbar-class MC80a | 1,200 meters | 1,200 |
| Defender II-class Cruiser | 1,000 meters | 1,000 |
| Defender II-class Cruiser | 1,000 meters | 1,000 |
| Blissex-class Frigate | 700 meters | 700 |
| Blissex-class Frigate | 700 meters | 700 |
| Foerost-class Frigate | 500 meters | 500 |
| Foerost-class Frigate | 500 meters | 500 |
| Corona-class Frigate | 275 meters | 275 |
| Corona-class Frigate | 275 meters | 275 |
| Corona-class Frigate | 275 meters | 275 |
| Corona-class Frigate | 275 meters | 275 |
| Bel Iblis-class Corvette | 150 meters | 150 |
| Bel Iblis-class Corvette | 150 meters | 150 |
| Total = 10,250 meters | Total = 10,250 |
Now with the fleet having been chosen, can you see the problem that Amelia has run into? That’s right, she is currently over her Fleet Limit by 250 meters or 250 points. Now, don’t worry, as this can happen from time to time; and we have two solutions to this problem.
Amelia can remove a Corona-class Frigate which would bring the fleet limit down to 9,975 meters or 9,975 points. Amelia can also reach out to John and collaborate - as maybe John has reached a similar point and is over his Fleet Limit by a couple hundred. Remember, fleeting is all about collaboration, and communication is key. In this example, Amelia and John have already agreed that an overage of their limits is acceptable provided that it does not exceed 500 additional meters or points.
For this example, Amelia now has a Fleet Limit that is equivalent to 10,250 meters or 10,250 points, and John has a Fleet Limit that is equivalent to 10,300 meters or 10,300 points. With this in mind, we must also remember an additional point that we’ve yet to discuss - Starfighters.
Many Ships on Star Wars Chaos have a Hangar Capacity rating which often denotes how many Squadrons that vessel is capable of carrying. When it comes to Fleeting, the meterage (or points) of these Starfighters do not count against the Meterage Limit unless those Starfighters are transported outside of a ship, at which point each starfighter’s meterage or points are counted against the total.
For example, a T-65B X-wing Starfighter has a length of 12.5 meters (or 12.5 points), with an average squadron consisting of 12 Starfighters. In this example, a Squadron of X-wings would count for 150 meters or 150 points.
Additionally, larger ships that can carry a Starfighter Squadron can also ferry smaller ships in their hangars at a cost.
For example, you have a Star Destroyer that can carry 6 Squadrons of Starfighters but you want to carry a Corvette that is 200 meters in length. To ferry said Corvette, the Star Destroyer must sacrifice 2 Squadrons of Starfighters.
Just remember the Formulae of 1 Squadron for every 100 meters.
The above is a simple fleet composition for this guide. While standard compositions exist, i.e. Fleets that focus on heavy firepower, starfighter swarms, or hit-and-run tactics, you don’t need to copy everyone else. We encourage you to take your time comprising your fleet in different configurations and find the one that works best for you.
Now, with Amelia and John having chosen their Fleets, it is time for the Invasion and more important, time for Fleeting.
In the previous section, we saw Amelia and John agree on their Fleet Limits. We also saw them agree to an acceptable overage on that same limit. What do these two points have in common?
Communication.
Like anything on Star Wars Chaos, Fleeting is all about collaboration, and the most important part of that is communication. The important thing to remember is that, together, you and your writing partner are weaving a story that requires collaboration and communication. You can just as easily write a full Invasion by yourself, but where’s the fun in that? By communicating with your writing partner, you can develop a story that not only benefits your character, it’ll benefit both characters, which can only be reached by collaborating and communicating.
Following our example from above, the Galactic Alliance and the Sith Order are fighting over the Spar Sector. Amelia and John both have their fleets picked out and are ready to go, however, we now come to our next question; What does John and what does Amelia want to accomplish?
For our example - Before the Invasion, John and Amelia come together to discuss what each other wants to accomplish. Knowing their history with fleeting, an agreement is reached that both of their characters would be an even match, or perhaps that one would have slightly more experience than the other. With this agreement in mind, Amelia and John set out to weave a story that both plays off their experiences with fleeting.
While communication is important, it should be noted that you don’t always have to come together before a Fleeting engagement; however, you should keep a channel of communication open with your writing partner to ensure that everything is okay and that issues are not developing.
Remember, be flexible, tell the story, and don’t swing your tackle and rod about. Likewise, it is okay to disagree on things, it happens, which leads us to another important point before we continue. Worrying too much beforehand can also potentially ruin the experience, especially if either side feels that they’re being nit-picked.
Before we close out this section, we would like to provide a helpful hint that can make a fleeting post easier to read, especially for those who may only have a moment to glance through. In many fleeting posts, you’ll see spoilers at the bottom. These usually contain a Fleet list, Starfighter list, and Fleet Movements, and can make reading a post at a glance that much easier. We encourage you to pick up this habit and include these in your fleeting posts as well.
In this section, we will cover two very important details that are integral to Fleeting, specifically, “Called Shots” and “Taking Hits”.
When it comes to fleeting, it is important to remember to respect the efforts of your opponents and use your best judgement; when it comes to what you write. Fleeting, very much like Role Playing is used so that both writers are uplifting and seeing progress with their story.
First, let’s take a look at “Called Shots”.
What is a “Called Shot”? In the most basic terms, a called shot is any post that dictates or determines damage without the other writer having a chance to block or mitigate the damage.
For example, Amelia writes the following - “The Defender II-class Cruiser pushed forward, lunging towards the edge of the Sith Fleet, its target, a Bulwark-class Corvette. The Cruiser unleashed its Agrocite Cannons and a salvo from its Assault Proton Torpedo Tubes, the assault utterly smashing through the Corvette’s shields and turning the vessel into a heap of melted slag.”
In this example we see that the Defender II-class Cruiser targets a Bulwark-class Corvette with an attack, however, there is no point at which John is given the chance to block or mitigate the damage to the Corvette. The “Called Shot” is that the Cruiser destroyed the Corvette without the Corvette having a chance to respond.
A more appropriate response would be this - “The Defender II-class Cruiser pushed forward, lunging towards the edge of the Sith Fleet, its target, a Bulwark-class Corvette. The Cruiser unleashed its Agrocite Cannons and a salvo from its Assault Proton Torpedo Tubes, targeting the Corvette and firing into its flight path.”
In the above example, we see that John now has a chance to respond to block or mitigate the attack rather than being told that his Corvette was destroyed. This allows John the opportunity to decide if the Corvette was indeed destroyed, if it took some of the damage, or if it took no damage at all - which we will look at in the following, “Taking Hits”.
What is “Taking Hits” or “Taking a Hit”? Simply put, it is the act of taking damage or determining if you or an object (in this example your ship) has taken damage or only a fraction thereof.
Using our example, John writes the following in response - “The Bulwark-class Corvette was a nimble craft, its Captain skilled and experienced in naval engagements. When the attack was unleashed, the Corvette, a nimble and agile craft, dove into the fray as it weaved its way between the bolts of the Agrocite Cannons, its point defenses destroying the Torpedoes before they even had a chance to impact against the shields. The Corvette came out unscathed from the attack…”
An important point to remember in this example, John has every right to decide that his Corvette came out untouched and took no damage. Just as any writer on Chaos has the right to decide if their character or ships take damage. However, we must remember that Fleeting is not meant to only uplift and progress our story, it’s meant to uplift and progress our opponent’s story as well and we should be respectful of the efforts our opponent puts into the story as well.
Take a moment to think about any Star Wars Media that you have had the opportunity to watch. Remember the Fleet Battles in Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith? How exciting would those sequences have been had the Empire not taken a single loss? How exciting would it have been if the Confederacy of Independent Systems had just mowed through the Republic Fleet over Coruscant? That is not to say that you should take damage consistently, it merely is a reinforcement that Damage is Good, and Damage in Fleeting is Great.
Continuing with our Example, John instead, decides to write the following response - “The Bulwark-class Corvette was a nimble and agile craft with an experienced Captain. Despite being outgunned by the Cruiser, the vessel responded in kind, diving through the hail of fire. The Captain caught himself on his command chair, the Corvette shuddering as the cannons slammed into the shields only for the vessel to lurch to a stop. Despite the best efforts of the point defense cannons, a torpedo had made it through and struck the engines, leaving the vessel momentarily dead in the water.”
Both Amelia’s open post and John’s response showed respect between the two writers and provided an opening for either side to respond in kind. However, your response may look different or follow a different outcome as it is hard to say and determine what amount of damage is okay or too much and will be reflective of the two writers involved.
We’ll leave this section with the simple reminder that Damage in Fleeting is Great, it helps tell a more compelling story and places additional stakes on the outcome. You do not have to take damage with every post, however, we encourage that you take some as either side taking all the damage or none can lead to frustration for either writer which is not what we want to achieve when our focus is writing a compelling story.
There are two trains of thought when it comes to Super Star Destroyers and by extension Dreadnoughts and their use in Fleeting. However, before we continue, let’s take a moment to look at both of these terms and what they mean.
A Dreadnought is any ship whose size is larger than 5,001 meters and is of Semi-Unique production (usually no more than 3 Dreadnoughts). These represent some of the largest vessels that are available to a Major Faction that may make an appearance in a Fleeting Engagement.
A Super Star Destroyer is any ship whose size is usually larger than 7,001 meters and is of Unique production. These represent the largest Starship that a Major Faction has access to and usually do not have an upward limit within reason - and generally represent a Major Faction swinging its weight around when or if they appear in a Fleeting Engagement.
With that said, as mentioned above, there are two trains of thought when it comes to these ships and how they are used in Fleeting.
Some believe that Dreadnoughts and Super Star Destroyers should be present in fleeting as they represent the hard work and effort of an entire Major Faction’s members to gain access to these powerful warships.
The other thought is the belief that Dreadnoughts and Super Star Destroyers should be utilized as set dressing, a looming threat, or cautionary warning that the world could come down on your head at any moment. It could even be utilized as a part of the story, representing a tangible target that needs to be overcome more so than just destroyed.
However, they are not often brought out and present in an Invasion or Fleeting Engagement unless generally agreed upon by Major Faction Staff - and even then - these behemoths often more than not focus on pummeling one another rather than focusing on decimating entire fleets. The goal and greatest achievement for any Fleeting Character is often to be given the nod from Major Faction Staff to Captain one of these vessels. Not only does it show that you’ve put the effort into your Story to have your character reach that high; also shows a modicum of trust that a Major Faction would hand the keys over to their most prized possession.
We hope that this guide has been helpful, and has provided a basic informational knowledge that will assist you in your future fleeting endeavors.
From the outside looking in, Fleeting can be intimidating and confusing, and we hope that this guide will assist in overcoming that intimidation and confusion.
Just remember that those of us who have experience with fleeting have started at the exact point you are starting from, as beginners who showed an interest in fleeting. If you ever reach a point where you’re unsure, we always encourage reaching out and asking questions. Likewise, Wookieepedia is a great resource that has additional information on fleeting, fleet formations, and tactics that can also provide further information.
Special Thanks to John Locke , Srina Talon , and Allyson Locke for proofreading and additions
Special Thanks to CT-312 for the Section Headers
Special Thanks to CT-312 for the Section Headers
